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"Short Story: Freedom"

Okay, I'll put it in the second post as it's too long to have to scroll down every time. This one took me a very long time, and I hope it was worth it.

I would really appreciate it if you did just read it. I don't care how long it takes-whether you read it on the day it was posted, or whether you finally manage to finish it a month after it's posted, I don't mind. If you could just reply to it with some feedback, perhaps what you liked about the story and what you didn't, then I'd really appreciate it.

Finally, I hope you enjoy it. Those of you who have read my previous ones will know I'm based towards more of a comedy, or sci-fi type of story. This one is much more serious, and I'm not sure if it will work or not. I hope it does.

Once again I thank everyone on these forums for letting me post my stories on here, and I thank everyone who reads them, as you've taken some time out of your life to do it.

Please don't reply to this until I've posted the actual story. Thanks, Ant.

Strafex was awaken by the noise of a key turning. He quickly sat up, rubbed his sleep-filled eyes, and squinted through the darkness to see who was opening his cell.

“RBS!” Strafex cried, delighted.

“Shut up!” RBS whispered, an alarmed look in his face, “As usual, I’ve been sent to get you out of here.”

“Thank God,” Strafex breathed a sigh of relief, “they were gonna put the brain-chip into me tomorrow…”

“Well,” RBS said through clenched teeth, as he tried to turn the stiff lock, “You’re lucky I’m here then, aren’t you?”

RBS finally managed to turn the key, and slowly opened the cell door. They both cringed as it scraped along the concrete floor.

“The guard will wake up!” Strafex said nervously.

“No, I don’t think he’ll be waking up for a long time,” RBS pointed towards the body that lay-unmoving-on the floor a few metres away. Not dead, but unconscious.

Strafex grinned, “The simple approach, eh Rasta?”

“As always, as always,” RBS said with a smile. “Right, lets get out of here. Remember, there are still more guards around here somewhere. Hey, this security complex may be old, but it’s still very big.”

Strafex nodded in agreement, and then they silently crept away to begin the long journey home.

__________________________________________

They made their way outside at the front of the complex. It was a dark night-the stars had all but vanished and the moon was just a faint outline in the sky. The security complex, although big, was poorly guarded. The whole of the outside was made from brick, (apart from the door which was wooden,) but a lot of it had worn off over the past few years. It was rectangular in shape, and there were no windows. Just the one door at the front, which didn’t even have a lock. RBS and Strafex had managed to escape without being noticed very easily, it appeared as though their were only 5 or 6 guards to around 50 cells.
RBS took a quick peak outside the door, let his eyes adjust to the blackness of the night, and then beckoned Strafex to follow him. They quickly sneaked around to the left side of the building. The whole complex was surrounded by a high concrete wall, apart from the passageway which led to a forest. This was the only way out.

“Look who I brought with me,” he said, pointing into the shadows. It was Aliboy.

“Hey Ali, I take it you figured out this whole operation?”

Aliboy smiled. He was the brains of the group, and was usually the person to come up with the plans. RBS slowly looked around the cracked edge of the building, and tried to focus on the passageway.

“Damn! There’s three guards in front of the passageway, and there was only one when I got in.”

“How did you get in?” Strafex enquired.

“It was easy with only one guard…I lured him into the passageway by throwing a few stones outside at him. As you know, those brain-chips still aren’t very advanced, and most guards are rather stupid. As I expected, he came in to investigate, rather than calling for back-up or setting off the alarm. So, I put on a mask, and then sprayed some of our very own Sleepy Gas. He walked straight into it, and was out like a light.”

“Well, I guess that’s why there’s three of them out there, they’ll be on alert. Will the gas have dispersed by now?” Strafex asked.

“Yeah, Iguana says it’s gone within 20 minutes. I expect one of the guards over there is the guy I put to sleep.”

“There are 2 options,” Aliboy confirmed, “One, we take the stealth approach. It would probably be quite easy to trick the guards, even if we used the same sort of plan RBS did earlier. I mean, they’re that stupid, right? And it we can use the darkness to our advantage too.

There was a loud humming noise from the building, and the huge outdoor floodlights came on, blinding them all temporarily. Everything inside the wall was now enveloped in light.

“Oh. Well then…we can take the violent approach.”

Strafex winced, “pb won’t like that at all.”

RBS stepped between the two of them, “Who cares what pb thinks? He’s the one who made me sneak inside this place, if it wasn’t for him and his ‘morals,’ I would’ve busted in their and kicked some government @ss.” RBS was breathing very hard, and was almost shaking with anger.

“Still,” Aliboy said nervously, “I’d rather not.”

“Look, they might be big, but that means we’re faster. All we have to do, is sneak up to them with one of these,” RBS pulled out 3 crowbars, and handed them out, “and whack them over the head. It’s not that hard.”

“But what about…” Strafex started.

“What about nothing,” RBS interrupted him sternly. “Okay, it’s not the best plan ever, but we can do it. That brain-chip means their sense of hearing is poor, and if we’re quiet enough, all they’ll hear is their skull clanging from the force of our hits.”

Strafex nodded, a new determination building up inside him. If it wasn’t for RBS, he’d be one of those mindless guards by the time the sun rose.

“Well, okay,” Aliboy said reluctantly.

RBS was very pleased. He was a fan of violence. They couldn’t defeat their enemies unless they used action, in his opinion. This could not fail-the guards weren’t even facing them!

“Right, after 3, we creep towards them, making as little noise as possible. Strafex, you take the guy on the left, I’ll take the middle and Ali will take the right. Me and Strafex have knocked out all the men watching security cameras, so there is no danger of getting caught by them. Once you’re close enough, hit them with the crowbar, make sure they’re unconscious, and then run to the passageway. Once we’re into the forest, they’ll never catch us. Okay…1…2…3.”

The 3 men slowly walked towards their respective guards. RBS grinned, as the excitement and aggression inside him began to build…he loved the thought of hurting the enemy. He couldn’t get enough of it.

Strafex was calm. Very calm. He didn’t mind using violence, but only in the right situation. And in his opinion, this was the right situation.

Aliboy’s heart thudded. He began to sweat, and his legs were shaking. Usually he would stay with the rest of the group, but this time RBS needed him, as Aliboy was the only one who knew the layout of the security complex. His heart was beating so hard that he thought the huge guard in front of him would hear…but he didn’t. Aliboy was close enough. He slowly lifted the crowbar, and was about to bring it down when;

“AHHHH!!” RBS screamed, nailing his guard with the crowbar. The scream had come from a huge rush in adrenaline. Unfortunately, the scream scared Aliboy half to death, who stopped bringing the crowbar down for a second. A crucial second.

The guard heard RBS’ scream, and before Aliboy could try and hit him again, the guard had turned (they had very quick reflexes for their size,) and ended up facing a shaking Aliboy.

Aliboy shrieked and began to run back towards the building, and RBS was just about to go and help him, when the guard did something no one expected. He pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at Aliboy.

RBS stood in shock. He had not thought the plan through well enough…occasionally guards carried guns, and RBS had forgotten this. Of course they’d be carrying guns-they were on alert! Why hadn’t he remembered that!?

