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Warm Up - 14.1 | Declaration

A Rexoium and Maned Wolf animen walked down a metallic corridor lit up from the edges of the ceiling. They passed by several sliding doors, still quite far from where they were supposed to go. Fritz and Easton, however, felt uneasy as they made the turn to another similar hallway. Direction was not needed because the curdling emotions worsened the closer they went. The lack of flair, nor the emptiness did not cause such a stir, nor their eyes glancing side by side, and towards each other to make sure they were still together.

No. The design resembled the Achshor long before the Great Flash- when a stable peace was its thing. That their only worry at the time was the absurdity of Cas' assignments. Were they to be sent to a world of walking-talking ice cream people? Or were they to escort a Ball of Light through a glass world with the hopes they wouldn't get lost? The former, to their dismay, was the harder of the two.

Both hoped that this eeriness could have a good ending, that everything was to go back to that kind of absurdity. Not where they would meet with their past selves, or worse, their past enemies. Fritz could already see the PTSD coming back to him- the lives lost in that crash during the Chroma Fire Campaign. He fumed with resentment towards the crocodile, though it would be futile to lash out at him because of it. A gentle hand held his shoulder.

"Fritz, hey," Easton had successfully snapped him out of it after three attempts of calling him by name. "We're still here on Earth, right?" The words failed to exude confidence, the maned wolf letting out a sigh. "C'mon, we can't be late." He insisted.

Fritz growled and shrugged off his hand as they found themselves at an intersection. The right turn being the most unsettling, which was immediately validated by the lone doorway releasing a light so bright it obscured what was further down the hallway. His nose twitched trying to sense anything off that came out of the room. He hugged the wall, gestured a hand to Easton to do the same as they slowly crept towards it.

Nearly silent except for the softest noise their sensitive ears picked up whenever they snuck closer. There was no buzzing, nor footsteps inside. Fritz focused harder and could not hear anyone breathing inside- perhaps it was truly empty. He was an inch away from the poured out light, illumination that bounced around the walls that casted a shadow on him and his friend.

He turned to the maned wolf behind him with a nod, and Easton had nodded back too. Once he glanced back at the doorway, the rexoium leaned forward slowly, assessing what the inside looked like. And he lurched forward, sudden and dramatic, as if his heart had leapt forward out of his chest and sank down. The maned wolf's long and dark-furred arm was close to catching him.

"We've definitely been here before," Fritz saw the old faces of canines. People he once knew, sitting on those leather chairs, all laughing and bantering like he did before. Except their fur colors were all gray, incorrigible faces scorned by blurs and black lines. And he peeked further inward and saw Easton who had more glow to him, contrasting today. There was that innocence that sparkled in his eyes, whiskers still grown, with fur browner and whiter, with a laxed composure that leaned down on his seat.

The rexoium stepped inside, the light flashed him in a moment but had acted as a screening process of sorts. For when he caught the true glimpse of the room, it was but leather chairs, and a laminated oak table outfitted with hologramic dispalys on the tabletop. Its past, however, lingered in the form of the backdrop displayed on the window-screens. It was a purple star that their ship then orbited around, but the fleet had been mangled- with ship debris floating in the void, with lightning prancing around just outside the distant star.

Easton stepped in after and looked around for anything of note. Fritz momentarily returned to their reality and began inspecting the place too. No cameras, no projector this time around, and the screens felt more like windows as depth perception was an aspect of it. Looking side to side showed their ship having been torn apart, but there had been no way that they were on the Achshor. No way at all.

Fritz sat himself closer to the front, and Easton beside to offset the familiarity. Defy the repetitive past, while having to tell themselves that there had been no way to fix it anymore. Yet the emotions welled up within. Joys of a simpler time that pushed him to tears, crying in silence while Easton was stunned himself. The latter tried to find himself a comfortable position to relax in, his body instinctively leaning back only to result in regret.

Not because Easton did not find comfort, rather memories of something that had once been pleasant no longer. A subtle torment that stood his fur, and a snarl overlapped by Fritz's whimpers and shuffles in his seat. He comprehended what the rexoium had gone through, and that Cas- Nicholas had to pay for it.

Easton swallowed that fear for a moment, "Fritz, why are we here?" He asked, slamming the desk with his fist.

