Part 8 of the CAA fanfic - Sneaking up to the climax one slow chapter at a time.
Part 8:
Author's notes: So, short chapter is short.
I apologize, but this chapter is still tying up some loose ends before I get to the semi-large meet up of alliance members in the war room (aka: next chapter hopes to be better than most chapters). Unfortunately, Nate and a few selected members still to come into this story will not be included in the war room scene (I'm sorry. D: ). Their destinies lie elsewhere, as one movie once told me. XD;
Also, I really wanted to add more to the Hall of Heroes segment, but my mind was drawing a blank today. So, does anyone have any awesome CAA stories that you would be willing to send me so I can edit them into the story to actually make that part a bit more interesting and maybe educational about the history of CAA? XDD
And no, I don't know why UC doesn't have a cell phone in my story.
And two new characters introduced. The first is important and the second will be important later.
On a last note, yes, Lucky, you can fangirl all you like. It's not totally my doing though, it all just turned out that way.
As always, comments and criticism are welcome.
Goldy strolled down the hall slowly with the Eric, Fish, and Peanut; admiring the pictures on the two walls as they went. All the pictures in the hall were taken by the professional photographer, Roy Mustang, who was also an alliance member.
The Hall of Heroes contained thousands of pictures; each recorded great moments in the alliance's history. Some pictures just contained small troll battles and others showed things like one long battle the alliance had faced, against one of the most terrible trolls, called Millyfan.
Though not all the pictures contained the records of battles.
Many of them just showed the alliance members just hanging out together; laughing and having fun.
"I smell sandwiches." Peanut broke the silence as they all were coming towards the door at the end of the hall.
"Good, cause I'm starving!" Eric grabbed the door handle and flung it open to reveal a dark grey room with a large conference table in the middle and chair surrounding it. The lights were low and it took the four of them a little while to get their eyes adjusted to the sudden light change. But once they did and closed the door behind them, they spotted Ark setting down a plate of sandwiches on the conference table.
"It's about time you all got here," he said with a look of mock annoyance at them, "A few others arrived a bit earlier, I'll go get them in here. Have a seat." Ark exited out of the other door.
This was the war room. Goldy smiled, grabbed a nearby chair, and sat down. Fish, Eric, and Peanut shed their coats and each grabbed sandwiches as they sat down in nearby chairs.
Goldy leaned forward with her elbows propped on the table, "The calm before the storm." she whispered thoughtfully to herself.
_____________________________________________________________________
Once the door above him was closed and he had decended into the sewer tunnels, Nate realized he should have gotten a flashlight from Shooby. At least the small light from the GPS device was enough to keep him from stumbling too much along the path beside the flowing stream of sewage. He headed east and after walking for several hours, he spotted a small moving light further down the tunnel.
Nate stopped. He wasn't excepting anyone to be down here and it probably meant bad news. Nate pressed the GPS against his shirt to hide its light.
"Naaaaaaate!" a faint voice from the tunnel echoed. It was coming from the direction of the light.
Nate still stayed still and heard a faint humming that started to grow louder and louder and he noticed the light coming closer and closer.
There was no where to hide and the light was approching too fast to run, so Nate backed against the tunnel wall and waited.
As the humming noise came closer, Nate noticed that it was coming from a shallow water boat, which was cruising up the sewage stream. The boat slowed to a stop by Nate.
Nate didn't move a muscle.
A man wearing goggles around his eyes and a handkerchief around his nose and mouth was driving the boat. He looked at Nate for a moment, then removed his goggles and handkerchief.
"So, are you just going to stand there like an idiot or are you coming?" the man ask, raising his eyebrows at Nate.
"Roy? Roy Mustang?" Nate's took a step forward and squinted his eyes against the bright lantern that was hanging on the front of Roy's boat.
"In the flesh. Now, hop in and we can get on our way." Roy held his hand out to Nate and helped him into the boat. After Nate sat down in one of the bench seats in the boat, he noticed that the boat was built in a different way than most boats. It could be controlled and steered from either end.
"Where'd you get the boat?" Nate asked as Roy propelled the boat back eastward.
"Borrowed it from a friend," Roy put back on his goggles and handkerchief and offered an extra handkerchief to Nate, "Here, I don't know how you can stand the smell down here."
Nate accepted the handkerchief and tied it around his nose and mouth. He touched his hand to the bandage on his head.
"You okay?" Roy asked.
"Just a bit dizzy," Nate dropped his hand, "Are you taking me all the way to Oklahoma?"
