Ural Polis

Legion

“As previously stated, the price will not be subjected to changes.” Said the man in a small voice to his phone, on his lips an e-cigarette.

“Your information was wrong!” Shouted a man from the other side of the phone -”I ain’t paying you shit!”

Legion had given them the information days prior to the meeting of the Wasps, but they were not able to organize a strike team at the time. Such incompetence made him sigh in pity.

“Sir, you do know that every contract in Ural is covered by Lion’s Share right?” Asked Legion, taking a puff from his e-cigarette.

“...”

The man on the other side stayed quiet. Everyone would be pissing their underwear if that organization was after them. Well, all except for one, but he is more of an exception.

“Look man, after that fiasco we don’t have enough money to give you…”

Ah yes, pity. Sometimes it would work, but the cyborg had learned that you needed to be cold-blooded if you wanted to survive in this business.

“You should have thought of that before signing then.” With that, he closed the call.

He took another long puff from his e-cigarette.

“Fucking imbeciles."

In the past years, new gangs have been created and just as many have been destroyed. Some go down because of their arrogance, though most die from the inside. That’s why Unknowns should just keep it to themselves. Hell, even big shots like the Grinning Devil, Shadow and Spark never tried to set root.

“Uh, I wonder if that guy is still kicking.”

Legion shook his head. Nothing could possibly kill that guy, not even God himself.

“Smoking is a bad habit, Legion, even if it cannot kill you anymore.” A familiar voice admonished.

The Cyborg jumped in his chair, and slowly turned to stare at his phone. Thousand thoughts sprouted in the span of milliseconds.

“Is it him?”

“How was he able to survive?”

“If not him, who was able to hack into his throw away phone so soon?”

“01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01001100 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100001.” It spouted in a monotone voice.

Legion stayed silent. Whoever this guy was, it had him by his metaphorical balls.

“What do you want?” He asked through gritted teeth.

His arrogance had gone over his head, and now he had to pay the price for it.

“A friend.” It stated simply.

“A what?”

“A favor from a friend to be more exact,” It specified, “ and I shall not tell anyone about your sex doll collection.”

“Motherfucker.” The words escaped his mouth before he could think of the repercussion of saying them.

“That’s not nice to say to an orphan, pal.”

Legion sighed, sat back on his chair and slid it back to where the phone was and picked it up.

“I thought you were out of the Game.”

“I was, but a greater power compelled me back.”

That drew a chuckle from him.

“You are now a follower of the Church?”

“Do you think they would let me even exist in the same city as one of their Churches?”

“Not after you impersonated one of their Bishops and blew up their hidden HQ.” Legion grinned. “Now they have implemented daily biometrics check-ups to avoid such a thing from happening again.”

“Really? Damn, that was one of the thrilling moments during my stay in Moscow…” The Devil was quiet for a few seconds, likely pondering on something stupid. “...maybe there is some truth to the fact that I am obsessed with blowing stuff up…”

“That would explain why the Mad Dog is so all over you.”

“Haha.”

The line went quiet again, this time Legion knew that it was not for some stupid joke. That’s what he disliked the most from the Devil, his natural ability to lower someone’s guard. It is a stupidly good talent, and even if you are aware of it, that does not make it any less threatening, Legion would even say that that makes it even worse.

The paranoia that his words and actions are carefully selected to manipulate you into doing what he wants would slowly, but surely, make you go mad. It has happened before. That is why he takes it in strides, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. For now this strategy has kept them in a seemingly amicable relationship and he would in no way, shape or form, try to see its depths.

“I need a quick report about everything that has happened in Ural.” Demanded the Devil.

“That would be 99.99 Biteudo.”

“You don’t accept Euros anymore?”

“Not since 2032.”

“Ugh…fine, keep the change.”

Legion opened his home banking app and saw a deposit of 1099.98 Biteudo. Whatever it was, it seemed that the Devil needed him by his side. Good to know.

“By the way, what happened to that place?” His voice becoming colder by the end of the sentence.

“It…it is still there, just a few rats hiding…”

“Good! Been a while since I played the exterminator.”

Silence again.

“...Shadow?” It asked cautiously.

“Still gone.” That name made him shiver. The image of that wannabe ninja scared him more than anything. Even thinking about it now made him feel all that second-hand embarrassment.

The slightly insane laugh coming from the speakers made the cyborg visibly frown.

“Thanks and see ya soon, Legion.”

With that farewell, the Devil ended the call. Legion relaxed his body, even if he was mostly metal over flesh, the man could still make him feel anxious.

The cyborg slid his chair to the only window of his room. It was a moonless night, outside only the lights from the few functioning lamps were giving sight to what was going under them.

A young couple kissing each other passionately, showing, nay proclaiming their love to the whole world and to any would-be voyeur. Legion would scoff at such acts, but he knew it was just him being an old man. He did even worse at their age.

By the moment, the couple was getting more passionate, though that was not what caught his attention. The streets were unusually quiet, it was 6:30 AM and he heard no gunshot or scream yet. Such a thing was not possible in the Third District.

He focused his attention on the couple and immediately understood the situation.

