Navy's Kraffen/Chapter 1 (Old)

Marley Kraffo glanced at himself in the mirror as he put on his hoodie. He was going to his drug shop that his family built with him inside of Karma Hill, a hill not far from the city of Kraffen, where he lived. It wasn’t a business he was proud of being in, but as long as he could get money from it, he wouldn’t complain. His father, the king of Kraffen, had told him to do this. So he was going to do it.

Marley walked casually outside of the castle into the darkness. There was a light rainstorm going on at the moment. It was good cover. He couldn’t let anyone see him, the prince-no, the KING of Kraffen, selling drugs. It would ruin everything. The rain was his friend.

Marley continued walking towards Karma Hill, inside of which where his drug shop lay. It was impressive, really. To enter the store, you’d need to know where exactly on the hill you’re supposed to go. There was a lever surrounded by grass on the side of the hill, which when pulled, would open a hidden door to Marley’s drug shop, OASIS.

Marley, of course, knew exactly where that lever was. He walked up to it, pulled it, and the side of the hill opened up. Marley walked in, and there was only darkness-

A light suddenly turned on, and Marley flinched. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He had to turn on the light, it didn’t turn on by itself-

A deafening gunshot blasted in the room. Marley stumbled backwards blindly and fell down.

"STOP!" Marley screamed. "I SURRENDER!"

"Well, you weren’t who I was expecting…" said an unfamiliar voice.

Marley was frozen in place.

"The day after the king dies, you’re the person who I find running this place...I have to say, that’s kind of impressive," the voice went on.

"Impressive? What do you mean?" Marley asked, opening an eye.

"Well," the voice started, "I have been watching this place for a long time, Marley. But I’ve never been able to see who you were until now, because of the rainstorms. I didn’t want to get in trouble for illegally passing Karma Hill’s boundaries, but with the old king dead, I figured it wouldn’t be a problem anymore."

"Who are you?" Marley asked.

"My name is Grant. You are under arrest, King Marley."

"Y-You can’t do that! I’m the king!" Marley stuttered nervously. "Do you have any idea who I am? I'm the KING!"

Grant sighed. "You have a thing or two to learn about the laws that your dad made, Marley." Grant then grabbed Marley's neck and shoved his head into a bag, and reached into his pocket for handcuffs.

"Wrrmph yumph tamphin mmph?" came Marley's muffled voice.

"You and I are going to the military base SIREN. Don't speak for a few hours, we wouldn't want to grab any unwanted attention," said Grant, dragging Marley down the hill. He constantly took breaks to curse the rainstorm and look at a dirty map he kept in his pocket. After about three hours of this, they arrived outside of SIREN.

"Whmmph wph stomph?" asked Marley.

Marley felt the bag get pulled off his head, and he looked around. SIREN was a large, stone brick fortress with two giant towers at the side, presumably for sniping attackers. From the distance, Marley could see the tall white Rainco tower back in Kraffen.

Grant looked at Marley for a moment suspiciously. "Get up, and walk where I can see you."

Grant pulled out a stone sword and kept it pointed at Marley’s back, telling him where to walk. They took a long staircase down to an underground portion of the fortress, with a small railroad at the end of the room. Grant told Marley to take a right, and Marley found himself walking into an empty room.

“What are you going to do to me?” Marley asked nervously.

“Stay here,” ordered Grant, “you’ll find out soon.”

Grant grabbed a walkie-talkie from his pocket and walked out of the room. When he came back in, Marley was asleep on the floor.

Marley awoke to the deafening sound of somebody slamming the door. Marley rolled over and stood up, wobbling over to get support from the wall. He looked up to see who the newcomer was.

A man stood there in a gray shirt, looking over at Marley.

“Marley, yeah?” the man asked.

Marley looked at the man rather timidly. “Uh...yeah. Yes, sir.”

The man looked at Marley curiously. “I’m Jared, has Grant told you what your job here is yet?” he asked.

“No. I have a job?” Marley asked.

Jared stood there, apparently dumbfounded. “Uh...yeah. Well, it’ll be easier to explain once Grant’s back. I think he’s out, uh, polishing his sword or something?”

“Am I going to be a soldier?” Marley asked.

“No, no! Of course not! Grant is the only one here capable of, well, soldiering. I know I certainly wouldn’t be able to kill a man,” said Jared.

