I want to make a difference.. A real difference like Mr. N did when he was Elite Guard rank #2 for Mr. President. Now he's above the rank running for president himself.
As James turned the final corner he saw the brown door.
He nervously smiled as he bit his lip. "Mother, I promise you, one day I'll be established enough to help you, to help Mia, to help everyone."
Then a voice echoed… childish, distorted and arrogant.
"Come forward."
He walked cautiously through a metal detector.
In a flicker, the hologram dropped, revealing the courtyard and roughly 100 sharks.
Sharks?
At least that's what James saw, They were people; students like him. But it felt as if he just entered shark infested waters.
James looked around him, quickly some of the students tried to intimidate him but his focus shifted.
"That technology?" James was scared but he was more impressed. The young boy had never seen technology like that in his life.
"A full 200 meter hologram? Is that even possible? I thought that level of technology had long been destroyed, what's it called? Ai? Projections? Holograms? I'm lost, I only remember those terms in history books." Mr. N sure is the real deal man.
"Eyes up here."
The whisper was childish but ominous. James looked toward the stage in the courtyard.
There, a boy with jeans and no shirt crouched, playing with his gloves as he looked onward with a blank stare. Wearing very unprofessional clothes he looked young, short and almost playful.
James's eyes lit up like wildfire, his heart igniting in his chest.
His excitement could burn the entire world to ashes.
It was him. The legend one of Mr. N's Ten Elite Guards. Guard rank #8
He tried to contain his excitement but he couldn't, "Elite Guard Letter D for The Destroyer Demisaux, the youngest of all Mr.N's elite troops. Only 18 years old."
When he was sixteen, he crossed paths with the President's Elite Guard—Rank #3, the one they called "The Dragon King." It wasn't a fight born of pride, but of loyalty. He defended Mr. N's honor with reckless conviction, and though he lost that day, he was seen as a hero and the only known fighter to survive a fight with Vercingerot.
Demi scanned the crowd, his gaze sharp and inhuman.
The dark rings around his eyes twitched disturbingly. His pupils shifted focus zooming in, zooming out. "Muscle density is minimal, the height is lacking. We don't need skill, skill is useless, we need durability.
Out of 100? Maybe 5 Vanguard candidates.
"The rest… just useless bones send them to the army or police force to waste their lives away." Demi waved his fingers stating.
"We need strong human meat shields to die for our purpose. This batch? Useless."
Without another word, Demi flicked his wrist at the assistant standing to his left.
"Bring in the next group, Fina. This is pathetic."
Fina adjusted her tight skirt, disbelief written across her face as she tried to reason with Demi. "Are you serious? You haven't even spoken to them. You haven't tested them," she snapped, frustration cutting through her voice.
….
As Demi ignores what she said she mumbles.
"Elite Gaurd Letter "H" The "Hero" isn't going to be happy about this.—"
Before she could finish, Demi slapped her across the face flooring her.
The last thing she saw while conscious was the gum at the bottom of Demi's hard steel toe boots.
He stomps her head violently, her screams never made through his boot, smashing her teeth and breaking her jaw.
To Demi's right, his lieutenant "Anteater" calmly stared at the jewellery on his own fingers unfazed.
As Demi stops stomping her she gargles on her own blood starting to choke to death as she has a seizure, her face mangled beyond recognition.
The crowd watches in stunned silence overwhelmed by the sudden shift in demeanor and extremity.
Demi steps forward, voice thick with sarcasm and broken English.
"What's wrong? Not as advertised?"
James froze. His eyes wide.
"What is this…" he whispered.
His fists clenched at his sides. A violent BEAST swelled inside him.
He fought the urge to contain it. To not throw away everything he's fought for his entire life.
"This isn't right" He whispered under his breath.
He wanted to lunge. To strike. To stop this madness.
But confusion held him back.
"Why?
What even is this place?
What kind of person does that to a woman?
