Essential Elements of a Monster

The kid had decided he didn’t need Winslow anymore. That was a mistake. A very big mistake. He would have to teach little Jason a lesson about messing with Sanctum. The sting was going to be simple. They would target the kid at his largest known storehouse when he was making a drop deposit. It would be quick and painless. They’d snatch him, his inventory, and be done with it. Winslow and his officers were in full tactical gear as the string of vans rolled into the lot across the way and waited in the cover of darkness.

Two minutes passed. Three. Seven. Then ten. Just as Winslow was about to kick on the ignition and call the sting a bust, there was movement. A single car pulled up to the warehouse. Bingo. With a screeching of tires and a blaring of sirens, the Sanctum forces were on him just as he got the door open. He bolted inside and gunfire followed after him, projectiles ricocheting off of the crude metal structure. The little kid was fast, he’d give him that.
They made their way inside, weapons at the ready, when suddenly the smell of sulfur was filling the air…Fire. Smoke. This place was not safe anymore. Winslow hit the deck and took one of his men down with him as the bomb went off. The building and his entire inventory were ablaze.

“Fucking hell.”

Winslow swore under his breath as he helped his colleague to his feet and assessed the situation. The bomb was a fire starter, meant to create smoke and destroy the merchandise, as well as threaten those at the entrance, while covering an escape. He took off at full sprint after his target. The kid was not getting away. No chance. He rounded a corner and took a look around. There was a smaller office at the end of the hall and movement inside of it, as well as an obvious exit door to his left. He went to the exit door and waited out of view beyond the threshold. A minute passed in silence. Two. Was the kid coming? Footsteps. Running. Here it goes. 3…2…1

CRASH! The kid pushed open the crash bar of the exit door only to have himself clotheslined by Winslow as he went careening around the first bend in the fire escape. Winslow was on top of him instantaneously. The kid was crafty but not much for street fighting, Winslow knew that from their first encounter. Physical combat was not his forte. Using weight and training to his advantage, he put the kid under lock and key and dragged him away. This would teach him to double cross what was a perfectly reasonable deal between partners.

--------------------------------Ten Years Later-------------------------------------------------------

This was the place. An unwelcome opportunity to work with one of Drevon’s toys, Project Hazard. The male was unnerving. Several agents sat in the car as it rolled to a stop at their destination. Nobody looked it in the eye. Did it have eyes? All they could see was that creepy mask, staring back at them empty, watching them without blinking. Made em sweat, it did. He was silent. Or it. What did you call this thing? Did it qualify as a person? Corporal Pierce shifted uneasily as he sat beside the masked freak, sweat beading at his brow. The car doors opened and the agents were out of the vehicle as if they’d been trapped inside of it for the past month and dry land was heaven itself. There was a long pause, maybe five whole minutes. Then the Gas Mask followed. Hazard. It stood at around 6’6, taller than the standard issue height for the typical company man. Uniformity and all that. Pierce could feel it staring at him even though it looked soullessly ahead without any indication of attention being drawn one way or another.

Pierce shook the thought aside as he ran through the mission briefing in his head. They were parking three blocks away from the residence of a known apostate who was reported to have contact with Sevrance. They needed to know how to get into the city best, and that meant digging. Drevon was getting ready for the big change. Reagan would be approving the order in the morning. This was it.

Hazard was to covertly approach and interrogate the suspect within their own home. He would return after acquiring the necessary intel, be that direct information or the whereabouts of a more knowledgeable source. The monster began walking, shoes padding concrete. Pierce swallowed hard as he was certain still that the creature was inspecting him from behind that visage. It spoke.

“Is it the smell? They nevah let me take the mask of. Stinks to high heaven. I figure thas why none of you folks seem to be all dat fond of me.”

Pierce paled and didn’t respond. The creature tilted its head slightly with what could have been curiosity or possibly something darker.  It tapped Pierce on the side of the head with one finger and his world went black. Cacophonic laughter rang out from behind the mask as the creature doubled over in hysterics. It was as if it couldn’t contain itself, such was the pleasure it got from this singular act. The other agents blanched as they saw their C.O. lose consciousness from the simple taunting the creature had given…They were scared shitless. What was it about him? None of them could put their finger on it either. He was terrifying. It spoke again.

“Dis is what passes fer upper management? Dassuh shame. Coulda done bettah dan dis deadbeat. But, not muh business. I jus work here, ain’t paid to make decisions.”

The monster walked away at this point. He returned in just under an hour with the necessary intel and came to find Pierce nursing a head wound and attempting to recover. Hazard dropped a single slip of paper into the hands of the still-dazed corporal.

“Das whatcha wanted, idntit?”

He asks nonchalantly before simply climbing back into the vehicle and waiting to be whisked off elsewhere. The men dutifully loaded back into the car and they were off.

