-Chapter Three-
Galactasolum
OldBean and the others were in the elevator, which was headed for the 73rd floor, to the Planning Room. When the doors opened, they saw Darius the Hedgehog with arms out wide.
’Why hello, Bean, and if it isn’t Kristi, Rose, and Jim! Oh and Dennis too! And Boda! And Gabran! And everyone else! Oh, do you remember the time when Dennis-‘
’Get out of the way, Darius.’ said Gabran, as they got out the elevator. He pushed Darius into the elevator, and the doors shut.
’Goodbye.’
They looked around the room. The windows were sparkling, and the floor was spotless. There was a chalk board in the corner of the room, which had plans drawn up. There were arrows and supposedly, tunnels drawn on it. Giacomo entered the room through the teleporter in the other corner of the room.
’Blasted machine.’ he growled. ‘Damn thing broke down again, almost got trapped in Cyberspace.’ he took one step forward, and almost fell to the ground, but remained standing by supporting himself with the wall.
’Where the hell did the maintenance crew go?’ he asked.
’Er, they said something about having a public holiday.’ OldBean replied.
’There is no public holiday, blasted sneaks. I’m going to give them a call and tell them to get right back here, and that-‘
’-they’ll get paid a hundred dollars less, yeah.’ Gabran yawned, sitting down on a chair near by the windows.
Kristi opened her mouth, only to shut it another two seconds later.
’We’ll talk in another hour.’ Giacomo said. ‘You can have look around the place, if you like.’
’Yeah, just don’t go down to the-‘ Gabran started, only Dennis had already gone into the elevator, and supposedly went down to the 25th floor.
’We should get him used to using the staircase.’ said Boda, looking at the floor. ‘All legends, just have a look around the place and leave us here, will you? Yes, that means you too, dad.’
They all left, and headed to the 70th floor, the research floor. OldBean lead them all down to the Satellite room. OldBean looked at the monitors carefully, and headed for a computer. He told Gabran to take a seat, and use it.
’Check out Western Beanland. Don’t you feel like something’s missing?’ OldBean asked. Gabran examined the monitor.
’Yeah. Where’d all the dark parts go?’
’Dark parts?’ wondered Boda. ‘Aren’t those the areas that were sealed off?’
OldBean sighed.
’It’s only been two months and we already have another crisis. What’s next, the apocalypse?’
Gabran looked closer.
’That’s strange. Where did Dark Factory go?’
All of a sudden a dark blob appeared on the monitor, and the whole place started shaking again.
’Everyone, take cover, quick!’ yelled one of the workers in the room, and everyone did as instructed. No sooner than they all hit the floor, a huge blue blast wiped off the roof, and obviously, the walls all crumbled too. The 71st floor was gone, but luckily not the workers, who fell. The little blob disappeared again.
‘That definitely happened at that spot.’ said Dennis, getting up and pointing at the monitor. OldBean went mad all over it.
’Forget about the blob, what about my precious FBI?!’
They felt something splat on the floor, but didn’t care much about it. The place was crumbling apart anyway. However horrible this may have seemed, OldBean couldn’t care much. He was already on the verge of running away to la la land and eating all the ice creams and not caring much less, and if he wanted to do anything about a large crisis, it’d be fixing up his beloved FBI. Come to think of it, he didn’t know why he was even thinking about ice creams. He didn’t even know where ‘la la land’ was. He came back to his senses anyway.
’Okay then. After the boring adventure I had the last two months ago, I’d like some rest. So if you don’t mind, go dispatch Unit A to the area.’ he said to Gabran and Boda, pointing at the monitor.
’But you seemed so confi-‘
’-dent back then? Come on, an eighteen year old owl has had his fill, now, go and get busy.’
’What about the FBI?!’ said Gabran.
’Stuff the FBI, you pay the bills! I’m gonna go grab myself a Delica Burger.’
And he just plainly walked out of the FBI, as building parts crashed everywhere, and as Dennis, hanged out of a window, again.
’I’m a very daring person!’ he said to everyone passing by, who obviously ran for it. OldBean went to a phone booth and dialed up Giacomo.
