Renegades: A New Dawn
Chapter LI: Gator Caper
Three Weeks Earlier
Ally came home from school, unknowing about what was to come. As she walked into the house, Alex was waiting for her, along with Drake. 'Hey, how was school?' 'It was boring, school's always boring.' 'Well, me and Drake were wondering if you wanted to go and do something exciting.' 'Yeah.' 'I've been speaking with someone, who wants you to go on holiday. How much would you like to go and see Auntie Blair in England?' The idea of this lit up the 9 year old's eyes. 'That sounds awesome!' 'Well you've got some exams coming up, if you do well in those, you can go on holiday to see her.' The young girl hearing this jumped for joy. 'Ok, I'll revise.'
Present day
Having got sufficient grades, Ally was being seen onto the plane by Alex and Drake. 'Now you know what to do don't you?' 'Go straight to my seat, don't talk to anybody, and if I'm approached by someone I don't know, hide in the toilets until they're asleep.' 'And when you get to England?' 'Follow all the correct signs, meet Auntie Blair and don't get distracted by duty free.' 'And if anyone strange approaches you, what do you do?' 'Run away in the correct direction, and if they touch me, headbutt them as hard as possible.'
The final call then came for boarding, so Alex lifted Ally up. 'Now you be good for your Auntie Blair, ok?' 'Of course I will Auntie Alexandra.' 'And you let me know as soon as the plane lands, and tell Auntie Blair to let me know when you're there.' 'Yes Auntie Alexandra.' 'Now you go and enjoy yourself.' 'Ok. Can I tell you something first?' 'Of course you can.' What she said next would shock both Alex and Drake. 'I know I'm going to live there. I heard you talking to Auntie Blair about it. I'll call and come back regularly. Bye Auntie Alexandra, bye Uncle Drake.'
As Ally ran off, Alex started to cry. 'You know she'll be fine, it's Blair I'm worried about with that little scamp.' 'Blair's quiet when you first meet her, but she's grown so much recently. This is right for her and Ally. Blair needs the responsibility to show herself that she's capable, and Ally needs the adventure in her life. Living with us, she'd have too many boundaries, I'm too scared of her being hurt. This way she'll get to see the world.'
In England
Blair was sat waiting nervously in the arrivals lounge of Manchester Airport, worrying about whether she'd be ready. 'It's all just so sudden, I know that me and Jade are stable and all that, but I don't know if we'll be right for Ally, and if she'll like being with us, this has all just happened so fast. I don't know if we'll be good enough for her.' Suddenly, she got a hearty slap to the back of the head from Rio, who had made a point in dressing in her finest formalwear - a light pink dress shirt with a denim jacket over it, and a long green skirt with stockings and black leather ankle boots.
'You are ready, and you know that. You've been ready the entire time and you just wouldn't admit it because you're Blair and low confidence is kind of your thing.' 'Do you think Ally will tell me if I'm not doing it right?' This was met with another blow to the back of her head. 'You got this. You know how I know that?' As Blair looked up, Rio smiled at her. 'Because you've practically been my Mom at times. In a nice way, obviously. You've looked after me so much, so I can tell you that you're ready.'
A few minutes later, the announcement came through. 'The plane just landing is the 18:40pm plane from Detroit Metro Airport to Manchester Airport.' Hearing this, Blair quickly stood up. As the passengers walked through the arrivals gate, she kept scanning the crowds, but wasn't seeing any evidence of Ally being there. Eventually with no evidence of her appearing, Blair got her phone out. 'I'm going to phone Alex, just in case something happened and they missed their flight.' As she was doing this however, Rio noticed a small figure speeding through the Arrivals gate, and in a split-second motion, scooped the onrushing Ally up in her arms, before digging the side of her boot into the floor to stop their momentum.
'Slow down missus, you're going to do yourself some damage.' 'Sorry Auntie Rio.' 'Less of the Auntie, I'm more of… a big sister.' She then smiled at Blair. 'I've always wanted to be the older sibling.' Blair then bent down. 'So Ally, how was the flight?' 'Boring. There wasn't anything fun to do on there, you're not even allowed to open the windows.' 'There's a good reason for that, it's so you don't get sucked out.' 'Would still have been more fun than being on there. I'm hungry.' Rio then put her arms around Ally. 'Well how about we go to the car park, and before we get something to eat, we get the nice driver man to show us around the area?'
