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I'd left Teresa and Khyros back at the first town we'd encountered, a little place cut out of the forest where the two of them could get up to speed. Teresa had some re-training to do thanks to her time stuck in a hole in the ground, and Khyros needed to get some training at all so that he wouldn't drag us down.

In a way, it was fortunate that they weren't here right now. I mean, at least I was the only one tied upside down to a pole surrounded by bandits in the middle of nowhere.

The really embarrasing thing was that I was awake when they had captured me. I'd been surrounded by them in broad daylight, and while I was talking to who I assumed was their leader, I'd been smacked obside the back of my head hard enough to knock me out. Oldest trick in the damn book.

If it were any other day or age, I would have thought they were stupid for not taking away my weapons. As it was, I understood what they were thinking of. They were all hybrids of one sort of the other, and they were all heavily muscled and extremely thick boned. In a world where the most powerful weapon is usually an old martial weapon, they were the kings of hand to hand.

"Alroit, luvly," the leader said. He had the body of a lion and the scales and tail of a crocodile, and enough muscles to furnish two others quite nicely and have more than enough left over for himself. "We've got a bit o' a probl'm wit' buggers loik yew waltzin' about ahr forr'st. Ah' lees, doin' it wit'out ahr p'mission, tha' is."

I looked at him skeptically. "And what would it take to get permission, if I may ask?"

He gave me an innocent look which, on him, was enough to make children run in terror if they'd have seen it. "Woi, yew need ta giv us tribyewt is ahl."

"Uh-huh. And how much is 'tribute', then?"

"Noht much, jes' everythin' but yer luvly skin is ahl."

"Alright then, untie me so I can get these clothes off."

He laughed and cut the rope with his claw. "Smaht man, smaht man. Now if yew'd-"

My gun was smoking and six of his people were down. I reloaded and aimed at him. "I can pull this trigger faster than the bullet can leave the barrel. I'd reccommend you give me back my belongings before you find out what .45 caliber rounds feel like as they travel through your thick skull."

"Yeh, roit," he said with a snarl, "Butch, Bindah, ge' 'im!"

I sighed and said loudly, "Butch, Binder, you can probably figure out for yourselves that I managed to shoot people who were behind me quite easily when they moved. I would stay very still if I enjoyed living past today." I heard, or rather didn't hear, two pairs of footsteps stop quite suddenly. I focused on the leader again. "I think you should know who I am before you decide that it would be a good idea for you to try and hurt me. I am-"

"Bloody Agen' Twenny-Foive. Yew bastahd, whoi didn't yew say so sewnah?"

I blinked. Of all the things I had been expecting, that wasn't one of them. "Um, actually that's right. How did you know that?"

He shrugged and sat down, pulling a pipe from his vest pocket. "Wehll, it does bloody well 'elp when yew ayn't the fers' agen' tha' we've rahn inta. Thehr's a bugger doun in The Home who's doin' a pret'ee good damn job ah runnin' the playce."

I was lost at this point. "The Home?"

"Yep. Ih's about fiftayn, Twenny keelohmatahs boi th' ohld standahds. Oid say yew cood be theh t'morrah."

"One question: Which number is it?"

"Dunnah. 'E jes cahls hisself Agen' Matchstick"

Well, that was lovely. Especially after what happened the last time he'd been left to his own devices.

*

Agent 00099, The Matchstick, was the only man standing after the fight broke out. He'd been sent to settle a dispute between a pair of opposing generals in a civil war. Both sides had been lined up and he'd gotten there just in time to do what he did best. Escalate things.

He worked both sides up to a frothing point, then 'helped' a jumpy cadet pull the trigger. When the negotiations failed, he said, "Oh well, what can I do, I'll just have to stop it!" And stop it he did, by slaughtering every man within ten miles. That was what The Matchstick did. He used whatever resources he had and started making both sides burn with hate. That conflict was where he earned the name matchstick and officially went into Cryo until he was the literal last resort.

*

I remembered the damnable event as I walked behind the liongator. It was hard to forget, and so far away from my own philosophy about violence that my gun hand twitched as the building came in sight. I hated using any violence against those that don't deserve it. Criminals and some few others who pushed the envelope were as much as I could usually deal with, and The Matchstick was far enough along that I was more than happy to make sure of his criminal activities ceasing permanently.

The bandit showed me the path and was on his way. "What you don't trust me?" I asked.

"Not yew oi don' trust, it's the... things... what lihve in th' bloody playce."

I frowned and nodded, and after he left I broke into as fast a run as I could manage, and that was saying something. In my old body, I was known for my speed above all else. My endurance, strength, and balance were all only slightly above average, but my speed and accuracy that I could put out for a short while were far, far above anything that even Agent 1 could accomplish. I tore through the trail fast enough that the few animals I crossed were only beginning to react as I faded from sight. It took me five minutes to arrive at the middle of what could only be the ruins of a Solar-Steam Power Plant. The frames still stood on ground that was... set up like a church garden.

