Private The Price of a Life

[Vergessen Contii]

Starter - Vergessen Contii and Kyric Karis

---

Now playing - Kaiji OST - Little Zawa

"So? Did you get her? Let's see, come on, she's been the high light of my attention for two hours now..."
"Heh.. Sorry boss, she got away with her winnings. Couldn't "tax" her fast enough, but the next lucky arrogant ass wont be so quick...!"

"Not even a body? Whaaat! You're joking!"

The sound of laughter fills the air, for a moment. The three well-dressed men sheepishly dribbling excuses in front of the tall, pale leader had suddenly cracked into hysterics, after the inflexion of Contii's voice betrayed his rage. Even still, the soft gasping perpetuated by his oxygen-regulating mouthpiece made the room's tension more palpable.

The men collectively gathered their marbles after quickly realizing the boss's impression was not charmed. They had been tasked with tailgating a woman through the machine-lined alleys of the casino's ground floor moments before she managed to evade them, and the three small time crooks had underestimated her importance to Contii.

"L-Like we said boss... She got away... She left with the earnings - she was shady, sure... But she isn't our priority-"
Now playing - HxH OST - Kage/Rasetsu

It was in an instance. The suited man closest to Contii flinched for a moment; his body ineffective in reacting to the sudden loss of a limb. It started with the blood dribbling off where the slice flattened cleanly at the cuff of the wrist. It was suddenly quiet enough for everyone to hear the soft pat of the liquid hitting the mat below, and the man looked down to see the red stump where his hand had been.

Contii was too cruel to oblige a scream. Contii's third arm had been holding a hidden blade under his robe, and it whipped out from beneath the robe like a snake striking at prey. The second slash simply executed the man, with his head tumbling across the room.

"Hate it... Hate that - that, you know... THAT?"

The remaining underlings shivered in place, shaking their heads in ignorance to Contii's reference.

"You don't notice these things like I do... The way his jaw quivered, the shaking, oozing spit wiggling on his tongue... The pores of his skin flaring disgustingly... His distance from me was so intimate... I didn't want him anywhere near me."

"His body's still useful you know. Stop looking at me and attend to his corpse. Keep it in the icebox for later."

Contii loomed over the body as it was dragged out of the room. His accommodation was in a section of the club furthest from the main lobby, so the possibility of witnesses was limited. Contii nibbled his own thumb in contemplation as the limp lower half of the deceased underling finally left his line of sight. The head that rolled on the floor was then suddenly punted into a forgotten corner of the room to fester.

"These people die without even knowing the potential within their bodies. You neglected it in life, so now I will use it for my benefit."
He began to grind his teeth roughly; rough enough to draw blood from his gums. The soft shadows of the dark office space, and the gloom of the thick mask across his eyes made his visage even more frightening through the glass of his loungeroom door, framing his demonic splendor. Bleeding dark teeth behind a foggy facemask with a blotched pale body... Tall, with long slicked back hair that splits at the ends and dangles down to the waist. His entire figure was corpselike and his features drained.

Contii soon followed his men out of the room, clinging to the frame of the doorway and heaving slowly... Both with anticipation, and the pain from the illness that has been damaging his lungs from birth.

Contii was intent on finding the girl, and his reasons were kept vague for unknown reasons. As soon as Contii had entered the main lobby of the club, a wealthy man covered in gold and silver jewelry immediately called for his attention.

"And he returns! The primary benefactor of this fine, fine establishment. Give him your warmest applause, and your heaviest drink!"

The crowd of people mingling and the few stationed at desks with playing cards erupted into applause, leaving Contii's attention hogged by the club's attending group of nobles dying to know more about Contii and his money.

He simply grimaced for a moment behind the cloth on his forearm and reinforced his lips with a terrifyingly wide smile.

Show-time.

 

[Kyric]

A soft sigh escaped Kyric's lips from where he sat atop his speeder bike. Another tip-off from an old Marshal contact meant his night off had quickly become a late-night gig. With the growing chaos in the Core, and the instability of the Jedi Order, more and more unknown variables like him were getting mixed up in the Galactic Game. Thankfully, this particular job didn't feel like one of those nights.

Kyric deactivated his bike and stepped off the inert vehicle. He chose his usual attire for an evening on the town–his old man's leather jacket, thick combat boots, and loose trousers for movement. A thin bodyweave suit played the part of added defense and his top. He slid his vibroknife and WESTAR-34 into twin holsters at his sides, hidden beneath the jacket.

