Battle Heroes X Vetera: S01E10

Tower Defense is the tenth episode of Battle Heroes X Vetera. The episode delves into the heroes' past and continues the story of their first mission as heroes.

Zack recalls the heroes' first call to action.

## The Episode

“How do you feel, Zack?”

“I feel fine. I’ve been feeling fine for the past 2 hours," The teen responded, with noticeable agitation in his voice.

A hazmat suit clad Dr. Haley stepped out of the back room with a Geiger counter and put it to Zack’s head. After hearing a beep, he read the meter and set it on a table, where Julius, Cloud, and Popple were seated. The three of them had their eyes on a small TV in front of them. “We know, but we can’t take any chances with the void."

“Didn’t stop you from sending us out with a weapon that did jack-all.”

Dr. Koss entered from the back room. “What happened out there was unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Our research was intensive and thorough. All evidence pointed to that cannon destroying the void cloud.”

“There’s a first time for everything, but of all things to be wrong on, it just had to be this, huh?”

“Zack…” Julius began slowly before putting his head on the table. “I can’t even finish…”

“Can’t we just end the night on a positive note?” Cloud suggested, tiredness in his voice.

“Well, the good news is that according to the tests we conducted, all of you seem to be in perfect health. The void had zero effects on any of you. The city also has zero traces of the void.”

“Another contradiction to our research.” Dr. Koss noted.

“So we’re free to go?”

Dr. Haley and Dr. Koss looked at each other. “We still want to run a few more diagnostics…” All four heroes groaned.

“We’re sorry, but this is a good place to start making up for our miscalculations tonight,” Dr. Haley said, returning to the back room. Dr. Koss followed behind him.

“Can you at least bring back some coffee?” Julius said as they left. “My head’s killing me…”

Cloud patted Julius' back. "Oh yeah, how're you dealing with that hangover?"

"It feels like my brain wants to break out of my head..." Julius responded. Next to him, a commercial had just finished on the TV and the news was starting. A bird's eye view of the city was being filmed from a helicopter. A news reporter's voice began to speak.

"Around the world, one topic is on everyone's minds: What happened tonight in Belview City? Just a few hours ago, the city was engulfed in a mysterious purple gas, cutting off all communication to and from the city. Hours later, the purple haze lifted and dissipated, as if it was never there in the first place. Under it all was a crowd of dazed and confused people."

Zack put his head on the table and closed his eyes. Exhaustion washed over his body and he quickly fell asleep...

...

In Belview City, five colored blurs leapt from rooftop to rooftop. With agility almost inhuman, they advanced deeper into the city. Finally, they stopped in front of a large skyscraper, too large to scale. It towered over every other building in the city. More importantly, a space shuttle almost as big as the skyscraper was hovering right in front of it. After a few moments, the same purple light that had filled the streets with robots earlier reappeared, dropping in the front courtyard of the skyscraper. Stepping out one by one were more robots. They stepped forward and formed five rows of ten, an entire legion. A final beam of light delivered a man. He had scraggly black hair that came to his shoulders. A torn and tattered black shawl of sorts hung over his body. As the man walked towards the front door of the skyscraper, the others cleared a path for their leader. The five watched the events unfold.

“Don’t know why, but that guy,” Cloud pointed to the human. “Looks like the boss.”

“Sounds about right,” Silas agreed.

"Well, I think that's enough surveying!" Julius said nervously. "There's a weird looking guy standing in front of a skyscraper with the robots. Let's get out of here and report to the silver guy before things get complicated—."

"It's in there, I can feel it," The man announced. He turned to look at his metallic army. "Storm the building. Destroy all who resist us and get what I need."

"Eh, crap."

The robots marched obediently towards the entrances, but stopped right in front of them. The man shook his head. "Hmph...it seems that this city's forces are providing more resistance than I thought. Half of you, follow me. The rest of you, continue the assault." The man and 25 of the robots walked back under the shuttle and disappeared in a flash of purple light. The other robots began to enter the building.

"Let's get going, the sooner we tell him about this, the faster he'll send some more people to help!" Julius explained.

"They'll never make it in time," Silas stated. "We have to do something ourselves."

"Then it looks like we're gonna have to punch some robots!" Cloud declared.

Silas put a hand on Cloud's shoulder. "Hold on a sec, Cloud, we only have these suit for an hour. And there are a whole lot of those robots down there. Direct combat isn't a good idea right now."

