The Zero Network

Sign Ups/Interest Check Discussion Page

Butch Advent quietly stared into the case file, confused and tired.

Still reading it, he thought "Hmm a bunch of murders all towards people logged into the Network of all places. None of the victims have connections to each other, one's a hacker, one's some teenager etc. etc. It's as if the murderer chooses at random. As soon as they get attacked online they suffer a heart attack in real life. I don't think this can be solved fast. At least the pay is good."

Closing the file, Butch lied down in his chair and slept. "I can't be bothered logging in now. I just want to sleep." he remarked closing his eyes.

Meanwhile...

"Mr. Falco, sir would you care to provide any opinion on the recent attacks from the anti-cyborg group?" a reporter asked among multiple others chasing the politician into his home.

"No comment." Falco replied as he rushed into his house and slammed the door. Running into his officeroom, Falco relaxed unto his chair and grabbed the nearby cable. Lodging it into the back of his head, Falco logged into the Zero Network.

"Ah nothing like a nice network surf to get the stress off." Falco remarked as he closed his eyes and woke up in the cyber world. As he floated across the hallway, filled with doors leading to his favourites of the network.

He approached the door labelled 'Pleasure', not noticing a cloaked figure standing behind him.

The figure touched his shoulder, grabbing his attention as Falco looked behind him, startled.

"Who..who are you?" Falco asked as the figure's red eyes stared straight into him.

"A saviour." the figure replied as it touched Falco's heart.

Convulsing, Falco began to fall down in both the cyber world and real life. After about a minute of struggling, his heart finally stopped.

Butch quietly woke up to the sound of the phone beside his table ringing. He slowly moved his hand and answered the phone.

"This is Private Detective Butch Advent at your service." Butch stated as he listened to the other end.

"...what? You gotta be kidding me?!" Butch replied as he sat straight and started writing down details.

"...Yeah..Yeah. Got it. I'll be at the scene soon." Butch hung up as he finished writing down the information.

"Another victim taken by the killer and it's a politician. This is not going to go well." Butch thought as he sighed and grabbed his longcoat, ready to move out.

Winter sat behind the desk, on said desk, was the body of a security gaurd, their throat slit, he smiled, sitting on a window sill, he just had to wait for his host to return home...

The wind...

Xander looked out the window as he worked on his latest project, thinking about the people who were able to walk outside, who could feel the wind on their faces.

They squirm, though, they squirm under a harsh, unforgiving heel. One word, one bad pattern of thought, and the creatures wearing blue would ransack and destroy them. There was no hope, no progress, only distraction and false reality to comfort the struggling and the weak.

He looked over at an all too amused Misha as he finished his work, and decided now was as good a time as any to test out his personal project. This was his one place of solace – here, with the girl he loved, here, testing his machines, here, preparing for “Change”.

They read and learned. He remembered discussing theosophy and philosophy with her at lengths. They had differing perspectives on most things, and sometimes even traded positions to see how strong their general speech ability was.

His sky blue eyes looked down at his arm as bright silver and blue threads started to form, weaving around him strong, tight, slowly forming the new Xander around him. He would answer to a different name, a different repute...and a different agenda.

Change was in the works. A society, even one such as this, could not remain static for eternity. As the majority of the torso, legs and arms formed, he looked at the girl he loved with a smile.

His father, in merely a week, had given him leave to venture to a presentation of Vandeine Corp's new battle-machine technology. A banal task, but one he would undertake. He did not doubt there would be punishments if he did not do as his father said, when he was this person.

Just as well, the people from the lower districts desired a “change” and he would see that their dreams and aspirations were fulfilled.

But now, as the threads finished their work, covering him in a silver and blue armor, he was ready. For a time, Misha just seemed to scan him – taking into account all their previous discussions – and she just chuckled, “You look...heroic.”

Heroic? Was such a lofty word really fit for him? He knew what his slogan and his ideals would do, and no hero would abide by what he would do and what he would allow. “I am not a hero. If anything, I am a villain – someone who operates in ways society cannot approve of, and in ways deemed evil and contrary to modern morality.”

Misha argued back, “Yes, but in this society, perhaps the greatest hero must be the greatest villain, rejecting current society's bylaws and injunctions, creating his own moral code to follow.”

“Perhaps. Though no hero, historical or fictional, would endorse what I am ready to do, I will live up to your expectations.” He stated in a level tone, even though he did not show it often, he enjoyed their arguments.

