(I've used Robin Hood and Angels & Demons for this round.)

"Would you look at that, Allan?" the young man nudged his companion's elbow.

"Yes, Will. What is it now?" asked a sightly irritated Allan, he had been hearing a lot of complaints this night.

Will pointed at the wall they were crouched against. The other two men standing in front of them were intently studying the building opposite with binoculars and night vision goggles, and speaking softly to each other, occasionally nodding and pointing.

"These police sketches do me no justice. I'm not that fat. Look at my face! It's like I swallowed a whole melon."

"Yeah. It's quite accurate," Allan snickered.

Will scowled at him and continued to study the wanted posters of himself and his compatriots.

"Well Allan, you could do with some hair, you're balding in the middle in the pictures."

Allan who was self conscious about his hair suddenly ran a hand through his long hair as he too studied the pictures.

"But you know what," continued Will, "they actually managed to make John look good."

They both shared muffled laughs.

"If you both don't shut up back there, you'll end up looking real different soon, even your mothers won't recognise you," whisper-shouted an obviously annoyed John.

"I'm not joking, John. You look handsome though the stats are messed up. They put you down as five foot seven."

"What?" John said turning around and looking at the poster of himself. "Bastards! I'm seven-two. Wait till I find the arse who made this up."

Their earpieces suddenly crackled to life, "I will have access in less than two minutes. From then we have a nineteen minute window to get in, secure the package and get out. Don't be late."

"Roger, Tuck. Stay sharp boys," the man at the head of the line said.

"Hmm," said Will, "I've always wondered: how does a priest justify hacking into secure networks to help a bunch of thieves?"

"Former priest," corrected Tuck, "and we've have been through this Will."

The man at the head of the line came behind to stand next to Allan and smacked Will across the back of his head.

"Uncle Robin!" protested Will rubbing his head.

"Shut up. If you mess this up with your big mouth like last time, I'm hanging you upside down from the Tower Bridge myself." He gave Will a stern look. He then raised his hand to his ear and tapped his earpiece, "ignore this and get to work, Tuck. Let us know when you're in."

Allan opened his right palm and Will handed him a ten pound note.

Robin looked at them questioningly.

"I bet him ten quid that he'd get smacked by you today," shrugged Allan as he pocketed the money.

Robin shook his head laughing to himself.

"We're in," said Tuck.

"Alright boys, lock and load. Remember we use these," Robin said raising his Glock, "only if necessary. We don't wanna draw unnecessary attention."

They all did fist bumps and ran single file towards the building. Will used a little tablet PC to override the security system and open the main door. The four of them piled in cautiously.

"I don't like this Robin, it's too quite," said John.

"We're in anyway. Let's play for now," said Robin.

"CCTVs are blind, motion sensors are dead, and alarms are off. Seventeen minutes and counting," said Tuck.

"Copy," said John.

Will consulted the tablet again and pointed towards the stairwell, "third floor, turn right, third door."

Robin nodded and led his men quickly but silently. Allan was the only one who preferred to keep the gun in his hand at all times, he was covering their rear.

They reached outside the door, Will and Allan took positions on either sides of the door and nodded to John who got ready to kick the door in.

"Wait! Shit!" shouted Tuck in their ears. "Abort! Abort!"

"What the hell Tuck?" John asked.

"There's police on approach. Three cars are approaching the building. About fifteen armed police are climbing up and will reach your position in two minutes."

Allan darted towards the stairwell and fired off a couple of shots earning a return volley of automatic fire.

"Well, now they know we're armed and dangerous," he said returning to his companions.

"How does the roof look?" asked Robin.

"One sec," they could hear frantic tapping on a keyboard, "clear so far. No helicopters on approach and no one on the adjacent roofs either."

"We have a zipline? Everyone has a motor pulley?" asked Robin.

They all nodded.

"What do we do once we get up there?" asked Will.

"One step at a time boy," said John and followed Robin up the stairwell firing downwards. They were taking turns firing at the advancing police force trying to slow them.

Once on the roof, Robin and John threw a flash bang each down the stairs. After it went off, they threw another one down. They then barricaded the roof access door.

"That should keep them a little wary," said John.

Robin ran to the edge of the roof and looked down, there were three cars parked close together and he could make out four policemen.

"Allan, get a line to that building," he pointed at a slightly smaller building.

While Allan was setting up his specialised gun, Robin insturcted Will and John to get ready with distracting the police.

"I've got an idea," said Will, "Tuck, do you have access to the streetlights here? Turn them off, all of them."

"Give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute," John muttered.

