Surge Story: Chapter 3- "Game Of War: A feud of Lightning and Earth" [IC]

[Supernovae]

Clint pulled himself up and grabbed his crutches. "Lieutenant," he called out to Surge, "Shouldn't we be pursuing these assholes? They tried to kill our guys."

Edited January 5, 2015 by Supernovae

[Sutoratosu]

Surge and co

"Lieutenant?" Surge asked, looking up at the private. "I see no lieutenants here, private, and if you're referring to me, you're off by a great many ranks. As for whether we're going to pursue them..." he stood from Infantry's side, retrieving his mouse's capsule and withdrawing it as he stared out over the city, eyes fixed on the bridge in particular . "There'll be another confrontation, without a doubt, but it'll be on our own terms... we know who at least one of their commanders are and where they're camped; I spotted his sqaud running towards the bridge when I looked through the binos earlier, and theres more people hanging around there as well. If this were actual war though... I'd have gone there and torched each and every one of those motherfuckers myself, but since it's practice and we can't, or at least, aren't supposed to use lethal force, the options of what we can do in retribution are limited."

He cracked a cocky, near arrogant looking smirk despite what he said, begining to chuckle ominously as Infantry's body began glowing a hot red as it charged it's internal heat chambers and flame sac, throwing it's head to the heavens and letting out a great torrent of hell fire that could rival a Napalm bomb for it's raw intensity as the fox swept it's head to and fro, furiously waving the flame as if it were a flag being brandished in declaration of war. The air burned and hissed around the group, the entire hill top taking on a bright fiery glow and the grass around the creature's feet beginning to singe from the heat pulsating off it's body. A guttural, primal war cry escaped it's mouth at the same time, filled with wrath like a lion.

"But we're going to give them something to remember Spark Alpha by, don't you worry, private. The fuckers have marked themselves in my mind, and I don't forget my debts. For now though our priority is finding our two missing soldiers."

Jory

Corporal Robertson and Lionel arrived back at their Commander's position just in time to see his Hell Fox unleash a bout of flame and wave it about in the heavens with a guttural war cry echoed out from the beast...

[Jory]

Jory jogged lightly over to his Commander and the Hell Fox, unfazed by his CO's usual show of strength and slight insanity. He looked at the rest of the squad and sighed in relief. With the exception of Surge's Electric GAO, the rest of them seemed to be in good health and fighting shape. "Sir, Oliver sustained that electrically induced paralysis that these GAOs can inflict on one another. Are there any supplies here that could fix that?" He returned Neffi to her capsule for the moment to spare her feelings. "I need my ace in top form if we're going to be handing asses back to their owners, sir," he said with a grin. He then released Neffi once more. The Poison GAO looked a bit confused, but otherwise happy to be out and about once more.

[Chim]

“Do you see that?” Logan asked Lars. “It looks hurt… Wait! We won’t harm you!” The medic released Flora and chased after the blue ball, quickly catching up. “Flora, do your thing.”

“Baay!” An aroma escaped from the Dinosaur’s buds as she tried to calm the Spheal down.

“Ok, let’s wait until this works before I can start the treatment.”

[Flux]

Lars nodded. He felt bad for the poor thing, whatever had happened to it. He could always sympathize with animals; it was one of the reasons he could never be a hunter before the outbreak of the virus. Animals lived by instinct; there was very little influence towards good or evil in a wild animal. They just wanted to survive, and that was what made them so easy for Lars to understand. People were another story...

As he watched and waited on Logan's healing process, Lars took a glance towards Sleepy curled in his arms, wondering if he could somehow get the little guy to teleport them back. There didn't seem to be much chance of that though... the little guy was out like a light, sleeping once more. Lars knew how hopeless it was to try and wake a sleeping Abra. He sighed. It seemed they'd have to hoof it.

[Chim]

While Flora was working her magic, Logan managed to sneak up on the Spheal and slowly started to treat it. The Ice-Water type shuddered with fear when the young medic came closer and prepared for the worst.

Flora’s soothing started to lose some effect as soon as Logan touched the Spheal’s wounds. “Shhh, easy, we won’t hurt you,” the medic mumbled and as soon as he touched the wounds, the Spheal fainted, allowing him to heal it much faster.

