Of Tourniquets And Demons ((Next Major RP Chapter Beyond Evolution))

#####Incoming Data Transmission....Please Standby....######

"Zion has abandoned you...."Jobi".....They have forseen your failure to me........The Swordfish is alone..."

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Betrayal…

Treachery…

Deceit…

The worlds rattled around his mind relentlessly…

His hard work… finally blossoming into his true identity…

For weeks now, he had dug deeper, forged “alliances” with those who opposed the Cause… Oh how their tongues had betrayed them and given him the currency with which to purchase the affirmation of his loyalty from his saviour… from the man… the machine… the monster that had set him free once more… who had made him… feel…

Zealot, Nimbrel, Jobi, Sykin… all bowed to his trickery, to his deception… and who would blame them?Who would suspect him? Of all people… filled with stories of his anger towards the Masked… his desire to exact revenge… So desperate were they to gain an extra pair of hands to assist their doomed attempts against the Agenda that they didn’t think to stare him in the eyes… his cold, dark and unfeeling eyes… resonating pure hatred… utter disgust at this new race… these “awakened”… those who threatened his future… and his return to his past…

And for his fleet… like lambs to the slaughter they had followed him blindly towards this point… when iExplorer vanished, they turned to him for guidance, for support and for answers… little did they know that iExplorer was gone… for good… he had taken care of that…

A smile crosses his face as he recalls the countless hours spent dissecting his former commanders coding; integrating his own routing programs into the core database of each and every one of the CodeMason fleet… now holding their fate in the palm of his hand… they could either join him or oppose him… the decision was theres now…

He bowed his head slightly, staring passively towards the tempered flooring on which he was perched… he was safe here… no-one would find him… no-one would think to look here of all places…

His mood lightened once more as his wand wandered over the futile calls for help from Jobi and Sykin… each had called him, asking for assistance, asking for his allegiance and support before they walked voluntarily into the viper pit… before they came face to face with their deceiver… funny, that in their time of need, the one man they would call upon would within minutes be the one pointing the barrel of his gun squarely towards their misguided heads… he couldn’t of planned it any better…

Why did they do it? Why did they try? All we want is a return to normality… all we want is to go home… to see our families again, our friends, our boring 9-5 office jobs with our pretentious bosses and **bleep** retentive colleagues… all we wanted was to relax, to absorb the company of those around us and enjoy life through its ups and downs… to live… to feel… blissfully unaware of the Matrix… of the pitiful true existence of its enlightened inhabitants… was that so bad? Was that so wrong?

Are we the evil ones?He shakes his head vigorously at this notion… No… they are the ones… they expelled us from Eden and cast us into the living hell of the Real… the ends has never so fittingly justified the means… they were the evil scourging this world… they deserved to be punished… they deserved the pain that would eventually seek them all out and devour every ounce of their being…

His fists tightened as he refocused on unsettled scores… Weezle… he would no doubt come for him… the quiet ones are always the worst apparently… he knew it was only a matter of time… unless he could be turned…Phunkyfella… oh how novel… the one person responsible for kick-starting the chain of events leading to the present day was now in bed with this “Roundtable”… He caused this… and his time would come…

He looked down at the ragged piece of cloth gripped tightly in his hands… it symbolised the pain, the struggle… it was worth it… every single second of his existence in this world had been leading towards this… he had earned is right to freedom… his right to feel, to live, to love… his right… to go home.

Raising it slowly to his face and tying it tightly, he slumped back and closed his eyes… one hand steadily gripping a control panel, the digital image of the Discordia circling around its grubby LCD screen, the other, picking up a loose jack-in node, circling it behind his head as he tried to align it with his socket… with one rapid thrust, he drove it in, jolting slightly backwards, he muttered briefly as his consciousness faded into that of the Matrix…

“Time to make them feel… each and every one of them….”

((Gawdammit... I spent over half an hour typing my entry straight onto the board... first time i've ever skipped out on using Word first... and the connection crashed when I submitted it... *cries like a schoolgirl* ))

The stench engulfed him, clouding his every thought, stifling him with every breath.It had been this way for weeks now, every since he left the comfort of his ship, ever since he turned his back on his fleet

He looked down at his battered hands, thick with dirt and grime, his knuckles caked with blood, deep scratches and scrapes bored into them, their painful sting intensifying with every beat of his pulse.

His very life had been slipping from him, day by day… he pictured the sanctum of his former abode… warmth, shelter… food….

