Chapter
4 – A Far More Experienced Foe
“Now, we’re going to be raiding an
ancient temple?” I ask the Hydra Roundtable messenger, who is wearing a suit
and snake mask.
“To be fair, it shouldn’t be as
dangerous as your previous job,” the messenger says.
Right now, my friends and I are
sitting in a bar in a small jungle town with no name to it. It’s in the middle
of nowhere, and its inhabitants don’t even speak the same kind of English we
do, and are having some kind of festive celebration where everyone is wearing a
mask, making it perfect for us to wear our masks in public.
“He does have a point there,” Kelly
says before lifting her mask to take a sip of her fruity drink.
“That’s true, but it feels like our
jobs are just going to keep taking place in more ridiculous locations. What’s
next? Are we going to the moon or Antarctica?”
“The Vorfahren are said to be
building bases there,” the messenger says.
“Are you serious?”
“Only semi. After what you’ve and
the other groups discovered, we think further evidence of our rival, this
Paradox Collective and The Malefic, is. Their origins, or at least a base of
operations of theirs, is inside the temple we’re sending you to investigate.”
“Can we go to the moon after?”
Kelly asks.
“If whatever you find points us to
going there. It can be arranged,” the messenger says.
“Yes!”
“Alright, alright. Let’s take this
one step at a time and get this done.”
“Thank you. Accomplishing this job
will also bring you to the innermost circle of our organization, so be aware
that your efforts for us have not gone unnoticed.”
We thank the messenger and go on
our way. The Hydra Roundtable has given us disguises of researchers and
official government passes to be investigating the ancient temple just in case
we are caught. Nevertheless, we have our masks, explosives, and guns in our
researcher bags just in case things get violent. From the publicly available
knowledge, this temple was built by its native inhabitants and was a place of
human sacrifice so that the natives could enjoy a fruitful harvest and favor
from their false idols. Whenever I look into the history of places like this, I
can’t be thankful enough to the original explorers of this country that they
cleared them out or converted them to the one true faith.
The inside of the temple is dark,
so we use our flashlights and light the torches with our lighters to better see
what’s written on the walls. I’d say the fresh torches are a sign of it being
inhabited, but since this place is a tourist destination for tourists,
researchers, and explorers, that thought goes out the window. What does count
as evidence of who we’re looking for comes in the form of various drawings of
the dragon emblem we’ve been seeing, along with drawings of triangles with eyes
in them, depictions of devils, and false idols.
“You think this means we’re up
against multiple groups or that they’ve had multiple symbols over the years?”
Al asks.
“Could be both,” Suzuki says.
“Guys, I think there might be a
hidden door here,” Kelly says.
Kelly shows the three of us a bunch
of stones that look new and are in the shape of a door.
“What do you think? Do you think we
should blow it open or is there some kind of puzzle to solve to open it?” I
ask.
“Blow it open. I don’t have the
patience for complicated puzzles,” Kelly says.
Al and Suzuki agree, so we take out
some explosives, blow the stones away, and blow the metal door that was behind
them. There’s no way that no one heard that or we didn’t trigger some alarm, so
we put on our masks and arm ourselves with our guns. Carefully going down the
secret tunnel, we encounter pressure plates that activate spikes that come out
of the floor and wall, make flames come out from the wall, or make the floor
fall out from the floor in front of us.
“Of course there’d be stupid traps
like these,” Al says.
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen a
snake trap yet,” Suzuki adds.
“Easy goes it,” I say as we start
to be more careful about our steps.
Unfortunately, we can’t take it
easy for long, as a shot comes out from the darkness, hitting Kelly in the face,
knocking her down.
“Ah! Why’s it always the face?!”
Kelly says as she gets back up on her feet and returns fire.
The four of us are forced to
quickly advance and fire into the darkness as we’re being shot at, all the
while activating and dodging traps. What makes things even more difficult is
that we get shot from behind and have to contend with gunfire coming from both
directions. Fortunately, the gunfire from the front stops, allowing us to focus
on the attack coming from behind, just as seemingly more people start shooting
at us. We walk over the corpses of people dressed in all black gear as we find
another hidden doorway, blow it open, and enter a better-lit and more
modern-looking area. Before we explore further, we throw explosives behind us,
blowing open the floors under our pursuers and seemingly killing them from the
sound of falling and dying, and the ceasing of the gunfire.
“What do we have here?” I say out
loud.
Looking around, we see modern
electrical lighting, altars with human remains on them that look like they’ve
had the blood sucked out of them, and various laptops connected to the many
wires around the ground.
“Looks like some kind of secret
cult sacrificing center,” Suzuki says.
“Look at these papers and stone
tablets with their dragon emblem on them,” Al says as he waves around what he’s
talking about. “These are written in some weird language I don’t understand.”
“We’ll have them translated when we
take them back,” I say.
“This is definitely a sacrificing
center of some kind. Look,” Kelly says.
Going over to where Kelly is, we
see a dark pit with dozens upon dozens of bodies of blood-drained corpses, some
of which are children.
“Yeah, this place needs to be blown
back to Hell,” Al says.
“Say no more,” Suzuki says as he
starts to plant explosives on the pillars around us.
It’s then that the whole temple
starts to shake. Parts of the wall start falling and some of the ways out get
blocked by debris.
“Wow. A ye old self-destructing
temple,” Kelly says.
“Let’s get out of here!” I say.
The four of us run through the
temple, dodging the falling ceiling and advancing against more of the temple’s
defenders as they fight against us, even as their people get crushed. Thankfully,
the pressure traps aren’t activating anymore, and we have enough explosives
left to blow our way out when we have nowhere else to go. As we exit into the fresh
air, the temple collapses from the outside, making us sprint as fast as we can
down the stairs and away from the temple.
