Bronsen:

The Misfits managed to get through the night and the early morning without major disasters. It may have been slightly awkward when they met after coming out of their bedrooms, but they were all diligently pretending that there was nothing to worry about; let's move on.

Accordingly, as soon as breakfast with all the new citizens was over, Bronsen resumed his campaign.

"Harrold, have you managed to get some volunteers to help stock up the ship with food and supplies?"

"Well, I suppose I have. Although they all want some increased points on their stats - they all say it is to make it easier and faster for them to carry heavy loads, but, you know..."

How much is it due to the workers wanting more and Harrold wanting more?

The easiest thing to do is to give it.

" I get the message; they all want a bit for themselves. How about we give everybody willing to work enough points to get up to 50 per cent? Oh, that also includes you, of course."

Harrold perked up. "I'm sure there will be no problems!"

Next stop, Skip the Skipper. Who came right out and said:

"I hear you gave Harrold and his team 50% stats?"

"Yes, and how about you and your sailing crew get the same?"

"We're in!"

Glad to see the process start, Bronsen found the other Misfits and explained his bargains.

"That should be no problem. It's still not at the level of our maxed-out states, and we must get moving," said Drayden.

"What about all of the other newly freed citizens? I'm sure they will want similar boosts," said Alice.

"Let's spread it out a bit and wait a while, shall we?" said Bronsen.

Bronsen and Cassy, the ones with the most experience sailing, went off to find Harrold and Skip and to help as much as possible.

Drayden and Alice decided to mingle with the citizens and check to see how they were going.

Hestia:

"Hi, Hestia, how's it going?" said Alice.

"I'm, err, still haven't, ah, worked that out," said Hestia.

"Is there anything we can help you with for now?"

"Well, now that the men have all had an increase in their stats, some of them are trying to sex the ladies, that is, what do you say, have sex with the ladies. No, that's not right; since the women don't want it, then is that where that word 'rape' is used?"

Alice's easygoing demeanour tightened up.

"Oh, you mean some of them are trying to rape some of the ladies?"

"Yes, that's right. Since the women also have had their stats increased, they haven't succeeded yet, but..."

"Right. I see. Well, I am not going to allow that! How about we raise the stats of every female to 80% of their maximums?"

"That could be good."

It worked! Now, all the women will be above all but the few males that the Misfits trust.

The Misfits are great!

Within an hour, it was so.

So, of course...

Bronsen:

Uh, Oh, that's the minion; I mean, that's minion #1 and minion #2.

"Why can't we have increased stats? You shouldn't give to those females; we deserve them!" said Minion #1.

Because we don't trust you, that's why.

"Hmm, well, you see, we don't have an unlimited supply of points, and, well, we need to save some for our friends back in Manifestoria, and, well, you don't need the extra points right now."

"You take away our collars. But don't give us points!" said Minion #2.

Even compared to the other slaves raised on baby farms, these two aren't the brightest. Probably been ground down by decades of mindlessly obeying orders.

"Sorry, but that will have to do for the time being. Also, don't you regret the death of that ex-Red?"

"Who cares about that loser? He was demoted from Red. He was so hopeless."

Sigh. Not much love was lost between them.

Bronsen managed to extricate himself from this no-win argument and find something more productive.

He found it.

Someone shouted: "There's another small sailing ship heading towards us!"

Oh, can't we get a break?

The Misfits didn't even have to talk about what to do; they dropped whatever they were doing and raced to the dock.

They hid behind the big ship and spied upon the yacht slowly approaching.

"What! There are two Greens, plus at least one Blue present!" said Cassy.

"That is a problem," said Bronsen, "Also, if we can see the colour of their collars, then they can see the lack of collars of our no-longer-slaves. And, who knows, they might decide to turn around and go as fast as possible for help," said Bronsen.

"Shit," said Cassy.

"But, at least, we are in no immediate danger of having our citizens turned against us," said Drayden.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Until our citizens are re-enslaved," said Alice.

