Broken Knowledge

Chapter 22

     "Here they come!" Private Miller shouted.
     "Everyone, to your positions!" Alan bellowed. The 17yr old was determined to fend off this attack and not lose another regiment of men and women that trusted him.
     And I don't wanna die. Alan thought. I want to be able to see Mara again and give her a real kiss.
     Alan smiled, remembering back in his days when he was 15 when he was that guy that kissed like, every girl he knew at least once.
     And every one of them said I was a great kisser. Alan thought. And I'm sure that Mara will say the same thing.
     "Wait!" Alan shouted.
     "Sir, they're getting closer!" Colonel Johnson yelled.
     "I know, but we need to let them get closer to insure maximum accuracy!" Alan shouted. The roar of the incoming enemy Jets was deafening.
     "Wait!" Alan repeated.
     "Sir!" Miller screamed, about to pull the trigger and shoot her cannon.
     "Don't you pull that trigger Private!" Alan bellowed.
     Miller allowed her fingers to go relax, but was ready to pull the trigger without hesitation.
     "Wait!" Alan yelled again.
     The Jets were almost on top of them at this point.
     "Wait!"
     The Jets began to fire upon machine gun nests on the roofs of the buildings.
     "FIRE!!!!!!!!!!"

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     "Everyone strap in, were preparing to land." The pilot announced to the small group of humans and Inklings. (And an Octoling)
     Mara strapped her seatbelt on, continuing to gaze out the window. They had just received word of the attack beginning and Mara was praying that Alan was okay.
     He's clever, and smart. She thought. And he wants to live, so he won't die.
     But what if a bomb lands on him? Or what if he's shot? Another side of Mara, the scared side, argued. Maybe I should've just stayed behind with him.
     No! The Inklings or Inkopolis need Inklings they can trust. I need to be here. The other side of Mara, the brave and confident side, countered.
     "You okay over there 3?"Pearl said, noticing Mara's conflicted look.
     "Yes, yes I'm fine."Mara said quickly, a little too quickly.
     "You're thinking about Alan again aren't you?"Pearl said.
     Mara hesitated, then nodded. She was worried about him.
     "Fine worry about him,"Pearl said."It all the shit he said he had been through is true, then he's a tough cookie, and he ain't gonna let himself kick the bucket yet."
     Pearl leaned closer to Mara,"And he ain't gonna let himself sure after that kiss." She said, snickering.
     Mara blushed and said,"Pearl stop it! The reason I kissed him is none of your business!"
     "Fine, fine."Pearl said. She plugged a pair of headphones into her arrow shaped phone and began blasting rock music so loud, Mara could hear it clearly even though Pearl had the headphones in her ears.
     Mara sighed and shook her head. They didn't understand. And they probably would never understand.
     I love him. She thought. And I wanted to tell him that, but I hesitated too long and had to board the plane.
    Suddenly, thay were flying over Inkopolis, slowly descending, intending to land in a field in the outskirs of the city.
     Mara saw several Inklings in Inkopolis Square, pointing at the plane and watching it fly overhead.
     By the time that plane landed, there were several Inklings and Octolings gathered around where the plane landed.
     When the door opened, the Squid Sisters went first.
     "Hey guys! I hope you missed us!" Callie shouted at the shocked Inklings and Octolings. The exclaim of surprise became even louder when Off the Hook stepped out right behind the Squid Sisters.
     "YO!" Pearl exclaimed."Hope you guys are happy to see us!"
     Then Mara took a deep breath and stepped out. Everyone went silent. Mara knew that everyone has allot of respect for Agent 3, and she knew that's why they went silent.
     "We have an announcement to make."Mara shouted to the growing crowd of Inklings and Octolings.
     "We were incorrect when we assumed the human race was extinct! We were wrong!
     "Mankind still exists!"
     "No fuckin way!" An Inkling boy does from the crowd, laughing."This is all some big joke!"
     "No. It's not."Sandy said, stepping out of the plane.
     The rest of the small group of humans followed.
     The crowd gaped and stared at the humans.
     "This is impossible!" An Octoling girl shouted from the crowd.
     "Yeah the flooding wiped them out 10,000 years ago!" An Inkling girl yelled.
     "Well you guys were odviously wrong because here we are!" One of the humans yelled. The woman that pulled Mara aside and spoke to her.
     Rolinda is her name I think. Mara thought.
     The crowd went silent for a moment, processing this.
