Chapter 3 : Mercy

Bael stood in his living room completely naked holding his gun. These were the kinds of things that were too strange to explain he thought to himself. A kid, barely a man shows up at his house then randomly dies. "How rude…." he sighed. Yet there was opportunity here. He had need for a cadaver for his work.

Bael put on some clothes, assigned his autonomous servants to clean, put Seth's body in cold storage, and finally realized that his hearing aid was malfunctioning. "It might still be possible to save him but what good was a kid that shows up and dies on someone's sofa?" He spoke out loud to himself. After some time passed he went over the footage to and realized who the boy was. Now completely aware of how incompetent he had been for the last hour he stopped to poor himself a glass of whiskey and lit up a new cigar.

"An electronic storage device was on Seth's corpse. Shall I open the files?" the computer asked him.

"Send them to my workstation. I will go over them personally." As he said it a part of him hoped that his friend wouldn't be arriving. He walked downstairs into his laboratory. He had been so lost in his creation and saving the planet that he had forgotten about the lives of those still just trying to survive. It had been 14 years since the Moore occupied the world and taken everything he ever loved. He had fought in the war and lost.

"Alert! Armed Moore personnel are approaching." the computer notified Bael.

The Moore is a hive intelligence parasite. In truth by the time the war had begun humanity had lost. It was similar to yeast on planet earth. The only difference was it was sentient but not like a human. It operated like a hive. Everyone that was infected found themselves having a craving for sugar, but every time the host ate they lost more of themselves. 11% of the population was completely immune. This was the case for people like Bael. He had lived on this planet since the invasion dealing with people he use to know under a passive aggressive house arrest; each day almost everyone around him became less and less themselves. At some point Bael stopped counting who was lost.

"Imperial protocol implemented. " the computer reported.Bael flushed with anger. It was his sister they sent.

Bael hated the feeling of being a captive in his own home, but this wasn't his world anymore. The robots of his home began setting up place settings for the coming guests. Bael inspected the work of the robots and gave order's like a kitchen chief. "This dish needs to be accompanied with syrup and bring out powdered sugar also."

The shell that was once his sister walked up to his door with two guards in mechanized gun suits. "Hello brother!! Won't you open up for family?!" her excitement but the illusion of choice was maddening for Bael.

Bael hesitated to answer at first. "Well I don't see why not Linda!" as he spoke the words changed from truthful spite to an imaginary character excited to entertain. "Get in here! Lets eat some waffles, but please take your armaments, coats, and shoes off at the door."

Linda and her bodyguards lit up like excited children at the prospect of syrup. "Bubba you are such a sweet brother!" in her excitement she spoke so high that his com went into a feedback with the speakers on the houses PA. Bael held his ears for a moment wincing. Her hair was different now.

The moore brain was far enough from his house that these drones would act more similar to themselves. They would follow orders unquestionably through telepathy. The fact they came outside of signal meant they couldn't comeback unless their task was completed.

Bael walked to the front door of his home to greet his captors. Bael knew that only drones that had performed a great deed in service of the brain would receive sugar but outside of the signal their instinctual protocol would kick in over orders. He had planned for this moment but not for a loved one.

"Hi brother!!!" she ran over to him for a hug. "He winces as she squeezed him and kissed him." her greeting was not that of a sister. The Moore enforced any act as necessary in service. Was she going to try and seduce him? The brain did its best to mimic the hosts normal behavior but their were often extremely awkward quirks for people like him.

He was repulsed but he tried to maintain a friendly demeanor. "Lets eat!" Bael yelled. The guards ran to the food immediately but Linda lingered. "Half is mine!" she yelled piercingly. The guards moved slower and less excitedly. Bael felt a little bit of pride that they were so terrified of his little sister.

"Aren't you going to eat brother?" Linda spoke sweetly to him.

"Yes..yes. Of course." he walked to the table and sat.  The house was an open concept with a japanese garden in the center. White walls, white floors, and black furniture. The walls were essentially computer monitors. He could literally choose anything to put on them but found comfort in the simplicity of white. She use to say my house looked like a gay pornstar set Bael thought to himself.

Linda sat next to him as the guards noisily scarfed their meals. Bael felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he met his sister's gaze. Every instinct he had told him she was a predator and he was prey. "It's so cozy and rustic in here." she took a bite of belgium waffle smothered in syrup. "Mmmmmm" I don't know how you got this and personally I don't care." her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she ate.

Was this his chance? "Do you remember your favorite story when we were growing up?" Bael corrected his posture as he spoke. A small drone hovered between them and the entrance.

"Oh I always loved those cooking shows! It's all I watch when I'm home these days too." She spoke with her mouth full but Bael had no trouble understanding her words.

"No that wasn't it! Don't you remember the Iliad by Homer? Its one of the oldest and perhaps even one of the greatest stories of mankind?" he spoke loudly with a smile.

One eye left the food to stare at him for a moment Bael thought he saw his sister but a second later her face twisted in rage and she roared at him with unnatural presence. "No!! It has always been the cooking shows!" tentacles the size of fingers popped out of her mouth and convulsed as yelled then slowly receded back inside of her.

Bael glanced nervously at the drone flying by the entrance. It had a red light blinking. "Your right how could I ever question the genius of the cooking network! Yet this story had an very interesting twist. Do you remember it?" just before he asked the question the light on his drone turned green.

"Yes the trojan horse." As she replied one eye wandered the room while the other stood fixed on Bael. The guards twitched shaking slightly. "What was your favorite brother?" her left eye settled on the drone and then realigned on her prey.

"Oh just about anything with revenge as the main theme." he eyed the woman that had once braided his hair and gave him wedges but now he was the hunter. "Fire!!!" The room exploded into a war as the mechanized armors gatling machine guns began to empty 50 cal bullets at 36 rounds per second between the two guns on each mech. Linda sprank out of danger on all 4 limbs as tentacles ejected from her mouth and eyes directly at Bael. The guards, tables, food, and chairs exploded into debris as the bullets flowed from the guns like tiny wrecking balls. Bael dived to avoid the tentacles piercing him. He jumped to his feet and ran towards his lab. He could feel her rushing towards him but could hear her cry out as bullets took out her left leg completely off. Blood splattered and she staggered only for a moment before a larger tentacle popped out of her body. The last cries of the guards garbled as the other guns annihilated them. Bael made it inside the garden and closed the door behind him. His sister's perverted face banged on the door behind him trying to break it but nothing happened. Then instantly the glass rapidly began to crack and turn red. Little droplets oozed through the cracks as the her lifeless body sunk to the floor. Bael walked into his lab casually and came back up with a small flamethrower. The blood moved towards him like thousands of tiny living slinkies. "Computer torch the bodies until no organic matter is left."  he said as he activated the flame thrower and scorched the blood on the floor he heard a faint noise on the other side of the glass."Computer please amplify whatever the Linda parasite is saying."

"Mercy" she tried to force out as blood oozed out of her.

"Actually computer save my sister's head as a sample and take quarantine measures. She wasn't like the other ones and afterall I do love me some trophies." he smiled sickly has he burned the creatures remains. His eyes lit up as the fire cleansed the body. He forced himself not to miss anything not even for a moment did he blink. He had no mercy left inside.