Chapter 14 - A Tangled Web
By SportsMaster
Bruce Herman sighed, he leaned on his rifle (stolen from the liquor store that Orochi broke into) staring at the pink sun as it began to rise over the horizon. As the first wisps of sunlight penetrated the still-whole windows of the store, he gently nudged his girlfriend Sarah. She stirred for a moment or two before sitting up, hair falling over her face, evidence of her remaining weariness.
“Morning already?” she asked, still not brushing her hair out of her face.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “We better get out here, the riots should be waning for now, but they’ll pick up again in a few hours.”
“Uh….ok,” she said, finally drawing her hair behind her ears “Where exactly should I go?”
“We’re all going to my place,” Bruce said, rather sharply. “It’s far enough that we will be safe, at least, for now.”
Bruce then took to the task of waking the others, most woke after a nudge or two from the rifle, but Trunks remained in a bear-like slumber. Noticing this Bruce took it upon himself to rudely wake Trunks, as Trunks had instead on drinking until he passed out instead of guarding the shop, much to Bruce’s chagrin. After a few more nudges, each one rougher then the last, Bruce finally turned the gun around and struck the back of Trunks’ head with the butt. Trunks woke to the sharp pain, swearing and rubbing the back of his head.
“We’re leaving,” Bruce said. “Get your lazy **bleep** off the floor”
“What the hell was that for?!” Trunks cried, rubbing the back of his gingerly, “And where exactly are we going?”
“My place,” Bruce said flatly, “Let’s go.”
As the group stepped outside they were able to fully take in the damage caused the previous night. The art shop seemed to be the only recognizable building, as the rest of lower Actonia looked like a ghost town. Buildings were missing things ranging from a few windows to large chunks of concrete, and a few were even semi-collapsed, the brick and mortar overwhelmed by a large throng of oppressed-and angry-people. In the middle of all the damage, a ring of squad cars was formed around a large chunk of shredded metal and bloodstains.
“It’s as if someone set a bomb off” Istari breathed, her voice barely audible.
The others could only nod in stunned agreement. They couldn’t comprehend what they were looking at. Lower Actonia was in pieces, figuratively and literally. The only thing they could understand was that they were not safe, not here. They had to get away.
“Let’s go” Bruce urged, “We can live at my house until this place is safe again.”
“How long will that take?” Trunks asked.
“I really don’t know” Bruce said, “But I do know that standing here and wondering about it is a good way for us to get killed.”
The group headed off towards Bruce’s house, still absorbing the scale of the damage that ravaged lower Actonia just a few hours ago.
**************
Anna Godderson looked at the cold body on the steel table, then the chart, the body once more, and sighed, tossing the chart on a nearby table. She always thought being a coroner would be cool. Sort of like being a detective, trying to figure out the exact cause of death for each body placed on the examining table. Unfortunately ever since Ozzal came to power in Actonia, her job had been painfully simple. She knew you don’t need a PhD to determine someone who was broken open like a piñata died of blood loss, or how someone, dumped on the table in two separate parts died. Her latest obvious death was a more elderly man, pried out of an old police mechanized unit. A giant hole was where his stomach was supposed to be, and Anna estimated that he lived for maybe five minutes after he died. Picking up the chart again and wondering how her life could get anymore boring, she heard the door open, and looked up at her lab assistant, Winry Rockbell.
Winry was a few years younger than Anna, and if one were to be an astute observer would realize that they looked very similar. Anna was a bit taller, with sandy colored hair, and a larger bust. Winry really wasn’t a coroner per sey, as she dealt more with the re-construction of bodies strewn apart for various reasons. Winry’s vast knowledge of the human body, paired with her brilliant scientific mind made her a perfect assistant.
“What’s the matter?” Winry inquired, noticing Anna’s gloomy demeanor.
“Nothing I suppose,” Anna mused looking at the drab grey walls, “Winry, remember a few years ago, when I actually had to do work? How I found out that men suspected of dying from heart attacks were found to be poisoned, instead of someone with a giant hole in their stomach?”
“Yeah I do,” Winry admitted “What are you saying? Do you miss those days?”
“I don’t know” Anna said, “I just wish something interesting would happen just once.”
No sooner has she completed the sentence did Anna hear a heavy knock on the door. She took no more then a few pensive steps towards it, before it was blasted open, sending metal shrapnel across the whole room, Anna winced as a small bit deflected into her calf.
“Military Police” a deep voice thundered, masked by a storm trooperesque helmet “We are here to collect some…items if you will.”
