“Welcome to my crib… well, not yet, but we’re at the entrance.” The group of Aaron and his fellow Key members followed the goat boy around as they went through a series of turns before finding a sign.

Obnoxiously covered in neon lights pointing at a wall which Satyr, said Goat Boy, soon proved to be a false wall… a classic, if the word of Aaron was to be believed.

It was soon obvious that Satyr’s ‘crib’ wasn’t empty, judging by the music that was soon heard, as Aaron and his group entered what amounted to a club underground.

“That’s so cliché… even for me.” Aaron stated looking around as Satyr shrugged in response to the view they had seen of people dancing around, some drinking, some smoking, and a few rated eighteen noises coming from hidden corners around the room, if one had the hearing for it.

“Hey, someone had to do it. We’re in Area five man, the land of terrorism and religious extremists. Not everyone buys into that, and some don’t really care, am I right?” the fact that Satyr nudged Aaron was telling as Aaron gave a deadpan stare to the half goat man.

Sure Aaron wasn’t religious, but he didn’t appreciate being shoved into stereotypes. After all, he believed in Allah/God, but didn’t quite care for religion as a whole.

He believed faith should be private, and how one believed was their own choice, nothing to do with him, and anyone who tried to influence his was insane.

Judging that it was an annoyance to talk about judging from his expression, Satyr changed the topic as he coughed awkwardly.

“Well, as I was saying, with the fact that the guys upstairs are very strict on anything even slightly against their religious codes, those born in the area either agree or get killed at some point for trying to leave or do something against their code.” Aaron could understand that, as Islam forbids Alcohol, Jew’s had their own forbidden things (seafood) and as for Christians…

…did they have anything they fully forbid, food and drink wise?

“So I stepped in and made this party den for anyone to imbibe on things that those on top outlaw.” Aaron could understand the idea, having seen the glares he was given for drinking… those glares quickly changed to panicked glances once they saw his new electric blue eyes.

One brilliant point of difference between a Lord and a normal Ascended/Chained was that Lords could apparently change their eyes back to their normal colour, though Aaron wasn’t aware of this until he wanted his normal eyes back.

He kept the blue eyes on most of the time though, as only Cybernetic Chained had that strange glow to their eyes, and being verified as a Chained at just a glance sometimes helped in intimidation factors.

It was only amongst friends that Aaron changed his eyes back to their usual brown, and they were thankful for it.

“So yeah, I have issue with people who forbid things… I mean, don’t get me wrong, it seems pretty chill to prevent murder and stuff like our neighbours in Area four do, I respect that, but stopping someone from trying to drink, smoke whatever…” Satyr seemed irritated for a moment as he looked around once more.

“Bad for their health it may be, but I think they should be given the chance to make their choice, instead of having their choices made for them.” Aaron looked to Satyr with a tilt of the head, making Satyr turn and look to Aaron in confusion.

“You aren’t like I expected… but you’ll do.” Aaron was willing to get Satyr into their group, and no one in their group had a complaint to it at this point, listening to Satyr and his goals…

“Do what?” Satyr seemed confused… then realized that four of the seven people he ‘saved’ were Cybernetic Chained and the last three were Biological Chained judging by the collars.

Well, three Cybernetic, three Biological, and one Lord, balance was somehow achieved there by accident really.

“Well, I’d like to offer you a chance to join our group the… ugh, we need a more definitive name, but we’re called the Key.” Aaron complained only about the simplicity of the name, but otherwise left it alone as Satyr raised his eyebrows.

“Whoa, before I agree to anything, you got to explain some things man.” Despite his ‘hippy’ sounding vibes, Satyr was quite intelligent, as shown when he used the word imbibe.

Empusa wondered who even used such a word in normal conversation, other than Aaron when he was trying to sound smart.

“First, is everyone in your group Chained?” Satyr asked as Aaron raised an eyebrow wondering why that was a relevant question.

“Uh, yes.” Aaron could go into how technically he was the original normal human, but wasn’t anymore, but he also figured that going into that much detail was kind of pointless.

