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A New Life in a New Body

"Oh god, I stabbed Mike." I said while collapsing against the door to my room, sealed shut behind me.

"You know he deserved it," Alvar said.

Laughing I said "Maybe you're right, after all, you're me right?" Throwing a knife through him I stood up and continued, "Why don't you just tell me what comes next, after all, you know fucking everything don't you. Maybe I should just go charge back there and save Klaw, sacrificing myself in the process, or is that too selfless for you to think of. Oh wait, no, you want me to figure out how to kill Mike, I mean we saw him get shot through the chest. Yeah, just give the word, tell me to do it. After all, I'm just a monster."

"You're only what you see yourself as. Sacrifice comes later, you're more important than Klaw, whether you believe it or not. Mike deserved getting stabbed but he's the only hope of our people, killing him would doom us for hundreds of years. You know that somewhere in there," he replied.

Snarling I launched myself at him and for once I grabbed him saying "If you know so much, why are you so useless. Every time I lose something you gain more than I lost, I may be fucking insane but I know that."

"Well how useful would you be without a physical body?" he asked.

"More so than you, always insulting me, always egging me on so that I lose a little more, do you think that eventually I'll whither to nothing, bullshit, I will always have my anger and my fury. You cannot take those from me and they will let me be stronger than you." I shouted while attempting to slam him against the wall, but as usual he just disappeared.

Reappearing behind me he said, "Doubtful, you can't banish a spectre in the back of your mind. All I do is say what your mind would have said because whether you admit it or not; I am you, before you lost his child."

"You're right, you're smarter than me, you're calmer than me, you're probably weaker than me but if we do that, who knows what would happen. I doubt even you do, yeah, let's follow that idea to the end of the line." Stepping back from the wall I walked right through Alvar and started packing. Knives, my old multi-form gun, the custom twenty round clips for it. I wouldn't need to avoid casualties on this but I strapped my custom electrified tonfa to my forearms anyway. The battery pack was too bulky but I grabbed my special kukri from their safe in the wall. I grabbed a disguise kit and shoved it in my bag, anything else I needed no one could stop me from just taking. Stopping for a moment I grabbed my digital journal with all of my old scanned entries, even I could be sentimental, and put it in the bag as well.

Throwing the bag over my shoulder and strapping the handgun segments of the multi-form to my hips I pulled on a long loose shirt and started towards the med-bay, they would have taken Mike over to the actual hospital so I probably wouldn't see him.

"What're you doing?" Alvar asked.

Laughing maniacally for a moment I said "Wow, you don't know for once, how incredible is that."

"Well, I know all of your memories and can use them against you to egg you on and I know everything you think while you're asleep, by the way Roslyn's a good choice," he said.

"Yeah, yeah, you hate her, before I do this I need to see her. Keep your comments to a minimum for once, karesh yi veeh nare mour. You at least should know what that means." I said while navigating the halls as calmly as I could. Meet that which you believe in, to me it was a curse on whoever I said it to.

"She loves you, and you feel something for her, I know you do, can you really just leave her behind?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet, she's hurt and I can't take care of everything for two people and carry her, well, maybe I can..." I said while trailing off. Walking into the med bay one of the nurses walked over and began to stop me, snapping out my left arm I hit her across the temple and walked into Roslyn's curtained off area, "Hey Blueberry."

"Sherri, what are you doing here?" She asked while sitting up a bit in her bed.

"I'm leaving, I have a plan, sorta, do you want to come with me, I thought I'd give you the option." I said while sitting on the edge of her bed and tracing the edge of her face.

"Whereas I have no choice," Alvar said.

Glancing at him I completely ignored the comment while Roslyn slowly inhaled and exhaled, "I'm still hurt but with my rate of healing I can move without shooting pains already. If we're going on a mission we should get my gear as well."

Nodding I said "Well then we should go to the armory."

"Maybe you should tell her everything first," Alvar said firmly.

"You just want me to tell you the plan, and I'm not gonna tell you until she asks," I said to Alvar before turning to Roslyn and asking her, "do you want to know Blueberry or will you just follow me into hell?"

Smiling at me she laughed for a moment before wincing and saying "I'll follow you through damnation, just don't make me laugh for a few more days."

Handing her a cane from the wall next to her bed I said "Well, do you want to help bake a pie Blueberry?"

********

"Look Doc, I told you before I'm fine, I don't need to be in a damn bed. Let me out of here," I argued.

"You were shot through the heart and no less than Sherri threw a knife through your stomach and cutting your spinal column between the L2 and L3 vertebrae. You should be dead twice over and despite that your body is burning thousands of calories to completely repair both within thirty seconds of the injury. It's scientifically impossible even by our standards." Doctor Rook said while glaring at me.

"Well it happened so it has to be possible. If you're worried about my weight put me on a high calorie diet, just let me get the hell out of here. I need to be out there with the people not here occupying a bed I shouldn't be. I need to tell Sherri I don't blame her." I said.

"She's gone, took Roslyn with her too, so there's no point," Lisa said after hearing the last bit upon entering, turning to Dr. Rook, "Is he going to be able to leave soon?"

"Fine, I need another blood sample and then he can go," Dr. Rook said before taking out a syringe and drawing the sample. Disconnecting the cords and needles slowly he left.

"Well you cheated death twice today Mike." she said.

"I hate dying," I said.

"Everyone does, most just don't die completely multiple times in their life, let alone twice in the same day. How are you?"

"Well, for being killed twice I feel great, but I'm irritated. All of a sudden I'm a medical marvel, we have so many people here who are near god like in their abilities. Like you and your telepathy, or Sherri and her masterful combat skills."

"Deal with it, you're special, not just to our cause." she said.

"It gets a bit tiresome though, they've been poking and prodding me since I got here. So why are you here? I thought you'd be off somewhere crying about the loss of Klaw, weren't you two a couple?" I asked.

Blushing she said, "Well..."

She stopped as a small silvery blue furred possum walked in and said "Lisa, dad wants to talk to you about what happened today, you're next Mike."

"Whom would that be exactly?" I asked.

"Sorry, I'm Dawn, my dad was a grief counselor in the outside world. He wants to talk to you about what happened today, you lost two people important to you." She said while walking over and offering a handshake.

"I'm perfectly fine, it comes with the territory, especially in my line of work," I said.

Smiling easily she dropped her hand and put both of them behind her back saying "It's mandatory if you serve in our active forces to talk to him after a loss. I will ask for Devil to help, he's my uncle and he quite likes his only true born niece."

"Nothing like some rigid protocol to make me miss the civilian sector," I said with a groan, "Well if he really has to speak to me he can come find me."

"Very well, I'll tell him that, and I'll inform him of your sarcasm about the civilian sector. You quite obviously missed the military, your eyes flashed up to the left, accessing memories when you said civilian sector, but they also flashed there when you said rigid protocol. You met someone important to you in both places but self preservation made you leave both of them, correct?" he smile was still on her face but now it seemed different, her smile somehow added something analytical to her features instead of happiness.

Turning on the spot Dawn left, closing the door behind her and leaving Lisa alone with me.

"Lisa, you don't have to answer, it was rude of me to ask. Just know I'm there if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'll be in my room, it's nicer than this place at least, I hate hospitals." I said getting out of the bed and grabbing my clothes and headed to the bathroom.

