Chapter 47: Fahrenheit
Angel and Maria had just escaped area 51 and they had gotten on the highway heading back to Hollywood while they were on the California-Nevada border they still were about 1 hour out of Hollywood. Angel and Maria drive to the highway and at first it seems like the drive is going to be smooth. In fact the first half-hour goes uncontested and they are in the state of California as they were half-way towards Hollywood. Angel and Maria begin to see this drive as like a pre-honeymoon kind of drive as they have plenty of gas to spare, jeep is in good shape and most importantly they were together. 20 minutes later the duo makes it to Hollywood Hills only about 10 minutes away from Hollywood itself. The dup looked like they were going to make it until a strange looking phoenix kind of bird attacks them with an energy beam…
Angel and Maria were attacked by the phoenix whose energy beam or whatever it was takes the car out. However by some miracle Angel and Maria survive the blast and the phoenix bird just disappears in the sunset. With no car and the highway being completely empty our heroes realize that they must walk to their destination. What was a 10 minute drive would turn into a 45 min walk, Angel says “Well they said there will be obstacles that will test the limit of a relationship and I believe that this is one of them. Maria my love we must now be even stronger than ever, we are so close…” Maria cuts Angel off saying “I know honey I love you, grab my hand and hold it tight. This is how strong we are and no damn alien force is going to take us down and if that bird wants a piece of us than so be it.” Angel replies “Preach girl preach! We are only two exits away from where we were supposed to get off anyway. Besides the only thing is that it is hot and humid out here, the sun’s come up looks like we only got 2 and a half days left, time to get moving.” So the duo begins their long trek back to Hollywood, they had to hurry as the sun was coming up and soon the heat of the day was about to kick in. Many spaceships belonging to the gloobas would pass along but none of them stop, probably because they had no idea Angel and Maria were on the highway. It was probably assumed that the phoenix had killed off the duo.
The duo would pass the first exit and only needed to walk one more mile to get off the highway. Our heroes were making good headway towards Hollywood, the sun was still rising and the heat of the day was still hours away from kicking in. However the trek was about to go downhill for our heroes, the easy walk came to an end. That’s because a spaceship made its way towards the heroes attacking them at first then went in front of them deploying alien troops. First salamander troops were deployed to attack our heroes but the duo deals with them easily. Our heroes kept on running forward but the spaceship would keep on following them as our heroes had nothing to shoot down the spaceship. Angel and Maria would deal with continuous amounts of aliens coming down from the ship and before they knew it one spaceship turned into two spaceships. That would mean double the amount of enemies for our two heroes, at first they were able to keep up with the aliens. The problem becomes that the number of aliens begin to increase at a rapid pace and soon our heroes were outnumbered badly. Another issue is that our heroes could not get off the highway as that highway was elevated and the fall would be too far down to jump. However the duo vowed to stay strong as they had come too far just to fail at the last minute. Angel and Maria shoot several aliens or at least what they could as they kept running forward. The spaceship shoots lasers towards the two missing them and in fact they actually kill several of their own.
Fatigue begins to settle in for our heroes as they were running non-stop to avoid getting killed by the spaceships and to get off the highway. Maria says “I’m getting tired!” Angel responds “I know honey but if we stop we’re dead meat!” The duo keeps running until they run into a wall of gloobas and before they knew it they were surrounded by gloobas on all sides. An alien voice says “Where now little kid?” Angel says “Shit Maria they got us pinned down.” Maria says “This can’t be it for us, there’s no way this can end this way.” The alien voice says “Don’t make any sudden moves; if you don’t you make it much easier on yourselves.” Angel and Maria get down on their knees prepared to be taken in by the gloobas to their spaceship. Then a loud horn that of a truck is heard and it is actually a truck that’s making its way down the highway but then it turns over where it starts to make a b-line for everybody. Angel and Maria take a huge risk by running to the other side of the highway where traffic was going the other way; while they were being shot at by the aliens the truck comes and takes every single glooba out. After that a rocket launcher comes out of the truck, it appears the truck was making a shipment of weapons to a military base. Angel grabs the rocket launcher and uses it to shoot down both spaceships; Angel says “Score two for the good guys it’s so wonderful to see the bad guy's plans go up in smoke!” Once the spaceships go down for good Angel and Maria grab a couple of rocket launchers just in case they bump into any more spaceships. Angel and Maria decide to take a rest to catch their breaths after all that running they did just to survive, they knew they still had some distance to go before their exit.
