The Turf War Twisted

Having a Meeting

Zwoop!

"Have you guys seen the news?!" Jevin shouted, slamming his hands onto the table. He'd called a sudden emergency meeting, teleporting all the Resistance members before they could even prepare, and it showed.

Impulse's head was collapsed onto the table. He was grasping a pillow and still wearing his pyjamas. Ren was holding a nail file, still shaping his claws without looking up. He'd noticed being teleported, but he didn't react in the slightest. xB had a newspaper in his hands, which he set down on the table after realising he was at HQ. Stress still had curlers in her hair, but besides that, everything else seemed the same. Etho looked the most normal out of them all, lounging back in his chair in the outfit he seemed to wear everyday.

"Who hit the emergency meeting button...?" Impulse asked groggily, just waking up from his slumber. He rested his head lazily into his pillow, his arms hanging down past it.

"I'm assuming it was either Jevin or Grian, but considering Grian's sulking on top of the Source Block, it was probably Jevin," Ren replied, still fiddling with his nail file.

"Grian's what now?!" Stress turned around in her chair, looking in the direction of the Source Block.

There Grian was, sitting with his knees hugged up to his chest. He was rocking back and forth, a slight crunch sound coming from the mycelium under him.

"Oh my god, Grian!" Stress stood up, walking over to the Source Block. She put a hand out to Grian, to which he accepted and jumped down from the mycelium.

"What are you guys all freaking out about?" xB questioned, flipping through his newspaper.

"A message got sent out in the middle of the night that all our shops are being closed off because we're Resistance members!" Jevin shouted alarmingly. "It's just like I said it would happen, right Impulse?"

Impulse perked up slightly. "Oh yeah. When the first ban on mycelium happened, you told me they might shut down our shops. But that was months ago, so why are they taking drastic measures now?"

"I don't know, but I heard the truce for Tag 2: Electric Boogaloo was renounced," Etho chimed in. "We'll lose like, half the players at that rate. Everyone's so loyal to the HEP."

"Yeesh." Stress scrunched up her face, sitting back down in her chair. "No wonder Grian was sulking."

"I'm gonna lose so many sales for the Barge..." Grian mumbled, now sat in his chair. He returned to his same sitting position and went back to rocking back and forth.

"More importantly," Impulse said. "I doubt we can even be in the Shopping District safely anymore. I'm surprised Grian and Jevin could get here okay."

"I came here really early to restock my TNT shop, but then I found a barrier blocking the entrance to it. That's when I noticed the announcement," Jevin explained, his fists tightening with every word.

"What about you, Grian?" xB asked.

Impulse sighed. "Don't tell me you spent the night here again," he said, rolling his eyes slightly.

"Maybe..." Grian responded sheepishly.

"Grian!" Impulse shouted, slamming his hands onto the table and sitting up.

"Listen! Yesterday, I accidentally mentioned that I was coming here to Xisuma and I was worried that he might've followed me. So... yes, I did stay here all night. But I did get like four- or was it three? Like, three hours of sleep."

Ren set his nail file down on the table, staring Grian dead in the eyes. Though, it wasn't very clear that he was since Ren always wore sunglasses. "Even with that little of an amount, I still don't believe that."

"It's fine! It's fine. We should be more concerned on what we're gonna do to get back at the HEP!" Grian wanted the topic to move off of him as quick as possible. He hated talking about himself, especially in large groups.

"I think it'd be better if we waited for them to make the first move and work accordingly. We don't want to attack them first and seem like the bad guys," Etho suggested.

"That's true, we don't have very many people on our side, especially with Scar swooning the masses," Grian said sarcastically, leaning back into his chair with crossed arms.

"Is everyone okay with that?" Etho asked, looking around the group. Lots of mumbles of agreement and nods were spread across the table. "I guess it's settled then. Everyone stay on high alert for now. We know the HEP will be taking action, so be prepared for that." Etho's voice was stern and clear. His gaze went from person to person around the table, an icy cold one. There were small nods from everyone, the tense atmosphere making it seem difficult to move. Etho put his hands on the table firmly, standing up as he did so. "Well, I guess that's the end of the meeting. Unless our Mother Spore wants to get out of his sour mood." His voice had no anger behind it, if anything, it was more like condescending sarcasm.

"Yeah, okay," Grian practically mumbled. "Etho's right. It'd be better to wait things out, but always be ready to fight. Don't hesitate to message any of us if anything happens. We clear?" Once again, people nodded and mumbled in agreement. "Good, everyone's dismissed." No movement. No one got out of their seats, with the exception that Etho was still standing. He just leaned onto his chair casually. "Did you guys hear me?" Grian asked, confused as to why no one was leaving. "I said you can leave."

"We're not leaving before you leave, G," Impulse replied, almost smugly. "You remember what Etho and I told you? That was collective with all of us in the Resistance. You need to get out sometime."

"But I-" Grian was cut off by Impulse.

"And I know you think you can't anymore with Tag 2: Electric Boogaloo off, but you need to leave HQ and stop doing work while we wait out our strategy," Impulse continued. "I swear we're not trying to force you to do anything, but we're worried about you, G."

"No kidding," Stress added. "We're sharing the workload, and we're not leaving until you leave and give yourself a break for once."

Grian stared around at his fellow Resistance members. It wasn't often that all of them could get together, and especially without him. Yet, they'd still come to the agreement that they needed to stop Grian overworking himself. They'd still come to the agreement to help him. Grian wasn't sure how to explain it, but the gesture almost touched his heart. He'd been so distracted by everything that was going on, that he didn't think they'd paid much attention to him. Though, he wasn't paying attention to himself either.

"Thanks..." he said hesitantly, standing up slowly from his chair and stepping up to the table. "Everyone." That was all he said before flying out of the Resistance headquarters, shooting up like a bullet.

(word count: 1142 words)