Dark Justice - Chapter's three and four are up!

**Sean the man** · Last edited by Sean the man on Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:39 am; edited 2 times in total

Prolouge

Central city was in the middle of Germany. It was only seventy or so years old, but was already one of the biggest cities in the world. People were immirgrating there from all over the world, mostly from Europe and South America. It was safer then the countryside and the suburbs according to most people, and so many people left their old houses, apartments and tube blocks and moved to the city in search of new employment and better housing. The citys initial construction was taken care of by the German, British and French governments, and when it was completed it was decided that the city should become an indenpendant state. Three senators were choosen from the three governments, and the public voted for the french senator, Victor Broekhart to become president and so obviously he became president, and he selected a few dozen politicins to serve under him and that.
Still, the city had it's problems. For one, smog began to gather from years of pollution and the board of health had made a petition, advising first and second level citizens to live and stay above the smog, roughly fifty levels above ground level. The government began an extensive building programme. Then, instead of starting at ground level, many building corporations began building on top of other buildings and constructed streets and walkways and roadways, connecting districts and individual buildings, so that in only ten years after the board had made the petition, someone could walk from one end of the city to the other, without stepping on board a hovercar once. There were road-ways contructed for vintage cars with wheels, which some people critisized as an un-nessceary luxury. Train-tracks were contructed to take people to anywhere in the city, and every fifty or some levels there was another track system. The city was so big, that even from the vantage point of the tallest buildings (which could be as tall as six kilometres) at the centre of the city, one could barely see the end of the city, or even the beginning of the suburbs.
Eventually, when the buildings started to go above two kilometres, the government realised that temperature and lack of air were starting to become a problem, so huge heaters were constructed, along with air filters, to bring air up to the upper heights of the city and breath it out onto the vast city. Nearly every building above four kilometres had one, so that the important people who lived there could enjoy a walk in their artifical gardens without having to worry about wearing gas masks or being frozen to death.
But anyway, enough history.
Today, Victor is dead, and central city's president is Matthew Herd, and some said he was the best president so far. But that was just what some people said, president's can't make everyone happy, now can they?

