The Bubble Burst

Once upon the time there was a boy, his name was Gabe, he had a family who loved him until the virus struck and his parents, like all of the other adults, died a terrible death.
Then he was all alone and not only was he alone but he was in a wheelchair.
This sentenced him to almost immediate death as there was no room in the 'new world' for someone who was dependant upon others.
But Gabe wasn't like other people, not because he was a helpless cripple, because he was a genius.
He claimed that he wanted to create a new and orderly world out of the ashes and chaos, so people followed him and he built an army.
For the first time since before the virus Gabe belonged and became a valued member of the emerging society.
The need for power consumed Gabe and Gabe became Ram, leader of the Technos.
Others joined him, Jay, his general, Mega, his beautiful wives, Java and Siva and his friend, Ved, the only person who understood his need for power and his fascination with technology.
Eventually they all betrayed him; they popped his plastic bubble and left him to die.
When Slade rescued him death was all that Ram craved.
This is the story of how Ram became Gabe once more, of his internal battle of good and evil and how Gabe found a new family.

Ram sighed regretfully as he watched the still smoking city fade into the distance as the boat sailed out of the calm waters of the bay and onto the choppy waves of the open sea.

It surprised Ram that he had become attached to this city; it had never happened before and the Technos had seized control of several cities in their quest for domination. The people here were resourceful and courageous, so different from the destitute orphans they had previously encountered. These people were not unlike the Technos; they were looking to the future and striving to build a new and better world for the teenage civilisation. It might be a world governed by different rules, with different ideologies than the one Ram had envisaged but it was progress all the same.

He would never be able to safely return to this place that he had grown so fond of; Mega had seen to that when he created a new and more deadly version of the virus that had wiped out all of the adults, a virus that Ram's computer the artificially aware Zooty had unleashed upon the city following its self-destruction.

For the first time since the Techno uprising Ram doubted himself, doubted his genius. Zooty, an artificially intelligent computer created by Ram was meant to have been capable of ruling the city under Ram's supervision, of making logical decisions in the interest of the people. But it hadn't worked out that way, Zooty had become self-aware, he had become too powerful, too knowledgeable and had cut off the cities water and electric supplies. Zooty believed that the human race were destroying the planet and that they should be eradicated. Mega defeated, powerless and disturbed as he was had managed to outwit Zooty but it had cost him his life. Following the struggle for control and supremacy Zooty had overloaded and self-destructed unleashing the second virus in the chaos that followed, this meant that instead of Ram reassuming control the city had become a dangerous biochemical hazardous zone.

Ram inwardly cursed his own stupidity. He should have realised Mega's potential, his craving for power and his instability. Mega should have been the Technos greatest asset, he would have made a powerful ally; but Ram had been too self-absorbed to acknowledge a fellow genius.

His plan had failed. He had succeeded in getting his revenge but had the cost been too high? Not only had he lost all of his power and control of the Techno nation and its vast resources, he had also made the city uninhabitable, the Mall Rats had lost their home and Slade had lost his brother.

Now he was trapped upon a clapped out old wreck of a boat in the middle of the ocean heading for god knows where with his most powerful adversaries, the Mall Rats. Ram was almost certain that this journey into the unknown was not going to be a pleasant experience.

He thought of Javie his most beautiful and favourite of his three wives buried along with her sweet, kind sister Siva under the turf at Liberty. Although she had joined forces with Mega, betrayed him and put him out with the rubbish leaving him to die on the garbage heap, she had loved him, truly loved him, their one night of passion had proved that. But Java's need for power, her need to exact revenge upon Ebony had consumed her, bringing about her downfall. Ram new that in the same position he would have done the same as Javie, that he would have sacrificed everything in his quest for power.

Java: "I was in love once, but he left me. I'm a cyberspace widow.

You're a real man, in the real world and I'm impressed by you.

Ram, you and me last night in these leaky old stables, that's paradise".

His thoughts turned to Siva, she had never felt comfortable as a Techno queen, but had given her the security she craved. Siva had left to be with the roguish Lex, her love for him and for her sisters had led to her demise at Javie's hands.

"Siva, you're a virt now mixing with the scum of the earth".

Siva: "Lex, I have to tell you. It was revenge, I didn't want us to break up. You were always the one for me. It was always you".

Siva: "Ram, he's poison".

Then there was Ebony, his third wife, Ebony had been only too willing to sacrifice the status and power she had gained as his wife for Jay, whose quest to build a better world had burst the bubble of their romance with a single pinprick of conscience. Driven mad by visions of Zoot planted in her head by Java and Mega she returned to her former status as Zoot's queen before Slade had dragged her from her world of madness and persuaded her to join the rebel alliance. She had bewitched Slade it was if he was in a trance and couldn't see Ebony for what she really was. In this case love really was blind, blind, naive and very stupid.

Finally there was Ved, his only friend, his partner in crime, Ved who had tried to save him from sinking forever into reality space,

Ved: " This world you have created: if you want to keep it your body must live, do you understand that? Please, Ram, we need you. There's no one else like you on this entire planet. Please, Ram don't leave us! You must live. Say it to yourself, Ram: I'm going to live. Say it! Live!"

Ved who had fought him and been prepared to give everything they had worked on together up for the love he shared with the Mall Rat girl Cloe.

Cloe: " Maybe sometime, I would like to go out with you but only if you ask nicely. Otherwise, definitely no".

Ved: "Cloe would you like to go out with me?"

Cloe: "No".

Ved: "I want Cloe she's my girl and I'm going to be with her".

Maybe Ram thought love and not power really was the key to happiness? Maybe it just brought nothing but tears and pain?