Cloud looked down, as if thinking over if he could beat them all up. "Yeah, true. But how are we gonna get in?"

Silas pointed to the right of the built and the others followed his finger. Stationed on the ground was a window washing platform.

...

"You sure this is gonna work, Silas?" Julius asked uneasily as the platform began to lift up.

"As far as we know, the robots can't climb. We should be fine."

Julius looked down and shuddered. The rest of the ascension was done in silence. After what felt like an eternity, the platform reached its end at the top of the building. The heroes jumped off and looked around at the top of the skyscraper. Silas pointed ahead to a door in front of them. The five crept quickly to the door and Silas reached for the knob and tried turning it, to no avail. "It's locked."

The teens began to hear the sounds of footsteps. Everyone backed up and watched as the door opened up, revealing a man in a white dress shirt. Sweat marks were visible under his armpits. He leaned on the sides of the door, catching his breath with his head down. When he looked up up, he laid eyes on the armored heroes and nearly jumped out of his clothes in fright. He put his hands up and got on his knees.

"Please don't hurt me! Look, I'm surrendering!" The man panicked.

Popple put her hands up and waved them. "It's okay, it's okay! We're here to help!"

“Yeah, we’re the good guys!” Cloud said reassuringly.

The man looked around at the heroes. Finally, his worried disposition disappeared. “Oh, what was I worrying about? Of course you’re here to help. You’re SPD!”

“That’s us. Space Police Department,” Julius said confidently.

“Space Patrol Delta.” Popple corrected. Julius scratched the back of his head.

"Can you tell us what's going on down there?" Silas asked.

The worry returned on the man's face. "Yeah, I was on the ground floor, about to go for my lunch break, when these metal things stormed the front and started grabbing people! Even the security guards couldn't stop them! The bullets just bounced off of their bodies! I ran as fast as I could up to the elevator and got up here."

"Were the robots, y'know..." Cloud began, trying to pick his words carefully. Finally, he decided on pounding his fist into his palm.

The man caught on. "Not that I saw, thank God. They were just herding everybody together to the first floor's conference room. The security guards were knocked out cold though."

"Anything else we should know?" Silas asked.

"There's a lockdown procedure Revolutech has set in place that'll barricade the building and bar entry. I don't know what it is or where the panel is, only higher up employees do, but I spotted one downstairs. If you could find him, he could help board up the building and stop any more robots from coming in."

Silas turned around to the rest of the team. "Alright, we have our objective. Get down to the bottom floor, find the employees, get the guy who'll put the building in lockdown."

Julius whistled. "Sounds like a large order..." He began before setting eyes on the employee. He quickly changed his tone. "But it's nothing us experienced defenders can deal with!"

The man brightened up. "Thank you guys for what you're doing. Good luck."

Silas departed for the door and went downstairs, the others following close behind. The stairwell was a massive downward spiral. The interior was a dull brown. The spiral of stairs seemed endless, but eventually the five reached the bottom floor.

"Alright, now that we're downstairs, we need to find where the robots are holding everyone," Zack pointed out. "Place is too big to search room to room. We need a way to get there directly."

"W-where are you taking us?" A male voice asked from behind the door to the stairs, his voice filled with fear. Two humans passed by the entrance to the stairwell, a robot holding them by their shoulders and moving them along.

"Now how do we go about this," Silas pondered. The others also stopped to brainstorm a possible game plan. Cloud piped up first.

"Hey! You know how in all the TV shows we watch, whenever a robot gets hit with water, it always end up getting electrocuted? Why don't we try that with the fire alarm?"

The others digested his plan. "It's worth a shot, but we'd need to actually find a smoke detector and generate enough smoke to set off the sprinklers," Popple pointed out.

Suddenly, metallic clanging could be heard behind the door. The heroes stopped talking and waited for the clanging to fade away, but it only got closer. The door knob was turned, but just as it started to open, Zack grabbed it and pulled back, stopping the door from opening. He turned to the others. "I can't hold this door closed forever! Are we going with the sprinkler plan?"

"Yeah, Operation: Squirt and Hurt is a go!" Cloud announced.

"I'll stickwith Zack,” Silas volunteered.

“Ditto,” Cloud joined in.

“Looks like Popple and I are on sprinkler duty,” Julius said. “I bet there's a break room upstairs with a microwave.”

