Cato stopped just before the corner. He pressed his back up against the hard wall and listened intently. "Come on Cato, lets just go!" Cato smiled. Coroneous was always act first, think later. Here they were just outside the markets. Two little eight year old boys, inseparable since they could walk. Growing up had been particularly hard on Cato. His mother didn't even know if he would live in his first two months. There had been times when his body had just given up, the withdrawals too intense. His mother had performed life saving mouth to mouth on several occasions during that time. Then the effects had slowly worn off over the next two years, it had not affected his mental status and now he stood with his best friend. The only noticeable difference from them was that Cato was a lot smaller than boys his own age but even that was starting to change.
"Coroneous, just wait a second. The peacekeeper has a set routine. He will start his meal, eating half of it before wandering off to do his business. We will do it then! We can't go now you dimwit. He is still sitting there"
Coroneous, not the sharpest tool in the shed, simply nodded with agreement. Cato was the brains behind this team of two deviants. The plan was great. Slip shredded Primrose into his meal. Tasteless but not harmful, shredded Primrose has the delightful side effect of giving the user explosive diarrhoea for days. It was used for bad cases of constipation. This peacekeeper was one of the more vigilant peacekeepers. He made life very difficult for the inhabitants of the slums. Curfews that couldn't be met, whippings for the most menial indiscretions. Recently he had whipped Cato's mother for not having his clothes dry on time, even though it had been raining for days. Cato smiled as he imagined the look of pain on the peacekeepers face as his stomach churned. The whipping had been bad on Cato, his mother was the most caring person he had ever known. She had gone without to feed Cato many times and the agony she had endured had cut Cato to the bone. As she wailed in pain, Cato hid in his tiny room crying his eyes out. This peacekeeper was going to pay.
Cato peered from behind the corner. Sure enough, the peacekeeper, Elondo, had stayed true to form. His half finished meal lay there innocently while he was relieving himself on some unfortunate families laundry. Cato quickly darted over to the meal, whipped out the Primrose and spread the contents over the meal. It was so fine you couldn't even tell it was there. He lithely walked back to his spot where Coroneous waited with a huge grin on his face. "Now for the fun to begin"
The two boys agilely scaled the nearby walls to the rooftops of the slum houses. They peered over the top of the rails to see him finish his meal. He let out a huge belch quickly followed by a huge bout of wind. Laughing he tossed the remains of his meal at the locals before standing and beginning preparations for his rounds, which usually involved stealing, intimidating and beating the people of the area. He took several steps before suddenly stopping. Cato and Coroneous watched with anticipation. Elondo winced in pain and grabbed his stomach. Cato could hear his stomach churning even from the rooftops. He ran for the nearest convenient, discreet place but only managed three steps before his bowels exploded. The wet patch was evident as was the hot faeces that ran down his leg in a torrent. He fell to the ground screaming as wave after wave of diarrhoea hit him. The stench was unbearable, people quickly moved back a safe distance. They tried not to laugh, several had seen Cato put the herb into his meal. Elondo, in sheer embarrassment tried to get to his feet to mercifully escape the humiliation but was overcome by another huge bout and fell into his own waste as it started exploding again. The two boys laughed hysterically. It had worked better than they had hoped. Several peacekeepers arrived on the hapless peacekeeper, they stared with absolute shock. Then several of them tried to stifle laughs themselves. He was not liked at all, this was truly hilarious. They grabbed the still wincing Elondo and hurled him to his feet. One of them slipped in his waste and landed directly into it with his face . This was too much for the locals and they burst out laughing. The whites of the peacekeepers were now putrid and two big peacekeepers grabbed him under the armpits and took off on the run back to base. Flatulence could be heard coming from Elondo all the way down the street until the peacekeepers turned the corner and headed home. One of them turned and saw two little boys on a rooftop high fiving and laughing. He narrowed his eyes and realised who he was looking at. On the rooftop, Cato and Coroneous had no thoughts at all about the future – this was the highlight of their tough lives.
