Chapter 16

-Me (Let the rampage begin!)-

We busted the front door open and stormed in heading straight to the stairs. Why the stairs? Naturally, because you can shut an elevator down and it's a safety hazard when storming a castle, so to speak. The receptionist had a stunned look when we passed her while carrying guns. What did I do? I waved and said "Yo." and continued to walk on. The security? Dropped em before they could react. I went to the elevator and clicked the top floor then exited before the doors closed and went to the stairs.

"I've activated an EM field that will prevent the cameras from seeing us. It won't show up as a buzz or feedback but it'll be like we don't even exist to the camera. It only goes to 3 meters so it's a very small range and you'll need to stay relatively close." I explained to them. "Rita, hit the cameras when in range."

"Got it." Rita acknowledged.

As we proceeded up the stairs we were met with little resistance and what we did meet was quickly dealt with by Rita. When we reached halfway I got an idea. "Hey Rita, let's enter this floor. I feel like further degrading this place." He acknowledged my demand and prepared himself next to the floor's door. I smashed open the door and was greeted by a hailstorm of bullets. Naturally, none of them reached me thanks to the shield. I am so glad that I decided to bring this for a test run. I would have been killed if it weren't for this shield. "Dyo." Dyo gave a buzz and flew around to zap the opposing forces' heads. I shot off some normal rounds from a pistol I decided to bring along with me.

Both liquid and chunks of brain and skull was splashed amongst the walls, floor, and ceiling giving the area a disgusting smell along with a new, well, bitter, to say the least, paint job. At least the red matches the curtains. It gives it a certain aesthetic taste if you look at it in a certain way. Anyway, I found the nearest clean computer and sat down in front of it.

"What are you going to do?" Crysea gave a look of confusion.

"I'm going to hack their systems and wipe everything. Stocks, projects, contracts, everything. They're going to have nothing when I'm done with them." I answered with a twisted smile.

"Is that possible?" she continued.

"Ask Rita, something of this level is child's play for me. I discovered, a while back, that I had a knack for hacking and internally destroying companies' reputation, profits, etcetera, so I practiced more and more on harder and harder companies. Now, I can hack even Kraug's personal computer. Naturally he doesn't know I've done it else my life would be a little bit harder than what it already is. Anyway, Rita keep a look out and make sure no one interrupts me."

"Well this is nostalgic. When's the last time I had to cover your ass while you hacked a target?" Rita cheered.

"Umm, 3 years maybe?" I distractedly answered as my attention was on the hacking attempt.

"And if I remember correctly, you still owe me from pulling you out of the fire?" Rita jested.

As I was hacking I could hear a few shots and then the sound of bodies hitting the floor. Seems they at least knew that we were here, if they knew I was hacking they’d probably send more to stop us. Heh, fools, you’re wi~de open.

"Hmm..." Ah, success. Heh, this guy. Don't you know using the birthday of someone close is a common password? Use something more original ya dumb-ass. "Now let's see here, stocks; delete, contracts? Void~. Oh? What's this? They only just started to incorporate a cooling system into the rail tech? Seriously? You guys are soooo far behind. What a bunch of idiots. Well no matter, delete... Hm this is odd. Hey guys come check this out." I called to them.

"What's up?" Rita asked.

I pointed to the screen, "It seems they have records of the lost 100 people, well I say records but it seems that even they don't know what's going on. All the parasites returned the bodies, and the casualties at the time didn't exceed even the single digits."

"I've heard of that, over four hundred went missing but only a little over three returned. They think the lost ones were killed by the others." Rita explained some of the rumors.

"Nah, not possible. They were being inhabited by parasites, the very ones that inhabited my home, there's no way they could have killed anyone else. Unless they were missing before that incident?" I directed the question to Crysea.

"We only inhabited the hosts you saw. Any deaths created by us were seen by you." she cut that path off.

