The Robin Hood Gang 2: Service from Spain

Suzie-

"Where were all your friends going with the guns?" I froze and Bree tensed up.

"Nowhere Mom," she replied smoothly.

"Bree-"

"Oh look, Bree brought Sushi," I interupted and placed my hand over a piece, looking Bree in the eye. There was just the feint shake of her head so I moved my hand to a different piece. It must have been safe because she made no reaction.

"Would you like a piece Mr. and Mrs. Evans?"

"That would be wonderful. Please answer my question Bree," said Mrs. Evans, grabbing a piece and popping it in her mouth. Mr. Evans did the same.

After a minute or two, their eyes started to droop and they hit the table asleep.

"What did you guys do to them?" I asked, trying not to laugh. Finally I didn't have to laugh at those stupid jokes anymore.

Maitea came out with a little vial. "Nightshade," she laughed.

Alis

Screw my darkly tinted windows. Reg wuldn't be able to see I was gesturing to turn right. Why did I have to get a expensive car. Oh, thats right, because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Reg turns left, and I reluctantly follow him. We drive up to a large mansion. He gets out of that thing he calls a car and walks over to me.

He starts to lean, on the hood, but I growl, "Don't you dare touch my car."

"I'm so bloody terrified of you." He says, laughing. I hiss, but don't comment.

"Lets just go inside." I say, taking my gun out. I see a long, sturdy looking vine-wire going up to a second story balcony.

"Stay here." I say, then climb up. I open the window and climb through, then run downstairs. Reg is already inside.

"The door was un-locked." he observes. Against my will, I stamp my foot. He starts laughing.

"Why'd you pick me to go with you?" I ask him.

"'Cause Riles wants t' be with James."

"How do you know."

"It ain't 'ard to figure out."

"Just make sure your guns loaded." I say, then walk into what looks like a bedroom. A man is in there, and he has a gun.

Ace

I still couldn't believe it--that she actually loved me. Or said she did. But she'd never done anything to make me doubt her, so I had to have faith that she wouldn't lie to me about something like that.

So when the Evanses dropped into a deep sleep, I couldn't find it in myself to reprimand her for messing up our hard work. I did, however, drop my head into my hand and whine, "Nooo!"

"Oh, Ace, it's not in all of them," she laughed. "Do you really think I'd do that to you?"

"Why do you gotta go and--nevermind." I sighed and looked at the couple, passed out on the couch. "I think I like them better this way. Don't have to explain where 'our friends with the guns' went. Even though I was going to just say clay-shooting."

"Ugh!" Bree cried, exasperated. "Stop sabotaging my parents! Seriously! Maitea...Ace..."

"I didn't do it!" I objected. "All I did was call her fat! And, well..." I gestured to her. "Come on!"

"They'll wake up in a couple minutes...half an hour at the most--it was a really small dosage. And then," Maitea explained, "we'll just ask them if they had a good nap, that they must have been exhausted from the trip over here. And the beauty of all this is that they'll have forgotten that they saw the rest of us walk out with guns."

"Oh," I blinked. Not a bad idea. "Excellent," I whispered as I started going back to the kitchen, kissing her cheek lightly on my way there. I didn't know about everyone else, but I wanted some rice.

Reg Carter

"My gun's always bloody loaded," I murmured to myself. This should be an easy night. Suddenly I hear gun shots from upstairs and rush up, my feet quickly dashing up the wooden staircase and into what appeared to be a bedroom. In the room Alis stood, frozen. I looked to the right where the bed was and saw a bloke riddled with four bullets, blood stained over the sheets and white quilt.

"Bloody 'ell," I snarled, "Did you have to kill 'im?"

"He was armed," She protested.

I looked at his corpse and noticed a shotgun. I looked at it closer and grinned. "Yeah, with a spud gun for crying out loud."

She smiled. "Could've been real."

"It could've. But it wasn't."

From outside the squeal of sirens echoed through the scarce posh neighbourhood and I looked out of the open window to see three vans full of armed police. There was atleast twenty of 'em. We wouldn't stand a chance.

"It's a bloody set-up!" I yelled at Alis.

"Crap, we're gon'a get slaughtered," She shouted.

"Alis, you go phone Riles and James. We need more people. GO NOW!" I shouted.

