03x45: Triple-Edged Surprise

CV comes back to school to apologize to their advisers before some uninvited guest arrive on the island

TRIPLE-EDGED SURPRISE

March 7 �" 18, 2011

 

 

     It wasn’t long until CV discovered that Sir Jojo and Ms. Mac were disappointed. After the quarterly test, everyone went rushing home and didn’t even bother to say goodbye.

     To alleviate this, they all decided to throw a surprise farewell on Monday, March 21^st, 2011.

     On that day, they all went to the bridge to get ready. They prepared a cake and they were going to see “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. Austin and Clutch were playing Pokemon Black and White respectively while waiting.

     After thirty minutes, Sir Jojo and Ms. Mac still weren’t there. The true disappointment came when Austin and Justine went down to ask someone about their whereabouts. They encountered Sir Martin who said they were in a two hour deliberation.

     They went back to the bridge to deliver the bad news. They decided to shoot a video and try again tomorrow. So they shot this video of them singing the aforementioned song while Joven was holding the cake and providing the second voice.

     On the next day, there was absolutely nothing that can go wrong. It was the recognition day of the medalists and everything was going fine… except for the fact that that day was the day where the attack was scheduled.

     Going back a little, the previous night, Austin saw the music video for Rebecca Black’s Friday per anti-recommendation from Alyssa Estrella. He thought it was, in the most concise way possible, crap.

     While waiting for the program to start, Austin kept on making fun of and criticizing the video in front of Ernst and Renz.

     Finally, when it was time for the program to start, Austin fell in line and waited for the people to get in the FBA Auditorium. They were quite noisy in the line so Sir Leo decided to shut them the hell up.

     “If you don’t behave, I will force all of you to fall in line out there in the sunlight!” Sir Leo said.

     This was the dumbest threat Austin has ever heard. Like Sir Leo would do that while the parents of said people-to-be-in-the-sunlight were in the Auditorium ten meters away.

     Anyway, Austin and Alyssa soon took notice of Bianca’s get-up. Her hair was curled and she looked more like a lady than usual. Austin remembered Mo-on seeing her like this back when they were going to watch Senior Year in December but he was too busy trying not to be depressed to notice.

     “Nux Bianca! JUMAJANON AH!” Austin said as Alyssa and Johan followed. (Jumajanon is a bastardization of the Filipino word “Gumaganon”)    

     After the program, Austin went up to the CV Room where Apology attempt number two was to take place. He felt like he had to tell someone about the impending disaster and who better to tell about the aforementioned disaster than Marise?

     “Marise!”

     “Yeah?”
     “Where are the others?”

     “They’re getting the stuff ready for the apology slash farewell party.”

     “Look, I should have mentioned this earlier, I know, but the Mastermind said that he would attack today a few days ago.”

     “What?”

     “I mean he said that he would attack the Island today. He said this to me a few days ago.”

     “Oh. Well, we’re ready for anything, aren’t we?”

     “Oh yes we are… not. Just a moment.”

     Austin took out his phone and called John.

     “John!”

     “Yeah.”

     “Are the Anonymous, Pegasus, and that unnamed bus with the flying capabilities ready?”
     “Yeah.”

     “And the rest of Team Alpha?”

     “Good to go.”

     “Just standby.”

     At this moment, Sir Jojo and Ms. Mac came in with Justine, Maan, Ymara, and the rest of CV.

     “Go!” Maan said.

     “WE’RE SORRY DADDY JOJITO AND MOMMY MAC! WE LOVE YOU!” They all said in unison.

     “We prepared a video for you,” Justine said.

     “Froilan is getting the LCD,” Maan said.

     They set up the laptop and when Froilan arrived, they plugged it in, put in the CD, and pressed play.

     The look on Ms. Mac and Sir Jojo’s faces were touching as they watched these kids with whom they spent an entire year with bid them farewell. Then they realized it was almost over.

     When the video ended, there was a brief silence.

     “Okay…” Sir Jojo began. “I’m not mad anymore.”

     There was a sigh of relief as Ms. Mac also said this. They reconciled as they planned their farewell party to be held two days from now.

     Austin, however, was on edge. Marise went to him.

     “You okay?”

     “Yeah… I just hope we can fight this.”

     “Relax. I told Owen about it. He’s ready to kick a*s… as usual.”

     “Good old Owen. I’m really gonna miss that guy.”

     “Yeah…”

     “I hope we’re classmates again next school year.”

     “Who doesn’t?”

     Of course, Austin’s definition of “we” wasn’t definite.

     After the apology, they were on their way home. Austin, Mo-on, Marise, Rica, Renz, Clutch, Ibarra, Jericho, Sang Woo, Sean, and Owen went to the Base in the Anonymous and met with Team Alpha there.

 

After a few hours of waiting, John finally said something.

     “Austin!” John said. “Have you considered the possibility that the Mastermind might just be screwing around with us?”

     “Yes but if he did intend that, he would have attacked earlier.”

     “Well, that’s why they call him the Mastermind, isn’t it?”

     “No, that’s why they call knowing Vader was Luke’s Father before watching ‘Empire’ a ‘spoiler’.”

     “What if he doesn’t attack today? We go on a stakeout, sleep in shifts and when he attacks, half of us is worn out, the other half is asleep and everyone else on the island can’t fight worth s**t!”

