Chapter 49: Prisoners

The black Manta slid silently though the gates of the prison barge, onboard, while docking, Sonny prepared his team on what was to come.

«Conceal all small tools you may need, and hide any weponry. When we depart the ship, we must stick together at all costs. If we do, we're likely to be put in the same cell».

«And if not?» Corso's question was justified.

«Then, we fight our way out. This facillity is run by droids, they don't think like us»

Tia looked at him. Sonny could tell, alltough she was determined, she was scared.

«Tia?»

The snowkids midfielder looked up, her green eyes met Sonny's hazels.

«It's too late to turn now Tia, are you ready for this?»

«I am!» the insecurity in her eyes shifted in a blink, into a look of determination.

Sonny had to admire her quick change. If he hadn't seen it himself, he would not have believed it.

«Ok, we'll take the usual formation. Corso, you'll form the front with Bennet, Tia, you'll walk beside me, in the middle, the safest place, and Artie, you'll cover the back».

The pirates nodded in understanding.

Corso pressed the button that opened the back hatch. The droids were aiming at them with lasers. Corso was grinding his teeths. He hated this. Sonny seemed relaxed, so surely he had a plan.

«Hold it! We will enroll you in our prison, Sonny Blackbones».

The droids led them to have the names written in, and then searched for weapons.

«Negative, no concealed weapons».

«Take them to a cell».

Sonny felt like smiling when he heard the droids discussion, but he had to keep a straight face. Tia seemed out of place next to him. Sonny carefully placed a hand to her shoulder. Tia jumped, then she looked up, and saw Sonny give her a discrete blink with the eye. Then, she knew Sonny had a plan ready.

The droids led the pirates through multiple corridors.

Artie felt like the mood was in need of lightning up. And the grey and sad corridors of the prison gave him the inspiration to crack a joke.

«Hey fellows, you should really think about redecorating this place. It's not very inviting» he told the droids.

The reaction came out of nowhere. One of the droids fired his laser. It missed Sonny by inches, but hit Artie, and made him fall to the ground.

Sonny had moved quickly to the side, and was shocked to see the young pirate fall to the ground. The look of fear was painted in Tia's face too.

«Aou, my back!» Artie yelled as he hit the floor.

«How's that for inviting?» laughed the droid.

The pirates bent down to help him on his feets. That was a bad idea.

«Artie, are you ok?» Tia asked worried.

As Tia bent down, she felt a laser being pressed towards her back.

«Don't move, or you'll end up like him» said the droid.

Artie slowly got back up on his feets while the droids laughed at the pirates.

«Yeah, really funny» he said as they continued to walk towards the cells.

The droid put a keycard in a lock, and a door opened.

As they continued to walk, it became clear that this was the cellblock.

When Tia looked up, she could see her parents, the obia moon ambassadours in their cell. Her mother was holding her fathers hand, and her face told of fear.

«Oh, there they are» Tia said quietly.

She had totally forgotten the role she had to play. All she could think about, was her parents.

It seemed they had heard her, cause her mother stared out.

Tia was about to walk out of the group, when Sonny gently grabbed her arm.

«Tia, don't draw attention to yourself» he warned her.

Tia was sad as she looked at him.

«But, it's my parents..» she argued.

Sonny emphysized the severity of the situation they were in, in his following words.

«We must stay together, if we want our plan to work» he told her.

From his cell, it seemed the Obia moon ambassadour had heard them, but Sonny couldn't risk it.

Not now.

He gently led Tia back to the group.

Tia looked around, before she silently grabbed her camera, and turned it on. A tiny beep was heard. Sonny knew what she was doing. Good girl, he didn't have to tell her what to do, the girl was smart enough to act on her own.

«DX 17 speaking, open the controlroom and program a cell» the droid ordered.

«WR 12, understood, opening the controlroom» a droid responded.

«What's the code again? Oh yes, my creation date».