When I came back out she was gone and the room was completely empty. I walked out of the room and out of the hospital and walked down the corridors to my room. I didn't run but it seemed like my feet were in a bit of a hurry, but I wasn't sure why. It took me a little longer than expected because I got lost a few times, but I finally found my way and opened my door and walked in locking the door behind me. I decided to get to bed and sleep off the events of the day.

A decidedly loud knocking came at my door rousing me from my blissful slumber, I groggily got up and unlocked the door. Lisa was standing there as if she had been up for a while."Can I come in?" she asked.

"Of course," I said allowing her to enter, "Somethin..."

I was stopped as her lips locked with mine, after a blissful minute she broke it and said, "You dumbass, I can't believe that you didn't know."

"Reading people was never my greatest strong point," I said, "Sit down please."

Walking over to the bed she sat down next to my pillow and a pistol slid out from under it looking at me she asked, "You sleep with a gun?"

"Safety measure, same with the locked door, it pays to be cautious. So I take it you and Klaw were just friends then?" I asked.

"You really are dumb about this aren't you? Yes he was just a friend, and I didn't come here to chat, I think we both need a sparring match, so lets see if your bed can handle it," she said.

Leaning in to kiss her, I was interrupted yet again by someone knocking at the door, "Hold onto that thought."

Walking over to the door I opened it yet again to see a male purple blue possum standing there, "Hello, my name is Richard, I am the base counselor."

"Look I'm fine, I've seen a lot of shit. But if you absolutely have to do this make it quick." I said.

I saw his eyes flash to the side of me before he raised his voice a little and said "Hey Lisa, just vouch he's fine and I'll leave you two alone and do this later."

"I'll be here if he needs anything." Lisa said.

"Fine, be safe, enjoy the tango." He said before walking off.

"So where were we?" I asked turning back to Lisa after closing and locking the door, I saw that he must have noticed her shirt on the floor, which she appeared to have taken off while I was at the door.

******** 38 years ago Kristopher

Running into the room dad was in I said "Can we go to the park today?" I heard his mind flash 'no' but he said "Sure buddy." Running past mommy I heard her thinking 'Moron' but I ran out the door to stand by dad's truck. The back was full of things under a tarp but last time dad spanked me and had told me to not call him daddy anymore since I was old enough to get in trouble that big. When dad came out he opened the door and I crawled up into the passenger seat and buckled up like mommy always yelled at me to do.

Dad never did though, and I wanted to copy him but mommy yelled at him too. We drove away quickly, dad always drove fast and I liked it but mommy didn't and yelled at him for that too. Looking up I saw something else mommy yelled about and said "Red." Everything was a blur all of a sudden as dad's leg jerked and we slowed before dad looked to his side and his arms twisted, we swung suddenly and then everything turned upside down. Looking over to dad I saw he wasn't there. The front glass was broken with a dad sized hole in it.

After what felt like forever someone was knocking on the glass next to my head and asking "Are you okay?"

Nodding I said "It hurts my shoulder, where's dad?"

Standing again I couldn't see what they were doing but I heard something scraping dad's truck and I knew dad wouldn't like that. The truck suddenly rose a bit and the person from before opened the door and reached around with a knife to cut my seat belt. I fell a little bit but the person caught me before I hit my head and pulled me out. Turning me over I saw mommy and said "That's mommy, where's dad?"

******** 33 years ago

Standing in front of the class I looked at them, another new city with another extended family member helping us for a little while. "My name is Kristopher Lee Alen Wayne, my father taught me that it was rude to not completely introduce yourself. That was before he was killed because he ran a red light without a seatbelt on. I remember being told that if my dad hadn't reacted the way he did I would be dead too."

I saw the teacher was slightly taken aback and I heard his thoughts for a moment, 'Well he's a future suicide.'

"Ok Kristopher why don't you take a seat in the back and we can get class started, again," Mr. Darcy said.

Walking to the back of the room I heard 'trip', and raised my foot over the student try to trip me only to have them shove me after I avoided their attempt. Catching myself on the next row of desks, ignoring it I continued to the very back row of desks and sat alone. I could hear all their voices coming in and out thinking 'freak', or 'how wier...', 'he nearl...'. It didn't matter, they would ruin their own minds worrying about such inane things, and I would find my own place in the world, or I would follow my father in 'joining the peace' as the pastor had said at his funeral.

4 months later

"Hey freak!" I heard someone shout at me. Ignoring them I knew they would walk over as always, I kept to my book as they approached and hearing their thoughts moved the book down a few inches as they tried to grab the book and instead their hand soared over it just in front of my face.

"Do you mind Rob?" I asked while putting the book down and looking up at him and his crony.

"Actually shit face, I do, me and my friend here need something to throw shit at and we chose you," Rob said.

"You realize you just said that you're willing to go away, so why don't you follow what you actually said and buzz off." I said back with a slight smirk.

"Thinks he's so fucking smart, maybe he can tell us why his mom was out late last night, standing on a corner," he snarled laughing as he finished.

"We don't have a car anymore, probably waiting for the bus, or maybe your mistook yours spreading her legs for another man again." I replied while finally standing up and paying attention to their thoughts.

"Watch what you're saying about my mom, or you'll be eating your teeth," he said hand balling up in a fist.

"Oh but the entire school knows the truth now Dick, because your name isn't really Robert is it, your mom was just moaning for more Dick and they thought she meant your name." I heard his thoughts, 'so dead!', and as he threw his first punch I ducked and put one into his stomach. Backing up I saw him double over and his crony running over to tackle me as other kids gathered around. Stepping to the side I heard a teacher yelling for us to break it up but Rob had recovered and as he ran at me I took advantage of his prone friend and quickly walked backwards before sidestepping. As Mr. Darcy push his way through Rob tripped over his friend and I hopped backwards out of his reach.

"Sorry Mr. Darcy, they started it." I said innocently while grabbing my book off the ground.

"Don't play that innocent with me, I bet you instigated it didn't you? Well it doesn't matter the both of you, principal's office, now" he said.

Following him I suppressed a grin, it wouldn't matter in the end. Rob was always in trouble so the principal would believe that he started it. The only part she would have trouble with is that I don't have a scratch since I knew what he would do before he did it. Taking the hit would have made it more believable but even if they did have me eat lunch with them and stay inside that would just make life easier.

******** Present Day

Mike

There was a knocking on the door yet again, at least this one wasn't an interruption. Getting quickly dressed I answered it and said, "Who is it?"

I saw Anne who said "The council wants you to report to them since Klaw and Sherri are gone, Lisa is to come as well if you know where she is."

"Oh she's around, but really what's to report the mission went to hell, situation got bad we pulled the hell out." I said.

"Report to them, not give a report. The wording is everything in the matter, remember that." She said cryptically before closing the door.

Closing the door I said, "Ok Lisa we got to get up, council wants to see us. Don't know what they expect."

Groaning she said, "Well this should prove interesting, I still feel slightly sore, well at least this time it was actually fun for everyone. Well lets get going then."

Both of us coming out I said, "Alright, lets get this shit over with. Damn military protocols."

"Follow me, they do seem to enjoy cloak and dagger for being the leaders of a resistance." Anne said before walking away with a minute clicking.

"Well I just joined and here I am already going through regs like a damn lap dog," following her.

"You'd be surprised how much of that is Sherri's doing, along with other former military. We have to keep silent and keep control, some think that if they run back to those still human they can be turned back so everyone is treated as a potential threat unless a trusted source says otherwise, such as you had Sherri, not that she actually knew you were coming." Anne said while leading us through hidden doors in the stone walls.

