Orso Fiction 003

Orso Fiction 003- Zombie Inconvenience
It was the year 2010, in the town of Eldersburg. On the surface, everything appeared normal. It was a lovely autumn day, slightly after seven. However, under Century High School, things were all but ordinary. It was there that the Orso Family had constructed their headquarters. Only a few members were ever in the building at once, but it was agreed by all of them that the base was amazing. Each member had their own office, and there was a virtual reality simulation where members could test their combat skills for real missions. A variety of other facilities dotted the impressive subterranean base, but for now, our focus is on the office of Nick Seese.

The boy was the Second Generation's Storm Varia Officer, a fancy title denoting that he belonged to the second generation of the leaders of the mafia family, was one of the seven most powerful members of the family's secret task force, and was a Storm-type, one of the seven elements a person could hold within them. Storms were traditionally the persistent, stubborn, reckless, or defiant members of the organization, but the element was given to them at birth, and impossible to change. Nick leaned forward in his chair, liking everything on Zach Stimely's Facebook Wall. When he finally hit "Zach Stimely joined Facebook", he leaned back and smiled contently. It had been a productive night. He looked over and saw Tatsu, his mongoose, chewing on an incredibly rare and endangered species of cobra. The Orso's best minds had put together a system called a Box Animal. They were animals held within small boxes, stored as energy. When the box was unlocked with the user's willpower, the animal would emerge. Some were used purely for combat, but Nick had grown attached to Tatsu, and rarely kept him in the box. Suddenly, a call on his desk phone startled him. He picked up the phone.

"Nick Seese speaking"

"Nick, good, I got ahold of you.” came Zach's voice. "There's a problem."

"What is it, sir?” Nick asked, growing concerned. If Zach said there was a problem, it was serious.

"I'm currently at my sister's swim meet, being a good big brother."

"Oh, I'm so sorry.” Nick said, sympathizing

"That's ...that's not the problem. I just received an urgent call from Cockley. He says that it’s finally happened. The time we've been planning for has arrived."

"No kidding.” Nick said, smiling a little bit. "Where at?"

"Where else? Gather a crack team, and get there to fix the problem immediately."

"Yes, sir", he said, hanging up the phone. "Tatsu! Get ready to go hunting!"

The mongoose, in its little mongoose way, smiled up at him, creepily. It understood him perfectly. He knew what he was going to eat that night.

Zombies.

Nick walked out of his office, having looked up the roster of who was available. At this late, only five members were left in the building. He smiled at who else was on the list. It would be a good night, with very good company.

He walked into the office of Nathaniel Mercer, another Storm-type, like him, but four years his senior. He hadn't talked to the man much, but Zach insisted that he was a paragon of masculinity. Nick immediately saw that this was the case. Nate was lying back on his couch playing with a Wiimote with one hand, eating a pile of buffalo wings bigger than himself with another, and flipping through a copy of Testosterone Monthly with another hand. Nick double-checked his math after that last sentence, found it made no sense, and didn't care.

"Nicholas Seese!” the man loudly declared. "What can I do for you? Have a seat!"

"There's no time, I'm afraid.", Nick said, marvelling at just how many medals and trophy belts were on the man's wall. Only half of them were actually earned, and not something Nate had made when he was especially pleased with himself, but it was still an impressive display. Nick walked past a wall full of silver "Tiger Punching Olympics" medals, suprisingly and horrifyingly not handmade. "There's a mission from Zach. A pack of the undead has sprung up around Eldersburg, and it’s our job to get them to be redead."

"Al-RIGHT!” Nate shouted, pumping his fist. This action caused, somewhere, a volcano to erupt."Where are they?"

"Where do MOST soulless monsters spend their days?", Nick asked, as Tatsu began rifling through a pile of men's magazines Nate left stacked to the ceiling in the corner. He would later swear he was only reading them for the articles.

"I thought so.", Nate said with a sage nod. "Wal-Mart, of course."

"Indeed. Now we've got three more members to gather, so put some pants on."

Nick and Nate sauntered down the hallway, both wearing the sunglasses Nate had brought for them, for the sole purpose of looking like badasses. Nick rapped on the door of the next member on the list. It was already open, so it creaked further, and more rockabilly music blasted out at them.

C.J Benoit was another man Nate's age, but Nick had known him for much longer. He was a Sun-type, reserved for the honest, direct, and straightforward members. The man turned to face the two who walked, having grown bored of sauntering, into his office.

