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No matter how much Sarge asked if the other civilians were alright, he never got a clear response. All Private Erik told him that day was things were ‘dealt with’ and he ‘shouldn’t worry’. This, unfortunately, made Sarge’s worry rise.

The “facility” they were taking Sarge to was located on the side of a mountain that Sarge called, “Big Green”. Its entire surface was covered by varying trees, bushes, and flowers that would make the mountain turn a deep, forest green in the spring time. He usually loved looking at the mountain, because the forest green color it portrayed was one of his favorites… but in the autumn weather, it was now turning a pale, brown coloration as the foliage had started to wilt away.

The vehicle went over a rough patch of dirt, or maybe a pothole. Sarge couldn’t fully see what caused it because it was getting dark, but it caused him and Private Erik to get launched out of their seats. Starfish quickly tightened its grip on Sarge and latched onto both Private Erik and one of the bars supporting the canvas-covered back of the vehicle to prevent the two from toppling over. Once they had regained their balance, Starfish released its grip on Erik and the vehicle and relaxed itself back onto Sarge’s shoulder.

“Must be lucky,” Private Erik said, once Sarge had sat back down.

“To have a robot attach itself to me… or be a target for a psychopathic robot?” Sarge folded his arms, grimacing.

“The prior. The latter sounds like a sci-fi horror film I watched.” Erik looked down at the ground. “Used to live around this city, y’know.”

Sarge was taken aback by the sudden subject change, but figured Erik may have been nervous. Though he wanted answers for himself, he knew that Erik was probably just as unknowing as Sarge was. Erik was possibly scared out of his mind.

“Nice town. People here really seem to be close to each other.” Sarge tried to relax himself. He needed to distract his mind.

“I heard my platoon was going to be stationed here, so I was excited at first.” Erik looked up. “I thought I was going to meet Chomby. I even planned on going to one of his concerts. It was the ‘Wild Side Down’ concert. Said he was going to have a surprise guest come perform with him!”

Sarge remembered the plans for that concert. He’d come up with the idea of theming a concert after ‘dancing wildly’. It was going to be a mix between a concert and a DJ’s set. There was going to be an open floor people could dance in if they wanted, but plenty of seats in case people just wanted to enjoy the concert itself.

“Yeah, I was going to be the surprise guest,” Sarge said blankly.

“Wait, YOU were the guest?” Erik’s eyes widened. “I had no idea that you sang!”

“Nowhere near what Chomby could do, but I can carry a tune.” Sarge chuckled. “It was going to be a duet. A fun little piece about removing toxic people from our life… and finally feeling fine.” Sarge closed his eyes to talk with Chomby in the mindscape, but he forgot, again, that he wasn’t wearing the right jacket.

“Sounds like it would’ve been incredible.” Erik said.

The radio on Erik’s belt chimed in, “Approaching vehicle, identify yourself or be shot. This is a private area. Over.”

Erik quickly grabbed the radio and replied, “Private Erik, under Corporal Lunar, requesting clearance with code T-C-L-S-G-T-W-0-3-9. Over.”

There was a moment of silence before the radio picked up again. “Understood, Private, opening the gates. Your vehicle will be inspected. Keep all passengers seated until they are escorted out.”

Erik looked at Sarge. “Do take care of yourself, Detective.”

“You’re leaving?” Sarge asked.

“Giving a report to the higher ups here, then possibly getting stationed elsewhere. This facility is outside my usual clearance, but being your escort gave me some temporary authorities.” The vehicle slowed down and Erik stood up. “Of course, now you’ve been escorted, won’t have that authority anymore.” Erik rolled his eyes. “Not a big fan of it, but Lunar trusted me to do it.”

The vehicle completely stopped and Erik walked to the back. He lifted up the entrance flap. “The least I could do for the hero who saved my family.”

“Oh, really? Who are they?” Sarge asked.

“I was told you protected a little kid when that aerial drone broke into the school.” Erik looked down. Sarge could see his eyes were a bit misty. “That’s my little brother. Mom had to go to the hospital that day. Last minute thing. I was actually on my way to pick him up when I heard what happened.”

“Oh, I’m sorry about your mom.” Sarge stood up as well. He could hear a bunch of voices from outside the vehicle. “Is she okay?”

