See the loser with the polo and five hundred dollar phone? That’s me standing behind him. The guy in the black jacket and hat. That grey hair is not because I’m old in fact I just turned seventeen, it’s my natural hair color too. I am what is known in collective law abiding society as a thief, the technical term is business man. I’m the most prominent business man in the country actually. A country that’s owned by the corporations, who are known for fighting publicly but without briefcases and ties. These corporations tend to hire PMC’s to do their dirty work whether that be burning down a rival shop or wiping out a research facility. Although sometimes they like it when their work is done with only a little noise.That’s where I come in. I can single handedly break into most of Aesteris’s secure facilities.
The free trade zones are completely unregulated by Neo-Rome but at a cost. No expansion past the designated galaxy. They send the Armada to deal with anyone who thinks that they are capable of taking on the behemoth that is Neo-Rome. Aesteris happens to be a planet in one of these free trade zones by the way. It’s hazardous to live in the free trade zones but Neo-Rome’s suffocating standards scare away many people. And since revolution is an impossibility with the Commander Saivix watching over Neo-Rome the free trade zones are the only alternative.
But enough of that. Today I’m breaking into Alabaster inc.’s head research branch the leader of the Ishman trade syndicate. And polo loser is about to help me. I quicken my pace and catch up to him as he disconnects the call.
“Hey there I couldn’t help but notice there was something on your shirt” I say with a cheery smile.
“What are you talking about?” asks the guy as he pulls at the shirt on his reptilian flesh trying to see what I’m talking about.
I pull my right hand from my pocket and empty a plastic bag of purple dust on him, the lizard yelps with surprise.
“Well it looks like Dimorphan Runner tracking dye” I say casually crumpling up the bag with one hand and tossing it away “Good thing it’s dry or the Dimorphan Runners would start hounding you until you surrendered to the Neo-Roman garrison. I hear there’s a squad of the robotic beasts in every city.”
I hold up my left hand holding a bottle of water.
“What do you want?” asks the lizard in the polo.
“Entry keys for the building you work in” I request calmly still smiling.
“No they’d shoot me.”
I unscrew the cap from the water bottle and take a sip.
“Normally the tracing drones spray the dust with water to make a sticky gel that you can’t get rid of without help from the garrison” I step closer and raise the bottle, “I wonder if you can get rid of it without the garrison.”
The lizard man bolts. I hurl the water bottle after him and watch it dump it’s contents on his dust covered body. The lizard stumbles and falls in the middle of the street as cars screech to a halt around him the purple dust is now a glowing red gel. The lizard gets up and continues to run.
People scramble to get away from the lizard as he nears them, bits of gel fly through the air as he scrambles to flee. I whistle and a Dimorphan Runner leaps from an alley. Unlike the normal ones which have glowing blue optical sensors this one is green. This one is mine.
The two legged robot shrieks a greeting to me and I nod my head towards the fleeing lizard.
“All yours girl.”
The robotic creature unfurls it’s small vestigial wings and sprints after the lizard. The robot leaps on top of and over cars and speeders denting them as it’s powerful legs hit the metal. It flows across the street like fire. The Dimorphan Runner leaps onto walls and the fronts of buildings as it weaves through the crowd. As it nears the lizard though things go wrong.
A Dimorphan Runner howls behind me. It’s not one of mine. A full pack drops down from a building surrounding the lizard and my Dimorphan which skids to a stop. I whirl around to face the robot and catch it as it shifts forms. It shifts into the shape of a human with a set of five glowing eyes in a straight line across it’s featureless face. It’s still obviously the same angular robot it was before but now it looks less like a flightless bird of prey. This second form is known as Apprehend.
It’s the alpha male.
“You are trade zone citizen 179492038001 wanted for 184 counts of espionage and trespassing” it says flatly, “You are also wanted for harboring a Malfunction”
I say nothing but I trigger the sheaths hidden by my jacket’s sleeves and plunge the heated throwing knives into the Dimorphan’s chest. The Dimorphan stutters and collapses the liquid metal parts turn into a silver puddle around it’s solid pieces. I sprint for the pack as it turns towards me. Some turn into their Apprehend form only they’re holding silver bows made of their own bodies.
“Run Mal!” I shout to my Dimorphan Runner.
Mal tries to sprint through the Dimorphans encircling her. As I draw closer I hurl dagger after dagger at the Dimorphans. I cut down the ones attacking me in their first form, Pursuit, but the ones in their Apprehend form pull back on the silver bow strings. A bolt of condensed elemental energy forms as they do. It crackles with electrical energy.
Dimorphan Runners have a double AI system one for Pursuit and one for Apprehend. Pursuit’s AI is a simple one, a mix between a dog and a cat. But the Apprehend AI is much more complex it’s sentient but incapable of feeling guilt or sorrow, in combat it analyzes the species of its opponent and condenses an energy arrow that is suited to the opponent’s weaknesses. It won’t kill, that would violate Neo-Rome’s cardinal law of never intentionally killing unless in times of dire threat to the Imperial Republic.
