It Is No Longer So Easy
“This started about 24 years ago, exactly at the time everyone here is now thinking. Several organized crime groups, even the well-known cartels and syndicates, were funded time and again. This wasn't done by those 'groups'. I don't think they'd be interested in funding hundreds of millions just to receive a few in return, and it wasn't even sure if they would be called by those they funded.”
“Over the years, I've heard of other organized crime contracting these 'groups' like I did. Even if we wanted to hire the same and befriend each other, they wouldn't let us. Yet, they weren't the problem. At first, it was unknown who was behind these funding, but for the past 15 years, many businesses have taken that place. They might have been advised… or saw what was happening, and its profit.”
Clamor clamor clamor…
These words were undoubtedly shocking. The reporters recorded the audio and took notes like crazy. The man continued after giving the president a look, to which Luis nodded.
“For the past 3 years, I tried giving my gang a way out. Half the criminal groups in Lýmoca are slowly being targeted and sought after like never before. I was part of the hunting half, but I also received information from… unknown sources of other cartels, syndicates, and even a group of mobsters targeting me, and others like me.”
“I decided to directly… support President Luis Heartez’s government for their past and current actions. Even I am afraid of what is coming to be from this. I can assure you that those people, the cloaked figures, aren’t heroes. Do not estimate them with the regard you would to a practical police force. But if Lýmoca were to antagonize them, that would be detrimental for its people.”
“There are many of these groups, lagjs I think they call them. Each of them have several hundreds to more than 10,000 members. I don’t know much more than that. I don’t know for sure how many are there, maybe a dozen… But I know at least one lagj organization is predominant in each of Lýmoca’s states. This is no joke or false alarm-”
“I think that’s enough, Emanuel,” Luis stepped up as the man was getting anxious. Emanuel looked annoyed at being stopped, but understanding as well. He looked back and nodded before standing beside his son. Luis Heartez stepped up and looked at the dumbfounded reporters.
“That answers your first question, I believe?” Luis Heartez looked at Angelina, who rotated her hips on the spot, looking up at him before smiling, “Yes, President.”
“Then, well. For your second question,” Luis nodded and gestured, pausing for a moment with only his eyes moving around, before continuing on. “I believe we will see for sure in due time. For now, Lýmoca is focused on internal matters only.”
“While I assure you there will be a thorough investigation, I’d like to warn everyone that if they see suspicious activity, do not call the police or ‘try’ to do something about it. I don’t think I need to specify on this latter one.” Luis licked his lips, feeling the difficulty of hosting such a conference only now. “You should call to the new government phone number for both national guard and the government’s intelligence attending services, new from today onwards.”
“Life won’t change anytime soon. I can assure everyone of that. On the other hand. I promise to eradicate any group, individual, and secret association posing a danger to Lýmoca. Not once in our entire lifetime have we suffered a civil war. Not once have we fallen to ourselves, even when some traitors sold the nation in the far past. We have Ly blood in all of our veins. No matter who that might be. Nobody can insult it!”
Clap, clap, clap…
Luis: ༼ ⁰o⁰；༽
Suddenly, the president of Lýmoca felt flabbergasted. Just now, as the young woman who asked such a lengthy pair of questions looked at him with shining eyes… Was he being applauded?
Luis almost scoffed in laughs but held himself in. He nodded at the crowd who clapped, something he knew wasn’t supposed to happen, for the first time. He didn’t see, but Roam behind him lifted his eyebrows. Clearly, he also didn’t expect this to go this way.
It wasn’t the emotive speech of the world for a century, but it was… the first time Luis spoke without scripts, and… he was just ‘welcomed’ for speaking. Him! Luis Heartez!
“Before we continue,” Luis’s words stopped their clamoring. Even those who did not felt like it and were just here to catch something for the opposition ended up clapping, even if not standing up. The president continued, “Allow me to show you the dangers these lagjs represent in the world. This isn’t only a call to Lys, but to anyone who wishes to inform themselves. Images have been censured enough without losing the… meaning behind it.”
The curtain behind him became a high-definition screen. The fabric flattened as images ran with moderate sound. There were only 5 angles, at the right corner below, while the large screen atop showed it. The quality was like an ancient video, but not blurry.
It was an alleyway, looking a lot like the one where many news anchors took photos and even managed to record a bit before being kicked away. There was a person crouching in the middle of the alley after 2 bikes arrived. He shot at them, killing them as they became blurry.
One of them was cruelly killed at melee, but the cloaked figure didn’t care. He then proceeded to kill more than came towards him. The crowd was alarmed, but they were also engrossed. Angelina had already nodded to the president before taking her seat.
