Chapter 02: Art of Stealth

SCRIPT BY: qg2004

Dylan brings up The Master’s broadcast on his watch. “Look who decided to have their own personal press conference.” Dylan says. Claire, Andy, and Puppy come in for a closer look. “Has he said anything yet?” Claire asks. “Just that he is responsible for whatever those things are that are walking around the city. I have a sinking feeling he’s not finished yet.” Dylan says.

Yeller, Lightcap, and Dun Dun see the broadcast on a TV in the hot tub room. “Hey, isn’t that guy some kind of super criminal or something?” Yeller asks. Dun Dun shrugs. “Shhh!” Lightcap tells them.

Lauren and Tat are still watching the broadcast in the abandoned fire station. “So he’s the one behind all of this?” Tat asks. “I can’t say I’m surprised.” Lauren says. “I’m sure you are all probably stunned by my admission. Well, not all of you. There are a select few of you that are well aware this is something I would do. I’m sure you know who you are. Anyway, I’d prefer to avoid a long drawn out confession, so I’ll just skip over that particular part, and get right to the juicy bits. You all have questions, and I’d be more than happy to answer a few of them. Lets begin with how I caused such chaos. Well, its actually quite simple, and something that is apparently already common knowledge. As the lovely Miss Katie Goo has already revealed on her poor excuse for a news show, the transformation of these people is indeed the result of blood received from the New Haven General Hospital. I wouldn’t be going there to receive blood, anytime soon. You see, I managed to gain access to the blood supply, and corrupt it with this substance known as FUSION. Don’t bother googling it, it is a concoction that very few people know of, one which certainly won’t have a Wikipedia page. Anyway, anyone who has had the misfortune of receiving blood from New Haven General has unfortunately been infected, and if they haven’t transformed into these hideous beasts yet, rest assured, it is only a matter of time. Well, I think I’ve given you all enough information for one day. I’m sure you are still thirsty for more information, but, I’m afraid I’ll have to leave you on a cliffhanger. Not to worry, though, I will still be here, lurking in the shadows, watching the chaos unfold in utter enjoyment. I’ll see you all again very soon, assuming any of you actually live that long. Ciao!” The Master says, before his broadcast goes dead.

“I’m glad we know for sure now that The Master is behind all of this.” Dylan says. “Maybe, but there are still some key details we don’t have. For example, The Master may be a brilliant criminal mastermind, but he’s no mad scientist. He wouldn’t be able to create this “FUSION” on his own, he would need help.” Andy says. “Do we know of any associates The Master has that could help him pull this off?” Claire asks. “Just one. Doctor Ilia Andropov.” Dylan says!

Tat turns off the TV. “How on earth did The Master pull something like this off?” Tat asks. “I’m not sure he did.” Lauren reveals. “Care to elaborate?” Tat asks. “Back when I worked for the WPA, I remember hearing something about a Project FUSION.” Lauren recalls. “Do you think The Master stole it from them?” Tat asks. “Its possible. If that’s the case, the best way to figure out how to stop it would be to get into the WPA’s mainframe.” Lauren reveals. “That shouldn’t be too hard. You have a hacker friend, don’t you? He competed on Total Yeller Mania, too.” Tat remembers. “Eugene wouldn’t be able to hack into an intelligence agency’s mainframe. If we are going to get into it, we’ll need to gain access from a WPA outpost, which should have a computer with access to the database.” Lauren says. Lauren opens up her laptop. “What are you doing?” Tat asks. “Some research.” Lauren says. Lauren types something in, reads the content of her search, and then closes her laptop. “That was fast.” Tat notes. “There is a WPA compound located right outside of New Haven. If we are going to stop FUSION from spreading, we’ll need to get into that compound.” Lauren says.

In an undisclosed office, a voice can be heard over a small intercom, located on a desk. “Agent Klein is here to see you, ma’am.” The voice says. A mystery woman presses a button on the intercom. “Send him in.” The woman orders. A man wearing a suit enters the office. “Evening, ma’am.” Klein says. “Do you have an update for me?” The woman asks, as she pours herself a cup of tea. Klein nods. “We know who took FUSION.” Klein confirms.

