BEGINNING OF STORY
PREVIOUS (PART 12)

Doug awoke to a sharp slap to his face. “Wake up! What are you, drugged?”
Standing above him was the beautiful but perturbed Charlene. It took a moment for Doug to get his bearings and remember where he was. He made a motion to get up, fell off the sofa to the ground, and then successfully got to his feet. “So was I lying here all night?”
Charlene shrugged. “I don’t know; I wasn’t watching you all night. Do you sleepwalk or something?”
Doug considered how to explain his concern and settled on the easy out. “Never mind.”
Somehow, the abandoned office building looked even drearier now that he could see it better in the sunlight. Amongst the broken desks sat Bryce and Lulu looking over plans for the upcoming mission. “Do we know what we’re doing yet?” Doug asked.
Lulu frowned. “It’s still being debated.”
Bryce glared at Charlene. “One of us doesn’t seem to be happy with any plan that doesn’t involve killing everyone within a five mile radius of the research building.”
Charlene took a seat at the table. “It’s a matter of time. We can plan an implement a night time raid and be back in time for our regular military duty. It will require killing all the guards in the building, but why should that be a problem?” She turned to Lulu. “Anyway, if we’re gone more than a couple days, we’ll be listed as AWOL, Lulu, and then there will be no going back when you realize how idiotic this is.”
Bryce laughed. “Like there is anything more idiotic than walking back into the meat grinder that is the Proserpine military when you have another option. That’s why I trashed my place: the government will find it easier to declare me dead than expend any resources trying to figure out what happened.”
Lulu looked unsure. “I would like to keep my options open. Maybe I can fake my death later.”
Bryce leaned back in his chair. “Well, when you two girls want, just tell me what kind of deaths you girls want and I know some people who can fake it for you.”
Doug took a chair between Bryce and Charlene. “Can I have a cool death?”
“You don’t need one, Doug. Remember what it says on the front of your official file?”
Doug thought for a moment. “‘Burden to Society.'”
Bryce nodded. “You disappear, people would actually get in trouble for wasting time asking questions about it.” He turned to Lulu. “So, do you want a bloodbath, or do you want to do this smart?”
Lulu looked at Bryce and then Charlene. “Is there anyway we could do some sort of compromise on these ideas?”
Doug decided it was his time to contribute. “Instead of killing everyone, maybe we could just kill half the people there.” A better idea then struck Doug. “Or we could half-kill all the people!”
The three others stared at Doug for a moment and then turned back to each other. “I think we can just walk in there during the day, take the hard drive, and walk out before anyone is the wiser,” Bryce said. “We don’t need to over plan it; we all know how bureaucracy works in all the nations these days, and there’s plenty there to exploit. All we need is a little cunning and a little acting skill.”
Lulu smiled. “I always wanted to be an actress. This could be fun!”
Charlene scowled. “And if it doesn’t work out as planned?”
“Then we’ll do your ‘kill everybody’ plan,” Lulu said. “We’ll call it ‘Plan S’ for Charlene.”
“My name starts with a ‘C’.”
Lulu rolled her eyes. “But it makes an ‘s’ sound, so I’m calling it ‘Plan S’ so it’s less confusing. Now that we know how we’re attacking this mission, I think what we really need is a motto for our mercenary group. Something catchy so people will remember Hellbender for all their hired guns needs.”
Charlene scanned a digital layout of a floor of the research building which looked to have guard locations. “Lulu, we don’t need to waste time coming up with a stupid motto.”
“I say we need a motto and I’m the leader!” Lulu pounded the table with her fist.
“Fine. How about ‘Death Before Dishonor’?”
Lulu thought about it. “I don’t like having ‘death’ in it; too morbid.”
“‘Stays Crunchy in Milk’,” Bryce suggested.
Lulu did not look the least bit amused. “Am I the only one taking the mercenary group seriously?”
“I’d try and come up with a motto,” Doug said, “but I only know how to come up with slogans.”
“Great. I guess I’ll come up with a motto.” Lulu wrote on notepad. “Who wants to design our logo?”
Charlene sighed. “I really think we should devote our time to planning and not getting killed, Lulu.”
The two women began to bicker, and Doug decided it was a good time to try and talk privately to Bryce. He got up, tapped Bryce on the shoulder, and led Bryce away from the table. “I saw Stan again last night! He said we’re going to run into the Fallen on this mission, and I need to find a sacred weapon to fight them with or we’ll all die!”
Bryce quietly stared at Doug for a couple seconds before he finally said, “Everyone these days seems to have to go at least a little insane to cope with this world, but what I always liked about you is you just compensated by being dull-witted.” Bryce put his hand on Doug’s shoulder. “Please don’t go insane, Dougie.”
“But I can’t help it!”
“What’s going on over there?” Charlene called out.
Bryce headed back to the table. “Doug’s completely insane. He was just telling me he thinks your both pretty and sweet, Charlene, which I find incomprehensible.”
“I can be sweet, you little rat!” Charlene shouted at Bryce. She then looked to Doug who was blushing bright red. “It’s nice of you to say that, but I can’t have relations with anyone I’m working with professionally.”
“Does anyone think I’m pretty and sweet?” Lulu asked hopefully.
Bryce took her hand. “I do.”
Lulu pulled her hand away. “Yeah… but I’m starting to think you’re creepy. Maybe you should stick to hitting on hired goons.”
Bryce wasn’t able to hide he was a bit hurt by the slight. “Anyway, we’re going to need some supplies to get past the Asmod border and into the base. Luckily, I know where a black market is and we have our five thousand credits to spend.”
Lulu shot to her feet. “Shopping is part of this job! Being a mercenary is soooo much better than being in the military!”
“It’s not like we’re going to be buying handbags,” Charlene said.
“Well, we’ll see what’s on sale.” Lulu raced to the exit. “Come on!”
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