“Okay, so you all Chained, how many of you guys are there in the group?” Satyr asked and Aaron was thinking he could just tell Satyr what he wanted to hear…

It didn’t matter much as even if Satyr knew all this information he could do little to nothing with the information.

“There are thirteen of us, seven of us are Biological Chained, and five of us are Cybernetic.” Satyr understandably looked confused as he mentally tallied what he just heard.

“Hold up seven plus five is twelve man, everyone knows even that bit of basic math in this place. And you told me everyone in your group is a Chained.” Satyr accused and Aaron shrugged.

“I was getting to that. I’m both a Cybernetic Chained and a Biological Chained, what is known as a Lord.” Satyr blinked in confusion at that, then looked at Aaron.

“Uh huh, that sounds messed up man… I don’t know if I want join your group considering you’re probably doing stuff that’s over my head… dangerous too.” Satyr guessed, though Aaron’s neutral look neither confirmed nor denied that statement.

“But… listen, if I did join you all, it would need to be for a trade-off.” Satyr stated and Aaron nodded, understanding how the game was played…

The world, in Aaron’s humble opinion, ran on equivalent values. The worth of something was decided by the people doing the trades, but the world ran on said trades.

“That’s understandable. What we have to offer includes transport for all your clubbers into a new Area, say, Area six or possibly Area eleven.” Those two Areas were firmly under the control of Aaron, even if the normal inhabitants weren’t quite aware of that yet, still attributing the control of said Areas to Cyclops and the Old Families respectively.

Oh, and Area ten was under the control of Sphinx, but Aaron doubted clubbers would like such a place, too ‘faux high class’.

“That, that could work, though that’s honestly worth more than me joining you isn’t it? I know how much I am worth.” Aaron kept the smile he felt from appearing on his face, glad that he had been dealing with understandable people throughout his time in Tartarus.

He felt that it was a stroke of luck for him that he had only encountered people worth dealing with… he could have been dealing with people who weren’t aware of the way the world worked.

“Oh don’t worry about that, remember, what my group deals with is a bit above the norm, and you’ll be putting yourself in danger if you join our group, I won’t lie.” Aaron admitted and Satyr looked to be thinking it over for a moment as he sighed.

“If I’m honest, I’m not much of a fighter man. I’m more of a runner than a fighter.” Satyr stated as Aaron shrugged at his admittance of his cowardice.

“That’s fine; I was a runner for a while too. What’s your ability, if I may ask?” Aaron asked while trying to weigh Satyr’s further worth before Satyr seemed to clench his fist for a moment…

Then Aaron was wobbling a bit, feeling light headed and his vision blurring as he struggled to find his balance… within mere moments his clarity had returned and he blinked in surprise.

“I can give the feeling of drunkenness to someone, though only the bad bits.” Aaron had to admit, that explained quite a bit on why Satyr would actually like the clubs.

“That, and it doesn’t last long, and I need to touch someone for it to work, even if it’s through their clothes.” Ah, he had patted Aaron’s shoulder when they were being guided to this underground club, and Satyr had kicked Leraje off a building before said archer began to get woozy.

“How long does it last?” Aaron asked as Satyr looked to a nearby clock hanging on a wall as he nodded to himself as if confirming something.

“Depending on the person, it lasts usually half a minute to a minute. Cybernetic Chained almost always get half a minute, though Leraje seems vulnerable to it for some reason.” Satyr admitted and Aaron was surprised…

Surprised that Satyr wasn’t aware of his tactical worth in a fight, but then Aaron realized that Satyr probably wasn’t in many fights, because with the level Typhon and the other members of the Key fought…

Half a minute was a long time in a fight to suddenly have blurred vision, dizziness and having a throbbing head ache.

Someone like Sphinx for instance, could possibly fight through it, but if it was sudden and happened during a moment of intense focus, it could even mess with Sphinx and his over fifty years of skill.

“Well that sounds like it would be worth it.” Aaron stated, and before Satyr could argue against the judgement, Aaron smirked while raising his hand to stop the rebuttal.