Thief
Year: 2340
Europe, Central City
Dersar district
2 km above ground level

Aaron sat up in his bed, his head throbbing. It was seven o clock, time to start working. He took the bread and water that had been put on the table by his bed and scoffed it down. The was no window in his small room, so it took him a while to find the light. It was just as well, Aaron was nervous of heights, so he didn't need to see the towering buildings around him, or the two kilometre drop into the smog below. Still, he could hear the hovercars flying past at high speed. Aaron heard a car docking outside. Time to get up. He hurried down the ladder, and into the shop. The smell of dirty oil and plasma smoke hit him as he opened the door.
The shop sold basic foods, drinks, and clothes. Further towards the back of the shop were different car parts. Behind the shop was an emergency door, and then the buildings main elevator. Aaron had hardly ever been allowed outside the shop, but life had been fine before Sam had died, and before his brother Daren had taken over.
Daren was stood behind the plasti-glass counter, counting money. He was dressed in his usual dirty T-shirt and jeans, his stomach spilling out over it.
"Get to work, idiot." He grunted.
"Yes, Daren." Aaron said, walking towards the back of the shop. He had to clean the shop, and the car parts. It was what he would be doing for the rest of the day. He sighed, and picked up his cleaning rag from a shelf at the back of the shop. The door of the shop opened and a young business man walked in. He put down his briefcase by the door. "I need a new combustion pipe for a Cambo 3, series A." An extremely expensive hovercar. "I think I might have one back there somewhere. Follow me." Daren put on his fake smile. "Get lost, kid," he said to Aaron. Aaron walked to the front of the shop, deciding to rub the glass tiles. Daren and the man came back two minutes later. Daren was carrying a heat resitant carbon fibre combustion pipe. He kicked Aaron as he walked past. The business man didn't seem to notice.
"Can I use the toilet?" the man asked after he had payed.
"Sure, go through that side door and it's behind the door in the garage. Just don't touch my car!" Daren said, laughing.
"I won't." The man said, grinning. As soon as he closed the door, Daren walked over to the man's briefcase. It opened without any trouble, and Daren grinned.
"Wha..?" Daran cut him off. "Shut up!"
Aaron watched as Daren took out the wallet and slipped it into his pocket. He walked to the back of the shop, glaring at Aaron on the way. Aaron looked around and saw Daran causally cleaning a car part. The man came out of the toilet, and went over to his briefcase. Aaron held his breath. His heart beat faster as the man opened it.
"Oh, yeah, I've already payed!" He said. "Wait. Where is my wallet?" He looked at Aaron. "What's going on?" Daren asked, walking up. "My wallet is gone." The man said. "It had a fortune in it." Daren glared at Aaron. Aaron couldn't believe what was happening.
"I didn't take anything." Aaron said.
"Don't lie!" Daren shouted. "I'm sorry about this." he said to the man. "He always is taking things, but this is going a bit too far." "I'm calling the cops." The man said.
"Be my guest," said Daren.
"No!" Aaron said. The man held the silver device to his ear. Aaron looked at Daren with pleading eyes. Daren stared back. With cold eyes. It was hopeless. No one would ever beleive a teenage cleaner boy.
The device was on loudspeaker, as if the man was mocking Aaron. "Yeah, a boy just took my wallet. I'll get it back in a second, but this boys needs to be taken away."
"We're on our way." The man slipped the phone back into his pocket.
"The wallet, please."
"I don't have anything." Aaron pleaded. "Ok then." Daren said. "Lets just wait until the cops get here, they'll deal with him. Aaron felt his heartbeat quicken. Daren was evil. Aaron suddenly felt angry. Very angry. He suddenly lounged at Daren, kicking him hard in between his legs. He collpased on the floor, writhing in pain.
"Stop!" The man shouted. Aaron raced to the back of the shop, opening the door, and ran to the lift. He pressed the button, and the doors slid closed behind him just before the man reached them. Aaron regarded the man with an amused expression for a few seconds before the glass lift quickly rushed down the shaft.
He was still going to be caught, he knew that much. The cops could have shut down the entire building if they had really wanted to catch him. The only good thing was that they were probaly not at the scene yet. The lift quickly traveled downwards, traveling faster even than it would have if it had just been falling. And it needed all the speed. Most buildings were at least four kilometres high, so the lifts had to travel fast. Suddenly, daylight poured into the chamber, and Aaron turned around to see the city, with huge buildings. Hovercars flashed past, and pedestrians walked on walkways going from building to building and shop to shop. Huge courtyards hung suspended between buildings, where people sat under the shade of trees or rode bicycle or just went to hang out. Then Aaron saw a suspended train tunnel, getting support from buildings along it's length. It bended in and out through buildings, occansionlly going through them. The lift dinged. Aaron had reached the 50th floor. Lifts in most buildings did not go any lower, the lower levels were contaminated by smog, and below the smog was the other half of the city, the dangerous half. The first fifty floors were probably completely deserted by now, their only use being to get the buildings above the smog. Aaron ran out of the lift and burst through a door, running through a computer buisness, with a dozen or so people connected to the internet, wearing helmets and typing.
The stairs was easy to find, but Aaron now had to decend fifty floor, using just the stairs. He ran as fast as he could, around and down, around and down, and nearly fell twice. Then he skidded to a stop, and found himself standing on the edge of a gigantic hole. The stairs had given way. The hole was too big to jump. He looked down, and saw that it dropped three floors and the stairs then continued. There was a rope attached to the steel banister. Aaron grabbed it, forcing himself to think happy thoughts.
Happy thoughts? Stupid! He thought.
He forced himself over the edge, taking his full weight on his hands. They almost instantly started burning, and Aaron started his way down, going as quick as possible. It took him almost a minute, and he finally landed on the stairs below, twisting his ankle. He found himself surrounded by five human police, their visers covering their grinning faces. Each was holding a semi-automatic Sergo 20.0 caliber assualt rifles, a favorite weapon of the Central city police. Aaron cursed.
'Get down on the ground,' one shouted. Aaron would never understand why the police always had to shout. He slowly got down on the ground. The guns wouldn't have hard ammunition, just shock bullets. They would deliver a shock that would knock you unconcious instantly, and keep you out for a long time. The police only used hard ammunition if there was any danger, and they weren't expecting danger. They moved closer in towards him. He was grabbed by two and dragged away. He felt himself getting confused and weak. One of them had shot him with a drainer dart, that would drain his strength and make him too weak to walk on his own, or to escape.
They kept going down. That was all Aaron was aware of. Everything else was a blur. Then they stopped, and Aaron glimpsed three robot police, before the seditive forced him to close his eyes. He was with the three robot police now. He had to be. He could feel their titanium metal hands digging into his arms as they dragged him along. The human police had gone.
The robot police operated on ground level, and the human police operated everywhere else. That was all Aaron knew about them.

He most have been out for a while, because the next time he woke, he was on the ground, but that was all he knew. He was being led towards a landed police hover-van. There in his sub-concious state, he felt like screaming, but he was even too weak for that.
Then something strange happened. The robot holding him stopped, and in his metallic voice said "Inturder sensed." There was a bang, and the robot next to him collpased, loosening his grip. With no support, Aaron collpased onto the ground.

Harris cursed. "They most have hit him with a drainer. "We'll have to go down and get him." "What?" Sonny shouted. "You got a death wish or something?"
"We can't just leave him down there." Ping said. Harris leaned over the edge slightly, the railing groaning. It was a three story drop to the ground. A bullet rushed past his head. The other two robots had spotted them.
"Hey, Harris, what now? Don't tell me your going to try to hit another wire, no offence, but that was a fluke shot." Harris looked across at Carmen. Her looks didn't sweeten the playful insult. The Spanish girl looked at him franticly, like he was supposed to work out what to do. He suddenly got an impulse. "Cover me!" He said. Sonny stared at Harris. "What do you..." But Harris was gone, over the edge. "He's gonna get shot!" Ping shouted.
Harris swung from the the railing, and swung in onto the balcony on the lower floor. The he jumped, two storys, landing straight on top of a robot. It fell over, but it would get up straight away. Harris brought his gun up to the other robot, shooting him in the neck, the weakest part. It collpased, useless. The other one squirmed under his foot. Harris stamped down on its head, but it had no effect, the robots had no pain recepters, and its body was made of titanium. Harris doubted he had even scrathed the head on the hard asphalt. The dark-haired boy had his eyes half open, but he wasn't able to move, the drainer most have been strong.