“Oh you poor poor lad…”

After a few minutes, the moment the boy’s hand decided to get adventurous, men in black clothing appeared and, very professionally might Legion add, restrained, then beat the boy up. This was not their first time doing these sorts of things. Their golden lion-like emblem on their back reflecting the light from the lamps.

“I should check how much the Princesses' guards get paid.”

Stray, curious thoughts aside, Legion would never want to be in close proximity to that red-haired young woman. First of all, she was too similar to her father, absolute boner-killer. Second, she would most likely ride him, which is fine but he would like to still be alive after the act. And third of all, he would hate to have the Кровавый Lion as his father-in-law.

“Though having all that power must be nice.”

Legion shook his head from such thoughts and continued to look at the spectacle below. One of the Guards turned his head erratically, checking for any witnesses before throwing the boy’s possibly lifeless body into an alley.

The other Guard was busy restraining the Princess, which Legion at first thought impossible, but after the red-headed bombshell ripped his sleeves, the cyborg saw the extensive cybernetics the guy had.

“Guy could take the fucking place of Atlas with just one arm.”

Again, maybe he should give up his life as an information broker and just stick to one faction and live a good life.

“As if.”

The man took another puff from his e-cigarette as the scene below him had come to an end. Maybe he should inform the Devil about this, though not telling him would entail more fun and if there was one thing the Grinning Devil loved it was fun.

“This is gonna be one long day, I can feel it.” Said Legion to his reflection, its seemingly shoddy appearance assuring that.

Ludomir

Ludomir was in his early thirties. He had done despicable things and despicable things were done to him. He endured every one of them, he lost pieces of himself but he marched forward, he had to. But now, he truly felt he was reaching the bottom.

Evelyn had been non-stop talking about human anatomy stuff which honestly at first was interesting, but after she spent like 3 hours saying a protein name, Ludomir wanted to puncture his eardrums.

The Grinning Bastard and Khutulun were busy with their own thing, one most likely making calls through his helmet and the other…coding? scripting? Ludomir did not know much about tech stuff, mostly because all of his contracts never required any of them. Maybe it was to learn something new.

“As I was saying Lud-”

“I am sorry to interrupt you sweety, but I need you and Lud to get out of the car.” The Devil interrupted Evelyne, which only showed a tiny pout as a response.

“Is it the Mad Dog?” Asked Ludomir, getting his rifle ready. A K98k "Kriegsmodell", an ancient weapon, but it did its job alright and the bullets were easy to find.

“No, but get out, I won’t repeat myself.” This time his voice had no trace of the usual jovial tone.

Ludomir grabbed Eve and got out of the car.

“Ural Polis is an hour or so of walk, once inside, ask for Legion.” Before Ludomir could say anything they drifted away.

Him and Eve looked into each other's eyes. Her purple eyes caused him to shiver, as if a predator was staring at him.

“You have no idea on how to travel right?”

“This is my first time out.” She answered innocently.

“Mh, good time as any to learn then.” He nodded.

He wanted to do something about her eyes, no one would get close to someone O.D.ing on ACE. Before he could though, she saw her putting something in her eyes. After a few blinks, blue eyes were looking at him.

“Is this good?” She asked him.

“Yeah, but where did you have colored contact lenses?”

“The Devil gave it to me.” She shrugged.

The man was always one step ahead it seems. It was nice that he was on their side…or more like, he was on his side. Semantics.

“That will be useful when we get to the city.”

“Are purple eyes such a rarity?” She asked curiously.

“On living people they are.” He answered grimly.

“Oh…” Her head looking downwards.

“Well, do as I do now and all should go fine.” Ludomir said.

“I hope…” Ludomir thought.

Surprisingly, their walk through the Russian mountains was easier than he had expected. Outside of the mutated animal, there was nothing that would be directly harmful to them.

“Is that…albinism?” Asked Eve, pointing to a carcass.

“Was.” Corrected Ludomir.

Most of the mutations were of this sort, prolonged contact with radiation was rarely a good thing, it would always lead to a quick or excruciating death. Sometimes these animals were able to breed before death and their broken genes would pass on, creating these defects. Albinism was one of the least dangerous one.

Through the scope on his gun, he checked the carcass.

“No sign of fighting. No sign of malnutrition. Likely someone’s kill.”

This was bad news. Either they had killed a bear for sport while passing, or they were hunting for it. If it was the latter, them being this close to their prey could make them look like thieves.

Before he could look at his surroundings, he heard heavy footsteps from his right. With trained movements, he turned and went into a kneeling aiming position. Ludomir was able to fire a single before a meaty fist put him to the ground. The impact with the ground made him lose consciousness for a second.

“Блядь! He shot me брат!” Screamed the man, holding his bleeding side.

“It is just a scratch!” Shouted another.

This was not the first encounter Ludomir had with russian people, they were always an act and ask later kind of people, especially after the war. Most of them now lived in little isolated communities, with their main trade with the Polis being human trafficking.

“Look брат! A девочка!”

“Fuck, they are onto Eve!”

He tried to get up, but the other brother kicked him in the guts before he had any ideas of retaliation .