Fritz snapped out of it, and immediately wiped the tears off with his sleeves but he felt the haze of a surrounding head that used to be an LED screen. And he recalled the metallic skin, and the robotic voice. Was his consciousness speaking with it again? No, of course not. He was a rexoium now.

"Fritz, why are we here?" Easton repeated, stern and closer to his face.

He shook his head and turned himself and the seat towards him. Fritz tried to gather himself, an internal hand reaching for his mind and pull out the memory he'd present to the only other survivor of everything. Stuttering went on for the next half minute, Easton rolled his hands while nodding to encourage him.

Both their faces were distraught, and when Fritz failed to speak about it, Easton looked out the window. "Take your time," he murmured.

Fritz's throat lumped, it was there. And he swallowed it down to then try again. Finally, he told him, "Dark told me to let everyone know about the meeting place. Had to tell them in person because, for some odd-fucking reason, our comms are down." And he rambled on its impossibility because Nicholas had been the living embodiment of its juxtaposition. Even then, a backwater world such as Earth could support a system so efficient and far reaching.

"Did you actually tell everyone on Earth?" Easton immediately pulled out his phone. Fritz did too, and he showed that only the Volunteers were unable to be contacted.

"I did. Dark helped too." He continued, "He got in touch with Fddhty, Kuno, and Cheez. I reached out to you, Azenu, and Ace." They too found it strange, Dark himself especially. The lynx met up with Nicholas, in a butcher shop of all places, somewhere in Sub-Level 6. Told him to tell the others that they were to meet up in a place simply known as the 'Meeting Room'. And here they were. Certainly made the back of his scalp itchy out of frustration, and scratched it as he growled.

"Nicky owes us answers," Easton reassured him, reaching out and squeezed his shoulder. "I'm sure the others are as confused and frustrated, okay?"

Despite being handed a squadron for Conflict Lightning two weeks ago, the amount of stress he built up within the hour had trivialized all the unrelated good deeds that damned crocodile had done in a month. There was never any discussion about it after all, and he despised him not seeming to care about it either.

Easton saw the flare of anger through the rexoium's fur standing up, and the heat from his strained muscles. "Easy, Fritz." He wished, though, to express such dissatisfactions too. A lot of whys and how-comes, and the vague responsibility they were left with. Or the lack of being responsible for anything. Were they retired? Were they free to do as they please?

The room went from hot and tense to a sudden chill when Fritz and Easton heard foosteps coming down the metallic hall. Neither of them want to be caught sulking, especially when the premise was confusing and ominous.

Warm Up - 14.2 | Declaration

Dark and Fddhty were unfazed upon entering the room. Talked about this whole predicament. Fritz envied their ignorant bliss yet a part of him felt it was off. But it was something left explored another time, with the lynx and the mouse rushing over to check up on him.

Fritz straightened the fur on his muzzle, and controlled his breathing as he nodded continuously to the concerned duo. Easton shared the harrowing situation they found themselves in. The backdrop, the hallway, and even the arrangement of the chairs while pointing out where he and Fritz sat before.

"That's not good," Fddhty said, simply. "Do we still have no contact with the others?"

"Nope," Easton responded, reviewing his phone. "No signal." He wished to have kept his teleportation rights. Would've helped a lot then and there.

"Well, this is getting more screwy than I thought." Dark said. "I think the four of us could subdue Nicholas, right? Fddhty and Fritz will go for the legs." They shot him a worried look, as if they couldn't take down the sheer size of the towering crocodile. A determined Dark continued, "He," referred to Easton, "and I will go for his arms. I can take my boot laces and string him down well. We'll get answers out of him that way."

"That's not going to work," Fritz changed his tone from brooding to sinister- pessimistic yet precise. He leaned forward, arms resting on the table as he held his hands together. "Nicholas is not the head anymore. It's Ricky." And he saw past Dark, where Nicholas normally would've stood as he concocted schemes and laid it out for them back in the day. "And he's a Prospect. We have no chance either way."

"Ricky? That Harrier pilot that crashed on you and Kuno?"