“Of course we won’t accept something so simple, you see, our group has the largest gathering of Chained ignoring the United Chained group, so we’re actually fine there… but we have very few normal humans in our group, an as insulting as it sounds, we need grunts.” Aaron stated as Satyr chuckled, not minding the allusion to old school villains.

“Alright, so you want my clubbers to do manual labour and shit? I’ll discuss it with them, no way am I making their decision for them.” Satyr admitted and once more Aaron was glad that he had encountered another understanding individual…

It was a very tiny test, barely notable, but if Satyr had agreed to Aaron’s request involving the clubbers joining their group right away, then Aaron would have likely rescinded his offer.

A leader must make the decisions, but a leader who makes the decisions without input from his followers is not really a leader, more of a dictator. And Aaron had issue with people who disregarded human life.

There was a reason Aaron was an excellent example of self-loathing, as he had been a horrible person about four years before now.

He moved past it, worked to never be like that again, but he still disliked any example of the person he used to be.

“That’s fine… though the question remains on what to do about that Leraje guy. I trust you’ll allow us to remove him from the equation permanently?” Aaron normally would not suggest such a thing, but Echidna was adamant that the insanity and pain most Cybernetic Chained went through wasn’t as pronounced with this Leraje guy.

Oh they were definitely going to get her to try and Synchronize him, but if his attitude didn’t go through a notable change, he’d have to go…

Besides, he was a Solomon’s Key Chained, so he would be on Solomon’s side should she appear. Not that Typhon or the others quite experienced what it meant to be forced into doing something against their will like Aaron could do, as he admitted as much.

The Lords were exactly that, Lords to their subjects, dictating their lives, and Aaron had never used the Right of the Rulers on his friends, because he didn’t need to, they followed him without that influence already.

That, and he had no doubt he would earn their hatred if he ever tried, rightfully so.

The ability to bend the will of someone else to serve yours was a scary ability to have.

Aaron did have to wonder though, if maybe becoming Odysseus had messed with him more than just his sudden drinking issue, what with how much easier it became for him to think of killing.

It was a horrible thought, one he didn’t want to entertain… but he had to. He had to consider it an option because while he admired Dawn’s philosophy on life, he also knew it was unrealistic, especially in Tartarus.

Life is sacred; life should never be taken except in self-defence, respect the lives and rights of others.

It was difficult to do so in this place, far, far too difficult. A place where an entire swathe of land contained murderers, another contained rapists, terrorists, arsonists who might set you on fire by accident, crime lords…

The problem with that philosophy, Aaron found, was that such a philosophy was only possible from a position of absolute power. If no one would try and harm him, he could live like that. If no one would try and harm his friends, he could live like that.

He wasn’t so dangerous as to be able to live like that though, and that saddened Aaron.

“Yo man, you alright?” Satyr asked as Aaron snapped out of his sudden pessimistic thoughts as he gave a subdued smile and shook his head.

“No, I’m not… but that’s my problem. Anyway, we’ll be taking out Leraje to ensure our passage through this place, as well as any dissenters to our removal of this problem.” Typhon in the background shook his head in wonder.

Trust Aaron, once he stopped playing nice, to make killing a person and any of his followers sound like something he can do on his way out.

Uh… that was a technically apt description.

“I agree man, but I don’t really want to be involved in murder man. I’m a peaceful sort.” Satyr admitted, and while most groups in Tartarus would have immediately looked down on him, Aaron just nodded.

“I can understand that. Your ability should be useful for getaways so that’s pretty much the only real time we’ll truly need it… that, and a life-or-death situation.” Aaron admitted and Satyr’s slightly jovial look vanished as he nodded, his face quickly taking on a serious look.

“You wouldn’t even need to ask me in that situation man. If I’m going to be part of your crew, obviously I got to help the crew survive.” Aaron had a surprising thought on Satyr after that sentence.

A family man was what Satyr was, even if one had to look past his appearance and habits. The man looked out for anyone who was with him, in his own unique way. Aaron found that he could respect that.