“If anything, we can thank them for
doing part of our job for us,” Kelly says.
“They probably had more dark
secrets in that temple that they didn’t want to see the light of day,” I say.
“We should have plenty of their
secrets with us. Let’s just hope that our friends can translate them,” Al says.
Heading back to the Hydra Roundtable
hideout, we give them the files and tablets we found and are told to wait
inside the hideout for further instruction. After a bit of waiting, we are
invited into a dark room for our promotion and to be informed about what was
found through what we retrieved. We sit at a roundtable with two people sitting
ahead of us, their faces obscured by the darkness of the room.
“So, what would you like to hear
about first?” one of the men in the shadows asks.
“Our promotion,” Kelly says.
At the same time, I say, “What you
found on the tablets and files.”
“Heh, which would you like to start
with?”
Looking at me, Kelly says, “What
Ace said.”
“Good, because that’s marginally
more important for you four,” the other man in the shadows says.
“What you found was written in several
ancient European and native languages,” the other man in the shadows explains. “They
talk about their rituals and the gods they sacrifice to for worldly riches and
influence.”
“Some of the notes also mock the
people who read them. It seems like they anticipated that the temple would be
raided and made notes where they flaunt their influences in criminal, business,
military, and political industries, and how they’re a cult older than the
founding of the Chimaera States.”
“Do we stand a chance against them?”
Suzuki asks.
“If we make the right moves, we do.
They don’t care about the fact that we know about them and have ruined their
plans in certain areas. They have their sights set on the next presidential
election so they can have the Chimaera States for themselves.”
“So, what do you want us to do?
Steal the election for you?” Al asks.
“Yes.”
“Heh. Yeah, alright…Are you
serious?” Kelly asks.
“Yes, we are.”
“And who will be president instead
of their candidate?” I ask.
“We will,” both men in the shadows
say.
“And you are?”
“Well, part of your promotion has
granted you the information you’ve been seeking, Ace. You will now know who
runs the Hydra Roundtable.”
The two figures in the dark are
illuminated by the lights turning on in the room, revealing them to be Vincenzo
and Cesare Campione, two of the most influential mafia bosses in the country.
Vincenzo is dressed in his typical black and gold suit and has blue eyes and
black hair. His brother, Cesare, is dressed in a grey and blue suit and has
green eyes and blonde hair.
“I should’ve seen this coming.”
“What makes you say that, Ace?” Vincenzo
says.
“You two use snakes as your symbol
and are sometimes called the Quartiere Cavalieri or Neighborhood Knights;
therefore, making it fairly plausible that you’d found an honorable society of
criminals we call the Hydra Roundtable.”
“Good job in deducing that, Ace,
but what do you think? Knowing who we are and our intentions, does that stop
you from continuing your service for the Hydra Roundtable and us?”
I look at my three friends and say,
“Since I know that you’re truly men of honor like you say you are, I guess it
doesn’t affect me in the slightest.”
“What about the rest of you?”
Cesare asks.
“I don’t care who I work for as
long as I get to have fun and punish the right people along the way,” Kelly
says.
“You’re bosses of my family, and
brothers to me, as a result. My loyalty is to God and to you,” Al says.
“If working with you is like
working with my family and Al, then I don’t see an issue with it, especially
with what’s at stake,” Suzuki says.
“Agreed. So, are you ready to steal
a country?” Vincenzo asks with a smile on his face.
The rest of my friends smile at me,
and we all say yes.
“Let’s get this done,” I say.
Heh, to think everything we’ve done
would lead us to here, taking a country for men of honor. Well, it’s better to
be in their hands than those of the cultists we were fighting. God help us in
this great task you’ve given us.
The End
Chapter
3 – Raising the Stakes and Score
“What are you saying we should
attack Site Seven-Nineteen Forty-Seven?” I ask while trying my best not to
yell.
The Hydra Roundtable told us to
come all the way out here to a dinner and gas station that’s in the desert in
the middle of the United Chimaera States for a top-secret mission. My friends
and I already have our masks on, and everyone else at the dinner is dressed up
in suits with snake masks on.
“Why shouldn’t you?” the man
sitting with us in a snake mask with a voice distorter says.
Taken aback by the question, I
think about what to say next before saying, “What do you mean?”
“You joined our organization to
make a difference and for the life you once lived, didn’t you, Cowboy?”
“Yes.”
“In light of recent events, we
think that you need to steal certain records on the secret organization
associated with the one that has the dragon emblem on it.”
“And the information is most likely
in Site Seven-Nineteen Forty-Seven?”
“According to our sources, it is.”
“They were inside sources?”
“Insofar as they heard rumors from
their official offices.”
“So these sources aren’t insiders
of the Site?”
“Nope. Even our friends in the
highest places of power can’t get their foot in the door. It’s only for those
who are chosen to be there, and even their names are kept off record.”
“And we have no way of getting in
other than the front entrance?”
“Yep.”
“So, what are we going to do? Charge
the facility and hope no one kills us from point A to B?”
“Yes, but we have military uniforms
and a military vehicle for you for that.”
“It’s better than nothing, I
guess.”
I look over to my team, who are
watching me.
“You seem unsure about doing this,
Cowboy.”
“It’s a big step up from what we
usually do.”
“Given what you found in the cult
of the Pale Green Horse, we need to make a major strike against this rival of
ours, expose them, and bring them to justice, and this is our best shot. You
and your team are in our top five most trusted teams, so we know you won’t
disappoint us. So, what are you waiting for?”
Again, I look over to my team and
wave them over.
“Looks like we’re doing this raid
on Site Seven-Nineteen Forty-Seven. What do you think?” I ask.
