Chapter 2: What is Old, Now is New

August 11th, 2007, Northern Grasslands

"Man, this totally rocks! I love this baby! From the rotor, to the torque, to the propellers and… and knobs! Hoo-baby," Roy was basically having an attack of delight on his system as he was piloting a brand new MD-Explorer. He was like a kid in a candy shop flying this helicopter. The MD-E was originally only available in Belgium, the U.K, and Mexico, but now, Australia has them. "If only the we'd get this thing… man…"

"Dang, Roy, you sure do like yer helicop-o-ters," Harvey replied, with a grin, peeking into the cockpit. "We almost there?"

"About fifteen minutes there, cowboy," replied Laurence, who was co-piloting the helicopter. He actually looked a bit of the odd-man out of all the males in the group. His hair was neatly brushed, he wasn't as rugged as the other man, and well, he was British. Still, he was a pleasant fellow. He was obviously here for his brains, and not his brawn.

"Can you wait that long?"

"Oh, I sure can, I jus dun know about our cowgirl here," Harvey was pointing to Karen, who didn't seem to be in the best of moods at the moment.

"I want off. Now. Thompson, you suck,"

"…What?"

"Don't take it personally, Roy. Karen just has a fear of flying," Cassandra replied, giving a small smile. She may not have been ignoring the fact they 'had' something, but perhaps it was a little harsh completely ignoring him.

"No I don't. Shut up, Cass,"

"Uh-huh… whatever," Now Cassandra was certain that Karen had an issue with flying. This was actually one of the smoothest rides she ever experienced before. No wonder REG hired him. He was amazing. She smiled to herself about the thought, but then it soon faded as she heard Daniel's voice.

"Okay, so this is what's going to happen. Once we get to Johnson Heights, Roy, Laurence, and Harvey, you're staying behind, just in case we have an emergency.

"Aww… so I don't get any sightseeing in?" Harvey said, disappointed.

"Don't worry there, mate. Alls you're missing is a few houses amongst some shrubs. Trust me, I should know," Rio replied, giving a little chuckle, patting the Texan on the back.

"Anyway, to continue onto things that matter…" Daniel rolled his eyes, annoyed that he was interrupted. "The rest of us will be going directly into the town. Once we get there, we'll talk to the mayor, to make sure everything is still good to go. Then we just head out, go to the next town and eventually, word will pass around,"

"So, who's giving the speech about these weird fellas anyway?" Bruce asked. "I mean, we know a bit about these parasites, but not enough to really to give a whole class about them,"

"I will be of course," The dark-haired man replied, with an arrogant smile on his face. Cassandra gave the captain a weird look. As if he actually had actual real knowledge about Las Plagas.

"Excuse me?" her eyes narrowed. "Since when?"

"Since REG told me back at headquarters. Oh, they didn't tell you? I'm sorry, Cass,"

"They seem to be very vague on a lot of things lately,"

"Like your probation?"

"EXCUSE ME?"

"Oh… they didn't tell you about that either?"

"Uh, Daniel? I dun think we were supposed to really tell her about this until after…" Harvey interrupted, trying to keep things from blowing out of proportion.

"No, no. Let the weasel talk, Harvey. It'll make it all the easier for me to kick his ass after,"

"Shouldn't we just focus on the mission…?" Roy's voice could be heard quietly in the front.

"Face it Warren, you fucked up. You don't actually think just because you dealt with a few bugs that this makes you some kind of pro? Anyone could make a dumb speech about a bunch of brainwashing cults. You're just here as some extra ammunition in case something goes wrong. You know, take a bullet for the team, if you have to. Not literally of course,"

"As if I'd take a bullet for you, you fucking meat shield,"

"Both of ya, shut up before I go and use you both as one," Bruce said firmly. He may have been friendly most of the time, but when the older man got annoyed, he made it quite clear that he would not put up with it. He didn't need a bunch of kindergarteners whining about every single thing.

"Are… we almost there?" Zia asked quietly. The poor translator was, unfortunately, a seat in between the two and they were giving threatening looks to each other.

"Actually, we are," Roy said. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as the chopper lowered down into a bare plain.

The town really was in the middle of nowhere. All there was were shrubs, a few trees and a lot of dirt. Not very comforting in the least, that was for certain.

"They say that in the bush, no one can hear ya scream!" Bruce joked. No one else really took notice to it, but Cassandra couldn't help but feel that he was right. How… convenient. Ugh… now she was really getting a bad feeling about this. It was like the last finger to slap you across the face.

