The bombardment had been going on for a while now. Every few seconds, a shockwave would hit him as he walked down the stairs, carried through the forbidding stonework of Det's creation. He walked towards the inner sanctum, the place of the final battle of CJ. Or so he had thought.

A week after CJ's seeming demise, words had appeared daubed on the walls of the General Plaza. "Beware the resurrection of your God". It was daubed in red, with a signature. The Great One. Commander Jinx. A day after, the siege of Detstar had begun.

Out on the battlements, Jordan was commanding the sentry duty. The P90-toting guards walked the battlements, by now used to the impact of the compressed-air weapon on the stonework below. It wasn't causing much damage, but it was enough to get on their nerves. Jordan wondered how long it could go on for. With his military-issue binoculars, he scanned the landscape, as he had done so many times these past weeks, looking for the weapon. Again, as he had done these past weeks, he found nothing. No trace of CJ, or his weapon. He scanned the landscape again...

Inside, SG had entered the inner sanctum. No one batted an eyelid as he walked towards the centre of the room, as he was effectively in command of Detstar whilst Det was asleep. More likely stoned, he mused. In here, all that remained of the shockwaves was a slight rumble, which was easy enough to ignore. He walked through the crowd of moderators, responding curtly to any greetings, never engaging in conversation. He had work to do. As he went through for the millionth time what he had to do in his head, he wondered WHY he was doing it. Because I was destined to do it, he asserted forcefully to the doubting part of his mind. Walking over to the control console beside the large throne at the head of the room, he tapped in a few commands. Again no-one even noticed. Silently, he ordered a complete lock-down of the forums, reversible only by his command. Or Det’s, he mused, but that won’t be a problem... With a few more commands, he opened the pot cabinet in Det’s room. He won’t bother me now, SG laughed silently. Looking up, he surveyed the people in the Mods/Admins forum – 7 people. That left three moderators unaccounted for – Matt, Jordan (on the walls) and JB. He cursed silently; he could do without those three. He called the commander of the guard on the intercom – “Code Draconius” he whispered. Using the weapon dispenser by the console, he got out an Uzi.

“Computer” he said. “Activate program CJ zed zed alpha, authorisation Siberian Guard fifteen-delta-zero.”

Waving his Uzi, he signalled to the assembled moderators, who were staring at him.

“Nobody move! If you try to kill me, the Wildfire scenario is activated – everything in this room will be filled lead in seconds.” Pulling out his radio, he said, “SG to CJ, phase one completed.”

Outside, Jordan was still scanning the landscape. Suddenly, the felt the brush of cold steel against the back of his neck.

“Don’t move.” The guard said. Two guards frisked the bewildered mod, removing his radio, binoculars and Beretta.

“Sit down in the corner. Keep your hands where I can see them.”

Doing as he was told, Jordan asked,

“Why?”

“Code Draconius – SG’s orders. I’m sorry, sir.” He said, slugging the moderator over the head with his gun. As Jordan fell unconscious, the captain ordered three of his subordinates to guard the moderator. “On no authority are you to let him go, unless by direct order from myself or SG.”

In the general forum, JB and Matt were conversing with some of the newbies, when the door slammed shut. Moving quickly to the console, JB saw the display. It was a message in white, with a flashing symbol of a red dragon in the top-left corner. The message read: “This is the day of resurrection. Bow to your God.”

“Oh fuck. Code Draconius. It’s CJ – he’s back!”

“Code Draconius? What the hell’s that?” Matt asked.

“Forced custody of moderators – the guards’ll be here soon. We have to escape. We need weapons.”

“Like those?” Matt asked, pointing to the display case, where the magnum he had used to kill CJ sat in pride of place, still with blood on it. Alongside it rested a P90, and Uzi and a PPK.

“Yeah, like those.” JB replied. Grabbing a newbie, he yelled “Give me your shoe!”

Terrified, the newbie did as he was told. Taking aim, JB threw the shoe at the display case, smashing the glass. Reaching in, he pulled out the guns. Handing Matt the P90 and magnum, he took the Uzi and the PPK for himself. Matt ran back over to the console, and, taking the key from the chain round his neck, he unlocked the computer’s CD drive. Pressing eject, a clip of P90 ammo appeared from the drawer, along with bullets for the other three guns.