Not an elite guard... they're supposed to protect. To lead us to a new world order."
Mr. N's elite guards should be extensions of himself and his own will.
Like a brokenhearted child meeting his idol for the first time James spaced out.
James looks to his right, his face contorts "This has to be a bad joke right?" But the person he spoke to was as stunned as he was.
As he looked around him the silent crowd of "warriors" "sharks" became goldfish.
They all stood silent. No words, no actions to stop the injustice that just happened in front of them.
Murder was always bad but ever since WW3 and the reduction of the world's population by more than 90% murder was the most serious crime on earth. Given the few millions left, killing is far more damaging than it was before.
James was stuck. His feet lodged in the ground. It wasn't the first time he saw murder.
He wasn't scared because it was murder. He was scared because his ideals were the thing that was killed.
He started to fear himself. He was scared because mentally he looked up to the elite guard so much that a part of him wanted to justify her murder. What kind of man am I to want to follow someone like this?
A short green haired boy sprinted forward to help the girl, Demi's lieutenant "Sho" also named "Anteater" moved in fast, far too fast.
In a blur, he had the boy in a chokehold, restraining him with disturbing ease.
James looked forward as he saw the green haired boy, his brain processing what's happening. "Orman?"
He had known that boy, they were in the same combat class a year ago. He had a good heart, he was always bullied but he never quit until he passed. He was a doctor At age 19?
"Orman dont…" James mumbled to himself under his breath in disbelief.
The green-haired boy struggled, his voice hoarse but furious.
"Let me go! I'm a doctor I can help her!"
The crowd remained frozen. Silent. Watching.
"What's wrong with you people?!" the boy shouted, eyes darting around the group as he turned purple losing oxygen."
Sho gripped him tighter but Orman didn't quit.
"Have you no sense of justice? That woman could've been your sister! Your mother!"
His voice cracked with raw emotion.
"You just stand there… watching?!"
"If this is what Mr. N stands for- he's… he's nothing but a—"
Snap*
The body collapsed to the floor, limbs twitching, eyes wide open empty.
A string of saliva slipped from his lips as silence swallowed the courtyard.
Sho walked back to the side of Demi.
Demi's eyes change back to how they were before as something happens, his muscles go back to their normal size. Demi completely ignores Orman's corpse; he hears voices in his head.
He slowly looks at Fina's half crushed face gargling in her own blood.
His own Lieutenant he put into the dirt.
Demi: "Huh? What did you say?"
(Gargles)
Demi: "WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
As she gargles and chokes as she spits more blood
"DO YOU WANT ME TO STOMP YOU OUT LIKE I DID YOUR FRIEND? SHUT THE FUCK UP."
Demi gets more agitated
"Look at me when I'm talking to you…
As 5 seconds pass awkwardly.
"AYE LOOK AT ME."
"You're my bitch. I rule this country, shut the fuck up or you die."
Demi stood before the silent crowd, their faces pale, their eyes wide with something primal. Grown men — hardened and over thirty — had already pissed themselves. They'd never felt a presence like this before. It wasn't anger, it was chaos given shape, it was demonic. His wrath didn't follow reason; it could strike anywhere, anyone, at any time. The randomness of it made every breath feel like borrowed air.
Is this what it means to stand before a God? To stand before your maker? Your decisions no longer mattered?
Your life will be taken for you despite what you do?
This is what it meant to be in the presence of a true Elite Guard.
Demi paced back and forth "You guys aren't talking anymore? No more celebration? What's wrong? Have I failed to entertain you?
Questioning what you're doing here? If you're at the wrong place?
As he speaks properly "You see, the mind is a powerful thing. Out there looking in you thought you had a chance.
When you dream for the clouds it's easy isn't it?
Waaaay, up in the fucking skies, you told yourself.
You could achieve greatness.
That someone like YOU could make a difference.
Well I'm here to tell you that you can't.
You either lick my boot or you die.