Oliver: Don't Elaborate

Chapter 1 | From The Dirt and Ashes!

Pallid City - December 21st 2021

Oliver sat on the couch at the back of his living room. Outside it was a dark and stormy night, Pallid City was no stranger to unsavoury weather this time of year! Inside the cramped apartment Oliver huddled up to a spare blanket for warmth as the cold crept through into the building. Despite not having a lot of furniture to decorate his home, the television set was more than satisfactory to distract Oliver from the dismal conditions of Inner district of Pallid City! Every afternoon Pallid's Number One Television Host, Nate Newsman would broadcast the latest updates from around the continent. Life was not all that bad, it was mostly hit or miss. But today of all days things would never be the same again!

Knock! Knock! The door bashed! Oliver jumped from his seat and threw the television remote up in the air, which inevitably fell back down and hit him on the head!
"Who on earth could that be at this hour!" Oliver said to himself!
Oliver moved slowly over to the door and peeped through the spy hole in the door that looked out into the apartment hallway. Standing there were two individuals standing impatiently in the corridor. One man Oliver immediately recognised by the dark black hair and the orange pin, with the letters FMC written in white, attached to his suit jacket. It was Frederick the former President of Pallid! Along side him was another figure wearing a dark grey hoodie, the persons face was hidden by a void of darkness making any features not visible to Oliver's sight. The wearer of the hoodie was looking side to side, first left then right. The left again, then to the right! Oliver assumed by the panicky expression given off by Frederick and the paranoia of the hooded person that they didn't want to be seen or maybe worse they were in trouble, perhaps being followed. Oliver opened the door.
"Thank God, Oliver sorry to bother but we are in need of a safe space to stay, may we come in." Frederick, despite rushing his question, asked politely!
Oliver looked briefly at the hooded person then swiftly back at Frederick.
"Of course!" He replied, holding out his arm to welcome them into his home.
Oliver offered a seat to them both on his couch. Oliver would have to stand as the couch would only seat two people but he would have been fine standing, after all they were his guests! Frederick took a seat whilst his mysterious companion held out a hand kindly declining without a word.
"Don't worry about him." Frederick said waving his hand over to Oliver inviting him to sit down. "We have much to discuss old friend."
"We do?" Oliver replied, curiously!
"Oh yes, I'm afraid we do. Oliver... you see we are in need of your help. We wouldn't ask if it wasn't important." Frederick stated.
Oliver's brow raised. What could Frederick possibly need from Oliver, being the former president of Pallid as well as a respectable businessman in Pallid City, the countries capital, Frederick had vasts amounts of money and influential allies why him.
"Of course I'll hear you out, but first who's your friend?" Oliver asked.
Frederick grit his teeth and looked over nervously at the hooded man. He remained silent to Oliver's question as if he was waiting for his companion to answer the question himself. The hooded man stepped forward from the corner of the living space and into the middle of the room. He began to speak, Oliver's eyes widened so much so he thought they might pop out. That deep voice, that accent. If the hoodie wasn't a dead give away. What on earth was Frederick doing with this man!
"Greetings, Mr Oliver, I am Anonymous!' The hooded man announced!

Oliver's curious expression dropped and in its place fear grew.
"What the hell is he doing here! Explain yourself Fred! I should report him over to The Glitch Government and have him sent to President Maxwell" Oliver shouted, desperate for answers from either of them.
"Goodluck with that, The ØSL run things now I'm the best chance we've got!" Anonymous replied! He Chuckled ominously at the idea of Pallid being taken over!
"What!" Oliver gasped.
"I'm afraid it's true!" Frederick added, "Pallid has been left in the dumps, it's all gone wrong. Turn on the television."
Oliver reached for the television remote, still on the floor from where he threw it up into the air, and hit the on switch. The News Channel immediately appeared on by default declaring nation wide breaking news. After the transition from the intro graphic to the studio, a rather pale blond haired man sat frightfully in the chair at his desk staring into the camera.
"Hello, I'm Nate Newsman with Breaking News from Pallid City! 2,000 citizens where present today at the Christmas Festival taking place at Glitch Megaplex. Within the last hour a group of armed forces have stormed Glitch Megaplex and have wiped out The Glitch Leadership that were attending, sightings and rumours have been reported and it would seem as though these casualties include The Three Ministers of Pallid!"
Oliver sat speechless to what he has hearing. Anonymous looked down to hide his emotions, not that anyone would be able to see them anyways! He listened on.
"Furthermore, we have heard that with Maxwell Nicholas on the run! The ØSL have also been able to seize control of The Citadel! The leader of this group, a man named Spextare, who claims to be Behind this has now declared a state of martial law and has sworn himself in as President of Pallid!"

Frederick snatched the controller and turned down the volume of the television!
"You see why we need your help. I used to lead this nation for many years, granted Maxwell found a way to gain the support of the public over to him and I accepted that, but now that even he is powerless I need to do something to save this city."
Oliver sighed.
"What if the Spextare does a good job, what then shouldn't we wait a bit."
Anonymous stepped forward, took his hand from out of his pocket and handed over a ripped page from a file.
"The ØSL stand for The Omega Syndicate League! They are a group comprised of many agents ranging from Gabriel The Knight in charge of military affairs, The 'Lakes' Sisters and many more! But more importantly they have pulled together all of Glitch's enemies and rivals and planned this take over a long time ago. They even tried to tell me to help them again by storming the Megaplex, after I saw what they did to Bradshaw Smith Junior I refused and saw the truth plain and simple! They were using us as tools to get what they wanted! Spextare called me and explained how him and Mr Nicholas have a history, I didn't believe it at first, so I did some digging and found in some secret files I stole a while back from Glitch Centroplex that picture!"
Oliver looked at the old torn paper and saw that it depicted a much younger Maxwell and Spextare shaking hands and smiling standing under a sign that read 'EMPIRE CITY'
"You see!" Anonymous continued, "This isn't about doing something for the betterment of Pallid, this is personal for Spextare, he wanted to destroy Glitch and now that he has what's next for the city,.. he has no plan he won't be able to keep control. This place will descend into chaos soon enough. We need your help to save it."
Frederick nodded with agreement, stating that nobody will fight The ØSL and with Oliver's help they might stand a chance.

Oliver stood up and walked over to the window of his apartment. Outside he saw the night sky, the moon up high shining down on a grey, urban cityscape. Pallid City was only a spectacle at The City Centre where the skyscrapers stood high, the neon signs shined bright and The Citadel overlooked all of it. The inner city where he lived was a grey murky place, not as bad as the near by city of Joe Land but not as magnificent as the richer districts of Pallid City!
"Why should I fight with you guys I could leave right now to live a peaceful life near Azure Lake or something why should I bother!" He asked the two men.
Anonymous, muttered under his breath just enough so Oliver but not Frederick could hear.
"Because you knew the truth and yet you still helped me."
Frederick answered his question. "We're friends aren't we. Please we need you."
Oliver didn't really acknowledge Frederick's response, but was intrigued by what Anonymous had said. The hooded man gave him a nod. Oliver paused contemplating his next move. Should he just lay low and live an easy life? or fight for what was right and help bring about a change for all!