As they reached the car park, Rio pointed out a silver Aston Martin. 'That's our ride.' 'Are all taxis like that in England?' 'No, but this is a very special taxi service.' As Blair and Ally got in, Rio tapped on the window, and on the other side was a fed-up looking Phil. 'Thanks for this again.' 'You're very welcome. Just one thing - remind me never to bet against you again.' 'Well at least Hannah had faith in me.' 'I thought I did have faith by saying you'd get to the Super 8s. Turns out you never fail to surprise me.' 'Well I'll take that as a compliment.'
Blair and Jade's flat, Washington
While Phil was on taxi duty, Hannah was in the kitchen, baking cookies and blueberry muffins with Jade. But it wasn't just Ally's arrival that they were celebrating. 'So how do you think Rio will react when she realises this was actually her surprise party?' 'Probably sheer embarrassment, she's normally the one who organises nice stuff for people. It's not usually people doing it for her. She does deserve it though, and I got to be there personally.' 'She was just amazing. How are the muffins coming along?' 'First batch is in the oven, mixing another now. How about the cookies?' 'Well on the way.'
Talk then soon turned to more… motherly duties. 'I take it you're looking forward to giving birth?' 'Well I'm looking forward to having a figure again, put it that way. You know, I used to have really nice hips before all this, I was what you might call big and curvy, now I'm just enormous.' Jade giggled at this moping. 'Would you kill me for saying I'd fuck you? You're easily the most attractive pregnant woman I've ever seen, you carry it so well.'
'Well I can't say I was expecting that but I'll take it. I thought you'd have your… erm… hands full with Blair anyway.' 'Oh I do, my Shelby jewel with a Georgia peach. She's like, really good in bed. Turns out that she's wild as anyone when you just let her cut loose.' 'I'll bet, she's so uptight and nervous all the time that it's bound to make you a little mad when you finally release.' 'Oh, talking of Blair, weren't you going with her to look at schools?' 'Yeah, we're looking straight after she gets back from the Anniversary show, I did offer to do it for her but she really wants to make sure everything's right.'
'Starting after Easter?' 'That's the plan, give her a couple of months to settle in before she moves up to Year 8, and give her chance to see how the system works over here. Hopefully she'll also be able to make some friends quickly.' 'Shouldn't be difficult for Ally, she's outgoing enough.' 'Yeah, she's a real livewire, that one.' 'I'm looking forward to her coming, it'll feel like our own little family.' 'You deserve it to be fair.'
Newcastle Magistrates Court
At the court, Maddy arrived for Rhydian's trial, with sunglasses and a baseball cap disguising her new look, a leather jacket sat on her shoulders and covering a plain black shirt. Entering the court, she stormed straight past the cameras, shoving one of them out of the way as she walked in, and immediately walking straight past Rhydian. They locked eyes for a moment as she took off her sunglasses, before he said 'Don't forget our pact.' Her reply was immediate and straightforward, as without looking away once, she stated 'We have a deal'. As he entered the courtroom, she muttered to herself 'Don't mean I have to respect it though.'
As she said this, Frances walked up to her, and asked the all important question. 'What are you going to do then?' She looked at the lawyer with her blue eyes. 'I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago - I'm going to put him down.' She then passed Frances a piece of card. 'What's this?' 'Your invitation - you're going to be inducted into the club tonight, 8pm.' She looked down at the card, and nodded. 'I'll be there. I will do whatever you want me to do.'
In the courtroom, Maddy looked completely uninterested as she was sworn in. 'I swear on almighty god to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, the following testimony will be my own and exclusively my own.' 'Could you introduce yourself?' 'I'm Maddy Robinson-Cummings, formerly Maddy Smith, I'm 18, and I am Rhydian's ex-girlfriend.' 'How would you describe the accused, Rhydian Morris?' She stared at him for a moment before replying. 'He cares. He cares about what's best for me, but he thinks he knows what's best for me even when he doesn't. It's why we started to drift apart - he got controlling and possessive of me. But I can't doubt he cares.'
