Mission: Scripted

This is IMF's Christmas story that has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. It also has nothing to do with this current mission. Merry Christmas everybody! And a happy New Year!

Timothius woke up with a groan. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened to him since he went to bed that night. Confused, he felt hard floor underneath him.
“Are you awake?” said a voice. It was Ryan Cruise.
“Yeah,” Tim nodded. He opened his eyes, but the lighting didn’t change much. Wherever they were, it sure was dark. “Where are we?”
“He must not remember anything after he was knocked out,” Ryan said to someone else.
“We’re in a dungeon,” said another voice. This one was Cathy’s.
“How’d we get here?” Tim asked groggily. He tried to remember but he couldn’t recall anything that had happened.
“We were infiltrating the Russian Embassy,” Ryan answered him. “You screwed up, though.”
“Excuse me?” Cathy exclaimed. “You were the one that knocked the mantelpiece over!”
“So? Nobody heard that.” Ryan argued.
“Then why are we here?”
Ryan shrugged. “Bad luck?”
“Guys, guys,” Tim held up his hand. “What happened to me?” His head felt like a watermelon that had been split open by a sledgehammer. (Whatever that feels like, but it looks painful.)
“Some guard knocked you on the head when you tried to resist,” Ryan explained. “You actually took about three guys out before that.” Ryan paused and reflected the moment before continuing. “They came running when you stepped on that piece of glass--”
“You mean when you knocked the mantelpiece over,” Cathy interrupted.
“Why was there a mantelpiece there in the first place? That’s what I want to know,” Ryan said, defending himself. “I mean this is an embassy, not somebody’s living room.”
“Well the point is,” Cathy ignored his comment. “We’re here and how do we get out?”
“No problem,” Ryan assured them. “I’ve got it all figured out.”
“You said that when the mantelpiece dropped,” Cathy snapped.
“What makes you think I didn’t have it all figure out then?”
“Well, maybe the fact that we’re now trapped in this dungeon!”
“That was part of the plan,” Ryan said, defiantly.
“Why are we in the Russian Embassy?” Timothius asked, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Ryan started to explain but then just tossed him a stack of papers that were stapled together. “Forget it, just read this.”
“What’s this?” Timothius asked.
“The script,” Ryan replied. “It tells exactly what’s going to happen and what’s already happened.”
“Hey!” Timothius exclaimed. “It starts with me waking up, and you guys standing the dungeon. This is exactly how it happened!”
“Yeah,” Ryan shrugged as if this were common knowledge. “Didn’t I already say that?”
“Yeah, but…” Tim trailed off. “This is amazing!”
“You mean you didn’t know about this?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Timothius shook his head.
“Neither did I,” Cathy admitted, taking the script from Timothius.
“Wow,” Ryan shook his head. “You guys are missing out. It has all our lines, what we’re supposed to do, everything. I stopped thinking for myself two episodes ago.”
“Incredible,” Tim shook his head. “It even has me reading the script on the script, on the script, on the script, on the script--”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t hurt yourself” Ryan said, uninterested. “The script is all knowing, we can’t do anything that isn’t in the script. Even if we think we’re doing something totally out of the box, it’s on the script.”
“So,” Cathy ventured. “Do we like, have no free will?”
“Are you kidding me?!” Ryan appeared surprised at the question. “Of course we don’t, we just do whatever the script says.”
“This is so hard to believe,” Timothius shook his head.
“You get used to it,” Ryan said.
Suddenly, the dungeon door burst open, and two men walked inside.
“Who are they?” Tim whispered.
“Check the script,” Ryan whispered back.
Tim scanned the script. “…Crazy Horse and one of his henchmen,” he read aloud. “Enter the room. The henchman had a crow bar in his hands, which he was slapping against his hands, menacingly.” They looked up to see Crazy Horse and one of his henchmen enter the room. The henchman had a crow bar in his hands, which he was slapping against his hands, menacingly.
“Weird,” Tim murmured. He continued to read, “‘shut up,’ Crazy Horse growled.”
“Shut up,” Crazy Horse growled. “We have some talking to do. Like why-”
“We were in your embassy and who knocked over the mantelpiece,” Tim interrupted, reading his own quote from the script.
“Yes…” Crazy Horse paused, looking curiously at the script in Tim’s hands. Then he caught himself. “Well? Why are you here?”
Tim shrugged. “I’m still looking for that answer myself. Oh, here it is.” Tim looked at Ryan, who looked over his shoulder at the script.
“It has me spilling the whole story in here?” Ryan said in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Tim pointed to the passage.
Ryan shrugged. “Okay, well the emperor sent us on a mission here because he was worried that you had a little too much contact with terrorists, you meaning, Russia, of course. He sent us here to try and spy on you for information about your activities.”
Crazy Horse eyed him. “And who broke the mantelpiece?”
Ryan and Cathy pointed at each other at the same time.
“You will all pay for this!” Crazy Horse screamed.
“No we won’t,” Ryan shook his head.
“What?” Crazy Horse frowned.
“We won’t pay for this,” Ryan corrected him. “We escape.”
“How do you know?” Crazy Horse was skeptical.
“Look at the script,” Timothius said, tossing him the script.
Crazy Horse scanned the script quickly. “…’They laughed at him as he fumed in rage,’ blah, blah, blah. Ah, here it is.” Crazy Horse grinned, expecting that they were wrong. “All seemed lost, just as it appeared that they would be wrong…” Crazy Horse trailed off. “What? This is ridiculous!” He threw the script down. “How is a guy supposed to make a villainous living around here if some script writer guys are writing happy endings to all these stories?”
They laughed at him as he fumed in rage.
Ryan shrugged. “Crime doesn’t pay.” Then he grinned. “I made that up myself.”
“Actually,” Tim said, picking up the script. “That was in here.”
“Shut up,” Ryan snapped.
Suddenly, Crazy Horse spun towards them. “You know what? I don’t care what that script says. I’m going to kill you anyways, because no one controls me!” He pulled a gun from his holster and cocked it. Crazy Horse pointed it at the three IMF agents, his finger tightening at the trigger.
All seemed lost, just as it appeared that they would be wrong, however, Crazy Horse’s gun clicked. Amazed, the IMF agents watched as Crazy Horse pulled the trigger again, ‘click.’ No bullets.
Crazy Horse threw the gun down in disgust. “There’s no fighting it, is there?”
Ryan shook his head. “Nope. That was in the script too.” He reached up to knock out the villain, but Tim stopped him.
“Ladies first,” Tim shook his finger.
“Thank you,” Cathy said. Then she reached over and knocked Crazy Horse on the back of the head, knocking him out cold.
The henchman fled, but Ryan shot him in the back with a silenced pistol that the henchman had dropped in his haste.
“Now what?” Cathy asked.
“The script says, ‘they snuck up behind the three guards and knocked them out. Then they dragged them into a closet and put on their uniforms.’” Tim looked up from the script. “I guess that’s what we do.”
They walked down the hall, away from the dungeon. All of the sudden, three guards appeared around the corner, with their backs turned to them. They snuck up behind the three guards and knocked them out. Then they dragged them into a closet and put on their uniforms.
Acting casually, they walked out of the embassy, and onto the street. Not until they had gotten into their car did the alarm sound.
“Did we get what we came for?” Tim asked.
“Yep,” Ryan nodded, and held up a folder. “Enough evidence to prove that Russia has been involved with several terrorist organizations.”
“How come they didn’t take it from you?” Tim asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Ask the guy who writes the script. Must have been for time constraint reasons or something.”
Ryan started up the car and they drove off. It was night by now, and they were all tired. They took turns driving until they could reach the Imperial Palace; it was a long drive. When it was Tim’s turn to rest, he lay down in the back. Slowly, he drifted into a long, deep sleep…