"Sorry, but no. I have business elsewhere soon. I'll take you as far as Colorado, though. But don't worry, someone else will be there to meet up with you, and come on!" he kicked the boat and it suddenly sped up. Roy grinned, "Good, we'll make record time."
All Nate could do was hold on. He hoped this whole plan and this little vial that Shooby gave him was worth this.
_____________________________________________________________________
Lucky didn't have to think, she just fired her troll catcher.
Missed; Oro had gotten faster somehow. Was that possible?
"Now now, I thought were always so sweet and nice, Lucky. This isn't like you." Oro was still smiling.
"Lucky, you okay?"
It was Ark's voice from the phone. She remembered she was still holding.
"Uhh..." Lucky answered as she shot at Oro; again missing, " Not exactl-" there was a loud smash near Lucky's ear. Her phone had been shot out of her hand. She looked up to see Oro holding a small pistol.
"Calling for help is cheating." Oro still had a smug grin on his face.
"So, uh, tell me, Oro, when did your grammar get better?" Lucky tried to stay calm and carefully circled around, trying to find a good angle to catch Oro off guard.
"Oh, do you like it?" he motioned to his ear, which held a bluetooth device with a microphone. "My master gave it to me; but it gives me much more than better grammar." he leaped to the side as Lucky tried to shoot him again and instead shot back at her, barely grazing her hair as she dodged.
Yes, Lucky had noticed that. He was way stronger than she remembered. This wasn't looking good. She had to find UC, but getting past Oro as he was now was beyond her abilities. Nevertheless, she had to try.
She quickly sprinted to the right and shot three quick rounds from her troll catcher at Oro, he dodged them too easily and shot at Lucky. She mistook her footing and tripped over a stray wire; Oro's bullet caught her on the edge of her left leg, just enough to make her not be able to stand up before Oro pointed his gun once again at her.
"I thought loved you once, you know. But that was the past. Die, Lucky, my dear." He pulled the trigger.
A blur of black swept in front of Lucky and the bullet's echo was heard around the whole room.
"You broke my sword with that shot." a familiar voice broke the silence.
"UC!" Lucky exclaimed with happiness.
UC held out his sword; it cracked where Oro's bullet had hit and the top half fell off and to the ground.
"I liked this sword too. Ashley gave it to me. She told me it was expensive too." he turned over the broken sword in his hand, "I hope you have the money to pay for a new one." he narrowed his eyes at Oro.
"What the- why did- who the heck are you?!" Oro stuttered, clearly caught off guard by this silver haired stranger.
"Don't worry too much though," UC pointed the broken sword at Oro, "I can still finish you off with half of a sword."
Oro stared at UC for a split second, then grinned again, as if he realized something, "Oh, you're the one that Toonman rigged up with the teleport system. That means," Oro pulled out what looked like a little remote from his pocket, "that I can control where you go. And really, I don't want you here." he pressed a button on the remote, but nothing happened. He pressed it a few more times, with still no result.
"I'm one step ahead of you this time, Oro." Lucky called from behind UC. She was pointing the Disengager at UC.
"No... what...how could you..." Oro, wide eyed, pressed another button on the remote and he disappeared with a flash of light.
Lucky let out a huge sigh of relief and looked up at UC, who was shaking his hands and legs.
"Ow, that thing stung. Next time, warn me please." he turned to Lucky.
"There won't be a next time, I hope. That shock deactivated your microchip so they couldn't control it anymore." Lucky explained, still feeling happy despite the pain and blood flowing from her leg.
"Really? That's handy." UC eyed the little gun Lucky was holding, then his eyes shot to her leg, "Can you stand?" he held out his hand for her.
"Not sure," Lucky tried to get up, but with not much luck. Eventually, UC helped her up and supported her under his shoulder.
"How do we get out of here? I lost my cell phone, so I can't call Ark to teleport us back..." Lucky winced as she put a bit of weight on her injured leg.
"I don't think his teleporter could transport two people anyways, so don't worry." UC replied, "We can use the teleporter here though, I know the coordinates for the war room." he then helped Lucky walked towards the teleporter room.
______________________________________________________________________
It was a chilly afternoon in Norway as Jaden made his wat cautiously down the alleyways. He had been on this investigation for three weeks and felt like he was making some progress. Or, at least, he was sure he knew who was behind it all. He didn't have enough proof though; it was mostly a gut feeling he had about this. But who else could be behind all the thefts of the weapon and computer factories? Either someone had one heck of a strange hobby, or someone was aiming to blow something up. He was sure it was who he thought it was, but he needed more proof; more than his gut feeling. No one would believe him otherwise. Either way, the alliance was in danger. This may be more than even they could handle.
