~Chapter Fourteen~
After Abaddon's reign, things were looking down for him and his men. The higher-ups of Tikiville had forced the cyborg to sell his summer home after discovering his crimes against Cyberspace, and he was forbidden to ever return to the site again. Abaddon, General Biff, and the few remaining members of the rebellion group sought refuge in an uninhabited Cybersite that hardly anybody knew existed.
"At least you had control of Cyberspace for one year," General Biff said reassuringly one day, about a month after Gerald Williams' reign had begun.
"But its not enough you fool," Abaddon shouted, causing his right hand man to step back in fear, "I was supposed to be in charge for years. I had it all! Money, power, everything! But that traitor! Had he not spilled to Williams about my spending, I would still be in charge today!"
"I don't know sir," Biff said abnormally timid, "Mr. Williams did still have a lot of things in his favor..."
"SHUT UP!" Abaddon screamed and slapped Biff across the face causing him to fall over, "Don't you EVER say anything like that again! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
"Yes sir! Yes sir!" Biff said protecting his face from another possible slap.
"Good," Abaddon said calming down, "Now get up."
The General stood up and brushed himself off.
"Are my men ready?" Abaddon asked.
"Yes Sir Abaddon," Biff answered.
"Weapons in place?"
"Yes sir!"
Abaddon nodded. "Send them out then."
Biff saluted his master and left the room to gather together what was left of Abaddon's army.
"You've had your one month Williams," Abaddon said to himself, "Now you will be sorry you ever challenged me!"
Location: Control Central:
It was nearly midnight and everyone had gone to bed, except for two of Gerald Williams' employees.
- In the past, cyber-rulers would have one 'watch guard' hired to stand watch over Control Central from a cock-pit high above the Cybersite every evening until 11:00. The watch guard was meant to keep an eye out for any signs of danger. If signs of danger were seen, the watch guard would press an emergency button within the cock-pit that would sound an alarm system within Control Central, warning the inhabitants to evacuate immediately and/or activate the defense system. Though this level of precaution always seemed to be enough in the past, Gerald Williams felt it necessary to slightly enhance their security. The last time he saw Abaddon, it had been an unfriendly encounter that ended with the tall, red-eyed cyborg threatening revenge on the new ruler. Mr. Williams, therefore, had someone make more advanced binoculars that could see further out and hired two watch guards instead of one. Their names were Mac Clifton and Petunia Crownsbarry (or P.C as everyone called her). Mac would stand guard for the traditional hours, and PC stood guard from 11:00 P.M to 6:00 A.M. These were the two cyborgs currently awake.-
Mac was looking through his binoculars for anything out of the ordinary when PC came up from the cock-pit's elevator.
"Your shift is done now Mac," she said as she adjusted her own binoculars, "You can go to sleep now."
"I'm not tired right now," Mac replied, "I'll just stay here and stand guard with you."
"OK," PC nodded as she looked in the opposite direction of her co-worker, "Two heads are better than one after all."
"Or four eyes are better than two," Mac said.
The two laughed at this when suddenly PC saw something through her binoculars.
"Mac," she said, her voice full of concern, "I see a cyber-craft of some sorts. And it doesn't look like a friendly one either."
PC was right. This cyber-craft was a battleship that belonged to Abaddon's small army. They were unaware of the advances in Control Central's security system and thought they couldn't be seen from where they were.
"Oh my circuits!" Mac exclaimed now looking at the same thing his co-worker was seeing, "That's a battleship! Sound the alarm!"
PC violently pushed the emergency button, sounding off the alarm system.
"Code Red," she said into the intercom mic next to the button, "I repeat: Code Red. Prepare defenses."
From the cock-pit, the two watch guards could hear people running and screaming in the main control room as they tried to get the defenses ready for an attack.
In the hallways, the re-hired Richard Stanley ran through the crowds of people hurrying to either evacuate through the emergency hangar bay and/or preparing to fight back at whatever was coming for them. Richard had to get to the supercomputer in the main control room so that he could enter the code needed to ignite the site's built in force field, just in case. After all, they didn't know if the battleship wanted to attack or not.
When he got to the supercomputer, he realized that someone had done something dangerously stupid.
"Who shut down the supercomputer?!" Richard screamed in a combination of frustration and panic.
"I was trying to save power," one of the cyborgs from the defense team yelled from the door as he put on his bullet proof vest.
"Well next time you're trying to save power, ask me what systems DON'T MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH!" he screamed back as he waited for the supercomputer to finish booting.
Location: Abaddon's Battleship:
"General Biff," one of the men said through the communication system on the ship, "We are at destination."
"Excellent men," Biff's voice said through the radio device, "Now launch the attack."
"Yes sir."
Location: Control Central: Look-out Cock-pit:
"They're getting ready to fire at us PC!" Mac shouted.
PC shouted into the intercom, "Danger mode! Activate protective shield!"
