Orso Fiction 006

The Package (Red)
“I’m bored.”, Brittney said, for what may have been the fifth time.

“He won’t be too much longer.”, Sam offered, checking his phone, not believing it himself.

“It’s been an hour. It will be dark soon.”, the Second Generation Rain Guardian said with a sigh. “Also, I’m bored.”

“Now, how could someone be bored, with company like me around?”, Sam asked with a joking smile.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, Sam. You’re great company. But sitting on the roof of Century for a solid hour waiting for our pilot for this mission isn’t my idea of fun.”

“Yeah…Hey, do you remember his name?”

“Zach said it was Ted…Ted Jacobs. He’s another Sun, like you. Zach said he and Ted go way back.”

“Ted, that was it…Zach seemed pretty pleased that he’d have an excuse to let Ted fly someone somewhere, ever since he got his pilot’s license.”

“You know Zach. He can’t help but want to show off his family.”, Brittney said with a smile.

“At least the mission will be fun. Just a trip down to good old Italy, to pick some things up. It’ll be like a vacation.”, the Second Generation Sun Guardian said with a grin. “That’s worth the wait, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”, Brittney said, just as they began to hear the sound of a helicopter. It flew around them once, and hovered by the edge of the roof. The two grabbed onto the ladder the pilot threw out, and climbed aboard.

“Hey there! I’m Ted, and I’ll be your pilot this evening. Sorry about the delay. I lost track of time when I was with the techies, working on modifying Bear Force One. But now she moves harder, better, faster, and stronger than ever.”

“I’m Sam, and this is Britt.”, Sam said, shaking Ted’s hand. “You’re ready to set off?”

“Yes, sir! You two just make yourselves comfy in the back, and I’ll get you to the other side of the world in no time at all.”, Ted said with a smile.

Later, after night had fallen, Sam looked over at Britt, who had fallen asleep, and then out at the stars. He smiled, as he remembered all that had led him to this moment.

“Hey, Sam!”, Zach called. “Come over here a second.”

“What’s up, Zach?”, Sam asked. He looked at those who had gathered around him. Britt stood at Zach’s side, and CJ next to her. Cody and Ryan stood on Zach’s other side, while Eric sat in one of the auditorium’s chairs near him.

“Sam, you know how I lost the use of my legs?”, Zach began, and Sam began chuckling.

“It’s hard to miss!”, Sam said, laughing aloud. Zach rolled his eyes.

“Oh, shut up. Well, I’ve realized how far a person can go, if only they have people backing them. So…I formed a family. A mafia family.”

“A what now?”

“You heard me. A mafia family, called the Orso. Our only mission is to support the other members, and to spread world peace through that spirit of brotherhood.”

“You’re starting to sound a lot like Mrs. James, Zach.”

“Hahaha, I know how I sound. But are you in? Will you help us, help us fight for world peace?”

“Well, I already belong to a family. We’re the Brooks family.”, Sam said, not sure how to reply.

“The Brooks family, huh? Well, so you know…Jake’s a member of ours, too.”

“Jake joined you? Well, sign me up, then.”

“Fantastic. Oh, and, I hate to rush you, but there’s one more thing I’d like to ask…I’d like you to work alongside Conner, as one of his six Guardians. In every generation, the seven strongest members are the bosses, and his Guardians. You would be the Sun Guardian. That’s the one that can always be counted on, to strike immediately, to destroy the family’s obstacles with your own body. The honest and reliable sun, which incinerates enemies instantly.”

“This is all so weird…Alright, I’ll do it. I’ll be this family’s Sun Guardian for Conner. You can count on me.”

“I know that, Sam. It’s why I picked you in the first place.”

Sam chuckled a bit. He had had no idea that that decision would have led to a moment like this, back then.

“Anyone still awake back there?”, Ted asked, turning around in his chair.

“Yeah, one of us.”, Sam called back.

“Ah, alright. So I hear you two are pretty big deals, huh? Zach was speaking pretty highly about both of you when he gave me this mission.”

“Oh...Well, kind of…”, Sam said, a little embarrassed. Ted chuckled.

“Oh, don’t be modest. Ah, would you look at that, we’re almost there.”

Ted landed Bear Force One at the airport he had spotted from the sky, and rather than waking Brittney up, chose to carry her all the way to the hotel Zach had gotten them rooms at.

“Yeah…This is turning out really nice.”, Sam thought, eating some pie that had been left for them. “We pick the stuff up in the morning, and then spend the rest of the day playing around in Italy. What a great weekend.”

The next morning, Sam, Brittney, and Ted left to go collect the shipment. They entered the warehouse, and were greeted with an average-sized man with reddish hair and a large smile.

“Hello, hello!”, he called, with a distinct Italian accent, though speaking perfect English. “You are the Orso Family’s men, correct?”

“That’s us.”, Brittney confirmed.

