‘I can’t believe that you did that, she was just being a polite citizen. Why did you have to go and shoot your mouth off like that? Answer me that Throttle!’

Modo swung around to face his smaller bro. His metal fingers were clenched into a tight fist; this was not a force to be reconciled with. Throttle in the meantime simply stared straight at Modo, his arms folded across his chest as if holding himself back.

‘She means bad news. And anyway, I by no means bad mouthed her, I may have ruffled some of her feathers, but I was not rude.’ Throttle’s voice remained calm and controlled even though in his head the voice was screaming ‘can’t he see? She has it written all over her, trouble, trouble, trouble.’

‘Oh forget it, if you can’t see it now you never will.’ Modo forced his muscled bulk past Throttle and continued towards the door. As he disappeared through the door the form of Vinnie entered, he slowly approached Throttle keeping a wary eye on him; this was like wondering if a harmless bomb would suddenly explode.

‘Um’ silence. ‘Um’ more silence. ‘Well, hasn’t it been an eventful day? And it’s only 9.00 in the morning.’

Throttle slowly turned to face Vinnie, Oh and if looks could kill, well, lets just say that Vinnie would be turning in his grave way before he should. When the gold saw the silver wither away from its presence the glare soften. ‘Yeah, tell me about it. I’ve never seen Modo so angry before. But I can’t see why he is so hooked on the fact that she is only a helpful citizen.’ Throttle looked down at his boots, perhaps the answer to all his troubles lay there? Nah. He looked back up.

‘You know what a pretty face can do to a person, Modo went gaga as soon as she walked in. What are we going to do about it?’

‘I don’t know, I’ll talk to Modo when he has calmed down a bit.’

The two mice walked out of the kitchen and parked themselves on the couch. Both stared blankly at an equally blank T.V screen. Vinnie played the previous scene back through his mind, ‘why would someone who we don’t know be so interested in the last chance? And she didn’t even notice the fact that we were not exactly human even with our helmets on. She did seem sincere, but still, there was an underlying tone.’

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‘You see your fully fed cheeseness, all you have to do is knock the gold load off the roof and it falls into the portal and right into the hands of his High Cheeseness.’

Karbunkle rubbed his hands together and tried to catch his breath, he then stared expectantly at Limburger like a puppy expecting treats.

‘Excellent my dear Doctor, with that hole besides the building the mayor will never ask for a rescue operation and the gold will be as good as mine.’

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‘Do you think that it’s such a good idea to go? I mean Modo’s still mad and who knows what will happen if your not working together.’ Charley continued to nag at Throttle as he walked over to his bike. When he got there he turned to face Charley.

‘Don’t worry Charley, Modo may be mad but I doubt that he will do anything to endanger our lives. And anyway, we can’t just sit back and say that we’re having time off because of a dispute.’ Throttle sat down on the bike and waited for Vinnie and Modo. Vinnie came bouncing in and flipped onto his bike ‘Would you just look at how cool I am tonight, don’t nobody touch me or they’ll freeze to death.’

Modo simply strolled over to his ride without even acknowledging that Throttle was in the room, hey if you ignore something maybe it will go away. The three bikes started up and were gone from the garage in seconds.

Vinnie rode in the middle all the way to the destination, Modo did not want to be near Throttle, and Throttle had no desire to be next to Modo.

With a sudden screech the sound of raw engine power was enhanced by jets, the three mice rode up the side of Limburger tower and slid to a stop once on top. A young woman was setting up a table near one of the edges, she screamed out when the mysterious bikers came into sight.

‘Don’t worry ma’am, we’re just here to make sure that nothing goes wrong.’

‘Yeah, we’re your body guards for the evening.’

The woman turned to complete her work but kept a steady eye on the intruders, when done she ran to the stairway door and was gone.

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‘What am I to do? Those blasted biker mice have ruined my chances of sending the gold to his High Chairman.’ Limburger’s head splattered down into his hands. The gold committee had long since gone home, gold and all.

‘Don’t worry your goldless gillman, something is bound to fall into your large lap.’

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Meanwhile, still up on Limburger tower.

‘For God’s sake Modo shut up. I’m fed up of hearing about it. I treated her as I saw fit, and I still feel that I was right.’ Throttle pushed himself up from his bike and paced over to the tower’s edge. Modo jumped off his bike and ran towards Throttle.

‘You cannot hide behind your gut feeling.’

‘And you can’t hide behind yours.’

