I woke up very early by my standards, and for good reason; today's my birthday, April 27, 1999. When secrecy ends and I'm the public leader of the world, I want everyone to celebrate this day. Not with parades and confetti (that shit gets in everything, I don't know how the sheeple can take it), but with everyone around the world saying "Hey, let's do something special. It's Howard's birthday today." And of course I will have my parties with the most powerful, effective people in the world.

But, for now, I'm having them with child Illuminati. Not sons of daughters of Illuminati, Illuminati who are children themselves, under the age of 17. A young Illuminatus's birthday party, with only other young Illuminati to participate. I won't be able to logically do this for many more years; I won't be a kid forever, and I will be an adult for as long as I can stay alive, so I might as well have this kind of fun now.

I pondered the requirements for Illuminated status- there are only a few real ones: a general understanding of how the world works, high intelligence, some deviousness, the ability to have true loyalty to something they really believe will be of benefit (to themselves, their causes, or whatever they want to benefit), and at least some limited ability to consciously self-program. Of course, many people have all these requirements and we don't invite them in; there's also a subconscious element. Many people believe they can be true Illuminati (or some equivalent)- only a few really can. Hell, it's pretty obvious even some of the so-called Illuminati aren't the ones who really can. But they were the best we could get, at the time- but it's obvious that power really does corrupt and they're sacrificing the larger 'us' for personal gain, the antithesis of what we should be doing as a conspiracy. Since these are children, most with no normal-world baggage, they should be considerably less apt to fall into doing that kind of crap.

I had Paul be the doorman, identifying people on their way in; I could use Enforcers but I wanted the sentient touch for this. Sarah, of course, was already baking the cake, an enormous one for engineereds with enormous appetites. This time, I didn't want candles and their ashes on the cake- instead, I had her write in icing 'Happy 11th Birthday Dominator Howard' on it. The young Illuminati started trickling in, one by one, smiling with their mostly-bioengineered faces. Petey, Sara (decidedly not to be confused with Sarah, and pronounced a bit differently), Becky, then Jeremy was the first non-engineered to walk in. Then Akira and his servant, then Tony, Hadji (he's engineered, I can tell, but to different specifications than the others) and his two young girl servants, then Azrael coming in at about the same time as Bobby, another non-engineered. I tried my best to remember them all.

None of the kids carried presents- those were all delivered in advance (security reasons; I dodge bullets but I'm not bombproof), and a few of the presents were from others. The suit manufacturers didn't put my suit in my closet, they put it out here, just to remind me of their constant gift. I didn't mind; I simply took it upstairs and put it on. The rest of the presents were of the 'What do you get the boy who has everything?' variety; the answer is 'No one can possibly have everything, there isn't enough room. He can, of course, acquire almost anything, so the best thing to do is get him something cool that he'd never think of getting himself.' Naturally, a lot of it- like this super sonar device- is just going into my closet never to be used any time soon. Hey, maybe one day I'll find a use for it. More kids were coming in with more servants, Paul writing down names. Hey, speaking of servants..

I turned the intercom on. "Billy, wake up, wear all black, and go down to the dining room." C'mon, Billy, you can't sleep in- it's my birthday! And it's your birthday, too.

"I suppose they'll all be there?", he asked, as even more people came in.

"Probably.", I replied. I hoped, anyway. "Sarah made an extra-large cake. There's quite a few of them down here, not yet all though." Billy was walking down the stairs in a few seconds, watching the Illuminati walk in. I made my seating arrangements known- servants next to their masters, and don't try to position yourselves close to me. Everyone wants to get close to the Dominator.

"Looks like no one else is coming, Howard.", Paul said, and I nodded. I usually think things like this in more violent situations, but let's get this party started. I gestured to Billy and then the seat at my right, and he took it. Then I did it with Paul and the seat to Billy's right, and he sat down as well, a bit nervous. Being able to command servants wordlessly is a gesture of power.

Sarah brought in the cake, and balanced it a bit on her pregnant belly, setting it down in the middle of the table. She hid her emotions well, but I could tell that she was quite annoyed watching the kids in front of her. Of course she's pissed; to her, she's in the right place, wearing the wrong color.

The door opened from behind me and a straggler walked in. Don't be the last to the party, not when everyone else already sat down. "I took a sub.", was his explanation as to why we didn't see him coming. He found a chair and sat in it; I noticed that some of the seats were still empty. Hmm... yes, it's not just the extras for servants, not everyone's here that I invited. Their loss.