Timothius woke up with a start. “Aaa!” he cried.
Ryan was lying on a couch across the room from him. “What?” he asked.
“I dreamt that we were on a mission,” Tim said, still breathing hard.
“That’s ridiculous, we’re on leave, finally,” Ryan said.
“And everything was scripted,” Tim continued.
“Scripted? What do you mean?”
“Like, everything we did was on a script,” Timothius explained.
“That’s dumb. We would have, like, no free will,” Ryan frowned.
“We didn’t, everything we did, or were going to do, was on the script, and we couldn’t change it.” “That’s really dumb. Who wrote this script anyways? God or someone?”
“No,” Tim shook his head, trying to remember the authors. “It was these two guys, I can’t remember their names. They seemed familiar, though. I think that we were based after them or something.”
“So, they wrote everything that happened to us, in the dream? And they even based themselves after us?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah, if they wanted us to fly away on carpets, I imagine they could make it happen. And actually, they based us off of them.”
“Yeah right,” Ryan waved him off. Just then, a cat flew by on a flying carpet. Ryan rubbed his eyes and blinked several times. “Did that just happen?”
“Yeah,” Tim nodded. “You see what I mean?”
Ryan looked as if he were starting to believe him. “This is incredible.” Suddenly…

Timothius woke up and jumped out of bed. “That was weird!” he exclaimed.
“What was weird?” Ryan asked. Ryan was standing in the doorway, wearing civilian clothes.
“Aaa!” Tim yelled. “What are you doing here?”
“I was staying at your house, remember?” Ryan said.
“Sorry,” Tim shook his head. “It’s just, everytime I wake up and see you, I’m in another dream.”
“You really shouldn’t have so much soda before going to bed if you’re gonna scream and talk all through the night afterwards.” He added. “You must have had some dream.”
“Boy did I ever,” Tim nodded. “I dreamed that our lives were all recorded in a script and that everything happened the way it was written.”
“Some dream,” Ryan agreed that it was crazy. “Oh great,” he groaned.
“What?” Tim asked.
“That, that over there. It’s coming towards us!”
“Where? What is it?” Tim saw it too now.
Ryan shook his head in disbelief. “It’s…”

The End?

And it was all just a dream... or was it?

