The thunder continued to rumble. Lightning continued to flash. The rain cleared some of the burnt marks on the floor. The battlefield is a complete chaos, ruins are seen everywhere, smoke covered the whole place. The quiet atmosphere was broke by a series of thuds. In one of the tank ruins, which is severely damaged, a series of banging could be heard. The tank was kept being hit from the inside, at last, the tank's hatch was bust opened. Albur, Mysty, Covie and Wilton fell out of the tank, all coughing. The explosion was very powerful, it nearly destroyed the tank, and the bumps during the explosion made everyone inside seriously injured. Covie healed everyone and also herself. They looked around, realizing they were blasted very very far away from the place where the military base once stood.
"Where's Johnson?" asked Mysty.
"Probably being blasted away as well, but another direction." said Wilton.
Albur didn't speak, his fists were tightened.
"That bastard...kept flying solo.....now look at this situation! What are we gonna do!?" Albur yelled.
"Let's try finding him first." said Mysty.
The thunder still rumbles, the rain got heavier. They walked for a few minutes, walking nearer to the place the hyper gem exploded, the ground was scorched black and was boiling hot, it would've been even hotter if it wasn't the rain. At last, they found him, standing near the shores, staring at the ocean horizons.
"Master! There you are!" Covie rushed to him. The gang walked to his spot. He didn't said a word, just staring at the cold ocean. The mushroom cloud was already cleared, it seems like it has already been a while.
"Hey, what are you staring at?" asked Mysty.
The gang also stared at the ocean. Albur noticed that there's a cracked sphere, floating beyond the reef. After a few seconds, the sphere broke. Inside there, a severely injured Breach is in there. She only have a quarter of her skull still with her, she is missing a big chunk of her body. She consumed cards, but none of them healed her. She could barely float, slowly leaving the battle field.
Johnson's fist tighten, silent growls can be heard from him. His breath became heavier and heavier.
"GOD.....DAAAAAMMNNNIITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!" Johnson smashed the ground beneath him, making cracks on it. The lighting flashed on his face, followed by a loud thunder crash.
"Master? You alright?" Covie tried to comfort him.
Mysty and Wilton were both surprised that Breach is still alive, they gasped lightly. Albur simply glared at Johnson.
"That crap got away...." he murmured.
He looked around him, looking at the destruction caused by the hyper gem. He sighed, finally calming down.
"We don't have much time....let's get going....." he slowly walked towards the pile of ruins.
But then, an arm grabbed his hand, slowly crushing his wrist.
"Hold it...." it was Albur who is grabbing him, looking furious.
Johnson shook off Albur's hand. And continue to head to the ruins.
"Stand Still..." Albur said again, his voice raised.
Johnson glared at him, being annoyed by his sudden change.
"Albur? What's wrong?" Asked Mysty.
Johnson just continued to walk.
"I SAID STAND STILL!" Albur's voice echoed. The others were shocked by his voice.
"The hell is wrong with you...." Johnson replied, coldly and emotionless.
"The hell is wrong with me? THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME? I should be asking you that same stupid question!" Albur roared. The others stay quiet.
"What is your problem right now?" Johnson's voice begun to raise.
Albur scoffed,
"My problem? Look around....nutso. Look at what have you done! You nuked this whole damn place without even discussing with US!"
"What freaking solution could you think of when we are fighting a literal TRICKSTER and even got a huge battleship back up?!"
"Well you should've told us before hand! "
"Why do I need? "
Albur took one step backwards. He stared at Johnson's emotionless cold face.
"Stop yapping right now.....we have mission to do..." he then continued to walk to the ruins.
Albur started breathing heavily, his fists clenched tighter and tighter. Mysty tried to comfort him, but he just pushed her aside gently. He looked around, and picked up a rock on the ground, he used all of his strength and hurled it at Johnson.
"Clang!"
The rock hit his head. Slight cracks can be seen on his head. He turned around, enraged.
