*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 11

Fair's Fair...

William fought at his bonds as he was loaded into the back of a police security car. A camera was trained on him. He scowled and shouted at it, "You swore you wouldn't tell! Now you're gonna pay! You'll see!!!! I'll get out, and when I do, every single friend you've ever made is going to die!!!!! Do you hear me?!!!! You'll pay DEARLY for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He was shoved--hard, into the back. The doors slammed shut behind him. He sat down, simmering in his anger, "I warned him. He's going to pay!" There was one other criminal in there with him, who was staring at him with a shocked expression. The guy was a water dragon/burrow dragon.

A mixed breed then.

William smiled, seeing his chance, "Hey, what are you in here for?"

The guy scooted a little farther away.

William chuckled, "I won't go after you, if that's what you're worried about. What's your name? I'm William."

The dragon gulped, but answered, "It's Luke..."

"Oh...nice to meet you, Luke. What are YOU here for?"

"I...broke in...was all.

"Broke in where?"

"A jeweler's..." Luke seemed to calm down a little bit, "What was all that shouting about?!"

"Heh. I got caught only because someone squeeled on me. He knows what I'm gonna do now that he turned me in."

"What were you doing?"

"Now, come on. I can't tell you that!"

"I told you mine!" Luke seemed to be gaining a bit more confidence now that they had been sharing each other's crimes.

It made things perfect. William got up and sat down beside Luke, "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Well, I figure fair's fair, right?"

"Right." William smiled and stood up, pacing the car as if he were debating something. He was really just slowly getting closer to Luke, "Well, if you must know, it was something like this!" He jumped onto Luke's still form, knocking the air out of his lungs. William watched with grim satisfaction as Luke slumped over slightly. William brought his leg up, hard. The resulting action caused Luke to fall to the ground and hurl. They weren't done though. William kept jabbing and kicking as hard as he could. Once, he heard a bone crack in Luke's chest. All the while, he'd been working at his hands, slowly working the handcuffs open to--there! One hand slipped free. It was scuffed and bled slightly, but his hands were free. He reattacked the dragon with him, throwing punches and trying to get a strangle hold on him. Luke seemed aware enough to keep that second thing from happening. He started shouting.

"Help!!!!! Get this madman away from me!!!!!!!" Luke even managed to slam his fists against the wall, which caught the policemens' attentions. The security car jolted to a halt.

"Perfect. Now I just have to time everything else right..." He gave Luke a few more kicks as he waited. The sound of a key being thrust into a lock alerted him that it was time...The guard opened the door as William slammed into it. The resulting crash threw everyone off guard except William. He grabbed a pistol and picked up the closest guard. It was another mix, being a griffen and a thresher in one, "Make a sudden movement and I shoot. Got it?"

The guard stuggled slightly. William shoved the gun deeper into the guards gut. Instantly the guard stopped and let him take control.

"Good." He whispered. He sneered and shouted, "Don't get any closer!" He backed away, keeping the police in his direct line of sight until they turned a corner. He was sure that nothing could stop him now...

Just like that, the gun was knocked out of his hand. He looked up to see what had happened and met the eyes of the Protector. He panicked and threw the guard down, diving for his gun.

"When will they ever learn..." The Protector muttered as he swooped in once more to pick him up.

William fought hard against the Protector's grip. It was literally iron hard! He struggled to turn even slightly, grinning when he saw the chest, "That's what I thought!" He managed to grab one of the tubes that ran through the chest, knowing the exact one that would cut the power to the Protector's wings, "Set me down or we both crash. Even YOU can't survive a fall like this without your jets!"

The Protector growled, "How do you know which one to pull?!"

To this, William smiled, "I supplied your parts, pal. I know every single little weakness in your entire body. I design robots! Now put me down before I kill us both."

He was dropped.

William screamed as he fell. He didn't have his wings! He would die!!!! A cold hand grabbed his leg...the Protector smiled at him, "Well? Aren't you gonna try to exploit my weaknesses now? C'mon! Surely your tail can pierce my armor!"

William laughed. This guy was nuts to blurt out such a weakness! He had already swung his tail before realizing his mistake. The Protector snatched his tail before it could hit him, and started to bring him back to the officers. In a last ditch attempt, William lunged as far up as possible, managing to grab the Protector's arm. He brought his other hand up and held a different tube. This one would shut him down completely, "Now set me down. You and I both know what this tube is for!"

He never got to pull it. The Protector had let go of his tail in order to grab his hand...William brought his tail as close as possible, and slammed it against the Protector's hand that was still holding him. The Protector gasped at the unexpected move...his hand released William's leg. William started to fall again, but his tail caught on one of the Protector's tubes. The Protector panicked and swatted at his tail, releasing it from the tube. It managed to cut most of the wires inside...William saw which ones. The wires for his eyes, hands, arms, legs, and extra sensors were all cut. The Protector couldn't see anything with his real vision, nor with his radar...William screamed until he hit the pavement. He felt rather than heard the blood start to gush out of his head. Everything was getting darker...sound was starting to fade away...he finally heard a trickle of blood as his vision left him completely...then nothing.

The next day, Player sat on the couch. He was devestated over Nick's death. Kia, Pik, and even Ralph had tried to comfort him, but none had been able to. Kia had even gone to the extreme of bringing Gina, Kenny, and Bruce over to try to cheer him up! He wouldn't let anything help him...he was too hurt...there was nothing in the world right now that could make him happy. Kia sighed and sat down beside him when the three kids were gone.

"Come on, James. DO something."

"No."

"But you can't stay on the couch forever!!!"

"Too bad."

Kia growled, "Fine! You aren't gonna talk or anything? I'll just turn on the TV and pretend you aren't here." She clicked it on flipping through the channels quickly as she tried to find her favorite program. She passed a news channel that had been showing a picture of William.

Player gasped and grabbed the remote away from her. He went straight back to that channel. What he heard astounded him. William had died just the other day! What had happened?.."Kia, I don't get it."

"What is it?" She asked. She was ready to talk if he was.

"That guy...William. He was the one threatening me...He said if I told anyone about him, he'd come and kill everybody in the band! How'd he die?!!!"

Kia grabbed the remote back and turned up the volume. The newscaster unfortunately had just finished talking about him and had moved on to another subject. She sighed and turned the TV off, "I don't know...We'll have to find out later."

*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Epilogue

After that, Player went back to trying to learn with Kia. Sometimes they would walk by the school and wave at the kids during recess. Sometimes a kid waved back, and sometimes they didn't...but Player was always happy to come back here. He had been able to identify with the kids, had made friends among them...There were a few times when Gina, Bruce, or Kenny would run up to the fence. Player would happily start talking with them, finding out how they were doing, while they asked him the same. He remembered Kia telling him that he almost always went animal around those children...

Who was he to care? He smiled whenever she told him and asked if they could go again the next day. They sometimes did.