The Killer's Game, EC#7 Contest Entry Options

[Toa Optimar-Toa ...]

:Day 3:

"Acheron, you disappoint me," growled the spindly figure shrouded in white. The armor encasing his thin form was disturbingly pale, and torn linen sheets were wrapped all about his person in no particular fashion. He spoke with hatred in his voice, and fire in his eyes. "I had explicitly told you to stay where you were for a few moments, to allow that fool and his moron companion just enough time to catch a fleeting glimpse of their 'murderer'. You do realize what happens to the pawns that don't follow the rules in this game, dont you?"

"I'm-I'm.....so sorry, master Rumor," mouthed Acheron desperately, his throat already collapsing under Rumor's iron grip, and his short legs dangling in mid-air. "I beg you and the rest of the Dark Alliance pardon, I had forgotten that tiny deta-"

"Tiny detail?!," roared Rumor maniacally, throwing the hapless servant across the room and into a roaring pit of burning logs."I should have known a mere underling could not appreciate such a significant quality to a truly beautiful murder. There are certain characteristics that you must employ when participating in such a sport. Without them, you appear as normal and dirty as the rest of the scum in this world of criminals. I would've done it myself, but then that would present problems....you knew that was the only reason I used you incompetent moron!"

Even as Acheron rose from the flames screaming at the top of his lungs, Rumor advanced upon him, reaching him in only four nimble strides. He grabbed the Dedh-see scroll on a small table that was nearby, and opened the protosteel covering at the servant's feet, the scroll attached to the casing unfurling itself like some sort of bizarre snake.

"Feel the ancient power that has already taken the souls of countless beings," whispered Rumor silently, watching as tendrils of pure shadow energy grasped at the still howling form of Acheron. It conformed to his body, smashing him into tiny pieces of pure energy to nourish itself. Then, he was completely absorbed, an eternity of torture within the scroll awaiting him. He would not die, but become a slave of constant pain to which the supernatural scroll could feed upon forever, a fate infinitley worse than death.

"Was that really necessary, master Rumor?," mumbled Lachesis as he scooped up the newly sealed scroll, being careful to latch it shut once more. "He did everything else that we had told him to do, and then some. His style and method of killing added a new element to the case, frustrating your old student Obsidian and what not. That is what you desired most of all, was it not?"

It was at that moment that Styx rose from a darkened corner, throwing himself between both Lachesis and Rumor in a protective stance.

"How dare you question our master's decision, Lachesis!" he yelled angrily, waving around his claws in a frenzied display of shock. "He is our leader, our mastermind behind everything, and he always will be. So what if he happens to have a slight penchant for the dramatic, there are always other servants, so leave him be!"

Lachesis bowed deeply, looking up just enough to flash Styx a smile full of razor-sharp teeth. He then rose unenthusiastically and patted Rumor's back. Lachesis then noticed for the first time that their elderly leader was out of breath and panting.

"Forgive me, Rumor," he sighed halfheartedly, turning around and returning to his large seat of black stone. "Make no mistake, my place in these matters has been, and always will be at your side. Till the very end, I shall serve you and the Dark Alliance."

Rumor gasped, clutching at his heart light in pain. Sensing his master's need for some assistance, Styx offered him a tall glass of water from a nearby table. Taking the glass, the aged leader of the Dark Alliance chucked it at a nearby wall, frightening Styx to no end and causing Lachesis to sigh.

"Enough with your nonsense!," Rumor spat, his deathly tone causing Styx to back away in both fear and total respect. "I'm not some crippled Turaga to be waited on hand-and-foot all day long. I realize I may be a bit....older. I'm not blind to that awful fact. Tell me, why do you two think I need this scroll in the first place?"

He traced the edges of each symbol on the scroll's outer casing, staring intently at its deep ridges. A smile on his face once more was all it took for Styx to come forward and give his reply.

"You're dying, master," he replied meekly, his hands going limp at his sides as he spoke, “and you wish to destroy everyone in this universe before your passing?”

Rumor slowly nodded his head as he slumped back into his comfortable seat of ebony, watching the pile of flames in the center of the room dance and flicker in harmony with one another. He remembered a time when he too was like those flames; strong, powerful, unpredictable and deadly. Then along came that other Toa, the one who controlled darkness itself. Obsidian. From Teridax’s right-hand assistant one day, to a slave in a protodermis mine the next. All because of that Toa’s immeasureable usefulness to the Brotherhood’s plan. Teridax, like everyone else in Rumor's world, did not fathom the power of the mind to its full potential. It was in Rumor’s opinion the most powerful weapon anyone could ever possess.

When the leader of the Brotherhood betrayed him for the ruthlessly effective Toa of Shadow, however, Rumor lost all respect for that loathsome being for all of eternity. The Dark Alliance was born, his new organization of stability and comfort now. The ultimate gathering of like-minded individuals who were united by Rumor's iron-fisted rule. With the Dedh-see scroll now in his possession, he would have his ultimate revenge upon the world soon enough.

"This scroll is vital to my plans," the aged leader began, dragging his long white claws across the arm rest of his chair. "As soon as it’s power is completely activated, my ultimate revenge upon this blasted universe can finally come to light. When I finally die, I want that Toa of Shadow to go down with me, along with every single being who values their insignificant little lives. I want them all to suffer as much as I did so long ago. I want them to feel the agony of a thousand death's in one perfect act of violence....It’s the only way I can pass on from this world content and satisfied. With this next murder, I shall lead Obsidian and his partner to the front row seat of the end of the universe. Through his blind determination, he will ironically become this world’s undoing."

