Mouse

 Chapter 1

             Two men sat in a plain office, each in a military uniform, both sporting an impressive display of ribbons, staring each other down.  One sat behind a solid oak desk, the other sat in a chair in front of the desk.  It had been previously agreed that this discussion had never happened and any inquiries that would be made about this discussion would be dismissed with a simple on-the-spot explanation.  Both men were high-ranking officials, and both were disturbed by recent events.

“This is a major problem.  We should go in full force and take it back.”  The one in front of the desk said.

“No.  This calls for a single operative.”  The one behind the desk said.

“Who would be insane enough to go alone?”

“Mouse.”

“Are you nuts!?”

“Probably, but I’m not certified.”

“Mouse is eccentric, unpredictable, and completely unstable!”

“He’s also the only one who has intimate knowledge of the technology.”

“What makes you think he’ll go?”

“He designed the thing.  He won’t want anyone else playing with his toy.  That and we have a backup plan in case he doesn’t want to go.”

“And that plan is?”

“Plan B of course.  And it won’t be revealed unless he declines to go.”

“Are you sure Plan B will work?”

“Absolutely.”

“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”

“I do, don’t I?”

“There’s no way that he could do this by himself!”

“He’s been in VR training for the last 6 months, and he’s been doing quite well last time I checked.”

“He designed the VR system too, I’m sure he built in backdoors for him to do good.”

“I doubt that.  For the last three months his VR training has been subtly changed as to fit the needs of this particular mission.  Our negotiations are breaking down.  We have to send him in.”

“Does he know anything about it?”

“Any and all communications to him had been cut off the moment the device was stolen.  He’s had no access to TV, radio, Internet, and even people from outside this facility aren’t even allowed to get close to him.  He has no clue.  But he seems to not care about it so there’s no problem.”

“Maybe he suspects?”

“I doubt it.”

“I don’t like this.”

“No one said you had to.”

“Let me find a better operative.  We can send someone in from Razor Unit or Spec Ops.”

“No.  Mouse is the only one who can do this.”

“He failed every psychological test we gave him.  He even ate one of the written exams.  He’s flipping insane.”

“He ATE one of the tests?  Well at least he got his fiber for the day.”

The man behind the desk let out a hearty laugh.

“He claimed he was hungry, but that’s beside the point.”  The man in front of the desk said.

“The point is he’s insane.  Maybe insane enough for this mission.”  The man behind the desk said.

“Too insane for this mission.  He may go berserk the moment we set him loose.”

“All the better then.  Let them deal with him.”

“You may be crazier than Mouse is.”

“Is that really a bad thing?”

“Please reconsider.”

“Okay, let me think about it for a second.  No.  Get him prepped to move out.  That’s an order.”

            Crouched behind a large solid cube, a raichu morph waited for his prey: an enemy soldier carelessly walking right into his trap.  The soldier suddenly stopped and turned around and started walking away.  The raichu cursed silently and then came up around the box, Beretta in hand and trained the weapon to the back of the soldier’s head.  He pulled the trigger, the shot rang out, the bullet made contact with the back of the soldier’s head, and the soldier slumped forward, dead.  The raichu moved up carefully to the dead soldier, grabbed his ankles and pulled the body behind the cube he was hiding behind.  He peered around the corner of the cube and saw no other soldiers walking around, but did spot some hiding places where soldiers might be.  But they might not be there since no one came out to see who had fired a gun, and no one seemed to notice that this one who was making regular patrols had not returned.  This worried him as they may now be expecting his arrival.  He silently cursed himself and quietly plodded forward.  He came to the first hiding spot and looked in with the Beretta taking point.  To his surprise, and elation, it was empty.  He ducked into the niche and rechecked his surroundings.  The coast appeared to be clear.  He looked towards the other hiding spot and saw that another soldier waited there.  He was asleep.  That explains why no one came when he fired his gun.  He silently moved forward, keeping his ears alert for any other footsteps.  He got to point blank range of the sleeping soldier and shot him between his eyes.  The gunshot was loud but the soldier made no noise as he slumped down.  He lifted the soldier’s body and positioned it so that it would stand somewhat to make it seem like he was still waiting in his hiding spot.  It would fool any other soldier, but not for long.  He came around another corner and listened for footsteps.  He peered around a corner and saw no one, but saw his goal in sight: a bright pillar of light.  He walked quietly towards the goal, but without warning an enemy soldier came around the corner in front of him.  The raichu reacted instantly and the soldier soon had a bullet in his brain.  The soldier fell without a sound.  The raichu sprinted forward and dived into the light.  As soon as his body made contact with the light, his surroundings dissolved and he found himself in a strange room, wearing a VR helmet and a suit with all kinds of wires attached to it.  A voice sounded over the intercom.

