8A man worked in a office. He was a Caucasian man with blue eyes and short blond hair. He wore a red shirt with blue shorts. He wore a necklace with a cross on it and a silver bracelet.
He wasn't the only one. It was a large room with many men and women working on computers, typing and typing as they did each day. It had many tables, computers, a few drinks around and a few plants for decorations. Nothing else stood out of this room.
It was an uneventful day as he tapped on the computer the reports he had to give for the afternoon. Still, the man felt a little uneasy. He had the feeling that something might come soon. He hoped his feelings were wrong, "Please God. Make sure that those feelings are wrong."
He heard something ringing in his left ear. He sighed at that, "Dammit," he whispered. He hated when his guts were right. He put his finger on his ear, "Yes?"
"Andrew. Don't want to wait any longer. We need your help to translate the tablet right now," a female voice ordered in his ear.
Andrew looked around, wondering if any workers noticed him. He whispered, "I am at my job right now. I have a job outside of our deal. Now, shut up and call back later."
"Stuck at the office hum? Don't worry, I already planned your escape," the voice cheerfully told him.
"Don't you dare-" he was interrupted when the entire building shook. He gazed outside and saw black smoke coming out, he let out a loud sigh, "-do that again."
"Ah! We are going to blow up this time!" a woman screamed as she went under her desk.
The others followed suit.
"This is the third time an explosive maniac strikes our office this week!" a man yelled.
Another one called the police, "Yes. This happens again! Do your damn job already and find that crazy psycho!"
The entire office was in chaos. Andrew could only do one thing. Stare at the chaos as life came out of him.
"Hurry up. This is your chance!"
The man sighed and went under his desk like the others, "Idiot," he told her. He couldn't let this situation go out of control any longer. Logic was useless with her, he had to be more convincing. He froze for a second, a plan to deal with her began to form in his mind.
Prologue: We Need To Talk
6 hours later
Andrew climbed out of the bus. The bus rolled away as he walked towards his apartment. He looked up and sighed, "I'll go straight at them," he put his fingers on his chin and hummed, "No. I'll take a short detour," he walked on the other side of the street and went towards an abandoned house. He went on the side and put his hand on a brick. It slid on the side and showed a panel with strange symbols. He pressed on them and once he saw a message, he smiled.
Password accepted.
"Don't have much time," the man said.
A door appeared behind the wall and he walked in there. The door closed and felt his stomach rising inside of him. It was an elevator, but it couldn't be noticed at first sight, "Always forget it's an elevator."
Once it was down, he went to prepare his 'arguments' against that idiot who blew up the wall of his working place. If that idiot was the only one who did that.
The boy walked in a metallic corridor and followed a green light. He followed it until the pressed on a switch opened.
"There you are!" someone expressed loudly her impatience, she approached him and dominated him by her size, "We were waiting for you for six hours!"
"I was interrogated by the police because of a 'mysterious explosion' that occurred Vibra. The THIRD one," he replied to her. He raised his hands, "I know you are a space drake, but even you should have seen that coming after THREE times."
Vibra was a musclegut draconian being twice as tall as a human with silver scales, blue underbelly, red eyes, a pair of white horns and a long fat tail. She wore black pants and a blue bracelet. She wore a red cap. She tilted her head on the side and dismissively replied, "You just missed your chance to escape again."
"Stop brushing it off like that. Three consecutive times! I was with everyone! The security is higher because of you!" he took a step towards her. He raised his head at the alien who was twice his size, "You could have hurt people you know!"
She turned on the side and waved her left hand, "Of course not. I carefully put the charges and made sure the explosion wasn't too powerful for it. I also put it on non-lethal."
Andrew lost his patience already at her stubbornness. His memories came back on how he ended up in this mess in the first place. It had been two weeks since he had to help them because of one thing.
"Give it up. The boss is too stupid to realise she is stupid," someone else said.
Vibra glared at him, "Shut it Salamander."
He was a small orange humanoid lizard being with small brown eyes, white underbelly, red hair and a tail with fire at the end. He wore a black sleeveless vest, black pants, black belt and black bracelets. He was currently eating a piece of cheesecake. He grinned at her, "The true is the true. Anyway Andrew, give it up. You won't change her mind. She thinks that bombs are the best way to bring you here quickly," he gulped another bite, "And nothing you say will change it. No matter how many times it will prove her wrong."
"Says the one who tried to charm a wall last week," the boss replied with a grin.
Salamander growled, "You want to fight right now boss?"
"Ready anytime wall kisser," she cracked her knuckles.
Andrew was already pushed on the side for another unimportant matter. It was as if it was pointless to call him. He decided to present his arguments now, "You're right Salamander. Words are useless against Vibra," he then took out a switch in his hand, "Which is why I presented concrete arguments she will understand," he let out a nasty grin as he spoke her language.
She quickly recognised what he held, "A detonator?" She smiled, "Good to know I am such an inspiration to you."
The human was lost for a few seconds at that response. He was threatening her, but she failed to notice the threat. The other alien said nothing. She took it as a compliment. He sighed and explained everything, "Yes. It is a detonator for a few bombs I borrowed," he took a few steps back, so she wouldn't get him in one swipe, "They are put on the tablet. You know, the one that pushed you to blow up my workplace."
The two draconian beings paled as they realised that.
Vibra quickly went to anger, "What do you think you are doing?"
"Why the anger? You are such a good 'inspiration' to me right?" he tilted his head. He noticed her backing up and gazed at the other one.
"You know what will happen if you blow this up? It will be impossible to get the five treasures," Salamander crossed his fingers. He didn't want to lose the possible riches.
"Now boss. You get where I am going with this right?" Andrew asked her. He mentally pushed his thought about how much it wasn't him to act like that. He told himself it was a necessity.
