The Turf War Twisted

Now We Wait

[A/N: Sorry about the late update! I had five days of band camp and now I'll be having summer school as well. I will be away from home for three weeks but I'll still try to post as much as possible. That's all ^-^ Enjoy the chapter!]

"Impulse, please come down!" Xisuma shouted down, his voice more polite than intended. "This will end much better and much less complicated if you just get down!"

"No can do 'Suma!" Impulsed called back, swinging his legs gleefully. "I'm enjoying the view from up here!" He leaned back casually, closing his eyes to a carefree look.

Just as promised, he was "turning himself in". Not in the way that he planned to get captured, but he was the Head of Diversionary Tactics, after all; being the distraction was his thing. To Impulse, it was fun and stressful all at once to keep the HEP at bay.

False raised up a crossbow impatiently, pointing it slightly off-target from Impulse. She sighed, her figure sinking down. "Ishyewma already warned you. I don't want to have to use force on you, Impulse," she said, her voice calm yet icy cold. Xisuma rolled his eyes with a shrug, accepting his fate that no one would ever really get his name right.

Scar stood to the left of the group, False and Xisuma to his right, Tango and Bdubs on his left. His stance was uncertain, unstable. It didn't feel right for him to be going against the Resistance, especially not after helping them. But there he was trying to surround Impulse as he sat atop the stolen mycelium source block in the MooPop Factory. Scar wasn't even sure what the Resistance could possibly be thinking pulling such a stunt, and he hoped that they'd be at their respective headquarters. Unfortunately, he assumed the rest of the Resistance hadn't met back up with Grian and now everyone seemed to be in a pickle.

"Use all the force you want," Impulse responded, raising his hands in mock surrender. "Consider this simply a peaceful protest against your unjust removal of the island's natural environment."

"There's nothing peaceful about the Resistance!" Bdubs shouted out, teasing a pull out of his quiver of arrows. "So either you move it, or you'll end up like Grian!"

An eerie grin creeped onto Impulse's face as he leaned forward. He rested his elbow on his knees, his hand up to his mouth in thought. He glanced down quickly, hoping the HEP didn't notice it. "Oh yeahhhhh." He dragged out his word, sounding sly. "Speaking of Grian, it seems like we're right on time for the interrogation!"

Nearly all the eyes of the HEP members widened, a couple stepping backwards. Before they even had time to react, they watched as Impulse pulled out a detonator button. He pushed it with a smile as wide as a Cheshire Cat. Upon Impulse pressing the button, xB, Jevin, Etho, Stress, and Doc all appeared around the source block. They didn't so much as hesitate to tackle the closest HEP member, using their element of surprise to their advantage.

xB easily pinned Tango to the ground, overtaking him with brute force. Jevin went right for Xisuma, having a bit of a struggle before using his slimy figure as an advantage to slip away from Xisuma's counter-attacks. Stress took Bdubs off-guard with fast, nearly impossible to dodge jabs. Etho grabbed False by the arm before giving it a hard twist, letting out a polite "Sorry False, it had to be done." before kicking her to the ground as much as she fought back. Scar had already been off that entire time, but especially when Doc went charging for him, using his seemingly childish costume effectively to disorient Scar. He misdirected Scar using his cape, throwing it about in different directions to make it seem like he was moving too quickly to get hit.

Before long, the Resistance's sneak attack had thoroughly overtaken the HEP, leaving Impulse still smiling on top of the source block. He hopped down, deploying his elytra for a soft, smooth landing. He moved his gaze from each HEP member, feeling very confident in the moment. After a bit, he started stepping over to Bdubs, grabbing him by the hair to keep him still, not too hard, but still aggressively. "I guess you were kinda right when you said there's nothing peaceful about the Resistance," he spoke smugly through the near-silence of the room. "To use your own words a little differently... either you tell us what you've done to Grian, or you'll end up like Grian."

Scar's body was tense, everything had happened too fast, too much. He knew that Grian was free, safe and sound, but only him and Bdubs knew that. Now, physically stuck as well as stuck in every other way, Scar and Grian were the only ones that knew the truth of it all, but they were separated. Scar imagined neither of them would be believed, at least not for a while. No one would believe that either of them want to give up on the war being the leaders they were.

Through Scar's thoughts, breaking his zoning out, Tango yelled, "There's no way we're telling you guys anything!" His bright red eyes burned a fiery aura around them, certainly a threatening one. "We don't answer to you!"

Stress sighed, watching all the struggle that everyone was going through. "This will all be much more peaceful if you just return Grian to us safely, y'know?"

"We don't even know where Gr-" Xisuma started to say before False gave him a quick jab with her foot.

"What are you gonna give us for Grian?" False asked, not to anyone in particular, speaking to the Resistance as a whole.

"We're letting you out of this without getting bruised and broken. Isn't that good enough?" Jevin replied, glaring over at False.

The bickering continued for another couple minutes. Both sides were relentless, not giving up too much for either one. It was like a never-ending debate, and a weak one at that. Before long, Scar couldn't take it anymore. His head was spinning and he shouted out without much thought.

"Everyone shut up!" he exclaimed, so loudly that everyone did in fact end their arguments to listen. "I know where Grian is." The HEP members jaws' dropped hearing that and the Resistance seemed to squint sceptically at his words. "I sent him off to give a message to the Resistance, but you all clearly didn't get it." Scar sighed, almost out of breath from his yell. "Why don't I just message him?"

"You don't think we've been trying that for weeks?!" Etho retaliated, pointing a sword towards Scar. Scar moved back cautiously, gasping silently at the sudden movement. "I bet you're just trying to call for reinforcements."

"If you just let me go for a second, I won't even have to leave. I'm just gonna signal Grian to come here and we can all leave happy," Scar insisted, his voice now exasperated.

Doc glared down at Scar, sighing. "Fine, but I'll be watching what you're sending the entire time."

Scar nodded slowly. "Fine with me. I just want this to be over." Doc let Scar go, still hovering close behind him as he pulled out a small device. ".--. .-.. . .- ... . / .... ..- .-. .-. -.-- / - --- / - .... . / -- --- --- .--. --- .--. / ..-. .- -.-. - --- .-. -.-- -.-.--" (Please hurry to the MooPop Factory!) That was the message, short and sweet, only six words. Scar didn't want to take long, he just wanted Grian to help everyone out of the mess. Scar put the device down on the floor to show he wasn't using it anymore, leaning back casually. "Okay, that's all. Are we good?"

Doc lifted his head, looking at the other Resistance members who were eagerly waiting for him to say something. "Looks safe, the message didn't seem to have anything special encoded in it," Doc said calmly, going back to staring down Scar just in case.

"So now we wait?" Impulse asked, putting his hands on his hips.

Doc responded with a nod. "Now we wait..."

(word count: 1306 words)