Aaron's mind was completely clouded over. His vision was blured, and he couldn't hear very well. He was aware there was someone on his side, fighting with him.
The robot dragged himself off the ground and growled a deep metallic growl. Harris was out of ammunition.
"I am authorized to kill you." It said.
"Go to hell!" The robot was not programmed to recognise an insult, so its artifial expression remained blank. Harris knew methods for delaying a robot from carrying out its duty, but it was extremly hard. The robot was sensitive to movement, so if Harris tried to reload his gun, the robot would lash out, maybe fire his gun, or else kick. A robots kick was so powerful that one could easily break , and the robots knew all the weak spots on a humans body.
Three storys up, Carmen was wondering what to do. All three of them had their guns trained on the robots, but they could not risk shooting, they might miss and the robot might freak out, and that would prove fatal for Harris. None of them were ready to try the stunt that Harris had pulled. Carmen opened her rucksack. She had rolls of different types of bullets. First hard ammunition. Then she had flash bullets, but that would have a worse effect on Harris, blinding him temporarily. She had gas bullets, but again they would only effect Harris. If only she had a shocker. That would short out all of the robots circuts. "Anyone got a shocker?" She looked across at the Sonny and Ping. "If I had one I would have fired it already," Ping said.
"Same with me," Sonny said. Carmen cursed in Spanish. "Any suggestions?" asked Carmen. Sonny took out a single hard bullet. He threw it over the edge.
"What the .." Carmen glared at him. It hit Harris on the head.
"Ow!!" The bullet bounced off his head. He barely managed to catch it as it was about to hit the ground. The robot saw it, but it would take a second for his brain to register what it was. Harris quickly slipped it into the pocket that had the gun in it again. He reloaded in one fluid motion. The robots eyes were glowing red, it was scanning him, making sure that he was a wanted crimanal and that he could legally kill him. The second his eyes stopped glowing, Harris whipped up his gun and fired. For a horrible moment, it looked as if Harris had missed the neck, then the robot collapased. The clang was met with a cheer of victory from the three up in the balcony. They climbed down carefully, joining Harris, crowding around the unconcious boy.
"He'll live." Harris said.

_________________

.

The underdog will eventually rise and defeat the overlord...

**Urmudda0007**

That's brilliant Sean. Very clever concepts on how the Central City Metropolis was created and the technology and every thing.
Its easy to create fiction based on history or dark age type fantasy because we have an idea what life should be like in that environment. When writing futuristic stuff like this there are no rules telling you what you have to do, which is good, but you have to imagine and develop something that nobody has seen before from scratch. You pulled it off brilliantly.

**Sean the man**

Thanks.. I'm still pieceing together the storyline I'm going to give it though!

**Urmudda0007**

Its a class opening, it can be taken in any direction from here.

The Drunken Hobo 365

I agree with jamie. Nicely done sean. Very nicely done.

**Sean the man**

Do you really like the opening? That's brilliant, coz I though it was really amatuerish.. because most authors explain stuff gradually. But that's great, thanks guys.

**Urmudda0007**

It can sometimes help build suspense to keep the reader guessing but I reckon people would get lost without an in-depth introduction in this case for the reason I stated above.

TARA!

if most stories started with a kind of logical intro like that, it can be boring, but its really different and interesting so it grabs attention straight away, and with th smog and all, its kind of like a parallel world cud turn out..reli good idea.. u have original ideas for writing which is good. cyclops

**Sean the man**

Thanks! I hate the way my stories are often strongly influenced by my life, though, it's frustrating if I'm in a bad mood or if things aren't going well, because it severely rubs off on my writing.

TARA!

feeling kind of trapped above the smog of the world at th mo?? Very Happy

do u happen to hav some weird controllin bossy guy in some part of ur life who steals money and sets u up for it?? silent

i often make up certain stories in my head when in a bad mood....at least urs get to paper!!

**Sean the man**

Hmmm... im not sure who the bad guy is in my life yet, but there are some in everyone life, huh?

TARA!

yeah..whens the next bit of the story goin up? Very Happy

you said the site was dying, it looks fine to me.l.....!

**Sean the man**

Do you want me to but up more of this story then??

**Sean the man**

Blurry

Blurry. Everything was blurry, thoughts, feelings, everything. Sounds were muffled beyond recognition. He couldn't open his eyes. He sensed he was lying on something soft, and the room he was in was dark.