"Howdy, you two!", C.J exclaimed, using his typical, friendly dialect that no author can really do justice to without a lot of practice, so no one should be angry at an author who fails at doing so. "What's all this about?"

"It's 'who' this is about, that is the better question.” Nick said.

"Really? I think 'what' is good as it was.", Nate replied to him, as Tatsu began dancing to the music playing from C.J's computer, riding on the top of a model train the man had set up.

"What, are you saying that just because they're zombies, they're not people?” Nick asked.

"Exactly. I think if a person dies, and then something gets them walking around again, then they've already lost their status as a person, and are now simply animated corpses.", Nate explained.

"Then was Ash Ketchum a zombie after the first Pokemon movie?"

"See, that's totally different. He was restored to life, back to perfect condition. I'm saying that a zombie, the kind we're all planning to fight in Wal-Mart, are now just walking sacks of meat, who are more animal than people."

"That's all well and good, but how do we know that zombies aren't really just people who are controlled by what Sigmund Freud called the id? Death caused their bodies to decay, but a third of their mind, their primal urges, came to control the entire body. In this case, the zombies crave brains, so they hunt down other people. They can't help it, much like a young child can't help reaching for candy."

"You make an excellent point, and you've opened my eyes and mind. I find myself more tolerant of zombies and their culture now. Thank you, for imparting your wisdom on me, so that I may be less discriminatory toward the undead."

"Alright!” C.J eagerly declared as he grabbed his biggest hat, a little hurt that he had only said one thing during their entire time in his office. "Now let's go kill some!"

"So who all is on this list?” C.J asked, as they walked down the hallway to the fourth office. Nick had resumed sauntering, while Nate had taken to taking one step, then hurling himself at the ground into a push-up.

"Another old friend of yours, comrade.", Nick said, opening the door. The girl was fast asleep, muttering something about how those damn actors should stop being such idiots.

"Mary Reiter!” Nate and C.J exclaimed, causing her to jump in alarm.

"Yes. It was on the door. You two really shouldn't be this surprised.” Nick sighed.

"What do you guys want?", Mary asked.

"If I told you, hypothetically, that there were zombies in Wal-Mart, would you want to come fight them with us?” Nick asked.

"Yes.", she responded.

There was a moment of silence.

"That wasn't really hypothetical.", Nick said, a bit slowly.

"Oh. Now, why exactly am I here?"

"In the Family's secret base?"

"Yes."

"Well, because you're a member."

"I don't remember ever signing up for it."

"Yeah, Zach just kind of drafted all his old favorite upperclassmen into it, and didn't tell any of them."

"Wow. What a jerk."

"Yeah, he's kind of lame. If it’s any consolation, he told me he was writing a cool story with you as a major character."

"Alright, that's fine. I guess I'm cool with this, then. Now...it’s time for Stime Time..."

"You...you don't say that. That's my job, I'm the leader."

"Who says?” C.J asked, as Tatsu climbed on top of Mary's head and began to nap.

"I...I've been the main character since the beginning. I just kind of assumed..."

"You're four years younger than all of us.” Nate said. "You haven't punched a SINGLE tiger in your life."

"I..I...has SHE?"", Nick asked hurriedly, trying to change the topic.

Mary smiled and opened her desk drawer, revealing a pile of gold "Tiger-Punching Olympics" medals. Nate growled a bit when he saw them, but Mary silenced him with a glare that said "I will punch you", in every language. Nate only understood it in English and a little bit in Spanish, and thought the accent was a little funny in Russian, but he got quiet all the same.

"I...I...let's just go.” Nick said.

Nick and the three he had found were walking down the hall. Nick was experimenting with strutting, C.J was singing something about a train and doing a little dance to accompany it, Nate was shadowboxing with an imaginary army of tigers, already excited for next year's finals, and Mary was, for some reason, checking her reflection in a handheld mirror, as if she didn't know she was incredibly good-looking.

Nick rapped on the fifth door, hoping it wouldn't be another absolute lunatic. A very short, yet pretty girl opened it, and smiled at him.

"Hello!” she said cheerfully. "Is this about the zombies?"

"Um...yes.” Nick said. "But how did you know about them?"

"Oh, don't be silly! I'm the one who wrote in the newsletter about how the zombie apocalypse would start at Wal-Mart today.” she said, still smiling.

"We already knew about this ahead of time?” CJ whispered to Nate.

