“Target acquired. Taking the shot.” Drim stood on top of a water tower in the middle of a city. The sun was setting at his back. His bow was drawn, and his eyes were burning.
Earlier that day, the Fiends For Hire had received an emergency request from the neighboring country of Regend. It was issued by the police force of one of its cities near the Segrivide border. Someone had stolen experimental military technology from the nearby base and was using it to wreak havoc on a suburb near the outskirts.
Naturally, the Fiends answered this summons. A job from any form of official government was a big milestone for them. While it may be out of desperation, this acknowledgement of their skills would go a long way to legitimizing their brand. On the helicopter ride over, the chief of police briefed them on the situation.
Three tanks had been stolen. What made them unique was that they were unmanned and controlled remotely through thought alone, via a neural headset. It was believed that only one person was controlling them, since only one tank was moving at a time. The chief also gave a damage assessment. A third of the suburb had already been destroyed, and there were several fires raging throughout the debris with fear of it spreading. There was also a steadily growing number of casualties. She gave them a list of priorities in order of importance: evacuations, stopping the fires, preventing the tanks from causing more damage, and finding the culprit.
Mallea dropped them off near the tanks then flew off to go join the relief teams since she had medical experience. Kada immediately dashed over to one of the tanks since she would have the best chance at stopping them quickly. However, the tanks had a protective electric field around them so the Fiend couldn’t get close enough to melt them, and none of the metals worked that she readily had available. She would still be the best person to disable them, but they had to switch to their backup plan to keep in line with the chief’s request.
They had discussed the division of labor in the helicopter, and had already made a contingency in case Kada couldn’t disable the tanks right away. Phon would be in charge of evacuations, Kada would put out the fires, Xard would keep the tanks occupied, and Drim would find the culprit.
Phon teleported Kada to the center of the destruction site but let her know she’d be on her own afterwards, since The Vixen had her own matters to focus on. They were told to prioritize putting out any fires endangering the processing plant, since if that got overtaken, it could cause even more damage. By the time Kada found it, the outer walls were already engulfed in flames. Hopefully, she could stop it in time before any dangerous chemicals caught alight.
The woman hurried to one of the walls and melted a section of it, afraid that if she melted too much at once, the building could lose structural integrity and collapse. Her effort caused the fires on that part of the wall to be immediately extinguished, as well as some nearby as the liquid covered it. She began working around the building, liquifying the wall in sections to put out the fire, then restoring it. When she was a little over halfway done, she got a shock after melting her way deeper into the facility.
Holy zjik, a person?! Why is someone in here?! There was indeed a person inside the plant, wrestling with what looked like a large piece of machinery, struggling to carry it. Kada wasn’t sure what the device was, but it most certainly wasn’t worth dying over. No way. I can’t believe someone is actually looting at a time like this. “Hey, you! Are you crazy?” the woman yelled out to them. “Get out of there before you get hurt!”
The person looked over to Kada after being called out, and the Fiend was taken aback by how noticeably plain the woman was without a single defining feature. The looter dropped the equipment and dashed out the door. As soon as she got outside, a beam hanging off of the roof collapsed and plummeted to the ground. It fell right onto the fleeing woman. Kada rushed over to her, distraught by what she’d witnessed. But the woman was gone with no sign of her body anywhere. All that remained under the beam were piles of dirt on each side.
With her mind boggled, the Fiend tediously went back to working on putting out the fires. Eventually, the fire department showed up after she finished on another section. Together, they swiftly and efficiently managed to get the area secured.
◆◆◆
Phon and Xard were teaming up to accomplish their tasks. Though to some, it may look like the redhead was putting in a great deal more effort. He was outside in the thick of it, facing the tanks head on. Meanwhile, The Vixen was laying on some random person’s couch. While their levels of seriousness seemed to be imbalanced, they were both working frantically.
There were a few dedicated evacuation zones, and Phon was distributing civilians among them. It was actually a lot more of a complex scenario than one might think. If she dumped the evacuees in a zone randomly, it could cause more chaos and strife than benefit. She wanted to make sure she was delivering everyone to the optimal location, so she was continuously observing all of them with her Curse.
