Identities

‘Name?’

‘Babacla, Tom.’

‘Just wait a second, let me get them for you.’

‘Oh, I’m also picking up the rations for Yanus Temply. He’s my roommate and he asked me to bring his rations.’

‘Ah yes, I know Yanus. Always the lazy one, wasn’t he? I almost didn’t recognise you too, Tom. Your voice seems awfully deep.’

Babacla chuckled at his comment, ‘Well I wanted to try something different. I’ve always wanted to have a deeper voice so I did a little DIY on myself and this is the result. Is it a bit too much?’

‘Oh not at all, Tom! In fact I found your old voice quite annoying. This one suits you much better. Maybe I should do something similar.’

A man emerged from the storage room carrying a handful of items, ranging from food to clothes. He laid them into two piles and pointed at them saying,

‘This one is yours and this is for Yanus. That’s all that you are allowed for today so come back tomorrow for more. Also tell Yanus I said hi.’

‘Thanks and I will send my regards for Yanus, don’t worry.’

After collecting the items, Babacla headed for the stairs behind him. He had to climb up around a thousand steps before reaching a clay ceiling. After knocking on it, the ceiling gave way, opening up an entrance for him to climb out of. Once out, Babacla saw that the sky was black apart from the twinkling of the sky. It was night time already.

He began walking in a certain direction. Unlike Eurasia where everyone worked and lived in trees, everything in Africa was done underground. It was too hot during the day and too cold at night to do anything productive above ground. However due to that, it was barren bar a few trees and the occasional wildlife. It was quite beautiful in its own way.

The city was a few kilometres away from the ration depot. The time allowed him to think to himself for a moment. He had to look after several patients next week; he was a medic subclass after all. He wasn’t looking forward to it. Luckily for him, in a week’s time, he won’t have to do that anymore and can go home for some rest if all goes well.

Once he had arrived at the entrance, he knocked on the floor in front of him. The floor gave way, leaving stairs which led to the city. The area was vast, a hundred kilometres in length and width with several entrances and exits in it. All of the buildings were made by Earth Elementals and were so sturdy they could withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake without damage. The village was riddled with stairs and any newcomer would get lost easily. It was busy, with roughly two million living in the city, people were moving in and out of their earthen homes.

Babacla eventually reached his own home. It was in a corner of the city but he had no problem with it. It was actually suited him quite nicely due to the lack of people here. The only problem was the person living with him. Babacla knocked on the door but no one answered. He knocked once more. There was no reply again. Unlike the other homes, which could be opened without doing anything, his one was done manually with a lock and key. Unfortunately he left the key inside the house thinking that his roommate might actually be of use for once.

‘Hey Yanus, open up!’ he shouted but to no avail. He took a deep breath, shouting, ‘Esper, it’s me. Just wake up already.’

Still no one opened the door.

‘I brought the food.’

The door opened and a man appeared at the doorstep, all dreary eyed. The sheer look of boredom swept across his face. His blonde hair was a mess, his limbs and back seemed to droop and his normally pale skin looked even paler being in the darkness for so long. To be honest, he didn’t want to get up but the thought of food gave him motivation. His eyes adjusted to the light provided by the torches outside the house. At last he recognised the person waiting to enter.

‘Oh hey, Jack! What’s up man? Heard someone got food,’ he said.

‘Yanus...’ Babacla muttered

‘Hmm? Who’s Yanus?’

‘Have you forgotten already, Esper? You are not to say my real name outside the house. ’

‘Man, you are so annoying, you know that Jack? Why you calling me by my name anyway? Why don’t I get a cool name?’

‘ 'cause you aren’t responding to the name you are meant to be called: Yanus’

‘Ooooooohhh, I get ya. Yanus, right? That’s why you been calling me that lately, Jack. Oops, my bad.’

‘Please tell me you’ve at least done the thing I asked you to do?’ the irritated Jack asked

‘What thing?’ Esper responded

‘Why do I have to be paired up with such an imbecile?!’

‘Whoa, chill man. I got you covered.’

‘If you ruin everything...’

‘I said chill! No need to worry about silly little things, let’s just go inside.’

They both walked into their home, firmly shutting the door behind them. The house had two bedrooms on the first floor with three rooms on the ground floor. The whole house was dark, not a single torch was lit. Just what was Esper doing all this time? Having lit up the house on the ground floor, Jack went upstairs to do the same up there.

Esper on the other hand took the food and headed to the kitchen. He opened the bag they were contained in and emptied the contents on a table. Ten Numius fruits, some fuel for fire, some meat and some herbs. Despite his looks, Esper was an excellent cook. He prepared the meat, which were already cut up into slices, with the herbs. Just before he was about to cook it, he heard a shout, calling him from upstairs. It was Jack and he sounded angry.