Modo suddenly slammed his fist into Throttle’s side. The smaller tan mouse hit the floor in shock and stared up at the towering Modo. Seeing his mistake the normally gentle giant stuck his hand out to help his fallen bro up, Throttle expected the worse and shifted his weight backwards to put some distance between him and the oncoming hand. Unfortunately he was closer to the edge than expected, the shift in weight caused him to lose his balance and plunge over the edge of the tower. Modo shot forward to try and grab his doomed bro, but to no avail, Throttle was over and falling towards the streets below. Death though was not ready for Throttle that day, for at that moment Karbunkle decided to activate the portal surrounding the building. One minute you saw Throttle hurtling towards death, and the next, well lets just say that Death would have to try a little later on.

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The small T.V screen on Limburger’s desk suddenly beeped into life, and there filling the screen was the High Chairman himself. There was though one big difference, he was smiling, and not one of ‘ha I’m going to cause you pain.’

‘Limburger, I’m very happy with my new present. In fact I’m so happy that I have decided to ignore the fact that I did not get my gold.’

Limburger lifted his head and stared at the screen before him, he was now a very confused fish, what the hell was going on? The view on the screen panned out to show the rest of Camembert’s throne room, and there sitting in the middle of a ring of heavily armed guard fish was Throttle looking extremely dazed and confused.

‘Yes Limburger, I have needed a new slave for the slave games for a long time now, my last one was cut in half.’ With that the screen went blank.

Limburger looked at Karbunkle; Karbunkle just said the first thing that came into his head. ‘What are the slave games your lucky lordship?’

‘Have you ever seen ‘Running Man’ Karbuncle? Well it’s something like that except no humans, slaves have to fight plutarkians, and each High Fish has one slave and one plutarkian. Each then start to score points, the fish with the most combined points win.’

The office window suddenly exploded inwards spraying glass everywhere, Modo and Vinnie were close behind the flying slices.

‘And what may I ask is this visit for gentlemen? Surely you have ruined me enough for one night.’

‘Shut up you wallowing worm, we just need to know what happened to our bro.’

Again a screen beeped into life, except this time it was the main viewer. ‘Ah, Limburger, I thought that you would like to witness the downfall of your failure causing problem before we ship off to Plutark.’ The scene moved to show again Throttle sitting amidst the armed fish. Modo and Vinnie gasped in shock at seeing one of their bros. in a plutarkian stench carrier.

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Throttle slowly stood up and eyed his foes. He gently rocked back and forth on his feet getting ready to move. One of the guards then rushed forwards; the tan mouse simply slammed his fist into the fish’s face sending him and two others sailing across the room. All hell broke loose at that moment, the guards piled towards Throttle from all directions. When they were within an arms length Throttle dropped to the floor causing the guards to plough into each other, he then kicked out with his leg sending a fish flying and causing an opening. Throttle quickly scampered through the hole. When he stood up he saw 5 more guards file through a door; he tuned his back on them and ran towards the opposite bulkhead. The guards laughed and followed him. As Throttle approached the wall he did not ease up on his speed, instead his picked up his speed a notch and hit the wall hard. But he did not splat back on to the floor as the guards had expected; instead his momentum carried him up the wall and over the heads of the 5 fish. When Throttle’s feet were once more securely on the ground he whipped up a stun gun from one of the fallen foes and opened fire. Throttle stood alone in the room.

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Back on Earth Vinnie let out a whoop and threw his fist up into the air. ‘No one’s going to get our bro.’

Modo on the other hand looked worried, no matter how many fish Throttle took down there were always replacements, and how was he to get back down to Earth?

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Throttle stood stock-still surrounded by unconscious bodies; he was waiting, waiting for the next round to begin. And begin it did, form separate doors 15 more guards entered the room. Throttle had to keep spinning on his heels to keep watch on them all, but instead of attacking they just stared at the mouse, as a hawk would watch his prey. Another door to Throttle’s left opened, but instead of another plutarkian it was Charley. Throttle almost slapped his forehead in frustration, ‘what is it with these women? They always seem to get caught at annoying times.’

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Vinnie cried out, ‘they’ve got Charley, Modo, they’ve got Charley!’

Modo patted him on the shoulder and smiled to him even though anger was burning in his single eye. ‘Don’t you worry your pretty little head bro. you know that Throttle would not let anything happen to her.’

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‘Listen up rodent, you come along quietly and this female will die quickly and painlessly, if you resist she will die slowly and painfully, then we will kill you.’

Throttle’s arms remained by his side; he was not finished yet. He scanned the room until he saw what he needed. ‘No deal fish boy, I won’t go quietly unless the lady is safely escorted back to Earth.’ Throttle slowly started to move towards his goal.

‘You think that I would change my deals to fit in with a rat? Never!’