Within a few seconds, the entire street was plunged into darkness.

John handed Allan the night vision goggles and he shot a line to the spot directed to him before.

"Allan you go first and cover us if needed," instructed Robin. Allan went first followed by John and Will, Robin brought up the rear. As Robin was swinging across, one of the police officers stationed below realised what was happening and took shots at where he thought the sound was coming from. He hit the zipline and brought Robin crashing down onto the roof of a police car.

"Robin!" shouted Will, "let's get him."

John stopped him and motioned at the police that had milled around the car.

"We have to save him," he persisited.

"Not by getting ourselves killed," said John,"we'll save him alright. Not today."

"No! We have to do it now," Will argued.

Allan placed a hand on Will's shoulder and shook his head.

"Go, go, me...later," they heard a weak Robin through their earpiece.

"We'll get you back mate," said John.

"I know," Robin said very softly.

The policemen helped Robin off the roof of the car and laid him on the road. After the medics confirmed that nothing was broken and that there was no permanent damage, they stood him up.

The crowd of police in front of Robin parted to make way for a tall man in a black trench coat to walk up to him.

"Captain Nottingham. Nice to see you," said Robin jovially. The medicines were giving him some strength and they numbed the pain.

"Is this the great Robin Hood? It's a sad day when the most wanted terrorist in the land is caught trying to steal something non existent," he mocked.

Robin looked at him perplexed.

"Don't look so down, Robin. It isn't your fault. Well, not much anyway. You should vet your sources better. Your information source, that little rat called Simons, helped set this up. When you threaten a man's family, he tends to spill more than just his guts. Your men will be caught tonight too. Your game is up," he turned to the policemen, "have you found them yet?"

By the time the police reached the building where they had been, they were miles away brooding in the back of a London bus heading out of town.

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

Robin jumped up from his sleep when a bucket of ice cold water was poured over his head.

"Did I disturb you, Mr. Hood? Perhaps I should be more civil?" Nottingham took great pleasure in mocking him.

Robin stood up wiping his face and rubbing his upper body, he had been stripped down to his underwear and locked up for a week now.

"A soap would've been nice. I could do with a shower," Robin countered pulling a face after making a show of sniffing his underarms.

"You think you're still funny, Robin? You're locked up in a dungeon, no one knows where you are, you're at my mercy. So unless you want me to place that," he said indicating at a car battery and wires lying next to it, "at some very inconvenient places, you better start talking."

Robin laughed, "well, Nottingham, that's not really novel is it? I mean, that's been around since car batteries have been around."

Nottingham was seething, he took a long breath to calm himself.

"Well, my dear friend, you have been tried in absentia by a military court and found guilty on multiple charges. As such, you have been sentenced to death by hanging in public, fourteen days from today," he showed him a paper, "these are the orders."

"Military court for a civilian? Now that's hardly fair," Robin mock argued.

"You are a terrorist, all due processes go through military courts for terrorists."

Before Robin could rile him up further, the door opened and a man in a suit stepped in and whispered in Nottingham's ear. His eyes lit up for a second.

"Really? Talked? Excellent!"

He turned to Robin, "I shall leave you to make peace with whatever gods you believe in. For now, I have more pressing matters to attend to."

"More important than me? You know, the first four days you really gave me a lot of your time. Now, it's like you don't like me any more," Robin feigned hurt.

Nottingham ignored his jibe, "yes, much more important."

"Ah, must be the General," he rubbed his chin in thought, "does it still hurt when he makes you bend over?"

Nottingham gave him the dirtiest look he could muster and nodded at the policeman standing beside Robin. He punched him hard in the gut making Robin fall to his knees.

Without another word, Nottingham exited with the other two leaving Robin alone in his cell. He lied down on the hard floor holding his gut, "bloody steroid filled meatbag. But worth it though." He started chuckling to himself and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Next time he was awoken by someone shaking him.

"Run out of water, Nottingham?" Robin asked groggily.

"I'll have to ask Nottingham about that, mate," answered a familiar voice.

Robin opened his eyes to see John smiling down at him.

"Come on O' fearless leader. No time to lose," said Will from behind him.

"I suppose Allan is standing guard outside," said Robin.

"You know us well," winked John.

"OK, let's go." Robin stood up and stretched.

"You could use a shower," said Will.

Robin walked up to Will and hugged him tight, "there! Now you could use one too."

Will made a disgusted face and walked out of the cell to complain to Allan. As they cautiously emerged form the cell, a masked Allan raised a hand to halt them. He then proceeded to the far end of the tunnel and peeked around the corner, then used his mini binocular to look again. After a few minutes, he finally made his way back to the group.

