Lain
“How’s it looking?” I ask as I stand beside a crouched Xander.
He is busy watching the streets down below from one of the rooms that used to be a break room. Opening the abandoned refrigerator on the other side of the room had been a mistake, as someone’s lunch, by the name of Joel going off of the sticky-note, had exploded with mold and has taken over the refrigerator, terraforming its interior into a scene strait out of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I half expected to see little people come flying out on little wind surfers, or even a robot shooting lasers at an army of bugs…
The refrigerator aside, I am here checking up on Xander as I do my rounds. We have been here for four days now, and have sort of taken up residence in this skyscraper, fortifying the top floor into our very own little Forward Operations Base while we wait to receive orders from home.
“Everything is looking good. No suspicious movements, no signs of enemy Hobgoblins. There was a bit of a fight down there between a couple dozen Goblins, fighting over something, I couldn’t see what, but the fight didn’t spill over towards us. There’s nothing else much to report, it seems like your new friend’s information was correct. Most of the Goblins seem to be content with just hiding away inside, to wait out the winter.”
“Mhm, they don’t have enough Mages to protect all of their forces from the cold, let alone one’s like Gov’es or Gra, that can have their forces safely patrolling outside in the freezing cold. Good, keep up the watch.”
Xander remains quiet for a while after that, not being one for talking much. Surprisingly, after a couple minutes, he asks me a question without being prompted, and that surprises me a little.
“So, what are planning on doing with those Goblins of yours?”
“Hm? What do mean?
“I mean after everything is done here. Are you going to keep them, or what? Are you just going to let them go after everything is finished?”
“Of course I am going to let them go. It’s part of the contract. Why wouldn’t I?”
“… And if they were to go and build another army after all of this. If they were to decide to attack us again?”
“They won’t. I already scared the living hell out of both of them. They know better than to try.”
“Mhm, but what about the future? I don’t know how long those two will live for, but eventually, there will more that want to try and attack us. Give them enough time, and they might start getting ideas…”
I want to instantly rebuke him, and probably say something stupid like, ‘They won’t do that.’ But that thought instantly gets thrown out the window. He is right. Time makes people forget, and while I have zero doubt in my mind that Gra and Vivviv will never attack us again, I have zero guarantee that their people won’t try again, in say, a couple hundred years or so, maybe even sooner.
The current plan for them, when everything is done and over with, is for Gra and Vivviv to take what’s left of their people, as many as they can keep under their control, and then get the hell out of here. The rest of the Goblins? We’re going scorched earth with them. I fully intend to slaughter every single Goblin that isn’t under their protection within a fifty-mile radius of the base after this is over.
An annoying part of my changes, or I guess, one of several, would be a better way of calling it, is that I am territorial now. First it was the airport after Nathaniel started mutating. After moving him, and especially now after everything else that has happened, the instinctual part of my brain now considers the entirety of the base as being my territory. And the borders of that territory have only been slowly growing as I further cement that place as my home, as the place that I must protect.
My family, my Gremlins, my Demons, my home, Sky… They all are there. Throw in my new [Preowned/ being refurbished] mansion and the gold vaults under the base that contains a mountain of gold, of which I own one-third of now, and my territory’s value in my mind only increases.
Then there is the contract, acting like a big cherry on top, further enforcing my desire to protect what is mine. Which, subsequently, brings me to the fact that my damn Devil brain considers the humans living there to be MINE… Which is a whole can of worms that just serves to dredge up some old depression over my changes that I am still slowly working through with my therapist.
That was a fun session… Having to admit to her and, most importantly, myself, that a part of me sees the humans living on base as resources for making more Demons. Oh, I fucking hated myself after that one, but Dr. Kim told me that understanding how my mind works is an important part of learning to better myself…
Haaaa, lets worry about that later when I’m not in an active war zone…
Disregarding that for now, the point is that my perceived territory has been steadily growing in my mind, and has now reached the point of crashing into the city. Now, with the Goblins being here on my doorstep, ready to try and throw a bag of flaming dog shit through my windows, I am slowly getting more and more agitated by their presence. Like having a Mormon at my door, I keep finding myself wanting to grab the baseball bat and take a swing at them…
I’m itching to go, but I have to wait for the call from home.
