"I'm Just Borrowing Them for a while, Nothing to See Here"
Venturing through the desert for almost four days, Nemesis couldn't find anybody to head after. It was almost as if everyone disappeared from the area he was in and headed into seclusion.
This really started to get on his nerves and the 'thirst' that he felt was starting to get further and further out of control. Randomly, he would lash out in a haze and start attacking the desert around him with different abilities, hallucinating that something from the desert was a sinner.
Leaving scorch marks and other markers throughout the desert, he eventually came upon another road and decided it was time to follow the road to civilization. Nemesis briefly contemplated if it was a bad idea and it was, but truly believed that he could control himself enough not to hurt anyone innocent. His brain could mess with him all it wanted, but the HUD stayed true and would never change and the HUD is what he would listen to.
Eventually, Nemesis spotted a village in the distance and went towards it hoping someone there could tell him where he was. When he was closer, he was met with multiple villagers who seemed weary of the armored man who seemed way out of place.
Out of curiosity and the slight bloodlust that he tried to hide, Nemesis activated a scan and the red wave spread through the village and scanned everyone. Only two people in the village showed up as enemies.
Name: Tawas Mahtam
Age: 31
Occupation: Farmer
Association: None
Sins: Domestic Abuse
Name: Turan Pasha
Age:29
Occupation: Farmer
Association: None
Sins: Domestic Abuse
'Ohh what do we have here…Should I kill…No…No…No…Maybe…No…I'll wait and see.'
Deciding to wait and see what happens, Nemesis continued to approach the villagers, but stopped when he was about 10 feet from them.
'I'm probably about to frighten them but can't do anything about it.'
"Hello..." The instant he spoke, they all recoiled slightly at the inhuman sound to his voice.
"I don't mean to scare you…does anyone speak English…English…" Most of the people shook their heads and looked at a specific person in the crowd. Stepping out from the group was an older man who looked like he was only a few years from dying.
"I speak a little bit of English…However there…is a repor..ter who you…can speak with." The man said clearly struggling to finish a sentence from what seemed like a breathing issue.
Nemesis perked up a bit and smiled slightly under his suit at the idea of someone who he could speak with.
"Could you lead me to the reporter…go to them…" Nemesis hoped he got his point across, and it seemed to work as the man motioned for him to follow and Nemesis did, though he made sure to be a few feet away from everyone so as to not frighten them anymore than he already had.
The older man led him into the village and past a few buildings before coming upon a house that had an off-road vehicle by it.
Knocking on the door, the old man spoke a few words in another language and through his scan and his ears, Nemesis could see a person reply from inside that was talking with a woman.
'How the hell didn't I notice her, the woman's name is obviously not common here, so she must be the reporter…and it literally says Reporter as her occupation and…am I already losing my edge…'
Nemesis was slightly freaking out at the thought about not noticing something so obvious and how much of an issue it could be if he let someone bad go because he didn't notice.
About half a minute later, a woman opened the door and made a confused and concerned face at the odd-looking figure that was Nemesis.
"Hello…Ms. Harper…" Instantly at hearing her name the woman's face changed to one of fear and Nemesis quickly realized his mistake.
"Aww shit…It must seem weird how I know your name right…well um, um, um I doesn't matter how I do…just know that I have a few questions that need answering and then you can go on doing your interview."
She still seemed fearful, but nodded her head and shut the door, while coming outside to talk. Motioning for him to head over to the jeep, Nemesis complied and got into the passenger seat, while she got in the drivers.
"So…what do you want…" She motioned with her hand like she was trying to get a name out of him.
"Nemesis." He said blankly like the name wasn't odd whatsoever and Harper gave him an odd look.
"Okay Nemesis…so what do you need me for?" She tried to put on a strong face, but Nemesis could see through it.
'What exactly do I need…Information…but how much would she have…a decent amount from being a journalist…maybe…maybe not…let's test the waters.'
"One, I need to know where I am…Two I need to know which direction the nearest city with a military base is and three…could I look at your phone for a few minutes."
She seemed hesitant at answering the questions but did anyway. " Gadaykhel is where we are… If you head Southwest, you'll reach Kabul…there's a base there and my phone doesn't work here…only my Sat phone."
