Mission 5: Payback part 10

continued from last week...

Ryan chuckled nervously. “You’re not Sarah, are you?”
“You just figured that out? You’re dumber than I thought, Cruise.”
“Well, before you kill me, do you mind telling me who you are?”
“I was sent by Chuck Morris.”
“Of course, the classic ‘lure him with a girl’ approach, did the emperor cook this one up?”
“Who cares?” the spy who was impersonating Sarah said, her finger tightening on the trigger. She started to pull back on the trigger but there was suddenly a loud crash and the spy’s eyes rolled up into her eyelids and she fell to the ground. Standing behind her was a familiar girl, holding a now broken vase.
“Sarah!” Ryan said. “Where’d you get the vase?”
“Next time you impersonate someone,” Sarah said to the unconscious body. “You should check and see if they’re still around first.”
“I don’t think she can hear you,” Ryan muttered as he bent down and handcuffed the unconscious spy.
Sarah put her hands on her hips. “Well?”
“Well, what?” Ryan asked.
“Do I get a thanks, or not?”
“Yeah, thanks for saving my life,” Ryan thanked her unenthusiastically. Then he added, “come on, we got a lot of work to do.”
Sarah rolled her eyes and followed him.

Ryan quickly informed the first two guards that he saw of the unconscious prisoner who needed to be locked up. The guards quickly picked up the spy, and carried her to her prison cell.
Still upset that yet another spy could have gotten inside the rebel base, Sarah had quite a talking-to with Clarence. “As the head of security, you’ve got to make sure that no more imperial spies can get through those gates,” she said, pointing at the front gates for affect. “We need to be running full DNA and fingerprint scans, not to mention checking for masks.”
“Of course ma’am,” Clarence agreed, not wanting to argue with an already angry woman. “We’ll make sure those changes are made as quickly as possible.”
“We should probably report this to Cathy,” Ryan said.
Sarah nodded. “Definitely, have you finished gathering together the troops and transporting supplies?”
“No,” Ryan admitted. “But they know what to do, I already laid out all the orders, they just need a supervisor.”
“Let Laz do it,” Sarah suggested.
“You’re kidding, right?” Ryan nearly laughed.
“No I’m not, we’ve got more important things to discuss right now, come on,” she jogged towards the HQ with Ryan jogging right beside her.
“What exactly are we discussing?”
“You mean besides the fact that somebody tried to impersonate a high-ranking former IMF agent and kill you?”
“Well yeah, that’s not worth having a whole meeting over, it happens all the time.” Sarah hit the button for the elevator and they waited for the doors to open
“Not all the time,” Sarah disagreed, holding the elevator door open for Ryan.
“Look, you’re new to this team, trust me, it happens all the time.”
Sarah would not budge, however, and insisted on reporting directly to Cathy. When they reached her office, Sarah burst through the door. “Someone tried to kill Ryan,” she blurted breathlessly.
Cathy looked up from the papers that she was reading and adjusted her glasses so that she could look and see who had just flown into her office without so much as knocking. “So?” she replied.
“’So’? What do you mean, ‘so’?”
“So? It happens all the time, when is someone not trying to kill Ryan?”
“I told you,” Ryan said, coming up from behind Sarah. “Let’s just go back to gathering the troops together.”
It wasn’t until then that Sarah noticed that they were not alone. “Tim, Emmy? What are you guys doing up here?”
Tim and Emmy were both sitting down in chairs opposite Cathy, as if they had been receiving orders from Cathy before being rudely interrupted.
“I was actually just about to call you two,” Cathy explained. “I have a recon mission for you.”
“A recon mission, I thought we were preparing for a preemptive strike,” Ryan mumbled to himself.
Cathy ignored his comment and continued. “I want to know exactly what the emperor has in store for us. We are planning to launch a preemptive strike against the largest military in the world, I want to know what we’re in for.”
“I’d say we’re probably in for, death, destruction, and more death,” Tim replied.
“Did you mention death?” Ryan asked sarcastically.
“Oh guys, don’t be so pessimistic,” Emmy said.
“I’m afraid they might be right,” Cathy solemnly told them. “That’s why I want to know exactly what we’re up against, so I can decide if a preemptive strike is really the best idea. Word has it that the emperor has moved his troops from the palace, to a location in the forest, closer to the rebellion.”
“So you want us to sneak into their camp and take inventory, is that it?” Ryan asked, getting to the point.
“Not exactly in those terms, no.”
“Well, that’s pretty much what it comes down to, isn’t it?”
“That’s impossible,” Tim declared. “Like you said, they’re the strongest military in the world.”
“But not all of the military is in one place,” Emmy pointed out.
“That doesn’t matter, they’re still stronger,” Tim shot back.
“Guys, guys,” Cathy interjected. “What I want to know is can you do it?”
Ryan grinned and spoke up for the group. “When do we start?”

