The young man straightened the shelves, going through, checking the labels and expiration dates. He has done well with his small shop, for it catered to those with rare, and often illegal tastes. If it wasn�t on the shelves, a quick call to one of his contacts could get it delivered. Wood from the rainforest, meat from nearly-extinct animals, gemstones, ancient artifacts, rare works of art, exotic clothing. He had always stayed away from drugs, weapons, and the slave trade though. The only weapons in the store were either medieval, ancient, or otherwise locked up in the cash cage of his office.
He sighed and straightened his back. His shoulder-length black hair was slicked back into a ponytail, and he was wearing a beige suit, with clean, pressed slacks, a jacket, and vest underneath. His white button-down shirt was stiffly starched, and he wore an ivory tie with a silver pin stuck through it. Black dress shoes finished off his outfit.
It hadn�t been easy, starting something like this. Most other businesses run the darker way, adding finer tastes only after first dabbling in drugs. But in the end, he succeeded.
He was almost ready to go home for the day, and went one last time, through all the aisles, Satisfied with the state of his warehouse, he walked towards the exit to lock up. Jus as he took out his keys to lock the door behind him, the steel door burst open, and eleven guys dressed in all black spilled in. a man with long, ratty hair shoved Taos up against the wall, and shouted.
�Where are your weapons?!�
�In-in the back room.� Taos said through the man�s hold on his throat. A short guy with shaggy hair picked up the keys that Taos had dropped, and ran for the cage at the back, with six others following him, while the rest went around the store, picking up liquor and other things they wanted.
This is not happening to me, thought Taos.
The guy let down his guard for a second, to yell at his comrades to hurry up.
Big Mistake.
Taos kicked out with both legs, causing the man to fly back and hit the first row of shelving with a loud crash. Bottles and boxes rained down.
The other guys came running, and Taos jumped up from where the guy dropped him, pulling out a switchblade form his vest. Taos caught the first guy to reach him, stabbed the guy in the gut, and shoved the bleeding man into the others.
Taos froze when he felt the barrel of a gun pressed into the back of his head.
A low chuckle emanated from the gunman. Held at gunpoint, Taos watched as the thugs ransacked the store, packed up the weapons into their camper, and then poured very expensive liquor over everything. Taos made a mental not of the camper�s license plate, but he was sure they would shoot him before torching the place. Instead, they held him against the wall, and methodically punched him the ribs�groin�and face, over and over. They knocked the wind out of him time and time again, and Taos heard his ribs break in several places. Soon, it hurt to breathe. Just as they were about to leave, one of them said, �Hold on a sec.��Taos couldn�t see who, because he was bleeding from his forehead�rough hands seized him and he head the clash of a shelf being cleared off. He was bent over, his pants ripped down, and sodomized.
Five minutes later, breathing slowly, he lay on the floor, in a puddle of liquor, gasoline, and his own blood. The idiots had found a permanent marker and one had written �PUSSY� across Taos�s chest. They let, and the last one stood in the doorway, stuck a match, and flicked it onto a shelf.
Taos woke up a week later in PO�s ICU. He had suffered second and third degree burns over his entire body. His right leg was amputated to the knee, his right arm amputated to the shoulder, and a patch over his right eye.
Luckily, PO had the best doctors, and knew more techniques than any other place about healing, so Taos�s skin was a smooth, pale white, healed back perfectly. His leg, arm, and eye were another matter though. Anything done to them would have to be a decision by Taos himself.
After Taos�s eyes opened, his brain was in a fog, but it registered that he was in a hospital, so he found and pressed the nurse call button.
A small young lady with blonde hair, wearing a nurse�s uniform, walked in.
�Sir?�
�Call the doctor, and get me my lawyer. Also a phone and a laptop with internet access. "NOW!� He snapped at her.
She looked surprised at first, then hurried from the room, and thirty minutes later, Taos�s lawyer was in there, and the girl had set up a laptop for him to work on.
�I want to look into limb replacement. I don�t care what it costs, just that it�s the best.�
�Yes, sir.� said his lawyer.
�I want a criminal psychologist in here, and an investigation into this license plate number. I want to know which idiots did this to me.�
�Of course.�
�I want this all done as soon as possible.�
The lawyer found some papers for Taos to sign, and left about thirty minutes later. Next, the doctor came.
