The Search for Ball Zero (6 page)

Inside the warstore cockpit there is a
slight rumble and the chaos below looks

like some crazy psychedelic ant farm.

The Captain’s face widens with a evil
smile,”Haaa! Good job baby!” He pats

his warstore. Then he gets loud again with a
strange battlecry,”OK, time to peddle our product!” He
continues,”When those cops get out of the crowd, take em out. We
don’t need to kill any more of our customers.”

The cop cars pass the end of the street and
snake into the empty field between

the warstore and the crowd, they separate
into 4 dusty trails. One car hits the brakes, and both cops pop
out, shooting at the warstore from behind their open doors.

Two small hatches on the front of the
warstore open, four drones cruise out, two

are airplane like, and two are helicopter
like. In unison, they launch missiles and fire mini machine guns.
They are heading back into the warstore before their projectiles
reach their target, like some cocky basketball player who launches
a three point shot and begins celebrating while the shot is still
in the air.

Small but deadly explosions go off in a row
1, 2 ,3, cop cars go up in explosions

sending them flying in all directions like
some out of control movie director demanded it. The two cops that
were shooting at the warstore attempt to take off running, they
both get about 1 step before they turn into red explosions
themselves. One car flies toward the warstore and gets crunched
under the treads as easily as a human squashing a beetle.

Tony and Perry are watching from Treetop. L
was working that day and tried to keep working, but everyone
stopped what they were doing to see this. People were walking away
from their live games. Soon pretty much everyone at Treetop was
crowded near the large curved windows that faced the city, watching
in amazement as the warstore drones destroy the cop cars. A couple
people took off running for the elevators.

One kid looks over to his friend, “Duuude!
That’s just like that one game Amazon’s Drone Clones 3!”

The second kid agrees, “Ohh yea!!!”

Then they both agree like kids in a toy
commercial from the 80s,”Cool!!!”

The warstore is nearly there. Some people
are standing, many holding money/credit cards out. Some even crying
and throwing money into the air, like crazed religious people. A no
music mosh pit of consumerism is about to explode. Two guys bust
out, running towards the warstore.

The first guy is sucked into the warstore's
giant Dust Buster hands from 20 feet

away like a piece of dust, his flailing body
hits the side and is torn to bloody shreds.

Some of his body goes into the entrance, his
head and left arm go spinning off to the left.

The second guy gets sucked up like a bird
being sucked into the jet engine of an airplane. He splatters
against the side also, the front rim of the giant Dust Buster is
now covered in blood.

The crowd sees the first 2 warstore
customers instantly killed and goes silent,

almost as if they are now thinking this is a
bad idea… A few look at each other in contemplation. But a long
second later they explode with cheers!! Then a mad dash starts.
People are running
toward
the store like it’s a race for
their lives. Screaming in joy even after seeing the first 2 people
turn into red spatters.

The crowd meets the warstore, the crowd
begins being sucked into the vacuum on both sides. Many are crushed
to death by the force, arms, wallets, heads are randomly spit from
the steady flow of bodies into the vacuum.

Not too far away 2 stoners are smoking a
joint on top of Treetop Games. From

their point of view it looks like a
battlefield and 1 primitive army is charging a giant technological
beast.

The first stoner is amazed, “Dude, those
people like to shop!”

The second stoner is holding in a hit,
almost coughing, “Hashtag holy fuck!”

then he coughs violently and they both start
roaring with laughter. Moments later the hatch to the roof area
opens and Perry emerges with a smile. He can sense a joint being
smoked a mile away, it’s his sixth sense.

A little behind and to the left and right of
the warstore, a small crowd of bums is

jogging next the warstore, bathing in the
shower of blood and body parts, searching for anything worthwhile.
Grabbing wallets, purses and anything else of value. Dogs and other
wild animals trail the warstore, ripping body parts apart into
smaller body parts, some darting back into the forest with their
meat prizes. One hobo holds up a disembodied bloody breast,
cheering happily. Another has an intact set of penis and balls in
one hand and a bloody ten dollar bill in the other, shaking them in
the air victoriously.