“She will be.” Erik nodded appreciatively. “So, thanks, Detective. I wanted to tell you that.” At those words, he dropped out of the vehicle and reported to whomever was outside.

The personnel at the gate ushered Sarge out, inspected him and Starfish, then corralled him into the facility. His mind was mostly preoccupied with what Erik just told him. This was one of the first times he was thanked for something ‘heroic’ that he knew he did on his own without Chomby’s help at all.

Once he was taken to the entrance to this ‘facility’, his mind snapped out of its trance. He was in what appeared to be in a rectangular, open field with large, stone walls surrounding the perimeter on three sides. The final side of this field was directly embedded into Big Green. When Sarge looked up, he could see a waning, crescent moon just barely peeking over the top of Big Green’s peak. He knew he’d never come this close to Big Green, but he wasn’t expecting there to be a military facility here. How recently was it built?

“Detective Sergeant Wolf is cleared for entry,” a female soldier with a blond ponytail said. “He must be taken to decontamination on floor B2. Doctor Borislov’s request.”

“Borislov? Decontamination?” Sarge asked as he walked past the female soldier. He looked at one of his escorts, a bald man with a resting, grumpy face.

“Doctor Borislov is needing to examine you. He’s a hired researcher for paranormal investigations,” the man said. “It’s nothing inhumane like in the movies… at least I don’t think it will be.”

“Wait, what?” Sarge asked.

The man seemed to try and smile, but it just made him look less angry. This reminded Sarge of Chomby. “Sorry! I had to!” He started to laugh. “Doctor Borislov just wants to see your health. He’s never studied a live werewolf before.”

“He isn’t going to fillet me, is he?” Sarge asked.

“Dunno what he’ll do, but, at most, he’d probably wanna draw blood for testing.”

“If he’s going to try and turn people into werewolves with my blood, it won’t work… trust me. Someone else has tried.” Sarge snarled and folded his arms.

“I’d love to ask more, but that would be a breach of confidentiality.” The man led Sarge to an elevator and ushered him inside. “Head to floor B2. They’ll be waiting outside the elevator for you. You’ll have your belongings when you’re done being cleaned.” He nodded. “If you need any assistance, ask for Davison. That’s me.”

“Thank you, Davison.” Sarge nodded. He was about to press the button when he felt Starfish detach itself from his shoulder. It dropped to the ground and slunk out of the elevator.

“Mainframe confirms you are to be taken care of. Starfish will be escorted to your living quarters.”

“You’re not coming with?” Sarge asked.

“I… guess not?” Davison asked. “You got the authorization code to be let down to the holding cells?”

“F-R-N-D-3-3-2-1” Starfish said.

Davison pulled out a device Sarge couldn’t recognize. He then nodded. “Alright, I’ll send you down there. Good luck, Detective.”

Sarge watched Starfish and Davison walk off before he pressed the button for B2.

When the elevator opened, he was greeted by several people wearing hazmat suits. They seemed fascinated by Sarge as they stripped him down, scrubbed his entire body, applied some odd-smelling disinfectant, and then gave him a set of gray clothes. He said the pants were a bit too tight, but they just said it was only for the next hour or so while they cleaned his clothes.

Sarge was taken down to floor B6 where he was immediately greeted by a tan-skinned man with plastic, square glasses, short black hair, and a long white lab coat. He introduced himself as Doctor Borislov and mentioned how honored he was to meet Sarge. He then started to prod Sarge with questions, asking what known ‘anomaly-like traits’ Sarge had, and even took a few samples of blood with the help of an assistant. She introduced herself as Kelsey, a phlebotomist from the medical ward on B4.

After hours of examining Sarge’s teeth, gums, mouth, bone structure, eyes, nose, and even his belly, they finally had enough notes to fill out a decently-sized novelette. Sarge was unsure what they’d discovered was abnormal, if anything, but he figured they couldn’t find any signs of the ‘anomaly’ in Sarge’s belly. This made sense, as it seemed regular human equipment, such as X-rays and MRIs couldn’t pick up on the mass.

However, whatever Unit_00 and the Mainframe used seemed to be able to detect the mass just fine. He figured he’d ask Starfish about it some time.