Eduardo looked at her with a thin smile from ear to ear. She winked at him and smiled. Since they’ve been working for a couple of years together, it would’ve been sad if she just called him her cameraman, and he understood.
The footage kept running. The news anchors became mortified when they saw the cloaked figure casually move while crouching, firing a gun that seemed too powerful. But not only was he faster than their normal walking, it was even and… stable. Calculated, even.
And then, when he fired at the walls, bouncing those bullets to hit criminals, which another angle quickly showed from afar before peeking out to heartlessly kill them, truly mortified them.
Yet, not too long after, they saw how he stepped out of the alley from the narrow spaces and killed off anyone fleeing in fear from him, not failing a single shot. At last, when he was returning and those between the narrow spaces from the alley rushed at him only to die… The way the bodies piled up a little caused them immediate disgust.
The cloaked figure was trapped in between, surrounded from the front after stupidly stepping into a narrow space. A trail of people walked to the other narrow space nearby, while the rest kept him busy getting themselves killed so he couldn’t escape backwards.
But even as the criminals got to him from both sides, he used the military small pistol everyone knew about after the forensic results. Now, they saw the ‘true’ piles of bodies accumulating. A few were too sickened and rushed to the body despite every death and corpse being blurred.
Even when the cloaked figure was forced to jump on his back and kill suspiciously young people on rooftops where everyone thought he’d die, he remained alive, using corpses as shields. This amazed and saddened everyone. How could such young… people be involved in this?
Suddenly, they remembered the initiatives since the beginning of the president’s 2nd term. Those incalculable billions ‘requested’ to be used for social programs, and all the few programs like those to aid farmers barely being approved, clicked.
They looked at their president. Not only is this to show the actual danger of such ‘lagj organizations’, the leader of their nation wanted to show them what… he wanted to avoid.
Luis looked back at Roam. They could see it in each other’s eyes. The way these paid people looked at all of this, and this being transmitted across Lýmoca and the internet… The second re-election didn’t look as impossible anymore! The recording continued…
***
South of Chtsté. 2 weeks later. At night.
The Riverlye 3 groups sent to this mission were unfortunate to know that the convention was postponed for a month. Something related to the announcement, no, the conference the Lýmocan President announced about when they arrived. Phesx didn’t present himself, but one of the other group’s young Artista did.
After being given directions to stay at a motel the convection’s organizers would pay for him due to this inconvenience, he had to stay there for 2 weeks. On the other hand, the other 3 groups monitored the cult. They were never seen, as there wasn’t a need to change the installed cameras ‘ batteries nor know more information.
Of course, they also protected the young Artista, but nobody spied on him whatsoever. But thankfully, when it looked like the convention would really wait another month, the convention’s organizers confirmed their mass meeting taking place in a few days. Tomorrow was that date.
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The joint group had worked as intended, and while they were paid their usual weekly gain by the HQ due to the inconvenience, although vacations were nice, they weren’t pets to be kept at home.
As the atmosphere in their group became harmonious when they knew they could get to do something at last, those who could and wanted to mingle talked about life, those who were lonely continued their daily/night watch job.
On the other hand, Phesx Caolia and Pheli lied on the roof of their chosen safe house. It was more of a ‘rented room’ situation, but the old lady, already 140 years old, was pretty chill about it. Unlike many others her age, she could walk, although worse than a baby, but she damn could.
Even Phesx Caolia and Pheli were forced to have tea with her, but it was good, so they repeated another 3 times through these 2 weeks and 2 days.
Now, they grabbed authentic sleeping bags, unlike their first time, and stared at the dark clouds of the night sky. There were a few strong stars brightening the universe for them, but they still stared everywhere. Phesx particularly liked the moving clouds, white or obscured, and Pheli liked it when his stare didn’t become lost.
Since he seemed to have fun looking at clouds, what was the point in not letting him see them?
“I was about 16 when I first tried to kill myself,” Pheli muttered, holding hands with him under the blanket. Phesx looked at her with widened eyes. Pheli noticed and also widened hers, “Oh. I thought you would’ve checked about me on the internet. You didn’t, I see. Thank you.”
“Bwahaha,” Phesx smirked and laughed in her face. Pheli’s cheeks turned rosy near her eyelids. Phesx commented with a smirk to make her crazy, “That’s one way to get warmed up to talk.”
“What was it all about?” Phesx asked, looking at her and burying his chin on her left shoulder. Pheli blinked before staring at the sky with her celeste eyes looking upwards with no emotions, but they shined bright in someone’s impenetrable black eyes.