Mission 4: Betrayal Part 2

Ryan was watching Cathy from his perch several stories up. Laz was standing next to him, watching every suspicious person. Ryan had no idea were the sniper was hiding, but he was almost positive that there was one. He had a suspicion that it was a young brunette that he had been watching. She had been acting rather strangely and he was almost sure that she had been tailing Cathy earlier. Now she had disappeared, not a good sign.
Ryan spoke into his radio, “Just calm down, Cathy, and wait for my signal.”
“I’m trying to,” came the distressed response. “But you’re not helping.”
“She has a point there,” Laz commented.
Cathy’s voice came through again. “This is taking too long; when are you going to signal?”
“Now, go now!” Ryan yelled into the radio. Cathy burst from the bathroom and ran as fast as she could towards the door. She was almost to the door when she suddenly jerked forward and fell on her face.
Ryan and Laz whirled around to see a gun barrel being pulled out of from in between a vent in the wall a couple of stories up. Panic started to rise up in the two agent’s minds; Ryan thought of all the things he could say, what he could scream. He tried to sort all of these out in his mind and say the best one, but all that came out was, “oops.”
Laz flinched. “Ouch, headshot.”
The entire mall was going crazy by now; Cathy was lying dead on the floor, blood flowing from her head. There was no way that she would be coming back anytime soon. Ryan and Laz searched for a place to hide. They had no doubt that that sniper was coming after them now. Seeing a woman’s clothing store behind them, they ducked inside. This brought several strange glances from everyone inside, but the people quickly forgot about them when Cathy’s death became known. Everyone stampeded out of the store and drove away as fast as possible.
“Where do we go now?” Laz asked.
“Anywhere but here,” Ryan replied. They rushed out of the store and charged down the hall. They looked up to see a masked woman running with them on the floor above, or at least they assumed it was a woman because of her long hair. They stopped and started to turn around, but the woman jumped down in front of them and cut off their route.
“Wait,” she said, pulling off the mask. “I’m a friend.” She shook her head and flipped her brown hair back. Her brown eyes did indeed seem friendly, but they also seemed troubled.
“Wait,” Ryan said. “You’re that brunette that was following Cathy.”
She nodded. “That’s right, and my name’s Sarah.” A question started to form on the two agent’s lips but Sarah answered it before they could ask. “I was trying to protect Cathy from that sniper, but obviously, I couldn’t.” She led them inside a door that said employees only. “We should probably lay low for a while,” she advised. “That sniper could be looking for us.”
“How do we know that you’re not the sniper?” Laz asked.
She smiled. “You don’t.”
Laz groaned. “I hate it when people say that.” He motioned for Ryan to come with him and meet in the corner of the room.
“How do we know if we can trust her?” Laz asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Well, she is pretty.” It was true, the mysterious woman looked like she could easily win a beauty pageant if she tried.
Laz rolled his eyes. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Ryan threw up his hands. “I don’t know, I was just saying.”
“Besides,” Laz said. “Haven’t you ever noticed that all girls in any secret agent story are always good-looking? No matter if they’re good or bad. If they’re not then they’re killed off right away.”
Ryan frowned. “That’s not true.”
Just then a homely cleaning lady burst through the door. Her face was covered in zits and she had a huge scowl on her face. “What the heck are you three doing here!” she bellowed. She started to let loose a flurry of curse words at them, but she was suddenly shot in the head and she sank to the floor.
“See what I mean?” Laz said smugly.
Ryan stroked his chin. “Maybe you’ve got a point there.”
Sarah grabbed them both by the arm and dragged them out the back door. “Come on,” she said. “We don’t want to meet whoever was on the other end of that gunshot.”