Logan turned to Lars. “I finished healing, but we can’t leave it here. I think I’ll take it with me.”

[Flux]

Lars shrugged. "Fine with me. You're the one who healed it after all." He paused, a frown taking hold over his face. "Still, you have to wonder how it got down here in the first place. And in that condition..." He trailed off, leaving what he assumed they were both thinking unsaid. "Anyway, you should probably get it in one of those capsules if you can. They seem to put these GAOs in a form of stasis, which might be good for the little guy right now."

[Chim]

“Good idea, Lars.” Logan quickly tossed one of his empty capsules and captured the Spheal without too much effort. The young medic stared at the ball for a second before turning to his fellow soldier. “So, any luck with Sleepy? Because at this rate we’re going to wander around for a very long time…”

[Sutoratosu]

Surge and co.

"There should be a few basic medical supplies like Pills in all the load out packs," Surge said, arms crossed and eyes fixed at the bridge as Infantry cooled off his war declaration and sat there snarling. "The red ones with 'Cheri' inscribed on em cure all forms of paralysis. Find em, use em. Speaking of which, these weird berry species that have popped up over the last few years would do wonders on the civilian market... too bad the higher ups are a bit skittish about it."

Chimchain and Flux

Before Lars could answer, Sleepy awoke once more and in a flash of white, they both found themselves standing in the middle of an aisle in a large convenience store. The place smelled like floor cleaner, the shelves lined with various bags of chips and other junk food typical to america, donuts, sodas, even Liquor, which the two noticed in the large glass fridge section behind them. There was one crucial question though; where the fuck were they now?

"Holy shit..." A young clerk muttered as he looked up from his sweeping nearby at the flash. His eyes went wide at the Military uniforms and the sight of Sleepy in Lars' arms like a child. "Is that thing... what the hell is going on here?" he looked up from sleepy, glaring at them both. "where'd you two come from?"

[Jory]

Jory nodded and dug into the loadout pack. After a few moments of rummaging he triumphantly held up a small box. He opened it to find that it had been segmented into several compartments. Each had a number of small pills in it. He took out a red one. However, after seeing that it was labeled "Tamato," he put it back. He then found one labeled Cheri and sighed in relief. Before doing anything else he closed the box and put it back in the loadout pack. His next course of action was to call Oliver out of his ball. The reptilian GAO still seemed to be suffering from the strange muscle spasms common to the electrical paralysis GAOs seemed capable of inflicting. He carefully held the GAO's mouth open, being careful to avoid the small, sharp teeth as the placed the pill on top of Oliver's tongue. He then stroked the bottom of his partner's neck, coaxing the pill along its esophagus and down into the GAO's stomach. After a minute or so, Oliver showed visible signs of improvement. He nodded gratefully at Jory, then took stock of their new situation.

Robertson then looked at Surge. "You were right about those pills. They're miracle workers. But what do we do now, sir?"

[Chim]

Logan was caught off guard by Sleepyy’s latest action and looked around the convenience store. It took him a minute or two before he fully realized there was someone else with them. A civilian? In the Urban Games area? That shouldn’t be possible… Did this mean they left the town?

“I’m sorry but I can’t tell any details to a civilian about whom we are or where we came from. I don’t even know where we are…” The medic tried to make eye contact with Lars in the hope his fellow soldier could help him out.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Chimchain

[Flux]

Lars glanced at Logan. He wasn't sure where Sleepy had taken them, but it seemed as though there was a civilian here. That meant that they were outside the Urban Games area... Unless... Could this just be a man acting like a civilian? It would certainly add more realism and risk to the training if that was the case. Regardless, he would have to treat the man like any civilian, and as Logan had said, they couldn't give the man any confidential information. As he was thinking of some way to get out of the situation, a smile crept onto Lars' face.

"I've always wanted to do this..." he muttered as he approached the counter.

"Hey..." he started, looking at the man intently, "What year is it?"