Marley stood there, thinking. “I don’t understand. I have a job, but if it’s not army work, what am I doing?”

“Well, you see-”

Grant strode into the room.

“Gentlemen! Hey, Jared,” he said. “You two introduce yourselves yet?”

“Yeah, we have. What am I doing here?” Marley asked.

Grant stood there, trying to word what he was going to say mentally. “Well, we have a job for you. You have proven to be a successful drug dealer. I mean, you ran an over-the-counter drug shop inside a hill for...how long?”

Marley’s mind was racing. What was the job going to be?... “2 years now, my father said we needed money.”

“Well, that’s interesting...your father was the king, was he not already quite rich?” Jared asked curiously.

Marley sighed. “I still don’t know what he needed the money for. He never did tell me.”

“Focus, men.” Grant ordered. “Marley, you’ll be pleased to hear that you can continue your work as a drug dealer, just not in that shop.”

“What? Why not?” Marley asked confusedly.

“The building you used to work in is being raided as we speak. We need to keep the suspicions of this city’s citizens low and continue our jobs as normal. If anybody finds out that we work in this business, we’re dead men. Got it?” said Grant.

“...Wow. I guess I understand.” Marley said slowly.

“Alright, good. See, Jared here is an excellent scientist who happens to own a lab suitable for creating the drug Oramanium. He already has the manufacturing down, so all we need is a drug dealer. Which is what your job will be,” said Grant.

“Do I have any say in this?” Marley asked. “You really think that this is a good idea?”

Grant stared at Marley. “Marley. If you were to back down, where would you go?”

Marley stood there, thinking. He couldn’t go back to his shop and this would likely be his only opportunity to get the money his father wanted. Before he died, his father had given him the pin to the castle’s safe, which supposedly had something very important inside that he could only view once he had raised enough money.

“Nowhere…” said Marley slowly.

Grant nodded. “That’s right. We are all in this together, and if any of us were to quit now, all of the sacrifices and hard work that we and others put into this business would go to waste. We continue onwards, men!”

“When do I start?” Marley asked.

“Right now!” Jared said suddenly. “I just finished a batch of Oramania, it’s ready to be sold! All you need to do is find someone to sell it to.”

Jared handed Marley a bag of purple powder, presumably the Oramania he was supposed to sell. It weighed a good two pounds and had a faint rosy scent coming off of it.

“Every pound of Oramanium sells for $20,000,” Jared continued. “It is extremely valuable. Believe me, there are people in this world who will do anything it takes to get a hit of this stuff. Anything.”

“You want me to start now?” Marley asked. “I don’t know any of my customers personally, how am I supposed to find a buyer?”

“Listen, all you have to do is find someone, get some information, and decide there and then if you think he might be a potential buyer. If you think he is, see if you can work out a deal. If not, move on,” Jared said.

“Should I wear a mask or something?” Marley asked. Grant laughed from the corner of the room.

“Well, no. If you wear a mask, everyone’s going to suspect you and one of Grant’s men who ain’t in the loop will check you out.” said Jared.

Grant walked up to Marley. “You need an alternative identity when you’re out searching. Come up with a street name. Something dumb, like Ice or something.”

Jared nodded. “Yeah, and don’t wear your crown or royal robes, or anything that people could use to identify you as, well, you. Be consistent and make a name for yourself, so buyers will recognize you.”

“Alright, alright, I understand,” said Marley. “Anything else I should know?”

“You need a weapon,” said Grant.

“A weapon?” Marley repeated.

“Of course,” said Grant, “drug dealers don’t survive for very long if they don’t have some way to defend themselves. If someone were to kill you and your body were found by the police, this entire operation will go down. You staying alive benefits us all.”

Grant walked over to Marley, and handed him a pistol.

“Safety’s on, gun is loaded, you’re ready to go. Do not shoot unless you absolutely have to.”

Marley looked at the weapon in his hand. It was heavy. His father had taught him how to shoot when he was young, and he was a good shot. He could kill a man.

“I’m ready to go, then,” said Marley, feeling his finger on the trigger.

“Excellent, We’re going to make a whole lot of money together, Marley,” said Grant, almost proudly.