"That is the only other occupied cell," he whispered, "there is one guard outside and he's sleeping. There was no guard outside your door. So I'm assuming whoever is in there is high value. Since we're here anyway, let's spring 'em out too, eh?"

"This place has no security systems?" asked Robin.

"Not really. It can only be accessed through an abandoned warehouse. We've got some men in there, knocked out the guards, we have control for now."

"How did you find this though?"

"Not all the policemen are on Nottingham's side."

"OK. Let's get him out too," said Robin, "I hope they at least let him keep his underwear."

The others laughed softly.

"Sorry, we didn't think they'd have stripped you like this. After we knock out that guard, you can have his clothes," said Allan.

They inched their way slowly towards the cell on their tiptoes. As they approached the corner, Will and Allan left the other two and proceeded towards the guard. They silently took him out with a blow to his head with Allan's gun. Will motioned for John and Robin to join them. Robin was surprised to see that the door just had a deadbolt, not even a lock of any sort.

"Really? That's what kept me in all these days?!" he asked surprised.

The others nodded their heads.

"OK. Let's just see who is in there."

They opened the door slowly.

"I told you, she can't speak. She was just screaming from a nightmare earlier," an older tired voice said from inside, "there is no point in threatening or hurting her, she doesn't have the ability to speak."

The men all looked at each other and piled inside the room, except for Allan who stood guard outside.

"Calm down, sir. We are not with Nottingham, if that's who you think you were talking to," said Robin.

The man turned around, he didn't look as old as he sounded and seemed quite fit; he was wearing a long sleeved sweatshirt over his underwear.

"Who are you then? What do you want?" he asked.

"My name is Robin Hood," Robin steeped up, "this is John and Will," he indicated towards his companions. We're not here to hurt you. Actually, we're here to help you escape."

"Oh dear! Escaping with a terrorist. I am not sure how the academic community will view me after this. But rest assured, I will definitely be a badass on campus," he said chuckling.

"We don't have time to lose, we must leave soon," John interfered.

"OK. OK," the old man nodded and walked to the dark corner of the cell.

"Marian," he called out, "it's OK. These are the good guys," he looked back at them, "I think. Anyway, we have to get out of here, next time they might hurt you real bad."

He paused for a second, "OK, I will ask," he turned around again, "have you got any extra clothes? She's been stripped down to her under dress too and it's not very modest."

They all looked at each other.

"Strip the guard," John instructed Will. He left the cell and returned a few minutes later handing the clothes to the old man.

The old man held them out and turned around.

"OK, let's go," he said after they heard a ripping and the obvious sound of someone getting up. He hesitated and slightly turned his head, "yes, they may be startled but don't take offence. It's not everyday we see someone of your species here," he said kindly.

The three of them were rearing to see this mysterious woman he seemed to be talking to. When she finally appeared, they all did a double take. Standing in front of them was a woman definitely, but she wasn't human. She was almost Robin's height, with red skin, pitch black eyes and a tail ending in a triangle shaped tip. It was like something they had only seen in movies and cartoons.

"Where are my manners?" the old man said, "I am professor Langdon, I'm a linguistics professor at..."

"Harvard," interrupted Robin, "an expert in almost every language on earth, even the extinct. You also have a knack for symbology and some say you dabble with the occult."

"Yes, yes, quite true. How did you know?"

"I was your student, years ago."

The professor looked at him and shook his head, "I'm sorry, I can't remember."

"Don't worry about it," said Robin who hadn't taken his eyes off Marian. While the others seemed a little scared and off put, Robin seemed to be smitten.

"Nice to meet you professor and Marian," said Will, "we can continue this later, if you don't mind. Right now, we have to go."

Robin waited till everyone left and took the rear just behind Marian, she seemed a little annoyed at the attention he was giving her. She nudged Langdon and filed past him, the professor looked at Robin and chuckled.

"What?" asked Robin.

He shook his head.

"No tell me, what did she say? Or didn't say. How does this work? How can you hear her?"

"She's telepathic. Her species don't communicate through spoken language. They can direct their telepathic abilities to other people or speak loudly as we do."

"Ah. Well, what did she tell you?"

"She said that you could use a shower."

Robin looked annoyed for a second but his expression turned to amusement when he caught her looking his way and smiling. She turned her head away quickly.

On the way to the elevator there were more guards unconscious and tied up, Robin grabbed some clothes from one of them.

They stepped out of the elevator and Robin saw that his men had indeed taken control of the facility's only guard shack.