Aaron lost all track of time. It felt as though he was lying there for hours, but he couldn't tell. He gradually became more aware of his surroundings, but he still couldn't open his eyes. When he had first regained consciousness, he couldn't hear anything, but now he could hear muttered voices, or maybe not voices. He could remember everything up until he just about reached the van door that the police had been taken to. It eventually became frustrating for Aaron. All he could was lie there, hearing on and off the muffled voices. It was a long time before his mind and ears were clear enough to be able to properly think and hear. After a while, he heard the door open. "Ce pasa?" Came a girl's voice, and Aaron recognised she had spoken Spanish. "Hi." A deep voice of a teenager with a slight Irish accent.
"How's the chico doing?"
"Ok." He should be able to hear us now, but he still can't move or open his eyes."
"I remember the first time I was hit with a Drainer. It was horrible."
"This fella seems to be handling it ok. He's fit enough."
"Yeah, he looks it."
"Oh, really?" The boy's tone was mocking.
"I mean for someone who just got hit." She said, annoyed.
"Lie all you want!" The boy said. "I saw the way you looked at him when you came in!"
"Shut up!" There was a sound of someone being hit. "Ow!" The boy shouted, laughing. The door slammed.
Aaron thought the boy was talking to himself, before he realised he was talking to him.
"Even though she likes you, don't get on the wrong side of her. She hits pretty hard!" Aaron tried to say something, but it felt like his tongue weighed a tonne and he only succeeded in swallowing the words he tried to say.
"Don't try to talk yet, I know you want to ask me all about that girl," He said laughing. "but you can wait. You'll be able to talk in about an hour. Until then just rest. I'll put on some music for you."
So the time passed quicker, as Aaron listened to heavy metal music and urban hip-hop as he lay on the soft bed.
Then the music stopped and the Irish boy spoke. "Ok. I want you to slowly try to open your eyes. Very slowly. Aaron tried and he felt his eyelids open easily, but then he realised that everything was black. He couldn't see! Panic rose up inside him. He tried to talk, and managed to groan.
"Easy. You'll be able to see in a few seconds. Let your eyes adjust. Light suddenly flooded into Aaron's eyes and when they adjusted, he was looking at a huge, slightly overweight teenager, maybe sixteen. He looked friendly, and that was the only way Aaron could have described him.
"I thought you would have preferred to have opened your eyes to see Carmen's pretty face, but to be honest, I couldn't be bothered to call her. So I'll have to do. Aaron nodded and stuck out his hand. The boy laughed and shook his head, then embraced Aaron in a huge bear hug. When he let go he said. "Name's Sonny. I like hugs. Mad on hugs, I am!"
"Aaron." replied Aaron. He was surprised by how quickly his voice had returned. "You hungry?"
"Yeah."
"Come on then."
It was only then that Aaron had time to examine his surroundings. The room was big, and was bare apart from a computer with a VR set and desk and the bed. The wall to the right of the bed was taken up by a gigantic shelf with countless different pieces of metal, some of it filled with mechanical equipment, and more of it filled with what looked like medical equipment. The walls were a grey-blue colour and the floor was concrete.
"Where am I?"
"You're on the third floor of a building in Dersar district."
"Third floor?"
"Yeah.'
Sonny helped Aaron to his feet, and gave him a tablet to take.
'That Drainer left you for dead. If I hadn't given you one of these on the way back, your body would have shut down. Taking one of these is like twelve cups of coffee put together.
Aaron felt a measure of new strength rush through his veins as he swallowed the tablet.
'Thanks,' he said.
'Most of the rest of this building is deserted until you get above the smog. You might not know it, but down here things are different."
"How different?"
"Down here is much more dangerous then up there."
"Then why do people live down here?"
" Because we are illegal."
"We?"
"Yeah. Thousands of the people that live down here are illegal. There are hundreds of thousands down here that are wanted but the cops, the majority are teenagers." Sonny led him to a small lift, and they went down to the first floor, all the time Aaron was thinking of hundreds of different questions to ask. Sonny banged on one of the two doors in the lobby.
‘That door goes to the other rooms on this floor,’ explained Sonny, pointing to the other door.
"It's Sonny. I'm with the kid, Aaron."
A dark skinned man opened the door. He was slightly shorter than Sonny, but still taller then Aaron. He looked about twenty and his hair was braided back, reaching the bottom of his neck at the back.
"Come in." He said. "I'm Harris." He said and shook Aaron's hand. He spoke in a London accent, but it was mixed with the Dersar accent, so he spoke slightly rougher as well.
As soon as stepped into the room in Aaron noticed Carmen. She was defiantly Spanish, with brownish skin and dark brown hair that feel about her shoulders. She looked slightly older than Aaron. Aaron stopped for a second, and realised that he was staring. He quickly averted his gaze and was pushed by Sonny towards the metal table where Harris had just sat down. Sonny sat on a couch in front of an old fashioned plasma telly. There was a Chinese man, who looked to be in his early twenties, sitting at the table as well. Carmen was sat on the couch beside Sonny.
"What age are you?" Harris asked.
"Fifteen." Aaron said.
"You're the youngest then. I'm twenty-five, Ping is twenty-one, and the rest of them are seventeen or something." Aaron nodded and felt his head swim.
"I'd like to know what happened if you don't mind."
So Aaron listened as Harris told him what had happened to him from when they saw him first." When Harris had finished, he frowned and said: "Why were the cops chasing you in the first place?"
"They thought I stole something."
"Did you?"
"No." Harris turned the box of pizza towards Aaron and Aaron took some gratefully.
"Welcome to the family, Aaron. I think it would be best if you stayed with us. It's dangerous down here. You need friends. What do ya say?"
"I'd love to stay with you. But I'm a bit confused, why are you dudes letting me stay here?"
"Hey, we gotta look out for each other, right?"
Aaron nodded.
"So what do you all do?"
"Survive basically." Harris reached under the table and brought out a Hitter gun." Aaron stared in disbelief. Hitters cost a fortune. They could be loaded with a variety of bullets, most used for things other than killing.
"It's yours. You'll need it."
Aaron picked up the beautiful tool, which probably had saved more lives then killed. It fit perfectly in his hand, the rubber handles massaging his hand. He touched the screen in the top of it and the screen folded out to be fifteen inches, and perfect colour display blinked on. From here he could select which bullet to fire, but he could do so much more stuff with it. He could find out his location, go on VR, scan the room for a variety of substances, call someone, do an iris scan and search the internet for the identity of the person, the list went on. "But..?"
"It's yours." Harris said.
"Thanks," mumbled Aaron, his eyes wide.

Aaron talked to Harris and Ping for hours, but he didn't learn much, just that the people on ground level were often troubled (as they put it) by the robot police, especially the ones that were illegal. Aaron was furious to hear this, but it also made him feel scared of course, for he now was one of them.