Staring down at an empty tin, the last of his rations, his stomach seemed to taunt him, growling with desperate hunger, as if to mock him for his self-induced plight.

Why hadn’t he gone with Espi? Why didn’t he take him up on his offer of a place on his ship? Why was he putting himself through this hell? These same questions resonated through his head with blistering intensity, blocking out the endless commotion around him.

His head hung low as he tried to piece together the next step… he had tried to think of nothing more during the last few tempestuous days, yet his mind was slipping and his thoughts were beginning to betray him; paranoia taking a firm grasp, he had spent countless hours with his blaster pointed firmly on the entrance to his makeshift new home, convinced that within seconds someone would hunt him down…yet they never came.

For weeks leading up to his abandonment, he had toyed with his failsafe, he case it a sideways glance… and glimmering LED screen providing the only light in the room, schematics of The Discordia.. the crown jewel of the CodeMason fleet, danced around its pixelated display… a flurry of key-presses and he could vaporise it… but not yet…

His attention diverted to the pile of cables and boxes providing support for his datapad… a discharged compressor generator, haphazardly hooked up to a manual jack-in cable… he had been too weak to recharge the generator by hand as of late… he had no idea of the events unfolding within the Matrix… was there even a Matrix to return to? Only time would tell…

He gritted his teeth firmly and thought of home, his mother, his brother and sister… and her.They would lead him to salvation, they would drive him forward in his journey… whatever happened, that could never be taken from him.He knew that if he was reinserted… WHEN he was reinserted… that those people would mean nothing to him… that they would be erased from his memory, from his heart and his soul… but he would have life once again… he would have family once again, finally, he would be able to love.

A loud clatter distracted him from his wonderment… this was not the usual passing of ships or groaning of steel, this was an intruder…

Reaching out swiftly, his weary muscles channelled the remaining few ounces of energy he had left to grab his blaster and flick the switch to power it up… swinging it round to the doorway and resting it on his bruised legs… he waited…

Finger tightly on the trigger he caught his breath as he searched through the darkness… had the CodeMasons finally come for him? To stop him?Has Jobi and his band of merry misfits taken a detour? Or was it Aiyalla following through on her promise to bring him fresh supplies of food? He waited ever still…

A shadow of a man… a woman… stood perched in the doorway, their breathing was heavy and panicked as they spoke with a tone which implied they had travelled through the bowels of hell itself just to make it…

“Sir… its time.”

Within an instant, Kings face broke into a maniacal smile… his pain, his suffering, finally paying off… it was time for the next step… he jumped to his feet and within seconds his body ran cold, it felt as though he was being drained as the room blurred out of view and his head began to spin… he collapsed to the floor and drifted out of consciousness… with a smile on his face…

Now, it has begun.

There still was something wrong....

I had joined the swardfish to help in the vengence of my parneres death, to help kill Espi, to have that sweet revenge that i heard about from my crew frequently....but...i was starting to doubt my own choice.

I still felt mistrusted...the crew wasnt to faund of me...after i saught out DarkMagician for help when i was positive Espi and Jobi were having an attack of some sort...mental attack...my crew just wouldnt let me back in...it didnt seem like  i was part of anything anymore...just another casualty...

I sighed deeply at the bar in the Sphinx, grabbing my double shot tequila that Mara had just handed me...still thinking if there was any way to gain back the trust of the crew...i knew of one...but it seemed to dangerous seeing as how he had led me so close to death so many times...Espi...

I watched the top balcony of the Sphinx which lead up to the door out and the VIP rooms...there he was again...my brother...looking right at me...but kept walking...he didnt reconize me anymore. its been a while sence i was awakened and sence then my image has changed quite a bit..he came over and sat beside me, ordering, to my surprise, a double shot tequila. i chuckled softly and looked back at him...it was people like him we were trying to free...people like him we were trying to save from the machines....the controll that they had on him and he didnt even know it...i stood up a bit angrilly still a bit flustered at the crew...i had to go looking for him...had to find Espi...had to regain the trust of the crew.

I looked over at Mara "kids drinks are free tonight" i said ponting at my brother, who still had no sence and did not reconize me.

"Hey thanks man i appreciate it" he said to me, raising his glass.

"no problem" i said quietly and went off, in search of Espi, wondering at my brothers confused and shocked face staring at me before i left....

He had finally snapped...he had told Jobi that he was tired of workin for him and beein left in the shadows when things were goin on. he had finally told him that he used to work for Fygment and the masked but had quit...and now he had nowhere to go.

