The Turf War Twisted

Everyone Loses It

"You're meaning to tell me... you loST GRIAN?!" Ren was going ballistic, nothing less expected.

"I- I thought he'd fly out right after me!" Impulse defended himself, his voice slightly shaky as he spoke. He didn't even want to imagine what happened to Grian under his care. "I could've sworn we all had enough time to get out... right xB?"

xB nodded. "The rumbling was still a bit away so we thought Grian would be able to make it out okay."

Ren was pacing angrily. The Resistance members had to settle with meeting behind the clock of Town Hall, which was their alternate meeting spot. Though, it was much less spacious than their usual headquarters. With the lack of space, Ren was pacing from one end of the attic to the other quickly, almost wearing himself out.

Luckily, Jevin stood in front of Ren's path of speed-walking, putting his hands firmly on Ren's shoulders to stop him. "Ren." Ren was suddenly put to attention when his name was said. His overthinking was overridden, and he made eye contact with Jevin. "You gotta calm down, Ren. We're all tense right now, but going crazy isn't going to help Grian."

"Jevin's right," Etho chimed in. He pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against, uncrossing his arms. "I'll take full blame for this. I'm the one that suggested the idea of staying low until the HEP acted. Now, we just have to find a way to make up for the mistake." Etho's face was expressionless, even from under his mask.

Impulse gasped loudly, making everyone turn to him.

"What is it?" Stress asked quickly, not wanting any suspense to draw out.

"I think the go crazy thing might not be that bad of an idea."

"Oh my god, just say it already!" Ren cut in.

"There's been a public announcement... saying that Grian got taken into custody by the HEP." Impulse was pale, staring into the announcement with wide eyes.

"He WHAT?!" Etho exclaimed, rushing over to Impulse to get a look at it himself.

"I thought you were supposed to be the calm and collected one, Etho," Jevin nearly joked, though not much, considering the circumstances.

"Screw being calm and collected!" Etho threw up his hands, crossing them promptly afterwards. "What are we supposed to do? I know we can still function decently without Grian, but we can't just leave him! We need our leader!"

"What are we doing then?" Stress questioned, looking at Etho with wide, curious eyes. "Are we supposed to pull of some sort of jailbreak?"

"That seems really risky," Impulse said. "What if more of us get caught because we take that risk?"

Ren sighed deeply, plopping onto the floor and sinking down. "We're doomed."

"We're not doomed," xB tried to reassure, though he wasn't particularly calm either. "We just- need to find out how to maybe bail Grian out of jail."

"Oh, perfect," Ren replied, waving his hands sarcastically. "I'm sure the HEP will let Grian go if the Resistance says so!"

"C'mon guys, we have to come up with some sort of solution for getting Grian back." Stress attempted to calm things down, though that was a difficult task with how tense the situation was.

There was an awkward silence in the room where everyone tried to process their thoughts. After the silence, Etho finally broke it, hesitantly saying, "I think I actually have an idea." Everyone seemed to lean in with interest, listening intently with what Etho had thought up. "We call the GOATman." Nearly everyone the room seemed to widen their eyes with Etho's words, trying to rack their brains on whether it was idiocy or genius.

Through another strange silence, Ren spoke up. "Get the GOAT signal."

"We have one of those?" Jevin asked, genuinely wondering if they'd had a signal for the GOATman that whole time.

"No, but we can definitely make one," Impulse responded, his tone more clear and confident now. He was nearly done with his shaking, starting to calm down. "We're getting Grian back, and the GOATman can help us do that. I think we do have a jailbreak on our hands, so we'd better prepare."

---

Similar to what Ren had been doing, Scar was pacing around. He was at Larry, where he'd usually spend his time if he needed to think or just forget about everything. He pulled his pocket watch out, wanting to more clearly hear the quiet ticks of the clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. It just kept going. The once calming sound of the pocket watch started to sound as if it was hammering Scar's head.

Thoughts seemed to just bounce around his head. It wasn't his fault that Grian was hurt, that he was captured? No, certainly not. It couldn't have been. He hated Grian, but he'd never want to hurt him. Or maybe he did? Of course he did! He hated Grian! Grian made everything worse for him! Scar had never been so glad that Grian was finally brought to justice. Was it really justice though? Was this really what he wanted?

Scar stopped his pacing abruptly, placing his foot down with a firm stomp. He had to talk to Grian. He knew Grian had to hate him now, and he couldn't blame him. But at the same time, he needed to talk to him. He needed Grian to know it wasn't what he wanted. Though, Scar really didn't know what he wanted either. He wanted to please his people... but what the people had been wanting didn't seem right to Scar.

Though he never thought about it, Scar had never really done anything with his own wants and beliefs in mind. Everything he did since being elected Mayor of the Shopping District was aligned with what everyone else wanted. But wasn't that how it was supposed to be? Just because he's mayor, doesn't mean everyone should follow his opinions. But still, Scar almost wished that could be the case. If he thought about it his way, Grian wouldn't be punished so much, but reasoned with, and that's how it'd be with all the Resistance.

Scar sighed. No matter how much he thought about it, it all seemed to circle back to Grian. What was up with his brain? Grian this, and Grian that. He just wanted to go back to being friends with Grian like they were before the war. Scar wasn't sure if that could ever happen, but one thing was for sure, he had to have that talk with Grian.

(word count: 1063 words)