It was time to kick his ass. Strange. All this time I've been here and I've only been on one true raid in the past, the raid to get Paul back from the evil clutches of James Baker, putting him back into the evil clutches of Howard. Now it's my second one, and I'm not worried. Maybe because Howard's twenty times more prepared this time, or maybe because this guy wouldn't stand a chance against any one of us - even Paul could probably nuke his ass before he knew what hit him. But we're all here, all armed to the teeth, sitting at a point ten miles from the guy's home, in a specially-designed covered offroad vehicle with computerized windows that make us look like normals. It looked like a family & friends outing to the outside observer: a man and a woman in the front (both Enforcers), and six similarly-aged kids in the back. And that it is. Howard and I sat in the next two seats in the front, Sarah and Paul in the second row, and Joey (a dark-haired eleven-year-old with a few freckles who slightly resembles Paul) and Jeremy in the back.

"This might seem like a really stupid time to bring this up, but I've never killed anyone before.", said Joey in an uncertain voice. Howard and I simultaneously laughed.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to it.", said Sarah in a semi-flippant, semi-sarcastic voice, mirroring my thoughts. "Even for normal society's purest normals, you don't even notice you're doing it after the tenth one or so. Besides, even if morals still mean anything to you", she said with a brief snicker, "it's not like the people going to be shooting at us are actually people."

"Yeah, shooting at us too.. Jeremy, why didn't you just tell me I was that expendable?"

"You're not.", Jeremy instantly replied.

The next one came from Paul, in an impatient, informative voice. "Joey, look.", he spun around and said. "The Massacre Twins and Madame Bloodlust up here are going to kill every fucking thing they see before you even know they saw it. You probably won't even get a chance to shoot while they try to outdo each other in frags. Before you even look at one of the guys, he's probably already dead, you're here just for show, that's all. Just to follow Jeremy around because he needs to officially be a part of this and he obviously wants you with him. And unless Howard lets you, Jeremy, you're not going to get any kills either."

The three of us engineereds simultaneously began involuntarily laughing like crazy. "Why did you say that, Paul?", I said in an muffled, inaudible voice through my chuckles.

"Was that..?!", said Jeremy in a startled voice.

"Everything he said was perfectly true, Jeremy. He didn't tell you enn-eeee lies.", Howard said with a huge grin on his face, still chuckling.

"Howard- do you mind if I make a completely unbiased comment?", Jeremy said with some wit behind his voice.

"Go ahead, that's the kind of comment you should make anyway.", Howard said with a smirk and a chuckle.

"All three- no, all four of you are completely fucking nuts. You deserve your servants, Howard, and the three of you deserve him just the same. All of you are just fucking crazy. Three of you are immortal and the other one's more likely to die. How can you just walk right into the field of carnage and put your goddamn motherfucking lives on the line if and when you don't have to, especially you, Howard?"

"And let someone else have all the fun?!", Sarah cracked. The four of us grinned and giggled like the madmen he believed we were. Death has no meaning to us, none. We avoid it. It happens to other people, never to us. Period. Of course, that's because we can avoid it with powerful technology and electrobiochemistry.

"Because we can, Jeremy.", Howard said slowly, in a totally serious voice. "We can. Your fear inhibits you. You think you're going to die if you get into a risky situation. Well, like Paul said, this isn't even a risky situation, and you are not supposed to fear. If you honestly don't think you'll survive, you think a stray bullet will hit you, whatever, stay out of the fight and just send big bad Enforcers. If you lose any, I'll personally replace them out of my own pocket. But I like killing, I don't like doing it alone so much, they like killing, we kill. If you're worried about Paul and his less-than-engineered reaction time, he knows how to stay out of the way of bullets.", I heard from my left ear as I faced forward, looking at the special fabric back of the headrest of the seat in front of me, absently thinking about the events to come. How will he kill Dave, or will he let Jeremy do it?

"I get it. I understand. You're not just crazy, you're absolutely fucking psychotic.", Jeremy replied in a half-wondering, half-accusing voice.

"Comes with the territory.", I called back.

"Okay, that's it, I know where I am, I'm in somebody else's dream world. Not my own dream world. Somebody else's dream world.", Joey said in a semi-loud voice. "This. Whole. Thing. Is. Crazy. Even you, Jeremy, you know you don't really have to be here. Let these maniacs do the slaughter and just computerize your face in!"

"Worried about catching a stray bullet, Joey? You're in such a sad state, if I were you, I'd welcome death. Yeah, sure, you got implanted, your life is over. But that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy it.", Sarah snapped. She probably can't understand why someone wouldn't enjoy killing.. I guess if I was her, I'd think the same way. Kills probably meant short vacations for her when she was the public servant, the general assassin.