Ryan carefully and silently made his way through the forest, keeping his silenced MP5 in a ready position. His face and arms were painted in combat green and black, and he was fully decked out in a combat suit. Beside him, Emmy crept along as well, wearing the same apparel. Tim and Sarah were in another part of the forest, working their way towards where they believed the camp might be as well.
Ryan clicked the button on the radio. “I’m not seeing anything,” he whispered.
“Okay, don’t worry, we’ll find them,” Sarah replied through radio. “Just don’t spaz out.”
“Excuse me?” Ryan frowned as he replied. “I don’t spaz out.”
“Whatever,” Sarah whispered back.
“That woman,” Ryan mumbled to himself.
“Just forget it,” Emmy hissed. “We’re on a mission, remember?”
“Yeah, next time I’ll talk to Tim,” Ryan agreed.
“You guys would make a great couple though,” Emmy speculated.
“Shut up, we fight all the time, remember?”
“Exactly,” Emmy said. Then she crouched down and motioned for silence. With her hands she pointed ahead. Ryan followed her fingers and saw what she was pointing at. It was a camp, there were guards posted around the perimeter, but not nearly enough for it to be an imperial camp.
“Isn’t it too small?” Ryan mouthed to Emmy.
Emmy just shrugged. She and Ryan crawled as close as they could to the camp without being seen. Ryan peered at the arrangements through his binoculars. There was no doubt that this camp was way too small to be the imperial base. It wasn’t even big enough to hold a small army. “It’s a decoy,” he muttered.
“No it’s not,” Emmy breathed. “It’s a trap.”
Suddenly, Ryan felt an explosion in the back of his head and he crumpled to the ground. The last thing he heard was a man laughing and Emmy screaming, then everything went black.

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 9

Continued from last week...

“You let them what?” the emperor screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Chuck might have flinched; it was hard to tell with the huge bandage over his face. He mumbled something in response, but his words were so muffled that the emperor couldn’t understand.
“What?” the emperor asked, making face. “I can’t understand a word you just said behind that stupid bandage.
Chuck roared and ripped the bandage from his face. His skin was puffy and bright red; burns covered the right side and his left side looked slightly scorched.
The emperor gave a look of horror and turned away. “What in the world happened to your face?”
“Ryan Cruise happened,” Chuck growled, giving a menacing look that was amplified by his highly disfigured face.
“Well, what do expect? Marching your troops into hell like that wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. Did you really think he would just sit there and watch you kill him? He’s a trained IMF agent, remember that.”
“Well maybe you trained him too well,” Chuck mumbled.
“Excuse me, are we questioning my judgment?” the emperor’s hand hovered over the same button that had sent Michael down a trap door earlier.
Chuck stared at him. “Of course not, emperor.”
“Good,” the emperor put his hands back down on the desk. “Now look, if you’re having so much trouble with Cruise,” he paused, enjoying the increasing redness in Chuck’s face. “If you’re having so much trouble with Cruise then you should just… readjust your approach to capturing him.”
“How?” Chuck asked.
“You really are all brawn aren’t you?” the emperor said, rolling his eyes. “Use some bait, to lure him in.”
Chuck nodded. “What kind of bait?”
The emperor gave an annoyed laugh. “Are you really that stupid, Chuck? Lure him with a girl, Chuck, lure him with a girl. Every last agent has fallen for that trick, even his father,” the emperor cackled. “His father fell for it to the very end.”