“I think it’s going to be our most
exciting heist yet! I don’t know what you’re so worried about, Cowboy. We’ll be
fine,” Kelly says.
“If it means getting at this dragon
group, then we have to take the chance,” Al says.
“Agreed. We have to go in there and
expose the truth and whatever secrets our rival may have,” Suzuki says.
I throw up my hands and say, “Okay.
Let’s get this done.”
My friends and I put on our
military disguises, keep our masks in our bags, and make sure we’re fully
loaded before heading out. Once ready, we get in the heavily armored Humvee and
head out to Site Seven-Nineteen Forty-Seven.
Along the way, Kelly asks, “Do you
think we’ll find aliens there? This is the secret area where it’s rumored
they’re being experimented on after all.”
“I don’t believe in aliens. They’re
just demons in the fleshy forms,” Suzuki says.
“Could also just be some
government-made creatures or altered humans,” Al suggests.
“They’re going to be the least of
our worries. We have no plan or insiders for this job. We’re just flying by the
seat of our pants,” I say.
“That’s what makes this the most
exciting job of our entire time with the organization. I can’t wait to see what
kind of chaos we’ll cause!” Kelly says.
“Keep your temper, Slav. We need to
be more on guard than we were in the past,” Suzuki says.
“Yeah, yeah, I will.”
Site Seven-Nineteen Forty-Seven is
in sight. It has large concrete walls around it, multiple guard towers, and
only one gate. Going up to the gate, we see a guard post that doesn’t even try
to check our IDs or listen to our excuse for being there.
Instead, the guard points his gun
at me and says, “Turn around, or I will shoot you!”
Kelly shoots the guard with her
machine guns loaded with non-lethal rounds, and then says, “Yup. There was no
other way this could’ve gone.”
We put on our masks, and then Kelly
gets on the mounted gun of the Humvee, filled with anti-tank rounds, and blows
a hole in the gate, giving us a way in.
“Woah! Let’s see some aliens,
boys!” Kelly yells out.
Leaning out of the window are
Suzuki and Al, each armed with light machine guns loaded with non-lethal rounds
and having a rocket launcher beside them for heavy armor. Now that we’re past
the gate, we see that the area between it and the main facility is a stretch of
empty land, a big problem for us since jets and helicopters are being deployed
against us. Al and Suzuki switch to rockets as they and Kelly fire at the
aircraft to give us cover and take them out of the sky. Another unfortunate
part of this road is the mines scattered around it.
“I knew this would be insane from
the start,” I say out loud.
“That just means we need to be
insane as well!” Kelly says as she kicks the Humvee’s radio to play one of her
favorite metal songs loudly.
“This music is just making my ears
bleed. This is why I never allow her to play her music in the car,” Suzuki
says.
“Shut up, Byakko! You just need to
improve your taste!”
A loud shot rings out and hits
Kelly in the head, forcing her down into the Humvee.
“You okay, Rosebud?!” I ask.
“Yeah, the asshole grazed me. I’ll
send them back a bullet with their name on it,” Kelly says as she grabs the
anti-materiel rifle.
Using the rifle, Kelly snipes at
snipers in the distance and also hits the pilots of the helicopters. In this
case, we’re allowed to switch to lethal rounds, given the intensity of the
situation and importance of the job. Getting closer, a squad of four tanks
lines up and fires at us from a distance. My friends fire at them with
explosives of their own as I continue to try to avoid fire and mines at the
same time. Suzuki, Al, and Kelly each manage to blow up a tank after hitting
them several times. After they all focus their fire on the last one, we seem to
be in the clear until we hit a bunch of mines near the facility, and it seems
like no matter where I drive, I’m always hitting a mine.
Our Humvee is all but destroyed
now, so I steer it as best I can into the facility, where we are immediately
met with small arms fire by guards armed with some kind of laser weaponry that
fire red beams of heat at us. Anticipating it, my friends already fire back and
use what little cover we have in the Humvee to clear out the guards. Seeing
that the Humvee is on fire, I tell them to get out, and we manage to just get
out as it blows up.
“There goes our only sure way out
of here,” I say.
“I wouldn’t mind using one of the
helicopters to get out of here if they have any left,” Kelly says.
“Do you even know how to fly one?”
Al asks.
“I can try.”
“We’ll worry about that when the
time comes. Let’s head into the underground,” I say.
Going to the elevator, we see that
it’s locked down. We blow up the doors and then rappel down.
“Did you see those laser weapons?
There have to be aliens here! I just wish I didn’t blow them up so I could take
one home with me. I hope they have more below,” Kelly says.
“Focus, Rosebud,” I say.
“Yes, sir. This is the best time
I’ve ever had in my life!”
Reaching the bottom, we cut through
the elevator, blow open the doors, and are met with more resistance, armed with
laser weapons. Not wanting to take half-measures, Kelly and Al use the last of
the explosives we have on them, letting us easily clear them out. Moving
forward, we’re surprised to not find any more guards and just find scientists
running away from us.
“Is that really it? No more guards?”
Kelly asks.
“You tell me. We just faced a swarm
of aircraft, snipers, tanks, and two groups of guards with laser weapons. I
hope that was all of them,” I say.
“Yeah, but where are the…aliens…”
Turning a corner, we find a testing
and experimentation area filled with people in cages, restrained patients having
surgery done on them by machines, and people in tubes, some of which look like
full-fledged stereotypical aliens with big heads, black eyes, and grey skin.
“Woah. Do you know what this means?”
Al asks.
“They’re turning people into
aliens!” Kelly says.
“No. They’re making people look
like aliens. Don’t you see how artificial this all looks?” Suzuki says.
“Eh, kind of. Let’s find proof to
see who’s right.”
