"Boy, what a night..." I said to myself. It was supposed to have been easy money. But that stupid girl had to ruin everything. Why did she have to keep smiling at me like that? Ugh, this was a terrible situation I had landed myself in. I'm no saint, I've done some seriously messed up things in my life, so why couldn't I do this. I mean, she was young, she'd be alright if they caught her, I mean, they wouldn't stick her in New Trust Penitentiary or anything. New Trust Penitentiary, what a terrible name for a terrible place.

    I stood up, I was tired of crouching behind that gross dumpster. I probably should have looked around first, before standing up, but at that moment I seriously didn't care if I got caught. I'm rambling on, I should start from the begining, well, not from the very begining, but from the begining of the events that led me to be hiding behind a dumpster on a Saturday night.

    My name is Niko, I have a full name, but I'm not going to give it to you. I'm a malefactor for hire, to put it as nicely as possible. I work mostly for big CEOs who want their competition to suddenly have missing shipments, or malfunctioning equipment. I'm also a master of disguise, as cliched as that is, it's true. I can infiltrate any building regardless of the security, that's why I get paid so well. Anyway, a few weeks ago, July 16th, I think it was, yeah, Monday the 16th, this guy offers me a ton of money for this job. I'm not gonna give you a name, I'm no rat, but he was a pretty important guy at this big company in the city. Apparently, his company had been having trouble with the Breakers, those would-be revolutionaries, and he wanted me to get some info on them so that they would be thrown in prison, and would stop messing up his bank statement.

    Now obviously, the government has been after the Breakers for years, but see, no cop is as good as me. I'm the best. So this guy figured I'd be able to infiltrate the Breakers, become one of them, and then sell 'em out for my paycheck. Well, he was right. It was actually pretty damn easy to get them to trust me, that's the problem with the good guys.

    Anyway, it all started on the Tuesday after I took the job. I was hanging out at a readeasy (all the would-be revolutionaries hang out there) smoking a cigarette. That's one good thing about places like this, I can enjoy a cigarette without getting arrested. I looked around the room, there were bookcases covering every wall. Some people were walking around looking at the books on the shelves, but most people were sitting down at tables talking to eachother in an excited manner. Sometimes I wished I had time to read some of these books, I kinda want to know just what it is these book-heads get so excited about. I noticed a group of guys in the corner, talking really quietly and constantly looking to see if anyone was listening, I figured those were the guys I was looking for. I took another drag and walked over to a shelf of big dirty books. I was reading some of the covers until everyone gave me a dirty look. "Don't smoke near the goods, you jackass!"

    So I went back to smoking near the door. Just as I was reaching the filter, this big guy walks up to me. When I say big, I mean it, he was huge, he had to be at least seven feet tall, and half that wide. He had a big belly, but he had really muscular arms, with nasty scars and huge tatoos. When I saw him, I almost laughed, he was wearing a white polo shirt with yellow stripes, khaki pants, and dress shoes. To top it all off, when I finally looked all the way up to his face he was bald as a cue ball, and he was wearing these crazy glasses. They had thick black plastic frames, and the lenses were square. This guy walks up to me, and he says, "You looking for the Breakers?"

    "Maybe, who are the Breakers?" I asked, putting the remains of my cancer stick into my pocket.

    "Don't play dumb, little man" he growled. At this point, any thoughts I had about laughing at his appearance died forever, this guy was intimidating as hell. "Come with me," he motioned with one of his huge hands. He led me over to that table in the back corner. There were two people sitting here, a women who had to about forty, but was still very attractive nonetheless, and a guy who couldn't have been older than nineteen. They were pretending to be in a deep conversation when we walked up to them. "This is Niko, he wanted to meat you, Brendan."

    I looked at the kid, and thought they couldn't be serious, this couldn't be the leader of the Breakers, he wasn't even old enough to drive. He was an interesting kid though. He was probably no more than five and a half feet tall, and really skinny. He had a red bandana covering grey hair, and big green eyes. He was dressed in a pin-striped suit, complete with a red bow-tie. I was seriously wondering if I was being set up, how could all the Breakers be so funny looking, the police were litterally falling over themselves trying to catch these guys.