"You really do like killing people, don't you Sarah.", Joey said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"You didn't stop him from asking stupid questions?", Howard called back, himself now facing forward and doing some rapid drum-beat on the back of the seat in front of him. The male Enforcer sitting there didn't mind.

"There are no stupid questions.", Jeremy said.

"Only stupid people.", all six of us finished simultaneously, afterwards taking a moment to be astonished at the general telepathy.

"So when do we kick his ass?", Jeremy asked uncertainly.

"About five more minutes and this car starts moving. This is going to be a full, by-the-book Illuminated strike.", Howard said formally.

"Not like last time.", I said with a smirk.

"Nothing like that. That was fun, but looking back.. no. Not again. Jeremy, that time we were a little too close to being shot or having to do a secrecy shuffle. I didn't like that.", Howard replied.

"How was that anyway... just you three taking on a whole base, about.", Jeremy asked, and I could see some mild astonishment in his eyes.

"It wasn't a base.", Sarah said. "Wasn't even close. Just some boys' ranch with some Enforcers on it. We basically just... well, dropped in on him. You should have seen the look on his face."

"Ha, you should have seen the look on his face when he found out I was already implanted... he fucking shit his pants.", Paul said with some nastiness and a slight grin.

"I never knew that was from you! I thought I caused that!", she replied. "Dammit. There goes the moral victory, anyway." A loud 'pfft' could be heard from Jeremy in the back. Even hearing Sarah say the word 'moral' caused me to grin a bit.

"I've been thinking.. you should probably do the deed, Jeremy. Everything else gets mortified, and you walk in and...oh, I don't know. How would you like to get rid of him?", Howard asked with a grin.

"Hmm. His servants run MLM scams, that kind of thing, so..." I felt my stomach turn. Well, kids, now we know who's at the top of those things, the guy whose name is first on the list, the guy who's really making money. "Fire might be nice. Got a flamethrower?", the unengineered Illuminatus replied, after some consideration.

"How about a drip torch?", Paul suggested.

"What's that?", Jeremy asked. What is that, anyway? I've never heard of it.

"You know how firemen have to put out fires by making fire breaks? Well, they drip flaming stuff onto grass as they walk along, drop by drop." Damn, I didn't know Paul had the bloodlust... that is a mean thing to do! Howard and I giggled and grinned, considering the possibilities of its use. Sarah emitted a low 'ooooh' sound.

"Ooooh.", Jeremy said, then breaking out into a wide grin. "That is nasty. Howard, can you..?"

"No problem.", Howard said, ordering the Enforcer in front of him to call for one. "It'll be there by the time we get in." Then the car started moving. "All right, it's time." A few minutes later, we were rolling into position, ready to kick some ass.

When the van pulled to a stop, we stepped out, the female Enforcer followed us and began recording, and we walked less than a quarter mile through the forest to the designated spot. About eight Enforcers, various in physical form, were waiting for us, in their usual combat-ready stance. As we approached, they moved to their positions through the trees and brush- one stopped to hand Jeremy his drip torch.

"This is a completely formal raid, and we're doing this with at least most of the usual procedures, by the book. The three of you", he said, gesturing to us servants, "must as of right now shut the fuck up and stay that way, unless you have something urgent to say. You can talk after the target is eliminated.", Howard said. He then just stood there, waiting for the Enforcers to surround the place. It'd take a few minutes, I realized. Damn. This is the right way to conduct a raid- quick, informal, with full knowledge of the surrounding area, and with the confirmed target in there. And with only a handful of guards to protect him, Dave would be dogmeat by the time he knew what was going on. I further realized that Dave's wish for isolation (common among Illuminati) would be his downfall- secrecy rules would prevent this kind of thing if we were near normals.

"Joey, you too.", Jeremy said quickly.

Sarah put her ghillie suit on in a few swift movements and she moved with more stealth than usual- but I noticed a very slight irregularity in her movement. Her? Nervous? Bah. She's the princess of this shit. Two hundred meters for a sniper shot is easy for a professional and a joke to her- that is, if there are sentries in the first place. So we waited for the Enforcers and for her, and time started creeping by. I tried to calm myself out of it, but I was simply too ready, and dividing slices of time into too-small fragments just as I had at the end of the first test.