Popple put a hand on his shoulder briefly. “Good idea, Julius,” She said, running towards the stairs. Julius stood around for a few seconds, lost in dreamland, before shaking his head and running after Popple.

The remaining three heroes turned to the door. “Now, how do we approach this issue?” Silas brought up.

“How about we give it what it wants?” Zack transitioned from pulling the door closed to pushing it open. The combined force of his push and the robot’s pull caused the door to shoot forward, a resounding bang filling the air. Zack, Silas, and Cloud stepped out onto the main floor. The robot was on the ground, but soon rose to its feet.

“The old guy mentioned something about this armor. Something about enhanced strength, right?” Silas recalled.

“Yeah, that’s the ticket!” Cloud agreed, running forward. Raising his fist, he launched it forward and caught the robot in the face, causing it to stagger backwards. From behind the heroes, two more robots arrived on the scene. Zack and Silas turned around, raising their fists as the robots advanced on them.

“Ever gotten into a fight before?” Silas inquired of Zack.

“Yeah, back in 1st grade when some kid cut ahead in line,” Zack answered.

One of the robots got close enough to Silas and swung its arm at him. He ducked and threw a right hook, hitting it right in the face. He didn’t relent and threw a left hook. Zack’s robot crouched low and ran towards him, trying to tackle him to the ground. Zack sidestepped the attack and raised his foot, kicking the robot in the face. He raised his foot again and brought it down on the robot’s head, stomping it continuously. He felt the robot grab his leg and pull, causing him to tumble down. Now on top, the robot reared its fist back to strike, but something silver knocked it off Zack. The green ranger got up and saw that another robot had been tossed at his own.

“We need something to shut these things down!” Silas said as he ran to Zack’s side.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zack saw a yellow mop and bucket with a mop inside of it. He ran over, grabbed it, and charged at the two robots. Just as one of them got up, Zack plunged the mop’s to[into one of the robot’s eyes. It shook violently and raised its hands slowly towards the mop, but stopped midway and let its hands droop down. Zack pulled out the mop head and let the robot topple down. The red light from its one good eye shut off.

“Nice work, Zack, let me try,” Silas requested. Zack handed the mop to Silas, who swung the other end of the mop at the other robot, then stabbed it in the eye like Zack did. Just like before, the robot shut down after the fatal blow.

“Over here, Silas!” Cloud said. He was currently mounted on top of his robot, wailing on it with blow after blow. Silas tossed the mop through the air at Cloud, who caught it and plunged it down into the final robot’s eye.

“So, it looks like their weak spot is their eyes,” Zack observed.

“Looks like it,” Silas said, taking a deep breath. “We’d better get going, we need to find the guy who can put this place in lockdown.”

Zack and Cloud nodded in agreement and the three began their careful trek through the building. Silas felt a buzz in his pocket and he pulled out the morpher. Apparently, someone was calling him. He accepted the call and put the morpher to his ear. “Hello?”

“Silas, it’s Julius!”

“Julius? These things can make calls?”

“Yeah, I had no idea until now! Anyway, we found a way to set off the sprinklers. Are you ready?”

“We’re still looking for where the hostages are being kept, stay on the line.”

After a few minutes, they arrived at the building’s main entrance. They could see the building’s entrance, along with six robots. All around them were machines of various sizes, along with stacks of paper, folders and some more technological equipment. More stuff was being brought into the lobby from another hallway.

"That must be what the leader was looking for," Zack whispered.

A robot dragged a human into the lobby and towards a door behind the receptionist desk, which another robot was guarding. It opened the door and shoved the human before closing the door. The office was filled with other humans.

“Our man should be in there,” Silas added.

Silas reached into his pocket and withdrew his morpher. “We found everyone in the lobby, Julius. It’s shower time.”

The red ranger could hear a microwave on Julius’ side start humming. After a few seconds, his panicking yelps replaced the microwave’s hum. Suddenly, as if the sky had opened up, water began falling from the ceiling’s sprinklers. Zack, Silas, and Cloud high-fived each other.

“Nice work, guys, the waterworks are coming down!” Cloud celebrated.

All three heroes stepped out from behind their corner. To their surprise, the robots turned their heads towards them, completely unaffected by the water. Six of them, along with the other two robots marched towards the heroes, surrounding them.