But, if Jaden's sources were correct, he would stumbling on his suspect's hideout soon. Very soon.
Author's notes: So, short chapter is short.
I apologize, but this chapter is still tying up some loose ends before I get to the semi-large meet up of alliance members in the war room (aka: next chapter hopes to be better than most chapters). Unfortunately, Nate and a few selected members still to come into this story will not be included in the war room scene (I'm sorry. D: ). Their destinies lie elsewhere, as one movie once told me. XD;
Also, I really wanted to add more to the Hall of Heroes segment, but my mind was drawing a blank today. So, does anyone have any awesome CAA stories that you would be willing to send me so I can edit them into the story to actually make that part a bit more interesting and maybe educational about the history of CAA? XDD
And no, I don't know why UC doesn't have a cell phone in my story.
And two new characters introduced. The first is important and the second will be important later.
On a last note, yes, Lucky, you can fangirl all you like. It's not totally my doing though, it all just turned out that way.
As always, comments and criticism are welcome.
Goldy strolled down the hall slowly with the Eric, Fish, and Peanut; admiring the pictures on the two walls as they went. All the pictures in the hall were taken by the professional photographer, Roy Mustang, who was also an alliance member.
The Hall of Heroes contained thousands of pictures; each recorded great moments in the alliance's history. Some pictures just contained small troll battles and others showed things like one long battle the alliance had faced, against one of the most terrible trolls, called Millyfan.
Though not all the pictures contained the records of battles.
Many of them just showed the alliance members just hanging out together; laughing and having fun.
"I smell sandwiches." Peanut broke the silence as they all were coming towards the door at the end of the hall.
"Good, cause I'm starving!" Eric grabbed the door handle and flung it open to reveal a dark grey room with a large conference table in the middle and chair surrounding it. The lights were low and it took the four of them a little while to get their eyes adjusted to the sudden light change. But once they did and closed the door behind them, they spotted Ark setting down a plate of sandwiches on the conference table.
"It's about time you all got here," he said with a look of mock annoyance at them, "A few others arrived a bit earlier, I'll go get them in here. Have a seat." Ark exited out of the other door.
This was the war room. Goldy smiled, grabbed a nearby chair, and sat down. Fish, Eric, and Peanut shed their coats and each grabbed sandwiches as they sat down in nearby chairs.
Goldy leaned forward with her elbows propped on the table, "The calm before the storm." she whispered thoughtfully to herself.
_____________________________________________________________________
Once the door above him was closed and he had decended into the sewer tunnels, Nate realized he should have gotten a flashlight from Shooby. At least the small light from the GPS device was enough to keep him from stumbling too much along the path beside the flowing stream of sewage. He headed east and after walking for several hours, he spotted a small moving light further down the tunnel.
Nate stopped. He wasn't excepting anyone to be down here and it probably meant bad news. Nate pressed the GPS against his shirt to hide its light.
"Naaaaaaate!" a faint voice from the tunnel echoed. It was coming from the direction of the light.
Nate still stayed still and heard a faint humming that started to grow louder and louder and he noticed the light coming closer and closer.
There was no where to hide and the light was approching too fast to run, so Nate backed against the tunnel wall and waited.
As the humming noise came closer, Nate noticed that it was coming from a shallow water boat, which was cruising up the sewage stream. The boat slowed to a stop by Nate.
Nate didn't move a muscle.
A man wearing goggles around his eyes and a handkerchief around his nose and mouth was driving the boat. He looked at Nate for a moment, then removed his goggles and handkerchief.
"So, are you just going to stand there like an idiot or are you coming?" the man ask, raising his eyebrows at Nate.
"Roy? Roy Mustang?" Nate's took a step forward and squinted his eyes against the bright lantern that was hanging on the front of Roy's boat.
"In the flesh. Now, hop in and we can get on our way." Roy held his hand out to Nate and helped him into the boat. After Nate sat down in one of the bench seats in the boat, he noticed that the boat was built in a different way than most boats. It could be controlled and steered from either end.
"Where'd you get the boat?" Nate asked as Roy propelled the boat back eastward.
"Borrowed it from a friend," Roy put back on his goggles and handkerchief and offered an extra handkerchief to Nate, "Here, I don't know how you can stand the smell down here."
Nate accepted the handkerchief and tied it around his nose and mouth. He touched his hand to the bandage on his head.
"You okay?" Roy asked.
"Just a bit dizzy," Nate dropped his hand, "Are you taking me all the way to Oklahoma?"
"Sorry, but no. I have business elsewhere soon. I'll take you as far as Colorado, though. But don't worry, someone else will be there to meet up with you, and come on!" he kicked the boat and it suddenly sped up. Roy grinned, "Good, we'll make record time."