---------------24 hours later; May 18th, 1981 ---------------

This was the big day. It was his only chance. He’d been planning this for years. There was no other way. He didn’t care how many lives his plan would ruin, it would save his own. It would save Jeremiah’s. Those two goals were enough. He’d been meticulous. He had intentionally taken an operation near the old neighborhood in Manhattan around one year into his abduction. Good ol’ Hell’s Kitchen. Jeremiah wasn’t hard to find. Kid barely recognized him. But they made it happen. Jason had a spot he could get to often enough to keep in touch and keep watch on Jeremiah while testing began. Jeremiah wanted to become the monster. Jason could take him there, thanks to Sanctum’s mistake. So he would. And when they were ready…They’d put these suits in their rear view.

Today was the result of nine years of sacrifice. Nine years of other people paying the price so that Jason and Jeremiah could live. The lives that had been ended and ruined piled high and Jason did not flinch. Survival of the fittest. That was the way of it. Jeremiah knew where to be, and at this point the Big Bad Wolf could hunt alone. Polarity would look after himself. It was the name he’d taken when he started selling reclamation goods on the side under Sanctum’s nose. He’d become quite popular with the black market frequenters. Nobody else had his sort of access. This was his enterprise.

Jason ran through the list of necessary steps and came to the next one as the armored car bumped along Manhattan’s streets towards Central Park. This next step was the most critical. It had to be done as the city was breached so that nobody would be looking for it. He would be swallowing a device that would give him a temporary blackout of any tracking equipment embedded within his body. He would then make his way to the nearest medical facility and X-ray himself. Discover the location of the trackers. Remove them. And then be free. Never see Sanctum again unless it was to cut them down.
The armored car came to a halt. Go time. Jason slipped the device into his mouth and waited patiently, drawing breath solely from the nose. The group prepared for insertion. Detonation charges were placed at the indicated areas, and boom went the dynamite. Concrete fell downwards into a cavernous hole in the ground, and rappel lines were dropped. As it came time for his turn, he dropped the line with nonchalant familiarity, and bit down on the capsule at the same moment. He was a digital ghost for the next six hours.

Step two: Witnesses. Jason dropped one of his signature smoke grenades, knowing that nobody but him would be equipped with the mask necessary to filter the gas. He deftly ended their lives  as if they were playthings. None of them would’ve stood a chance in broad daylight, but the confusion and cries as men squeezed the trigger on their rifles instinctively created the cover he needed. It would take hours to ascertain what had happened here, and that was only after they managed to find the scene.

Three: Run. Don’t stop. Don’t stop for anyone. Kill them if they get in your way. There is no greater mission. And so he ran. The Hazard Project had gone rogue right in the middle of the most critical insertion operation in the recent history of Sanctum, and they wouldn’t know it had happened until at least three days later when all the casualties were accounted for in certainty. He ran at breakneck speeds, breaking through thin walls that concealed the true city he needed to reach. The hospital wasn’t far from here. He dove down from two stories high, landing with a fist in the earth as if it were nothing. Rolling to his feet he made his way through the maze-like streets of Sevrance, looking for the hospital. Closer, closer. There! He tore the doors open and hefted his rifle in one hand, firing upwards.

“Prep an X-ray machine n’ the appropriate surgical equipment. Also gimme a full kit o’ animatronics. The best you lot have. I’ll have to do with that till I can make my own…Improvements.”

The people in the hospital just stared at him and, when he fired off another couple rounds, sprang into action as directed. The X-ray went through and he directed the doctors.

“Remove any bits that gots a tracer in em. Don’t matter what dey be. Replace em with the metal bits. Ain’t got time fer dillydally or picky shit. I gotta get scarce.”

The physicians were appalled at this request but did as they were asked. By the end of the procedure there was very little man left. Half of his cranium had been replaced, bits and pieces of limbs, a lung, several ribs, one chamber of the heart. He was even more a monster now than he had been before. He stood and tested the limbs and additions. A hand reached up to touch the metal skin of his cheek. He was pleased.

“Yer gonna wanna ditch those bits real quick like, or else I won’t be da last unwelcome visituh you lot entertain.”

And with that he left. Walked out like he owned the place, rifle slung over his shoulder. He made off at a running speed even faster than before towards the intended meeting place. Meanwhile…Sevrance was burning. Sanctum had arrived in force, and the city was being rounded up and either executed or taken topside. Just as planned. It was time to find that little hole he’d instructed Jeremiah to dig in preparation for this night. When he found it, he dropped into the darkness, a pale, electrical eye shimmering in the depths as he waited for the greeting from his brother.

“Quite the tin man, you are, Brotha dear.”

Jason smirked as his best friend greeted him from the shadows. He pondered his visage in the reflection of a pool of water that sat within the light’s frail grasp. He touched his cheek again before speaking.

“Think it’s time I called mehself something different. I’ll be goin by…Mr. Monopoly, from ere on.”

Big Bad laughed raucously at this idea and gave his brother a firm pat on the back. “I like it. Suits ya.”

Monopoly grinned before starting to walk. He knew exactly where he was going and flipped on a switch which illuminated a silver bunker that stood waiting for them. “We start building the manor when Drevon’s not sending goonies down here anymore. May be awhile. Lets jus’ keep things quiet till then.”