Geno's Adventure: Chapters 10 To 12

Chapter 10: Good-Bye, Torvald

         “So what’re you doing here?” Torvald asked “the necklace lady”.

         “Well, I didn’t come to chit-chat, unfortunately,” she replied in a less-than-polite tone.

         “Hey. Watch the less-than-polite tone,” Geno warned.

         “You can’t speak to my daughter like that, you little-“ the necklace lady’s father started, before being interrupted by his daughter.

         “Shut up, daddy!” she screeched, and her father looked beaten.

         Geno whispered to Zero, “wah-tch,” making a whip-cracking motion with his hand.

         “Now where was I… Oh, yeah. YOU CAN’T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! Get ‘em, daddy!”

         “Yes, sweetie…” he mumbled and fired a few shots with his crossbow.

         Geno instantly jumped in front of the Ministry and blocked all five arrows using his robotic arm.

         “Cripes,” the girl’s father mumbled, “you’d think it’d eventually break or something…”

         Geno looked at his arm and mumbled to himself, “Man. I sure hope this thing doesn’t eventually break or anything… The guy at the hospital didn’t specify how many arrows it could block. I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY.”

         “If you’re done mumbling, I’d like to kill you now,” the female of average attractiveness said at Geno, but to nobody in particular. Her aloof manner was nearly identical to Zero’s. Zero found it highly irritating. But, having an aloof manner, he didn’t let it show.

         “Bring it on, witch,” Zero calmly said.

         Torvald finally broke his silence. He jumped between the female and Zero. “Hey! Don’t hurt her, she’s my friend!”

         Zero’s eyes widened. “Torvald, don’t!”

         The necklace lady instantly lunged forward, holding her dagger up to Torvald’s neck. “Hah! Advantage: us!”

         Torvald was shocked. He had been led to believe that the necklace lady was his friend. He risked his life to protect her, and she is repaying him by threatening it further. He lost his focus on what was going on, and spaced out a bit, deep in thought (if you can believe Torvald is able to get deep in thought).

         The necklace lady was laughing. “Now, give us what we want or your friend, here, gets it!”

         Geno, somehow looking serious, angry, and confused at the same time, replied, “…What is it that you want?”

         “We want… Er… Daddy, what do we want?”

         “…I thought we were just killing them.”

         “Oh yeah. Well then, I guess this is it, Torvald. Any last words?” she said with a chuckle.

         Geno and Zero finally looked at Torvald, after being focused on the female for so long. Torvald appeared to be incredibly angry. His hands were clenched into fists, his teeth were clenched (not into fists, luckily), and his eyes were closed just about as tightly as they could be.

         “Just one… Good-bye…” he said.

         “Hah-hah-hah! Oh, Torvald, as eloquent as always, aren’t we? Well, as I always say-“ she broke off in the middle of her sentence, as Torvald’s hand had snapped up and grabbed the hand holding the blade to his neck. He appeared to be squeezing it quit tightly, his knuckles were pure white. A snapping sound was heard, and the female let out a cry of pain.

         “But the good-bye is not mine…” Torvald said, as his elbow slammed into her face, knocking her to the ground, several feet away. “I trusted you… I thought we were friends…” Torvald calmly stated, tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. The female appeared horrified. She had gone from having complete control of the situation to being in a decent amount of danger.

         Her father, finally snapping out of his daze and reacting to what was happening, quickly fumbled with his crossbow, attempting to load it quickly. Geno was on him instantly. Geno yanked the crossbow from his hand and crushed it in his robotic hand.

         Having taken care of any interference, Geno looked back at Torvald. “FINISH HERRR! FINIIIIISH HEEEERRRRR!!!” he chanted, pumping his fist.

         Torvald had finally gotten over to the girl, as he was going at a rather slow pace, his feet stomping the whole way. He leapt into the air, the beginning of an elbow drop that would certainly end the girl’s life.

         Unfortunately, Zero tackled him in mid-air.

         “No, you fool! We have to question her!” Zero knew the risk of this. Torvald could have crushed him if he wanted to.

         “Rats,” Geno moaned to himself.

         “…Fine,” Torvald said, pushing Zero off of him and walking a few feet away, looking the opposite direction.

         Zero stood up, walked over to the girl, and began asking her questions.

         “So. How is it that you Alphas kept finding us?”