"Sherri, a trusted source, that's a new one," I muttered.

"Scoff as you may, and unstable as she was, none knew as much about their military and pushed our cause further in the past three years." she said before showing me one last door that opened into a room with a giant U shaped table and around thirty different kinds of furs sitting around it.

"So I guess this is the council?" I asked Anne.

Gesturing me in she didn't answer. Walking in I heard the door shut behind us and an older looking grey rabbit said "Michael Nikolus Yvaltski, The Leash and Finger of God. You are here because we wish to discuss something with you."

"I did not come here because you summoned me, I came because I was left with no alternative, lest you decide to pull me out of my room kicking and screaming," I said.

Without any notable change in his face the grey rabbit continued, saying "We acknowledge that we have possibly caused the current situation, but war has officially been declared by the government. We believe that the mistakes made in your last mission held no influence on their decision to finally call this a war."

"You know that they haven't been waging war with us but they have been murdering us, every single one of us they find they kill, it's not war it's genocide, as far as I'm concerned we've been at war with them since our emergence. And of course the last mission didn't hold any bearing on what seems like an age old practice now," I said, "Kill the enemy before they're a problem."

A dark green turtle to his side said "This is exactly our problem. They have the resources, they have the authority given to them by the previous governments of the world. Our emergence brushed all previous problems to the sidelines and allowed world peace of sorts. But if we don't do something they will slaughter us."

"We have something they don't. We are more developed, we are stronger than our unevolved counterparts. You've got all sorts of stuff they don't, telekinesis, super healing, super speed, and all sorts of other powers. We are stronger than human beings we are better then them. They have sheer numbers, but we have sheer force. Let's show them what we're made of," I said.

"That is the problem." a red orange wolf to my left said, "their fear of our superiority is what caused this problem. And we have proven it numerous times as they capture our kind and attempt to further their disgusting experiments. Lisa, you have experience their unethical and monstrous science both before and after your ascension."

"I did, but as we all know fear itself is a powerful weapon," Lisa spoke up, "They are monsters making us out to be monsters so let us give them what they want, scary ass beings with a lust for vengeance."

As the door behind us opened a cat I had seen in the radio room came in and said "Sirs, Ma'am, we have something new, you need to see this." Walking over to the wall on the right side the door closed and a news report appeared on the wall.

"We go now to Sargent General Mathermic who has a statement to assure citizens." I saw that it was channel 7 news.

A large built black man who I didn't recognize but I did recognize the medals on his chest. A platinum eagle of valor, "He was in the Beckhel terrorist retaliation attack. Only eight soldiers returned from that attack, they are the only living recipients of the platinum eagle of valor."

"We will not stand for this terrorist organization of furs making light of our military. This assault on Garrison Fort Taylor and their following annihilation of Fort Carson will be punishe..." He was cut off as his head burst like a smashed melon, high caliber explosive shell, Sherri.

Cutting back to the news reporter she said "I'm sorry, we apologize to any parents whose kids saw that." Turning it off the radio cat said "Before this they said that near two thousand soldiers died in a series of explosions in Fort Carson, no survivors. Sherri has been unchecked for three hours now, that's all Sirs, Ma'am."

"Thank you, you're dismissed Cheryl." the grey rabbit said before she turned and left.

"You see? She's giving them a panic attack, she's just one person, and you're going to sit here and say you can't fight them with whole squads?", I asked.

"All we want is..." A purple and teal striped tiger began.

Shaking his head the grey rabbit said "Enough, he's right. We need to make our own statement."

"I got an idea, just one simple word 'Nuts'" I said.

"Excuse me?" the grey rabbit asked.

"They think they got us beat, so let's not offer surrender, let's just tell them we aren't going to back down," I said, "During the Mactorian war there was a section of men cut off and surrounded by the enemies on all sides, the enemy demanded surrender to spare that platoon, and the officer of that squad sent them a message, that message was simply the word 'Nuts' afterwards that platoon not only survived but won the battle as well. So let's convey that to them." I said.

"I think we'll deliver a more tactful message." the turtle said.

"Very well, but are we going to try and get Sherri and her friend back here?" I asked.

"It is unlikely that we could begin to catch her. She's the one that showed us how to backtrack the military satellites and piggyback their signals without them knowing. I'm sure she showed you more but even then how do you propose to find her when she has human contacts still that respect her enough to continue to help." I recognized this voice, seeing a pale yellow female lion I placed the voice as the only drill instructor Sherri and I had that she hadn't permanently ruined, Rachel Niel.

"Drill Sergeant Niel, I'd recognize that voice anywhere, almost all of the contacts she knew she talked to them about me, and now she's making a huge affront to humanity destroying all in her path, and that's where their loyalties end, that or they'll be joining our side soon enough," I said.

"You didn't know every contact of hers, just as the opposite is true. We won't stop you if you choose to leave, but we would appreciate it if you helped us. We only have so many military members, and if all our best leave then how are we going help those that aren't military. I know you are used to dealing with Sherri's hot head but don't let it affect your judgement as well." Niel said calmly, trying to appeal to my sense of right over loyalty to Sherri.

"Did her friend bring a headset with her?" I asked, "All I need is to be able to talk to her."

Pressing a button on the wall next to her Niel asked "Cheryl, please check if Operative Blueberry took her receiver."

"Yes Ma'am, would you like the transmitter?" she responded over a speaker I couldn't see.

"Please bring it up here Cheryl, thank you." Not long after I was handed a type of radio, "Those are linked and rerouted through the military globalsat network, no matter where she is her receiver will send a subcutaneous vibration and she'll pick up when they're safe."

Pressing the button she indicated I almost immediately got a response from Roslyn who said "Hello mountain, this is Blueberry on the run, care to tell meh what ya want?" Her voice had a touch of southern at the end I hadn't heard when I talked to her before.

"Hi this is Leash, please hand this to Geist," I said.

Laughing a bit she said "Yer in luck, Vodka just came back with some sherry and vicodin."

I heard brief whistling before Sherri said "She's a bit drugged up, that was a hell of a shot she made but it hurt her shoulder more than we thought it would. What do you want?"

"Geist this is Halter, please return to base," I said.

"Sorry, no Geist here, last I heard this Geist fellow died four years ago. As for anyone coming back like I said, Blueberry is drugged to hell, and I have plans set up already." she replied.

"You know you can carry her Cherry!" I yelled, "Now as far as I'm concerned your plans are putting everything you have strove for at risk. I know you don't want to be another screw up, and that's what you'll be if you follow through with these, your people will be obliterated, your cause destroyed and your name will be as mud."

Getting angry it was obvious she was holding back screaming at me and calmly said "You don't even know what the hell I have planned. There is a reason why I killed that General and there is a reason why I blew up that Fort, I was just going to steal some weapons from there but I found something bigger. Our son isn't dead like they told me."

My eyes grew wide and it took me a minute to respond, "He doesn't know us. He may have actually lived a happier life without us. Do you want to ruin that?"

"He's an experiment, you know and they know what I've become. My genetic code is the basis for the entire sniffer experiment, and he shares my previously unique genome, and they finally created a grown clone of him. That is why they began this war, because they finally know how to beat me, destroying the 'fur rebellion' is just a convenient secondary. Afterwards they plan to make the entire world immune to turning."

