THE FIRST DRAFT – Fooshie: Secrets Revealed

It’s been a very long time since the Fall of the Fooshies. While Junior, Lightning, and Crosshairs still fight those that oppose good, they still have trouble coping with the loses. Especially Junior. However, the remaining Fooshies are still without a leader and Junior (by blood) is poised to be the next leader following his dad, Griffen.

Junior is more than excited to be the next leader as he wants to do what his father did and bring justice to those that deserve it. Deep down though he wants to catch whoever is responsible for the Fall of the Fooshies and for his father’s death. However, before Junior can become the next leader he must prove that he is ready. To make sure he is ready, Junior trains under the guidance of Crosshairs (Griffen’s right hand man) and Lightning (Junior’s childhood friend).

While Junior and his friends are out on a scouting mission that quickly turns into a rescue mission, Junior finds intel/evidence to the Fall of the Fooshies. Eager about his discovery, he brings his findings to Crosshairs and Lightning. On the back of the evidence that Junior found, are coordinates to a mysterious location. Quickly all three decide that this is worth investigating further and they all set forth to the new location.

Once at the mysterious location, they find that it’s abandoned. Junior, not giving up hope, urges everyone to look inside. While searching for anything that may help, Junior gets separated from Crosshairs and Lightning by falling into a mysterious underground. At the bottom, Junior checks his surroundings and finds that he is surrounded by a horde of evil creatures. These evil creatures look similar to the ones the Fooshies fought above earlier, but Junior can tell that something’s off about them. They seem more vicious. However, before they have a chance to attack, a mysterious figures comes out of no where and stands in front of Junior. He tells Junior to shield his eyes, raises his hands, and with a thunderous snap a flash of lightning illuminates the room sending all of the evil creatures away.

The mysterious stranger offers his hand to Junior. Junior accepts his offer and gets back on his feet. The stranger tells Junior that he is called Keme and that he can assist Junior in finding the truth. Junior, desperate for clues and answers, once again accepts Keme’s offer. Keme guides Junior to a way out of the underground. Before he leaves though he gives Junior more evidence and tells him to keep searching no matter what happens. Keme disappears before Junior reunites with Crosshairs and Lightning. Junior tells his fiends what happened, but are skeptical of what really happened. All three eventually leave and head back to base.

Once they get back to base they are greeted by none other than Griffen. Bewildered by how Griffen is alive and where he’s been, everyone is speechless. Griffen calms everyone down and explains what happened. Everyone takes the news well and offer Griffen to be leader again. However, Griffen denies as he doesn’t want to take the title away from his son.

A few weeks pass by since Griffen’s return, but Junior seems to be unpleased with how everything’s gone. Over the past few weeks, Junior’s training has gotten worse as the lessons have become absent minded and almost point less. This is in large part to Griffen coming back and all attention has been directed onto him. Meanwhile Griffen acts as if nothing had ever changed. Junior also gets the feeling that Griffen is judging him heavily. Watching his every move, seeing if he actually has what it takes to be leader. On top of that, it seems as though everyone has abandoned trying to figure out what truly happened in the past.

Despite all that, the day has arrived for Junior to earn the right to become the new leader. Junior is nervous but is determined to prove himself. For the most part, Junior navigates through the test with ease, until the end. Junior ends up almost failing right at the end, but manages to redeem himself and finishes the test. Shortly after finishing, Junior’s scores come in and unfortunately he has failed to earn the right as the new leader, and as a result Griffen will retake his place as leader. Heartbroken Junior runs away back to his quarters as Crosshairs and Lightning follow close behind.