    "Hiya, how're ya, Niko?" he said to me in a cheerful and friendly voice.

    "I, uh, I'm, you've gotta be joking, you're just a kid!" I exclaimed.

    "Well now, that was rude, now you've gone and insulted me," Brendan laughed, only there was something vicious about it. I was seeing a pattern developing, these Breakers looked nice enough, but cross them and they changed in an instant. "Please, answer my question, and I'll answer any you have," at this point his tone and appearnce went back to that of a nice little kid.

    "I'm fine, this is a nice place you've got here." I answered nervously, I had just looked around and realized that at least half of the people in here were Breakers, and they were all glancing in my direction every few moments.

    "That's grand. Now, I'm not joking, and neither is Frank here," he motioned toward the big guy. "As for your second question, though, I guess that was more of a statement, I guess you could call me a kid. I don't see where age is all that important to the business at hand though. You would do well to stay focused on your objectives, thinking about other things is a waste of time. Now, you want to join our little group, right? Why is it exactly that you want to be a Breaker?"

    I didn't know how to answer him, the way he talked, I didn't have any more doubts about him being their leader. This kid knew what he was doing. "Well, I think you guys are right, I guess."

    "You think so? That's good, I'd be happier if you knew, 'cause I'm really interested in whether what we're doing is right or not." When he said this, he kind of looked toward the ceiling, as though he was thinking deeply about it.

    "Well, I can't help you there," I started, "but, I think I could be a real help with some other things."

    "That's what I hear," he laughed. "I hear you have a real knack for getting your hands on illegal materials, like that cigarette you were smoking when you came in here."

    "Well, smokes are easy, you didn't meet me for smokes did you?" I asked.

    "There we go, that's a good question. No, I didn't meet you for smokes, I hear they stunt your growth, and well, I am vertically challenged as you can see. No, I met with you because we have a plan we're working on, only we need some things to pull it off, but this isn't a great place to talk, why don't you meet me at my place tomorrow night. Frank can pick you up here tomorrow at eleven. He'll bring you to me."

    "Eleven PM? That's after curfew." I frowned.

    "Well, why do you think they call us the Breakers?"

    I didn't like being out after ten, unless I had a really good job planned. Those Curfew Bots are hard as hell to avoid. The next morning, after my first encounter with Brendan, I met with one of my contacts. Guy that goes by the name Parent, claims to be invisible at night, whether or not this is true, he's got a contact at the police station and can get you a list of sweep times for the Curfew Bots. He was waiting for me at a conveince store, he was pretending to be debating over which type of lottery ticket to buy. "I heard someone won two hundred bucks offa one of these before!" he told the cashier. I walked up behind him and pointed to a different type of ticket.

    "No one has ever won any money frome these, winning ticket must be due to show up," I told him.

    "Y'know, I think you're right," he said with a smile. He bought the ticket and walked out of the store with me. "What night do you want it for?" he asked.

    "I need it for tonight," I answered.

    "Alright, but, something's going on tonight I think, there's gonna be more bots than usual."

    "Really?" I asked, not caring about the answer. That kid must have known this, he was testing me. I took a sheet of paper with some times and streets scribbled on it from him, and started to walk off. He took a coin I had payed him with and started scratching at his ticket.

    "Hah! I won five bucks! I owe you one, Niko."

---

    I sat in my kitchen after work waiting for curfew. I was nervous for some reason, I've snuck around after ten before, I've snuck around after ten to break into heavily secured buildings before. Something else was making me nervous, it was that Brendan kid. A kid his age and size shouldn't have been so confident, there was something about him. I didn't have long to think about this though, as shortly after I started the timer on my watch went off. I put on my black coat, and crawled out of my apartment through the ventilation system. No opening windows after curfew.

    It wasn't a difficult trip to meet up with Frank. I had memorized most of the schedule I had received that morning, and while there were a lot of bots out, the path to the readeasy was pretty empty, they were focused elsewhere. I walked up to the door of the building, but before I could knock Frank opened the door. "Great timing," he smiled. "Follow me."