�You heard what I said before, correct?� Taos asked.
�Yes, Mr. Moonstalker, but I have to warn you�
�I want this-he gestured to his leg, arm, and eye- all fixed within the month. If you can�t do it, bring me the doctor who can. Cost is no object, and I do not want organ transplants.�
�Well, with a one-month time window, a transplant would be impossible to grow. Are you wanting��
�Cybernetics. Nanites. Wetware-to-software interfacing. The works.�
Within the week his arm, leg, and eye were ready. The nurse wheeled him into the prep room, where the design sat, with the arm hooked onto a stand, and linked up to a laptop.
The arm itself had visible metal, but was covered in a translucent white plastic, which was embedded with sensors. The arm was lighter than a normal one, and made from altricinium, a nearly indestructible metal. The robotic/prosthesis technician demonstrated how well the arm moved, then moved onto the sensors, and finally the extras that Taos had requested. A foot� long spike stored in the forearm, that telescoped out of the inner wrist. Interchangeable �hands� that were also drills or able to handle very hot substances. On the main hand, a set of blades were stored in the back of each finger, and another in the tip of the index finger. Lastly, the designer showed Taos how to switch the color of the plastic to match skin color. When tone-matched, one could hardly tell it was a fake arm. The designer had made the leg slightly different, with no frills, since Taos would usually wear pants anyways.
The eye was stored in a clear round dish filled with a mound of gel. Since a few of Taos�s right eye muscles had also been destroyed, those were attached to the eye also. It looked exactly as a normal eye should, except for where a normal iris would be, it was red, with concentric black circles.
The designer explained that he had packed in as much features as possible. Taos would be able to see like a nighthawk once the eye was installed. On top of that, infrared vision would allow him to see heat signatures.
�Satisfactory, sir?� asked the diminutive man.
"Very nice. We will install them tomorrow.�
Taos groggily opened both eyes. He became immediately aware that he once again had a right leg and arm. It was night, and he ran to the bathroom, since he had a private room. He wiggled his fingers and toes. Full sensation. Amazing�. He couldn�t believe it. In front of the mirror, after turning the light on, he studied his reflection. It had been two and a half weeks since the fire. His once-long hair had been cropped close to get the burnt parts off, and his eyebrows had been singed. Skin grafts had repaired his eyelids and ears. He untied the hospital gown and let it drop to the floor, then stepped close to the mirror to look at his robotic arm.
It completely replaced his shoulder, and arm, changing from flesh to metal a little before where his armpit used to be. His leg changed to metal about mid-thigh, and he bent his mechanical knee, musing at his balance.
�Amazing.� He mumbled. He went over and found his laptop on the tray. He sat on the bed and went into his accounts.
The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I can avenge the wrong done to me, he thought to himself.
He paid the doctor, and the designer, then transferred the rest of his assets into overseas accounts.
He had arranged for some thing to be sent in two days before: black jeans, a black button-down, knee-height boots, a long black leather jacket, and several important papers in a file folder. Taos packed up the laptop, and once he was dressed, snuck out of the hospital.
In the space of one week, he had secured a number of weapons, and managed to get back the info on the license plate, but it turns out it was stolen. Dead end. Taos tried another way. Crime trails. Taos searched the US crime directory for acts of illegality committed with the same MO. This is where he hit jackpot. A trail of crimes sprung up in the search, all across the US. Less than two days ago, a robbery/rape/murder/property destruction had occurred in Texas. This is Atlanta, sooooo�.31/2 weeks plus the trial pretty much guaranteed it was them.
Taos packed up everything into a �65 Pontiac GTO. He planned on tracking these guys down, and making each and every one pay for his pain and humiliation in blood.
It took a week to catch up with them, since Taos was driving alone, and a further week to track and imprint upon them, to get their patterns of sleep, travel, and hunger.
When Taos was satisfied with his knowledge of the criminals, he began planning when to strike. The most opportune moment came when they stopped at a park for the night. Three of the men left, and Taos set up and waited until they were on their way back from a food run, no doubt another felony. One lagged behind the other two, and as they walked by a large row of bushes, Taos stepped out of a shadows, and drove his arm spike through the man�s neck, it slipping in a coming out the other side, then quickly retracting. The criminal made a small choking sound and fell to the ground, bleeding from the neck. The other two continued, too absorbed in their conversation to notice.