“Nah, don't move in line with ANYONE's expectations as you are now. Live the way you want to. You make the decisions, not me, not society and certainly not your father.” Misha knew what it felt like to have expectations controlling one's life, and it was certainly not something she would ever want to enforce on Xander, now that he was “free”.

Xander looked out at the balcony, and then back at one of the closets, “Then I will become the person I want to be. I only hope you will stand at my side.” For better or worse, he had the power to affect his own changes in this city, “...I'm heading out. Is the decoy...?”

She gestured and another “Xander” entered the room, purely on the circumstance that anyone entered the room. Being that Isaiah was never an attentive father, Misha had observed, he would not know the difference.

With that, the armored Xander walked out on to the balcony, and was gone. Misha was the first person to see “Mektavis”. Fitting – given his ideal. He hoped only she would ever really know, it was a deep, dark thing, exactly what he wanted kept behind the veil of love.

Misha simply smirked at the decoy and picked up the book the two had read last week, Thus Spake Zarathustra, re-reading it by herself. By all means, she preferred reading it with him there, but he had his own ordeals to take care of. He had a dramatis personae to create, and she had her own plans to execute.

“Don't lose yourself.” She whispered, knowing he could not hear, wishing she could've said so earlier. The worst thing that could happen now would be if he lost himself amidst his fervor.

Xander was on the move now, and he had never felt so free before, travelling the city through his nanomachines, using a small "cloud" of them to affect something like floatation and movement through the wind. What was even more amazing was that he could feel the wind on his face even though he was covered in his armor.

Biotechnology had enabled him to not just wear his weapon...he was his weapon. Xander was his own greatest weapon, and he knew as he moved through the city, quickly and like a ghost, that he had to start his change today, while people were not accustomed to such a presence.

It looked like the police were on the move to a politician's home. For now, he waited in the shadows and decided to watch the police from afar, using an equivalent of an on-board camera to amplify his vision until he could see which officers were on the scene.

It looked like someone might already be moving to affect change. While he was hidden from view, he decided to see if the officers around were of the corrupt sort.

Winter jumped from roof top, yeah, trying to intimidate a politician with a dead body was nice, but if someone was doing a murder...Well, that just seemed more interesting, besides, he could just fine his employer under the rule that If there's a corpse on your table with it's head damn near cut off, you're going to be intimidated. he skidded onto another roof, only seeing a figure in the shadows, he drew his vibro blade, slowly stalking forward, attempting to grab the figure and press the vibro-knife to it's throat. "Hello," He spat, trying to keep the south african accent out of his voice. "What are you doing here?"

As Winter grabbed Xander, he seemed to look down at the Vibro-blade without much concern. He recognized the model - not exactly up to date, but he figured it'd still do damage. He also regarded the rest of his erstwhile assailant - he could see that this person was using a heavily cybernetic body.

This could be over easily. But he decided to play along for now.

"I am here because I am bringing change. It appears change could benefit you. Release me, and I will show a different world to you." His voice was distorted by the armor's "helmet".

As he said this, four globes of the same silver substance his armor was made of formed and started levitating around him.

Winter took a step back, reaching into his pocket and putting his hand on the Hand Cannon. "New world? So," he gestured to the crime scene. "Is that your new world?" He sneered.

Xander did not even need to look down there, the politician was a relic of the old world, but while he did not murder him, he decided to play things a certain way.

"People will inevitably die in the course of change. I will not pretend to be a hero for what I do. While I might or might not have done it, others who desire change may have seen it in their interests to end that man's life. Fundamentally, those who want for change are all struggling together - not against individual people, but against a world view, against a system. It is the greatest thing someone can do right now - reject society and create their own morality."

Winter laughed. "And so," he spread his arms, "You welcome the change of a brave new world! Where there is no evil, merely survival!" He doubled over laughting, an oddly robotic sound, before standing up. "Nietzsche is dead." He said, "Yet I can see that you're trying to be like him, is that it? Or is it Darwin?" People like this were all the same, willing to preform any sacrifice, provided it was not them doing the sacrificing.

edited 7th Jul '14 3:17:44 PM by TroyandHawk

"Only fools try to emulate or copy the deeds or thoughts of the dead. I am creating my own deeds, my own thought. I do not want to be any existing or pre-existing man, besides myself." Xander did not react to the man's laughter, and simply waited for any hint of an act by him.