"We have a NEWSLETTER?” Nate whispered back.

The girl's smile dimmed a little bit, causing an angel to lose its wings. Tatsu snuck behind her and typed some crude cobra-related jokes into the draft of her next article.

"The newsletter. "The Bear Paw". You're telling me none of you read it?"

"Um....no....” Nick said, realizing that Tatsu had been taking them before he got a chance to read them. That lying mongoose! He said there was only ever junk mail!

Mary stepped out from behind the boys.

"Of course I read it, Miss Liz Howard. I'm the editor-in-chief. I thought that article was fantastic.” she said. The smile returned to Liz's face, and that angel that had lost its wings got them back, and met a really nice girl angel that shared a lot of his interests.

"Alright, that's all five of us.” Nick said. "Are we all ready to head out?"

Everyone nodded or otherwise agreed.

"Alright. Then, it’s time for-"

"It's time for Stime Time!", Mary declared, and walked ahead of Nick toward the secret exit.

"That sounded so cool!” Liz squealed, skipping after her. C.J and Nate shrugged, and followed the girls. Nick sighed as Tatsu walked up next to him.

"At least YOU respect me.", Nick said to the little animal. Tatsu responded by yawning at him, then dashing after Nate, who had pulled a plate of ribs out of seemingly thin air.

The five used the secret exit, which led them to directly under the stage. Nick pulled on the trapdoor, and headed from the auditorium to the student parking lot. From there, Liz drove them, using the Family car, always parked in the student lot, a white Mazda Millenium 7, a car of Zach's own design, which ran on Dying Will Flames, the same energy that powered Box Animals. They pulled into Wal-Mart's parking lot, and Liz parked.

"Now, here's the plan-", Nick began.

"Let me stop you right there, man. I've lived my whole life excited for the idea of being the first man to fight an army of zombies. You're not ruining that dream. I'm fighting them how I want to.” Nate interrupted. Everyone else nodded their agreement, even Tatsu.

"Whatever.", Nick grumbled.

"So, we're all going to split up, so we can get cool fights in, and occasionally team up to look even cooler?", Liz asked.

"Sounds good here.” C.J said.

"Alright, let's go!", Mary shouted, and they all scrambled out of the car. They charged to the front doors, which Nate crushed with the force of his tackle. Immediately, they heard rustling all over the store.

"Dibs on electronics!” Nate shouted, dashing off.

"Clothing!” Mary called, already on her way there.

"Office supplies!” Liz said cheerfully, skipping off.

"Food!” C.J yelled, in a full run.

"Um...Art supplies?” Nick said slowly, to no one in particular, and began the slow walk to the back of the building.

Nick passed by C.J, who was facing down a zombie with his bare fists, and winning handily, then by Nate who was hard at work building something. He reached art supplies, and pulled his two emici from his Varia jacket. He slipped one bladed, ring-like weapon on each hand. The one on his left hand erupted in purple Cloud-type flames. Nick was a rarity in that he could use more than one type of flame, though he was much more proficient at Storm flames, which his right hand's emici burst into. He began tearing through packs of zombies with no trouble. He heard a loud crash, and noticed that Mary had knocked down every display of clothing in the store simultaneously, allowing her to see every zombie in the area. She noticed Nick looking, and grinned, cheerfully kicking a zombie to pieces. She pulled out her own Box and ring, and ignited the ring in light blue Rain-type flames. Rain-types were the gentle, soothing, calm members. The concept of a Rain type being a better tiger-puncher than Nate confused and terrified Nick, but he watched as she released a tiger, burning with the same blue flames, from her Box.

"Alright, Rocky. Let's go.” Mary said. The tiger growled its approval, and pounced on the nearest zombie. Nick turned to Tatsu, who was fingerpainting, and sighed. He turned to Liz, who had just thrust a Sun-flame ignited ring from her Box, releasing a beautiful white swan, its wings tipped with yellow, sparkling flames. The noble bird flapped once, launching the yellow flames, and the zombies it was facing fell to the ground. Nick remembered that Sun flames sped up any kind of process if it hit it with enough force. The flames had likely sped up the decay of the bodies. It was horribly gruesome, and Nick was a little jealous. Suddenly, a terrible roar alerted him to directly behind him. Nate ran past him, carrying two horrible, horrible machines consisting of a two kayak paddles duct taped together in an "X", and twelve chainsaws, three duct taped to each end. It amazed Nick that the man was able to carry that much weight, and even more so that he hadn't thought one chainsaw would be enough, and had chosen to wield twenty-four.

