BOOMER ZONE

Part 4 - Banned/10

"W000000000000000000000000000000000T"

Omega, and the other Team Darkers for that matter, were more than relieved to be back on dry space station. Squashed into a miniscule holding cell for the past 2 weeks, the renegades had slowly began to show the early signs of dementia, though these symptoms had been ever-present for the past year and a half. The arrival of Arch had first caused seas of doubt among Oz, he wasn't too trusting of this wavering fox, his tail not anchored firmly in the Team. However, he had reluctantly agreed to go with him, anythig was better than STC-O.

Stepping off the spacecraft for the first time in 48 hours, Blizzard felt his left knee click out of place as he placed his gangrene foot on the first rung of the ladder.

"Gyahh!!" yelped Blizzard as he lost his grip and tumbled onto the waiting Oz.

"Rmmmm!" growled Oz, dusting himself down and readjusting his 'Mr T' chain. "Get a hold of yourself, will ya?"

Oz had had an agressive flight. Spending the first 6 hours pining for the loss of Lakit, he had used the rest of his time to 'flex his muscles'. It wasn't surprising that Omega's first port of call was the Robotic's Factory. Large holes in a shell are never good news. Leaving the vessel last was Arch. Feeling great pride in what he had achieved, his sense of accomplishment was soon shattered by the gnarly voice of a crocodile.

"Oi, fox!" snarled Oz. "You gonna shift those supplies or what?"

"Always the ungrateful...." muttered Arch as he re-entered the ship for leftover oxygen and food.

Several hours later, when all had been accounted for and settled in, the seniors decided to share an evening meal with the juniors. Rarely would you see Omega share festivities with his oler counterpart, E-106 Eta, or spotting Blizzard passing the pepper to Nirosui. Even Oz seemed to have lightened up and was singing along to cheesy 70 pop anthems. It was a fair few minutes before anyone saw Mobiusman quivering in a corner.

"Hey! Is that Mobiusman quivering in the corner?" quipped up Arch. Indeed it was and in a flashy shade of grey too. The Team went over to him as he began to freak out.

"Mobiusman, what appears to be the problem?" asked Omega, trying his best to be sensitive, depite his appearance.

"He...he's GONE!!" quibbled Mobiusman, crazily.

"Who has? What's going on? Why aren't you in the cargo bay?" asked Oz frantically.

"Rob.....Rob.....Rob.....Rob....."

Years ago, a law student named Roberto had been captured and conscripted to work at STC-O as a slave. After years of physical and mental torture, he had been able to move up the ranks and had become highly favourable with the moderators. However, one day he had reached a 'disagreement' with another Boomer and a fight broke out. It had taken all 6 moderators to dissolve the fight and Roberto was in big trouble. With his fighting partner exiled, Ed thought of a far better use for Roberto. He was thrown into the dungeon laboratory and Dr Zak was forced to undergo horrific experiments on him. The result was a cyborg, part fox, part android. Ashamed with his new self, he managed to flee the terror camp and found refuge in the Death Egg. Even then, he was too much for the Team Darkers and was kept in a confined space in fear of what he may do. Now it seems, he had escaped.

Jim was in his expected position, staring out of the window. Today he was greeted with the sight of Tom taking out the rubbish to the scrapyard. Today's particular rubbish was the remains of Turbotails, in 3 different bin bags. Jim continued to polish his cattle prod, it'd been a while since he had to use it. Out of the corner of his eye, Jim spotted a brown mouse scurrying between the penknives and traps scattered across the carpet. Spinning around in his atrociously large armchair, Jim switched his weapon on and it began to hum. Not to the Sound of Music, but a low droning hum that was enough to get the rodent's attention. Jim narrowed his eyes and began to chuckle profusely. The mouse stood still, immobilised with fear, eyes transfixed on the prod's glowing point. Suddenly, it put on a burst of speed as Jim thrust the prod towards the creature. It was to no avail though. The mouse let out a horrific shreik as the current ran through his body and its organs were shocked to pieces. Jim, looking at the smoking corpse, sat back and laughed some more. He continued laughing long until his communicator crackled into life. Spinning back towards the window, Jim could barely make out the following words:
"Help.....Jim.....we've......he's BACK!"

Inserting his cattle prod into a scabbard on his back, Jim headed off to the location of the transmission.

It didn't take long before all 6 moderators had converged at a crossroads in the STC-O corridors. Ed and Mike looked suitably anxious.

"So who's 'back', then?" asked Sin, quickly and impatiently.

"You remember Roberto Subzero, right?" replied Ed, facing each moderator in turn. "Well he's back and it seems he has a hidden agenda!"