Angel and Maria were close to Hollywood until they get attack by an unknown creature that looked like a phoenix who takes their car out. Our heroes begin to walk down the highway and at first they have an easy time walking towards the exit of the highway. Minutes later they are attacked by glooba spaceships that attack them and deploy aliens down to the highway in an attempt to kill off our heroes. Somehow Angel and Maria survive the ordeal until they are surrounded by glooba troops on every side. The duo were prepared to be captured by the enemy until an out of control truck flips over and takes out all of the aliens surrounding our heroes; luckily for Angel and Maria they went on the opposite side of the highway. Angel uses the rocket launcher found in the truck to shoot down both spaceships and afterwards our heroes take a break to catch their breath. However they couldn’t take too long as the sun has already risen and the temperature was only going to go up as the day passes.
After taking a quick 10 minute break Angel and Maria are back to walking but even after the break the fatigue was still being felt. Angel says “Well I guess is only right… we did have sex after all.” Maria replies “No comment.” The duo continues down the highway as they continued they become encouraged after passing a sign that said they were only a half mile away from reaching Hollywood. The duo became even more encouraged when they saw that only a quarter mile remained till they got to Hollywood. Maria says in excitement “I think we’re going to do this, I can’t believe it now I know we are meant to be together!” Angel responds “Well I told you this was all just a test to see how strong we are and we passed with flying colors.” However just as the heroes were about to arrive at the exit the same phoenix like creature arrives but this time it lands on the highway blocking our hero's progress. As our heroes would figure out the phoenix wasn’t real it was actually a robot built by the gloobas to intercept aircraft that tried to attack the gloobas. Angel would call it the phoenix bot as it was in the form of a phoenix, the phoenix bot attacked out heroes with energy blasts the same ones that took out the jeep that our heroes were driving. After that the phoenix would try to tail whip our heroes, Angel jumps over the tail while Maria ducks down under the tail. Our heroes were able to dodge the attack of the phoenix just fine but they had trouble attacking or even getting a shot in because of the speed of the robot. To add to their problem they could not spot a weak spot in the bot and if there was one it was sure hard to find. However as the battle progressed Angel sees a couple of red spots on the phoenix’s tails.
The problem was that it would only reveal those spots for a few seconds until it turned around and would only reveal them after doing a tail whip. So our heroes had to be quick with their attacks and at the same time avoid getting hit by any of the energy balls. After a while the heroes finally started to memorize the robots movements and attack patterns then when it was open our heroes attacked its tail. Eventually our heroes are able to shoot off the tail but the phoenix robot wasn’t done it begun to fly where it started to shoot a homing laser beam which followed the movements of our heroes. That meant our heroes had to be in constant movement to avoid being shot at until the phoenix stopped shooting its lasers. When the robot stopped shooting the homing laser a weak spot was revealed in its chest. Angel and Maria shot rockets onto its chest which weaken it but it was still standing, Maria misses with one of the rockets which hit one of the phoenix’s wings instead causing it to be unable to fly anymore. The phoenix begins to shoot the homing laser again but the fact it was grounded and stationary our heroes were able to get behind the phoenix shooting it from behind. In no time the phoenix begins to go down with all it circuits beginning to short circuit and after a few seconds it explodes. The explosion causes that part of the highway to collapse, so our heroes ran towards the exit they needed to get off from before the highway began to collapse. Once the two get back to ground level Angel says “Damn that highway is really going down right now in earth right now. I’m sure the media is going crazy over this!” Maria responds “To make it worse they won’t even know who and what is behind this explosion. Humans will be pointing fingers at each other falsely which in short would start World War 3. That could be the gloobas ultimate plan for us to kill amongst ourselves so they can come in and take over easily.” Angel says “We don’t have time to waste time is running out before all this destruction becomes the new reality. Plus that’s going to be one hefty bill to fix that highway and everything else getting destroyed right now.” Our heroes head to an alley way which leads to an apartment complex.
