Troy and the Captain of Ringdom

Trouble in the Ringdoverse

Things didn't just feel right in Maddie's quarters. Her new position on the Intel gathering unit at Ringdom's Undercover team was going excellently well, but she just felt an aura of uneasiness around her. Could Cherry and Troy be in deep trouble? Maddison couldn't just rule out that possibility being that she hadn't heard from the heroes in a long while. The Ringdom Undercover Vigilantes were doing their best to counter the raging evil forces, but a lot more protection would be achieved with the efforts of Seattle's paranormal quadruple.

Maddison had already established herself as an A Plus student in her debut year at Seattle High School and so going into her, supposed sophomore year at the school, the teachers and students alike expected nothing less. The Wisconsin born genius had access to every piece of syllabus on the surface of the earth and so one week of school missed wasn't going to be affecting her any day.

Cherry and Troy were finally waking up. They were unconscious for quite a while. The HKV operatives were standing round the two Valiants patiently waiting for the moment when they opened their eyes. The heroes were held bound by high tensile metallic cords. A pair of Macmillium resistant neck collars held them from using their paranormal abilities. Cherry moaned a bit before uttering actual words -

"What's going on? And why are we duck taped to chairs?" said the frightened Captain. Officer Gregorz then walked out from behind them in a slow, stealthy manner.

"Hello ladies...Glad to see you...sticking around" Officer Gregorz said trying to create a little bit of humor - his subordinates didn't seem amused by his drab word play.

"What the butt man? Why do you have us strapped to these chairs? Are we in Warsaw yet?" Troy jumbled in split seconds. It was strange how the HKV suddenly left his part of the deal.

"For ages...We Vaagmers have fought for a new world order...a centralized rule for all the nations of the world. Lieutenant Hermus thought that ambition would take hundreds of thousands of years to manifest until two weeks ago when..." said Officer Greg who got interrupted by Troy's nagging.

"Woah! Woah!! Woah!!! Dude! Greg! What the hell are you talking about?" Troy yelled.

"Hold on Troy, I think I'm getting a bit of what he's saying" Cherry responded seemingly understanding what sounded more like gibberish to her team mate.

"...Go on, Officer Greg sir" the Captain continued.

"Thank you Cherry...I see you're more mannered than your friend here" Gregorz said, intentionally trying to provoke a response from Catriona. Troy violently tried to break loose and immediately made an attempt to transform her arms into cannon launchers but her collar electrocuted her greatly. Troy felt excessive pain and Officer Greg then seized the opportunity to warn them not to resist -

"Don't even think of summoning any of those weapons. Those are highly sophisticated Macmillium resistant collars. They turn your resistance into thousands of coulombs of electrical charges. So my advice to you...don't try anything funny..."

Hermus Klostermann planned to use the green amethyst to push his global agenda. The warlord initially planned on selling it to make a blazing fortune but he had a huge rethink. He planned to send a grand hypnotic cloud over the entire planet by making use of the stone's ability enhancing feature. With it, he would sink his baleful eschatonic schemes into the grey matter of every human that walked the earth.

Meanwhile, Joao's plans to take over earth and it's surrounding multiverse hadn't been put on hold. At the moment, at least three different parties had distinct reasons for needing the ancient green amethyst. It wasn't going to be a case of who's purpose was of greater relevance but rather a case of who wanted the precious stone more. If the stone got into the wrong hands, imminent chaos was inevitable.

"Thanks to the coordinates given by your boss Maddison, locating the stone won't be a problem anymore..." Officer Greg ranted.

"Okay first of all Maddison is not our boss..." said Troy.

"Wait Greg...what's going to happen to us?" Cherry asked.

"Oh yes! I'm glad you asked..." Greg immediately responded. The sinister smile on his face already told off his evil intentions.

"You're going to be our lab rats for our latest nuclear test. We're going to set you two at the center of our nuclear cloud experiments yard. All the sergeants here will watch your stupid faces get burnt up by radioactive clouds, sitting inside nuclear resistant cubes, but don't be afraid..." Officer Greg said, pausing only to bend his knees and look straight in the eyes of Troy.

"...You two will be a part of the greater good. The reign of Lieutenant Hermus and his loyal subjects will bring salvation to this planet" he concluded. Officer Gregorz immediately stepped out of their containment room and went to attend to other pressing issues. This had surely spelt doom for Earth's finest heroes. Lieutenant Hermus's team of black ops mercenaries didn't even have to lose a drop of sweat, capturing Cherry and Troy. Their trusting nature might have well cost them the safety of the entire multiverse.

