Monsters (1)

Walking out of the restaurant with a full belly never felt this dissatisfying to Jin. He always enjoyed eating his favorite food, pizza, but after hearing the news, he could barely stomach the slices to sustain himself.

"I brought your two slices," Jin relayed to Thirteen through their communication-linked earpiece, his frustration evident as he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Calm down, stressing over it won't help either of us," Thirteen advised, attempting to soothe Jin's nerves.

"You are right, but this is going to complicate things, not just a bit," Jin conceded, still rubbing his eyes wearily.

"Yes... but at least we know the location of the next building or lab that Genesis has... maybe we should just blow it up," Thirteen suggested, only to be shut down by Jin.

"What are you thinking? It would normally be me who thinks that we should do that... this is not a great idea. Well, maybe after gathering enough information," Jin countered, only to be met with an approving smile from Thirteen, something that Jin couldn't see.

()

"Let's regroup back at home, brainstorm our next step, and act accordingly," proposed Thirteen.

"Yeah, you're right. But we need a plan, and we need it fast. Even after I did two jobs, we still have the money problem. It won't be nearly enough to sustain us, especially if we need Med X," said Jin, his frustration becoming more evident.

"I think I can solve that problem after a while," said Thirteen, but his voice showed uncertainty.

"Anyways, crying about it won't help us solve our problem. I'll just go and take off my mask and contacts in an alleyway and go home," said Jin through the earpiece as he began to move into one of the nearby dark alleyways.

He walked deep into it, making it normally almost impossible to traverse because of its labyrinth like nature, but thanks to Jin's holographic map, he could go deep into it without a problem.

The alleyways were pitch black, but Jin's eyesight was superior to that of normal humans, allowing him to see comfortably in the darkness, though not at the level of night vision goggles.

Once he felt he had reached a secluded spot, he pulled out a water bottle from his coat pocket and thoroughly washed both of his hands, using all the water it contained.

 Then, he reached up to his eyes and removed the contacts that had changed his emerald green eyes to a crimson red color.

Then, he reached beneath his neck and removed the skin-tight mask that covered him completely.

Taking a deep breath of newfound freedom, he threw the contacts away and stomped on them for good measure, but he put the skin mask into his coat pocket.

"I'm not going to waste a perfectly good... and somewhat expensive skin mask," thought Jin as he retrieved a plastic bag containing a container with the two slices of pizza.

Wrapping the plastic bag around the container, he tucked it into his coat pocket as well to avoid suspicion.

"It would look dumb if I came here with this bag and just changed looks, and still left with this plastic bag," thought Jin as he adjusted his package.

After that, he had nothing left in the alleyways. Opening his map, he navigated out of the alleyways thanks to its guidance.

While scanning the alleyways, Jin barely saw anything other than littered trash, with the occasional appearance of one or more dead bodies. Some were decomposing, while others were still relatively fresh. However, Jin couldn't bring himself to care. It was too much of an everyday occurrence for him to feel anything about it. 

Walking towards the scene, he noticed a swarm of flies buzzing around the dead bodies. Jin felt a surge of anger at the sight but refrained from taking any action.

'Disgusting insects,' he thought, making a conscious effort to keep his distance from the swarm.

Then, something caught his eye, sending a shiver down his spine.

"Oh my god, I'm going to puke," Jin exclaimed aloud, feeling his stomach churn at the sight and stench of the decaying flesh.

As the large rat feasted on the rotting corpse, its gaze shifted towards Jin. He could see the bubbling saliva around its mouth, indicating that it was rabid.

'Don't even try it, you little shit,' Jin thought, his hand hovering near his weapon, ready to unleash his lightning if necessary.

"Don't even think about it, just get away from there," Thirteen's voice came through Jin's earpiece, aware of Jin's impulse.

"You really should try to control yourself with these clean freak tendencies," Thirteen commented, his voice sounding calm but firm.

"Let me zap it to death," Jin almost begged, but Thirteen remained resolute.

"You are not going to ruin your health even further for a rabid rat, you dumbfuck!" Thirteen shouted, his concern evident in his tone.

"Sorry…" Jin muttered to himself, apologizing to Thirteen. Without further hesitation, he pulled out his knife and swiftly threw it at the rat, killing it instantly. Afterward, he simply walked home, the incident already behind him.

***

Jin was lying on the couch while Thirteen was sitting in his usual chair, his face only illuminated by the myriad of monitors before him.

"What do you think we should do to proceed?" Asked Jin, looking to Thirteen to form a plan, he was always more on the impulsive side.

"It's quite easy… we have the location of the labs, and I have a way that we can earn money without you having to inure yourself, once we are done, we are creating a fake key, and feel too District Nine." Said Thirteen.

"Sound's like a plan." Grinned Jin as he began to get up from the couch, he had already taken a shower and slept for a while, both he and Thirteen, taking their meds and eating one last time.

Thirteen was sitting before his computer, his eyes darting from one monitor to another. 

"We are going to be done soon, I'm mass ordering explosives, we are going to need to get a place for them as we can not use them this soon… but they are going to help against Genesis." Said Thirteen, a smile showing through his mask as his ocean blue eyes began to shine.

"Are you ready, Jin?" Asked Thirteen from his partner who just got up from the couch, on his shoulder, there was his hunting riffle while on his weapon holster, his gone, and in his sheat tucked to his belt, his knife.

Jin was silent for a while but then, a huge grin appeared on his face.

"Ready as I can ever be… let's go to war."