“It never hurts to have secrets” Matt grinned. “Now, how do we get out of here?”

“Secrets, Matt.” JB smiled, tapping his nose. With that, he tapped in a code onto the computer. The computer immediately slid to the side, revealing a tunnel in the floor.

“Ready to save Detstar again, Matt?” he asked.

“After you, JB.” Matt smiled, remembering the movie Goldeneye. “Just one more thing. With that, he reached under the computer chair, and pulled out a silencer. Screwing it onto his P90, he smiled. “NOW I’m ready.”

In Det’s room, the air was thick with smoke.

Back in the moderators’ forum, SG had things well under control. The moderators were tied up against the wall, and five guards were… guarding them. SG walked through the now cleared corridors at the head of a platoon of guards. When they reached the drawbridge, he tapped in an authorisation code, and the drawbridge fell open. He fell to a kneeling position, bowing his head.

“Siberian Guard,” the voice drawled “You have done well.”

JB flicked a lever, and the computer moved back into position, sealing the passageway. Pulling out a torch, he led the way down the roughly hewn walkway.

“This is one of many tunnels under DSF,” JB said. “Det built them as a precaution against this sort of thing. Not even SG knows of them. If anyone tries to access them without the codes, the whole system is locked out until Det authorises them unlocked, or the correct codes are input from the control room. The tunnels connect almost everywhere within DSF to that room.”

When they reached the control room, they sat at adjacent terminals. The room was unlike the tunnels, in that it as not carved out of the rock in a rough-and-ready fashion. It had neat walls, totally covered in TV screens, each with a label such as “General”, “Mods/Admins” and “Drawbridge”. Matt accessed the security net whilst JB input passwords to allow access to the extensive armoury. As Matt input commands, one-by-one the screens all around the room blinked on, showing pictures from the many security cameras. On the screen marked “Mods/Admins” he saw seven of the ten moderators tied up and being guarded by soldiers toting P90s and Uzis. The camera in Det’s room showed nothing, except vague shadows. As the drawbridge screen came on, JB gasped. There on the screen was Commander Jinx.

“This has gone too far.” Matt said. Pressing a button, the centre of the room started to rise up. A projector overhead turned on, displaying a 2D map of Detstar. Fully half of the building was devoted to the forums, the other half being the game sites. Pressing a few more buttons, a series of red dots appeared on the map.

“Each of these red dots represents a guard. And each of these,” and ten yellow dots appeared, “represents a moderator.” As more dots appeared, he explained each one. “Magenta are normal posters, newbies and visitors to the site. SG’s in yellow, Det in green and CJ is the blue dot. As you can see, most of the moderators are in the Mods/Admins forum, except us, and one other – Jordan, who’s on the battlements. Our immediate goal should be to get to Det, as you can also see… or not.” He said, gesturing to the camera in Det’s room. “After that, get EOL back. What weapons have we got?”

“We’ve got the stuff we came with,” said JB, gesturing at a pile he had made, “plus four more P90s, plus ammo. All equipped with silencers. Also, some more PPKs, also silenced. Finally, there are some stun grenades, flash-bang grenades, and dart guns. There’s bullet-proof vests as well as standard-issue black combats. We’ve got radios, and… that’s it.”

“Ok, can you lock this place up to our codes only? We can’t risk SG, CJ or anyone else coming in here.”

“OK, the code’s your name, followed by Epsilon-Alpha-Twenty-Two-Five. Let’s go.”

As they entered the tunnel to Det’s room, the heavy titanium blast door slowly crawled shut behind them. JB led the way, clutching his P90, with another hanging over his shoulder; two PPKs and the Uzi strapped to his belt. Matt also carried a P90, with two over his shoulders. The two torches from the P90s stabbed out at the darkness, letting them see through the subterranean blackness. As they reached the concealed doorway to Det’s room, the lights showed a series of switches, and a cupboard by the entrance. As JB started tapping in his access code, Matt pulled him back. He flipped a switch labelled “extractor fan” and pulled out two gas masks from the cupboard. JB again tapped in his access code, and the hidden door swung open.