He watched in horror as the guard pulled the trigger. Everything seemed to travel in slow motion…the bullet apparently moved at a very slow speed towards Aliboy, and then hit him in the back of the head. Aliboy fell to the floor, dust flying as his limp body hit the concrete floor. RBS stood motionless. Messages flew through his brain, hundreds of them, but none registered. The rain began to pour, soaking him.

“No!” RBS was shaken out of his daze by Strafex’s scream.

“Rasta! We have to go, now!”

“B-b-but what about Ali!?” RBS replied, shivering thanks to the harsh wind and rain. His vision was blurred by tears.

“There’s nothing we can do for him! He’s gone! Just get out of here!”

The guard was standing over Aliboy’s body, laughing wildly. This was the only chance they would get to escape.

RBS turned away from his fallen companion towards the passageway, and sprinted into the darkness that lay in front of him.

____________________________________

“YOU WHAT!?” pb screamed, spit flying from his mouth.

RBS stood there, defiant. “I still stand by my decision.”

“How in the HELL can you stand by your decision!? Aliboy is dead! You hear me, he’s dead! And he’s not coming back! And you know why he’s dead? Because of YOU, RBS, because of you. You killed Aliboy.”

RBS turned away in shame. He hadn’t told them the full story yet-they didn’t know that his shriek had caused Aliboy to panic.

“We fight for freedom, Rasta. You seem to fight for…well, you just seem to fight. Why are you part of this group? What did you come here for?”

____________________________________

The year was 2368. Technology hadn’t grown much in the past couple of centuries. Not much at all. Scientists said people would be able to live on the moon by 2050. They were wrong. In fact, they were no closer than where they were in 2001. The Internet was still the main source of information and communication, and Television and Cinema had not progressed. England was struggling it’s way through a seemingly ongoing depression, and it seemed as though there was going to be no end of the terrible poverty people were going through.
Then came the Election. At first people were not sure who to vote for, as all parties had failed on their last attempts. But from no where came something new. Something radical. They called themselves the “United Party,” and was led by a man named Grix Thraves. They promised complete changes to society and the economy. They promised more prosperity and more wealth. They promised a better life for everyone in England overall.

People were drawn in by their innovative ideas, and they won the Election by a landslide. At first everything seemed fine-until people realised what Grix Thraves was really like. He was leader of the United Party, and he knew it. His MPs followed him around like dogs, and every time one of them did something wrong, however small or unimportant, he fired them. He said he would change society, and he was true to his word. He made it a law for children to follow in their parent’s footsteps, which meant that if a boy’s father was a street-cleaner, the boy, however clever he may be, would also be a street-cleaner. If a girl’s mother was a housewife, then the girl too would grow up to be a housewife. If people broke this law, they were looking at 5-25 years imprisonment. He said that every man must work from 6am till 8pm at the latest, and that people with jobs such as actors and authors had to get another full time job.

The Death Penalty was introduced again. People found trying to leave the country were shot on sight, and anyone found guilty of murder, manslaughter, rape, assault or robbery were hanged. Anyone who bad-mouthed Grix, or the United Party in public were physically assaulted by ‘guards’ that Grix had put all over the country. People often wondered how the Guards were willing to do this work, but there was more to the situation than anyone knew. Perhaps other countries would’ve intervened, if they were not sorting out their own problems.

Grix brought forward many other laws, but perhaps the worst was the ‘Tests.’ 3 times a year, on a date that no one knew but Grix, everyone in England aged from 7-60 were ordered into large buildings (there were 10 of these special ‘Test Buildings’ put up in every county,) and were asked questions, some which were answered verbally, some written down on paper. If a person did not get over 75% in the test, they were branded ‘unsuitable,’ and this would harm any chance of them getting a decent job. However, it was oh so much worse for people who got less than 40%. These people were told they were ‘too stupid,’ and they were taken into the United Party’s headquarters, where operations were performed on them. What kind? Well, for years Grix tested the ‘brain-chip,’ which had inside a computer chip, which programmed the person’s brain to do…well, whatever they were assigned. Basically, they were turned into Robots. However, at first they did not work, and these people either went completely mad, or the chip exploded inside their head, killing them instantly. Grix spent a couple of years trying to perfect it, and finally, he succeeded. People-men, women and children, were turned into…into toys. Grix could play with them whenever he wanted to. He could do anything with them he wanted to. He made all the men merciless guards, with no thoughts of their own apart from the ones the chip was creating. All the women were made into servants for the ‘higher people,’ (in other words, Grix’s close associates and friends,) and children above the age of 8 were made to do basic labour-such as building. No one knew of the brain-chip, apart from Grix’s closest circle of friends. This was the only huge technological advance made in 350 years.

Of course, there were the odd few people who liked all of this. A lot of the ‘best’ judges in England had great lives, with beautiful homes and lots of money. How did they get this? Well, being biased in court certainly helped. As did threatening the Jury. Basically, there was no proper legal system. Old friends of Grix also lived well, apart from one…

Everyone else in England lived a hellish life. Even the people who scored well in the tests were worked too hard, and had little money due to low wages. There was little entertainment-Grix had banned every sport that he didn’t like, and only people who got over 90% in the tests were allowed a Television (which had not progressed much either over the last 300 years.)

On Monday 16th June, 2373, 25 people were brutally murdered by Grix’s guards, for holding a small, daring campaign against his ‘government.’ One person could stand no more of it. One person had had enough, and his name, was Goatboy. He had been Grix’s friend for years, but when he came to government, Goatboy realised that this was not the man he had been friends with. Goatboy lived his life in shame and guilt, in his large house in the country, scared of doing anything but sitting around all day. As Grix became more evil, Goatboy became more angry, and on Monday 16th June, he blew his top. Literally. There had to be a fight back, and he knew it.

So he went forth into the streets, gathering the poor and the homeless (however, there weren’t many of them, as most had either been killed or had been implanted with the brain-chip,) and he also managed to find a few of better off people, who were sick of the life they were living. He told them of his ideas, and they did not hesitate in agreeing to join him.

At first they just tried to find things out-some off the richer people in the group worked for Grix’s government, and they were able to discover lots of information. Then, as quietly as possible, they tried to let the whole country know what they had found out. It was tough, and at times they were nearly caught. As months passed, Grix became suspicious. People were finding out secrets he didn’t want them to know. He told his cronies to be on red alert for any questionable activity within the government, and after a while they already had a prime suspect-his name was pb. Fortunately, other members of the group warned pb, and on the day he was to be arrested, the whole rebel group left their homes and possessions, some even leaving their families, to go into hiding. One member, VenomByte, had lived in the forest nearly all his life, and he took them to the little hut deep in the forest in which he lived. The chances of Grix finding there were very slim, and Venom also knew all the routes out of the forest and into the cities. The group consisted of pb, VenomByte, Goatboy, Mr Nice Guy, GasMask, Mouldy Cheese, Ice Blaster, Starlight, Shocktrooper, Strafex, and of course, Aliboy.

They then became much more dangerous. Knowing that they had a hiding place to run to (usually they could not be followed, as the forest was so thick,) they were much more confident. They used pb’s stealth skills to infiltrate government buildings, and get hold of weapons, bombs, grenades and the such. However, it was very tough to ever get any really big information, as security had tightened a lot since they’d been found out. There was no denying it, Grix Thraves may’ve been an evil madman, hell-bent on destroying society for his own petty needs, but he certainly wasn’t stupid.