Mal shifts into her Apprehend form, a feminine humanoid, clutching a bow of her own. But her bolt isn’t elemental. She releases her own hardened liquid metal in a spear trailing a silver thread leading back to her. The arrow pins one of the Dimorphan Runners to a hov truck before flowing back to her. Sprinting through the gap, Mal ignores the arrows whistling past her and collides with me at full sprint.
The air exits my lungs and it is a couple moments before I can speak.
“Mal” I wheeze.
“Don’t speak Oberon” she answers in a but flat digital voice, produced by liquid metal vibrating in her throat, “We have approximately thirty seconds to evacuate from the area before legionaries arrive from the garrison outpost.”
“What does my not speaking have to do with that?”
“The less you talk, the less likely I am to drop you.”
Mal sprints up the front of a building and arrows from the Dimorphans far behind us sprout behind us. Mal flips over the lip of the roof at full speed more gracefully than any organic can, outside of bio mods.
“Let me down Mal. I can go the rest of the way on my own.”
“Negative Oberon, you lack the physical capacity to do so.”
“I can fly you know, I do have wings.”
“And to use them you’ll have to activate your abilities.”
I feel Mal’s hand tighten on my right shoulder where one of the intricate tattoos inscribed on my body coils it’s way to my fingers.
“Mal it’s okay it’s not like Vlad’s ability. Or Loki’s.”
“It still has it’s effect on you.”
“So?”
Mal stops in her tracks as she prepares to leap to another rooftop.
“The children look up to you as a leader. I-they cannot afford to lose you.”
“Mal go back to the hideaway I’ll meet you there. I still need to get the codes from the lizard.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“I’ll do it without my abilities.”
“You’re lying.”
“If I do then you can kill me.”
Mal is silent for a few moments.
“That is not humorous.”
“It’s not a joke.”
Mal sets me down on the roof and nods.
“Come home or else Oberon.”
“I will.”
With that Mal departs. I watch her silver body fly across the rooftops as the sun sets behind me. Guilt stabs into my heart as she disappears into the distance. I pull out my phone and hurl it over the edge of the roof.
“Sorry Mal. If I don’t do this you will die” I whisper to myself.
I crack my knuckles and flex my powers like they’re muscles I haven’t used in a while. Which is true enough and it feels good. Golden light extends from my body as I stretch my limbs. The designs etched into my skin grow warm as I send power through them. They’re called the Fera Mythis. They give their bearer the powers of the being that they’re associated with, mine are associated with Oberon the fairy king, because I never had a name I became known as the fairy king.
“I love these things but it’s a pain to use them” I remark as I finish stretching.
The health benefits of the Fera Mythis tattoos are fairly good, immortal youth, super healing, immunity to diseases, reincarnation in the event I’m killed, super strength, speed, and agility. The drawback is I can’t use them without becoming an arrogant high minded king who wants to kill everything that he feels is beneath him.
“Here we go, this is for you Mal” I say as a pair of gold wings unfold from my back and my hair changes color, turning bright red.
Fera Mythis tattoo Flight.
My vision improves drastically and tints gold. I can see the living energy inside the pedestrians beneath me as I soar above the street searching for  the lizard. I spot him walking across a busy intersection on his phone yet again.
“You’re mine now.”
I land in the center of the intersection blasting a crater into the street. Attention whirls to the cloud of dust in a moment of shocked silence. I flap my wings and expel the cloud, as I do someone screams.
Just like the primitive filth they are. Can’t they recognize when they are in the presence of a noble being like me.
I gaze at the crowd as I step from the crater, looking down on the hodgepodge mix of species from all corners of five hundred thousand universes. All beneath me. Not one noble being in sight. Panic engulfs the crowd and many of them turn to flee.
“You” I command in a deep and booming voice, “All of you kneel before your king. Peasants like you should kneel in my presence despite you filth being acid to my eyes.”
I am about to launch into a speech demeaning them as I manipulate all their bodies with my left hand, forcing them to kneel with their heads bowed with a few twitches from my fingers, when my purpose for being here enters my mind.
Mal so close to death, I need that lizard to get into Alabaster to save her.
The thought sends pain through my heart and I force the lizard to walk towards me.
Fera Mythis tattoo Enchant.
“You will give me what I ask” I command as I make him stop walking towards me, “but first privacy.”
I raise my right hand and tear the living energy from all those around us. The energy swirls into the pointed ends of the the tattoo on my fingertips.
Fera Mythis tattoo Manipulate.
“You will give me all the security information I want to know in one day” I order.
“N-N-N-Never” stammers the lizard, his forked tongue flicking in and out between his teeth.
The lizard has no choice. But I want to toy with him anyway. Give him false hope and crush him in the end. I hold out my right hand with the palm down. The tattoo on my palm swirls into an inky black vortex.