As they passed the controlroom, Tia made sure to aim her camcorder at the controlroom. When the droid punched in the code, she managed to get it on camera.

«Get a move on, faster!» ordered the droid behind her.

As they reached the cell, Artie, Corso, Bennet and Tia went in first, and Sonny came last. If the droids planned to separate them, this was the critical point. But as Sonny entered the cell, the barrs closed. They were officially trapped.

The droids laughed as they walked away.

Bennet reached out and touched the barrs. The eletrical powercharge made him fall back with a loud scream.

Artie cought him as he fell.

«We're in kind of a jam, Sonny» Bennet informed them.

But Sonny looked around.

«I'm not so sure» he said with a tiny smile...

In the snowkids box, Aarch was not feeling good. He and Artegor was watching the match between the snowkids and the Rykers. And it was not going well for the snowkids.

«it's a disaster, is anyone hurt?» Aarch asked Dame Simbai.

To him, the entire team looked defeated. And drained.

«No Aarch, they are all exhausted though, they played hard» she assured the snowkids coach.

«Not hard enough, but they played well» he stated.

Down on the pitch, Thran, Ahito and Mei were lying in a circle.

«Sorry guys» Ahito said.

«No problem» Thran and Mei answered in unification.

Mark, Yuki and Micro- Ice were also trying to cheer eachother up.

But the one snowkid that seemed undefeated, was their captain, D'Jok. He was all fired up.

«Come on guys! We can't win playing like this. Everybody, on your feet! Let's win this match!» he stated.

At the prison, Sonny had his men gather up for a quick meeting. He informed them of the next step of the plan.

«once you're out of the cell, go to the controlroom got it?» he asked

All the pirates confirmed that they did.

Tia was sitting in the background, listening to the pirates debating. She had thought of a plan herself, now it was just a matter of getting the pirates to go along with it.

«Actually, I think I should go» she told the pirates.

This caused the foursome to look at her, some were confused.

«Aarch always tells us to strike the oponent in the least expected way, that would be me» she explained.

Sonny seemed to follow her, but he still wanted confirmation.

«Maybe, you got a plan?» he asked the midfielder.

«sort of» she smiled.

«ok, lets hear it, and then, we'll see if we can work with it» said Sonny.

Tia informed them on what she had thought.

«What do you think Sonny?» Corso wanted to know.

The pirate chief rubbed his chin.

«I think we should go with Tia's plan, they'll be suspicious of us, expect us to try something. Like Tia said, strike the oponent in the least expected way. They won't suspect it coming from her» he smiled.

Artie watched the door.

«If we get some kind of timeframe on each time they pass by the cell..»

Sonny nodded.

«We'll take turns watching, and then, when they least expect it, we'll act. Untill then, get some rest, we will need to be ready when time comes»...

At the Genesis stadium, D'Jok was using the exact same strategy, to ensure the snowkids got the goal they wanted. Yuki, their spare goalie, whom was thought not good enough to score, was their wild card. D'Jok laid out the strategy plan. If they could take advantage of the element of surprise, they would win.

Yuki felt as if the teams destiny rested on her shoulders. She still felt unsure of herself, but if D'Jok and the team trusted her, she would try. Go Snow, Go!

At the prison barge, Sonny kept a watchful eye on the hallway. The droid was approaching. Time to set the plan in motion.

«ok Tia, now!» he ordered.

Tia stepped to it.

As Sonny moved away from the door, and out of sight, she started calling to the robot.

«Can someone help me please? Hey, Mr Robot, I'm speaking to you».

The droid approached the cell.

«No talking human».

«I would never dream of talking sir, but I am human, and I need to go, now. You know what I mean?» said Tia, and pretended to hold her hands to avoid a humilliating accident infront of her male cellmates.

The droid responded as they hoped for. It called for help.

«Hey, help me take this one to the restroom» it said to it's partner.

Tia observed where the droids took the keycard from. The droid inserted the keycard into a slot at the side of the cell, and the barrs opened.