Esper left the food and rushed back upstairs. When Jack was mad, he was prone to leave you slightly deformed in the aftermath. Esper had been on the receiving end of a few of those himself. The shout came from the second floor.

As he climbed up the stairs, an awful stench filled the air and it only got worse the further he climbed. It was at that moment that Esper realised why his roommate was angry at him. Esper began mumbling as he knew he was in trouble. When he reached the top of the second floor, which contained only one large room, he saw the frowning face of his roommate.

‘You didn’t get rid of the evidence like I told you to,’ he said.

A body lay on the floor. The horrid smell that came from the body made Esper shrivel his nose. He had a ginger afro, dark skin and several burn marks. The burn marks were not done by fire but rather electricity which had been the initial cause of the person’s death. Esper looked at his roommate and said, putting on a wry smile,

‘Ah sorry man, I just forgot.’

‘Just Forgot?! You know how important our mission is. If any of the patrollers come by and find this, we will be executed or even worse, enslaved by the Africans.’

‘Alright, alright. I’ll do it now. Then there won’t be any problem, right?’

‘It took you a fortnight to kill him in the first place anyway. All you do is eat sleep and take my rations while having me do all the hard work! Why am I always paired up with the Xernims?’ Jack answered furiously.

‘Man. Jack. That’s low. I am not a Parasite. Well at least not on the level of a Xernim. Actually, now that I that I think about it -‘

‘Just shut up and get rid of him. The smell is unbearable.’

‘Fine.’

Esper took out a small put containing the oil he was going to use for cooking.

He poured it over the body, the distinct smell of the oil drowning out the stench coming from the body. He kneeled on the floor, next to the body and placed his hand just above it. A small spark of electricity, emitted from Esper’s hand, hit the oil laden body, making it catch on fire. As the body burned, both Esper and Jack gazed upon the flames. The evidence of murder was melting away. Jack gave a sigh of relief. He wanted to back to Eurasia and he wasn’t letting an electricity elemental ruin the mission they were assigned.

Esper’s ability to manipulate electricity was strong. If he wanted to, he could fill the whole house in his electricity, killing anything in it. However he can’t control his bolts of electricity on such a scale so in a full on battle, he could easily hit allies along with the enemy. However on a much smaller level, he had perfect control and can kill anyone who weren’t resistant to him. It was decided then he was best for operations such as assassinations that require single target focus rather than sending him off to fight in battles.

‘By the way, you said you needed time to look like the guy we killed which is why I didn’t kill him for a week. Don’t pin everything on me man,’ Esper said as the flames were dying down leaving burn marks some ash on the earthen floor.

‘You took two weeks to kill him, something that should only have taken you a second. In the end he was almost dead from starvation anyway while he was held captive. You’re lucky he was only a medic or he could have easily escaped and get us caught. Anyway changing my face and body to match my target only takes a day to do. You were just lazy like always and left it for two weeks,’ Jack replied.

‘Whatever. It’s done now. I’ll go prepare food with your oil ration instead. Used mine on this guy,’ and at that Esper left to go back in the kitchen

Jack Darius was a Stealth Bestial type. His skin can change colour to match his surroundings in less than a second without even thinking about it, giving him the ability to seem invisible, although it’s mere camouflage. He also had this ability which allowed him to change his appearance to match another’s to pinpoint accuracy. However, unlike his camouflage, this was a conscious act and takes around a day to do so but although his face, skin, hairstyle and any body markings are mirrored so that Jack looks like his target, he could not copy a person’s height nor, to an extent, his body build. Therefore targets are chosen accordingly so that no suspicion could arise. He can also lower his heartbeat and his body temperature for a period of time so that he isn’t noticed by his heat or the thumping of his heart, and along with his calm demeanour and quick thinking, he is the ultimate tool for espionage. Despite his strengths, he lacks any meaningful tool for an assignation of his own. As a result he was always paired up with someone who could do the killing for him.

The man that was burnt was the original Tom Babacla, but having killed him, Jack Darius took his identity and his home. As the last bit of the body turned to ash, Jack went over his mission.

The mission entrusted to the pair was to kill one of the leaders in the village, called Larry Ching. A water elemental that only visits the village, called Egypt, once a month to deliver a speech to the militants of the Egypt. His real home resides outside Egypt due to the fact he is entrusted to lead several villages beside this one but he had a temporary one held in Egypt just for these monthly meetings. His next visit to Egypt was scheduled for next week and in the meantime Jack and Esper have to make preparations to execute the assassination. Doing so would lead to a heavy demoralisation in the Afro-Australian Alliance. That could prove to be the thing that tips the tide in the upcoming battle between Eurasia and the Alliance, since Larry was also an excellent combatant as well. Having a plan to make sure the mission succeeds was pivotal and luckily, Jack had one.