Ahh! I’m getting distracted. Damn ADD riddled mind, focus on the task at hand. Xander asked a question.
“I can’t really speak for the future, but I would like to think that being good to them now will give good results for the future. It’s not as if we can wipe out every single Goblin in the world, and I doubt that this will the last time something like this happens. But if we could have some friendly Goblins out there? I don’t know, I’m just flying by the seat of my pants here…”
“Better to be friends than enemies, right?” He says without taking his eyes off the streets down below.
“Yeah…”
“Well, I hope it works out. I’m still getting used to the idea that I am going to live for God knows how long, and I would rather not spend it fighting these smelly things forever. I can actually smell them all the way from up here…” He jokes, but also complains. You actually sort of can smell them from all the way up here…
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“Hahaha, yeah, if we ever get the chance, we need to teach them to bathe.” I joke back.
He just gives a chuckle, but when he doesn’t say anything else, I figure that the conversation, though short, is over now. I don’t want to bother him, so I move to head for the door, only to stop as he calls out to me.
“Lain.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t spare their leader. No contracts, no mercy. Some people aren’t capable of change. And from what you have told us about him, he is clearly a warlord. He only cares about what he wants and will see the world burn to have it. If you get the chance, kill him.”
I slowly nod my head towards his back, knowing that he can’t see me. “Mhm, I will.”
He doesn’t respond and I turn to leave, a serious and somber mood filling the room as I walk out. Though I am a bit happy because I got Xander to open up with me some.
Yay, another interaction with Xander! A bit on the edgy side, but I am just happy getting to talk with him. Going to have to be carefully for the future though. I don’t want to feed his edginess too much and having him turning into some dark fantasy character.
Jokes aside, I should take his advice seriously. I should be thinking of the Goblin’s leader like he is a warlord. Like he is one of those asshole African warlords that use child soldiers. He is pushing his people towards war, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. And in the end, it all for the sake of fulfilling his revenge against me… Removing my own personal feelings on that matter, he is basically waging a war and dragging his people into it over nothing but a grudge. If he really wanted revenge, he should have just come and found me on his own. That’s what I would have done.
And I can’t forget the fact that he is basically planning on charging his forces face first into one of the most fortified military bases on the planet. There is a reason that we are still here while everyone else is dead, even as monsters attack the walls at nearly all hours of the day.
He is basically leading his people into a meatgrinder, and while I have no doubt that a force of this size will cause us a lot of damage, I know that the US military isn’t going to go down without taking all of them down with them if they have to.
This Father person is fighting a losing battle, it’s just a matter of how much damage he can cause before we kill him… He is too dangerous to be left alive. If I get the chance, I will kill him.
…
Walking through the halls of this dead skyscraper, I pass by my office and peek inside real quick. Gra is reading a book to Vivviv, translating the words for her from English into Goblin as they cuddle on the couch together and sip on some hot tea that I taught them how to make. Gra stops reading and looks up when she notices me, but I just give a wave and a smile before leaving them to their business.
The only time they leave my office is to take a walk and stretch their legs, or to use the facilities. Otherwise, they have basically spent the last couple days hiding away in there, being good little prisoners. They are free to explore the rest of the floors, so long as they don’t try to leave the building, but they seem to be perfectly content to spend all of their time snuggled up on that couch. Reading, sleeping, eating, and cuddles. That’s about all they do…
Apparently, Gra and Vivviv are quite the pair of sloths, or I guess more aptly, Gra is the sloth and Vivviv is the moss growing on her back. So, unless you ask them to do something or they -usually Vivviv dragging Gra around - have a particular goal in mind, they are more than content to just stay in bed and relax all day. Something that I am a bit jealous of, but as a working adult, and the both of them probably being less than a year old, it would be wrong for me to complain to them about it. It won’t stop me from being childish in my head though…
A bit of a weird thought that. Gra and Vivviv, despite looking like they should be in college right now, by human standards they aren’t even old enough to be attending preschool yet… Though, that thought also applies to my Gremlins back at home. Despite their short stature, they are also all adults, looking like they are around eighteen to twentyish in age. But, if you count their actual age, most of my Gremlins are probably only a year or two old, considering that they used to be adult lab rats until I turned them into little people.