A man named RastaBillySkank had scraped through his tests, while his wife and two sons had been taken away for failing them. The sons had the brain-chip implanted, and the wife was killed. RBS didn’t know what had happened to them, but he knew he was never going to see them again. He wanted vengeance, and knew the only way to get it was to join the rebels he’d heard about. But how would he do it? He had no idea where any of them were. In fact, he didn’t know who any of them were. He spent sleepless nights pondering this, and then just before he was resigning to the fact that he was never going to find them, he had a note put through his letterbox, telling him to meet a man on the edge of the forest, at 1am in the morning. A few days later, he was a full fledged member of the group who called themselves, “Freedom.”

____________________________

RBS whirled around, and snarled, “You KNOW why I came here.”

At this point Strafex stepped in, “Hey, look, this is mostly my fault. I’m the one who got caught trying to recover those damn notes on where the brain-chips are stored. RBS completed his mission by getting me out, right?”

The whole group were assembled in the hut. It was small, dark, damp and dingy, but it was the best they had. They took turns at sleeping in the 3 beds, while everyone else slept in hammocks outside, unless it was too cold. They all wore old clothes-most of them too small for them and torn in a few places. The only new clothes they got was when a few of them ventured into the cities and stole them.

“It is a setback. A huge one,” Goatboy said in a calm tone, “but we must continue. If we can find out where these brain-chips are created, then we can really shock Grix. If we could destroy them, then perhaps stop Grix from making anymore ever again.”

“Maybe, but to do that we’d have to do something about all of the government scientists. Even if we did all their equipment and the current brain-chips, in time, they would be able to create them again.” Shocktrooper pointed out.

“True, but what would we do about them? Would we really resort to killing innocent human beings?” Mouldy Cheese asked.

“Innocent?,” scoffed Ice Blaster, “How are they all innocent?”

“Okay, so maybe some of them actually like, and want to do what they are doing, but most are probably just scared. I mean, if they refuse to do what Grix tells them, then they could suffer from what they had created in the first place.”

Ice Blaster nodded, “I see your point. But back to the first question, are we willing to kill?”

RBS was about to make his feelings heard, but Goatboy put his hand on his shoulder, and said quietly, “So far, our policy of not killing anyone has been…well, it certainly hasn’t made life any easier. To be brutally honest, we will have little success without the death of a few of our enemies.”

“No, I refuse to take part in the murder of anyone…unless it was Grix.” Pb said a matter-of-factly.

“Your views are taken into account pb, and it’s completely up to you on how you handle the situation. But what if we came into a situation where we would all die…would you be willing to kill then?”

pb didn’t answer.

______________________________

Turbonutter briskly strolled into the examining room, and asked his fellow scientists,

“Name?”

“Aliboy, sir. A member of the rebel group.”

“How was he killed?”

“A gunshot to the back of the head by our chief guard, Wookiee Monster.”

“What are the chances of us using him to test our new brain-chip?”

“Quite good sir. The brain chip can easily compensate for the wound to the head, with some help from our friends over at Daedeville.”

“Hmmm…do they have anything that can revive this fellow to almost 90%?”

“Yes sir, they have created a drug, namely Lysterum, that could revive Aliboy within 30 minutes. He will be just like any other normal person.”

“And with the new brain-chip, we will be able to read his mind, and find out all we ever needed to know about the rebels?”

“According to our experiments sir, the answer would be yes.”

Turbonutter smiled, “This is it, everybody. The breakthrough we’ve all been working so hard for. Grix will be very pleased.”

____________________________

Dringo nervously stood at the door, almost shaking with fear. He had never met Grix in person before…he shouldn’t be worried, after all, he was giving Grix some good news. Some extremely good news.

He gathered all his courage, and then knocked on the door twice.

“Come in,” came the low, menacing voice from inside.

Dringo opened the door, and said, “Sir, I am Dringo, the head Doctor at Daedeville.”

Grix smiled, and said, “Ah, I finally get to meet the man who is going to help me play God. Please, take a seat, and tell me of what news you have.”

Dringo sat on the leather swivel chair opposite Grix, who then offered him a cigar. Dringo wasn’t sure what to do…would he get annoyed if he refused? He’d never smoked one before, he might look stupid…

“Erm…n-no, thank-you sir.” He stuttered, knowing that what Grix did to people who annoyed him wasn’t very pleasant.

“Ahhh, your right.” Grix said, casually throwing it, and his own, in the bin to his left. “They won’t do me any good. Anyway, what are you here for?

“Well sir, I believe what I am about to tell you will please you very much. We have spent over a year now working on the drug Lysterum, and it is now fully complete. With this drug, we should be able to fully revive any person who has been dead for at least 3 days, with only very minimal side effects.”

Grix’s smile broadened, and he asked, “Does our head of science, Turbonutter, know this?”

“Yes, he does. According to him, the new brain-chip is also ready, and it will allow us to read the mind of any person, as well as do everything the old versions did.”

“Does he have someone to test it on?”

“Yes, only last night a member of the rebel group was killed, namely Aliboy. I have sent a truck full of Lysterum over to him, which should be easily enough. Hopefully, within the next month, Aliboy will be alive once again. But this time, with the brain-chip inserted.”

Grix got to his feet and walked over to a small wooden table, on which was a mug full of pens, most of them gold plated. He thought for a moment, and then picked one. Without turning to face a now calm Dringo, he asked, “And this will mean we can find out where the rebels have been hiding all this time?”

“Yes sir.”

Grix walked over to a calender (every month had a picture drawn by Grix’s personal artist, of Grix murdering Goatboy in different ways,) and wrote something on the 25th December. “I want it all finished on the 25th December,”

Dringo smiled inside, knowing that it was easily enough time.

“You want to know why the 25th December?” Grix suddenly asked.

“Erm, yes sir.” Dringo said, a little surprised.

Grix sat down again, and leaned in close to Dringo, his hot breath almost forcing him to turn away…

“We celebrate Christmas on that day, as supposedly the Son Of God was born on that day. Well, on the 25th December a new son of God will be born. Someone else who can perform miracles…do you know who that person is?”

Dringo gulped and nodded.

Grix sneered, “Yes, that’s right. That person, is ME.”

______________________________

Goatboy couldn’t sleep. He was on tenterhooks, worried about what Meka_Dragon wanted to talk to him about. Meka was their main inside source. He was one of Grix’s right-hand men, a group of about 10 people who knew of Grix’s latest plans.

Fortunately, Meka had seen that Grix was evil, but was basically afraid of joining rebels. He agreed to give them useful information, but only after much reassurance that Grix would not find out.

Goatboy glanced at his watch. 12:30am. He was meeting Meka on the edge of the woods at 1am, so he decided to get going.

He traipsed through the dense forest, 99% sure he was going the right way. SNAP! A twig…somewhere behind him…or was it in front of him? He shook his head, who would be out here at this time of night? He continued on, but much more paranoid than before. He found some sort of path, and knew he was on the right track, just a couple more minutes. SCRUNCH! Okay, that definitely wasn’t him…he carried on walking as though nothing had happened, and then suddenly turned, expecting to see someone behind him. No one.

