The Symbol of Innocence: Chapter 6

@Blue: Thanks for promoting me to Head Writer, but I have no idea what that really means. Do I have any responsibilies or anything that I have?

Ello, peoplez! Becca here with Chapter 6 of the Symbol of Innocence.

In Chapter 5, there were a few typos that probably made part of the chapter pretty confusing. Turns out, I put “Nachos” where I should have put “ACP” a few times. It’s all fixed, so if you were confused last chapter, go back and reread Tan’s interview.

Below is the last paragraph of Chapter 5, then click “Read More” to go to Chapter 6.

Then, a square piece of the floor from the floor above fell across the room from Becca and Hades, in the middle of the square two young teenagers, one boy and one girl, who spewed bullets at everyone in the room, and then disappeared from sight by leaping through the hold in the wall.

Joey’s heart seemed to sink all the way to his stomach.

He and Kate had killed Hades.

Joey and Kate: Wanted, dead or alive.

The man is a genius, Mchappy thought.

A mad genius, but a genius nevertheless.

Mchappy had just finished listening to Oagal, who was telling him the ideas he was going to repeat to the crowd of high ranking officers gathering in the Base Stadium.

“So,” Oagal said in his usual power-radiating voice, “What do you think?”

“Brilliant, sir,” Mchappy said. “Absolutely brilliant. Especially the one about those children who murdered the Nacho officer. No wonder you asked me not to be interviewed by CPAC, I would have said the children were hired by the Nachos themselves. I thought the Nachos killed their own officer using the children and then blamed the ACP to make us look bad, but your idea is much better.”

Oagal smiled, and Mchappy watched as he sipped water from a glass.

Unlike Mchappy, Oagal seemed not one bit nervous about speaking in front of 1,000 of the highest-ranking soldiers in the army. He wasn’t even dressed professionally in a suit like Mchappy was, just in faded jeans and a dark green T-shirt that read “ACP” in big, bold black letters.

“Sir… shouldn’t you be dressed in something a little… nicer… for your speech?”

Oagal chuckled. “Oh, that won’t be necessary, Mchappy. Now let’s get going, the meeting starts in two minutes.”

They both stood up and walked quickly down the hallway to the backstage area of the ACP Base Stadium. Mchappy peeked out from behind the thick green camo curtain. Sure enough, a thousand people were seated in the huge stadium built specifically for these kinds of meetings.

He and Oagal followed a man with the clipboard and headset to the hidden area to the right of the stage, with a small passageway that led to the stage.

Mchappy took a deep breath. Even though, as the General of ACP, he shouldn’t be intimidated by the high ranking soldiers in the stadium, he always got a little nervous before speeches.

“You’re on in 10, General,” the man with the clipboard said. Mchappy nodded and took another deep breath.

It’s just an introduction, Mchappy thought to himself. You’re not even doing the speech. You can do this.

“On in 5,” the man with the clipboard whispered as he shoved a microphone into Mchappy’s hand, “4, 3, 2, 1!”

Mchappy walked briskly onto the stage and began to speak.

“Hello, fellow officers. Now, I know that this is a rare occasion. We usually don’t do ‘stage performance’ sort of things. You guys don’t even know why you’re here, and right now I will relieve you of your confusion.”

“There is a man who is supposed to dead, yet who is alive. A man who no one knew had survived the battle that brought us into the Dark Ages. A man who has new ideas about how to bring the ACP into a new Golden Age.”

“From the description I just gave you, it may seem like this man was not particularly well known. Just a survivor of a battle who has ideas. Well, you’re wrong. You all either know this man or have heard of him. This man is probably even more capable of being Head General than I am.”

“I introduce to you… former Head General… Oagalthorp.”

Mchappy walked across the stage to the side area as Oagalthorp came into view and approached him. Mchappy held out his hand with the microphone so Oagal could take it, but Oagal mouthed, Keep it, and Mchappy obeyed.

Meanwhile, the crowd was going nuts. There were cries of fury, cries of elation. Shouts of vengeance, shouts of joy. Some were beating their fists and grinding their teeth, others had tears of joy running down their cheeks.