Crosshairs and Lightning catch up to Junior and try to comfort him. Junior can’t believe he actually failed. He misstepped at the end, but he was even able to recover. It just doesn’t add up. How could he have failed? In his sadness and disbelief, he comes up with a plan though. He explains to Crosshairs and Lightning that if he can find the truth to the past and bring justice to the one who destroyed the Fooshies, he will have proven himself to be the new leader. Crosshairs and Lightning are pretty doubtful in Junior’s plan, especially Crosshairs, and they try to talk Junior out of it. Awestruck by his two friends reactions, Junior starts to get upset with his friends and states the only reason he must do this is because Crosshairs failed to properly train him. He even points out that they stopped caring about the past once Griffen showed up. Crosshairs eventually snaps and says, “You’re not the leader because you’re not good enough!” Immediately the falls silent. After a few minutes, Junior (feeling like he has no one left) ends up running away and goes in search of Keme.

Junior eventually finds Keme and explains to him what happened. Keme feels empathy for Junior’s lose and invites him to come stay with him for a while. Junior accepts. To Junior’s surprise, it turns out Keme has a giant airship that also acts as his home base. They arrive in the captains quarters and talk. However, as they conversation deepens Junior gets more and more of a feeling that Keme’s intentions aren’t what Junior originally thought. During mid conversation, a warning blares onto one of Keme’s screens and tells Junior to stay put as he has dangerous business to attend too. Once Keme leaves, Junior gets curious and snoops around Keme’s quarters. Eventually he finds the controls to some very well hidden cameras. However, on the cams he finds Griffen in a prison holding cell. Junior steps away from the monitors mystified at what he sees. At the same time though, Keme comes back to the room and discovers what Junior has seen.

Knowing that Junior knows what he’s hiding, Keme has no choice but to explain what happened the night that the Fooshies fell. He explains that everything was peaceful until an evil presence attack the Fooshies. This evil presence would go on to wipe out everyone accept for a few Fooshies. Junior responds saying that he already knows that, everyone does. Keme grins however, and says that the evil presence was actually Griffen and that he tried to exterminate all of the Fooshies (including Junior) so that he could be the last of his species. Junior stands frozen, horrified by this new info. But he refuses. Junior draws his sword and tells Keme that that’s not true, it’s a lie to turn on Griffen. Keme replies saying that that is the truth. Junior still not believing it lunges towards Keme. Keme easily dodges and draws his weapon. Keme explains further that he only knows the truth because he fought against Griffen. You see Keme is just his fake name as he reveals to Junior that his real name is Damien and that he’s also a Fooshie. Junior absolutely floored staggers back. He remembers Damien. Damien was pronounced dead after the Fooshies fell as his body was never found. Damien was one of Griffen’s closest friends. Junior can’t believe what he’s being told or what he’s seeing. However, still believing that there has to be some mistake he readies his weapon and prepares for battle. Damien, now knowing where Junior’s beliefs and loyalties lie after knowing the truth, also readies his weapon for battle.

The fight ends with Damien winning as Junior is vastly out matched by Damien. With Junior defeated, it looks as though Damien is about to kill Junior to finish him off. However, at the last minute, Crosshairs and Lightning join the battle and manage to save Junior. Now that Junior knows he can’t win without his team, he gets back up on his feet and joins them to finish Damien. Eventually they end up beating Damien, freeing Griffen, and they celebrate. Except for Junior. Junior walks up to his father and tells him that he knows what really happened. He then asks Griffen to tell him the truth. To Junior’s surprise and disbelief, Griffen tells Junior and the others exactly what Damien said. Junior, hearing the truth from his father, finally believes it. He then decides to exile Griffen from the Fooshies. Griffen is caught off guard by this, but understands this decision, acknowledging Junior as the true leader. Within an instant, Griffen disappears without being seen from again. Instead of feeling overwhelmed with joy, Junior feels kind of hollow, but realizes that sometimes even victories can feel like defeat. Junior then goes over to a defeated Damien and offers his forgiveness. Damien doesn’t fully accept Junior’s forgiveness, but lets him know that he’s already doing a better job than Griffen did. Shortly after, Damien leaves. In the end Junior, Crosshairs, and Lightning sit on the battle ground thinking about what just happened. They have mixed emotions about everything that just took place, but are relieved to know that all three are still together and will stand side by side each other no matter what.