[Sutoratosu]

Surge

"We get searching..." Surge sighed as he looked out over the vast cityscape. Infantry followed off behind him as he began making his trek down the hill, the man casting a glance back at his squadron once he had made it about half way. "Get moving, Soldiers, those two aren't going to just locate themselves." Infantry let out a dog like bark in agreement.

Lars and Logan

"September 1, 2001," A voice from the tv overhead answered the soldier's question rather unexpectedly. It was a news station, a grey haired female news anchor sitting behind the desk as a file footage of the destruction of the World Trade Center played to her right side. Her face was stone cold, solemn. "A day that shall forever remain in infamey in the minds of the american populace... for both the crimes committed, and for the fact that it could've been so easily preventable had it not been for the nation's arrogance at the time." As she spoke, the file footage faded into a video of a middleeastern man giving some speech of sorts... Lars could recognize his face easily from history class back in his school years; none other than Osama Bin Laden. It was the speech he had given claiming responsibility for the attack.

"The spark of the war on terror," The anchor continued. "Osama Bin Laden, founder and de facto head of al-qaeda until his death in 2011 at the hands of US naval seal team 6 under orders of President Obama. For over twenty years afterwards, the US and it's allies continued to engage jihadist forces in the middle east, and northen africa following that. Thirty years of a war the US people had grown tired of by the time it was only half way through." The video faded, leaving the space empty with the backdrop of the studio. "The world thought it was over. Thought that Terrorism had been curbed and neutralized completely thanks to international efforts such as the Rheagors Treaty of 2019. But as was demonstrated less than 24 hours ago in the south pacific, the world may have been completely wrong. We go now to Washington DC correspondent Keath Johnson, outside of the white house which has just released information regarding an assault on US navy men..."

"And so it begins again..." the middle aged pakistani man sighed as he stood behind the counter, wearing the same green uniform shirt that the other clerk had on, his name embroider on the breast in gold thread... "Just watch, I am telling you my friend, the amount of hate crimes against muslims is going to sky rocket from this... it happened just like that the first time around, and it will be the same now..."

"Achmed, man," The younger co-worker called. "look at what he fucking has in his hands!"

"Hm? oh dear Allah..." He backed away from the counter as he finally noticed that it was Lars and not actually his young co-worker standing on the other side with sleepy in tow. He cast a few glances back and forth between the door and the soldier, eyes widening. "H-how did you even get in here? no one's come in all morning, and what..." He pointed contemptuously at Sleepy's unconscious form. "are you doing with that thing!?"

Well... it was obvious that civilians were not quite as...used to GAOs as one might think...

*****

Erick and Ray

"What the hell makes you think I'm going to let you off this base, Civi?" Caraway said as he sat in his highbacked chair, feet propped up on his paper laden desk as he sneered at Ray's request. At his side stood a quadruped Water affinity GAO, clad in armor reminiscent of sea shells and staring at Ray with as much amusement as it's handler was. Ray looked back and forth between the creature and it's master, snarling at the man's immediate dismissal of what he'd asked of him.

"You think that this is funny?" He asked. "Listen to me, you little wannabe Navy Seal, I need to get out to the city to conduct some damn field research; you can either co-operate and assign two of your men to accompany me like protocol demands, or I can head their on my lonesome and your ass get's chewed out by McCarthy for such a breach in security. It's you choice."

"So the Doctor grows his fangs, eh?" Caraway took his feet of the mahogany surface, resting his chin on his fingers as he leaned on the desk, staring at the Scientist. "Never really liked you, but then again, I've never liked corporate babies... fine, I'll give you someone... In fact, I'll you two someones." With that said he pulled out his commlink and depressed the transmission trigger, speaking into it coldly as he glared at Ray all the while.

"Freeman, Quantico, get your asses back to HQ on the double soldiers. You've been reassigned for the day..."

Erick's voice came over the way in response. "Sir, we found something that warrants a proper inspection..."

"Did it cause any damage to the gates?"

"No sir; it was one of them, displayed possible signs of rabbis"

"Take it up with Dr.Ray soldier, you're gonna be accompanying him anyways." With that said, he powered the device off, resting on the desk as he again propped his feet up and leaned back. "Happy now, money bags?"

"I'd be happier if you'd just done what I'd asked the first time and withheld the snide little commentary."