"How odd. Sure it's not a lot, but still... It's odd that at the same time, 100 went missing. It doesn't feel coincidental at all. The forest is only a small option. Over the course of thousands of years there's never been of reports of such activity from the forest. So now that leaves us with an open end.” I directed this latter portion to Crysea “Something or someone out there knew of you guys' existence and timed their assault perfectly. What’s troubling is that instead of revealing you guys or confronting you, they kept hidden.”

“Meaning?” Rita seemed to know where I was going with this.

“Meaning, they still have a use for you guys and the way they’re going about this is very uncomforting. Well third parties definitely makes thing at least a little more interesting. Anyway, enough time wasted let’s get moving." I'll worry bout that mystery later.

“Hmm…” Crysea seemed deep in thought.

We continued our ascension towards Milkein's suite. I'm sooo going to pop that fat head of his off. Hmm? What's that sound? A cracking sound? I looked around and saw a crack in my shield. Oh, shit, I need to start being more careful. It may stop bullets but it does have a limit and it would seem it's reaching that limit.

More guards came and before they could fire off shots, I aimed my assault rifle and shot the middle guard. The plasma bolt hit the guard and created a large burst of green poisonous flames, engulfing the other the guards surrounding him. The flames melted their armor, skin, and even their bones till nothing but a pile of green goo was left remaining. I ran into multiple situations in which the guards would try to block our ascent but they all ended in a pile of green goo.

What? Did you want me to give you a firefight? HA!!! These guys don't even appear on my radar for being worthy of a firefight. Most of them can only react to being caught on fire, like hell would I give them an opportunity to fire off a worthless shot. What’s more, isn’t that along the lines of disrespect instead of being cool? I’d feel more like a dick to give them a slight ray of hope to only then destroy it. Better to end em before they even know what happens.

As I reached the final floor I commanded Rita and Crysea to the sides and opened the door but at the same time I jumped out of the way and when I did a bullet flew past my head. I heard someone cocking the barrel of a pistol before opening the door. Using the direction the shot came from and the door for a ricochet, I shot the weapon out of the hand of the assailant.

“Hmm, it would seem you dodged that. How unseemly.” Some random asshole trying to look like a ninja spoke to himself out loud.

“Well no shit I dodged that! What? You want me to get hit? Wait, don’t answer that. Anyway, we’ll be moving on now and if you shoot at me again I’ll put 50 holes in you. Seems simple enough right?” I passively warned him.

“Unlikely.” Only word he said before he disappeared. Yup disappeared. This guy just straight up vanished. Ok mister wannabe ninja, this isn’t some fantasy setting in which you can use magic, this is a sci fi world. Sci… Fi not fantasy. Science, no magic. Pew pew not rawr kaboom.

Hmm I wonder where he’ll come… “Pbuuh” I got knocked over by something heavy. Oh? Crysea? You wanted a hug that badly? I would have given you one 1000 percent freely you know? Oh. Looky there, heh a blade stuck where I was standing and it’s cracking the floor. Heh, heh heh. ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!? THIS ASSHOLE!! That’s it. For doing such a cliché move as that I’m going to put 60 holes in you.

“Thanks Crysea, I forgot to calibrate the shield for melee. That would have been a little messy.” I thanked her and she nodded.

“To think someone could see that, are you human?” Says the clichéd asshole who thinks he can use magic in a science fiction setting.

My head hurts, so to save time, “Crysea, catch him please.” She nodded and before the guy could retort he was pinned on his knees in front of me. “You see, you little shit bag, you fucked up. Ya worked for the wrong guy, AND for making such cliché remarks and attacks I’m now going to put 60 holes in your body. Ya ready?” I shot his legs, to make sure he couldn’t run, in a way that blood wouldn’t get on Crysea.

“You can let him go now.” She nodded and released him. I then unleashed a barrage of bullets on him. So a normal clip holds 45 bullets. I used 30 so far before this so naturally I had to reload, but even before the first reload he was long since dead. I stick to my word though and when I said I was going to put 60 holes in him, dammit I will put 60 holes in him, and I did. He looks like a human went through a meat grinder, then a meat pulverizer, and, to top it off, a meat refiner. Looks like pig chow if you ask me… Hmmm… Pig chow… Naaaaah, I won’t need that.