     “That problem is easily averted. We�"“

     Austin suddenly felt a small rumble.

     “Did you feel that?”

     “No… not really.”

     Austin felt it again.

     “You don’t feel that?”

     “No.”

     Then suddenly, everything started to shake but Austin didn’t see anyone else panicking. He crouched down to the ground as the shaking turned into everything glowing brightly. He began to scream as his head began to feel very much like it did when the Mastermind was making him experience mindrape first hand.

     “Okay, I felt that!” John said as everything began rumbling.

     “GET TO THE BASEMENT. TAKE THE VEHICLES OUT AND DEFEND THE ISLAND!”

     “No!” Ernst exclaimed. “We’re not leaving y�"“

     Suddenly, the pain went far past Austin’s pain threshold and everything went black.

 

He was in a room with a giant mirror in front of him. The room is completely empty aside from the mirror. There is no door and there are no windows. All of a sudden, a man entered the room through a door that did not exist and sat down in a chair that wasn’t there.

     Austin saw the chair but he somehow knew it wasn’t there. He went to the man’s entry point but he could not go through the door that did not exist.

     He turned and saw that the man was simply sitting down and staring at the mirror. Austin looked in the mirror and saw the room, as empty as it was earlier. He could not even see himself.

     He went towards the man and tried to look at him but he couldn’t since the man wasn’t there to begin with. He was now on the other side of the mirror.

     All of a sudden he was sitting down in a chair that was not there, looking into the mirror. He saw himself staring at him through the mirror.

     “What’s happening?!” He asked out loud in desperation.

     “You’re in limbo.” His reflection replied. This caused him to suddenly look at the mirror.

     “What is this place?”

     “Like I said: Limbo. For me, you’re not that smart.”

     “What is limbo?! Why am I here? I’m supposed to be on the Island defending it, not in some in-between place!”

     “No, Austin. You’re right where you need to be.”

     Austin noticed the entire world around him flicker. He saw a flash of a black room where he was sitting in a cold steel chair with his hand strapped down. He tried moving his arms here and it worked.

     “How did I get here?”

     “How does one get to limbo, Austin?”

     “You tell me! I asked the question.”

     Austin once again saw a flicker and caught a glimpse of a man in a lab gown in the corner of his eye.

     “What’s the last thing you remember?”

     “I was being mindraped in the Base. That’s what.”

     “Well, maybe your body isn’t dead but your mind is here, in limbo.”

     “Look… me or whatever or whoever you are. More than two thousand people could die if I don’t get out of here immediately. I need to get back to the Island. Do you have any idea how I can do that?!”

     “Of course not.”

     Once again, he saw a flicker.

     “Wait a minute.”

     Austin stood up and created a fireball and aimed it at the mirror.

      “How about we have a talk face to face?”

     Austin fired at the mirror and right after the fireball disappeared into the mirror, a fireball came zooming out and hit him head on.

     He absorbed the fire immediately and his reflection cursed.

     “Don’t do that again. Jeez!”

     Austin switched to Cosmic power and fired a shockwave at the ceiling. A hole blew out and he went through the hole. The hole below him ceased to exist all of a sudden and he was back in the room.

     “Any attempt to leave is futile.”

     He saw another flash but this time, he saw a glimpse of a man’s face.

     “You know you belong here.”

     “No I don’t!”

     Austin tried firing a shockwave beam at his face to snap him out of what could be an illusion. All that happened is that he got face full of explosion and he got knocked back. He recovered immediately.

     “Why are you hitting yourself?”

     “Shut up!”

   

“No! We’re not leaving you!” Ernst exclaimed.

     “Ernst,” Kyle said. “Take Austin into the ward and watch him. John, I’ll take the Anonymous. You take the…”

     “I’ll take the bus.”

     “And who can take the Pegasus?”

     “We’ll take it,” Marise volunteered.

     “Alright. Everyone, move! We have to end this once and for all!”

     They went in the elevator down to the Tech Garage as Kyle, Rica, Nica, Lui, and Alyssa went outside to the Anonymous.

    

John and the others arrived at the TG.

     “My team and Michael’s team, get in the bus. I installed a cockpit system in there allowing you to attack outside the bus. I’ll handle the steering. Treat it like a game of Time Crisis where you die if you die but no worries, a’ight?”

     There was no reaction.

     “Good! Austin’s team and the rest of Kyle’s, go with Marise in the Pegasus. Make sure to get high up and try to attack from above. Austin and I also installed new cockpits in there. Everyone can contribute.”

     They parted ways as John drove the Bus into a transport terminal to the outside world.

     Marise started up the jet and eased it into the transport terminal. It took hold of the jet and propelled it upwards into the outside world. Once they were shot out into the air, they were met with a terrible sight.

     There was one giant black flagship hovering over the island with multiple smaller ships flying alongside it. The smaller ships descended upon the island and opened up to release their cargo. One ship contained about one hundred men but these men had no firearms.

     They stepped out one after another and headed for the hotel. The people inside barricaded the opening. The other ships landed and opened up in the background.

     The men in front of the hotel did not move a muscle. They charged up for a few seconds and in one swift motion, they sent fire, electricity, cosmic power, and an entire flurry of other powers combined into the barricade, blowing it wide open.

     It wasn’t just an attack. It was an all-out, superpowered war.