“For too long the High Council have oppressed us. Fed us poisoned lies and walked all over our freedom. Condemned our friends and family to the Outer Rings as we were forced to watch. Today you have a choice. Hide and cower here like those monsters want you to… Or you stand and fight for our freedom!” continued Ashley as the crowd of Trainee Enforcers started to murmur, “They have the metal they need yet they persecute us, murder us. For too long have we turned a blind eye. No more. Today we fight!” the crowd started to rise in volume, sparks of anger glinting in their eyes, “Today we end their tyranny and begin a new day!”

The crowd started to roar.

“Today we break free!” she shouted, and with a final burst of sound the crowd of Enforcer-Trainees charged past their handlers and ran through the opening doors that spoke goodbye to them in chirpy robotic voices, running to join up with the Scavengers fighting and revolutionising outside.

…

Jack was fighting tooth and nail just to kill… time and ideally some of the Enforcers but really you couldn’t have everything in life (filthy lies). He was relying on the instincts that 5 years in the Outer Ring had taught him (duck, weave and run to run another day) although with rather brutal means (being chased with tasers and feather-dusters). Dodging the swing of an Enforcer’s blade(his hair would beg to differ), he caught a glimpse of his sister leading a tidal wave of Trainees to join the battle.

“Finally!” he shouted at her as time was being very persistent in its struggle and he was running out of Enforcers, but his yell was drowned out by the grin on his face (bah, he calls that wiggle on his face a grin) and the clamours of surprise escaping from the Trainees, as they saw the pain that the remaining loyalist Enforcers were inflicting upon their fellow man’s overwhelming army.

Relaxing for a second at the arrival of the reinforcements , making this battle even more pointless as they now outnumbered them something like 36:0.5, Jack let out a sigh of relief before gathering his wits as he looked up to the High Tower.

“SCAVENGERS! RECRUITS! CIVILIANS! Follow me as we storm the Tower!” yelled Jack to the battle-frenzied rebels as they stalled for a moment before swarming forward, running past the near extinct Enforcer troops towards the Tower that pierced past the rest of the city, a metaphorical flip of the finger up at the heavens.

Approaching the Tower, the rebels stalled for a moment thinking of what they had lost to the Council’s false perfection, the people they had fought over it, before their eyes took on a cobalt glint and they dispersed into groups to hunt down Enforcers.

“Time to finish this,” whispered Jack to himself and the invisible narrator he was sure stalked his every move, walking up to the Tower’s doors full of partially faked nonchalance and swagger but mostly as he had said, ready to finish it.

BANG! Jack winced at the sound of the doors slamming open his swagger dispersing in the shock, as the doors left unlocked from the escape of the Councilors, performed their job with all the drama and sound effect they could reasonably be expected to.

“Que thunder and lightning,” Spoke Jack as the prophesied storm began its dramatic impact.

“Hello Councilor, welcome back to the Tower, the High Councilor wishes to see you, Hel-llo-Coun-cil-cil-cil-or...” the A.I. of the Tower said before either malfunctioning and shutting down, the saboteurs’ work finally coming to fruition or falling asleep due to a hard day’s work. “Probably the second one,” Jack thought, “She did sound pretty tired.”

Carefully searching through the foyer, then through the floors one by one he found some rather incriminating images of the Councilors, jumping for a moment when the lights came back on but not seeing so much as a glimpse of anyone or their goldfish.

Eventually he had searched every floor but the highest, the personal residence of the High Councilor, the most predictable place for an epic final showdown.

Stopping for a moment he thought back to where it began, with him taking the Scavenger’s Mark for his sister (bet gone wrong) and everything that had happened since (a LOT).

He stepped up to the door.

“Welcome to the High Councilor’s Floor, the High Councilor would like to see you,” spoke the same A.I., her short nap complete as the door rose revealing a figure facing away, who watched countless people through the Council’s ‘Safety Network’ like a total creep, watching the rebels take back their freedom.

Creep.

“Well, this is a close second but not everything gets what they want in the end,” ominous words came from the Ominous Councilor (random title generators were a terrible idea in hindsight the Councilor had many times reflected) as he turned to face Jack.

“Some want fame, others desire riches, but me, I just wanna watch the world burn,” continued the figure revealing his cyborgian figure.

“Who did this this to you!” cried Jack in righteous fury at the poor man’s appearance, with body parts replaced with cold machinery and connected him to whirring machines that maintained the Councilman’s life, “Are you okay? Should I call a combat paramedic to check you out?”

“I did this to myself you fool!” bellowed the slightly off-kilter and aggrieved Councilor, having gone this far in his search to be offered help? Salvation from himself? It physically hurt him, and that wasn’t supposed to even be possible anymore.

“Immortal, the ever-lasting, that is what I’ve become by casting aside my useless humanity, for when humans are dead and gone what we’ve built will still be here. As will I.”

Recovering from his shock, Jack’s desire to help this grievously mutilated man reached a peak, seeing he was to far gone to save, “I will end you! Don’t worry whatever remains of the real you I’ll save you!” he yelled, before pulling out his pistol and emptying it into the thing before smashing all the computers to be safe and to execute his assistance.

“I am immortal,” echoed from the walls before fading to permanent silence, which was disrupted by the slightest sound from nowhere and everywhere at once, “Thankyou.”

Jack carefully considered the camera screens seeing sad and rejoicing heroes join hands in celebration, then lifted the man who had lost so much in his search for life eternal and threw him out the open window before walking away.

The Ominous Councilor wasn’t the only monster this world had made, and it takes a hero to save a monster. Then nurse it back to health and use its magical powers to make an empire of Joy, an Empire Eternal.