Mission Critical [The Edward Alphonzo Story]

[Anonymous]

Edward's head pounded as he walked down the streets of Ketra. This sudden time and place warp was enough to make his head feel as if it were to crack in half. No bullet in the world could equal to the pain that a giant headache..migraine..could deliver.

..Damn that man, damn him. How could he let himself fall for a mere human, a Zionite no less. Agent Grey, Pace, and even Reigne herself were bound to be on his case for this one. He knew what Reigne would do if she found out...She would kill him. Without hesitation no less.

Reigne and he had this strange sort of bond. One that would make others question if they were trully partners to begin with. If Dillsbury ever slipped up, Reigne would kill him. And if Reigne ever slipped up, Dillsbury would kill her. No questions asked. No requests needed.

Though now, the hard part would be getting back to the Mega City..after he did that, then he could explain to Reigne the reason for his falling to the hands of a Zionite.

"Well, atleast the air is alot cleaner here than in the Mega City....no trash smells...no ghettorific ass smells...just clean, fresh air." Dillsbury continued to walk, breathing deep. "Now time to figure out just what Xxerth wants me to do for him..."

Dillsbury didn't know how else to get in touch with Xxerth..perhaps his Verizon phone does work afterall. Perhaps he will call. Or just maybe that bastard will show his face in this time and place. Edward knew that if Xxerth did, he would not hold back on him, he would kill him. Edward had no tolerance for Zionites when they crossed him, treaty or not, he would not fall to one and let them live to tell about it.

Dillsbury's first order of business, however, was to find out just when and where he is.

[Anonymous]

Soon enough, a blonde-haired man wearing sunglasses and a black robe with a red sash walking against the crowd shifted his way through it and purposely bumped into Dillsbury's shoulder to get his attention. He stopped a step past the man and spoke without turning around, "Mr. Alphonzo... Right on time. Xxerth appreciates punctuality. Now then, walk this way if you wish to know more about your situation."
Without even an introduction of his own person, the man made a 'follow me' motion and continued down the street.

[Anonymous]

Dillsbury, shocked by the bump, was ready enough to take the blonde haired man's head off. Damn. That smarts.

This Xxerth better have damn good reason for having such prick associates. Although, there wasn't much he could say, Agent Grey had the exact same thing. After all, Edward himself was an arrogant prick and with his other half Reigne, they were beyond arrogant pricks. So beyond that the term "arrogant prick" would be a low understatement.

Dillsbury followed the man, regardless of how he felt..however, he mumbled a few things under his breathe as he walked...

[Anonymous]

The man, known by his codename "The Instigator", led Dillsbury to a rather nondescript, small building wedged inbetween two similarly small shops. He stepped to the side of the front door and motioned toward the knob, saying to Dillsbury, "This is it, Mr. Alphonzo - your first step. If you can promise Xxerth your compliance, he can promise you a simple return back to Mega City. Of course, you need'nt do any of this at all... You can still walk away if you think you can survive on your own in an unknown land and time. Open the door... or simply walk away. That choice is yours to make; we won't force you either way."

[Anonymous]

Edward stood for a moment, thinking of his options and what he wanted to do. He wanted to walk away..walk away from all of this and not even look at the bastard but, if he did, he knew he wouldn't be able to get home. He would have to stay in this land and time until he died...or until someone on the other side could figure a way to bring him back. Both were unlikely.

Edward gripped the handle and turned it slowly after taking a rather deep breathe. This was it..now or never.

Dillsbury walked into the room, looking at all of his surroundings before entering anymore. He then took a few more steps forward before letting go of the knob.

"Oh boy...here it goes..." He thought to himself, taking another deep breath.

[Anonymous]

<center>"'ELLO!!!!"</center>

Dillsbury was literally assaulted by a very small and quick blur with pink hair the instant he opened the door to its full extent. The blur, which turned out to a kid apparently, bear hugged him around his waist ferociously and was nuzzling her face into his stomach, all the while exclaiming, "T'ERE YOU ARE!!! YEAAAAAAA'!! YOU 'AVE NO IDEA 'OW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING AROUND FOR YOU, NEO!!! I WAS LIKE W'OA!! W'ERE COULD 'E BE!! BUT THEN, THIS GUY 'ERE SAID 'EY!!! I KNOW W'ERE NEO IS!!! AND I WAS LIKE W'OA!! REALLY!?!? AND 'E WAS LIKE YEA"!!! AND I WAS LIKE YAAAAAAY!! AND-"
She finally looked up at Dillsbury's face, the biggest grin that simply embodied the word 'Glee' on her own face...and froze in that pose for a few seconds...
Then, after realizing that this wasn't the man that she was looking for, she actually climbed on top of Dillsbury and launched herself from the back of his head toward Instigator, grabbing two fistfuls of his robes and exclaiming as she clung to him, "'Ey! You said t'at Neo was coming 'ere!! T'at's not Neo!! 'ello!! Come on! W'ere's Neo!? Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on! Tell me!! Please!!!!"
Instigator smirked a little and replied to the hyper little thing, "Don't worry, soon enough you'll have what you seek. For now, why don't you go back inside and have a seat with Mr. Alphonzo?"

