The Business of War
Orchestrated By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)
Renewal
By Hunter_Chameleon
NEW DEAL
It had been a few weeks
now. The Cossack Impacters still hadn't woken up after the assault
on London.
Out of safety, and given that they were last seen controlled by
Mesmerman, their vital components had been disconnected, and replaced
by RPD life-supports, out of safety.
"I don't like this." told Tenguman as he stared at his
teammates. Near him, Clownman and Silver were doing the same.
"The authorities believe the safest way to deal with a Mesmer-controlled
robot is to keep it deactivated." Obviously, the Belgian Captain
didn't like explaining this. "For all we know, he could still
be around."
"Is there a chance we'll see them alive again ?" asked
Clownman. He had had his share of trauma and sorrow from the War,
and this started to be too much.
"Only a miracle, I'm afraid." Before going away, Silver
added :
"By the way, if your French colleague walks again ... tell
him the Belgian said hi."
"A miracle ? I only know of one person who could do it. And
he's forgotten us." lamented Tenguman.
They stood still for hours before going to sleep. Not that it would
have changed their feelings.
--------------------
Wake up, Impacters. Whatever you may think, we have not forgotten you."What ?" Tenguman jumped straight out of his bed at hearing the voice. Immediately, he noticed something was wrong : around him, there was only darkness. Clownman appeared next to him, obviously as surprised as his leader.
A shiver in the air. Next second, Honour was standing in front of the Impacters.
"Long time no see." threw a cold Tenguman.
"We had urgent matters. Plus, we had already come to help your friends." With a hand motion, the giant robot pointed at a previously empty space, now filled with the remaining Impacters.
"I come as the spokesman of Defense and Jury. For now, it is better you do not meet them face to face.
"The balance has been restored. Evil has been contained, and once again, the world is at peace. We were pleased to see the Impacters played their part."
"By getting our asses handed to us on a weekly basis ?" snarled Grenademan.
"You showed an amazing determination to never fall to the way of facility, and fought for your beliefs."
"What about Mesmerman ?" asked Aquaman. "He can still control us, and runs on Dark Energy !"
Honour remained thoughtful for a moment, as if reluctant to let out a secret. "His presence has disappeared from our sight. But we believe we must make ourselves sure."
Another handwave, and white energy surrounded the Impacters, progressively fading out.
After seconds, AstroChan asked : "That's it ?"
"We Guardians meddle with energies you wouldn't begin to understand, as you may have seen," explained Honour. "Long story short, all influences from Mesmerman and Evil Energy were removed from your bodies, allowing you to start anew. Now, go in peace."
Everything faded out, and Tenguman heard a final whisper :
An old friend of yours is waiting at your base. Why won't you go to meet him ?
--------------------
Tenguman woke up. This had been all like a dream, but something told him it had not been a play of his mind. He rushed to the medical section, only to see his teammates waiting for him."So Honour was right." told Swordman. "Everything's good again."
"I wouldn't be so sure..." The voice was metallic, with a faint, spectral laughter. The Impacters turned at Searchman, who raised his hand in defense. "Apologies," he told in his normal voice. "I was experimenting a joke."
"Quite lame," told Clownman, half-shocked, half-amused. "Let people do their own job. I mean, do I snipe people ?"
Tenguman observed his teammates exchanging jokes. He then spoke up : "Why don't we go to our base ? I'm sure there'll be some mess to clean."
"And friends to meet." added AstroChan.
The reunited Impacters went away. Their darkest hour was behind them, and it seemed like a wonderful afternoon out there.
--------------------
THE LAST FIVE MINUTES
Here we stood, the five of us. Defeated, in a world where we didn't
fit anymore. Magnus and one of the RPD Watchers were staring at
us from an unbreakable glass pane.
"Is it ... really over ?" asked Punk. "I mean ...
we were told the General had already died at Desert Gulch, and
he came back."
"What's to say he still isn't around ?" added Enker.
"Maybe he is. But we have to move on."
I nodded in approval at Ballade's words. "Let's face it. The
War's over, and so is the Scissor Army. At least, our work with
it."
"And what will we do, now ?" replied Buster Rod.
Ballade. Buster Rod. Enker. Punk. Quint. We were the last Officers
of the Scissor Army. And we had to make a final decision on our
fate.
"Our options are the following," I started. "Either
we retain our upgrades, but become permanent members of the RPD.
Or we're stripped down to what we were before joining the Army,
both in body and mind, and get a close watch from the RPD."
Both options, we didn't like. But we had enough served under a
tyrannical overlord for a lifetime. This only left us with Plan
B, which everyone agreed on.
"Before we leave this room, there's something we must do." I
drew out my rapier, and as I spoke, the taste in my mouth got more
and more bitter.
"As the highest ranking survivor, I hereby announce the dissolution
of the Scissor Army. We will now only work under the name of the
Seven Mercenaries."
I put my rapier back in its holster, and waved at the Watcher.
He immediately came in.
"We choose the second option." told Buster Rod.
He nodded. "The name's Roland Silver. I'll be the one monitoring
you for as long as needed."
Silver drew out paper sheets. "Now I'll need your names and
personal details."
He started with me, and stopped at the mention of my name. "Hunter
? Like that two-headed Cossacker ?"
"We're sort of twins. By the way, are you French ?"
"Belgian. Though, it may be the same in that overgrown Commodore's
eyes."
We carried on until the end of his questions. That time, we were
determined to cooperate. "We'll now start the technical part.
If you may follow me..."
He guided us through a maze of laboratories and surgical rooms,
where we were greeted with familiar sights. Scissor Joes. Dark
Joes. Fellow Officers ; this gave me the small satisfaction of
gazing at the Androids for the last time. At least, the War ended
with a personal victory, as I had outlived Napalmman.