He raised a hand and slowly clenched his fist, "The criminal underworld is one element, however, that I cannot affect right now. I would make you an offer - act in my stead in the underworld, and I will see to it that your cybernetic body and weaponry are updated."

Winters looked skeptical, "What would that entail?" Acting this guy's stead? Though he didn't have much longer before his body would start to rot..."And where would you get what I need?"

edited 7th Jul '14 3:34:54 PM by TroyandHawk

"It would entail controlling and directing the underworld toward more productive ends, and toward change."

Xander brought one hand up, and it looked like his nanomachines started duplicating, generating another sphere of floating silver. It hovered in the air, quivering in front of Winter.

"As for where I would get what you need, right here - this. And since, like me, your whole body is a weapon, I suspect I could allay your decay and grant you stronger weapons."

"Controlling?" Winter shook his head, "Not my style. I kill, I intimidate. That stuff-" He stopped when the Nantes were revealed. "I'll do it."

"Good. If you are who I think you are, you can handle it with aplomb."

With that, Xander willed the nanomachines forward, the sphere dissembling and blurring slightly as they buried themselves in Winter. Already, from the impact site, it was clear that the machines were starting to improve on what they were given.

And even if he betrays me, it won't last long.

"Now, I believe we both have duties to fulfil."

Winter flexed his fingers, feeling the power. "What is my mission, my master?" he asked, bitingly.

Xander either did not care he used such a tone, or did note it, "There are a number of weapons dealer groups I have researched. I want you to make sure they know that if they want to continue their business, they will band together and become...mine. If they object, make an example."

Winter grinned, a feral, wolfish grin. "I do hope, they do not listen." He said quietly, turning. He knew several black market weapons dealer, one, who had taken on calling himself Screw, was holed up in the gutter, he turned, sprinting away.

June Byrne stood, semi-slumped in front of a computer display with one eye scanning through the various data readouts and the other on the wall clock - quite literally, given her ocular enhancements. Behind this were series of modular chromatographs and mass spectrometers of various types, able to be relatively easily connected in tandem for analytical purposes. With all the crime, drugs and poisonings in Echo City the toxicology lab got quite a bit of use out of these machines. Currently she was testing some fresh biological specimens for any compounds that shouldn't be there, random deaths with no external evidence was what she had heard. Of course half the samples weren't stored properly and had to be thrown out. The cops in this city were either chumps, overworked or both. Nevertheless, they'd probably be too huffy to admit it was their fault.

Quitting time couldn't come soon enough.

June heard familiar, heavy footsteps behind her and recognized their owner immediately, "The data's just come through, sir. I should be able to get the reports finished by tomorrow morning..." She said as she turned around, trying to smile through growing fatigue. Dr. Mahon straightened himself and crossed his arms in his usual stuffy manner, "Good, the PSS want the blood results as soon as possible." He said, sounding a little distracted, "I haven't seen Hutz for most of the day, you wouldn't know where he's gone?"

Zia Hutz was one of the few co-workers here she considered to be a friend outside of the lab and June had seen him... Chucking a sicky and leaving her with watching the analytical equipment, cheeky bugger, "I'm afraid he was, uh, ill sir." Mahon made a vaguely disapproving sound and waddled off. She sighed deeply and printed off the data, backing it up via the zero network and shutting down the machines. Coincidentally, Zia was calling eliciting a groan.

"Shouldn't you be throwing up? She inquired, jovially.

"But then I wouldn't be able to annoy you, June..."

"It would save me the trouble of putting you in hospital, though, Zia."

"Haha, well if you meet me at my place tonight you might just forgive me.

"Uh huh... So you're going to complete all these reports for me, then?" She grinned, stuffing her lab coat into a backpack and signing herself off.

"Oh, you enjoy it. Besides, this is way more interesting, I swear... I'll make it worth your while."

"I really doubt that.

"I'll buy you coffee and a cookie.

There was a long silence.

"Fine.... They'd better be good or that coffee goes somewhere unpleasant." June hung up, collecting her push bike from the front door and riding down town to Zia's place.

Police Senior Inspector Mark Chen had just arrived at the "headquarters" of Echo City's most "renowned" law enforcement unit, known as Public Security Section 9, after stepping out of the elevator from the basement parking lots. What amazed the man was that the headquarters of Section 9 was based in a high-rise building that didn't have any identification markings that publicly shows the building at its main base of operations. Instead, there wasn't any signs of identification or the name of the occupants of the said building. With the exception of a number placed outside the entrance as a means of identifying it based on address.