'Now I understand that you have bought drugs from Mr. Morris in the past?' 'Yes.' 'Would you care to give details?' 'Yeah, I was given some Cannabis by him a few times.' At this point, she made a stealthy signal towards Frances, who then suddenly changed the line of questioning, with a question the Defence didn't expect. 'Ms. Robinson-Cummings, I need to ask - did you start taking drugs of your own accord? Or were you… encouraged?' She continued to stare at him, as she stated 'No, I didn't do it voluntarily. He pushed me into it, and once I was addicted, he started charging me for it.'
In the base
Kris was just about to leave when Astrid walked in, wearing an all-purple outfit of a sleeveless shirt and trousers. 'Hey, how's the safe house?' 'It's fine, I miss all of you though. But I was told that I need to keep my neck as still as possible for at least a week, Maddy's given me two off but I really want to get back to business here.' 'How's the neck doing anyway?' 'It feels great at the moment, but I really need a bigger operation on it at sometime, otherwise I'm going to keep having issues. But that's an issue for future me, because current me has a Highlander tournament to watch over.'
'Since when?' 'Since Ally was arriving in England today, and since I told Blair I'd take this one because I need to train for Highlander myself. So I thought I'd spend today watching everyone, and then start the work when Blair's able to give me some advice. If you want to hang out, I'll be done about 4.' 'You going to be at the party tonight?' 'Yeah, absolutely. You?' 'Yeah I'll be there.' 'Well I guess we can hang out there in that case.' She offered up a quick kiss, before they parted, leading to Kris shouting 'You can do that more often!' at her.
Jade's flat, Washington
Hannah and Jade were just cleaning up the kitchen after putting a cake in the oven when the lock turned, and Ally blasted her way in, dashing straight into the front room and then into the kitchen, before Rio popped her head round and gently guided the youngster away from the door. Having locked Ally in the room, Rio then circled back to the kitchen. 'Something smells good.' Jade then produced two plastic plates - one green and one purple. 'I've been baking some Blueberry muffins, and Hannah has baked some Double Chocolate and Butterscotch Cookies. Which one do you fancy?'
Rio thought for a moment, with her finger by her mouth, and then smiled, before taking one of each. 'Champions don't have to choose.' As Rio went to taunt Ally with sweet treats, Blair walked in, tying her hair up as she walked. 'So what's the plan for the party?' 'Well the party was due to begin at 8, but Maddy's organised Ally's induction for right before then. So, the plan is that after the induction stuff, we find a way to get Rio out of the main hall for about 10 minutes while everything gets set up.'
As Blair said this, Rio walked past, completely oblivious to what was being discussed right next to her. 'Am I ok to show Ally her room?' Jade replied with 'Yeah, just make sure she doesn't touch the walls, I'm not sure the paint will be dry yet.' As they ran upstairs, Hannah laughed. 'I swear that girl's deaf as a post sometimes.' 'Probably. Can't wait to see her face later though.' 'It'll be an event, I'm sure of that.'
Meanwhile, in the Courtroom
As the court reeled from Maddy's reveal, she continued the story. 'It was maybe a year and a half ago, I'd had a real bad day at school, I think I flunked a mock exam pretty bad. Afterwards, I remember being sat on this grass bank at the back of the school, and Rhydian gave me this roll of weed, he didn't tell me what it was and obviously I've never seen Cannabis sorta in the flesh, so I didn't think what it was. Anyway, I liked the feeling it gave me' 'Sorry to interject, but did he ever say what it was?'
'He initially just told me it was "Grass", I thought he meant like actual grass, and nature's always been kind of my thing, so I just thought it was that. I only found out what it was about three weeks later, I was on my way home from school, when this big girl randomly pinned me against a wall, she started saying that Rhydian had accused me of stealing their drugs, and now I owed £2000 to them for the drugs, she wouldn't listen when I told her that I hadn't stolen anything. The threats got so bad that we literally had to move to Devon for a couple of months, we had to tell everyone that we were visiting an ill relative but it was actually to try and make these druggies think that we'd left the area.'
This revelation was bad enough, but she was determined to continue. 'Did he tell the court about the pact by the way?' Fully aware but following instructions, Frances played along. 'No, what pact?' 'Rhydian contacted me after he was arrested, he threatened to set some group called Murder Inc. on my family and friends if I didn't lie and say that I stole his drugs from him.' This finally got to Rhydian, and he flipped a chair, screaming at her 'Stop lying! Why are you lying!' What the court didn't notice was her mouthing the words 'I win' at him.