"We had better do exactly what we did before, swim out there and - no, there is no need to kill the coloureds; we just have to touch them. However, remember to try touching them on the collar. Hopefully, people won't find out just how flexible we can be when destroying collars." said Bronsen.

Five seconds later, they were all swimming like mad in the water.

One of the Greens:

He had tried calling out to the slaves on the big ship to get them to cast a mooring line, but they didn't do anything.

What is wrong with them? Have they been ordered to ignore us by another Green?

He narrowed his eyes and took a better look.

They're a lot of vermin!

What are they doing here in the middle of the slaver nation?

I need to collar the lot of them! Fortunately, I got plenty of collars.

And why are four of them swimming out - they are fast, and they are fighting off small predators -

They must have high abilities!

Collaring them will be a big win!

Turning, He shouted to the Blue: "Get four collars and get ready to collar them! And get those slaves with high physical stats to come up and help you since these new ones must be almost maxed out."

He shouldn't have made that sentence so long as two appeared over the side of the yacht by the time he turned back to see where the swimmers were. One reached out and slapped him on his collar -

Ding! Your collar has been removed, courtesy of the Misfits.

Grey sand fell all over him. He hesitantly reached out and touched his neck.

My collar? Where's my collar? My collar has fallen off? But that's impossible. Impossible.

I must get one back!

By now, the other Green on the deck was also without a collar. The Blue, sent down to fetch some collars, returned with four in his hand.

The no longer Green grabbed one and put it on his neck. Only to go through the same process that every freshly collared slave did. He collapsed onto the deck as his stats and abilities were cloaked in darkness. But, presumably, because he had only been without a collar for a short period, the effect didn't last long.

He looked up to see that one of the four strangers had already removed the collar of the Blue. Two more raced down into the insides of the yacht. The remaining one stood right in front of him, watching him.

"You, you, what, slaves! Get him!"

Why is nothing happening?

"You don't realise it yet, do you? We've removed the collars from everyone else on this yacht. And, anyway, your new collar is Grey. You can't order anyone around."

What? But I'm a Green! I serve directly under the Emperor! With a bit of luck, I could be the next Emperor.

"Give me back my green collar!"

The stranger, a medium monotone brown all over, tapped his collar again. It fell off in a shower of sand grains.

Ding! Your collar has been removed, again, courtesy of the Misfits.

"Sorry, tough luck about that."

Drayden:

Docking the yacht was a little bit difficult since the sailing crew were so totally out of it with the loss of their collars. With some cajoling, the Misifits managed to get them working together and finally tied up the yacht. Right next to the previous yacht.

We now own one large ship and two yachts!

In Earth terms, that would make us millionaires!

Sigh.

The ex-slaves, even the two Greens and the Blue, didn't resist as they were shepherded off the boat and onto the dock. Cassy and Bronsen started leading them to the community hall. Alice and Drayden stayed behind to conduct a brief search for valuable items.

"I've found yet more slave collars!" said Alice.

"Golly, there's a lot. Well, let's have fun destroying them!" said Drayden.

"I've had an idea, perhaps, if we save one collar only? We could tempt those ex-Green and ex-Blue slaves with it, perhaps?"

"Why would they want to put it on voluntarily?"

"That first Green did. Course, it didn't do him much good."

"OK"

So, they rapidly converted the collars into a heap of sand using both hands, except for the last one.

"Say, how do we carry this? If we touch it, it's a goner," said Drayden.

Eventually, Alice summoned her grappling hook to carry the collar.

Bronsen:

An hour later:

They were in their cabin, as in the Misfits, Hestia, Frannie, Reggie, and the Greens and the Blue.

That is the ex-Greens and ex-Blue. Who were looking seriously disgruntled.

"Hi," said Bronsen, "I don't suppose you would like to say why you were coming to this island?"

The ex-Green, who seemed to be the leader, started sputtering and muttering incoherently.

"You are vermin! I should be the one asking questions here."

