Disclaimer: Following contains characters I do not own. And the chapter might suck as always.
Chapter 24: The Next Great Adventure Part 1
"Good going Ace, I knew you would fit all the requirements!"
"Thank you, Mr. West."
"Please, call me Frank; the whole Mr. thing doesn't quite suit me."
"Sure thing... Frank." Ace though it was weird to call someone, as famous as Frank West himself, by their first name.
Frank grinned. "That's better. Now let's get some ground rules here: First of all, remember that you are a photojournalist in training. Uncovering the truth is what you and I are all about, got it?"
"Crystal, sir."
"Frank, not sir, but Frank, Ace. Secondly, you cannot get the truth and add your own things to it. Sure we can spice the truth up with some dazzling words and all that pizzazz, but nothing makes a story worse by making it a lie that suits you, got that too?"
"Yes, boss."
Frank sighed. "Ace, my name is Frank. Just Frank, no other useless titles. Now lastly apprentice, I want you to have fun. Having fun with your career makes it all the more exciting everyday; plus, it will keep you motivated and adequate with your findings. Stressed workers can only do half of a good job, understand?"
"Got it... Frank."
"Good," he chuckled. "Now I would like for you to take your first assignment: Go out into world and find us a story!"
"Yes sir!" Ace saluted, before he quickly and giddily ran out the door.
Frank sighed. "Not sir, but Frank, Ace."
Ace was excited as ever as he exited the building. His first assignment already and he just started; he just had to tell it to someone, like Rugtugba because he was close by anyway. "Yo Rug!"
"'Sup Ace?" He replied, "How did it go?"
"It went totally awesome dude! I got my first assignment already!"
"Sweetness, what are you going to do?"
"Simple, just find a story and expose the truth and nothing but the truth! Hey, what is that paper you are holding?"
"Oh this? Just my math homework I did with everyone a while back; we had to rescue you from Ash that day remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," he grumbled. "The dumb guy jumped me when I wasn't paying attention."
"Well, I got the homework back and totally aced it! All the answers were 6!"
"Really? That is... What's the word: Weird?"
"I suppose, but you don't see me complaining about it!"
"The big city, home to everyone's hopes and dreams to reach to the top!"
"You've been watching too much television, Rug."
"Naw, that just came from a commercial I saw last week. It had a pretty catchy tune if you ask me."
"Focus Rug," Ace commanded. "We have to be on the lookout for any spicy stories..."
"How about them?" Rugtugba pointed to nearby fruit stand. There were two individuals, one was the fruit vendor and the other was most likely the customer.
"Yeah Rugtugba, people really want to hear about a person buying fruit from a fruit stand. Any more bright ideas, genius?"
"I do Ace, why don't you take another look at those two?" Ace did just that, taking into account that one of the them (Preferably the customer) was exchanging a large sum of money to the other person (Preferably the vendor) for just a tiny little bag.
"Now there is something you do not see everyday," Ace spoke quietly.
"Why yes indeed; care enough to check it out, my boy," Rugtugba asked with a high class accent.
"Indeed so, champ. After all, I am a photojournalist in the making."
"And I am just a guy with nothing better to do at the moment." They followed the suspicious dude down the street, making sure not to be seen. They tactically hid behind trash cans, other pedestrians, cars, and pretty much anything they could hide behind to avoid detection.
"Looking back multiple times, wearing a trench coat as if to hide something, I really think you have a lead here, Ace."
"Come on Rug, he went down that sinister looking alleyway. Let's go!"
Rugutgba took a long look at the alleyway and bit his lip. "I like to be away from sinister looking alleyways, Ace. Do we really have to go in there?" Ace nodded.
"Good enough answer for me, let's go!" Rugtugba and Ace scurried over to the sinister looking alleyway, having no idea that someone, in turn, was following them.
"This is one weird alleyway," Rugtugba muttered. "I never seen so many twists and turns in an alleyway before."
"Me neither but..." Ace stopped quickly. "Do you hear that?"
Rugtugba stopped and listened. "Faint, but voices definitely." Ace and Rugtugba followed the direction in which the voices seem to originate from, though following the voices seemed almost redundant since there were so many twists, turns, and multiple paths in their way.
"Are we there yet?" Rugtugba complained when an undetermined amount of time passed.
"I think so," Ace said quietly before he looked around the corner. Four figures, all in trench coats and hoodies, stood around a barrel with fire lit inside of them. One of them had a bag in their hand, so Ace guessed that this was the exact same person they were following.