It was this that really enraged him, and he started shouting. 'You know that isn't true! Why are you doing this to me, I didn't threaten anyone!' His lawyer tried to calm him down, but it didn't work. 'No, you don't understand, we're meant to be together, from the first day it was meant to be just us two against the world!' Maddy then spoke directly to him. 'Shut up Rhydian. Until today, I still loved you. I still cared, because I thought there might be something for us one day when you grew up. But not anymore. We're through.'
Maddy was then asked another sensitive question. 'Now Ms. Robinson-Cummings, we have previously received several reports that Mr. Morris has assaulted you on a number of occasions. Would you say you would like to look at pressing charges for this?' Aware of a lack of evidence, Maddy took the high road. 'No. He hit me once, but it was nothing really, nothing more than a heated argument anyway. I don't want to press charges, it was nothing.'
In the arena
As the Highlander Weekly was raging, Blair walked in, ponytail tight in and immediately offering out advise to the trainees. 'Don't forget, your opponent's moves say something about them. Read them.' Astrid then signalled over to her, and she walked over. 'You wanted some advice didn't you?' The Viking just nodded to her. 'Got the Highlander against Kalin, and… well it's about five years since I last did Highlander.' Blair smiled hearing this, and came up with an idea.
She blew a whistle to get the attention of everyone else, and then made an announcement. 'We have a special prize today - whoever reaches the final of the tournament gets to have a Highlander duel against Astrid Hofferson.' The blonde looked surprised at this, and muttered 'Do they?' Blair then sat back down and explained. 'Best way to learn is to duel. Obviously I'm happy to give some advice first.'
'Go on then, do it.' 'It's not enough to just have 60 cards that do something, it's not that different from regular deck building, because you need to have a consistent strategy, and then build the cards in your deck around that.' She then got one of the pouches off her diagonal belt - a sapphire blue leather container with a sticky label on the front, "60 Card H" scribbled on the label in Sharpie.
With the deck in her hand, she fanned it out briefly, before shuffling it back up and passing it to Astrid. 'This is one I've been experimenting with recently, 60 card Grass Dolls.' Astrid looked through the deck and seemed to be amazed. 'This is unbelievable.' 'Almost the whole deck is cards that benefit from the graveyard, and cards to mill them from the deck.' 'And That Grass Looks Greener?' 'Because it's funny to see people's reaction when you get a Chain link of 15.' 'Chain Strike?' 'Because Rio insisted that if your opponent takes 6400 damage from Chain Strike they'd just concede immediately. So how about you get your deck ready, and after the duels we have a chat about it.'
In the courtroom
As the trial was concluding, the closing statements were being read out, firstly by the Defence. 'In conclusion, Mr. Morris' only crime was trying to cheer up a friend who was going through a stressful period. The fact that he chose to do this with a controlled substance is unfortunate, however it also speaks volumes to his desperation. My client is a passionate, caring and compassionate individual, who has been subjected to very unfair slander in the course of this case. He has admitted his guilt and I therefore ask that you consider a non-custodial sentence as sufficient for this minor error in judgement.'
Frances then replied for the prosecution 'Your honour, I believe that the character of the defendant has been greatly exaggerated. While it is true that on multiple occasions Mr. Morris has shown caring and passion, this would appear to merely be an act, a character he plays. In a situation which could have been construed, as the Defence testify, when it came to the crucial moments, he decided to take advantage of Ms. Robinson-Cummings, using her as a shield to avoid paying a quite significant debt. Not only was he in possession of illegal drugs presumably for a long period of time, but he was more than eager to supply them to someone he was supposed to care about, and then force her to pay for them, including drugs she didn't use. Therefore we request a lengthy sentence, so that he may have time to reflect on the actions which brought him here.'
The judge then came to a conclusion. 'All rise. Mr. Morris, I accept that you did not initially have intent to supply drugs, and were using it for personal use, and just shared your small stash with your friend. However, you later put known drug dealers in touch with Ms. Robinson-Cummings, and as such, assisted in the supply network of controlled substances. You supplied drugs to a user directly, and there is evidence that through this, you benefited financially by not paying your own debts. Therefore I find you guilty of a Category 3 offence, Possession of a Class C Drug with Intent to Supply. You are given credit however for your early Guilty plea and your cooperation in the investigation.'
