Robin Hood: Sell out chapter 1 part 2

"That’s me.” sneered Conner "Now what have we got here then? Nothing brings out the do gooders like the promise of cash." Conner was now at the end of the meeting table, running his hands across the wood.

"The boss will be pleased when he finds out that I’ve captured the famous Robin Hood of Locksdale, I might even get a promotion. And it’s all thanks to you Hood, if you weren’t so gullible as to believe that Mr. Baxter would actually leave his wallet here, with all of that money in it, none of this would have been possible," Baxter’s right hand man and our nemesis hissed.

"You’re not all what people say you are; are you? I thought you'd be harder to fool than this, for a whole month you and your band of miscreants have been giving me a hard time and I was expecting more than this."

"Mark." I whispered.

"I’m on it, hang in there." Mark replied.

"And don't even think of trying any funny stuff." And with a click of his fingers ten of Baxter’s men rushed into the room. "You’re coming with me." The men surrounded me, only ten? Had he learnt nothing, I could take them easily. But then again Michael Conner was not Baxter’s smartest crony. The guy had it in for us since we started out. Conner is Baxter's Chief of Security and his Personal Undersecretary Managing Unmanageable Affairs. In other words Conner does things Baxter's too important to do, like take care of us outlaws.

Conner's men formed a tight circle around me and the table, closing in on me.

"Not such a big man now, are you Hood?" Conner asked. Did I mention he thought I was a guy? Well him and everyone else in town, despite the fact I am obviously not a guy. But it’s come in handy so far and I could do without them finding out otherwise.

The so called elite fighting squad, closed ranks. I gripped the back of Baxter’s leather chair, and waited. Conner now a few feet away from me hands open, grinning from ear to ear celebrated his success.

"It's all over. You think the resistance would have learned its lesson by now, this is Baxter’s town. Everyone who has ever stood up to him has been crushed what makes you any different? You’re nothing; you’re a pathetic, foolish excuse for an opponent, hahaha." Now that really pissed me off, what makes me different? This from the guy whose ass I've been kicking for the last month. But that’s the thing with Conner, and just villains in general, if they spent less time laughing and mocking their prisoners they might not give them just enough time to escape. With Conner still sniggering I spoke into my ear piece.

"Now?" I asked.

"Now." said Mark.

And with that, I mustered up all the strength I had and picked up the leather desk chair in front of me and threw it at Conner, knocking him onto the floor. At the exact same time the office windows shattered showering Conner’s ‘elite’ fighting squad with glass, causing them to scatter.

“You wanna know what makes me different?" I shouted in my man voice.

I hopped over the desk flung aside a chair sending Baxter’s men running again, and jumped onto the meeting table just as Conner howled.

"Get him!"

"I’m not alone," I shouted.

The squad now recovering from my attack advanced and surrounded me again. Not watching the window the ‘elite’ fighters didn’t see an arrow fly through the broken window and stick into the opposite wall. The building only being two storeys high John was at the top of the rope in no time, but not soon enough, squad members were grabbing at my legs and climbing on the table. Running flat out to the other end of the table I yelled.

"John throw it!"

My bow flew through the air and I grabbed for it but missed by centimetres, thanks to a squad member who grabbed my leg and sharply twisted it pulling me to the table. Big mistake. Reacting I swung round my other foot, smacking him in the side of the head. Howling with pain he let go. I was immediately grateful towards my parents for sending me to karate all those years ago, of course recently my abilities had bettered thanks to the natural instincts of my ancestor, but it’s always nice to know what you’re doing. My prior knowledge allowed me to rank as the best fighter in the group, since the others were going on new found instinct alone, not that I’m bragging or anything. We had found that that faithful night had intensified all of the skills we already had, which was definitely useful.

With swift kicks to my nearest attackers I ran to retrieve my bow. Across the room John was deep in battle with three squad members, three more were picking themselves up from my blows to go help their colleagues. Four others now advanced on me. Snatching up my bow I tied a length of rope around the arrow and aimed upwards, at one of the ceilings wooden beams above John’s head. As the arrow sunk in I grabbed the rope and swung over the four squad members and straight into the three coming for John. Knocking them to the ground I let go of the rope and landed ready to fight.

"Thanks." said John.

"Don't mention it." The four squad members I had swung over were now rushing towards us. Seeing them John pulled out a small cylinder (one of Marks inventions) and with the press of a button it sprang into a staff. Battle ready we stood waiting for the oncoming attackers, John took the first one. Dashing forward he swung the staff and hit the squad guy in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. But that was all I saw as two of them ran towards me. Hitting one as he ran with my bow I span to kick the other in the chest. But they weren’t down long, clutching their chests they stood up again; I’d only managed to piss them off. One lunged at me while the other removed a knife from his pocket, oh no you don't. Throwing myself sharply to the left I managed to miss the first guy. I was flat on my back when the other squad member ran at me with his knife; lifting my feet I kicked him backwards. But the first squad member now with a knife of his own, suddenly reappeared and began to thrust his knife towards my face, my bow discarded I rolled to avoid the blade. As the guy continued to jab at me with the dagger it was getting harder to avoid it. I had no idea where John was or what was happening to him, but I knew I had to deal with this. Bang. I smashed into the now overturned meeting table, sniggering my attacker raised his knife, this was not good. Bringing the blade up way above his head the squad member prepared to stab, thrusting the blade downwards he grinned. The world was moving in slow motion, the blade cut through the air, and in my sitting position I pulled myself to my feet and dived forwards away from my would be killer. His knife sank into the table where my head had been seconds before; the blade stuck in the table the squad member pulled frantically.