«Thank you» said Tia, and walked out. The minute she was out, the celldoor was closed again. Dealing with pirates meant that you had to keep them locked in.

The minute the droids escorted Tia to the restroom, Artie engaged part two. He set a demagnitizer pod.

«She better hurry up. I set the pod of the demagnitizer for eleven pm sharp. If we don't get to the controlroom before then, we can kiss our escape goodbye» he said.

Sonny remained silent. He trusted Tia. There was something about the teenage girl that made him feel confident that they would make their deadlines. Now, it was all down to the waiting part...

At the pitch, the snowkids were fighting harder than ever. Mei had the ball.

«Now!» yelled D'Jok and stormed forth.

Mei passed the ball to him...

At the prison, the droids were unsure of how long a restroom visit would take.

«How long does this take?» the droid asked his partner.

«We're not programmed to know that» it replied.

«Let's have a look inside» it replied back.

They opened the door to the restroom. It appeared to be empty. Or was it?

Tia had climbed the ledge, and swung herself down, using her feets to clash the two droids.

Then, as she reached the floor, she opened the panel in the droids arm, and took the keycard..

Artie looked at the pod.

«We got five minutes» he said.

Corso was on watchduty, looking for Tia.

«Sonny, there she is» he exclaimed.

Tia approached the cell and inserted the keycard wich opened the celldoor.

First came Corso, then Bennet and Artie, and Sonny last.

«Good work Tia» he said as he passed her.

«Don't forget,you still need me» she told him, and held up her camera.

« Hurry up,the real work starts now» said Sonny and ran after Corso towards the controlroom.

Tia quickly ran after them..

At the controlroom of the prisonbarge, the droids on guard, got an unpleasant surprise.

A hand tapped the shoulder of a droid.

«Excuse me, have you got a minute?» asked Bennet before he kicked the droid.

Corso gave his partner a simmilar treatment.

«Mission NW3 aborted» said the damaged droid.

Artie looked at Tia.

«Tia, we only have a few seconds left» he said.

Tia was already searching her camcorder for the recording she needed.

«Found it, it looks like A 8631» she told Corso, who punched in the digits.

The door opened.

«We're in» said Corso.

Artie wasted no time. He ran towards the controlpanel and attached a device to the screen.

Then, he punched in a series of digits.

All the lights went out, but not the beeping alarm.

Corso looked at him.

«Hey, what's that? You cut the power but not the alarm?» he asked Artie.

«Sorry» the young pirate said.

Now, things happened fast. The celldoors opened and the prisoners made their way out. And they attacked the droids.

Sonny and his group made their way towards the obia moon ambassadours cell.

The obia moon ambassadours saw something happened.

«What's happening Darling?» asked Tia's mother, holding on to her husbands arm.

On their way towards the ambassadours cell, even the pirates were faced with a hand to hand combat against the droids. Artie and Bennet attacked on ground while Sonny and Corso took the high positions.

When two droids attacked Artie and Bennet, Corso and Sonny jumped them from above, and destroyed them.

Tia went to greet her parents.

«Tia, my dear, how did you find us?» her mother asked.

«Not now mom, we have to go» she told her mother.

Her father smiled when he saw his rescuers.

«And you Mr. Blackbones, we are eternally grateful. How can we thank you?» he asked.

Sonny looed at the reunited family.

«There will be time for that, but your doughter's right, we have to go, now. To the Black manta, on the double!» Sonny ordered.

The pirates did not hesitate, they started running towards the safety of their ship.

As Sonny entered the ship last, he turned to face the droids that gave chase.

«No stoweaways!» he said and pushed the droid out with the use of one arm.

Then, he closed the ship's hatch.

«That's it, let's get out of here!» he said.

The mighty Black Manta turned, and silently flew into the safety of the night...

Another clean getaway. I know I did not do the entire episode, but you'll see there is a reason why. There are some slight changes to the episode, with an extrended stay aboard the ship. What do you think? Drop me a line to let me know.