Now, that was just plain creepy in a rainforest.

Flowering plants of all assortments blossomed and flourished as they rose around the frames and lightly trimmed grass. Butterflies and hummingbirds were abundant, flitting from flower to flower calmly and without any hint that danger could even be concieved there. Acolytes in white robes wandered from place to place, tending the garden and finding ways to keep themselves busy. I opened the gate surrounding it and walked through unabated. An acolyte smiled warmly at me and closed the gate as I slowly approached a church-like building in the center.

The doors were wide open, and in the middle was a man surrounded by texts and tomes on religions from all ages. He wore a robe that only partly concealed the loose chains he wore and a thin body covered by a red-and-black jumpsuit. He had been turned into a shaggy golden retriever and smiled warmly as I walked up, but there was no mistaking who he was. The Matchstick.

"Agent 25! It's good to know that you are in good health!"

"99," I nodded. "If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you for a while."

"Oh, I'm sure you would, and I wouldn't mind talking to you," he said calmly. "In fact there's one thing I'd like to say in particular.

I raised a suspicious eyebrow and asked, "And what would that be?"

He bowed in front of me and said in a humble tone, "I am sorry that I didn't see your point so much sooner. I don't expect forgiveness from you, but I want you to know that it will not... can not happen again."

I stared at him as though he'd sprouted an extra head. "And what, may I ask, do you think will make me believe that you would actually mean that? You are a mass murderer who used his wits to make sure that you could kill for your amusement and not have to worry about consequences."

"True, very true," he said. "But it's not a matter of who I was, it's a matter of who I have been since I was changed." I nodded for him to continue and he kept speaking. "You see, I was woken up immediately after the disaster and was used as their test subject for the whole thing. They changed me countless times, testing each variant of the virus until they found one that would work."

"In all this, as I screamed and begged for mercy, they did nothing to stop the pain. I realized, in the midst of all of that pain and suffering that this was only a drop in the bucket compared to what I'd done to some of my victims. If there was a punishment that could have replaced the death penalty..." he shook his head with a grimace. "This would have been it. I felt like I should have died any number of times, yet the nanites kept me from dying."

"When I was finally released, I asked for a bible. They were surprised by the request, and though I was still chained, they brought me one. I realized what was going to happen when they released the virus, and moments before they did I asked for a copy of each book they could get their hands on for religion. Almost all of these were printed as the world went down into chaos and despair."

"I have been here ever since, learning and praying and asking for forgiveness. The people you see here are the lost that have wandered into my Home since then, and each of them has forsaken the outside world to live in peace here. If you would be so kind, my old acquaintence, I would like you to stay here for a while, if for nothing else then to teach these people what it means to follow your own ideals."

As I stared at him, I couldn't help but feel skepticism. But, if it was true... I shuddered as I remembered my own transformation. Anyone who endured that time after time would change, that was certain. I nodded. "I'll stay a day or two, no longer. I have work to do, and there are other Agents who need rescuing."

He smiled and it was the bright, honest smile of one who knew that he could count on you. "Thank you."

*

I stayed for five days, teaching them about what I'd been taught when I'd learned to use my gun. I showed them that it was sometimes necessary to kill, if there was no way to bring the enemy back from whatever had happened to them, and I taught them that sometimes the most true meaning of Mercy was ending someones pain.

On the sixth day, I left the place behind. I followed the trail out of the woods... and straight back to the front gate. I blinked, ran around back to the forest, and ended up in front of the gate again. Something was off, and I was going to get to the bottom of it.

I stormed into the building, and the acolytes all had the same calm demeanor as when I had first arrived. I entered the chapel, and found 99 right where he had been the first time. "Agent 25! It's good to know that you are in good health!"

I blinked. Alright, this wasn't normal. Nothing happened the same way twice in a row. "I've been here before, this has happened before, you're going to ask me for forgiveness and explain what happened to you."

The Matchstick blinked. "Um... Well, that's unexpected. I haven't seen you since before I went into cryo."

I nodded. "How long have you been here, before I arrived?"

He thought hard for a moment before answering, "about 2 years since the disaster is when this became a church, and I've been here for about 8 years since then."

I nodded. "I was woken up about 28 years after the disaster. Something's happened to make your memory skip, and I'm stuck here."

"Well, that's just... demonic, really."

I nodded. "I'm going to check for a couple things. Are you an android of some sort?"

"No."

"Anything odd that you can remember, and you know what I mean by that."

He started to shake his head then stopped. "You know, there is one thing. I keep having nightmares about these vines, wrapping all of us up and enslaving us."