Oagal remained completely calm until the chaos subsided. Then, he began to speak.

And Mchappy, standing in the side stage area, experienced, for the first time in a long time, one of Oagal’s speeches.

No matter how many times Mchappy witnessed this phenomenon, he was amazed. Oagal was so persuasive that there was not even a word to describe how persuasive he was. His words were logical, yet there was emotion behind those words. His tone held friendliness, yet it also held incredible power. His words were concise and simple, yet they explained everything and more.

Oagal spoke for a few minutes about his capture by the Nachos, how after the battle of Mammoth they had spread rumors that he was dead, but had really kept Oagal and tortured him for information, and how he had performed a daring escape.

Suddenly, Mchappy understood Oagal’s choice of clothing. He didn’t need to wear a suit and tie. His incredible aura of power and strength that filled the room was so mesmerizing he could have been out there in his underwear and he would have still seemed like a god.

The reaction of the crowd was almost as incredible as Oagal’s speaking. The 1,000 most intimidating, strongest, wisest, people in the most powerful army looked liked they were going to bow down at Oagal’s feet any second. And it had only been two minutes.

Mchappy looked up at the balcony of the stadium, where the 3 third in commands and the 2 second in commands were sitting. Kenneth, who Mchappy thought could never be surprised by anything and had nerves of steel, was staring, with his mouth slightly open and his eyes glazing over. Bobcatboy, who could have easily beaten up Oagal, seemed like he was about to run down to the stage and start kissing Oagal’s feet.

Oagalthorp… he could do… anything… Mchappy thought. He could convince a man to kill his son. Or his sister. Or his wife. Or even himself. He could drive someone insane or heal them with his voice. He crushes and builds up with words alone… and with his words alone… he could take over the world.

Then Mchappy remembered that that was exactly what Oagal wanted to do, and he doubted anyone could stop him.

Oagal continued to speak. He told people about his mistakes, how he realized his mistakes, and how he had changed because of those mistakes. He spoke about a new Golden Age and new ideas with the crowd hanging on his every word.

“And now… concerning these two children, the murderers of the Nacho high rank Hades. Though we have not officially stated our position, there are rumors about what we believe. Many of you think that the Nachos themselves hired the children to kill their officer, and then blamed it on ACP to make us look bad. That is, yes, not a horribly illogical theory, but it is not what I believe is true.”

“Have you ever noticed that the Warfare World is turning paranoid? We look at every little thing that happens in every battle, and we think every single one of those little things is a sign that this Army A is horrible, or that Army B is out to destroy us.”

“Have you ever considered the theory that those children might be… innocent?”

Confusion rose among the crowd, along with whispers and quiet voices.

“Have you ever considered that these children are perfectly innocent, that they’re just two kids that somehow got in the middle of the situation and were trying to save themselves? Maybe their uncle or whoever took them on a tour of the Server Dome that day. Maybe their parents weren’t home, so they had to spend their day at the Server Dome with a relative or friend who works there and the invasion started while they were in there.”

“How is that less reasonable than the theory that the Nachos, who we always respected, hired these youth, two people under 16 years of age, to kill off their own officer? Think about that. Their own officer. Do you understand how desperate of a theory is? These children are not murderers. They are innocent, and yet the Nachos claim that they were hired by us to kill their officer. Both the Nachos’ theory and our supposed theory are paranoid.”

“Right now, these children are probably in hiding. Hiding in some lonely little alley, too scared to show their faces because they were framed for a crime they did not commit. Right now, these children are the symbol of innocence. We need to find them, show them we mean them no harm, and deliver them to safety. It shows we care about, that we protect the blameless.”

And also condemns the Nachos, Mchappy thought.

Oagal concluded his speech with a few more minutes of his concise but amazing sentences, accepted a standing ovation and a round of thundering applause and wild cheers, then calmly walked off the stage to the side area.

“Brilliant,” Mchappy told him as he passed him.

“Thank you,” Oagal replied smugly.