They rushed out the door and onto a fire escape that was out back. They ran down the stairs as fast as possible. As they were running, bullets started flying all around them. Whoever was above them was shooting at them! Ryan looked up and tried to see who it was that was shooting at them but he could never get a good look. They dodged the bullets and sped down the stairs until they reached the ground.
“Come on,” Ryan called. “Our car is right here.” They all jumped inside Ryan’s Porsche and Ryan stepped on the gas. They peeled out of the parking lot and drove away. Once they were farther away, Ryan slowed down.
“So Sarah, I don’t believe we ever told you our names. Name’s Cruise… Ryan Cruise.” He stuck out his hand and Sarah shook it.
“Do you steal all your lines from James Bond movies, or just a mix of secret agent movies?” she asked, trying to cover her smile.
“Who me? Of course not.” Ryan acted surprised.
“I’m Laz,” Laz offered.
“Hi Laz,” Sarah said. “In case you’re wondering, I work for IMF.”
“You do?” Ryan was shocked. “So do we!”
“Really?” Sarah said. “Well at least I won’t have to explain what it is to you then. That’s always a problem.”
“Yeah, we get that a lot to,” Ryan nodded. “How come we’ve never seen you before if you work for IMF?”
“There’s more than one team that works for IMF, you know.” Sarah pointed out.
Ryan paused for a second. “There is?”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, didn’t you know that?”
Ryan coughed. “Yeah, yeah, of course I did.”
Laz spoke up again from the back, “he’s lying.”
Sarah grinned again, it seemed as if she couldn’t help but smile at Ryan. “Yeah, I guessed as much.” Then she turned serious. “Well, I used to work for IMF. My team was dismantled a few weeks ago and I’ve been on the run ever since.”
Ryan frowned. “Dismantled? What do you mean?”
Sarah made a slashing motion across her throat with her finger.
Laz flinched. “I’m sorry, we know what it feels like to lose a team member.”
Sarah frowned and folded her arms. “Not every agent. I lost every man and every woman. I’m the only one left.”
Ryan drove up to his house and parked the car. “Do you have any idea who’s behind this?” he asked.
Sarah looked at him. “I’ll give you one guess.”
Ryan thought for a minute while they got out of the car. “Space aliens?”
Sarah shook her head. “No, of course not. The emperor.”
“Why would he take out his own IMF team?” Laz asked.
Sarah lowered her voice to a whisper. “Because, we know too much.”
“Know what?” Ryan scratched his head.
Sarah gave a frustrated look. “Well you don’t have to worry about it. Because you’re obviously clueless!” She walked away and sat down on the curb.
Ryan looked at Laz and shrugged. “What’d I say?”
Laz only shrugged back. “You understand woman better than I do.”
“But I don’t understand woman at all.”
“Exactly.”
Just then, Ryan’s cell phone rang. Ryan flipped it open, “Yo.”
“Ryan,” came a woman’s voice. “This is Kayla.”
“Kayla,” Ryan said. “Just the woman I needed to talk to. We’ve got an angry girl on our hands and I don’t know what to do.”
Kayla ignored his comment. “Tim’s been captured, Ryan.”
“What? By who?” Ryan asked, shocked.
“I don’t know,” Kayla replied. “The emperor would only tell me that he was on a mission by himself and he fell into enemy hands.”
“Great,” Ryan sighed. “Two agents in one day.”
“What?” now it was Kayla’s turn to be surprised. “What’re you talking about?”
Ryan paused. “I don’t know how to say this but… Cathy’s dead.”
For a few seconds, Ryan was met with nothing but shocked silence. Then Kayla nearly exploded. “Dead? What do you mean, dead? How is that possible? You’re lying!”
Ryan held the phone from his ear. “What do I say, Laz?” he asked.
Laz shrugged. “I don’t know any better than you do.”
Kayla started to burst into tears on the other end of the line. “Look, Kayla, please don’t cry.”
Kayla sniffed. “Okay, what do you need me to do?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“Well,” Ryan thought. “Have all the agents gather here for a meeting. At least, all the agents we have left…”
Kayla started to burst into tears again. “Oops, I didn’t mean that last part Kayla. Don’t worry, Cathy won’t die in vain; we’ll find out what she knew if we die trying… that was just a figure of speech, we’re not gonna die.”

To be continued...

