Corperate Takeover 1x1

[Gifted]

Owen nodded and checked the time. "I ought to be going, I suppose... I ought to get home before my stepdad does."

[Raven]

Ryan nodded. "See you again, then?" he asked.

[Gifted]

"Definately." He stood up to leave, then realised the guy had never given a name... nor had Owen, actually. "Name's Owen. What's yours?"

[Raven]

"Ryan," he said, smiling. "Nice to meet ya."

[Gifted]

"You too. Talk to you later." Owen said, and headed home.

[Gifted]

"Oh, it's yours is it? All wrapped up pretty like that to protect it from the rain?" Secretly, Kyla was worried it was one of the textbooks that were supposed to be down in her lab. If someone else found one and turned it in there'd be a huge search along the shoreline to find the others. She wasn't sure what would happen to her if she were found out, but she doubted it'd be good.

[Raven]

"My sister brought it on a picnic and left it here, it's nothing special really. Just a dictionary," he said, with partial honesty. He was an only child, but she didn't need to know that. "Why do you care, anyway?"

[Gifted]

"Oh, you think I'm hoverboarding up and down the coastline for no reason?" she challenged, smirking.

[Raven]

Frederick rolled his eyes. "Most people your age do it for fun," he said. "Not like you have much better to do. I, on the other hand, do, and I will be going now."

[Gifted]

"Hey!" Kyla sighed when Fredrick left. Loos like she'd have to take him at his word. Anyway, the hoverboard worked fine. She rid it to the owners house, collcted the money for her work, and was about to walk back to the lab when she remembered she promised Joanna she'd come home tonight. The door would be locked soon, so she sighed and walked home instead.

[Raven]

Ryan didn't have to wait long for his siblings to come home, Adam openly complaining about how the hoverboards had reacted to the weight of him, Lynn, and the groceries while his brother just sighed and went to sleep.
Max immediately came to snuggle with her eldest brother, and Ryan read her a bedtime story.

Frederick, meanwhile, had just finished the report in time to have a bit of time to look over his discovery. If he wasn't such a history fanatic he probably would have just turned it in, but his curiosity over anything historical had been fueled by the fact that they told him next to nothing.

[Gifted]

Owen meerly flew home.
When he got to his house, Tyler wasn't home yet. He sat alone on the couch in his relitivley fancy living room, fiddling with the walkman.

After about three hours, he pretty much figured out how all the buttons worked. "Volume" was apparently what made the sound louder or softer - which he was pleased to learn, so he didn't get his ears blown off every time he turned it on by accident. But although he understood how the thing WORKED, he didn't understand what it DID. What was that blaring noise that emitted from the wire-things when he turned it on?
He hit the little start button and listened to the noise, really listening to it, trying to understand. He'd never heard anything like it before. The main sound... well it was really indescribable, he couldn't even think of anything to compare it to. In the backround, he could sometimes hear a pounding noise, but it didn't sound unpleasant. On the contrary, after one got past the blaring noise, the whole thing sounded really cool together, and he found hmself tapping the coffee table to the beat and smiling.
He was surprised when he caught himself doing it. WHy was he hitting things for amusement? That wasn't normal behavior...
Hitting things for amusement. That reminded him of something he'd learned about a few years ago, when they'd studied ainceint civillizations in class. People way back when had hit things for amusement.. hit them with sticks designed for the purpose, in fact. What were those things they hit for amusement??? He turned the Walkman off so he could think. What was it ainceint people used to hit for amusement?

He couldn't remember, and it was getting late. Tyler worked late tonight, but he'd be home soon. With a sigh, he trudged up to his room and hid the walkman in the drawer under a false bottom. He never knew when he'd have something to hide from Tyler.
With that, he passed out on his bed, still fully clothed.



That night was awful. Her parents didn't even seem to aknowledge she was in the house. Michael shouted at her. The twins dropped a rubber spider in her food as a practical joke. Her shreik had set Tiffany crying, and then Sharon had scolded her for that for like fifteen minutes. Joanna stood up for her and got grounded. Nicholas came to comfort her later, for which Kyla was grateful, and actually had a civil conversation with the two of them... the only one other than Joanna who would. Still, he was cold and formal and rather distant. Finally, FINALLY, they'd been allowed to go to bed.

[Gifted]

When Owen sat up the next morning, he remembered the word as though his brain had been working on it all night. In fact, he though it a strong possibility the realization had shocked him awake. 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 changed his clothes, got on his hoverboard and shot as fast as he could in the direction of Ryans library.


That morning, Kyla awoke to the sound of Tiffany crying. Sharon, the usual "mom" type figure of the family, was at work, and her parents were still asleep, so she went in the room to comfort her little sister. She wasn't really sure what to do.
An hour later she'd gotten Tiffany calm and happy, and her mother came in. "Why aren't you ready for school?" She snapped. "Your siblings are all ready!"
"I was trying to soothe-" Kyla protested, but her mom cut her off.
"It takes like ffive minutes to soothe that child, all you needed to do was fewed her a little." her mother snapped.
"Yeah, but I didn't know that!"
"That's no excuse! Now go get to school!" She took Tiffany roughly from Kylas arms.
Kyla sighed. She wasn't getting out of it today. She got ready in record time and went to school, only twenty minutes late.

[Raven]

Ryan was the only one of his siblings awake, but awake he was, and practicing some Patriotism moves. It was clear to anyone who watched he relied more on agility than strength, but he wasn't weak either.

[Gifted]

Owen got off his board when he was sure he was in the right place. Now he just had to worry about Ryans siblings. Tucking his walkman under his arm, he looked around nervously and knocked on the door.