Soon, the first of the consumers is seen
exiting the store out of the back. Hands full of bags and brand new
sunglasses, video games, stuffed animals, food, even a kitchen
sink. They come down a ramp out the exit of the bottom middle of
the warstore, right where it’s anus would be. Even though the
consumers are happy when they exit, they all stumble out like some
bouncer just behind the door is shoving them out.

Jump to the inside of a
different
warstore. A much slicker, much higher tech cockpit, the employees
on this warstore look like they should be in the Imperial Army or
Star Wars and GQ at the same time. Almost all of them are working
on their computers, the Elohssa Corp logo is seen everywhere. The
shopping spree / massacre can be seen on many of the monitors.

Over the shoulder of a couple other officers
is a young captain, he is watching

the scene on tablets other officers are
holding up in front of him. He is calm, and looks ready to take
action. He is also as slick as this high tech cockpit, as is the
entire crew. He has slicked back hair, perfectly shaven, wearing
sunglasses indoors even though he doesn’t need them. He sees
something on one of the screens, his eyebrows shift behind the
sunglasses, then he swiftly takes them off like Matthew McConaughey
in an action movie.

A lower officer looks up from his screen to
the Captain. “I don’t think they see

us.”

“
Lets see if we can cut
into our competitor’s market share.” The Captain says,

like he’s in an action movie from the 80s.
“Phase 1, 2 hits.”

One of the Death Star looking employees
touches his screen and moves some windows around, sliding a green
button that reads “2” over another window that says “Phase 1”

The outside of the Elohssa warstore makes
the Telnet warstore look severely

dated. Two missile racks slide up very
quickly and efficiently, it looks like 15-20 missiles per side, and
all the missiles fire, quietly hissing as they take off. The
missile racks then quickly slide back down and then slide up again
within a millisecond, fully reloaded and fire another volley.

Inside the Telnet cockpit, their Captain is
looking out the front window, smiling, watching thousands of
consumers being sucked into the warstore vacuum arms. He doesn’t
see missile volley coming his way. Billy taps him on the shoulder
like a scared child.

The Captain quickly catches on to what’s
happening, “WHAT THA!”

One of his Walmart looking crewmen is in
front of him, sleeping face down on

his screen that is screaming at him with
roughly 80 red dots racing toward the middle of the screen. The
Captain donkey punches the back of his head, the kid wakes up,
fresh drool slopping down his face, and instinctively presses a big
red button.

The Telnet warstore anti-missile system
activates and a red laser very quickly

tags and destroys missiles, only taking out
about 10 out of 80, the rest crash into the Telnet warstore,
unleashing their payload.

Most of the missiles rip into the middle of
the Telent warstore, the giant

mechanical beast lurches to the side as the
volley shreds it’s chest into a mess of metal shards, black holes
and pipes spewing out all kinds of fluids. A giant banner reading
“Sale” now hangs sideways and limply reads”Sa” on one side and “le”
on the other.

The collateral damage is massive. A few of
the missiles miss their mark, dotting

the surrounding city with explosions. Much
of a city block is destroyed, along with thousands of lives as the
Telnet warstore heaves in what seems like slow motion from the
impact. Hurt, but not beat, the Telnet warstore's cannons turn and
begin firing upon the Elohssa store as it comes out of hiding.

One of the Telnet’s consumer arm vacuums is
destroyed and inoperable, there’s so much blood it almost looks
like a human being who’s held a piece of dynamite too long and blew
off their own hand. Live victims still scramble to crawl into the
twisted metal and others still pour into the other vacuum,
unphased. The Telnet store alters its course to face the
competitor’s store.

A cool movie shot would be from above the
Telnet warstore, showing the flood

of people trying to run toward the vacuum
entrance. As the direction of the store alters, thousands of
potential consumers are lost as the giant tank treads turn and
crush them silently. There’s so many people it looks like one of
those giant GC army shots in Lord of the Rings movies.