"Country?" Nemesis said and Harper had a confused look on her face, so Nemesis decided to elaborate.
"Which country are we in?" This seemed to confuse her more, but she answered anyway.
"Afghanistan."
"Knew it…" Nemesis called out to himself, then realized he had said that out loud.
"I'll get out of your hair now Ms. Harper…Also a word of notice…this conversation never happened…" Harper was about to say something, but Nemesis beat her to it when a thought came to mind.
"You know the language here, right?"
"Yes…that's why I'm reporting about this area…" She made it sound like it was pretty obvious.
"Good come with me…I need you to translate for me since my message needs to be extremely clear, so nobody gets the wrong idea." Nemesis didn't bother to say anything else and stepped out of the car and shut the door.
Waiting a second, Harper got out as well and slowly followed behind him confused but noticed that he was walking towards a specific house.
As Nemesis walked towards the house, he thought about how he would do this since if Tawas Mahtam wasn't threatened enough, he would just be angrier with whoever he was beating and lash out.
'I can't make things worse…only better…but is me interfering making this worse…will I be appreciated…why do I care about that…I just do what's right…appreciation for someone who wants it…I don't...'
Finally at the door, Nemesis raised his fist and banged on the door hard a few times and heard someone's voice on the inside.
After a few seconds a man exited the door and seemed confused on why the reporter and an unknown figure covered in armor was visiting him.
"Hello…Tawas Mahtam." Nemesis said and the man seemed confused at how the man knew his name.
He said something in another language and Harper told him it was a greeting.
"Okay Harper…tell him that if he ever lays his hands on whoever it is that he hits again, I will personally come and remove his hands and make sure he has to wear them on his neck for the rest of his life… but just to make sure he understands that I always go through with my promises, I'm going to show him a wonderful place."
Harper surprisingly stayed strong despite what Nemesis said and translated everything which got an odd look from Tawas, but Nemesis could tell Tawas knew what he was talking about. The man says something to Harper, and she translates it back to Nemesis.
"He says he doesn't understand, and he'd like you to leave…" As soon as she said the last words Nemesis started to laugh slightly before stopping in a heartbeat and grabbing Tawas by his head and gripping his hands tightly, putting pressure on the man's skull.
"I won't say this again Tawas, if you hurt anyone again…I will find you and torture you before putting your head on a spike and parade it around the whole country as I do the same to everyone like you…Do you understand…" Before Harper could say anything or translate, Nemesis switched dimensions briefly for long enough that Tawas could feel the effects.
Jumping back into the main dimension, Tawas instantly fell to the ground in a mess and Nemesis turned away to leave.
"Tell him what I said…he should believe it…if not well…he's a Deadman." Harper seemed terrified at what he had just done and listened instantly as if he would kill her for being disobedient.
Waiting for her to finish he stood there wondering if it was a good idea to do what he just did and quickly came to the decision that it was.
Harper came over to him and stood there waiting for him to speak. "Follow me…I need to send one more message, then I'll be gone, and you can do your thing."
Walking over to Turan Pasha's house, he banged on the door and waited for a few seconds before the man answered the knock.
Hello…Turan Pasha…" The man heard his name and answered with a greeting like this would be a normal conversation.
"Tell him the same thing that you told Tawas in a second…" This time Nemesis did a show of force first and dragged the man in the void for a few seconds then took him out. Harper was scared at seeing this again since it seemed mystical, but she didn't say a thing until Nemesis came back.
"Okay you can tell him now." Harper listened and told the man what Nemesis had asked her too and turned around expecting him to be there, but Nemesis had completely disappeared.
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Running through the desert, Nemesis continued to contemplate what he did despite assuring himself it was the right thing to do.
This went on for almost nearly two hours, until he stopped when a large city came into sight and Nemesis stopped in place.
'Okay, so how should I do this…' Glancing down at himself and the armor he was wearing, Nemesis instantly decided that he should wait until nighttime before doing anything.
Realizing that there was nothing to do for the next few hours, Nemesis laid on the ground and stared at the sky, while coming up with ways on how someone would go about raiding a military base for information on bad people to kill.
