Notice: The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is “The Great VSP/WASTE Saga, Part II, Chapter 2.”

The Great VSP Saga:
Part II

The Bad Guys Strike Back

Table of Contents

Part II

Chapter 2

'WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE BIRDIE!'

(PossePlane!)

Why the valley was silver, no one could figure out. Although it hadn't been mentioned before, the Silver Valley was cold. Really cold. Why a Phoenix would want to live in a really cold place, I don't know. I'm not the Narrator. I'm just the guy filling in while he shares a milkshake with his girlfriend.

Anyways, everyone was having a great time singing "100 Clips of C-10 On the Wall" when the PossePlane came to an abrupt halt.

"Why did we come to an abrupt halt?" asked Codebreaker.

"I think I found the problem!" responded Seawolf. "Apparently one of those Obligatory Annoying Civilians (OAC) has gotten caught up in the engines."

"Damn, not another one," Codebreaker muttered to himself.

"Kill da foo!" Lambda suggested.

"I'd assume," MysteriousGuy responded, "that having been caught in the engines, the civilian would be dead."

"Hey there!" came the annoying reply.

"I stand corrected," MysteriousGuy amended. "Anyways, I guess we should get off the PossePlane before the friction in the engines causes it to explode."

"That might be a good idea," MilkDuds agreed.

"Hey, this gives me a good idea for a poem!" Endarire yelled suddenly.

"OK, good luck," Seawolf said dubiously.

The VSP and WASTE ran from the PossePlane in a rather cool scene that you could otherwise only see in a John Woo film. End was still inside writing the poem, but he'd reappear at a later time, completely intact, due to a plot contrivance.

***

(Bakjak!)

He had a cool name. And a big gun. And now he was pissed.

"Beware, Mason Wheeler... I'm comin' for ya," Bakjak whispered over and over.

For no apparent reason, TGF appeared in mid-air next to him.

"Why would you want to kill him? He destroyed Rockwell!" TGF asked.

"How did you know that? How did I know that, for that matter?" Bakjak responded.

"We both read part 1 of this story, didn't we?"

"Oh yeah..." The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Quite literally in fact. "Ow..."

"Sorry!" the construction worker shouted from above him, standing on a beam holding a once-full bucket of bricks.

***

(Posse!)

The Posse and the members of WASTE trudged through the Silver Valley. Apparently they had the foresight to bring heavy jackets. Though the journey took several hours, I will omit all that happened at that time because I'm lazy.

Finally they came upon a huge spring. Phoenix was sitting there, being doused in flames by Flare's flamethrowers.

"Yeah... That's it... Just a little to the left... Got it..." Phoenix murmured contentedly.

Codebreaker raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Flare asked, surprised by everyone's sudden appearance. "Oh. Y'see, Phoenix was killed for one reason or another that I can't recall, and because it's so cold around here, he couldn't resurrect. So he called me to fix him up."

"I thought he was dead," MilkDuds said.

"Uhm, nevermind that," Phoenix said hurriedly. "So, what brings you here, my friends?"

Flare


"We need your help," said Codebreaker. "You see—"

"Somehow Rockwell has been completely removed from the Antioch Universe and now exists only in our memories and the Forum and we figured that since you always solved everything we figured you could help us!" interrupted Seawolf. Then he saw Codebreaker giving him a nasty look. "Whaaaaaaaaat???" asked Seawolf.

"Okay, I'll help. Even if Rockwell isn't the greatest Antioch Hero in the world, he DID provide comic relief and he WILL be important to A3. So... let's go!" said Phoenix. "Flare, you come too."

And so it began...

Dark T Zeratul


But as soon as they started, Codebreaker, who was in the lead, stopped. In a comical fashion usually only seen in Three Stooges films, everyone else slammed into the person in front of them, as they were walking single-file, and then they all fell forward like Dominos.

"Dang it, CB!" Odin exclaimed after they had all picked themselves back up. "What did you stop for?"

