Mastermind: Chapter 3- The Alliance

Mastermind: Chapter 3- The Alliance

Chapter 3: The Alliance

As if things weren't already messed-up enough, Jen found herself in the arms of another strange man, her lungs filled with a horribly potent smoke which she couldn't even force out with a cough. He was different, though, this man. Not overly assertive like that Dameon, or life-threatening like Hukuda. There seemed to be a gentleness about his stern face that gave him that certain aura- he was no villain. Overlengthed blond hair hung over his shoulder, curls tossing this way and that as he sped from the scene of the apparent explosion. And as much as Jen longed to ask what had happened,she just felt the need to bury her face in his shoulder and...
"What were you doing?!" Jen wasa forced to lift her azure eyes to meet his, staring down disapprovingly to her. Her eyes widened noticably as she looked up to him, fear wide in her eyes. He, in turn, stared back down to her, his expression quite clear in his eyes, the same shade as hers: he was ticked off. "Getting into a fight with a syndicate member; and one with a status like Kenzaborou Hukuda's, toboot! Why... if Dameon hadn't been there, you'd've been dead on the street, and no one would've given you a second glance!"
He knew Dameon? She'd meant to open her mouth in an asking for clarification, though all that came out was a mumbled "I'm sorry..." Truly, she was...all she'd wanted to do was find a way to get back home quietly, and here she was now, being scolded by a perfect stranger. "I... I'd just meant to..." She felt her eyes well up against her wishes as she bent her head downward. The stranger ceased his movements, looking down toward her almost guiltliy. Slowly did he lower her to a seating atop a strange metal surface, kneeling down to her eyelevel.
"Hey, look, I'm sorry about that..." Gently did he lift one hand, resting it lightly against her shoulder. "Things have been rather rough these days, with the syndicate and all..."
"What is this syndicate?!" She hadn't meant to ask so forcibly, and the sound of her own voice in such a harsh tone made her clasp her hands over her mouth. The stranger, however, merely gave a slight smile, sinking to a seat beside her. His action only made her glance down, in curiousity of what her seating suface really was: seemed no more than a metal park bench; perhaps this world wasn't all that out-of-the-ordinary after all.
"So you don't know about the Black Thunder syndicate, hn" His eyes stared longingly up at the sky as his faint smile grew a bit. "You have no idea how lucky you really are..." Slowly did his eyes skirt down toward her; she in turn gave a light nod, urging him to continue.
"It wasn't all too bad at first... nothing more dangerous than the continuously growing Alcoholics Anonymous community. All they really wanted to do was to help citizens with bad memories, to help them forget. Unfortunately, one such member by the name Dain Kazeni..." He stopped then, giving a look of discomfort at the name. "By the name Dain Kazeni... truthfully, I don't know the motives behind his actions, but he executed the heads of the group and took control of its thousand-odd members. Since then, it's become a dictatorship; he's already gained most of the universe under his control, and it doesn't look like he's going to be stopping anytime soon." Slowly did he pry his gaze from the skies above, turning to face Jen. "You're lucky he hasn't gotten to you, yet. Seems the rest of the universe is trying to keep Dain's madness a secret from Mercury."
"Mer...?" Jen's azure eyes widened with confusion at the statement. "I... fear you're mistaken... forgive me for asking, but... what exactly do you mean by that?" Now it was her newfound companion's turn to act shocked.
"Then you're from Venus? I'm sorry, excuse my mistake..."
That one seemed to get to her. She stood to her feet in a hurry, one hand to her mouth. "Why must you insist on... where am I, anyway?" She got no answer, merely a shake of the head from the one who'd tried so hard to ease her confusion.
"Where the hell are you from?"
"Where am I from?! I'm from Earth of course! The habitual planet! Is there something so wrong with that?" Again did he cease to reply, one thumbnail catching itself between upper and lower incisors before reaching out with the rest of its hand, grabbing hold of her wrist and pulling her back down to a seated position.
"You shouldn't yell that so loud. Earth's been unlivable since the two-thousand hundreds."
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"What the fu-- what happened here?!" It was pure shock which ran through Dain Kazeni's voice, though such was to be expected, as half a dozen of his own foot soldiers lay dead or dying, grotesquely dismembered or smashed to oblivion on the side of the road like a sideshow attraction for the patrons of that busy city.
He looked to be nothing more than a deranged businessman, Dain did: mop of neatly combed, polished and parted black hair laying loosely over his left, almond eye, neck shrouded in the typical high-collared garments of blouse and necktie, though all else was shrouded beneath a heavy, gray peacoat reaching well down near his knees, where black pants emerged. He wasn't a very burly man; more on the malnourished side, thin fingers wrapped tight around the glass head of a gentleman's cane, the object which he used to poke rudely at the struggling-to-live body of one of the victims, Kenzaborou Hukuda.
"You there!" Hukuda merely shifted his glossy eyes up toward the other, lower jaw falling an inch downward as he let out a pathetic moan.
"Lord Kazeni, I--"
"Shut up! Now who's done this?"
An oddly long silence between the two, before Dain got impatient, jabbing the end of that cane to Hukuda's miraculously uninjured left arm.
"I've asked you a question!"
"You--- you told me to---"
"Who's done this, Kenzaborou?! Was it that blasted Regnum Noctis again?!"
"Yessir."
"Naotukari?"
"Lasser."
The solid object was removed from Hukuda's arm as Dain turned around solemnly, hands hooking together behind his back.
"Was that so hard now?"
"N--n--no, sir..."
Dain gave a smirk of a smile and turned his attention from Hukuda altogether, hired medics rushing about the scene in attempts to save the living victims as their master stood solemnly.
"That Goddamned Regnum Noctis..." He snarled the words as he meandered with no rush from the scene of the tragedies. "Six rebellious kids don't have the strength to shut down a widely-appreciated government like me... and of all the nerve, that Communist retard Dameon, going off and attacking perfectly harmless men of mine..." His head craned toward the campaign of Hummers having brought himself and the lesser-knowns to the scene, soles of his shoes scraping at the gravel of the ground as he turned in their direction.
They'd come to represent war, the jeep-like cars had, after over half a millenia of manufacture... and it was an association that was widely known, one which no being alive was without the knowledge. That was why he liked them; why he kept them around... just as they stood for battle, they would come to stand for the name of Dain Kazeni.
Right hand lifted to the passenger's door of the closest vehicle, pulling that heavy metal door open with a 'click' and sliding to the empty seat which said door had confined, shutting the door with a slam and craning his head to the driver.
"Zared..."
It was as if the word were an on switch for the other, for his eyes seemed to awaken and his head turn toward Dain with a faint mechanical whirr.
"Your request, sir?"
"Back 'up top'... I've to prepare a sort of 'thank you' gift for the LOVELY people who'd chosen to attack us." That smirk still tugging at his mouth from his discussion with Hukuda widened as he propped his elbows up upon corresponding knees, hands folding neatly over one another beneath his chin. "And to tell Sayven to get his disrespectful ass down here and help clean up."