“Three minutes exactly.  Good work Mouse.”  The voice said.

“Was there any doubt?”  Mouse replied.

The voice made no other comment.  Mouse removed the helmet and got out of the suit and then left the room.  Once out of the room he came face to face with a very important looking officer.

“Good work Mouse.  Your performance was nothing short of excellent.”  The officer said.

“And who do I have the honor of meeting?”  Mouse replied.
”I’m the one that got you funding for these projects of yours.”

“Ah so you’re the money man.  Well thanks for the cash, pops.  What else do you want from me?  I’ve already thoroughly tested the VR system.  I feel like a legendary mercenary straight out of a video game.”

“Good, then you’re fully prepared for your next assignment.”

“Assignment?  Since when do I work for you?”

“Since you applied for that first grant.  And that is what I have to talk to you about.  Please, follow me.”

The officer left the room before Mouse could say anything.  Curiously, Mouse followed the officer.  Mouse found himself curious as to why this guy would want to talk about the money they had given him.  They couldn’t want him to pay it all back.  There’s no way he’d be able to come up with THAT much money.  Maybe it had something to do with the device.  That angered Mouse.  What had happened to his device?  He knew he would find out soon enough.  The officer led him to a small conference room and motioned for Mouse to take a seat.  Mouse sat at the end of the conference table and the officer sat in a nearby seat.  On the table was a lone briefcase.  The officer opened it and began to shuffle through some papers.

“Project Shockwave, which you had so appropriately named.”  The officer said as he passed a file containing all the technical specifics of the device to Mouse.

Mouse picked up the file and flipped through it.

“Okay, this is my invention.  I already know what it is.  Next you are going to tell me I’m sitting in a thing called a chair right?”  Mouse said with a sarcastic tone.

“Three months ago the device was stolen by a small terrorist group stationed on a small island off the coast of Johto.”  The officer said.

Mouse declined to comment and listened intently to the officer’s words.

“You are going to be sent in there to disable the device and find a way to bring it back here.”  The officer continued.

“And I’m the only one crazy enough to do it right?”  Mouse replied.  “What if I refuse?”

“You won’t refuse.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“They have her as well.  She’s one of the twenty hostages they’ve recently taken.”

“Ruby!?  Damnit!”

“She was part of a negotiation team we were sending there.  The negotiations are breaking down, Mouse.  You’re the only one who knows that device inside and out and you’re the only one with the training to pull this mission off.”

Mouse sat there, his face showing signs of intense thought.  Every single axon and intron in his mind was firing, thousands of thoughts passing through in an instant.  He compiled all the information he just received into a database in his mind and reviewed all of it, but found it all to be inconclusive.

“I need more information.  Who are these guys?  What are they after?  Why are they using Shockwave?  Why did they take hostages?”

“They’re terrorists, a group called Electric-13.  Their leader is an anthro-morphic pikachu named Zap.  He’s originally from Johto and seems to have a grudge with the Kanto military.  His lieutenants are an anthro umbreon named Darc who’s specialty is natural night vision and solidifying shadows, an anthro charmeleon named Fyre, who is an expert demolitionist, and a female antrho persian named Kat who is a deadly sniper.  They demanded thirty billion dollars and the original plans of Shockwave, as you made it extremely difficult to backwards engineer the thing.  They are threatening to use Shockwave as a large scale EMP weapon to disable all electronics in the world.  They’ve taken the hostages because no one is backing down at the bargaining table and they needed something in their favor.”

Mouse sat with his eyes closed, sorting all this new data.

“You’ll be air dropped onto the island.  We will be able to jam their surveillance satellites for a few minutes so you will go in undetected.”  The officer said.

“What about equipment?”  Mouse asked.

“You can bring a pistol, but that’s about it except for any light armor you choose.”

Mouse contemplated all of this for a few minutes and then rose up to his feet.

“Alright.  I’ll go.  But it’s going to cost you.”  Mouse said.

“Name your price.”  The officer said.

“Oh don’t worry.  I’ll give you an itemized bill when I get back.”

Mouse then turned and walked out of the room.