"Good to see you, boss," said one of them. Robin nodded at him and they all headed out.

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

"Escaped?" the general was surprisingly calm.

"Yes, sir. Someone leaked the location of the facility. Hood, the professor and that devil woman have escaped." Nottingham was feigning bravery.

"Tell me Nottingham, how incompetent are you? Bare minimum security to hold such high value targets?"

"The facility had never been compromised before. In fact, it's location..."

The general's hand came up on the screen with his palm open.

"I don't believe in excuses, Captain. When will you deliver them to me?"

"My men are combing the city, sir. We will have them soon enough."

"Not soon enough, Nottingham," the General shook his head, "I shall look into this matter personally."

He ended the call without giving Nottingham a chance to reply. He then dialled another contact, it was answered on the second ring.

"I'm sorry old friend but your vacation has to be cut short. I don't trust that incompetent Nottingham to get any work done properly," he listened to the reply from the other end, "yes, yes, no problem. Payment as usual, I presume? OK. I shall leave the details at your usual hotel, ask for a package for Janus."

He terminated the call and leaned back in his chair lighting a cigar.

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

"We're in the outskirts?" asked a surprised Langdon.

"Yes, professor. Welcome to what's left of Stoke Newington, North London," said John.

The professor looked around with a sad expression muttering to himself. He then turned to Marian, "they told us that this area is radioactive and uninhabited."

"More like home to the exiled and undesirables," said Robin.

"Anyone who opposes Nottingham, the General or their cronies end up here, almost literally chased out of the city," said John and discreetly pointed at Allan who had removed his mask.

A look of recognition passed over Langdon's face, "you are the Allan Dale? You were a musical genius, rich and famous!"

"The one and only," Allan offered a bow, "and no, I did not run away after a crazy drug and booze binge never to return. I went underground when I realised that they would hurt those close to me."

"But the police sketches..."

"They don't know it's me."

Marian shifted uncomfortably. Robin offered her his hand.

"Robin Hood. Welcome to Stoke Newington, North London."

"Didn't I just say that?" whispered John to Will who was watching his uncle amused.

Marian blushed if that was possible and offered her hand, "Marian."

"You can talk? In English?" asked a surprised Langdon.

"Apologies professor. It was necessary to hold up that ruse to protect you as well."

Robin was still looking straight at her and had not let go of her hand.

"You can let go, mate," nudged John.

Robin came back to his senses and looked down embarrassed.

"Would you like me to show you around?" he asked Marian.

"Yes," she said and they walked off.

"Off all the women on the planet, he has to fall for that one," commented Allan.

"Well, she's not from our planet," said Langdon, "they are from a system near what we call the Wolf 359 red dwarf."

"Wait, isn't that..." interrupted Will.

"Yes, that's where the Star Trek battle takes place," completed Langdon. "Apparently they were testing some new type of space shuttle with a new fuel source that includes anti-matter and dark matter. She ended up in our atmosphere completely by mistake. Unfortunately for her, she expected help when she landed but ended up getting imprisoned."

"So this shuttle, where is it?" John asked.

"We don't know for sure. But considering the technology, it should be in a secure air force base somewhere."

"I might be able to find it. If it is on any government chatter, I can find it for sure," Tuck said from behind them holding a soda can in one hand and a crisps packet in the other.

"Professor Langdon, meet Tuck, our resident tech wiz," John made the introductions.

Just then Robin and Marian ran up to join them. Allan had already unholstered his gun.

"No, no, it's OK," Robin was panting, "Marian came here in a space shuttle."

"Yeah, the professor just told us," said Allan.

"It's powered by a unique and delicate power source. If it is not stopped or disposed off properly, it will implode."

"Lot of things explode if not handled properly," shrugged Will.

"Implode! Not explode; and it has the potential to take out an area the size of London."

They were all quiet for a beat.

John turned towards Tuck, "get to work."

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

A bald man smiled at the receptionist as he retrieved his package and checked into his room. His name was Robert Janus today. Inside the room, he tore open the package which contained pictures of Robin Hood, Marian and professor Langdon. It also had a brief document on their possible next location and orders to kill them if he could not capture them.. He knew that always meant that he had to kill them anyway. He laid back on the bed after shredding the documents into tiniest bits possible with his bare hands.

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

"I have two possible locations," said Tuck, "but this one looks promising. It has had very little activity in the past years but within the last few days, their budget has quadrupled and they have had activity round the clock. Look at the electricity grid," he said opening another browser window.

"Alright boys and lady, that's our hit. Lock and load," said Robin.

"You can't waltz into an air force base," said Tuck.

