Troy and the Captain of Ringdom

Road To Recovery

Another long day at Seattle High followed a rocky night in both Washington DC and some parts of the Middle East. The good news for now at least was the confirmation that Cherry and Troy were back into safe hands. At the moment, the heroes were in no shape to go into active combat. By the time, the duo must have regained full consciousness, they'd be wondering how on earth they managed to escape the Vaagmer's underground base without being murdered by the atomic cloud. They'd need an extra boost in order to continue their quest.

Meanwhile, Ollie was taking bold steps towards freeing herself from her anthropophilic issues. She sat quietly at her end of the classroom until she saw Max walk through the class entrance. On seeing her new pal enter into the classroom, she sprung into life.

"Hey Max!" Ollie said, raising a few eyebrows. Max was still recovering from a trauma where he narrowly escaped death the previous night. He tried at least to be cheerful enough for the sake of Ollie's esteem.

"Hi Ollie! Waddup...how'd your night go?" said Max, who continued walking towards his regular seat position.

"Went pretty well...I had a swell night!" said Ollie in ebullient fashion. Max dropped his bag pack atop his seat and sat on top his desk where he could see Oliver eye to eye.

"Oh I see you've been reading that book of slangs I gave ya"

"I sure have! Hey did you finish Mrs Doherty's math homework?"

"Yeah I did right before..." said Maximilian. His statement was only cut short by the school bell; the principal had a quick drill for the students in the school hall.

"Right before? Before what?" Ollie said.

"You know what? We'll talk about this at lunch alright?" Max stated trying to strike a bargain.

"Uhhh sure I guess"

"Cool. Hope you have a swell day!"

In no time, the duo dispersed and went towards the school hallway to assemble for the principal's announcement. Ollie didn't really understand how Max was feeling at the moment. Hanging from a roof top right above a pot of hot boiling lava and still surviving all in one night was an experience that would stick in the memory for a really long period.

Not too far away, Maddison was stuck thinking of ways she could prove herself to the college of lieutenants.

The young lass was in continuous soliloquy, for a major part of the morning.

"Stupid Lieutenant Sanders..." she began after closing her hallway locker and heading straight to the hall.

"Saying I'm a huge risk...I mean, I took out Joao on my own...twice..." Maddie said recalling the incidents on her conquests using her fingers.

"...I've done lots of dangerous things that any of those darn lieutenants have never done"

"I don't just wanna be no Intel gathering officer working from behind a desk...I was made for some real action...I was..." Maddie was saying before bumping into her brother Max.

"Woah...watch your step dufis!" Maddie yelled regardless of his status as family. The young lady could spark up angrily at almost anything.

"I'm sorry Maddie...but if you watch a replay on the CCTV cameras, I was standing perfectly still and you bumped right into me!" said Max trying to defend his actions.

"Whatever...what do you want?" Maddie asked.

"I just really wanted to thank you for saving our asses last night..." Max began. He couldn't still get over he and his mother's miraculous escape from death.

"Ohhh! Hey did you really think that was awesome?"

"Of course it was! What else would it be? Not awesome?"

"Definitely not..." Maddie said as the duo began heading towards the school hall. A few were quite surprised at seeing Max and Maddie walk together. Mason was previously seen as Maddie's favorite brother at school and pretty much everywhere, but his prolonged absence could really change that. Max and Maddie had been getting along a lot better of late and Mrs Riecke would most definitely be pleased.

"...I know it must have been really unbelievable; coming so, so, so close to death and then the next morning you're up and you're like 'how am I still alive?' " Maddie continued.

"You could imagine Maddie...I almost lost it! Mom tried to calm me down by saying that help was on the way but boy was that hard to believe!" Max responded.

"When you have a super genius ninth grader as your little sister, then you my friend might as well consider yourself indestructible!" Maddie concluded as the both of them chuckled. The chatter continued until they approached the hall. They both hoped Mason was out there somewhere! He had been gone for a really long while but a part of their hearts refused to concede that he was gone.

At Ringdom's recovery facility, Troy was almost waking up. Cherry still felt so weak and as such she couldn't regain full consciousness in real time. The pair were unsurprisingly placed in different rooms and Troy woke up feeling a bit frightened. All she could see was a couple of room appliances, a huge blue 'R symbol' and a supposed nurse writing down a few observations into her notepad.

"Ahhh! Where the hell am I?!" Troy said with her pulse racing extremely fast.

