The Business of War

Orchestrated By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)

Here And Now

By Cyros

CRASH!

“Ouch!”

“Hey, watch it!”

“Idiots! Look at what you did!”

“Shut up, Whiz! I don’t see you doing anything!”

“I’m supervising! We must see the glorious vision of our lord and master realized! All will know the glory of Wily!”

“If you want it done so bad, then get off your metallic ass and help us!”

“Phht. Physical labor? That is so beneath me, peasants.”

“‘PEASANTS!?’”

“How dare you call us that, you Quickman wannabe!”

“Get him!”

“Wait, no, stop, I didn’t mean it like-”

We heard Mr. Whiz cry out in pain as Bass and several Multimen took turns pounding him into the ground. A pile of construction equipment nearby was forgotten as several of Wily’s other cohorts turned to watch.

Us? Well, we did that too. But we also kept doing what we were supposed too; building Wily’s new base. Some of us wanted an actual room to sleep in as soon as possible. Tents got old after the last few months and Airman was complaining about bugs crawling into his fan housing. Oh, and apparently a squirrel tried to chew through Woodman’s armor to make a nest. Hilarious.

We, the Wily’s Warriors, along with Wily’s other creations, were doing decent progress otherwise. He chose a remote location, nestled in the mountains of upstate New York. This time we were building it at the bottom of the peak rather than the top, for obvious reasons. Wily was trying to lay low for the moment, even with most of the world concentrating on rebuilding itself, following the final fall of the Scissor Army.

War is not pleasant. That’s a fact. This one was even more so, possibly the worst one in the current history of the planet. And me and my teammates had to get caught up in it all.

At first, Wily was convinced that we could get this “business of war” done with in just a few weeks. The other Warriors seemed to agree, convinced at how great our team was. Myself? I wasn’t so hopeful on the idea of a short and sweet victory.

Turns out my prediction was true. We were victorious at points, yes, but the rest of the conflict sucked royally hard. We lost Ben, our Heatman, early on, after he ran off. We saved the city of Monsteropolis by spoiling Wily’s one plans to nuke the city, and were punished for it. For the same reason, I got grouped with the Wily Rescue Force for a month, prior to the destruction of Wily’s space borne fortress. Beaten, our faction was forced into league with the Scissor Army, a decision none of us were happy with.

I was... kind of out of it at the time. I lost something back at the space fortress. The shock of it really put me through a loop. But then I had a realization, snapped out of it, and helped my team out just like I promised to do when the war started. Then Riff of the Fatal Five showed up, and he and Starnik formed a plan.

The Warriors were shipped off to London, along with the insane Docman, under orders to destroy the remaining resistance. Guess who decided to pull a Benedict Arnold on that skull faced psycho? Us, that’s who! After a surprising intervention by Magnetman (seeing as he could have killed us, just like that), we escaped London with a ship-full of refugees.

We dropped them off and when elsewhere, only to get captured again. We were forced back into service and had to endure the orders of the swear throwing walking arsenal, Napalmman, for another month. We did our job, just under the level enough so that we, personally, didn’t spill any blood, and thankfully, Grill-Face never caught on. We returned from an unavoidable retreat to find that Artilleryman had offed the walking terror, and Wily was free once again. Personally, I hate the doctor, but he was many times better than those maniacs in the Scissor Army.

After some quick repairs, a fond scolding, and a quick grab and dash of the underground fortress, we made our getaway before the authorities could arrive. Eventually we settled down here and began working. But you already knew that, right?

Not only are we, at the moment, homeless, but we have next to nothing. We lost everything when the space station blew up, and none of us were really happy about it. Myself? Well, possessions are fleeting, so they say. Unless you count my... well, it’s not important now. That was the past. The loss still hurt on the inside, but I’m still alive. I’ll heal.

Before this horrible mess started, there were eight Warriors. Now there are seven. Ben, our Heatman, was the strongest link we had, our signature powerhouse. With him gone... well, it just didn’t feel the same. Starnik, thought faltered, manage to crack that it was the way Ben would have wanted to go; in a blaze of atomic glory.

Starnik may have been hurt by his death, but it did something else to him. Something positive, believe it or not. It was subtle, but he paid more attention to how we acted as a team. Amazing, he was the one encouraging us to get our work done as soon as possible. The others could argue he just wants a place to sleep (we all did, really), but he was acting more leader-ish than he had even been before the War. And none of us were complaining about it either.

Let me get to the point; for the Warriors, and for the world, the War is over. Done. The whole doomsday feeling that enveloped everything when it began was beginning to fade away. Humans, I know, are going to be pretty pissed at robot kind for a good while, but I have a feeling some good is going to come out of that too. At least until Wily starts trying to take over the world again.

SMASH!

We winced as Whiz was sent flying through the unfinished skull decoration, cracking a good size of it to pieces. Wily came out of his little personally housing and saw what happened, then screamed.

“Vhat have you done!? VHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?”

It felt good for once to not be the ones being yelled at by Wily. Starnik suppressed a snicker and motioned for Crash and Metal to help fix up the mess that Whiz created. Wily took notice of this and smiled, then screamed at his other creations about why they couldn’t be more like us.

Oh, how delicious the irony was.

Together, the Warriors and I laughed. Boy did it feel good to laugh. I don’t think I laughed since before the war started. And I could see the others were enjoying it as well. After a war like that, we needed to laugh like this. Not because we’re heartless and don’t care about the terrible events that happened, but because it’s over and there’s something good to look forward to in the future.

I can’t say for certain what’s gonna happen in our future... the only things certain is what happened in the past, and what’s occurring this very moment. Starnik and the others, they’re more into the whole “live-in-the-now” philosophy of life.

And you know what? I should probably do so too. Living in my past for so long really wasn’t healthy for me. A change of pace might do me some good. I may never ever forget the past, but I’m not going to let it tie me down either. Not anymore.

For now, I’m going to try and build up a room for myself tonight. I can look for some furniture with the others tomorrow morning.

~FIN~

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