There was another reason why Tom Babacla was chosen to be killed, in order for his identity to be taken, apart from his physique matching Jack’s. He was also a medic. Due to his abilities, Jack could also do the work of rank D medics which was why taking Tom’s idea was a flawless idea. Not only that, the information medics hold was huge. They were allowed access to profiles of nearly everyone in an area and this allowed Jack to pick out his next target.

Jack had only one chance to do it and it required Esper. After cleaning up the remains of the burnt body, Jack called Esper and explained his plan.

*******

Lahel Bints. A man originating from the village of Sudan. He was part of the guard force there but due to unrest in the North of Africa, he was transferred to the Egyptian Forces instead in order to bolster the Alliance’s defences in the North. He was strong and that was why he was chosen to be a guard in the upcoming visit of the Village Leader.

It was time for Lahel’s appointment. Everyone involved with a village leader’s visits had to do it at before they arrived. It was only a check to see whether a person was fit enough to do their job. Lahel felt like it was a bit pointless but he didn’t mind. He was excited to finally meet a village leader (something he wasn’t able to do back in Sudan).

Once he arrived at the clinic, an earthen building that was cubed in shape, he knocked on the entrance. The door slid open allowing Lahel to enter where he saw a room with one other person sitting down.

‘Mr Temply,’ a man shouted from down the corridor. Lahel guessed that the shout came from the medic himself, as being a C Rank medic or below often meant working alone. A man stood up and walked down the corridor. He was pale brown with dark hair that formed small spikes. Lahel didn’t recognise him, which was strange as he knew everyone from the area, so he concluded that he was transferred from another village like he was.

It wasn’t long before Lahel was called. He walked along the corridor noticing how dark it was, with only a few torches placed. He eventually reached a door at the end. He knocked before hearing a voice come from beyond it.

‘Ah you’re just in time Mr. Bints. Let me open the door for you.’

The door slid open, revealing the face of Lahel’s medic. He had a ginger afro, dark skin, and was roughly eight feet tall. On the wall behind him, was a poster. As Lahel entered the room, he saw a door on the left, which was labelled ‘exit’, and a door on the right, labelled ‘equipment’.

‘Please, Mr. Bints, sit down,’ said Babacla.

Lahel sat on the chair opposite the medic. He was tense as, despite knowing there was nothing wrong with him, he did not want to fail and miss his chance of meeting the Village Leader.

‘I have your profile here. Aged: One hundred and fifty-two. Height: eight feet two Inches. Profession: Guard. You were transferred to Egypt last year, right?’ asked the medic

‘Yes,’ Lahel replied

‘And that you’re a bestial juggernaut type, am I correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘Ha. You don’t like it to be honest.’

‘I may not look strong but that’s where my speciality lies. I am very strong but I look average so people under estimate me. Mind a demonstration?’

‘I’m intrigued. Go ahead.’

Lahel walked towards the wall where the exit door lay. He retracted his right arm, before letting it fly into the wall. The heavy sound echoed from where Lahel had punched the wall. He freed his arm from the wall, and in its place a metre long hole gaped open, the sound of dust crumbling from it.

‘Very impressive,’ the medic remarked, ‘and you received no injuries from that?’

‘No. I have high regeneration so something like that won’t hurt me’

‘Interesting. The two attributes do complement each other quite well, as expected from a Juggernaut. Now I am going to do some body checks, if you please.’

Lahel took off his shirt while the medic inspected, first his torso, then his arms and face before finally moving towards the back. Lahel looked at his shirt. It was made out of Rezah and Linsu plants, giving him resistances against most elements. It was fine embroidery and was very valuable as both plants were very hard to grow in Africa. In fact, this was a spoil of war when he took down several mages in a battle by himself that took place just ten years ago against Eurasia. It was his pride.

Lahel felt a firm hand press against his back. A shock ran through his body that caused him to spasm for a second.

‘Do you feel ill, Mr. Bints?’ asked the medic.

‘I don’t know,’ Lahel replied.

‘Alright then, I will check again because you shouldn’t have reacted like that.’

‘OK.’

Lahel felt a bit light headed. He was fine just minute ago. What could have happened? Maybe punching the wall wasn’t the best idea. However, he couldn’t say anything. His lips refused to move. He felt another shock through his body and his chest began to ache. His vision began to get blurred. The last thing he saw was the writing on the poster on the wall:

Welcome to Tom Babacla’s Medic Facility!