Despite being left out of a seemingly highly important discussion, Frost left the commander’s office with a grin as the meeting was a success. He walked down the staircase to the second floor, and after looking around and confirming that the coast was clear, he pulled out more echolite from his back pocket, only to feel the weight with a sly smirk before searching for his teammates to inform them of the good news. They had permission to throw a party, and as soon as word got out, the efficiency in the base increased as everyone tried to make time to attend an official party organized by Crisis itself.
With the squad discussing what kind of celebration they would have, the soldiers switched work shifts with many of the guest villagers to help set up everything. That’s when Scott had to get out of bed and start his day early, only getting a couple of hours of sleep before having breakfast. He hesitated to go to the courtyard after his mysterious disappearance, but as he walked through the crowd of recruits gathering at their respective tables, he realized no one even noticed what happened yesterday. He played it safe by going to the back row of tables, but just when he thought he hadn’t raised any suspicion, Cookie, Zoey, Ace, Chappy, and Jumbo came out of nowhere to sit with him.
As soon as they approached him, he turned nervous. But after receiving a brief but warm hug from Zoey, getting a fist bump from Chappy, and dapping up Cookie, he composed himself and began pretending. They began talking about their win at the capture the flag game since it was the most thrilling thing that happened recently. But while Scott was relieved to see they were unaware of his mission with Crisis, it was short-lived since Cookie inevitably brought up the subject, even telling Scott about it directly.
Trying to play it off, Scott dodged any questions about his involvement with Crisis, and while some of his friends didn’t fully believe him, he found himself in a highly engaging discussion based on the rumors going around. He got to take his mind off the events that took place this morning, but since his friends kept talking about Crisis in high regard, he struggled to keep his mouth shut to not give anything away. Luckily, no one appeared to question him after Cookie brought up the idea of recruits getting out of the base to participate in missions of their own, and with everyone too excited to notice the injuries Scott suffered at the cave, he kept his mouth shut, and soon enough, he was alone once again.
During the entire morning and even some hours in the afternoon, Scott pretended to follow his regular routine. The base was almost as busy as the day he arrived, all just for a party, but he got to use that as an excuse to take more shifts for work, spending all of his time surrounded by strangers or people who wouldn’t look at him twice. Eventually, Zoey caught on to his strange behavior, but as he kept himself busy, he roamed around the entire base in search of something to do or help with, much like Frost.
After sharing the news, Frost returned to his room, where he locked himself in for an hour before returning to the main building. He went up to Snake’s office to wait for Indie to leave, but after half an hour, he was called to help and returned to the first floor. Indie left a few minutes later, but instead of returning to Crisis and helping out like everyone else, she isolated herself by going to the training grounds. She spent the day out there, alone, in complete silence, just walking around the field to reflect. Crisis barely noticed her absence, except Frost, who eventually distracted himself as he prepared for the event.
What would have been an ordinary night turned into a highly anticipated occasion, with the soldiers going even further than their last improvised party as they brought out everything needed to set up a makeshift fair in the front courtyard. Taking everything they could find from the workshop at the right wing of the base, the soldiers built up multiple contraptions for recreational use. While they took quite some time to prepare, with everyone working on it, they managed to prepare a small arena to play with spinning toys that had razor blades attached to them, an oily pole half as tall as the base walls to climb, a makeshift target practice stand with dummies, a deadly roulette machine loaded with blanks, and many, many different gambling games since most of the soldiers seemed obsessed with it.
The trainees promptly helped out as much as they could to be able to play what ended up being a smaller version of their obstacle course, but in the form of minigames for them to compete. So, even before the party in the main building had started, the fun had begun at dusk, with the courtyard filling up entirely as people took turns on the attractions they had built. After avoiding his friends all day, Scott finally joined them to play some games, where it became a heated match against their classmates to remember their past classes now that their training was done.
Crisis gathered up at their lounge to hang around and dress up for the event. But as Frost had been waiting anxiously all day to hear about Indie, he couldn’t wait to head downstairs into the lunchroom, which had transformed into the perfect venue to celebrate their mission. While the soldiers weren’t fully ready to start the party, as soon as Frost showed up, they decided to begin serving food and drinks, especially drinks, quickly catching the attention of the people outside.
The soldiers in the courtyard immediately stopped playing to join the others in the lunchroom, leaving the villagers outside to keep having fun on their own. And while Scott and his friends were curious about the bright colored strobe lights in the lunchroom, they made the most of the time they had with the games. They had their fun outside while the grown-ups celebrated indoors, and with Crisis joining them, things heated up as the soldiers called the only musicians on the base. Two flute players came out, and while the room hadn’t been silent for a while before their arrival, the noise was pumped up to eleven once they began playing the three songs they knew.
Finally being able to enjoy a more casual setting, Crisis relaxed as they experienced the benefits of being the face of the saviors. Since they were the most popular, they didn’t get a second to themselves as they were instantly surrounded by their friends once again, but now they had the chance to share what had happened back in the mission. A large crowd formed around them, and while the party broke into multiple groups, all chatting with one another, the main focus was on Frost and Panda, who began telling their story again, now with a hundred people listening closely.
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A couple of bottles in, and Frost turned into a completely different person. He forgot about his previous worries as he received praise from his fellow soldiers, getting a bit frisky with the few female ones who were hooked instantly when he began narrating. Elaborating more on his near-death experience, his fight with Trash, and the way he and Panda managed to escape the cave captivated everyone, as they didn’t doubt a single word that came out of their mouths. Even their own teammates realized they exaggerated some details after Panda kept changing the dialogue he supposedly had with Frost before the gate collapsed. But since it made for an engaging and inspiring tale, they were able to draw out their story as much as possible without anyone but Crisis losing attention.
