REAPER
I walked down the main stairs in Paradise following King and marvelling at how the village was structured. The whole village was on a hill with the wealthier citizens at the top and the less wealthy down on the ground with three sets of stairs leading all the way up on different sides of the hill. Since Marcen had taken over, he lived in the biggest house at the top of the hill and had blocked all all three staircases with gates, barbed wire and guards. Only people with a pass could get in. That included me and King. As I walked down I saw how Marcen moving in had effected people. Marcen introduced taxes on the citizens to help pay for the war effort against the Frighters and so many people have to hand over their caps or anything of value. If they didn't have enough they were beaten or killed. The whole of Paradise had been walled off with the gates heavily guarded and with turret towers along the wall at regular intervals. Many of the citizens were farmers and so to keep the Caps coming, Marcen allowed only 12 citizens to go round to near Chaser bases and sell their produce, being guarded by an escort of Chasers of course. Behind the wall, I noticed the number of Shades had increased, just lumbering around in the plains outside of the village. I saw a few things that looked like giants too. Marcen told me that they were called Gaia's and were made from some serum. Apparently it even gave Wolf and Aramis a run for their money. Wolf. Fuck that idiot. I missed him. I really fucking did. But Aramis. He and I were now enemies. And they meant that I'd show him no mercy. Marcen also told me about the experiments they did in people to turn them into half Phantoms. Maybe I should get something like that to make me stronger. I was shaken from my line of thought by seeing Whiplash. He was surrounded by Marcens men. I heard that he and Valentine were making trouble. But this wasn't my business. The Chasers started attacking Whiplash. He drew his broadsword but held it weirdly. I realised it was a reverse grip, basically holding the sword backwards. Wolf taught me about this. The reverse grip was for aggressive fighting because it allowed for powerful and unpredictable attacks but it's swings usually left the user wide open and it was no good for defense. Whiplash raised his sword and his other palm.
"750 Caliber Pulse" he said, then pushed his palm forward. Suddenly three Chasers went flying into wall with hard force. Shit.
"Keep moving" King said "Our agreement with Marcen is very fragile. One false move and he has this entire place decimated by everything out there"
"Why can't we kill him?" I asked
"Because the battle that would come after would put these peoples lives at risk" King replied "I'm pretty sure if we weren't here, Marcen would have killed every villager here so right now we stay here and grit our teeth understood?" I smirked that Wolf was way more dominant than King "Understood?" King repeated
"Understood" I said. Then Marcen passed us. The fat fucker was being carried on a throne by citizens that couldn't pay their taxes, they weren't wearing anything other than simple rags and strange things on their feet. I realised with disgust that these were frames with white hot metal spikes burning and piercing their feet. That was just cruel. I realised that behind Marcen were guards with whips and women. About six. All of them wearing...let's just say less than the throne carriers. Two of them were crying. I put my hands on my pockets and clenched my fists. Wasn't my business. Wasn't my business. Marcen nodded at King and King nodded back. This was fucked up.