“That’s good to know… but don’t worry, we’re not exactly short on powerful people.” Aaron admitted, knowing that even he could kill Leraje… not that he would, if Typhon had anything to say about it.

“So who’s on that guy, we don’t need our whole group there after all.” Satyr blinked at the calm words Medusa added, seeing that serious expression on Typhon as Aaron looked them over.

He and Cyclops were out, on virtue of Cyclops still not technically being a combatant, and Aaron… no one begrudged his hesitance in so easily killing.

Oh, he ordered it so easily, but wouldn’t do it himself… he was a hypocrite, and he knew it… he was just glad that no one in his group called him out on it, even if they knew what he was doing.

That left Medusa, Empusa, Typhon, Echidna and Manticore, the five main combatants of their current group. Typhon and Echidna were practically overkill on an enemy like Leraje, what with Echidna’s blades and Typhon’s Nano-tech.

Medusa was an assassin but she wasn’t quite durable enough for getting hit by Leraje, neither was Manticore for that matter, even if both of them could kill said Chained.

So the best options were Empusa and the twins… Aaron noticed as much as he spoke out his thoughts, leaving it to those three to decide.

“Well, I’m stepping up… I haven’t had a chance to test out some new tricks I learned, so this is a good opportunity.” Empusa stepped up after the three ‘chosen’ glanced at each other and somehow confirmed who would be doing what without speaking.

That’s what happened when people worked around each other for long periods of time, even if Aaron couldn’t do that move so often anymore… he’d get there again though.

“Very well, Empusa will hunt down and take out Leraje while the rest of us get to work on getting Satyr and his group out of here. Medusa, call our contacts in Area eleven, tell them to prep for…” Aaron basically scanned the small crowd around them for a moment to get an accurate number before continuing.

“About fifty odd people arriving into Area eleven under our protection, and that they will do odd jobs to pay for their stay and booze.” Booze and ‘party drugs’ were an important part of this group’s lifestyle, not that Aaron cared much for party drugs really.

Ecstasy, LSD, whatever, he liked booze more. Booze was his poison of choice, he wouldn’t go using others, as Aaron had the firm belief that everyone needed a ‘drug’ of choice, be that drinking, smoking, taking snorts of cocaine or popping pills.

Stress needed relief, and everyone had something they did for it, drugs were just one group of it and beyond that, it didn’t matter much to Aaron.

And besides, this was Tartarus. Who was going to care about someone doing drugs when everyone in here likely murdered, stole, and who knew what else they did?

“Got it, I’ll start calling, anything else I got to do?” Medusa asked as she pulled out one of the older phones Tartarus used, namely a touch-screen android phone.

Hey, modern phones were really small and used tech to scan brainwaves and do everything remotely without any visible input; androids were ancient by default, not even getting into things like flip phones or that legendary phone which was unbreakable…

Legends speak of how people kept trying to beat their hi-scores on the Snake game with that phone…

Ahem, mental side-track finished with, Aaron coughed to reassure himself that his mind was still working and thought of their plans.

“Medusa, after the call, why don’t you and Manticore team-up for some of your old work? I’m sure Leraje has safe-houses with stuff we could take, and people who work for him who won’t be missed.” Aaron asked and Medusa nodded at that, Manticore sighing even as he straightened out his suit.

Satyr was obviously confused by what Aaron meant just then, but he would learn about their past as assassin’s later on anyway.

“While Medusa and Manticore do their thing, Cyclops and I are going to go fix up the Jeep, Echidna, you’re coming with us as extra protection, if that’s fine with you?” Aaron made sure to ask, his ‘orders’ were always things that they would have done anyway, and even when he ‘ordered’ he tried to word them like questions, to give that option of denial.

“Sure, I’ll stick around.” Echidna could appreciate that, as she had always helped out her old ‘employer’ Vann without question when he ordered her around due to him setting her free from her Cradle, much like Typhon and Aaron.