The Vixen wanted to ensure someone received any treatment they needed immediately upon arrival, so she would send each evacuee to the relief zone that was the least hectic at any given time. There was then the issue of families. She knew her Curse would be unsettling, suddenly being transported to a location they didn’t know while in a state of panic. Having their family there, amidst the sea of strangers, would alleviate some of that.
It wasn’t immediately clear if two people had relation to another, but she could somewhat tell based on their auras. They would have similar patterns if they were related, yet wouldn’t be exact copies. She did her best to try and match people, but guessed her results weren’t perfect. The whole thing was giving her a big headache, and the smoke from the fires wasn’t helping either. The added information to her vision made everything else slightly more blurry. On top of all this, she still had to worry about Xard whom took top priority whenever he requested assistance.
The man was in charge of minimizing the destruction from the tanks, but all three of them were spread out. Only one was operating at a time, which made it much easier to handle. However, when facing off against one of the artillery, the machines would suddenly cease operation. He then had to determine which of the other two was functioning before it could cause any damage. Xard would do this by blasting up into the air and scouting them. Then, when he determined the right one, he would have Phon teleport him since they were on a call together. Actually, all four of them were on a call, but Kada and Drim had been mostly quiet to let the pair concentrate.
The fight—though closer in responsibility to goalkeeping—wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped. Visibility wasn’t optimal, and the tanks were pretty fast. They’d often get out of his scope of vision before he could spot them. He hadn’t always been able to make it to the new one in time, but his presence had still decreased the overall damage significantly. As for holding them off, he had run through several different trial and error scenarios to figure out the best method.
Initially, he had tried blasting the shells that were fired while they were still in flight, then he’d fire at the tank with the energy from his rings between shots. That tactic certainly wasn’t optimal, since the resulting explosion could still damage the surroundings, and he couldn’t control where the tank would fire. The redhead then tried stopping the shells with his Curse and catch them. This worked well, but then he tried firing one back at the tank using some stored energy. It immediately exploded in his face, but was luckily able to activate his Curse to protect himself from the shrapnel in time.
After a few more mishaps, he had finally landed on the best solution, or at least the best he could think of under pressure. The man could grab onto a shell mid flight, but not absorb the energy at all. Instead, he would flip around, carrying the momentum of the shell, and redirect it back at the tank. Then he would send a wall of energy behind it. It would carry the shell back with a bit of extra speed, then when the shell exploded, the energy wall would keep the explosion confined around the tank.
This had worked quite well, and he had managed to disable the treads on two of them. They could still fire, but were stuck in one place. The cannon on one also seemed to be somewhat damaged, firing at a slower speed than the other two. Xard would keep his defense up for as long as needed, until Drim could stop the perpetrator.
◆◆◆
After the other three had run off to accomplish their missions, Drim had stayed put at the drop off point. Due to his unique ability of being able to sense evil individuals, they had left finding the perpetrator to him since they had no doubt that the person who was doing this would fall under that category. Even with his unique sense, finding them wouldn’t be a simple task.
After equipping his bracers and extending his blades, The Slayer wrapped them in vines and plunged them into the ground. He used this method fairly often for surprise attacks, but it also had another use. Once underground, the thorned vines split off in every direction as Drim continuously fed more of them into the ground. After his plants were firmly rooted, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Over the years, the boy had come to notice a certain harmony with his plants. He could synchronize with them to a certain degree, and they’d work as an extension of his senses. They couldn’t be used to see, but they could be used to feel. He could perceive presences around them as if they were part of his own body, and if he seriously focused, he could even hear whispers. This also worked with his other ability, expanding the range of his morality detection.
Overall, the scan he could do with this setup was quite weak, but it should at least give him a direction to start looking. That was all he was after for now, not immediately expecting to find the person. The range on the neural transmitter in the headset controlling the tanks was limited. Though it was an impressive length, the criminal still couldn’t have gone too far. And the scan produced results, not taking long at all before The Slayer felt a strong concentration of maliciousness coming from the city.
Drim scaled to the top of the highest building in the city. The leader was appreciative of his teammates' efforts as he listened in on their call through his earpiece. It meant he didn’t have to rush and could take his time to definitively find the right person causing this chaos.
His ability wasn’t flawless, in that it could sense people with merely the potential to be evil as well. Even if they hadn’t actually ever done a single bad thing in their lives, his senses would still flare up around them, but not as much as when around someone evil to their core. The last thing Drim would want is to mistakenly kill an innocent person just because of their internal morality, due to being in a hurry.