"Is it four hundred degrees this time, Sarah?", I asked sarcastically. Some of the other kids snickered, although they were on the outside of that particular in-joke.

"No, probably about two hundred in the middle, though.", she replied evenly. It smelled wonderful. But before I began, there was one more thing I wanted to do first.

"All right, is there anything any of you manipulators wants to say to me? Don't wait until the end of the party, guys.", I said, while looking around the table and counting white clothes. "I only have two ears, there's 43 of you, and I don't want people crowding for whispering space."

"Are you really immortal?", a six-year-old asked. How can he not know? Shouldn't he be, himself? And if he's six years old, not engineered, and a true Illuminatus, he either got in in a way that he shouldn't have, or he's very talented indeed...

"Yes. Unless someone blows me into little pieces or something, I will live forever. Also I regenerate, and no, I don't give demonstrations.", I answered jovially. There was laughter at that.

"Howard, what really happened to Damien?", a twelve-year-old boy asked, smirking, as if the official records were bullshit and he knew it. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction...

"It's all in the public records. There weren't any lies or even any obfuscation of the truth. I know, it's pretty fucked up. But the world has one- wait, actually five less assholes, everyone learned their lesson, and I got a new servant out of the deal." They smiled and nodded agreement. "Any more questions?"

"Are you the anonymous asshole who keeps kicking my ass on our Quake 2 deathmatch server?", Akira asked, and a lot of kids laughed. He's engineered- just not as well as I am.

"As a matter of fact, yes I am." There were a few quiet 'ooh's. C'mon, who else would it be? Sometimes Billy plays as me, and sometimes it's both of us with the same name, wreaking havoc and confusion.

"I hate you!" I laughed and so did almost everyone else at the table.

"Oh, it's not a fair fight, remember? I've got a reaction time of next to nothing and even my eyes see more frames per second than yours." Akira groaned. Some of the other, younger kids grinned, as if they knew their abilities were closer to mine. "Any more questions?" Nope, none they'd ask publicly, anyway.

"Sarah, Billy, pass out the cake." In retrospect I probably should have been more precise with that command or defined it in advance (they could have embarrassed me rather easily), but they did a decent job; Sarah expertly cut it into many large chunks, her skill drawing the attention of a few of my guests, and Billy methodically placed a chunk on everyone's plate, starting with me and going around the table, regardless of status or power, ending with himself. About two thirds of the cake remained, which made sense. If they want more, they'll take it. I started eating the moment it hit my plate and almost everyone else followed suit.

Some of them did get up to whisper stuff into my ears after they ate; I should have expected it. Will I make it easier to go up levels for engineereds? Not directly, but the engineereds should be smart enough to make it easy on themselves. What's it like owning my twin brother? Fun and rewarding in so many ways. No, I don't make my servants do that. Yes, even if you're not engineered, it's all right; I do support the retrovirus development after all. Only one kid directly asked me for more power, and I simply laughed at him; being intelligent, he took the hint quickly. Fido was under the table, and I motioned for Billy to pass him a piece; the dog ate it happily, being tickled by everyone's moving feet.

This- the party, the kids with their smiling faces, the atmosphere- was great, absolutely wonderful. I should have done this before, maybe when I became Dominator (for a split instant I visualized an alternate reality where Damien had brought Paul to that party, and Billy had done the same deadly manipulation in front of everyone, with the same result). I loved every moment of it, loved having these intelligent world masters celebrating my birthday and looking to me for support of all kinds, loved their devoted love of me and what I stand for. There aren't enough of them, not by a long shot. I can't wait for the End of Secrecy; this world needs billions less normals and hundreds of thousands more engineereds. People I can play with and talk to, people who make their mark by helping to make everything better. People who want to follow me to the future. They ate and talked amongst themselves as they went for more cake.

Eventually one of the non-engineereds got full (after pigging out as if she was engineered), and she left her table with her servant, and others started leaving as well, going off to talk to each other in the living room. My servants went as well; maybe they'll find other servants they can talk to. I was being pestered, but it was inevitable. My guests didn't want to ask questions when I said to, but each of them was hoping I'd talk to them in private, and the fact that I wouldn't do that put some of them off. Sorry, guys. One of the people who wasn't fazed was the non-engineered Jeremy, who looked at me and said, simply, "I want to be able to get a servant." I'd promised all the fifth levels Enforcers, but not sentient servants, and some don't have the access to get them.

