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Chapter Three - Empire of Dirt
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Your target's a little more than just a girl.
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452 is a threat to everything we've worked for throughout the generations. Her death is our highest priority.
Days had passed since my confrontation with 452, and the itch to get my hands on her scrawny little neck and wring it, was growing worse by the minute. The government was content to let the transgenics be for now, they were still trying to decide if they could reap any kind of financial gain from the mess. The current idea was to give the creatures a false sense of security, allow them to believe they had amnesty, then round them up and sell them for spare parts. That idea was fine with me, as long as I could have the chance to mess up a certain few in the process.
But the Conclave was growing impatient with the wait. 452 was a threat to our existence and they wanted her head on the sharp end of a pike. Metaphorically speaking anyway. Senator McKinley was trying through the corrupt channels of government, to gain us official permission to raid Terminal City and seize the leaders of the rat hole.
But the idea wasn't sitting well, it was a delicate issue - especially when we were supposed to be in negotiation with the freaks. Believe it or not, there were actually some sympathisers for the transgenics lurking about. Not many, but enough to make an abrupt move for their annihilation far messier than what it was worth. So as usual I had to do the job unofficially.
There were two teams. One, the ordinary men who had worked with me back in the good old covert day. These men were assembled at the mouth of the tunnel where I had found 452. The other group were waiting within an abandoned building outside of Terminal City. They were the Phalynx. And they had some payback to do.
Once I'd given the covert group of humans the all-clear to proceed with the mission, I ripped off my headset and laughed. They were going to be running around like headless chickens all morning. I knew without doubt that the transgenics would have blocked the tunnel through which they had been travelling. Though just to be on the safe side, I'd had a slight memory lapse when sending my men to the area. Whoops. Now I recall that it was a mile in an entirely different direction.
Giving my group of Phalynx a nod, all but the redhead dissolved into the fading darkness like towering apparitions. Thula waited for them to leave before turning to me. "I'm going to tear that transgenic bitch to pieces."
I shook my head and suppressed a grin. Her voice was so monotone it was comic. "No. Leave her to me."
"I don't think so. That one's mine. Besides little brother, I think you're a little too fond of that transgenic bitch to follow orders with a clear head." She set her expression in a self-satisfied smirk, thinking to belittle me.
Angered, I stepped forward and grabbed her throat, squeezing the flesh tightly although it apparently had no effect on her anyway. "For someone who claims to be a top line warrior, your last attempt to eliminate her was somewhat humorous to say the least. Leave her to me - once I get what I need out of her, you can play with your little friend all you like. But until then, find yourself another freak to bounce around the room."
This time she did laugh as she grabbed my wrist and twisted it away. "Whatever little brother. Let's see who get to her first."
Flashing a humourless smile, she stepped back, turned and leapt out of the four story window, leaving me so enraged I wondered just how satisfying it would be to see them both torn apart. Picking up a decrepit desk and hurtling it into an already damaged wall, I stalked over to the object and drove my boot into it a few times before taking the same exit as Thula. Out the window and over the fence into Terminal City.
"Okay guys, we need to do another supply run. As much as I love Joshua's culinary delights, I'm beginning to wonder if there's more to life than mac and cheese."
"Don't forget the lil' lil' hot dogs."
From the rafter's, I watched 452 and her pet dog joke around as they sat at a table amid an assorted group of life's little abnormalities. She sifted through a small pile of papers, reading over her inventory and occasionally stopping to hit one of her little pal's across the head. 494. The circus clown in the freak show. I recognised most of them from the Jam Pony incident and wondered just how much affection 452 had for them. If torturing her didn't produce satisfying results in locating Ray, perhaps I could use one of them against her instead.
My pick was the dog boy. Her tone softened significantly every time she directed a comment to him. But he was the one animal in the pack that I didn't want to go up against. I hate to admit fear, it's certainly a feeling I don't make a habit of experiencing, but that one was a challenge I wasn't keen to take up. He had a strength that I don't think even his friends were aware of. And if it weren't for 452 calling on him to let me go at the conclusion of the Jam Pony saga, I surely would have died that day.
452 seemed particularly fond of hitting at 494 - or perhaps hitting on? I couldn't be sure. Although she treated him with less respect one would allocate to a household fly, he seemed happy enough to put up with it. Perhaps it was some kind of little sex game they had going - a bit of public humiliation to stoke the fire? Shit. If I weren't so secure in my perch I could have fallen right onto that table below at the mental image gained from that one. Grimacing, I reminded myself not to ever think such repulsive thoughts of the mating rituals of animals ever again.
