Index Holder (2)

"Identify yourself, soldier," the man in white uniform said, before tapping on a strange device at his wrist, prompting a hologram to appear from it.

Atlas just stared blankly at the man, stunned by some unknown force. It felt similar to the first time he had absorbed wesen, only this time a million times denser, effectively stupefying his senses.

"Are you wearing a DE? You aren't appearing on any of the lists?" the man in front of Atlas asked, as a gallery of different faces appeared on the hologram he was looking at.

It took everything Atlas had to even process what was going on. He recognized the man in white as the person he had seen in the RSB warehouse earlier. The 'commander' as they had called him, however he did not recall this feeling.

"Ahh, forgive me, my Index was is still active," the man said, apparently realizing why Atlas couldn't move.

The man's eyes dimmed from a bright green color, back to its natural black before Atlas felt himself being freed from the strange force's grasp. Only now realizing that he hadn't been breathing the entire time. Though sadly, even with his new found freedom, he was still at a loss for words. And that only made the man in front of him more suspicious of him.

"Identify yourself, soldier..." the man said again, this time in a more commanding tone, before approaching Atlas in a hostile manner.

Atlas instinctively pointed his blaster at the man, before taking a step back.

"I see," the man whispered, and with that, he disappeared from view.

The last thing Atlas remembered was an electrifying pain radiating from his neck, and his body being suspended into the air.

*

When he finally regained consciousness, he found himself face to face with a pile of corpse remains, a bloodied blob of red. In front of the blob was a large mass of floating blue light that emanated a sort of soothing warmth.

~Wesen,~ Atlas thought to himself, instinctively attempting to hold out his hands to absorb it. However, he quickly found that something was restraining him.

"He's awake, commander," an older male voice called out from behind him.

Atlas tried his best to move his head, but found that even that was restrained as well.

~What the hell is going on?~ he tried asking, but the voice in his head seemed to have gone completely quiet.

"Don't bother trying to access your Index. We've restricted the use of wesen manipulation within the area," a familiar voice called out, before the 'commander' walked into Atlas's field of view.

His white uniform was now bloodied, and a piece of flesh hung from his hair. Though constrastingly, he didn't seem to be injured. Not a single tear, or scratch was on his uniform.

From what Atlas could tell, it was more likely that he had dyed his uniform, than him actually having being in a fight.

"I say we kill him," another voice called out, this one noticeably younger than the commander's. A moment later, a young boy wearing tattered clothes walked into Atlas's view as well. It was clear to him that the child was a fellow inhabitant of the undercity.

"Killing humans is prohibited. And I'm not quite found of your eagerness to do it either," the commander replied, before staring at the boy with an apathetic expression.

"You, what's your name?" the commander asked, now referring to Atlas. As he spoke, two other people dressed in white walked into view. One of them a slender, older man, and the other a massive bulk of muscle in the shape of a woman. Both of them dressed in the same white tactical as the commander.

"You have the wrong guy," Atlas replied, trying his best to avoid the death stares that the two soldiers in white were giving him.

"You're emitting wesen, meaning that you are either a ryka or an index holder. All index holders are supposed to be registered with the Pioneer Front, but you don't show up on our records," the commander replied calmly, before asking again "who are you? And where di you get your index?"

Atlas struggled to answer. What was he even supposed to tell them? Would they even believe him if he told them the truth.

"By article 36 of the New World Government, theft of level 1 government equipment is punishable by immediate execution. If you fail to answer it an be assumed that you stole it," the commander added, before kneeling over look Atlas in the eyes.

There was no light in those eyes, no malice either. Atlas could tell that death by this man's hands would just be another day in the job for him.

"I-I just got it okay. One moment I was walking, the next I had it," Atlas said after a brief moment of silence.

"He's claiming to be a true born. Fraud is also punishable by execution, the man behind the commander shouted. Atlas could feel a constricting ambiance emanating from him, but it wasn't nearly as restricting as the commander's.

"Did you come into contact with ryka blood?" the commander asked, ignoring his subordinate's sudden outbreak.

Atlas hesitated to answer that. After all, that would be an admission to doing demon blood runs. Something that could land him in the 'Pit' for life.

"Answer me," the commander said, his eyes glowing green for a moment.

"Y-yes," Atlas replied instinctively.

"We're taking him back with us. Load him into the truck," the commander ordered, before standing back up and staring at the mass of wesen in front of the pile of corpses.

"Store," he whispered, and the mass lifted from where it was floating before zipping toward him and permeating into his skin, giving him a slight blue glow for a few seconds.

"Are we really entertaining this? We already have one mutt with us, I don't think the higher ups will be okay with this," the older man shouted.

"I was assigned leader on this mission. I'll take responsibility for everything," the commander replied as the blue glow subsided. With that, the older man spat on the ground right next to Atlas before walking out of view.

"I guess you'll be coming with us, mieze," the remaining woman said in a thick accent, before picking Atlas off the ground with one arm.

~What the fuck is going on here?~ Atlas wondered to himself, as he stared at the pile of demon corpses still in front of him.

He couldn't imagine what methods these people had used to kill so many. Besides, if shooting them in the head didn't keep them down for long, what the hell had they done to completely incapacitate them.