“What do you mean?” Anna shouted, “You have no business being here.”
“We are here for three bodies that you recently examined,” another, higher sounding voice remarked, “Ozzal wishes to have these bodies as…decoration of sorts.”
“You’re sick!” Anna said disgustedly, “You’re not taking them, Ozzal has no right seizing them.”
“You will give them to us,” the first voice said “Or we will kill you.”
Anna slowly backed towards the table where her clipboard lay. Reaching behind her body, she fumbled around for a beat until grabbing onto a drawer handle, and pulling the drawer open. Reaching in, she pulled out a small handgun.
“You are not taking these bodies,” Anna repeated shakily “I won’t let you.”
“Then die,” the first voice said coldly, opening fire.
Anna dove behind the table and squeezed off a few shots in his general direction, both nearly hitting him in the head. The firestorm continued for a few minutes, with Anna being able to take out the other two men with shots to the head, however the first voice was still alive, and Anna was running out of bullets. After hearing all the commotion after having her early morning coffee break, Winry burst into the now-destroyed room.
“Anna, what is going on?!” Winry cried looking franticly at a crouching Anna and a heavily armed man.
The man turned towards Winry, aiming his gun right at her, seizing the moment, Anna fired off her last shot into the fluorescent lights illuminating the room. In the pitch black Anna ran towards the door “Hurry Winry!” she cried. Both women stumbled through the door, and began running towards the mountains, away from all the carnage. Before rounding a corner they passed a liquor store, already raided with a brick lying inside the store, surrounded by glass.
*************
As he ran out to his normal shortstop position, Jake Thompson could hear the adoration from the crowd. He looked out into it, seeing posters praising him, children with his jersey on, and he smiled. Life was good, actually scratch that, life was amazing. He was getting paid millions of dollars to play his favorite childhood sport, and he was the hero of millions of kids across the world. He stepped up to the plate and was about to raise his favorite bat to his shoulder when he saw it was dripping in blood. Horrified he looked back towards his dugout, hoping it was some sick joke that a teammate played on him. To his agony, his teammates lay dead in the dugout, their skulls split, and bleeding from the head. The crowd was silent, and Jake dropped the bat, and screamed.
Emiri stalked towards the dank chamber in the corner of the tower. As she approached the corroding bars, she saw that Jake was still asleep, drenched in a cold sweat, trying to assume the fetal position, but the chains wrapped around his arms made that impossible. Emiri smirked, “What a simpleton,” she thought “When he isn’t on the goof juice he is just a scared little boy, I am doing Ozzal a favor for not killing him right now.” She unlocked the door and stepped inside. Kicking Jake forcibly in the side and growling “Get up.” Jake recoiled in pain and coughed up blood. Emiri caught a few drops on her fingers, and carefully licked them clean. Jake glared up at Emiri, his side throbbing.
“Since you insist on being so lazy, you get no breakfast,” Emiri said triumphantly “Now get up, we’re going to find that sexy priest tonight, I am just dying to come across him again.”
“Why do you take such joy in torturing me?” Jake cried, “Isn’t it enough that Ozzal has my entire family in some hellhole somewhere, and I get pumped full of god-knows-what every night and Hulk out?”
“Spare me,” Emiri spat, “You’re looking at the wrong person for any kind of sympathy, you should be grateful that I haven’t killed you.”
With that Emiri turned and walked out of the cell, closing and locking the door behind her. As she ascended the stairs she called out “Tonight’s the night Jake, tonight I find that priest again, and I’ll make sure that I make quick work of him, if you know what I mean,” laughing airily up the stairs.
**************
Justin Gudamen looked at the map and up at the building one more time, and motioned to a taller man to follow. They stepped up to the shop where a still bleary-eyed Luna had just unlocked the doors.
“Excuse me,” Justin said pensively, “Are you Luna?”
“Why…yes,” Luna said quite surprised that such a stranger would know her name, although he seemed so familiar. “May I help you?”
“No, no, no,” the taller man said “It is not a matter if you can help us, but if we can help you Miss Luna.”
“Who are you people?” Luna said, now very suspicious of the two men.
“Who we are isn’t important right now, what is important is the information that we have,” the taller man said simply.
“What information? Who are you? Why am I dealing with this so early?” Luna said, screaming the last word.
“Is it not true that you are a member of a group that is planning a revolution to over-throw Ozzal?” Justin said, stepping in front of the taller man.
“Let’s go inside.” Luna said.