"Okay, so we have everything set? Thompson, McKenzie, Smith, you report to Melbourne and say we reached our destination. The rest of you, follow Rio. This is his hometown, so he knows his way around," Bruce hopped off the helicopter as the propellers slowed down. He then turned around to face them all. "Oh, and before I forget…" he tossed them each a radio and a water bottle. "Just in case the worse should happen and we need to contact each other. I mean, it wouldn't be too dandy if something bad did happen here would it?"

The group nodded, but once more, didn't take much notice to it. After all, this was Australia. Violence here was fairly low, especially in the middle of nowhere.

"Take care folks. Ya'll bring me back something, nifty, alright?" Harvey waved to the six that headed off to the town. They all waved back, surprisingly enough.

"Dang… lucky them. They get to have all the fun while we just hang around in the middle of nowhere," Harvey let out a sigh as he took out some cards and dealt them out to the two other men. At least they had this to occupy them.

"Don't worry, about it Harv," Roy said, giving his friend a pat on the back. "Maybe something exciting will happen. Like we get to see a dingo or a kangaroo, or something,"

Now, Cassandra never came from a small town, but she did know well enough that even no-name place like this had at least a little bit of action going on. There was no-one… no one at all. This didn't seem right. She took a look at Rio, who was from Johnson Heights. He seemed just as confused as she was.

"Where… is everyone?" Karen asked quietly, her chocolate eyes shifting around. The town was almost like a set for a show. There was no-one around. It was… well… abandoned, or so they thought anyway.

"I don't get it…" Rio said, his voice hinting with worry. "This doesn't seem right,"

"I was hoping you were going to say that, just so that I didn't feel like the only one," Cassandra replied. At the same time, she instinctively placed her hand onto her handgun. She had a feeling she'd have to be using her Blacktail once more.

"Wait," Daniel said in a hushed voice. The group stopped dead in there tracks, as they heard something not too far off. It sounded… like… running. Sure enough, a small man appeared from off the corner. He seemed panicked... very panicked. She sobbed and stumbled, muttering something very quickly under his breath. Still, the group stayed silent, just watching. Rio was about to speak up, but Bruce hushed him. Suddenly, something zoomed past the man. It was curved object, that shown a bit as his swooped near the sun. Once the little man noticed it, he slipped back and tried to run back the other way that he came from. However, it didn't work, for the next second, there was a sharp object lodged into the neck of the victim.

Zia gasped and covered her mouth, whilst Cassandra and Rio brought out their handguns, ready to strike at anything that was going to pop out at them. Daniel shook his head. "Lower your weapons. We start shooting now, and something worse may happen. We need to be calm about this,"

"Calm. Right. There's a man with a boomerang lodged into the back of his neck," Rio whispered angrily. "What do you want us to do?"

"For once… I have to agree with Daniel," Cassandra replied, painfully. "We don't know what the situation is right now, we need to tread lightly. It's quiet, which makes me believe that there may not be to many other people here right now,"

"If they're not here, then… where are they?" Karen asked, suspiciously.

Bruce took out his radio and brought it near his mouth. He had a feeling he knew where they were. "This is Fields to Thompson; do you copy?"

"This is Thompson. I copy loud and clear," The brunet lazily threw down a card. Apparently, the card game was still going on, though now, Laurence had gotten bored of it, and decided that it would be more interesting looking at nothing through his binoculars.

"What can I do for you?"

"Is there anything going over on your end there, mate? It's dead silent here. We've only seen one person, and right now… they've been neutralized by something… or someone,"

"Huh? Really..?" Roy said, surprised. He looked over Laurence. "Hey, do you see anything though those things, buddy?"

"Not really… wait, yes," Laurence replied. "I do. There seems to be…. I think I seem some people in the distance,"

"Huh? Lemme me check it out," He took out his own pair and zoomed in. Laurence was right, there were people; several of them, actually.

"Locals come to greet us maybe?" Laurence said.

"I dunno… there's something off," Roy replied and looked over at Harvey. He was busy using his sniper rifle. "What do you see?"

"One of them is holding something big on his shoulder…" Harvey said, adjusting his lense. "It looks like… a…"

"A what?"

Harvey froze for a moment, as though he had seen a ghost. However, the next thing to happen was quite abrupt, killing the moment of suspense.

"SWEET MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS!"

It was a rocket launcher.

Author's Notes: Woo, chapter 2 is now done. Sorta. Go me! I love Harvey in all his southerness. XD He's the awesome that way. So, as you can sorta guess, the story will be telling to parts (much like the first two games used to do), though they will eventually return to one again. When that will happen, I haven't decided, because here's the issue. Even if Roy and the guys wanted to go track Cass and the rest down… they have a horde of Ganados chasing them down. Not too fun.