THE MAGNIFICENT TALE OF THE BALDS. CHAPTER 13: THE ALATOSH EMPIRE

 THE MAGNIFICENT TALE OF THE BALDS

CHAPTER 13: THE ALATOSH EMPIRE

Bald Leon and Slider were just 30 miles away from London. They had been walking for days, sleeping anywhere they could find that seemed comfortable and the journey had been hard on them. Slider hadn't had a wash in weeks and Bald Leon hadn't had a wash in ever.

Finally, the outer city limits came into view, the endless urban sprawl that oozed from the London city centre and just off in the horizon, Bald Leon and Slider could see the skyscrapers reaching into the London sky.

"Julian is somewhere in all this mess," Bald Leon said to himself

"Yeah, It's gonna be nearly impossible to find him" Slider replied

They both sat on a bench exhausted, contemplating their next move, and as they sat, a double-decker bus passed them by. On the side of the bus was a 7ft advertisement for Julian Alatosh's business, "Alatosh industries", including the address for their London recruitment centre.

"Oh, there we go, that's convenient" Pointed Slider.

"yes, maybe the bus driver knows, they know the city better than anyone!" shouted Bald Leon

The pair climbed aboard the bus and approached the driver.

"Excuse me, Mr Driver, do you know where Julian Alatosh lives?" Asked Bald Leon

"Afraid not pal, but this bus goes into the city centre, which would be a good place for you to find your friend" He replied

"Fine" sighed Bald Leon

Bald Leon went and sat down without paying for a ticket, forcing Slider to pay for both his and his own. Slider sat on the seats adjacent to Bald Leon as they got comfortable for the long ride into the city centre. The ride into town was mostly uneventful until they got a mile from the city centre, when a group of year 7 chavs got on board the bus and sat on the back seats, just behind Bald Leon and Slider. They were all shouting and laughing and playing trap Fortnite parodies through their phone speakers. Bald Leon decided to politely ask them to stop making such a racket.

"Excuse me, can you please be quiet or ill shove your phone up your nose and rip your legs off?" He asked politely

"You what" shouted back one of the Chav Girls

"I asked you to turn off the music and quiet down or I'll lobotomise you." He replied

"You say something bout my mum? You think she's fat? You think she's stupid because she had to drop out of school at year 9 to have me? You think she wears so much makeup she looks like Clayface from batman? What do you think about that mum?" the girl asked before turning to another one who looked not much older, and was wearing the same school uniform as she had clearly been held back

The "Mother" looked Bald Leon up and down while the cigarette her child had lit for her hung out of her mouth.

"What you saying about me? You talking about me? you talking about my child? What just cause I drank and smoke through the pregnancy I'm a bad mum? That what you sayi-" she was cut off before she could finish by Slider, who had found a brick under his seat and thrown it at her head.

Everyone on the bus apart from Bald Leon and Slider all pulled out pocket knives and began to brawl with each other, forcing Slider and Bald Leon to use their fists to defend themselves. Bald Leon did exactly as he said he would and grabbed the girls phone, pushing it up her nose so that only the charging port was sticking out. Slider ripped one of the seats from the bus and threw it at someone rushing him from the front of the bus, and they were knocked back with such force that they were knocked through the glass of the front upstairs windscreen.

The fight moved down the stairs of the bus, involving more and more passengers ripping up seats and pulling out weapons, someone even started trying to attack the driver. The driver swerved the bus, making it sway from side to side uncontrollably until it eventually tipped over on a bend. Even on its side, the bus continued to scrape along the ground until it smacked into a building, forcing it to a stop with a jolt and a loud bang, almost everyone on the bus had either been knocked unconscious by the crash or by their fellow passengers, leaving only Slider, Bald Leon and a few stragglers.

They climbed out one of the smashed open windows on the second floor to find themselves in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. They had made it to the heart of London. Slider jumped to the ground, shortly followed by Bald Leon, who could hear sirens in the distance.
"We should scram, they'll probably blame us for that," He said

"I mean, it technically was our fault not gonna lie" Slider replied.

"Yeah I know but if we get arrested it will give Julian a warning that were coming"

"Good shout lets leg it"

But it was too late to avoid giving Julian a warning. One of the many exports of Alatosh Industries was home and business security and CCTV cameras, which he hosted and monitored on his own network. The scheme was first rolled out as a partnership with the government to help emergency services get to incidents faster, and catch criminals in the act. Unfortunately for Bald Leon and Slider, the bus service had utilized these cameras, as well as almost every business at Picadilly Circus.

In the control centre across town, one of the Alatosh Industries operatives had been closely monitoring the bus situation and had coordinated an ambulance service to the scene, however, on orders of their superior manager, they had not informed the police. The manager had run to the phone as soon as they had heard about the incident.

"Yes sir, I think this could be the perfect opportunity to trial the security squads, these seem to be relatively low threat individuals, so the prototypes wouldn't be at risk, it'd make us look good in front of the police, they'd just have to reconsider the security contract"

The voice on the other side of the call remained silent for a moment, considering the proposition.

"Very well, But if this goes wrong it was your call and YOU will have to deal with that. Scramble the units" 

"Very good sir" replied the Manager

The manager hung of the phone and gave the thumbs up to another worker who was standing by above their command console awaiting the go-ahead from the chain of command. as soon as the thumb went up, the worker slammed a red button on their work station, which activated one of the hundreds of drone nests that Alatosh Industries had installed at their locations around the city. The nearest facility was at Mayfair, a mere few minutes on foot from Piccadilly Circus, but of course, these drones could fly.