"Why?", I asked him, looking at his twelve-year-old, roundish, healthy face, which was dotted with a few freckles. His blond hair was cut, but in a full style, as if he was trying to find a good balance between his normal look and the small white cape growing out of my head.

"Well... I have someone in mind. He's been a big help to me my whole life, before I came here, and since you gave us all Enforcers, I figured I could ask.." I knew immediately why and what he wanted. I'll grant the request, but only if he understands, and only if he's willing to actually ask for it.

"What makes him so special, that he can be a servant for you?" He looked around, at everyone else who was watching the conversation, people who wanted their turn to talk to me and were holding their tongues to stop from interrupting. "You're going to answer me in public, and you're going to be honest; or you can end this conversation now, if you want." He wasn't going to do that.

"Well, he's smart, and he's cool, and he can be really efficient..." I looked at him, smiling a bit, beckoning for him to say the words I knew he had. "He's my friend." There we go.

"You want to put mind control implants in your friend's head, Jeremy?", I asked him, casually, and he recoiled only slightly. "Do you want your friend to have to do everything you say, no matter what, for the rest of his life? Do you want to pluck your friend out of the normal world like a feather from a duck and make him yours for decades to come, possibly even far more? Is that really what you want for your friend?" I was squeezing him verbally, slowly, and calmly. He was probably going to say something like 'Yeah, you're right, Howard.', even though I'd been neutrally asking questions, and abandon it, never to be mentioned again.

He did the opposite instead, after a few seconds of hesitation. "Yes. Yes, that is what I want.", he said boldly and a bit formally. "I want to acquire him as a servant."

"Well then, you've got him. Send me the information after the party's over and I'll have it done for you myself."

"...Ththank you Howard!", he said, stuttering a bit, and from his tone of voice alone I could tell that he had become immediately, completely loyal to me. The others were surprised by my handling of the situation.

I heard some voices getting louder in the living room, and two teenage boys walked up to me, who've obviously been arguing about something, and I got up to approach them. "Howard, do you like bets?", the older boy asked.

"Depends on the bet. What is your offer?", I replied.

"Well, the bet's not with you. I bet Jimmy twenty kilounits that you'd accept the challenge, and another twenty that I can beat you at Starcraft." They're actually using units as currency. They're allowed to do it... but this is the first time I've seen it in a very long while. Obviously, they just wanted to bet something. But it's a pointless bet. I'll accept the challenge, definitely, but I severely doubt he's going to be able to beat me.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Ryan West."

"Ryan, I am going to kick your ass up and down the street.", I informed him. "Get up there, go in that room,", I said, pointing to Billy's room, "load up the game, and prepare to die." He obeyed as if he were implanted.

"Brood war or regular?", he asked on his way up.

"Brood war, latest version.", I replied, going up as well, and my servants followed me curiously.

"So how are we going to make sure no one cheats?", he asked.

"Well... if we just closed the doors to our rooms and let no one in, there's lots of programs either of us could use for network packets and that kind of thing. Soo.. to make sure no one's cheating, let's have people watching.", I said, my voice getting loud so everyone could hear me. "Oh, and if anyone tells anyone about anything, or even gives any vague hints... well...", I said loudly, and clenched my left fist, sprouting the oh-so-familiar blades. Threats aren't always the best way to guarantee cheat-proofing, but they work wonders. I motioned my servants to come by my side and they watched me load up the IPX game. I could tell that some of the others had things to talk to me about, but they knew to wait until I was done.

I chose the 3-man map, Ice Mountain. I played Random and he chose Zerg right before the five-second timer ended; I ended up as a Terran. I have to assume he's good, as good as the Etarenicni/Kleptomaniac pair Billy and I fought a bit ago. (They just HAD to call us map hackers and run off, too. Pity...)

He tried to rush me, and then tried to dance his 6 lings around the bunker in the middle of my base. I popped a couple of marines out and he didn't manage to kill one SCV. Hmm.

Let's see.. how is this going to go? Well, he's either going to do one of two things- he's going to play like a complete coward, or he's going to rush me hard and fast. I would normally doubt the latter, but he's already shown his desire to attack. Oh, yes- he can't actually be seriously afraid of me, or he wouldn't have made that bet in the first place. So I'm almost certainly going to be attacked. The only question is by what? Lurkers, most likely. I went Academy-Comsat with Marines and Medics, made an Eng Bay for turret help and upgrades, and he attacked with a partially upgraded Hydra and Zling force. I lost a few, he lost them all.