It took a dramatic, dangerous situation for her to realise I was incharge. It was good though, it meant something would get done and we'd function as a good team. She ran out the backdoor in an effort to get some signal on her cell. I hears her ringing the number. I pulled my pistol out of my pocket and released 12 rounds onto the cops below. I wounded one officer, but the others were clever.

They were special ops.

Someone, somewhere, knew we were coming. We were being watched.

Sorry this is long.

Riley

The phone rang. It was Alis.

"What?" I ask.

"Riley, get here, now. They have the special ops on us. We won't make it unless...." Alis starts. the the phone cuts dead. I hear a faint gun shot in the backround. She picks up the phone again.

"Riley, send everyone you can. There's twenty! The mansion om Dellers run." She says.

I hang up and call Bree.

"Bree, send Maitea, Ace and Suzie to the mansion on Dellers run. Don't you dare come. Keep mom and dad distracted. Alis and Reg are in trouble." I said. Then I regretted the last sentence.

"Reg's in trouble, and you asked me to stay home? What kind of sister are you?"

"The type trying to keep you alive!" I growl. She hangs up, I know she is coming. I quickly repeat what I knew to James. We get on our motorcycles and speed off. When we arive, there is clearly more than twenty officers there. Another van pulls up with six more. We were out of luck.

And out of one van steped Marcello. I start to walk over to him, but James hold me back. He pulls me behind a tree.

"That would be suicide." He whispers.

"Oh, thats right, cause we have so many more options." I say sarcastically. "When I leave, go inside and get Reg and Alis out."

"Stop." He yells, but its too late. I walk out into the sunlight. A few officers point there guns at me. I drop my gun.

Marcello saunters over to me, "Riley, Riley. This is so unlike you. I am disapionted."

"What do you want?" My voice is hard, cold.

"I want all of you captured, and Reg dead. And, by association, Bree." He sneers.

"I'd ask you why, but I have a feeling I know."

"Good, I didn't feel like monolouging to you. Now, your choice is very simple. Die now, or die under questioning."

"Is there a third option?"

"You wish."

Maitea

Me, Bree and Ace all pull up to the mansion. About thirty cops are in a big circle around the house. Riley is talking to Marcello.H e's smiling, she looks.....hopeless. This can't be good. I take out my gun.

Bree pushes it down. "Wait a seond until...."

I don't care. I take out my gun, and aim it right at an officer's head. I shoot, he falls over. The next second I have ten guns all pointed at me.

"Well, this was a dumb idea." I observe.

"Ya think?" Riley asks, irritated.

"Well, one down, thirty to go." I say. I watch Bree take out her phone. The officers don't.

"What happens now?" A young officer asks.

"Anyone toutches me or Riley you DIE!" I say, picking up my gun.

"Well, you die too, so what do we do now?" Marcello asks. Bree suddenly smiles and pockets her phone. She mouths the word 'stall'. I jerk my head in a half nod.

"That nice your going to kill us and stuff, but where's the honor?" Ace asks. I am shocked, but I pick up on what he's doing.

"Yeah, four of us against all thrirty of you. That's not very fair." I say.

"Life isn't fair." Marcello says.

"What about the honor? There's no point in beating someone who forfeits." I say.

"Yeah, Marcello, you of all people would know about honor." Riley says.

"Just shoot them, except the girl." Marcello points to Bree. ALis comes running out, gun in hand, with Reg and James not far behind.

------------Bree called the gang from the south....--------------

Ace

"Oh, hold on," I said to the cops holding me at gunpoint--just as I was doing to them. "I think I've gotten a text message." I pulled what they thought was a phone out of my pocket--it was actually a small touch screen computer with phone capabilities. If I can jam all their signals, they can't call for any more reinforcements...nor can they use any weapon other than their guns.

My thumb flew over the letters and numbers skillfully, and once I found their network, I bypassed it and proceeded to remotely shut down their devices. Gotta love being a hacker.

"We've...we've lost signal to HQ," I heard one of them panic, and I tried not to smirk.

"Losing surveillance," another shouted. Darn right you are, I thought.

"Who are you communicating with, boy?" an officer asked me, and I grinned deviously.

"Just Ma telling me to eat my veggies."