The lights from the P90s made the smoke seem white and radiant, dousing his light, Matt found that he could see more clearly. Looking around, he saw Det lying in a chair, either asleep or comatose. Signalling to JB, he moved over to Det and shook his shoulder. Nothing. He slapped him around the face. Nothing. Finally, he gave up, and started dragging Det to the tunnel. The smoke was now clearing, and Matt could see the walls of the spacious room. The place was a veritable armoury – it was better stocked than the underground control room. Moving over to the door, JB tried to open it using his access code. Nothing.

“It must have been locked down by Det or SG.” He said, his voice muffled by the gas mask. At least the glass display-case doors were unlocked. Taking a backpack from the corner, he started loading up the guns from the display case.

“No sense in leaving them for others to use against us.” He commented.

In the Mods/Admins forum, CJ was back. SG stood silently to the right and rear of the throne upon which the devil sat, taking a silent role in the proceedings.

“Why did you not support me?” CJ asked to the assembled moderators. “Was it because you think I am not as good as Det? Was it because you did not believe in me? Or are you all cowards, unable to stand up and fight?” Silence. The words echoed throughout the well-lit plaza, rebounding of the yellow-stone walls. It interested him that the Mods/Admins forum looked so much like a brighter version of the PD level “Temple”, he had used to moderate the PD forum. But all the forums were themed in their own ways. The Super Smash Bros. Melee forum (for instance) was decked out in the style of the Hyrule temple, with images of the characters adorning the walls – Marth locking swords with Link, Bowser breathing fire at Ganondorf, etc. He looked at the assembled moderators arrayed in a line before him. 006, Goldeneye co-moderator; Zidane16, Perfect Dark Zero moderator; Jabone, Nintendo co-moderator; devilDark, Gameshark moderator; Shadow, Goldeneye co-moderator; Masta, Perfect Dark moderator; NSA Lackey, General co-moderator; and finally Vash, Super Smash Bros. Melee moderator. Not one of them had answered. Such insolence. He’d make them pay.

“Siberian Guard.” He said. “See to it that the other two moderators are captured – they will serve as an example for the rest of them.

“Yes, my Lord.” SG replied. Signalling to the guards, he led the security detail out of the room.

“As for the rest of you...” CJ said menacingly, as he activated the giant video screen.

As JB dragged him back into the control room, Det started to regain his senses.

“Where am I?” He asked groggily.

“You’re in the underground control room.” Matt replied. “CJ’s taken over Detstar, we’re the only ones left. We need you to over-rule SG’s commands.” Det slumped back down onto the floor again, unable to say anything.

Inside the general forum, the posters were worried. They were lined up, facing the wall with soldiers pointing guns at them. Nearest the door, punkedjask8er saw SG come in.

“SG, what’s going on?”

“Silence!” SG shouted, roughly pulling jask8er towards him. “Now tell me, where did Buck and JB go? Tell me, or I will give you a most unpleasant death.” He pushed jask8er to the floor, and pointed his Beretta at jask8er’s groin. “Now, I’ll count to three. One. Two. Th...”

“They went down through the computer!” jask8er shouted, “There’s a hidden doorway.”

“How do I open it?”

“I... I don’t know. Honestly!”

“Get back on the wall.” SG snarled. He pulled a grenade from his jacket. Taking out the pin, he placed it on the console, and ran to a safe distance. BANG! The console exploded in a fireball, leaving a blackened titanium floor panel.

“Get the torch-cutters!”

Once again, Det had regained consciousness for a second, and slipped away again. JB felt a rumble through the walls.

“Something’s happened. What’s on the security net?”

Matt scanned the images on the monitors searching for what might have happened. His eyes stopped on the General forum monitor. He called it up onto the large screen. In a glance JB took in the image of the blackened area around where the console had been.

“Oh nuts. They’ve found the entrance. Once they cut through that, we’re as good as dead.”

“Could we make a barricade? We need to defend this place.” Matt said, looking round for barricadable objects. All that he could see were computer chairs and the big central floor-table.

“No, there’s nothing here.” JB replied. “This place isn’t defendable, we need to be on the move, hit them where it hurts. If we can avoid capture, Det can use his codes to over-ride SG’s commands. If we’re to do that, we need to get moving.”

“We can’t let them discover where we are – can we disable the security net?”

“Yeah, I can do it. Just barricade the tunnel as best you can. I’ll be as quick as possible.”