"Catriona Willows...I need you to calm down. What you're doing isn't good for your medical condition right now..." the nurse who was dressed in uniform, stated empirically. Troy; who wasn't in the mood to pay any attention to what the well meaning nurse had to say, quickly transformed her right arm into a BFG 9000, locked in and ready to vicious murder anyone who stood in her way.

"Where's Cherry? And why the hell am I not dead?" Troy said as she began to release tears. She had already opened up to death, but just how was she still alive? The nurse quickly shot a tranquilizer that would knock her out for a few more minutes. Troy wobbled and wobbled for a few seconds before sinking back into her mattress. Nurse Aréola; part of Ringdom's highly ranked medical staff, quickly ran off to report Troy's violent behavior and find a way to prevent her from tearing down the entire facility as soon as she reawoke.

Meanwhile, Cherry was about waking up and the nurse in charge of her room quickly ran off to watch from just outside the highly secure doors. It appeared she had heard of Ms. Aréola's ordeal with Troy. As Cherry opened up her eyes and searched around the room, she initially felt a bit perplexed. The Seattle born heroine felt both of her arms and touched her face; probably to confirm if she wasn't a ghost trapped in some torturing sub dimension.

On confirming she wasn't a spirit, or some reincarnated ghost, Cherry leaped for joy, bouncing on her allocated mattress like she scored a match winning point at some important basketball game. Her jubilations didn't last long though as her stomach began to grumble so loudly and suddenly she felt weak again. It was at this point that the earmarked nurse deemed it the safest possible time to chip in and let the teenage sensation know where she was.

"Hey!" the female nurse said; waving her hands in a way of letting the Captain know that they were on the same side.

"Hi Mrs Godfrey" Cherry said to the nurse's astonishment.

"How'd you know my name?" the young nurse said.

"Uh...you're wearing a name tag that says Mrs G-O-D-F-R-E-Y" Cherry responded. In actual fact, the nurse who had now been identified as Mrs Godfrey was putting on a name tag - so silly of her not to realize.

"Oh I guess you're right. You do know my name"

"Where the heck am I? And what does that big cool 'R' over there stand for?" Cherry said while pointing in the direction of a huge symbol opposite where she laid on the bed. The 'R' represented Ringdom and the manner in which it was designed was the organization's vintage emblem.

"You're at one of Ringdom's recovery facilities Ms. Davies" Ms. Godfrey said, as Cherry now got up from her bed.

"What am I doing here and where's Troy?"

"Your friend is in another room on this facility and she reacted quite violently when she regained full consciousness. We're all here so you two can get back in full shape for one of your greatest conquests ever" Mrs Godfrey continued.

"Come to think of it, that name sounds pretty familiar..." Cherry said tracing her imaginary stache.

"What name? Oh! Well Godfrey is a very common name in most English speaking..." Mrs Godfrey was saying before Cherry cut into her statement.

"No not the name Godfrey...I mean Ringdom...Oh yeah I remember now! They offered me a mentorship job for young heroes at Ringdom!" Cherry said.

"That is correct! But you're in no shape to battle any evil right now"

"Tell me about it! Hey, do you guys serve burgers in here? I'm totally starving"

"Of course we do. We serve every single bit of international cuisine there is"

"Seriously?! Are you sure I ain't dead, 'cos this place sounds like heaven" Cherry said as the duo began to chuckle loudly. Not too long after, Troy woke up. She felt a little bit dizzy and so she couldn't harm anyone. Cherry would then explain to her all the things she needed to know about their current location.

The duo were scheduled for a lengthy road to recovery at Ringdom's facility. In the coming days, Cherry and Troy would be undergoing intense training techniques, to get themselves back on track. Joao and Hermus were the only other parties in pursuit of the precious stone and neither of them was in pole position to obtain it.

Back at school, it was lunch time already, showing how quickly the day was passing by. Max was having a really swell day! He was selected to be the new class representative of the tenth grade. It all came so quickly as he had never previously considered running for the post. Only this year, the class representatives were hand picked by the class teachers based on merit and rather than by election.

Ollie was unusually spotted at the school café for the first time in a really long while. Everyone who observed the radical change in Ollie's attitude was simply stunned. On normal days, she'd skip lunch and stay behind in the classroom or head to the library to read some ancient literature but today she requested for her meal and sat at Max's favorite lunch table.

"Hi Max!" Ollie said placing her lunch tray atop the table and quickly sitting opposite Max. Maximilian was full of awesome stories that he would be absolutely delighted to share with his new pal.