Instead, he was debriefed on the day the ex-officer moved in the city that the unit is suppose to be covert so that they can investigate cases of a serious nature that the city's Justice Department deems necessary from cyber crimes to serious attempts of terrorism and high-profile crimes without being exposed to the wrong people, to the point that any official law enforcement literature that talks about the city's law enforcement won't find any information except for the fact that the city's Public Security branch has eight Public Security divisions dedicated to various government departments and specialties. It suited well for him for a change at least. The Senior Inspector's experience from his time in the French Foreign Legion's 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment and in the Philippine National Police's Special Action Force has given lots of opportunities to be good in combat, as well as VIP protection and martial arts, but wasn't enough to save him after being hugely humiliated by his superiors that he decided on a change of place.

Right now, he had to head to the R&D office to get himself a new mobile phone since his previous phone was destroyed when a truck wheel crushed it during an operation where he tried to apprehend the kidnapper responsible for abducting the two children of a known actor living in the city. In the struggle, the phone fell out of his pocket and was not aware that it was destroyed after he got the man arrested with help of uniformed officers.

I bet that last phone's gonna come out of my personal black budget again. Senior Inspector Chen groaned after he submitted his report on the post-mission operation he got involved in.

When he entered the R&D office, the young man poked his head inside to see if anyone was around.

"Hey, is anyone inside the office?"

edited 8th Jul '14 12:26:53 AM by Ominae

Butch continued walking towards the crime scene, a few blocks away. He needed the exercise and to gather his thoughts.

The year's 3030, at least that's what we think. This hellhole we all live in is Echo City. The centre of the legendary Zero Network. A massive network that people can log into via their brain, if said brain has cybernetic enhancements. Anyone that's logged in can access information, data, education, games etc. I guess this place is the vision of the future glimpsed in so many movies and books. Dark, grimy, filled with the most advanced technology and robotics. I'm walking past cyborgs and robots as I speak.

Still this place IS a hellhole. We may be technologically advanced but we're still filled to the brim with crime, death, riots etc. So many rebellion groups, so many "pure" human rallies against cybernetics. Hi-tech, low-life some claim. We'd all leave but this place is a closed circle. The government tells us that the outside world is a dangerous place filled with war, massacres etc. Trying to make it all sound worse than what's already happening here. They can allow people to arrive in but no one can leave ever. I guess that's just the Government's iron hand taking force. Some say they closed off the city to protect the Network but it's all bull.

As for me, well my name's Butch Advent. Born here, grew up here. I've gotten so used to this place that I can't be bothered leaving. I'm a private investigator for a living. I have a good eye for detail and deduction and so forth. I'm not quite tech savvy but I do find the Zero Network fascinating. My cybernetic enhancements sure help with the job though. Taking and giving blows to perps. Currently I'm stuck in a long investigation, looking into the deaths of several people who died of heart attacks while logged into the network. Nearly all their family members hired me out to look into it, seems like they trust a private eye more than the police force. I don't blame them. Most officers I've met are slimy, arrogant, corrupt jerks. There's so few I can even trust, lucky thing I even have contacts in the first place there.

Still this case is going to get harder, a politician was the next one hit by this killer. Once the public gets word of this, there'll be more riots, more attacks etc. Still I gotta job to do and I'm gonna find this guy.

edited 7th Jul '14 10:24:37 PM by JRPictures

The Gutter. Poorest slum in Echo city, which, probably made it the worst slum in the entire goddamn world. Those words, failed horribly at explaining how shitty the place was, the entire area was lower than the rest of the city, and the streets were flooded with four feet of raw sewage on a good day, on the roofs, connected by shanty bridges combined of scrap metal, wood and cables, there were people, sick, dying, dead, or starving. Luckily, being dead allow Winter to be free of most of those worries, in particular, he headed to what used to be a three story school, he climbed down into the second window, the room was full of machinery, computers, heavy guns mounted on the walls, Winter looked at one. It looked like an old fashioned Revolver, put it was the size of his forearm, and the cylinder was covered, he took it off the wall, and looked at it.

An elderly man walked in, freezing when he saw Winters. "Aiden? Your mother is worried sick about you!" Winter frowned, Aiden had been his body's previous owner, of course, now, Aiden was dead. He grinned,

"Relax Screws, I am burdened with glorious purpose." The old man looked at him, like he was mad.