"Hey, Chief," Kyric turned to the small BD unit nestled on the back of his bike. The droid chirped in acknowledgment, so the boy continued. "Come find me if I start transmittin' my location. I'll probably need my sword."

BD-8 or the Big Chieftain as Kyric's father named him, nodded twice and settled back down.

Kyric did a final once-over of himself and his belongings. Satisfied he didn't leave anything glaringly obvious behind, the boy made his way across the street and into the club proper.

I hate places like this. Kyric mused. His multicolored gaze scanned the swathe of nobles, the wealthy, and the elite who gathered around a masked man amid a budding presentation. The kiffar watched briefly, then turned off to study the casino floor. He found myriads of games, tables, and performances that left him feeling queasy. Nothing about the experience appeared any different from snorting a line of glitter stim and thrusting one's self into the center of a dance floor in a Lower City club.

Everyone oozed the darkest, most vile emotions a sentient could. Kyric may have been the only person in the building with any semblance or connection to the light.

It was... disturbing.

Vergessen Contii ​

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Now Playing - Sternritter Theme

It was clear the young visitor was entering the maw of... Something. One foot into the door and malice was already radiating from every grimacing occupant in the room. Slave traders, Warlords, all packed into one tight casino, milling about with perfect manners no less.

"LORD Contii!" The man that had addressed Contii to everyone endorsed a loud cheer of applause across the room. "Ever since his inheritance of Gefängnis, we've been able to utilize technology and chemical compounds that grant WISHES friends! After all... He saved my daughter's life."

A small blonde girl entered the scene through one of the backdoors on cue. She was dressed in a white felt dressed, pampered to perfection to produce her glow of innocence. Her arms were replaced with flexi-steel limbs, which she raised confidently in the air while the attendees hollered proudly. Despite this, her expression was cracking into a frown of discontent.

"He saved my beautiful flower from near death... And-"

"Ahn'kee enough, enough! The crowd's going to beat you to death if you keep prattling!" The crowd laughed forcefully; a couple of people nervously looking away.

"Anna... Come on. It's time to go, you've eluded me long enough. It's time for your gift, from me to you."
His words carried undertones of a threat, in which attention to detail was neglected by the slightly inebriated guests.
"Made men! Escort young Anna and I outside for the... Pleasantries."

"No... D-dad... Don't let him..."
Like a coward, her father decided to slowly shuffle away from the scene, giving her daughter a look of pure dread. Was it a gaze of maliciousness, or was it absolute helplessness?

"Shh... Stop cowering like I'm the monster here. You were aware of the outcome from the beginning."

"It's all your fault."

 

[Kyric]

The galaxy's worst impregnated the club like maggots on a corpse. Even before Kyric could leave the entry hall, he caught sight of pig-nosed men cuddling up against scantily-clad women. The deep haze in their eye suggested some manner of chemical or psionic intrusion on their synapse. Everywhere he turned, the deeper he looked, the more he saw of the festering sickness that infested the denizens.

"Shh... Stop cowering like I'm the monster here. You were aware of the outcome from the beginning."

"It's all your fault."

Kyric stopped against his better senses. He turned back to see the young girl's father scurrying away with his metaphorical tail between his legs. Anna, as the host declared, appeared nonplussed with the whole endeavor. She wore her discontent brazenly, facing her host with more vigor than her father could ever manage. Unsure of what to make of the scene, the kiffar sidled up to the edge of the crowd. He suppressed his force signature to a microscopic level. It became practically impossible to discern him from the typical NFU for all but the most experienced sense specialists.

Confident in his disguise, Kyric gently pushed through the edge of the ring until he lingered at the front of the crowd. He played the part of an excited youth caught up in the drugs, winnings, and sex appeal that came with a place like this one. But he watched the exchange like a hawk, prepared to act without hesitation.

Vergessen Contii ​

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Contii was ignorant to Kyric's intrusion. Despite his position and wealth of armaments, he was unable control his full will over the force, relying on supplements to focus his rage to allow for easier manipulation.

He wasn't sensing a thing, only the growing discontent on the young lady's face as she walked down towards Contii from the top of the staircase.
"So? Have you made your choice?"

It was an ultimatum that no one in the room could register the meaning to. Only the two standing idly in the center of the room had any context to what would happen next.
"A-All in one room..."
"One place."

"..."

"I'm scared..."

"I suppose that's the one thing I can't blame you for..."

