"What do you mean she's not here? That doesn't make any sense!"
"I'm sorry, Miss Jones, but we have no records of a Madeline Williams being a patient here."
The young girl standing on the other side of the desk ran a hand through her short blond hair and let out a stressed breath. She looked at the woman staring back at her with frantic eyes. "You don't understand. That's my sister! She was checked in two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything about her since! I wasn't even allowed to visit!" She kicked the wall to her right in frustration, unintentionally creating a large hole with her upgraded leg. She ignored it and faced the woman again. "Please. I'm begging you, just tell me where my sister is." She grabbed the woman's shoulders and looked at her like a kicked puppy.
"Miss Jones, you're hurting me," said the woman calmly.
The girl quickly let go, giving a quick, "Oops, sorry," before going right back to pleading. "I know she's been here. I had to drag here here myself after we were attacked! She can't just not be here! Please! I can't just lose her like this!" She kicked another hole in the wall, this time on purpose. The woman stepped back a bit, but kept her calm composure and silently signaled for security to remove the girl.
"No luck?" asked a man aged a few years older than the nineteen-year-old. He had been patiently waiting outside of the Center Emergency Hospital when the girl was thrown out by security. "I told you she was not there, Amelia," he said before he got a reply to his initial question. "What did you do this time?" He spoke as if this was just an annoying routine.
Amelia shrugged and began walking away from the hospital, crossing her arms over her military uniform. "Kicked a couple holes in a wall. I didn't mean to, though! Well, the first time, anyway..." She looked at the other to hear a sigh and see an expected what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you face. "Arthur, I swear, Maddie was there. I carried her there after she was wounded. I paced back and forth in a waiting room for two damn hours just to hear that her wounds were life-threatening and she would need emergency upgrades. Don't try to tell me I just made all of this up! And if I did, then where the hell is my sister?!" She stopped in the middle of the parking lot and stood in front of him.
"Please lower your voice and calm down." Arthur gave her a disapproving look as he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to the curb. He shut his eyes in annoyance, took a calming deep breath in, and then breathed out slowly, opening his eyes again. He appeared to be in slight pain as he spoke to her, as if having a mild headache, but Amelia did not notice. "Amelia, I would appreciate it if you would not make up stories."
Amelia balled her hands into fists and narrowed her eyes at him. "Dude, I just said that I'm not making anything up! Are you even listening to me?! You know what, just because you're all important and stuff doesn't mean you know everything that goes on here! What if the King—"
Arthur slapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish her sentence, glancing around as casually as he could. Through clenched teeth he warned, "Don't even think about it. If authorities come after you because you say something stupid, I won't be there to help you. I would rather not be imprisoned or killed, thank you." He and Amelia shared a tense three seconds of silence before she looked at his hand over her mouth and licked it. With a small yelp, he pulled his hand away, wiping it on his shirt. "You are such a child!"
"Whatever, man," she said with a snicker. "You should've expected that. Anyway, I gotta get to HQ for checkups before I'm late again. Last time I was late they... Actually, I don't remember what happened, exactly. I think they erased that part. So...bye!" She grinned and waved at him as she ran down the sidewalk.
The Center Headquarters was a multi-purpose building for the royal military, primarily for temporary housing while on missions away from home and for monthly checkups on the soldiers. These checkups were not what you would expect them to be like. In addition to getting an update on physical health and repairing or enhancing certain upgrades, they also went through a process in which specific parts of their memory were erased. This eliminated the issue of dealing with lingering guilt of things a soldier may have done. The King wanted his soldiers to do their jobs efficiently, and they couldn't do that if they were having internal problems.
On that note, new soldiers also went through a process of desensitization, limiting most feelings of mercy or sympathy so they could carry out tasks without a doubt or problem. The soldiers of the King's military basically were engineered to be perfect robots who followed anything he said with little question, and whose loyalty was more than the rest of the population combined. However, the system was not completely fool-proof, and so the very few soldiers who have tried can occasionally resist orders. It was extremely difficult, but entirely possible.
Amelia walked into the Center HQ and to a room where she would wait for her turn. Sighing with the relief that she wasn't late this time, she sat in a chair and began fiddling with her arm upgrade and tapping on the smooth, shiny metal absentmindedly. Glancing around the room, she counted four other men; one with slicked-back blond hair who she recognized as a well-known captain from Central territory, one with straight blond hair and emerald eyes also wearing a Central territory uniform, one with a dark brunette ponytail wearing an Eastern territory uniform, and one with a mop of curly brown hair and a Southern territory uniform sleeping in his chair.
