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James ran down the alleyway of a deserted town, doubling over with a stitch slicing through his sides. He breathed heavily before reloading his gun and setting off at a slow jog. The town was silent as James looked around the corners of the alley. He strained his ears and heard the distant shouts of others getting shot down. He smiled as someone crept right through the house beside him, but the happiness didn't last long as he worried if the person or people still had ammo. James started to creep around the building and positioned himself at the low wall of the front garden, cocking his gun and double checking that there was no way it could jam. The crunching of gravel under foot got louder as the person got closer. James stepped back and aimed. The person, who turned out to be a boy walked into the open street, UN aware of James. James let off three rounds and ran off as the victim came to grips with the damage.

"Got you know haven't I Brucey-Boy?" James shouted as he ran off up the road and skidding into a building. James searched the house and heard Bruce shout

"Damn you Adams". James smiled and carried on looking, but the firing off paintballs got louder and James turned to see his ex-girlfriend, Kerry Chang, back into his hide-out. Another lucky day for James Adams, James thought as he took aim and shot 2 rounds into Kerry's fine toned bum. James ran into the back garden and climbed over a wall, with Kerry on his tail and Bruce coming from the other direction, he was in some serious shit. But if Kerry had gone round, James could go back over the wall and run straight out the front door.

"James, you are a genius, if I were gay I would marry you ten times over." James exclaimed, rather vainly. He jumped at the wall and got to the top and looked down to see his worst case scenario.

"Do you honestly think I am that stupid, James?" Kerry questioned mockingly.

"Come on Kerry, don't shoot, its point blank range!" James begged.

"So...you fired at me at the same range, so why shouldn't I return the favour?"

"If I knew it was you I would have never of done it, I swear Kerry!" James knew his argument wasn't going well and hoped Kerry would spare him.

"Bullshit James, complete and utter bullshit." Kerry shouted as she fired a whole clip at James' chest. James couldn't breathe and fell back, coughing. He turned his head to see Bruce running towards him, cocking his gun. James tried to shout, but nothing came out and he felt another 5 rounds fire into his chest. James fell unconscious as Kerry and Bruce looked over him.

"Shit Kerry, we went too far!" Bruce said, looking worried.

"So what, the arse had it coming to him." Kerry spat.

"I'm leaving the emergency tracer with him, so he can get saved, but I'm out after that, I am not getting into trouble for this" Bruce dropped his tracer onto the ground next to James and ran off into the main road, with Kerry following behind him.



Lauren had teamed up with Bethany half way through the exercise and had been relatively safe throughout, using tactics CHERUBs learnt in basic training. They hid in a bunker in a park and came out to finish the war when everyone was tired and had low ammo, it also helped that it was night. They crept through the desolate town with their night-vision goggles, covering each other's backs, and when it go to dark, one of them switched to Heat goggles and looked for heat in the undergrowth. The unusual colours, made Lauren's head spin and at one point she got so disoriented that she had to sit down and take the goggles off her visor completely, just to get her eyes adjusted.

"It's time went into the building, they must be hiding in there. It's the dead of night, and no amount of ammo can hold out this long." Bethany said, rubbing her friend's shoulder.

"Your right, come on, chop." Lauren said, smirking.

The girls put on the visors and crept into a building, but nothing was in there, except a broken gun and a pee stain up the wall. They exited the house and went into the furthermost part of the town, near the walls and where the buildings had crumbled down, with only one two-storey left standing. The girls took off their visors and saw a dim light coming from one of the windows on the second floor.

"Let's get them, eh sister?" Bethany joked, using her god awful Gangster voice.

They put their torches onto their helmets, and turned the light off, using another CHERUB tactic, surprise is everything. They crept up the dusty stairs very slowly, and crouched by a shut door. They listened in and heard low kissing sounds. Lauren tapped Bethany and told her to put on the torches. They stood up and burst into the room.

"Game-over, lovers!" Bethany screamed as she cocked her gun

"Oh, My, God, if it isn't Michael and Gabriella. Wow, this is going to be painful, sorry!" Lauren chipped in cheerfully. The girls cocked their guns, and fired at them both just as Michael reached for his own gun. They high fived and took the oppositions gun and snapped them in half.

"I'm going to kill you Lauren Zoe Adams!" Gabriella screamed as the pair broke off into a sprint out of the house.

"We better get cover, they will be after us" Lauren said, as they slowed down, heading towards their bunker.

James awoke on a bed in a loud and cheerful hall, with brightly coloured CHERUB agents chatting to each other on how the exercise went. James spotted Lauren and beckoned her over.

"How the hell are you so clean?" James asked.

"No, sorry bro, but that is mine and Bethany's plot, not for the ears of dim-witted brothers like you." James huffed and sat up as Mr Pike came to the stage.

"Well done boys and girls, you have surpassed my judgement. Everyone passes. So that sadly means the dirtiest agents get the punishment of 50 punishment laps. Those two are Gabriella O'Brien and Michael Hendry. Have fun you two. And also could Bruce Norris and Kerry Chang report to me. Now 

everyone get their asses onto the coach." Kerry and Bruce looked at each other worryingly, and got up out of their seats and made their way over to Mr Pike.

"I'm going to keep this brief, you to have to report to Zara when we get back, and to be honest I wouldn't like to be in your shoes." Mr Pike smiled and jogged over to the coach, with the pair trailing behind him.