The three of them stepped inside and closed the door behind them. Luna instructed them to wait, as she went to the back. Justin heard another man back there, possibly a few more; he did know that he heard a thick French accent, and another, louder voice, possibly female. Luna returned from the back and faced the two.
“Follow me,” she said in a hushed tone.
They were lead to the back where a Hikki, Angel, and Spice were all sitting around a make-shift table. Father Sadar was leaning against a wall.
“Wait, this is your headquarters?” Justin asked, baffled by the ruddiness of it all.
“Well, not really, they were spending the night here, after hearing the explosions and seeing the fire,” Luna explained
“We figured if something was happening we better be together, and we all knew where this place was, so here we are” Father Sadar said unflinchingly.
“I just wish I knew where Samson was,” Luna said, with a hint of fear in her voice.
“I also vizh I knew vere Zamson vaz,” Hikki said mournfully, before being stuck by one of Spice’s shoes.
“Perv,” she spat.
“So,” Luna said “Exactly how can you help us?”
Justin looked towards the taller man and nodded. He stepped forward, and took off his long jacket. He was wearing a too-tall top hat, and was dressed in a tuxedo, as if he had been pulled from a wedding. He also was heavily leaning on a cane, and walked with a sort of waddle. When he spoke he spoke with a thick Italian accent.
“First off let me introduce myself, I run a…business of sorts. We exchange things like spam and bad German rock CD’s for other countries currency. We then spend that currency on…items that are rare here.” He said, gesturing with his hands.
“So you and your buddy here run a shop in the black market?” Spice snorted, unimpressed, “Figures that a few washouts would try and help us.”
“No, no, no, no, no,” the man said, shaking his finger at her “We are the black market. My partner and I are the…puppet masters if you will of the whole thing. However Ozzal’s grip over Actonia has severely harmed business for us, so we figured instead of sending her a severed head, we will just overthrow her and kill her. It seems more personal.”
“My name is Justin, and he likes to call himself “The Penguin,” Justin said, gesturing towards the tall man.
“Wait a second,” Angel said “You expect us to believe that a Godfather like mob boss has a Batman-themed name, and he is going to help us overthrow the most oppressive dictator the world has ever seen?”
“Pretty much,” Justin said “Is it any stranger than any of the other things that have happened?”
The group murmured in agreement, this was actually pretty realistic given what had already happened. The Penguin stepped forward and reached into his jacket, tossing a thick file on the desk. Scrawled in red ink across the front read “The Spartes Project”, seeing this Father Sadar walked towards the file, and picked it up.
“This is what Samson and I found in the Archives, this is about that Jake Thompson guy, right?” Father Sadar was franticly leaving through the pages as he asked this.
“Indeed it is friend,” The Penguin said, carefully pulling the file away from him. “Now sit down and listen very carefully to me.”
Father Sadar took a seat next to Spice, and The Penguin was about to start reading when Justin stepped in.
“I’ll tell them, you get to sell all the stuff on the market, so this is my moment,” Justin said.
Defeated the Penguin sat down and Justin started up.
“Basically what the Spartes project is-or was-was a project to create the perfect solder. When Ozzal was in the military she was enraged by the fact that she could not always be moving or attacking, the current personal were only human, they could only kill and move so fast. So she decided to start a project, a secret project, she wanted the perfect solder, one that could kill quickly, and quietly, a solder that wouldn’t tire, and would thrive on killing. After about five years of research, they were able to test on a human, they kidnapped a small girl from a village in Actonia, and completely brainwashed her. They heightened all of her senses, especially smell, and gave her amazing strength and intellect. However, Ozzal was dismayed when she developed her own personality. Instead of being a simple brainless killing machine, this creature enjoyed the kill, got off on it actually. She liked to smell out her prey and they carefully kill them, instead of just mowing through people. She was named Emiri, and was deemed a failure.”
The last statement took a second to sink in; the others looked at each other in shock and a murmur began to rise from the group. If Emiri was the failed version of the ultimate solder, what hope did they have against Jake? Heero was shredded by Emiri, and Samson and Sadar were lucky to escape with their lives. If this is what they were going to face the whole way, was a revolution really worth it? Was certain death worth the idea of liberty? The murmur rose to near shouting before Justin motioned for them to calm down.
“So Ozzal pressed on, she wanted a slave, a perfect killing machine, subservient to her every whim. She had decided not to pursue a small child, and instead wanted a peak physical specimen. One day when she was flipping through the channels, she saw Jake Thompson hit an inside-the-park homerun, and immediately decided that he was to be her perfect solder. She had a meeting with him, wherein he turned down her offer. In retaliation, she kidnapped his family, and threatened to kill them if he didn’t cooperate with her. He agreed, as long as his family was spared.”
