"HAKER"

"Guys… please, don't do this…" the man pleaded on his knees, tears and sweat streaming down his face.

"Oh, c'mon. This is for the greater good of society. By offering yourself as a sacrifice, you are performing a public service."

A mysterious voice spoke.

"Please… don't… I'm begging you." The man on his knees continued to plead.

"Hurry up, bro! We don't have all day. Just put an end to him already!" Another mysterious voice chimed in.

"Alright, alright…" The first mysterious voice replied.

"I'm sorry, man. The boss doesn't have any patience, kehke."

The man cried out once more, "Wait, no, please-"

*SLASH*

The man's head got severed from his body, blood dripping onto the pavement as it hit the ground. His face was stained with tears, frozen in a look of shock and agony.

A few hours after the incident took place, two detectives showed up.

A man completely cloaked in silver metal armor, with red circular glasses masking his eyes wearing a brown jacket and cowboy hat, and a woman with silver eyes with long single braided hair, dressed in a short black biker jacket, long black jeans, and black shoes, wearing black lipstick…

approached one of the local police officers already at the scene.

The officer addressed the metallic man and his female partner as detectives Lennie and Anna before briefing them on what he knew about the situation.

Detective Lennie's voice had an almost robotic quality as he asked,

"Who made the call?"

"It wasn't really a call. The homeless guy that's sitting over there said that he came running straight to the nearest station to inform of the incident as soon as he saw the body."

Detective Anna looked at the homeless man with skepticism.

"How sure are you that he's not the killer?" Detective Anna asked the police officer.

"We never considered the possibility that he could be involved... but it seems improbable, considering he is homeless and was the one who reported the crime."

"But-"

Detective Lennie interrupted Detective Anna, praising the police officer for his excellent work and informing him that they would continue handling the situation from here.

"What was that about?" Detective Anna asked.

"Let's just focus on the crime scene, I'll examine the head while you search the body." Detective Lennie whispered.

They both knew the importance of being thorough and efficient in their investigation.

After they made their way towards the lifeless body and severed head. Detective Lennie crouched down to examine the head, its eyes bulging and mouth agape with something written on its forehead.

Detective Lennie asked his partner if she had discovered anything on the body.

She admitted finding nothing besides a suspicious ID that she couldn't verify using the scanner.

He then motioned for her to join him to take a look at the victim's severed head.

Detective Lennie pointed out the forehead to Detective Anna as she approached him.

"HKR?" she repeated the initial that is written in blood on the forehead.

"Does HAKER (HKR) have anything to do with this murder?" Detective Anna asked with curiosity.

Detective Lennie was unsure on how to answer the question,

"Maybe, or maybe not." he said.

Lennie then asked Anna on how she feels about using her ability.

Anna was visibly shaken and couldn't give an answer right away to Lennie's question.

She took a deep breath to calm herself down before saying,

"Alright, it's gonna make me feel like shit, but I have a job to do." Anna said half jokingly.

She shut her eyes and gently rested her right hand on the decapitated head. In an instant, her mind transported back to the victim's final moments before his tragic death. She could see the two suspects who had been wearing masks, and she watched as the blade sliced through, severing the head from the body. But just as quickly, she was snapped back to reality, gasping for air. The sensation of having her own head chopped off felt too real, overwhelming her in that moment.

Lennie expressed concern for his colleague, Anna, asking if she was okay.

"I'll be fine. It's always painful, but nothing compares to the sensation of having your own head being chopped off," she replied tiredly.

Lennie pondered to himself about Anna's unique gift of seeing others' deaths. However, he also knew the burden she carried with it - the ability to feel their pain as if it were her own.

A moment of silence passed before Lennie broke it, suggesting,

"We should have an ambulance take this body back to the forensic department, just in case we missed anything. Then we can discuss the details of this case further at headquarters with Lieutenant Hodge."

Upon arriving back at their headquarters, Lennie and Anna wasted no time and went straight into Lt. Hodge's office.

Standing behind a desk and peering out the window was a tall, imposing man who couldn't have been taller than 6'5''. He had neatly trimmed black hair, a pointed mustache and beard, and a cigar lit in his mouth. His outfit consisted of a white shirt with black stripes, paired with black pants that had a silver skull emblem on the bottom.

Lt. Hodge turned around and suddenly asked the detectives,

"So, what do we have?"

Lennie spoke up and said, "It seems we're not just dealing with a simple homicide case here, Lieutenant."

"Oh? Why'd you say that?"

"The body was found around 1:30 am in the back of an alley by a homeless man. There were no CCTVs nor any known witnesses around the area, conveniently so. My guess is that it was a planned attack, and most importantly, the suspects marked HKR on the victim's forehead written in blood."

Lennie's last remark shook Lt. Hodge a bit.

"HAKER? Do they have anything to do with this murder?" he asked.

"We're not sure of that yet, but we can't rule them out."

"Any other input?"

Anna chimed in, "Earlier, When we were searching the victim's body, we discovered an ID that couldn't be read by the scanner. After that, Lennie asked me to use my ability, and It appears that the victim was decapitated with a blade. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify the culprits since they were wearing masks."

"Then, what Lennie said might be true, this could be a planned hit by HAKER or someone else entirely."

A brief moment of silence followed before Lt. Hodge instructed the two, "I'll need a thorough report on this immediately, and later you can follow up with the medical examiner."

"Yes, Lt. Hodge." the both of them said before walking out the door.

At the break of dawn, a figure in a black hoodie approaches an unlocked door to an empty bar. It's almost as if the door was purposely left unlocked for this person. As soon as he entered, there was a distinct click and the door became locked behind him.

The man in the hood made his way around the counter and crouched down to examine the array of bottles, arranged in a rainbow of colors stretching from one end of the counter to the other.

He reached for a green bottle at the end of the counter to his left, and suddenly the entire shelf spun clockwise to reveal a steel bunker door. This door could only be unlocked by entering the correct code, and by scanning one's mouth and retina - a strict security measure for authorized personnel only.

The door clicked open and he stepped inside, the lights flickering to life as he entered. There, a hallway stretched before him lined with steel doors on either side. Each door had a keypad next to it and two long bulbs hung above them. At the end of the hallway, a black steel door stood with a camera mounted above it. The hooded figure started to walk up slowly, approaching the door,

Suddenly, a loud buzz went off, indicating that he should stop. The man stood there while a hidden camera on the door scanned his entire body.

The door became unlocked, revealing the back of a man with slicked-back black hair. He was sitting in a large, wheeled black gamer chair behind a sleek wireless curved keyboard desk, with an array of buttons and handles.

In front of the man in the chair, hung over monitors including ones showing inside and outside the bar, and a flat screen revealing the hooded man's identity and other information.

"So, how do you like the new security system?" the man in the chair suddenly asked.

The hooded man peeled back his hood, revealing a bald head and heavily lined eyes that gave him a gothic appearance.

"It's decent I guess."

"Haha! I knew you'd love it."

"Hm, don't pleasure yourself too much. Not to be a bringer of bad news, but I have some for you."

The man in the chair spun around, looking at the man in front of him in quiet disgust.

"Gawd damn, bro. I told you to change the way you look. You look way too damn suspicious."

"Eh, look who's talking. But enough joking around, it's serious that I tell you."

"Well, well, let's hear it." the man said with anticipation.