The Prey

I walked into my mansion and took a left turn, entering through the archway into a hallway lined with doors on both sides, and stepped to the end of the hallway.

I paused in front of a thick and large wooden double door with no handle and set my eyes on the sleek circular-shaped scanner embedded into the wall inches away from the door.

Approaching closer to the scanner, I removed the Plumber's badge from my pocket and laid it on the scanner. A beep resounded and a blue light flashed underneath the disc-shaped badge moving along the length of it.

A second beep rang in the hallway, and the double door automatically opened, revealing a polished wooden staircase that led downwards into a dark room.

I removed the badge from the device and moved to the staircase, descending slowly into the dark room as the door behind me closed.

"Computer, lights on," I commanded calmly as I descended onto a carpeted floor. The darkness disappeared as the lights switched on.

A wide and expansive underground room was revealed. It had cream-colored walls, a high ceiling fixed with LED lights, and a wine-carpeted floor.

There was a large flat-screen monitor that filled the entirety of the front wall, and there were numerous other smaller but similar monitors that lined the left and right walls with spaces between them.

A U-shaped continuous dark bench sat in the middle of the room, fitted with futuristic controls or consoles, with black ergonomic chairs lined behind it.

On my right and left side, a few meters away from the staircase, there were two opposite metallic doors.

The wall screen flickered on, displaying a computerized and accurate image of the planet or globe made of grids with different colored points spread all across its surface.

The other screens also switched on, showing different live footage of some parts of Bellwood and the country, some parts of the world, a bird's-eye view of the mansion estate together with its surroundings, and various other data sets or information.

This was my control, surveillance, and database room. In colloquial terms, it was my Batcave. It was the place I spent most of my time and the control center for the entire mansion estate.

It had all the surveillance equipment from my father's personal headquarters and his Plumber's weapons and gear.

The surveillance system here was connected to the central Plumber's network, therefore it was connected to everything.

From global and interplanetary internet, satellites, law enforcement frequencies, and even The Extranet, which was basically the internet of the Milky Way.

I could see, listen, and spy on almost everything from here. Nothing could hide from me. Not the White House, not the government, not even Area 51.

Only highly advanced alien ships or extremely resourceful aliens could evade my detection.

I was nearly omniscient in this room when it came to Earth and it would have been the case for this solar system if the Plumber agents didn't come to collect their standard issue equipments that wasn't part of my dad's private property like the stuff here.

It was one of the many perks he had by holding the third-highest rank in the entire organization. Something I'd be abusing for a very long time.

"Computer, visualize the feed from last night on the big screen and today's live footage," I ordered the room's AI assistant as I grabbed one of the chairs and sat on it, facing the front wall.

The wall screen immediately changed, dividing horizontally into two equal halves, each half tens of times bigger and clearer than a regular monitor screen.

The top half showed a crystal clear footage of a warehouse, at night, which had numerous trucks coming and going from it, being offloaded of tons of wooden crates by strong men dressed in overalls.

Squads of tall muscular men in dark outfits armed with sleek futuristic rifles that had glowing violet lines running along them were supervising the entire operation.

The second screen showed a live footage of the same warehouse with trucks parked in front of it. The whole place was empty and quiet with only small squads of the same armed men casually patrolling its surroundings.

I saw the first footage yesterday when I came home last night from the castle, physically exhausted from training for three consecutive days.

My father had programmed the AI to inform him if there was any sign of alien activity in the city and since I was now in charge, it informed me instead using the Plumber's badge.

The people in both footages weren't alien lifeforms but the weapons they had on their persons were and in those crates were.

They were Plasma Rifles, level four technology by Plumber classification. Earth as a civilization and planet had level three technology.

We hadn't yet reached the scientific level necessary to manufacture technology based on Plasma energy. So, the surveillance system was easily able to detect this anomaly and inform me.

Those people, according to the computer, were a fledging but highly organized gang from Atlanta that used alien weaponry. A rare but also common sight in this part of the world, nothing really special.

I didn't know what they were here to do exactly but I did know they were here to cause trouble. If they appeared in any other place, I would've ignored them and gone on with my business.

But they appeared in Bellwood. My home and city. This city was something special to me and my family. After all, we helped build and make it the economic beast it was today.

Morningstar Incorporated's base was also in this city, meaning anything that affected it also affected my company, meaning a lot of money would be lost and I couldn't allow that.

No one liked it when strangers trespassed on their property, including me. So they had to be eliminated. It was as simple as that.

A sheep couldn't just waltz into a lion's den without being eaten. That was just the way it was. It was nothing personal. No hard feelings involved. Just a simple conflict of interest.

Besides, I was thinking of how and where to get my next meal, this time a full course, and they graciously presented themselves to me so how could I just ignore them?

After three whole days of non-stop training my bio-energy manipulation, I'd reached a point where I was powerful and strong enough to defend myself.

And with some of my dad's gear, I was confident in wiping them out on my own with absolutely no one to save them.

Observing the bottom half of the screen, my lips curled up into a dark smile, my bio-energy boiling and churning up inside me.

Tonight, they were all going to be my prey...