'Therefore, I sentence you to 24 weeks' imprisonment, but for your willingness to change, honesty with your Guilty plea, and your openness in the investigation, I will take ⅓ off the sentence. Therefore you will serve 18 weeks in Prison.' Hearing this, Rhydian was devastated, and as he was taken down, he shouted to Maddy, who stared him right in the eyes, and then turned away, her dyed hair swinging around as she did.
As Rhydian was being taken to prison, Maddy and Frances went to a nearby coffee shop to discuss things. 'Are you pleased with the outcome?' 'Yes, very. I just want him in prison as long as possible.' 'Even if he behaves in there, we're trying to make sure that he isn't given early release. I did everything exactly as you instructed me to.' 'You did, I'm very pleased with you. And tonight, you will see the truth, and become a Renegade.' This took Frances' mind back to the day she got the request.
A week before James' trial
Frances was starting to write up a draft of her opening arguments, when she had a knock on the door. 'Come in.' As she said this, Dylar entered, slowly but assuredly. 'Hi, who are you?' 'My name doesn't matter. I am an envoy of the Renegades, I have been sent by our Alpha Maddy.' 'Oh yeah, she said she was sending somebody to see me about "things". What's up?' 'She wants you to join our revolution, become a member of our organisation, join the family.' She then plucked a business card from her pocket, and handed it over to Frances.
As Frances picked the card up, the R on it glowed subtly, as did her eyes, and she was suddenly interested. 'What can you offer me?' 'We offer a family, a group of individuals united by a single cause, and protection. Most of all, we offer true meaning, and the opportunity to fight on the side of the oppressed, the ignored and downtrodden. But I must go. When your decision is made, you will give the card back to our Alpha, and she will help you see the truth.' Frances then blinked, and Dylar had vanished.
In the arena
After her Highlander practice duels, Astrid came back to Blair. 'You're a natural… as usual. You know it's really annoying how you're so naturally brilliant at everything.' 'Didn't feel it, it's a completely foreign world to me.' 'Well you were incredible. I wouldn't recommend running quite so many low Attack monsters, you need to be confident of always drawing something which will either give you the advantage or keep the advantage. Any ideas on your deck for Kalin yet?'
'Yeah, I'm thinking I want some kind of Stun deck with loads of Counter Traps.' After a little bit of thinking, Blair ran to the arena office and started writing out a decklist, before coming back a few minutes later, this time with a piece of lined paper that had crudely been scribbled on. 'How's this for a decklist - it's a Beatdown/Stun deck to take advantage of the Solemn cards, by hitting him hard and fast. Obviously you can do what you like with it, but if you want some good Counter Traps, Lydia's deck has about 30 of them.'
Reading through the list, Astrid seemed intrigued. 'Looks pretty good, you don't mind if I take this do you?' 'By all means, I got no use for it. You might want to rewrite it though.' 'I'm used to reading your writing by now, how else would I be able to understand all the birthday cards you sent me?' 'So you did get them?' 'Yeah, I didn't realise I was supposed to send a thank you letter.'
As she was joking about this, Ally came running in, with Rio not far behind. As Ally ran over to Astrid, Blair walked over to the Idahoan. 'How are big sister duties going then?' It was clear from the beaming smile on her face that Rio was enjoying herself. 'Exhausting, but fun. She's an endless ball of energy.' 'That's Ally for you. Just never ever stops.' She then looked around, and saw the youngster fast asleep on Astrid's lap.
'Until she crashes… I must admit, you've done fantastically, you managed to get her to crash in about… 4 hours. I think that's a new record. Maybe she's finally growing up. Don't worry about speaking up by the way, when she's crashed nothing will wake her up. She slept through an earthquake once, granted it was only a 3.5' '3.5 is nothing, I've slept through a 6 before.' 'Ok show-off.' Rio then pointed over to the other side of the arena, and as Blair looked around, she saw Astrid stroking the top of Ally's head.
'When did Astrid become free babysitting?' 'Good question. I knew she was good with kids, but this is something else.' Something remarkable then happened, as Astrid started gently singing a lullaby to Ally. 'Byssan lull, koka kittelen full, Där kommer tre vandringsmän pa vägen. Den ene, ack sa halt. Den andre o sa blind. Den tredje säger alls ingenting.' As soon as Astrid looked up and saw Rio and Blair staring, she gently placed Ally onto the chair next to her, and ran off.