However, there was someone there. He could sense it…behind him. Fearfully, slowly, he twisted around…clouds had filled the sky, blocking out the moon’s helpful gleam. He could hardly see anything…but he could tell there was a person right in front of him. Goatboy’s heart hammered, and suddenly an arm stuck out and touched his shoulder.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!” Goatboy screamed, and then turned on his heels and began to sprint off.

“Hey, Goatboy, it’s me, Meka!”

Goatboy stopped in his tracks. Of course it was Meka…his own paranoia had frightened him. Embarrassed, he walked over to Meka and shook his hand.

“Sorry about that, it’s these woods, you know,” he said, gesturing to the environment around him.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Look, I haven’t got much time, but this is important. Very important. Your whole rebellion is under threat. As I’m sure you know, Aliboy was killed last night. Well, he may not be dead for much longer…”

“What the hell are you on about?!” Goatboy said, outraged that anyone could even talk like that about his former friend.

“Shut up for a minute Goatboy, and listen. Listen carefully. Grix’s scientists have created a new, advanced brain-chip. And his doctors have formed a drug named Lysterum. Once this brain-chip is put inside someone’s brain, they can…they can read the mind of that person. They can infiltrate their brain’s deepest crevices, finding out anything and everything.”

Goatboy’s jaw literally dropped in shocked.

“I’m afraid that that’s not the half of it. This new drug, Lysterum. It is able to revive people who have been dead for less than a month. And it only takes 2 weeks of ‘treatment.’”

Goatboy put two and two together, and finally realised it. “You mean…”

“Yes Goatboy,” Meka said solemnly, “They’re going to revive Aliboy, and then put the brain-chip inside him. Then the chip does all the work…translating all the stuff inside his brain to words on a computer screen.”

Goatboy was speechless.

“But there is hope. This drug is being sent to the Science Department, from Daedeville in London, tomorrow afternoon at one. At the moment, the truckload being sent is all that has been made. Your only hope is to stop that truck from getting there…and to somehow destroy everything that helped to create the drug. Basically, you need to blow up Daedeville.”

Goatboy kept his calm and said, “But we were planning on getting rid of the old brain-chips…well, thanks Meka. I’ll see you around.” He turned away and headed back to the hut.

“Yeah, hopefully.” Meka called back.

___________________________________

Dringo took a one last check, before finally allowing the truck to leave. He walked up to the driver and said,

“It is imperative that this truck gets to the. I don’t care how you do it, just get it there. Don’t worry about breaking the law, Grix will let you off.”

The driver, Kid Rock, nodded, and asked, “What if I get attacked or something?”

“I’m gonna be honest here, there is a possibility of that happening. Because of this, we are sending two of our best guards-Grandprix and Jetster-along with you.”

Grandprix and Jetster were not controlled by the brain chip, they were voluntary, which made them much more intelligent than any other defences Grix had to offer.

As the truck headed out of Daedeville, Dringo shouted, “You better not muck this up, or Grix will have you for dinner!”

As he made his way to his office he smiled and said to himself, “I expect he wouldn’t be that tasty, though.”

_________________________

The rebels had split up into groups-one was to stop the truck from getting to Manchester, the other to obliterate Daedeville. Fortunately, one thing the group weren’t short of were weapons (although they didn’t like to use them much.)They were easy to find, and they had also made a friend in Stryke, who was willing to supply them from his store in London (guns were now readily available, and even the odd bomb.)

RBS led the first group, and Goatboy led the other. Pb refused to work under RBS, so the first group consisted of RBS, Mr Nice Guy, Ice Blaster, Starlight and GasMask, while the other had Goatboy, VenomByte, pb, Mouldy Cheese, Shocktrooper and Strafex.

“Okay, we all know what we’re doing?” Goatboy’s question got a nod from everyone. “The truck leaves Daedeville at one, and about 10 minutes into the journey will head onto a small, quiet country road. You will intercept there, threatening the driver with guns and then knocking him out, and bring him back with us. Maybe we can make him a part of the group. But first, destroy the truck. There is only one way to do this, and this is to bomb it. Here I have two remote controlled bombs, which will incinerate anything within a 20m radius. Two men from my group will infiltrate Daedeville, while the rest of us are back-up. Hopefully we can set the bomb up inside the main experimentation room, and then blow it from the inside.” Goatboy had deliberately not mentioned Aliboy, as he felt they would function better without knowing. All they knew was that if this brain chip was used, then they would be finished.

Goatboy took RBS aside, and said, “I’ve made you the leader of that group so you can hopefully get some respect back. A LOT of things could go wrong in this mission, and if you fail we will most likely be captured. Be careful.”

RBS nodded, and the group went their separate ways.

______________________________


“You guys okay in the back there?” KR asked the two guards, who were sat in the back seats.

“Yep, fine. How long is the journey?” Grandprix asked.

“Not too long, about fifteen minutes. Usually it would be ten, but we’ve had to take a quieter route.”

“Security reasons?”

“I reckon so. Not that we really need to be that careful.”

The truck slowly turned to the right, into a quiet country lane. It had rained the previous night, and water dripped from the numerous leaves that had enveloped the many trees that had spread out across the side of the road. The sun’s rays were blocked, and shadows of what looked like scraggly hands reaching out covered the mostly broken tarmac. Kid Rock relaxed, and Jetster and Grandprix put their weapons on the floor underneath them. They were just a few minute away from-

“Crap!!” Kid Rock jolted as several people suddenly jumped onto the road. He tried to swerve out of the way, but hesitated when he saw the men holding pointing guns straight at them…it looked as though one of them had some sort of rocket launcher.

Kid Rock quickly stopped the car and jumped out, holding his hands in the air. “I SURRENDER!” He cried, tears rolling out of his eyes, “I don’t want to die!”

RBS paced towards him, his Pistol aimed straight at KR’s head. “Don’t move.”

He leant in, staring intensely at what appeared to be the driver of the truck. “Is this it? Just you? Is there anyone else with you?”

KR seemed to panic, and he tried to look around. RBS quickly put the pistol to his head and said, “Don’t move! Now, is there any-“

RBS was broken off as bullets began to whiz past him. He quickly hid in front of the truck, realising the bullets were coming from behind it. He knew he would be safe, as he had posted Starlight and GasMask back a few metres, in case they were attacked.

“Stop right there, and drop the guns!” Starlight screamed, and the guards knew they had been beaten.

“Damn!” Grandprix cursed as he and his partner dropped their weapons.

RBS smiled, and turned once again to Kid Rock.

“Now, we are going to have to do something with you? Do you want to come with us? Become part of our team? You don’t want to go back, as I’m sure Grix won’t be happy to know that you lost the only truck of Lysterum…”

Kid Rock looked up, his fear replaced by anger. From no where, KR spat in RBS’ face, and screamed, “Never! You guys are the reason Grix needs to take all this action! You are trying to destroy our great society!” Once again, KR spat at RBS.

RBS began to burn with rage. It rose up his body, and completely filled him. How could this small, petty man spit in his face? Twice?! How could he say society was great!? This society had killed his wife and his daughter!! RBS boiled over, and suddenly he felt his finger twitch.