"Weeeell...." Codebreaker looked very sheepish, but confident in his answer. "I suddenly realized that first, we have no means of transportation, and second, we don't know where we're going."

"Aaaaah," everyone else nodded understandingly.

After several minutes of pondering, Seawolf came up with a solution to the transportation problem. He grinned and spoke into a wrist communicator. "Engines start." From the small speaker in the wrist-mounted walkie-talkie, they all heard the sounds of massive engines firing up. After another moment, Seawolf spoke "come" into the communicator. Then he turned to the rest of the group, who all had confused looks on their faces.

Seawolf grinned and explained. "In about..." he looked at his watch "...oh...an hour, the Hyperion, my hunk-a-junk, will be here to pick us up."

Silence for a moment, and then everyone once again said "ahhhh" and nodded.

"Now where are we going to go?" Mat-Def wondered for everyone.

"Weeeell," Mack suggested, "I think that we should first get all our equipment together. Wherever we end up going, I'd prefer to have my flamethrowers and not just this leather jacket."

Speaking of which, the jackets everyone was wearing matched, and for plot convenience, they had brought two extras for Phoenix and Flare so that it was indeed EVERYONE that had one. On the back was a big "V.S.P." overlaying a smaller "W.A.S.T.E." in the middle of a large black circle.

Anyways, back to the story....

"Okay, after we get our stuff, THEN what?" Lambda asked.

"I think we should get Zeusie and Aussie and Ytse (kept the same since Ytse is pronounced 'Yit-see') so they can help," Spooky stated.

"No no no...they're busy with A3," MysteriousGuy pointed out.

"But they've GOT to know about the Rockwell thing already," Tarun argued.

"Yeah," Dark_T_Zeratul added. "They're probably trying to find US for OUR help already."

And so an argument broke out about whether or not they should bother the TAC crew, and only ended an hour later when the Hyperion arrived.

"Aaah...our chariot is here," Seawolf said proudly. "All abooooard!" Seawolf pressed a button on his wrist-radio, and the hatchway dropped open.

Seawolf led them to a large conference room, and he, Codebreaker, and Phoenix went up to the bridge to pilot the ship while the rest of the team sat down and tried to figure out what the heck to do.

CB, Seawolf, and Phoenix set in a course for the VSP Headquarters to pick up most everybody's stuff and the weapon- and gadget- filled PosseMobile, hoping that they would have an idea where to go after that....

***

Elsewhere....

TGF and Bakjak reached the home of Mason Wheeler, knowing what he had done after reading the first part of the story. They knocked on the door and pulled out their guns, just in case Wheeler decided to keep up the 'good guy' act and try to eliminate 'bad guys' TGF and Bakjak.

There was no answer.

They knocked again, and again...and again. Still no answer.

"Must not be home," Bakjak observed. He and TGF decided on a new plan and broke the door open. They found their way to Wheeler's computer and hid behind some curtains. They would wait for Wheeler to get back, and then offer their allegiance to him in working against the VSP and their friends, who were certain to retaliate eventually. Both TGF and Bakjak finally had a decent chance to get back at the VSP if they could work with Mason and use his superior hacking skills.

And Wheeler would work with them. Even if he had to be...convinced of that. Whatever it took, he WOULD join them.

Seawolf


Suddenly they heard footsteps. They couldn't see what was happening, because they were still hiding behind the curtain, but Bakjak knew that several men had entered the room. Both TGF and Bakjak held their breath and tried to remain as silent as possible.

A few moments later they heard a male aristocratic voice: "You two, behind those curtains, get over here if you wish to remain alive." Immediately after that they heard the metallic click of a Gauss Rifle that was being reloaded.

Bakjak and TGF didn't hesitate very long. When they moved the curtains aside, they saw a tall man standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by four heavily armed guards. The man was wearing a military cap and uniform and a cape. His chest was covered by several medals and he had a saber attached to his belt.