Mission 4: Betrayal

Timothius looked up from the note he had just read. His face wrinkled in confusion. What was going on? Well he was never the one to back down from danger; so he grabbed the handheld device.
Instantly, the device turned on and a long beam shot out and scanned his face. The beam disappeared and a green light appeared on the screen. “Identity confirmed, welcome Timothius Danaford,” the device said in a mechanic voice.
Suddenly, Cathy appeared on the screen; Tim quickly realized that she had recorded a message for him. “Hello Tim,” Cathy said. “Thank you for helping me, I really appreciate it.” She coughed and continued. “I’ve got a problem, and I don’t know how else to explain it to you so I’ll jump right in. The emperor isn’t who you think he is. He has been committing several illegal and deceptive actions behind our backs and all the other citizens of the Touch� Empire. Including executing supposed ‘criminals’ without giving them a fair trial, stealing money from the people and using it for his own personal benefits, and much more. I’ve only recently learned about this, and I don’t know if the emperor’s found out about how much I know yet. Help me Timothius, you are my only hope.” The video shut off and a mechanical voice said, “This device will self-destruct in… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The device disintegrated into a wisp of smoke, leaving Tim sitting with a shocked expression on his face.
“I can’t believe this,” Tim said to himself. “I knew that the emperor was a little shady, but this? I guess I should have seen it coming.” He shook his head and sighed. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. If the emperor found out, then Cathy would be in danger! He had to protect her, but how?
Just then, his work phone rang. Timothius answered it, “Hello.”
“Hello, Timothius,” said a voice. It was the emperor!
“Emperor! How are you?” Tim exclaimed, trying not to sound nervous
“Fine, fine, I heard about Ryan and Laz. They ran through a house fire to save those documents, incredible. Those two are amazing,” he said somewhat blandly. Timothius frowned; was it his imagination or did the emperor actually seem disappointed?
“The reason I was calling,” he continued. “Was to see if you’re available. I have a job for you, and it only requires one man.”
“Sure,” Tim said warily. “I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you, and Tim.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be late.”
Timothius swallowed. “I won’t,” he hung up the phone. He tried to shake the thoughts he was thinking out of his head, but he couldn’t. “There’s no way he could know what I know,” he said aloud. Somehow, though, that wasn’t very convincing. He had a feeling that the emperor had already found him and Cathy out.
He reached over and picked up his other, personal phone, the one with a scrambler on it. Quickly, he dialed Ryan Cruise’s number. Somebody had to keep an eye on Cathy. Timothius trusted and, at the same time, didn’t trust Ryan to get the job done; but he had no one else to turn to.

Ryan and Laz were hanging out at Ryan’s house, playing video games when Tim called.
Ryan grabbed his cell phone and flipped it open. “Hey Tim, what’s happening?”
“A lot of stuff,” Timothius replied, breathing nervously. “Listen Cruise, I need your help. Is Laz with you?”
“Yeah, he’s right here.”
“Good, could you keep an eye on Cathy for me, please?”
Ryan gave the phone a strange look before remembering that Tim couldn’t see him through the phone. “Keep an eye on her, why?”
“Because, I think she might be in danger.”
“From what?” Ryan asked.
“You mean from who, and I don’t think I’ll tell you that just yet.”
Ryan frowned. “Okay fine, I’ll look out for her, you don’t have to get all secretive on me.”
“Thanks,” Timothius thanked him and hung up.
“How do you like that?” Ryan said.
“What?” Laz asked. He had been intently listening in on the conversation, trying to figure out what they were saying.
“Tim wants us to ‘keep an eye on Cathy’.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan shrugged. “Oh well, I guess it couldn’t hurt. Wonder where she it now?”
Laz grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll track her. It’s my specialty.”

A few minutes later they had tracked Cathy to her location at the Imperial Mall by using her cell phone. They hopped in Ryan’s Porsche and whizzed away to the mall.
“That was too easy,” Laz commented when they had arrived. “If Cathy thinks she’s in danger, why is she at the mall?”
Ryan shrugged. “It’s a perfect place for a handoff.”
“And for a murder,” Laz pointed out.
They both nodded and agreed that they would have to keep an eye out for suspicious-looking people. They got of the car and warily made their way towards the mall entrance.
“Look at that guy,” Ryan pointed to a young teenager who was hurrying out of the mall and clutching his coat. “He looks suspicious.”
Laz shrugged. “What’s so suspicious about him?”
Suddenly a whole group of security guards ran out of the building after the teenager and tackled him. A bunch of expensive items came flying out of his jacket and fell to the floor. “Wait, NO!” the teen cried. “I bought this stuff, I swear!”
“That’s not what the security camera says,” one of the guards said, and they took him away in handcuffs.
“Okay,” Laz admitted. “So maybe you were right.”