“Well, let’s just go. I am sorry Mr. Janitor that you’re going to have to clean up this mess, but it was a necessary action that, under any circumstance, had to be taken. I hope you’ll understand.” I left those parting words and left to Milkein’s suite.

When I entered his room I beheld an ultimate cliché. He was using another wannabe ninja to hold a hostage with a knife to his throat, and he’s using my brother to boot! This guy… I was going to give you a quick and painless death but now you've earned a very painful death.

"Well well well, it would seem that the guest of honor has arrived. Have a seat, it's not like you could do anything otherwise." Milkein commanded. The wannabe ninja held my brother in the usual hostage held way, boring. Dude, you are seriously boring right now. You’re seriously going to hold my brother hostage like that? Could you at least think of something original? And dude, that smug look totally makes you look like a pig.

"Nope, I refuse.” He got upset with that, but before he could say something, “You’re going to have me sit down, rub in my face how you have the upper hand, give me some evil lord monologue, make some demands you want from me, and then probably have it end with me shooting myself am I right? Paalease, your kind of character is completely predictable and I no longer have the patience to deal with you." I denounced him. “Rita, hit the cameras, Crysea, get my brother please.” They nodded and carried out my commands perfectly, and the aftermath was a dumbfounded, idiot, pig nosed, dumbass Milkein.

With my little brother next to me, safe and sound, though a little flabbergasted as well, I then glared at Milkein. “Alrighty, so for the ultimate crime of holding my brother at knife point I’m going to torture you slowly, painfully, and mercilessly. I’m going to show you what happens when you fuck with the wrong person.”

I began to walk forward but the ninja started to make a move so I shot in the head before he could react, than shot Milkein in the legs before he could run. I slowly approached him with a smile that would scare even the devil himself and pulled out a knife. The very same knife I had that took the life of my first kill, and slashed his back. You, know, cause he was trying to crawl away to call for more back up? He screamed in pain but I ignored it. I then slashed his back again and again and again and again making sure to avoid anything vital. The blood began to splatter on my clothes but I ignored that as well.

When he could no longer move I walked over to the window and busted it with the butt of my gun, and, though some of it fell outside, most of the shattered glass fell just straight down. It was weird to be honest. It was like, when you crack a glass and, while holding it, trip or hit a bump and it all just falls apart. Weird but whatever works right?

I grabbed two large shards of glass then stabbed them into the legs of the fat piece of shit. He screamed with tears streaming down his eyes. Really? Crying already? But the fun has yet to even begin!!! I then proceeded to slash his head, neck, arms, legs, chest, stomach, sides, palms, feet, everywhere all the while making sure he would not die from them. The amount of blood he has lost isn't even a lot, even for his size. I’ve... looked up ways to make sure a person survives… Ahem, perfectly legal ways. Yup, ways everyone at a hospital practices….. If that hospital practiced bodily evisceration as a profession.

With my knife I dug into his nails and ripped each and every single one off then chopped off each segment of his fingers, one segment at a time till nothing but the bulk of his hands remained.  The screams stopped and he passed out but I slapped him till he woke up. You do not get too sleep through this you little shit. You get to enjoy every little bit of pain there is. When he woke he screamed again. Heh, yes please scream some more, your wailing will be much enjoyed as I get to watch you slowly die of an endless pain.

This is starting to be a bit more enjoyable then I thought. A smile of pure joy spread across my face at this point further deteriorating the pig’s mind. I cut off his toes now and honestly there really doesn't look like there was much of a change from when he had them, only there's blood oozing out now.

"Sky, if you keep this up he's going to die." Rita woke me up from my fluffy onslaught. You ask what part of this is fluffy? All of it!!!

"It's fine." I said with an innocent smile. I then turned to the fatty and place my knife on his stomach. "You. You thought you could get to me with my family didn't you. I will admit it was a good move, if only I were an idiot. You just don’t get it do you? Look.” I started to tap the knife on his stomach. “Most people would freeze up or listen to what you say right? What most people don’t get is that the value of the hostage…” I gave a short pause to let him think a little. “Is none.”