This soldier was definitely one I had to watch out for however. I'd seen him cage fight, and I grudgingly had to admit he'd put up a good effort at Jam Pony despite his injury. I looked forward to seeing just what he was capable of when he and I at last came face to face. As we undoubtedly would - 494 seemed to be Max's bodyguard. But the guy was so slippery I almost wondered if he had a bit of snake DNA in him. Already he'd wriggled out of certain death after I embedded a micro-explosive into his skull. There must be truth in the saying of cats and their nine lives.
Sitting opposite 494 was the overly large lizard who I'd fought once before. Leaning back on his seat, a cigar dangling from his mouth, feet on the table, and shotgun cradled in his arm, he was the perfect image of absolute disrespect. If this was the transgenics usual morning meeting, I was absolutely astounded at the complete lack of formality. Weren't these creatures trained to be soldiers from birth? Weren't they taught orderliness, discipline and respect?
Obviously times had truly changed for them since leaving Manticore and foolishly, the smallest military procedure had flown straight out the door. Were they that keen to escape the memory of their former home, that they would let self-discipline run so quickly into the ground? It seemed the answer to that question was a firm yes, and I silently chuckled at how my father would react if he were to see his failures now. This transgenic nation was more like an empire of dirt.
Filing that revelation away for another day, I quickly came to the conclusion that the lizard and 452 had little affection for each other. From what I could see of this meeting, he was constantly undermining her 'authority' and seemed more content to contradict her with insults than to pay attention to anything else being said. I decided I could almost like this creature. There was a little more depth to him than what he revealed. Between his various and creative curses regarding 452's lineage, he was taking in everything that was being said. And I had the feeling that no matter what she decided, he was going to do his own thing anyway. Judging from the contemptuous looks he occasional exchanged with 494, they had their own game running of which 452 had no idea.
The man who sat opposite 452 I knew to be the Eye's Only's contact whom Wendy had initially sought to recover Ray. Judging by 452's ignorance to the sub-plots taking place around her, he was the one who probably knew where my son was. One of the Phalynx had spoken of him with a great deal of anger after the tape had finally been removed from her mouth. He'd sent her flying across the room just as she was about to pulverise 494's head. Looking at him now, the mystery of how he'd achieved this feat was more puzzling than ever. He obviously wasn't a transgenic, they were designed to be flawless and yet his glasses indicated he had poor eyesight. I decided he must be just a revved up human of some sort - a wannabe trannie. Whatever. The guy was a genetic throw back like the rest anyway and what he was, wasn't the money question. What he knew was.
There were two others sitting at the table. A couple of the ugliest anomalies I'd seen. I knew there were quite a few mutants who had never made the grade. From what I had so far learnt, they had been forced to live forever in the cells beneath Manticore. I ignored the two that sat below me, they'd obviously traded their basement existence for an equally pathetic life within this hole. Judging by the semi-organised chaos I'd so far witnessed of Terminal City, I doubted anyone had ever bothered to give them much more than basic self-defence training.
As I waited for my team to take their positions, the conversation turned from supply runs at last and I listened with interest to what was being said.
"Luke has any progress been made yet on contacting someone who can read the runes?" 452 was studying the newest batch which had begun appearing over her arms.
"No not yet Max. The alphabet has never been properly deciphered. In fact there's little known about the Minoans at all. Why Sanderman didn't use a language we could actually work with, I don't know." The question was answered by the scrawny little creature with the pixie features.
"Well obviously he never anticipated that he would suddenly have to pack up and leave before he had the chance to teach her. We've been over this before Luke." The ordinary stifled a look of impatience and folded his fingers together as he leant back in his seat.
A creature with a misshapen head and a lens strapped across his eye, who had been sitting silently up until now, jumped in on the conversation. "Yeah but - why didn't he just start teaching her from day one? Why wait? If she's walking around wearing this prophesy on her skin, wouldn't he be capable of some sort of foresight?"
The canine growled and beside him, 494 shot out a hand to hold him in place. "Stay doggie-dog."
"Father wasn't stupid. He knew what he was doing."
It never ceased to amaze me that these things could talk, but it certainly made me cringe to hear this dog call my father his father. The suggestion of me sharing any sort of family with this... insult to life, was enough to make me want to pull out my gun right now and land a bullet between it's eyes.
"I'm not saying he was stupid Joshua. I'm just saying that there's got to be more to this than what we realise. Max, you said CJ was familiar with the language - excuse the pun, and that White appeared to read it fluently right?"
452 nodded her head, a puzzled and somewhat hesitant expression on her face, as if wondering just what the creature was getting at.
"Well if Sanderman was one of the good guys, why did he use their language?"
"Because once upon a time he was one of them of course." The reply came from the ordinary's mouth although the question wasn't directed at him. That was another interesting factor to muse over.