“How is any of this useful to us?” Spice asked angrily “I’m not interested in some random peoples back-story, I just want to know how we can use this against them.
“I was getting there,” Justin said impatiently. “Jake was trained in firearms and in swords. The type of training he was subjected to didn’t kill him only because he was in such good shape, otherwise he would have died. Ozzal however, wasn’t pleased yet. While he was a perfect killing machine he didn’t have a slave demeanor. She then had a special device made. It was a small eye-shaped piece of metal, with a long spike sticking out the back. This was surgically attached to the right of Jake’s left shoulder-blade. The needle was long enough that it was mere millimeters away from his spinal cord. Ozzal then had a special chemical made. This chemical was a super muscle-stimulant. It makes all the muscles in the body hundreds of times stronger, however it completely renders the user a vegetable. Since Jake was trained to be a killing machine, the only thing he wanted was blood. When he is injected with this stuff, it is like a Jekyll-Hyde transformation, only much, much worse. He just wants blood; every other sense is shut off. Until the serum wears off in eight hours, he is a perfect slave.”
“So…what you’re saying is we’re facing two people from the same project, one has too much free will, and the other pretty much hulks-out when he gets this super-duper serum shot into his body?” Sadar said.
“Pretty much,” Justin replied “The good news is when the serum wears off Jake is a normal person, he still has a fantastic skill set, and if we could somehow capture him and bring him to our side, he would be the person with the best chance to kill Emiri and Ozzal.”
“This is where I come in friends,” Penguin said, now standing “See, here is how we’re going to get this guy. We’re getting into my car, and we’re going to head up to the holding cell. We’ll blast in there guns a blazin’, blow open the cell, and take him with us. You see, I don’t like this Ozzal lady, she hurt my business, and nobody hurts my business. ‘Cause if they do, I’ll kill them, I may not like it, but I will not hesitate.”
“This all sounds great,” Spice said tensely “But how exactly are we going to ‘blast in there’? All we have is a few handguns and old swords. There is no why that’ll work.”
Penguin smiled and opened his large jacket inside several firearms glistened in the morning sun.
“What did I say about hurting my business?” Penguin said shrewdly “I wouldn’t talk so big if I didn’t have the heat to back it up my friend.”
**************
“How many people have I killed?” Jake wondered, for what seemed like the millionth time. “How many lives did I destroy, how many orphans have I created?” the questions banged around in his head. He sat there, his arms aching from the stress put on them due to his hands being chained a few feet above his head. He sat there, wishing this would all just, melt away. That he could be back home with his wife, and by now, his child. When his wife was kidnapped, she was six months along, and Jake was hoping for a boy, someone he could rough-house with, as his wife and teammates always said Jake was just a little kid in an adult body. Jake sighed and looked ahead; hanging on the wall almost taunting him was a large saw-like sword, stained with blood, and his favorite bat, the head covered in blood. Jake looked at them and wished again for a reprieve, that someone or something would free him. He didn’t care what, but he couldn’t stand to take anymore innocent lives.
**************
Michelle Ozzal paced frantically in her office. She had sent those men out three hours ago, how long does it take to get a few bodies? No sooner had she thought this, did she hear a knock on the door.
“Come in,” she barked, “and you better have good news.”
In stepped the officer “Miss Ozzal, the bodies have been taken, however the coroner and her assistant have fled, we are still looking for them.”
“That’s not needed, so long as the bodies are all accounted for and secured I hope?” she asked.
“Roger that ma’am. Bodies are secure and we are awaiting your next order,” the man said obediently.
“Excellent news, good work,” Ozzal said triumphantly. “Call Matrix and tell him that the bodies are here, he will know what to do from here on.”
“Yes ma’am,” the solder saluted and walked out of the room.
Ozzal strode to her window. She looked out and smiled “Everything is playing out just like I thought it would,” she thought “After Matrix gets done with these bodies, there will be but one thing left. World domination is no longer in question. I will rule this world, and all those unlucky to be born into it. My power will know no limits, and will go down in history as a goddess, my fate, along with this world’s is sealed. I have won.”
Ozzal let out a triumphant laugh, one so loud, that it startled the birds resting the top of Comdot Estate and they flew up towards the horizon, towards the skies of lower Actonia.