The fat one lowered herself a little, "Back down. There is no need to blow anything up?"
"You will both listen to me this time. Okay?"
"Y-yeah," she replied. She quietly gazed at Salamander to demand something.
"Don't try to ask Hydre to disarm it," the human warned her.
"Hydre?" she tried anyway.
"Sorry Vibra, but he got me a new video game. I let him have the bombs and won't disarm them," Hydre replied in the mic while the sound of her video came echoed through it. She ended communications with them.
Salamander put his cheesecake on the table and stood up, "Okay Andrew. No fun business with us."
"Salamander is right. Don't do this stupid thing."
"Vibra! Don't say that work. Especially now!" the orange lizard grunted at her loudly.
"Fine!"
"You want me to not blow it up?" the man got a silent yes from them, "You will listen to me then Vibra. No more of blowing up stuff because I am indisposed right now! I have a life and I need to make money to live! You might accidentally hurt anyone at my work! So not more bombs! No entering in there gunning down! Nothing! You do nothing! Because that include things that might go in your mind that I can't figure it out."
She froze for a few seconds as she thought how to answer to that. When she needed him, she needed him right now. They needed to get some result eventually or he may cause some trouble eventually, "Well…"
Andrew eyes shined. He felt weird inside to act like that, but pushed that aside, "So?" his thumb approached the switch.
"Okay!"
"You promise it right now," the man ordered.
"Well… Fine! I promise. I won't do anything when you work like safely blowing something up so you can come here and translate the tablet," Vibra declared.
The man smiled in relief. He sighed, "Good. It wasn't easy to threaten you. I can finally be at peace at work an no one will be afraid to blow up anymore."
"And now you are trying to guilt trip me," she grumbled.
Salamander chuckled. He cleaned his forehead of the nervousness, "He got you here. Man, we are robbing off on this human."
She turned at the orange lizard, "Shut up! We almost lost the reason we came here!"
"I'm not the one who tried to bring him here sooner with the bombs and pushed him to do that," he replied.
Andrew came and showed the detonator, "There. I won't need it anymore. Just be careful and don't cause an accident."
"Good. I won't break my word," Vibra replied as she went to grab it. She accidentally pressed the switch.
The place had an earthquake for a few seconds as they heard many explosions.
The two aliens paled at the realisation of what they did. Their mouth dropped on the ground with the detonator.
The human quickly raised his hands and said something before their next reaction, "No need to panic!"
"The tablet just blew up!" they yelled at him.
"No, it didn't."
"What do you mean Hydre?" they asked her furiously and broken internally from Vibra's accident.
"Andrew never put the bomb on the tablet. It was just make-believe bombs and I started the engine of the ship to make everything shake up here. He would never blow this up. I would never let it happen," Hydre explained.
The two gazed at him.
"Yeah. What she said."
Salamander laughed in relief, "It was all an empty threat!"
"And you fooled us," the portly reptilian alien said. Her face showed no expression. She took a step forward and approached the man.
Andrew knew he was in trouble, "Well… Now that this has been done. I'll go to the other room and translate the tablet," he turned around and ran away.
"Come back here! I won't let you get away with this!" she yelled at him.
The boy quickly turned a corner and dashed away. Vibra's slid on the ground as she failed to turn the corner and crashed on the wall. She quickly recovered and continued on.
Before the man reached the room, Vibra caught him and pulled the human against her. She used her hand to scratch the head of her victim, "That's for making a fool out of me Andrew!"
"Hey! Hey! Knock it out! I was the one who should be angry here!" he tried to escape her grasp to not success, "You-" he stopped himself. He knew that calling out that she was childish wouldn't help him out.
She released him and chuckled, "I couldn't wait to get my revenge for all the scares," she put her hands on her hip while her tail tapped the ground, "Listen. I really won't try anything anymore. I rather don't want the tablets to blowing it up, accident or not."
"Because you will by accident."
"Yeah."
"And with the few things you already destroyed by accident, that would be a big part of that list."
"You better stop now or you are in for a second round," Vibra crossed her arms and frowned.
"Fine," Andrew took her warning seriously. He waved his hand at her, "I'll go on and try to translate the first sentence of the tablet. Still have to keep that deal."
The portly reptilian being watched him walk away. She sighed, "Guess I shouldn't push him at his limit," she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"What did you do this time Vibra?" a voice grumbled at her, "Because it didn't sound like progress."
"I can explain everything Mark."
"You better get a treasure soon or I'll kick your tail really hard," Mark warned her. He released her and walked away.
Vibra sighed, "No respect for a lady like me," she pouted.
"Then act like one!" the other one grunted.
"If I want too!"
Andrew walked into the room. He saw a tablet floating in the air, maintained by a strange machine. It was a tablet made of some black stone with strange writings on it. It was one that didn't exist on Earth.
The man never understood how he could understand it. It was hard to understand the writing, but he could translate it.
He grabbed the book and gazed down at it. He barely translated five words so far.
"All of this to obtain those five treasures," the man sighed loudly, "A day at work for my home and after this… translating that tablet. She will make me work on the weekend for it. I just know it."
He began his work as he watched the tablet and focused on translating the next word. He needed to give result.
Sometimes, he wondered if he regretted ending up in his situation where he had to help the aliens. Even know, he wasn't sure. Still, he couldn't change anything.
AC: This is the end of the prologue. A few characters introduced. This is a story with no real focused narrative. It's mostly many stories with slice of life element to it, depending on the chapters. There would also have some large Arcs as the story progressed.
Next: Operation 1: Underground Price.
Andrew wondered how he ended up from buying cheesecake for Salamander to an adventure in a tunnel below his city to find a treasure, but he was stuck with them.