Angel and Maria finally make it back to Hollywood, but barely as that same phoenix that try to kill them at first comes back in a second attempt to kill our heroes. Angel and Maria are able to defeat the phoenix which was really a robot developed by the gloobas and they get out in time before the highway completely collapses. Our heroes had little time to waste as if they fail the bill to repair the highway will just be the tip of the iceberg.
Angel and Maria make their way to the alleyway and find a stream alongside an apartment complex. They look to be in a courtyard of an apartment complex which included some salamander troopers and boar cops. Angel took care of the boar cops while Maria took care of the salamander troopers. After clearing out the courtyard our heroes head down a ramp but the gate needs a blue keycard to be opened. So our heroes continue to explore but they find no keycard so Maria comes up with the idea of going underwater in the stream that was running. Angel and Maria head underwater where they kill off some poisonpus’s then they head straight and resurface. When they resurface they see a big metal door which needs a red keycard but at the same time our heroes find the blue keycard on the counter. After grabbing the keycard our heroes backtrack to the gate that needed the keycard; they open the gate and see another gate straight ahead but they decide to go to the right where there was the storage area for the tenants of the building. When they get inside they are approached by sentry drones and salamander troopers who the duo is able to kill of easily. Our heroes see an open window in the second floor of the building so they used the boxes stacked up to get themselves close to the window. Once our heroes get up towards the same level as the window they see sentry drones approaching them which they shoot down easily. After taking out the sentry drones Angel and Maria jump inside of the window where they get into an apartment full of boar cops, Angel and Maria find some beer bottles and use them to bash the boar cops in the heads in order to conserve ammo. Inside the apartment wasn’t anything special besides a green keycard along side a fireman’s uniform. The duo gets the idea that they are inside the apartment of a local fireman and there is probably a fire station not too far out.
Before our heroes could get too comfortable that same one liner “Die Human” is heard which can mean only one thing, owl commanders. The duo jumps out of the window back down and go through the gate they decided to skip at first. However behind the gate was nothing besides iguana enforcers nothing that our heroes couldn’t handle and our heroes wondered where the owl commanders were or was it they were hearing things. Our heroes head to a radio station whose front door is locked but the door needed a yellow keycard, so the heroes head forward. Their suspicions are proven true there is indeed a fire station and the front is being guarded by boar cops who are easily taken out. Their was a fire truck parked but there was nothing special about it so the duo simply heads to the front door where they use the green keycard to get inside the firehouse. When they get inside more boar cops are waiting for them along with some owl commanders. The missiles from the owl commander hit the boar cops blowing them up; Maria uses her shrink ray to shrink the commanders then simply squishes them with her feet. The firehouse wasn’t all that big all that was there in the hallway were three doors that the heroes could possibly go into.
Angel and Maria go into the door into the far left part of the hallway where they see a mix of salamander troopers and boar cops inside the sleeping quarters of the firefighters. They kill all of the aliens inside of the room and then the duo begins to look inside the room for any useful items. Maria finds some ammo for her weapon and Angel as well but nothing else useful besides some memos for the fire fighters. Angel and Maria head inside the shower area and as they expected nothing useful was found. Maria gets the urge to shower with Angel naked again but Angel says “Not this time honey we don’t have that kind of time besides we’ll have plenty of time when we get out of here.” So the two keep moving around in the firehouse and they head into the door to the far right of the hallway. The duo finds a kitchen with a couple of unsuspecting salamander troopers sitting down getting a bite. Maria says “Chow down on this!” when she slashes the chests of both troopers causing them to bleed to death. “That’s exactly how these bastards should die, a bloody death they deserve no better!” Maria says afterwards. The duo finds the yellow keycard that they need to get into the radio station but decided to find out what the last door has to offer them. The two of them go inside the middle door and all they see is a switch along with some janitorial supplies, they press the switch. When the two of them come out they see the pole that the fire fighters use to get to the truck, for our heroes it’s nothing special it’s just a shortcut to get out of the firehouse. The two of them head for the local radio station which was known as KTAT.
After getting out of the highway the couple head to an apartment complex which has little to offer them besides the fact that a fire fighter resided there. The duo finds themselves exploring a fire house which is what you would expect to find in one nothing special. The only thing they find is a keycard which would give them access to the radio station. Our heroes weren’t expecting much to be found in a radio station but one never knows in this virtual world.
