Inquisition: Outbreak

Chapter 1: Reunion

  Charles, Mark, Shaun, and Mason sat in a room. They stared at each other awkwardly as they waited for the other inquisition members to arrive. Mark sat with his hand on the holster of his Whisper, Shaun sat a little more inviting, with both hands on the table... with his guns under his hands. Mason was twirling a hatchet, and Charles sat twiddling his thumbs. They heard a knock at the door, and the three armed men quickly darted their eyes to the door. Charles slowly got up and motioned for them to stand down as he opened the door. The other members slowly trickled in, including Joshua. Shaun and Mason glared at the man, but quickly set their hatred aside when Charles finally spoke.

  "Now, since we're all here, I need to confiscate your weapons." Charles said.

  "You really don't trust us, old man?" Jack said firmly. He hadn't been the same since the civil war, being pit against the woman he loved.

  "We were just trying to kill each other. Forgive me if I don't want a weapon in the hands of the Reaper or Stalker." Charles responded. Jack shrugged and put his guns and swords on the table. Everyone followed suit, and sat around the room in various chairs.

  "Why is he here?" Shaun gave Joshua a stern look, who looked back but looked away in shame.

  "Because I called the Inquisition, not 99% of it." Charles spoke.

  "We agreed to kick him out." Shaun said.

  "We agreed to disband and agree to disagree, officially there is no Inquisition." Charles hung his head. "But right now there needs to be."

  "Why?" Shane asked. "You said it yourself, we just tried to kill each other. Why not get your loyalists and five new guys to do this job."

  "You guys are the best damn soldiers I could have asked for, despite our differences, big or small." Charles adjusted himself in his chair, and nodded in Mark's direction. "Mark and I found something out, he'll fill you guys in. This isn't a job for half of the Inquisition and five throwaway soldiers."

  "You mean I found something." Mark smiled as he threw a ball at the wall and caught it, repeating the process as he spoke. "I don't know what you guys did after you disbanded, but I couldn't stay away from the job. I was doing recon in the ruins of the Balkan Massacre, and found something interesting. A Floricon soldier, following the collapse of their empire, carrying supplies into a bunker. I can't say for sure what was in the crate or what the fuck he was doing, but I can say with certainty that he was Floricon."

  "So what? Charles are you gonna recruit us for a second Floricon war? Floricon: take two. Featuring a new way for Joshua to betray us." Shaun glared at Joshua again, and quickly darted his eyes to his guns. Joshua just kept running his fingers through each other, he seemed like he didn't want to be there.

  "I shouldn't have come here, Dunbar." Joshua whispered. "I tore the team apart for what I did, I've come to terms with what I did."

  "No amount of repenting or making us feel sorry for you will make us forgive what you did." Shaun started to raise his voice. Joshua gave him a look that told Shaun to stop talking. Shaun gave him another look, although he wished he could give him two to the chest.

  "Calm down, you two." Alice said carefully.

  "We need to focus on the main issue here. What is Floricon doing? We were so busy fighting each other that it may have presented them the opportunity to gain a foothold. They still have most of their leaders, save the ones who surrendered." Charles spoke softly, trying to get everyone to calm down, to no avail. Shaun kept glaring at Joshua who looked like a kicked puppy. Mark kept throwing his ball at the wall, Austin kept giggling to himself not listening, Cyrus rest his head on his hand, Shane was the only one listening, Alice and Jack kept exchanging looks, and Mason was tapping his fingers on the desk.