Now it was my turn to grin. His colleague was now stumbling to his feet, perfect. Tapping the axe murderer on the shoulder he turned to face me slackening his grip on the dagger, balling his fists he aimed a punch at me, ducking at just the right moment I not only missed the blow but ensured the first thug’s punch hit his colleague who was running to attack me from behind. Picking himself up the second thug lunged at the first delivering a punch of his own. While they where squabbling I took the opportunity to see what was going on. Three others were surrounding John who was fighting a squad member. After looking more closely I saw he was brandishing yet another dagger at John’s face, John, doing his best to push away the knife, was struggling as the blade was dangerously close. Looking round for something to help I spotted the dagger in the table; dashing forward I pulled out the blade and threw it. Soaring through the air the blade hit target knocking the squad members knife from his hands, and I’m pleased to say, that he let out a girlish scream. Honestly, what is it with all these daggers, no wonder knife and gun crime is on the rise in Britain, it’s disgusting.

"Thanks again,” said John as he jumped to his feet and delivered a swift right hand to a squad member. But I didn’t hear him; something had just dawned on me. Two, four, six, eight, I counted, there was two squad members missing along with Conner. Where were they? Scanning the room I saw no sign of them. This was not good, best call Mark.

"Robin call Mark!" John yelled, but there was something funny about his voice, he seemed panicked.

"I know John, one step ahead of you something’s not right here." I called back.

"Robin!" John shouted in pain, and at the same time, I screamed.

A tall figure stood in front of me and said “you don’t say." maniacally he laughed and then everything went black.

Face down on the floor I woke up, aching all over I struggled to sit up. What happened?

"Argh," I moaned holding my head, I must have passed out there, embarrassing. A little to my left John was watching me, his face as white as a sheet underneath his mask, clutching his chest, John looked as bad as I felt. We were surrounded, once again, by Conner's "elite" fighting squad. Now that I had time to look at them I was shocked, these were kids, some as young as me, some kids I recognised from school, some kids I didn’t but all of them fresh out of school or college. What was Baxter playing at?

"So what do you think to Mr. Baxter’s new toy?" Conner asked, stepping through the circle brandishing a ridiculously large gun. “one amp hurts doesn’t it?" he said looking at mine and John’s foetal positions “Ha you haven’t felt the half of it let’s really test those supposed thick skins of yours." Conner walked back to his spot in the wall of our captors.

"Robin! Are you there? Are you alright?" Mark whispered in my ear.

"Mmmmm" I moaned in response.

"Ha-Ha don’t worry Robin Hloser, I'll end it soon." Conner maturely said, honestly it’s hard to tell who was the teenager sometimes.

"We’re coming hold on," Mark said.

The air was sucked from the room upon Conner’s words, a fellow teen across from me began to shake, turning away looking sick, others simply stared in horror. It hit me then what Conner was going to do.

"Let’s turn this up a notch, or two he-he." Conner sneered spinning the dial onto full.

John eyes widened in terror, and he attempted to stand only to be knocked back down by a former friend on Conner’s orders. I shock my head at John; standing up myself I looked Conner in the eyes as he pointed the gun at me.

Gasps from the crowd followed Conner's words, "Bye, bye Hood."

Whoosh, Conner was sent flying when two arrows linked by a length of rope as they flew past his legs knocking him over, causing the high voltage intended for me, to hit the ceiling, taking out a large chunk of the main support beam. Looking round for who had dared to attack him, Conner spotted Will and Mark, stood bows in hand by the smashed window.

"You two! Get them, get them now!" Conner yelled and the squad members ran forward forgetting me and John yet another mistake; John still clutching his chest ran forward rugby tackling a squad member who lunged for Will. Leaving the boys to it I ran for the gun Conner had dropped in the explosion, snatching it up inches from his fingers, I waved my finger in front of his face, naughty boy tut, tut. Cursing Conner went to grab me, kicking him away I ran towards the guys, I skidded to a stop seeing them really laying into the squad members. "No!" I yelled "don’t hurt them they’re only teenagers." Letting go Will looked up wide eyed.

"Robin" he said "look." Following his finger I saw the beam starting to shake, it looked like it was going to collapse.

"RUN!" I shouted and the guy’s didn’t need telling twice, Conner scrambling to get out of the way shouted,

"Stop them! Don’t let them get away." But no one was listening, all of the squad guys were running for the exit while they still could. Will and Mark fumbling with their bows, shot two arrows into the wall of the building across the street sending two lengths of rope over the road, tying the other ends to window they looked at me for confirmation.

"Go." I said, Mark and John went first. As they slid down the rope I looked round, the ceiling was now visibly shaking. It was coming down, or so I had thought. Conner walking towards the window said,

"I’m not letting you get away again." He still wasn’t clear of the beam and there wasn’t much time.

"Robin." Will called but I wasn’t listening, running forward I grabbed Conner and pulled him out of harms way beneath the desk. Honestly, don’t ask me why, I just couldnt leave him there to DIE, that’s just not the way I do things.

"Robin now!" Will called.

"Okay, Okay I’m coming." I called. Stepping on the sill I threw the massive gun over my shoulder by its strap, it was probably best to keep this out of Baxter’s or Conner’s hands, and hooked my bow over the rope.

"Shall we?" Will asked.

"Let’s," I replied. As we jumped Conner ran to the window.

"Curse you Hood!" he called. I laughed, the wind rushing through my hair, ha-ha, if that really was the worst he could come up with.

"Gratitude," I complained.

“Well what did you expect?" Will asked. We reached the building and let go of the rope landing in Will's dad’s new, second hand convertible. I looked over my shoulder back at the building; well it didn’t look like the ceiling had collapsed. Yep, that was definitely very anticlimactic.

"Get us out of here Will." Mark called.

"Gladly," Will replied. Pulling down my hood and removing my mask I slipped the material back into my pocket, where my hand brushed against the mysterious disk.

Strike one for the outlaw's.