'Do they even have a storage place…they should… right, but it's probably protected…that won't stop me, but still what if there is some sort of purge system and the files get destroyed before I can get them…hopefully their on hard drives or computers I can hack, but the likelihood of that is nearly zero…huh why couldn't bad people be easier to find…that would be bad though if they're common...maybe just not as reclusive, so I could find them easier.'
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Thinking over what he could do, the day slowly passed and eventually night came. Deciding it was time, Nemesis made his way towards the city, while trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible.
Slipping past the military checkpoints throughout the city, he made it inside Kabul and slowly slinked along the alleyways and any place that could hide a 6'5" buff futuristic armor wearing man.
Nemesis wasn't exactly sure where the base was, but the slow increase in military presence gave him a clue that something important was nearby.
The closer he came, the less space he had to work with which slowed him down more and more until he was spending minutes between movements.
At one of the stops waiting for the proper chance to cross, an alarm started to ring out throughout the base and instantly everyone seemed to be slightly on edge, but also soldiers were pulling out their cellphones.
"Incoming…Incoming…Incoming…" Nemesis started to glance around to see if he had been discovered but watched as all of the people glanced in the air.
Missiles inbound.
At the notification of the void, Nemesis looked up as well, but the darkness masked almost everything.
'Could you be more specific…' Right as Nemesis was complaining in his head, hundreds of red dots lit the sky up in a flurry followed by the sound of the rounds a few seconds later.
'Okay I take back what I said…' Watching in amazement, he could vaguely tell what seemed to be rounds hitting something high up in the sky.
Peeking back down, he noticed that most were focused on the air which provided the perfect opportunity for him. Finding a spot that would be hidden from the soldiers on the street, Nemesis slipped across and continued at a decent speed moving towards the base, while the sky was lit up with rounds as the cannon firing them tried to take down the missiles that were coming in.
Street by street, he eventually made it to what seemed to be the military base as it had a wall surrounding it and he could see sentries posted in many places.
These soldiers however were a lot harder to get past since all of them weren't looking at the missiles as much, but the surrounding area.
'What the hell am I supposed to do now…these missiles literally both helped and fucked everything up…the soldiers look like they want something that they can shot…what if I give them something, then slip in.'
Generating his drone, Nemesis came as close as he could to the base without alerting anyone.' You've got this Mr. Drone.'
Tossing the drone in the air, Nemesis pulled out the tablet and went into it, switching his point of view. Speeding towards the wall, he activated the EMP and instantly everyone was attracted to what was happening.
"Contact…. Contact…contact." Bullets started to be sprayed at the drone, but none could hit as the speed of the drone was significant enough for the soldiers to have a harder time to track. Nemesis moved the drone into a hard to hit position and exited the tablet.
Coming back to his normal point of view, Nemesis waited for the perfect moment to sneak into the base.
The opportunity came as soon as the EMP was about to go off because most soldiers hit the deck thinking it was a bomb of some kind.
*Boom* As soon as the EMP went off, Nemesis hopped into the void and sprinted through it towards the wall. During the sprint he activated all of his movement boosts, as well as creating a pair of VTOL Jets behind him.
Blasting off, he launched himself over the wall and landed inside the base on his feet. It took him only a second to recover, before he continued further into the base and found a spot that wasn't in view of anything.
Cameras normally would be an issue, but the EMP wiped out most of the ones in the area around him.
Taking the tablet back out and stepping out of the void for a second, Nemesis recalled his drone before it was destroyed.
After a few seconds the drone appeared back inside his suit and Nemesis stepped back into the void.
'Okay, so where are you vault…hmm what if I do this.' Knowing that he could use his abilities in the void, and it could only affect the void, Nemesis activated his scan ability and watched as it spread out through the area and notified him of almost everything in the base.
'God this can give so much information at times.' Without certain limitations on his bloodhound scan, Nemesis was able to gain large quantities of information about every building in the camp.
'There you are…' Seeing the records room and an area with mission files, Nemesis ran towards it in the void while avoiding as many cameras as he could.
Something he quickly realized was that his EMP knocked out way more camera's then he originally thought and most of the power in the base was off including the installations that were shooting down the rockets.
'Shit…Shit…innocent people will be hurt because of me….think, think, think…' Smacking himself in the head a few times, he tried to quickly come up with an idea.