He held out his right hand for the other two in his company to see. Lachesis smiled as he realized the sheer simplicity of such a plan. True, he thought glumly, the rest of all living things will soon be destroyed, but I've lived a good life. A long one at that, so nothing Rumor does will make any difference now. In fact, he secretly couldn’t wait to see what would happen the day chaos would reign supreme, and nothing would be left standing when it was all over. In two days time, the end of the world would begin, and wether the Toa of Shadow realized it or not, he would become the most important player in this killer’s game.

* * *

Morning brought a bitter chill throughout the grossly poluted island of Xia. To the untrained eye, nothing seemed out of place. Various machines kept belching out their plumes of jet-black smoke straight up into the sky, mixing poisonous gases into the air. A small kofo-jaga scorpion unwittingly ran headlong into a patch of acidic grass, its struggling body completely liquified in seconds. A defective battering ram was being shoved into the gigantic furnace of a large reclamation yard, the male Vortixx struggling to shove it inside being unfortunate enough to scald his hands on the roaring inferno before him. Business as usual. However, behind one of the largest of the main city’s factories, a grisly murder had taken place only a few hours before, and one of Xia’s leading Vortixx overseers now lay in a pool of her own blood.

“She died exactly like the previous victim,” scribbled Kelemak excitedly, hammering his notes with a small chisel into a sheet of rock with trembling hands. “Same bashed in face, same body position, and the same indentations all over her body from the Dedh-see scroll’s hard outer covering. Time of death is estimated to be roughly eight hours ago, in relation to the prior murder which was sixteen hours ago.....are you getting all of this, Obsidian?”

Done with his meticulous amount of notes, Kelemak looked over at his commanding investigator, a veteran of more murder cases than the Steltian could count. Right now, however, the Toa of Shadow was doubled over in agony, rolling around in the muddy ground and garnering the attention from every factory worker for miles around.

“Get back to work,” snarled a tall, female Vortixx amidst the excited chatter of the crowds, “So help me, you’ll all be picking up your teeth from the floor if you’re not back to your posts in the next five seconds!”

At Roodaka’s terrifying announcement, all of the male Vortixx present hurriedly scattered back into the nearby factory, tripping over each other in a frenzied state of fear. She then strode up to the reeling form of Obsidian, grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed him towards a nearby bench covered in a layer of soot. The morning sun brought a cold light to his face, illuminating his body entirely. Obsidian then landed on the bench heavily, dribbling a blue liquid from his mouth as the color around him became sounds, and the world spun like a Kohlii ball. There he was on top of it all, staring down at the ground that appeared five miles away and watching as the gray sun overhead grew a face and started singing a long hazy tune.

“Thanks, but I don’t need any help sitting,” giggled Obsidian, his eyes darting around wildly as his euphoria reached its peak. “I think, I’ve got that aspect of things covered. Maybe...yes--NO! Wait...yeah I do.”

Kelemak stepped over the latest murder victim hesitantly, and made a running dash towards Roodaka who sat on the bench opposite the Toa of Shadow arms crossed and teeth bared in annoyance at Obsidian’s random jibe.

“Greetings, Roodaka, my name is Kelemak.” said the Steltian, flustered without measure as the Toa of Shadow began acting highly disrespectful. He then pointed at his black-armored associate, his new location now being the grimy floor next to the bench, staring intently at a small speck of dirt on the ground like it was the most important thing in the world. “This is my commanding Brotherhood officer, and first class investigator Obsidian: Toa of Shadow.”

“What the blazes is wrong with him?”, she spat angrily, eyeing Kelemak with nothing but pure disdain, completely ignoring Kelemak’s introductions.

“Well I...um...”muttered Kelemak nervously. He figured it must have had something to do with whatever was in that drink Obsidian had downed in one sitting a few hours earlier. “I’m sure it’s nothing Roodaka, forgive him, its been a long trip overseas.”

“I can forgive incompetence,” spat Roodaka. “I can even look past someone’s unreliability, and let them live to see another day. However, I will not tolerate this foolish Toa’s obvious display of complete idiocy! I don’t care who he works for, morons do not live long on the island of Xia!”

Obsidian’s eyes rolled around in his head, his ears pounding at the grating sound of Roodaka’s painfully loud voice, before finally being able to focus in on what he was searching for. Clues. Of course, they happened to be right underneath the enraged Vortixx before him.

“You’re sitting right on top of our evidence,” moaned the Toa of Shadow, staring fixedly at a small trail of plant fibers leading from murder scene to the rusty bench that Roodaka now sat upon. “Those little fibers come from sort of plant that only grows on the dunes of-”

“-Zakaz!,” Interrupted Kelemak. He then kneeled next to Obsidian’s reeling form then, collecting the fibers from underneath the bewildered Vortixx. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice them sooner! Marokele plants only grow in the lands of the Skakdi war zones. That means the murderer must have come from that very same place before coming to Xia to kill this Vortixx, which means....”

“His trail of death doesn’t end here,” finished the zoned out Toa of Shadow, finally succumbing to his extremely potent drink and falling face-first into a pile of mud, completely unconscious.

“Excuse us, Roodaka,” said Kelemak, eagerly swinging the limp body of Obsidian over his broad shoulders and taking off down the crowded streets at break-neck speed. “We have a serial killer to catch, and my transport ship is parked on one of your docks illegally...”

To be continued.....

I can't finish. I quit
-Optimar

This post has been edited by Toa Optimar-Toa of Gravity!: Jun 28 2008, 04:13 AM