"Aiden, are you okay? You haven't been taking an-" Within seconds, Winter was upon him, he grabbed the elderly man, throwing him against the wall and pressing the gun barrel to his head.

"Where are all of your competition?"

"Wh-What?"

"The other arms dealers. Fuck Screws, how stupid do you think I am?"

"I-I never sai-" Winter backhanded him.

"Oi! I've got the fucking cock in this position! Shut up unless you're giving me goddamn names!" Winter screamed at the old little shit. Screws went pale.

"On the computer! B-But you need my password." He stuttered, Winter crouched down, pressing the gun to the Weapon dealer's head, the guy had only said he wanted some alive.

And, in the crime ridden gutter, a gunshot went unnoticed. Winter stood up, sitting down at the computer, and set to work.

June nimbly pedaled her dingy racer bike through the reams of traffic, countless cars becoming less and less advanced the further down town she went. Luckily Zia wasn't too close to the Gutter, where the slums were so trashy you couldn't see the ground from the rivers of unidentifiable sludge. Forensic chemistry wasn't the best paying gig in town, she and Zia had entered into it out of pure intrigue for the chemical workings of the world. That, and it was better than drug running or breaking rocks. The air was thick with exhaust, most people not being able to afford the clean, crisp hover cars upper class types loved to flash about in.

June, however, much preferred her bike - less traffic jams, for one thing, and most people wouldn't bother actually stealing it these days. About half-way there she stopped by a convenience store for a microwavable cup of soup - for Zia. If he was going to pretend to be sick he could at least try a little harder. That being said, actually eating the viscous tub of chicken-like goop would probably hospitalize him.

June hummed to herself as she chained her bike by Zia's front door, carefully navigating the dilapidated wooden steps and knocking brisking on the door. No response, she couldn't even here movement from the inside. She frowned and cycled to predominantly ultraviolet vision, following the hand prints to a sad pot plant. A few moments of digging her fingers into the dirt resulted in the spare door key, "Zia, you really need a new spot for this thing..." June raised her voice as she carefully opened the door, slipping inside. Still nothing. "Zia?" More worried now, she carefully advanced across the floor, "I got soup..."

The she saw him, lying far too still on the couch. His body was growing colder, as were the two coffee mugs on the nearby table. "Oh shi- Zia!" June exclaimed, lunging forward and futility shaking his body - Her senses already new he was dead, though there were no marks. No blood. No struggle, just stillness. She felt numb, calling for the police and an ambulance; pacing about the room as she waited, wondering how her friend could just... He wasn't even out of his twenties, didn't do any appreciable amount of drugs. Someone must have done this to him but why? She was too deep in shock to even cry, it just didn't feel real.

Mark saw that no one was in the office. Apparently on lunch break, according to a sign posted on one of the desk with scotch tape attached. There was a message that said his new phone was now ready.

Looks like this then. The officer saw a safe-like box on top of one of the tables with the impression of a hand on it. In this case, this was meant for his right hand.

Here goes. Mark placed his right hand on top of the impression. In response, the electronics on the safe began to scan his fingertips in order to determine the biometric signatures and whether they were on his fingers or whether someone had tried to slice them off to fool its sensors.

A few minutes later, the safe box opened with a beeping sound to indicate that his biometric signature was accepted. Mark carefully opened it by pulling the cover from the top. Inside was a smart phone that looked like one of the latest models out for sale. However, the public security officer knew that it was specially modified with the best encryption protocols in place to prevent anyone from trying to hack it.

"Better take this." Mark got the phone before it began to vibrate, followed by a ring tone. "Hmmm... That was quick."

"I assume that you have the phone with you?"

Mark was a bit surprised that the chief of Section 9 (Who happens to be an old man in his late 50s with a gray suit, black shoes and red necktie with a military background also, albeit he served in the JGSDF before he relocated to Echo City.) would call him on the phone of all places, just when he got the call. It was a good thing too that smart phone was familiar to him since it's the main phone used by public security officers when on the job.

"Yes, sir." Mark replied on the line. "In fact, it's working well."

"Good. I need you out there right now."

"Something wrong, sir?"

"The Justice and Interior Departments have given us an order to conduct an investigation."

"And how is it important to them, sir?"

"It may have something to do with the case of the death of your old Special Action Force unit."

Mark frowned when he heard this. This may mean a breakthrough in investigating whether the unit did have a traitor or not.

"I'm on it!"