"Kill them both then, destroy all of the work, don't spare our son, no matter what, he and the clone must be destroyed," I said.

"I knew you would say that, and I refuse to kill an innocent five year old. Vodka over and out." I heard the receiver hit the floor.

After a few seconds I heard "Ah apologize for her, she happens ta be a bit on edge about it all. Ah also apologize for mah accent, drugs."

"Please make sure she does what needs to be done. Don't let her do anything stupid, make it back in one piece. You and I need to have a little chat when you get back. Cryptid Over and out." Turning off the transmitter I gave it back to Cheryl. Looking to the Council I asked, "Are we done here?"

Speaking again the Grey Rabbit said "I recommend you don't go after her but we won't stop you. But yes, the Council has nothing more to say to you at this juncture."

"I'm not going after her, rest assured, you just better hope she gets back here safely with... Roslyn, or we're all fucked, unless you're like me," I said, "Councilor Niel can I have a word with you when you have the time?" After she nodded I left the room with Lisa not too far behind me and we saw Anne still standing where she had been.

"I'll escort you back to the mess hall, most people get lost since these tunnels all have hidden doors." She said before beginning to leave.

"Is there a lake around here?" I asked.

Stopping and looking at me she cocked her head to the side and said "Lake?" quizzically.

"A pond somewhere where there's not a lot of people, I need to think," i said.

"The water filtration pool is quiet, relatively, and usually there is usually not a soul there." She said before turning around and walking past me down the other side of the hall.

Following her I asked, "Do you have kids?"

"Had, a daughter, when I changed sniffers killed her in coming after me. My own advances killed my daughter." After a moment she said "I don't want to talk about it."

"Sorry I don't mean to open old wounds, though you did you know Sherri was pregnant, before she came here," I asked.

"I should say no but yes, I did know." Leading us through a hidden door into another empty hall she said "Sherri... she isn't stable now but she was worse then."

"I had a feeling she'd have been really bad after that, I guess before my accident she was pregnant, she never mentioned it then I ran off, to help her. They were getting at her through me, I didn't want to but I saw no other option. I wish I wouldn't have done it but, I can't go back now," I said.

"The past is the past, all you can do is move on. As I have in finding a cure to the mental poisoning of creating a sniffer." Anne said before we walked through a doorway into a large dark cavern with faint machinery noises, twenty feet away was a veritable sea of water as I couldn't see the other side of the cavern. "I'll leave you two alone, take the right path out of the cavern and you'll get to the hospital."

"Thank you, have a pleasant day," i said as she walked away.

"So your son is alive, huh?" Lisa asked.

"Apparently so. I guess they lied to her pretty convincingly as well, she's not easily fooled." I said.

"How'd you meet?" she asked.

Looking at the water I said, "Well that's a long story and like all stories I'd prefer to start at the beginning. I used to live in a town with a nuclear reactor, my family and I were exposed pretty early. We were drinking irradiated water for years, the incident wasn't bad enough for evacuation thankfully, but they didn't tell us about it for years, till it was all cleaned up, probably my country's best kept secret. After that my parents moved us out of the country, we came here and we ended up in a rural town

"It was nice enough. Everyone knew everyone, a closely knit community was something you only get in the country. Other communities weren't as close, the people of our town were considered really weird by the city people who passed through. We felt that they were weird, being so involved in their own families stuff rather than the communities. There were plenty of kids to play with, my family ended up being friends with the fire chief and his family. For a time I felt that was my calling and would have joined had I thought it would put food and citizenship on the table. I was close to it too, till the Chief went into a burning building and never came back out. We helped the family from that point on, we leaned against each other.

"By the time I was seventeen I was sure the military was for me. So I got my dad to sign off on me joining early, I had all my credits so I was sure to graduate. Before all of that though they came into our town looking for recruits. I came up to them and they took one look at me and said I had a huge amount of potential. They had a brotherhood that only other military had so naturally I was interested.

"I signed up as soon as I was able. So there I was a greenhorn fresh from a good school system. I was in great physical shape, but that helped little in the thirteen weeks of boot camp. When we were separated into squads I was elected leader and I kept having it happen. I personally didn't see why, but I was constantly excelling with this kind of duty. DI's all said I was a natural born leader.

"A little while later came Heartland, that's where we met," Upon saying it I took in a deep breath.

"What happened there?" Lisa asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," i said as my mind trailed off into it.

******** Sherri

I couldn't explain it but spying on this Lieutenant somehow made me think back to Heartland, maybe my mind subconsciously remembers him from it. My new apparition certainly wasn't talking if that was the case. I should check later.

******** Sherri Eighteen years ago

Waking up I looked around but there was nothing to identify where I was besides some generic office building. Was this a test, a terrorist attack, did I develop sleepwalking at some point, because when I went to sleep it had been on the base, boot had only just finished yesterday. I knew though that I shouldn't just stay here, something was up. All I had on was the tanktop and shorts I had gone to sleep in, and there were no clothes nearby. Annoyed at that I took in my surroundings in greater detail quickly, it didn't even look like it had ever been used as an office despite the attempt to make it look used and abandoned, the stains were weeks old at most and there weren't any spots on the carpet around the chairs where the wheels would have torn the tiny u shaped nubs. Moving out silently I vowed that nothing would live if it got in my way, if this was an army test they should have known better than to use me in it.

******** Mike Eighteen years ago

"Where am I?" I asked myself. Looking at my general surroundings I saw a few barstools, a bar and broken flooring. Looked like the place had been condemned to an untrained eye but there wasn't enough dust for it to be that old. The wood smelled fresh and unlived in. The whole place smelled of cheap pine wood, not beer and smoke. Whom ever built this was clever in design but it wasn't very convincing to say the least. Looking towards the only light source I saw it was daylight, and from the looks of it I was on the ground floor. All I remember from last night is a very good punch to the back of the head and upon looking I was still wearing the fatigues I had when it happened.

******** Sherri

Coming to an emergency staircase I decided it didn't matter if I was subtle, if someone came after me it would just make it that much easier to find out details. Checking the handle first I found it was locked and backed up a couple steps before charging into a side kick and putting the momentum into it, breaking the doorframe out of the crap walling. Squeezing through the busted frame I started heading up the stairs until I came to the door onto the roof. This door was unlocked though so as I walked through I was shocked by what I saw. There was a giant wall around a five block radius with various buildings inside. The wall was at least eighty feet taller than the building I was on, that settled it, this was a test. Maybe there are others here that know more, they'll tell me if they do.

******** Mike

Heading outside through a very sturdy door I found myself in a back alley. Not knowing what was going on I decided to go on stealth seeing as the people that attacked me had clearly been on a military base and were likely hostile to me as well, drawing attention to myself was a stupid move at this point. My hand felt for the knife I had been keeping at my side, but it was gone. All of the buildings looked like they were quickly fabricated, having been here less than a few years and tried to look aged. there was a rustic looking dumpster filled with garbage bags. It too was just an elaborate fabrication, the garbage bags were filled with styrofoam, pretty convincing under other circumstances though each one was of a similar size. Pulling them out I decided it might as well be worth a look into it see if we could find a weapon of some sort. With some luck I found a tactical knife.