’Change the meeting date, we can do it later, just fix the roof first.’
And before Giacomo could reply he already put the phone back down. Dripping water from somewhere hit him on the head. He looked into the glass of the phone booth, trying his hardest to see his reflection. It was the Galactasolum the folks were doing test results on! It spread all over, giving him a make over, and soon, he looked like a falcon. The darkness all over him.
’Holy cow!’
But he didn’t need to act. Somebody wearing red passed by at fast speed and slashed at OldBean, only not to harm him, but to release the dark substance. It drained away and he looked like the white snowy owl he was again. He turned to see who it was. Red? It might have been Zero but, it was Marshal.
’Hey man.’ he said smiling.
OldBean just stared shocked. He expected Marshal to be one of those cool guys that never smiled. Now he was looking at the legend without his helmet on and smiling a lot. OldBean smashed into the phone.
’What the hell has gotten into you?!’
He laughed. ‘Come on, it was dangerous then.’ OldBean wondered how he knew what he was thinking and Marshal said, ‘Well, it was obvious from that look on your face.
OldBean continued to stare.
’Well, I’m not as creepy as when you’re drunk.’ he shrugged.
’How come we haven’t met just yet? It’s been two months!’
’Oh, you’ve been wondering what me and Colonel have been doing?’
’Oh no, I’m wondering why you guys have such names.’
He grinned and said, ‘My real name is Marshall, with the extra ‘l’ at the end. Kind of fitting obviously. I got no last name, I don’t know about my parents. Colonel? He was raised in the army. Anyway, we own this huge-‘
’-restaurant ’
’No, we own this huge-‘
’-Pie delivery service?’
’That’d be good but, no. I like pie. Anyway, what we own is-‘
’-that ‘out of business’ supermarket over there?’
’Will you just shut up?! We own-‘
’-a tin factory.’
’WE OWN A RESISTANCE BASE IN CASE SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS SO WE’LL BE READY. NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT IT!’
’Oh…’
Marshal looked nervous. He looked around the surrounding area, and said quietly, ‘Don’t tell anyone, that girl down the street says it’s meant to be a secret!’
’Eh, you mean you didn’t know?’
’I did, I made that up.’
OldBean had never seen or met anyone quite as dumb as him. This meant intense rivalry. In stupidity, anyway. They all obviously knew that he was the smarter one.
’So, where is it?’
’Er. Well. It’s in the Churadian Forest, which is nearby New York.’
’One of the few surviving capital cities of the year two thousand. Is that all?’
’Yup yup. Just don’t let that stuff get on you.’ Marshal said, looking at the solum going down the drain. ‘We’ve had some very bad experience with it already.’
’Er, right.’ said OldBean. ‘Catch you later then. And by the way, is Colonel as nutty as you?’
’Naw. He’s the serious type.’
*
’Oh, the Resistance Base? It isn’t really quite that new, we’ve had it for some time. I’m still a member. I’m the top researcher and was previously the leader of it.’ said Kyselia. They back in the office now. Alfred was sitting in a chair, looking bored. It seemed that he had failed in making himself look like the best mayor of the thirty-first century. Sitting right next to him was Zerf, who wasn’t at all happy about being in the mayor’s office.
’Oh, you were the leader? And what was Zero?’
She opened her mouth but shut it again. She was unable to answer.
’Er…okay…so er, where is old Zero now?’
There was no doubt this time. She definitely didn’t seem like she felt it was okay to answer. There was a short pause, and Alfred just said, ‘Hurry up and get on with it, I want this maniac punished.’
Kyselia got up and said to OldBean, ‘you deal with it. I’ll be away for some time. You can be temporary mayor again.’
OldBean opened his beak in shock and happiness. Alfred, now what OldBean would call the ‘doorway of shock’, looked angry about this news. Zerf’s face calmed down a bit because he realised that if OldBean was mayor he’d have a lighter sentence.
’W-why him!?’ said Doorway of Shock, his eyes looking at the little owl, and pointing at it. ‘Why him?!’