Cloud groaned. “Ahh, why didn’t it work?!” The heroes stood back to back, watching the robots inch closer and closer.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to fight our way out of this,” Silas said slowly, raising his fists up.

Whenever a robot got close enough to someone, they would receive a kick or a poke with a piece of the mop. But the robots were getting bolder, and soon they no longer hesitated to advance. Just as one was about to swipe at Silas, it suddenly fell down, Popple standing behind it. A fire extinguisher was raised in her hands. Another robot went down next to Popple, revealing Julius with his own extinguisher.

“So…” He started. “Since Operation: Squirt and Hurt fell through, what’s next?”

“Operation: Find the Guy who can Lock Down the Building sounds like a good alternative!” Popple suggested, swinging her extinguisher again.

Silas cracked the mop down on his knee, snapping it in two. He handed one half to Zack. “Cloud, get to the room and find him!”

The blue ranger nodded and ran to the receptionist’s desk, climbing over it and approaching the door. He swung it open, revealing a whole gaggle of people packed up like sardines. There was little space for them to move around. Upon laying eyes on Cloud, they all clamored to speak at once.

“What’s going on?”

“Are you here to rescue us?”

“It’s SPD, we’re saved!”

“Eek! Another robot!”

“Alright, everyone calm down!” Cloud said. “Everything’s under control, we’re gonna get everyone out of here safe and sound! But right now, I need someone who can lock down the building!”

From the crowded room, a hand raised. “I know the lockdown code!”

The rest of the hostages spread out as best they could to make way for the raised hand. Soon, a black haired man with a beard in a gray suit stood before him.

“Alright, everyone just hold tight! You’ll be out soon!” He promised.”

When the two humans stepped back outside, they laid eyes on the battlefield that was the lobby. Some of the robots laid on the ground, no longer active. The heroes continued to add more bodies to the floor. More robots had arrived to replace the ones who had been destroyed. Zack was in the process of jamming the jagged end of his mop into a robot’s eye, while Julius hammered another robot again and again with his extinguisher.

“Stay down, just stay down!” He yelled.

“Guys, I’m taking him to put the code in!” Cloud announced, turning to the employee. “So how do you put the code in?”

He pointed down the hall in front of them. “There’s a hidden panel over there where you input the code!”

Cloud cracked his knuckles. “Alright, let’s get you there!”

He bravely pressed forward, sending any robot that dared approach away with a kick or punch. Past the lobby, Cloud and the employee’s pace picked up. When they reached the end of the hallway, the employee scanned the walls around him. He settled on part of the wall next to a door and pressed his hand on it. After a few seconds, the wall opened up and revealed a panel with a number pad. He typed in a combination and hit a big red button. At that moment, the overhead lights on the ceiling converted to a deep red. An alarm horn began to blare loudly, and the exposed panel was once more covered by the wall.

“Lockdown imminent. Lockdown imminent,” an AI voice said calmly.

“Alright, now we need to get everyone out of here before the doors lock!” The employee explained, breaking into a jog back to the lobby. Cloud joined in and when they returned, things were even more chaotic. The formerly imprisoned employees were now spewing out of the office, running out through the front entrance. The heroes were still fighting off the robots with their makeshift weaponry. Above the front doors, a sheet of metal was being lowered to the ground. The metal screen was already covering the windows.

“Thank you guys, for everything! You’re our heroes!” He declared gratefully.

“Yeah, no problem! It’s what we do!” Cloud replied, swinging at an approaching robot.

The man turned and followed his colleagues out the door, while Cloud joined the others. “So, Operation…whatever Popple said was a success! Let’s get out of here, before those steel walls block our way out!”

The five turned around and saw that the metal screens were almost over their way out! The robots were also getting the upper hand, joining together in an attempt to swamp the heroes in a mob. As the heroes began backing up towards the exit, Julius looked down at his fire extinguisher, then the rapidly approaching swam.

“Everyone, get back!” The pink ranger instructed. Aiming his fire extinguisher at the horde or robots, he began spraying them with the firefighting tool. “Popple! Help me out here!”

Upon hearing the request, the yellow ranger rushed forward and began spraying as well. The plan seemed to be working, as the horde slowed down due to their lack of vision. The heroes took the opportunity to turn around and run for the door, which was about to be barricaded. Silas, Zack, Julius, Cloud, and Popple bolted out at the last second, just as the steel screen was fully deployed, blocking anything inside from getting out. All five of them huffed and puffed, exhausted from their efforts.