Is that shock I see? Gooood. “You see the point of a hostage is to destroy the emotional advantage a person would have over you. If the person acts largely on emotions and what’s moral, what’s right, you can easily manipulate them with a hostage. However, if someone looks at it logically, a hostage is the worst option you could choose. They’re only good alive, but when you threaten to kill them… Seriously? You’re going to kill your lifeline? Okay. Go ahead. Do it. Kill them. You’re afraid to die right? When you kill the hostage there’s nothing standing between you and a bullet between your head. Nothing.

Now here is where it gets even worse, for you that is. I, personally, don’t give a damn about morals, or wrong or right, or whatever the stupid consensus of the majority of people decides is the right thing. I will shoot the hostage, if I have too, or the assailant, whichever is the easiest and quickest solution.

Normally, I'd just kill you instantly. But now that you brought my brother into this..." I started laughing. An insane, mad laugh that could send a chill down the spines of even the bravest of men. "Now I feel like slow roasting this pig, alive, to listen to it squeal as it burns. Well little pig, does it burn? Does it hurt? How does it feel to feel pain beyond your wildest dreams? Oh? You want more? Alright~."

With an insane smile I pull a vile out of a pocket on my armor. "This closes wounds; it's kinda like a healing tonic of sorts, only it's meant for external wounds only. It hurts only a little but when you put something in a wound while the tonic tries to mend it, well. I'll let you figure that out for yourself." I poured the tonic over the pig's body but I stuck a shard of glass in the majority of his wounds. He tried to scream but the pain was so much it knocked him out only to wake him back up, and it did this not just once or twice but a countless times. Countless to him, but it was only three.

I guess it's time to rap this up. I pierced his stomach and ripped it open, revealing his intestines, liver, and the rest of the organs. His face paled after seeing his own organs. "Hey, ever heard of the saying 'rip your heart out and shove it down your throat?" my laughter acted up again. "Well, here you go. Some organs from a pig. Freshly picked and ripe for eating. Here, I know it's hard for you to move your mouth now so I'll feed em to ya." I forced his mouth open and shoved his own intestines in his mouth. "You have to chew in order to swallow you know?" I then forced him to chew his own intestines. "Now, swallow." I forced him to swallow. He's probably about to die now.

"Well I guess playtime's over." I stood up and placed the barrel of my gun on his head, "I always wanted to do this ya know?" and pulled the trigger. The plasma spread all throughout his body originating from his head. When I was finished, I was soaked in blood, you couldn't tell the color of my armor anymore with all the red. "Dyo, take the armor." I commanded as I took it off. I had some normal clothes on underneath so I'm fine there.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I walked up to my little brother. "I'm... Sorry you had to see all of that. It was... the darker side of me." I held my head down when I explained to him. “I was so scared when I saw that he had you at knife point. I thought ‘one slip up one mistake, and I’ll never see him again’ I was completely panicking inside but I needed to stay strong and think rationally. This is the result. Heh, I’m a monster huh? I’m not like what you remember, so long ago.” I could feel my eyes getting a little hot. “I’d understand if you didn’t want to see me any mo…”

I was suddenly cut off by, well simply, my brother just hug tackled me and I could see tears in his eyes as well. “Big bro you’re alive!” Whoa, Sami. Your voice is rather deep wouldn’t you say? You’re so young, why do you have a burly man’s voice at your age?! Speaking of burly man, I know you didn’t look it but aren’t you rather strong too? What have you been doing these past 15 years? Living in a gym? Sheesh.

Stop… squeezing… me….. “Can’t breathe.”

“Oops, sorry.” He released me and I gasped for breath. A minor clichéd development but I don’t even care. “Brother, where have you been? What have you been doing? Who are they? Wh…”

“Whoa whoa whoa whooaa, chill bro. I’ll answer all your questions when we get home, but for now we have to settle a little something about this here place.”

"Now that you offed one of the 5 great countries' leaders, what do plan to do now? That was pretty much the same as declaring war you know? Wait, could you also be considering that?" Rita asked.