‘Well, that is just your tough luck then isn’t it.’ Throttle suddenly backflipped into the air and landed squarely on the head of a nearby fish, he then ran forward over the heads of the next 4 guards. With a simple jump Throttle landed on the floor kneeling next to one of the previous plutarkians, he grabbed the wrist and pulled off a watch like contraption. He then stood up and faced the Plutarkian holding Charley, with slow deliberate steps he closed the gap between them. When less than 2 meters away he stopped. ‘I’m ready to surrender now, but first I must speak to my friend. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.’

The guard let go of Charley’s arm slightly, Charley then kicked him hard and ran to Throttle. He immediately slapped the watch onto her wrist and pushed some buttons, then he stood back and smiled gently at Charley. In seconds Charley vanished.

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Charley landed with a crunch on to something hard, when she looked up she saw that she was back in the last chance. She was safe, but what of Throttle?

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The butt of the laser gun slammed into the back of Throttle’s knees sending him crashing to the floor, the butt was again raised high in the air and brought back down, this time it came in contact with Throttle’s skull. Everything started to go hazy, but Throttle managed to keep conscious. Suddenly a hand grabbed a fistful of Throttle’s hair and forced his head back, when he looked up Throttle saw the laser gun butt again coming to make contact with his skull. This time everything went black.

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Vinnie yelled out in frustration when Throttle’s body went limp, he had sat back and watched too much. He had seen his bro. beaten, and his friend in danger, he couldn’t bare it anymore. Vinnie sprang forward on his bike and landed neatly in the middle of Limburger’s desk; he leant down as close to the big cheese as he dared. ‘You had better do something about this, I want Throttle back on Earth this minute.’ Vinnie’s teeth were clenched tight and threatening to shatter under the strain.

‘My dear misguided mouse, how do you expect me to do that? Your fellow rodent is now the property of the High Chairman, he has nothing to do with me.’ With this Limburger pressed a button under his desk and disappeared from sight in a flash of green light. Modo shot forward and slammed his fist down on the desk. ‘Damn, that slimy salamander, he did a bunk.’

The door to the office swept open and Charley ran in, she ran straight up to Vinnie and wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘What are we going to do about Throttle? We can’t just leave him.’

Vinnie peeled Charley from his neck and placed her on his bike. ‘Don’t worry sweetheart, we’ll get out bro. back if it’s the last thing we do.’

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The knife shrieked past Throttle’s ear, he dropped to the floor to avoid the blade, but he was not fast enough for the down swing. He felt the cold steel slide across his shoulder leaving behind a burning line of blood, so as not to be struck again Throttle pushed himself up and flipped out of the plutarkians way. He was beginning to tire, he had only be fighting for about 10 minutes but the lack of food and sleep was beginning to have its effects. The number of multiple cuts and scratches did not help things either. Once more the plutarkian charged, Throttle turned and ran towards the surrounding walls, once there he turned to face the charging plutarkian. Being one of the more simple-minded fishes he did not think of slowing down, when he was almost on top of Throttle he thought that he had won and let out a roar of victory. Throttle though took one step to his right and allowed his foe to charge past him into the wall behind. A wave of booing came up from the crowd and a single voice was heard.

‘That looks like another one down for the High Chairman’s slave. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s events.’

The cuffs around Throttle’s wrist began their annoying bleeping and with a snap the powerful magnets clamped his wrists together.

‘We want more, We want more!!!!’ The crowd suddenly came alive yelling and screaming.

‘O.K everyone, we were planning on this being a treat, but if you want more, we will give you more. Welcome to the slaves mind.’

The crowd started clapping and stomping their feet when Throttle fell to the floor grasping his head in his cuffed hands. A large screen was lowered into the stadium and everyone stared at it with breathless anticipation. Throttle felt as if something was inside his head and was desperately trying to get out. The strain from his head caused all the blood vessels in his nose to simultaneously burst, causing a flood of blood to seep through his fur, around his mouth and down his chin before splashing onto the ground.

Many millions of miles away Modo fell out of bed clutching his head, when fully awake he tried to make sense of what had happened. When no ideas came to mind he climbed back into bed and dreamt of knives, blood and roaring crowds.

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When Throttle was dragged back to his cell he felt as if the world was out to get him, his head was pounding, his heart was racing and his shoulder was stiffening. He lay on the floor where they had dropped him, all will to move had vanished, all he wanted now was death. Throttle shook his head to clear it, ‘no I will not let them beat me, I can’t let them.’

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‘Are we all ready?’

‘We’re as ready now as we’ll ever be.’

‘Right then. KICK IT.’

With a whoosh of engines four bikers blasted into Limburger’s tower, all four traveled down to Karbunkle’s lab to pay him a visit.

Karbunkle had hardly any time to react before two blasts from two separate laser guns sent him sprawling across the lab into a nearby wall.