'Missiles…bomb…explosions…can I make them disappear into a portal…not fast enough to react…see ahead…but if I can…then I'll be noticed…too bright…but what about the drone…maybe…'
Quickly making a decision, Nemesis jumped out of the void, tablet forming in his hand and tossed his drone out, sending it into the sky.
Having an increased range on his drone's ability to see things and range on how far it could travel, Nemesis went up into the sky and made his drone act almost as a radar and a way for him to see.
Only four seconds after being up there, a missile was detected, flying at a speed that he barely could react to. Nemesis in an instant opened a large enough portal and the missile shot through it, disappearing into the void.
Most troops down below were none the wiser, except for people who had scopes that were able to see high enough in the sky.
'If I have to continue doing this, how the hell am I supposed to get those documents without being discovered.'
Almost as if the void reacted and had its own consciousness, Nemesis could feel an intention of some kind that when a missile would come into his drone's view a portal would open.
True to this feeling, an extremely fast missile entered his drone's scan and before Nemesis could react, a portal opened and swallowed the missile whole.
'Holy shit…I think I'm in love…' Exiting his drone, but leaving it in the sky, Nemesis entered the void and ran further into the base towards where records and other documents including mission files and target information was.
'Anything will work…just need something to go off of…so I can kill…I need to kill…'His desire to kill seemed to only increase and finding these documents was tantamount for him.
Reaching the building after a few minutes, Nemesis stood outside for a second contemplating how to go about retrieving them without hurting anyone too badly.
'I guess I could Revenant orb them…probably not the best feeling, but better than being dead or having a head injury.'
Exiting the void, Nemesis quickly realized that the building had scanners on the door's that allowed the doors to open or close. This wouldn't stop him though because the EMP shorted the door and caused them to unlatch.
'Simple…' Pushing the door open, he snuck inside and slowly moved closer and closer, while keeping track of everyone in the building. The scan he did was still active, but it was odd seeing everyone in void form, while in the main dimension.
Nemesis was happy that nobody got in his way because of the silent entrance which allowed him to keep the orbs holstered.
Reaching the area where the documents were stored, some were outside, while the others were sitting inside of a vault of some kind.
Going to the one's outside, Nemesis quickly started to read through them as fast as he could, only looking for important information.
However, Nemesis quickly realized these documents had almost nothing of importance, so he made the tactical decision to move onto the vault.
Making his way up to the stronghold, Nemesis generated spikes and locked himself in place. The VTOL Jets were equipped right afterwards, and Nemesis pinpointed the blast into a small point and started to melt a hole large enough for him in the vault door.
It was somewhat loud, but through his scan, Nemesis was able to see that no-one was aware of what he was pulling off.
After 5 minutes of consistent melting, a hole was formed into the vault and Nemesis removed the cut-out piece, so he could get inside.
Climbing in, he stood up and made his way over to the first set of files and started to read through them. Since he was getting the original copy of all the documents, nothing was redacted which allowed him to get a full grasp.
File by file, set by set, he read and was horrified and enraged at what he found inside the documents. Nemesis found information on all sorts of targets who committed horrible crimes like mass murder, human trafficking, terrorism etc. and the more he discovered, the more demonic glow his armor took on.
'Why…where's the humanity…is this humanity…the true face…no…no…only the bad side…can I get rid of the bad side… I need to.'
Heading to another set of documents, Nemesis was surprised to find possibly the most important documents he could. It was a set of documents on a well-known terrorist in his old-world, Osama Bin Laden.
However, the interesting and horrible information he found out was that in this world, the man was still alive and kicking just fine. The mission that went on in Pakistan was a failure and through a series of horrible coincidences, made relations in the middle east very worse and increased tensions across the world.
Knowing that this horrible man was alive, Nemesis instantly focused on the man and carefully read through every bit of information he could find.
Once finished, he read through more documents and his worry only grew further, when noticing that the world was a lot more dangerous and, on the brink, then his old one.
Every leader throughout the world seemed to be on edge according to the files and a decent amount of the tension originated from the middle east and operations going on within it.
