We Three Generals: Part Two
Disclaimer: Same as before.
The Pit, Conference Room
Generals Hawk, Bragg, Flagg, and Whithalf
27 February 2002, 1605
Thank God Flagg hasn't said anything yet regarding Todd, Hawk thought to himself. Lord, please, please, please let me make it through this meeting! I will never, ever, do anything bad again.
"Before we adjourn, General Hawk," Bragg asked, "I'd like to ask about this mutant school that you found."
Todd's ears perked up and he narrowly avoided dropping the coffee cup to the floor.
"Professor Xavier runs a small school in New York where he trains mutants to use their powers for the good of mankind," Hawk replied, noting the look of recognition on Todd's face.
"Hmph! The only good mutant is a dead mutant," Bragg said, before folding his arms.
"Sir," Hawk began, "these aren't creatures created in a lab, like all Cobra experiments are. They're just children who happen to be born with these abilities."
"Poor things," Whithalf thought, "I mean they can't help being what they are."
"We're monitoring them for now," Hawk explained, "I have some of my people undercover inside the high school they attend. We have reason to believe Cobra is trying to infiltrate the school to use the mutants for their own means."
Agent Baer had hung back, watching the conversation among the four generals. This is new to me. Hawk and his people get results, so I'm not too worried about it...yet.
"I still don't see why we don't just grab those freaks and put them behind bars where they belong," Bragg replied.
"Well, it's pretty obvious," Whithalf said, "They haven't done anything wrong. Have they?"
"I don't see why we can't just grab them and put them behind bars. Fortunately very few people know that these freaks walk the earth. The fewer the better!" Bragg replied.
"No thanks to you," Hawk muttered under his breath.
"What?" Bragg asked.
"I said 'That's true'," Hawk replied calmly.
"Reminds me of that blasted Moreauseau incident," Bragg huffed. "It's a good thing we wiped out those survivors."
"You wiped out those survivors!" Hawk exclaimed, standing up from his chair, "They were only civilians! They were sick and dying and you…"
Hawk stopped when he saw the shock on Todd's face.
"Only because your men were too gutless to do the job," Bragg countered as he stood up as well.
"I must confess I never understood why you ordered their deaths, Bragg," Whithalf said softly. "There was no reason for it. They were no threat."
"They had to be eliminated before they became a threat!" Bragg snapped, slamming an open palm onto the table, "They were too useless to experiment on. They would've been terminated anyway. I'm sick of justifying myself to you all. The board cleared me."
"Yes. But mass genocide doesn't go well with public opinion, does it?" Flagg replied.
"There were only fourteen of them, hardly genocide," Bragg sniffed.
"Only fourteen?!" Hawk snapped back, "Only fourteen!?"
"Careful Hawk," Bragg replied, "I outrank you and I could…"
"Gentlemen this conversation is irrelevant," Flagg replied, only to be ignored by the others.
"I don't know," Whithalf replied thoughtfully, "If Bragg decides to bomb the town of Bayville just to eliminate a few children it could very well become relevant! It wouldn't be the first time he's done it."
"Now wait just a minute you…" Bragg began.
"Quiet!" Whithalf snapped back, "Let's not forget that I outrank you. I suggest you remember that."
Quiet descended on the room and then Whithalf continued, "Now, let's get back to the subject at hand. I am sure Hawk has the situation handled. With him at least we know the students will stay alive."
"Hmph! Too soft!" Bragg snapped, "Of course you even have a couple muties living on base now, don't you Hawk? Those Delgato brats in particular! That eldest girl, a stuck up little bitch. Should be in a lab someplace instead of running free!"
The sound of a coffee cup shattering echoed into the room.
"What the…?" Bragg said as he turned around to see Todd drop to his knees to clean up the shattered remains of the cup.
How can anyone say such horrible things about Althea? Todd thought. I can't believe I'm serving coffee to that...that...that monster!
"He's in shock over your language," Whithalf observed.
"He's very new," Hawk added.
"Well he has to learn the facts sometime," Bragg huffed, before he turned to Toad. "You agree with me, don't you boy? Those sneaky mutants are nothing but trouble. Deadly if left unchecked. Am I right?"
"Oh yes sir," Todd spoke in a monotone as he stood up to throw away the remains of the broken coffee cup, "You can never tell when one of those sneaky mutants will turn up."
Todd headed back over to the coffee, grabbing another cup. An evil grin spread across his face as he turned away, his back to the men as he poured a cup of coffee. Extending his tongue he allowed a generous amount of slime to mix with the coffee.
Walking over he handed the cup to Bragg, "More coffee, sir."
"Don't mind if I do," Bragg said, taking a generous swig of it.
Although neither Bragg or Whithalf witnessed Todd's prank, Hawk and Flagg witnessed the entire thing, thanks to a large screen in the conference room.