"No, that's why I have you."

Tuck turned back to the computer while the others went to get ready for the mission.

"What if it goes off in the atmosphere?" asked John.

"Still very dangerous," said Marian, "if I can get it out of your atmosphere and into the moon's orbit, we should be good. Theoretically."

"Guys!" Tuck shouted, "I think there is one exploit. But it is extremely risky because they would know they are under attack and it wouldn't take a scientist to know who is behind it or why they are there."

"So much for element of surprise," muttered John, "let's hear it lad."

"I can kill the power for the entire base for one minute, emergency power in high risk areas like the infirmary would be on but perimeter and other defence back up generators will take at least fifteen seconds to come online. You will have fifteen seconds to be in, then another forty five seconds in relative dark. After that, you're on your own."

"Well, no pain, no gain or something like that," said Will.

"Alright men, this is dangerous and we have a high rate of failure, if you want to sit this one out, I will not hold it against you," said Robin.

"Save it for the tombstone," said Allan already loading a light automatic gun. The others laughed and held fists together which was joined by a red hand.

They all looked at Marian and nodded smiling.

"How do we get in?" asked Will.

"The perimeter is too long and not heavily guarded. Diversion after the power outage should help us," said Robin.

Finally, they were all dressed and armed. Tuck said a small prayer and they were on their way.

x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x---x

"Tuck we're in," whispered Robin.

"Hang on. OK. The shuttle might be in bay seven in the north side. It has the most power usage and the emergency power is tied up to it too."

"Roger," said Robin, "let's go."

They rushed towards bay seven when the power suddenly came back on.

"No point in stopping now, we have to get there," said John.

Suddenly alarms started blaring around them.

"I think they know we're in," said Will.

Allan fired at the couple of soldiers who tried to block their way forcing them to retreat back. Exchanging shots in all directions, they finally made it to bay seven which was deserted except for the shuttle.

"It's probably a trap," said John, "no, it's definitely a trap."

Out of nowhere a shot rang out, hitting Will in the shoulder, he cried out in pain dropping his gun and falling to the ground. Robin and Allan fired in all directions as Marian and John dragged Will under some cover.

"Did you see where it came from?" asked Robin as John attended to Will. "How is he?"

"He'll live."

Allan pointed at the farthest corner, "I think there."

Marian crouched to them, "I will run and draw his weapon fire towards me, that will give you a chance to find him."

"No way," said Robin.

"Trust me. I'm faster than you humans."

Robin looked at Allan who shrugged his shoulders. He reluctantly agreed.

"Be careful," he said to her as she prepared to run. She turned around and winked at him.

'I will be back for you,' she told him telepathically. He smiled back at her.

Within seconds she was gone, they could not believe her speed as she kept running and turning when shots were fired at her. Robin took aim at the muzzle flash and let out a breath. By the time Janus had realised that he was a duped, he had been shot thrice, the third one making him lose his balance and plunge head first into the unforgiving concrete below.

"I think the soldiers are waiting for this guy to finish the job," said John.

They rushed towards the shuttle, with Will cradling his hand.

"How does it look?" asked John.

Marian looked around the little shuttle as she flicked various switches and accessed touch screens, "looks good so far."

Suddenly the lights inside the shuttle started blinking and a warning in some language started flashing across the big screen in the middle.

Marian cursed in her language and turned to Robin, "the core is breached, we have about twenty of your minutes to get out of here."

"Tuck, can we get another power cut?"

"I can try, hang on."

Marian powered up the engine while the others stood around., "I'm going to fly us out of here."

Tuck killed the power and they used the time to fly out of the base suffering only minor bullet damage from automatic gunfire. Marian expertly flew a safe distance and landed.

"Time for you to get out," she said.

They all left except Robin.

"Goodbye, Robin," she said without turning around.

'You don't have to go,' Robin told her telepathically.

'What?' she turned around.

'How can you?' she asked him in his head.

'I don't know, one day I found out that I can talk to people with my head. But I have never needed to use it, it'd probably startle many people.'

'I have to go, there is nothing for me here.'

'You're wrong, you have us. Stay and fight for a cause with us.'

She turned around putting her head in her hand and rubbing it, she stared at the console for another second and started tapping fast. She left the console and walked up to Robin and exited the shuttle holding his hand.

They all watched as the ship headed towards the moon at impossible speeds and then disappear.

'Promise to find me a way home sometime?'

'Definitely.'

"Those bastards got away with it again, didn't they?" seethed Will.

"One step at a time, boy. One step at a time, we'll get them," said John.

THE END.