That's why the two sniper shots that came from Sarah's position were a relief, and I was glad to be running towards her at top speed. She had tossed aside the ghillie suit and was waiting for someone to blow a hole in the electric fence; Paul's rocket launcher did just that, and we ran through, exposed and shooting, hearing the loud alarm blaring out of Dave's base. I got two with two shots. I wasn't sure how many Howard and Sarah got; I heard four shots from them, though. I thought for a split second why Howie just didn't melt the fence with the Micro, then I remembered the reflection rules.

Enforcers started shooting at us, we leapt out of the way- then our Enforcers shot into the windows and blew them to Hell. As we approached the building at maximum speed, nothing else shot at us. Nothing. Is that it?! Is he out of guys? Did we really rock his forces like that? Howard wasn't willing to find out. We continued running at the structure at thirty miles per hour, reaching the double back doors. We simultaneously fired at the door locks and kicked the hinges backwards, breaking the doors. Too bad no one's awarding style points- but an Enforcer is recording our entry, and there are almost certainly security cameras in this building- meant to protect Dave from hostiles, but instead recording the hostiles' attack.

Okay, so he did bring all his forces. Four security guards ran at us from the main hallway, two from the sides, blasting- wait, these aren't ordinary security guards, they're Enforcers, normals can't move like that. If the ones shooting at us from the windows were also Enforcers.. this guy's either pretty well-defended for a fifth level, or he's one of those guys that has more power than most of his level.

Howard put his guns away and clenched his fists, drawing the blades. I think he just likes melee combat (for that matter, so do I, and so does Sarah), and at this range with these combatants, a fist is actually better than a bullet of any type. And if the third test was any indication, these guys don't have a chance.

He seemed to follow his own commands as he fought- he shut the fuck up, not calling out orders, advice, or warnings to any of the combatants. Mostly because this was more a slaughter than a combat. Six Enforcers can't withstand the Badass Squad.

At least that's what I thought until I realized that these guys were moving faster than the ten we fought, one of them trying to machinegun-punch Sarah, her breasts and pregnant belly staying out of the way of the bladed fists, before she grabbed its upper arms and dislocated them, being not quite strong enough to just tear them off.

Two attacked me and then I just realized a logical course of action. I jumped up and spun-kicked at their heads with full power. They leaned back- fuck! The left one tried to shoot me, other tried to grab me, fuck, bullet's going to Sarah.. she dodged it. As I landed, I delivered a panicked, angry kick into the stomach of the left one. I didn't break any bones, but the impact sent it on its back. I turned it up and just delivered into the right one, aiming my blades into its throat with about eight full-force attacks a second. Its hands couldn't move that fast, and it got torn open, its jugular spilling rich, thick blood. I then darted towards the remaining one, got on top of it, stepped on its gun-hand before it could aim, and turned it into my personal pincushion, the ultrasharp blades easily sliding in and out of its kevlar-based body armor, and even the metal plate beneath (note to future assholes: use the same metal we do). Blood welled out of its body like oil.

I turned around to see what had become of the others. They had killed a total of six. "Was one of those a normal?", Howard asked, as I reached down to the dead Enforcer which was to my right, picking it up, slicing off its right shoulder's clothes, and munching a chunk of the tricep. It's a perfect combo- we get hungry after fights, and fresh meat's always right there when our fights are over.

"Yeah, one was." She then briefly looked down at her pregnancy. I took a split instant to realize just how well trained she really is. She could be going through labor right now and never say anything about it until the raid was over. I have no idea what's going on inside her.. should probably find out just what the hell happens when an engineered gets pregnant.

"So where is he?"

"Hmm, the guy's stupid... bet he's on the top floor in the most obvious room, making himself a perfect target.", she replied evenly. Egotism hath its downfalls. We took the stairs and went through the largest doors we could find- a pair of double mahogany doors, sure enough, marked the entrance to his room, a movie-esque corporate headquarters, with all the trimmings, perfectly designed to inflate the ego of the occupant and intimidate visitors. Only he wasn't there. I figured he was hiding under the desk, so I ran up to it- then saw, through the large window, an armored vehicle speeding away through a rain of Enforcer bullets. Idiot. Does he think he can escape Howie? As I looked up at it, Sarah and Howard simultaneously aimed and fired, creating crack-surrounded holes in the plexiglass window, shredding the vehicle's lower left tire (which was less well-armored from the back), and nearly overturning it as Dave struggled for control, turning too hard and skidding to a stop, turning the vehicle on its side. Damn, I should have fired one of those. Oh well.

Howard drew his blades again and cleaved off a huge section of the plexiglass with the ease of an Exacto knife through a fresh cucumber. After a single, long stroke, there was a hole big enough to easily go through- we're three floors up, though, what does he plan to do?