BAM!!

Had he just…had RBS just…? RBS, fearing the worst, slowly turned his head to where his gun was still pointing. He saw what was in front of him, and his whole mind seemed to go mad. There, lying on the floor, blood soaking his clothes, was Kid Rock. RBS had killed him. He hadn’t needed to, but he had.

RBS couldn’t contemplate this anymore.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

He began to sprint as fast as he could…he didn’t care where he was going, he just had to get away!

“RBS!” Came the cry from Ice Blaster, chasing after him, with Mr Nice Guy following.

But RBS didn’t care. He kept running. He couldn’t stop…if he stopped running, he’d have to face the fact that he had killed someone in cold blood. Murder.

At the very thought of this word, he began to run harder. His muscles were running out of oxygen, they were aching and tiring, but RBS carried on.

Starlight and GasMask quickly ran to the front of the truck to see what was going on. They found the dead body of Kid Rock. Starlight nearly threw up, and GasMask just stood in shock. Neither of them had seen anything like this. This distraction helped them to completely forget about Grandprix and Jetster, who came from behind, clubbing them around the back of the head. Starlight was knocked out, but GasMask managed a scream.

“Argh!”

Ice Blaster and Mr Nice Guy turned, hearing the pain filled cry. They were confused, do they follow RBS or go back to help? Finally, they made their way back to the truck, realising this mission was imperative. Unfortunately, it was too late.

The truck came speeding the road, Jetster at the wheel, Grandprix with his gun pointing out the window. The 2 rebels dived out of the road onto the wet grass, Ice Blaster landing on a large pine needle, the bomb that was never used falling out of his grasp.

BAM! BAM! Gunshots were fired, none of them connecting.

The two of them watched on in despair as the truck sped away into the distance, getting ever closer to sealing their doom.

_____________________________


“Hey! Over here!” Came a whispered cry.

Goatboy twisted, unable to see anyone in the dense woodland. Fortunately, they could walk the distance to Daedeville by just going west, and staying on the edge of the forest. This way, it was most likely they would not be seen.

Goatboy knew the mysterious whisperer was Meka_Dragon, as they had planned to meet him earlier.

“Over there,” Shocktrooper pointed to the right of Goatboy, where someone was struggling through a bush full of thorns.

“Damn,” Meka said as he came over to them, examining his arm for any cuts.

“Hey Meka.”

“Hi. Look, I may as well get to the point. I’m here for two reasons; one, literally the whole of the employees at Daedeville are going out for a celebration lunch in around 10 minutes, and so this would be the perfect time to attack, because you wouldn’t take any innocent lives.”

“Ah, superb,” pb said, a smile forming across his pale, but wise face.

Goatboy nodded knowingly, “I expected that. I just wasn’t sure what time it would be. I guess we’ve been lucky.”

VenomByte was pleased to hear this, but there was a nagging in the back of his mind. Perhaps it was too lucky…

“There’ll probably be a few guards there, but nothing to worry about. Just knock them out, take ‘em outside and they won’t know what happened.”

They continued trekking through the leaves, all the time becoming more confident about their impending mission.

“What else did you come for?” Mouldy Cheese asked.

Meka suddenly stopped walking. He stared into the distance at the city which he had lived in his whole life. Yes, it was busy, full of pollution thanks to the bustling cars and the industrial plant. Yes, sometimes it wasn’t the best place to live, and occasionally he’d considered leaving, but his whole life was there. His family, friends and his workplace. But, the latter of the list is what caused him to make this decision.

“You know,” he said to the group, a wry smile on his face, “I thought I’d never leave this place. I could never imagine leaving here for some other city or town. And to be honest, I’m not really. I’ll only be only five or ten minutes away…Yet, it feels like I’m leaving everything behind me. Everything I’ve worked for the past few years…all whooshed away in just one sudden change.”

He turned to Goatboy, looking him straight in the eyes. “I want to join you. I can’t take anymore of the guilt. I can’t work in that place, knowing that everyday I’m ruining lives.”

“Not directly,” VenomByte pointed out.

“Yes, but I’m helping it, aren’t I? Everyday people are made into mindless slaves. Everyday people are brutally murdered. Everyday people have loved ones taken away from them. And every day, every hour, every minute I work for Grix, I am causing that to happen. If I asked to resign Grix would be very angry, and who knows what he would do. This is the only way…he won’t know where I am. I expect he’ll know what I’m doing, but he won’t know where I am. Fortunately, I don’t have any wife or kids he can harm to get me back…”

“Are you sure about this? Once you join us, there is no turning back. It’s a tough life Meka, and each day we struggle for…for…for survival. But one day, we shall beat Grix. We’ll beat him down, and he won’t get back up.” Goatboy said, determination in his voice.

Meka grinned, “Well, I want to be a part of that. I want a big slice of the pie.”

“We certainly don’t get much of that anymore.” Strafex joked.

That got a small laugh from the whole of the group, raising spirits even more. By this time they had were just outside Daedeville. It was a relatively small structure, especially considering the importance of it to the ‘government.’ It had three floors, most of them filled with laboratories and a few offices. It was very modernised, with lots of glass, automatic doors (the one that led to Dringo’s was voice controlled,) thousands of computers, laptops and other hi-tech devices. Although, this would have been considered modernised around 350 years ago, which really showed the slowdown in technological progress.

There wasn’t much just outside of the building. On two sides were the edges of the dark, but inviting (well, in the rebels’ case anyway) forest, on another was a car park and the other was just some grass, and then a road.

The group were stationed to the left side of the building. The only real way in was through a huge automatic door, guarded by a couple of victims of the brain chip. They held semi-automatic guns, as well as clubs. They were certainly not to be underestimated, despite their lack of intelligence (which was of course no fault of the people themselves, but of the chips.)

A group of people-around 40-all suddenly paraded out of the building, laughing and celebrating. Dringo was included, and they headed over to the car park where they proceeded to drive off to the nearest pub, as the rebels had correctly guessed.

“Right, that’s them gone. Now all we have to deal with is the guards,” Meka said, looking a bit unhappy at the prospect.

Goatboy examined the scene, and said in an easy tone, “Well, there’s a few options. Some of us could distract them and then we make our way in, but then we’d still have to deal with them. We could try and find another way in, I’m sure there’s a window somewhere around here.” Goatboy smiled for no reason and said, amused, “Or, we could use these.” He rummaged through a bag and brought out 5 Sleep Grenades.

“I thought we ran out of those ages ago,” Strafex said, puzzled.

“Stryke found them.”

“He found them? Where?”

Goatboy shrugged, “Hell, I don’t know. Stryke goes everywhere and anywhere looking for weapons, and he obviously knows where the right places are.”

Strafex took one, “So, what are we gonna do with these babies?”

Goatboy gave two to pb, and another one to Strafex. “Right, well one of these will knock out those guards,” he said pointing to the entrance, “and once they’re down, pb and you are going in. You’ll need those in case you come across anyone inside, which is more than likely. Okay, I’m gonna throw this one in, keep out of sight.”