[Ragnar]

"Uggh..do we have to? I was just getting comfortable here" despite Sid's whining, he pack up his gears and follows Surge's command. Sid and his Lion cub went down the slope as they went the same direction as Surge did.

[Jory]

Jory nodded at Surge's command and looked behind him. "The rest of you, fall in. Let's move it out," he said sternly, following his CO and Sid. Oliver strode proudly beside him, ready to engage any foes they might face. And THIS time, he wasn't paralyzed, so he could actually help.

[K_H]

Kenny nodded, and followed Surge and Jory. Emma then popped out of her Stasis Capsule, and perched on her handler's shoulder.

[Chim]

Logan barely managed to suppress his laughter when he heard Lars’s question. He turned his back to the civilians and pretended to study the store. When he finally got his act together he laid his hand on his fellow soldier’s shoulder. “Let’s go. I doubt they’re going to tell us exactly where we are as long as they can see Sleepy. We’re wasting our time.”

[Flux]

Lars nodded, a solemn look on his face. He moved towards the door, Sleepy in hand, turning back to the shocked men at the counter one last time. He flashed them a wild grin, looking at Logan.

"Someday in the future, you'll know what I'm doing with this 'thing.'" With that, he strode out the door, wondering where he'd find himself.

[Sutoratosu]

Spark Alpha

"Clear!!" Surge ordered yet again as he and his men stood behind cover, guns at the ready. Without hesitation, Infantry followed what had become a monotonous routine so far and opened his mouth, hot bouts of combustion issuing forth and catching on his fur, turning the GAO into a literal Firefox. The next moment, a familiar roar came and the Fire Type charged forward, leaping into the air and turning his body to slam part of his side into the wooden slab in a hell-fire cloaked tackle that would've easily killed even the biggest and most resilient line backer with it's impact force alone. The door flew clean off it's hinges, as had all the other ones the team had breached and secured in the past hour...

A bark came the darkness of the apartment building's back lobby, Infantry's fire giving off a hellish glow in the small utility hallway. Surge left his cover, dodging over to a nearby wall before trekking over crouched to the door . The Flareon extinguished his flames as his master peered into the door leading off from the side of the hall. Another bark came from Infantry after he gave a sniff of the air- confirming what Surge already suspected... they weren't here either.

"That makes 15 buildings we've cleared," He said, returning through the narrow back door and out into to the alley way where his squad waited. "Still no sign of Walker or Kaiser anywhere... if I didn't know any better, I'd say they were captured by another CO at this point."

Infantry was wandering away all the while. Nose to the ground, paws leading him out of the end of the alley way opposite to the one they'd entered through... and then he stopped, and was silent.

The entire street glistened with a melting sheet of thick ice. Several capsules lay on the ground, the magnetic clips that should've secured them to belts destroyed and laying in scraps of metal on the frozen water. A few of them were smashed, a few intact. And visible beneath it all was a man hole cover.

Logan and Lars ((AWOL))

"You think you can just up and go AWOL, Private?" A woman's voice asked as soon as Lars was standing in the parking lot. It was dark out, late, in fact. His entire vision was filled by nothing but the intense light shining before him. The sound of cars whizzing by on the road beyond was loud and clear, seemingly amplified by the pounding of his own heart as he found... he could not move. "Figured the war games were the perfect time to dessert and defect, didn't ya?"

McCarthy and Rowan

The General held up his hand before the screen, pausing the footage mid frame and zooming in by expanding the fingers of his balled fist outward. Rowan sat beside him at the other side of the desk, in a smaller and less regal chair than the old legend. McCarthy's office was rather spartan in nature. neutral colored walls all around, perimeter shaped like an hexagon. A US flag, complete with tassles so bright they may have well been spun gold sitting against the back wall behind his oak desk, just as bare as the decor. There was a table, long, rectangular, near the door with a map of the world emblazoned in full color on it's holo screen- focused currently on the south pacific. The carpet was by far the liveliest thing in the entire space, a patriotic red white and blue covering a portion of the floor, which the rest of was a strange marble or linoleum- Rowan honestly didn't know even though he'd been here years ago to see it being constructed... and to tie all the tidings of the office together, was a full portrait of george washington hanging behind the General's head, looking down with cold, unliving eyes at the scientist, taunting him, almost, telling him he does not belong in the office of a military man, that he should leave before he further dishonor the very pattern of the carpet his penny loathers rested upon...just like it always did when he was in here.