“That…was…AWESOME!” Cloud shouted victoriously. “We were all like,” He punched and kicked the air. “And the robots were beeping and bopping, but they couldn’t stop us from saving the day! We helped those people locked up in there!”

“Yeah, we did help all those people,” Silas agreed.

“We worked well as a team,” Popple said.

“It got really intense in there,” Julius started. “But we pulled through together.”

The heroes’ celebration was short-lived, however. The purple rays of light that brought the first wave of robots to the building returned, but it only delivered one person to the ground: the robot’s leader. And he did not look happy.

“So you are the ones who foiled my plans,” He began, his voice tinged with anger.

“Looks like it,” Silas responded, straightened up.

“I don’t think you understand how powerful of an enemy you made today,” He threatened. “You prevented me from taking my prize, so I think I’ll take your lives as compensation!”

With that, the man raised his palm to the team, which began glowing purple. He swung his arm in a wide arc out, firing a purple wave of energy at the heroes. Everyone scrambled to avoid the attack, scattering in various directions. The impact of the energy wave on the ground was enough to cause a small explosion. Julius, Cloud, and Popple dodged to the left, while Silas and Zack dodged to the right.

Zack looked on in shock at the explosion. “What the hell was that?!”

“I don’t know, but we can’t take him on! We’re not even close to strong enough!” Silas exclaimed.

The leader aimed his palm again. “Correct. And you never will be.” Raising both his palms, he shot his energy waves one after another. Silas and Zack sprinted to narrowly avoid the blasts as they trailed behind him. While his focus was on Silas, Popple flinged her fire extinguisher at him. Before it made impact, he turned and released an energy wave at the extinguisher mid-flight. The resulting explosion was a mixture of exploding energy and white fire extinguisher gas. Seeing a chance to attack, Cloud rushed forward through the smoke.

“Cloud, don’t!” Julius called out.

But Cloud pressed on, breaking through the other side of smoke with a right hook ready. The leader narrowly avoided the attack and had to step back to avoid another punch. When Cloud slammed both his fists down on the man, he blocked the attack with his forearm. In his other hand, he charged up his energy again and hit Cloud with a shockwave to the chest. The blue ranger was knocked back a good distance and he landed on the ground in a heap. Upon seeing their friend take the blow, everyone ran to Cloud’s side.

“Oh my God, Cloud! Are you okay?” Popple asked.

“Y-yeah…ow.” He uttered.

Behind them, the man chuckled softly as he walked towards them, his hands glowing with energy yet again.

“You five are completely different from the others I fought earlier. You fight like headless chickens.”

All of a sudden, all five teens felt something buzz in their pockets. They withdrew their morphers, which were beeping. After a long note, a flash of light surrounded their bodies. When it faded, they were all in their regular clothes from an hour ago.

“Uh, guys?” Julius patted his body down. “Where are our get ups?”

“The hour’s up,” Silas answered, looking down at himself, then the man.

“They sent children to do their work?” He scoffed, pointing his palms at them. “Well, this is what happens when you send children to do an adult’s job.”

Everyone’s ears picked up a peculiar sound: helicopter blades. Above then, a blue helicopter-like aircraft was floating, laser cannons attached to its two rotors. The rotors were on parallel sides of the aircraft.

“Stop, criminal, you’re under arrest!” A voice shouted from the aircraft. “Do not resist, or we will fire!”

The man looked at the heroes, then up at the aircraft. He narrowed his eyes. “This is not over.” The purple light that had brought him down reappeared and just as quickly as it came, he was gone. The space shuttle that had brought him to Earth now began to rise higher and higher. While the blue spaceship tried to fire on it, the shots had no effect on the bigger aircraft’s escape. When it could do no more, it lowered and landed in front of the heroes. A hatch on the side opened, revealing Space Commander Roy.

“You five have some explaining to do.” He said authoritatively.

Once the Space Commander helped everyone onto the aircraft, he closed the hatch and gestured for the pilot to get back in the air. When they were moving again, Roy turned to the teens, fixing his gaze on Silas in particular.

“Silas, would you like to explain why you were directly engaging with that man down there?” He asked, trying to maintain his calm. “What you did was extremely irresponsible and could have gotten you and your friends killed!”

“Respectfully, you don’t know the whole story, sir,” Silas began to explain. “It was never our intention to fight that man.”