She made eye contact with the man with a ponytail, and he immediately got up and sat next to her. "You owe me money, remember, Amelia?" She looked at him for a second, and then suddenly recalled a moment where she borrowed money from him in Western territory for lunch when they were there on a mission. That was a while ago, and she still hadn't paid him back despite the few other moments she's worked with him.
"Money? Hmm... Nope! Don't remember owing any money!" She looked down at her arm and tried to look busy, tapping at the little screen on her wrist and hoping he would just go away. Just as he opened his mouth to say more, a woman dressed in a long white lab coat, large goggles, and bright pink gloves poked her head out of a door and looked around, calling the name "Yao Wang" and stopping when she saw him. As she did this, a man with red hair and bushy eyebrows emerged from behind her, exiting out the door on the opposite side of the room. Amelia felt the urge to call out to this man, who happened to be Arthur's brother, but didn't have enough time to before he slammed the exit door shut.
"You better have that money by the next time I see you!" Yao called to her as he made his way towards the woman in front of the open door.
"C'mon, dude, it was just lunch!" Amelia exclaimed back, throwing her hands into the air in defense.
He shook his head. "You practically bought the whole restaurant!" The woman tapped his shoulder, signaling him to hurry up, and he groaned before following her inside.
Another hour passed before Amelia's name was called. She jumped to her feet, happy to finally get moving, and almost tripped on the sleeping man's outstretched legs and she walked towards the open room. It was fairly large inside, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were painted a calming shade of blue. Little lights flashed on the various machines around the room, and faint beeping sounds could be heard every now and then. In the middle of the complex devices was a large chair similar to one you would expect to find at the dentist.
Amelia sat up on a bench against a wall and began a normal physical exam any average person would go through. Then, the pink-gloved woman motioned for the young soldier to lay down on the chair in the middle as she grabbed several long wires attached to a machine with a big screen and keyboard. She plugged the other ends of the wires into Amelia's external upgrades: one in each lower leg and one in her right arm. A switch was flipped on the machine and minutes later, information appeared across the screen. The woman unplugged the wires and wrapped them up into coils before putting them away. Next, she connected numerous thinner wires from another machine to her head before switching that one on and staring at the smaller screen, typing certain things in order to direct the machine to erase specified parts of her memory.
More minutes slowly passed by until it was finally over and the woman removed all of the wires. "Alright, Miss Amelia Jones, everything seems to be in order. You do not require any new upgrades or repairs, and you are generally in good physical shape. Since there are no areas of concern to discuss, you may leave." Amelia nodded and then left the room with the woman right behind her to call the next person.
As she walked upstairs to her room in the HQ, Amelia tried to figure out what parts of her memory from the past month were a complete blank for her now. Something happened during a mission just outside of Western territory where a horde of mutants threatened to breach one of the walls, but she could not remember what. There was nothing else, except for something occurring earlier during the current day. All she could recall was stopping at the hospital, then talking to Arthur about something. She shrugged it off, not particularly interested in her erased memory. After doing this sort of thing once a month for several years, one learns that this doesn't really matter and they can't do anything about it if it did.
Just as she was scanning a fingerprint and inputting a passcode to enter her room, a small red light on her arm flashed and details on a mission flashed onto the little screen. Wanted organized criminal operating under the fake name 'Romano' plans to meet an ally atop an apartment building in the Center tonight at approximately 7:00 PM. All available soldiers must act for his capture. Amelia took a glance at a clock down the hallway, which told her that it was 6:18 PM. Just enough time to grab some pizza before heading out to find the correct apartment building.
She abandoned her plans to eat a leftover hot dog and fries from her dinner the previous night and left HQ to head to the best pizzeria in the territory; one run by a cheerful Italian man and his grandsons. As she opened the front exit of the HQ, a wave of warm evening air hit her. Walking the three blocks it took to get to the pizzeria, she looked up at the colorful sky painted by the setting sun. She wished the world was always as pretty as that sky, but sadly that wasn't how it worked.
Her own feelings about their government confused her. She couldn't tell if she trusted them or not. It really was different every time. Sometimes she would feel complete loyalty to the King, and sometimes she felt like how he ran things wasn't always the best way to go. She wondered if they were trying to gain complete control of soldiers' minds, and that's why she herself sometimes did terrible things and sometimes skipped out on certain missions due to the severity of what was expected of her. At least, she assumed she'd done some terrible things, judging by the looks she occasionally got from people around the territories. Of course, she wouldn't actually remember any of these events by the beginning of each new month.
"Ciao, Amelia!" greeted a happy voice from behind the front counter in the pizzeria. The voice belonged to Feliciano Vargas, one of the owner's grandsons. He was a very optimistic man only a couple years older than Amelia, with straight auburn hair that had a piece strangely curling upwards. She always saw him cutely flirting with female customers, sometimes without even realizing it. He had an unusual close friendship with that captain she had seen earlier at HQ, with their personalities almost being polar opposites, yet it seemed to work.