When Jordan landed his helicopter on the Rebel airstrip, there was quite a commotion. The first one to meet them as they landed was Derek.
“Cruise, Laz, its good to see you again guys!” he exclaimed hugging them and slapping them high fives. “And who’s this?” he asked, pointing to Tim.
“This is--” Ryan started to say, but he was interrupted by a chorus of screams coming from a crowd of girls rushing towards them.
“Tim! Ryan! Laz!” they screamed. It was Cathy, Kayla, Emmy, and Katie, of course, all rushing towards them.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive!” Kayla said. “I haven’t seen you guys in forever! Where’ve you been?”
“To hell and back, Kayla, but I’m definitely glad to be back,” Tim replied.
“Well, enough of the chit chat,” Ryan said, breaking into the excited chatter as the girls giggled and wondered at their reappearance.
Just then, crushing arms wrapped around Tim, Ryan, and Laz and squeezed them together until their lungs were nearly suffocated. It was Chris, of course. “Ryan, Tim, Laz! Buddies, how you doing? Its good to see you again!”
“Its good to see you to,” Ryan gasped.
“Yeah, how about letting go now, so we don’t die from lack of air?” Laz wheezed. Chris let go and they fell in a heap. Ryan instantly popped to his feet, pretending that never happened.
Emmy hugged Ryan. “I’m glad your back, big brother,” she grinned at him.
“Yeah, so am I,” Ryan said. He glanced around. “Where’s Sarah?” he asked.
“Right here,” someone tapped him on the shoulder. Ryan turned around, and there was Sarah standing behind him.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Sarah smiled.
Ryan just blinked. “Wait, that’s it, I’ve been gone all this time and all I get is ‘we’ve got a lot of work to do’?”
“Well we do,” Sarah defended herself.
“I was expecting something a little more… I don’t know… exciting?”
“What do you want me to do, Ryan?” Sarah frowned. “Run up and hug you and give you a big kiss?”
Ryan shrugged. “Well, that would definitely be better…”
Sarah smacked him on the head and stormed off.
“Hey, I was just kidding!” Ryan said, jogging after her.
Sarah spun around to face him. “You’re always kidding, it’s irritating!”
“My foster parents used to say that.”
“There you go again,” Sarah said, throwing up her hands.
“You’re just saying that because you’re trying to find something wrong with me,” Ryan shot back.
“Well, that’s not to hard, and why would I want to do that anyways?”
“Because you like me, admit it,” Ryan grinned.
“Me? Like You?” Sarah laughed spitefully. “You’ve got to be joking.”
This didn’t faze Ryan however, “Deep down inside, you know you’re captivated by me,” he insisted.
“You really need to bring that ego of yours down a notch, Cruise,” Sarah said shortly, and then she walked away.
Ryan shook his head. “Women,” he muttered.
“What about them?” Katie spoke up from behind him.
“Nothing,” Ryan waved her off.
“Having some personal problems with your friend there?” Katie asked, smugly.
“No, thank you very much.”
“You really think she likes you?” Katie pressed, not willing to back down.
Ryan sighed. “I’m not sure if I like her. Sometimes I just want to strangle her, and other times I want to ask her to marry me,” he paused. “Well, maybe not marry me.”
“Girls are pretty hard for guys to figure out, I’ll give you that one,” Katie admitted. “Tell you what, do you want me to try and find out how she feels about you?”
Ryan grinned. “That would be awesome, thanks. By the way, I’m really sorry about your car, we’ll scrape some money together to buy you a new one when this is all over.”
“Wait,” Katie frowned. “What about my car?”
“Oh,” Ryan tried to stop the mischievous smile from spreading across his face. “Tim didn’t tell you?”
“Ryan Cruise, what happened to my car?” Katie shouted.
“Never mind, I didn’t say anything,” Ryan started to walk away.
“Did you wreck it?”
Ryan thought for a minute. “I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.”
“What way would you put it?”
“Well, how about this? Your car’s a lot hotter now, literally.”
“You blew it up, didn’t you?”
“Not quite in those terms, but yeah, pretty much.”
“I can’t believe this!” Katie pulled her hair. “My car!”
“I can,” said Kayla, who had just walked in on their conversation. “Leave it to Ryan to bring about plenty of explosive results.” She waved for Ryan to follow her, “Cathy wants to speak to you Ryan.”
Ryan glanced back at a seething Katie. “Don’t worry I’m coming,” he said.
“TIM!!!” Katie screamed. “You’re gonna pay for this!”
Tim was talking to Emmy and Laz when he heard his sister’s scream. “Oh crap,” he groaned. “Ryan told her about the car.” Then he took off sprinting in the opposite direction, with Laz close on his heels.

Later, Ryan and the rest of his team were gathered in Cathy’s office. “…Pat claims that an imperial strike is imminent,” Cathy was saying. “The question is, whether or not to believe him.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Jordan spoke up. “I don’t think we can afford not to. When I was flying towards Imperial Bridge I saw quite an army being amassed near the Imperial Palace. I’m not sure what they were gathering for, but I can only guess.”
Cruise nodded. “Jordan’s right, we have to assume that the emperor’s going to strike, and possibly even consider a preemptive strike.”
Everyone in the room appeared stunned by this suggestion.
“What are you saying, Cruise?” Cathy asked.
“What I just said,” Ryan replied, casually slipping on his shades. “We strike before the empire can strike us,” he leaned back in his chair and grinned.
“Are you crazy?” Kayla blurted.
Ryan just lowered his sunglasses and raised his eyebrows.
“We’ve already established that,” Chris said, rolling his eyes.
“I think he’s right, though,” Tim spoke up.
“You do?” everyone in the room spoke at once, even Ryan.
“Yeah, a preemptive strike would have tactical surprise. Thus, catching the empire completely off-guard, perhaps enough to give us a steady victory.”
“Perhaps?” Emmy questioned. “Frankly, it doesn’t seem like anyone has any answers.”
“I’ll bet my life it will work,” Ryan challenged.
“In the end, that may be what it comes down to,” Cathy pointed out.
“Besides, you’ve bet your life before and lost,” Laz said.
“Not my life,” Ryan shot back.
“Yeah, but you lost the bet,” Laz retorted.
“All right, all right, you all have valid points,” Cathy raised her hands in order to stop an argument from forming. “Sarah, you’ve been quiet, what do you have to say?”
Sarah sighed. “I agree with Ryan,” she said.
Once again, this was received with a shocked expression from everyone in the room.
“You do know that April Fool’s was a few weeks ago, right?” Laz asked.
“Yes, Laz, I know,” Sarah said with an irritated edge in her voice, as if she were upset with herself for agreeing with Ryan. “I just think it’s actually a good, strategically surprising idea. Let’s do it.”
Just then, there was a loud beep from Cathy’s desk. Cathy hit a button and Clarence’s voice came through the intercom. “Cathy, milady? You’re going to want to see this message I’m dispatching to you.”
“Can it wait, Clarence?”
“Trust me, milady, it pertains to your meeting.”
Just then, a large screen TV lowered from the ceiling. Ryan whistled. “That’s nice,” he commented.
“The emperor’s was better, though,” Laz said.
“True, true,” Ryan nodded in agreement.
All of the sudden, the emperor himself popped onto the screen. “Greetings, you despicable rebels,” he began. “I’m sure by now that you’ve gotten wind of an imminent invasion on your pitiful rebel base. As your emperor, and since I’m such a forgiving leader, I’m giving you exactly ten minutes to get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Otherwise, I will be forced to wipe your poor excuse for a rebellion from the face of this earth,” the emperor paused. “Is that it? How do you turn this thing off?” then the screen went blank.
After a long silence, Cathy finally spoke up. “That does it, Cruise, gather together the troops and prepare for a preemptive strike.”
Cruise grinned. “Right away, ma’am.”