         The girl had tears in her eyes, obviously still shaken up from her near-death experience at the hands of Torvald, but responded anyway, choking back the tears. “The necklace I gave Torvald… It was a tracking device.”

         “Yes, I figured as much. And now it is broken, thanks to you. Ironic.”

         The girl seemed confused. “What’s ironic?”

         “…Well, that you attempted to kill us using the necklace, but the necklace ended up saving Torvald’s life.”

         “No, I mean, I don’t know what the word ‘ironic’ means.”

         “…Let’s move on. Where is the Alpha Headquarters?”

         “I don’t know.”

         “Do you want me to call Torvald back over here?”

         “No! I’m telling you the truth, I do not know where it is! I was hired at the Alpha Bar! I’m just a lackey, they wouldn’t tell a lackey where the headquarters is!”

         “…Hm. I will believe you, if you will show us where the Alpha Bar is. Your presence may ward away any Alpha interruptions until we get there, and it will prevent us from getting lost. If you like, we can also take you to a hospital to get your hand taken care of.”

         “…Okay. I will help you. But only until we get to the Alpha Bar. I can get to a hospital on my own, thank you very much,” she said with a rather stuck-up tone.

         “Watch it,” said Zero, walking over to Geno. The two whispered to each other. “She says she will take us to the Alpha Bar. Do you think we can trust her?”

         “Oh, I’d say so. Torvald should be a pretty good insurance policy. If she leads us anywhere else, don’t get in his way this time.”

         “Affirmative.”

         So, after some coaxing, Geno and Zero got Torvald to come along to the Alpha Bar. He did, however, walk several feet behind everyone else, remaining quiet the entire time. Obviously, he was having some difficulty in trusting the necklace lady.

Chapter 11: Ye Olde Asskick Tavern

         “It’s just around this next bend,” The Ministry Of Dog Finding’s averagely-attractive female guide informed them.

         “When we get there, you need to come in with us to ensure that nobody attacks us. We just need information,” Zero replied.

         “Screw that! The deal was that we’d show you where the place is, and we have!”

         “…Very well, I suppose we cannot back out on the deal.”

         Geno grabbed Zero’s shoulder, turning him so that they were face-to-face. “Dude! Did you forget that we have mister ‘YARGH I KEEL YOU DED’ over there? I think as long as we have him, we can probably make these two do whatever we want.”

         “If we were to break the deal now, the Ministry would lose all integrity.”

         “…What integrity? We’re three teenagers who go around beating people up! I don’t think integrity is something we can put on our resume.”

         The necklace lady, after speaking privately with her father for a moment, broke into the conversation. “Actually, we decided we’d like to go into the bar with you. You could have easily killed both of us, so we kind of owe you a good bit.”

         Geno and Zero glanced at each other.

         “That takes care of that, then.”

         They resumed walking, and within a few minutes, the Alpha Bar was in view. It was a rather clichéd bar, wood awning over the entrance, motorcycles parked out front, neon signs hung in the windows. It was more of a biker bar, and not exactly inviting to the average person.

         “What a dump,” Geno commented.

         When they walked in the door, they noticed that everyone in the bar, who all happened to be wearing Alpha shirts and jackets, was staring at them with rather unhappy looks on their faces. It was suddenly very quiet.

         They went up to the bartender, trying not to make eye contact with anyone in particular.

         “Excuse me, barkeep… Can you tell us where the Alpha Headquarters is?” Geno asked, as politely as he could, trying to keep the situation calm.

         The reply came in a heavy voice, with a slight southern accent. “Well, I could tell ya’ where it is. But ya’ might want ta’ ask the feller in the corner over yonder.” He pointed at a rather large man with a rather large crescent-shaped scar across his cheek in the back corner of a booth, with less-large men sitting around him. They had been playing poker up until the time the Ministry walked in.

         Geno and friends walked over to him and, again, Geno was the first to speak.

         Geno cleared his throat slightly before speaking. “Pardon me, but would you mind telling us where the Alpha HQ is? We have some business to attend to there.”

         The man just stared at him with his deep blue eyes, unblinking. He nodded his head slightly, and a crash was heard behind Geno. Whirling around, Geno and Zero saw that the necklace lady and her father were nowhere to be seen, and apparently someone had just broken a chair over Torvald’s back. Torvald seemed unphased. He slowly turned around, eyes seeming to glow more than ever, and grabbed the man by his neck, slowly lifting him into the air. The man grabbed and scratched at Torvald’s arm, but Torvald was in no mood to let go. He cocked his arm back, and then did a half-turn, tossing the man over the bar, breaking all the bottles of booze which had been kept there a moment before.