“There are a lot of shipping
manifestos and written journals here out here in the open,” Al says.
“Who can blame them for just
leaving it out? We got through a lot of security to get here,” I say.
We fan out and collect all the
information we can, much of it having the dragon emblem on them, and mentioning
the name Paradox Collective and The Malefic. We also find receipts and
agreements with the Slav Federation and Zeitloses Imperium to ship slaves and researchers
from their concentration camps over to this facility. Additionally, we find blueprints
for different kinds of UFOs and plans to use them and the experimented-on
people to make people think aliens are real at certain times to get their minds
off of important events in the world. Before we can delve deeper into the
files, we hear an alarm saying that the self-destruct sequence has been
activated.
“They even have a self-destruct
button. These people really are cartoon villains,” Kelly says.
“Let’s hurry and get out of here!”
I say.
We run through the facility, going in
the direction of the researchers, and find them boarding a subway train. Forcing
our way onto the train, the scientists hold up their hands and speak broken English
at us.
“You think these people will face
justice, given their background and probable government protection?” I ask.
“They won’t, or they’ll be killed
anyway,” Al says.
“We’ll be the arm of justice then,”
Suzuki says.
“Agreed.”
“Can’t argue with you there,” Kelly
says.
The four of us fire into the group
of scientists as we make our way to the front. Meanwhile, the facility behind
us has exploded. The flames of the explosion are starting to consume the train,
so we keep pushing through the scientists, making sure the flames consume them
as we make our way to the front. By the time we get to the front, there’s no
one left in the train but us, and yet the flames are still catching up to us.
To gain more speed, we detach the other trains from us and crank up the
acceleration crank.
We hold on as the train escapes the flames, plunges through the concrete wall, hits another train, and then our train flies out of a tunnel and lands on the city streets of the Jewel of
the Desert, Sin City.
Stumbling out of the train, I ask, “Is
everyone okay?”
“I’m beat up, but I’ll survive,”
Suzuki says.
“I could use a drink or several
after all that,” Kelly says.
“I second that,” Al says.
“We can’t hang around here. Let’s
move.”
My friends and I find a dark alley
in the city to change clothes, just as the authorities arrive on the scene. We
find a hotel to hide out in and inform the Hydra Roundtable of our success. We
pass off the bags of receipts, journals, shipping manifestos, and more to a courier
of theirs, receive our payment, and use it to enjoy our time in the city,
eating, drinking, and gambling. After all we’ve been through, we more than
deserve it.
Chapter
2 – Family Over All, but God
Today’s job has us in a city that is
Suzuki’s home away from home. He takes us to a Tatsu restaurant for breakfast
and speaks in his native language to the waiters, which gets us better food and
quicker service than the other customers who speak English. Right now, we’re in
civilian clothing and just appear to be a group of friends to those who don’t
know any better. Scouting moments like this, where we pretend to be normal, are
precious to me since I don’t have anything to go back to at my house. I admire
the faces of my friends, the youthful appearance of Kelly, who has half blue and
black hair, Suzuki’s grizzled face that is a lot like mine, except I have a
goatee and grey hairs, while he still looks relatively young, and the always
put-together Al with slick black hair and the fires of youth in his eyes.
“Ace, what do you think?” Kelly
asks me.
“About what?” I ask.
“About getting better food and
service if you speak the language of the natives. It sucks for those who don’t
know.”
“I don’t care for it as long as we
get good food anyway.”
Al says, “I’m telling you. It’s
entirely normal.”
“Does it happen in your Mediterranean
restaurants as well?”
“Yes, it happens there and in our
marketplaces.”
“Tch. I’ll never understand the
discrimination in your cultures.”
“It’s not discrimination. It’s just
preference and respect for people who respect our language and way of doing
business.”
“Preference is discrimination. They
should treat all people the same.”
“Tch. I don’t expect a Slav to
understand these things,” Suzuki says.
“I don’t expect hyper-traditional
cultures like both of yours to understand my point of view either.”
“This is why I prefer the Chimaera
way of doing things. It prevents useless conversations like this from
happening,” I say.
“I do prefer them as well,” Kelly
says.
The waitress gives Suzuki the paid
check and another piece of paper, and he gives her a tip. Suzuki puts away the
tip and reads the other piece of paper that’s written in Suzuki’s language.
“What’s it say? Did you get her
number or some kind of love letter?” Kelly jokes.
“No. Just information on our
targets,” Suzuki says.
“Was she our informer with our
organization? I thought we didn’t accept any help from them.”
“Nope. She’s an informer for my
family.”
Understanding what he means by
“family”, Al says, “Friends of the family are usually better informers than
those who are paid to do so.”
“Really?” Kelly asks.
“Yes,” Suzuki says. “Their reward
is the preservation of their neighborhood and its safety. For our job, the
family and we have the shared goal of getting rid of hostile foreigners.”
“I heard your family helps the
Tatsu government a lot in that aspect,” Al says.
“We do, and we heard your family
has a hand in that in both your native country of Lupa and the Chimaera
States.”
“Okay, okay, boys. We can talk
about how good and honorable both your families are yet again some other time.
What are we going to do, Suzuki?”
“We’re going to clean some scum out
of the neighborhood. Let’s go back to my apartment to get our cleaning tools.”
Going to Suzuki’s apartment, we
find it in exquisite condition with not a spec of dust in sight, decorated with
both pictures and statues of historical figures of Tatsu and Catholic saints,
Mary, and Jesus. Suzuki grabs his revolvers and tanto knives; I grab my long
pistols, Al assembles his rifles and puts an underbarrel shotgun on it, and Kelly
gets her pink machine pistols. We go out to where Suzuki’s friends instructed
him and get there just in time as a Tatsu man is being restrained and about to
be publicly beheaded by Middle Eastern men with a curved sword. As we rush to
stop it, three other Tatsu men in suits, armed with katanas and pistols, run
out from a nearby street and beat us to it. They cut off the hands of the man
with the curved sword before cutting off his head while the others gun down the
Middle Eastern men.