Later that evening, as Ryan was gathering together the rebel forces and giving commands, Sarah came up to him.
“Ryan,” she said in a soft, smooth voice. “How are you?”
Ryan looked surprised at her friendly tone. “Fine, and you?”
Sarah smiled. “I’m doing fine, even better now. I want to ask you something.”
“What?” Ryan asked.
“Well, let’s go somewhere private, where we can talk alone,” Sarah whispered.
Ryan grinned. “I knew you’d warm up to me.” He followed Sarah to a deserted sector of the rebel base. “What is it you wanted to ask?”
Sarah pushed him into a corner of a building. “Something important,” she said. Then she shoved him against the wall.
“What the heck is your problem, Sarah?” Ryan asked, suddenly realizing that Sarah was not acting at all like her normal self.
“You are my problem,” Sarah hissed, pressing up against him and drawing a Glock from her side and pointing it to his head. “But I’ll be sure to end that problem real quick.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 8

Continued from last week...

“Cathy!” Jordan called from his perch on top of the truck. Katie and Daniel had raced over to pick him up once he’d caught Pat. His startling news had sent them screaming back to Cathy in the truck. Jordan hopped off the truck before it had come to a complete stop when they got to where Cathy was.
Cathy stepped back, surprised. They were just hauling the fake Cathy off to jail. “We already got the imposter, Jordan,” she said. “It was one of the emperor’s spies, just like I figured.”
“We’ve got bigger problems, Cathy!” Jordan nearly shouted. “The emperor knows where we are!”
Cathy was taken aback yet again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, Pat spilled the whole thing when I took him down.”
“How do you know he’s not lying?”
“Why would he lie about a thing like that? We have to prepare anyways, what should we do?”
“We need everyone to build up defenses,” Cathy said, taking charge. “Where’s Kayla and Emmy, I could use their help organizing things. Christophear!” she shouted.
Chris suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Yes, ma’am,” he saluted.
“I need you to raise the alarm that the rebellion is under attack, spread the word to all the troops, but don’t cause any panic, that’s the last thing we need.”
“Right away,” Chris nodded and ran down the street.
“What about Cruise and the others?” Jordan asked. “We’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
Cathy sighed. “Yes, you should probably go pick them up.”
Suddenly, Sarah came running up to Cathy. “What can I do?” she asked.
Cathy let out a long breath of air. “Pray,” she whispered.

“Well, this is bad,” said Ryan as he watched the small army march towards them.
“Don’t worry,” Laz said, bravely. “We’ve been in worse scrapes before.”
“Name one,” Ryan challenged.
Laz paused and thought for a minute. “Um… well, nothing’s really coming to mind right now, but I’m sure I’ll think of one in a minute.”
“You do that,” Ryan patted him on the back and walked over towards Tim. “What now?”
“We could just jump over the bridge right now and end it,” Tim offered.
“No,” Ryan shook his head. “Its too far down, we’ll hit the water like its solid concrete.”
“That’s why I said ‘end it right now’.”
“Well, we at least have to put up some sort of a fight,” Ryan said.
“You’re right,” Tim drove his fist into his hand. “Take cover, and gather all your weapons, men!”
“Tim, there’s three of us,” Ryan raised his eyebrows, and gave him a look. “And there is no cover, and we have about three handguns between us.”
“And that spent rocket launcher,” Laz pointed out.
“I don’t even know where that came from,” Ryan threw up his hands. “Why was there a rocket launcher in the back seat of your sister’s car?”
Tim shrugged. “My sister can get pretty serious sometimes.”
Ryan looked surprised. He glanced at the rocket launcher and then back at Tim; then he gave his trademark grin that said he was about to say something he considered incredibly funny. “So when she burns guys, she does it literally, huh.”
“I hate to break it to you, Ryan,” Tim said. “But we’re still being approached by a private army of Imperial troops and we’re probably going to die in the next five minutes, so could you try and be a little more serious?”
“Me?” Ryan gave a mock look of shock and hurt. “Never.” Suddenly, Ryan’s eyes grew bright. “Laz,” he said. “Do you still have that equipment bag, with the C4?”
Laz looked around, and saw the bag lying on the ground next to the railing on the bridge. “Incredible,” Laz said. “Its still here.”
“Great,” Ryan grinned. “Let’s rig a little surprise for the emperor’s army.”
We can only make one bomb with this thing, Ryan,” Tim pointed out. “We’re gonna need more than this.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryan held up his hands. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Like what?” Tim asked.
Ryan grinned. “Do you have any gum, by any chance?”