NEW CHARACTERS
Anna Godderson = anime_goddess05
Justin Gudamen = Justice_Gundam
The Penguin = PenguinBoss
Winry Rockbell = FMA Winry
Bruce Herman sighed, he leaned on his rifle (stolen from the liquor store that Orochi broke into) staring at the pink sun as it began to rise over the horizon. As the first wisps of sunlight penetrated the still-whole windows of the store, he gently nudged his girlfriend Sarah. She stirred for a moment or two before sitting up, hair falling over her face, evidence of her remaining weariness.
“Morning already?” she asked, still not brushing her hair out of her face.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “We better get out here, the riots should be waning for now, but they’ll pick up again in a few hours.”
“Uh….ok,” she said, finally drawing her hair behind her ears “Where exactly should I go?”
“We’re all going to my place,” Bruce said, rather sharply. “It’s far enough that we will be safe, at least, for now.”
Bruce then took to the task of waking the others, most woke after a nudge or two from the rifle, but Trunks remained in a bear-like slumber. Noticing this Bruce took it upon himself to rudely wake Trunks, as Trunks had instead on drinking until he passed out instead of guarding the shop, much to Bruce’s chagrin. After a few more nudges, each one rougher then the last, Bruce finally turned the gun around and struck the back of Trunks’ head with the butt. Trunks woke to the sharp pain, swearing and rubbing the back of his head.
“We’re leaving,” Bruce said. “Get your lazy **bleep** off the floor”
“What the hell was that for?!” Trunks cried, rubbing the back of his gingerly, “And where exactly are we going?”
“My place,” Bruce said flatly, “Let’s go.”
As the group stepped outside they were able to fully take in the damage caused the previous night. The art shop seemed to be the only recognizable building, as the rest of lower Actonia looked like a ghost town. Buildings were missing things ranging from a few windows to large chunks of concrete, and a few were even semi-collapsed, the brick and mortar overwhelmed by a large throng of oppressed-and angry-people. In the middle of all the damage, a ring of squad cars was formed around a large chunk of shredded metal and bloodstains.
“It’s as if someone set a bomb off” Istari breathed, her voice barely audible.
The others could only nod in stunned agreement. They couldn’t comprehend what they were looking at. Lower Actonia was in pieces, figuratively and literally. The only thing they could understand was that they were not safe, not here. They had to get away.
“Let’s go” Bruce urged, “We can live at my house until this place is safe again.”
“How long will that take?” Trunks asked.
“I really don’t know” Bruce said, “But I do know that standing here and wondering about it is a good way for us to get killed.”
The group headed off towards Bruce’s house, still absorbing the scale of the damage that ravaged lower Actonia just a few hours ago.
**************
Anna Godderson looked at the cold body on the steel table, then the chart, the body once more, and sighed, tossing the chart on a nearby table. She always thought being a coroner would be cool. Sort of like being a detective, trying to figure out the exact cause of death for each body placed on the examining table. Unfortunately ever since Ozzal came to power in Actonia, her job had been painfully simple. She knew you don’t need a PhD to determine someone who was broken open like a piñata died of blood loss, or how someone, dumped on the table in two separate parts died. Her latest obvious death was a more elderly man, pried out of an old police mechanized unit. A giant hole was where his stomach was supposed to be, and Anna estimated that he lived for maybe five minutes after he died. Picking up the chart again and wondering how her life could get anymore boring, she heard the door open, and looked up at her lab assistant, Winry Rockbell.
Winry was a few years younger than Anna, and if one were to be an astute observer would realize that they looked very similar. Anna was a bit taller, with sandy colored hair, and a larger bust. Winry really wasn’t a coroner per sey, as she dealt more with the re-construction of bodies strewn apart for various reasons. Winry’s vast knowledge of the human body, paired with her brilliant scientific mind made her a perfect assistant.
“What’s the matter?” Winry inquired, noticing Anna’s gloomy demeanor.
“Nothing I suppose,” Anna mused looking at the drab grey walls, “Winry, remember a few years ago, when I actually had to do work? How I found out that men suspected of dying from heart attacks were found to be poisoned, instead of someone with a giant hole in their stomach?”
“Yeah I do,” Winry admitted “What are you saying? Do you miss those days?”
“I don’t know” Anna said, “I just wish something interesting would happen just once.”
No sooner has she completed the sentence did Anna hear a heavy knock on the door. She took no more then a few pensive steps towards it, before it was blasted open, sending metal shrapnel across the whole room, Anna winced as a small bit deflected into her calf.
“Military Police” a deep voice thundered, masked by a storm trooperesque helmet “We are here to collect some…items if you will.”
“What do you mean?” Anna shouted, “You have no business being here.”