"Hope you can believe it now Cap...we're gonna die, the human race has been put in jeopardy and it's all your fault" Troy said. It seemed surely like all hope had been lost.

"You're right..." Cherry responded.

"What?!" Troy replied, expressing her shock at hearing Cherry admit her wrong.

"Yeah...you heard me right. I don't flunk a lot, but I really messed up this time"

"What do you mean?"

"All of this stuff going on right now...I guess it could have been avoided if we...if I just apologized earlier...I made us let our guard down"

"Woah. Cap, I...I never thought I'd ever hear you say something...so sincere. I forgive you! And even if we're going to die today, I'll be happy dying along side the greatest hero I ever fought against" said Troy.

"Actually...I'm the only hero you ever fought against" Cherry correctly replied.

"Well I fought Donnie once"

"...but back then she was a villain, fighting alongside my Dad, so it doesn't count"

"It doesn't really matter because..."

"Are we seriously going to argue this right now?!" Cherry yelled out of frustration.

The heroes were going to need nothing short of a miracle to avert the looming catastrophe.

Back at Seattle High, Max was still having trouble obtaining those notes. Ollie soon noticed that Max had been trying as hard as he could to have a word with her and so she began avoiding him the more. The academic  day was a few moments from its conclusion. Max knew he needed to step up his game. Only a few minutes later, the bell sounding the end of the academic day was rung and all the students swarmed the school hallway and the school yard to head back home and prepare to do it all again on Tuesday.

Ollie normally waited for everyone else to leave the classroom before she got up to avoid sparking up any unnecessary conversations with her fellow students. Unknown to her, Max was about to catch her off guard. Max hid under the teacher's desk and waited quietly for everyone else to leave while he watched Ollie's sneakers, waiting for them to squeak one little bit.

Thinking everyone had left the classroom, Ollie got up to leave, but as soon as she did, Max came out of hiding and looked her straight in the eyes. Ollie quickly took to her heels, to run out of the classroom but Max was way ahead of her.

"Ollie wait!" Max said as he raced across the room to slam the door.

"What do you want from me?" Oliver asked,  feeling a bit uneasy.

"Why are you so scared of talking to everyone?" Max began, also trying to solve his classmate's inter personal relationship problems.

"You haven't answered my question" Ollie sassily responded.

"Look I wanted to borrow a couple of notes from last week and I've been trying so hard to talk to you all day but you seem to be really good at avoiding dudes"

"So it's my notes you want? Then fine I'll give them to you as long as you promise you return them and also promise to leave me alone..."

"I promise not to do so. I figured you're hiding from something and you could really use a friend right now"

"What are you talking about?"

"You might be hiding a horrible past or you might be living in fear of people because someone you really trusted in the past defied that trust"

Oliver knew Max was telling the complete truth. Ollie grew up in Texas; Houston to be more precise. Her life changing experience all started when she contracted a deadly disease caused by an unnamed virus while  on a trip to see a fashion show with her Mom in Seychelles. Oliver narrowly survived that treacherous viral attack, but it was the behaviour of her friends at school that got her traumatized.

Whilst in quarantine, none of her friends at school or even in the neighborhood ever reached out to hear or find out how she fared. It got even worse when she recovered and got back to her normal activities. Every single place she went to, she faced stigma. She tried countless times narrating how she had miraculously broken free off the virus's strangle hold, but they never believed her story. As a result, she never felt like having friends ever again, seeing how she was abandoned and left to be alone in her dark hours. The virus was long gone from Seychelles and other African territories, but it left Oliver with a bitter heart.

On hearing that a transferable student slot had opened up at Seattle High, she told her single mother who instantly bought the idea of moving.

"...and that's how I ended up here in Seattle" Ollie said ending the full explanation of her ordeal.

"Woah...those dudes were really harsh...you know what Ollie?" said Max.

"What?!" Ollie responded

"I'll be your pal"

"Really?!" Oliver yelled in disbelief. Max then nodded in affirmation and then Ollie hugged Max so firmly that he nearly threw his lunch out. She hadn't given anyone a warm and nice hug in ages! Oliver was finally taking the first step to ending her phobia