Chapter Twenty: Temple Of Reckoning Is The World's News
The once-thought urban legend of the Temple of Reckoning became the epicenter of the world's news. Any major event that would alter the course of everyday living in the world, such as quite possibly World War III or doomsday such as jewelry that possessed ultimate power to its wielders was going to capture the attention of the billions of inhabitants on Earth.
And naturally, many of the news stations worldwide wanted to cover the story right from the source. All of the biggest names in worldwide news and all of the biggest news agencies in the world all converged onto Temple Island at once to report it live from the island. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Euronews, Al Jazeera, Sky News, CGTN, France 24, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, and other lesser known news stations and news agencies all had their crews there. It made for an extremely chaotic scene with basically the entire world arriving at the same time on Temple Island.
Temple Island housed only six dozen inhabitants that resided there full time in a very upscale village that made a near-full circle around the Temple of Reckoning itself with only two small gaps on two sides of it where a boat could get in. Every major name from the worldwide news stations and news agencies was there making reports.
With that much mass chaos happening at once, Temple Island's local police force as well as the Armed Forces from many different countries, a good bit of it from the United States, were also there to maintain order. There were quite a few unauthorized visitors that showed up by mostly sea or air trying to take advantage of the chaos with trespassing or looting, but they were all very quickly apprehended.
The two cities whose heroes were inside the very temple to stop the perpetrators of its penetration, Townsville and Capitol City, were of course present on site. It was there that Polly Purebred, ace reporter of Capitol City, was standing in front of the camera waiting on her cue to go live. She was flanked by two officers from the local police as well as a resident of Temple Island. The cameraman pointed at Polly, giving her the cue.
"Hi, everyone. This is Capitol City News, your leader in all things Capitol City. This is Polly Purebred reporting." Polly said, using her usual opening spiel. "I am here live from Temple Island, the very island and village that surrounds the Temple of Reckoning, which you can see just to my right over here. It was once thought to be only a myth, but it's the place where someone who we believe to be the evil Simon Bar Sinister somehow got inside. I am standing here with a local resident of Temple Island. Sir, could you state your name?" Polly then asked as a muscular African-American man with metal on his arms stepped in front of the camera.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. My name is Jackson Briggs, but everyone here at TI calls me Jax." The African-American man introduced.
"All right, Mr. Jax, could you tell us what you know, what you saw, anything at all?" Polly asked.
"Yeah, my daughter and I were having breakfast, then all of a sudden, we heard this loud, eardrum busting boom and it scared the living shit out of us. Excuse my French, I know this is live TV." Jax replied.
"No worries, sir, go on." Polly encouraged.
"All right, cool. After that, we all felt our fucking houses shake, shit flying everywhere like a mother fucking earthquake or a tsunami done hit. Then we go outside with all of TI and man, I shit you not, there was this blinding glow. Man, I thought the fucking Sun had turned into a red giant or the Rapture done came or some shit, but it turns out that somebody busted in that mother fucker. Them layers was supposed to keep everybody out." Jax further explained.
"Okay, sir, now after that momentary blindness, could you see anybody at all at those steps going inside?" Polly inquired.
"Man, my daughter swears to God that she seen this midget ass clown in a lab coat with someone like three foot taller, but I couldn't see a goddamn thing." Jax answered, Polly gasping at the revelation that matched the description of Simon and Cad.
"Wow, so that all but confirms that Simon Bar Sinister WAS here!" Polly said on camera. "We thank you so much for your time and your help, Mr. Jax."
"Hey, no problem, Ms. Polly. Always happy to help." Jax said just before he walked away.
"We apologize to our viewers for the profanity, but this is such a massive worldwide matter that we're allowed to bend a few rules here." Polly said. "Now I am here with the Chief of Police here on Temple Island as well as his second in command. Could you both state your names?" Polly then asked.
"Sure. I am Officer Chris Redfield." The Chief of Police said.
"And I am Officer Leon Kennedy." The second in command said.
"Great. So officers, can either of you disclose any findings to the investigation so far?" Polly asked.
"At this time, the investigation is underway and ongoing, and we cannot speak on it until we have concrete facts." Chris responded.
"Yes, and as soon as we know more, we'll…." Leon added before a small older Caucasian man in a hoodie and sunglasses jumped in front of the camera, snatching Polly's mic and bumping into her, causing Polly to take a hard tumble.
"Fuck her right in the pussy!" The man shouted in front of the camera.
Chris and Leon stepped right into action and subdued the person, quickly putting handcuffs on him. Leon helped Polly back to her feet, Polly dusting herself off and trying to shake off the hard tumble, Chris handing her back her mic.
"We apologize for that lewd action by that knucklehead. We'll return live in 60 minutes with another report live from the Temple of Reckoning, sooner if need be." Polly said as she gave the cutthroat motion for the newscast to go back to the main anchor station.
As soon as Polly knew she was off the air, she looked back at the man that bumped into her as Chris and Leon were leading him away.
"You fucking son of a bitch!" Polly shouted out to the handcuffed man, Polly also flipping him off.
Polly then walked back to her trailer and went inside, taking a seat and just flipping through the many, many news stations covering the story live from the temple.