'What happened there?' 'I think she might not have liked us staring at her. I'll track her down later and apologise.' 'Tell you something, she can really sing.' 'No kidding, voice of a fucking angel. Said she was brilliant at everything. Tell you what Rio - you've not eaten yet have you?' 'Not other than some biscuits.' 'How about you go and get some lunch then, I'll look after little one while I'm training.' 'Thanks.'
Frances then went to leave, but Maddy stopped her. 'Since you're going to be coming straight to the base, I'll take you there. I just need to stop off at a Regionals event first, I got the final today.' 'Sure, that's great. I'll stay in the car if it's alright.' 'Absolutely, you do you. I'll just go in, get the job done, and then finish driving you to the base. When we get to the base, I will give you the hood that you need to wear while you're in there.' With black lipstick, the lawyer replied 'I understand.'
At the Regionals
J.D. Carter was out first, the Kiwi visiting for a touch-up to his skills. As he walked down, the crowd vociferously cheered for him, despite knowing who he was up against. But he hadn't even made it down the short path to the duelling zone when the Renegades music hit. Maddy walked down, her black fedora still covering her eyes, her only defining characteristic being a sinister smile. As she reached the duelling zone she silently activated her duel disk, followed by J.D.
Tyne and Wear Regionals Final: Maddy Robinson-Cummings LP:8000 vs. J.D. Carter LP:8000
(Maddy hand: ?, ?, ?, ?, ?)
Maddy: Maddy drew her card without speaking, and activated Polymerisation. As she did, the silhouette of a large wolf with fangs bared appeared behind her, frightening the life out of J.D. She then held up another card, and the Wolf charged blindingly, savaging J.D. and leaving him battered on the floor (J.D. LP:8000-0).
As the duel concluded in just 17 seconds, Maddy walked over to J.D., and picked him up, before leaning down his ear, and started speaking tongues down it. Eventually he stood up, completely entranced, and accepted a jacket from her, before she beckoned him away. The crowd just watched on in complete shock as she did this, J.D. not looking away from her once. As she reached the car, he was casually thrown into the back, still not speaking.
An hour later
In the base, a meeting had been called. As club members gathered, Blair quickly noticed something, and started muttering with Belle. 'Hey, you know what Frances is doing here?' 'Yeah, she's being recruited.' 'Seriously!?' 'Yeah. Apparently it's been in the works for weeks.' Frances was stood there, encased in a black cloak, her hair down and flowing. Rio and Ally then came through, standing at the front as well.
Maddy then stepped up to the front. 'We are here to recruit new members. As with all of you, they will be eternally bound to us, for in the Renegades, we are one. Before you can be recruited though, you must be… converted. Brought to the correct state of mind if you will. For this, we will open up Icaron's Eye, and it will tell these recruits the truth that they seek. Whatever that may be.'
On Maddy's signal, Icaron's eye opened up, and started radiating. As Frances looked deep into the eye, immediately her thoughts began to change. First, the eye allured, drawing her in. Then, she became transfixed by it, completely unable or unwilling to look away. Her eyes, being burned through by the eye's glare, started to glow orange, then a dark red. Slowly, her thoughts of work and of life outside of the club began to drain away.
Now officially in a hypnotic trance, she continued to stare, and all she could start to think about was serving. She no longer had any personal ambitions, aside from being a slave of the Renegades. Soon enough, her head started to tilt, almost as if it was too heavy for her neck. As it did, the eye started emitting strong pulses, forcing her to comply if she wasn't already willing to. By this point, almost all independent thoughts had drained away, her sole purpose now to obey.
As the pulses slowly faded away, and the eye started to lose its lustre, she continued to stare into the abyss. Her eyes continued to glow deep dark red for a short period, before darkening, into soulless eyes. From a distance they looked normal, but up close, there was no life; simply a husk of what used to be there. In her deep trance, all she knew was the club, nothing from her past life was important, or had even survived.
Ally was also entranced, but as part of an agreement with Blair, her spell was significantly less potent. She too had been transfixed, but while she was now undyingly loyal like Frances, and her eyes had dimmed slightly, she retained her memories and knowledge, as well as the capability for independent thought. As the eye stopped, they stood there, spellbound by the power. Maddy then smiled. 'Frances, bow at my altar.'