Goatboy pulled the pin, and threw the rust-covered grenade at the entrance. The guards didn’t have time to react, it blew up in their faces, and they fell to the ground straight away. The gas was soon blown away by the strong wind that had developed, and pb and Strafex quickly headed in, their objective to plant the bomb inside the main experimentation room, and to get out as quickly as possible, so Goatboy could press the button, and hopefully destroy any evidence there ever was, of the new brain chips.

But VenomByte still worried…something was going to go wrong. He was almost sure of it.

_____________________________

RBS continued to run. He’d been running for a while now, but he wasn’t sure how long, he’d lost all track of time. His legs were now immensely painful, and every step was hell. But he couldn’t stop, he had to try and run from it. He had to run from the fear, he had to run from the pain.

He suddenly lost his footing, tripping on a loose rock. He fell harshly on the concrete path, splitting the skin across his knee, the dark red blood emerging to the surface. He lied on the floor, and looked up into the cloud filled sky, despair overcoming him. Why had this happened to him? Why him? He had a great life…a decent job, a beautiful family, and although he didn’t like the way the country was run, he was happy with the way his life was going. And then, in just one day, it was all taken away. He could’ve kept his job, but when his family had been taken from him, he had to give it up. How could he continue to live normally when everything he cared for had been ripped away from him?
And look at him…he’d killed two people in the last couple of days…why had he killed that driver? Yes he disagreed with him, and his opinion was completely wrong, he hadn’t needed to…was there some sort of malign intent inside him, to murder? Pb was right. He remembered the mission, and if he ever had to fond out when the lowest point of his life was, this was it. He’d killed all of them too…he’d failed, and now they would all die.

He sat up, and examined his whereabouts. He was still on the quiet country road…or maybe it was a different one, he wasn’t sure. He looked at his watch, and worked out he’d been running just over an hour. Amazing. He’d never been able to do that before, even in those 1500m races at school, in which he always had to give up halfway through. He laughed at the irony of it all, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. It was full of anger and sadness at the way his life had turned out.

He felt like screaming. And why not? He’d kept his feelings bottled up for too long now. He opened his mouth, and-

“ARRGGHHHH!!!”

RBS jumped to his feet. That wasn’t him. He looked either side of him, unsure of what to do.

“AHHHH!!!”

It was getting closer now. Coming towards him now…but where from?

“AAAHHHHHH!!!!!”

Behind him. He turned, and faced the forest. He could hear footsteps…heavy breathing…someone sprinting through the menacing trees, screaming out of the top of their lungs.

“AAAARRRGGGHHH!!”

A shadow…he still couldn’t see who it was, but he was sure he recognised the scream from somewhere. RBS stood back, frightened.

“AAAAHHHH!!!”

A figure ran out of the woods, rushing past RBS. RBS staggered backwards, but then regained his courage and ran towards the demented man, or at least he thought it was a man.

“Hey!” he cried, running ever closer.

Out of the blue, the man twisted round. RBS stopped, and stared in horror.

Aliboy.

But it wasn’t Aliboy…there was something different about him. His eyes were full of fear and were darting around everywhere. He was shaking, and his usual nice smile had been replaced by a confused, open-mouthed expression. He swallowed hard, and spoke quickly in a scared voice.

“R-R-RBS?? Is that y-y-you?”

RBS tried to break out of the trance he’d been put into, and slowly replied, “Yes…yes Aliboy, it’s me.”

He tried to reach out and his touch him, but Aliboy quickly pulled back.

“What…what…how are you even alive?”

Aliboy hesitated before answering, “They…revived me, with some sort of new b-brain chip. It’s inside me right now,” he seemed to become more frightened as he spoke, “b-but it failed…I still h-h-have some control…but not all.” Tears began to roll out of his eyes, “I don’t have full control of my own body! My head hurts, it hurts so much! The chip can sometimes control me, but I try to fight back! But it hurts! I can feel it trying…trying to tell me what to do! I don’t have full control…”

RBS tried to calm him, but it was to no avail. Aliboy wasn’t himself anymore…he was half-machine, almost.

Aliboy twitched. He suddenly fell to his knees, and began to hit the ground. “LET GO OF ME!! IT’S MY BODY!! LET GO!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!”

He scrambled back up and sprinted away again, his terrified screams echoing. RBS tried to cover his ears, but it was to no avail. Aliboy’s screams penetrated him like knives…it was his fault Ali was going through this! HIS!

A truck came speeding down the road, the first he’d seen. It looked strangely like a government truck…yes, it was. He panicked, and tried to get out of sight, but it was too late. The truck screeched to a stop, and 4 men stepped out, one of them being Dringo.

“Stop, and turn around now!” He called.

He heard the sounds of guns being cocked, and RBS knew it was hopeless. He turned and put his hands in the air. Dringo signalled to one of the other men.

“Gaming Boy, cuff him, and stick him in the truck. He’ll be coming with us. Perhaps we can salvage something from this…”

As Gaming Boy roughly handled RBS, he asked, “Shouldn’t we go after Aliboy?”

Dringo shook his head, “No, we’ll never find him in there. I won’t be surprised if he kills himself one way or another. Or perhaps the chip will take over at some point, you never know.”

Gaming Boy nodded, and put RBS in the back, and then sat next to him along with one of the other men. Dringo, and who RBS had realised was one of the guards from earlier (namely Grandprix) sat in the front, Grandprix in the driving seat. He turned the truck 180 degrees, and they started back the way they came. Towards the Science Department, where Grix was waiting.

___________________________

Earlier on…

“Dringo sir, the truck is here.” Gaming Boy said, running into the meeting room. Dringo and his assistants had headed over to the Science Department after a very quick drink, and had only been there a couple if minutes.

“Ah, good. Also Gaming Boy, I’d like you to meet someone. I’m sure you know him, but I don’t think you’ve met him in person before. Gaming Boy, meet our beloved leader, Grix Thraves. Grix, this is Gaming Boy, one of my loyal assistants.

Gaming Boy was stunned…Grix…here? What was he here for? To watch the operation? He nervously walked towards a brightly smiling Grix, and stuck out his hand tentatively.

“It is a p-pleasure to finally meet you, sir.”

Grix looked at the hand, and for a horrifying moment Gaming Boy thought he wasn’t going to shake it, but after what seemed like an eternity, he did.

“Ah, it’s good to meet another of my aspiring scientists. Well, what a day. Gathered here I have the best doctors and scientists in the country. I would like to congratulate Dringo, our head doctor, and also our head of science, Turbonutter. You’ve both done wonderful jobs, as has everyone else here. And today is our reward.”

He looked closely at Dringo, and then Turbonutter. “Today we shall confirm this government. We will finally get rid of the so-called ‘rebels.’ And with this new technology, we will be able to read people’s minds. We will be able to control what people think and do, in even more detail than what the previous chip offered.”

He stood, and said, “And now it is time to confirm that this technology is a success. We’re almost sure as it is, but it’s always good to find out. And our first subject happens to be one of the rebels, Aliboy. The operation is about ready to start, we just need the presence of Turbonutter, Dringo, and myself, and it will start. It only takes 15 minutes, and Aliboy will be revived in around 20.”

Grix smiled sadistically, “In around half an hour, I will become the most powerful man in the world. And all of you, will be beside me. Let us go.”