He pulled the hammer back on his pistol, expecting it to faze me. I wasn't afraid of death. I'd been staring it in the face for years, and now thought of it the way I'd think of my shadow behind me.

And then I found something in the files for one of the vans. It was the program to detonate an explosive--I wasn't sure where the bomb was, but I surely hoped it was in the van. It would take out a handful of them, but a few was a start. Just to be sure, I texted Bree, who was still looking at her cell phone: Want me to start a big bang?

The problem with it was that if I set it off, all of the Spec Ops would know I'd done it. It was likely that if I sabotaged them, then it would mark the start of my last two minutes as a living organism.

I waited patiently for Bree to give me a sign.

Bree


Do it. I texted. I typed a message to Alis.

Distract them. I text. She nodds. She runs in a full out sprint towards a tree. A bunch of the officers start to aim. Suddenly, a van explodes. About three seconds later, there are only ten police left. They all seem to be in shock.

"Would you like to do the honors?" I yell to Ace.

He shakes his head, "Alis!" He yells. That was nice of him. She would hate to miss out on a chance to kill someone. In a flash, every oficer is dead.

"You saved us." Riley says to Ace.

"Well, I...." He starts. Ia mlost laugh. Maitea runs over to him. I go up to Reg.

"Lets not do that again." I say.

"Your bloody right. He says, not quite smiling.

Ace

I held my breath as I saw the interface for the weapon come up on my three inch screen. I went through the menu and found the option to set it off, and I did. The largest of the vans exploded in a blaze of fire and shrapnel just as all of the officers had snapped to look at Alis. Stupid grunts, I thought. You're not supposed to take your eyes off a target.

However, their stupidity had saved my life.

I told Alis to do the honors, and happily, she obliged. And suddenly Riley was there, informing me that I'd saved them. I tried to deny it, stammering nonsense in an attempt to be humble, but my words ceased as Maitea ran over to me, landing perfectly in my arms.

"Ace," she sighed, smiling into my shoulder. "I'm so glad we're all okay. Where did you learn to do that?"

"It started out as my friend and I trying to hack cheats into our video games. Then, I just started experimenting with what I could get away with." I put my computer away and gestured to the burning rubble. "This is my crown jewel--no, wait. That's you. That boom is just something NOT to write home about."

"Were you scared?" she asked.

"More than I've ever been in my life." Still holding her close, I called to the others. "We can't stay here. They're a blip on the screen at their headquarters, and when blips fall off the face of the Earth, someone's bound to come and investigate. First they'll stall by trying to make contact, but now...they'll be here in five to ten minutes."

Maitea

We drive back to the house. As soon as we are in, I run right up to Ace.

"That really was incredible, you know. We'd all be dead otherwise. I mean, even with Alis and Reg, and James, I guess, we wouldn't have a prayer." I say.

"I just did what I needed to." he says. I give him a kiss.

"You did more than that." I interject.

"Okay, as mushy and sweet as that all is, we need a plan." Alis says, strolling over.

"For what?" I ask.

"Well, Marcello knows where we are, Mr. and Mrs. Evan must think were all crazy and to top it off, there probably on the same side!" She almost yells. I forgot that Marcello would know where we were.

"What should we do?" Suzie asks.

"Move to a new place, I guess." Riley says.

"What about your parents?" Suzie asks quietly.

Alis

I was in a good mood. I had fresh cops-blood on my shirt and a bloody knife in my pocket. Yes, this was a good day.

"What about your parents?" Suzie asks, adressing Riley.

"We fake one of us getting really sick. We say the rest of us already had it. Your parents go back to wherever. End of story." I say.

"That's not a bad plan." James says. His surprise is definetly an insult.

"Yeah, I do that every once an a while." I hiss through my teeth.

"Well, your pale 'nough, you never smile 'less your killin' some poor bloke and you are a good lair. You could do i', Alis." Reg says. Is it offical Insult Alis Day?

"I am not that pale." I growl.

"You are, enough to pull it off." Bree says.

"Fine, but you SO owe me for this." I say I collapse to the gorund, fake laughing. Riley catches on, and pretnds to help me up. Mr. and Mrs. Evans come out at the sound of my coughing.