"Was - or still is?"
452 found her voice at last and sought to stifle the mutant's words before he said anything else she didn't want to think about. Personally, I was happy to hear this creature out. I didn't know exactly what the thing was getting at, but so far it had a valid point.
"Whatever you're trying to say Dix, I'm not liking it. Sounds to me that you're trying to suggest that I - we - tie in more with these cult loonies than we realise. And I think you're taking this entirely out of context."
"But think about it Max! CJ told you that Sanderman wanted to change things with science and technology right? He wanted to test people for their strength against this pathogen without facing possible death?
"Yeah, because he knew CJ wouldn't survive the initiation. But the Familiar's objected the suggestion - said it was heresy." 452's facial muscles twitched with the effort of holding back her frustration at the round of questioning, but I was becoming increasingly interested in what this genetic oddity was trying to say.
"Exactly! It doesn't mean that he was against the whole idea of world domination or whatever the hell it is that they're striving for. He could have simply wanted to bring the breeding cult away from their old fashioned methods. Sounds to me like he was simply more cynical about the religious side of things than the rest - that and the fact he didn't want to lose his son. They didn't like it so they kicked him out. Then he went elsewhere to continue with his idea of making Familiar's with a built in immunity..."
"Stop it Dix! I don't want to hear anymore!" Max's calls for silence were seconded at last by the other's at the table. All except 494 who wore a speculative look on his face.
I wasn't sure what exactly quasimoto was getting at, but I'd heard enough. My head felt dizzy with the feeling that he was in some way making sense. However I was sure of one thing. My father's talk of the meek inheriting the earth set him apart from my kind. His cause was one of complete opposition to everything we'd worked for. Of that I had no doubt. There was no place in this world for those who weren't strong enough to survive what was coming. Maybe he'd used spare parts to engineer these freaks to be like us and given them the addition of instant immunity. But the point of the matter was that he had turned against us. Not just by going against tradition, but by creating her. Without any doubt, the transgenics were opposition and they had to be destroyed. And the first step in going about this task lay in taking out those that sat below me now. The leaders. Once they were out of the picture, the rest of this transgenic nation would collapse.
"Max - are you okay? What's wrong?"
As I looked down to see what the drama was now, a sensation washed over me, a blur of thoughts and voices. The building I was in faded out and for a moment I felt completely detatched as my mind touched upon those of my fellow Familiars. It was time. The Phalynx were ready. But all of a sudden, I'd developed a really bad feeling.
Snapping my eyes open, I looked down into the face of 452. She was staring straight up at me, a wild look of horror on her face. How could she have suddenly seen me?
"Everybody scatter- now!"
I was astonished - what the hell was happening? Without question to her command, the transgenics began to flee to positions of defence.
Just as my group came crashing in.
I dropped from the rafters and landed upon the back of the lizard. He collapsed to the ground beneath my sudden weight and I immediately drove my elbow into the back of his neck. It dazed the creature but his skin was like an armour of its own and he shook me off. I leapt to my feet before he had a chance to regain his own, and kicked his legs out from under him when at last he did. Pulling out my gun, I prepared to shoot when his foot came up and sent it spinning across the room out of reach. Then rolling away before I could kick him once more, he jumped to his feet and met my next move with a block before stepping forward and swinging a punch. I smacked it aside only to have his other fist drive into my face, sending my head rocking backwards from the force of the blow. Smiling at the lack of pain it caused, I dropped to a crouch and lashed out a leg, bringing him to the ground again.
Effortlessly picking up the table around which the transgenics had been sitting, I sent it crashing over the top of the lizard, hoping to knock him out long enough to finish my original task - reaching 452 before Thula did. A bullet whizzed by to my right and I spun around to see the dog had spotted me. From the look on his face, I gathered that he was still harbouring resentment over the death of his blind friend in the sewers. There was definately a bad feeling developing in the pit of my stomach.
This was all wrong. We should have taken them out without any noise or mess. Not this banging and crashing and gun fire that was going on now. With all the noise errupting around me they'd have back up soon but if I could just get hold of 452...
The canine was upon me with raw fury. I'm not a stupid man. I knew better than to take him on. What he lacked in fighting skills he made up for in brute force tempered by blinding hatred of me. I wasn't sure exactly what kind of dog my father had mixed up in him, but I was beginning to wonder if it was werewolf. Rather than kill myself by egotistically presuming I could do the thing damage, I instead found myself simply trying to evade him, knowing if he got his hands on me, there would be body parts scattered about the ground and they wouldn't be his.
Two of the Phalynx jumped on him just as I found myself backing into 494, and for a moment the canine's attention was diverted by shaking them off -rather like one would with fleas by the looks of things.
