CHPT38

Was going to combine this chapter with the next one, but I wanted to get this out ASAP, or it would never have been written. As always, thank you to those who have read and reviewed this far. Happy reading!

D'Jok plodded through the Xenon defence with Micro-Ice in tow. The strategy was working perfectly; Micro-Ice's marker was certain that his little brother wasn't much of a threat, and had decided to stay closer to Tia and Rocket in midfield. He glanced over to his fellow striker, seeing a thick sheen of sweat covering his face as he concentrated on staying upright in his exhausted state; it was the final, after all, and without the use of the flux, your energy could drain pretty damn quick. A growing green blob was approaching and taking shape out of the corner of his eye, which told D'Jok that Luur was thundering down the field.

Too little, too late.

The redhead jumped into the air, taking the ball with him in a cloud of blue flux, just as Micro-Ice positioned himself in the centre of the penalty area. The star striker shot it down towards his little brother, who needed to angle this just right. As expected, Micro-Ice aimed it perfectly; slamming the ball into the corner of the goalpost, confusing the keeper as the ball was smacked into the back of the net by a still-waiting, airborne D'Jok. However, before they could celebrate, several dozen Technoid robots descended from the bleachers, surrounding the strikers.

Micro-Ice and D'Jok stood frozen as they started to move in. The shorter of the two craned his neck to whisper in his team mate's ear.

'Uh, D'Jok, what did you do?'

A shriek of D'Jok's name came from the distressed defender, who was sprinting towards the army of tin cans.

That was when all Hell broke loose.

Mei's scream knocked the pair out of their trance, causing the older striker to grasp Micro-Ice's upper arm, pulling him along as he jumped over the wall using his flux, over the net and into the bleachers closest to the field.

'How could you predict my washing machine breaking down but not this?!' Mana-Ice screamed at her clairvoyant friend, who was also in a distressed state following the attack.

'Do you really want to discuss this now?!'

'Well, at least they scored?' Shiloh tried, laughing nervously.

It was dangerous to threaten Mana-Ice's baby; something she teased him about frequently. She recalled one time when they had been doing their Math homework in Mana-Ice's previous place of work, a bar with a reputation for being the main watering hole for ruffians and thugs on Akillian. A heavily intoxicated man had approached them, hurling insults at the two teenagers. Mana had witnessed everything; the night had resulted in an ambulance having to be called for said man, who was treated for minor head injuries and a fractured rib.

She winced as the two women stormed out of the booth, purple with anger and ready to destroy anyone that got in their way.

Well, this should be interesting.

'What do you mean you can't shut them down?!'

Artie winced at Zain's tone, trying to pry the hysterical man's hands from his shirt.

'I-I can't overwrite it!'

The president growled and released the Pirate before running after the chief, fuelled purely by adrenaline, he managed to catch up to him, going at a speed that would put GFC players to shame. He grabbed the Pirate chief by the shoulder as he ran, only to be punched on the nose by the man in front of him. He let out an undignified wail as he grabbed the bleeding appendage, hopping up and down as he waited for the stinging to subside. Sonny turned on his heel to see that he had just punched the President of the Zaelion Galaxy in the face, wincing, he tried to calm the overreacting man down.

'Sir, I'm so sorry!'

'Ow, ow, ow!'

'Your Excellency, it's okay...'

'Oh Flux, you broke my nose!'

'It's not broken-'

'Oh God! Oh God, you broke-'

SMACK!

'Sir, we don't have time for this, D'Jok and Micro-Ice are in trouble!'

The politician stood in shocked silence for a few moments, wide eyed.

'You... You hit me!'

'You were rambling, Sir.'

'Mr. Blackbones... You hit me!'

'If you don't listen to me, I'll have to hit you again; I am a patient man, but our sons are going to be killed if you don't calm down!'

'Do you know where you're going?' Micro-Ice panted as they ran for their lives from the robots, which had clearly been upgraded, as they were a heck of a lot faster than either of them remembered.

'Nope.'

'Winging it?'

'Yep.'

'Super.'

They stopped abruptly as more robots rounded the corner. Micro-Ice yanked D'Jok down yet another corridor, cursing silently to himself; they had to be running out of hallways and hiding places.

'I don't freaking believe it! They're playing on!'

The diminutive striker growled menacingly at his friend, who was watching the match through a large window with an indignant expression plastered on his face. Micro-Ice followed his gaze, and, sure enough, the match was still under way with the Snowkids hanging tough despite being two players short. The sound clunking metal came from behind them, followed closely by a shot and a sharp, pained yelp.