"What the heck was that for?!" He yelled.
"Enough is enough! I have had enough of you!" Albur pointed at him.
"You rarely plan fights with us....often goes solo! You make decisions without thinking the aftermath and never discuss with us! You never helped us when we are in danger and you always place the battle in front of us every time!"
Johnson was shocked by Albur's words. He took a few steps backwards.
"You always get yourself in danger and death situations and guess who is the one who saved you? ME! And when you got hurt due to your reckless, brain dead ways of fighting, you rely on Covie! And you never worked together with us! Never! We could've won the fight with Anomaly if it wasn't you who is so reckless! Everyone said.....teamwork makes the dream work....but? You?"
Albur slowly walked towards him. Johnson kept taking steps back, sweat rolled down his face.
"You kept acting unilaterally, feeling like we are nothing! Earlier we at least have a bit of teamwork...now? None at ALL! You don't care about us! You just care about the mission progress! Every time you check on Covie....the first thing you check is her R.E.C.O.V.E.R engine! You don't care about anyone surrounding you! You just care about her because without her, you will DIE instantly!"
Johnson continued stepping back, Albur continued to walk towards him.
"What do you mean I don't care...."
"Well? You constantly lie to us! You never care about us during fights! And you even called Wilton a USELESS BURDEN! We cooperated with you as best we could... and YOU? YOU NEVER COOPERATE!"
Johnson reached a huge pile of ruins, unable to continue stepping backwards.
"But what can I expect? From a filthy, dirty, SINNED criminal!"
"W-wh-what? What are you talking about...."
"Stop acting....you are NOT the CEO of RNP! And you are not even an ordinary random guy!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
Albur pulled out the criminal record he took previously. Raising it into the air. This time, Albur and Wilton isn't the only one who saw this. Covie gasped in extreme fear, her body is trembling.
"The CEO of RNP, the true hero....isn't you. Its another guy named JOHN HAMILTON!"
Johnson couldn't say anything, Albur kept walking towards him.
"Looks like your stupid, ass memory made you forgot to say that you are John Hamilton! Your stupidity leaked your true identity....a criminal....."
Johnson broke a sweat, Albur kept making eye contact with him.
"You don't even have a photo in your criminal record.....looks like you escaped court and prison many times! And the reason you care about the progress? Once you successfully became one of the humans who saved the world, your sins will be overlooked! You will get fame, love, and what's next? You will kill John and replace him! Becoming the CEO of RNP! And you being so sneaky that not even Covie knew where you went! You must be staying in the digital world, looking for data of RNP...trying hard one day you would replace him! "
"The hell are you saying....that is...."
"Fake news? I think NOT! You faked everything in your life, trying to make Covie believe you are the true RNP CEO! I don't know who you are....but since Covie knew so much about the RNP stuff, you must be a spy in RNP, am I right?"
The two of them remained eye contact, Johnson couldn't make up anything word, while Albur just stared at him.
"ANSWER ME!"
"Y-you don't know who you are talking to..."
"Oh, well I do know, I'm talking to a filthy, dirty, rotten criminal!" Albur continued to approach closer to him.
"You don't even know how to be a good spy, you just spilled your true identity and thought we were stupid enough to trust your lies! Well we are not! You are just someone naive!"
"A flopped spy!"
"A FAILURE!"
A failure, this word struck Johnson's heart, he collapsed on the ground, and started to have a panic attack. He started breathing heavily, his chest felt heavy, his heart aches. All those memories.....came back to bite him. His LED screen begun to show an 'Error' sign, while also turning red.
"What is it? Hurt to hear the truth? A strong being like you have such a fragile heart?"
Johnson froze, his panic attack stopped, his fists clenched, his robot claws lights turned from the original blue color into pure red.
"Albur.....you should stop now....." Mysty whispered.
"Such failure...no wonder your parents left you..."
Johnson cracked the ground beneath him, the fingers of his claw begun spinning. His body slowly curled up.