"Sarah, grab Billy's arms and lower him down.", he said- no way, that's still too far- then when he grabbed my legs, I knew what he planned. A flesh ladder. She dangled us out, and he dropped down about fifteen feet into grass, taking the impact easily and rushing at the panicked Dave. We took the stairs to see if we could see anything before Howard killed the fool.

As we rushed up to see more details, Howard was calmly holding the geek up with his right hand.

The first thing I heard was Howard, in a too-pleasant, too-powerful voice, say with a small amount of glee, "Well, why not, Dave? The normals certainly want to kill you. If I remember right, you're a champion of multi-level marketing, chain letters, and Internet spam." He paused for a minute to grin. "If I were to put them into a pit, and then I were to throw you into that pit, they would tear you apart, limb from limb, which is what I'm going to do to you!!" The poor son of a bitch (which were the only words I could think of for his situation.. 'pathetic' didn't quite cut it) would have ran and hid in a corner, had his neck not been held up by Howard's fully outstretched arm. Which was obviously getting tired, so he chucked Dave up a few inches and caught him with his left, holding him in the same way he was before.

"But you're lucky today. I'm not really going to kill you." He chucked his thumb back at Jeremy, who was jogging up to us, half-out of breath, Joey close behind. "He is."

"So you are giving this one to me.. all right.", Jeremy sighed and said, pulling the drip torch from the back of his light combat armor. "You mind dropping him?" Howard opened his hand and the fool fell to the ground, not choking for air because Howard had not held his windpipe.

Jeremy calmly walked up to Dave and dripped flame on him, starting with his lower abdomen, grinning all the while.

"Do you know why I'm doing it this way, Dave?", Jeremy asked in a loud but calm voice, over the screams, obviously not expecting the agonized man to answer. "My sources tell me that you're in charge of some of the largest marketing campaigns in the world- you've got servants in junk mail, television advertising, mass E-mail.. cyberpromotions.com, wasn't that? Sanford Wallace, right?" I felt some amusement at this. His subsidiary, transient, normal-world dealings in that sort of thing have nothing to do with why Jeremy and Howard are killing him, and they're not even serving as an excuse- but I'm sure that the Illuminati watching the recording of this will be mildly amused at Jeremy's monologue.

Dave screamed in unearthly pain as his dick and balls were suddenly encompassed by a burning substance reminiscent of napalm, turning the sensitive organs into carbon dioxide and soot. Jeremy smiled and continued to drip randomly on his body, missing a few times, charring the neatly-mowed grass.

"Oh JESUS MAKE IT STOP!!!" was the man's only reply.

"All really great business, sure. If they were normal-owned corporations, they'd get enough wealth for us to look at them. And so your wealth is absolutely astronomical for your level. But there is a bad side to it as well. Some people don't like what you're doing, even if it is just to normals, and they call it 'spam'. I use that term as well. And you know what, Dave?"

The screaming continued. Dave tried to choke out the word 'mercy' with his screams, and failed. Not like Jeremy'd show him any.

"I hate spam."

Then Jeremy pulled out a small pistol and blew both of Dave's kneecaps to pieces, one right after the other, either trying to display his willingness for senseless violence or just enjoying it. Blood and shattered bone flew out of both the entry holes and the exit holes of both wounds. Dave didn't feel anything at first- then the split second of shock wore off and he screamed like a maniac, even louder than he did when his dick was put to the torch. "Aww, he's so cute like that...", said Jeremy, with a smile. "Oh well. Bye, Dave." Another bullet penetrated Dave's forehead. That one, he never felt. "That felt so right."

"Well, that's it, mission accomplished.", Howard said, shrugging. Damn, that was quick. It felt more like a mini-level than any kind of true raid. We just walked in and nuked the place. I found myself regretting the simplicity of it. Damn it, if I'm going to be forced into this dirty business of laying waste to people he doesn't like, I want more challenge than that! A few more armed guards, some auto-defenses.. his whole place could have used a talented level designer straight from the halls of Valve Software to at least try to stop people rushing his ass.

"Good timing.", Sarah said, laying on her back. "Now there's something I just have to do, right now... nngh..", she grunted, taking off her pants. What could she-- it must be that time. We all understood immediately, and Howard was ready to give her a C-section at any time, worried about his child (or children- wouldn't it be fucking hilarious if she had identical twins?).

She didn't need one. The delivery was faster than anything on TV. She grunted and strained for about half a minute (no one was dumb enough to tell her to push, as if she's stupid enough not to), and then the baby, covered in amniotic fluid, pulled out its head, then revealed a pair of arms.

Then another pair of arms.