On another end of Temple Island, Townsville's own ace reporter, Stanley Whitfield, was live on the scene ready to do a report live from Temple Island. Like Polly, Stanley waited for his countdown to go live, Stanley standing with three residents of the island. As the cameraman gave his cue, Stanley began speaking.
"This is Stanley Whitfield, live from Temple Island, the very island that hosts the Temple of Reckoning, which you can see behind us here. We can safely say that the evil Mojo Jojo was present here at the Temple of Reckoning as evidenced by his unmistakable helicopter here in the area." Stanley got out as he pointed at Mojo's helicopter.
"I am standing here with three residents of the village of Temple Island. Sir, I'll begin with you." Stanley said before he waved over a brown-haired teenager on camera with a bag of arrows on his back. "Can you tell us your name and what you know?" Stanley asked the teenager.
"Yes, my name is Atreus, and my father and I were woken this morning by a huge explosion and the subsequent tremor that got all of TI's attention." The teenager said. "I had to put on eclipse glasses to keep myself from being blinded by the very, very bright light after the huge sonic boom. A few minutes later, my father and I spotted what seemed to be a primate with a weird top hat or something banging on that door up there. I have no idea how the hell he busted through the temple's layers. They were designed centuries ago to be impenetrable." Atreus finished.
"Yes, that further confirms that the evil Mojo Jojo was here and responsible for this whole ordeal." Stanley said as he and Atreus shook hands. "Thank you, Mr. Atreus, for your time."
"It's my pleasure, Mr. Whitfield. Goodbye." Atreus said as he walked away.
"Now I am here with these two gentlemen, the very best of friends. Could you two tell us your names and what you know?" Stanley asked with another primate and a mammal stepping in front of the camera.
"Yeah, I.R. Baboon!" The primate said.
"Yes, I.M. Weasel!" The mammal said in his usual triumphant manner. "Well, our good friend Atreus did an excellent job explaining the events that transpired upon the initial breach of the Temple of Reckoning, so we shan't be redundant for the sake of your time." I.M. Weasel then got out.
"Yeah, but I.R. Baboon saw something else like two hours later!" I.R. Baboon mentioned.
"Yes, what is it that you saw?" Stanley asked.
"Yeah, I.R. was looking up in the sky with his, um, those see more further looking thingies that you put on your eyes." I.R. Baboon replied.
"Those would be binoculars, my simian friend." I.M. Weasel clarified.
"Yeah, yeah, those thingies!" I.R. Baboon confirmed. "And I.R. saw three bug-eyed girls in pretty dresses and ballet shoes also flying to the temple like really fast!"
Stanley's eyes lit up quickly when he heard the all-too-familiar description.
"The Powerpuff Girls!" Stanley said out loud.
"Yes, I too saw something from my vantage point." I.M. Weasel mentioned.
"Yes, tell us, sir." Stanley said.
"Yes. The sight I saw with those same binoculars appeared to be a flying dog dressed in red and a long blue cape." I.M. Weasel replied.
The scene very quickly shifted to Polly Purebred's trailer, who was just drinking a cup of green tea. She wasn't necessarily watching Stanley's report on the TV, but when she heard I.M. Weasel's description of a person that she knew all too well, her ears perked up. She immediately paid attention to the TV as I.M. Weasel continued on.
"And upon further inspection, the red clothing was adorned with a large white U on the front. U as in Uniform." I.M. Weasel finished.
Polly gasped at the remainder of the description, confirming her knowledge of the person.
"Underdog!" Polly shouted out.
The scene shifted back to Stanley Whitfield, who nodded to both I.M. Weasel and I.R. Baboon, shaking their hands.
"We thank you both for your time. You and Atreus have been a bigger help than you know." Stanley said.
"The pleasure is all ours, Mr. Whitfield." I.M. Weasel said as he and I.R. Baboon both walked away.
"So based on the eyewitness reports, we can safely say that The Powerpuff Girls arrived here at the Temple of Reckoning, but beyond that, we do not know what happened or if the girls were able to prevent Mojo Jojo from grabbing a hold of the Forbidden Necklace and the Bracelets of Despair." Stanley said.
"As for the flying dog, we cannot say for certain what his business was here. Maybe he is working for the evil Mojo Jojo, or maybe he is acting independently and getting the jewelry for himself. He may have allied with The Powerpuff Girls, but again, all of that is pure speculation at this time. As soon as we know more, we will report it immediately. This is Stanley Whitfield signing off." Stanley finished.
The scene quickly shifted right back to Polly Purebred, who had a very angry scowl on her face after hearing Stanley's on-air comments.
"Oh, that mother fucking bastard!" Polly shouted out. "How fucking DARE he say that bullshit on national TV about Underdog! I'm so gonna give that mother fucker a piece of my fucking mind!"
Polly stormed out of her trailer to go look for Stanley, of course having to weave her way through the chaotic scene at Temple Island.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Music Credits
Song Artist/Source: Lil' Wayne featuring Eminem
Song Title/Source: Drop The World (Instrumental)
Year Song Released: 2009
When Played: Throughout the entire scene, looping several times.
Song Artist/Source: Shao Dow
Song Title/Source: Boy
Year Song Released: 2022
When Played: When Atreus is being interviewed.