Angel and Maria enter the KTAT radio station where they are greeted by some iguana enforcers who Maria uses her blades to cut the enforcers before they could even get a chance to attack. Angel says “Impressive honey that was fast and effective!” Maria replies “I didn’t get these survivor skills from being nice you know.” When the two go up the stairs into the main hall of the station where they meet salamander troopers including those that teleport because this was the first time in a while any of our heroes have seen these teleporting troopers our heroes are caught off guard. Angel says “Shit I forgot about these teleporting bastards, come out where ever you are!” The trooper reappears by Angel; Maria is able to take the trooper out but not before the trooper slashed Angel on the arm. Lucky for Angel it was only a slash and not anything deeper, Maria gets some cloth to cover the wounds. Angel tells Maria “Ah don’t sweat it I’ll be fine it’s nothing I can’t handle.” The duo enters the actual studio where the broadcast normally takes place and Angel says “Show’s over fools it’s time cut you off the airwaves so the world doesn’t have to hear your garbage!” Maria and Angel mop the floor with the aliens, when they are done killing all the aliens Angel says while Maria puts the set to record “Hello world this is Angel I’ll be the one saving you guys from world domination and as for you glooba bastards if you can hear me and I know you can I’m here! Me and my crew are about to lay the smack down up your asses!” Maria adds “By the way people when we’re like done saving the world… you know… everyone is invited to get their personally autographed picture of me! At times square…” Angel turns off the recording; Maria asks “Why did you do that? Aww you scared that somebody is going to grab me I’m sensing some jealously in the air.” Angel replies “Well FYI I don’t have a jealous nature I just want to get out of here already, we still need to catch up with the others!” Maria responds “It’s ok honey I know you can be an insecure person but I chose you because you’re tough and I like that!” Angel says “Thanks now can we get moving?” Maria agrees and our heroes explore the broadcast room where they find the red keycard that they needed in order to open the big metal door that was on the other side of the stream.
Angel and Maria grab the keycard and they head back to the metal door that they found at first. Maria runs ahead of Angel and Angel says “Hey Maria wait for me!” Maria runs so fast that she misses the owl commander that was in the courtyard, the owl commander shoots a missile towards Maria. Angel rushes in and pushes Maria out of the way just in time so that they only thing the missile would take out would be a lawn ornament. Angel then takes out the owl commander before it could cause any more harm. Angel says “Time to pluck the wings off this owl and as for you Maria you’re lucky that I was there to save you. Now do you still think I’m a jealous person?” Maria answers Angel “Thanks Angel and by the way I was only playing with you, sorry if you took that personal.” Angel says to Maria “Yeah yeah, no sweat now let's go!” The duo heads underwater again and back to the metal door which they open. Once the door opens a large group of aliens are waiting for our heroes, the aliens are too much for our heroes to handle to they head back underwater to come up with a plan. Then Maria realizes that she has a pipe bomb which she can use to blow up all of the enemies. Maria resurfaces up and throws the pipe bomb then she denotes the bomb blowing up all of the aliens. To add to that the right part of the wall collapses revealing a path which leads to the superstar hotel with Maria saying “Well we sure blew the place up real good!” Our heroes head to the superstar hotel where they would bump into the other crew members.
Angel and Maria find a way out of the firehouse and then they stop by the local radio station where they let their voices be known to the world. They find the access card for the big metal door that was on the other side of the stream. Angel manages to save Maria who was starting to get a little too cocky for her good from getting blasted by a missile from an owl commander. Angel puts Maria in her place letting her know that she can’t be too confident and that she was becoming reckless. Angel and Maria open the big metal doors where Maria throws a pipe bomb that she got from the overturned truck back at the highway and throws the bomb into the room blowing up all of the gloobas and collapsing the right side of the room. Angel and Maria make their way through the path which leads them to the superstar hotel which was around the corner from the stadium where the Elder God said the anti-matter ball could be found. Our heroes get even closer with completing their mission, once the anti-matter ball was recovered our heroes just have to reformulate it and put it in the anti-matter machine in India. The question is are the gloobas one step ahead of our heroes and counting on them to go to India where they will try one last ambush attempt? It was midday and our heroes only have 2 days to reverse the effects of the virtual world to Earth itself.