The woman clenched her teeth as she sat and watched the small screen on the datapad, the image quality was sub par, but still clear enough to identify her brother Jaysen, naked, beaten, bloodied, and strapped into an old wooden high back chair. The person holding the camera drew in close, getting a good shot of his frightened expression, and then pull back to a wide shot again, before placing the camera onto a tripod pointed at the chair. A hand came into view for a moment, making a middle finger gesture, and quickly disappearing. Jaysen’s mouth was moving, saying something, but void of sound to pick up his voice.
“I apologize, but there was no audio in the copy they sent us” Doctor Kordano frowned.
For several minutes, it had only been him alone in a room with a hanging halogen light above his head, but then a half dozen figures, some thin built and others muscular, strolled in all wearing costume masks of various mythological creatures.
“Those sick fucks” She scoffed while cracking her knuckles. “They knew he was into fantasy type shit, stuff from centuries back that doesn’t even exist anymore. Pricks thought it would be funny to play dress up just for him.”
“Is that where you got the ideas for your tattoos? From Jaysen?” Kordano asked, looking over at the prisoner whose emerald eyes remained fixed on the dimly lit screen.
“Yeah...” She whispered after a long pause.
As the video played, the mob could be seen surrounding her brother, taking pot shots at him with chains, crowbars, and electrified bullwhips. One of the figures stepped up closer, wrapped what appeared to be barbed wire around their gloved hand, and punched Jaysen in the chest, and side of his head, causing thin lines of blood to run down his face and torso. He screamed, that much was apparent without the need for sound, and the more he struggled the worse his beatings became. One after another, each member of the circle stepped in to take yet another shot at the otherwise defenseless man, each adding another deep bloody wound, dark bruise, or large welt on his body.
“We don’t need to watch any-”
“Leave it!” Czigani scolded him, hitting the metal chair with her fist. “Just. Leave it.”
A taller dark skinned male figure stepped behind the chair, placed his hands on both sides of Jaysen’s head and instantly created blue veins of electricity that caused his target’s body to convulse and scream in silence. Each group member took a turn, employing some horrific display of supernatural power that, with every stroke, caused greater pain and suffering. A razor blade was used to shave his head down to the skin, leaving nothing but patches of hair, cuts, and running lines of blood.
Doctor Kordano, having seen the brutality of the footage a few times already, cringed still. “Ms Salahori, I think you get the point though-”
“Doc, I swear if you turn that off, I will reach through this fucking energy field that sits between us and strangle your old, scrawny-ass neck until you're dead.”
As the woman continued to watch her bloodied brother used as a tool of revenge, one of the masked figures, possibly a female, wearing a fitted chain mail top, mesh stockings, and stiletto high heels, stepped in front of Jaysen and kneeled down in between his shaking legs. She had a long tail that could be seen swaying like a serpent, and metal razors at the tip that gleamed in the poor lighting. The creature lifted her mask enough to expose her mouth, placed a clawed hand on his knee, and bit into his thigh, causing him to recoil in pain and terror. A pool of blood formed at the foot of the chair as the beast released her hold and turned to the camera to flash a wry grin through sharp and bloodied teeth. She dipped her clawed finger into the pool of blood, and proceeded to slowly form crude letters on his chest that read:
The Children Shall Survive
Czigani shifted uncomfortably in her seat, closing her eyes for a moment, before reopening them. The “Children”, she assumed, referred to the offhanded name given to those born different within Domino City. “Mutants”, however, definitely fit as a better description though. Czi held her head in her hands, trying to understand the reasons for such erratic and brutal behavior among the Children. But deep down she knew, and her lowlife father had been the one responsible for initiating such a vicious retaliation. Sadly, the ones to truly suffer from his past transgressions were his own kids.
“I am one of these monsters” She mumbled under her breath, staring at the screen for the last time.
As a final jab into the very heart of morality and a huge cock shoved up the ass of the R&D and it's corruption, Czigani’s brothers life was ended with a swift decapitation by some kind of plasma laser imbued sword. The masked executioner tore the head from the remaining charred neck tissue and held it up to the camera, smiling through jagged yellow stained teeth, before the image went black.
Czigani screamed at the top of her lungs, rising from her sitting position and throwing the chair across the cell, only to yell some more until there was no breath left in her lungs to expend. She wanted so badly to release her own powers and all the rage that would follow, for the ink to be set free from her body, lashing out in a chaotic and bloody frenzy, yet she couldn’t. The drugs that were pumped into her system, coupled with neural inhibitors attached to her brain, dulled any further use of her power, suppressing whatever triggered it’s manifestation until R&D was ready.
“Doc, you need to get me the fuck out of this place so I can find these pricks!” She exclaimed, getting as close to the energy screen as she could without touching its electrical charge. “I’ll do whatever it takes, but I can’t stay here while the assholes who did this roam free.”
The doctor stood up and turned off the datapad, returning her gaze with a grin of his own.
“That’s excellent news, Miss Salahori. Excellent indeed.”