"Why aren't you in prison yet!?” he shouted after him, speaking for everyone who knows Nate at all. Nick turned to see C.J beating zombies to death his his hat.

"That's it. Tatsu, it’s time to get serious. Cambio Forma!", he told his mongoose.

Cambio Forma was the term for the special ability a Box Animal of Tatsu's caliber could use, in which they transformed into a weapn of their own. Tatsu began to glow red, and morphed into its slingshot form.

"Ciclone Predatore!", he called, announcing the name of the new form to the world, as if it was listening, and not filled with zombies who were hunting him. He effortlessly launched bullets of Storm flames into the zombies, which burnt them to cinders instantly. In animal form, Tatsu had no special strength, but in this form, with the speed and accuracy with which Nick could release bullets, coupled with the relatively little effort it took to launch them, the little beast was quite formidable.

"That's a neat trick.” Nate called, watching him alongside C.J.

"Thanks. Where's your...things?"

"I decided the Super-Manly-Death-Paddles weren't quite manly enough for me.", he explained, and Nick nodded, understanding where he was coming from.

"But now, we figure it’s a good time to show you why they call the two of us....The Bull Brothers...", C.J said, pulling a yellow box from his pocket as Nate pulled a red one from his. They both released a bull, burning in their respective colors.

"That's why they call you the Bull Brothers? Because you both use bulls?"

"Yeah. Actually, no one calls us that. We just decided it was a cool name.” Nate said. "Dick! We're doing THAT!"

"You heard him, Jimmy!” C.J called to his own. The two bulls nodded in understanding, and began to run a large circle around a large pack of zombies, each on opposite sides. They continued to run circles, trapping the zombies inside, until they stopped in their tracks and charged at each other. They locked horns, causing an explosion of red and yellow flames that totally obliterated the zombies, as well as Nick's previous conceptions about what "manly" meant.

"We call that the TestosteRodeo", Nate said with a big grin.

"That's pretty weak, boys!” Mary called. She grinned at the zombie hoard walking toward her, took a deep breath in and out, and then moved her left fist in a flurry of punches, none of which hit any zombies. Rain flames flew from her fists and collided with the zombies, causing them to slow down considerably, as Rain flames did. Once the zombies were totally paralyzed, she jutted out her right fist, the sheer air pressure of her punch disintegrating the undead creatures.

"Damn her...” Nate murmured. "That's what she did to win the Tiger Punching Olympics...The 'Frozen Torrent Fist'. Nothing escapes it once she's started it..."

Nick stumbled away, blown away with the power of the graduates. He saw that only LIz had zombies around her yet.

"Um..uh...want help?", he asked, sheepishly.

"No!” she called back, dancing around the zombies elegantly. She grinned at her swan. "Keep it up, Rory!"

"Oh...I..I..just thought you might need help..."

"Why?"

"Well, you're kinda...small....I just thought-"

"SMALL!?” Liz fumed. Nick knew instantly he had made a mistake. Liz grabbed two staplers from the shelf next to her, burnt off the wrapping with her yellow flames, and began to use them to club the zombies into submission. For the ones not directly around her, she launched flaming staples at from a distance. Those that were hit felt just as fast as the ones that she had clubbed. Nick feared she was coming after him, and the zombies were just in her way.

After Liz finished her rampage, the five looked around, and saw no more zombies.

"I wonder how they got here in the first place...” Nick wondered aloud.

Liz smiled, remembering what Zach had told her:

"He's getting too proud. I'm going to assign you with him to make sure he knows that he's still got room for improvement. I figure planting some zombies in Wal-Mart would do the trick. Take whoever you want, but these three here have nothing better to do tomorrow night..."

"Who knows, Nick?” she asked cutely. "I guess we'll just have to keep getting stronger to make sure we can handle it if it happens again."

"I guess so", Nick sighed, and the three graduates smiled.

Later that night, Nick leaned back on his office's couch, Tatsu curled up beside him, happily chewing his cobra.

"I get it, Zach. I don't like it, but I see what you did, and I guess you're right...I'll make you proud. I'll carry your dream on my back until the day I stop drawing breath."

Tatsu yawned and purred in a way that Nick had come to understand as well as he did English.

"Yeah, you're right, Tatsu. We should totally watch Bleach tonight."

--

Next -->