"I saw him heading down that way!" shouted Madhair, pointing to the West wing.

"Right then, let's." Mike paused. "You don't even know what he looks like, Stu!"

"Alright, Mike and I will take the North route," began Ed. " Stu, carry on with the West route. Sin and Jim can take the South road and...."
"NO! I can't go on my own!!" screeched Retro, becoming very paranoid in a very short space of time.

"Man..." sighed Ed. "Fine, you swap with Jim. Good luck and Godspeed everyone!"

The 6 'heroes' departed on their separate directions, for one common cause.

Side by side, scorpion by fox, Sin and Retro began their search for the rebel cyborg fox. Despite Sin's good nature, he was beginning to lose his patience with Retro's incompetence. Being scared of the dark was fine, a fear of spiders was also to be expected, but a phobia of shiny walls was going too far. Without looking to the side of him, Sin knew Retro was keeping as far away from each wall as possible, making sure none of them were watching him. They soon came to their first door to search and Sin had had enough.

"You don't get it, do you!?" yelled Sin at his teammate. "You have to be bold and fearless at this job, not a weak sack of margarine like you!" Retro's bottom lipped quivered.

"B-but, if you knew what it was like, you'd......"

"Oh, spare me, I know ju......" But Sin's voice trailed off as he sensed something through the door. Noticing the quiet, something began to move on the other side.

"Retro! Move it, now!!

Sin managed to leap up and grab an overhanging beam but Retro was too slow. Just as Sin's feet left the range of the door, it swung open and knocked Retro straight in the face. Out of the doorway came a robotic creature with a tail flying in all directions and a visor spanning his whole face. His metal was black and the light in the corridor glistened off both his armour and his fur. Rob was on the loose.

Thinking he had dealt with both guards, Rob made another break for it down the corridor. Little did he know that he was being stalked by super-stealthy, Über-ninja, Sin Scorpion. The mod was making ground fast on the assailant without him batting an eyelid. However, the tables turned once they reached another crossroads. Almost able to leap out and attack Rob, Sin was thwarted by the appearance of NiGHTS 3:16. Charging at Sin from a 90 degree angle, they found themselves in a tangle of legs.

"I SWEAR, NiGHTS, if you did that on purpose, you're DYING tonight!!" yelled Sin as Rob got away.

No-one really knew what was going through Rob's mind right now, it's possible even he didn't know. He was on a mission to achieve something, anything. Cramped in the Death Egg for months after being promised a better life, he hadn't been able to feel special in any way. Maybe killing someone special would make him feel special himself.

"I think we both know you should give it up now."

Rob spun around but to his surprise, there was no-one there.

"It never meant to go this far, you shouldn't have left us.

Rob began to tremble, he didn't like not being able to see someone.

"Time to end this, methinks."
Another door opened and Mike walked casually out, even leaving time to give a little chuckle as the dorr made a 'Ker-chuck' sound as it closed. Rob removed his helmet and revealed a sad story. Scars on his head were still remaining from the operation months ago. His forehead was still bloody from lack of a water source. Bags uner his eyes revealed the true extent of his living conditions. Oz had been treating like a true animal without the rest of Team Dark realising. Rob was mentally scarred as well as the blood that was ever-present.

"Mike, we need to talk. I..."

"I'm afraid there's nothing to talk about, Roberto," sighed Mike. Taking a step or two closer to Rob, the fox backed away an equal amount. "Things have chaned since you deserted us. Routines altered, new Boomers have arrived, we've all got on much better. I'd love for you to come and stay back with us, but you've had it."
"Please, Mike, we can leave here!" cried Rob in desperation. "We'll start a new 'forum' attract the members that WE want, not what that 'schmancy' Ed has in mind. Give me a chance!!"

Mike lowered his head. "There's nothing more to talk about." Rob lowered his head too, out of sadness that his best friend was ready to just leave him in the dirt. As he did so, the figure of another 'good friend' of Rob's walked behind him.

"Glad we have this all sorted."

Rob, petrified by the voice of reason, made an attempt to rotate and find out who was about to kill him, but he was too slow. A powerful beam shot into his back and he felt great pain. Feeling his fingers and toes rip away from his body, Rob knew that there wasn't long left in this world. Summoning the strength to open his eyes, he gave Mike one final, longing look for his long lost best friend, before his matter started to disappear, atom by atom, electron by electron, till there was nothing left of Subzero. Not raising his head, Mike turned around to avoid Jim seeing him wipe a tear away. Retracting his cattle prod, Jim scratched another notch onto the wall.