“My mother died, my father was being pressured, and… my favorite ‘aunty’ died in an… ‘accident’. In the end, my father let go of politics and went neutral. Everything became worse for the Forzt. Many outside the family talked about how it would be good if I was married to someone else. My siblings were too young to even consider that for the time being.”
“I started having thoughts, you know, like any teenager. But mine were strong… Even when Mel took me in and showed me, I still tried to get killed in my first few missions. Sigh,” Pheli turned her back on him. Phesx immediately spooned her softly.
“Mel?” His words flowed into her ears, making her body flutter so much she could almost flutter her ears alone. Pheli nodded, “Yes. Usually, a weapons master is a scary Instructor-to-be. So was Mel’s mentor, and so did I become capable under her guidance. I’m only 3 years older than you in Riverlye, you know?”
“Mn, I do know about that. Emer told me,” Phesx buried his nose in her vertebral column, hugging her from behind. Pheli nodded again, “He was there before I arrived, though not by that much. I heard he came from a hood org, but not which one, or if even from here.”
“Don’t make my mind drift to a dying old man, alright?” Phesx said, smooching her back before biting her skin along her clothes. Pheli smirked, resting her palms on his backhands locked around her tummy. “I ran away in late 20th. And I honestly don’t want to return…”
Pheli turned around and faced him with her torso twisted. “Unless I either am untouchable, or can direct my family to a ‘side’ I can partake and change things. Where I can do as I wish and achieve it.”
“So, you care about your family still.” Phesx said after glancing into those eyes. He caressed her ears and behind them, showing rare tenderness. Pheli nodded, crying up a couple of tears from her obscured, shining celeste eyes. “I’ll bring you there someday.”
“And what about you?” Pheli asked amidst tiny sobs choked in her throat. Phesx’s face was startled. “I’ve got no-”
“Your squad from Preut. You must want to meet them at some point, I know… Even if 100 years pass by, and you are filled up with regrets, there’ll soon come the day when you know you ought to find them.” Pheli smooched his lips quickly, both with their mouths protruding their lips outwards.
“Yeah. That’s one way to manipulate to go find them earlier.” Phesx said with relaxed, grinning lips. He talked slow, enthralling his woman. Pheli blinked, looking directly into his eyes after opening them, “I’d also like to meet that María.”
“Uh oh, uncharted territory ahead.” Phesx’s face dropped. He made Pheli giggle as she hit his chest. “No, no. You never know what happened to her. What if you left her pregnant?”
“Mhm, so this is how you want me to know you want to advance in our relationship? So, ‘hey, I think you got someone else pregnant already, get me now, too!’?” Phesx pinched Pheli’s sides before she turned around to face him, coiling her arms around her neck, bringing her face closer.
Her legs doing the same, Pheli breathed softly into his mouth, his closed, grinning lips. “Of course not. Not anymore, mm. How about this… If something were to happen to you tomorrow, and you lost your groins at worse, then put one in me tonight. That way, we’ll live forever without that missing part in our lives.”
Her softly spoken last few words tingled his heart; so much. Pheli smiled thinly after licking her lips, positioning her face a little ‘higher’ than Phesx’s. He looked at her like a doofus without reacting. Phesx gulped, softly holding her waist now instead.
“How would you know I want kids? I don’t even like them,” Phesx said. Pheli looked at him, showering him with her celeste eyes. “Maybe I’m wrong. But I know you desire you could have a family, at last. One that is family, one that loves you.”
Pheli brought his wrists to their shoulders before kissing his backhands a few times, smacking sounds and leaving them a tiny trace of saliva each time. Her lips were warmth, and so was her temperature as it raised along her blushing skin.
“Riverlye is no place for children, but if it’s our last time. Wouldn’t you want to at least not lose such a part of our nature? With me, I’m more than willing. I-” Pheli lowered her chin further and more as she spoke. When suddenly, Phesx pushed her atop him and said. His hands were brought up to her face, cupping her cheeks. With a breathy tone, he said to her nose, “You’re prefect.”
. . .
At 8 in the morning. The group remained behind as Phesx walked down the safe house with the tomboy from the other group.
“Here’s your mask,” she said to Phesx, presenting him a spotless white mask with 3 theatrical joyous/anguished faces. The largest was in the middle, for his eyes and mouth, while the other 2 were at his sides, slightly around his temples. It was a long mask, so to speak.
“Let’s go,” Phesx said, changing his red mask to the other one. The tomboy put hers and nodded solemnly. As they walked into the street, with the old lady grumpy that they’d attend such a ‘party’ of crazy ones, their other young Artista walked to the convention from the nearby motel.