“Great, that leaves Typhon free to chill out here with Satyr just in case, and organize everyone to get ready to leave. The ride won’t be here anytime today or even tomorrow, but being ready to leave would be nice.” Typhon shrugged, knowing the job was simple and not quite liking the idea, but accepting it nonetheless.

“Alright, that’s settled, let’s all get working.” Aaron stated as he felt that glee one only felt when completing a successful plan.

The reason he could feel that glee was obvious considering that he had such competent companions, he could be assured they’d do their jobs.

It was roughly fifteen minutes later that Empusa found herself above ground, higher than said level considering she was on a roof, looking around for Leraje.

Easy to do when said person feels the need to wear forest green in a place that looks like it was designed after Afghanistan, Iraq, take your pick.

“You, you’re one of the people who were looking for that Satyr bastard!” Leraje also happened to be one of those people who couldn’t help but state the obvious.

“Yes, yes I am. I’m also going to be killing you.” Empusa’s words were ruthless in their own right, and she didn’t feel bad about it, unlike Aaron.

Aaron and, to an extent, Medusa disliked killing, but when necessary they both were capable of it easily. The rest of the Key on the other hand had… looser morals, when it came to the act of ending life.

Oh sure, none of them would go around slaughtering villages and killing children, but they had a certain nonchalance about the act, just look at the fact that Typhon on average killed at least ten people a month, even by accident if he didn’t control his strength.

Empusa entered Tartarus at the age of nineteen, after killing a man who abused a friend of hers. Empusa pretended to be a call girl, got close, and ended the life of the man with a cut to the neck.

Becoming a Chained didn’t make killing more difficult obviously.

“Kill me? You’re a stupid one.” Leraje responded as he quickly notched his poison ‘arrow’, aiming to end the life of this strange woman as quickly as possible…

Of course, that wasn’t in the cards as, the moment he tried to let the ‘arrow’ fly, Empusa practically twirled away from her previous position, dodging the metal stake Leraje used to house his poison which was practically manmade rot.

“How?” Leraje was confused as he tried again, and again. He wasn’t firing slowly by any mean, as a Chained he had enhanced physical strength, easily allowing him to launch an arrow a second practically, though he had a limit to his arrows so he usually shot slower.

None of his arrows hit Empusa though, even if they seemed to be as fast as bullets, none hit her as she moved closer and closer, dodging each arrow easily, before she was finally standing a bare five metres away.

“It’s easy really, especially if you’re me.” Empusa said, as Leraje finally noticed that her eyes weren’t quite normal, though he couldn’t quite place them. If he had been someone who studied birds, he might have understood them to resemble a Bald Eagle’s, one of the birds with the best dynamic and ranged vision.

“Your eyes, they are different!” Again, Empusa rolled her eyes at the strange green archer’s ability to state the obvious while Empusa stepped closer, raising a fist as she super condensed said appendage.

“Duh.” Empusa just said as she punched Leraje in the arm, said victim not having expected the force behind the punch as he was forced to drop his bow and Empusa just shook her head at his stupidity.

“Who drops the weapon they are reliant on?” Empusa asked only to have to hurriedly dodge as a blade passed through where her face just was a moment ago…

“Someone who has a backup weapon does!” Leraje shouted as Empusa sighed; once more easily dodging the high speed slashes and jabs of the Kukri blade Leraje was using, once more freaking out said person.

“Why do all our enemies like talking… why do we talk so much back? I blame Aaron; we all started emulating movies or something when he came into our lives.” Empusa sighed as she stepped forward to attack.

A sweep from Leraje tried to take out Empusa’s neck only for her to duck as she stepped into his personal space, lifting her hand and shoving upwards while converting her arm bones into snake vertebrae, this caused her arm to lengthen as his arm was knocked into the air.

“What?” Of course Leraje was surprised, as he hadn’t known about Empusa’s ability, uh… there wasn’t really a name for it, but basically mass manipulation.

It had another form, originally it was the ability to transform into different animals and control pheromones, the second ability she still possessed, but the first was actually just a subset of the mass manipulation ability she possessed.