Picking up the Tatsu man who was
almost publicly beheaded, I ask him, “Why were they trying to kill you?”
“I was going after the rape gangs
of the Pale Green Horse with a tanto because the authorities won’t protect our
sons and daughters, so I have to,” the man says.
“The authorities rarely come down
here because of the Tatsu’s relation to the Vorfahren. They don’t want to
associate themselves with a race that embraces a hostile ideology to their
own,” Suzuki says.
“I can’t blame them for not wanting
to associate with you, but I can blame them for not helping you with these
situations,” Kelly says. “Why are the members of the Pale Green Horse beefing
with you?”
“Who don’t they beef with?” Al
asks. “That death cult is hostile to everyone who doesn’t believe in the same
things they do.”
“I thought they were mostly hostile
toward Israelis.”
“They’re targeting the Tatsu
because they’re trying to get us to change and take our children,” the Tatsu
man says.
“We have to move and get our job
done by taking care of the hostile ones,” Suzuki says.
“We need to do more than that,” the
Tatsu man says in a suit with a sword and pistol at his side. “We need to make
an example of their men and women and destroy their places of worship like how
they’ve done the same to ours.”
“A man of honor doesn’t kill those
who can’t defend themselves,” Suzuki says as he squares up with the men in
suits, both sides having their guns out.
“You’re weakened by the faith of
suffering and mercy that you’ve embraced, brother. They’re all a corrupting
force to our country, the men, women, and children, so as far as we’re
concerned they’re all threats in one way or another. We’ll handle the dirtier
parts of the job that you can’t handle.”
“I won’t let innocent blood be
spilled while I’m around. We’re only going to kill those who fight us. Everyone
else will get the message when they’re dead and back off.”
“They will, but some may seek
revenge. That’s why we need to burn our message into their souls. Stand against
us, and you betray the family.”
A few moments of silence pass
before Suzuki says, “I have my family behind me, and my God is further above
them.”
Staring at each other for five more
seconds of silence, both sides back off and put their guns away.
“I can’t argue with a man who will
die for what he believes, and I can’t say that he isn’t a man of honor. We’ll
do what you want, Suzuki, but if they act up again while you’re gone, then
we’re going to have to handle things our way,” the Tatsu man in a suit says.
“Deal.”
“You’re still in the family. You’re
still a samurai like us.”
“I am who God made me to be. That’s
all I need to be.”
“Okay, okay. Enough with the talk
of honor and moral posturing. Let’s get to work!” Kelly says.
The samurai and Suzuki agree, and
they lead us to a neighborhood where the people from the Middle East are
encroaching on the Tatsu neighborhood. More samurai with pistols and katanas
appear from the Tatsu homes, restaurants, and shops and clash with them. The
four of us, with four other samurai, go around the chaos and enter the church
of the Pale Green Horse. In the church, priests are blessing weapons,
explosives, and men and women with explosive vests on.
“Hmm. I think I have the right tool
for this,” Kelly whispers as she rummages through a bag she’s brought and then
takes out Molotov cocktails. “Haha. It’s a Slav revolutionary special.”
“I like this lady,” one of the
samurai says.
“Are you all ready?” I ask everyone
as the four of us get our masks on and the samurai get their lighters out.
“Let’s get this done.”
We light up the Molotovs and throw
them down at the people and explosives below, immediately setting people and
fire and blowing up both the suicide bombers and the church. Running out of the
church, we escape the scene of our crime to run to an apartment that the
samurai says holds the victims and predators of the rape gangs.
One of the samurai says, “Remember.
The innocent slaves are the only ones who get to live. The clients and slavers
will receive death and nothing more.”
“Fine by me,” Suzuki says, and we
all agree.
Suzuki knocks on the locked front
door. When someone opens it, Suzuki stabs the man in the balls with his katana,
then shoots him in the head with one of his revolvers. Suzuki and the other
samurai handle the men and women of the rape gang in much the same way, shooting
or stabbing their groins first, then their throats or faces. These men of Tatsu
move in unison as if they had already rehearsed the attack. Meanwhile, Al,
Kelly, and I are clearing the rooms they don’t charge through. In most of them,
we find other Middle Eastern men caught having their way with women of all
ages, and we find goats in the rooms for some reason I’d rather not find out.
On the top floor, Suzuki puts away
his katana and now dual-wields his revolvers, constantly firing them at
everyone who wields a gun against us until they’re empty, only for him to
switch to his other revolvers in his jacket. As we go through the rooms, I
double back when I see that one of the clients that we shot wasn’t Middle
Eastern. It’s a woman of another race, and given her suit on the floor, she’s a
woman of wealth. I look through the inside of the woman’s suit is the same
dragon emblem that the chief of police from the other job and many others had.
“Cowboy, what’s going on?” Kelly
says as she enters the room and sees the dragon emblem in my hand. “You’re
kidding me.”
“Does it look like it?” I ask.
“Guys, what’s…no way,” Al says as
he comes into the room.
“We have to question whoever is
left. Come on! Before the samurai kill everyone!”
Quickly joining Suzuki and the
samurai, we help them kill the lesser guards and clients.
“We have to question whoever is
important over here. They seem to be connected to a wider plot,” I say to
Suzuki.
Taking cover, Suzuki looks over to
me, and I show him the dragon emblem.
“Brothers, there’s a greater
conspiracy against us. We need to capture the leader of these degenerates for
questioning,” Suzuki says.