Matt immediately started piling the chairs into the tunnel, and rigging trip-wires linked to stun-grenades. Just as he finished, JB jumped up, and he heard a soft “whump” as the door at the head of the tunnel was cut open. Grabbing the weapons backpack, JB dragged Det out of the room.

“Come on, give me a hand!” He yelled.

“Go on ahead!” Matt yelled back, “I’ll catch you up!”

Pulling his P90, Matt unscrewed the silencer. He blasted a few rounds up the tunnel to hold the pursuers back a bit. He took out two grenades, and, pulling the pins, threw them into the control room. He dived flat onto the floor as the blast-wave hit. Looking into the control room, he decided that nothing was usable anymore. Firing a few more round up the tunnel, he fled to catch up with JB.

JB exited the tunnel in Jordan’s room. He stood a while and let the aura of the room, from its carved oak furniture to the large nude painting of Sarah (in a very erotic pose), wash over him. He heard footsteps come up the passage, and Matt jumped out of the opening. JB gave the door a push, and watched as it re-fitted itself seamlessly into the grey walls. On the back of the door was another picture of Sarah in the nude, this time a blown-up greyscale photo of her standing up, pushing her breasts towards the photographer. It wasn’t pornographic, it was... artistic. Playful. However, everything from her erect nipples to her neat triangle of hair pointing towards her bald pussy exuded sexuality.

“You have to admit, he has good taste.” Matt said, winking at JB’s enrapturement. Jordan was easily JB’s favourite moderator. He was easy to talk to, friendly, and caring. He had a human side, as was shown by his marriage to Sarah. “More than can be said for Jinx,” he whispered to himself. Pushing thoughts of having an affair with Jordan’s wife away, he went into the bathroom and took some water in a disposable cup. Going back to the living room, JB deposited the water on Det’s face.

“Whuh? What the? Where?” Det said, as he woke up.

“Finally!” JB exclaimed. “It took you long enough.”

“What’s going on?”

“CJ’s taken over Detstar with SG’s help. We need you to over-ride SG’s commands.” Matt said. “Hurry though, we need to be moving before SG catches up, he’s in the tunnels dealing with our booby-traps.”

“Yeah... uh... right... okay.” Det said, still obviously recovering from the pot and water. Matt threw him a towel and he quickly wiped off his face. JB threw the backpack on the floor, and opened it.

“Take your pick.” He said, handing Det a P90 to go with whatever he chose. Det took an SA-80-A, which he slung over his back, and a silenced PPK. He also put an Uzi in each side of his belt. Moving over to the door, he tapped in a code, and the door slid open. Gripping his P90, he stepped out into the corridor, with JB covering his back. He moved along the stone-floored corridor, his footsteps annoyingly loud. Suddenly, the monitor at the end of the hallway came on. On it was the face of Commander Jinx. Smiling menacingly, he addressed the three.

“This is to the missing moderators... and Det. I know you’re here somewhere. The guards are combing the entire building – you have no-where to hide. If you give yourselves up, you will be spared torture.” The camera panned round, and the monitor showed a view of the eight other moderators lying on their backs on the floor. Each had a clamp on their head forcing them to look towards a screen at the end of the forum, showing gay porn. To be precise, it showed CJ in various... well, it was sickening. The camera panned back around. “Do the clever thing, Det,” CJ smirked, “give yourself up.” The monitor winked off, and there was complete silence in the hall. Matt broke the silence.

“We need to get to the roof.”

CJ smiled as the red light on the camera winked off. He’d have Det’s head on a platter, but not before he had tortured him. He didn’t care about going back on promises. He was the master now, and that’s how it would stay, Det or no Det.

When the reached the roof, JB voiced the question that had been plaguing him all journey.

“Why do we want to be on the roof?”

“It’s quite simple.” Matt replied, “Each forum has skylights, therefore we can see what’s happening in each forum without being endangered. “

“Couldn’t we just shoot CJ with the SA-80?” JB asked.

“The glass is bullet-proof.” Det replied, “Even at close-range.”

“Fan out,” Matt said. “Find out what’s going on in the forums, and report back.”

From the doorway, JB went towards the Nintendo and Perfect Dark forums. Looking into the Nintendo forum, HIS forum, JB saw three guards holding about five people hostage. Moving onto the Perfect Dark forum, he saw at least six guards – too many. He walked back towards the others and reported his findings.