“We are here for three bodies that you recently examined,” another, higher sounding voice remarked, “Ozzal wishes to have these bodies as…decoration of sorts.”
“You’re sick!” Anna said disgustedly, “You’re not taking them, Ozzal has no right seizing them.”
“You will give them to us,” the first voice said “Or we will kill you.”
Anna slowly backed towards the table where her clipboard lay. Reaching behind her body, she fumbled around for a beat until grabbing onto a drawer handle, and pulling the drawer open. Reaching in, she pulled out a small handgun.
“You are not taking these bodies,” Anna repeated shakily “I won’t let you.”
“Then die,” the first voice said coldly, opening fire.
Anna dove behind the table and squeezed off a few shots in his general direction, both nearly hitting him in the head. The firestorm continued for a few minutes, with Anna being able to take out the other two men with shots to the head, however the first voice was still alive, and Anna was running out of bullets. After hearing all the commotion after having her early morning coffee break, Winry burst into the now-destroyed room.
“Anna, what is going on?!” Winry cried looking franticly at a crouching Anna and a heavily armed man.
The man turned towards Winry, aiming his gun right at her, seizing the moment, Anna fired off her last shot into the fluorescent lights illuminating the room. In the pitch black Anna ran towards the door “Hurry Winry!” she cried. Both women stumbled through the door, and began running towards the mountains, away from all the carnage. Before rounding a corner they passed a liquor store, already raided with a brick lying inside the store, surrounded by glass.
*************
As he ran out to his normal shortstop position, Jake Thompson could hear the adoration from the crowd. He looked out into it, seeing posters praising him, children with his jersey on, and he smiled. Life was good, actually scratch that, life was amazing. He was getting paid millions of dollars to play his favorite childhood sport, and he was the hero of millions of kids across the world. He stepped up to the plate and was about to raise his favorite bat to his shoulder when he saw it was dripping in blood. Horrified he looked back towards his dugout, hoping it was some sick joke that a teammate played on him. To his agony, his teammates lay dead in the dugout, their skulls split, and bleeding from the head. The crowd was silent, and Jake dropped the bat, and screamed.
Emiri stalked towards the dank chamber in the corner of the tower. As she approached the corroding bars, she saw that Jake was still asleep, drenched in a cold sweat, trying to assume the fetal position, but the chains wrapped around his arms made that impossible. Emiri smirked, “What a simpleton,” she thought “When he isn’t on the goof juice he is just a scared little boy, I am doing Ozzal a favor for not killing him right now.” She unlocked the door and stepped inside. Kicking Jake forcibly in the side and growling “Get up.” Jake recoiled in pain and coughed up blood. Emiri caught a few drops on her fingers, and carefully licked them clean. Jake glared up at Emiri, his side throbbing.
“Since you insist on being so lazy, you get no breakfast,” Emiri said triumphantly “Now get up, we’re going to find that sexy priest tonight, I am just dying to come across him again.”
“Why do you take such joy in torturing me?” Jake cried, “Isn’t it enough that Ozzal has my entire family in some hellhole somewhere, and I get pumped full of god-knows-what every night and Hulk out?”
“Spare me,” Emiri spat, “You’re looking at the wrong person for any kind of sympathy, you should be grateful that I haven’t killed you.”
With that Emiri turned and walked out of the cell, closing and locking the door behind her. As she ascended the stairs she called out “Tonight’s the night Jake, tonight I find that priest again, and I’ll make sure that I make quick work of him, if you know what I mean,” laughing airily up the stairs.
**************
Justin Gudamen looked at the map and up at the building one more time, and motioned to a taller man to follow. They stepped up to the shop where a still bleary-eyed Luna had just unlocked the doors.
“Excuse me,” Justin said pensively, “Are you Luna?”
“Why…yes,” Luna said quite surprised that such a stranger would know her name, although he seemed so familiar. “May I help you?”
“No, no, no,” the taller man said “It is not a matter if you can help us, but if we can help you Miss Luna.”
“Who are you people?” Luna said, now very suspicious of the two men.
“Who we are isn’t important right now, what is important is the information that we have,” the taller man said simply.
“What information? Who are you? Why am I dealing with this so early?” Luna said, screaming the last word.
“Is it not true that you are a member of a group that is planning a revolution to over-throw Ozzal?” Justin said, stepping in front of the taller man.
“Let’s go inside.” Luna said.
The three of them stepped inside and closed the door behind them. Luna instructed them to wait, as she went to the back. Justin heard another man back there, possibly a few more; he did know that he heard a thick French accent, and another, louder voice, possibly female. Luna returned from the back and faced the two.