         When the noise of glass breaking ceased, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the supposed-leader of the bar slowly chuckling to himself. He motioned the men sitting around him to stand up, and they did so with haste. Standing up himself, he slowly walked over to Geno, who was rather uneasy about the whole situation, and put his arm around Geno’s shoulder.

         “Walk with me, my friend. I will present you with a map to the Alpha Headquarters, for words cannot describe its location.”

         He led Geno, followed closely by Zero and Torvald, through a door leading into a back room. It was pitch-black in the room, and when the door had closed behind them, they heard the leader’s voice.

         “Don’t bother. The Indian would not allow it.”

         He then flicked the light on, and they saw seven Alphas standing around with guns. Apparently the leader somehow knew that Zero was able to prevent bullets from nearing him or his friends.

         They all stood there for a moment.

         “So…” Geno said. “Where’s the-“

         He suddenly heard a crash behind him, and he spun around to find Torvald, having been hit by another chair.

         “STOP DOING THAT,” Torvald screamed, grabbing the arm of the man who had hit him, and throwing him forward, slamming him into a wall. That left six lackeys and the leader.

         “Get them,” the leader said, slowly walking behind a desk and sitting in the chair which resided there.

         The six Alphas surrounded Geno and his friends, most of them wielding weapons they had gotten from somewhere in the room. Three of them remained unarmed, two had swords, and one had a grenade.

         “Yo. Lose the grenade,” the leader calmly told the explosive-carrying Alpha. Probably good advice, as the room was small enough that a grenade would have taken them all out. Clearly that Alpha was not the brightest.

         One of the sword-wielding Alphas was the first to move. He lunged at Torvald, who quickly ducked and uppercutted him. He then threw him into the other sword-wielding one, who accidentally impaled him. Rather stunned, the Alpha dropped his sword. The other Alphas, witnessing this, leapt towards the Ministry.

         Geno managed to knock one unconscious with a blow to the head by his robotic arm, before taking a punch to the stomach. Zero saw this, and took advantage of Geno doubling over to deliver a spinning back-kick to the face, knocking another Alpha out of the fight.

         Torvald seemed in a kind of trance, simply standing there until one of the Alphas nervously punched him in the face. Torvald’s head tilted back slightly, and then he glared straight at the Alpha. He kicked him right in the stomach, and a crunching sound was heard as he fell to the floor.

         The last Alpha noticed that he was up against the three by himself, and decided to hide behind the leader. The leader chuckled slightly, slowly stood up, and his arm whipped behind him, clutching the Alpha’s shirt, and threw him straight at Zero, who nimbly ducked under him, and all he managed to do was slam into the wall on the opposite side of the room.

         The Ministry turned back towards the leader, with the exception of Torvald, as he had not even bothered to follow the flying Alpha. As the leader began walking towards them, Geno and Zero crouched slightly, preparing for an attack. But, instead, the leader merely clapped slowly.

         “Very good, my friends. Very good indeed. It seems I am at your mercy, as you have disposed of my bodyguards. It is therefore my duty to present you with a map leading to the Alpha Headquarters’ location.” He picked up a rolled-up piece of paper from his desk and handed it to Geno. He slapped Geno on the back, and strode out the door, closing it behind him.

         They all stood there, quietly, for a moment.

         “…Am I the only one who thought he was going to murder us?” Geno asked.

         “I, too, was concerned for our health,” Zero replied, as formal as ever.

         They turned to Torvald, who was still in quite a mood.

         “…Anyway, we should probably get going. According to this map, we have to go past Three City, through Four Village, and through…” Geno sighed. “…What appears to be more woods, to get to the HQ.”

         They stepped through the door, and were slightly surprised to find that the bar was as active as it was before they walked in. They strolled outside, and walked toward the path. Aside from Torvald.

         “Torvald, where are you going? The road is this way,” Geno asked.

         Torvald didn’t reply. Instead, he simply kept walking along the bar. He turned the corner, and Geno and Zero just stood there, rather impatiently, knowing they wouldn’t be able to get through to him anyway.

         Finding the necklace lady and her father just standing there, smoking, Torvald achieved a slight grin. He snuck up on them, and grabbed the back of the necklace lady’s shirt. He tossed her against the wall, knocking her unconscious. Her father stepped towards Torvald, but Torvald only had to glare at him and he backed down, choosing, instead, to go help his daughter.