Meanwhile, Timothius was on his way to the emperor’s palace. “I hope those two aren’t doing anything stupid.” He smacked his forehead. “What am I saying? Of course they’re doing something stupid. I just hope it works.”
He drove up to the palace, passed the normal security check and sat down in the emperor’s waiting room. After a few minutes, Timothius was called into the emperor’s office and told to sit and wait.
He looked all around, wondering where the emperor could be. There was a tall chair at the emperor’s desk that was facing the opposite direction of Timothius. Tim coughed and ventured to say, “Um, sir, are you there?” Suddenly, the chair whirled around to reveal… no one. “Uh, okay. I still can’t see you,” Timothius said, bewildered.
There was a loud sigh, and the chair started to rise. As the chair raised the emperor started to appear, he was pumping the chair up slowly so that he could see over the desk.
“There, can you see me now?”
“Much better, sir. New chair?”
The emperor gave an annoyed look. “Yes.” He cleared his throat. “The reason I called you here is because I have another mission for you, if you choose to accept it. As you know, many writers have been criticizing my way of ruling the empire. I want you to find all the writers that I have on this list and take them out.” He pushed a list over towards Timothius with a whole list of names. “This is my empire, and I won’t have anyone obstructing the peace with this libel. Make them realize that this isn’t a democracy, but a dictatorship and what I say goes.”
Timothius swallowed hard. In all his years serving the emperor, he’d never been asked to kill innocent people. While the emperor may claim that these writers weren’t innocent, Tim believed that they were and he couldn’t kill them with a clean conscience.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t do that.”
“Excuse me?” the emperor said, anger in his voice.
“I said that I can’t do that,” Timothius repeated bravely. “You said, ‘if you choose to accept,’ and I don’t accept.
The emperor gave an unhappy sigh. “That’s just for show. It sounds cool.” He glared at Timothius. “You do know what happened to the last person that refused to obey one of my assignments, don’t you?”
Timothius nodded solemnly. He had heard of the infamous secret agent, Travis, who had infuriated the emperor by refusing to obey orders. He was later thrown to a pit of sharks by the emperor himself.
“Then why are you refusing to obey?” the emperor asked.
“Because, I can’t go against my conscience. Risking my life for the empire is one thing, going against my moral beliefs is another.”
“I feared that it would come to this,” the emperor shook his head.
Suddenly, Tim felt himself being grabbed by strong hands. He looked up and saw two, strong guards above him.
“Take him to the dungeon,” the emperor commanded.
They drug him out of the emperor’s office and down into the dungeons
“Help! Somebody help me!” Timothius called. They knocked him on the head and he slumped to the floor. Then they dragged him, unconscious, towards the dungeon.

Cathy knew something had to be up when she saw Ryan at the mall, and she was doubly confirmed when she glimpsed Laz slipping into the crowd. Perhaps they were there to save her, or maybe they were working for the emperor.
She was waiting in the mall for some information about the emperor that a certain reporter was supposed to hand to her at this spot, but the report hadn’t shown yet and she was getting worried. Plus, there was a young brunette that Cathy was sure was watching her. Cathy glanced back up to where the brunette had been a second ago and noticed that she had disappeared. That could be a bad sign.
Cathy started to move, that reporter wasn’t going to show up she decided. She reached into her pocket and, to her surprise, found a two-way radio in her pocket. Curious, Cathy took the radio out of her pocket and spoke into it. “Who is this?” she asked.
“A friend,” came a familiar voice.
Cathy sighed. “It’s you, Ryan.”
“Yes, how did you know?”
Cathy rolled her eyes. “Wild guess?”
Ryan didn’t respond for a minute and then his voice came through the radio again. “Cathy, you’re in danger.”
“You can say that again.”
“Okay, Cathy, you’re in danger.”
“No that’s not what I… oh, never mind.”
“Anyways, you need to follow my directions exactly. There’s a sniper watching you at this very moment.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Instinct,” Ryan replied. “Instinct, my girl.” He paused. “Actually, I have no idea, I was just guessing.”
Normally, Cathy would have made some sort of remark, but she was worried right at the moment. “So, how do I get out of here?”
“Follow my instructions,” Ryan ordered. “Bend over like you’re tying your shoes.”
Cathy frowned. “I’m wearing flip flops.”
“Just do it, okay! They’ll lose you in the crowd.”
Cathy obeyed and bent over as if to tie her shoes.
“Now,” Ryan continued. “Crawl around like you lost something and make your way to the bathroom.”
Cathy followed his instructions and slipped inside the ladies’ bathroom. “Now what?” she asked.
“Now, wait for my signal and make a break for the door.”
Cathy started to panic. “But what if the people decide to come in here before you give the order?”
“Then you’ll probably die,” Ryan replied. “Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?”
Cathy glowered and would have strangled him if he were within reach. “I hate you,” she growled.
“You’re not the first person to say that,” Ryan admitted.
“You are impossible!” Cathy hissed into the radio.