____________________________

35 minutes later…

“Any second now…” Dringo said, checking the computer screens.

The operation was a success, and they were now just waiting for the chip to kick in. Grix revelled in this…he was just seconds away from becoming the-

BEEEEEEEP!!!

“That’s it!” Dringo cried.

Everyone gathered around Aliboy, as his eyes opened. He looked surprised, and then he looked at himself.

“Whaa…”

“It’s just getting started,” Turbonutter assured everyone else.

“Where am I? What am I…my head…my head! Argh, it hurts! It hurts so much!” He looked up at everyone, fear evident in his eyes, “what have you done to me!?” His eyes searched the group, and found Grix. “YOU!!”

He panicked, and the messages coming up on the screen were going haywire.

“This isn’t meant to happen…” Dringo said worriedly, as he began to type, trying to work out what was happening inside Aliboy’s head.

“Hey! I can’t move my hand! What’s stopping me!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” He sat up violently, and tried to run. Turbonutter blocked him, but Aliboy was thrashing out, and he smashed him right in the face. TBN fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding nose.

Some results came up on the screen, and Dringo realised what was happening. “It’s not working! The chip…th-there’s something wrong, it’s not functioning! It only has around 30% control of the body!”

Aliboy sprinted out of the room, screaming like hell.

“STOP HIM!!” Ordered Grix, irate at what was happening. How could it have failed!?

Grandprix chased hard, but failed to catch up. Aliboy ran outside, no one could seem to stop him, he had just gone completely mad. He made his way towards the forest.

“He’s going into the forest!” Grandprix cried.

Dringo, Gaming Boy and another guard, Bonus, joined Grandprix, and Dringo quickly ordered them into a truck.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll know whereabouts he’s going.”

In reality, Dringo knew it was hopeless. They would never find him…but they had to try, at least. He cursed repeatedly under his breath, unsure of his future.

They jumped in, and Grandprix accelerated out of the Science Department, leaving Grix to rant and rave at Turbonutter, and everyone else around him.

________________________________

pb and Strafex ran inside, and glanced at the map of the interior they had been given.

“Right, the main experimentation room is here.” Strafex said, pointing it out to pb. “We get in there, set the bomb and-argh!!” pb jumped back as Strafex was knocked to the floor by a guard, who had seemingly appeared from no where.

The guard went for pb, and with bravery and fight he never knew he had in him, pb ducked and nailed him right in the side of a cheek with a hard right-hand. The guard staggered back, and pb, egged on by his sudden burst in courage, carried on pummelling him. Pb was beginning to enjoy it when the guard showed his superior power, and grabbed him by the throat. Pb’s eyes widened as he began to choke, and he was nearly unconscious by the time Strafex hit the guard over the head with his gun.

Pb fell to his knees, breathing hard, “Why’d you take so long?” He asked accusingly.

Strafex smiled, “Ya should be grateful. I think I toughened you up a bit. You looked a bit like that old boxing legend Mike Tyson.”

Pb’s face brightened, “Really?”

“Yeah, the only thing you didn’t do was try to bite his ear off.” Strafex continued down the corridor, pb looking a little miffed.

They turned to go up a narrow flight of stairs, but noticed a guard standing at the top of the see-through steps.

“We can have some fun with this guy,” Strafex whispered.

“You know, this is the reason you’re always the one getting captured.” Pb said, a stern look on his face.

Strafex smiled, and then knocked on the glass wall. The two of them quickly hid against the wall, as the guard slowly made his way down the steps. He walked straight past them, and Strafex was about to tap him on the back, when pb stopped him and whacked him over the head with a wooden club he’d made himself a few weeks ago.

“Bolloc…” he slumped to the floor, leaving pb and Strafex with a clear route.

They went up three more flights with no trouble at all, and finally entered the largish experimentation room. It was full of high-tech gadgets, one bed, lots of medical equipment and medicines and finally, a scientist. The scientists, whose name they found out later was Neo-Genetic, was busily writing down formulas on a piece of paper. Strafex walked straight up to him, and covered his mouth with his hand. Neo tried to scream, but Strafex held his nose and made him promise not to scream if he let him breath. Neo nodded vigorously, and they tied his hands up with a piece of rope.

“Right,” Strafex said, “leave him here with me. I’ll set up the bomb, and you go get those guards that we dealt with earlier, and get the others to help you take them outside. As you said, no point killing any innocent people.”

“What if there are others?”

“Well, we’ll have to risk it. And anyway…it’s not as if they’re gonna have a better life if they do survive.”

“But they could! We could save them, get rid of the brain chip!” pb said desperately.

“C’mon pb…what’s a couple of lives compared to…compared to millions.”

Pb sighed, “You’re right.” He walked out of the room slowly, and then looked back at Strafex.

“Hey Strafex.”

“Humm?”

“See you out there.”

Strafex smiled, and got to work on the bomb, Neo-Genetic lying on the ground, his hands tied behind his back.

“What will happen to me now?” He asked, scared.

Strafex grinned, “You’ll be joining us, I expect. Unless you want to be horribly punished by Grix. Isn’t that lovely?”

Neo groaned.

“Don’t worry, it means you’ll be on the winning side in the end.”

He stood up and brushed his hands off, “right, I’m done. I just hope no one pushes the button by accident. Right, lets go.”

Strafex pulled him up and hurried outside, where pb and the rest of the group were waiting, along with two unconscious guards. They had moved back from where they were earlier, far enough away from the ensuing explosion.

“All set?” Goatboy asked.

“We sure are,” Strafex replied, shoving Neo-Genetic to the floor.

“Right, after three.”

The whole group chanted, “ONE!! TWO!! THREEEE!!!”

Goatboy pressed the button on the small remote. Hopefully the button that would rid the world of this new brain chip, and hopefully spark off some sort of revolution. Not likely, but it would still be fun to watch it blow up.

BOOOOMM!!!!!

Daedeville exploded from the inside. Bits of glass flew everywhere, some even flying past the group themselves. All that was left was flames.

“Right, the supposed Emergency Services will be here soon, we’d better be off. Mission accomplished!!” Goatboy announced.

The group cheered as they ran back to the forest. VenomByte smiled…perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps everything was going to be okay…for the moment at least.

But no, he was right the first time, as he was going to find out very soon.

_________________________________

“Did you find him!?” Grix roared.

“No,” Dringo said, and before Grix completely exploded he quickly shoved RBS in front of him, “but we did find him.”

Grix’s frown turned upside down (sorry) at the sight of another rebel.

“Well, aren’t I lucky. Another rebel!” He glared at Turbonutter and Dringo, “hopefully we won’t lose you too…get up.”

RBS stood up, a defiant look on his face.

“Humm…what shall we do with you, eh? Kill you? Maybe, but it’s a bit of a waste, and the fun is only temporary.”

“Actually, I wa…” RBS was broken off as Grandprix put a gun to his head. But Grix waved him off,
“No, let him speak,” he said, smiling.

“Well, as I was saying,” RBS continued to stare at Grandprix, “I was wondering if I could ask you some questions.”

