The mission of a man

At the end of the sixth round, everyone’s body parts were changed once again, except for Marc, who gained some ire from one competitor, who also stocked up the audience. Allan tried to call him out on it, mock him, with backing from people. A panel with the public’s reaction surrounded the arena, which even took Joni, the host, by surprise. He closed his holographic projection and barked at the other CEOs, but they were just as shocked as he was.

-” I’m sorry sir, but I did it in a rush”, said a man softly, from the front of a platinum door. “ I figured my son needed some…incentives after I read his latest reports”. His height was barely over that of the medium but had the build of a professional fighter, lean with defined muscles, and with minimum augmentations.

His figure, though, immediately drew attention to the top of his head, because of the blue, metallic paint that covered his hairless top. Half of his face was hidden or replaced by a metallic mask, which resembled a feral, extinct animal. He only knew of it because his family kept it as their symbol for ages.

-” Captain”, replied Joni in a calmed voice. Even though he was fuming just a few moments ago, the mere sight of the newcomer made him docile while speaking to him. “ I guess that’s fine then, just don’t surprise me like that the next time, alright? So, is that what brings you here?”

-” No, I wanted to give a report as well. We found the hideout of the fired and unemployed terrorist group inside the city. I’ve despatched my wife, my husband, and my eldest daughter alongside four security drones to deal with it. “

-” Isn’t it a bit of an overkill? Well, whatever gets the job done. What about their smuggling operation of getting people out of the city?” Everyone heard that he became a different man while on the job, but it was quite a sight for the rest of the CEOs to see Joni acting as the face of the County's security forces.

-” The case was solved already- Just as suspected, most of them died on the road and whatever makeshift camp the remaining few built was destroyed during a scrap storm. With that, my report is done, so I wanted to ask a favor of you”.

This got Joni’s attention, as it was the first time the Captain requested something like that from him.

-----

After leaving the arena, Marc joked around about his situation, saying that it didn’t affect him that much what the public thought of him. He already got a job assigned to him, so “anything else is a distraction during your mission”, he repeated in his head, but his mantra was interrupted by the sound of some staff members running around like madmen, asking for a peculiar sounding name- “ Marchos, please tell us if you know someone named Marchos”.

The boy entered a dimly lit room, with no other persons inside of it, but he could still tell that someone was in there, making him uneasy. A short glimpse of the man hidden in plain sight made Marc come down on his knees, bow his head and ask for forgiveness. A small chip was thrown toward him, which he quickly recognized as the security method used by his family to relay information, but he didn’t dare to lift his head.

A chair then swivelled, with a man on it, and he waited for the boy to say something. Marc started to sweat, even trembled a bit, as his father’s presence was the last thing he expected to see today. “ What did I do so wrong that it required him to be here?”, he panicked and thought to himself. The man turned his head a bit, and after figuring out what Marc was doing, had a little laugh at his expense.

- “ Oh, oh, you thought I’m here to punish you or something? Oh, sorry my boy, I didn’t mean to scare you like that, my bad for not reading the room correctly”.

He jumped from his chair and gave Marc a strong, but gentle hug- “ We missed you so much back at home”, said the man softly. “ Now, stand up, it’s dusty on the ground. And have some drinks with your big father, I want to hear everything about your time here.”

-” Wait, so you aren’t here to punish me or something?” Marc’s terrified state was replaced with confusion.

-” Harsh parenting is done only in the most extreme cases, Marchos, you know that. I did chastise you a bit with the public’s reaction, though. I won’t apologize for it though, I figured you needed a bit of discipline for overlooking your mission.” The man, even if unwillingly, came off menacing and disappointed, enough to make Marc’s hair rise up a bit. “Still, if you consider your reports to be complete, we’ll leave it at that at the moment”. His father extend his arm toward him and helped him get back up.

-“ Now to why I’m here. Our previous job is done, and the next one will be to guard the central station of the Playground. I came a bit earlier, as I wanted to see you and prepare the security measures for the place.”

-” Ah, ok.", responded the boy normally." I have some questions. Why does that place need extra security and am I involved with it?”

-” No, no, no, we do this every year, it’s just standard procedure. And not for now, you just continue keeping an eye on the competitors and relay if any very obvious cheating is done. Oh, and please accept some cosmetic pieces from clinics, at least. We have to keep some appearances, right my son?” He waited for Marc to respond, but accepted his nod of compliance as well. Afterwards, the Captain clapped his hands, pulled out some bottles from a counter, and told Marc that he just wants to “hear what my son been up to.”

The boy took a seat next to his father and started to tell him about the people he met, what challenges he had to face, how much he hated sleeping on the rough ground of the Playground, but that he also enjoyed the experience. His father stood there, quietly, listened to him attentively, made little jabs from time to time, and just asked him little questions here, and there.

-“ Did someone grab your attention, by the way?”, he asked the boy, with a figurative double wink in his tone.

He was a bit shy at first, blushing a bit at the bluntness of the question, but he did want to talk about this with a person he trusted.

-” Well, I met this girl”, responded Marc slowly.

-”Yesss…”

-” And I think she’s cute, but…”

-” Yes?”

-” She’s, well, a wanted unemployed”.

-” Ohh”, responded his dad and took a short pause- “ Well, nothing that can be fixed with some grease. And we can find her a job in the family, but it would be best to eliminate her from the competition as soon as possible then before the C.T.Dfication is done. “

-” Well, I haven’t told her anything. All of our talks so far have been me threatening her and…that’s it. So I don’t know if she would like that”

-” Nonsense, she will love you, trust me, how couldn't she? Just leave me to handle the situation ok? Ok, Marchos?”

-” Ok father.” He then wanted to bring up Savan’s and Angie’s conversion, if he could help them as well, but he dropped it, for now, thinking he could persuade him about them another time.

Since he also brought up the C.T.D, the wolf man pried regarding how many found out about it, and while Marc replied in an embarrassed tone, his father assured him that the numbers were still acceptable.

While unknown to the outside, every year the players find out the secret, but it’s nothing they couldn’t handle before, as he was the one that implemented the live editing system just for cases like this. “ Besides, by now some of them should start to become more susceptible to their benefactors' demands. Like, number 7 for example. The reason you found him on your scanners, even though Medusa can jam these kinds of signals, was because of a command from Zude. He really wants that crazy boy gone.”

The two spent the rest of the time talking about missions, and his father’s teachings, joking about it, but at the end, after the Captain got up, he turned around to his son- “ I’m happy for you my boy, but remember that the mission comes first. If something happens that would make you unable to continue it, though, just don’t try to do it alone, rely on us as well. Your family is always there for you, remember that ok?”

After a small pat on his shoulder, the man left the room, leaving the boy in a melancholic, happy thought at the sound of that.

It wouldn’t last for long. As he travelled the hallway back to the waiting room, cries and wales and other terrifying voices could be heard emanating from it. He knew that it meant some type of trouble, but the final outcome wasn’t what he expected. With each running step, the screams got even louder. Then they stopped coming from multiple people to just a few, then one, from a man, who was crying over a still body.

The entire room was filled with cuts and dishevelled as if a tornado came right through it. And two streaks of blood, from two participants, were sprayed on the floor, near where the two were struck. First came from Allan Dumeris, who was sitting lifeless on the ground and impaled in the wall by a claw-like object, which pierced his stomach, lungs, and heart.

Under the crying man, he first noticed the long hair of the other victim. Her lifeless eyes came in contact directly with Marc and he could see the now cold, empty face of Anna Drums, staring back at him.