"SHUT..... THE.... FRICK UP!!!!!"
Johnson charged up his robot claw and fired an air pressure blast at Albur, it hit him directly, blasting him meters away. Mysty rushed over to help him, Wilton and Covie was stunt in place by what happened. Johnson then roared as he charged towards Albur, he pushed Mysty away and punched Albur in the face constantly. Albur kicked Johnson in the stomach and rolled away. Suppressing the pain, he fired his rifle at Johnson's face. Johnson tanked that and and rapid fired his minigun. Albur hopped around and fired a disabling shot at him, he tried to block it but the disabling shot heat seeks and hit him, stunning him. Albur then fired a hyper blast at him, injuring him even more. Johnson's eyes became red, he charged his robot claw which created a huge energy shot and fired it at Albur, it hit him directly, it make him flew meters away, nearly killing him. Johnson reloaded his minigun and aimed at him.
"NO!"
Mysty tased Johnson with her taser, making him miss the shots. Mysty quickly raced to Albur. Albur is lying on the ground, his limbs could barely respond, blood was all over his body, clinging to life. Mysty kneeled down next to him. Covie quickly flew over to his side and started healing him. Johnson snapped out of anger, he slowly realized what he had done. He is body is shaking, he looked at his hands, and looked at Albur. But the anger and those memories still couldn't get out of his head.
"Master..." Covie whispered.
Johnson stared at her.
"Those are true?"
Johnson froze, Covie stared at him wordlessly, a look of horror spread across her face.
"After all these time.....I trusted you....helped you every time...and I was just helping a criminal?" her voice is shaking. The one person she trusted most was a criminal all along.
Johnson stammered, not knowing what to say. After a while, Albur sat up, groaning, Johnson stared at him, the memories came back again, flashing before his eyes. But slowly, his emotion shifted to anger. He remembered every single word Albur said to him.
"Yes...YES! I AM THAT ONE DIRTY! FILTHY! ROTTEN CRIMINAL!" Johnson yelled.
The air sat in silence.
"YES! I DON'T CARE ABOUT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! I JUST CARE ABOUT PROGRESSION! AND I DEFINITELY NEVER CARED ABOUT COVIE! I ADMIT! I WAS NEVER SOMEONE THAT WAS MEANT TO BE A HERO! YOU ARE ALL JUST TOOLS TO ME! I'M A BARF BAG! I'M A TOTAL IDIOTIC FAILURE! YOU HAPPY NOW!!!!!!!????????"
Johnson's voice shook the earth. He pant heavily, everyone was shocked. Johnson then coughed, his coughs are dry, each cough got worse and worse. After a while, he recovered from it. He looked at Albur silently. The lightning flashed on his face, wind blew his necktie and the raindrops made his body wet.
"I am someone like that right? Fine then..."
He ripped off his watch from his hand, and slammed it onto the ground.
"I don't need this!"
He slammed his minigun on the ground, shattering it.
"I don't need this either!"
And he took out the bag of his that have everything he had been carrying, including the 3 password keys.
"AND I DEFINITELY DOSEN'T NEED THIS GARBAGE!"
He slammed it on the ground.
"I WILL REACH CRIMSON ON MY OWN! I DON'T NEED YOU BULLCRAPS!"
Johnson turned around, and stormed off.
"Wait....master.....wait!" Covie suddenly have a change in heart and tried to chase after Johnson.
"Covie....."
Johnson stood still. Covie paused.
"Don't...follow.....me...." he murmured.
"B-b-but...."
"I SAID DON'T FOLLOW ME!"
Covie was startled, her body was shaking and whimpers can be heard from her. Johnson realized what have he done again, he grunted and knocked his head twice.
"That...was an order." Johnson walked away, vanishing into the ashes.
Covie's shoulders were shaking, her eyes were flashing, she wrapped her arms around her slowly.
"R-r-roger that...." she whispered.