Yeller, Dun Dun, and Lightcap are holed up in Yeller and Dun Dun’s hotel room. “Why kitchen light still with us?” Dun Dun asks, referring to Lightcap. “We might need a human shield in case one of those beasts come after us, again.” Yeller says. “I’m not human!” Lightcap protests. “Shut up! I’m trying to help you, you ingrate!” Yeller argues. They look at the TV, and notice that President Ronald Grump is giving an update on the New Haven situation. “Daddy!” Dun Dun says. “Shhh!” Yeller tells her. “I am aware of what is happening to our friends in New Haven. I am monitoring the situation very closely, so closely! And just so everyone knows, I plan on taking a trip to the city myself to assess the damage, and find out how much it is going to cost Mexico-us! I mean us!” Ronald Grump says. “Mr. President, do you plan on sending aid to the people of New Haven?” The reporter asks. “That is a very good question, Carol...hate that name. I am sending aid to New Haven, I plan to send the best aid! I’m actually going to be flying there today, so I can drop off some paper towels to them.” Ronald Grump says. “...Paper towels? Mr. President, their city is under attack! It had to be evacuated!” Carol reminds him. “Everybody loves paper towels, they are man’s best friend!” Ronald Grump says. “You’re thinking of dogs, Mr. President.” Carol notes. “Somebody get this lady out of here, she’s FAKE NEWS! She’s scheming with that (CENSORED) Lizzary Clintile to make me look bad! SECURITY!” Ronald Grump yells. “No, get your hands off of me! I just want the truth!” Carol yells. “Not only is she fake news but she’s delusional! Get her outta here! GET HER OUTTA HERE! GET HER THE (CENSORED) OUTTA HERE!” Ronald Grump yells, as Carol can be heard screaming. Ronald Grump shakes his head in disgust. “Wicked, wicked woman. Carol...what a joke! Am I right?” Ronald Grump asks. “Daddy always know what to say.” Dun Dun says.