Next, Taos waited until they opened the door of the camper to let the other two in, and notice then that they were down a comrade. Taos kneeled 40 yards away, hefted a grenade launcher onto his shoulder, and shot. Sic in the camper noticed it in time, and jumped away, most of them landing face first onto the asphalt.
A few from the gang stayed down, but the rest jumped up and tried to run. Taos calmly pulled out a handgun fitted with a sight and brought each one down.
Taos dragged each one of them to the wreckage of the camper, and zip-tied their wrists and ankles.
�Which one of you raped the shopkeeper?� Taos said in a throaty growl.
Wordlessly, they shoved on the of the men forward. It was the jerk how had originally held him to the wall. Taos snatched the man by the wrists, and slid him across the tarmac quickly, causing the man to bump his head on the curb at the opposite end. The man screamed and let out a stream of curses.
�Shut UP!� Yelled Taos, shooting a chink in the concrete inches from the rapist. He quieted.
�Now, who wrote �PUSSY� on the shopkeeper�s chest?�
They shoved forth another.
�NOOOOO!!!!� the man screamed, tears washing trails down his dirty face. �I swear I didn�t, I swear!�
�Silence!� Taos said, shoving the gun to the man�s head.
Taos pulled a nail gun from underneath his coat, then with his right arm, grabbed the hair of the crying man and dragged him to the nearest tree in the park. Taos grunted and lifted the man bodily up and slammed him against the tree.
�Put your arms out!� the man shakily lifted his arms up the side of the wide oak tree�s trunk.
�Higher!� He lifted them a little above shoulder level.
Quick as a flash, Taos nailed the man�s wrists into the tree trunk, sinking 8 nails into each wrist, through flesh, tendon, bone, and wood.
Taos moved onto the man�s ankles, essentially crucifying the man on the tree. Moving on to the sodomizer, Taos retrieved several yards of plastic tubing, a small tackle box, and a machine of some sort.
Taos set everything down and flipped open the lid of the tackle box. He picked out two, 2 foot long steel spikes, about 1mm in diameter, tapered down to a sharp point. Taos propped the unconscious man up, and rammed the steel spikes into the rapist�s torso, right through both scapula. The rapist came to and screamed. Fetching a length of steel from the tackle box, Taos strung the rapist up form an overhanging branch, causing the impaled man�s speech and screams to bubble with blood.
He picked out several small objects; round ports, a scalpel, and an automatic zip-tier, First, Taos cut a small slit into the man�s skin, just above the elbow, inserted the scalpel slightly to separate the skin from muscle, and stuck the port in. Lastly, he pulled up he skin around the port and zip-tied it there. Taos repeated this until a total of thirty ports were put into the still-living man. He picked up the tubing, and cut it into several lengths.
�You know, skin is attached to muscle by only a few ligaments, so with a little help, it can be entirely separated from muscle tissue, leaving the body intact. This technique, originally developed as an easy way for hunters to clean their kills, never quite caught on��Taos attached the tubing, connecting the man to the machine.��mostly because it destroys the skin in the process, but for you, it ought to work fine.�
Taos flipped the switch. The machine began to whirr and the rapist�s skin puffed up first around the ports, ten all over. The man screamed and trashed in unearthly agony, until �*POP*�his skin shattered into a thousand slices, leaving only tiny bits on the man�s hands, feet, and face.
The rapist made a tiny whimpering noise�he was still alive�then a helpless moan of pain.
�Please�Kill Me.� He whispered. Taos ignored him and moved onto the other six.
Using the combination of a branding iron and a tattooing machine, Taos put, on each one�s web between forefinger and thumb, a small black butterfly. He did the same on each forehead, between the eyebrows.
Taos stayed in a hotel for the rest of the night. The place was shady, but he at least blended in.
When he woke at ten the next morning, the news headlines one every network touted the �Dark Lawman� who caught the gang that had terrorized the US.
One newscaster ended her coverage with:
��and here�s hoping, that this new sheriff in town continues his brand of justice, right the wrongs done to humanity, and bringing peace to our communities. Back to you, Mark.�
Taos chuckled.
�Don�t count on it, girly.