Chapter 200: The Plot Thickens

"Are you okay Aquina! It sounded like Dave was hunting you, REALLY BAD!" Tenten said in his usual excited tone.

"No, he didn't hurt me, Tenten. Don't ask me to explain either!"

Aquina buried her face in my shoulder as she spoke, making me chuckle and pet her soft blue hair. I put an arm around her and pulled into a hug; her head only came to just under my chin. This made it easy for her to bury her face into my black T-shirt.

This was my first time noticing my clothes, and I was also wearing camo pants that had multiple pockets. Though, when Aquina finally pushed away, I reached down to try one, but there was no texture there like the pockets were painted on. Pft, this is what I get for giving a shit about what I look like. The girls thought I looked good...most of the time. 

The seal's form I had before played through my head and gave me an involuntary shiver, as I followed Aquina who was following Tenten, the blind leading the blind, leading the blindest. We headed over to a door near my bed that wasn't normally there, and I didn't think it was there before. Though I was thoroughly distracted when I got into the room, and every point after that until now, so who knows.

Aquina opened the door, and inside was the standard starting room, the same as the last two. Tenten allowed us to upgrade our guns, but I decided to keep my points, in favor of random goodness. Aquina, on the other hand, dumped all her points into Sally, her new toy, and after she was finished, she was able to easily hold the gun with one hand, so I gave her the Machete for her other hand.

"Alright! Almost time for round three! Things you should know! There will be new monsters! Tacos Inferno is the new vending machine!" Tenten explained excitedly.

"What kind of new monster is there going to be?" Aquina asked as she was setting her knuckle slots.

"New ones!"

"Anything else, oh Great Dispenser of Knowledge?"

"Oh, yes! This time instead of looking for parts you will have to find the person holding them!" Tenten explained excitedly.

"The person? What do you mean? Stop being vague!"

'He can't help it, the game imposes more restrictions on him as you progress further to the end of this game.' -Tequila.

"Sorry, Tenten. Mom told me about the restrictions, thanks for telling us what you can."

Tenten made a big smile fill up his entire screen, and did a loop in the air. I guess I was forgiven for my transgressions, but I had almost forgotten that I had Mom to help us. 

"Who is Mom?" Aquina asked with a puzzled look. 

"Her name is Tequila, you met her at the end of last game, remember?"

"The big angel wish lady that gave us all a free pass?"

"Yes, she is the one! You can talk to her as well, you just have to talk to her in your head and she will respond. She can help us with things, but she is restricted in some ways like Tenten. We have to ask certain questions to get answers about some things, and some stuff she's just not allowed to tell us, because of MainFrame."

Aquina paused for a moment, I assumed to try and talk to Mom. Her face lit up in a big smile but then faded to a blank look, then to a partial smile. Something just happened there, I don't know what, but that range of emotions said she was really excited about something, and then she was shot down, but then mollified by whatever Mom had said. 

"Okay, let's go."

"What did you talk to mom about? You seemed like you were excited, but then…"

"No, it was nothing. Come on, time to go."

Like that was suspicious as fuck. 

'What did you girls talk about?'

'That's between us.' -Tequila.

And the plot thickens, but now I was like a kid at Christmas time, I had to know! That was the moment the door opened and Aquina smiled at me after running out. That almost felt planned.

"Dave! You can't sit in here all game! Aquina will get all the points, and you will be useless next round!"

"Yeah, Yeah, I am going!"

I cracked my knuckle as I ran out, bringing out the FN FAL, reloading it, and then taking a good look at my surroundings as I ran to catch up. We were on a farm with a small white house, big red barn, and it was surrounded by cornfields all around us. The place was giving me the creeps, I was getting some sci-fi vibes from the cornfield, an Aquina yell confirmed my suspicion.

*Boom!*

"Little green men are coming from the cornfield!"

Great, aliens; I was already missing the dirty piles of milk pouring off of the cracks. I pulled up my gun and took aim, emptying a clip into the closest one's head, but I didn't go down. I dropped the gun and cracked to get the Ripperess out and sprayed half a clip to finish it off, nope. 

My first two guns were all but useless, maybe I should have been like Aquina, but I had faith in the piss tank Russian to hook me up. I dropped the SMG, and both of us started to backpedal, constantly looking back to make sure none were flanking us. I summoned my inventory and started hucking grenades as fast as I could pull the pin and toss them.

The green men scattered when I thought the grenades, and they were slow to go off, but I used this to my advantage. I corraled them with the first there and by the fourth one, the first one went off, stunning them briefly, but it was enough. The next two made the fourth and fifth throws into the groups that were still trying to get up short work.

After the last two went off, Aquina and I rushed the last five, cracking to bring out Rip. Aquina was the first to come in range and took out two before I was in range. Then I unloaded an Explody shell into the middle of the three and watched for the brief moment where the shell lodged itself into the little green man's chest area.

The monster looked down and then was ripped apart into a showed of black particles. Both other aliens were sent flying and burst the same as the first once they smacked into the ground. I gave a quick look around, but the aliens had stopped coming. 

[0:59 seconds until next round]

"Do you hear that?" Aquina asked as she was moving closer to the big red barn.

I hadn't been paying attention, but now as I followed Aquina over I could slowly make out the sound of a familiar voice. It was coming from inside the barn, and I ran past Aquina to open the barn door. As I opened it up, I was assaulted by the loud voice of my favorite drunk Russian.

"HEY! SHIT STAIN!"

"Hay is for horses, straw is cheaper, and the grass is free. Horses eat it, so why don't we! What do you want? Do you have a new mission for us? Maybe a useful weapon?"

"Are you a fucking child now? What took you so long? Did you squeeze every last drop out of that little honey with all the extra time I gave you?" Ivan asked the last part in a low tone, but Aquina was standing right beside me, with some burning cheeks. 

Oh boy, this was not going to turn out well.

Aquina raised her gun to the radio Ivan was making his stupid comments from, but I quickly got between them. 

"Cha, chi, chi, cha, don't be like that! You can shoot him after I am done getting my weapon!"

"Ho, hoe! Sorry, misses, I didn't know you were in the room! You know my eyes aren't as good as they normally are, and that little piss ant of a Tenten is keeping out of my range to jack his monitor!" 

"Can it, you old drunken dinosaur! We will meet face to face one day, and I have a bullet with your name on it!"

"Oh? I like them spicy!"

"Enough, stop flirting with my woman or I'll send the next pod backfilled with grenades! A weapon, now, take all my money. Then mission, and reward, fast!"

We were on a timer and this was wasting time we didn't have. Ivan agreed to take all my money and I heard the sounds of the pod dropping from the heavens. Next, Ivan quickly explained the mission, and reward.

"I need you to find a long copper tube that will look like a spring, two shiny metal pots, and a bag of potatoes."

"You do know this is a corn farm, right?"

"I don't make the missions!" Ivan half-heartedly protested.

"Oh, really? So, it is just a random mission to send you all the parts to make your own vodka distillery?"

"Ah, well, you know…"

Ivan's voice trailed off, but that was the time the round clock hit zero, and a siren went off. The two of us ran outside and rushed to the smoking silver tube in the center of the farmyard. As we ran over, I looked at the place where the aliens had come out before and groaned loudly.

There were bigger aliens this time.

And they had guns...great.