It was dark, as it should be at eleven O'clock at night. The only source of light was the crescent moon looming in the sky and even that was minimal. The weather was abysmal, about the worse you could get, with the obvious exceptions of hurricanes and life threatening storms, of course. The vicious wind blew back the branches of trees; knocked bins over, and making short and satisfactory work of any smaller and lighter objects. The rain had reduced the until recent well-kept grass into mud, and pounded hard against any parked cars. A group of rats quickly scurried across the pavement and out of sight, as a discarded newspaper got blown down the street.

If a normal, ordinary, innocent citizen was asked to assess the situation, they would have concluded that, despite the unfortunate weather, everything was perfectly normal, as it should be. But they would be mistaken, which would then lead to the most likely outcome of a powerful blow to the neck resulting in a dead, mistaken person. There was, in fact, something out of place, which would have ended the spectator's life immediately for fear of breaking the disguise which had kept them alive for so many years, and that happened to be. the rats.

This may come as a great shock but rats, all rodents in fact lead completely different lives than we assume. We live through our days, thinking our adorable, or not so adorable pets do nothing more than sleep and eat any food we care to give to them. How ignorant we are. Each different race of rodents work for a separate agency, all of which make it their prime goal to wipe out the other races and dominate the rodent species. Guinea-pigs, rats, mice, gerbils, hamsters, and cats (although the reason for their involvement is unknown) are all sworn enemies, fighting against each other in the War of the Rodents.

Anyway, back to our current story. The rats shot out of a bush, and with a seemingly unnatural speed, quickly made their way under a parked rusty car. There were four of them, all fairly tall, and very slim. They were dressed in a black thermal jumper with Beryllium sewn in to the material, midnight camouflage trousers and tabi boots. Other items they were equipped with included night vision goggles that had been specially adapted so that bursts of light didn't affect the vision, as annoyingly they did with regular goggles. They were also carrying a large assortment of weapons and devices, obviously.

A coloured band was wrapped around each of the rats' arms for recognizable purposes, so that dialogue wasn't necessary.

Blue, the unit's strategy expert, faced the other three. Green, red, and purple. He made a series of complicated hand gestures. There was a pause before the team acknowledged and returned with a nod.

They set off, under the cover of darkness, each one splitting up and taking different routes. They moved, effortlessly stealthy and with incredible speed. Vaulting over cars and silently pushing through bushes. They regrouped several minutes later, at a small old rusted drain next to the curb.

Green, the unit's explosive specialist pulled out a metallic case. He flipped open the clips and turned it round to face him. The bomb that was contained inside, sprung to life as he pressed a series of buttons. Several minutes later, the device began to beep quietly and a red countdown began. He tentatively pushed the case on top of the drain and they all stepped far back in unison.

Two turned to one, and one turned to zero. There was an enormous loud bang and if not for the ear plugs the unit were wearing they would be rendered completely deaf. The explosion was almost directly followed by a mass amount of smoke, which after some unprofessional waving, cleared away, the drain that had been there mere seconds ago now lay in twisted scraps of metal across the road.

Blue was the first to act.

He stepped forward and peered inside the hole they just created. Evidently it appeared to be clear, because a second later he jumped down, with the rest of the team following closely behind him.

They were in the sewer, a rather disgusting place by anybody's standards, but they had an assignment to complete and would do it, despite the grotesque surroundings.

The unit's technology expert, Purple, reached in to his camo trousers and pulled out a small red cube. He turned it on and waited for it to gather information. This device was called a Nectron Tracker, it measured the electronic frequencies in an area. The Nectron displayed about twenty red dots on the screen. He ignored the larger ones, as they were obviously from the species known as the Humans. He settled on a smaller one that was on the same level as them. He selected it and pressed 'plot course'..

Lot's of lines appeared on a screen to show the walls and tunnels, then a purple arrow showed up to direct them.

They set off.

The sewer was laced with tunnels, dead ends, tight passages which were exceedingly difficult to get through, even for the slim physique the rats' possessed. Fortunately they were being handsomely paid which compensated for any unpleasantness.

The unit eventually reached their destination, according to the device, but to their dismal surprise there was no sign of an entrance or anything that could conceal an entrance at all. This caused much frustration between the rats but luckily they had been trained for this kind of thing and began to search.

Nothing came up on any of their readers, thermal imaging, nothing. Of course there could be a problem with the Nectron Tracker, but that was unlikely, or possibly they followed the wrong frequency, but Purple was certain there wasn't any more that could have belonged to the target. Just when hope looked like an impossible thing, Red, the units weapon specialist noticed a miniscule chip in the ceiling.

Most likely it actually was a chip, but they had nothing else. They quickly scurried up and examined it. It wasn't a chip at all. Blue withdrew a metallic card and carefully inserted it into the chip. Then using the Nemesis program, hacked in to it and authorized his entry.

Suddenly, one of the metal panels started to slide away, revealing a hidden room.

They had found it!

Laurence
Age 13

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