"Um, how's the coffee, sir?" Hawk asked, with a minor gulp.
"Good. I say it's the best cup yet," Bragg said.
"That's nice," Hawk gulped, "So, meeting adjourned?"
"Good idea," Flagg nodded.
"I need one more cup of coffee for the road," Bragg said, before turning to Todd, "Private, I want you to make it exactly as it did before."
Flagg fixed Todd with a knowing look and as his heart raced Todd thought, The jig is up.
"You heard the man," Flagg said, "Do as he says."
"Yes sir," Todd replied, grinning back and doing exactly as he did earlier, turning around to hide his sliming of Bragg's coffee.
The Pit, Headquarters Building
Beach Head, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Roadblock
27 February 2002, 1605
"My career is over. My career is over..." Beach Head replied.
"Beach Head, calm down," Scarlett said, "Maybe Hawk will pull it off."
"Yeah, and maybe Cobra Commander will give up being a terrorist and sell toys for a living while wearing a pink Tinkerbell outfit!" Beach Head snapped back. "Why couldn't you have served the coffee? Would it have killed you to serve coffee just this once!?"
Roadblock walked into the room just then, "What's Beach Head ranting about now?"
Beach Head ignored Roadblock as he continued to address Scarlett, "What am I saying!? You would've poured the coffee into his lap before shooting him! I should've served the coffee! Why didn't I think of it? Why couldn't I have thought about pouring coffee!? AGH!"
"Where's Todd?" Roadblock asked, "He is scheduled to be working in General Hawk's office this afternoon. Did one of you manage to sneak him out before the generals arrived?"
"Roadblock, don't hit the roof but…" Shipwreck began.
"Shipwreck, out with it. Where is Todd?" Roadblock replied.
Shipwreck gestured to the door of the conference room. And as Roadblock's eyes followed Shipwreck's gesture two words immediately sprang to mind. Oh no!
"What are we gonna do?" Roadblock began.
"Drink?" Shipwreck said as he produced a bottle of scotch from his backpack, as well as several shot glasses.
"Yeah, the occasion definitely calls for it," Beach Head replied.
"I'll have one too," Scarlett replied as Shipwreck poured shots for the four of them.
"What's going on?" Kate asked as she walked into the room.
"Roadblock just realized Todd's in the conference room with Hawk and the visiting generals," Scarlett supplied.
"Oh, I suppose that's the reason for the drinking," Kate replied.
"Look, Agent Todd, we wouldn't even be in this predicament if you and Agent Hart hadn't found Todd and General Whithalf wandering around the motor pool," Beach Head hissed.
"What did you want us to do, separate those two?" Kate asked, "Or deliberately not find them?"
"Both ideas have merit," Beach Head replied.
"And I suppose Todd being in the conference room is cause for drinking scotch?" Kate asked.
"Yes," Beach Head replied.
"Great, we were trying to calm Beach Head down and now you've got him wound up," Shipwreck grumbled, before holding up another glass, "Drink?"
"No thanks," Kate replied. Thank God Baer's in the conference room and can't see this going on. Or that he hasn't seen anything else that's gone on around this base...to include BA's experimental recipes.
The Pit, Outside the HQ Building
Conrad Hart and Rachel Phillips
27 February 2002, 1610
"So that's how Whithalf and Todd were found and brought back to the building," Conrad replied.
And I thought the Berserkers had crazy stories. Rachel thought to herself as she heard Conrad retelling various accounts of his two weeks at the Pit.
"Alright, now I just have to ask, what's the deal with this incident I heard you talking about?" Rachel asked.
"Which one?" Conrad replied, "You'll have to be more specific."
"I overheard you and Agent Todd mentioning something about the Triplets and the Delgado household," Rachel replied.
Conrad inclined his head, "Excuse me?"
"Your hearing acting up again?"
"Just went out briefly," Conrad replied, "Now what was the question again?"
"I remember you sent a report a while back about Shipwreck and his family, to include the Triplets. You seem to believe that they are a good influence on Todd."
"I believe this to be the case, yes," Conrad replied, squinting in the late afternoon sun.
"You seemed a bit vague about a couple points," Rachel replied, "Namely some line about 'settling disputes in the traditional Delgato manner'?"
D'oh! I shouldn't have written that line in the report. Merde. Conrad thought to himself before replying, "The Delgato family don't hold anything back from each other, they don't have secrets, and they do love each other greatly."
"Mayberry description aside, you still didn't tell me what you meant about 'settling disputes in the traditional Delgato manner'."
With a sigh Conrad said, "I was afraid you'd persist on that line of questioning. But they tend to resolve disputes with whipped cream fights."
"What!?" Rachel asked.
