Jack Mort questioned Balazar only in his own mind.
"Why are we waiting to unleash these weapons," he thought. He had a bad feeling...
"We are waiting till we get a better price from the merchants my friend." As if on queue, Balazar answered his question as if he could read Jack's thoughts.
Balazar's knack for giving only the amount of information needed to calm the waters was matched only by his surreal sense of timing.
"We have them stored in a secret warehouse ready for shipment. Just want to make those merchants sweat a little. Besides, I am not sure they are ready for such quality."
###
Biondi and Col Vincent had warehouse guard duty. Why Balazar chose these chumps is unknown, but perhaps it was because they were expendable.
"George, why do we always get the chump jobs man," questioned Vincent.
"Because boss knows we get drek done. Plus, Jack is being a baby lately. All he does is mope around," quipped Biondi, secretly hoping the Jack part was lost in the praise of Vincent.
"Dude, if Jack heard you say that he'd tear you in two," snapped Vincent. He liked Jack, even if he was occasionally a jerk. "Wonder what's in the warehouse. You look?"
"Nah, probably some more cars to ship. Besides, all I care about is if I get my gang pay."
That was Biondi for you, always the team player when he got his take. The rest of the time he just cared about training.
Off in the distance a shipping barge's horn blared. Seagulls, in their ever-present search for a free meal, fluttered and squawked overhead.
"Frag man, I wanna see what's in there. Just a peek. You come with man, I don't want you to rat me out so you are coming with," blurted Vincent while walking to the warehouse doors. "Bet there's some new drek in there that is the bee's knees."
"The wha....."
"Nevermind you, just come over here and help me with this darn mag-lock. I didn't take my class on picking em. Plus, you've always been the best at em."
Biondi, with his ego fed enough with that statement, walked over with a purpose and a smile. The approaching shipping barge's horn blared more loudly.
"Those mag-locks are simple man. Just....do....[click]...this," said Biondi triumphantly.
Vincent popped open the doors to find a bunch of pallets of uber-ware. He started sprinting around the towers of gear like a little kid on his way to an amusement park. The grin on his face couldn't be wiped off unless Balazar caught them or they screwed up the simple task of guarding a warehouse near the docks. Even the blaring horn, which seemed to be on top of them, couldn't upset him right now.
Biondi and Vincent were enamored so much with the treasure-trove of new gear, they looked lost in thought. Vincent was dreaming of torching a few gangs while Biondo was thinking of money. Neither were thinking of guard duty.
###
The captain of ALS Rusty Bottoms didn't feel all to well. This shipment of toxic waste was really draining him and his crew. Last thing he wanted was for his decrepit barge to sink with this haul. The docks would have to be evacuated if such a calamity happened.
But the pay was better than anything he could get. He and his crew could dock up in Saleema for a month drinking on the beach when this was over.
He gazed out of his window to look at the cargo and noticed a green haze surrounding the barrels. Concerned and confused, he rang downstairs and sounded the horn to get a report...
"Hey Vaxx, what's with the green mist?"
Several minutes passed. No answer.
"Vaxx, quit playing poker and give me a report on that green mist by the cargo."
Silence. Captain sounded the horn and rang again.
"Dag Nabbit Vaxx, you better be either in the head or dead. I'm coming down."
Captain stomped down the ladder steps into the misty evening. The green haze was getting thicker, and there was no sign of his crew.
"Vaxx? Thenson? Where are you guys?"
Something wasn't right. His crew usually ran from sight when he came down in such a mood, but they were always easy to spot. The mist was heavy down here, and the only thing he could hear was the hum of the engines and the wind.
And a cough.
Well more like a gag than a cough, but at least it was something. He hurried over to where he thought he heard the sound and nearly had to change his pants.
There on the ground lay Vaxx, or what looked like Vaxx except his skin was a sickly greyish-green. Similar to the haze.
"Vaxx, buddy, you alright? Don't be dying on me or I'll kill yo..."
Just then Vaxx flopped over. His face was disfigured, teeth a nasty yellow. This wasn't too far off from his normal snaggletooth look, but they seemed to have...grown?
"Holy bageebus Vaxx, what the heck happened to you?"
"He's one of ussssss now," a sinister unworldly voice hissed from behind.
Captain turned around to see his crew, or what was left of them. Their skin was the same greyish-green, their teeth large and yellow, their fingernails seemingly turned into claws. The looks on their faces were that of extreme pain and hunger.
"Now itsssss time you joined ussss!"
The Captain was surrounded.
###
"Hey Vincent, check out this stack!"
Biondi was jumping up and down in excitement. He had lead Vincent over to a pile of long cylindrical tubes with a stamping on the side : S.A.B.O.T.mini
"What are they George?"
"Are you a numbskull? They're fre...."
Just then an tremendous crash came from behind. Vincent spun around in wonder as the front of the barge sent him sprawling. Poor Biondi had no chance. He was holding his new found weapon like a baby when the barge snapped him in two. Guess poor George saved Jack some time with the punishment for not doing his job.
The barge continued a few hundred feet into the warehouse before coming to a stop. The canisters marked toxic started to roll over the sides of the barge into the warehouse, spilling their contents everywhere.
Vincent didn't know what was going on, but knew the last place he wanted to be was here. He jumped through the closest window and just before a massive explosion ripped him down from behind.
###
Balazar sat at his desk playing solitaire with his favorite deck of 1950's pin-up girl cards.
Jack, gazed out the window towards the industrial district.
"Hey boss, how much you think we can get from them merchants? They sound like they are pulling a fast one..."
Jack trailed off. His attention was diverted from money-making to gawking.
"Um boss, you may wanna take a look at this."
"Not now Jack, I'm about to cover up Gil Elvgren with Pearl Frush."
"Seriously, look out the window," Jack said calmly. Even in the worst situations Jack was cool.
Balazar looked up just in time to see the tail end of a reddish-orange cloud. He dropped his deck of cards and rushed over.
"You gotta be kidding me," Balazar said in disbelief.
The explosion, large enough to light up the darkening evening, was massive. The green dusk it spread covered several blocks. Whatever had exploded had taken out a massive building by the docks.
"What is it boss?"
"You don't want to know where that secret warehouse was, because looks like we are going to need some help recovering our cache." |