“Follow me,” she said in a hushed tone.
They were lead to the back where a Hikki, Angel, and Spice were all sitting around a make-shift table. Father Sadar was leaning against a wall.
“Wait, this is your headquarters?” Justin asked, baffled by the ruddiness of it all.
“Well, not really, they were spending the night here, after hearing the explosions and seeing the fire,” Luna explained
“We figured if something was happening we better be together, and we all knew where this place was, so here we are” Father Sadar said unflinchingly.
“I just wish I knew where Samson was,” Luna said, with a hint of fear in her voice.
“I also vizh I knew vere Zamson vaz,” Hikki said mournfully, before being stuck by one of Spice’s shoes.
“Perv,” she spat.
“So,” Luna said “Exactly how can you help us?”
Justin looked towards the taller man and nodded. He stepped forward, and took off his long jacket. He was wearing a too-tall top hat, and was dressed in a tuxedo, as if he had been pulled from a wedding. He also was heavily leaning on a cane, and walked with a sort of waddle. When he spoke he spoke with a thick Italian accent.
“First off let me introduce myself, I run a…business of sorts. We exchange things like spam and bad German rock CD’s for other countries currency. We then spend that currency on…items that are rare here.” He said, gesturing with his hands.
“So you and your buddy here run a shop in the black market?” Spice snorted, unimpressed, “Figures that a few washouts would try and help us.”
“No, no, no, no, no,” the man said, shaking his finger at her “We are the black market. My partner and I are the…puppet masters if you will of the whole thing. However Ozzal’s grip over Actonia has severely harmed business for us, so we figured instead of sending her a severed head, we will just overthrow her and kill her. It seems more personal.”
“My name is Justin, and he likes to call himself “The Penguin,” Justin said, gesturing towards the tall man.
“Wait a second,” Angel said “You expect us to believe that a Godfather like mob boss has a Batman-themed name, and he is going to help us overthrow the most oppressive dictator the world has ever seen?”
“Pretty much,” Justin said “Is it any stranger than any of the other things that have happened?”
The group murmured in agreement, this was actually pretty realistic given what had already happened. The Penguin stepped forward and reached into his jacket, tossing a thick file on the desk. Scrawled in red ink across the front read “The Spartes Project”, seeing this Father Sadar walked towards the file, and picked it up.
“This is what Samson and I found in the Archives, this is about that Jake Thompson guy, right?” Father Sadar was franticly leaving through the pages as he asked this.
“Indeed it is friend,” The Penguin said, carefully pulling the file away from him. “Now sit down and listen very carefully to me.”
Father Sadar took a seat next to Spice, and The Penguin was about to start reading when Justin stepped in.
“I’ll tell them, you get to sell all the stuff on the market, so this is my moment,” Justin said.
Defeated the Penguin sat down and Justin started up.
“Basically what the Spartes project is-or was-was a project to create the perfect solder. When Ozzal was in the military she was enraged by the fact that she could not always be moving or attacking, the current personal were only human, they could only kill and move so fast. So she decided to start a project, a secret project, she wanted the perfect solder, one that could kill quickly, and quietly, a solder that wouldn’t tire, and would thrive on killing. After about five years of research, they were able to test on a human, they kidnapped a small girl from a village in Actonia, and completely brainwashed her. They heightened all of her senses, especially smell, and gave her amazing strength and intellect. However, Ozzal was dismayed when she developed her own personality. Instead of being a simple brainless killing machine, this creature enjoyed the kill, got off on it actually. She liked to smell out her prey and they carefully kill them, instead of just mowing through people. She was named Emiri, and was deemed a failure.”
The last statement took a second to sink in; the others looked at each other in shock and a murmur began to rise from the group. If Emiri was the failed version of the ultimate solder, what hope did they have against Jake? Heero was shredded by Emiri, and Samson and Sadar were lucky to escape with their lives. If this is what they were going to face the whole way, was a revolution really worth it? Was certain death worth the idea of liberty? The murmur rose to near shouting before Justin motioned for them to calm down.
“So Ozzal pressed on, she wanted a slave, a perfect killing machine, subservient to her every whim. She had decided not to pursue a small child, and instead wanted a peak physical specimen. One day when she was flipping through the channels, she saw Jake Thompson hit an inside-the-park homerun, and immediately decided that he was to be her perfect solder. She had a meeting with him, wherein he turned down her offer. In retaliation, she kidnapped his family, and threatened to kill them if he didn’t cooperate with her. He agreed, as long as his family was spared.”