I nodded. "That could be a clue, alright. I'm going to do something, so don't worry about me, I should be more than alright thanks to the nanites. Anything effecting the brain will clear up if I make sure they have to go back and clear it themselves."

I drew my gun, saluted, and shot myself in the head. I should have felt some pain, maybe a loss of a few days as I recovered... but instead, I felt nothing and when I opened my eyes, I saw vines wrapped around my neck and head. The bullet had gone through a knot of roots at the base of my neck and when that severed it, I was freed from its grasp. I thought back to when I could have gotten this little parasite... and then it hit me. The fight. I saw everyone around me, including the bandits and the acolytes, but oddly there was no Matchstick to be found.

I rose and got ready to destroy the roots on the others... but at that second, they all opened their eyes and stared at me. They rose jerkily, and I felt a trill of fear run down my spine. There were no acolytes or bandits... they had long since been eaten by the plants and become one with the vines.

My sword cleared its sheath and I grimaced at the fact that I wouldn't be able to use my gun here. No matter how strong a gun or fast a trigger, it didn't matter if I would run out of bullets before I did bad guys.

My blade was a variation of the old fashioned longsword, with a slightly thinner blade and more pointed tip. The titanium-diamond edge was strong enough to hold a razor sharp surface for hundreds of years, and I could use it almost as well as my revolver.

Everything stood still around me as the undead closed in. Just as the first reached me, I cut off its head and the vines, drawing a hissing scream from all of the others. They rushed me and my blade sang as I cut through vine and neck, clearing a path as surely as if I had been a steamroller. My new senses were amazing in a fight like this, tracking the enemies so well that not a single blow landed on me. The lack of wounds enhanced my endurance and I fought until not one creature was attached to a vine.

Winded and ready for another fight, I followed the deadly plant up through the woods and through to the building that I had seen. It was, in reality, dilapidated and unsound, covered all over with the plant. I saw the decayed remains of what could only have been scientists, and swallowed my stomach as they stirred under the will of the plant. Almost a hundred skeletons and bodies rose from the ground holding the Zapper Guns that had begun to phase out the old cordite rounds in the military. They could destroy almost anything, provided that it had enough charge and the enemy wasn't carrying any reflective surfaces.

I caught half of the beams aimed for me on my blade, reflecting them around and about as I tracked the barrels of their guns. The other half fired sporadically, some bursting into thousands of pieces or hitting other skeletons and destroying them in a puff of smoke and light. The vines were thicker here, and if the firing hit a vine it simply took a small chunk out of it.

I continued running and blocking as the guns slowly ran dry or their holders were cut off from the vines which gave them life. I ran into the building and found a cryo-tube in the middle of a mass of vines. Inside, I could see the emiciated form of Agent 99, more emiciated than I could have imagined and still breathing, if just barely.

I was so intent looking for a way to free him, that I almost didn't see the seed growing from the roof of the building.

Each and every vine that I had seen, small and thin, big and fat, and everything in between covered the walls and cieling, and in the middle of the cieling was a knot that must have at one point been a growth tube connected to a computer. The screen slowly lowered down to my height and I could make out the words as they flashed along its length.

/You should not be here/

"Yeah, and neither should you," I responded.

/I was created here, here is where I should be. You do not belong here/

"Bub, I am Agent 25, and this man in the tube is another agent. I need him, and you aren't stopping me."

/He is mine. A Mass Murderer, you knew him to be. A Simple Thug is what you thought of him. Leave the condemned to me, intruder. He is mine/

"To hell with that. And to hell with you. What can you do here? The Agent's brain is still alive in there enough that you can't do more than wipe out his memory rather than rule him completely."

/Truth. But, he is mine. I will not surrender him to you. You have slain all of my other food, and I am willing to let you leave if you simply depart from here without taking him. If you insist on taking things further, then I will use you as I have used im; as food./

"Well, fertilizer breath, how do you plan to manage that?"

/You cannot reach me up here, and I can block the exit. You will not leave./

I sighed. "Remember how I took out all of your thugs? And what my memories say I can do?"

/Simple ego. You cannot reach me, intruder./

"Watch this," I said, leaping into the air. I held out my sword, and cut the seed in half.

If you ever want to know if plants feel pain, I can honestly say now that the answer is yes. I heard an alien scream and felt the ground rumble as all around me vines came tumbling down. I cut 99 out of the tank and carried him out at a walk. I barely left the building when I felt the whole thing collapse behind me, and I knew without a doubt who was in charge of this monstrosity. For now, I had a reformed criminal that I needed to bring back to town so that he could heal from his wounds and tell me for sure.

But as soon as I found Agent 150, Lady Green, there would be hell to pay. That is, if The Golem didn't find us first.