"Hey, Feli!" Amelia replied with a big grin as she approached the counter. She saw his brother come out from the kitchen. "Hey, Lovino!" Though he looked a lot like Feliciano, Lovino Vargas was nothing like his younger brother. Even with just looking at them side-by-side, you could tell they were very different. Appearance-wise, Lovino had slightly darker hair than his brother, with hazel eyes rather than amber-brown, and actually was just a bit shorter. He often wore a scowl rather than Feliciano's warm smile. The older brother also seemed to be a lot angrier and more rude than the younger, but just as much of a flirt whether he chose to acknowledge it or not. He normally treated every girl who came in surprisingly nicely, but he knew Amelia, and didn't really like her for no apparent reason.
"Oh, it's you," Lovino grumbled as he rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, you've come to order every damn thing on our menu again? You're practically a ticking calorie time bomb."
Feliciano frowned at him, saying, "Lovi! That is no way to speak to a customer! And isn't it good if she orders a lot?"
"Not when I'm left to make everything!" He raised his voice and glared at her before storming off, yelling, "Screw this, I'm not doing it! I have more important things to do, anyway!"
The younger brother sighed and turned back to Amelia with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, bella, he's been grumpy lately. Well...he always is, but even more than usual! So, what would you like?"
"Just two slices of cheese pizza. I probably shouldn't eat too much considering I've got a mission at 7." The man nodded and called the order back into the kitchen in Italian, and returned to the counter after receiving a reply from Lovino, who had decided to work after all. Amelia leaned on the counter and started a conversation while she waited. "So, slow day? There are usually so many people in here!" She looked around at the empty-looking dining area, where only two other people were sat to eat.
Feliciano shrugged. "I suppose. I think people are starting to avoid us. They believe Grandpa is connected to that criminal they've been talking about on the news!" He frowned and shook his head sadly.
"Oh, that guy who calls himself 'Romano'? That's who I'm gonna catch later! HQ found out where he's gonna be next, so we've been ordered to stop him. Don't worry, Feli, I'll help clear your grandpa's name! I am the hero, after all!" She gave him a reassuring smile and posed with her hands on her hips, like a superhero on the front of a comic book, earning a laugh from Feliciano.
"That's good!" he said gratefully. "Oh, have you heard from Ludwig lately? He's in the Center right now, right?"
Amelia nodded, saying, "Yeah, I actually saw him not too long ago at HQ waiting for his checkup. I didn't talk to him, though."
The other nodded. "Well, if you see him again, tell him I said hi!"
"Sure thing, dude!"
The two continued to talk until her pizza was ready. She checked the time: 6:43 PM. "Crap, I should really get going if I'm gonna find this guy before 7." She quickly dug some money out if her pocket and threw it onto the table. "Thanks, guys! I'll just eat this on the way!" She picked up the two plates and stacked one on top of the other, taking a big bite of the top one and ignoring the burning in her mouth from not allowing it to cool down.
"I have to go, too," said Lovino from behind the counter as he wiped his hands on a rag and removed his apron. Feliciano looked at him, confused. "It's important," Lovino added. He hastily left before he was asked anything else.
Amelia waved goodbye to Feliciano and also left, having already finished one slice of pizza. The sun was gone by the time she stepped out into the night again, and she looked up at the sky as she swiftly made her way towards the nearest apartment building. She wished they could see more stars. Unfortunately, the pollution in the air plus the lights from civilization drowned out the light of many stars, leaving a quite dull, boring night sky.
She checked for any updates on the mission after roughly half an hour of searching a few buildings. Other soldiers who had already begun as well had reported almost every complex to be clear. Quietly cursing to herself, Amelia wondered if Romano had figured out that they were after him, and had chosen to switch locations. She decided that her suspicions were confirmed after being informed that every apartment complex had been searched with no luck.
With a heavy sigh, she walked out into the street from the current building she was in just as a loud boom! was heard a few blocks down. Immediately turning and running in the direction of the thunderous sound, she could see black smoke billow upwards in large clouds accompanied by shouting and screaming. She finally reached the road, finding a destroyed government building in flames as civilians ran every which way in frightened chaos. While helping an injured woman dress several gushing wounds, she squinted through the blinding smoke and dust to see a group of armed figures running down the street away from the scene, using the pandemonium as a cover. After finishing up with the wounds, Amelia got up and swiftly ran after them, her upgraded legs coming in handy.
