Corperate Takeover

[Raven]

"Ryan," he answered. He didn't offer a last name until he was floating even with Owen on Kenny's hover board. "Ryan Villein."

[Gifted]

"Ryan, huh? That's cool. Hey, don't you think that other kid's gonna get worried about you, Ryan?" He wasn't trying to get rid of Ryan now, it was just an honest question. Then, he noticed something weird. "Hey... you don't have a bar code. aren't you like, seventeen?" He assumed seventeen because anyone younger would be at school during the day.

[Raven]

"Nah, he'll still be getting there. And he knows better than to worry about me." Ryan rolled his eyes playfully.

"Sixteen," he answered briefly, turning his arm so Owen couldn't see the spot where his tattoo would be. As if Owen hadn't already seen. He started to drift away.

[Gifted]

"Sixteen? You don't have a tattoo and you're not in school?" How had this guy stayed alive? He was blatantly breaking two major rules!

[Raven]

Ryan shrugged. "Wanna know a secret, Owen?" he asked, grinning widely. For some reason, he felt he could trust the kid. How stupid. He was still drifting away.

[Gifted]

"Sure. I'm not gonna go blabbering to Tyler about it" Owen shrugged.

[Raven]

Always one for dramatics, more so now that he'd read all those books, he said, "There are ways to avoid the government. And I know all of them." With that, Ryan turned his board and sped off. He knew Owen could definitely catch him on his better board. But, hey, he still tried for the moment.

[Gifted]

Owen thoughtfully pulled out his walkman and looked down at it. "Ways to avoid the government, hmm?" he smiled, almost laughed. "Looks like I'm not the only rebel around here."
He put away his walkman, and went to find some tape so he could put the stupid act of patriotism notice up.


He couldn't stop thinking about what he'd just remembered. Drums. He'd learned about them during the brief history unit in school. They were.... insturments, he was pretty sure that was the right word. Used for playing music. Wait... was that it? Was that what the Walkman did? Played music? Owen remembered the definition they'd taught for music in school. "A primitive form of entertainment made with insturnments, which children would often replicate with boxes, rubber bands, or pots and pans." He'd always thought music sounded unpleasant and awful, but now that he thought about it, wasn't the definition structured specifically to make you think that?

He pulled out the walkman and opened it, looking at the flat disc inside for the first time. It was white and had the words "Mix CD" written on the top in permanant marker. He closed the walkman again and skipped a couple songs.

The song opened with a crashing, followed by some kids chanting. It sounded like something the old government might have forced on them, maybe. Owen could see Apple doing it. then the actual song started.
Scrutinize every word, memorize every line,
I spit it once refuel renergize and rewind.
I give sight to the blind, my insight through the mind,
I excersise my right to express myself when I feel it's time.
Pretty much none of that made any sense to Owen, but the last line was most confusing. The word "right" completely didn't work in that context. Was he missing something?
It's just all in your mind, what you interpret it as
I say to fight you take it as i'ma whip someones ass
Even more lines he didn't understand. Great. He wondered if he should bug Tyler about it.
If you don't understand, don't even bother to ask
a father who has, grown up with a fatherless past
FINALLY a few lines he understood. It appeared the singer had some tough times. Owen listened to a bunch more random lyrics he didn't understand, but it wasn't untill six lines later he sort of understood it again.
Mr. kiss his ass crack, he's a class act.
Rubber band man yeah, he just snaps back.
Well that almost sounded like... no. No, nobody'd be that crazy.

They tell us no we say yeah, they tell us stop we say go,
rebel with a rebel yell, raise hell we gonna let 'em know
Stomp, push shove mush, f*ck Bush
Until they bring ourtroops home come on and.

Okay wait what? That sounded almost exactly like...
Someones trying to tell us something, maybe this is god, just
sayin' we're responsible
For this monster, this coward, that we have empowered
This is Bin Laden, look at his head noddin' how can we allow something like this without pumping our fists
this is our, final hour.
Let me be your voice, and your stregnth and your choice,
let me simplify the rhyme just to emplify the noise
Try to amplify it times it, and multiply it by six
ten million people all equal at this high pitch
Maybe we can reach Al Queada through my speech
Let the president answer our high anarchy!
Strap him with an AK-47 let him go
fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way!
Owen almost dropped the Walkman in shock.

There was no mistaking it. someone had used music to publicly defy the government. How had he even survived? Well, most likely he didn't, but still. How had they even let this music get published? was it underground? even if it was, this sort of thing would be silenced so fast... was it possible he'd been allowed to write something like this?
That was crazy... You could get shot for thinking stuff like this nowadays... why was it so much different? he skipped through the songs quickly. This one was about how terrible it was to be a soldier. This one was a defiant chant against authority figures. And even, going back to the first one he'd ever heard, when he got past the blaring noise, it was pretty obvious to him it was about somebody gloating over the complete power they had over another person.
They couldn't kill all these people. They'd all publicly defied the ruling body, spoken the words that were unspeakable. It slowly dawned on him. If they could do it, why couldn't he?

Maybe he didn't have to work for Apple for the rest of his life. Maybe he could start something... big. A change. And maybe he could set it up so it was better for everyone. It couldn't be just him thinking this way, right? There had to be others!
Then it hit him. Maybe the Ryan kid. He'd show that Ryan his walkman, show him the music. He bet Ryan would agree with him. And after that, who knew how far they could go?
Feeling hopeful and excited for the first time in who knew how long, Owen got on his hoverboard and shot as fast as he could in the direction he'd seen Ryan leave.

[Raven]

Ryan's board was nowhere near as fast as Owen's, but he still had quite a head-start. He was almost to his private library when Owen would have gained sight, though still not quite have been at Ryan's side. The Nike kid didn't notice the other until he looked around before revealing his hideout. Then he froze. Why was that kid there? Was he following him? Trying to ambush him? He had been looking for Acts of Patriotism. Ryan hovered closer to the Apple boy, he might not have as much tech, but the difference between fighting because you can and fighting for life was great, and there Ryan had the advantage. Not to mention the fact that he was older. He raised his eyebrow, Owen was coming much too fast to be trying to sneak up on him. "Back so soon?"

[Gifted]

Owen slowed down when Ryan spoke to him. "Hey, you said something about avoiding the goverment? Why do you bother?"

[Raven]

Ryan frowned. "Because I have four younger siblings and I can't leave them for most of the day every day to go work at a factory," he answered slowly.

[Gifted]

"And? Won't they be with your parents? Or at the community home, wherever?" Owen shrugged.

[Raven]

"I'm not letting them put them in the community home. Why do you care, anyway?" Ryan demanded

[Gifted]

"...I want to show you something, but I need to know if I can trust you," Owen replied hesitantly.

[Raven]

"And how is asking me about my siblings and lack of a tattoo going to convince you of anything?" Ryan questioned.