TARA!

whats vr? love the characters...very reaslistic. how much have u written altogether?

**Sean the man**

I've written a good bit more then this. Very Happy

V.R. is Virtual Reality. In real life it's very basic, but in Central City the graphics are like real life.

TARA!

so its like a map of the world in his little screen? cool, i suppose it would take a while to put it all up....? Suspect

**Sean the man**

The whole thing? I would do it, but I'm not done yet, and I don't think everyone would want to read it.

**Sean the man**

Tolland

Commissioner James Tolland owned the police force. Well, he didn't actually own the police force, but he was the one who made all the decisions, with very little objections from any of his staff. His only superior was the government, President Matthew Herd. As for the UN, well in his opinion, they had no power anymore, especially in Central city. As he sat in his office at central city police headquarters, he watched the city outside, sprawling in all directions; the distant building's outlines clear in the settings sun. He was in his mid-sixties, but had no problems with health, since he had had all the best treatment to prolong his life. What he did notice was that he was greying, and this pained him, since he was very interested in young, beautiful women. He would not give a woman his age the time of day, in fact, he had divorced his wife when she hit thirty. His greying hair made him feel old, dreadfully old. There was a knock on the door. He pressed a button and the door slide upwards into the ceiling. Superintendent Stefan Brown walked in and stood in front of the commissioner's desk.
"Anything to report?"
"You have a meeting with the president tomorrow, to discuss exactly how the police force functions in the city. He wants to talk particularly about the robot force, their programming and duties."
"Good. I think he will be pleased with the work we are doing." The superintendent grinned.
"Of course sir. But you should know that the criminals down on ground level are actually growing in number, not decreasing."
"I have ordered for more robots to be made, and they will be improved. Before they were barely better the K series, but these ones are designed to kill. The new generation of fighter robots, the L5's. Once they are put into operation, the numbers will begin to decrease."
The superintendent nodded, actually bowing slightly, and left the room.
The commissioner looked out once again at the city. He thought of the filth that existed beneath the smog and shuddered. Bringing down the bad guys brought him great pleasure. He had never once killed anything with his own hands, but he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But to him they were not people. To him, anything illegal was to be destroyed, and he saw it as his duty to destroy them.
He pressed a button in his desk and a cup of black coffee slide up through the desk. He took a sip, savouring its beautiful taste. He did not care that it was not actually real coffee, since the coffee bean was extinct. In his opinion, it was better than the real coffee he had drank in his youth. What he liked most about drinking the coffee, however, was the way it reminded him of his success.

Club

Aaron woke up in a hammock, in a room which he shared with Sonny. Like the rest of the building, or at least what he had seen of it, the room had a concrete floor. Their room was on the third floor.
Though he had only been with the others for a day, he already felt he was one of them.
"Morning," Sonny said from the other of the room. He was lying in his hammock doing something with his Hitter.
Aaron looked around the room. Like the room Aaron had first woken up in, there were a few shelves with loads of different electronic things on them, as well as old engine parts.
"Are you an expert with mechanics?"
"You could say that. I'm sort of the mechanic, and the doctor as well, Ping is the cook, Harris the boss, and Carmen is a mix of almost everything.’
‘Do you know much about medicine then?’ asked Aaron, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
‘Yeah. I went to a med school for teenagers for three years. That was before I stole one of the teacher’s cars and crashed it into a wall.’
Aaron raised an eyebrow. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘Coz he was stealing from the school trust fund,’ said Sonny, shaking his head, annoyed.
At that very moment, Carmen walked in.
"You guys sleep ok?" She asked, sitting down in a chair by the door.
"Fine." Aaron said.
"Not me. My hammock rubs off the ground." Sonny complained.
"We're going to a club tonight." Carmen said.
"A club?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah. It's huge. We kinda go to protect other people from the robots, but we can still enjoy ourselves.
"Sounds like fun." Aaron said. Carmen grinned at him.
"It will be."

They left the building at six, and moved together, their weapons ready but concealed. The city did seem to be living, Aaron noticed. It was sort of pulsing.
They walked for a few minutes before Aaron realised that there was one building ahead of them coming into view that was more alive then any other. He could hear music as well. Punk rock, dance, metal, it was a mix. Red and blue neon lights decorated the buildings. Aaron saw others heading towards the building. Goths, punks, huge fellas in hoodies, all excitedly heading towards the building. At the door, people were pushing to get in as quick as possible. There were about ten bouncers, all watching for trouble. To the left, Aaron watched a group of punks on hoverboards speed towards the building. The music was blaring.
"We meet here at twelve o clock." Harris said. "Don't get into any fights." Sonny nudged Aaron.
"Don't show off your Hitter, they're expensive, and lots of fellas down here wouldn’t hesitate to steal it."
"Ok."
As Aaron walked in, he was overwhelmed by the music and the building itself. Inside was a huge dance floor, with bars and tables around the edge of it. There were hundreds of speakers and flashing lights. Stairs led to the upper levels, with balconies and countless different facilities, computers and hundreds of curved screens showing films which you could watch in complete silence by putting headphones on.
Sonny pulled Aaron towards the stairs.
"Best start with a drink, on me."
They sat down upstairs by the edge and watched the dance floor below. Aaron sipped the glowing drink. On or two idiots were dancing in between the tables and Aaron scowled in annoyance. He spotted a girl with pointed ears like an elf. He pointed it out to Sonny.
"She had an operation to get those. Pretty cool, eh?"
"Really cool." Aaron said, still staring.
She turned and saw him looking at her and winked. He grinned back.
A huge teenager walked towards him and Sonny. He slapped Sonny on the back, sitting down with them. He spoke with an Irish accent like Sonny.
"Story?!" He shouted, grinning.
"Jamie, meet Aaron."
Jamie nodded at Aaron. Then he called for a drink and settled into the chair.
"How's Harris?"
"Good." Sonny said. "Stays in the apartment most of the time, waiting for attacks."
"Did he come here tonight?"
"Yeah, he's just buying stuff." Sonny said.
"And where are you from?" Jamie asked, looking at Aaron.
"I come from this district, but I used to live above the smog."
"Wow." Jamie said, "What brings you here?"
"The police think I stole something."
"Should've guessed." Jamie said, screwing his face and taking his drink from the waitress, being very obvious as he checked her out.
Sonny looked down on the dance floor.
"It's wild tonight!" He said.
"I need to take a slash," Aaron said, getting up.
"Do know where the toilets are?" Sonny asked.
"I'll find em."
"Sure. Ring me if you get lost." Sonny said.