"Mhm. And he's the one calling the shots. The one who hosted this, and I'm just pissed that it stems from jabbing me about my worst memories." Fritz reiterated, sighing out loud. "I want to know why, and I'd rather ask him properly. Nicky's a friend, and he'd vouch for me." But the prospect of subduing the dox, far smaller than the crocodile itself, felt like a possibility. However it was stripped away immediately after- Nicholas and Ethan, Prospects, were his lackeys. How much power would this one individual have? And why?

Dark turned to Fddhty and Easton, "What do you guys know about Ricky?"

Fddhty, one of the newer volunteers, simply shrugged and shook his head. He then turned to the window behind, checking it side to side upon realizing the possible depth that it had. Muttered something about the misfortune of the shipwrecks that were suspended in open space.

Easton, however, said, "Hard to say. He had something to do with that big flash some months ago."

"The reason why I'm here in the first place," Dark interjected. That assignment found itself in his mind's spotlight, and he turned to Easton and nodded in thanks, and back to Fritz as he recalled asking him about another person's whereabouts. "What was that guy's name I was looking for again?"

Fritz shrugged, "No idea, sorry. Forgot his name." And he truly did. It was... who was he? That name danced around in the meeting room time and again before. Back during the Chroma Fire Campaign. But for the life of him he could not remember.

Fddhty continued admiring the view, especially with the purple star. Its colors reflecting on his eyes that he saw on the screen's reflection too. Easton kept pacing, asked by Fritz about that mysterious name that he and Dark pondered about, and he shook his head having forgotten about it too. And when everyone kept thinking about it, whether pacing or staring at something that could jot memories, they still found themselves inconclusive of such a name.

Rather than continue wasting their time, they simply waited. Fddhty and Dark sat across where Fritz was and Easton who joined beside him. To Fritz's benefit, their talk remained small and lighthearted. The rexoium enjoyed leading E621 in 'Conflict Lightning', with plans to expand it further in 'Response to the Mission' and 'Concept Undead' where he would carry their blue and yellow hexagonal colors across. Easton was more preoccupied with pursuing the arts and started making himself a small name through it. Even Fddhty expressed interest and asked for info about his rates and such. Fddhty got by doing ship-related work, and how he met Dark through repairing his vessel. The same one that crashed over a world not too far from Thear.

"And that's how I came across Easton and the others," Dark finished retelling the story.

"Speaking of the others," Easton checked the time on his phone. "Meeting's gonna start soon and the others aren't here yet." He turned to Fritz, "You said you got myself, and Ace, right?"

Fritz faced him and nodded back, "And Azenu too." Then he turned to the lynx, "And you got Cheez, Kuno, and Fddhty."

"Yep," Dark said. They all counted down how many they were and glanced at the other empty chairs. All of them made eight and there were about ten more vacant seats, and one in the middle that most likely meant Ricky or Nicholas. The lynx said, "How many is this group all-in-all?"

"Before the Flash?" He thought about people not often mentioned, yet were pivotal to their existence; "There was Sahara but she was last patrolling the outsides of the Universe. And then there's Umbra, Witch, and Dix." That last name drew an absurd stare from Fddhty and shook his head to not mind him.

Easton added, "And then we have Acer and his group. Like four others with him. A Nero, and I never got the names of the other three."

"That makes nine," Dark counted, wondering who the tenth was. Maybe a new volunteer like himself? And that made him raise another question, "If this 'Sahara' was outside the Universe, how does she get here? And where are the others currently? Umbra and his group?"

Fritz and Easton shook their heads, the former said, "No clue on all of them. We're all split up, and we haven't been given a call to rendezvous or anything. I half hope that we're free from all this nonsense and that whatever this meeting's about is going to be the formality of it."

"But if it's the end of it, why were Fddhty and I still admitted into this odd group of yours?"

Fritz realized it and thought of a plausible response, "Maybe it's passing the torch? I could finally take a break and retire as a commander of a fictional army." And he let slip, "Where people don't die for real."

Dark and Fddhty twinged at that, and gave each other a pained stare while searching for an appropriate response. They whispered something amongst themselves while Easton poked Fritz that he had gone too far, but was shot back with an unfazed shrug. "Fair assumption," Dark replied. And he kept it at that.

The discussion devolved into silence, and Fddhty broke it by asking about the scenery. Dark reminded him about the PTSD it would've caused poor Fritz and the discussion found itself at a dead end.