I then engaged in my usual plan, a plan directly derived from general, traditional Illuminated strategy. It's very simple. Control everything. I aimed to take the entire map, building lots and lots of Bunkers, taking two expansions in rapid succession and getting all available buildings. A bit later, he attempted an air-based attack; a few Irradiated Overlords and cloaked Wraiths later, his forces were no more. I comsatted his main a few times and continually prepared for the units he'd send next, building a Marine/Tank/Wraith force, scouting the map.

The people watching me remained deathly silent. I could hear the footfalls of two running back and forth between rooms, and I could just sense one of them struggling not to giggle and piss me off, emitting little bits of sound likely inaudible to the non-engineereds around him. I don't know what he's giggling about, and he is making a real effort not to give something away. But it does mean that either he has a poor understanding of SC or the battle is more decisive than it looks.

Thirty seconds later I realized the answer. Ryan had simply forgotten to expand enough- he didn't take the spots I still had left open. One miserable minerals expand- his local one- and he's running out. No wonder his forces are dwindling. He's an Illuminatus, he should know the value of resources.. we fought a few semi-large battles and a few minutes later I began to Siege Tank his base into oblivion; he resigned as gracefully as is possible when your bet for twenty kilounits has gone nowhere. I don't see how Jimmy could have possibly lost anything. Ryan just underestimated me, Jimmy didn't.

Ryan entered the room with a grimace on his face. "Howard! You.." He looked at my face and I realized he was considering my possibly violent reaction to what he was going to say. "You mind if I swear at you?"

"You can for five seconds." I put my thumb in my palm and used my fingers to count down from five as he unloaded a lot of ill-conceived, hastily created profanity; when my fingers were all clenched, he immediately ceased. "Anyone else want to try me at this?"

There was a general shaking of heads and a few "uh-uh"s. The party continued as usual. I noticed Billy and Sarah answering (and not answering) a few questions. Almost everyone wanted to hang out near me, and it was with no small amount of joy that I realized they weren't just doing it to ask favors. I'm their Dominator, and they wanted my company and my friendship.

Someone discovered the controllers that shot out of my big viewscreen (as opposed to the controllers who appear on my big viewscreen that I shoot) and wanted to play me on it, and that rose into a larger crowd all wanting a piece of me in various fast-action games. I clobbered them easily, of course- it's amazing how used I am to playing with my engineered servants, and more than once I found myself asking 'How the hell'd he die to that?' when fighting these kids. A few of them, the engineered ones, proved to be more of a challenge, but only a couple of them were anywhere near my level- some of them had reflexes, some of them had advanced knowledge of the games, and some of them had experience, but none of them had all three.

One boy- Tony, I remember his name- came up to me, smiling, and said, "Howard, I really think I understand something now that I didn't before. I just wanted to thank you for it." He didn't detail what he meant, and although I was curious, I decided not to ask.

"Hey, Howard, mind if we look around your island?", about five Illuminati, with a couple of servants following them, asked after one of the games.

"Go ahead. You can even eat the fruit if you want. Just don't hurt anything or piss off my dogs." They nodded and left.

"You ask him!" "No, YOU ask him!", I heard from another room, in quiet voices, a bit later. Neither of them actually asked me, whatever it was and whoever they were.

"Howard, my name's Carlie. I have something I want to give you.", a fourteen-year-old girl in a tight pink dress said after the next game, into my ear.

"Really? What?", I asked in a lecherous voice, grinning.

"This!", she exclaimed, thrusting her breasts into my chest and kissing me all over my face.

"Oh, you can do better than that.", I said, grinning wider. I simply took Carlie to the floor, kissed her large, barely-covered breasts, and lifted up her skirt. She wore no underwear. I took my dick out of the slit in the suit and had her in front of the viewscreen, with everyone watching. The inside of her was just as beautiful as the outside. She was softer than Sarah- much softer. And she reacted differently as well, moving forwards and backwards, her legs pushing in and out. It's good to be Dominator. As Sarah did, she enjoyed every bit of this.

"Holy shit!", a young boy exclaimed, as I continued to pump her again and again, gasping with the effort. I was being careful not to hurt her, of course; even a bit too much passion from me could mean bruises or sprains for her. It didn't look like I was carefully controlling myself, though, as I continued to thrust in and out. Carlie was actually technically lying, I mused- she didn't want to give me anything, she just wanted to get a womb full of Dominator sperm, which I eventually gave her in a single, large gush.