[Anonymous]

Dillsbury, shocked at the sudden hyper active ten year old, almost had a heart attack from the massive hello. Good lord what was this girl? He could tell by her energy that she was not a machine. She seemed like a Zionite....another damned Zionite.

He was getting sick of this treaty, or being on peaceful terms with them. And not only that, she was speaking of The One. One of the only people to ever cross Zero One's lines. However, he did not live to tell about it. Not only that, there were so many secrets that could be revieled by the slipping of Edward's tongue.

"So, you're looking for the one are you dear girl?" Dillsbury turned around, almost annoyed when the little girl jumped off of him, it reminded him too much of Reigne and him fighting against each other. "I've seen Neo before, quite the human."

Dillsbury noticed the seats before him and decided to take one. Better to sit down now and get this over with. "Yes, come join me dear.."

[Anonymous]

Virus jumped down from her perch on Instigator's torso and roughly put her hands on her hips, saying in an awfully 'huffy and puffy' manner, "Alrite! Alrite! But remember! Remember! Remember! You promised me! You promised me! Alrite, I'm going in now Mr. Creepy Enigmatic Man! Bye!"
As Virus pranced into the building, Instigator leaned in and explained to the duo of Dillsbury and her, "Wait here, and Xxerth shall arrange contact with you momentarily." With that, Instigator backed out of the building and closed door.
Virus did a front hand-spring into the other chair in the rather plain building. In fact, the two chairs and the small table in front of them were the only pieces of furniture inside the place's wooden interior.
And she was actually sort of calm... for all of about two seconds until Dillsbury casually mentioned that he had met this man that she was looking for. She took in a large breath of air akin to a jet plane readying for takeoff and replied excitedly, "You did!?! You did - you did - you did - you did!! Woooooooooooooooooooooow!! Well, w'at'd 'e tea't you? 'uh? 'uh? W'at'd 'e tea't you? 'uh? I know 'e must 'ave taug't you some AWESOME moves, ri'te? Ri'te - ri'te - ri'te??? Ri'te!!! So, w'at'd 'e tea't you! I wanna know! I wanna know!"

[Anonymous]

(God if he weren't a machine...lol)

Dillsbury's eyes almost shut tight as the little hyper thing replied. My god, how could someone take such punishment. Since he had a human brain, he had the pains of trying to piece together exactly what the little girl was saying.

"Well, he wasn't exactly in the area to teach...so to say..." Dillsbury began, thinking about what should and shouldn't be said. "He was there more to speak..."

Dillsbury found it hard to tell the little one just what Neo was trully there to do. He knew, just as all the other Machines and Machine Initiates knew that Neo was there to sacrifice his life for the safety of Zion....for now atleast.

Dillsbury was on guard, however, he did feel somewhat of a safe vibe coming from within this room. Besides, if anything were to happen, he knew his Kung Fu would buy him some time to set up a defense.

"Just when is...Xxerth....supposed to show himself?"

[Anonymous]

The blindfolded girl clasped her hands together and made some quick twirling motions with her upper body. "Really! 'e said somethin'!? Wow! You must be really, really cool!! So! W'at'd 'e say? I wanna know! I wanna know!" Virus's head turned ever so slightly and she noticed the only other thing in the entire building. "OOOOOOOOO'!! TABLE!!!"
In a very sudden and definitely random act, she sprung out of her chair and landed on the table, wrapping her arms around it like she was hugging it. Apparently, the girl had a rather small and/or sporadic attention span.
!!!!
The door was thrown open and a new man with short black hair, a blue baseball cap, and shades loudly entered into the building. He took two steps in and swung the door shut again, greeting the two curtly with a short sentence, "Sup, bitches. The name's Clark."
Virus sprung up onto her feet on top of the table, pointed at the man, and exclaimed back at him, "'EY!!"
He took a few more steps forward, put his hands into his pockets and looked at the girl on the table. "You mind gettin' off the merchandise?"
Boggled would have been a great word to describe the expression on Virus' face. "Merc'andise?"
"Yeah," said Clark as he made a shooing motion, closely followed with a finger pointing back to her vacant seat. "I'm about to get Xxerth on the line."
Virus tossed her right hand up into the air as her body went rigid, and she replied with a happy, "'KAY!!" before she backflipped back into her seat.
Clark scratched the side of his face as his eyes trailed over to the other person in the room, "Dillsbury. The man of the hour, I presume. Havin' fun so far?"

