Hey guys, Interrobang here with a new story! This is taking aspects from two CHERUB stories, Brigands M.C. and Mad Dogs. I'm combining the two to make a fully-fledged gang war between the Monster Bunch, the Brigands and the Mad Dogs. This is set after James leaves CHERUB, but you'll still see him in the story. Enjoy!
Chapter One
Word Count: 2,236
Damien Keene sat on his plastic mattress in the young offenders' unit. He had thick brown hair and somewhat luminous blue eyes, slightly darkened by the mirrored contact lenses he wore. He had been caught stealing from the local supermarket an hour ago. He didn't see how he could get out. He was an orphan, living on the streets. There was nobody to bail him. Of course, since he was a minor, he would only serve nearer half the time than he would have if he was an adult. He inspected the white, dry patches on his mattress. It took him a while to work out it was crusted salt from the bed's previous owner's sweat.
There were about two dozen other kids from twelve to sixteen in the unit. All of them were rowdy and annoying. Five minutes passed before the doors opened again to make way for a boy around the same age as Damien. When the doors opened, one kid of thirteen made a dash for freedom, only to be hit by the boy whom had been thrown in by the guards. He hit the floor roughly, but was cushioned by the runner. The new boy had jet-black hair which fell into his dark brown eyes and a tall figure. He pulled himself up quietly and dusted himself off. The other kids in the unit didn't seem interested in the new boy. Obviously new arrivals were nothing special. Damien flattened against his mattress, listening to the loud shouting and utter chaos going on around him. It was going to be a long night.
Damien awoke wearing a grey shirt with the bold word 'C.H.E.R.U.B' below a picture depicting a baby sitting on a globe, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle with a string of ammunition around its small body, and wearing a military helmet. Damien also wore a pair of red pyjama pants with pictures of bacon all over it with a half-centimetre space between each drawing. Obviously Damien was a huge fan of bacon. He was in a king-sized bed with a thick red quilt and white cushions. There was a wide-screen television sitting in front of a three-seater couch to the left of his bed, and a desk bearing a computer, a workspace for homework, and a pen pot was to his right. In front of him were two doors, a fridge-freezer, a cupboard, a microwave and a sink. The first door led out to the corridor of the fifth floor. The other led to the bathroom.
Damien was in his room at CHERUB campus. He had gone through basic training two months ago and come out victorious, earning himself the grey shirt. He hadn't been on a mission yet and was starting to sulk, wondering if his agent file had somehow been deleted and that was why he hadn't been called in for a briefing. Damien pulled himself out of bed and pulled a frozen burrito out of the freezer and literally threw it in the microwave.
Damien had made the microwave for an engineering project. The plate inside measured the weight of what was being cooked and decided whether it was closer to a burrito or a stack of pancakes, then once it had decided it automatically closed the door and cooked it for either two minutes or one, depending whether it was a stack of pancakes or a burrito. It was only good for those two foods, but Damien was proud of it.
Someone knocked on the door.
'Come in,' Damien called. He picked up a TV remote from a coffee table and flicked on the TV. The door opened and his best friend AJ Solomon came in the room. AJ Solomon was a boy Damien had met while searching for a decent house to break into. AJ was already inside the house, trying to drag a medium-sized television out the back door. Damien decided AJ seemed like a good partner-in-crime and they teamed up, leading to nine more house robberies before they were caught and recruited from the young offenders' unit into CHERUB, an agency of juvenile spies. A common explanation that Jack Walters, the chairman, used to explain the meaning of CHERUB was to imagine a grown man knocking on an old lady's door in the middle of the night. The old dear opens the door. The man says he's feeling sick. The lady would call an ambulance, but probably wouldn't let him in. But if it was a child saying, 'my daddy's car crashed. I think he's dying. Please help me,' the lady would immediately let the child in and then the man follows and bops the old girl on the head. Then they rob the place.
AJ Solomon wore a navy shirt, for outstanding performance on one mission. Shirt colours were a big deal among the agent at CHERUB. A red shirt means you're not experienced enough to go into basic training. A blue shirt means you're going through basic training. A grey shirt means you're qualified for missions. A black shirt is for outstanding performance on more than one mission. An orange shirt is for visitors, and a white shirt is for retired agents and staff. AJ's only mission had been in the Himalayas, but Damien didn't know anything about it. Agents were forbidden from sharing what happened on their missions, in case of a security breach.
'Hey, Damien,' AJ said cheerfully, taking Damien's burrito out of the microwave and eating it. 'This burrito tastes great.' Damien sighed and threw another burrito in the microwave after unwrapping it from it cellophane wrapper.
'Why can't you get your own burrito?' Damien asked. 'I was going to eat that.' He sat down in his swivel chair in front of the window after pulling a bag of water balloons out of a desk drawer. They were pre-filled with freezing water. Damien amused himself in the mornings by splashing clueless red-shirts with the balloons.
'This one was already cooked.' AJ replied. 'Who've you hit so far?' AJ liked spectating Damien's balloon bombings.
'Nobody yet. I just woke up.' Damien answered, spotting a group of red-shirts walking down the path below his window. He held three balloons in each hand before deftly ditching them at the red-shirts. They ran away soaked and screaming. AJ started laughing. He wasn't looking out the window, but he could tell that Damien had hit the target by the loud shouts and angry yells. 'Got anything planned for today?'