Fera Mythis tattoo Dark Sword.
The sword manifests, hovering in midair for a moment before falling into the cracked pavement point first, biting deeply into the street. I pull it free and stab the lizard in the shoulder.
“You have one day to bring everything you have on the security of the Alabaster data vaults in the Lunaria tower before the darkness in you consumes your body” I tell the lizard smiling as I pull the Dark Sword free, “Do as your king commands insect and meet me in the 9th civil district alone. I’ll find you.”
I release my control over the lizard and watch his limbs finally obey his commands to flee as fast as he can. The Dark Sword tattoo activates as I return the black blade to its rift. At that moment corporate security rears their ugly heads. Three corporate police gunships rumble over my head and shine spotlights onto my lone figure ignoring the fleeing lizard. Ropes drop down from the open doors and armored soldiers in bulky armor rappel down them. They approach with their guns raised, wary of the many unmoving bodies around them.
“You there! Get on the ground!” shouts one of the armored soldiers.
How dare they order a king to touch the filthy ground. It is not their place to address a king in such a manner with their weapons raised no less. If it’s a battle they want then I shall oblige.
“Get on the ground now or we will shoot!”
I give no such warning. I condense some of the energy taken from the crowd into my right hand, a pale green light engulfs my closed fist and a spear forms next to me. I hurl the energy spear at the nearest soldier with a fluttering of the fingers on my right hand. The living energy impales the soldier and pins him to the road. I’ve sent the energy spear through the core of his own living energy destroying it. The soldier won’t die but he won’t wake up either. The spear disappears as the energy returns to me.
“Subject is hostile! Requesting backup!” shouts one of the soldiers into a comms device.
I count the corporate security soldiers and form fifteen spears. I send them flying into the corporate security troops. The spears lance through the armor of the soldiers and bend inside their bodies, avoiding vital arteries and organs, just piercing the skin and their own living energy. The soldiers can only manage grunts and half screams as they collapse. The spears stab into the ground holding up the limp soldiers. I revel in the satisfaction of putting the peasantry in it’s place.
Bullets spark against my energy shield, snapping me back into the action.
Fera Mythis tattoo King’s Castle.
I leap up to the first corporate gunship. My eyes drawing level with the pilot’s.
Fera Mythis tattoo Agility.
Then I’m on the top of it. I hurl two spears into the gunship’s left thruster, the thruster shoots black smoke and flames from both ends as it burns out. I leap onto another gunship as the thruster explodes and the first gunship flips over and slams into the street. People in the distance stand behind a corporate security cordon straining to see what’s going on inside, drawn by sheer curiosity. The explosion of the engine draws more of the spectators.
Instead of energy spears I manipulate the energy into a cutting edge and slice off both engines carrying the heavy gunship chassis. I leap off and use the energy to split the last gunship into two halves which tumble to the ground. News drones buzz high overhead and I think of Mal. I stop reveling in the fires and thrill of power.
Mal is going to kill me for this mess. I should leave before the drones get close enough to ID me.
The wings sprout from my back and I fly away at top speed. The drones are lost in my wake but i pass holo-signs bearing the same headline from various news organizations. It reads: Marked Souls return? The organization I helped to destroy, leveled with my own hands, the remains of which threaten my life and all those I love.
“It’s not them” I whisper.
Jolted by my guilt I lose focus as I enter the 9th district passing over the plasma wire fence separating the corporations and their bounty from everyone else. My wings loose their form as the energy trickles back into me mid-flight and suddenly I’m doing less flying and more crashing. More specifically into someone’s home.
I smash through the roof of the house and into the bedroom of some random teen. As I stand up and dust myself off I reform my wings. I notice the teenager staring at me from her bed, mouth agape.
“Honey what in God’s name was that!” shouts a deep rumbling voice.
A huge factory worker rushes in through the door.
“What the hell?” asks the horned man.
“My apologies” I state, “I’ll send you some funds to cover the cost of the repairs.”
I launch myself through the hole in the roof only to lose control again and crash into the street. I must have reached the limit. I should have absorbed the spears I left at the intersection. My vision returns to normal. While controlling the my abilities is like controlling another muscle, muscles get tired after extensive and intensive use.
I’m more than tired or exhausted. I’m spent. I lie on the dirty street unable to move, I hear a door slam open and shut behind me, the heavy breathing of the huge devilite, the abuse he shouts down at me, I can’t comprehend it though and simply label the angry noise as abuse. I feel something hit me several times, something breaks in me and it isn't bones. I'm watching my body move on it's own. My hands grasp something and fling it into the distance, I recognize the devilite's form before it disappears in the distance. I see a couple neighbors transition from anger into absolute terror. None of this registers though. It’s all distant. I'm no longer in control of myself.
“I’m going to be a little late Mal” I think I whisper before the world turns black.

No sooner have the words left my lips than when things take a turn for the insane.