Coming to the final set of files, he read through it and happened to notice, it seemed quite new. Opening it up, he found a file on himself, which had almost nothing, but it did mention him as being a brutal killer of twenty soldiers.
He didn't pay much attention to it and put the file down when he noticed a small cart beside the files.
Glancing inside the cart, he was surprised to find a cart that had multiple briefcase-like objects. Reaching inside, he took one out and tried to open it up.
What he found was an odd-looking laptop, but through his knowledge that he gained from Crypto he knew it was a rugged laptop.
"Lovely, beautiful piece of technology…" Holding it in his hands, Nemesis was about to turn it on, when he heard boots entering the room outside the vault. Removing his eyes from the computer, he noticed that a group of soldiers with rifles were gathering outside the vault.
'Dammit I should've paid more attention…what to do…what to do...' Staring at the laptops in the cart, he debated what to do with them. They most likely had good info on them and maybe more which he could use to track targets.
'Take them with me…I mean borrow for a bit…' At this thought, he grabbed all of the laptops from the cart and held them in his hands. In total there were four of them which was a lot to carry, but he managed.
One of the soldiers among the group moved forward and spoke through the hole in the vault door. "Come out now with your hands in the air or else we will be forced to open fire…"
Nemesis stood there for a second debating on how to play out the situation, before deciding to simply leave without causing too much of a fuss.
"I'm just borrowing them for a while, nothing to see here." Right after saying this, he entered the void and made his way towards the hole in the vault and went through. The red glow that exited the hole caused the soldiers to freak out and move away in apprehension of what it was.
Once he was standing, Nemesis ran through the room and out, moving through the building as fast as he could with soldiers on his non-existent tail who stayed at a distance.
Bursting outside, he glanced up and could see his drone was still blocking missiles, so taking the opportunity Nemesis ran towards the closest wall and boosted himself over with the VTOL jets on his back.
Landing outside, he could see soldiers heading back to base and some noticed him, but he didn't care at the moment and was just running.
Missile fire finished.
As soon as he received the notification from the void, the consciousness he felt faded away and disappeared like it didn't exist.
'Odd…' Finding some cover, he exited the void and recalled the drone, not wanting to leave it behind and get destroyed. Only a few seconds passed before it was recovered, and Nemesis was back on the run carrying multiple hardened laptops.
This time he stayed out of the void, since the red glow was a dead giveaway compared to the stealth-like colors of the suit of armor. His large stature didn't help, but at least he wouldn't be glowing like a lightbulb.
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It took almost two hours for Nemesis to exit the city and make his way back into the desert. Mainly this was because of the increased military activity around the city from the missiles and the small heist that he did.
Once he was far enough away, Nemesis ventured until he found a place to relax while he observed everything that was in the laptops.
Sitting down on a rock that was covered by an overhang, Nemesis set the other three laptops to the side and opened the first one.
'Please work…please…yes.' The laptop turned on and Nemesis focused on the device ready to get all the information he could.
Immediately, Nemesis was hit with different types of encryption and other sorts of ways to keep him out, but using the knowledge he gained from Crypto, he easily broke through it all and was inside the computer.
Heading straight to the files, he started to read through everything that he could and made sure to remember what it said.
After a few hours, he finished the first laptop and immediately moved onto the second one. This continued as he moved through each of the laptops and gained as much target information as he could.
Also, on the laptops were maps of varying detail which allowed him to gather a more complex understanding of the surrounding area and further abroad.
Setting down the last one, he moved out from the overhang and stared up into the sky in silence. 'Where to start…where to start…I know where I could go and maybe stop at some places along the way.' Imagining the picture of Osama Bin Laden, he slowly formed a path that he could take across Afghanistan and into Pakistan, where the military still thought he was hiding.
Grabbing the laptops, he threw them into his inventory, which was nearly full of ammunition for his wingman. He already had to get rid of some of his ammunition since it was constantly appearing in his inventory every day.
Nemesis originally thought of just tossing it out, but then the thought of someone finding it deterred him, so he tossed it into the void where the chances were nearly zero.
Focusing on a specific direction, Nemesis started to jog in the direction focused on what was to come next. His bloodthirst only grew in anticipation, and he started to pick up speed until he was moving as fast as he could while injecting himself with stims.