Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

Little did we know that our Staff Sergeant would propose then and there but let's just say that Cindy put her training to actualization. From the brief second she screamed for dear life, she had already brought her right leg to the setup zone before it suddenly descended abruptly to point B, the "Middle Kick" destination—or should I say Mr. Blanco's head.

"CINDY—/ DEAR—"

Mr. & Mrs. Dewey were also shocked by the sudden proposal and they were only able to utter a word when Mikee's head hit the floor—completely knocking him out—while the small velvet box comically flew up in the air.

In addition, Cindy had already made her way to the exit and no one was able to follow her—except Jeremy, of course—from the abrupt chaos and sudden quietness.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

But after a short bit, Mr. & Mrs. Dewey, along with Mr. Guzman and Ms. Ng slowly turned their heads to me—and I just thought of the worst reply.

"I dunno about you guys but that's a good kick."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Woah! I didn't teach her that— but that's not important right now! Won't anyone check on Mr. Blanco?"

"Ah—"

"That's right— Hon—"

"I— On it!"

Funnily enough, Mr. Blanco just sprang up as soon as Mrs. Dewey was about to check on him but as soon as his well-being was accounted for, Mr. Dewey looked like he grew a few more inches as he put his huge-ass hand on his shoulder and let out the most imposing aura without holding back.

Then he spoke in a gruff tone, "So, you didn't come here to negotiate but to take my daughter's hand, huh?"

"Umm—"

"Aren't you supposed to go through me first?! WANT ME TO BREAK YOU IN HALF?!"

"Ah— I'm sorry! It was just—"

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"JUST WHAT?! YOU JUST WANTED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION?!"

"I-I-I love your daughter, sir!"

"BUT SHE CLEARLY ISN'T INTERESTED!"

"S-She was just shocked—"

"WE ALL ARE, YOU IMBECILE! WHO PROPOSES OUT OF NOWHERE?!"

"I-Isn't that how it's supposed to work?!"

"YOU FUCKING TALK BACK?!"

"Ack— My shoulder, sir! It's—"

"WHAT ABOUT IT?!"

"N-Nothing— gGhk!"

Mrs. Dewey had to interfere, "Dear, that's enough."

"Hmm."

"Aren't we supposed to do something else?"

Mr. Dewey finally let go of Mr. Blanco, "Fine," but he still stared him down with a deathly expression, "I'm watching you, you punk. Watch your fucking step or else I'll squeeze… harder."

"Y-Yes, sir…" Mr. Blanco quickly made his way to Mr. Guzman's side as he massaged his shoulder.

With that said, instead of Kaley, Tatiana came with me to the same office where we discussed things earlier but never did I think that Quinn would also come in for a "conversation" among group leaders. However, just her being there was making the people from the Idress Academy sweat bullets while it had a lesser effect on Mr. & Mrs. Dewey for obvious reasons.

'Quinn's still bigger but he's… wider? Let's just say he needs to go on a cut…'

Then Mrs. Dewey let out a smile as she turned to the two, "I'm sorry but we haven't been properly introduced, you two are his officers or something?"

And again, like their supreme leader, these two couldn't think of a much better reply:

Tatiana started, "I'm his mistress/bodyguard."

"Ah—"

Quinn followed with a straight face as she pointed at her tattoo, "Can't you see? I'm wife #4."

"AH—"

I facepalmed and turned to Mrs. Dewey as Oscar struggled to control his laughter, "I'll apologize on behalf of these two, we do joke around to relieve some tension, ahaha…"

Mrs. Dewey waved me off, "N-No, no… I'm well aware of relationships like that and I apologize for my reaction."

Quinn's ears perked up as she smiled, "Oh? You're a progressive mom. I like that. It's cool."

"T-Thank you… So… Is it true though?"

Quinn chuckled, "Nah, we're just messing around…"

"Ah… Ahaha… That's—"

"I'm technically not Wife#4 but I think I'm that number regards to our unofficial ranking—"

I had to cut in, "QUINN!"

"What? The nice lady asked so—"

Mr. Dewey cleared his throat as he stared at us before turning to his wife, "Dear, isn't it inappropriate to discuss such things in a semi-private setting? Besides, we have guests unrelated to this matter and the young man's clearly uncomfortable with it. Me as well!"

Mrs. Dewey let out an apologetic smile, "I… Well, I apologize. I do get carried away so if we could continue our discussion and bottle the embarrassment for a few minutes, that'll be great… Who'll start?"