"The crest is a Gyarados." McCarthy said simply, the screen created a red box around the bird's eye view footage in the area he was referring to. Rowan shook his head briefly, shoving away the unease the damn painting had always given him. He turned his attention to the red boxed area on screen, seeing precisely what the General was speaking of. McCarthy hit play again. The Crest whipped into life on screen, writhing a bit as it rose higher from the waves. And then more started to come, and they two had become boxed in bold red like a targeting system.

"How was the footage obtained?" Rowan asked, noticing the perspective of the camera lens...

"Unarmed recon drone," McCarthy said. "Was in the south pacific to help the Malaysian government find a rather classified bit of cargo they lost... cargo that Uncle Sam would very much like to have back where it belongs- out of the hands of russians."

"Russians? Really? I was unaware that the cold war had started yet again."

"Oh you'd be surprised, professor. We've been watching them for months and months now, our best and finest intel officers are running around moscow and feeding us everything the regimes plotting."

"And I was also unaware the GAOWP-"

"Genomic Weapons Corp, Professor. The name is official now."

"That the GWC had it's own fully functional intelligence corps with agents in foreign lands. I'm assuming the president hasn't been notified about this yet?"

"Hell yes he hasn't." McCarthy paused the footage yet again, this time making another gesture with his hand and turning the whole screen dark. "Ever since the reorganization, I'm technically the head of the entire Corps given the Land Division holds supremecy- ergo, all intelligence gathered by it goes through me before it ever reaches the oval office."

"What are you waiting for then?" Rowan demanded. "This is proof worthy enough to declare war over, the russians sunk the Black Nexus, spilled american blood in international waters. The world can't stand by and bitch and moan if we decide to duke it out over this- we're fully justified."

"You know that, I know that... and President Sho'kun knows that as well." McCarthy said, sighing. "And you're a damn fool if you think the man's not going to pounce with this, I've gotten word he held a meeting with NATO representatives just earlier this morning and tried to convince them to sign on with him. They refused, but it's only a temporary one- they want evidence..."

"Your logic completely escapes me."

"Russia is not a bear to be trifled with," McCarthy said pointedly. "Before we go to war, we need to weaken them, reduce the pool of manpower they've managed to maintain thanks to annexing sovereign states left and right like it's imperial Europe... or at the very least, destroy some of the control it has over said manpower. and I have just the plan to do so. And by tomorrow at 06:00 hundred hours, it'll be done. And then I'll pick up this phone here and I'll tell the President what he needs to hear and hand it all over."

"This is either incredibly patriotic of you," Rowan remarked... "Or incredibly treasonous and insubordinate. what's your little plot to "Reduce the bear's power" then?"

McCarthy chuckled darkly. He rose from his chair and peered out of the window against the west wall, looking out at the base, hands crossed behind his back as the sunlight trickled in and illuminated his features...

"The head of the Russian Military is an absolute showboating fucktard" He said. "We're in a position to strike hard, and Assassination via injecting Air into an IV line... is near undetectable." All Rowan's eyes did... was look on in confusion. "How far along is PC-006?" was the next thing to come out of McCarthy's mouth... "We'll be needing it... soon."

[Chim]

Logan was about to follow Lars when he heard a female voice. He quickly jumped against the wall, trying to hide from view, and released Ace. It sounded like they either reached the edge of the Urban Games Area or ran into an enemy.

“Go around and surprise them from behind with your fire attacks. Wait for my signal!” Ace nodded and ran off in search for a second door or an open window.

[Sutoratosu]

Logan

"Hey, don't you unleash that damn monkey in my store!" Achmed roared, diving from behind the counter to try to catch the little beast as it ran by on all fours, knocking over his young co-worker before reaching the door leading to the stock room and opening the handle with ease...