Aaron pushed his way through the crowds and found the toilets near the bar. When he had finished, he looked in the mirror briefing and saw his dark hair neat on top of his head. He ruffled it up and left the toilets, heading straight back to the tables.
"Aaron!" Aaron turned to see Harris, sitting at a table with a gang of men wearing chains. They had piercings everywhere, and one had a shaved head with tattoos everywhere on it, of snakes and graffiti.
Harris pulled Aaron down to sit beside him.
"This is Aaron." The men looked up from their conversation and stared at Aaron.
"Hey Aaron," The one with the tattooed head said. "I'm Fin,"
"Hey."
"Aaron's new here. Any of you see him getting hurt, help him out."
"We got enough people to look after," The one with the tattoo of tiger stripes down the side of his face said.
"Shut up, Tigek." Fin said. Then he looked at Aaron.
"What age are you?"
"Fifteen." Aaron said, trying to make his voice sound as deep as possible. Fin nodded.
"Sure, we'll look out for you. If anyone asks what gang you support, you say that you support wolfpac."
Aaron nodded. Then Harris stood up.
"Gonna show Aaron round, see ya." He said to Fin. Fin nodded, then turned away.

As the walked out of the restaurant and continued along the balcony, Aaron asked: "Who were they?"
"The wolfpac gang, or some of them. Fin is their leader."
"How do you know them?" Aaron asked as the walked past some VR rigs.
"I used to be in the gang."
"Were you important in the gang."
"Sorta, I smuggled stuff for them." Harris said, making little of it.
Aaron looked at him, amazed.
"What other gangs are there?"
"There's hundreds of gangs." Harris said, as they started down the stairs. "In Dersar district, the most influential I suppose would be wolfpac and the west-side gang." He dropped the conversation there and Aaron didn’t press him for more information.

They reached the last of the steps just as a hip hop song came on.
"Someone in wolfpac is the singer of this." Harris said, walking onto the dance floor. Aaron held back for a second, not really in the mood for dancing, but then shrugged and went after Harris.
Harris went to the centre of the dance floor and began break-dancing. A few people turned to watch as he spun on his back, and then when he got up, a short man wearing a hoody and baggy tracksuit pants took his place and began break-dancing.
"You're next." Harris said, leaning in close so Aaron could hear him.
"What? I'm not really in the mood to..."
"You gotta top that." Harris said, pointing to the man in the hoody who was now bouncing on his hands.
The man stopped and stood back and the growing crowd cheered. Then Harris pushed Aaron into the middle. Aaron stopped for a second and looked around at the people watching him. He could break-dance, because when Sam was alive he had often gone to parties and discos, spending most of the time dancing. But that had been a year ago, and he barely danced since then. He felt the music pull him in and he gave in. He put one hand on the floor and spun onto his back, letting momentum carry him back onto his feet. Then he preformed a hand stand, and took one hand away, holding his feet with it. He held it for three seconds, the dropped onto his feet and stood back from the circle. The crowd cheered and instantly the short man's friend took his place.
"Nice, we could win this!" Harris shouted, grinning.
As soon as the dancer finished, Harris ran into the circle and spun on his feet then jumped backwards onto his hands and onto his feet again. He spun on his back then rolled back and spun on his head. The crowd cheered as he flipped back onto his feet. Then everyone crowded around Aaron and Harris, patting them on the back, as the two challengers sighed and walked away. When they finally got through the crowd, Aaron looked at Harris.
"How do you do that?" He asked, poorly concealed awe on his face.
"Practice. Why didn't you tell me you could dance?"
"It never came up in conversation." Aaron said, shrugging.
'Whatever,' Harris said, shoving him playfully. 'Lets find the others.'

They walked off the dance floor towards the bar on ground floor, to the right side of the DJ's turntables.
The tables were quite crowded, but eventually they spotted Ping in one corner, talking to one of the waitresses.
'Ping always hangs out here, talking to people,' Harris was saying as they walked towards him, 'he prefers it to dancing.'
The waitress left just as they arrived.
'Hey dudes,' Ping said, high-fiving Aaron.
'We gotta go in a few minutes.'
'Aw, I think she's bout to give me her number,'
Harris shook his head with a grin.
'Man, you know this place gets worse at night,'
'I'm coming,' said Ping with a sigh. Harris frowned, 'Where's Carmen?'
'I don't know...' Ping said, 'I saw her about an hour ago, she was with a few friends.'
Harris rolled his eyes. 'I'll get Sonny,' he said, taking out his hitter.