The Telnet Captain is loving this, but
confused “I’ve never seen a warstore like

that one. But if it bleeds we can kill it.
Let em have it Billy!”

Billy slaps two employees like he’s in the
Three Stooges. They jump to

attention and press buttons.

The Telnet warstore launches a volley of
missiles at Elohssa. Most of them hit

the Elohssa store and it is covered in a
cloud of smoke. The Telnet Captain’s mouth twists, is he happy or
grimacing?

When the smoke clears, the Elohssa warstore
stands solid as a rock. Smoke

swirls around it and the nearby trees burn,
but the warstore is unphased. Before the smoke is fully gone, some
superficial hull damage can be seen, yet remarkably, a few
mechanical arms with a blowtorch and other tools are already hard
at work fixing the damage. Other arms can be seen in un hit areas
enthusiastically looking for damage, then retreating back into
their homes when none is found.

At the edge of the city, the Telnet warstore
is still trying to maneuver to face it’s

opponent. As the entire injured store turns
un-smoothly, it runs over hundreds, possibly thousands more people.
At the same time, it’s mangled vacuum arm swings around and cuts a
one story hole through a few buildings. One of the buildings is an
apartment complex; a few entire apartments are ripped out, one lady
in the shower gets exposed to the entire city for a second before
her and her bathtub slide and fall into the debris, a giant fish
tank ripped in half drains it’s occupants, a fridge teeters for a
second and then jumps to it’s death.

Inside someone’s apartment on the ground
floor, the occupant is home and eating. He sees the warstore on TV
and then looks through his window and sees the same warstore is
approaching his home. His eye’s widen as it gets closer, he drops
his food and runs to the counter, grabs his wallet and begins
laughing maniacally, he opens the front door and hangs onto it. He
continues to laugh hysterically as one of the warstore vacuum arms
swings his way. First, all his clothes are ripped off. Next, his
naked body is ripped from the door and sucked into the vacuum. A
half second later his apartment is completely destroyed.

Back to inside Telnet’s warstore, the
Captain is checking out some numbers on a tablet screen. One Telnet
employee in the cockpit is manning the machine gun, furiously
jerking at a joystick controller like he’s playing the most intense
game of Quake ever with an Atari controller. The machine gun is so
ineffective against the Elohssa warstore it’s laughable, but he’s
trying his best.

Telnet Captain, “We’re killing too many
people! Those are potential customers you assholes! How about try
not to go through neighborhoods!! But don’t let up on that Elohssa
warstore, they’re too smart to be attacking us without something up
their sleeve.” Then under his breath to Billy, “I’ve never seen a
warstore that looked like that thing.

What type of warstore is that Billy?”

The Elohssa warstore is just standing there,
unmoving on the edge of the forest,

like a confident killer.

Telnets warstore, still trying to face it’s
opponent, ungracefully bashes through an elevated freeway on the
edge of town like a football team running through a banner. The
Telnet machine guns are blaring and tinging off the Elohssa
warstore armor. If that machine gun was effective in any way, the
Quake player employee would be doing good. But it’s not.

Finally the Telnet warstore faces Elohssa’s;
Telnet on the edge of town, Elohssa

on the edge of the nearby forest, a grassy
field separating the two. Two Gunslingers about to finish their
duel. The world was about to move on.

Two sirens on top the Elohssa warstore turn
on and begin spinning. Next, a long

thin part on top of the Elohssa warstore
begins to rise, giant mechanisms lifting the many tons of metal The
relatively thin piece folds back, and starts to resemble a scorpion
tail.

“
What the fuck is that
Billy?!” The Telnet Captain asks.
“
I’m getting the
info right now!” Billy’s waiting, he reads as the info
appears.

“
Brand new... Right off
the line. Unseen in action.”

The Captain breathes ,”Until now.” He pauses
contemplatively,”Grandma may

have just shit the bed.”

Billy states the obvious,”Sir, they have
superior firepower.”

The Quake guy is still playing his game like
a spaz going for a high score.