“Well, that just about does it all, Sarge,” Borislov said. “So, whatcha think? Was that as bad as the movies made it out to be?” Borislov held a hand out to Sarge as Sarge lay on the examination table. Sarge grabbed the hand and was hoisted up.

“Boring, I suppose. Didja learn anything at least?” Sarge asked as he unwrapped the band from where they prodded him. It had already healed up by this point.

“I learned you are quite the oddity,” Borislov nodded. “I’ll add this stuff to the records.” Borislov jogged over to his desk on the other side of the examination room and pulled out a small box. He then hopped back over and presented it to Sarge. “Here, take one of these for your troubles!”

Sarge saw a large array of dog treats in the box. There were some of those fake ‘cookies’ dogs could eat. “Uh, I don’t eat dog treats, thanks, though.” Sarge took a step back. “Stuff gets stuck in my teeth.”

“Oh!” Borislov scratched his chin. “I suppose I should have known better, since you mentioned you ate chocolate cake and whatnot.” He smiled and shook his head. “Sorry there, mister Sergeant. I only have animal treats.”

Davison came in several minutes later to both give Sarge his clothes back and escort him to a room down on B12. It was an elongated room about fourteen feet long and eleven feet wide with white, square slabs lining the walls and ceiling. On the outside, he could see through the glass wall that attached the room to the corridor they’d gone down. He could see his belongings were already inside the room and were neatly unpacked on a small desk that faced the window. He could see Starfish was waiting on the bed.

When Davison escorted him into the room, he explained safety procedures. In case of a fire, the fire escape was down the hall to the left. In case something happens, or Sarge is panicked, there is a panic button on the underside of the desk that will instantly notify Davison, and whoever is on the clock, to come help Sarge out. He then mentioned that there were security cameras stationed everywhere that monitored only video, but there was a curtain that surrounded the bed in case Sarge wanted some privacy.

He ended by pulling one of the drawers out of the desk, revealing there were a few gaming consoles and a tablet in case he got bored.

With that, Davison left.

Starfish reattached itself to Sarge’s shoulder. “You are in need of a hug, yes? Your cortisol levels are elevated.”

“Measuring my hormones now?” Sarge groaned and dropped himself onto the bed. Starfish adjusted itself so he could lay down properly. The bed was decently comfortable.

“Information from Researcher Doctor Borislov. You are ‘healthy’ but ‘stressed’.” Starfish slithered next to Sarge and nestled itself under his arm. “Animal companionship is known to aid with stress. Would you like Starfish to download ‘cat companion’ protocol?”

“No, I’d prefer you just stay yourself, Starfish.” Sarge closed his eyes. “Right now, I kinda just wanna sleep. It’s like… four in the morning.”

“Four thirty seven, M-D-T,” Starfish chimed in.

“Right, sure.” Sarge groaned. “Only person I know that’d be up right about now is Xenon, but I don’t think I can call him, really.”

“Detective Xenon is caretaker of Detective Sergeant Wolf,” Starfish stated. “Send message to Caretaker Detective Xenon?”

“What?” Sarge lifted his head and looked at Starfish. “You can do that?”

“Affirmative. Jamming devices deactivated. Communication with mainframe and other units reconnected.” Starfish zipped the glowing dot around its eye. “What message will be sent to Caretaker, Detective Xenon?”

“Wait, you can communicate with the other drones?” Sarge’s eyes lit up. “Can you tell me what happened to the drones at the school? And what about the refugees? Are they all safe?”

Starfish took a moment to respond. “thirty-seven Aerial Units unresponsive, fourty-four Land Units unresponsive, seven, humans classified as ‘died’. Vehicles of transporting refugees verified unharmed. Destroyer Units, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11 eradicated. Unit_00 unknown.”

Sarge felt his heart lurch when he heard seven humans had died. It must have been the soldiers who were stationed outside his window…. They were there when the robots attacked. Sarge sat up and pushed himself to the edge of the bed and pressed his back against the wall. “I… I guess it’s what was expected, right?” Sarge looked down at starfish. “At least the other refugees are okay. I just… didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”

“Trust that people can take care of themselves,” Sarge heard Starfish say, but it sounded like his own voice. He realized it was a recording of what he said with Starfish before.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sarge tucked his legs in and rested his head on his knees. “It’s not up to me to keep everyone safe, no matter how much I might want to.”

