Right, sorry for the double-post; I like to look back at the last few replies, and I seem unable to do that with the 'Go Advanced' feature when editting a post, so... yeah.
(rubs hands together)
Here we go...
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Andrew
Andrew tilted his head as Marian's flashback ended - how he managed to see it, he didn't know.
'Oh, well...' Andrew thought with a shrug. 'I'm not complaining, so long as I got to see Marian strut her stuff - she's cute. ^_^'
Andrew smiled dopily at Marian, who didn't seem to be paying attention to him.
Just then, his smile faded; a confused look replaced it.
'Wait,' he thought, 'why did I add two arrows and an underbar to that thought for no reason...?'
Andrew put a finger to his chin, a little thought bubble containing a '?' appearing over his head. But suddenly, a rumbling sound reached his ears, causing the bubble to pop.
"So what now?" he asked, referring to the faint rumbling noise.
No one else seemed to hear it over Brigh's threatening banter, which was cut abruptly short when David ran in out of nowhere and tackled Marian to the ground, a bullet whizzing past his arm just nanoseconds later!
"David! Marian!" Andrew gasped, running over to his fallen friends and kneeling down. "Are you guys alright!?"
David started to answer, but his reply was once again cut off as what sounded like a scene from Saving Private Ryan unfolded all around us. Bullets were being fired every which way, tanks began to roll down every side street for blocks, several fighter jets and helicopters zoomed overhead, and several dozen armored mercenaries armed with various weapons began to barrel down on the former apartment tenants from the opposite side of the street.
"Retreat!" David hollered, grabbing Marian and Andrew and pulling them back to the ruins of the apartment building.
"You two stay here!" he instructed, pulling out his gun. "Stay out of the line of fire - I'll handle these guys!"
Before Andrew could protest, David leapt over the debris scattered about and charged into the warzone, where Brigh was already hard at work mowing down everything that moved further down the street.
"Stay here?" Marian scoffed behind Andrew, getting to her feet. "Ha, not likely! The magical Maiden Mesmeric is more than a match for these jerks! Outta my way!"
"But Marian, wait...!" Andrew whined, reaching after her. "Marian...! Be careful out there!"
She was already out of earshot.
'Awwww, maaaaaaaaan..." Andrew moaned, peering helplessly into the cloud of dust and chaos obscuring the street in front of him. "This was so NOT in the brochure when I moved here..."
A small object flew through the air and bounced off Andrew's head, coming to rest a few feet behind him.
"Owww...!" Andrew whined, rubbing his head and turning to pick up the object. "Stupid pinecones..."
Failing to take note of the fact that said 'pinecone' was a dark greenish-black color or of the fact that it was ticking, Andrew tossed it over his shoulder with a grunt.
KER-FWOOOOOM!!!
Several chunks of metal and assorted body parts flew threw the air, including an eyeball that bounced and rolled over the broken wall and came to rest a few feet in front of Andrew. It looked up at him with a blank, inquisitive look.
Andrew frowned.
"What're you lookin' at?" he grumbled.
The eyeball didn't answer.
Andrew narrowed his eyes.
"Little smartass..." he huffed, looking away.
The eyeball rolled over.
Andrew tried not to look back, but a moment later, his gaze returned to the eyeball, which was now looking off to the right. Andrew followed its gaze.
Some fifty feet away, a Chinook helicopter had landed, mercenaries spilling out of it like gumballs out of an overturned vanding machine, a la Godzilla. When the last of the mercenaries had disbanded, the chopper remained behind, sitting idly amidst the wreckage of the street. The only sign of life Andrew could see on-board was the pilot, who Andrew could see through the windshield holding a bottle.
Andrew retreated behind the wall, a little lightbulb flashing on over his head, then burning out. Annoyed, Andrew reached up and tapped it with his finger; the lightbulb flickered and re-lit.
Smiling in satisfaction, Andrew snuck along behind the wall, getting as close to the chopper as he could without being spotted. Ducking behind a fallen lamppost, he combat-crawled along the ground until he was right alongside the chopper. He glanced both ways, making sure nobody was watching him (which of course they weren't, but it's expected that someone would be, so he had to look just for the sake of looking), and then he turned and jumped up into the chopper, pulling the door shut behind him.
Andrew looked around - as he'd hoped, the chopper was abandoned, save for the pilot, who was still in the cockpit (snicker). Andrew walked up to the cockpit (snicker) and peered over the pilot's shoulder ever so cautiously...
The pilot was passed out, a near-empty bottle of scotch laying on the floor just below his slack right hand. The man snored deeply, but otherwise didn't react at all to Andrew's presence.
Andrew grinned and pulled the guy out of his seat, then took his place at the helm.
"You booze, you lose." he said to the inebriated pilot with a grin before turning to the controls. "Now, how do you fly this thing...?"
Andrew pushed a series of buttons, none of which did anything more interesting then cause a few lights to flash and blink. He pulled on a large lever beside the steering wheel...
The chopper's twin rotors began to spin, slowly at first but then faster and faster, until they were just blurs of movement. The helicopter lifted off the ground and took to the skies, swaying slightly as Andrew tried to figure out the controls.
"Uh, let's see here..." Andrew muttered. "This thing turns it on... this thing steers..."
His eyes fell on what looked like a joystick with a trigger mounted atop it. Just above the joystick was a screen depicting a bunch of small colored blips moving about on it, with a single whitish-yellow blob in the center.
"Oh, cool!" Andrew said with a big smile. "Pac-Man!"
Andrew grabbed the joystick and moved it about, a set of crosshairs appearing on the screen and darting around.
"Wokka-wokka-wokka-wokka-wokka-wokka..." Andrew babbled as the crosshairs flew around, eventually landing on a green blip and flashing red.
"Power pellet!" Andrew yelled triumphantly, pulling the trigger.
A missile dislodged itself from the side of the helicopter and whizzed through the air, slamming into the barrel of a tank rolling down the street, blowing it to bits.
"Ha-HA!" Andrew cheered "Bonus points!"
Andrew pushed down on the steering mechanism; the helicopter zoomed down over the street, raining destruction down on random mercenaries without realizing it.
'This is awesome!' he thought. 'I don't even need any quarters!'
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Kind of a sucky ending, but... oh well.
Next!