The brief exchange had occurred once the room's volume was at its peak. Glasses of alcohol were flying off the table of the ground floor's bar, but the stone-cold sober father anxiously remained on the second floor, staring down at the two.

"There'll be more..."

"There's never none."

"... I..."

"..."

"Just... Do what you need to do..."

---

With Kyric being the only battle-hardened opponent in the room, he'd be the first to notice the twitch in Contii's fingers as he quickly withdrew his lightsaber hilt from underneath his robe.

Now Playing - Physical Prowess

It wasn't the ignition of plasma roaring to life that pushed the danger instincts of every surrounding occupant in the room, but the mass of bodies that began to fall from the second floor. They were tall men dressed in ordinary black suits - the same as the few that occupied Contii alone earlier. Upon closer inspection... Something was wrong. As they dropped towards the floor their bodies writhed like malfunctioning pieces of equipment. As one splatted to the ground, it simply picked itself up, vocalizing disturbing sentences in multiple distorted voices. A young boy, a sickly mother. A grieving father.
"MOM! COME BACK TO BED. WHERE'S MY SON! YOU LYING BASTARD... MY SON'S DEAD!"

The skin of the man's face was ruined beyond repair. The synthetic material melting off its face stuck to the floor, leaving him immobile. The rest of them quickly got up and started to run towards the nearest man or woman in the room. They ran in a terrifying gait... Their arms flapping weightlessly behind them; some took giant excessive leaps with every step, making them look like newborn infants learning how to walk on two legs. A couple of them that had sustained damaged simply crawled with great speed on whatever limb they could stand on, while a few decided to rip off the arms and legs of their "dismantled" companions and put them on themselves.

It was a horrifying sight, to say the least. The artificial blood flowing between their skin layers was black like tar, and it puddled in big pools across the floor like a giant ink spillage.

It wasn't as horrifying as what the men were doing. They were eliminating everyone inside - bludgeoning them, tearing them to pieces, it was madness. The few monsters that had a head left on their neck were screaming profanities and violating language. One had mounted the bartender who attempted to escape out the front, and whispered something into his ear... This preceded with the bartender's body being reduced to a flat disk of a cadaver.

Contii remained still in the middle of the room, gazing directly into Ahn'kee's eyes while panic unfolded around him. The girl that had once hesitantly spared the distance between Contii was now attempting to cling to his arm but failed to pierce his discomfort over touch.

"Not now... I'm finally seeing some honesty in your father's eyes for once..."

If Kyric wanted to take action, it would be... Now! Two of the suited men lunged towards Kyric as the attendees were murdered one by one. More were on their way after slaughtering half of the ground floor.

 

[Kyric]

Huh?
​

Shock momentarily rooted Kyric in place.

He should have felt that coming.

Broken and unnatural bodies clambered over one another to charge the closest guests. Kyric's eyes remained rooted on the automatons still working their way to their feet, even as others fell upon them and ripped them apart like toys. The spray of black ichor across the floor shook the boy from his stupor.

Chit. Chit. Chit.

Innocents were dying faster than Kyric could react. He pivoted to his right, several seconds too late to make any real difference, and reached out to the two men running toward him. In what would be an outright brutal display in any other circumstance, the kiffar unceremoniously tossed them dozens of feet into the air and promptly forgot about them. He expected the splat to be a little worse off for the flesh-and-blood killers among them.

Between the others dying around him, and the strange drama that played centered around the Host, the Father, and his Daughter, Kyric couldn't help but feel there was some greater thread connecting this tapestry of madness. Ahh, feth it. He drew his WESTAR from his jacket and popped off three shots. The first rocketed toward the monster behind the bar as it rose up from the corpse. The second and third tore through the tailored suits of two of the men weaving through the crowd, and dropped them dead with little fanfare.

Kyric slid his thumb across his communication device to activate his locator beacon and the commlink simultaneously. "Things aren't lookin' good, buddy. Shoot the s-word through the window and get whatever damned authorities you can!" He turned back to the host and the young girl. The sight of her crawling all over the man she so openly feared seconds before completely stupidifed Kyric.

"Hey, Lord Host man!" Kyric pushed toward Contii and Anna. "Put the girl down and call off the goons! I'm still feelin' kind enough to put you away without breaking half the bones in your body."

The Jedi didn't expect that to stay true for long.

Vergessen Contii ​

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Now Playing - You're Mine

---

Contii thrived in the haze of confusion, finally breaking his staring contest with Ahn'kee to address the newcomer slaughtering his droids.
"That's MISTER Lord Host Man to you, party crasher. You clearly don't know what's going on, so I advise you see yourself out."