One after another, in neat little rows of five, the imperial troops marched down the bridge. The soles of their feet all slapped the pavement at the same time, creating a smooth, rhythmic thundering sound every time their shoes met the ground. One of the soldiers, however, was thrown off rhythm when he stepped on a piece of gum on the bridge. He stopped to pick it off, creating a gap in the rhythm. An officer stopped and screamed, “Who’s messing up the order?” at the top of his lungs.
“Sorry sir,” the soldier replied. “But you see there’s a piece of gum stuck in my--” and then he blew up all over the place, quite literally, taking a couple other soldiers with him. All the soldiers who had felt a stick to their step frantically started pulling at their shoes. One by one, they neatly were blown away, at least all the ones that had stepped on the gum. Ryan and Tim had only had a 24-piece pack between them, so there were still plenty of soldiers left. Except for one officer, whose face had been neatly erased when a terrified soldier had accidentally flung his shoe at the officer.
With some difficulty, the remaining officers managed to restore some order, and continue the march, being careful to watch out for any gum on the road. None of them noticed the oversized backpack lying to the side of the road.

Tim glanced at Ryan, “should I do it now?” he asked. He was holding a remote with a switch on it and eagerly waiting for Ryan’s signal before he flipped the switch.
“Not yet,” Ryan held up his hand. “Wait until about half way.” He peered through his binoculars and waited. “Okay, now,” he ordered.
There was a large eruption from the backpack and about half of the small imperial army was instantly blown from the bridge. Pieces of pavement and railing went flying everywhere, sometimes landing on unaware soldiers.
“Phew,” Ryan breathed. “That should keep them away.” To his amazement, however, the soldiers kept on coming. After a few minutes, the officers had gathered together their forces and renewed their march towards the unfortunate agents on the opposite side of the bridge.
“What now?” Laz yelled.
“Well, I guess we’re screwed,” Ryan shrugged.

Chuck led his troops to within ten feet of the agents. “You three have caused me a lot of trouble,” he growled.
Ryan grinned. “Happy to be of service,” he said giving a slight bow.
“Very funny, Cruise,” Chuck snarled, not looking very amused. “But you won’t think its so funny when you’re dead.”
“Cheery fellow, isn’t he?” Ryan remarked.
Tim nodded. “He’s probably just upset by the fact that we blew up half his force without even firing a shot.”
Ryan laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“You’re outnumbered, Cruise,” Chuck declared, ignoring their comments. “There’s only three of you, and there’s over c hundred of us.”
“Aw, I’ve had worse,” Ryan waved him off.
“There’s actually about one hundred and fifty of them,” Laz reported. “No wait, I think I counted one of them twice… nope, there’s one hundred and fifty.”
“Still seen worse.”
“Well,” Chuck said. “Surrender, beg for mercy, fall on your knees, you know the drill.”
“No,” Tim shook his head. “Actually, we don’t.”
“Well then, its to the death?” Chuck looked very pleased by this. “You know I could kill you all right now, just by looking at you.”
“Then do it,” Ryan challenged.
Chuck looked thrown off by the challenge. “I, uh, I don’t want to,” he stammered.
“Why not?”
“Cause I don’t want to.”
“Its probably because you made that up,” Ryan taunted.
“That is not true!”
Just then, Ryan heard a slight humming, coming from across the horizon. From where he stood it sounded sort of similar to a humming bird, but there were no flowers here. He knew who it had to be, and he grinned from ear to ear, if that’s possible.
“All right, all right,” Ryan threw up his hands, motioning for Tim and Laz to do the same. They simply looked at him like he was crazy. “You got us, Chuck,” Ryan admitted. “Just do me one favor, can I have one last word before we go?”
Chuck rolled his eyes and sighed. “What?”
Ryan twitched his arm ever so slightly and grabbed at his sleeve. “Catch.” He flung his arm towards Chuck and a wadded up piece of gum flew towards him.
As the stunned soldiers watched the deadly piece of gum fly towards their commander, they lost concentration and paid no attention to the fugitives.
Ryan sprang towards the edge of the bridge and jumped on top of the railing, with Tim and Laz close behind.
“Are you nuts?” Tim yelled. They could hear the gum exploding and a loud scream in the background.
“Yes, I thought we’d already established that!” Ryan cried in return.
“Are we gonna do what I think we’re gonna do?” Laz screamed.
“Depends on what you’re thinking,” Ryan yelled back.
“I’m thinking we’re gonna die!”
“You’re pretty close!” Then Ryan jumped off the railing and out towards the water. His arms flailed in the air, and his ears were filled with the sound of screaming coming from him, Tim, and Laz. Below him, he saw a welcome sight, a friendly, black helicopter, with a familiar face in the cockpit. Ryan grabbed onto the side of the helicopter as he fell and hung there for a minute. Then he pulled himself into the helicopter, followed quickly by Tim and Laz.
Jordan, who was the pilot of course, turned around and faced them. He was wearing some really cool aviator sunglasses and a big smile. “Nice of you three to drop by.”
“No problem,” Tim gasped, still unsure of exactly how they had survived. “Just as long as you’re here to catch us.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 7

