"You know what? I still have a lot of questions but one of them, really, really bothers me, by the way, is how are you so tall right now."
Mary and Jeremy soon found themselves boarding a huge golden boat and after they passed through a waxed wooden corridor that shone the same spectrum of the ship's color, they walked into a room that was donned by bright lights and sound-proofed walls and floors. There were a few cork boards plastered at their sides that held some of the arranged reminders and there was a single whiteboard too, located at the far back of the room that was full of scribbles. In the middle of it all was a long dark-brown table that let out a metal sheen despite it proudly showing its wooden elegant texture as it carried a few folders fattened by clipped reports and photos. Above it was a hologram that followed a single red dot following the line that was the street walled by a sea of concrete establishments as if they were trees. It seemed to be moving towards an intersection that separates the line into three other routes with one leading to a wide space right beside a river.
There, while on his seat, Jeremy stared at the woman beside her. She was seemingly petite, wearing an oversized maroon hoodie over her gray gothic dress, almost looking like a girl that was under eighteen, especially with her light brown hair tied into a ponytail if not for her menacing golden eyes that were accentuated by the dark bags under it.
"I…" The woman looked down and pressed her thumb and middle finger over her eyebrows along with a long groan. "Rick… get me some coffee and dial down on the caffeine and cream, I don't want the extra energy, otherwise, I'd bash this guy's face in." She raised her head and looked straight at him, stretching her dry pale lips to force herself to smile as one of the men in the room left silently through the door. "And for the third time, Jeremy," she heaved an aggressive loud breath through her nose, "no, Rachel won't be coming in dressed in like a fucking playboy bunny and I have a stepping box under my bare feet, so, get your head in the game before I start thinking that maybe the other one outside would do a better job than you. We're about to reach it in fifteen minutes… let's have at least a recap of what you need."
"Ohhh… someone's cranky... must've had a terrible dream," he replied with a whimsical tone with his words that ended in a chuckle. "Want me to sing you a song, a lullaby, or perhaps keep your bed warm by cradling you to sleep, Miss MC?"
The two spent the next minute glaring at each other in silence.
"I will peel your skin like a potato with a fucking spoon," she followed, moving her eyes to take a glace at Mary who pulled herself behind the shadow of Jeremy's shoulder.
"Oh come on, I was just trying to lighten up the mood, I'm going to die a lot later you know?" Jeremy replied. "Cut me some slack, following the things other than the cameras, the stage and the sound system that I carried on board, I almost have everything that I need! I just need a little something…"
"Yeah," she retorted, raising a piece of crumpled paper from the heap of files on the desk. "Fuckin' two additional sniper rifles, ten tactical riot shields, fifteen spears, eight ballistas, four miniguns, ten-no, fifteen cans of tuna, swords, fifteen packs of blank bullets, assorted ammo for rifles, a few sets shotgun shells, grenades, grenades with shrapnels, additional flame grenades, additional five stun grenades, few smoke bombs—"
"I…"
"—oh, would you look at that, I missed the armor-piercing rounds for the sniper rifles and yeah, there's a fuckton of C4 here too and one hundred meters of goddamn piano-whatever the fuck that is," she added with an angry and a sarcastic tone. "Do you want me to continue, Jeremy?"
"Well, you're making me fight a goddamn thing… I don't even know that that is! This is basically why I need all that to arm my five snipers, ten of my infantry that would I probably call the shield heroes, eight that would harpoon that thing, three that since we don't have miniguns that we're asking for, they'll be using that anti-tank rifles on my room. Don't worry about the other three cameramen that would film the thing and give it to us in real-time," He shouted before retreating to his seat with an awkward smile. "Other than me taking a few solid metal walls from the gym below, everything should be good to go, I'm just giving you an audit… also, I would need the ship's gun later.
"Done, anything else?"
"Let me borrow Rick."
"Fuck you."
"Fine, who do we have here?" Jeremy sighed before he moved on, glancing at Mary who shuddered behind him before turning his attention back to the woman at his side. "I need a winning condition, I already have Mary and I don't want me to die over and over again for nothing so give me something to work with."
"Rei is out with the new recruit, Vendor is done but we'll have to pick him up, which we cannot afford right now and Dolphin… I could give you Dolphin…" She replied with an indifferent tone as though she was voicing out a shopping list.
"Nice," he replied almost immediately with a wide confident smile. "We're gonna need every help we need, so It's me, Mary and Dolphin… anyone else?"
"Viela, she just got here and I believe that she'll be fine working pronto," she replied with a dignified one. "I could lend you—"
"Alright!" Jeremy interrupted her, raising his voice as he turned to Mary and rocking her body with his hands pressed on her shoulders. "It's just you, me and Dolphin, we're gonna win this!"
"What happened to the 'we need all the help we need' asshole?" MC crossed her arms and groaned. "Do you even know what we're dealing with?"
"Nope, not at all," he replied in such a positive note that it sounded so sarcastic. "Tis' all thanks to you, bossun! Well, I expected this much so I'm glad that I won't have to do much…" He picked up a folder from the desk to take out a thick rim of paper to which he flipped through. "Though, it being as smart as a brick but still having the goddamn capabilities to adapt so fast would be such a bitch… where was the guy who tried to fight it with an anime-ass sword that it decided to create a huge meat cleaver to fight him?"
"Dead, was gutted and ended up like a bloody bologna"
He let out a chuckle before he turned to the red dot in front of him. "At least it's got a distinct path instead of going on a murder-spree but to be honest, I don't like the smell of this. I might really have to exhaust my plans from B to Z."
"What's plan Z?" Mary interjected and bowed a soon after at the moment she met MC's sharp and cold gaze that made her quiver.
"Well," he continued with an upbeat tone. "It includes throwing a can of tuna in its face, kneeling to the ground, and singing 'happy birthday to you' while hoping that it would get weirded and just go away."
Mary turned to look at MC who just shook her head as a response and with her voice, shaking, not knowing what to say, she slowly replied, "I guess… it's a good plan?"
"Hell no, that's dumb as shit!" He laughed and patted her head. "But it is worth considering!"
"Anyways… where the fuck is my coffee…" MC whispered, breaking the moment of those two as she walked towards the room's exit. "Ah, screw that, just get yourself ready since we'll be there in three minutes. I'll go 'talk' to Dolphin while you're at it."
"Right, don't forget to swing by the pantry, by the way, there should be a can of tuna there so give it to the guy, tell him that it's from me," Jeremy said, smiling as he waved his hand towards her. "Do that and in the meantime, I'll give Mary some pep talk."