The samurai surprisingly agree to
this as we enter an office where we find more guards and a well-dressed man. We
kill the guards, and then the samurai literally disarm the well-dressed man
with a slash of their swords and hold him down.
I show who we presume to be a man
of importance the dragon emblem and say, “Do you know what this emblem means or
what group it’s associated with?”
“No! I don’t know anything!” the
man says.
The samurai look at each other,
accuse the man of lying, and cut off his toes with their swords.
“Speak the truth!” one of the
samurai says.
“Alright, it wasn’t the whole
truth! They’re from the city and state government! They offered to look the
other way and get more of our people into the country so we can spread our
religion through it if we allowed them to have their way with our slaves!”
The samurai and Suzuki then unload
their guns into the tortured man, ending his misery.
“It would’ve been better if we took
him in alive, but I guess that was never an option,” I say.
Suzuki and the samurai tear through
the office and break into the safes and secure cabinets, and tell me to help
them look through them.
“These people may be low-IQ, third-world
animals, but they aren’t entirely stupid. They have to have backup pictures or
files to bribe the officials they’re in league with,” one of the samurai says.
Sure enough, we find the disgusting
pictures of the woman who had the dragon emblem that I only look at for a
second to confirm it’s her before turning my eyes away.
“You’re right. It’s here,” I say.
“What are we going to do with this
and the other compromising pictures of the officials? Anonymously turn them
into the authorities?” Kelly asks.
“No,” Suzuki, Al, and the samurai say.
“The authorities were in league
with this trash, so they’ll want this evidence erased. We need to put these
files into the hands of the people so they’ll become outraged and so that real
change can happen, maybe even have the other authorities prosecuted or
executed,” Al says.
“I like his thinking. Are you part
of a family of your race?” one of the samurai asks.
“I am.”
The samurai smiles at Al, who I have
a feeling is smiling back as the two shake hands. Kelly agrees with Al’s idea,
and we take all the pictures of the authorities caught in degenerate acts and pictures
of screenshots of texts and emails of the agreements between them and the cult
of the Pale Green Horse all the way back to the Tatsu neighborhood, where we
see them being aided by Mediterranean men and women. We entrust the pictures to
a trusted contact of the samurai’s family who is going to make copies of them
and distribute them to everyone in the city and on the internet before going
out to see what’s going on with this sudden Tatsu and Mediterranean alliance
against the Middle Eastern people.
Questioning a man in a suit, he
says, “We heard a man in the family needs help, and when a family member needs
help, everyone has to chip in.”
Looking to Al, he says, “They were
all too eager to help out when I texted them what was going on.”
“Two families from different races
working together against a common enemy. I never thought I’d see the Tatsu and
Mediterraneans working together like this outside of the old world,” Kelly
says.
“Why wouldn’t we? We may have
different ideas about what true honor and loyalty look like, but we can at
least work together and find common ground, unlike the people of the Pale Green
Horse who only want to conquer, corrupt, and enslave,” Suzuki says.
“Are you joining the fight?” the
Mediterranean man in a suit says.
“When a family member needs help,
we help them. What greater honor is there than to be a servant of love and your
family?” Al says.
The samurai and Mediterranean men
of honor nod their heads in agreement. The four of us aid the Mediterranean and
Tatsu people in pushing against the Middle Easterners until they retreat into
their neighborhood. When the cops finally show up, the four of us leave the
area and hide out back at Suzuki’s place. Later in the day, our findings are on
the news, and the people of the city are rioting against the government and
cult of the Pale Green Horse. As this is happening, my friends and I go to a
local Tatsu restaurant and toast Sakae in celebration of our success.
“To virtuous counter-revolutionary
justice,” Suzuki says.
We toast to it, and despite our
victory, I still can’t help but feel unsatisfied and craving more justice. The
people with the dragon emblem are not only in the government, but they’re also
using criminals to change things in the country; for what purpose? We’ll have
to wait to find out. They’re not only a rival criminal organization, but also a
disgusting one if their members defile the innocent and associate themselves
with a death cult. God, help us to bring justice upon them.
Chapter
1 – The Fate of Traitors
Four thieves in expensive suits and
clown masks enter a bank and hold it up with high-powered silenced rifles. They
shoot the guards, and then two of the thieves keep the civilians in one room,
while the other two set up thermite to blow open the vault door. After getting
through the door, the four thieves bag up as much cash as possible. The cops
arrive just as they are exiting the vault. To push through the cops, the
thieves use their underbarrel grenade launchers and flamethrowers to an exit.
The thieves exit the bank and run
through the maze alleys of the city until we come out from the shadows and
surround them at gunpoint. They’re surprised to see my three friends and me,
who are dressed up and wearing masks like them, except we all look unique from
one another. I have a plain black suit and tie with a clown mask that has the
United Chimaera States flag on it; Kelly McGhee has a red tie and pink
ringmaster-like suit, black skirt, and red boots, and has a clown mask with red
pigtails; Al Jarrett wears a frilly butler-type suit with a creepy black mask
with black strips near his eyes and mouth, and Suzuki Koyama wears a loose
black suit with a visible thorny golden cross and a tiger mask with a revolver
in its mouth. Looking at us, the thieves don’t immediately shoot at us, and
instead, drop their bags of cash and slightly lower their weapons.
One of them asks, “Who are you?”
“Coworkers of the same
organization,” I say.
“Yeah? Are we supposed to hand the
bags to you, or do you have a way out for us? We need to act quick because the
cops are coming. I thought groups weren’t supposed to be interfering with one
another.”
“They are, unless you’re higher in
rank, like we are,” Al says.
“I thought there was also a rule
about not killing cops and keeping damage to a minimum. I’m also sure you’re
not supposed to skim any money and merely complete the objective,” Kelly says.