’Alfred, you barge on about how you’re the best almost daily. He wouldn’t.’
Doorway of Shock snorted. Evidently to him OldBean was the one that said it daily. The truth was, OldBean actually only said it when somebody would mention Doorway of Shock’s time as mayor. Kyselia shut the door and walked out of the building. Zerf didn’t say anything. Doorway of Shock, now, Doorway of Anger, eyed OldBean with, what do you know, anger. A few quiet moments passed, everyone waiting for something to happen. Zerf, unable to stand the quiet, stood on his chair, and said, ‘We are family!’ And he took of his shirt and started spinning it around.
‘Woo hoo!’
Doorway of Anger picked up his suitcase and whammed it at Zerf, who kicked it right back into Doorway, who most fittingly, opened his mouth, AKA, the doorway. At that same moment, many different things happened. OldBean shouted, ‘No ‘Doorway’! Don’t do it! It’s not worth it!’ And the suitcase Zerf had kicked hit Doorway right in the stomach, and OldBean flew up and threw an orange at Doorway to stop him from retaliating. But then Doorway landed into Kyselia’s gift for Kristi for her continued support. Some pies, cheesecakes, cakes themselves, some treats, and the lovely usual, already mentioned, pies. Doorway realised what he had landed into. His name was now his last name once again. Gondour. He had landed into something precious. For Gondour, now was the time for drastic action.
’Food fight!’ he yelled, and he threw the orange OldBean had thrown at him right at the fan up on the roof. Bad idea, OldBean thought. Juice splattered everywhere, and most effectively, the fan so called, ‘counter attacked’. It hit Gondour right in the eye, with the remains of the orange landing dead center on Kyselia’s desk. OldBean and Zerf stared at the newly reformed, Alfred.
’Argh, my eyes, oh my eyes, oh my beautiful eyes!’ he moaned, running into the hallway. Zerf took this to an advantage, and stood in the center of the real doorway. He then prepared a fly kick, and then obviously, did a fly kick.
’One hundred barrier kung-fu no jitsu whatever the hell you call this stuff!’ he yelled, and he hit Alfred right in the backside. They rolled down the staircase, and disappeared out of sight, which OldBean thought, must have been painful. He sat alone in the office and decided that he’d let Zerf off for now, and flew out the window. Now that he had discussed the question that he so wanted to ask Kyselia, that is, if you wanted to use the word ‘discussed’, he continued to fly to the local Delica Burger shop. Once he had landed, he entered. He flew onto the counter.
’One large Delica Burger, please. Small coke too if it works fine, and if you can, I’d like one of those Summeron Library discount vouchers, those books there are pretty good.’
’Sorry, but we ran out of them.’
’Eh, what about the free entry pass into the Jaskel airport? The food there is a beaut!’
’Sorry, ran out of them too.’
The beautiful girl smiled mischievously. It looked familiar. He turned around to see a man hiding his face in his large coat. It seemed as if he was hiding something.
OldBean turned to look at the girl again. Something wasn’t right. Why did it seem so familiar?
’Is everything alright, hun? I’ll be right back.’
And she hurried off into the kitchens. OldBean turned around again. The man with the coat was still smoking his cigarette, but he didn’t show any sign of movement. It was as if he was waiting for something. But then OldBean noticed that he was reading a news paper article from The Hyne. OldBean saw a picture of an cracked red helm. It looked a lot like Zero’s. Was Zero gone now? But the huge title was large enough for OldBean to read from even that distance. It said, ‘Legend’s helm discovered at last?’
The man didn’t turn to look at OldBean at all. He continued reading quietly. Something definitely wasn’t right. OldBean turned around again. The girl was back. She had a evil grin on her face.
’Sir, if you would just like to sit down, we’ll knock something up for you.’
’Hey, what the-‘ but then OldBean whipped around and saw the man throw away his coat. It was Zorolos. In an instant he himself whipped out a rifle, and fired away. OldBean dropped off the counter and went under a table. OldBean saw the girl rip off her Delica uniform to reveal a blue suit. It was Serenel. Genesis may not have been there, but the two experiments were standing before OldBean.
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