To be continued next week...

Mission 3 Part 8

Two random people happened to be in the valley that night, whose names were Jack and Jill. Their view of the explosion is recorded here for the readers’ benefit.
Jack and Jill lied down in the grass and watched the stars every night, little did they know that this seemingly sweet and romantic habit would bring about their ugly and horrible deaths. This is their sad, and at the same time somewhat funny, story. (Hint: if you believe that romance is something sacred and that it should be cherished, the next part might possibly offend you; so you might be advised to skip it. If you want to hear the authors make fun of love, then go ahead and read all of it.)
“Look at that star,” said Jack, holding his sweetheart, Jill’s hand. “It’s so beautiful, just like you.”
“Thank you sweetie,” Jill replied, blushing, or Jack imagined that she blushed; it was too dark to tell. “No star could be as sweet as you.” To this day no one knows what Jill meant by that, as stars do not have the ability to be sweet, anymore than you or I have the ability to fly; but they say love makes on blind, so we’ll just go with it.
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion nearby. “What was that?” Jack cried, jumping up.
Jill jumped up beside him, hugging him in fright. She wasn’t actually frightened but was pretending to be so she could cling onto Jack. Why she didn’t just cling onto Jack because she wanted to and stop pretending she was frightened is unknown.
“What’s that weird cloud in the sky?” Jack asked. “It looks like a mushroom, strange.”
“Maybe it was a meteorite,” Jill suggested. They both agreed that that was what it was and were all set to skip towards the explosion hand in hand when they were suddenly blown to pieces. Thus ending their rather explosive night, no pun intended… actually it was intended, but never mind.

Back inside the helicopters, the IMF agents also saw and heard the explosion; unlike Ryan, Laz, Jack, and Jill, though, they were too far away to be harmed. Emmy jumped and gave Kayla a scared look.
“There’s no way they made it back in time, is there?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.
Kayla shook her head sadly. “No,” she said, choking back tears. “I don’t think so.”
Timothius, who was also on the helicopter, swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “Ryan was a good agent, a darn good one. He always succeeded, no matter how much he seemed to screw things up. And Laz, well Laz was his dopey sidekick, always there to screw things up and then fix them right alongside him.”
Emmy sobbed on Kayla’s shoulder. “I can’t believe they’re gone.”
Jordan, their pilot, was also a bit shaken up. “Ryan and I went through school together,” he said, his voice cracking. “I never thought it would end like this.”
Over in the second helicopter, the other IMF agents were also mourning Ryan and Laz’s death.
“I can’t believe it,” Christophear said in shock. “I really thought they were gonna make it.”
Zach slumped downed onto the floor of the helicopter. “So did I.”
Pat sighed. “He was a good agent, good enough to fool me.”
M and Q, who were chained up inside the helicopter, were the only ones who seemed happy.
“I knew he would die eventually,” M smiled.
“Would you just shut up!” Cathy snapped. “Two men just died and you’re happy! You are a said excuse for a human being!”
“Don’t fret over them,” Michelle advised. “They won’t listen, they’re just evil.”
“Those two deserved to die anyway,” Q commented. “They were said excuses for agents, always making mistakes and smart aleck comments in serious situations. They were a couple of bumbling morons.”
Cathy angrily reached up and smacked Q across the face.
“Thank you,” Chris said.
“If she doesn’t keep quiet, I’ll do it again,” Cathy threatened. The fire in her eyes told Chris that she wasn’t joking.