“You, men, have caused more death
and destruction than was called for,” Al says.
“Didn’t you read the rules? This
dishonorable behavior of yours will result in a cut in your pay, at the very
least,” Suzuki says.
“Don’t trust what these guys are
saying,” one of the thieves says. “We didn’t choose to have any help with this
job.”
“Yeah, but the job description did
say to go down this alley to escape and drop off the goods,” another thief
says.
“Who cares about the rules?”
another thief says. “We’re thieves, criminals, murderers! We do what we want
because we won’t let others tell us what to do.”
I shoot the outspoken thief in the
face with my long pistol that’s loaded with rifle rounds, killing him.
“Act like that idiot, and you’ll
suffer the same fate. Our organization is one of honor, loyalty, and respect.
If you thought it was a den of scum and villainy, then you should’ve joined
another group,” I say.
“Okay, okay! We’ll do better next
time!” one thief says as he puts down his rifle and holds up his hands.
“Don’t do that! They’re going to
kill us anyway!” another thief says.
“Idiot, if we wanted to do that,
you would’ve been dead already,” Kelly says.
“This is your chance at redemption.
Lay down your weapons and give yourselves up to the cops,” Suzuki says.
“What?! We’ll be sent to jail for
life!”
“We’ll make sure you receive a
lighter sentence if you cooperate and don’t rat on the organization,” Al says.
“Make your choice. Life or death,”
I say.
After a few seconds, the other two
thieves raise their guns, forcing us to kill them, while one of the thieves
leaves his gun on the floor.
“There are always more dumbasses in
the world than smart people,” Kelly says.
“You made the right choice.
Remember what we said, and you won’t spend the rest of your life in jail,” I
say as my friends and I retreat into the shadows.
We stick around to make sure the
thief turns himself in to the police before leaving the area and going to a
nearby parking lot where a SWAT truck is parked with two officers guarding it.
“How come they told us to park
around here with a truck full of gear and outfits?” one of the officers asks.
“What? You don’t know?” the other
officer asks.
“Why would I know?”
“Because I asked and they told me
to ask you if I was curious.”
“They told me the same thing, but
also said it wasn’t important.”
Before the officers can catch on to
what’s happening, the four of us sneak up on them, knock them out, and put on
the police gear, helmets, and masks to cover our identity.
I grab the radio, tune it to the
frequency I was told, and say, “The boys are taking a name on the job.”
“Roger, clown boy. We’ll send some
people there to get them up. Thank you for sparing them. You really are people
of your word,” a distorted voice says.
Suzuki gets in the driver’s seat,
while Kelly, Al, and I sit in the back. As Suzuki drives us to the site of our
true job, I go over the plans and purpose of this job.
“Remember the faces we need to see
and the faces of those we need to eliminate. They should be in their holding
cells when we get there. As for the police chief, he should be on his break
soon, so he should be taking a nap in his office,” I say.
“I remember the plan and have the
layout of the station committed to memory. I’ll be backing you up while Al and
Kelly go for the cameras and secondary objectives,” Suzuki says.
“I also have plan B in mind just in
case things get fun,” Kelly says.
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,
and it’ll all go smoothly. We have to be quick about getting to the cameras,
eliminating our targets, and taking what we need before the police catch on to
our presence,” Al says.
“What does it mean by getting
anything strange off the chief of police?” Kelly asks.
“When we get there, we’ll find out.
It’s a secondary objective, so it doesn’t matter as much,” I say.
“It’s a secondary objective that
pays a lot, but sure.”
Driving to the police station’s
parking lot, Suzuki shows his badge to a man at a security office, who lets us
through. He parks in the center of the lot, and Suzuki and I go our separate
ways with Al and Kelly. With the badges and security cards we were given, it’s
easy for Suzuki and me to move through the police station with ease. No one
bats an eye at us, especially with one of the favors we called in being a party
that has most of the office workers and officers in the break room and the
crime in the city controlled, so that most of the officers out there are on
traffic duty. No expense was spared to get us into the police station to
accomplish this job, given its importance.
Suzuki and I stand outside the
holding cells, and I call over to Kelly using our personal radios and her
codename. “Rosebud. How goes handling the paparazzi?”
“They’re about to have some
technical difficulties in a second. There we go. You’re clear from their prying
eyes, Cowboy,” Kelly says, using my codename as well.
Given the nature of our work, we
need codenames to not expose our true identities. Suzuki and I go into the
holding cells and to the particular ones that hold our targets, four thieves
who are contacts in the police department, who say they’re going to expose our
organization. Suzuki and I put silencers on our pistols and switch their
non-lethal rounds with lethal rounds. Because of our help within the station, the
only cell with prisoners in it is the one we need, so that no other prisoner
snitches on what is happening.
“I figured something was up when I
noticed we were the only ones here,” the traitor says.
“You have seconds to pray for
forgiveness from God before we send you to Him,” I say.
“The Hydra Roundtable is-”
Suzuki and I shoot the four
traitors like fish in a barrel after the mention of our organization. I then
take a picture of their dead bodies as proof of us accomplishing this part of
the job.
“She shouldn’t have wasted her
breath, and should’ve prayed,” Suzuki says as he crosses himself.
“We’ll pray for them in their stead
later,” I say as I cross myself as well. “Onto the next objective. The rats are
dead, Cappuccino.”
“Excellent, Cowboy. We’re doing
some cleaning here as well. We don’t need our name being besmirched by what
they said,” Al says, referring to Kelly and him scrubbing the records of the
Hydra Roundtable’s name.
Suzuki and I next head up to the
chief of police’s office. It’s locked, but after a little lockpicking, I’m able
to get in.