We stopped in front of six pods. "The process might be a bit
painful, so you'll have to be deactivated." Déjà vu all
over.
I raised my right hand. The other Mercs, and a reluctant Magnus,
grabbed it.
"Back to work for the best cause, isn't it ?" I asked.
"Anything better than mass genocide, I hope." grumbled
Magnus.
"Money. Retribution. And the feeling of a job well done." Enker
stated.
"Taking sides is overrated anyway." spoke up Ballade.
"Never has the mercenary's motto being truer." smiled
Buster Rod.
We nodded to each other and entered the pods. Then, the pods closed,
and wires connected to several ports on my body, making the whole
of it feeling numb.
"Before you ask," told Silver, "it's the same pods
you got upgraded in."
This explained everything. With that, I fell in unconsciousness,
with the hope of better days.
--------------------
I never had many experiences with alcohol, and as such, I never got drunk. But it felt like I was experiencing the same kind of phenomenon, when one remembers everything he did as he thought it was funny.Naoshi was right from the beginning. So was Magnus. We had made the wrong choice.
Blood. Destruction. All these lives I took on the orders of a mechanized psychopath ... Worse, part of me was still enjoying these souvenirs. The Captain was still around...
I looked at my left arm. Instead of a mechanized claw-like hand, I was back to a wrist-mounted drill and a regular hand. A small patting on my side revealed I still had my rapier.
I left the pod, and saw everyone had received the same treatment. A quick look on my fellow Mercs told me they lived the same thing as me. Mens insana in corpore sano. It would take a while for us to adjust to this.
Magnus walked to me. Obviously, he was still holding the grudge, but something in my pathetic appearance cooled him down. "I talked a bit with Mars before doing this. They'd appreciate our help on rebuilding the Great Zodiac."
I gave a look to Silver, who nodded. He allowed us this recreation. Good.
"Time to pay back for the broken vases." I spoke up. On these words, we all headed out, ready to repent for our sins.
Sunshines are beautiful when your mind isn't set on all-out genocide.
--------------------
TWO PINTS OF LUCK
My place had been full
again tonight. Apparently, taking over battleships gave you an
incredible popularity boost. I'll have to write that down somewhere.
The Fatalists helped me cleaning the place after, and we were sharing
drinks while remembering the last months.
"I've gotta say, we met quite a number of new faces." told
Riff.
"Sure. Mad Max, the Tyrants, T1000, Hula-Hoop, Wolvie, and
the whole
"heroes of Murmansk" thing ... So many people to ask
help from !" listed Warpman.
Karasû took a sip from his tea. "With the end of the War,
won't we return to a villain routine ?"
"They still have a debt of honor with us, and so do we." told
Staccato.
I raised my hand. "Speaking of which ... What will you do
now ? I mean, you are practically heroes, with the Marauder episode
and all, and Wily has disappeared again."
"Henry right." stated Lento. "Switch to RPD ?"
Riff crossed his arms behind his head before answering. "Nope.
We'll wait for Wily's call."
"What ?! Do you want us to get back to being ... losers !?!"
Warpman's yell summed the general opinion up.
"Think about it. We have no base of our own, and people still
see us as Wily-bots. Bad for job.
"Besides, if we stick with Wily, we have house, food, funds,
and every drone we can yell orders at. Isn't it better ?"
Warpman cooled down. "Good arguments."
"Thinking about it," I asked, "what happened to
your shark ?" Surely, the Fatalists hadn't forgotten their "savior" from
Bergen.
Riff waited for a few moments, to be sure to get everyone's attention. "He
had been transferred to an aquatic base just before Magnet's attack.
He's fine. You'd really think I forgot our pet ?"
Lento then turned to me. "Need shark to protect your pub ?"
I denied the proposal. "I'm fine with my own gun. That, and
I'm not as good as you when it comes to taming nature freaks."
The green behemoth nodded at the compliment, and then stared at
the clock.
"They'll arrive in 5 to 10 seconds."
Someone knocked at the door. Immediately after, it opened, revealing
some of our comrades.
Jupiter was chatting with Quint and Buster Rod about the Zodiac's
repairs while Mars and Hyper Storm were arguing. The remaining
Mercs and Gladiators were having casual chats, though a bit forced
on the Mercs' side. Can't really blame them.
They seated at our table, and I immediately went to prepare some
drinks for our new guests.
"So, how are the repairs going ?" asked Riff.
Buster Rod replied : "Gonna be finished in a week or two.
Wanna help ?"
"We're not versed with engineering" admitted Karasû, "but
you know where to find us."
"That reminds me" Quint spoke up. "When is our little
peace stopping ?"
"Something like two weeks after the Zodiac takes off, oh great
Captain", mocked Warpman. he immediately got slapped on the
head by Riff.
I quickly intervened before something nasty happened and hurriedly
asked
"So, what about Mega Water ?"
He seemed a bit out before replying, like there were two people
at the commands, if you see what I mean. I honestly believe this
is the case.
"I'm ... not sure having a replacement right now would be
adequate."
Enker nodded. "I don't think ads like 'Join mass-genociders
! Free lodging and mass destruction weapons !' would be quite successful."
Jupiter gave a soft chuckle. "We started with Wily, you know.
He's not at the same scale, but that's quite the bad start for
public relationships too."
"We were allowed to keep the carcass, though." told Buster
Rod.
"he was our teammate, after all."
There were no more problems later on during the night. Many drinks
were served -all free as we all were on the Marauder, just as promised-,
but Quint insisted to pay for everyone.
"To repair your place", he justified himself.
Finally, I accepted. Only for the pleasure of having my regular
customers back to the way I knew them.
Feels good to be home.
--------------------