Frances walked up to her, and immediately knelt, putting her arm across her forehead. 'I am your servant oh great Alpha, I recognise you as my one true queen. The rest of my life will be devoted to your service, and that of your pack. I ask you to take my body as your sacrifice, use me for whatever deeds you require, and I will do your bidding loyally.' 'Stand.' She did, and was presented with a jacket, which was placed over her shoulders.
Ally then stepped up to receive her jacket. 'I am a servant of the great Alpha, and even though I have not reached the age to officially join, I will serve all your demands and desires from now for the rest of my life, and I will wear my colours proudly.' As they stepped back, Maddy stood again. 'You have become Renegades now, your words are your bond, and you are eternally bonded with the rest of us. Your rulebooks will be with you in the next week; in the meantime, I am sure other members will be more than happy to lend you theirs. Club dismissed.'
As everyone started to disperse, Maddy immediately went to return to her office, but was stopped just short of the door by Hannah. 'What do you think you're doing?' 'Meaning?' 'Frances is our one reliable person on the outside, what do you think you're playing at by turning her into some kind of puppet?' 'My club now Mam, not yours. When you were in charge, this wouldn't have happened. But now I'm in charge, we play by my rules. And my rules are that we take what we want, we don't wait.'
'You're being stupid Maddy, stupid and reckless.' 'Yeah, because that's what you want to think about me. Oh look, there's Maddy, she can't run the club, whoops guess I'll have to take back over, already stopped her once. Well it ain't happening, I'm in charge and nobody stands in my way.' 'You're getting drunk on power! I know as well as you know that Frances being here will only cause issues.' Maddy didn't respond with a barbed tongue this time though. Instead, her eyes glowed like against JD, and she started speaking in tongues, causing Hannah's face to go blank and her eyes to droop.
She then walked to the side of Hannah's head, and whispered to her. 'When I click my fingers, you will wake up with no memory of this conversation. Instead, you will be completely on board with every decision I make in running the club. You will go home after the party and have a completely normal night. When you wake up, your last memory will be of arriving here.' She then clicked her fingers as she opened the door, and Hannah woke up. 'Oh Maddy.' She turned around, and Hannah smiled. 'Good job recruiting Frances, I really like all that you're doing here.' Knowing the ploy had worked, she smiled. 'Thanks.'
Rio then left the hall to wake Ally up ahead of the youngster's party, completely unaware of the real purpose. As she did so, Blair signalled to the hall, and everyone started to set up banners, balloons and tables. Jade then sneaked in alongside Phil, carrying plates of baked goods into the base, and perched them onto the tables. Finally, two large glass jugs were filled with fruit juice. They then waited with baited breath.
Nearly 15 minutes later, Rio and Ally walked back in, only to be greeted by party poppers and Phil holding up a banner saying "Welcome home Champ". As Ally ran off into the hall, Kris greeted Rio. 'What's going on, I thought this was a housewarming to welcome Ally.' 'No, this is actually YOUR party - to celebrate your big win. Phil and Blair insisted on doing this. Got all your favourite desserts as well - Blueberry Muffins, Hannah's Chocolate and Butterscotch Cookies, and of course, Mud Pie - Jade's very proud of that one.'
This made Rio come to a conclusion. 'So THAT's why they didn't want my help in the kitchen. I thought they just didn't trust me.' 'Yeah, because they'd really not trust you in the kitchen, you're a better cook than all of us.' 'Nice of you to say, I'm not sure that's quite true though.' She then noticed Calley walking through the base quietly. 'When did Calley get here?' 'About five minutes before you walked in.' Calley then ran over to see her.
'When did you' 'I got here a few minutes ago, I should have been here sooner but do you know how bad public transport is in the UK I've never seen anything like it, anyway I came because I thought "Well if Riana won a massive event I can't just ignore that especially when she won a court case I should absolutely come round and drop off some kind of present even if it's only a lil' necklace and SERIOUSLY I just told you what your surprise present was and now I can't take that back.'
Exhausted from Calley's endless talking, Rio just quietly took the present, and revealed an ornate pearl necklace. 'That's gorgeous, thank you!' 'Well I had to get something I wasn't just going to leave it at the court now that I know you're around we can keep in contact and meet up and shit.' 'Yeah sure. I'd love to keep talking but I need to go and thank Blair for this.' Having made her excuses, Rio went over to thank Blair, only for Maddy to come over and commandeer her. 'How about a little speech Champ?'