    "Alright, where exactly does this kid live?" I asked, before I could finish though, he was running down the alley.

    "Keep up," he hissed, "and don't call him a kid"

    He ran, down alley after alley, he was amazingly fast and quiet for such a big guy. It took me a minute to realize what he was doing, he didn't want me to memorize the way to the apartment, he didn't want me to know where I was going. After about fifteen minutes of running like this, he stopped, and ducked behind a dumpster. "Listen," he whispered, "we're splitting up, follow this alley to the end, take a left, go down that street until you see a poster for Mayor Smith and then take another left. It'll be the third door on the right. Be fast, a bot is going down that alley in seven minutes." I pulled out my list, only to realize I had no idea where I was. I had to get to the end of the alley and out onto the street to figure out where I was.

    "Hey," I said, I wanted to ask Frank what street that was at the end of the alley, but he was already gone. "Where..." I started, but then I heard that familiar beeping. A Curfew Bot was coming down a side alley from behind me, I had no choice but to sprint to the street in front of me. I was starting to lose my breath, I usually don't move this fast. Out on the main street, there was no where to hide, the bright street lamps casting my shadow out to my right onto the sidewalk. I saw a light coming from between two buildings across the street, it was another bot. "They planned this!" I groaned. I turned left and started to run again. This time watching for the poster so I would know when to turn again. I ran for what seemed like an eternity. I wasn't going to make it. Where was this stupid poster. Did I miss my turn? These thoughts were starting to cloud my mind when I finally saw it. I turned and pounded down the alley. As I came to the door, it opened and one of those huge arms reached out and pulled me in. The door slammed behind me and I could hear a bot fly by the door.

    "Just in time again," Frank laughed.

    "How the..." I panted, "how in the hell did you..."

    "You're in poor shape," Frank laughed again. His laugh was actually pretty friendly. I didn't understand these guys. I stood there holding my chest, attempting to catch my breath.

    "You did good!" Brendan exclaimed from a nearby chair. "Matilda here didn't think you would make it." He motioned toward the woman he was with last night. She smiled at me, and then made a motion with her hands as if to say "Who would have known?" and then left the room through a door on the left wall.

    "Alright," I said, "what're we here for?"

    "Well," Brendan smiled, "as you may have guessed, tonight was a test. If you want to be a Breaker, you have to be able to get around this city without getting yourself arrested." "You passed," he added with a laugh.

    "So...what? I'm leaving now?" I asked.

    "Nah, now we tell you about the plan."

    It was a pretty ambitious plan. My job was to get them some uniforms, so they could sneak inside of this building and steal some new invention, some kind of thermo-optical camoflauge. If they could get their hands on that kind of technology, they would be able to pull off some pretty major stuff. Then they showed me a picture of the building, I couldn't believe it, it was too easy. They were trying to break into the headquarters of the company I was working for. We went over the plan for a bit longer. After that, the kid and I talked politics for a while, it was amazing how much someone so young knew, I felt like I was talking to a man many years older than me. For a while, I actually believed what he was saying, I forgot why I was helping them in the first place.

    "Well now," he said after what seemed like hours of talking. "I think it's safe to say you're official now. You're one of us."


    "One of you?" I asked.

    "A Breaker!" he exclaimed. "You need a bandana, you can have mine." He took his bandana off his head, revealing his extremely messy grey hair and handed it to me. I accepted it and looked at the odd symbols on it. "You don't have to wear it or anything, I just like giving one to all our members. Anyway, you're staying here for the night, you can sleep on the couch you're sitting on. It's my bedtime." he laughed. He got up and left the room through the door to the right of the entrance.

    Frank was already asleep on the floor nearby, and I sure as hell wasn't waking him up, so I laid down and went to sleep. I figured I could trust these weirdos. It was an uncomfortable couch, but I was pretty tired and fell asleep while going over all the things me and the kid had talked about in my head. Some of it made a lot of sense, the world he talked about, the world before the Transition, it seemed a lot nicer. The government was really a pain, I mean, what's the harm in reading books or having a smoke now and then?

    "Rise and shine, it's time for breakfast!"

    "Ugh, wassa what time is it?" I mumbled.

