"Oh my…" whispered 7 as she saw it.

1 was playing ball against… himself. The old man was throwing and catching a large white Ping-Pong ball. A rare and almost childish smile danced at the corners of his mouth as he happily threw the globe up and down, up and down. His staff was flung carelessly to one side, all 1's attention on his rather sad game.

2 and 6's mouths had dropped open in astonishment and 9 had stuffed his hand inside his mouth to stifle his laughter. Oily tears of laughter ran down the young stitchpunk's face.

"YOU HYPOCRITE!" shouted 7. Suddenly the funny side of the situation disappeared and poor 6 hid behind me. 7 went straight up to 1 and slapped him viciously across the face. We all winced.

"So you think that just because you made up the rules, you can break them at your own wish?"

1 simply sat there, knocked down and dazed by the blow.

"Well I don't think so, 1. From now on I'm not following the rules. Who's with me?" She turned to us.

9 looked on the verge of agreeing with 7 when 2 stepped in.

"7, is that really a good idea? Rules are what keep us together. Without guidelines we'd all end up killing each other whenever we had an argument, because there'd be nothing that told us not to.
On the other hand," and here he turned to 1, "rules need to be fair. And everyone should follow them. Agreed?"

1 looked dejected but sullenly agreed.

"The humans had democracy before the Chancellor took over. It worked for them, so maybe it would work for us."

And it did. For a while at least...

*Bows* Thank you, thank you! I think that's the end of the story, folks! Rubbish ending, I know, but that's life. Any ideas for a sequel? Well, you know what the 'Review This Story' button is for, don't ya? Anyone who requests gets a virtual cupcake. (Tastes almost as good as a real cupcake ^_^ ) So, keep reviewing and PLEASE READ MY OTHER STORIES!

Lucca