She stealthily followed the figures, who she could now see were a group of several men in pinstripe suits gripping old-fashioned pistols. They headed down a quiet backroad for quite some time, then veered right down a more narrow path leading to an old warehouse that appeared to be falling apart. They entered, dispersing throughout the inside with some men guarding entrances. Amelia hid behind a rusty truck near one of them, carefully raising her right arm and setting it on a silent blaster mode before aiming and firing at the large man guarding the opening. With a quick scan of her surroundings, she quickly got inside, hiding behind some big wooden crates and peeking out to the side of one.
The men who weren't stationed at entrances stood spread out around the open area, but seemed to be somewhat close to the center. In the midst of this stood a man with a fedora along with his pinstripe suit, and another man helplessly slumped on the ground at his feet. She couldn't identify the man with the fedora, for his back was turned to her, but she could clearly see that the other man was one of the higher-up politicians in the Center who was in close allegiance with the King. Even if she could see the man with the fedora, who by now she guessed was Romano, no one has ever seen him or any of his henchmen and walked away without a serious threat or death. One boy who accidentally walked in on him doing his work lived, but when he was asked about what he looked like, the boy refused to even acknowledge that anything happened.
Amelia slowly crawled to a group of closer crates so she could hear what was going on better. From her new position, she could see the profile of Romano and the politician. She studied this half of Romano's face and brought a hand to her mouth before gasping. It was Lovino.
There was a sudden gunshot, and then it fell dead silent in the large, empty warehouse. Amelia had been too busy with her inner thoughts after seeing the politician drop dead that she hadn't noticed that Ro—er, Lovino had changed his position and now was nowhere to be found. Footsteps echoed off the walls, and then she felt something touch the side of her head. A pistol. She immediately aimed her weaponized arm back at him before he could react.
"Oh, please," Lovino scoffed. He glanced around at his men, and they immediately surrounded the two, their pistols aimed at Amelia. "Put that down before I have to hurt you."
She didn't move a muscle. "You're gonna hurt me either way. We both know that. So, how about you put your weapon down, and call off your gorillas. I don't wanna hurt you, Lovino."
He didn't move, either. "It's Romano!" he yelled. "When I'm out doing this with these idiots wearing this suit, I'm Romano. When I'm at that damn pizzeria with my stupid grandfather and good-for-nothing little brother, I'm Lovino. Got it?"
"Uh-huh, I got it, Lovino," she replied with a smirk. "Now put the gun down."
Lovino rolled his eyes and leaned in closer to her. "No. You're going to do what I say. I'm honestly not planning to kill you. I fucking hate soldiers. They've killed someone close to me. But I'm alright with you. As much as you annoy the hell out of me, I consider you as a friend. I'm no monster who will kill anyone who gets in my way, like you and the rest of our damn military. I operate a certain way. I kill certain people for specific reasons and then others when it is necessary. The reason that most of those who have encountered me have been killed is because they made our negotiation difficult. Do not make this difficult, Amelia."
She lowered her weapon a bit, not taking her eyes off of him. "At least tell me why you do this."
His intense glare faltered a little and he gritted his teeth. "I suppose telling you would be fair enough. But first," he paused and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her to about an inch from his face, "I'll give you a little warning. You see all of these men around me? They're everywhere in every territory. Say anything about what you saw or heard today, and they will not hesitate to kill you or someone close to you. Are we clear?" She gave a quick nod, but showed no fear.
"Good. Before I tell you anything, you should know that we're the good guys. Not you or that bastard who calls himself a great king. Us. We're the heroes." He stressed that last word on purpose.
"You? Tell that to the news headlines branding you as a heartless murderer. I'm the hero here." She stared right into his eyes, attempting to intimidate him just as much as he was attempting to intimidate her.
Lovino laughed. "Heartless murderer, huh? Is there really a difference between you and I? Think about it. I know what they do to soldiers to desensitize them. They want you all to be their killer puppets. So when we talk about 'heartless murderers', we're not just talking about me. At least I kill people who are evil."
"So do I," Amelia cut in.
"No, you don't. You kill mutants and good people who the government tells you are evil. My bo—I mean, my friend was a good person. He was nice to everyone, especially me. Even when I was a jerk to him, he didn't act like a jerk in return. Everyone liked him, and then he was just fucking killed by a soldier! The last thing I said to him was 'I hate you.' I didn't mean it, but I can't let him know that now, can I?!"
Amelia sighed. "And your point is?"
"My point," he threw her onto the floor on the word 'point' and put a foot on her stomach, "is that you and all the other soldiers kill innocent people and ruin lives. The King is just using you as pawns. He's the bad guy, not people like me or rebels. We're trying to help everyone. I only kill elite figures who stand with the King, because they're all on the side of the villains. You don't understand what this goddamn world is really like. The winning side is always the heroic side, whether they're really heroes or not. Remember that, and maybe you can reconsider your values. Now get out of here before I change my mind about killing you."