continued from last week...
Katie and Daniel were the only ones who were truly awed when they were ushered in through the secret gate into the Rebel base. Jordan and Cathy had each been here before, so they knew what to expect. Neither Katie nor Daniel had ever been here, however, and they were both amazed at the intricately designed underground world that had been established here.
“Wow,” was all Katie could say.
Coming to meet them at the gate was a very surprised Clarence.
“Well hello there, Clarence,” Cathy greeted him.
“Greetings my lady,” he said. “But didn’t I just see up at your office?” He appeared quite puzzled and so did Cathy.
“No, I haven’t been here for at least a month, Clarence.”
“That’s impossible, I’ve only just been talking to you, you’ve been in here for almost…” he trailed off. “Oh no.”
Cathy suddenly turned very serious. “Did you ever check her for a mask?”
“No, I never thought of that,” Clarence admitted.
“I want my office surrounded,” Cathy ordered. “Don’t let anyone escape; we have an imposter.” Clarence rushed to follow her orders, taking several Rebel agents with him.
Just then, Jordan noticed a very startled Pat watching them. “What’s he doing here?” Jordan asked.
Cathy frowned. “I don’t know.”
Noticing that they were staring at him, Pat suddenly took off down the street, a phone in hand.
“Guards!” Cathy called. “Bring me that man!” Jordan and a whole troop of Rebel guards took off after Pat, leaving Katie and Daniel behind with Cathy, bewildered.

Meanwhile, the other Cathy was frantically trying to escape from her office, but before she did so, she was going to destroy those documents. Just as the fake Cathy was about to put the documents through the shredder, a hand grabbed her arm.
“I don’t think so,” said Clarence, who was holding her arm.
“What are you doing, Clarence?” she asked, hoping to throw him off just enough to get away.
“Nice try, but that’s not going to--” Clarence started to say, but suddenly the imposter whackgd him up the side of the face and knocked him over.
“You were saying?” she taunted as she jumped over his body and towards the door. She suddenly halted, however, for standing outside the door was the real Cathy, and about thirty agents.
“Going somewhere?” the real Cathy asked, casually.

An Imperial helicopter flew over the wreckage on the Imperial Bridge, grinning as he piloted the aircraft. The tube on the side of his helicopter that had just shot a rocket only moments before was still cooling.
“Hit confirmed,” the pilot said jubilantly into his COM. “That car’s smoldering like nobody’s business. Three bodies lay on the grownd below him, all stretched out in uncomfortable positions, and none of them moving.
Suddenly, the one with the red hair popped up from the ground with a rocket launcher in his hands.
“Oh crap, where’d he get that?” the pilot groaned.
Ryan Cruise fired the rocket straight and true it whistled towards the helicopter and exploded into it with a ball of flame. “He’s fried,” Ryan commented. “Good thing I always carry this rocket launcher around with me.”
“Yeah,” Laz nodded. “You never know when you’ll almost be killed by a helicopter and need to fake your death for a short time before pulling it out and blowing it to bits.”
Tim got up from the ground and brushed himself off. “Now what?” he asked. “My sister’s car is toast…”
“Literally,” Ryan pointed out.
“She’s gonna kill me,” Tim muttered.
“Not if that doesn’t kill us first,” Ryan said, pointing ahead.
“What? What’s up there?” Tim was standing a ways behind Ryan and couldn’t really see what was going on.”
“Oh nothing much really, just an entire Imperial division,” Ryan replied sarcastically.
Tim walked up to where Ryan was. “Crap!” he exclaimed.
“That about sums it up,” Ryan agreed. He picked up his shades off the ground, which had flown away in the explosion, but, miraculously, had not been melted. He put them on, “this isn’t gonna be easy.”

At this time, Jordan was chasing Pat throughout the streets of the Rebel base. Although Pat had a head start, Jordan was a much faster runner and he soon had caught up with him. When he was close enough, Jordan ran up and tackled Pat to the ground.
“Wait,” Pat called. “Don’t kill me! I was forced to do this by my brother, you gotta believe me!”
“Right,” Jordan scoffed, dragging him up to the ground. “Like I believe that.” He glanced at Pat’s skin, which was still somewhat black. “What are pulling? A reverse Michael Jackson? How long have you been impersonating me?”
“Since you left,” Pat admitted.
“You are gonna regret that,” Jordan promised.
“I’m bugged,” Pat cried. “The emperor knows where the base is.”
This caused Jordan to pause. “What?”
“The emperor knows the location of your base, he’s planning an invasion right now.”
Jordan felt fear crawl at his chest, whatever that means. “We’re in trouble.”

