Wilton was startled by the drama just now. Albur and Mysty stood up, Mysty slowly walked towards Covie, Covie couldn't help herself but kept tembling. Her whimpers slowly turned into sobs, oil leaks can be seen on her screen.
"H-h-he-e n-never yel-lls at me l-l-like t-that..." her voice was heavily broken.
Mysty placed her hand on Covie's shoulder. Covie tried to resist from crying, but she still couldn't hold it anymore. She bursted into tears, started crying uncontrollably, and hugged Mysty. Mysty patted her, trying to comfort her.
"Its ok...its ok..."
Albur looked at Wilton, he lowered his head. Albur dragged his half recovered body and picked up the things Johnson smashed onto the ground. He turned around and looked at the gals. His mind is messy, not knowing what to do. He then remembered they still haven't got the Clementine access. So he dragged his body to the ruins, he searched and searched and found the access upgrade station, half destroyed, screen flickering. He put in the keys and put his watch in there. He looked at Mysty, and sighed.
"You need this?"
Mysty simply stared at him, her emotion is complex, all she know she could do is gently comfort Covie.
Albur turned around and started solving the puzzle. Wilton stared at the direction Johnson left. For some reason, he doesn't feel depressed, perhaps its because the person who mocks him is already gone, but still, he worries for the situation now, still afraid what would attack them next.
"Cl--lem-mentin-n-ne Orang-g-gee, Acc-e-ess G-granted....."
The machine glowed a weak light, then spat out Albur's watch. Albur took it and stood up, he opened the map and stared at the directions.
"Executive Headquarters, 50 kilometers."
Albur sighed heavily, he looked at everyone else. Covie already calmed down, and was in sleep mode. Mysty held her in her hands. She then slowly walked towards the upgrade station. She didn't say a word, just quietly put her watch in there and solve the puzzle.
"Geez, that was a drama right there, my eardrums are nearly breaking..."
"Wilton...."
Albur's voice raised.
"Not.....now...please....." he whispered.
Wilton shut up.
The air felt awfully heavy, the rain soaked everyone wet, thunder crashes and lightning flashes are still happening. The only sound except for the rain and thunder was Mysty clicking the buttons on the upgrade station.
After a couple of minutes, Mysty got the access. She stood up and walked towards Albur.
"Where's the next upgrade station?" She said, in a tired, cold voice. Albur stood up and showed her the map.
"The last access, crimson, its at ths Executive Headquarters, 50 km away from here." He said.
Mysty said nothing, she simply lowered her head.
"Let's get going shall we."
"We should. "
Albur stood up, he then signalled Wilton to catch up, he quickly stood up and ran to them.
Albur made the map into a larger hologram and displayed it to make it easier for the others to see. They got ready and continued to move on.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
On the ocean horizons, a periscope emerged from the waters.
"Boy was that freaky."
"I know right, there's no way they wasted a hypergem to get rid of Breach's army. "
"She is ok right."
"Yeah, she is just missing a big chunk of her."
"Thank goodness I am built for nuclear explosions. "
"Wait a sec.....is their team missing someone? "
"Oh, must've be that rampage cyborg."
"Oh, good.....this is real good...."
"What we do now?"
"Hehehe...we're getting some juicy human dead bodies today....."
"Oh I would love to blow them all up."
"But lets not rush art sweet heart. Wait for the perfect opportunity."
"Ok."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
The gang walked for hours, they have past a lot of area caught in the hypergem blast. The rain has stopped, making the whole journey even quiter. Eventually, they reached another withered forest, it will shorten the journey for 3 km since the road curved around the forest, going through will be better. But by the time, the gang was already exhausted.
"Damn.....my knees....." Albur smashed his knees very hard, trying to make them function.
Mysty was also tired, she found a place and sat down while puffing. Wilton stared at the sky, looking at the clouds.
"Man, how are we gonna get to the castle when we can't even get to the Crimson upgrade station?"