    "It's nine, bud, now wake up!" the kid laughed. I sat up and looked around, at the table where Frank and Brendan were eating breakfast, there was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. She looked like she might have been Brendan's older sister, but she was probably only about twenty years old, far too young for a guy like me. I knew if I stuck around here she'd be trouble.

    "What's for breakfast?" I asked.

    "Oatmeal, again..." Frank moaned.

    "Hey, come on Frank, we're funding a revolution! We have more important things to spend our money on than tasty breakfast." The kid really was likeable, I was starting to feel real low.

    "How could I possibly turn this kid in?" I thought to myself. I sat down at the table and picked up my spoon, the oatmeal looked terrible, Frank had every reason to complain. It didn't taste any better than it looked, but I was starved so I ate it all pretty quickly.

    "See! It's not so bad Frank, Niko seems to like it!"

    "I'm starved, I'd eat anything at this point." I told them.

    "Hey, save some for me!" the young girl cried out, her voice was as beautiful as she was, and that only made me feel even lower. If Brendan really was her brother, I didn't even want to think about it.

    "Oh, where are my manners?" Brendan asked himself, "Niko, this is my sister Gwen. Gwen, this is our new pal, Niko!"

    "Nice to meet you," I said after swallowing some more oatmeal. I was feeling as bad as it gets at that point, I just wanted to lay down on the floor and die.

    "It's a pleasure," she said with a smile. Then I started to go crazy I think. I decided to bail on the job and join them. They were a great bunch of people, even if I hardly knew them. I wouldn't mind taking on a new identity to join them. My cover job sucked, and now I hated my actual job even more. What kind of guy would double-cross people like this anyway?

    That night, I went to see my current employer, I told him what I'd been up to, a version of it at least, and convinced him to give me the uniforms the Breakers needed. I told him I didn't know what day they were planning on breaking into the building, but I would let him know as soon as they told me. He told me that I would get my paycheck when that happened.

    "Do you have them?" Frank asked.

    "Of course I have them, I'm the best," I laughed. I was back at the readeasy I had met them at the first night. I made up a story about sneaking into the building to steal the uniforms.

    "This is great," Brendan said, "Niko, you wanna come with us, when we go to do this?"

    "I, uh, there are only four disguises..."

    "Yeah, but if we were to sew all four together they wouldn't make a pair of shorts for Frank," Brendan joked.

    "Don't you have tons of people? I thought the Breakers were huge."

    "Well, we like the government to think so, but really, there's less than thirty of us." he said quietly.

    "Wait, really?" I demanded.

    "Yeah, and besides, I like you!" he said with a smile. "I get the feeling I can trust you."

    "Heh, yeah." I was feeling terrible again. I was really starting to like this kid.

    "So, which one is mine?" Gwen asked.

    "Wait, you're not going, are you?" I asked back.

    "Of course I am!" she answered. "These guys wouldn't last a minute without me." She looked at me and smiled. "I hope you'll join us! My brother really seems to want you to."

    "Alright, I'll do it, I'll be a Breaker" I sighed.

    "You promise?"

    "I promise."

    "Alright then!" Brendan exclaimed. "It's settled, we do this thing tommorrow night, so we need to make any last minute preperations now."

---

    We waited in this weird apartment on Saturday. It was around seven when I got there. It was really small, Frank was sitting on the floor when I got there, I had a feeling he wouldn't have been able to stand. Brendan was lying on a couch next to some guy I'd never seen before. The kid was lying with his back on the cushion and with his legs up over the back of the couch. He was reading a book outloud, but no one seemed to be listening.

    "He's here," Frank said as I closed the door. Brendan flipped over on the sofa, and sat upright.

    "I thought I could, I thought I could," Brendan read, and then tossed the book onto the coffee table in front of him. "This is the hardest part I think, the waiting." "Oh, this is Niko," he said to the guy to his left, "Niko, this is Alex." Alex reached up to shake my hand.

    Gwen was sitting in the corner of the room, drawing a picture. I walked over to her. "So, you're really going to do this?"

    "Of course," she said, "you don't need to protect me. I've been doing this since I was a kid."