"What's your problem, man?" the young fellow demanded as he got up and dusted himself off, casting aside the broken broom stick in his hand. "Look, thanks for your service and all that jaz, but why the hell do you have to come in here and make our jobs difficult?" He jabbed a finger at the back door, about to go on... before he noticed a bright light behind Logan through the glass doors. And the other soldier pressed against the surface on the other-side, shielding his eyes...

"Damn! that's bright..." he said, shielding his own eyes now. "what the hell's going on here, what, are you two AWOL or something?"

[K_H]

Kenny looked towards Infantry, and saw the Ice. he then went over to investigate further, and saw the Frozen Scene in its entirety. Kenny then quickly looked back at the main group, speaking to Surge.

"Sir, Infantry has found something you might want to see for yourself."

Edited February 17, 2015 by K_H

[Sutoratosu]

Spark Alpha ((Aka, everyone whose PC name isn't Logan Walker or Lars Kaiser))

Infantry gave a weary glance back at his master as if to confirm the private's words. Surge just stood there for a moment, noticing the smashed capsules on the ground from even where he stood in the doorframe. He moved his hand to the holster on his leg, and within an instant, his side-arm was out with barrel to the earth as he crept over behind the fox's position. Infantry skidded out to the middle of the ice, heating his paws to melt the ice and stop himself just over top the manhole. He nudged his head downwards after a few more seconds of sniffing.

"He's got their scent," He called back to the squad, all the while remaining vigilant as the Fire type began to cloak himself again, opening jaws wide towards the ice and going to work. "Remain at your positions, some of these capsules over here are done for, and god knows what was in them-" as if on cue he whirled on the ice to face north, barrel up and a single, deafening blast issuing down it's length, sending the tranq round out of the chamber and hurtling into the flesh of a Grizzly looking GAO. The beast crumpled and skidded along the ice mid charge, sliding right past Surge as he stepped out of the way on tractioned boot soles.

"That's one..." he said, taking out an empty sphere from a pocket on his fatigues and tossing it over his shoulder at the bear, watching with a backwards glance as light engulfed and condensed it's bulky form before slamming shut within the new capsule. He looked over the scene again... Torn pieces of Mag-belt, put together probably making up two or so full ones. capsules to go along with it, eight in total, three fully intact, five nothing more than shards of machinery on the ground. A twisted M-16 lay on the opposite end of the scene- from the degree of warping, it was probably from a Psychic's attack... which bod ill indeed if they'd have to deal with one of those buggers running about free...

Infantry gave a triumphant bark as the fire died around his maw and body, drawing the Staff Sergeant's attention to find the cover completely defrosted- and a fair amount of the pavement around it now nothing but scorched tar. He was about to retrieve the bent rifle to use as a crowbar- not daring to burn himself touching the steel directly, when Infantry simply stuck one clawed paw beneath the metal rim and lifted it with ease, letting the plate fall to it's opposite face and peering into the lit space below, giving a few whiffs...

"Oh yeah, we've definitely found the trail," Surge said, turning his attention back to the alley, all the while keeping his gun at the ready for any more ferals... "Spark Alpha, get over here, and be quick about it- we've got sewers to check..."

[Flux]

"You think you can just up and go AWOL, Private? Figured the war games were the perfect time to dessert and defect, didn't ya?"

Lars felt a cold sweat run down his neck. They thought he was AWOL? They were already in enough trouble without having to worry about desertion penalties. This was exactly why he hated the government structure. Why should they get to dictate where he could and could not go? He was a free man, volunteering his time to the military and still they would try to take that freedom from him. Still, he knew it would be best not to voice those thoughts.

"We're not deserting..." he mumbled. "Trust me, I'd like nothing more than to get back to the war games right now. I don't even know where we are..."

[Ragnar]

Sid held his rifle close to him as he went down the manhole. Can't believe that Lars and Logan went here, Sid thought to himself as he looks around the tunnel. Luckily enough, He had the perfect GAO to adapt in this type of environment, Sid calls out his poisonous frog, Venom to guide him throughout this rescue mission. The frog seems happy to oblige as it skips around its trainer.

Edited February 18, 2015 by typhlosionrulez