******** Sherri

Using the hand bars around each flight of stairs as quick balances I stopped at each doorway and checked if it was open and then listened if anyone was on the other side. Deciding to pass by the ones I had come in through I went down another three flights before I heard someone calling out if anyone was there on floor thirty three. Checking the door I found that this one like the others was unlocked on the inside. Silently moving through it I found the person calling out rather easily, he looked like he shouldn't even have been recruited, let alone be here for whatever this was. Getting up closer to him I noticed he had a pistol somehow, and he was still wearing his fatigues. Deciding not to take a chance I came up behind him and grabbed the arm holding the gun before bringing my knee up and his arm, along with him, down onto it, breaking it from his body at the elbow.

******** Mike

Hearing someone coming I hid in the dumpster and waited for them to pass by. When they came to inspect the trash bags and said, "Very convincing." Turning around he looked towards the bar I'd just come out of he stood there looking at the door. Should I kill him? What if he has loved ones waiting for him at home? My opportunity was fast disappearing when he started walking towards the door. Deciding quickly I jumped silently from the can and landed on his back. One on the ground I covered his mouth and held the knife to his throat. Slowly I moved the knife away from his throat. The man below me started moving his arm up towards mine to try and remove it after he recovered. Without thinking I stabbed the knife into his left kidney about ten times. Recovering I straightened myself up and set about hiding the body, luckily there was a dumpster nearby.

******** Sherri

Turned out that the kid didn't have any more understand of what was going on either, but I didn't take the risk and shot him after I was certain he was telling the truth, at least as certain as I could be. The gunshot was unnecessary and the pistol was much louder than I thought it would be, after shooting it I realized it was a non-standard pistol, which no one but officers were allowed to have. Putting on his fatigues, which were baggy and I had to rip them at the sleeves and below the knees in them, I put the pistol's safety on kept moving, waiting to hear someone else coming to check out the gunshot. It was just my luck that a big black guy not masking his footsteps at all came thumping up another set of stairs. Ducking into a nearby room I waited until he passed I stepped out and shot him four times rapidly, once in each shoulder and once in both knees. He was useless for information as well, I was starting to think this was a war game to test who could kill most easily. Putting a bullet between his eyes I took his pistol before moving on.

******** Mike

Going over to what looked like an abandoned house, I saw an alarm system was set up and in place. Seeing at least two men circling each other exchanging blow for blow with each other. They already had nicks and cuts, possibly from each other. I waited as it continued, soon the yelling was almost indistinguishable, one voice was the same as the other. Then complete silence, I looked in to see two equally large pools of blood forming on the floor. deciding to chance it I walked towards a windowed door and smashed the glass panel out, I was worried the alarm would go off but it didn't, thank god for the power companies. Unlocking the door I crept in I checked their pulses, nada. The weapons were other mundane improvisational weapons like a hatchet and a butcher knife, I decided to take the hatchet as it was more likely to be useful.. Someone must've heard the glass break as the glass that had fell inwards made a crunching noise. I hid in the closet.

******** Sherri

Finding an elevator I decided to use it as a trap. Getting in I opened the grating in the corner before pressing the button for the door below and crawling up. Pulling the grating back into place I sat there at the ready to surprise anyone that came to check the elevator. Looking around I noticed a second control panel on the top, override controls, including close door and lock door. When the elevator arrived I was surprised when someone immediately walked in, he was older than me and both of my previous victims by several years, he looked late twenties at least. When he turned around to press the button for ground floor I waited for it to start moving before I used 'stop'. Dropping in on top of the grating I reached up and pulled him back, holding him in a choke and putting a gun to the side of his head. "I suspect you know more than the other two did, talk, now."

******** Mike

I listened carefully as he walked in, right past my hiding spot. Opening the door slowly I looked at him as he walked around the two. I slowly crept up to him as he decided to sit down and play with a Zippo lighter he'd found. What a dumbass sitting down in the middle of an empty house with two dead bodies in it. Taking the hatchet I swung it down on his head, splitting his head just like it were a log for the fire. Oddly this time I didn't hesitate as much. I thought killing wouldn't come easily. but here I was killing another. This one had a gun on him, no magazine though. No firing pin either, wonder if he knew that. ******** Sherri

"You, I told them not to bring you into this." I was right, he knew far more than the others. Interested I asked "Well I guess they should have listened, or maybe you should have, you're the one in here with me. So are you going to tell me freely or should I pay you first?" He probably knew what I meant but I hoped he didn't so that I could explain. I really am starting to lose it to this anger, damn. "No, this is a test for new agents. Usually we don't have this many people in a single test and we don't use live ammo or leave knives to be found. But you and the Farm boy leader are the best possible agents that the tops have seen in a while." The tops, I didn't like the sound of that, and I knew everything I really needed so I broke his neck with a quick twist so as to not risk a bullet ricochet. Going back up through the grate I pressed the start button. Checking him quickly I found a tracking device, they really should have been more careful about this. He also had a shoulder holster which I took. There were other potentials on floor thirty one, twenty eight, twenty five, twenty, seventeen, fifteen, thirteen, eight, five and two. This will teach them to fuck with me, I'll kill everyone else.

******** Mike

I looked all over his person to find the firing pin i came up with nothing. Looking at him I decided to try his Zippo. There it was, smart bastard, too bad one unlucky move cost him his life. Patting him up and down again i felt a slight inconsistency in the back of his jacket, it was hard and metal. Ripping off his jacket I was amazed that he was smart enough to do this yet so stupid at the same time. Heading back outside i saw only two other buildings. I went to the other single level building. I saw at least four others patrolling outside apparently they decided to work together, probably meaning they were more organized.

******** Sherri

This was almost too easy, I didn't even have to try to disguise my footsteps as these novices didn't even know how to figure out where it was coming from. The couldn't recognize obvious traps or distractions, even the cliche ones. I didn't have to kill them, in fact a couple of them, the ones on floors twenty and on thirteen, begged to live, swearing to serve me. I just killed them slower as payment. It made me angry when it shouldn't have, how could these pieces of shit call themselves soldiers. Finally making it to the ground floor I had three more pistols and had found spare clips for each of them. I decided not to use the tracker anymore and smashed it against the ground. The hunt was just getting good.

******** Mike Taking out the four guards patrolling around the outside proved a little more difficult than anticipated, due to unexpected gunshots going off. I found several extra clips, and then went in through the front door. They didn't lock it, good for me. There was at least one more inside, i could hear him talking at the moment, "...good, Keep an eye out. Red fox, report." Hope he didnt mean the people that were killed outside, otherwise we'd be meeting shortly.

******** Sherri

I saw a glint and realized just before he fired that there was someone on the roof of a two story building up the way, as I heard the shot ring out I felt the wind of it over my shoulder as I brought up my pistol and fired three shots. He tumbled forward and I walked over to take his rifle, it was a Winchester lever action, old but sturdy and he had four more rounds in it. Taking his jacket I put the pistol back in the holster before I checked the sights on the rifle and moved on, now the hunt really was just that. Moving on I heard a gunshot and then several more coming from a side alley. Moving down it slowly I found a dumpster and saw some blood on the side where someone had picked up a body and put it in. Continuing I came across a man crouching over a young woman and starting to strip her, I could see she was already dead from the bullet hole in her head but for even considering it this fuck needed to die painfully. Drawing the pistol in the holster I waited until he pulled his dick out and then shot it off. As he clutched the former location of his manhood I shot him again in each shoulder. "You don't deserve a clean death," I said before proceeding to shoot him four more times and then load a new clip and shoot him another twelve in locations that wouldn't cause immediate death, he would bleed and die painfully.