     C'mon! Mara thought desperately. Please take this well!
     "Why are they here!" An indiscernible voice yelled from the crowd.
     "We came to speak with your leaders," the pilot of the plane said."Who's in charge here?"
     Cap'n Cuttlefish pushed his way through the crowd.
     "Just say whatever you have to say to me." The old Inkling (is he even an Inkling?) said.
     "Before we begin explaining, we must introduce ourselves."the pilot said. He then told them his name was Jonas, told Sandy's name, Rolinda's name, told them another man's name (Arthur), and introduced the teen girl, Alexandria who stowed away on the plane, wanting to come.)
     "Nice to meet you folks, now why are you here?" The cap'n said.
     "We came for several reasons,"Jonas said."First off, we came with a warning.
     "An evil man known as the Dictator is going to attack your nation in an attempt to capture your lands and enslave, and possibly kill, your kind."
     An exclamation of surprise arose from the crowd. Jonas waited patiently got the Inklings and Octolings to quiet down, and when they didn't, Mara bellowed,"Y'ALL THE FUCK UP AND LET THE MAN FINISH TALKING!"
     The crowd went silent immediately and Jonas continued,"We are part of a separate nation of humans who fight against the Dictator, and we have come to offer our technologies and our hand in assistance.
     "In other words, we've come to offer you an alliance. El Patron, our leader, wants us to be part of an alliance called the (I don't know, give me an idea for what the alliance make should be!) alongside several other smaller nations to battle the Dictator, execute him for his horrific actions, and restore peace to this land."
     Cap'n Cuttlefish processed this for a moment before saying,"How do I know your not lying?"
     "We thought you were going to assume this and we have brought evidence with us. Jonas handed Cap'n Cuttlefish a file and said,"Every horrific images in that file was caused under the Dictator's orders."
      Cap'n Cuttlefish opened the file and everyone, including the crowd could see the look of horror on his face. The pictures he looked at were images of decimated buildings, streets lined with dead bodies, images of people being tortured in various ways (the Dictator sent them images like this too insure terror and to intimidate how opponents), people showing scars room the Dictator's sadistic torture methods.
     Jonas lifted his shirt to reveal s massive scar on his chest. Several Inklings and Octolings in the crowd looked away, time horrified by what they saw, and some just not wanting to see Jonas' chest.
     "The Dictator used a flamethrower."Jonas said. The crowd didn't understand what Jonas meant 100% but they used coming sense to figure out what Jonas meant.
     Sandy pulled her skirt up an inch to show a circular scar on her upper thigh.
     "He ordered machine guns be fired on a hospital full of injured and innocent men, women, and children." She said, allowing her skirt to fall back down.
     "Mara, if you'd please." Jonas said. Mara nodded and pulled the collar if her sure down to show the still-healing bullet wounds in her chest about  and a half inch above her left breast. The crowd was shocked that the Agent 3 had gotten hurt.
     "What are "machine guns"?" An Octoling boy asked.
     Arthur has one strapped to his back and pulled it into his arms. He took the empty glass bottle Jonas handed him, hurled it into the air with incredible strength, and emptied the clip of his automatic AK-47 into it. The bottle shattered into a million tiny pieces.
     The crowd gaped. Seeing that really put how far behind they were when it came to guns into perspective.
     "There are other guns like this too."Jonas said.
     "The Squid Sisters explained to us that your guns shoot ink, am I correct?" Jonas asked.
     "Yes, you ar-ar-are." A timid Inkling girl said from the front of the crowd.
     "You guys need to know this, ink doesn't hurt us. It doesn't affect us in any way. If the Dictator were to attack you right now, you would be slaughtered trying to fight his merciless armies with those guns.
     "We want to share our technologies with you."Jonas said."And we can send human soldiers to support you in you were attached if you accept the Patron's offer for alliance."
     "Give us a minute to discuss this." Cap'n Cuttlefish pulled hours arrow shaped phone out and called the small group of leaders that governed Inkopolis.
     They heard the Cap'n say a few words here and there but was mostly silent. Then he nodded and said,"Yes sir, I will." He put the phone back into his pocket, then turned to Jonas and said,
     "They said no. They don't accept the offer."

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