Human experimentation.

  Bobby carefully considered what they were dealing with: there were countless gangs of various sizes all over the Undercity and all of them were in the employ of a secretive organisation called the Undertakers who seemed to be using them to perform human experimentation, while keeping their hands—not exactly clean, but—away from the dirt. This secret orgaisation had access to tech that was light years ahead of what the public had access to and he had a hunch over who or what what was responsible for this arrangement.

  In fact he’d always been slightly suspicious over why the Megacorps allowed these lawless hollows to form under their cities, filled to the brim with injustice and those who barely could make a living. It would not even impact their income to do up the Undercities and lift up those in poverty, but it seemed like they had ulterior motives. What if every city is like this?

  Bobby didn’t even dare consider the full implications of the appalling thought, it was too much for him to deal with right now. He refocused on what he directly was involved in and had control over. This gang, the Jameson Jockey Jedi.

  He had wanted to destroy it for the harassment that it was causing this side of the city, which he’d first heard about all the way back at that hotel and crematorium.

  The man who ran that bastion, Black Beetle, who he’d eavesdropped on had seemed to think the Megacorporations wanted anarchy down here so they could step in and extort everyone. But that was potentially not their true motive, in fact it was prossible that they wanted to engineer this chaos to further their amoral experimentation without being caught.

  Bobby reconsidered what he wanted. If the megacorporations were using the gangs to indirectly further their own agenda then… Couldn’t he do the same? Fight fire with fire so to say. Some part of his mind liked how poetic that would be, to bring down their criminal dealings by subverting their control on them, and then turning it back on the source.

  Plus he seemed to have the exact skill set required to pull of such an endeavour; he could control those at the top and then amass an army of the dead from those who died in the conflicts he would cause. I really don’t want to start a war, but that seems to be the easiest predicament to my current problem, and my enemies aren’t afraid of such qualms.

  Bobby sighed, at least he would learn a lot from the process. After all global domination was impossible without conflict. No one would just stoop and hand over the reins to him unless he took them forcefully.

  Having decided he didn’t want to dismantle the gang that left him at a slight problem of what to do with everyone locked in its basement. If he just released them there would be a high chance they would just get recaptured and then all the rest of the gangs would come crashing down on him to cover up their own dealings.

  Bobby scratched his head. Why am I thinking about all this alone? I have a general who has a much greater understanding of what do do with people.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  He went and found Gary who was roaming the corridor, looking through the windows with a slightly green face.

  “Gary, I need to explain something to you.” he said before reeling off the sting of consciousness he’d been weaving for the last few minutes.

  “Hmm, I do have a potential answer for you.” Gary said, stroking his new patchy beard. “I think you could offer to employ them.”

  “What can I pay them with?” Bobby asked perplexed.

  “Revenge—promises to find those responsible for what was done to them and make them pay.”

  +++++

  Jay tirelessly pulled at the zip ties that bound him to the railing, the skeletons had gone back to surrounding him, but not holding him, so long as he didn’t cause too much of a commotion they left him mostly alone. Which suited him fine as he was almost out of these infernal restraints and when he was out he would immediately shatter their skulls and kill the humans.

  He licked his lips with anticipation at running his sword arm through the two of them, it would be so satisfying. Whatever they had done to his brother was regrettable, but the man was cold and emotionless, not even showing the slight weakness he used to. It was an improvement, he would forgive them with their deaths.

  Another ziptie snapped, allowing him to move his unmodified arm freely and begin yanking on the ones that held his other arm to the railing. He had to be careful of the sword, it was hideously sharp, made from the same material that they used to make the great supports that held up the city above. It was called Bitanium or something and was made by using some quantum process to combine the traits of inferior metals. He didn’t understand how though, he’d never got to it in school.

  Wiggling his sword he managed to get enough wiggle room to rotate the blade, causing another zip tie to ping off. He was almost there, he could taste the freedom, blood pounded in his ears with his excitement. In fact he was too excited that he didn’t even notice the return of the infiltrators.

  “Impressive, I see you’ve almost managed to escape.”

  “What can I say, I am a man of many tale…” he froze as he realised who he was talking to.

  “I could do with a man like you, what say you?” The younger of the two infiltrators asked, tilting his head in a slightly predatorial fashion.

  Jay licked his dry lips again. Is this idiot going to release me? Hahahaha, I guess I’ll play along for a bit.

  “I might be persuaded.” he said slyly.

  “Hah, well it wasn’t like I was going to give you a choice anyway,” said the man reaching for Jay’s face.

  Jay felt a sudden premonition of danger as the hand descended towards him. Some part of his mind was screaming that hand was the end of all things and he was going to die when it touched him. But that couldn’t be true, right? It was just a normal human hand, unmodified by cybernetics or anything. He began contemplating putting his pride aside and ducking, however before he could, the hand touched his head and it was all over.

  Something ethereal and invisible pushed forward into him without any precision whatsoever. For a moment nothing happened and then he was split right down the centre. Shrieking with a pain no one should feel, he was torn apart at the very basest level of his being.

  As the last vestiges of his consciousness faded he felt something alien begin binding itself to his very soul, altering and replacing parts of him until what was left felt no fear as it was embraced by darkness.

  +++++

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