******** Mike

After dealing with the eighth man I've killed today, I decided to go see where those gunshots originated from. Seeing a naked woman in the alley behind the bar where I had started I walked over to check it out but the bullet hole in her head showed it was too late. A man was lying next to her clutching what I could only presume was what was left of his penis, with over a dozen more shots all over his body, none kill shots, he bled out. I figured there wouldn't be that many more people left in the vicinity since it looks completely isolated. So I decided to say to hell with it and started looking around.

******** Sherri

I found a pub just as poorly falsified as being old as the office building. Everything was made of fresh pine and then stained in such a way that most would be fooled. Deciding to check the bar I found two unbroken bottles of liquor, a bottle of Fino Sherry and a bottle of Skyy vodka. The rest of the bottles were broken. Taking the Sherry and sticking it in a bag I found in the back room I poured out half of the vodka and went out the back door. I walked around finding no one for a while until I came across a fake restaurant. Putting the rifle down I held the bottle of vodka a little higher and stumbled in, running into one of the guys. When they looked over at me I faked a drunken smile and said "You're hawt."

"Look boys, they sent a reward to us." The big one in the middle said before they all put their guns down. Smiling for real and with bloodlust I smashed the bottle over the nearest one's skull and drew my pistol in the same motion and fired four shots, two in the big guy's skull and one each in the other two. Looking out the window I saw another target, but this one was different. He carried himself with confidence but he was wary at the same time.

******** Mike

Seeing someone in the window for a moment I yelled, "Come out here and show yourself!" It had looked like a teenage girl, younger and shorter than most others here, she couldn't have even topped five foot two.

******** Sherri

"How many have you killed." I wasn't asking it, I demanded the answer, I knew from the tracker that there had only been thirty of us and I had personally killed seventeen recruits. I had seen one other die, if he had killed or seen at least ten die then it was just us.

"Eight, saw two kill each other. Why?" he asked.

"There are only thirty of us in this damned game, but I still want to kill more. But you didn't like the killing did you, in fact I still hear the twinge of just committing your first kill, that happened when you woke in here didn't it." I stepped out and held my pistol up, eight bullets left in this clip, more than enough. I used my other hand to start tossing pistols out of my pockets. "So why shouldn't I kill you and then whoever comes to pick me up, tell me that."

******** Mike

"The real question is why do you hesitate now," I said, "Killing comes easy for you."

Smiling she fired four shots, two on either side of my head and one under each armpit right next to my body, my shirt was torn on the left side, "I don't quite know, I like you for some reason. You're good, it's in your eyes."

Crossing the ten feet between us I stepped forward into the the muzzle of the gun before I said, "If you're going to kill me, nows the time."

Dropping the gun she grabbed me and I was on the ground before I could blink, she was strong enough to force me straight to the ground. Sitting on my chest she said "No thanks, I don't need permission to kill, certainly not yours." She was holding my wrists at my side while just smirking down at me, she had blood splattered across both her face and clothes as well as some parts of her already dark red hair where it was even darker and glistening.

"Well it looks like we are at a standstill, what now?" I asked.

A strange look passed over her face before she leaned down and kissed me on the cheek and then got off me, "Checkmate." She pulled the bag off her shoulders and pulled a bottle out of it, "Now I think I'm gonna drink this, I found it at the bar, and wait for them. Go get the rifle I put in that trash can if you want." She said before opening the bottle and pointing at a trashcan behind me to my left.

"Hell give me a swig of that stuff if you wouldn't mind," I asaid.

Taking a big one herself she said "I like that stuff, call me Sherri, you?"

As she handed me the bottle I said "Mike, pleased to meet ya."

******** Sherri Present

Shaking myself out of the nostalgic reverie I headed back to the hotel, why was I thinking about that now?

Unlocking the door in an instant and walking through before anyone could see Roslyn passed out on the floor. Tossing the wig and then quickly stripping off the human suit I was glad once more that my facial features hadn't changed much in the transition. Unwrapping my tail from my torso I grabbed my bag from the liquor store and opened the Oloroso Sherry I had bought. Smelling the aroma for a moment I let the rich nutty scent flow over myself before pouring some into a plastic copita I had found. Drinking it slowly I placed the bottle on the dresser and transferred the glass to my tail before picking Roslyn up off the ground and placing her on the bed.

Sitting on the chair next to the tinted window I took another sip and grabbed the laptop I had acquired before blowing the base. Opening it I almost laughed at how simple it was to crack, I had warned them numerous times before turning about using civilian operating systems. I heard a quick, quiet noise and looked up to see Alvar appear briefly. He had grown weaker since my discovery, and my determination made his very existence seem to falter. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

Checking the latest updates on their projects and one of my fake emails I tossed the laptop aside and grabbed the Sherry again to fill the glass full once more. Drinking it down I placed the glass on the table next to the Sherry and collapsed next to Roslyn. Hearing her rouse I said "Hey, something big is happening."

"Oh, well Ah wondar wha ya mean," her words were slightly slurred and she was still speaking in a southern accent, apparently five times the painkillers the base clinic had given her was enough, "Coul' ya tell me?"

Chuckling I said "Alvar, he's disappearing, and I have this craving for pickled eggs. The store didn't have any, but I do have other good news from a contact of mine. Their attempts to replicate the genome I have into others has failed. Say, do you want to hear a story?" Grabbing the Sherry again I started sipping directly from the bottle.

As she nodded I kissed her once before beginning.

"It was thirty one years ago, Dad was drunk again, I could hear it through the walls. I was only five but I already knew about being drunk and sex and smoking. He was fucking another woman that night, I could hear her screaming for more. Putting on a pair of headphones that mother had gotten me for my last birthday before she died I drowned out the noise.

"Other things happened in the intervening year, like another birthday, but they didn't matter that much. That awful day was just like any other. I had come home from a friend's place, his parents were teaching me self defense, I was taking to it like a fish to the sea they said. I remember coming home was strange that day for some reason though. Dad was passed out already on the couch but that was mostly normal for me. Maybe even at that age I had a sense for violence, like I knew about the, heh, 'oncoming storm'.

"I"m not quite sure how well I'm telling this story. I've only told parts of it one other time you know. Yeah, he knows some of my story. But I never told him everything, I knew he was too innocent to the world when I was telling him. Now he's seen enough but doesn't care, so to hell with it all. Anyway, the woman he had slept with the night before was awake and digging around in our fridge when I went into the kitchen. I remember how thin she was, like she was surviving just off of air. Seeing me she smiled though, like my being there made her feel better. I can't remember what she said but when I put the eggs I had bought on the way home I know she took and made six of the lot. Ignoring my dad we watched tv from the floor in front of the couch until there was this rumbling and suddenly the windows exploded.

"She freaked out but I stayed calm, I wasn't sure what was happening but I knew that I needed to carefully put my shoes on because of the glass. Doing that I left my dad there and made her calm down and put her rags of shoes on. Taking her outside I made her sit on a clean patch of grass and went to my neighbors to ask them what happened. I actually remember their answer 'Terrorists'. See, I hadn't heard a word like that before so to me it was interesting. Eventually the smoke from the burning buildings forced firetrucks and police to start evacuating the city. I found out since then that while the initial blast took out eight square blocks of businesses and over forty thousand lives, the fires from the explosion spread to the blocks nearby buildings and killed an additional twenty thousand in the following hours. The smoke covered a thirty-five block area in smoke too thick to see through and over six miles in smoke as thick as the morning fog."