"Aye, however, I will not take over, you will." I declared.

"Really?" he confirmed. "Well can't say you'd do a better job.” This guy. Did he just take a jab at me?” Alright fine. It means my territory expands and there's also no demerit to it as well. I’ll have to patch some things up and lay out a new business plan, but I can make this work." Rita logically deduced.

"What are you guys talking about?" Crysea cluelessly chimed in.

"This country has one iron-clad rule, whatever or whoever you kill, you take their possessions. Meaning title, prestige, money, everything. As lawless as this land is, that's the one thing that will always remain." I explained. "I just killed the leader of the country, by rights; this entire country belongs to me now. I don't want it so I'm giving it to Rita. The duty of a world leader is way to annoying and with Rita as the leader he'll definitely have an easier time with politics than I would." I finished.

"Irresponsible." 1 hit k.o. Thanks Crysea, thanks a lot.

"I don't like being in the leader spotlight, it's too annoying. Everyone is always trying to kiss your ass, or trying to bribe you, or other political BS that, quite frankly, I'd end up killing a person by the end of the day for." I tried to appeal.

"Failure." k.o? More like 1 shot kill. Way to just undermine me even more, thanks. Ok, I’m just digging myself further into a hole here. "Rita."

"Yes?"

"If you wish for me to recover any of the files ask me, or just upload this disk. I never completely delete something without copying it first. You know that." I pulled out a small rectangular stick.

"No, destroy it. I plan to start anew with my own ideas." Rita denied.

"You sure?" I went to confirm. “Some of the projects, employees, and methods of profit would be useful.”

"Yes."

Upon his answer I placed the stick on the desk, aimed my gun, and fired off a plasma bolt. The remains were the unrecoverable green goo. The last of that bastard was wiped, feels good to no longer have that around. Anyway, I ushered everyone to head out and head home. Oh, it seems that the reason why we didn’t have much resistance was because Rita’s gang had put up a full frontal assault, and a loud one at that, right after we began our ascent. How convenient.

When we got to where my house was… “Right. It was destroyed. I forgot about that.” Oops.

“I was just going to wait for you to figure it out for yourself. I had guessed you would remember before we got here, but it would seem you did not.” Rita, you’re a dick. You let me go this long without reminding me that my home blew up? “It was quite humorous too. It seemed Crysea got a laugh out of it as well.” The person in question only remained silent and unperturbed.

“Don’t drag her into this. Dick.” I warned.

“Fine fine, I won’t.” he conceded.

“Good. Dick.”

“…”

“Dick.”

“Could you stop calling me that?”

“What? Dick. What could you possibly be talking about? Dick.”

“That thing you keep adding at the end of your sentence.”

“What, dick? Dick.”

“… Seriously, stop it.”

“Dick.”

“I heard that.” I could tell Rita was starting to get a little peeved.

I simply whistled and moved on. “Well I don’t particularly have a home now that this has been destroyed. Hmm, well I could ask for sanction from the forest, but I doubt they’d be too keen on that… Hmm… Ah, Rita, mind if I borrow your gang? I would like to have them help me rebuild the house.”

“Yeah, no problem there. It’ll be good for them to build instead of destroy for once.”

“Nice!”

My brother walked up to me at this point. Didn’t notice it till now but this guy is taller than me, maybe 6’ 2? “Can I ask you questions now?” Damn, still can’t get over that voice. Kid’s only 19 and he has such a voice, though I guess that’s normal for any teen huh? Well I guess I should answer them now.

“Yeah, but one at a time though.” I approved.

“Alright, first, is sister alive?”

“Yup, she’s doing well too. You probably know the five world leaders, the most respected being Kraug. She works for him. She’s pretty set if you ask me.”

“We should go visit her, don’t want her to go through a hostage situation as well.”

Low blow bro, low blow. “Yeah, alright. After we build the house.”