Two minutes later Sonny appeared.
'Sorry Harris, I haven't seen Carmen since we got here,'
Aaron was messing with his hitter. In his backpack he had a few rolls of gas and flash bullets, but the hitter itself was full of shocker bullets.
'I'll try ringing her,' Harris said. Ping reached into his bag then and slipped a pair of goggles over his eyes.
'What are those?' Aaron said.
'Tracker goggles. Carmen is wearing a tracking device that makes her stand out when I put these on. Here, you try,'
He handed them to Aaron. He slipped them over his eyes and saw everything with a green tinge.
'If Carmen was in your line of sight, you'd see a red blinking light on her ankle, visible even through walls.'
Aaron looked around but couldn't see any red lights. He looked up at the second and third floor balconies and into the jungle of lights and cat walks that eventually led to the roof of the low building, which was only eight stories high. He caught a glimpse of a red light, but even as he saw it, it suddenly blinked out. He jumped and tore the goggles off.
'I saw a red light up in the catwalks!' He blurted. Ping cursed and took out his hitter. The others turned with shocked expressions.
'Come on,' Harris said. He walked quickly, looking up at the catwalks every few seconds, though it was impossible to see past the bright lights.
The others followed, taking out their hitters as discreetly as possible. Aaron shuddered as the possibility of facing more robots struck him, but he also wanted to prove himself to the others. Until he did, he wasn't really one of them.
They were climbing the stairs on the third story to go onto the catwalk when Aaron started to feel afraid. They climbed the stairs and the second they got above the hanging lights everything got darker, and it took a few seconds for Aaron's eyes to adjust to the darkness.
As soon as they did he saw the vast amount of cat walks, going up two stories before leading into the three upper stories.
Harris looked around wildly, but Carmen was clearly not there.
Harris took out a rope canister and clicked it onto the nozzle of his hitter. He pointed it at the roof. He pulled the trigger and held on tight as the top of the canister shot out and thudded into the roof, rope unfurling behind it. The second it hit the roof, the rope tightened and rapidly started to be pulled into the canister that was firmly lodged in the roof.
Harris hung on as he was pulled up. He climbed onto the catwalk beside where the canister was lodged and unclipped the rope from his hitter. Sonny and Ping took two other canisters out and Aaron took out his.
He shot it at the roof and held on as he was jerked upwards. Harris helped him over the railing and he unclipped the rope.
When they were all up Harris led them to the door, which he kicked until the lock was broken. The floor they now walked through was full of beds and trolleys, and medical equipment.
'This place must have been a hospital,' Sonny said.
'It was,' Harris said, picking his way between the beds, 'but it was deserted when a better one way built above the smog. There's not many doctors down here anymore, you need to know the right people to get you're hands on one. You're not a doctor by any chance, Aaron?'
Aaron shook his head, thinking back to when Sam had taught him CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation.
They walked through and reached the other end of the ward quickly, where they found the stairs to the next level.
'It was probably nothing, dude,' Ping said to Harris, 'She's probably looking for us downstairs.'
'I'm not taking any chances,' said Harris, 'We still need to make sure.'
He opened the door and began climbing the stairs. Sonny followed. Ping looked at Aaron and rolled his eyes. 'That waitress was really hot,' he said, and followed the others.
The next floor was exactly the same as the last, except it had more equipment and trolleys.
'She's not up here, Harris,' Sonny said, coming to stand beside him.
'Fine, lets..' Harris jumped from the impact of a bullet slamming into his chest. Instantly, a foam started to cover him, and he fell over as it clung to his body. In seconds he was completely encased in a thick foam. The others looked around wildly, then ducked down and pulled Harris with them behind a trolley.
Fear clutched Aaron as he sat there. There was no sound except the breathing of the three of them and the hum of some distant ventilation machine.
Aaron silently settled his finger on the trigger of his hitter. Sonny raised his and stuck it out the side of the trolley. A bullet hit the far wall and Sonny sat back, as a cascade of foam exploded from the bullet and ran down the wall, expanding as it went.
'The people firing are trying to capture us, not kill us,' Sonny whispered.
'Robots?' asked Aaron.
'Probably'
Aaron looked across to Ping, who was holding the form of Harris wrapped in foam, and pushing a tube through the foam.
'So he can breath,' whispered Ping as he saw Aaron looking at him.
Suddenly the sound of metal footsteps echoed through the room. Sonny writhed and turned, firing three shockers as he jumped to his feet. Aaron jumped up and saw two robots, and he shot the remaining one as the other fell to the ground, sparks flying from its wires.
'They were only guards, in case anyone should come after the main group,' Harris said, 'I'll bet they have Carmen.'
'Why Carmen?' asked Aaron. Ping shrugged. 'We've destroyed dozens of droids, they want us badly. Maybe their boss figured that if he got his robots to take her, we'd follow.'
'This could be an ambush,' Ping said.
Harris turned to him. 'Would you prefer if we left Carmen to die?' He asked coldly.
'What the hell?!' Ping shouted, 'What are you talking about? Of course not! I'm just saying we should be careful.'
Ping glared at Harris for a few seconds before Harris said 'I'm sorry, let’s go. Reload you're hitters.'