The next thing anyone heard was Rio testing the microphone. 'You guys know I'm not great with speeches… or speech. But I just want you to know that I so appreciate everyone, you're all this wonderful family that I'm so blessed to have met, I know that's a cliche but I mean it. Thank you everybody, you've made the past few months a hella lot easier. We're Renegades, all in this together. I wouldn't have been able to do this without you, and now I'm going to eat some cake.'
As this speech was going on, Astrid walked up to Kris, and pinched his bum. 'Hey, what was that for?' 'Because I wanted to get your attention. Since I'm still at this safe house, I was thinking, maybe you could… come over… for a… meal?' 'Sure, although if you wanted a date you could have just said.' She then wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, and they started to rub noses. 'Ok then, could you come over for a date, which may or may not include my cooking?' 'With an offer like that how could I refuse?'
Meanwhile, Maddy had sneaked off to make an important phone call. 'Hi Tom, it's Maddy. Listen, I know that we weren't on best terms last time, but things have changed - I've had a near death experience and I kicked Rhydian to the kerb. I wanted to let you know that there's a big event that I'm duelling at in Yokohama next week, and I wanted you to be there, so I've bought a ticket for you. Please come Tom, I want to make up with you. Thanks, see you there.' As she put the phone down, Maddy grinned. 'Sucker.'
That evening, in the base's library
Ally came bounding down the stairs, looking for Rio again. But all she found was Jana, sat reading on her own. Despite the youngster being uncharacteristically quiet, the redhead still noticed her. 'Rio's just taking some medication, she'll only be a few minutes.' 'Why can't she take it at home?' 'She's on some new meds, and Sakura wants to keep an eye on her taking them for a few days.' 'To make sure she's taking them?' 'To make sure she's taking the right amount. Because if Rio makes even one mistake with it, Sakura can lose her job.' 'That seems unfair.' 'It is, but that's how it goes.'
'So what you reading?' Jana then picked up the big, red, leather-bound book and showed it to Ally. 'The Alpharic Legends.' 'What's that?' 'It's mythology from where I live. There's this myth that there lived a tribe of Wolves who could transform into Humans.' 'That sounds awesome!' 'And they had a leader, who they called their Alpha. This book contains all the legends and stories about the Alpha. You want to hear some?' 'Yeah.'
Jana then flicked back to the front of the book, and started reading. 'Chapter 1: The Power of the Alpha. There was once a tribe of Wolves deep in the forests of Cymry, who bore a mystical secret - at will they could transform into Humans, who looked just like any other Human you might see. They lived in the shadows, on the fringes of society, where few would ever discover their secret.' Ally then interrupted. 'But why did they hide?' 'Because once a month, on a full moon, they would transform into their wolf forms and bay at the moon. Even back then, people would have persecuted them if they had known their secret.' 'Ok.'
'They would live as Wolves and Humans, but they had a leader regardless. One who they trusted to lead them, inspire them and keep them safe, the Alpha they were called. This Alpha was fair and true, she would lead a special pack, where not everyone had the dual DNA. Some were Humans, some were hybrids, some were even alien races settling in side by side under the Alpha's rule.'
'But one day, the Alpha discovered power. At first she used this power well, utilising it to keep her pack safe, and bringing them bountiful riches, territories big enough for all the pack and hunts producing juicer and more nutritious meats than ever before. But something changed one day, and she started to be driven crazy with her power. She had limitless power and didn't know how to stop wielding it. Soon, she started to become a tyrant.'
Rio then came down the stairs. 'Ally, I told you not to run around the base like this. There you are. Sorry Jana' 'It's fine, I've just been reading to her.' 'Anything good?' 'The Alpharic Legends.' 'Oh that stuff? Yeah that's pretty cool I guess, never understood any of it but it sounds nice. Anyway, I should get you back home missus, we've got some mud pie to eat before bed.' 'Ok. Bye Jana.' 'Bye little one.'
Next time: Lydia and Freja are forced to co-exist, Akiza gets more than she bargained for against Belle, and Maddy returns to the WDC in Renegades: A New Dawn Chapter LII: The Renegade Revolution