“Then why were you all in that position, with one of your own injured like that?”

Zack stepped forward to add to the explanation. “When the shuttle stopped moving, it parked itself in front of that building. That guy back there sent his robots inside to retrieve some tech and destroy anyone who got in their way.

Julius chimed in. “We didn’t want to let that happen, so we agreed to get in there and free everyone trapped inside.”

“Whoever that man was, he left empty-handed,” Popple added.

Cloud rubbed his chest lightly where he had been hit. “He came down just as we got everyone out, so we didn’t have a choice in taking him on.”

Armed with the teens’ explanation, Roy stroked his chin, eyeing them up and down. “Hm. I underestimated you. I thought I could trust you all with simple instructions, but you went above and beyond my directions. And although I’m still a bit angry you put yourselves in that position, I’m glad you all managed to stand together as a team and do what you did. You all did good work today.”

The teens had a small celebration, with fist bumps and high fives all around. The remainder of the flight was spent in silence, as everyone soaked up the victory. After a while, the aircraft landed and the heroes stepped outside. They were on an airfield, surrounded by other vehicles. Some were taking off and flying away, while others were returning from a trip. Roy led them on a walk around the outside of a large building.

“Again, you five did good work today, and we can’t thank you enough for your service. If you need anything, like a recommendation, give me a call.”

“How about a job?’ Silas asked. Roy stopped in his tracks. Slowly he turned back around. All eyes were on Silas.

“A job?” He repeated back to the teen.

“Yeah, a job. As a ranger. You said it yourself, we did good work out there. What if we had training and everything?”

Roy digested Silas’ words. Finally, he came to a decision. “You’re confident, forward. Definitely headstrong. I like you. But I can’t guarantee anything. There’s months of training to go through. It’s extremely tough, and it will put your body and mind to the ultimate test.”

Silas shook his head. “I don’t want a handout sir, I just want a foot in the door.”

“You seem like the type of person who wouldn’t take a free ride, even if it were offered,” Roy considered. “It’s settled then.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Cloud said, waving his hands. “So you’re just gonna sign up like that without us?”

"I already pulled something like that earlier, I don't wanna rope you guys in again," Silas replied.

"Well, we kicked ass back there being heroes. I wanna see if I can get that feeling again." He looked at Roy. "Sign me up too!"

"I'm not letting you two have all the glory. I'll try out too," Zack agreed.

"Count me in as well!" Popple decided.

"I was afraid when we first started earlier," Julius began. "But we had each other's backs. Put me in!"

Roy looked at the five recruits. "Very well, it's settled. Get all the rest you can, you'll be needing it. We'll be in touch." With that, he turned around and walked up the steps in front of the large building. The teens began their trek home, starting to relax. The sun was starting to set over the city, the orange and purple sky painting the landscape with its light.

"Is anyone else absolutely starving? I would kill for a meat lovers pizza right now," Cloud said, rubbing his tummy.

"Should we really be eating something like that, now that we're gonna be doing physical training?" Popple brought up.

"Yeah, you're right..." Cloud nodded. "How about two meat lovers pizzas? We'll be needing all the protein we can get!"

...

Julius, Zack, Cloud and Popple walked home in the darkness of night, everyone incredibly exhausted.

"I'm never drinking anything at a party again!" Julius swore, still suffering the effects of his drinking. "I'll just bring my own thermos filled with apple juice."

"You gotta admit though, you were kinda funny when you were drunk," Cloud said, taking out his phone. "Woah, I got a lotta voicemail and messages to catch up on. That party was off the chain!" He read the first message out loud.

"Hey, Cloud, what's your deal?" The teen was confused by the message's tone. "Why would you call the police on the party?"

The teens stopped walking. "What?"

Cloud read the next one. "Cloud, you're a bum for what you and your friends did! You snitch!" His jaw dropped. "No...no...this is not happening." He moved to voicemail, the first one sent by Ronnie.

"Cloud, I'm hearing rumors," She said over the sound of complaining teenagers in the background. "Apparently, there's a video going around of you guys calling the cops on us before leaving! We need to talk. Call me back."

Cloud went back to his messages, and the majority of his new texts came with a video included. He clicked on it and watched the events unfold. Cloud saying that the party needed to be shut down, Julius calling the police, then everyone leaving in the car. All of a sudden, he fell to his knees. He took a deep breath, then began to scream into the sky.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"