We're crazy and proud of it

CHAPTER 3 BLASTED PAPARAZZI

The next morning morning went very similar to the first with Jack waking up first and blasting the horn to wake everyone else up after waking up Karen calmly. It was Jodake's turn to cook breakfast, although frequently looking to his vacant left and speaking to a "Joseph" "Hey Jodake, who's Joseph?" Jack questioned "Oh, he's just an imaginary friend that I use for coping with what you call 'Reality'." "Oooh, okay!" Jack replied. Jodake had prepared quite the spread and everyone sat down hungrily to eat. "Dadgum, my legs are still sore," Bo said. "Yeah, you were quite the runner yesterday," Jack agreed. "By the way Johnny were y'all finally able to clear a path for the relief vehicles?" "Yeah, it was practically a gravel road by the time we finished," he replied. "That was a real nice save with the missile launcher back there, Tommy," Bo complimented. "Thanks I'm just glad I could get there in time," Tommy replied. Jodake was mostly quiet while he was eating. "Ya know Karen, you are the cutest little thing when you're asleep," Jack praised her. "Aw, thank you sweetheart," she replied. "Don't expect me to cooking for a while, okay?" Sera declared. "I can imagine why! How many meals did you cook anyway?" Jack asked. "Well, you hauled in at least fifty people and some of them were asking for seconds," Brook said. "We had to have some of them sit outside the bus." "Well it looks like everything turned out okay. Let's go see what's on the news," Jack said excusing himself from the table. Levi and Johnny quickly cleaned up the dishes and stored the leftovers then the crew piled into the main room and Jack clicked on the TV to the news. "Mayhem in earthquake's wake" the headline read. "What?" Karen said puzzled. "Terrorist group 'The Crazys' causes massive damage in the wake of townville earthquake." "ETIMIS, YOU JACKASS!" Jack thundered, startling everyone. Even Karen leaned away a bit. The rest of The Crazys hadn't seen him this angry in a long time. "This guy absolutely has it in for us!" Jodake replied "Unlawful distribution of meals led to food poisoning," the reporter continued showing a clip of a woman who had somehow been so happy she had started choking when she saw Bo helping her husband towards the bus. The crew's phones had already started blowing up, but this scene really pissed off Sera who immediately got on her social media and started going off about how there was nothing wrong with her meals and explaining the whole ordeal with the woman being so happy she started choking. Most of the previous posts were on her side to begin with. "This group also caused confusion with near constant moving of people," the TV continued, showing Bo and the others guiding people away from the wreckage, though it never showed the bus. This Pissed Bo off so he hopped on social media and started explaining how he was doing the opposite of creating confusion as he was leading them all to the bus, concentrating them. He had the same case as Sera with most of the previous posts being in his favor. "Reckless use of advanced firearms and haphazard transportation of people endangered lives," showing the scene where Tommy used the missile launcher but the missiles audibly exploded offscreen and then showed Levi and Karen getting the people on the upper floors of the garage to the ground floor. This time Tommy is the one irritated and does the same thing the first two did getting on social media and explaining his side of the story. "Acts of Desolation of public and private property were also committed by this horrible group," was the next bulletin in Etimis' smear showing Tommy and Johnny blasting and burning away at rubble to try and clear a path for the rescue vehicles. This once again pisses someone off and Johnny yells "Burn the man! Burn 'em to Hell!" At the TV, a growl distinctly in his voice. "Well Jack what do we do?" Karen asked sounding a little worried. "She's right, Jack, if we don't do something the cops will be beating on our door in no time." Jodake added. "Simple, we take the fight to him, it's time to start firing back." Jack reassured "Brook start posting the selfies you took yesterday, Gearhead help me set up an internet poll for whether we are in the right or in the wrong, let's see Etimis argue with numbers." Jack declared, a gleam in his eye. Before too long the results were in, and no surprise to them the results came back heavily on their side. "BREAKING NEWS!" the TV blared. The entire crew peered curiously at the TV. "Massive protest staged at Fax news station in response to failed smear story by reporter Etimis Draconian." the whole group began to laugh. "Finally getting what you deserve, eh, Etimis?" Bobby said gleefully. "Rioting has begun to breakout at the scene of the protest, police forces have already been mobilized to suppress violence." The TV reported showing showing lines of officers with riot shields. "Uh guys maybe we go out there and try to calm things down," Jack suggested. "I think things are starting to get out of hand." "The man kinda deserves it for all the shit he's pulled," Daniel suggested. "Etimis might but the police officers don't!" Jack retorted pointing at the TV and looking at him. "Alright people let's go run crowd control," Bobby said, already walking to the bus. Before too long they were off to do what they never expected to be doing: defending Etimis. On the ride over there, Jack started laying out the situation. "Okay people, we are not here to kick Etimis in the rear, much, our main point for going out here is to try and mitigate the pandemonium we have unintentionally created for the sake of the police officers and the citizens. So the idea is not to cause more trouble but to end it, without death and bloodshed," he said looking straight at Karen, Tommy, and Johnny. "Hey Jack, we're almost to the Fax building," Bobby called from the driver seat. "Okay start slowing down, the last thing we want is to run over someone by accident," Jack instructed. Once they arrived, their distinctive engine and paint job alerted the crowd that it was them and they began to clear a path for them. Jack tried to get off the bus very carefully because there was still opposition to the relief escapade from yesterday. "Okay people settle down, please!" Jack yelled out into the crowd, by this point the rest of The Crazys had disembarked from the bus except for Bobby. The crowd only settled down a little bit and began to retort "are you seriously just going to take this?"