Within seconds, the drones arrived at the scene and scanned the crowd for the perpetrators of the crime, Slider and Bald Leon. Slider saw the drones before Bald Leon and pointed them out, and before he could even react, one of the five drones that had been scrambled fired a taser dart at Slider, shocking him unconscious immediately.

"Oh SHIT" Shouted Bald Leon

He grabbed Slider and threw him over his shoulder and tried to run away, but the drones followed close. Bald Leon sprinted down the road, attempting to seek refuge in some of the businesses he passed, however, he quickly found out that Alatosh Industries security division also offered "Smart doors" which closed and locked to prevent intruders, rioters and on the run criminals from escaping. Luckily for Bald Leon, the entrance to the nearby underground station didn't have a door, so he sprinted down the stairs to the London Underground and waited at the bottom, trying to catch his breath. unfortunately for him, he wouldn't have time to catch his breath, as the drones were able to follow him down the stairs into the train station, forcing Bald Leon to run further into the subway.

He ran down onto the nearest train platform, taking every twist and turn of the underground steps as quickly as he could, shoving civilians out of his way, as the drones flew just above their heads. Slider began to regain consciousness and quickly worked out the situation. He took a piece of brick that was still in his pocket and threw it at the closest drone, taking off one of its rotor blades and grounding it.

"Did you see that lad?" asked Slider

Bald Leon realised that Slider was conscious again and dropped him from his shoulder so that they could run together. There were four drones still after them, but they'd run out of steps and had reached the platform. They got to the platform and found that there was no train, and it was due in 60 seconds. As the train pulled into the station they immediately boarded but could hear the drones approaching. The drones came onto the platform and one of them immediately charged at Bald Leon, but the doors closed just in time, smashing the drone.

The train pulled away as the other three drones all came onto the tracks. Bald Leon and Slider stood at the furthest back car on the train and could see the drones as they sped towards the train closely behind in a tight formation. One of the drones broke formation to pull alongside the train, attempting to fire a taser at the pair once again through one of the windows, but before it even got a chance a second train came along the other line, smashing it to pieces, leaving just two drones in pursuit. The other drones pulled back a little bit for their own safety as the train began to arrive at the next station. Bald Leon and Slider shoved other passengers out of the way to get off of the train first, as the two drones flew over the train to get to them. The drones had swapped from their electric shock attacks to automatic rubber bullets. The pair ran from the drones up the stairs as fast as they could. Bald Leon felt up his pockets, trying to find something to battle the drones with. He shoved his hand to the very bottom of his blazer pocket and pulled out a frisbee.

"Aha!" He shouted with glee.

"A boomerang? What are you gonna do with that?" Asked Slider

Bald Leon turned around and threw the frisbee as hard as he could. He threw it with so much speed and strength that it cut straight through the arm of the drone, throwing it off balance and forcing it to crash. There was now only one drone left following them.

"Nice!" Shouted Slider

They got to the top of the stairs and looked around for something to use to take out the final drone. Slider pulled out some dental floss that he had been keeping in his pocket for later, and threw one end of it to Bald Leon. They stretched it out to its fullest and stood on either side of the exit to the underground. The drone came flying up the stairs and collided with the floss, getting it wrapped up in its rotors, forcing it to the ground.

Bald Leon walked over to the struggling drone, still not quite destroyed. He picked it up and stared into the camera and gave it a big smile

"HI GUYS!" He shouted into the camera, deafening everyone listening in the control room. The Manager stood, shaking in fear after his failed operation. As he quaked in fear, the bell on the lift dinged and the doors opened, revealing the man he had been talking to on the phone, Julian Alatosh. He wore a dark purple suit and sunglasses and looked angry.

"Mark. You're fired. Get out." he said while looking at the manager.

"Yes sir. Sorry, Sir." Said the manager before scurrying into the lift. As he ran for the lift he was grabbed by two of Julian's goons, stopping him from reaching the button.

"NO PLEASE NOOOOOOOO" Shouted the Manager as he was carried away.

Julian stood in the control room, everyone staring at what had just transpired. He took a moment, waiting for Mark's screams to be too far away to hear before beginning his speech.

"Tell me, people, are we not supposed to be the cutting edge in home, business and public security? Are we not supposed to be the FUTURE of foolproof security measures? Are we not the third biggest company in the world right now? YOU answer the question NOW!" He shouted while pointing at an employee

"Yes! I'm sorry sir, Were doing our best" Cried the worker

"GET OUT!" Julian shouted, allowing this employee to reach the lift and escape. He picked up the managers PC and threw it across the room

"I EXPECT NOTHING LESS THAN THE BEST! SO SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW THIS CHAV AND THAT BALD ASSHOLE DESTROYED FIVE OF OUR TOP OF THE LINE DRONES! THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE NEXT BIG THING, THE REPLACEMENT FOR THE PATROLLING COP! AND THEY'RE GETTING DESTROYED BY TWO ASSHOLES WHO CRASHED A BUS! I WANNA KNOW WHO THESE PRICKS ARE, AND WHY THEY BEAT US AT OUR OWN GAME, AND I WANNA KNOW IT YESTERDAY!" He screamed.

all of the workers hurried back to work, as Julian regained his composure and straightened his tie.

"Thank you, was that so hard?" He asked "I want a report by the end of the day on those two or some of you will be joining Mark" 

Julian left without another word, leaving his workers to investigate Bald Leon and Slider.

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