The man examined Bakjak and TGF closely. "So you two fools dare to call yourselves bad guys? Pathetic," the man said contemptuously. "Give me one reason to let you live." The guards now raised their weapons and aimed them at Bakjak and TGF.

"Er... W-w-wait a minute," TGF managed to say, "who are you in the first place? And what are you doing here?"

"Silence!" the man said. "You will tell me what YOU two idiots were doing here, or I'll order my men to execute you. Believe me: they will not hesitate."

Bakjak: "We were looking for Mason Wheeler. We, er... wanted to offer our allegiance to him in working against the VSP and their friends, who are certain to retaliate eventually, because Mason Wheeler killed Rockwell."

"So you two know Wheeler?" the man asked.

"Yes sir, we do." replied TGF, "We've worked with him before."

"In that case I have a proposal to make," the man said with an evil grin on his face. "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. You will help me find Wheeler, or I'll kill you both. By destroying Rockwell, Wheeler has foiled a very clever scheme of mine. I will not tell you what this was, but you fools probably would not understand it anyway. Wheeler is the only one who can turn back that what has transpired."

"Er... it doesn't look like we have a choice, then. Very well, we'll help you," Bakjak said and raised his hand to shake the gloved hand of the mysterious man.

He refused the handshake and looked scornfully at Bakjak. "Follow me," he ordered him, TGF, and the guards.

They boarded a large Battlecruiser outside. TGF and Bakjak were taken to the bridge along with the uniformed man.

"Mr. Karimov, take us into orbit!" he ordered an old, nervous man.

"Y-y-yes, Mr. Broker." the old man replied.

***

In the meantime, Mason Wheeler was hiding in his summer cottage in France. He had hidden his Proto-Cruiser in his garage. As soon as he knew that Broker, the VSP, and W.A.S.T.E. were looking for him, he decided that it would be safest to disappear for some time. He had gotten himself in quite some trouble and he didn't know what to do...

Thrillias


Meanwhile, in the world of Antioch, Dale Gurney was doing some evil scheming WITHOUT his associate Mox. He had already decided that he would get Mox kicked off the station, and that he would use fake Kel-Morian ships and a planted homing beacon, but he wasn't sure how to keep him off the station. His idea of killing Mox was foiled by the appearance of the Protoss, whom he couldn't kill without starting a Protoss-Terran war. He REALLY didn't want that, since he would probably be the first victim. Then he got an idea. He went to his list of contacts and looked up Mason Rockwell. It wasn't there. He checked his computer database. It wasn't there. He checked his backup files. It wasn't there. He even checked with the intergalactic 411 service, and they hadn't heard of him. The closest match they had was Mason Wheeler, and Gurney knew that he wouldn't do (Gurney had insulted Wheeler years back at Bora Dalis spaceport, and Wheeler never really liked him after that). With that, Gurney went off and had a private chat with one of Turmalis' cohorts.

"I need a warp device," he said. "What kind of warp device are you looking for?" asked the Templar. "One that will take me to the world where the person responsible for Mason Rockwell's disappearance is located." "Well, there is such a device in Turmalis' Arbiter. And once you find this 'Mason Rockwell' it will return you to the exact moment and place of departure. I will distract the Judicator, while you go in and activate the device." "But I don't know what it looks like!" "It looks like a giant Khaydarin Reactor with a sign above it that reads, 'Juras Dinacmadar Krizak Nalidak Urzakma Zeento'" "Uhhh... yeah."

The young Templar distracted Turmalis by telling him that Mox requested a personal meeting (by an amazing coincidence it was true, but Mox's messenger was drunk and never made it past Mel's bar) and Gurney entered the Arbiter. It was like stepping onto a strange alien world. After awhile he found what he was looking for. It looked like a large, crystalline ball with wires and tubes sticking in it. It was glowing and little electric bolts were appearing from time to time. Gurney guessed that this was the warp device. He pulled a nearby switch and was immediately faced with a blinding white light and a feeling like he was flying.

Dark T Zeratul