A couple of days later, the whole IMF team sat in one of their own hideouts that Timothius had designed and built. Pat had left them when they reached the airport, Timothius had suggested that he come with them, but Pat disinclined.
“He wouldn’t understand,” Pat said, referring to the emperor. Timothius had to agree with that one. The emperor was not a very forgiving man.
Everyone was still broken up over Laz and Ryan’s deaths. They were watching the news at the moment to see if the explosion was to be reported.
“Here it is, quiet everyone,” Emmy shushed everyone.
“There was a nuclear explosion a couple of days ago,” the reporter informed them. “In the outskirts of , no deaths were reported as it was an unpopulated area.” The reporter paused and moved on to a different story. “Now to our main story, Britney Spears shaved her head again and has decided to donate it to the Woman’s Breast Cancer Society this time. Some experts say, however, that she would have been able to donate more hair if she had shaved her back instead…” Kayla shut off the TV.
“That’s it?” Michelle spoke for all of them.
“They didn’t even report them dead, or how they saved who knows how many lives.” Timothius shook his head.
“Some tribute to two great warriors,” Emmy agreed.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Who’s that?” Cathy asked.
“I don’t know,” Timothius admitted, puzzled. “I wasn’t expecting anyone, this is a secret hideout, so no one should no where it is.” He pulled his Glock out of his holster and walked towards the door. He pulled it open and on the other side were two strange men; one of them was carrying a pizza box.
“Pizza’s here!” the one carrying the pizza said, his voice sounded familiar somehow.
“I didn’t order pizza,” Timothius said. He quickly grabbed the pizza and placed it inside, however.
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” the man who was holding the pizza said. He motioned to the other guy beside him. Together, they started to tear their faces off, but, as anyone who has read any of these stories would know, they weren’t really their faces, but masks. They pulled of their masks to reveal none other than… Ryan and Laz!
Timothius stared at them for a minute, almost unable to comprehend what was before his eyes.
“Ryan and Laz!” he finally managed. The others all come rushing towards them. Ryan and Laz stepped inside and closed the door. They were immediately met with a thousand questions, hugs and even kisses. Emmy kissed both of them on the cheek and hugged them.
“I’m so glad you’re both alive!” she exclaimed, expressing everyone’s opinion.
Laz wiped her kiss of his cheek. “Oh gross, that is disgusting! Just because we almost died you don’t have to get all emotional!”
Emmy gave a mock look of hurt and surprise, “I was just glad that you two are alive.”
“But still,” Laz said, a grin spreading across his face. “A hug and now a kiss? That’s like way overboard.”
Ryan shrugged. “Who cares? We’re back, let’s party. Halo 3 anyone?”
After everyone was done welcoming them back, Ryan and Laz sank down on the couch.
“This coming back from the dead thing is a real workout,” Ryan said.
“No kidding,” Laz agreed.
“Wait,” Kayla said. “How did you guys do it?”
Ryan and Laz looked at each other and shrugged. “Should you take this one or should I?” Ryan asked.
“I’ll take it,” Laz replied. He turned towards Kayla and said, “We don’t really know; in all reality it doesn’t make any sense.”
Kayla rolled her eyes and tried to frown, but she couldn’t. “I should have known,” she laughed.
They all sat down together and started talking excitedly. It was just like you would picture a perfect ending to a story. Except not all was as it seemed. If one of the IMF agents had been watching Cathy closely, they would have noticed that she seemed a little fidgety, like she was hiding something. However, none of the IMF agents watched Cathy very closely and this went unnoticed.
“Yo,” Jordan said, suddenly hopping up. “That pizza’s getting cold. Let’s eat it.”
They all agreed to this and Timothius instantly produced a bottle of apple cider to wash it down.
“I propose a toast,” Timothius announced. “To Ryan and Laz, two agents, and dear friends, who seem to have death by the tail.”
Ryan grinned. “Yeah, Laz and I, we’ve got death’s number for sure.”
They all drank and started eating pizza, and playing Halo 3, until they were so tired that they had to go home.
By now it was dawn and the sun was just starting to come up.
Ryan went outside, beckoning Laz and Emmy to follow him. “Check out my new ride,” he said proudly. He pointed to a shiny, new Porsche, just like the old one he’d driven in . “It’s just like the other one, and most importantly, we can all ride in it.”
Emmy smiled. “That’s awesome.”
Ryan slipped on his trademark shades and gave his trademark grin. “Of course it’s awesome, it was my idea, remember?” They all laughed and the three of them hopped into the car together and rode off into the sunrise.
As they were driving, Emmy suddenly asked Ryan and Laz, “so, you two just survived almost certain death once again, what’re you gonna do next?”
Ryan and Laz looked at each other and smiled. “We’re going to Disneyland!”


Epilogue: Several months later, Timothius sat down at his desk, still running on an adrenaline high from their last mission. The last mission had been good; they hadn’t lost a single man, period. Plus, they had accomplished their goal. He sighed happily and started to clean up his desk. Suddenly, he came across a large, unmarked manila envelope with something heavy inside. Funny, he didn’t remember putting that there before. Surprised, he opened it up and shook out the contents, inside was a small handheld device, and a note from someone. Timothius picked up and read the note first. It read:

Dear Timothius,
I’m sorry to bring you into this, but you’ve always been a good friend and I didn’t know whom else to turn to. I think I’m in over my head on this one, please help me. If you don’t want any part of it, then just give the package back to me and forget you ever saw it.
Sincerely,
Cathy




The End?

A short story by Ryan Maples and Tim Danford
©2007 Maples/Danford Productions*
*A subdivision of Killer Whale Studios