Lauren and Tat arrive at the WPA outpost, which is surrounded by a giant wall. “Wow, a big giant wall...how original.” Tat sarcastically remarks. “I count five snipers on top of the wall.” Lauren notes. “Wow, that’s a lot of security.” Tat notes. “You can’t have a homeless person wandering into a top secret meeting where a black ops mission to kill a bunch of terrorists is being planned. If we are going to get inside the building, we’ll need to take out the snipers. Stay here, I’ll clear us a path.” Lauren tells Tat. “Um, okay, good luck!” Tat says. Lauren runs towards the wall, and tosses a rope to the top. The rope catches on something, and Lauren is able to use it to climb up. Lauren stops short of the top of the wall, when she hears a guard walking by. Once the guard is directly in front of her, she grabs his ankles, and pulls him down! She smashes his head up against the wall, and then ties him up so he is hanging off the side of the wall, and out of sight. One of the guards notices the missing guard, and turns towards another guard. “We have a man missing.” The guard says. “I’ll help you check things out.” The other guard says. Meanwhile, Lauren has already found a safe place to hide on top of the wall. Once the two guards approach where the missing guard was last seen, Lauren emerges from her hiding spot, and smashes their heads together, knocking them both out! With two guards left, Lauren uses a device she has to hack into one of the remaining guard’s headset. The headset begins to release a loud screeching noise, which causes the guard to collapse in pain. While he is on the ground in pain, the other remaining guard walks over to check on him. Once the two are together, Lauren smashes the butt of her gun into the back of the standing guard’s head, and then kicks the remaining guard who collapsed in the face, knocking them both out. Lauren searches one of the guards, and finds a key card on him. “This will help. Thanks for the cooperation.” Lauren tells the unconscious guard. Lauren walks over to one of the guard towers, and presses a button, which opens a giant door located on the front of the wall, that gives access to the entrance of the compound. Lauren then makes her way down the wall, and rejoins Tat. “Not that I wanted you to, but I’m surprised you didn’t just shoot those guys.” Tat says. “Believe me, I’m usually all for unnecessary violence, but shooting the guards would’ve been suicide. We need to carefully take out the guards, so that none of the other agents find out we’re in the building. If we are going to get out of the compound alive, no one can know we are here.” Lauren says.
Lauren and Tat approach the front door. Lauren slides the key card in, and the front door opens. The two then walk into the entry hall. “A few of the guards should have maps of the building. We need to get our hands on one of those maps, so we can find out where the master computer room is, which should give us access to the database.” Lauren says. After walking down a long corridor for a moment, Lauren stops at a door. “Lets check in here.” Lauren tells her. “Lead the way.” Tat says. Lauren opens the door, and the two find themselves in a two level room, with two giant containers of some kind on the bottom floor. “Stay close to me.” Lauren tells her. Lauren surveys the room. “Five guards. Two guards up here, three down there.” Lauren says. Lauren pulls out a device, and presses a button on it. “What’s that do?” Tat asks. “It’ll help me find out if one of these guards has a map on their phone...okay, just one of the guards has a map, and they are on the first level.” Lauren says. “So what’s the game plan?” Tat asks. “I’m gonna take out the other guards, first, so there aren’t any interruptions.” Lauren says. “Good luck.” Tat says. “Who says I need luck? I’ll be quick.” Lauren says. Lauren quietly moves across the room, and pops up behind the first guard. When she gets close enough, she wraps her arms around his neck, putting him in a choke hold. The guard attempts to make noise, but is unable to do so! The guard finally passes out, and Lauren silently lowers him to the floor. She moves him into a dark corner of the room, and then sets her sights on the next guard on the floor. She moves to the other side of the room, where the other guard is standing, and puts him in a choke hold as well, knocking him out! Once both guards on the second floor of the room are unconscious, Lauren returns to Tat. “Stay up here while I take care of the last three guards.” Lauren says. “But what if you need my help?” Tat asks. “Trust me, I don’t. Just stay here, and stay quiet.” Lauren orders. Lauren swiftly makes her way down to the first level of the room, and enters the grate on the floor undetected. Lauren crawls under one of the guards, and quickly pulls him into the grate! She knocks the guard out, and soon after, one of the two remaining guards notices him missing. The guard approaches the area, and Lauren comes out behind him from the grate, and smashes his head into one of the previously mentioned containers! The final guard hears the noise, turns, and sees Lauren! “Freeze!” The guard yells, as he pulls out his gun! “I don’t suppose we can talk this over, can we?” Lauren asks. “No.” The guard responds. The guard goes to shoot her, but is clubbed in the back of the head by Tat, who is wielding a metal pipe! “Looked like you could use a hand.” Tat notes. “I had it under control, but thanks.” Lauren says. Lauren lifts the guard’s phone out of his pocket, and removes a small chip from the back of it. “This is the map.” Lauren reveals. She inserts the chip into the back of her own phone. Lauren then pulls the map up on her phone. “The main computer is located on the third floor.” Lauren reveals. “Great, will we be able to make it up there okay? I know we weren’t suppose to be seen, but that guard catching you kinda screwed that up.” Tat notes. “Not a problem. The guard didn’t call for backup, so we should be good.” Lauren says. “Good.” Tat says. Lauren and Tat go to leave, but Tat stops when she spots the giant containers. “Wait!” Tat says. Lauren stops, and turns back towards Tat. “What are these?” Tat asks. “Don’t know. With the WPA involved, they could be anything, even some kind of weapon.” Lauren says. “Look, on both of these containers is a picture of DNA. Do you think it means anything?” Tat asks. “That’s not important right now, we need to get to the computer.” Lauren reminds Tat. “Right, of course. I’m ready whenever you are.” Tat says.