Harris led the way carefully as they headed towards the stairs. Everyone was quiet. Harris stopped before the door that led out onto the roof and signalled for quiet. Carefully, he adjusted his hitter and kicked the door open, jumping out onto the roof. Aaron watched through the darkness as he shot two towards targets he could not see. Then he was running back towards the door as fast as he could. He was shot in the leg when he was two feet from cover, and he collapsed with a muffled shout. Instantly Ping and Aaron dragged him in. Ping leaned against the wall of the stairs with his hitter ready as Sonny examined the wound. Blood was flowing rapidly from the hole in the inside of Harris' left thigh. Sonny ripped the clothing around the wound to make it more visible. The bullet's entry point was a clean hole, but the skin around it was burnt from the heat of the plasma bullet, which had shot clean through his leg. Sonny twisted Harris leg slightly, and Harris cried out in pain. Aaron gasped as he saw where bullet had exited Harris' leg. The bullet had torn of chunk of skin and muscle as it exited, and more blood was coming out on that side.
'Tear up two strips from his trousers!' Sonny hissed as he poured water over the wound. Sweat was pouring down Harris' forehead, and he had almost lost consciousness. Aaron began ripping up the trousers and Sonny helped him. Then Sonny took the two pieces and started pushing them into the wound.
'What are..?'
'I need to plug the wound! Take off your shirt and wrap it around the wound, we need to stop the bleeding!'
Aaron ignored the blood on his hands and tore off his shirt. Suddenly he heard shots behind him.
'You take care of them!' Sonny said, grabbing the shirt. Aaron raised his hitter and turned to help Ping. Visible in the light from the stories below, were three droids, using an air-conditioning unit for cover. Aaron carefully took out a grenade, and was about to attach it to his hitter when Ping saw it.
'No! They've got Carmen!' Aaron cursed, and quickly put the grenade back in his bag, readying his hitter so that he could fire a shocker if one of the droids tried to shoot.
Ping shot again, but the shocker missed and hit the unit instead, sending a fire of sparks exploding from it.
'Follow me!' Ping shouted.

In the brief second that the droids were blinded by the sparks, Ping and Aaron were on top of the shelter for the stairs and the door beneath them was closed. For that higher vantage point they could see the three droids quickly Ping shot the first two and Aaron shot a shocker at the other, but missed, only managing to hit the droids gun, sending it flying from his hand over the edge of the building.
Then Aaron suddenly felt fear grip him as the droids eyes focused on him and turned red. Then before Aaron could react, the droid jumped from its cover and took out a metre and a half long sword. It raced towards them with impossible speed, and swung it's sword at them as it leapt into the air. Aaron shouted out as he saw the blade flash, then instinctively put the hitter out to block the attack. A deafening clash exploded from the impact, so loud it made Aaron's ears ring. His arm went numb, but the heat-breel shell of the hitter was barely scratched. Then the droid was hit with a shocker from Ping's gun and it fell from the air, dropping it's sword by Aaron's side.

Aaron and Ping sat there for a few seconds, gasping for breath. Then they remembered Carmen.
They rushed over and found her lying on the hard concrete behind the air-conditioning unit. Aaron leaned over her, finding a very weak pulse. She wasn't breathing.
'Can you do CPR?' Ping asked desperately.
'Can't Sonny?'
'No!'
Aaron tried to remember his lessons and took a deep breath. He leaned over her and began the twenty compressions, then blew through her lips, careful not to blow to hard. If he did it wrong, he would never forgive himself. In other circumstances, he would have relished every second of that experience, but he was too nervous then to care. He blew again and suddenly Carmen stirred. Aaron leaned back and Carmen suddenly started coughing up water. She coughed for a few minutes before she became aware of her surroundings.
She saw Aaron first, then Ping, and suddenly her eyes widened.
'The droids!'
'They're gone,' Ping said, smiling gently.
'What about Harris and Sonny?'
'Harris got shot,' Aaron said, 'But don't worry, he'll be ok. Sonny is ok too.'
Carmen seemed to relax.
'What happened?' Ping asked.
'I went up to the catwalks to meet friends.... and got grabbed by.... droids.. si, it was defiantly droids. They took me to the roof and knocked me unconscious.' Aaron frowned.
'Then why did you cough up water? You almost drowned.'
Carmen stared at him.
'I don't remember. I don't know how I swallowed all that water..'
'Aaron saved you. He gave you the kiss of life,' Ping said, grinning.
Carmen looked at Aaron and smiled, winking at him. Aaron felt himself blush, but managed to smile. Just then Sonny came over, helping Harris along.
He carefully set the semiconscious Harris down beside Aaron and sighed heavily as he sat down between Carmen and Ping.
He then proffered the sword that the droid had wielded a few minutes ago. He handed it to Aaron.
'Here, you can have it,' Sonny said.
'It might come in handy,' said Aaron thoughtfully.

**Urmudda0007**

Sean, if you stick with any of your stories, stick with this one. It has definitely got the most potential (of the ones I've read anyway). If I were you I wouldn't post the whole story here, but have a printed copy for people at school to read if they want more than the taste you've given us. That's just my opinion.

I like the Jamie character!! "Story?"

TARA!

makes a big change from clon affraid

th story moves reli fast so u dont get bored reading it... story?! What a Face

r u getting any of your stories publishedd?

**Sean the man**

I really hope to get some stories published eventually, but it's a hard process, and I don't know how to go about it.
I agree with you Jamie, think it's a good idea not to put much more of this up on the forum, coz it's pretty long.