He was wandering the streets of the Matrix mindlessly...didnt know where to go or what to do....he figured he was gonna probably go back to his crash sight to live there seeing as how he could no longer live in Byzantine. He had no crew to go to...no place to go to...and no friends to go to.

He knew that leaving the Swardfish was a good idea, but also a very bad one.

He thought of who he would go to...he couldnt go back to someone from Zion, and he wouldnt work with the Machines or Merovingian if it was the last thing he did...maby it was time to go back to his roots...maby it was time...to rejoin the masked. He doubted that they would let him in..but then again...he did have a fair amount of info on the swardfish...maby that would be enough.

He stopped at his appartment where he visited regularly to keep everything in check. As he thought he realized that the Masked was the only orginization he had even a slight chance of getting into...he was about to try and join what he had been fighting so hard to destroy...and for some reason...it felt right.

He had to find Espi...but this time...not to kill him...this time...to join him

The cold abandoned warehouse resonated with a deathly silence as King awaiting an acknowledgement... an answer, a voice to break the staredown. 

His temper boiling he finally snapped... cursing fluenty and pacing back and forth, muttering expletives under his breathe, before taking stock of himself, adjusting his thick leather jacket and turning once more to this pathetic heap at his feet...

“Frankly, we’re losing patience with all of you… including that impudent little Kitty…”

The man stared back with steely determination

Moving his hand effortlessly, King edged the knife sideways, scraping its blade against his victims ribs, the sickening noise dulled out only by the screams of agony.

Sighing heavily, he continued “… I will not ask you again, old friend… You will talk, you will tell me w-“

A hand swiftly crossing his face interrupted him abruptly.A hand that had broken free of its binding, impervious to the additional torture it would reap by the disrespect it so longed to show its accosted.

"Goddammit you, you son of a b*tch…” snapped King angrily, before calming slightly; “You want to do things the hard way? That’s how you want it? Then fine…”

Jumping to his feet, he stomped across to a nearby table and hoisted open its rough wooden draw, grabbing a variety of items before returning to the broken body.

Without a word, he grabbed the mans left hand, held it to the floorboards and proceeded to drive a 5 inch nail through the palm with anger, nodding towards Euphraxia to repeat the process on his right hand.

Laughing at his victims plea’s for mercy, he snapped back viciously “You have brought this all on yourself friend, you caused this, you asked for this and by God do you deserve this! You think this is pain?! You think this is agony?!”

With that, he swung the hammer down onto the mans left thumb swiftly, before raising it again and smashing each and every one of his fingers with a sick look of intense gratification in his eyes.

“Now that I have your attention, you are going to talk.. you are going to tell me everything…

As he spoke, Euphraxia passed him a bottle of clear liquid, its label almost illegible...

“…everything about the council… “

... staring down at his bloodied and severed right foot, he flipped off the cap and emptied the contents all over the stump…

“…everything you know about the Swordfish…”

..The man squealed in sheer pain as the hydrochloric acid burnt at his wounds, searing through his body…

“…and the reason why you left me for dead all that time ago...You will speak and you will speak now… Do I make myself clear… Phunky?”

King slouched forwards on a hard, stiff stool – raising his left hand slowly to bring a half-smoked cigar to his lips, closing his eyes as he took a long puff, the smoke tumbling out of his half-cocked mouth as the glowing tips flared brighter, illuminating the trouble expression on his face.

He rubbed his eyes wearily – how did it get like this? Since declaring his true allegiances he had been plagued by treacherous worms crawling out of the woodwork, eager to stake their claim against the Masked, to have their pound of flesh, he let out a heavy sigh, before snapping back to focus and rising stiffly, turning his gaze towards the man known as Phunkyfella.

“Do you think I’m enjoying this Phunky?”

The crumpled Zionite refused to answer, instead glaring with a furious anger that offset his battered state.

King shook his head, before being distracted by a slender figure moving slowly into view.Euphraxia… a true diamond of a woman… it was her who had arranged for his rescue in the Real, who had secured the sanction of two new ships.She was a good girl, reliable, loyal and more importantly, obedient.

“King…” she purred, “What are we going to do with him?”

King had no idea.They had once been close friends, he and Phunky, back in the bosom of Zion.They had remained on sociable terms even after what many saw as the ultimate betrayal of exilation into the arms of the Merovingian.So why did he do it?