Continuing with the random side plot…
Jordan and the other IMF agents weren’t the only one’s in trouble though, another former agent, by the name of Jason Scorn, was also in a tight spot. He limped constantly sometimes on his right leg and other times on the left, and kept a calm, serious face, but inside he knew he was running out of luck. Even his amazing ability to locate spies liking homing beacons and his incredible reflexes that made Spiderman look as mobile as a ninety-year-old woman could not save him now. He was about to be trapped by two ambitious young agents who had called his bluff.
Jason Scorn limped up the stairs and took a left; he was met by a couple of CIA agents. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he declared.
One of them pointed his gun at Jason, and suddenly, the agent was attacked by a whirlwind. At least that’s what his partner saw, before he himself was turned into a helpless sack of bones by a flurry of vicious kicks and punches, and dumped on the ground by his partner.
“Sorry,” Jason apologized. Then he vanished.

Sitting in the emperor’s office was a very nervous middle-aged man, with the heart of a child. He was wearing a black suit and a black fedora on his head. “So man, can I just Beat It, now?” he asked in a very high voice.
The emperor looked up at the strange-looking man sitting across from him. He was holding a picture of him from 1982. “Are you sure this was you back in ’82?” he asked.
“Yeah sure, of course it is,” the man replied.
“I think its time for you to take a look at The Man in the Mirror,” the emperor shook his head. “This doesn’t look anything like you. You’re black in this picture, but you’re white now. And your nose is a different shape.”
“But it is, please believe me,” the man begged. “Besides, it doesn’t matter if you’re Black or White.”
“I’m really sorry Michael,” the emperor shook his head. “The one thing I don’t understand is how you’ve survived this long. You’re aren’t Dangerous or anything, why didn’t I detect you before?”
“Because I’m Bad,” Michael said. “You’re not gonna kill me are you? You don’t Wanna Be Starting Somethin’ like that.”
“No, of course not,” the emperor shook his head. “I only have a small assignment for you, call it a little Thriller.”
“Will You Be There?” Michael asked.
The emperor shook his head, “nope. Billie Jean?” he spoke into the speaker on his desk and a young woman came in. “Do you Remember the Time you met this girl, Michael?” the emperor asked.
“Billie Jean?” Michael exclaimed nervously. “I’m really sorry baby, don’t do whatever you’re thinking, girl!”
“Where’s that Dirty Diana now?” Billie Jean asked. She turned to the emperor. “This man is responsible for conspiring against the empire, he deserves death.”
“NO!” Michael cried. “I’ll do anything! I could perform for you! You Rock My World, emperor, I would never conspire against you.”
“Goodbye,” the emperor said, shortly. He pressed a button on his desk, and Michael disappeared beneath a trap door that suddenly opened beneath his feet. “Aaaaa!” he screamed.
“What a Smooth Criminal,” the emperor commented. “But I’ve always wanted to do that.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 6

Continued from last week...

Cathy walked towards Ryan, and then suddenly, she started to take her face off as if it were a mask. It was a mask of course, but the person behind the mask shocked Tim.
“Ryan?” Tim gasped, he looked to Ryan who was standing right next to him and shook his head as if to clear it. “But, what’s going on?”
Ryan, the one who had just taken off the mask, drew his Glock and leveled it with the other Ryan’s head. “We have an imposter,” he said.
“Wait,” the other Ryan cried, holding up his hand. “It’s me, Zach.”
Ryan faltered for a second. “Show me,” he said, never dropping his gun.
The other Ryan started to pull a mask from his face, to reveal Zach. Zach took off the voice strip from his throat. “See?”
Laz gasped. “How’s that possible? We buried you.”
Zach shrugged. “How should I know, ask Cruise,” he pointed to Ryan.
Ryan laughed. “Well I have news for you,” he said.
“What?” they asked.
“I’m not really Ryan,” slowly, he removed his mask to reveal… Michelle. Now everyone was confused.
“What in the world is going on here?” Tim cried out. “Where’s the real Ryan?”
“He’s been dead ever since the beginning of Mission 4,” Michelle replied. “I killed him.”
“But you’re dead!” Laz exclaimed.
“That’s what you think,” Michelle laughed and shot Zach in the head. Zach fell over silently into Laz’s arms. Tim yelled and rushed towards Michelle, but Michelle shot him as well and he fell to the ground in front of her.
Suddenl{, Katie jumped up and started prying at her face. “This is gonna stop now, Michelle!” she cried. Then she removed her face and a voice strip, to reveal none other than… Ryan Cruise.
Even Michelle seemed shocked. “What? How?”
“I have just one thing to say,” Ryan declared.
“What?” Michelle asked, training her Glock on him.
“April Fool’s!” Ryan shouted.
(Note: the section above was purely an April Fool’s joke, thus the reason for its utter absurdity. Nothing in the previous section is to be taken seriously as it has no effect on the story whatsoever.)