At this point Roslyn was sitting up and paying complete attention to me. "I never knew how bad that situation was for someone who was there." The story must have sobered her up because her accent was gone again. "I wasn't born for another two years, so I've only heard stories and read reports, but those reports were on how they did it, not the aftermath."

Nodding I said "That day is seared into my mind, our house was destroyed in the looting afterwards and apparently the insurance wouldn't cover enough to get us back into a similar house, we were stuck in a one bedroom apartment. All the survivors were moved to Baraeksburg, which by then was much bigger than a 'burg'. It was much worse to raise a kid in than good old Beckhel City, of course now it's actually called Old Beckhel. But there were thugs and crooks everywhere, and all of the good but lower income families from Beckhal had suddenly been dumped there. My friend whose parents were teaching me self defense were there as well but they had an actual house."

Pausing for a moment I looked her over and realized that she was from a good family that had been decently off somehow. Probably from a big farm but she was too tightly wound for that slow life. "Now at the time I was too young even with my Dad being what he was to understand that what they were teaching was dangerous to others and themselves. Others because, well you've seen how well I learned, and themselves because the gangs didn't like it. Really though another half a year would pass before my life went through any other major changes. See, two months into the next year my friend's family got a computer, and you know, they weren't rare or anything just that their computer had been lost and they hadn't got enough money to replace it until then. That was another thing I was good at easily. They had manuals for advanced computer users and I spent a lot of time over there even when they weren't teaching me."

"So they were like a second family to you?" She asked me with curiosity about the person who she had run into hell with. I understood a little better now, she hadn't left home, she had lost her family.

Nodding I said "I was there probably eleven days out of a fortnight. They liked me and I did my best to help them with anything. I was there some of the times that gangs threatened them, but they told me and Jeremiah not to worry, that was their son, I couldn't remember his name until now." Taking another drink from the Sherry I remembered back to the day, "Eight months later he died, the gangs decided that losing a child would teach them to stop. They did, but they told me to keep coming back to their house. They let me use their computer freely and that is when I started learning about guns and non traditional martial weapons. They kept teaching me in much more than self defense, both of them were first degree black belts in multiple fields of martial arts.

Bracing for what I was going to tell her next I drank another long swig from the Sherry. "Two months later my father raped me and I killed him when he let up. They convinced the council to let them pay for trauma and psychological therapy. After that I went through a long period of calm, but that was why I don't let anyone call me by my given name. I killed my father when I was just barely eight years old, he was saying my name the entire time and calling me his sweet little girl. He had gone to grab me again but this time I was prepared, I twisted from his grab and threw his weight forward, he crashed into the door and broke his neck. There are obviously kids that kill younger in the less civilized parts of the world but that changed me. I knew then exactly how easy it was to end life. Moving forward, two years. See by then the gangs had all heard that the self defense teachers had quit so they were free to do whatever they wanted without worrying about one of their 'girls' knowing how to hit back.

"Except that wasn't completely true. They picked the wrong target, they picked the girls young so they could 'train them'. I was coming home from school and they didn't expect a ten year old girl to be able to fight back, especially without self defense classes being taught. I didn't kill them but they both were left with broken hands and feet. It's hard to even crawl with those injuries. If you're wondering they weren't grown men, just a couple fifteen year olds that got dragged into the local bangers. I didn't get off free though, even though I was ten and they assaulted me. I went into more counseling and I was put in a rehabilitation center for disturbed youth for three months. No surprises there, word spread fast on why I was in there and most simply left me alone."

Looking at me for a moment she asked, "What happened to them?"

Smiling I said "Oh, the story gets better. Word in places like that spreads like wildfire both within and without. People knew to leave the girl with the short fire red hair alone. I was thirteen when they died, my adoptive parents that is. I don't remember much before waking up in the hospital, restrained. Apparently I put one of the cops in the hospital with me before they got me into cuffs. The cop in question actually didn't want to press charges, she was sitting there with a cast on when I woke up. I remember that she said 'Don't bother trying to sit up.' It struck me as odd at the time until I tried to and felt my broken ribs. Apparently she gave as good as she got because she told me that she was the one who broke my ribs and put the cuffs on me even after I broke her arm. Really quite the surprising turn of events though. See, her daughter had died recently, her husband left her over it because he blamed her for not protecting their daughter. She offered to put me under house arrest at her house.

"Really quite the unique series of events to be honest, a rapist father who I killed in self defense, two martial arts adoptive parents who were murdered, and to top it all off a sergeant in the local homicide department offered to take me in. Since she was a state employee my continued mental health counseling and therapy was covered." Beginning to laugh I continued, "Does it start to make sense now, why I'm so military to the core. From the time I was fourteen to the time I turned I was around police or military the entire time, that's nineteen years. But during that time I knew that sometimes the rules don't define your actions for the situation, you define the rules.

"I went on rides with her to arrest criminals sometimes, I saw her bust murderers and other scum. But this story still doesn't have a happy ending. I was sixteen and I had managed to work my way into being a rookie in on the job training. Swat was even there since we were busting a gang, the same one that responsible for a lot of the various murders around the city and the slavery rape ring. So we went in, everyone had on their flak jackets, helmets to protect them from headshots, but we didn't know. I was backup, so I heard the radio as they screamed out about high caliber rounds penetrating through the jackets and helmets."

As I went silent and feel into those memories I heard Roslyn saying something, but I was lost to those memories as I continued my story.

******** Twenty years ago

Breaking orders I ran past the other cops on backup like I was supposed to be. It made sense, I knew how to approach the building where they wouldn't expect it. I took a hard corner around the side of the house and used the fire escape on the back of the one next to it. I was so glad for my personal exercise regimen doing this, four flights of stairs were easy. I checked that there weren't any guards on the roof before I jumped across the six foot gap between the buildings. The door onto the roof wasn't even locked or guarded as I opened it carefully. Crawling slowly down the stairs I saw that there was a guy sitting at the bottom of them, but his back was to me and he wasn't paying attention, he was confident that no one would get this far up. Moving right behind him I reached over and quickly wrapped my arms around his head before jerking it sharply to one side then the other to completely sever his spinal column.

There was no one else in the hall but I could hear others in the rooms, I knew they would need to die or be generally incapacitated, but if there was anyone looking at the door I would have to use my gun. Most of the rooms had people stoned out of their minds and basically already incapacitated but I came across one room that had a heavier door, and there were sounds of at least three people inside. I decided to ignore it until I had a better understanding of the forces on the floors below. When I reached the third floor I noticed the floor in the hall was entirely wood unlike the carpeting of the floor above and took off my boots to avoid the rubber thudding. Spotting a guy coming out of one of the rooms I grabbed a stone that was in the corner and tossed it before blending into the shadows of the stairwell. As he moved to check out the noise I silent came up behind him and took off my belt to choke him with.

Throwing it over his head and shifting my weight before turning on my heel I pulled him down over my shoulder and braced against his weight as he struggled and slowly suffocated. It surprised me that no one was coming to investigate the noise but maybe with a house that sells drugs random small scuffles are normal. As he finally died I held the makeshift garrote against his throat for half a minute longer just to make sure he was truly dead. Slowly letting him drop to the floor I moved over to the room he had come from. It occurred to me that I had killed two men today and knocked out a few others, and I was still ready to kill more. I knew that I had talked about my lack of emotions involving other people with my therapist but I never realized that even killing them didn't evoke any emotion.