“How is any of this useful to us?” Spice asked angrily “I’m not interested in some random peoples back-story, I just want to know how we can use this against them.
“I was getting there,” Justin said impatiently. “Jake was trained in firearms and in swords. The type of training he was subjected to didn’t kill him only because he was in such good shape, otherwise he would have died. Ozzal however, wasn’t pleased yet. While he was a perfect killing machine he didn’t have a slave demeanor. She then had a special device made. It was a small eye-shaped piece of metal, with a long spike sticking out the back. This was surgically attached to the right of Jake’s left shoulder-blade. The needle was long enough that it was mere millimeters away from his spinal cord. Ozzal then had a special chemical made. This chemical was a super muscle-stimulant. It makes all the muscles in the body hundreds of times stronger, however it completely renders the user a vegetable. Since Jake was trained to be a killing machine, the only thing he wanted was blood. When he is injected with this stuff, it is like a Jekyll-Hyde transformation, only much, much worse. He just wants blood; every other sense is shut off. Until the serum wears off in eight hours, he is a perfect slave.”
“So…what you’re saying is we’re facing two people from the same project, one has too much free will, and the other pretty much hulks-out when he gets this super-duper serum shot into his body?” Sadar said.
“Pretty much,” Justin replied “The good news is when the serum wears off Jake is a normal person, he still has a fantastic skill set, and if we could somehow capture him and bring him to our side, he would be the person with the best chance to kill Emiri and Ozzal.”
“This is where I come in friends,” Penguin said, now standing “See, here is how we’re going to get this guy. We’re getting into my car, and we’re going to head up to the holding cell. We’ll blast in there guns a blazin’, blow open the cell, and take him with us. You see, I don’t like this Ozzal lady, she hurt my business, and nobody hurts my business. ‘Cause if they do, I’ll kill them, I may not like it, but I will not hesitate.”
“This all sounds great,” Spice said tensely “But how exactly are we going to ‘blast in there’? All we have is a few handguns and old swords. There is no why that’ll work.”
Penguin smiled and opened his large jacket inside several firearms glistened in the morning sun.
“What did I say about hurting my business?” Penguin said shrewdly “I wouldn’t talk so big if I didn’t have the heat to back it up my friend.”
**************
“How many people have I killed?” Jake wondered, for what seemed like the millionth time. “How many lives did I destroy, how many orphans have I created?” the questions banged around in his head. He sat there, his arms aching from the stress put on them due to his hands being chained a few feet above his head. He sat there, wishing this would all just, melt away. That he could be back home with his wife, and by now, his child. When his wife was kidnapped, she was six months along, and Jake was hoping for a boy, someone he could rough-house with, as his wife and teammates always said Jake was just a little kid in an adult body. Jake sighed and looked ahead; hanging on the wall almost taunting him was a large saw-like sword, stained with blood, and his favorite bat, the head covered in blood. Jake looked at them and wished again for a reprieve, that someone or something would free him. He didn’t care what, but he couldn’t stand to take anymore innocent lives.
**************
Michelle Ozzal paced frantically in her office. She had sent those men out three hours ago, how long does it take to get a few bodies? No sooner had she thought this, did she hear a knock on the door.
“Come in,” she barked, “and you better have good news.”
In stepped the officer “Miss Ozzal, the bodies have been taken, however the coroner and her assistant have fled, we are still looking for them.”
“That’s not needed, so long as the bodies are all accounted for and secured I hope?” she asked.
“Roger that ma’am. Bodies are secure and we are awaiting your next order,” the man said obediently.
“Excellent news, good work,” Ozzal said triumphantly. “Call Matrix and tell him that the bodies are here, he will know what to do from here on.”
“Yes ma’am,” the solder saluted and walked out of the room.
Ozzal strode to her window. She looked out and smiled “Everything is playing out just like I thought it would,” she thought “After Matrix gets done with these bodies, there will be but one thing left. World domination is no longer in question. I will rule this world, and all those unlucky to be born into it. My power will know no limits, and will go down in history as a goddess, my fate, along with this world’s is sealed. I have won.”
Ozzal let out a triumphant laugh, one so loud, that it startled the birds resting the top of Comdot Estate and they flew up towards the horizon, towards the skies of lower Actonia.
NEW CHARACTERS
Anna Godderson = anime_goddess05
Justin Gudamen = Justice_Gundam
The Penguin = PenguinBoss
Winry Rockbell = FMA Winry