"Were you followed?" The one furthest away from Ace and Rugtugba asked.
"Nope, and here are the goods," the one with the bag showed them.
"Excellent, the boss should be pleased with us," the leftmost one assumed.
"Not yet, my friends. Now it is time to start to initiate the next step of our plan..."
"Ace, Rugtugba, what are you two doing snooping around?" The sudden extra voice behind the two caused them to jump forward in fright and knock over two trash cans. It made a loud crashing noise and of course caught the attention of the other four. Ace accidentally pressed the flash button on his camera and it temporarily stunned those four as well. Not waiting a second later, Ace and Rugtugba, along with their extra, began running.
"Nice going Vinny," Ace growled. "They could have killed us if they were expecting us!"
"Sorry for being curious enough to follow you since you two were all acting mysterious and stuff," he retorted.
"Dudes, not the best time," Rugtugba demanded. "Running for our lives is currently the best time!"
"Which way are we going?" Vinny shouted.
"Does it matter?" Ace responded, "Just go!"
"You three bozos! I will get you!" Vinny, Ace, and Rugtugba all shrieked when they realized that one of those mystery people already found them so quickly. "Take this," the mystery person shouted extending his hooded arm and shooting flames at them.
"Hit the deck," Rugtugba hollered. They all did, the tip of the flame just barely missing their heads. The flame continued on until it hit another trash can, in which exploded. The flaming debris was now blocking their way out.
"Looks like that way is our best bet," Ace pointed to the other direction.
"Too true," Vinny agreed quickly before all three of them began running again.
"You won't escape me," the mysterious person hollered as he quickly turned the corner.
"Solar Beam!" Ace and Vinny shot some kind of powerful beam from their mouths that hit the person dead-on. He was sent flying into the solid wall, in which broke upon collision.
"He shouldn't be a problem for a while," Vinny said proudly.
"But that guy behind us might be!" Ace pointed behind Rugtugba to expose another one of those mystery group. This guy looked pretty big compared to the other one and it would seem to take a lot of firepower to get by this person.
"Shoot," Vinny exclaimed. "It will be a while before Ace or I can do another Solar Beam attack!"
"Hey, don't forget about me," Rugtugba smirked. "I got some fight in me too, you know."
"Hey, if you think you can take him while we charge up, be my guest," Ace offered.
"Fair enough, I'll be only a few seconds." Rugtugba gave them the thumbs-up before tackling on the big person.
"He seems overconfident," Vinny added.
"So only one of you puny ones is going to try and stop me! Ha, I would like to see you tr..." The person never finished his sentence; Rugtugba jump-kicked the person right in his face. The big person feel to the ground with a loud thud, completely dazed.
"I guess Rug has every right to be confident," the surprised Ace said. The three of them began running once more; the light of the outside world could be seen before them.
"Yes," Vinny cried. "Almost there!" The three amigos only steeped one foot out into the open until they crashed into someone and fell into a dog pile almost.
"What was that for," Marioliza cried. "Running into a lady, shame on you all!"
"Sorry ML," they quickly said before helping her up to her feet. "Now let's go before..."
"Before we arrive?" Ace, Rugtugba, Vinny, and ML had not realized that they were surrounded by the four mystery people. Their arms were extended at them, one of them had their flames ready to scorch them, in case they tried to escape, one of them had sharp scissors in both their hands that glistened when the sun shone on it, one of them just had a massive boulder in their hands, and the last one had a gun – a circular and weird looking gun, but a gun nevertheless.
Marioliza gulped. "Uh-oh."
"Now that is a big gun," Rugtugba tried to joke.
"It is, you little otter weirdo," the one with the gun snapped. "You three are in big trouble for snooping in on us."
"Um, can I go," Marioliza pleaded politely. "I was just bumped into was all."
"Of course, you may go," the one with the gun bowed. Marioliza put on a worried smile before taking a first step out... "Unfortunately, we cannot have witnesses just leave now can we?" The one with the gun shot sonic waves from his gun that instantly knocked out the poor girl. "Oh dear me, now I can't have you three go and telling anyone I shot her, now can I?" As with Marioliza, that same person shot those other three and knocked them out cold.
Poor ML, got herself into trouble and she didn't do anything. :P
But can our four heroes get out of this mess? Who knows. ^^
Ciao!
