Riot

Riot C1 -- A Sliver of a Chance

<Author's Comments> So this is a little not-so-short story that takes place on LaForza. You could call it the sequel to Cloudless~ if you wanted to, but I finished this first. By the way, this kid is a kid. A kid. Well, technically a teen, but who's counting? I am! Enjoy!

-- C1 --

They were amazing!

I stared in awe as the two in grasshopper costumes jumped from rooftop to rooftop, generating mass chaos throughout the little flat-roofed town of Alco. The officers were scattered all over, trying to catch the two pranksters, constantly yelling into their radios for air support. But it was futile against them.

I tore my eyes away from the two free-runners and scanned the area. I was still hidden in the wheat field, but had sub-consciously crept toward the edge of the area and to the hill that had the amazing view of the free-runners in action. The sound of workers collecting wheat grew louder behind me, so I decided to head back home before someone's machete sliced my back open. On the way down my favourite hill, I watched the disguised free-runners, marveling at their amazing strength, endurance, and bravery. A guy like me could never be as strong and overall as awesome as these two heroes.

For lack of a better word, I hated the government. They had absolutely no right to control our lives the way they did. Every day, when I was littler, I promised myself that I would do something about their ignorance one day. I hadn't done anything so far, but that would change soon, right?

A sound tore me rudely out of my thoughts. I looked up to see that the two grasshopper guys were leaping and bounding in my direction. Quickly, I dove into the forest beside the field that spread to the street and ran, weaving between the tall trees. Once I was totally winded (which didn't take long), I slowed and hid behind the thick tree trunk and sunk to the ground, clutching my cramped side.

"I'm totally pathetic," I mumbled under my breath, then caught it again at the sound of rustling brush behind me. I didn't dare peek; I just froze and listened to what might come next.

I heard footsteps, two pairs, followed by loud laughter that made me jump out of surprise.

Then they spoke.

"Ha! Awesome as always!" one yelled.

"Did you see that one guy's face? The one on the toilet? Oh, that was priceless!" The other broke into a musical laughter. For some reason, I felt creeped out, and almost with a yelp, I brushed the spider off my forehead.

It must have been a pretty big spider, because the two strangers suddenly fell silent. Then, one walked over to the fleeing arachnid, picked it up, and turned to look right at me. Directly at me. Only at me. And he had a grasshopper mask in his hand, too.

The other guy walked over, also unmasked. When he saw me sitting against the tree, he gasped and froze in place.

And what did I do? Oh, I did the only thing that I ever do in awkward silences.

I burped.

And not just any burp, I made sure that this'n would be the throatiest, loudest burp in the history of burps. And it was! I kept a straight face after the amazing belch, waiting for a reaction.

Their jaws dropped to the floor, and the spider scurried out of the first guy's hand, down his leg, and back up into his pants! I couldn't hold back my laughter any longer and guffawed all over the forest floor with the second guy, while the first one smacked at and shook his leg to no end. Finally, he unzipped his grasshopper jumpsuit and stood there in his underwear, shaking the spider out of his clothes, which caused us to crack up even further.

When the spider finally skittered away, I realized that I just caused a hero to strip to his underwear and shake a jumpsuit. Normally, I would chortle to no end, but the whole hero part stopped me in my tracks.

The other guy, who was still fully clothed, looked at me. He probably thought that I knew something he didn't and froze beside me. We were in the same awkward position as before, only the first guy was partially naked.

I knew that another burp wouldn't fly, so I held my hand out to the under-dressed guy, and said: "Deauron." Yep. Just my name.

After he stared a bit longer, he took my hand with a monster grip and broke into a wide smile. "Zeelic," he said. "My brother, Trenis," he gestured towards the guy on the ground. They both had sandy blonde hair down to their earlobes, and light blue eyes, but the Trenis guy had his hair slicked back. I guessed that they were athletic awesome twins, considering that Zeelic had a six-pack.

Glancing down at himself, Zeelic realized that he was still standing in front of a stranger in his underwear, and zipped the suit back up, scooping up his and Trenis's masks.

Trenis looked at me and seemed to notice my eyes for the first time, "Whoa! Dude, your eyes are gold!" he exclaimed.

"Looks more like hazel to me, bro." Zeelic replied before I could say anything. I hated when people did that. "But I guess its kinda gold lookin'," he added.

Changing the subject, I said, "You two rebels?"

I expected them to have some witty comeback, but they just said yeah in unison. How did twins always do that? Either way, it seemed strange to me that they were both being so serious, rather than slapping on some cocky grins.

Zeelic must have noticed my expression and said, "This is serious business; nothing to joke about." I almost commented on the totally not serious underwear incident, but that wouldn't have been cool. He continued, "Its serious business. With this tight security, we don't have real homes. We have to steal food and supplies from the farms, which lately have started to realize that some stuff is missing. The tiny box in the trees near here that we call 'home' is made of parts of the machetes and other tools they use in the farms. We got our hands on them by sabotaging the produce -- which is really difficult -- causing them to swing and break their tools. Later we'd dig them out of the trash. And these costumes?" he gestured towards his grasshopper jumpsuit, "Yeah, they took far too long to fully complete. Being a rebel like us isn't exactly rewarding, but it sure is fun!" he ended with a totally unfitting smile. "The free-running part, of course," he added, "But, we aren't the only ones who want change. There's a much larger, more powerful group called The Ledlix. They have weapons and strategies that no other small group could dream of," he explained, "There are--"

"Wait, how many smaller groups are there?" I interrupted stupidly.

He sighed and said, "I was just going to say that there are about twenty around Alco, give or take a few." He looked at my expression and his eyes widened with worry, "No, don't even think about it! I saw how out of breath you were! See, you're still panting from your laughing fit!" And I was. He continued, "And your hair'll get in the way too much! You might occasionally sneak out past curfew, but that's nothing compared to what we do! Thing is, you're just not ready for this whole world in all its glory and cruelty. Come on Trenis, were going 'home,'" he air-quoted the word home making me want to throw something at him.

I probably shouldn't have been so angry, but I was really a raw nerve after that lovely speech. I mean, I could do it! I had the determination going on, I just needed the whole abs and survival skills thing. Hey, I could probably start a whole new rebel group with some of my friends and kick some serious government ass! And if that failed, I could always find the Ledlix people and help them!

Powered by stupid determination, I ran all the way back home and somehow didn't get caught by any prowling officers. Maybe I was luckier than I thought. Either way, I was gonna do this and nothing was gonna stop me! Well, other than Zeelic and Trenis. They had a tiny sliver of a chance.

--

<A/C> Psst! His name is pronounced DYOO-rahn!

 Picture at http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=deauron#/d41jdtj