While Panda and Frost forgot to mention Scott several times, it didn’t make much of a difference because no one recognized him once the recruits joined the party. Scott and his friends were fascinated by the decoration and atmosphere of the lunchroom, even getting to enjoy some tunes from the two talented but exhausted flute players. They awkwardly stood in one corner as they noticed everyone was gathered around Crisis, but after they saw Cookie hanging out with some of his friends, Scott gathered the courage to make himself at home.
Everyone was excited to share food, but as they remained separated from the rest of the party attendees, the recruits formed their own groups to chat and drink while the soldiers weren’t watching. Ace and Chappy managed to steal a few too many bottles of liquor to pass around the group, and while Scott didn’t drink any, he got a kick out of seeing his friends experience the effect of alcohol for the first time, which only enhanced the fun as they began joking around. Chappy seemed to pass out immediately, but instead of helping him, his friends took the opportunity to mess with his unconscious body.
While he was visibly drunk and even a bit lost, Frost refused any help as he tried to climb up one of the tables at the center of the lunchroom. He held tight to a big bottle of booze in his left hand while keeping his balance with his right until he was on top of the table, where he sipped a few times before smiling in a daze. The crowd turned nervous when they saw the table beneath him wobble, but as Panda tried to help him, Frost dismissed him with a rude gesture before balancing himself. He looked around the room for a second, and with everyone waiting silently for some sort of movement after he froze completely, he raised his bottle clumsily, to which everyone erupted in cheers.
–Attention, attention… I’m about to give a speech…– Frost announced loudly, trying to shout for everyone to hear, but instead, his voice broke and became a mix of mumbles that barely formed a sentence cohesive enough for the audience to understand. The audience still cheered out of pure excitement, but they became quiet as Frost took some time to arrange his thoughts.
–Good job, man!! You killed it out there…– a friend of Cookie's shouted from the back, getting everyone else to rejoice for a long moment. Frost laughed in a dizzy state, having some difficulty getting out his words after the room went silent once again. But after glancing back at his squad, he seemed to find some clarity to begin his speech.
–Yea, we did… That’s why we’ve gathered to celebrate our latest mission. Most of you weren’t aware, but this morning, we successfully took down an enemy mining facility… a-and it’s my pleasure… to inform you all that we… Well, we killed a lot of antipunks, and by that, I mean A LOT!– Frost continued speaking with slurred speech, having to clear his throat with more booze to keep talking. But as he adopted a firmer tone, he regained his engrossing attitude, which waved in and out as the intensity of his drunk voice varied severely. Regardless, he managed to inspire some true joy within everyone, though they couldn’t have been more riled up after hearing what Crisis had done to the antipunks.
–We killed some antipunk scum! Woohoo!!– Cookie exclaimed with a victorious gesture, getting his entire friend group to cheer triumphantly with him. The room once again erupted in hoorays and pure jubilation, although it lasted shortly since Frost went right back to speaking after finishing his bottle.
–Now, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but this might be the turning point for us. We’ll keep playing our part in this war and fight ‘til the end… Even if we are stuck here for now, though it won’t be long… I promise we will go back out there and crush our enemies with ease once again because, without us, our allies don’t stand a chance against those nasty omens, not even the filthy rats. And that’s a fact!– Frost affirmed in a resolute, overly confident, but uplifting manner that sparked hope in his peers but, most importantly, prompted another round of cheers.
Hearing his claims of demolishing their enemies with such conviction exhilarated them to the point they began showering him with praise and alcohol. Frost just stood there and took it all, even drinking some with a big smile as they all shared the same hatred against their enemies. Even the recruits, who were mostly startled by all the rejoicing, found some motivation to support the cause, and while they weren’t nearly as loud as the drunk soldiers, they contributed a decent amount of cheers as they breached the line between ranks to join the collective celebration. But as all the groups mixed together in a giant mass of people surrounding Frost, he took a moment to calm them down and say a few last words.
–Alright, before I go, I’d like to call someone…– Frost interrupted the saviors’ unified exaltation as he looked around the crowded room. Everyone went quiet as he began searching for someone, squinting hard to look at all the faces around him. Eventually, he just looked in his students’ direction, but since they had mixed with everyone else, he became impatient and just shouted a name out of the blue.
–Sissy! Where are you?!– Frost shouted urgently, sounding a bit annoyed, prompting Scott to panic for a second as he heard his nickname being called in a less than pleasant tone. He froze in shock while his friends turned to him and stared in confusion. Frost searched around the middle of the crowd, and as he began staring in his direction, Ace raised his hand to point at Scott, who remained unresponsive until Frost finally spotted him.
–There you are. Come up here, boy…– Frost said directly to Scott in a somewhat affable manner, making him stand out even more amongst the crowd, which began cheering and encouraging him to walk towards Frost. Scott was still apprehensive about complying, and as he noticed the suspicious look he was giving him, he began resisting when his friends tried to push him. Scott refused to walk over to Frost’s table, but with everyone clearing a direct path for him, he gave in to the pressure of having everyone’s eyes on him and made his way to the center of the room.
| IT’S TIME TO COME TOGETHER
IT’S UP TO YOU, WHAT’S YOUR PLEASURE? |