Harris smiled as the robots descended onto the pitch, relishing in the shrieks of the crowd in the stadium when the spectators should have been cheering the Snowkids on following their equaliser. Technoid had been working on a new synthetic flux to increase the efficiency of their robots before President Zain placed the company under government control. Luckily, they had managed to smuggle all plans from the premises from right under his nose, meaning that he had still been unaware of the threat to his son. The boy had been instructed to avoid using the Breath of Akillian, that much was obvious, and had worn out far faster than his other team mates. It was just a matter of time before the robots brought the boy to him, which would in turn have Zain on his knees, begging to hand Technoid back over to Duke Maddox. Of course, there would be no such happy ending; the President would be disposed of when he had served his purpose, but he supposed he could find use for the boy; he was young and had a fine physique from playing football, certainly ideal for working in the mines. Alas, yet again there was one obstacle, which became more apparent when the son of his adversary grabbed the boy and leapt into the crowd, not that he expected much else, of course. However, this would undoubtedly lead to a determined Sonny Blackbones charging into the booth demanding the release of both teenagers; he'd have to kill D'Jok on the spot in order to break the Pirate long enough to finish him. What a pity, it would be a fine accomplishment to have the leader of the Shiloh Pirates waiting on his hand and foot. Then again, he could simply have Zain's boy carrying out such duties; wouldn't that just be delightful?

'Harris, what's taking them so long?' a gruff voice asked.

'Your Excellency, I can assure you that-'

The words died on his lips when two figures leapt from one of the top windows, the stadium falling into a shocked silence.

'You can assure me of what, Harris?'

'I-I, uh...'

Sonny made a mad dash down the next hallway, determined to find the scum that threatened D'Jok and Micro-Ice. The robots had been improved, that much was certain, and they were more of a danger now than they had ever been. If anything happened to either of those kids... He didn't want to think about it; nothing was going to happen, they would be fine. He swallowed past the lump in his throat at the mere thought of the implication. He looked over at the politician, who was running alongside him clasping a tissue to his nose, despite the fact that the bleeding had stopped long ago. The situation would have been comical had it not been for the risk to their childrens' safety. The Pirate grunted in frustration as he came to another dead end.

'Damn it!'

'This is ridiculous,' Zain sighed, leaning his head back against the wall in frustration, throwing the red tissue into a nearby bin, 'we'll never find them.'

'Yes, we will.'

'And if they've already been caught?'

Sonny desperately hoped that this wasn't true, but it wasn't looking good at all; Micro-Ice was still iffy from the operation, which meant that D'Jok would be left to bring both of them to safety. If the situation called for it, he'd give up his life for his son. However, it wouldn't be that easy; Technoid were crafty, and were known to be notorious in making deals they would never keep.

'Then we go get them back.'

He blanched when he heard a muffled scream, as though someone was being killed right above them, and judging from Zain's horrified expression, he wasn't imagining it.

D'Jok barely caught his best friend as he jumped towards him, having barely dodged the shot that was fired at his head. He watched in horror as the younger of the two clutched his shoulder; the shot may have missed its intended target, but it had skimmed him. Micro-Ice regarded the semi-circle of robots surrounding them, and started to hyperventilate; he couldn't go back to being Technoid's prisoner, who knew what they would do to him if they actually got what they wanted from his father this time? Bleylock had come pretty damn close to taking over the galaxy, almost dropping him into a giant propeller in the process. Healing scars started to ache anew at his train of thought. His eyes darted madly around the corridor, willing Sonny Blackbones to come and save the day. The machines moved in, chanting 'you are under arrest' in sync with each other. A startled yip sounded from him as he was roughly yanked out the window, flying through the air under D'Jok's arm and screaming in a pitch that a boy his age shouldn't have been able to reach. The strange feeling of being pulled upwards made him look up, narrowing his eyes as he saw the familiar contraption D'Jok was using.

'You had a portable zip-line the whole time?!'

'Yep.'

'Dude; these jerseys don't even have pockets!'

'You'd be surprised how roomy the shoes can be.'

He clutched D'Jok's hand as they hung in mid air, the line having tangled itself onto one of the many bars holding up the electronic score board. D'Jok willed himself to look back to the place they had jumped from, where the robots were waiting...

… Or, they had been; apparently D'Jok wasn't the only one who had borrowed Pirate weaponry. Multiple machines were making their way towards the strikers at an alarming speed on their own mechanical chord.

'Nice going, captain,' Micro-Ice dead-panned, though D'Jok could detect a hint of worry in his voice.

He ignored him in favour of assessing the situation, as he was trained to do as captain.

Let's see, he thought, a hundred foot drop; probably more, new and improved Technoid robots closing in, no sign of dad and- oh great- the line's jammed... Yep, we're screwed.