Ace

I paled myself at the thought of faking someone being really sick. I mean, really, with me in the gang, they didn't have to fake that. Of course, I had everything under control for the most part--sometimes having to sneak out to pick up my medicine, having to hide it in the refrigerator (in a bag at the very back, where no one would look) and give myself injections in secret.

But I relaxed a little bit as Alis started having one of the most convincing coughing fits I'd ever seen. Once again, I was saved from having to admit anything.

I knelt down next to Alis as the parents came in, and imitated my father. Whenever I was sick--sicker than usual--he'd have me say "Aah," feel for a fever...doctorish things. So after a minute of Alis playing along with me (and me playing along with her,) I said, "Maybe you have the flu," I said.

She let out another cough and held her chest as if it were excruciatingly painful.

"Only thing to do is let you rest...and...don't give me your germs, Alis. Stop breathing on me."

She was seconds from bursting into giggles, so she coughed again. "You suck, Ace," she said pointedly. Mrs. Evans's eyebrow raised.

"Must be the fever talking," I said.

"No," Alis wheezed, "you just suck." Stop making me laugh, is what she meant.

"Someone take her to lie down," I said, but she was crawling up toward the couch already. I reminded myself to compliment her acting.

Bree

"Wait, Maitea, didn't you get this...." I start.

"Oh, no! It is gerisitis!" Maitea said, obviously making up a name.

"Mom, dad, you better leave and get home quick. We all have had this before, but barely made it through. You'd best leave. I will ship your stuff to you. Hurry." I lead them out the door, almost pushing them into the car. They give me looks, but drive off.

"I owe you." Riley says, looking at Alis, she grins. She gets up.

"Lets go, now!" She says.

"Where?" Ace asks.

"The old place, the apartment. Marcello would never guess." James says. Not a bad idea, actually.

"Lets go." I agree, and we hop onto, or into, our rides. The new people would be wuite in shock when they saw our old base. I grin a little. Reg doesn't look happy.

I ride over to him. "Are you okay?"

"I know who the Ghost is, its Marcello. he won't stop until we are both dead." Reg says.

Ace

"Apartment?" I asked out loud, certain I probably had a strange look on my face--perhaps even a snobbish look. I'd never lived in an apartment before, but my best friend back home did, and...well, her mother was always complaining about how horrible apartment management could be. And there was never enough room for them to keep their things. The repairman hadn't come when the thermostat had broken the summer of our sophomore year (which is, in SoCal, an emergency) and we could always hear every sound from the other tenants, from their music to their TV shows to their barbecues to...yeah. Everything.

I frowned as I grabbed my prescriptions and then went up to get a few important possessions, and then I hopped in the car to follow them to the old place.

I know I usually wasn't too picky, but I could only imagine how cramped we would all be in there. I was used to space, and I didn't want to give that up. I mean, really, where would I go if I wanted to be alone? I was used to four people and a dog living in something nearly the size of the mansion hideout. There had always been somewhere for me to hide before. And now, everything would be out in the open.

I told myself to chill out and wait till I saw it before making any generalizations about it.

We pulled up, and I still didn't look too happy. But, I supposed, it was better than being dead.

Alis

Bree rides over to talk to Reg. I smile. I don't know why, but I smile. Then I catch myself, and compose my face into a scowl. Thankfully, through my tinted windows, they wouldn't see anything.

We pull up at an old, worn down apartment.

"So many wonderful memories." Riley says half-sarcasticaly. I wonder what happened.

Ace comes up to me, "You know, your a pretty good actor." He says.

"Actress." I correct coldly.

"Right...uh...that." He blushes. I sigh and roll my eyes.

"My god, Ace, man up a little."

Maitea steps defensively beside him, "Leave him alone, Alis. Ace isn't the only one with problems."

"That hasn't happened in a year, Maitea, it won't happen again." I hiss.

"It could come back any day." She snarles.

A while ago, almost a year, I had my last attack. A strong, negative, emotion would totally come over me, lasting for a few minutes to a whole day. It would rule all my senses and kill my judgement. I was completely lethal when it happened. I had killed many people that way. I shudder at the memory.

"Wonderful little place you got here Riley." I say.

"Let it be Alis." Riley reorts.

"Fabulous place to have a wedding."

"Shut up Alis." Riley says. Why was she so defensive?