Mr. Guzman cleared his throat, "Can I?"

"Of course."

"Haaa… I mean, this day's the weirdest it's been and I thought hundreds of people storming THAT airport was the craziest thing we'd see in a while but… I digress, I'm— We're here to meet with you all for the acceptance of this alliance and we just hope that our Staff Sergeant's actions didn't do anything that bad to sully our relationship… We do apologize for his actions as well…"

Mr. Blanco nodded, "T-That's correct… I do apologize for my actions and if there are any sanctions, please direct them all to me and not the group I'm with…"

I shrugged my shoulders as I chuckled, "It made me laugh, so… A little weird, sure but you should probably talk more with Mr. Dewey privately."

"Of course," he nodded as he turned to Mr. Dewey, "If you'd allow me, I already made arrangements to show you how serious I am and I'll stay here for as long as it takes—"

Mrs. Dewey cut him off, "About that…"

"Pardon?"

"Our daughter would be coming with Mr. Ishiyama for two weeks—"

I had to cut in as well, "Umm… Mrs. Dewey, it seemed like Cindy wanted an extension on that. I'm not sure about the other three but she's keen on learning from Tatiana. She's the best instructor in our fold."

Tatiana rolled her eyes as she chuckled, "Before you, you mean—"

Mr. Blanco further bowed to Mr. Dewey, "That's— I'm here to seek your approval, sir… And Mrs. Dewey's as well… I see no problem staying here while she's away and gathering her thoughts."

Mrs. Dewey smiled, "Again, this should be done in private—"

"Ah. Again, apologies…"

I waved them off with a smile, "Alright, with that out of the way, can I ask how you three got here despite that weird comms?"

Ms. Ng's brows furrowed, "Weird comms?"

"I mean, we aren't sure if you're really serious about talking with us so…"

Mr. Guzman answered, "You should understand our position. We don't want any confrontation with your group—especially with that size and firepower—but as we were called very recently by Mrs. Dewey to vouch for your… genuine-ness and umm… generous-ness, we came as fast as we could to pursue this alliance."

Oscar shook his head, "Sounds to me that you're just looking for a handout."

"That's… While it's true on all accounts, it doesn't deny the fact that we could offer our services for any excess goods you might come upon or—"

Quinn cut in, "Sounds to me that you're just offering merc' work."

Oscar nodded, "That's right. The way you're putting it doesn't sound like you want an alliance."

"P-Pardon?"

At that moment, I didn't think that conversation would lead to that but I kind of understand the part Oscar and Quinn were playing. To be completely honest, I'd rather we go the straight path but it was kind of weird how Mr. Guzman put emphasis on how generous we were in giving away scarce resources to a group such as Mr. & Mrs. Dewey's.

Then again, Oscar might've already discussed something with Mr. & Mrs. Dewey beforehand because they know full well how we had an honest talk with them, and this time, it looked like we were pressing Mr. Guzman out of nowhere.

'Let's just see how it goes…'

Oscar continued, "Look, I don't mean this in a bad way but this couple and what this place stands for meant a lot for our group and we made sure to be just as generous when we met with them for the first time."

"That's…"

"With you guys, WE did call you to have a talk face-to-face but you don't start with how generous we are right out the bat then offer services when we called you out. That's just bad business. And it's disingenuous, completely opposite to where you placed us."

I decided to cut a bit of the tension, "That's what that word literally means in the opposite—"

Oscar "looked" angry at me, "I know how words work. I'm just making a point, kid."

I shrugged my shoulders as I played my part as the carrot, "Look, old man… It's been very stressful for these people and how it came out just might've been in the wrong order. What if they meant to offer services for stuff and they just wanted a bit of a top-up for a job well done?"

Oscar shook his head again, "But it didn't come out that way. It's just awful—"

I then turned to Mr. Guzman who looked like he was more than willing to talk to me instead, "Why don't we start over?"

Mr. Guzman nodded a few times, "That's— I'll be grateful but then again, if my words came a bit off, I do apologize for that…"

I nodded, "Old man?"

Oscar was just eyeing him as he muttered, "Colonel."

I rolled my eyes, "Colonel? Shall we?"

"Go ahead."

Then I smiled as I turned to the three, "Alright, I think you already know the places we've occupied but we only know about the academy itself and the bunker—and you know this place already belonged to Mr. & Mrs. Dewey, care to share more information?"