"Welcome back, boss!"
"It's great to see you, fearless leader! Did you accomplish what you set out to do?"
"We've missed your leadership, Sir! They're all waiting for you to take charge, again!"
As Jordan and Jessica watched Al greet every soldier as if he had known them for years, they found it quite hard to keep their faces straight. Al noticed this out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored it and kept walking straight ahead, putting on the act to the best of his ability.
Using the map, he had simply headed to the slums of the city. He had based his hunch on the simple fact of life that villains almost always emerged from the downtrodden, and at least this time, he had been right.
The underground base was easily large enough to hold hundreds of people. The size of the resistance was quite surprising to see, but when he thought about it, he realised that it was needed if they really wanted to present a threat significant enough for the leader to decide to evacuate the entire city because of them.
Not everyone was happy to see him, though. He had been hoping that this might be a straightforward odyssey, but he quickly saw that this was not the case when a few glares were directed at him from the shadows. There were some who even stared daggers at his back, so from this, it was obvious that tensions were rife in the resistance, too.
It was a consolation that the majority seemed to like him, at least. The underground base was a large, open space filled with pillars holding up the ceiling. There were sleeping cots all around, and the most privacy that anyone had were the tents that dotted the corners of the space. One by one, soldiers kept emerging, with handguns at their waists and rifles slung across their backs, breaking out into smiles of relief and cheers of celebration when they saw him.
Finally, at the end of the large space, he came upon another door through which a small room could be seen. To its left and right, there were more doors present, but all of them were locked except for the one right in front.
As soon as he stepped inside, he knew that it was the control centre of the resistance. The walls were covered with maps and pictures of potential targets and plans to be carried out, and a large table in the centre of the room was chock full of reports and other information all essential to the people in command of this large organisation.
There were six chairs around the table, and five of them were filled. All five stood up when he entered, and Al kept a close watch of each of their faces to see which ones were on his side.
Three of the leaders were men, while the other two were women. They were hard folk, with hard faces and hard eyes, but three of the faces broke out into smiles exactly like those he had seen on most of the soldiers outside.
The other two didn't show any hostility, but just from the fact that they remained unchanged, it became clear that there might be something under the surface that he would have to discover later. For now, they greeted him warmly, but Al committed their features to memory and resolved to be careful of anything they said.
Of course, he knew that those who smiled might also be disingenuous, but for now, he could only take things at face value until he had the time to investigate more. As he took the last seat, the others sat down and right away, one of the men who had looked happy to see him spoke up.
"Welcome back, Sir. When you said that you wanted to go out on a reconnaissance mission so that we could decide our next step, I was sceptical about your safety… so I am glad that you were able to return unscathed. Were you successful?"
Others might have been disconcerted to be suddenly put on the spot, but Al rose to the occasion. He didn't know what it was about odysseys, but playing a certain role seemed to give him a sense of confidence that was absent in his usual life. He just loved the feeling of entering heart and soul into a character, and although he didn't know what it said about his overall psyche, it was a fact that this was an effective weapon in his arsenal.
With a thoughtful nod, he answered, "Ues. But before I talk about it, I want an update on all the information you've collected in my absence. Also, for the sake of looking at things from a macro perspective, I think that we should take it from the very beginning. It will be good for us all to remember what we are fighting for, too. Is that alright?"
The five leaders met each others' eyes as Al's words hung in the air. The one who had smiled the broadest on seeing him was one of the women, who was definitely the most flamboyant character he had seen in this place, yet. It was a dangerous sort of flashiness, though, brought about by the way she was armed, rather than the way she was dressed.
Four handguns hung from her waist, two in front, two behind. Three rifles were on her back, with one of them being a sniper rifle which was so tall that its muzzle jutted out a couple of feet above her head. She also had at least ten knives tucked neatly in her pants, and her long, black hair was in a tight bun kept in place by four .50 cal bullets.
She was the one who replied, first, with a shrug.
"Why not? Sometimes, it's better to take a step back. You might be able to see things you've missed! I've always been the one who talks the most, so let me put that skill to good use, for once! It all began when the governor took up his position…"
…
A few hours later, Al was coincidentally back to doing the exact same thing, in the exact same place, in the exact same manner as what he had been up to before they set out on the journey that had taken them to the headquarters of the resistance.
This time, Jordan was sullenly sitting silent, having been admonished by his sister to not disturb him when he was thinking. He had really appreciated the gesture, so now, he was making full use of the silence he had been given.
Still, on the sofa in the room, he could see that the two were impatiently waiting for him to tell them what he had found out. They had been present when he had uncovered all the details of the situation, but as he had kept his plans close to his chest in the headquarters, too, they were in the dark about what he meant to do.
Finally, ten more minutes later, he sat down on the sofa, satisfied. The smile that stretched across his lips seemed to infuriate Jordan, though, but just as he was about to stand up and vent, Al raised his hand, and spoke in a confident voice.
"Alright, I'll put you out of the suspense. Everything we've heard can be boiled down into a few simple, important facts. First: the governor of the city is a selfish bastard who, over the years, has eaten away the budget, sending thousands into unemployment and then relegating them to the slums, blaming them for their 'laziness' that he claimed had resulted in the status of the economy. Second: the resistance was given birth by those who didn't want to sit still and let him do whatever he wished. And third: the only reason the man is still in power is because he has been rigging the elections, and making the people feel that they are hopeless to do anything against him. This is exactly where the heroes and villains come in. The options for the heroes are simple: they must have been given roles close to the man, so they can take over his position and set right what he has done. If I was up against any other team, I would be wary of this… but those dragons are like bulls that can only charge straight ahead. I bet that they've decided to just protect the governor 24/7, and try to root us out so that they can kill us and end the odyssey. So, my objective is simple: take the boiling pot that is this city, and turn it over. In the chaos that will ensue, who knows who will die, and who will live? Those three are definitely arrogant 'cos they believe they can deal with us easily… but what will they do against a thousand angry protesters? I guess we'll just have to wait, and find out…"