"Exactly what I said, whipped cream fight."
"Is this an Army unit or a madhouse?"
"My thoughts exactly," Conrad said as they filed back into the HQ building. As they headed towards the lounge they could hear the sound of still more animated discussion.
The Pit, Headquarters Building
Beach Head, Scarlett, Shipwreck, Kate and Roadblock
27 February 2002, 1633
"I go to Greenland. I go to jail," Beach Head said as he began tapping his right index finger against his left middle and index fingers alternately, "I go to Greenland. I go to jail. I go to Greenland...Aw who am I kidding, I'm headed for the Big House!"
"Beach Head, calm down, you're not going to the Big House," Roadblock replied.
"You bet I'm not!" Beach Head countered, "Maybe if I confess, tell them everything, I can cut a deal!"
"Don't even think about it!" Shipwreck said as he stood up.
"Try and stop me!" Beach Head said as he stood up to head for the conference room.
"Oh you bet I will!" Shipwreck said, grabbing Beach Head by one arm.
"Hey, come on! Both of you!" Scarlett snapped.
"Cool it, Beach Head!" Kate snapped, narrowly stepping out of the way as Beach Head and Shipwreck began wrestling with one another, "Whoa!"
Beach Head turned around, just barely intercepting the punch that Shipwreck threw. As they continued wrestling around Roadblock and Scarlett tried to split them up.
"Will you guys knock it off!" Kate exclaimed, "Before they hear you in the conference room."
Conrad and Rachel walked into the room just then.
"What the Hell?" Rachel exclaimed as Shipwreck and Beach Head hit the ground and started rolling around.
The conference door creaked open and in rather rapid order Shipwreck and Beach Head rapidly disentangled themselves and rose to their feet. The generals seemed to be having a genial time as they walked by, nodding and talking.
"They're smiling," Shipwreck whispered to the others.
"Smiling's good," Beach Head gulped in agreement.
"Maybe he did pull it off?" Scarlett replied.
"It looks like it," Kate replied.
"Unless there's something missing," Rachel added.
"Todd looks a bit scared," Conrad whispered to Roadblock.
"Gentlemen, why don't you go on ahead," Flagg said, "I've got a few things I'd like to go over with General Hawk."
Whithalf nodded and indicated for Bragg and Baer to follow him outside. As soon as they were outside Flagg walked over to Todd who promptly came to attention, with a nervous smile.
"Interesting technique, Soldier," Flagg said with a slight grin, "I'm gonna let this slide. For now. But I'm going to be watching you. General Hawk, we're going to need to have a little discussion."
"My office?" Hawk said.
"Oh yes," Flagg replied. And the two men headed towards Hawk's office for just that discussion.
"What did you do!?" Beach Head demanded.
"I knew it was too good to be true," Roadblock sighed.
"What. Did. You. Do!?" Beach Head demanded as he advanced on Todd.
"Back off!" Roadblock replied, stepping between the cringing Todd and the enraged Beach Head.
Then Roadblock turned to face Todd, "Well?"
Todd gulped, his eyes flickering to each face in the room.
"Todd," Conrad replied, "Tell us what you did?"
"I...I...I…" Todd stammered.
"Out with it!" Beach Head replied.
"Beach Head, stop!" Kate interjected.
"I...I...slimed General Bragg's coffee," Todd replied, "But only Hawk and Flagg saw me do it!"
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Beach Head demanded, nearly on the verge of a heart attack.
"You slimed Bragg's coffee?" Shipwreck yelped, color draining from his face.
"I had too!" Todd protested, "He said bad things about mutants! He called Althea a bad name!"
"What? What did he say?" Shipwreck asked.
"I can't say it out loud," Todd replied, shuffling his feet. "It was really bad."
"So whisper it then," Shipwreck replied. Todd leaned over and whispered it in Shipwreck's ear. The sailor turned red with anger.
"AND YOU ONLY SLIMED HIS COFFEE!?" Shipwreck roared.
The Pit, General Hawk's Office
Generals Hawk and Flagg
27 February 2002, 1744
"Well Hawk," Flagg said, as Hawk closed the blinds of the office, "I thought I'd seen everything. I mean you and your team have pulled some bizarre stunts. But this one has rapidly become my favorite. Don't get me wrong, it was well worth it to see Bragg drink the coffee…"
"An explanation is probably overdue, sir," Hawk replied.
"You think?" Flagg countered. "Okay. From the beginning, who or what is Private Tolansky? If he is in fact a private to begin with."
"He's only fifteen," Hawk began, "And yes, he is a mutant."
"I figured that part on my own," Flagg replied, "So where did you get him?"
"Maybe you'd best sit down sir, it's a bit of a story," Hawk begin.
"Enlighten me," Flagg replied.
To Be Continued...