All Nate could do was hold on. He hoped this whole plan and this little vial that Shooby gave him was worth this.
_____________________________________________________________________
Lucky didn't have to think, she just fired her troll catcher.
Missed; Oro had gotten faster somehow. Was that possible?
"Now now, I thought were always so sweet and nice, Lucky. This isn't like you." Oro was still smiling.
"Lucky, you okay?"
It was Ark's voice from the phone. She remembered she was still holding.
"Uhh..." Lucky answered as she shot at Oro; again missing, " Not exactl-" there was a loud smash near Lucky's ear. Her phone had been shot out of her hand. She looked up to see Oro holding a small pistol.
"Calling for help is cheating." Oro still had a smug grin on his face.
"So, uh, tell me, Oro, when did your grammar get better?" Lucky tried to stay calm and carefully circled around, trying to find a good angle to catch Oro off guard.
"Oh, do you like it?" he motioned to his ear, which held a bluetooth device with a microphone. "My master gave it to me; but it gives me much more than better grammar." he leaped to the side as Lucky tried to shoot him again and instead shot back at her, barely grazing her hair as she dodged.
Yes, Lucky had noticed that. He was way stronger than she remembered. This wasn't looking good. She had to find UC, but getting past Oro as he was now was beyond her abilities. Nevertheless, she had to try.
She quickly sprinted to the right and shot three quick rounds from her troll catcher at Oro, he dodged them too easily and shot at Lucky. She mistook her footing and tripped over a stray wire; Oro's bullet caught her on the edge of her left leg, just enough to make her not be able to stand up before Oro pointed his gun once again at her.
"I thought loved you once, you know. But that was the past. Die, Lucky, my dear." He pulled the trigger.
A blur of black swept in front of Lucky and the bullet's echo was heard around the whole room.
"You broke my sword with that shot." a familiar voice broke the silence.
"UC!" Lucky exclaimed with happiness.
UC held out his sword; it cracked where Oro's bullet had hit and the top half fell off and to the ground.
"I liked this sword too. Ashley gave it to me. She told me it was expensive too." he turned over the broken sword in his hand, "I hope you have the money to pay for a new one." he narrowed his eyes at Oro.
"What the- why did- who the heck are you?!" Oro stuttered, clearly caught off guard by this silver haired stranger.
"Don't worry too much though," UC pointed the broken sword at Oro, "I can still finish you off with half of a sword."
Oro stared at UC for a split second, then grinned again, as if he realized something, "Oh, you're the one that Toonman rigged up with the teleport system. That means," Oro pulled out what looked like a little remote from his pocket, "that I can control where you go. And really, I don't want you here." he pressed a button on the remote, but nothing happened. He pressed it a few more times, with still no result.
"I'm one step ahead of you this time, Oro." Lucky called from behind UC. She was pointing the Disengager at UC.
"No... what...how could you..." Oro, wide eyed, pressed another button on the remote and he disappeared with a flash of light.
Lucky let out a huge sigh of relief and looked up at UC, who was shaking his hands and legs.
"Ow, that thing stung. Next time, warn me please." he turned to Lucky.
"There won't be a next time, I hope. That shock deactivated your microchip so they couldn't control it anymore." Lucky explained, still feeling happy despite the pain and blood flowing from her leg.
"Really? That's handy." UC eyed the little gun Lucky was holding, then his eyes shot to her leg, "Can you stand?" he held out his hand for her.
"Not sure," Lucky tried to get up, but with not much luck. Eventually, UC helped her up and supported her under his shoulder.
"How do we get out of here? I lost my cell phone, so I can't call Ark to teleport us back..." Lucky winced as she put a bit of weight on her injured leg.
"I don't think his teleporter could transport two people anyways, so don't worry." UC replied, "We can use the teleporter here though, I know the coordinates for the war room." he then helped Lucky walked towards the teleporter room.
______________________________________________________________________
It was a chilly afternoon in Norway as Jaden made his wat cautiously down the alleyways. He had been on this investigation for three weeks and felt like he was making some progress. Or, at least, he was sure he knew who was behind it all. He didn't have enough proof though; it was mostly a gut feeling he had about this. But who else could be behind all the thefts of the weapon and computer factories? Either someone had one heck of a strange hobby, or someone was aiming to blow something up. He was sure it was who he thought it was, but he needed more proof; more than his gut feeling. No one would believe him otherwise. Either way, the alliance was in danger. This may be more than even they could handle.
But, if Jaden's sources were correct, he would stumbling on his suspect's hideout soon. Very soon.