    "You're still a kid."

    "I am not," she said offended. She went back to drawing.

    "Hey, I got you all something" I said. I pulled out four sticks of chewing gum. "I would have gotten you cigarettes, but I figured you guys didn't smoke so..."

    "Wow, thanks!" Brendan said as he took a piece from my hand. I handed one to Alex and one to Frank. I turned around to hand the last piece to Gwen.

    "How'd you get this? I didn't know you could still get it all neatly wrapped like this," she said.

    "Well, not anyone can, but I'm Niko," I said with a chuckle.

    "This is too nice, you keep half," she said while tearing it in half.

    "Alright," I said and stuck what was left in my right pocket, and moved Brendan's bandana to my left pocket. I went and sat down on the floor with my back against the wall. The sun went down not long after, and then about an hour later I heard a Curfew Bot go by the window behind my head.

    "Let's go," Brendan said as he stood up. The rest of us stood, except for Frank, who just continued to sit there.

    "Here, take this," Frank said as he handed me a two-way communicator. "We all have one, use it only if you're in serious trouble. I've gotta stay here, as, I'm not too good at being inconspicuous."

    "Alright," Brendan said as he turned with his back to the door. "These uniforms we've got have Nightshift ID's and thus the Curfew Bots won't give us any trouble as long as we stay on the right streets. Once we get there, we split up into two groups and enter the building from two entrances. Niko, you're entering through the front with me."

    We took a car to the building, it was pretty far from the apartment. When we got out of the car the kid motioned for me to follow him, while Alex and Gwen snuck around to the back of the building. We walked up, you know what? This doesn't matter. Nothing exciting or important happened, the Breakers are even better at devious deeds than I am, the job went off without a hitch.

    After the job, we all met back at the apartment that Frank had stayed in. Brendan pulled the thermo-optical camoflauge devices we had stolen out of the bag. He pressed the button on it, and he disappeared. I could still see him, kind of, I could sort of make out his outline, but I could see right through him. "Amazing," I gasped.

    The kid played with it for a while, and everyone was impressed. After a bit Alex went to the kitchen and started making some soup. And then, I don't know what made me do it, but while everyone was distracted, I picked up one of the cloaking devices, I turned it on and slipped out the door. Once outside I turned it off, and dropped it in the mail slot, and then took off down the hall. I climbed up into the ventilation system we had left the building through, and made my way toward the street.

    I had decided to turn them in, I couldn't do it. I couldn't become one of the good guys. I was one of the dirtiest criminals in the city. I started making my way home. I was pretty close to my apartment building when I saw a squad car. They were picking up someone who had been caught by a curfew bot. The guy was sitting there helpless in one of those nets. I ducked behind a dumpster before I could be seen. I waited until I heard the car drive off, and that brings us to the begining of my tale.

    I was feeling terrible, I thought I had made my mind up about turning them in, but I still felt like garbage. I stood up, I was tired of crouching behind that gross dumpster. I probably should have looked around first, before standing up, but at that moment I seriously didn't care if I got caught. I looked down the alley, I thought for a moment I had seen someone in front of me.

    "I really did like you, I wish you would have stayed with us."

    "What the," I stammered. I looked up, Brendan was standing there, he had been using one of those cloaking devices. "What do you mean?" I asked.

    "I know who you are, Niko. I know why you helped me with this job." He neither sounded nor looked like a kid at that moment. I think I was seeing him for what he really was. "And, I'm sorry, but you can't double-cross us like that."

    "I, what? What are you going to do?" I don't know why I was so scared he was just a kid. He remained silent, but pulled a gun out of his pocket, and pointed it at my chest. "What? No. You're not going to shoot me." I took a step toward him. He turned off the safety and fired a shot into my chest. I couldn't talk, I never expected for it to end like this. I fell to the ground and lay there on my back staring at the night sky.

    "I'm sorry," Brendan said, "I really did like you." He walked toward me and dropped to one knee. He reached into my pocket and took out the stick of gum Gwen had made me keep, he looked at it before placing it in my hand. Then he took out the bandana he had given me, and put it on his head before he turned on his cloaking device and disapeared.