[Anonymous]

Dillsbury let out an annoyed breath. Sure, he could lie. He could say he's having just absolute fun being away from the Mega City. Though the latter part being true, he wasn't having as much fun since his partner and best friend Reigne was not with him.

"It'll be better once I come in contact with Xxerth again." Dillsbury let out while getting comfortable in his seat. "How do you suppose this will happen, via hardline?"

Thoughts of his Verizon phone began coursing their way through his head, wondering if it would actually work. Perhaps he would try after he talked to Xxerth. He had to contact Reigne, by any means neccessary.

But for now, it was just best to take things one step at a time.

[Anonymous]

As Clark rummaged around in his pockets some more, he smirked in replied to Dillsbury, "Not feasible around here, you dirty bitch. Instead, we gotta improvise. See, you'll be finding out that this place isn't what you're used to real soon. We like to think of it as a new land, a land of opportunity... see what I'm saying. Xxerth decided to relocate his interests here... and all he needs is a few helping hands. After that, you can go back to your bitch-ass Mega City, no questions asked. We might even give ya a postcard to remember us by."
Clark finally located the item that he sought and grasped it. He withdrew said item and placed it on the table in front of the two chairs; and the item just happened to look like a magic '8' ball.
"Oooooo... w'at's dat?" Virus asked inquisitively, leaning forward to 'peer' at the object a little more closely.
"Oh shit, almost forgot." Clark picked up the 8-ball and shook it around in his hand some, answering the girl as he did so, "Just think of it as a phone. In a moment, you'll be hearing Xxerth's voice."
When he was satisfied with the amount of effort he had put into shaking the ball, Clark laid it back down on the table. After a second, a small and eerie blue light lit up on it and a slight crackling could be heard.
Then the one and only:
"Ah, Dillsbury and Virus. What a team," came the voice of Xxerth from the ball. "Just when I had few chores to get done... great timing. So, how you doin'?"
"'ello!" Virus piped up excitedly at the magic ball.

[Anonymous]

Dillsbury very gently pulled Virus back from the ball so that he could get a look at it. Studying it, he wondered how on earth that would connect him to Xxerth. But, alas, Xxerth was a man of genuis. So much so that it caused him to become a bastard. A very evil bastard.

Once Xxerth spoke, Dillsbury almost sprang up from his seat.

"I'll be doing better once  you tell me what in the hell you want from me." Dilslbury did his best to keep his cool but, it was obvious that he was heating up. "So cut right to it."

[Anonymous]

Xxerth, like any one who had the upper hand might be well inclined to do, gloated over that fact by doing the exact opposite of what Dills demanded, "Oh, you sound a little frustrated. Rough day at the office, maybe? How 'bout a nice game of pool to come you down some there, Dillsbury?"
"T'ere's a pool 'ere!?" Virus eagered glanced around the room, despite its rather obvious abandoned state, in search of the mysterious 'pool'.
Clark smirked, then reached into his pocket and tossed another candy-like delectable into his mouth.
"Precious..." purred Xxerth in reaction to Virus. Then, back to Dillsbury, "So, Edward. Wait, do you even like being called Edward? Perhaps you like Ed better? Mr. Ed? Or maybe just Dillsbury will suffice for now. In spite of your preferences, though - Edward, so how have things been going with you and your esteemed partner in crime? No, let me guess: Dreadful, right? Dreadful now, at least... but how about a little before that, hmm? I really don't think I did much harm to your partnership... I heard a rumor or two here and there that you two were actually breaking apart somewhat. You know the deal - you stop telling her things, she stops telling you things, you stop 'hanging out' together - that sort of thing. That true, or have I just been a victim of some healthy gossip?"

[Anonymous]

Dillsbury sighed heavily...he knew that Xxerth had been right. But, how? How could Xxerth have known that Reigne and he were going through hard times? Had they been closely watched?

".......What do you want me to do?" Dillsbury asked, holding back his frustrations. "Just name it and I'll get on with it."

Dillsbury was very familiar with all types of missions..Escorting, Assassination, Delivery, all of them were his specialty. All of them brought him fat sums of money. Enough money to better himself......and better his partnership with Reigne.

Sure, money doesn't buy happiness but, it brought a smile to Reignes face when she recieved her new outfits and often times her new guns. He loved watching her kill. Her Karate style was almost flawless. The times they spent sparring together were intense. Many a time where she almost kicked his head clean off.

Dillsbury could never use his full power on Reigne, especially with his kung fu. As most humans..he had the flaws of Fear and Worry. He worried that he would hurt her beyond repair and feared that she might kill him if he showed his full strength.