“Do not be so quick, friend.” - said the one who kicked him - “We need to…ehm…take a look at the merch.” He stated with a jovial tone.

“If you dare touch even a hair from her…”

“The Devil will have my head.” Was left unsaid.

“What a hero!” Another kick from the man, Ludomir now facing up, got a good look at the assailants.

A tall man, maybe in his late thirties, with one blue eye and a milky white one. With one hand he was scratching his unshaven, unkept beard. Wearing hunter’s clothes made of animal hide and playing with a revolver on his right hand. The other one, approaching Eve, was shorter but stockier, possibly the younger brother, had just finished making an improvised bandage from his clothes, leaving most of his upper torso naked. His eyes wide open, with some blood in them.

“Kurwa!”

The man stood before the child, his size dwarfing her.

“Let this дядя take a good look at you…” His hand getting closer to her face.

Mere inches from her face, Evelyne grabbed his wrist.

"Oh Oh, the ребенок is str-”

Before he uttered another syllable, a crunching sound, followed by a guttural scream filled the air.

“брат!” The one-eyed brother called out.

Ludomir could not miss this opportunity. He quickly sat up and threw a punch to the man’s knee. He could feel the shifting position of the man’s patella from his knuckles, these ones stinging deeply from the impact. Ludomir grit his teeth through the pain and kicked the back of the other knee, making the man lose his balance.

Ludomir rolled out of the way of the falling man and went to grab his rifle. Once the Kar was back in his hand, he aimed towards the other brother. The scene that he found left him baffled.

A grown ass man was kneeling and begging a child to let him free. Mucus and tears were disfiguring the already not handsome man’s face. Honestly, it was so pathetic that Ludomir almost felt bad for the man. Almost.

“Leave him Evelyn.”

She just nodded and freed the man’s wrist, or what was left of it. The man grabbed his flailing hand and fell into a crying fetal position. Ludomir could not hide the pity in his stare…and the fear in his heart. His sight lingered on Eve, the events that just transpired having no effect on her.

“Maybe for the best.”

His hand reached toward Evelyne but before he could grab her, her head jolted backwards, her body following suit. The brother’s gun

Ludomir turned around and blasted both of the brother’s heads.

“EVE!” He shouted while running towards her.

Slowly, she stood up, a piece of her lower jaw hitting the ground with a wet sound. The predatory look in her eyes and that attempt of a smile made him stop dead in his track. Fleshy tendrils kept her jaw in place and in the span of a few seconds, her jaw was as good as new.

Her hands touched her face, as if checking that the pieces were all there. She nodded and her pupils turned to a more natural size, making her look like an innocent child. Which she certainly was not.

Whatever the Grinning Bastard had dragged him into, it seemed something big, too big for his taste. But he had accepted, and his sister's treatment would be cut halfway if he decided to quit now.

He had to bite the bullet and hope that his teeth would be enough to stop it from making its way into his skull.

With happy thoughts in his mind and worry in his heart, Ludomir and Evelyn procedeed their journey to Ural, not stopping to loot the bodies in fear of an animal passing through or worse…other russians.

Khutulun

The Devil was in a pensive mood. His body was too rigid in his movements, he was clearly lost in his thoughts. Before she could ask something of him, he spoke first.

“I am sorry K, I have to make you worry again.” He said after much hesitation.

“You always did, that is something that I have come to terms with.” She shrugged.

“...” He continued driving in silence, but she could feel he had more to say.

“Any luck in decrypting the flash drive?” He asked off-handely, clearly not what he wanted to ask, but she knew the man had a round-about way to get to the crux of the matter.

“Nope.” She answered honestly. She had been working on the damn thing for days but had only scratched the surface of it. It made her aware of how good the I.T. guys of the Department were. Something good to know.

“Weren’t you an expert in coding and scripting?” He teased her.

His only response was her silence. After an awkward laugh later, the Devil switched tones.

“I need you in there an hour after they captured me ok?” He asked her again.

She nodded. They went over the plan already, repeating it again, while annoying, could be useful.

“Perfect, now when you want.”

Without any more words, Khutulun jumped out of the moving car and landed deftly on her feets. The car was slowly getting away from her, ever closer to the enemy’s base. With feline-like movements she stalked the car.

After a half-hour of following, she stopped. Another car had crashed against the Devil’s. Some people wearing gorilla masks and a gray uniform dragged the seemingly unconscious Devil from the wreckage. She resisted the instinct to rush in and murder them all.

“How dare they touch him…”

She had a plan to follow and she would execute it to perfection. She shadowed the kidnappers to their base entrance. One of them putting his hand on a rock and tapping on it. The rock shifted from its place, showing the opening to the underground bunker. It quickly closed after the kidnappers.

Khutulun went closer to the rock and tapped on it the same way the kidnapper did, only for a head-up display to appear with a flashing red ERROR message. It seemed there was something more to it. She brought out her laptop and started working on it. It would take some minutes, meanwhile she could search for any interior map of the place.

Whatever it was that the Devil had planned, she just hoped that he would not die this time…again.