"But you're not. And you will note that all seven of us have maxed out physical abilities. We far surpass your abilities. Which means we are the ones doing the bossing around." said Bronsen.

"But. But. But that is wrong!"

He can't cope with the reality, can he?

"I will have you flog each other for your insolence! I'll put you females into a brothel for Greys!"

Alice had steam coming out of her ears, but Bronsen acted fast. He put one hand on her arm, settling her down. Bronsen looked from side to side, at Alice and Cassy.

They are controlling themselves for the moment.

Bronsen shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"OK, I'll try again. You no longer have your collars. If we gave you a collar back, it will be grey, not green."

"As soon as I meet with the emperor, I'll be promoted back to Green."

"Really? Are you sure? Doesn't the Emperor only promote those to Green who demonstrate the most worth to him? And you, you failed miserably. You actually lost your collar. You lost command of a whole island filled with slaves. Isn't he merely going to keep you as a Grey, interrogate you until you give him all the information he needs, then dump you in some shitty job? Or, maybe, kill you because you are too dangerous to let live?"

"I, I'll, I will..."

The ex-Green trailed off into silence. He looked as if he was realising that he was well and truly fucked.

"You already tried it once, but we have a spare collar here."

Bronsen pointed to the desk, where the lone collar remaining on the Island was displayed.

"You could put it on again. And become a Grey."

The ex-Green stared at the collar but didn't make a move.

Alice:

He's another shitty rapist. Are all coloured collars rapists? According to Hestia, the Emperor is a rapist and a murderer.

The whole society is corrupt from top to bottom.

I hope that the so-called hero who created the slave system is endlessly reincarnated as a dung beetle.

She couldn't hold herself in any more and decided to add her say.

"I bet you raped a lot of Greys when you were first promoted, didn't you? Abused your position. If you put on the collar, you can return to being a Grey and know what it's like to be completely powerless."

His body jerked as if he had been stung on the bum by a particularly large bee.

That got him riled. Serve him right.

"I will not be a Grey again! I will be a Green and never be subject to such orders again. And any man who tries, I will order him to kill himself, just like I did as soon as I out-ranked him!"

What the hell is that about?

Alice spent a few seconds deducing what that sentence meant.

Oh. I forgot. Males can be raped, also.

Her anger towards him dissipated.

She summoned her grappling hook, swept up the collar and took it to her bedroom. Then she returned.

"Fine then. If you come with us to Manifestoria, you will be protected from such things. In free societies, we strongly disapprove of rape and will go to some considerable extent to prevent it."

Let's not mention that it still can happen.

Feeling slightly guilty about this small deception, Alice rushed past this topic.

"And, anyway, you still haven't said why you are here."

The ex-Green, looking defeated, must have given up any resistance.

"We were ordered to construct a forward base to help in the invasion of Manifestoria. We are supposed to start building barracks and docking facilities, large enough to hold a couple of thousand slaves and a dozen ships and get them all ready. The timeline was to be a year or two, and we were also to keep producing Marmalade."

I think we have to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.

"So, are any more ships coming?"

"More workers and supplies will arrive in a few days or weeks."

The Misfits and Frannie, Reggie and Hestia exchanged glum looks.

Bronsen threw up his hands.

"We had better start right now."

Cassy:

After impressing upon the ex-coloureds that there was now only one slave collar on the Island, and the Misfits guarded it, they let them go to join the mob of formerly enslaved people. They had their evening meal, then retired to their cabin.

"Everyone, I propose that we don't have any discussion about that topic tonight, as we don't have much time to spare," she said.

"And Alice chose last night, so tonight I'm going to choose. Any objections, boys?"

Two boys shook their heads.

"My, we are beginning to get our boys well trained, aren't we, Alice?"

"Ah... Yes, we are!" said Alice.

"And I think I'll choose Drayden this time. After all, variety is the spice of life and all that, right?"

Nobody objected. The boys gave the distinct impression of being quite happy with it all.