The point of my ramblings, and why I find it odd, is that unlike the Hobgoblins who are rather mentally developed and able to act on their own, my Gremlins are still like children in a way. Their bodies may be developed, but their brains are still getting put together. They are developing fast, very fast, yes, but this doesn’t change the fact that their level of mental development has such a stark contrast to that of the Hobgoblins.
Though, at this point I am basically comparing the mental levels of a rat vs. a normal Goblin for their starting points. Despite how dumb, and I hate using this word, downright retarded, some of the normal Goblins can be, they do have an initial advantage over the rats when it comes to being changed in such a drastic manner that they are made to become more human like… When I get the chance, I should crack open a Goblin’s skull and see how its brain compares to a human’s...
Depending on how developed the brain is, after their leader is dead, I might be able to give them a-
Ahhhh! Damn brain! Damn Devil! No, we are not doing that right now, focus on the task at hand!
…
Different thoughts, different thoughts…
I’m really looking forward to when my Gremlins start having kids, they will be so cute… I wonder if Hobgoblins have Hobgoblin babies, or if they just make more Goblins? Should I ask Gra? Hmm, no, I don’t think that would be very appropriate to ask. She seems to be squeamish around the subject. I’ll just have to make sure to capture more Hobgoblins and have Gra become their leader. It shouldn’t take long to figure out the answer to that question. Then it is just a matter of figuring out how to slowly replace the normal, more feral Goblins, with more civilized and –
I promptly take a ninety degree turn and without stopping, walk up to a wall. With both hand against the wall, I reel back and then slam my head through the wall in a shower of plaster and dust.
I HAVEN’T EVEN BEATEN THEM YET AND MY DAMN BRAIN IS THINKING ABOUT CLAIMING THEM!!! Ahhhh! Stupid brain! Dumb brain! No adopting the Goblins, focus on the war! Focus!
With my head sticking through the wall, I let out a deep breath, utterly fed up with myself for the day. My mind just keeps running off the tracks…
“I need to meditate. This would be so much easier if I could still sleep… Uhh, I just want to get this shit done with so I can go home…”
As I am about to pull my head out of the wall, I look up and find Sam staring at me with a look like she just saw an idiot slam their head through a wall…
She doesn’t say anything and just watches me for a moment until I speak.
Giving her a big smile, happy to have found a distraction, I can feel my tail wagging behind me as I call out to her. “Oh, hey Sam!”
“… Hi, Boss… Uhm, can I help you with something?”
“Hmmmm… No? Maybe? I’m sort of feeling a bit stir crazy from all this waiting.”
“So, you put your head through a wall?”
“Mmm, sure. This isn’t your room, is it? Sorry about the wall.”
“No, this isn’t mine, I’m further down the hall. I just like the view from this room.”
Tilting my head – still stuck through the wall – I look past her and out the window. Outside is a section of scenery that hasn’t been burned to the ground yet, which makes it marginally nicer to look at than the rest of the city.
“Huh, cool.”
“Uhm, Boss. You're still stuck in the wall…”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” I say as I move my shadows to slice the wall apart as I walk forward. Sections of the wall fall down around me and now I am in the room, a quick burst of shadow flame covering my body burns away all the dust and broken plaster that fell on me or got caught in my hair, cleaning me instantly.
I just give Sam another smile and she points a bit to my right. Looking at where she is pointing, I find an open door, just a few feet away from the brand-new entrance I just made.
“Haha, sorry. Besides, this place is falling apart anyways, what’s one more door?”
“Mhm… You said maybe. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Right, how do you feel about going on a walk?”
“A walk?”
“Yeah, bring your explosives. I’m getting tired of all this waiting.”