"Ah White! Buddy!"
The X5 grinned and I admit I was taken aback by the cheerful facade. Enough to not notice the hard fast fist until it slammed into my head. So that was the guy's tactics. Catch your enemy out with quips before diving in with the attack. You know, I almost had to admire him for that one.
From what I had seen of 494's cage fights, I had some idea of what I was up against. I came at him hard, throwing punches as rapidly as he, matching him blow for blow, sometimes on the defence and sometimes the offence. His skill was better than 452's, his moves more aggressive. He wasn't one for fancy moves, his tactics were much more raw and practiced. I deflected a punch that came at such speed it would have grounded the average person - permenantly.
As he took his next swing, I caught his wrist, tired of the game at last. Twisting his arm, I jerked it up before bringing my elbow down upon the limb, grinning as I heard the snap and then laughing as I watched his face crumple in pain. Knowing that wouldn't be enough to stop 494, I threw my fist into the side of his head with enough force to cause a human to slip into a coma, and then stepped over his body as he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Turning away, I searching the room to check on the status of dog boy - he was still fending off the Phalynx. Momentarily secure from my only real threats, I then focused my attention on finding my target.
Thula had cornered 452 and was busy attacking her as if life were one big wrestling match. 452 was on top of her game, but Thula was better. I strode towards them as the red head was about to drive the transgenic's head into the concrete wall - again. I wanted to wring some answers out of her before the Phalynx tore her to shreds. Then again, the Eyes Only informant was probably a better source of information. Although, somehow the idea of wrangling what I wanted to know out of him didn't seem quite so enjoyable.
I pulled Thula away and flung her backwards. Her eyes were aflame with hatred for the transgenic and resentment for being stopped in the middle of playtime. Shoving past me, she flung herself at 452 again. The transgenic was worn out, the image of defeat and exhaustion. She'd kept up fairly well but the Phalynx had obviously given her a work out she wasn't ready for. It was funny how tables could be turned when she didn't have a pair of handcuffs to slap on her enemies wrist and tape to bind.
"Enough already!" Once more I pulled the Phalynx away and held her back from the transgenic. "You'll get your turn later - now back off."
She stood panting like an enraged bull, while 452 stared up at us, hardly daring to move. I blocked her out of my peripheral vision, focusing my full attention on the Phalynx before me. She was reluctant to take orders, especially from me, a fact that made me half wish I could have had the satisfaction of seeing 452 get more than a few good shots in.
Backing away, the Phalynx wiped away the blood that trickled from the corner of her mouth. "Don't kill her before I do."
I nearly pointed out the complete lack of sense in that sentence, but decided to instead be content in seeing the Phalynx's retreating back. Walking over to 452, I crouched down in front of her and fixed her with a smirk. "Now, shall we chat about my son?"
Suddenly her eyes lit up. "I don't think so."
Sensing someone behind me entirely too late, I began to turn but instead found myself being picked up and hurtled across the room. Rolling and coming back to my feet meters later, I saw the room suddenly contained more than just a few transgenics. Damn it. And heading towards me was the one who wanted to see me dead more than everyone else in the room.
As I took a defensive stance, hands grabbed me from behind and sent me flying forward. Before I could recover my balance, I found myself being lifted by my throat by a huge hand, and staring into the face of the embodiment of a hurricane. The eyes that stared into mine were darkened by hate and shining with the knowledge of my now certain death. I was glad for the training that had conditioned my brain so that I couldn't feel pain. As the fingers around my throat began to squeeze, I knew that my life literally lay in this beast's hands and this time no one was going to try and stop the canine.
"You killed Annie."
Three words. Damn I could just about regret doing that now. But I refused to try and choke out an apology. It wouldn't save me and I'd rather die than give him the satisfaction of thinking I would try and bargin for my life with words we both knew to be empty. His grip tightened further, the blackness of unconsciouness began to chase out any attempt at coherent thought.
"But Max is right. Killing you isn't going to bring back Annie. It'll only make me just like you - an animal."
His words broke into the blackness as he released me, allowing me to fall into a pathetic heap on the ground. As I gasped for air, I realised his mercy was a double edged insult. He has insulted me by allowing me to live, and he had insulted me by suggesting that I were the animal, not him. Smart mutt. I hoped that some day soon I'd get a chance to put the damn thing down.
As I began to stand, I noticed there were a significant amount of transgenics now in the building, but the Phalynx were out of sight. What would happen now? The question was quickly answered when the lizard stepped forward from the crowd and strode towards me.
"Aw fuck this Joshua, what are you showing him mercy for?"
Before I could react, the reptilian raised his fist and brought it crashing into my temple, and that's when the blackness took over at last.
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