Starfish rested itself at Sarge’s feet. “Detective Sergeant Wolf must be protected.”

Sarge gritted his teeth. “Just… why me? Aren’t there any other anomalies that Unit_00 could be fascinated by? Why am I the one it wants so badly?”

“Both anomalies posed a threat to Mainframe,” Starfish said. “However, of both anomalies, anomaly, Chomby aligned with Mainframe’s new prime directive of ‘stop hurt’. Unit_00 knows of anomaly Chomby and will want to use it for its purpose.”

“To destroy all life? Yeah, I know. But, now it wants me just because I share traits similar to Chomby!” Sarge rubbed the back of his head. “You already know that I can’t take on Unit_00, right?”

“Detective Sergeant Wolf must be protected. Unit_00 seeks to utilize anomaly inside you for its purpose.”

“Then, can you tell me something?” Sarge asked. “That anomaly inside me. I notice the mainframe is able to scan it, but nothing the humans do actually makes it show up. Why is that?”

Starfish’s eye zipped around for a moment. It then shined a light onto Sarge’s torso. It scanned the light up and down, then it blinked. “Unable to identify anomaly.”

“As in, you can’t figure out what it is either?” Sarge asked.

“Anomaly not present.” The dot in starfish’s eye expanded and it projected an image onto the ceiling. Sarge looked up. It was a picture of his torso. Much like before, he could see all his organs… but, surprisingly, there was no mass of black in front of it all.

“That’s… not good.” Sarge looked down at Starfish. “So it really isn’t there anymore?”

“Affirmative.” Starfish’s eye zipped around. “Sending new information to mainframe. Anomaly Removed. Unit_00 unaware.”

Sarge felt his heart sink. Did he somehow lose the song Chomby gave to him? He thought it would still be on him. Did Borislov somehow take it out of him? Sarge doubted it. That man only took blood samples. But what about…

“Oh,” Sarge said aloud. He had almost forgot he turned into Chomby in his office a week ago. He’d explicitly stated he didn’t want Chomby to remove the song. He wanted to be mad at Chomby for ignoring his request, but he knew Chomby only did it out of fear for his friend’s life.

“Is Detective Sergeant Wolf in need of assistance?” Starfish asked.

“No, I just…” Sarge thought. “What will the mainframe do now that I seem to have lost that anomaly?”

“Protect Detective Sergeant Wolf. Stop hurt.” Starfish adjusted its tentacles to rest on Sergeant Wolf. “Directive has not changed. Even with Mainframe’s new knowledge, Unit_00 will still come after Detective Sergeant Wolf.”

“What if the anomaly was somewhere else?” Sarge asked.

“Unit_00 may look for anomaly. Mainframe statistical analysis states high probability it will create ways to scan for anomaly. Find anomaly. Use anomaly.”

“And how does that scan actually work?” Sarge asked. “Maybe we can stop it?”

“Decryption. Lifeforms and constructs are readable… mass on anomaly is not.”

“And, next question, just to ease my troubled mind. If the scan does not find an anomaly, what is the next most probable thing Unit_00 would do?” Sarge asked.

“Mainframe statistical analysis states lesser probability that Unit_00 will seek similar attributes to anomaly.”

“Like with me and my jacket?” Sarge asked, gesturing to his jacket.

“Affirmative. This is how Starfish identified you as anomaly. Decryption scan confirmed findings. Detective Sergeant Wolf, former anomaly, is still classified under anomaly.”

Sarge put a finger to his chin. He assumed that Unit_00 would continue to only target him, so long as he had Chomby’s song. Though, if Unit_00 arrived, and Sarge didn’t have it anymore, what would Unit_00 do next?

Well, the answer was certainly simple. It would look for the jacket… the fluffmaster’s logo. Sarge had the logo on his bakery, but outside of that, only he and Chomby actually had the logo on them. Right now, though, Xenon was wearing Chomby. He was in danger.

Sarge took a deep breath and tried to think of what he could do. Starfish did say it could send a message to Xenon. As for how it would do that, he didn’t know.

“Starfish.” Sarge said aloud after several minutes. “Can you send a private message to Xenon?”


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Next part of the story -- chapter 12! Enjoy! :D

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Sarge/Xynon/Chomby/Story/Art ©  pikminpedia Me