         Torvald finally lost the glow in his eyes, and ran back to Geno and Zero.

         “Sorry, guys, I just had to take care of something! Let’s go get that dog back!”

         With that, the ministry started off along the road again, Torvald having returned to his normal self. Geno and Zero were not sure whether to be happy about it or not, when they remembered how annoying he was.

Chapter 12: Glasses Can Fix That

         Arriving in Three City, the biggest city around, the three were awed by how huge it was. They had lived in a smaller town their whole lives, and seeing the skyscrapers towering over the city threw them for a loop.

         “Worst expression ever.”

         …So, as the Ministry wandered around the town, Torvald saw the biggest video game store he had ever seen.

         “Oh, you bastard,” Geno groaned, unable to do a thing about it, since that’s what happened.

         “VIDEO GAMES!” Torvald screamed as he dashed inside the store. He was a video game fanatic, whereas Geno merely enjoyed them, and Zero didn’t own a single one.

         “Well, I guess we should follow him before he tries to buy the whole store,” Zero commented, carefully crossing the street to the store.

         Geno sighed and began crossing the street, when he turned his head and saw a TV in the window of an electronics store, playing his favorite show, My Name Is Pearl. It was a show about a lady who had been a criminal her whole life, and suddenly turned her life around when she saw an episode of the Johnny Monthly show, a popular talk show, where a guest was talking about fate. The idea was that if you are bad, fate will get you, but if you’re good, good things will happen. Geno loved the show, so he got distracted and ended up standing in front of the window the whole time Torvald and Zero were in the store.

         “Torvald! Torvald, where are you?” Zero yelled when he got into the huge video game store. Receiving no response, he wandered around for a while, having no idea where Torvald would be. He finally found him standing in front of a huge TV, playing Glorious Stolen Car (a game which was currently under a lot of scrutiny for an incident known only as “Iced Tea”, caused by an evil, as far as gamers like Torvald were concerned, attorney named Tom Jackson).

         “Torvald! Why didn’t you answer me?” Zero asked, walking up to him.

         “Torvald playing game. Quiet,” was all Torvald said.

         “Come on, we have to get to Four Village.”

         Torvald turned his head to Zero, squinted at him, and went back to playing.

         “Fine. See the next time I let you play in my koi pond,” Zero said matter-of-factly, while walking out of the store.

         Torvald loved that koi pond. His biggest goal in life was catching one of them. He was thus far unsuccessful, because all he did was dash around and splash the water everywhere. And now he had to choose between playing GSC or playing in the koi pond.

         Zero got out to the street, and found Geno standing in front of a store window, laughing. Zero walked up to him and asked what he was laughing at, considering he couldn’t even hear the show through the window.

         “I’ve seen this episode like three times already, I don’t even need to hear it.”

         “Then why do you even need to watch it?”

         Geno turned his head to face Zero, squinted at him, and went back to laughing at the show as Pearl’s sister, Sandy, said something comical which Zero couldn’t hear.

         Zero decided it was hopeless, considering he had nothing Geno used, and leaned up against the glass, folding his arms and closing his eyes.

         Without turning his head, Geno asked Zero where Torvald was.

         “There,” Zero said, just before Torvald burst out of the video game store’s door, frantically looking for Zero.

         “Zero, look, I came out! I can still play in the pond, right??”

         “Yes, of course, Torvald.”

         “Great,” he said. “What’s Geno doing?”

         “Remembering a TV show.”

         Geno squinted at Zero again, and then at Torvald, and then, once again, went back to watching TV.

         “Geno!” Torvald shouted.

         Geno turned his head, and found Torvald squinting at him. Geno squinted back, and then they both squinted at Zero at the same time. Then Torvald squinted at Geno while Geno squinted at Zero, and then Geno went back to squinting at Torvald as Torvald resumed squinting at Zero. Torvald squinted back at Geno for a moment, and then they both squinted at Zero again.

         A man walking by them asked if they needed some money for glasses, but they merely squinted at him.

         “Alright. I’m going to find a bus to Four Village. You two can stay here and not see things while not hearing TV,” Zero said, finally tiring of waiting, and then walked down the street.

         Geno and Torvald both looked at him as he walked away, then looked back at each other. And then they squinted.