The room he had come out of had two more guys in it, neither had guns but they were both pretty big guys. I could either shoot them or try to dispose of them silently. Deciding on the second I wished I had a knife but I settled for using my taser on the second after snapping the neck of the first. As i watched them I noticed that the second was much more interested in the phone in his lap than in his partner or the doorway. Sneaking up slowly I was glad that he was sitting down as I quickly reached forward and yanked his head to the side as fast and hard as I could before grabbing my taser and pressing it straight against the base of his skull where it met his spine. After a few second I could smell the fried flesh, I knew he was good and dead.

The rest of the third floor proved uninteresting and I carried my boots down the stairs to be safe rather than sorry if I needed them. As soon as I rounded the corner on this flight of stairs I was surprised by the enormous room that took up the entire first two floors of the building with a sprawling area of sex, dead bodies guns and drugs. I saw what had torn up the assault team, including my latest adoptive mom, a high caliber machine gun mounted right at the bottom of the stairs with at least a couple thousand rounds in canisters next to it. There was just one guy manning it, the ammo belt already fed into the gun. Silently putting my boots back on I finally pulled out my pistol and shot the lone guard in the back of his head. As the thirty or so gang members below jumped at the noise I grabbed the mounted gun and started shooting, The women, drugged and beaten into submission as they were, recognized that they needed to run out the front door as I started gunning down all of the monsters posing as men below me.

When the ammo belts finally ran out I realized that the people on the top floor were still there. Ignoring the police starting to tentatively move in I grabbed the dead gang member's gun and checked the current clip before moving up the stairs quickly. When I arrived at the heavy door I pushed it open with my foot while keeping both pistols raised. I was shocked when it finished opening, she was right there. "Mom?"

Looking at me both she and the man behind the desk smiled, the two guards to either side did not look happy. "Well hello hun, I didn't expect this turn of events. We were just trying to figure out how to solve this situation." She was acting like there was nothing wrong, why did she look so happy to see me there, with blood spattered across me from shooting the guy guarding the mounted gun. Looking her over I asked "Why are you up here."

"I'm here to figure out a deal that will let those of us who understand the situation to live. Quite incredible that you're here though, you really exceeded all of my expectations even with your history and considerable training since youth. Come, sit, understanding this side of the world is something I have been meaning to teach you." I could begin to comprehend what she was saying, these people ruined lives, she was supposed to try and save those lives. She was promised to uphold the law, just like I had when I took an oath for on the job training.

The man to her side started talking, "Sosan, this is obviously a big..." I couldn't stand to hear him talk, so I shot him in the throat, and immediately shot the two guards between the eyes each, I was glad I grabbed that second pistol. Instinct had just taken hold and guided those bullets. Noticing that my mother was reaching for her gun and the man was with the hand not holding his throat I shot both of them in each shoulder. "You swore to uphold the law, you swore that justice would prevail. You have poured innocent blood all over that oath and completely corrupted the purity of your actions that have helped others. Instead of letting those actions be shadowed by this, I am going to make sure that they don't see the light of day." While she was beginning to beg I brought the gun I had taken from the guard and put three bullets in her skull right between the eyes in a tight triangle that overlapped at the center.

******* Present

I felt Roslyn shaking me and I finally came out of my memories, I saw that she was crying. "I'm sorry, that happens sometimes with my memories. The ones that created the scars in my psyche are there forever. That was the first time I willingly killed anyone, and I found that even the good can be absolutely evil."

Hugging me she said "You killed your mother, I am so sorry that you had to do that. I can't even begin to know how that affected you. The way you talked about justice though, I never realized how much that meant to you, I honestly thought that the kills you commit have no reason behind them."

Shaking my head I said "No, there is black and white on what is good and wrong. If you willingly serve the wrong side in a war, then you are also in the wrong. By the time I turned I had stopped being an active agent for several years because I no longer believed in what they were fighting for. I couldn't leave though, I had a contract with them. I couldn't leave the military so long as I was a living human. My mind is broken in so many ways, but I never break a commitment. I am committed to justice, I am committed to equality for all, and I am committed to my love for my son and my love for you. Justice doesn't..." I trailed off as I felt a tear running down my cheek, when was the last time I cried about my past. But I usually didn't live through it all at once, I rarely thought about it in more than passing. "That wasn't the end, there is one more important story to tell before when I met Mike. After killing that many people, even if they were murderers and rapists, etc, I was finally actually sent to juvie. No more free passes or getting off with just needing counseling. Some heard who I was and decided not to mess with me.

"But one girl, she and her groupies decided there was no way that the stories were true. So during lunch they came over and she took my tray of food. I just told her to give it back, but of course not..."

******** Twenty years ago

"Make me give it." She was big, taller than me and a bit heavy set, thinking that made her better at fighting or something. She probably could throw her weight around and really make people nervous and even break bones usually. The two girls flanking her both fell into the same general category but they were a little smaller and not quite as stupidly cocky.

Grabbing the tray with my right hand I ducked under her attempt at grabbing me and caught her left wrist in my left hand. Starting to squeeze I let go of the tray and caught her lackey on her left side's wild haymaker aimed at my face. Dropping back I looked over the three of them and did what my parents had taught me. I analyzed their muscles, watching for the subtle hints, I looked at the environment and what was in it. I quickly went through and realized that her lackeys would move in first, the one on the right charging in to tackle me and then the one on the left coming in to hit me with a strong left hook since her movements indicated she was left handed. After that they would hold me as I was dazed so that she could beat the snot out of me.

Deflecting the momentum of her charge and causing her to trip over my foot, sending her into the wall behind me, fracturing her right shoulder, forearm and wrist, then from the left push her punch upward and grabbing her arm in the process use the momentum to give me a boost as I brought my left leg up to the side of her and sent my knee into her lower right ribs, breaking four of them before I let go and brought my right foot up to send a kick into her solar plexus. Flipping backwards I landed twelve feet from the leader and she came in swinging madly despite how little that had done the other two to act without thinking. Blocking a five hit pattern that it was obvious she had practiced, at least she showed some discipline, I turned it back around and drove one strike into her clavicle, one to her temple, one to her liver right on the nerve connection, and as she was falling down one to each of her kidneys.

"When someone asks you nicely, do it." I said before turning to go with the guards that had come to break it up. I knew even they were scared of me, after all, whenever anyone looked at me they all saw the same thing. A girl who was in exceptionally good shape standing five foot nothing with short red hair no more than an inch and a half long.

******** "I knew then that I would go into the military, even before they made me the deal. Police were corrupt, so was the military probably but at least they would have to respect me."

******** I heard the laptop beep from where I had put it on the floor with some important news update. Untangling from Roslyn's sleeping form on the bed I walked over and quickly skimmed the info, they were talking about some captured fur, apparently he was an old experiment subject. My name even came up as they mentioned that I had been scheduled to kill him years ago. Then I noticed his name, Kristopher Lee Alen Wayne. Taking his initials I realized they were talking about Klaw, and he was going to meet an old associate of mine, McSkinzie as I called him. Ignoring the weird craving for pickled herring I got dressed and woke Roslyn, "We gotta go, we've got a rescue mission."

As we left I saw her out of the corner of my eye, the apparition that had haunted me like Alvar but so far said nothing yet. Her eyes though, they looked just like my foster mother's eyes, honest on the surface but beneath that completely...void...