"We know Etimis is a jackass but mass civil unrest and violence is not the way to handle it," Jack responded

"Well then what do we do about it?" the crowd began to angrily shout back, it sounded like they were beginning to turn on the group. "Y'all sit down, give the police a rest, and maybe have a snack. We'll go inside and teach Etimis a lesson," Jack yelled back, still trying to stay calm. "Oh, okay fine," the crowd responded and the crew began to slowly wade through the mob scene towards the building. Once inside the building everyone inside began eyeing the Crazys suspiciously and probably for good reason. "Excuse me, ma'am but where can we find Etimis?" Jack said to a woman almost cowering behind the desk. "W-why should I-I tell y-you?" The woman stuttered, Karen Brandished her knife and gave her the meanest evil eye and Johnny barked "TELL US!" "Johnny, be nice," Jack chastised. Just then, a guy came through the door after the desk lady called security by pressing a button. He pulled out his gun, and then Karen ran over broke his arm with the gun in hand and was about to stab him through the heart when Jack called her back and then KO'ed the guard with his stun gun. Jack went back over to the desk lady. "Ma'am." But she was still in shock. "Ma'am?" "Ma'am!" She finally snapped out of it and Jack said, "Now then, before things get any uglier would you kindly tell me where Etimis is." "He-He's in the conference room, on the third floor." Then, while everyone else went outside to keep the crowd calm, Jack, Karen, and Johnny went down to the conference room where Jack forced open the door and Etimis said, "Well, this is convenient, the top bananas of the asylum jailbirds. Kill them." Etimis then escaped with two highly trained men out a rear door. Johnny lit five guards on fire, Jack stunned two of them after countering an attack. Karen kicked one up the face and stabbed him. "Well, I was hoping this would have gone peacefully." But then again, I should have known it wouldn't have gone peacefully with Etimis in the picture" "I'm just glad I got the sport of the fight," Karen said, "We took them down together sweetie, see your name and mine's on this glamourous knife!" "You're right, but that still doesn't change the fact that Etimis got away," Jack replied, with a sigh. "Johnny extinguish those guards, and Karen help me bandage this one up. The last thing we want right now is casualties, this was supposed to be a diplomatic excursion." Jack then sent a text to the others saying "You guys come up here. We need to get these guards the hospital before they die, one of y'all might want to call 911." Before too long the crew had loaded all eight wounded guards in the Psycho Serpent and were speeding towards the hospital.