“Good, good. Come on in. My name is Tammaro! Wonderful to meet you all! Your order is right down this path…”, he said, leading them down a flight of stairs, and to a giant room lined with safes. Now, before I give you the materials, I was told I had to ask you all for a certain passcode. Just to be safe, of course. Imposters could be around, and all. Your boss should have told you the code, did he not?”

“He did. The passcode is ‘Smiling kitten’.”, Sam said, still not quite believing how lame Zach’s password was.

“Man, I could really go for a cheeseburger right now.”, Ted said suddenly. Tammaro raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well, the restaurant next door makes a good burger, from what I’ve heard.”

Ted frowned, and nodded at Sam. Together, they lunged at him, pushing him to the ground.

“Our Boss said that we’d have to get a certain passcode out of you, too, before we trusted you. The real Tammaro would have said “I don’t know about all that, but the hardware store next door has some nice buckets.”, Brittney said, a little puzzled as to why on Earth Zach would have set this system up to be so…lame.

“I-I forgot it!”, Tammaro sputtered. “I didn’t get much sleep, alright?”

“Tammaro Ferraro, the son of the genius metalsmith for the Orso Family, and a brilliant mind of his own right, forgetting a passcode? Not likely. Even less likely is that same man not remembering that the REAL passcode was ‘The world is quiet here. There are no cheeseburgers to be had.”, Ted said. “Now, where is the real Tammaro?”

“Oh, you three are good!”, a voice from behind them called. They turned to see two women, one with long, wavy black hair, and one with long, straight, brown hair, fading into view from behind a cloud of indigo smoke. The real Tammaro was between them, tied to a chair and gagged. The one pretending to be Tammaro faded into a cloud of indigo smoke, and was replaced with a girl with short blond hair.

“Who are you three?”, Brittney asked them.

“Names aren’t important, dear. Your key to that safe, though, is.”, the brunette responded.

“You mean this?”, Ted asked, holding up a key with the number 703 on it. “The Orso’s safe here can’t really be worth all this trouble you ladies are causing.”

“Oh, but it is. You just lay that key on the ground, walk away, and everything will be fine.”, the black haired one replied.

“Oh, these three are spoiled…”, Sam said with a smile. “They think they can bully US.”

“If you won’t hand over the key, we can always take it off your bodies…”, the blond one suggested, smiling. In that moment, the two other women lunged at them. In surprise, Ted and Sam jumped off the blond girl, and assumed a fighting stance.

“This was all going so well, too.”, Sam thought, sighing.

“Two missions.”, Ted thought quickly. “Incapacitate the enemy, and rescue the hostage. Three to three. My allies are stronger than I am, so I should move myself to a position I can defend the hostage from, in case their last ace is to threaten him.

“Ready, Sam?”, Brittney called, pulling her blue Orso Box off her belt.

“You know it!”, Sam said, pulling his yellow Orso Box off his belt as well. They both ignited their rings and planted them inside the boxes. A shot of blue flames emerged from Brittney’s, and took the form of a baby jackal that barked twice at the women. A shot of yellow flames was released from Sam’s, and took the form of an elephant. The women smiled, drawing boxes of their own. The brunette carried a purple box, the blond carried an indigo box, and the black haired one carried a red box.

“Anubis!”, Brittney called. “Get ready! We’re getting serious right from the start!”

“Ra!”, Sam shouted to his animal. “Cambio Forma!”

The elephant began to glow yellow, and change its shape. Without any ceremony, it quickly flew to Sam, wrapping around his back, forming a jetpack, cannons reaching over Sam’s shoulders.

“Sostenitore Raggiante!”, he called. “This is why I’m the best support fighter in the entire Second Generation!”

He pointed his cannons at Anubis, who growled at the women, who had opened their boxes. In front of them stood three hyenas, one burning with purple Cloud flames, one in indigo Mist flames, and one in red Storm flames.

“Cloud! Mist! Storm! Attack the puppy!”, the black haired one called. The three dogs leapt at Anubis just as Sam’s cannons fired a ray of yellow flames at the dog. Upon impact, the dog began to glow an incredible yellow, and slowly began to grow.

“Anubis is special.”, Brittney remembered Zach telling her. “He’s just a puppy now, but this box will evolve just as you do. Well, all boxes do, really, respond to their master, but this one especially so. But, if you ever find yourself in a fight, have one of your allies, preferably a Sun flame user, to charge him full of energy. He’ll mature, temporarily, to fight for you. At his level right now, that power-up will only last three minutes, and then he’ll have to rest, so be careful with it.”

Suddenly, the three hyenas were smacked back to the women that had summoned them. Anubis stood before them, burning brightly with blue Rain flames. He jumped at the brunette, and pinned her to the ground. She smiled up at the dog, and faded into indigo flames. Brittney gasped, and quickly checked behind her, to see the girl leaping at Sam from behind him.

“Sam! Look out!”, she screamed, and Sam spun around, releasing a blast of Sun flame’s from Ra’s Cambio Forma. The girl fell to the ground, breathing, but still.