Back to the Real Story…

“What?” the emperor screamed, causing Chuck Morris to flinch ever so slightly. “You let them escape, again?”
“Sir, I apologize for the incompetence of my agents, they will be dealt with--”
“No, no apologies,” the emperor got out of his chair, then remembered how much taller Chuck Morris was and thought better of it. He climbed back in his chair where he made a much more imposing figure. “I want Ryan Cruise, and Timothius, and their annoying little sidekick in body bags on my desk, now; no, I want them yesterday. Do you understand?”
“On your desk, that would stain the wood, don’t you think?” Chuck replied in a monotone voice that made it hard to determine whether he was being sarcastic or not. Only a small twitch on the side of his face gave any indication he wasn’t totally serious.
“Figure of speech, Morris, don’t play around with me!” the emperor was getting more and more distressed by the minute. “I need a massage,” he moaned.
“Good idea, sir,” Chuck Morris started to remove his black gloves and cracked his fingers.
“No, no,” the emperor held up his hand. “I’ll find someone else to do it, that’s okay.”
“As you wish,” Chuck bowed and walked out.
“Oh, and Morris?”
Chuck Morris stopped and turned back to the emperor.
“If you find that Jason Scorn fellow, or Matt Damon or whatever he calls himself, kill him too.”
Chuck Morris flipped a chopstick in the air and caught it easily. “Of course.”

“You thought I was dead, didn’t you?” Cathy said, circling around Ryan, as if she were examining him.
“Well yeah, your head blew up like a watermelon,” Tim exclaimed. Ryan and Laz had told him all about it in the car; he’d seen headshots like that before, but he’d never seen anyone come back alive from them.
“Usually, that’s fatal,” Ryan pointed out.
“Oh yeah, well usually radiation’s a killer, too,” Cathy shot back. “And so is a knife to the heart, and getting blown to pieces, and car crashes, but hey, we’re all invincible, right?”
“I didn’t think you were,” Ryan muttered.
“Well, I’m not,” Cathy said. “It was my bodyguard that was shot, her name was Attalie.” She slapped Ryan in the face.
“Ouch,” Ryan held his cheek with his hand. “What was that for?”
“For letting Attalie get shot, she was my friend. I’d slap you to, Laz, but I guess I can’t expect much more out of you.”
“Ouch,” Laz winced. “I think that was worse than the slap.”
“I don’t know,” Ryan shook his head, still touching his cheek. “She slaps pretty hard.”
“I would give my life for her,” Cathy said more to herself than anyone else.
“Well its kind of to late for that now,” Tim blurted out, earning him an elbow from Katie and a glare from Cathy.
“Well, I love the little reunion we’re having here,” Jordan spoke up. “But we really need to be going. So, everybody, get in the van,” he pointed to an unmarked van sitting in the bushes off in the distance.
“No,” Ryan said.
Jordan looked at him. “Why not?”
“You guys go ahead, Tim, Laz, and I have some unfinished business to settle with the emperor.”
“That can wait,” Jordan said. “There’s a rebellion we can go to; we can regroup there.”
“No, it cant’ wait,” Ryan disagreed. Tim and Laz hopped into Katie’s car and Ryan climbed into the driver seat.
“Hey,” Katie called out. “You can’t take my car.” She reached into her purse to check and see if her keys were still there, they weren’t.
Ryan held up her keys and let them dangle in his hands. “You shouldn’t keep your keys in the outside pocket of your purse, you know.” He put them in ignition and set the car into drive and took off.
“That, that little--”
“Rascal? Imbecile? Rat? Jerk? Idiot? Thief?” Daniel offered.
“All of them,” Katie sputtered.
Jordan just shook his head. “He’s gonna get himself killed one of these days,” he paused and then added, “And not come back to life.”

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Ryan asked. He was already doing eight-five but the car didn’t want to go any faster.
“Hey,” Tim shrugged. “It is my sister’s car.”
“Maybe the car is made so you can’t speed,” Laz suggested.
“That’s stupid,” Ryan said. They were just coming to the Imperial Bridge, which looked unusually empty.
“Geez, where is everybody?” Tim asked no one in particular. “I’ve seen this place packed full with up to five hundred cars, and now I can’t see a single soul.”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Ryan replied flippantly. “Let’s just get to the emperor; it just means that there’s less traffic, the way I see it.”
“Yeah, but you usually don’t see things very well,” Tim muttered.
“What are you talking about? I have 20/20 vision.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Suddenly, a cell phone started ringing in the car.
“That your cell phone?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Tim shook his head. “Mine was taken from me when I was captured.”
“Well, mine blew up in the car crash, so its not mine,” Ryan said.
“Not mine either,” Laz said.
Tim was digging through the car, trying to find where the ringing was coming from. “It must be Katie’s phone,” he said. “She must have left it in here.”
“Sweet, we can prank call all the people in her contacts list,” Laz shouted.
Ryan and Tim turned towards the back seat and gave him a look.
“Or not.”
Tim answered it. “Hello?”
“Hello Timothius Danaford, prepare to die,” a voice said, and then he hung up.
Tim looked at Ryan. “I really hope that was a prank caller.”
“And I really hope that’s just a normal police helicopter, minding its own businesses, but its not.” Ryan pointed to Black Hawk, flying ahead of them. All of the sudden, fire burst from the helicopter and a rocket flew towards them.
“Not again,” Laz groaned.
There was a huge explosion as the car blew to smithereens and then everything went black…

To be continued...

Note:
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