Grix looked undecided for a tantalising moment, before replying, “Yes, okay then. Come with me.” As he led RBS to a small meeting room a few metres away he said to the group, “don’t interrupt us. I will tell you when I am ready.”

Grix stepped into the room, unsure of what RBS wanted to know. But he wasn’t worried, after all, no one else would ever find out what he’d said. Especially after he’d tried out his new…specimen. He sneered at the thought.

_______________________________

Goatboy, Shocktrooper, pb, VenomByte, Strafex, Meka_Dragon and Mouldy Cheese stepped into their little home, eager to find out how the others had got on. Goatboy saw the look on their faces, and knew what had happened.

“Well…err…” Goatboy could not think of anything to say. He was utterly speechless. He never really thought they would fail.

Ice Blaster looked up, his eyes sad, “We’re sorry Goatboy…everything was going fine until RBS…well, he killed the driver. And then he just ran off. We took off after him and the guards took advantage, knocked Starlight out and then took the truck. We tried…”

Goatboy noticed something strange…there weren’t enough people. Someone was missing.

“I take it that RBS didn’t come back then…” It wasn’t a question.

Everyone just slumped to the floor, unsure of what to do. No one even noticed Neo-Genetic lying on the floor, his hands still tied behind his back. It looked black…there was nothing they could do. Goatboy shrugged and looked on hopelessly, his leadership skills suddenly disappearing, “I…I don’t know, I just don’t know.”

Meka stepped forward, “We can’t just let this happen. We have to do something, and I think we only have one option. Obviously, everyone will be at the Science Department, and I know that Grix is there. If we can make one final attack, one last stand, then we can at least leave our mark on society. We can attack mercilessly,” he glanced at pb, who looked a bit miffed, “and we can take lives. But most importantly…we can take Grix’s life. Once he is dead, the United Party will be in chaos. His main assistant, the man who would lead if Grix was ever to die, is a good friend of mine. His name is MJSwerve, and he feels exactly the same way I do, but he’s got too much to give up to ever go against him…but if we killed Grix, he would lead! He is a good man, he could revive this bloody, forsaken grave we are living in, and turn it into the country it once was!”

His eyes gleamed, hope and excitement evident in his voice, “This could be our best chance of winning this ongoing battle. If we don’t take this chance, we will never be victorious. Yes, there is a good chance we will die, but our deaths could help save England!”

Suddenly everyone felt alive again…energy filled them from head to toe, and they all realised that maybe there was hope…somewhere in this dark, depressing world they lived in, there was hope. There was always hope.

“I expect we’ll need a bit of help though,” pb pointed out.

“Oh don’t worry,” Goatboy said, a smile forming across his pale features, “I’m sure I can find some of them.”

______________________________

Strafex, in lots of clothing so to disguise himself out in the streets, quickly stepped into Stryke’s Ammunition Store.

“Hey Stryke,” he said casually, knowing that it was not really a casual matter he had come to talk about.

“Hey Strafex, you looking for some supplies?”

“Well…erm, yes, in a way. We don’t just need supplies though…we need you guys.”

Stryke’s assistants, FantasyMeister and DeltaJava came out of the storage cupboard, and greeted Strafex.

“Could you explain?” Stryke asked.
Strafex quickly filled them in on what had happened lately, but stuttered as he came to his final sentence.

“A-a…and we need you guys to, erm…help us. Look, I’ll put it plainly,” he gulped hard, “we need you, with your most powerful and devastating weaponry, to come along with us and destroy the Science Department, hopefully with Grix inside it.”

FantasyMeister and Delta agreed straight away, both who had whom only just passed the tests last time, and were worried for their future. Stryke seemed sceptical though.

“Well…I guess we could. If we were successful it would of course be brilliant, but…but we could all lose our lives.”

“We could all lose our lives under Grix anyway,” FM pointed out.

Stryke nodded, “Well, okay, I guess you’re right. Give me a few days and…”

“No, it has to be now.”

Delta laughed, “won’t we look just a bit suspicious walking around with rocket launchers and flame-throwers?”

“We’ll have to risk it. The forest is only a couple of minutes walk away, once we’re there, I’ll lead you to our little home, and then we’ll sort ourselves out and we’ll be off.”

“Okay, Delta, FM, grab some heavy weaponry, as well as some tranquillisers, they’ll come in handy.”

___________________________

Everyone was gathered around Goatboy, loaded with weapons. They were all very tense, knowing that they could be dead in a hours time.

“This all seems a little extreme really…I mean, a shotgun?,” pb said, examining the weapon he was carrying.

“Agh, shush pb. And anyway, that’s a tranquilliser gun you’re carrying,” Strafex told him.

“Really?? Well why am I carrying it?? I don’t even know what the bloody thing is, I’m not exactly gonna be able to use it!”

“Right,” Goatboy said, stepping forward, “I’m not gonna give some big speech about how I’ve enjoyed my time with you all, because I haven’t really. All I can say is that our main mission isn’t to kill people, it’s to destroy the Science Department. I don’t care whether you burn it down with a Flame-thrower, or whether you use a rocket launcher. Just try to warn us before-hand. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get past the outside defences quickly, and before anyone inside can react, blow it up…or burn it down, whatever the case may be. But if you DO see Grix outside the building, kill him immediately. Got it?” Everyone nodded, “Then lets go, you know the way.”

__________________________

“So, what do you want to ask?” Grix asked RBS, pointing a pistol right at his head, just in case he tired anything silly.

RBS thought for a moment before answering, “Why do you do this? I mean, why…why are you so evil? You promised us a good life, and then you put us in hell! Why do it?”

Grix laughed, “Well, it’s a short story really. There are quite a few reasons…I knew I could do whatever I liked. The rest of Europe is in turmoil after the War, and the USA is going through another Depression. They can’t stop me, can they? But you know, when I came to power, I actually meant to be a good leader. Someone who provided the best resources and the best jobs for his people. But my biggest mission, the one thing I really wanted to do, was create something. Technology was going no where, absolutely no where! I was bored of life the way it was…it needed something new. I spent sleepless nights trying to think of something, and then it came to me.” He stared intently into RBS’ eyes, “I wanted to create the most powerful empire possible. I didn’t just want the UK, I wanted more!”

He pulled the gun from RBS’ head, confident that he wouldn’t try anything.

“If there was some way I could get people to do anything I liked, without any resistance! I could apply them to anything, it wouldn’t matter how clever they were. I told my best scientists about it, and they worked on it. Together, we came up with the Brain Chip. It real

Okay, I'll put it in the second post as it's too long to have to scroll down every time. This one took me a very long time, and I hope it was worth it.

I would really appreciate it if you did just read it. I don't care how long it takes-whether you read it on the day it was posted, or whether you finally manage to finish it a month after it's posted, I don't mind. If you could just reply to it with some feedback, perhaps what you liked about the story and what you didn't, then I'd really appreciate it.

Finally, I hope you enjoy it. Those of you who have read my previous ones will know I'm based towards more of a comedy, or sci-fi type of story. This one is much more serious, and I'm not sure if it will work or not. I hope it does.

Once again I thank everyone on these forums for letting me post my stories on here, and I thank everyone who reads them, as you've taken some time out of your life to do it.

Please don't reply to this until I've posted the actual story. Thanks, Ant.