'Nope. I was just gonna mooch around and play Minecraft all day, but I guess there are better things to do,' said AJ. 'What about you?' AJ finished his burrito as the microwave reached three seconds to go until it automatically opened. He ran as quietly as possible to it and opened it manually before it set off the alarm to tell Damien his burrito was ready. The alarm didn't go off. AJ grabbed the burrito and started biting chunks out of it.
'I was going to go into town with some friends. You wanna come?' said an unsuspecting Damien, his head still facing out the window for more red-shirts to bomb. He turned around when he heard AJ's muffled 'yes', which was muffled because his mouth was stuffed with Damien's burrito. 'Why am I even bothering?' he sighed. He got up again and pulled a chocolate bar out. AJ snatched it out of his hand.
'Ah, thanks, Damien,' he said in mock gratitude. 'How thoughtful of you!' He threw the bar back to Damien, who ripped off the wrapper and chomped on it. Damien's iPhone made a marimba tone. He had a text from Doctor Walters.
Damien, if you wouldn't mind coming down to my office, there's
a good chap. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble! Could you
bring your friend AJ Solomon with you? I have a proposition.
-Dr. Walters
AJ looked at him questioningly, obviously asking without saying anything who it was from.
'Walters wants to see us in his office,' Damien said. He made to go to the door but AJ stopped him. 'What?'
'You want to see Walters in your bacon pyjamas?' AJ replied, laughing. 'I don't even know why I'm your friend.'
Once Damien had changed out of his bacon pyjamas into a pair of faded jeans torn at the knees, they had raced each other to Walters' office, but unfortunately Damien slipped in a very large mud puddle and narrowly escaped looking like he'd crapped himself. Once they were in the reception at the staff offices the receptionist directed them into a room with a sign reading 'Trespassers will be punished'. Damien was excited. He suspected he was about to get his first mission. Walters was sitting at a swivel chair behind an oak desk. Three chairs were in front of the desk, one of them occupied by their fellow agent, Brooke Sutton. Brooke was also a grey shirt, like Damien. AJ obviously felt superior in the presence of two lower ranked agents.
'Ah, take a seat, boys,' said Walters. 'I assume you know this is a mission briefing?' He went through a drawer in his desk and pulled out three lots of paper with printed text on them. The three nodded. 'Then you must know that everything you hear here must stay in this room if you choose not to accept this mission. Now read these.' He gave each of them one of the lots of paper. Each of the briefings was identical. They began reading.
Mission Briefing for: Damien Keene, AJ Solomon, Brooke Sutton
DO NOT COPY OR MAKE NOTES, DO NOT REMOVE FROM
THE ROOM OF DOCTOR WALTERS. DOING SO IS
GROUNDS FOR BEING REMOVED FROM CHERUB.
The aim of this mission is to cool down a gang war between two gangs, one a motorcycle club. A gang war had been brewing between the Brigands and the Runts. The Brigands is a motorcycle club, an arch-enemy of Hell's Angels, which was co-founded by a man named Kurt Oxford, who had been arrested after an operation in which CHERUB was instrumental. Unfortunately the arrest of Oxford seemed to rile up the two-hundred-strong biker gang, with over ten chapters all over England. The already disturbed bikers were further annoyed by a small group of the Runts, which has over a hundred and fifty members based in England, by beating the Brigands' national president, Connor Bateman, so badly he would have sustained permanent brain damage and possible death if a posse of Monster Bunch members hadn't intervened. The Monster Bunch is a puppet gang of the Brigands with closer to seventy members.
The aim of the three agents is to befriend members of these rival gangs. Brooke Sutton is assigned the Monster Bunch, AJ Solomon is assigned the Brigands and Damien Keene is to infiltrate the Runts by posing as a Runt but is actually an undercover member of the Monster Bunch. Your ages will not matter, as the gangs are all recruiting younger members.
Your first names on this mission will be retained, but AJ and Brooke will be posing as siblings under the surname of Edwards. Damien will not be able to pose as a sibling as he will be publicly known as a Runt, whereas his two siblings will be enemies of the Runts. You will all be residents of Higham Ferrers, where the war is taking place. You will be sent in with easily concealed handguns and stab-proof clothes, due to the danger of this mission. Your 'parents' will be James and Kerry Choke. Damien will be located in a halfway house, commonly abbreviated as the Zoo, which is home to many Runts. Damien and AJ will each be issued a 400cc motorcycle, with Brooke a 367cc scooter. You will also be issued with false driving licenses, claiming you are sixteen. This mission is based in Cornwall.
This mission is classified as HIGH RISK. Agents are reminded that they are not obliged to accept this mission.
'Wow,' said Damien when he'd finished reading. Walters looked at him, knowing what to expect. He had obviously briefed many agents for their first mission.
'Wow for what? The fact you're on your first mission, or the fact you're first mission is so dangerous?' said Walters, obviously amused.
'Both, really. I hadn't really expected things to be this risky.'
'Are you going to accept this mission? You don't have to if you don't want to.' Walters said, his eyes full of concern. It was funny how his expression could change so quickly, like a light-bulb blowing. One moment his eyes were full of amusement and he looked ready to laugh, the next his face was an image of concern.
'I'll do it,' said Damien defensively. 'I was just a bit surprised.' AJ and Brooke nodded in turn.
'I guess you're all in, then.' Walters said happily. 'Can you all meet at the firing range at seven this evening? The pistols we're sending you in with will be short-range, and they take a bit of time to get used to.'
I hope you like how I did this. I reckon I handled the first chapter pretty well. Do you want me to continue? Review with your answer!