As they left the safe house, from the rooftop, the 3 groups watched them go. Pheli walked to Teon and the rest of the group with her arms crossed, wearing Phesx’s cloak around her waist.
“Something tells me, and I don't know how, that if I take a look at your butt without that cloak covering it, I’ll see a pair of saggy baby cheeks.” Teon said without turning around. Layo smirked, swaying her head with feminine, girly swag. Imán and the others decided to flee before it was too late.
Imán walked away with a brown bald man who was considerably not attractive, both smiling to each other. They matched body building and height, and something more.
“Teon, when was the last time I chased you and beat you?” Pheli asked with an annoyed expression, but only slightly. Teon blinked, saying with 5 parts confidence and 5 parts bragging, “A long time. Who knows, maybe I won’t be defeated this time.”
“…” Pheli turned her head to look at Teon. Teon didn’t turn her head, but she felt the terror. With a cute voice, Teon expressed her subservience, “I just remembered last night was a weird night, how about I massage your feet, shoulder, and belly? You must feel sooo sore~.”
Layo’s playfulness got the better of herself as she smirked, commenting from the side, “I heard belly rubs help with pregnancy attempts’ sperm flow.”
“…” - “…” Pheli turned to Layo this time, but the latter kept smiling gently with her eyes closed in curves. Just as Teon thought Layo was getting the brunt for her, Pheli said, pinching her fabulous abdomen over her clothes. “Do you know how to make good belly rubs, then?”
Teon & Layo: ( ‘◇’) ( ◐ o ◑ ).
… Going into the ‘church’, Phesx separated from the tomboy and didn’t mingle with the other young Artista as he and a few dozen went through the entryway in one go. The place was small, but it was remodeled for fitting purposes. More than 100 people could sit here, and the pulpit where the ‘preacher’ would stand was small, looking quite considerate.
“Oh, young lad.” A middle-aged woman talked to Phesx. He felt her right hand moving to his right wrist. He smoothly retrieved it and turned to her in the crowd, already inside the narthex. “Oh? Sorry, ma’am, didn’t see you.”
The woman retrieved her hand apologetically. But hearing the concern in Phesx’s tone, she softened, “Aww, don’t worry. You just look quite young, and your voice is, too. I’m so sorry for your losses. You are from Preut, right?”
“Mn, I am…” Phesx said in a lost, saddened voice behind his mask. The woman nodded before standing beside him on his right. “Ah, let’s not bother the others. Come on, we’ll walk in together.”
Phesx’s eyes went to the sides of a few people around him. He smelled a bit of metal. He wondered if it was about a ‘sacred’ item, but they smelled a bit too much to be such. They’re usually not fully metal, and only to be worth a price. Else, there wouldn’t be these ‘new religion’ scams popping out every 1 o 2 years anywhere.
“Let’s,” Phesx nodded a bit. The woman’s lips smiled behind her mask before guiding him inside.
Phesx and the woman entered the narthex, finding a seat 3 rows behind the very front at the left. Noticing where the other young Artistas were, Phesx sat with the middle-aged lady on his right, and the wall on his left. The pews were stuck to the walls from one of their sides, respectively.
After 3 minutes, more than 100 people sat in the narthex, all waiting for about 10 minutes before the preacher appeared. He was a white man with rosy skin who looked nervous. Phesx’s hearing senses told him he was genuinely nervous, and even hopeful.
As the man stood in the pulpit, he looked at everyone’s masks and smiled before nodding. “Welcome everyone. I am pleased to tell you this is my first time preaching. Everyone who stands in this church will, in due time.”
The middle-aged man with thin hair and bendable wrinkles on his forehead licked his lips with keen anticipation. The crowd shouted in unison, including the middle-aged lady sitting with Phesx. “The transition of the eyes is with you.”
Phesx suddenly noticed something, besides hooking the corners of his mouth downwards. Everyone was of age, more than that, at least in their 50s or 60s, quite well at their middle ages.
“Haha, right,” the preacher looked down and flipped a book’s pages before beginning, only looking at the crowd. “Some of you are initiating your journey here. But because of the nuances, which are understood, with the president’s claims and all of this. We called some people to fill the church. Only some, don’t worry. Most of you are new, haha heh. Let me begin…”
“As you can see, I wear no mask, and my colors are black and gray,” the man said, gesturing downwards to his simple tuxedo. “The masks aren’t a source of shame, but of beginning. One leaves them when they are emboldened by the touch of the new eyes…”
Phesx’s back started getting numb. He lowered his neck, arching his body forward in a slightly bending position. His frowning eyes slowly relaxed, or rather, widened.
…