Penguins of Anarchy III: Edge of Disaster

Ten

Dreemo felt uneasy as he trotted through the snow into Blizzard Base as an actual blizzard poured down on him. Waff had summoned him to the war room, and he had a feeling that the stubborn general wasn't in a very good mood. After all, Dreemo had mocked him in front of the entire country. He had made Waff look like a jerk and a fool, when the two of them were both fighting the same fight; they just wanted to win with two very different methods.

Dreemo almost felt bad. Waff was still making decisions that were in the best interest of the people, and would not allow anyone to question his authority. Waff wasn't the bad guy here—was he? Dreemo began to wonder if the Martial Alliance soldiers weren't his only enemies.

Dreemo swung open the door of the building and walked uneasily down the corridor. It was strangely quiet. He could hear no chatter coming from the war room. Dreemo entered the hexagon-shaped room and looked around. He could see no one. A steel plate eerily rose to block the way he had come in. Dreemo walked back up to it to see if it would sense his motion and open again. It didn't, which meant someone locked it.

Dreemo turned around and faced the supposedly empty room. He pulled out his pistol just to be safe.

"You won't need that," a raspy voice said. Dreemo turned and saw Waff sitting at a chair, watching a monitor that displayed footage from a surveillance camera mounted high up on a building overlooking the base. Even through the torrent of snow, Dreemo could see that no one else was at the military base. He had no idea how he hadn't seen Waff sitting there.

"What did you call me for, sir?" Dreemo asked as respectfully as possible.

"What do you think?" Waff asked in a more hostile tone. When Dreemo didn't answer, he added, "No, really, I want to know why you think I asked you here, alone, with no one in the room except you and me."

"I suppose either to reprimand me or get rid of me," Dreemo replied.

"Define 'get rid of.'"

"Either banish me or kill me."

Waff let out a loud, disturbing laugh. "Dreemo, you've got a lot to learn about me if you think I'm going to kill one of my own soldiers. I'm no Omniscion; I don't take my soldiers' lives for granted."

"Well, then I guess you're going to banish me," Dreemo said tensely.

Waff turned around in his chair to face Dreemo. He shook his head. "Banish you where? You've got nowhere to go. Almost all of the other countries of the world are already conquered. No, I'm not going to banish you." He leaned forward. "You're going to make us both righteous again."

Dreemo cocked his head, nervous. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're going to go back to New Era City with me, and you're going to erase the idea that I'm some sort of tyrant, and you're going to make the people realize that you're not some vigilante; you still operate under me."

Dreemo nodded, half-considering the idea. He frowned at Waff. "And what if I just let the people make up their own minds about who you and I are?"

Waff scowled and rose from his chair, getting in Dreemo's face. "I'll make you regret it."

"How are you going to do that without killing or banishing me?" Dreemo shot back.

Waff didn't answer for a moment. He just stood there, scowling, breathing loudly through his nose. Then, in a flash, he grabbed Dreemo by the shirt and threw him across the room. Dreemo let out a yell and crashed into a set of camera controls, crushing them and causing them to spark. Dreemo collapsed to the floor and groaned, still not up to his full strength after three months of sleep- and food-deprivation. As he tried to get back up, he said, "It doesn't have to be like this, Waff."