He gestured behind Kyric to highlight the crumbling doorframe of the entrance. A hand was indented into the mahogany wood, but a body didn't appear present. Kyric's appointed escort was a Fleshgait android that slowly materialized from thin air as it flexed its Beskar claws.

The butchered bodies of the decommissioned Made Men still continued to writhe on the floor around the room. Any functioning cybernetic adapters on all four ends of their extremities suddenly began popping off the bodies, crawling or wriggling towards surviving and able-bodied units that were shot down earlier. Two rose from the ashes with feet for hands, or blasters for legs. They adapted to their deformities immediately by one going prone to aim a leg blaster, and the second one using four legs to crawl quickly towards Kyric and attempt to pounce on him.

As the second droid hurled through the air, the first cadaver shot a few plasma bolts towards Kyric in a two-pronged assault. The Fleshgait slowly approached from the back - each heavy step caving through the floor in its leisure.

Ahn'kee could only look on in panic. He was the only one left - and he gave one final look to his daughter before exiting through a back door.

Things were heating up.

 

[Kyric]

Kyric was at least thankful the last living person, aside from the deranged host and his makeshift human backpack, had departed. That graciousness did not extend to the invisible murder android who appeared from nowhere.

"I'm startin' to think you might be a supervillain, Mister Lord Host Man," Kyric quipped, but his heart wasn't in it. His body grew tense as the feeling of danger pressed in on all sides. He watched the damaged androids reconstruct themselves in ways that allowed their damaged bodies to fight on, be they headless or limbless. One aimed its gun leg at him while a second prepared to pounce, and not for the first time, the Jedi cursed himself for acting without thinking.

Glass shattered behind him as blaster fire from his speeder bike blew through the transparisteel windows. His blade flashed toward him. Kyric plucked it from the air and turned quickly toward the oncoming blaster fire. He pulled the trigger of the gun-sheath to the sound of a single, thunderous boom. The force-imbued sword flashed upward and sliced the first blaster bolt in two. The leaping android caught him and carried him out of the way of the other shots and onto the floor, but the Jedi didn't stop moving. He continued through with the motion and kicked into the android's chest, launching him back toward the beskar-clawed menace.

Kyric managed a no-handed kip-up and dashed toward the gunner. His body wove through the oncoming blaster fire, leading him to the android's side. He sliced through the creature's gun leg and unceremoniously yanked a chandelier from above down to crush the damn thing via telekinesis.

He eyed the beskar-clad android warily and prepared for the next assault.

Vergessen Contii ​

 

[Vergessen Contii]

Now Playing - General Grevious 2003 Theme Remix

---

"Mmm, here's a brain tickler... Perhaps from my viewpoint of things, you are the so-so 'supervillain'. Does that mean I'm the hero? It must! It is a matter of perspective... Afterall."

Contii gave Kyric a whimsical grin as his droids attempted to retaliate. The droid that got unceremoniously booted hurled through the air towards the Fleshgait. It simply flared its claws and sliced through the middle of the corpse projectile, leaving its face covered in black tar as the split halves folded beneath its feet.

The spine of the Made Men coordinated all the individual cybernetic adapters attached to it. Now that the Fleshgait had cleaved through the spine of the unit, it was inoperable, leaving the blaster droid as the final Made Man in the room.

There wasn't a hint of regret on Contii's face. No love for his creation - they were expendable, after all. He was simply amused by the flashy, dexterous tech the young intruder wielded against his small army. With the second droid crushed under a chandelier, that left the Fleshgait to stare down Kyric. It didn't instigate, but it slowly turned its head to Contii's attention. Its mandibles rattled in idleness, and the air stood still.

The girl behind Contii had given up clinging to him. She instead frightfully pointed a blaster pistol at Kyric, shivering in place with a rigid aiming posture.
"Why are you holding that? You're useless with weapons. Look at you, it's hilarious!"

"H-h-he... He... He must be an assassin... Oh god, he'll... He'll ruin everything - I-I.... I just... WANT TO BE FREE! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"

Instead of a clash with the Fleshgait android, Kyric was now faced with several more plasma bolts flying in his direction. The girl kept shooting until her blaster overheated - burning her hands and making her toss the weapon onto the floor in pain.

"I-I'M GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE... I WON'T L-LET THEM TAKE ME..! I WON'T LET... YOU!"