???

224 11 1
                                    


He couldn't help but stare in awe at the temples that surrounded him. Dozens of temples each different from the last; one was covered with precious metals and gemstones, one appeared to be made out of clockwork with the temple's shape changing every hour, another was simply four columns, a roof, and a statue. It boggled his mind that this had been concealed from the rest of the world and until a short time ago each temple received worshipers regularly.

One could argue that they still do...

Since his chief of research and development had single-handedly captured the DG city, massive and expensive alterations were being made every day. The first thing they had done was convert many of the temples into acceptable holding cells for the captured population. It didn't take much to alter the temples of Mars, Pluto, and the like into holding cells, the construction teams had simply erected additional temporary walls composed of ballistic glass and electrified wires.

He passed by the temple of Ceres and momentarily glanced inside the entrance and grimaced at what he saw. Dozens of DGs were packed inside the small building, with hardly enough room to breathe let alone move around. Their faces were pale and sunken, their clothes were little more than dirty rags at this point which exposed their malnourished bodies.

"This is different, this is retribution," he told himself as he shuffled towards his destination: the temple of Jupiter. I will see to it that they do get better rations and more room. We need them in fighting shape after all.

"Hey boss man! You're a bit early!" called out the ginger engineer as he exited the temple, flanked by his two pets. He was wearing a blood stained lab coat over a pair of green scrubs, and oddly enough the enslaved gods were wearing scrubs too. He could understanding G:DB, but G:T was a walking marble statue. "I wasn't expecting you for another half hour!"

He arched an eyebrow at the young man. "That would make me fifteen minutes late."

"Yeah, you old timers are always running late," Brian shrugged, not realizing (or not caring) how rude he was being. "It's been awhile since you were last here, let me show you what we, and by that I mean I, have been working on." He clapped his hands in excitement. "Come along!"

--------

While the rest of the temples were allowed to be reduced to a state of squalor, the temple of Jupiter's conditions had been improved. Every entrance had hermetically sealed doors that required ID badges to enter. Once inside, one had to be patted down by a team of elite security guards (he was of course excused from this) and then X-rayed for any possibility of implants (his artificial hip was interesting to see on the monitors). Then when security had cleared someone, they were escorted to a locker room and given clean scrubs and a cap to wear.

He couldn't help but think the arrogant engineer had arranged it so that he received pink scrubs. He does have the juvenile mindset, but the jokes on him: I happen to like pink. That reminds me, I need to make sure the New York locations have canopies installed in time for the parade. We wouldn't want people to have no place to go in the event it gets rained out.

He finished dressing and balled his suit up and threw it into the locker he had been provided for his belongings; he kept the cane though. As much as it pained him to admit it, he needed it to walk long distances anymore. He exited the small locker room and was once again greeted by Brian.

"There you are! I was just about to send Terminate-us in there to see if you died. Come along now, I'm quite proud of what we've turned this place into."

He trailed after the engineer and kept a wary eye on the two Gs. He trusted the engineer's technical prowess, but they were still the enemy. "Have you made any progress on figuring out how to kill a G?"

ShatteredWhere stories live. Discover now