He began to run down the corridor towards the elevators that would take him back to the parking lot. On the way there, he would pass by several female office worker-type androids wearing red jackets and skirts with high heels. They also appear to have long brown hair placed in a ponytail.

edited 11th Jul '14 10:58:21 PM by Ominae

Meanwhile, after watching the departure of Winter, Xander decided to take action now, himself. It looked like a higher calibre of officers was coming over, now that it was becoming more known in the security forces that a politician was dead. Those people, the highly amplified "guardians" - The PSS. It appeared most of the detectives and low level cops got the memo, except for one inside. Xander decided, even so, this was his opportunity to make his big entrance into the culture of the city. He would become known after this.

After making sure the low level cops, outside that one in the building, were gone, he started to move.

The masked figure slowly started to descend from his perch, using a cloud of nanomachines to affect some manner of flight. It looked like the officers on the ground did not quite know what they were looking at. A silver figure barely visible, but as they focused in using eye augmentations, it was obvious he was wearing some sort of armor.

However by the time he strode across the ground, they realized they were dealing with someone who was putting his nose where it did not belong. The leader of them walked out from his car, easily seven feet tall and mostly made of combat cybernetics. "This area is off limits to the public, if you continue walking this way, we will apprehend or open fire." Preferably open fire. I haven't had excitement in weeks, at least since splattering that female protester.

Xander ruminated as more spheres started to emerge from the Mech Control Suit, The time has come. The beginning of the change.

He continued walking, raising one arm, and just as the PSS Officers all drew their weapons and moved forward and around to surround him, we waved his arm, sending a barrage of miniature spheres flying at high speeds, their weapons and bodies inundated with the spheres. Even as they audibly started talking about what they intended to do with Xander. Some of it predictable, some of it more foul than what he had thought would be in their purview.

For now, he simply extended his will, feeling the squirming, the wind, the "change". These men walked, but once they tried to use their weapons...

The lead PSS officer immediately tried to fire his gun, but the weapon not only wouldn't fire, but his arm started to bubble and burn. At first he simply stared, confused, as did the others as they tried something similar, but then the burning intensified as what looked like numerous pupae and branches of some sort of plant began to emerge out of him, the nanomachines doing the exact reverse of what they did to Winter - instead of updating and preserving him, the nanomachines now inside these men, interacting with their profuse weapon technology and extensive cybernetics, were creating new things using the cybernetics as a basis - things that the body was not supposed to grow.

The growth was becoming more explosive now, as more of the PSS officers seemed to become humanoid bushes of some sort, the pupae starting to hatch, butterflies and moths made of pieces of the officers. The insects flew over to Xander and landed on him, simply sitting there on his arms and shoulders as he raised them parallel to the ground.

The screaming was getting louder. Would the officer inside the building notice now that not only were PSS called in, but they were viciously attacked? By now, as Xander's metamorphosed pieces of the officers fluttered about him, he looked at the guards of the old regime. There was barely anything left of them. Barely any humans left - though it was not as if there was much in there anyway, aside from weapons, cybernetics and cruelty.

The officer in that building...what would he think of this morbid art?

THE RABID DOG

Winter decided to do a bit of hacking, afterall, the signal was mostly blocked, so after memorizing the list of Weapons Dealers, he set to work on his new employer. Firewall, after firewall, and then a program that would change as he hacked it, then one that would permanently delete itself if he tried to hack it, whoever this Brave New world guy was, he clearly didn't want to be found, Winter frowned. "What are you hiding?" He muttered to himself. After a bit, he found a security camera, his new boss, was staring at a pile of flash and metal, with a sneer, Winter leaned back in his seat, watching the show.

edited 8th Jul '14 5:45:48 PM by TroyandHawk

As Butch got closer and closer to the crime scene, he could screaming from multiple people.

"What the hell is happening now?!" Butch shouted as he started running to the scene while grabbing out his gun, ready for whatever he might be seeing.

Arriving at the scene, Butch hid behind a nearby wall and cocked his gun. Carefully and slowly, he moved his head to look at the scene.

"What in the world?" Butch thought to himself as he saw multiple officers, both police and PSS on the ground dead. All of them looked inhuman, with branches and bushes growing out of some of them.

As he kept looking, Butch saw a large masked figure standing around the dead bodies.

Butch hid back behind the wall as he gathered his thoughts. "Who is this guy? A vigilante? The killer? No no that's too easy, the killer wouldn't make such a display. Still I gotta stay hidden. There's no way I could go against this guy, I don't want plantlife growing outta me."