“Cover me,” I whisper.
Suzuki nods as he stays outside
while I head in. Inside the office, the chief of police is knocked out, sitting
at his desk. Our insider put a drug inside the chief’s coffee, and since they
aren’t a big fan of his corrupt ways, has the chief’s hidden drugs out on the
table so that his addiction is exposed once we leave. Searching through the
chief’s pockets, I find a strange dragon emblem in the inside pocket of his
jacket. The dragon is made of various black lines, has golden wings, a red-tipped
tail, red horns, and teeth similar to those of a guinea pig. I’ve seen this
same dragon emblem in the hands of other people. I wonder what secret organization
these people are all a part of. Taking the emblem, I walk out of the office and
leave the door open as we were told to by our insider and make our way to where
Al and Kelly are.
Suzuki radios over to them, saying,
“We got what we needed. Is everything good on your side?”
“Yes, Byakko. The goodies and
transfers are secure,” Al says.
“Good. We’re coming over to help.”
Suzuki and I go over to Kelly and
Al, who are transferring people, weapons, stolen goods, and other evidence from
failed allies of the Hydra Collective. The people we are freeing have a black
bag over their heads and cuffs on their arms as we take them back out to the
SWAT truck. We do get questioned by an officer at the station, who we just tell
that these prisoners and the associated items are being transferred to another
location, and we show them fake papers to prove it. The officer accepts the explanation
without really looking at the papers and leaves us alone. With everything and
everyone in the SWAT truck, Suzuki drives us away from the police station and
toward a Hydra Roundtable hideout.
We take the black bags off the prisoners'
heads and uncuff them. They thank us, beg for their lives, apologizing
profusely for their failure to get their job done.
“It’s okay,” I say. “You did your
best, and you didn’t snitch, so you’re safe. You’ll just have to disappear for
a while before doing anything else for the organization. Even though the
records are scrubbed of you being there, it’s not like the cops that brought
you in will easily forget about you.”
The prisoners thank us and thank God
out loud.
“I heard there were unforeseen complications
in your job.”
“Yes,” one of the prisoners says. “Security
was tighter and their response time was faster than we imagined.”
“You were stealing from a street of
jewelry stores,” Al says.
“Yes, but we’re used to it. For us
it’s no different than a farmer picking his crops on a hot summer day, but on
the day we got caught, it was like picking crops during a hurricane. I’m still surprised
that the four of us were alive by the end of it.”
“Our bosses and their contacts will
look into it. As for you four, just focus on your own safety and keeping your
heads down until you’re called upon,” I say.
Suzuki drives us through a parking
lot and down a long hallway with a garage door. The camera near the garage door
flashes at us, and the gate opens. Inside, we park the SWAT truck, and people
who are wearing various sorts of masks, such as animals, horror creatures, weird
faces of real people, fictional characters, artistic designs, or plain colors,
help us unload what we have and take them to their appropriate areas. As for
the prisoners, they are taken away to get changed and given enough money to
survive in secret. I’ve heard some prisoners who are rescued stay in this
building for a year or more, helping the Hydra Roundtable’s operations in this
building or being its guards. As for my friends and me, we are paid for a job
well done.
To celebrate, we go to Kelly’s apartment
to celebrate. She orders the best pizza and wings she knows of and brings out a
cake she’s made herself. Her apartment is one of the upper-end ones with two
floors to it. She’s decorated it with pictures and figures of her favorite cute
animals, fictional anime characters, and horror movie clowns. She also has a
flag of her home country of the Slav Federation in the apartment, plus pictures
of her with her family and friends. News of what we did today at the bank and
police station shows up on the news, and we toast to it, like we always do.
“Man, some of these middle-circle
jobs are boring. They’re a little too simple for my tastes. When I first joined
up, I thought these were going to be more exciting,” Kelly says.
“They were to begin with,” I say. “We
did rob and blow up a bank, make the Slavs and Vorfahren fight each other, stop
a human trafficking ring, and rob a casino and give its money to the gamblers.”
“Yeah, but nowadays, it’s just go
here, check on these other groups, kill such and such people, rob these and
that people. It’s all very meh.”
“You better be careful what you
wish for. You might get more than you expect,” Suzuki says.
“That’s exactly what I want!
Challenge! Excitement! Punishing scum and giving them what they deserve and
taking back what they don’t.”
“You Slavish people are always too chaotic.”
“You people from Tatsu are too
honorable and by the books. Back me up here, Al.”
“I’m fine with either,” Al shrugs
and says.
“What about you, Ace? I know you
want to do more with these jobs, making up for your past working for predatory Israeli
bank lenders and all.”
I say, “I prefer things to be quiet,
but I do want to know more about the organization that we keep coming across,
the one whose members have those dragon emblems we keep finding. I mean, even
the chief of police is involved with them.”
“Eh. Probably a white collar crime
group, given the other people we came across who have the dragon emblem,” Kelly
says.
“Could be. They could also be our
rivals since they keep arresting our members and trying to get them to expose
our organization.”
“Well, I hope we can get back at
them or their supporters in some way, rather than just doing the seemingly unrelated
busy work we’ve been doing.”
“If God so wills it,” Suzuki says.
“Yeah, if God so wills it.”
My thoughts race as I wonder
whether we’ve actually been doing unrelated busywork, since people with the
dragon emblem keep coming up. I wonder if the Hydra Roundtable is specifically
sending us to various towns, cities, and locations where this group might be
operating. Finding the dragon emblems feels like it could be more than
coincidence at this point. For now, I can only hope and pray that we resolve
this situation with this seemingly rival criminal organization and simply enjoy
my time with my friends, who are now all arguing about the best kind of pizza
as if we’re all college-aged adults.