“General forum’s untouchable.” Matt said. “There’s at least twenty-five people being held hostage by fifteen guards. SSBM forum’s got about five guards, as does PDZ.”

“Detstar section’s got four guards, so we could try that.” Det said, “But Gameshark and Goldeneye have got too many guards – six or seven in each. I guess we should try for the Nintendo forum.”

They pulled their P90s, and went down the wooden staircase nearest the Nintendo forum. Matt was just humming a tune to himself when Det signalled for silence. Taking a peek over the stair-rail, Matt saw a squad of at least six guards headed up to search this floor. He signalled the others back as he himself ran at a swift but silent lope towards a doorway on the right of the passage. He crouched down, seeing that JB was in the doorway behind him, and Det was opposite in another doorway. Signalling with his fingers, Matt counted off the seconds. One, two, three! He rolled out into the corridor, blasting at the guards with his P90. JB leant round the doorjamb and shot, whilst Det crouched down and did the same. The encounter was over without the guards firing a shot. Matt grabbed a radio from the nearest guard, whom he recognised as the now deceased Lt. Torch. Torch had been a great impersonator – he could do a great imitation of anyone’s voice, and was liable to do so at any time. That made the job a hell of a lot easier.

They reached the Nintendo forum without further incident, the guards presumably having moved to the higher levels. Det tapped in the access code, giving control of the vertically sliding blast-door to the pad on the right of the door. Matt lay down on the floor, holding his P90. JB gave him a count.

“One, two three!” The door started sliding open, and Matt immediately let loose a burst of gunfire at the nearest of the three guards. The other two looked up as their comrade dropped, in time to see Det and JB come through the door, guns blazing. It was the last thing they ever saw.

“Okay. Everybody all right?” Det asked loudly to the six ex-hostages as the door slid shut again.

“Uh... yeah, I think so.” Replied a rather hesitant newbie by the name of Dink360. JB handed out weapons to the hostages, and Det sat down at the console. Dink and JB stood behind him, whilst the hostages covered the door, and Matt covered the secret entrance pointed out by JB. As JB went on a circuit of the forum, a voice behind Det said,

“Don’t move a muscle, ex-admin.”

Dink pulled out a radio, and contacted CJ.

“Dink to CJ. I have Det – in the Nintendo forum. Over.”

The drawled reply that came over the Comm said it all.

“This is CJ. Roger that Dink, I’m sending guards to your location. Over and out.”

“So, EX-admin, how does it feel to be captured?” Dink drawled (in a pretty good but unintentional CJ impression) at Det. I myself have never understood why villains insist on talking to the heroes after they’ve captured them. If in Goldeneye, Alec had just shot Bond immediately, he would never have been killed.

“Pretty darn good, actually.” Det replied, turning his head, and stared at Dink. “You see, there is something very sexy about having a gun pointed at your head… do you know any women around here who need someone like me?”

Dink stared back, focussing his attention on Det’s slate-grey eyes.

“None who would want a man without a head… or anything else for that matter.”

When Dink had shouted, Matt had dived to the floor. Now, seeing that Det was distracting Dink, Matt started squirming forward, trying to keep out of Dink’s vision. As he reached a position behind a pillar, he pulled his P90, and turned on its targeting laser. Looking through the sights, he aimed the laser directly at Dink. Matt fired.

Dink heard a small noise coming from his right. He turned to look, and when he turned back, a bullet was embedded in his skull, right between the eyes. He fell to the ground, dead.

Matt started calling out orders to the remaining people in the forum.

“JB, take the right side of the main door, I’ll take the left. Det, keep working. You two,” he said, indicating Jonny and MrRealityMan, “guard the secret passage. The rest of you, get behind the desk, pointing your guns at the main door.”

The forum-goers were just getting into position when the door started to open. Matt started signalling with his hands as the shots came from under the door. One, two, Three! As the door opened fully, JB and Matt moved from the wall, P90s blazing at the blast door, through which stepped five unfortunate guards. They heard footfalls running away down the passage. Peering out, Matt saw the object of hatred throughout Detstar.

“It’s CJ – get him!” Matt cried. “Det, lock the forums and all doors, accessible only to us three!”

JB ran straight out into the passage, closely followed by Matt.