The man was glad when he found a rooftop garden on top of the building, but was also saddened a bit since he knew he was going to destroy it. Like always, he had a massive stockpile of nature energy, but having more never hurt. It meant he could be more thorough while still keeping a good amount in reserve if needed. Drim sucked up most of the plants around him, trying his best to leave the most expensive looking ones alive.
Then he moved to the open flat patio in the center of the garden and stood at the edge. He placed both palms on the ground, and felt massive amounts of energy drain from him. Drim never really liked the sensation of using so much energy at once, it left him feeling empty. Within moments, a gigantic cherry blossom tree stood tall before the botanist. It was quite possibly the largest of its kind in the world, as it now towered over the rest of the city. However, as with most of his plants, the coloration was off, but not to the same extent as some. The bark of the tree was only a bit dark, and the normally pink blossoms now had a slight orange tint to them. Regardless, it was still beautiful.
After taking a quick picture of the tree, The Slayer gave the trunk a light punch. Every petal detached from the branches flew off in various directions, scattering all over as they rained down on the city. Drim sat down, with his back leaning against the now-leafless tree, and started to meditate. He was projecting his senses through the petals, feeling around with each of them.
Thanks to his experience, he could feel from more than one at a time, allowing him to sweep through them relatively quickly. After scanning about 60% of the city, he opened his eyes. “Found you!” The Slayer closed them again and parsed through the remainder just for cautious confirmation, but no one came even close to the ominous presence of that person.
Drim opened a map of the city on his phone and triangulated the evil source. It seemed they were in a pub down a back street. After hopping a few roofs over to get closer to the location, the man climbed up on the water tower there and readied his bow. He had briefly considered going down to the pub and confronting the person, but decided that wasn’t in his best interest.
If someone caught on tape what he was about to do, it could have serious consequences down the line, even if the act was righteous and just. There was also a part of him that just didn’t want to face the person. Every time he killed someone, he felt like he lost part of himself. Some may hold the ideal that the person victim should always have the respect of being killed face-to-face, but he just wasn’t strong enough. When he killed Vinlot, it had been on impulse as had a few more in the past, but the ironically-named Slayer never wanted to watch someone die at his hands again.
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Letting these thoughts disperse, the boy calmed down and took aim. He wasn’t lining up his shot toward the bar itself, but rather a few roads away where he had a direct line of sight. The leader announced his actions to his team and let a single arrow loose, one wrapped in a spiraling vine with a blossoming rose at the end, just below the feathers. As the projectile flew, Drim closed his eyes again.
He let his mind go blank, focusing solely on the arrow, being able to feel it more clearly than his other hand-crafted wooden arrows due to the additional plants. Drim was able to sense all around it, and could almost perfectly see the city in his mind. A few seconds before the projectile would stab into the side of a building, he took control of it with his Curse. The arrow started to fly straight down the road, well above the cars and people below, but he let it slowly descend. When it got to a cross section, he turned the arrow, sending it perpendicular down another road. The homing-shot began to weave around buildings, in and out of alleys, and down various roads as it drew closer to the evil presence.
Finally, the source of the unpleasantness was dead ahead. Drim lowered the arrow to be perfectly in line with it and let it fly straight. There was a small scrape first, feeling like glass breaking around it. Then there was a solid thud, and the evil presence completely vanished. Drim’s entire body shook when he felt the resonance of the arrow piercing through flesh, causing him to snap back to the roof where he stood.
The boy slowly sat down, trying to calm himself as he rested his fists against his forehead. There was chatter in his earpiece that the tanks had stopped and the mission was a complete success. After a few minutes of silence and several deep breaths, Drim was finally ready to move again. He put away his bracers and picked up the pack of crime cards he had dropped next to his side. There was now one missing, which he had placed in the petals of the rose. Even if he hated it, he was going to own up to it. On the front of the card was ‘Murder’ with a picture of a gravestone beneath and score of 1000. On the back, Drim Drazah was written in permanent marker.
◆◆◆
That night, the Fiends retired to a motel just outside the city. Mallea had stayed behind to continue to help with treatment of the injured, saying she would pick them up in the morning. The police had offered them a nicer hotel in the city, but they declined, wanting to be closer to an area where the helicopter could land.