"Thats not our biggest problem now, the problem is, how are we supposed to fight the armies of glitches? And don't get me started on Commander Glitch! We have no more veterans to help us, how are we supposed to beat an unbeatable enemy in a state like this?"
Mysty begun to lose it, but trying hard not to make a teardrop come out of her eyes. Albur couldn't make himself calm down, how he wished for the journey to be longer and the time given is also longer, at least he doesn't need to worry about other things other than reaching the current goal.
He took out a potato he got earlier, and sighed.
"You guys want some?"
"We're just tired, not hungry."
Albur shut up, before throwing the potato back into his bag.
"Speaking of this.....was it really a good idea to make Johnson leave out team?"
"Its not, its a better choice."
Mysty stared at Albur,
"So the beef you two are having for days is for this?"
"Now don't get me twisted, I still deeply appreciate his help when me and you were being chased by hungry glitches. But that still doesn't change the truth he is slowly killing the team."
"I know, he does ignore us all when we needed help."
"I just can't believe the truth that he is a felony."
"But now, we lost our strongest team member, how are we supposed to survive right now?"
Albur stayed silent for a while.
"Why would you want a queen that wouldn't turn back to help the king when he was checkmated?"
"What?"
"Think about it, in your chess set, you always have a powerful queen, but, that queen is not from the white side, nor the black. It helps the chess showdown and takedown enemy knights, rooks, bishops, but...when the king is threatened, it won't turn around and help. What good is a queen who won't return when the king is about to be checkmated?"
"Are saying he is a tool to you?"
"I mean....."
Albur groaned in annoyance.
"It is really a better choice to keep himself away from us."
Mysty slightly moved backwards.
"Don't let her hear this..."
Mysty held Covie even tighter.
Albur sighed again, he really want to rest, but since he is the leader right now, he can't get too comfy, right now, time is ticking, they have to get to the Crimson upgrade station as fast as they can.
"Come on guys, we still have places to be."
Albur stood up, and slowly walked according to the map. Mysty and Wilton sighed before standing up and followed him.
But just after a couple of minutes, they felt something strange, the ground begun shaking again. Covie woke up due to the sudden movement. After that, 2 giant metal claws emerged from the ground before thrusting into it.
"Oh no, energy absorber again?"
"Crap, we must act faster....."
Albur started sprinting, the other followed him as well. But out of a sudden, a missile flew towards their direction, Albur noticed it and blocked it by firing his rifle at it. The gang quickly realised glitches must've be around, all getting into battle pose. Covie flew off Mysty's arms, still figuring out what is happening.
Suddenly, a huge shadow could be seen, everyone looked up, they saw a huge ship above their hand, about to land on them.
"AWWWW SNAP....."
Albur grabbed the rest of the gang and sprinted as fast as he could, luckily, they got out of the landing spot of the huge ship, it landing caused the ground to shake, tripping everyone. The ship turned out to be The Bug, like previously, Anomaly is seen standing at the deck.
"Finally! That cyborg was gone! Now your gang is no longer a threat, rather than a teeny tiny pebble on our way...."
"What the? Anomaly?"
"There's no way he survived the hypergem blast!"
"I couldn't, if I wasn't far away enough and without my little honey pie, isn't that right?"
The Bug emitted a loud honk again.
"Well, playtime's over, time to show you my baby's true potential! Activate Bug mode!"
The battle ship begun to glow, slowly, the ship begun to change shape, the original ship like figure is gone. Replaced by a look of an insect. Having two antenna, a mouth with two horizontal rows of razor sharp teeth, having glowing violet eyes and a huge body. It have 2 giant legs and 4 arms, 2 arms carrying huge plasma cannons and two with the blades of a praying mantis. It also have a pair of wings like part and a skull symbol at its chest. The Bug is incredibly large, literally standing 15 stories tall. Anomaly floated above its head, with a control panel on his hand.
"Behold! The Bug's true power!"
The Bug's head spun 360 degrees before letting out a super loud roar.
"There is no way we can do this..."