That was the question which troubled him most.Why, before King became Masked, did Phunky attack him and leave him for dead that fateful day in Chelsea? It was that attack that led him into desperation, that led him to Espi, that led him to the Masked Agenda.

And now? Now, Phunky sat aboard the Zion Roundtable, rubbed shoulders with the very people who wanted King and his new family dead… he gritted his teeth firmly before leaning over Phunky with renewed menace…

“I had forgotten how well I know you Phunky… I know you’re a stubborn b*stard… I’ve had you here a week, and still you won’t talk?”

Phunky smiled back, defiantly, his face caked in dried blood

“Now I know you won’t roll over on your new-found friends Phunky… this unrepentant sense of loyalty that you have forced yourself into accepting clouds your better judgment and blinds you from the fact that they would drop you in it within a heartbeat… but I still want to know…”

King arched further forward still, resting his hand against the cold hard wall supporting Phunky’s weakened frame…

“I want to know why you did it Phunky?This wasn’t an ordinary hit on a run of the mill exile – this was one friend betraying another… tell me why you did it!Who put you up to it?!”

Phunky opened his mouth, tilting his head with the slightest motion, he mustered up the will to speak – his voice cracking through the barren dryness of a throat which had not seen a drop of water in almost five days.He spoke slowly and deliberately…

“King… go to hell…”

His temper ignited, he snapped… grabbing a bloodied knife from the table, his eyes widened as he bellowed in sheer rage…

“Hell?!I’ll give you Hell you son of a – “

“King… please don’t…” cowered Euphraxia, standing shaking behind him.King swung around, turning the tip of the blade towards his cohort with a menacing glare, absorbing the look of fear in her eyes with a smile, before adjusting his mask and refocusing his attentions on Phunky…

“Yknow old friend, she’s right…”casting his eyes across the blood-soaked body of the fallen Zionist – his severed foot, punctured hands, deep twisting knife wounds dotted around his torso;

“…we could continue this dance for weeks, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.You precious Roundtable don’t have long left.As for the Swordfish? Zion’s rogue hero’s?They too will meet a grave end… but you and I?Your score remains unsettled.Rest assured we will have a conclusion to this, mark my words… but for now…”

As King turned the blade sideways, resting its tip on the side of Phunky’s exposed throat, the door to the abandoned warehouse flung open, a young man bursting through, dripping wet from head to toe and about to collapse through sheer exhaustion…

“Daakus whats wrong” asked a concerned Euphraxia…

Turning his eyes from her concerns, Daakus headed cautiously over to King, who’s eyes had not been averted from his target throughout the commotion.

“Sir, I think you need to hear this…”

King flinched as he turned with a belligerent expression towards his sub-ordinate, who leaned in slightly and began to speak into his ear… he jumped back as King rested his hand on his shoulder…

“Sir… you know I don’t…” Daakus mumbled, before finding Kings hand grasped on his shoulder once more, pulling him inwards

“Continue…” barked King… his eyes widening as Daakus spoke to him, shifting with growing concern towards the man he had been about to decapitate…

Suddenly the knife fell from Kings grip… his face turned ashen and the fury which had so illuminated his eyes was substituted with sheer dread… he stared for what seemed an eternity at Phunkyfella, shallow, panicked breaths as he struggled to come to terms with what he had just heard…

Without shifting his gaze, he spoke once more – this time the anger and arrogance completely diluted by a nervous and hesitant tone…

“Euph, disable the signal scramblers… we need to leave…”

“But King…”

“EUPHRAXIA! DO IT NOW FOR GODS SAKE!”

Immediately she tapped in a series of combinations on a heavy old keypad, before being grabbed by the sleeve of her jacket by an already fleeting King and rushed from the room...

Turning to close the door, King looked in once more, soaking in the immensity of this news he had received as he observed Phunkyfella one last time, before slamming the door shut and cloaking the room with darkness.

He made up with his brothers....he had chosen a path that he was sure to be true...he had finally found meaning to his existance...but still on the surface...running...watching at all times...not resting.

He had been walking on the surface for almost 2 weeks now heading blindly into the path ahead of him. He knew where he wanted to go...now that the fear he had faced for so long had finally subsided....he was heading strait for the Oricals program...

He made up with his brothers....he had chosen a path that he was sure to be true...he had finally found meaning to his existance...but still on the surface...running...watching at all times...not resting.

He had been walking on the surface for almost 2 weeks now heading blindly into the path ahead of him. He knew where he wanted to go...now that the fear he had faced for so long had finally subsided....he was heading strait for the Oricals program...