This didn’t sit too well with the chief, but she eventually gave in. For various reasons, they were not officially allowed to pay the group, and as it stood, the request never happened. The reports they submitted stated the Fiends For Hire just happened upon the incident and volunteered to help. While the chief had wanted to give them the credit they deserved, one of her higher ups had tied her hands in the matter. All she was allowed to legally give them was her appreciation, and the knowledge that the police force, and those whom they’d saved, would never forget their aid.
She had received completely unofficial authorization of another way to reward them, however. That night, various items from the evidence room went missing, things from cases that had long since been solved and just never redistributed. Among the lost evidence was cash, jewelry, and other miscellaneous items.
The four Fiends lounged around in the motel room while listening to the news. They had actually gotten two rooms so everyone could have their own bed, but decided to hang out in one until they were going to head to sleep. Xard had been laying in one of the beds, surfing on his phone, but had started paying avid attention now that a report was playing on today’s incident.
On the other bed, Kada was playing a game on the handheld console they’d received in their pile of evidence. Phon was sitting behind her, acting like she wasn’t interested, but it was obvious she was staring over Kada’s shoulder on occasion and watching her play. Drim had just been quietly sitting in a chair, mulling over tiresome thoughts. He sunk down lower into it once the news started to mention them.
The report went over the events from beginning to end. It seemed that they were doing their best to minimize the involvement of the Fiends—understandable, since it’d be the same as publicly praising criminals and demeaning the capabilities of their police force and military. They essentially boiled down their credit to having provided ‘light aid’ in certain lacking areas, which they assured the people that it would be improved upon in the future.
They then got to talking about the culprit, a disgruntled former soldier and engineer who had been dismissed from the neural project and dishonorably discharged. No information was given on how he managed to steal the headset. Drim’s unease grew when they talked about how he’d been found. The criminal was sitting at a bar counter, his body slumped over it, with an arrow sticking out of the back of his head.
As the report wrapped up, the leader excused himself from the room, saying he was going to go buy drinks for everyone. He walked over to the nook that housed the vending machines and slumped down against the wall. “One, two, three, what about her? Four, he makes five… Oh I almost forgot about them, six… Ugh no wait… One, two, three...” Drim had begun mumbling to himself and counting something on his fingers.
On his fourth attempt to count something out loud, his train of thought was interrupted. What are you doing Drim? His mother asked him from inside his heart.
“Damn it, you made me lose focus, now I need to start over,” the boy grumbled. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… I’m forgetting someone aren’t I? I have to be. I wish I wasn’t but it’s gnawing at me… Oh right, I remember now. How could I ever forget… Eight… I’ve killed eight people.”
Oh I see, that’s what it was, Eleen murmured. I can tell it’s bothering you. And I won’t lie to you and say it isn’t a lot, because it is… You know, I only ever killed 4 people. I know my actions and orders killed a lot more, but I mean with my own hands.
“Oh great, so I’m worse than you, how comforting.” That realization made the dictator’s son even more depressed. “Is my life worth that of eight people?”
Your life is worth millions, Drim. Now, I don’t exactly know your plans. You’ve done a damn good job at keeping them from me, but I’ve been able to pick up bits here and there. What I do know is that no matter how many people fall at your feet, the path you carve with their bodies will lead this world to a better place. The mother did her best to try and be supportive the only way she knew how.
“Well, I at least know for sure that my life is worth more than yours,” Drim slightly chuckled. “Our paths may be similar, but I’ll achieve it in my own way. Your plan was awful and needed to be stopped. I’ll never regret that.”
Oh how cruel my son is, Eleen whined. At least when you killed me, you had conviction. You weren’t the doubtful depressive wreck you are right now. That’s the only way you’ll achieve your goals, Drim, by never looking back and mowing down anything that stands in your way.
“Do you come with a mute button?” the boy groaned. There was silence after that, so Drim thought for a moment maybe she wasn’t so wrong about being assertive. He let out a sigh from being forced to have another dreadful conversation with the woman he despised, after an already emotionally exhausting day. While he sat there, a stranger came by, got a soda from the machine and left. She had stared at him for a moment, but said nothing, likely assuming him to be a bum or drunk. Now with the motivation to stop sulking, he stood up, pulled out his wallet, grabbed a bill, and stuck it into the vending machine.