Then a perfectly formed penis and lower body. He didn't have any obvious defects, other than the extra set of arms. There were no marks on him and his hair was almost white, with a touch of blonde. He had six fingers on his top two hands, and five on the bottom two. He had four toes on each of his feet. He started crying a bit, showing that the air passages were free and open. Sarah took the baby to her chest as she expelled the afterbirth, using her left forefinger's blade to slice off the umbilical cord near the base. Man. What a time to have a kid. Of course, since death is her element, it sort of figures that the time would be now.

We were all watching silently. "First death, then life.", Jeremy said poetically, looking at the baby. "But.. what's with the arms?"

"Northberg obviously never expected us to breed.", Howard said with a sigh. "And that's where I'm sending him, for the education and nurture I had." Teaching yet another Illuminatus that human contact was not as precious as machinery and technology, a lesson all Illuminati should learn. And everyone else, for that matter. Humans are unpredictable and mean bastards. Machines operate based on principles. "Let's hope he's not crippled by the arms. Because if we cut them off.."

"They'll grow right back, won't they.", said Jeremy.

Howard nodded. "That part of the DNA's the same. Let's go home. I'm almost never up this early." Bothering to show excessive concern for the newborn's problem would solve nothing- Howard simply needs to deal with however it ends up. Which is why he's changing the subject.

"Howard... no one's going to try to kill me for this, are they?", asked Jeremy in a worried voice, as if he may suffer the same fate he dealt out so happily. Who can blame him? These guys are the Illuminati. They dish out pain, they don't receive it, and they certainly don't bother with fairness when it gets in the way of their plans. It's part of what makes them powerful, and I've developed mostly the same philosophy.

"Probably not, not while they know I'm behind it. But you can spend a couple of days at the island if you want." Sarah put on her pants with one hand and cradled her son with the other. So much for post-natal care.

"Thanks, Howard. I think I'll do that. Your jet's not big enough, is it?"

"Nope." They'd use the helicopter they came in.

And so the raid ended, with Sarah opening her shirt so that she may suckle her newborn baby before it is taught and trained in the same way that all home-born Illuminati are.

"Well, that answers a question I've had..", Sarah said nonchalantly, as we walked back to the van that took us here, Jeremy and Joey a few feet behind the four of us.

"Which was...?", Howard asked.

"Whether or not our child would be more physically powerful than you are. Hybrid vigor, strange DNA combinations no one foresaw.." She chuckled to herself a bit. "I guess I got what I was hoping for. Now all we have to do is wait ten years and see if he's smarter." Howard only smiled in response.

"This is getting weirder by the minute..", I heard Joey say in a very quiet voice, probably next to Jeremy's ear.

"It's called 'progress'.", Sarah replied to him. Paul laughed, Howard and I grinned, and Jeremy and Joey were surprised at her hearing.

"Yeah, progress. He has a point.", Jeremy said. "What happened just now? I know you three are just part of it, and he's probably gotten used to it, but this really is very strange to normals. You guys just waltzed into a defended compound, killed everyone inside, I cooked an asshole with a drip torch while talking about what's wrong with Net spam, she had a baby with four arms, and we're all walking back like none of this is really a big deal!" All four of us found what he had to say very humorous, laughing as we slipped in the hole in the fence Paul had originally made. "And my saying that is funny!"

"Jeremy, you want the full explanation?", Howard asked him, turning his head to look at him while slipping under the branches.

"Even if it all goes over my head, I still want to hear it."

"This whole thing, what we're doing, is just a successful plan. The only thing I wasn't prepared for was your spam commentary, and that was just amusing for recent recruits. If anything large had happened unexpectedly, then we'd care more about it. I knew she could give birth in the middle of it. I knew we'd have to face quite a few Enforcers. It's just me, the Dominator, doing what I do. This is the usual."

"With a usual like that, I could never think of you raising a kid- even with all the servants in the world.", Joey said.

"You didn't tell him, Jeremy?", Sarah asked.

"Never actually researched that myself.", he replied, as we got into the car, the male Enforcer turning it on and putting it into reverse gear. "A from-birth educational institution, I suppose?"

"Right, first try.", Howard replied. "They put it right next to the genetics facility at Northberg."

"That makes sense..", Jeremy and Joey said, simultaneously. I realized how close they have to be to have simultaneity like that, and they're.. forget it. I don't want to know what being your friend's servant does to a normal. It must suck.

After the van took us back to the airfield, Sarah went by herself in a propeller plane to take the baby to Northberg, I got in the jet with Howard and Paul and flew them home, and Jeremy and Joey took the helicopter they came in.