I stood up and helped her to her feet. "That was great.", she said, smiling.

"We'll have to do that again sometime, Carlie.", I said, grinning and putting my dick back. I knew we might not, but it was the right thing to say at the time.

She kissed me one last time. "I'll remember you.", she said, to a lot of cheering and clapping from everyone who watched. Oh, Carlie, I don't ever expect you to forget.

The party continued, all day long. Everyone had fun, nobody got hurt. Sarah, with Enforcer help, efficiently cooked lunch and dinner for everyone and their servants. It was, of course, an exhausting experience. Naturally, everyone wanted to stay late, to have private time with me- sorry, guys. I set a hard 8:00 leaving time, and when they left, I went to work on what I'd promised Jeremy- he'd sent me the information. One Joseph Freeman, not to be so free anymore. Normal kid, normal life, no special protections. Easy.

"You're running an acquisition?", Billy asked me curiously.

"Yup. This fifth can't do it himself so I'm letting him acquire a friend of his."

"Acquire a friend-", Billy sputtered out. "Does he know what he's doing?!"

"Oh, yes, Billy.", I assured him. "He does indeed know exactly what he's doing. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't make sure of that." Billy didn't talk any more about it. I got up from the viewscreen and started heading to bed.

"Howard.. if you could get it, I'd say that girl was trying to kill you with AIDS or something.", Sarah said, before retreating to her room. I chuckled- she probably wasn't trying to give me anything.. she was trying to get something, and I gave it to her.

"Wow... I can't believe it's been a full year.", Billy said, thinking back, and followed me into my room.

"I thought time was going slow for you and you were suffering.", I replied.

"Oh, I am, but I've stopped caring about that." I smiled and held him with my right arm. "The time effect went away after your first test. If you think about it... living with you has been rather quiet, considering." Say what?! After all we've done? After the weirdness and the fighting and all the little things in the Dominator's life? And that coming from him, who's only been with the Illuminati a year? That's surprising and funny!

"What the fuck could you be considering?!", I shouted.

"Howard, you're the controller of the world. People want to kill you. People want things from you, and we're talking a lot of people. The only reason we haven't seen more action is because you delegate everything to lower levels, but even still.." Ah, yes. I guess the potential for even more mayhem is there, isn't it?

"Exactly. Which is the point. Being able to delegate has got to be one of the top responsibilities of the position, and the default framework caught most of it anyway. The only reason I wouldn't delegate something to any of them is if I or you three were the only ones who could do it." Which is seldom.

"Or...", Billy began, grinning a bit. There is that, too.

"Or I'm particularly pissed off. I know. But that helps, and you know why."

"Yeah, there's nothing like the master of everything running at you with the Superweapon of Death. Howie, you're the fucking bogeyman. I wonder how many times they've threatened each other with what you'd do if you found out about something or heard something."

"Hopefully, few... but probably plenty." I envisioned it: 'You'll piss off the Dominator if you do that! You don't want to piss off the Dominator!'

"Yeah, a lot of talk, so little action. You get them to do it. I guess that comes with the territory. We do several hundred times more simulated killing than in person.." Oh, of course. If we killed actual people for every game construct we fragged, we'd have wiped out a small country.

"Well, for most Illuminati it's the same, and for most sheeple, that's infinite times. Technology is a wonderful thing, Billy. Even the most tame normal can spend hours killing computer-generated images or even other humans if he has computer connections. If I have the urge for blood and death, I'm not going to waste precious people or resources going out and getting them, even though I could easily. I'm going to do the same thing all my brethren do and I'm going to play some violent videogame. It's funny, but not really that ironic. I could lead armies into battle for the hell of it, like what previous rulers used to do." There's always a war going on somewhere, the hard part would be to get myself into it. "But there's too many strings to pull for that sort of action today, and why bother? One of the things I don't do is blow resources just because I feel like it. That's why we don't see much action. I'm more conservative than most people take me for." He understood. I might be the Dominator, but even I'm not so all-powerful that I can do anything in reality as many times as I want without repercussions.

"You're still a trans-manipulative bastard, Howie." Smiling, I held onto him a bit tighter.

"Thank you, Billy. Oh.. and Billy?"

"Yeah?"

"Happy birthday." I said that out of pure caring, and it meant a lot to him.

"Happy birthday, Howie.", he replied, smiling.

"The nightmares-", Billy started, but I didn't care.

"You can stay." I smiled a bit and we got back on the bed and fell asleep on top of the covers.