“Brittney, are we supposed to offer them an easy surrender right now?”, Sam asked.

“Well, they DID hold an innocent hostage.”, she replied, after thinking about it. “We have to take them back to Zach to see just who they are, at the very least.”

“If you’re trying to make us give up, you can forget it.”, the black-haired one said. “We won’t ever give up to you monsters.”

“Good. Easy surrenders are lame.”, Sam said with a smile. “But HEY. I’m not a monster!”

“All you Orso are! We won’t forgive you for what you’ve done to us.”, the blond growled.

“What we did to you?”, Brittney asked quietly. Mindful of Anubis’ waning energy, she returned him to his box.

“But it will all be fixed tonight. Once we get what’s in that safe…”, the blond trailed off.

“You don’t have a chance of beating us, you know.”, Ted said, tired of just watching.

“Oh, but we do.”, the black haired woman said with a smile, before vanishing in indigo smoke, reappearing behind Tammaro, a gun aimed at the back of his head. “All of you, throw all your boxes to the other side of the room, or he gets it. And you, the big one, hand me the key, nice and slow.”

Sam, growling, hesitated. Unequipping and returning Ra to his box would leave him much less well-armed. He was currently the best suited to fight, and wasn’t eager to abandon that. However, as he scanned the room, he locked eyes with Ted, who winked at him. Understanding, he did as the women told him to, and, along with Brittney and Ted, threw their boxes to the opposite side of the room. Ted, very slowly, handed the woman the key. She briskly walked to the safe, and opened it, removing a package wrapped in red paper.

“Alright, we got it. Let’s move out!”, she called to the blond one, who was helping the brunette, now conscious, to her feet. They dashed up the stairs, and Ted, after waiting a moment of silence, signaled to follow them. They collected their boxes, and raced up the stairs and out the warehouse door, in time to see Bear Force One hovering above the three.

“Those techies sure know what they’re doing, huh? I sent a signal for the chopper to get to us through autopilot right after we exposed the fake one. It’s had my voice telling them not to move, or it will shoot.”

“It can do that?”, Sam asked, incredulously.

“Sam, it’s the best helicopter in the Orso fleet. The answer to that question is basically always yes.”, Ted said, laughing. “Alright, ladies. Game’s over. Drop the package.”

“Not a chance!”, the one with black hair called. The Orso were distracted by the sound of motorcycles speed toward them. Visors covered their eyes, but it was clear from their bodies that the three drivers were all female. One wore a yellow helmet, one a green helmet, and one wore a blue helmet, with matching bikes, and a white driving suit. Each one grabbed one of the other women, helping them onto the backs of the bikes.

“We’ll meet you again, Orso!”, she called back to them.

Sam sat down, stunned.

“Did we..did we just lose?”, he asked.

“I don’t believe it…”, Brittney said sadly.

“Oh, no, you three did just fine.”, a voice from behind them said. They turned to see Tammero leaning against the warehouse door nonchalantly.

“Mr. Tammero! You’re alright!”, Brittney said, surprised.

“You’re better than alright…You got out of that on your own…”, Sam realized.

“You caught me…I got out of that one all by myself. I didn’t actually need the help to handle those three. You’ll have to forgive me, but I really wanted to see you three in action before I did anything. I can’t say I’m too disappointed.”, he said.

“But, they still got the package.”, Sam sighed.

“Not even close to it.”, Tammero said with a knowing smile, pulling an identical package from his jacket and handing it to Brittney. “This is the real one. Zach never told you the last step of the deceit, just to be safe, but after you said your codephrase, and I said mine, you would just show me the key, holding it in your teeth, and I would hand you the package. This way, we’d cut down on the danger of imposters or the key being stolen. They didn’t think to check me for the package, of course. They’re under the mistaken belief that just because a lock exists, the most valuable thing in the room will be behind it. Go on. Open it.”

Brittney slowly opened the package. Within was a chunk of red metal, and a letter addressed to Tammero. She handed the letter to the metalsmith, and he opened it and glanced over it. The man laughed.

“That dad of mine…Apparently, you guys are in a little bit of a bind. My old man says he wants all his sons to work together on making you the greatest weapons possible, so these Apostles are no match for you. But the way he worded it…Ooh, he knows how to get my blood boiling! I’ll take on his challenge. I’ll find the secret to this red metal for you! And I’ll craft your Storm Guardian the greatest weapon she’ll ever need!”

“This guy…”, Brittney thought. “ …is way more intense than I expected him to be…”

“Well, are we leaving, or what?”, Tammero asked. “I can’t wait to start working!”

“Alright, let’s head out.”, Ted said, motioning for all three of them to board the helicopter, which he had landed remotely. Before boarding, Sam looked to where the girls had driven off to.

“Just who were they?”, Sam wondered aloud. “And this weekend was going to be so relaxing…”

=364 Days Until The Attack= --

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