The annoyance of this long day continued when the machine spat the bill back out. Drim took it out and put it back in, a second later, it was waving back in his face. He then ran it along the side of the vending machine, trying to smooth it out even though it wasn’t very wrinkled to begin with. He stuck it in once more, having slight hope when it stayed in for longer, but then it was laughing at him again.
Drim took the bill and examined it closely. It was definitely a Regend Regal, the currency of this country. No other denomination used different forms of noble headgear as the symbols on their money. The bill also matched what was listed on what the machine could take. He tried another Regal, but that was spat out too. Wait, this place is on the border of Segrevide, maybe I should try that?
It was at least worth the attempt, so he took out a Segrevide Sapil and stuck that into the machine. He was even more annoyed when that was also rejected by the temperamental machine. Great, guess I’ll try every cosdamn currency I have then! Since Drim had traveled the world, his wallet was bursting with dozens of different types of currencies with small dividers to keep them organized.
He tried them all: Archlave Alexims, Horage Horsons, Domister Duss, even the extinct Pimitrad Parsel. Perhaps Phon was right and alliteration was much too overused in this world. Drim’s frustration grew each time a new currency didn't work, and slammed his fist on the vending machine when he’d tried the last one. “Damn it, what do you want from me?! Why are there so many currencies, and why do none of them work?! Is the machine out of order?! No, that lady just bought something! Damn it, what do I do? I’ve been gone for too long now, so it’ll be weird if I go back empty handed!”
The frustrated boy heard amused laughter coming from inside his heart. You know, there are times when you should rely on your dearest mother, Eleen spoke up. Even now, I can still teach you a lesson or two. When there is something that annoys you, then change it. When there is something you want, then take it, by any means necessary. Let me show you what I mean… Drim’s hand started moving on its own.
◆◆◆
“So Drim, do you want to be the penguin that was lodged in an eye, the skateboard that was wedged into a toe, or the spire that was… well you probably don’t want to know where that one was…” Kada was referring to game pieces from a board game that had been gifted to them from the evidence room. She had set it up, and asked this as soon as she heard the door open. When she turned around for confirmation, her jaw dropped and she gasped, “Woah, someone’s thirsty!”
It was an adequate response to seeing their leader since he was currently in possession of a mountain of sodas. His arms were at capacity, only able to carry 20 or so, but his vines were holding several more, bringing the total to well over a hundred. “Err… well… the vending machine may have been having some issues,” Drim stammered. “I kind of accidentally broke it. I didn’t know what to do with all the sodas and didn’t want them to go to waste… so… yeah…”
“Quite uncharacteristic of you to be so careless,” Xard noted.
“Yeah, it was a surprise to me too,” the boy agreed. “Anyways, drink up. I’ll make sure to talk to the manager about it before we leave. Oh, and there’s something else I want to talk to you all about, I found a job for us.”
“How important is it, can the client wait?” Phon asked. “We were going to look into those weird dirt people. I’ve been looking into it a bit already and they’ve been popping up all over.”
“Yes, well, this request comes from me,” the leader clarified. “And also from our mother.”
There were astonished looks on everyone's faces, and no one said anything for quite some time. Eventually, Xard inquired, “Don’t keep us in suspense. What’s the job?”
“Well, remember when you joked about us robbing a bunch of banks?” Everyone sat in silence, their attention fully on Drim as he explained the details of his plan, along with a small portion of what he and his mother had discussed. By the time he finished, it was rather late, so Kada and Xard headed to their own room.
Once the door was closed, Phon questioned her brother, “So are you really going to give them the money to replace that mawhged up vending machine?”
“Yes, it’s still my fault that it was destroyed. However, since it put me through so much annoyance, I won’t give them the full value. I’ll only give 95%” the boy was resolute in this conviction, and he wouldn’t give them a cent more. “There’s something else I want to say… I can only confide in you for this Phon.”
The sister seemed both simultaneously shocked and delighted. “Oh? You can tell me anything!”
Drim hesitated a bit, but knew it was better to say it now rather than keeping it a secret. “It’s mother, she… she was able to use my Curse.”
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Which game piece would you pick?