Dylan, Andy, Claire, and Puppy are all standing on a rooftop. “Andropov is proving to be pretty difficult to track. He better actually be involved in this, after all the trouble I am going through to find him.” Andy says. Dylan notices that his watch is receiving a call. “Hang on, I’m getting a call.” Dylan reveals. “From who?” Claire asks. “I don’t know.” Dylan says. Dylan answers, and The Master’s face materializes! “Hello, old friend! I’m so pleased you picked up. I was worried you may decide to ignore my call!” The Master says. “What do you want?” Dylan asks. “I heard that you and your two little elves are in New Haven. I was just wondering if you could verify that little rumor.” The Master says. “You need to put a stop to this plan of yours, before too many people get hurt.” Dylan says. The Master laughs. “I will do nothing of the kind! I am having far too much fun to put an end to this. I would advise you not to interfere. I know that you have a tendency to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, the annoying busy body that you are, but this is one plan of mine you don’t want to intervene in, unless of course, you wish to be the next person infected by FUSION.” The Master says. “I’m not backing down.” Dylan warns. “I was hoping you’d say that. After all, its my hope that you and your band of dullards will get infected! I’m looking forward to seeing you, Dylan, very soon.” The Master says, before hanging up. Dylan turns towards the others. “We need to stop him before this gets too out of control.” Dylan says. “Yeah...I think its a little late for that.” Claire says. “Our best bet to put an end to this is to find Andropov, assuming that he is actually a part of this.” Andy says. Claire’s face lights up. “Come to think of it, I might actually have an idea on how to find him.” Claire reveals.

Lauren and Tat enter the master computer room at the compound, where a WPA operative is sitting in front of the computer. The operative gets up, and immediately reaches for his weapon! However, Lauren kicks him backwards, causing him to fall! Lauren then grabs the collar of his shirt, and pushes him up against the wall! Lauren delivers a punch to his face, and is able to knock him out. Lauren turns towards the computer, and begins to approach it, when her phone starts to vibrate. “Ignore it, it could blow our cover!” Tat advises her. Lauren checks the Caller I.D. “I can’t.” Lauren reveals. “Why not?” Tat asks. Lauren ignores the question, and answers the phone. “What’s up?” Lauren asks. “Hey babe...are you busy?” Claire asks. “Kind of...” Lauren responds. “Oh, well...do you have a second to do me a small favor? It shouldn’t take you that long, I promise.” Claire says. “Depends on the favor.” Lauren says. “I need your help tracking down Doctor Ilia Andropov. I know how good you are at finding people and spy stuff in general, so I thought if anyone could help, it’d be you.” Claire says. Lauren walks over to the WPA computer, and types in Andropov’s name. “His last known location is the Industrial District in New Haven City.” Lauren says. “Is that all you know?” Claire asks. “I’m looking at the area map...there’s an abandoned clinic in the district, Andropov is a scientist, so it would make sense for him to hide out there.” Lauren notes. “Thanks a bunch, I knew you’d come through for me.” Claire says. “You aren’t going to confront Andropov for whatever reason, are you?” Lauren asks. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you were doing. Talk to you later, bye!” Claire says. “Claire, hang on-” Lauren begins to say, but the line goes dead. “Is everything okay?” Tat asks. “After we’re done here, we are making a pit stop at an abandoned clinic in the Industrial District of New Haven.” Lauren reveals. “Works for me. We just need to make sure we get what we came for before we go.” Tat says. Lauren types “FUSION” into the search bar on the computer. “Here we go. Apparently, FUSION was a military project. It says here that the U.S government came across a hidden alien race, and managed to take several samples of their blood. After that, they came up with a plan to inject government operatives with the blood samples to give them characteristics of the alien race, and of course, to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. Oh, here is where the WPA become relevant. The government signed Project FUSION over to the WPA, and ordered them to finish developing it. According to this, the WPA tested FUSION on one of their operatives, but once a person was injected with it, they would lose control over their actions, and start acting like a rabid animal. One subject alone killed seventeen agents, before the WPA could subdue and kill them. After the incident, the WPA decided they would need to perfect the process before they could start injecting their agents with FUSION, and sending them into the field.” Lauren says. “What else does it say?” Tat asks. “Before the WPA could perfect FUSION, someone stole it for themselves.” Lauren reads. “It had to have been The Master! Does it say anything about how to stop the FUSION things?” Tat asks. “The document says that those FUSION things are called hybrids, and no, it doesn’t say anything about how to stop them.” Lauren says. “So what are we suppose to do to stop them?” Tat asks. Before they can figure out how to proceed, a voice can be heard over the intercom, as an alarm rings in the background. “ATTENTION AGENTS. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THEIR ARE INTRUDERS INSIDE THE BUILDING. I REPEAT, INTRUDERS HAVE BREACHED THE PERIMETER!”