"Its too late!" Mac screamed, "They've fired!"
Mac and PC watched in fear as the missile raced towards Control Central, both praying the shield would be activated in time. Slowly the protective force field began to form. But before it could fully activate, the missile burst through it and into the lower parts of Control Central's main room. The cock-pit shook from the explosion beneath.
"Come on Mac! We have to get down from here. Its not safe!"
The two took the elevator down and rushed inside Control Central.
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In the main control room everyone was in a panic. A huge fire was spreading below the bridge.
"Everyone except for my defense team, evacuate immediately!" Gerald shouted as the workers rushed to and fro.
"Mr. Williams!" Mac and PC shouted simultaneously as they ran in.
"Go you two," the young ruler ordered, "My defense team will handle it from here."
"No Mr. Williams," Mac stated, "We will help."
The cyborg paused a moment. "Alright. Both of you go with Richard. He's trying to find a way to put out the fire without having to shut down the power. I am going with the defense team in case they come and start shooting."
"Mr. Williams you can't!" PC exclaimed, "Its too dangerous!"
"It is my duty," Gerald answered calmly, "When I was sworn into office, not only did I become the ruler of Cyberspace, I became its protector. And part of being the protector of all Cyberspace has always been fighting with Control Central's defense team."
"And if you're killed, how then will you protect Cyberspace?" PC argued.
"That's the risk that all the rulers of our past have taken PC. And some have been killed. But they died trying. And that's what I will do too."
Mac and PC nodded in respect. They knew there was no talking Gerald out of it. For it was true, every past attack on Control Central had the ruler/protector of Cyberspace fighting with the defense team, guarding the facility's important files and other things that, if placed in the wrong hands, could and would result in the end of the cyber-world as its known.
After, Mac and PC had gone off with Richard, Gerald put on his bullet-proof vest and joined the defense team outside. It was a group of fifteen, minus Gerald, and always had been since the very first CC defense team. Gerald and the group stood, fully armed, surrounding all angles of the dome which housed the main control room and the important things contained within it.
But nothing happened...
"Sir," one of the cyborgs said to Gerald Williams, after forty five minutes of waiting.
"Don't call me sir, Steve," Gerald said to the cyborg, "Just call me Gerald."
"Gerald," Steve said, "I think that whoever sent the missile is gone now. It must have just been a scare tactic."
Gerald was silent for awhile, considering the fact that this may be true. He grabbed his Skwak pad and contacted PC.
"PC," Gerald said into the Skwak, "Are you busy right now?"
"No Gerald," she said on the other line, "The fire has just been extinguished."
"Excellent," the ruler said breathing a sigh of relief, "PC, I need you to go back up to the cock-pit and tell us if you still see the battleship."
"Will do Gerald."
The transmission ended and minutes later the watch guard could be seen coming out from the bottom entrance of the main control room and on her way to the cock-pit.
"Its gone everyone," she called from the cock-pit after searching in all directions, "We can tell everyone to come back now."
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The next day, all Control Central's workers returned after being informed that the fire was extinguished and the battleship had gone. It would be the first of many attacks on Control Central during Gerald Williams' reign. However, it would be the last to cause such severe damage.
When everyone returned, Mr. Williams held a meeting in the fire-damaged control room.
"I have no solid proof of this," Mr. Williams began, "But I strongly believe that attack was from Abaddon. He has a track record of using explosives."
"What are we going to do?" one cyborg asked.
"We stand our ground that's what we do!" Gerald Williams answered with determination, "I have great respect for Sir Dalhart but the one thing he should've never done was back down. We will up our security system immediately!"
"How?" Mac asked, "We're still recovering from the damage of last night."
"I have sent an order out to all the nearby cybersites to send us their most skilled fighters with their most advanced weaponry. They will protect us until we have fixed the damage done and have come up with tighter security."
"Well how are we gonna tighten the security?" another cyborg asked.
"First off," Gerald began, "I want another glass dome over the control room and all of the platform it stands on. This will make the explosives less fatal, at the very least."
"Is there anything Mac and I can do better?" PC asked.
"No PC," Mr. Williams answered, "The two of you are doing well. However I wish to install a tracking system into the supercomputer, one that can track things from distances much further than the eye can see."
"Something I've been suggesting for how long now?" Richard muttered.
"I do still want the two of you around in the case of a power outage or some other technical difficulty that would cause the tracking system to fail," Gerald continued, "One can never be too careful with a cyborg like Abaddon running around."
"Yes sir," PC answered.
"And must I continue telling everybody this!" Gerald laughed, "Don't call me 'sir' or 'mister.' Just call me Gerald. I am no different than any of you."
So repairs were done on the control room, a second glass dome was built, and a tracking device was installed into the supercomputer. Control Central was now more secure than it had ever been.
Abaddon, as well as any other enemies, would have their work cut out for them in the future...