Agent Gray, Red with Love

Storming the Castle, and Maelstrom Becomes a Sith Lord

*A message from ACME, if you see any grammatical/punctuation/spelling errors, don't be afraid to tell me! I'd appreciate the help, this was a long chapter to edit and I didn't have the time to comb after the second read. Enjoy!

...

Standing proud on the edge of a forested cliff, watching over the grey oceans of Scotland, stood a mysterious stone fortress shrouded in fog, hosting some of the most evil minds in history. ACME had spent about two weeks planning and tweaking the invasion of V.I.L.E.'s fortress. And now, today was the day. They were about to storm V.I.L.E. Castle.

Gray gazed down upon it from the ACME helicopter he was a passenger on, as the wind from the propellers rippled in his hair and ACME jacket as they slowly got closer and closer. The aircraft lowered into a patch of grey clouds, and as they parted it finally dawned on him that this may very well be the final battle. It may soon be over— they just had to get out of this alive.

To his left, he heard Agent Zari mumble, "Well, it's no Castle Grayskull."

"Yes, I'd really rather not storm a castle made out of my own head bone. Thanks," he replied.

"Not what I meant, Hawkins," Zari sighed.

"Well I know that! It's just... tryna lighten the mood. Nerves, that sort of thing," Gray said.

"We could use all the 'light' we can get," Deveinaux commented, gazing out into the fog. "These people live in a home as dark as their very souls."

"'Almost poetic if it weren't so vile," a woman's voice said from next to Devineaux. It was shy, but also strong, and unaware of the pun. "It seems that V.I.L.E. strategically chose this residence to remain as remote and concealed as possible, but open enough to deter any suspicion of their residing here, which would explain the choice of a historic castle, which other side would not seem very productive," Agent Argent/Jules added. She had recently decided to rejoin ACME, as recent events had inspired her to continue a career in law enforcement. It definitely helped that Carmen was officially cleared of all felony charges, as well as given a full pardon for all her crimes.

"'Chose?' More like boughten it off the Rotten Apple," Zari grumbled.

'Rotten Apple' was what ACME had been starting to call former faculty member Rodger Headroom, being as he was from NYC (the Big Apple) and no one knew what his V.I.L.E. code name was— if he even had one. Like the organizations of which he belonged, many of the details surrounding his affiliation with V.I.L.E. were quite murky. The truth was, no one knew exactly what Rodger had and had not spilt about either team to either side. This was very evident when after taken into questioning, Tigris, Le Chèvre, and El Topo (all of whom were flown straight to ACME prison and were being guarded 24-7) described him as a sort of loose cannon who gave information as he pleased, giving just too little for V.I.L.E. to ever have the upper hand over him. It was dreadfully annoying, they had said, but it's not like they had any other eyes inside ACME. That was good, no one needed another Darja situation.

Chief had been sure to guarantee that word of the invasion never reached HQ Europe, and was instead delivered to each agent personally. The Rotten Apple was still up in "more North than North of England," which Gray's cousin Shadow had hypothesized was Scotland, as Scotland sat north of the country of England. No one could confirm it, but it was highly suggested that the ACME spy may be down below somewhere in the stone structure as they spoke.

"Attention all ACME agents," Chief's voice cackled from the helicopter radio. "We are beginning the final decent to the V.I.L.E. fortress, first jumpers be ready and in position in two minutes. This next hour may very well be the most important of our lives, and everything must be perfect."