“Procrastinator.” Crysea, why have you betrayed me? What did I do? Please I beg you, forgive me!!! She giggled, “It’s nothing.” Urk. The killer lines that ends all hopes. I’ll just go find another dark corner to cry in… again…

“What just happened?” my brother was watching our, well her, exchange. It looked like she was talking to herself so it’s understandable.

“Well you see…”

“…” Her stare was so powerful it stopped me mid-sentence. Damn. That’s one badass stare.

“Yes?”

“Too many people.” Ah, she went back to using short, curt, sentences again.

“But he’s my brother. I can trust him.” I reasoned.

“I can’t, nor will I, until he can prove himself.” I went to object but Rita also denied.

“Just because he is family, does not make him automatically trustworthy. The hell you’ve been through I’d have imagined you’d realize that by now.” Valid point.

“But he’s my brother. The whole reason why I was able to make it this far, that and my little sister, and you expect me to just say, ‘hey sorry bro but we can’t trust you, it’s been too long and shit happens’? I…”

“They’re right big brother. If it’s something precious or serious, I won’t press any further.” Sami, you’re so understanding. You sound like a beast but you’re still my little Sami huh?

“Fine. I’ll tell him when you allow it, but what if he sees by accident?”

“I’ll fix it at that point.” A cold look began to form around Crysea.

“Details later please… Anyway, Sami, what else?”

“That didn’t seem to be the first time you killed someone. May I ask what happened?”

Oh. This question… “Well, to make a long story short, I’ve had to kill people, friends, family even, to get information on you guys. I’ve broken up families, smashed friendships, destroyed companies, all just to find you guys. The lives I’ve taken are more than I can count, and when I did find you… Well I just chickened out on confrontation. So yeah… this is where we’re at now.”

“Wow, big bro’s a badass.” The way he said it, it’s as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You’re not upset?”

“Why would I? You lost far more than I did simply looking for us. The fact you’re here, sane, is far more important then what you’ve done. We can finally look forward to being a family again. You, sister and I. All in one place again. Doesn’t that sound great?” Sami smiled. Sami, you’re the greatest little brother ever! I gave him a big hug.

“Alright, well anything else?” I asked when I let him go.

“Big brother has grown quite strange, but no, no more for now. Since it seems you don’t have a place to live, won’t you stay at my place? I have enough space for you.” Aaah Sami, it’s so reassuring that you grew to be such a good kid. I’m glad that none of what happened changed you into a bad kid; you have no idea how much that relieves me.

“Cool, is there space for Crysea as well?” I couldn’t leave her to sleep at some random place now can I?

“I’ll…”

“Nope.” I interrupted.

“But…”

“Nope.” I absolutely refuse to have her roaming around, or sneaking, or hiding, or anything. I will have her in a safe home, relaxed and nothing to worry about. No room for negotiations.

She sighed, but conceded. Good. No need for useless and unnecessary heartache. “I can find her some room as well, but I can only fit two, a third will make things complicated.” He mentioned Rita.

“No need to worry about me, I have my gang’s place. Well, now I own the biggest tower in the city so I could fit you all there instead.” Oh yeah, but I’d rather wait until he made it accustomed to his liking first before he invites us. “Well I’ll take my leave. I’m pretty sure you have some more catching up to do, Sky.” Rita tipped his hat and left. Rita, thanks man.

“Alright, Sami, lead the way.” I gestured for Saemik to lead us to his home.

“Yes sir!” a little enthusiastic but tolerable, also don’t call me sir.

When we arrived I got a pleasant surprise. “Welcome back honey, oh? Friends of yours?” the shortest person I’ve met to date greeted us. Also, YOU HAD A GIRLFRINED?!?!

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Allrighty, this chapter took fooorever to complete. I wrote it, revised, added content, wrote, revised, add, repeat, so many times it drove me insane at one point. sure it's only been, what, five days? But sheesh, I've spent more time on this chapter then a person would a normal work week. It was fun though I'll say that. Originally I had planned to kill the brother off, but that'd be way to much and unnecessary. Anyway I'm going to take a full day's break tomorrow to rest my fried brain. Thank you for understanding. Also thanks for reading, and I hope this continues to bring you entertainment and joy!!! :D