STEEL PARIAH

The Game Plan

They looked hard into each other's eyes; Sarah, searching for some kind of clue to why he had changed so much, Damian, showing her that it was a waste of time even if he leaned in close to her "You've been good, I guess?" Sarah asked but, Damian only blinked and replied

"Far from it my dear acolyte, sorry if your conversation with me will be a bit frustrating because I don't remember what emotion goes where and how to process them...amnesia can be a badass son of a jackass" Sarah tensed "Why did you come with us willingly?"

Damian leaned back in his chair and crossed his leg "You always ask the right questions, first, I followed you here just to tell you that I mean no harm to anyone except those who I have a vendetta against"

"Vendetta?" asked Sarah

"Yes, vendetta, revenge, call it whatever you will. You didn't think I just decided to, up and run away from the stable life I had, did you?"

"No...I don't think you did, someone forcefully pulled you out of it!"

"I see you're still as sharp as ever. One final thing though..." he leaned forward "...as I leave this place, I don't want you guys to interfere. I only showed myself to you guys so that you'd know that I'm back, and also to snuff out my killers...you know, bait them out"

Sarah felt dizzy all of a sudden "You...what did you? The air vent...anaesthesia..." her body felt weak. Her head fell to the table...hard! Damian touched her forehead "Also, Sarah...leave the RED SKULL case, they're dangerous people, and they've taken notice of you. If they get you, your fate will be worse than death, just like me...leave RED SKULL to me. Sayonara señora." He put on his gloves, checked his watch and mumbled something that she couldn't make out, then he sat down and BOOM! A black armoured Chevrolet jeep crashed through the wall. The driver poked his head out of the window, he was wearing a beige panama hat, his other features were hard to make out besides an enthusiastic grin "Knock, knock" the man said in an American accent. "You're late" Damian said as he moved into the car, removing his nose plugs "Fashionably! Besides you can poke Caesar all you want when we reach base." the happy man replied "What about the hot blonde looking straight at us?"

"Just drive" Damian chided him, and their jeep zoomed out of the broken wall at a speed which any right thinking person would know was impossible for a car of its size!

Sarah watched helplessly as he slipped through her fingers the second time "W-w-a-i-t-!" She said before she passed out.

The drive back to the base was a one-sided conversation since Damian was not big on talking, that is, given his present situation, therefore, he let the Panama hat guy do all the talking while he provided the occasional nod and "mm-hmms". Dekker was an eighteen year old who was already under Caesar's care before Damian arrived. He was probably the only one who was able to get on Damian's good side, probably because he was the kind of young man Damian was six years ago. He was handsome, young, quite the talker and he had his own unique Deadpool-assassin style: funny, loud-mouthed, and in this day and age...a badass with two katanas! Then there's his awkward tradition of wearing a panama hat with a corporate wear: white shirt, black tie, black suit trousers and black shoes-in his defence, it makes him look less of a loud mouth and more of a mentally displaced playboy-he seemed to be the only one with some of his screws still intact.

The duo reached the end of a dark alley, the same alley where Damian first met Caesar four years ago...the place gave him a spark every time he saw it, almost like his memory gets juggled even by a little bit, at least he now remembered what uneasiness felt like. Dekker pushed the cigarette lighter button in the jeep and a hologram appeared on the windscreen showing both their images on the screen. There was a voice prompt:

"Identification, required"

"Code name: SUPERNOVA" answered Dekker

"Code name: STEEL PARIAH" answered Damian.

Damian looked distant, his blue eyes reflecting the green holographic light. The hologram on the screen disappeared and the voice said "Welcome, Mr Dekker, Mr Damian". The alley's brick wall in front of them unfolded into a dark garage and they drove in.

The interior of the garage which they drove into was a hall as big as a ballroom. Inside, was an assortment of exotic vehicles ranging from bikes, to hogs, to Ferraris, Mustangs, Jeeps, all facing the adjacent wall as if ready to drive out, there was a space right in the middle and all the cars were in a circle. Dekker stopped the Chevy and they both got out, the floor lowered and another Chevy jeep rose up in its place toward the direction which they entered...you could say they were being very thorough and it helped them quite a lot considering the number of times the police has run their number plates (long story short, no one wants to find a car registered to a Mr Whale C. Walrus in the Arctic circle).

The duo walked to the centre of the room and the floor lowered into another room, there, they heard someone in a heated argument over the phone, it seemed s intense that the person had to use swear words profusely, first in Spanish, then in German, then in perfect American English for no comprehensible word but swear words. To their amazement, it was Caesar and that has been the only time his Italian accent never got in the way of his English, he ended the call in Italian which they both translated as "...if you kill me, then I'll beat you with my dead body! And it doesn't even make sense! ARGH Screw you too!" Damian heard everything, but his brain didn't register all he had heard as wrong or profane, that is, until Dekker burst out in tears and ran off shouting "I've been mentally raped! Curse you Caesar!"

Caesar sighed and looked away "Sorry you had to hear that. It was my...ex-wife again, she wants to come see me at all costs" he said with his normal Italian-tainted English.

Damian helped himself to a seat. The room was nothing short of classy. It was round with a gallery held up by obsidian columns, there were six rows of semi-circular sofas that spanned there expanse of the walls and they were arranged in form of a maze so that Caesar's table was right in the middle. The truth was, his glass table was a table as well as a holographic projector. The sofas changed colours depending on the type of meeting that was held there, black for stealth missions, red for evasive actions, white for full scale operations such as rescues and raids, but now it was empty and there was to be no serious meeting of any kind so it was blue.

The Italian sighed when he noticed that Damian was glaring at him with those emotionless eyes of his, he finally gave in

"Okay, okay, I know, I was late and I promised I wouldn't be"

The young man tilted his head slightly downwards and kept glaring at Caesar with his piercing blue eyes, Caesar cracked

"I swear it won't happen again, calm the hell down, boy"

Damian stood up and started walking away, "Residential quarters" he said, and the whole maze of sofas aligned to create a path to his right, right below the gallery. "Damian?" Caesar called. The boy looked back and replied "Don't worry, they got the message alright. Now, the real showdown begins." The statement made a grotesque smile flash across Caesar's face "Yes it does"

Damian walked down the path opened to his by the sofas until he reached a door labelled STEEL PARIAH. He opened it, and inside was a transportation tube like a train which he laid down in. It transported him for what seemed to be half a mile,then upwards before it stopped,when it opened up again, he was invited with a familiar view...his cushioned chair, the morning paper which he had never finished, and his suit jacket; he was back in his favourite place in London...the Elizabeth tower. He sat down on his chair and looked out, London looked beautiful at night...Damian sighed "Too bad it's going to burn."