TROUBLE

Kerry and Bruce had little time to shower and get into clean uniform before being summoned to the Chairwoman's office. When they saw each other, Kerry was surprised on Bruce's appearance. He had combed his hair! Kerry smiled at him as he came over to kiss her on the cheek.

"Norris, Chang, Mrs Asker will see you know" barked Zara's secretary, as the colours of both of their faces drained. They grasped each other's hand and stepped into Zara's office.

"You have no idea on how disappointed I am with you two. You...it's indescribable how mad I am. But I can promise you two something, there is going to be a very long, hard, and upsetting punishment coming your way."

"What...what have we done miss?" Kerry asked, holding back tears. Bruce gripped her hand a tiny bit tighter,

"You two injured a very experienced agent, leaving him un-conscious on a cold floor, leaving a tracer by him so the staff could find him. He could have died or been seriously injured, why didn't you stand by him. And Bruce, I thought he was one of your best friends!" Zara exclaimed.

"How did you know it was us?" Bruce whimpered. Zara pulled Bruce's tracer out from behind her desk. She handed it to Bruce and pointed to a serial number.

"This was last checked out under the name Bruce Norris that is how we know." Zara said, smiling evilly at him. Bruce stayed silent.

"But why have I been pulled up, miss?" Kerry asked, obviously annoyed that their wasn't evidence to prove she was with Bruce.

"Look at this then" Zara pointed to a screen on the desk and it showed Kerry firing at James, whilst he was on the wall, and the whole scene was played back. Kerry looked dumbstruck as the tape finished.

"Now, punishments. Ok 300 Punishment laps and you have to help out the Red Shirts for 3 months. Now get the hell out of my office before I up the punishment!" Zara shouted, as the pair scurried out of the office. She looked angry. Bruce separated from Kerry and went to his room. He sat on his bed and picked up a martial arts magazine and lied back, opening the magazine to the Bruce Lee major offer page. He was about to turn the page when his phone rang.

"Okay, you owe me a seventeenth birthday present, so I'm going to get you to help me with an evil plan, get to my room, in five minutes, or else " James said quite fast, laughing slightly into the handset.

"You better not get me into anymore trouble." But James had already hung up. Bruce huffed and pulled on a jacket and exited his room. He jogged down to the stairs and bounded down them, two steps at a time. When he got to the floor beneath he saw James waiting outside his door with a pot of coleslaw and a tub or mustard. As Bruce got closer, James smiled and handed Bruce the pot of coleslaw.

"What, the, hell. What are we using this for?" Bruce asked



"We are getting Lauren back, for all those years of torment, she is in her room, we are going to barge in and bombard her." James exclaimed, rather excitedly.

"Dude, she is fifteen, and she hasn't bothered you for a whole year."

"Yeah, but know it is my turn" And James walked down the corridor to Lauren's room. He stopped and grasped the door knob and turned it silently and opened the door, before signalling to Bruce to go. He swung the door open and burst in on the most horrible site an older brother could ever have the misfortune to see. James had barge in on Rat and Lauren having Sex. He saw Lauren completely Naked, astride Rat. James screamed and ran out of the room, and puked outside Kerry's door. Lauren burst out of her room with a dressing gown on, with Rat coming out with only his Boxers on. Things seemed to get worst as Ewart strode down the Corridor. James, Lauren, Rat and Bruce knew the punishment for under-age sex. Immediate Exclusion. James thought quickly and staggered over to Ewart, giving Rat and Lauren time to get things right.

"Ewart, help me to my room, I'm gonna hurl again." James got up and lent on Ewart's shoulder, and moved his hand to side to side to tell Rat to get to his room. Rat ran over to his door and barged in, slamming the door shut as James threw up again. James carried on to the stairs whilst Ewart phoned for the Cleaners to clean up James' puke. James got to his room and grabbed his phone and dialled in Kerry's phone number. 132671-42668 (Which stood for CHERUB-KERRY) and waited for Kerry to answer.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kerry, Go outside, there is a suprise for you." James hung up and started laughing. A couple of minutes passed before James' phone rang again.

"Hahahaha, Kerry I got you so bad!" James giggled.

"What did you do to Kerry?" Came Lauren's stern voice instead of Kerry's. James felt faint as he replied.

"Oh, don't worry."

"Er, James, about what you saw..." James relived what he saw. Laurens boobs hanging out with her giggling. James shuddered. "You must understand me and Rat love each other. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"If you two had been caught by a member of staff we wouldn't be having this conversation and your arse would be out. Now let's never talk of this again." James hung up the phone and went to puke again.

Bruce had got back to his room by the time Lauren had finished her phone call to James. He was stunned and quite thoughtful. He had never realised how good Lauren looked, and she was quite sexy.



"No!" Bruce shouted. Lauren was his best mates sister and two years younger than him. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and put one of his Bruce Lee films on to his dvd player and lay down on his bed, watching as Bruce fought off enemies with nun-chukas. Within half an hour Bruce was fast asleep.

Lauren was so embarrassed about the whole incident and decided to talk to James at dinner, but James had already said he didn't want to talk about it ever again, so Lauren decided to go on with life. She dressed in her uniform and went down to dinner. She got to her usual table and saw James. He went over and gave her a hug, then went back over to his own table, with Shak yet again telling one of his god awful jokes. Lauren smiled as she went to get her dinner.