Of course, even to Aaron is made very little sense until he was reminded of something he had considered an impossibility once when he was ‘studying’ medicine.

There was a type of cell that existed in the human body that was capable of extreme malleability, pluripotent cells.

Pluripotent cells, while a naturally occurring existence, were not capable of being ‘created’ yet though.

To explain, pluripotent cells were the equivalent of a skeleton key for genetics when it came to rebuilding and repurposing, they could become just about anything from bone, muscle and skin, pluripotent cells are essentially embryonic stem cells.

Somehow, Empusa’s entire body was made out of pluripotent cells. This meant that the people who created Tartarus had somehow created a method to convert all the cells in the human body into pluripotent cells, and not only that, but somehow allowed said person to control what the cells did at any point.

This, while very high grade genetics and biology, was something Empusa followed surprisingly easily. She was a quick study when it came to anything related to the body and its makeup, due to her ability requiring her to have the knowledge.

If she ‘shifted’ her own cells incorrectly she could cut off the nerves to her spine, leave out a lung or a heart, or be missing a few bones…

Luckily they were very adaptable cells based mostly for recovering, so any mistakes made were usually healed quite soon.

Anyway, due to Empusa’s Mass Manipulation ability, she was one of the strongest members of the Key, when by all rights she should have been one of the weaker members.

Recall, that this Mass Manipulation was originally her secondary ability. Her main one was meant to be her pheromone ability.

Empusa capitalized on his surprised at her ability by grabbing for the throat of Leraje while her hand morphed to more closely resemble an octopus leg without the suckers, as the limb wrapped around Leraje’s neck.

“Sorry about this, it’s nothing personal; you’re just an ass who messed with the wrong people.” Empusa said easily as she squeezed… now normally, asphyxiation would take a while.

She replaced the suckers on the octopus limb with piranha teeth though, so with a bit more effort, piercing his skin and then twisting, the only thing connecting Leraje’s head to his body was his spine, and even that was questionable as Empusa pulled back her hand wincing at the steam billowing off it.

“Ah, so the poison was in his blood… got to shed…” Empusa ignored the bloody body dropping behind her as she removed the bloodied skin on her hand, a ‘fresh’ new batch of skin underneath the previous one. This was based of snake-skin, as most of her abilities were based off of animal biology after all.

She still remembered the abilities of her animals forms, so she was good at putting said abilities to use as she looked to the body with a wince… yeah, she wasn’t going to kill someone like that ever again, too bloody and the results looked like someone did a ‘crown of thorns’ on his neck while spinning it.

“Ah that’s disgusting… got to work on that…” Empusa spoke to herself as she reached into her pocket for the phone, sending a group message stating that her part of the mission was done.

A return reply was quick to appear from Cyclops and Aaron, saying that the Jeep was already fixed, as it was only the tyre and its wheel that had to be replaced…

Empusa expected those two to have finished fixing the Jeep by now though, as Cyclops was a Chained focusing on modifying and repairing cars while Aaron was probably the Sixth Ranger with how he had every skill required when it was needed.

Another message popped up about ten minutes after, from Manticore and Medusa, stating that all of Leraje’s safe houses were looted for a few cars, trucks and food, and all of his followers were now dead.

Empusa nodded as she looked to the dead body, then looking around for the bow before she found it, then looking back to the dead body.

“…Eh, you never know…” Empusa wondered before she just decided to go with her strange plan, knowing that Aaron would likely approve due to his weirdness.

So about twenty minutes after killing Leraje, Empusa arrived at the location of the Jeep, seeing a few dead bodies, looking like they all got cut or stabbed to death as Echidna just stood nearby watching Aaron and Cyclops look at their ride’s engine.

“So where is our newest member?” Empusa asked, not wanting to deal with Satyr turning into a normal looking human again, only for her to hear a voice in the distance.

“Yeah I got a human dick again!” Empusa just palmed her face, hoping against all odds that they didn’t have to take that strange one with them…

Of course, her hopes would be dashed when she found Satyr sitting next to her and Manticore, leaving Aaron smirking.