‘Quick Jack, we have to get this thing working.’ Charley and Jack rode over to the transporter and started to set the coordinates for Plutark. Modo and Vinnie continued to scan the area after securely tying up Karbunkle.

‘O.K you two, the transporters ready. Go get Throttle’

Modo and Vinnie piled into the transporter along with their bikes, with the flick of a switch they were sent hurtling though space on their way to Plutark

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‘And now, we have the fight that you all have been waiting for, the High Chairman’s slave verses the High Chairman’s plutarkian. Who will be the winner?’

Modo and Vinnie peered at the stadium through one of the small windows, they watched the crowds cheer when a large and heavily armed plutarkian entered the ring. Their interest turned to hatred when the opponent entered the ring. A fish guard had a handful of Throttle’s hair and was dragging him towards the armed fish in the ring. His fur had lost all its sheen and a dull yellow, stained red from numerous cuts replaced the rich golden colour. His antenna drooped and his tail slid along the ground behind him, most of his weight was lost and his once formed body was stringy and thin. He was dumped a few meters away from his opponent. The fish walked up to him and used a dagger to raise Throttle’s chin, the pressure caused the point to dig into the flesh, yet Throttle did not even notice such a small dim feeling of pain. The dagger was then traced down his throat, across his shoulders and down his arm. It came to rest at the elbow, with minimal force the dagger was slipped between the elbow bone. Throttle cried out and tried to pull back but was held firm.

‘You haven’t seen anything yet mouse.’ The plutarkian’s thumb slid down the dagger's handle until it came to rest on a small button, the button was pushed. The once single blade split into three, slicing cleanly through all flesh and bone that was in its way. Throttle threw his body backwards and upwards clutching the dagger handle, around him erupted the sound of laughing and cheering, with delicate precision the button was once more hit molding the three blades back into one. The blade was then gingerly slipped out from the flesh, when removed there was no way the stem the blood flow and it ran down Throttle’s arm and dripped down his fingers.

‘Let the games BEGIN’

Throttle slowly turned and faced his opponent, but before he even had a chance to move a loud roaring filled the stadium. Throttle looked up to see two motorbikes sailing through the air, they landed between him and the fish creating a very efficient barrier. Throttle looked straight at Modo and Vinnie, yet a smile failed to cross his lips. The two mobile mice sped around the stadium stunning all fish guards and taking down any potentially dangerous characters. When they had wiped the floor they returned to Throttle who had taken it upon himself to find a comfortable way to sit. Vinnie leant down and offered a hand to his bro. Throttle grasped it and pulled himself up.

‘Hold it right there mice, you aren’t going anywhere.’ A group of fish stared at the mice while holding large and rather evil looking weapons.

‘That’s what you think sweetheart.’

Modo pulled up next to Throttle and was about to pull him aboard when Throttle collapsed. A large screen appeared in the centre of the room and started to display all of Throttle’s memories. Modo yelled out and blew the screen up; he then turned all his focused rage on the fish guards. Within a few seconds the three mice were alone. Throttle still was gripping his head as if trying to hold it together; Modo ran his fingers through Throttle’s hair until he discovered a small piece of machinery at the base of his neck. With a quick flick of his wrist Modo removed the machinery and Throttle’s struggling stopped as he fell unconscious.

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Back at the last change garage Charley gently cleaned up Throttles open wounds. No one had said much yet and there was static in the air. Modo walked in and looked at Charley, she nodded and walked out,

‘I have nothing to say.’ Throttle’s words were short and too the point. Modo sat next to him and said nothing for awhile.

‘Throttle, I’m so sorry. You were right and I was wrong, I should have listened to you. That girl was working for Limburger, and she caused a wedge to form between you and me. Can you forgive me?’

Throttle just sat back and looked over his bandages, his shoulders and back were stiff and showed no sign of relaxing.

Throttle suddenly jumped to his feet and moved towards the door, Modo moved with him. ‘No Modo, leave me alone, I want to be alone, I don’t want to see anyone.’

He turned once more towards the door but Modo stopped him. Throttle lashed out and caused Modo to stumble backwards. With a whimper Throttle ran from the bathroom towards the bikes, but Modo was right behind him. Before Throttle was even close to his bike he felt Modo’s arms encircling him, he fought against the embrace but was no way near strong enough to break free. Modo felt his being slip, once Throttle would have put up a good fight, but now he could hardly keep himself upright. Throttle’s knees buckled and he slipped to the floor pulling Modo down with him, his head fell into his chest and his tail wrapped around his legs that were tucked underneath him. Modo released his grip on Throttle and watched the fresh blood seep out from the reopened wounds. Throttle’s breathing was laboured and harsh.

‘I’m sorry Modo, I’m just so tired.’