Claus Armstrong ran through the halls of the Rainco building in Kraffen. His team had just made a breaking discovery related to the trade of the mysterious Oramania drug, a substance that seemingly came out of nowhere. Never before had the police gotten a real sample of the real thing, as everything they had found before ended up being some kind of knockoff product. Claus had gotten this particular sample from a recently found drugstore, referred to as "OASIS" by the SIREN soldiers investigating the place. Claus nearly collided with an employee as he ran through the store, and swung into the meeting room. Grabbing the megaphone, he yelled, "Everybody! I want you all up here in the meeting room! You will not believe what we have here!"

Over the next ten minutes, nearly everybody in the building had crowded together in the meeting room, where Claus stood with the bag.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what we've got here is a sample of the real Oramania! SIREN has trusted us with the sample so that we can run tests on it, maybe see if we can trace it back to where it was manufactured or who's selling it! I want the Rainco Traceback Tester out here NOW!" Claus said enthusiastically.

"Sir," one of the employees began, "the machine isn't ready yet. What if you don't trace it back to the right place?"

"Oh, nonsense! What's the worst that can happen, really? If we're wrong, we're wrong. The sample will not be harmed and that's what matters!" Claus responded.

The employee sighed and brought out the Traceback Tester. "Here you are, sir."

"Excellent!" Claus said excitedly. He grabbed the sample and shoved it into the Traceback Tester. "Give this thing a few minutes and it'll be ready!"

After a few minutes, the machine began steaming and opened itself automatically. The screen at the top of the machine read, "SIREN".

The crowd just stood there in silence for a moment.

"That's bogus," one of the employees said.

"Impossible!" said another.

"Wait, wait! Let me try again!" Claus said, closing the door again. It went blank. After about 10 seconds, it began to steam and the screen read "SIREN" again.

"That thing's broken!" said someone in the far back of the crowd.

"Hand that back, sir, we've obviously got work to do," said the employee who had handed Claus the machine.

As people were leaving the room, Claus blurted out, "What if it isn't wrong?"

One of the employees laughed. Minutes later, the room was completely empty. Claus just stood there for a few minutes.

"Rainco tech never lies," he stated to himself, putting on his coat. Claus strode outside of the building and began to head directly for the SIREN fortress.

"Excuse me, sir!" yelled an unfamiliar man in the distance. Claus turned around to see the newcomer. "What are you doing out here in the rain all by yourself?" the man asked.

"I'm going to give SIREN a visit!" Claus said vaguely.

"What? You don't have to go all the way there!" the man responded. "I've got the good stuff here!"

"What good stuff?" Claus asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Y'know! Ora!" the man replied, opening up his coat. There were bags of Oramania strapped on to the inside of the coat. "You lookin' to buy? $20,000 cash!"

Claus stepped back. "Oh my god..."

"What?" the man asked. "Price ain't goin' down! If you ain't got the money, you can meet me later!"

"You, sir, are under arrest!" yelled Claus.

The man stood there, dumbfounded. "What? You a cop?"

"No, but I know all about SIREN's business in the Oramania trade!" Claus yelled gleefully.

The mysterious man began to walk away. "You don't know anything!" He began to run. "You can't arrest me!"

"HEY!" Claus yelled. But the man was gone.

"Reports have shown a massive increase in the presence of the Oramania drug all over Krobia, and we have sources of questionable reliability stating that the drug is also present in Palekaiko and perhaps even Seizo. The police is doing everything they can to catch all users, sellers, anyone and anything involved in the trade. We have also been told that the military is getting involved, specifically the SIREN military in the Kraffen area. Uh, it also seems that a drug shop referred to as "OASIS" was raided by SIREN recently. A sample of pure Oramania was found in the building and delivered to the nearby Rainco building..."

"...It is also still a mystery why the hill in which this building was found, that's right folks, the shop was inside a hill, had access restricted to only members of the royal family. King Kass- Oh, I'm sorry, I mean uh, King Marley has nothing to say on the matter, and does not wish to continue talking about it. Sorry folks, no more interviews with the king for tonight, I think we've gotten more of those tonight than we've been getting for the past 2 years..."

"...Thank you all for watching, tune in tomorrow for more news on OASIS and the Oramania trade, we'll see if we can get a local from Palekaiko to tell us if Oramania is showing up over there, too. Seizo is out of the question though. Oh, and I almost forgot, a man from the Rainco company told the police that a strange man attempted to sell drugs to him outside their company's building, but the police think that's bogus and will not be investigating. Well, that's it from Krobian News, again, tune in tomorrow for more n-"

The television clicked off.