Chapter 2 // Tatsuki

“Hey what’s up guys, Tatsuki here with Securi-Team,” the mark spoke into a microphone in the comfort of his pod. 12,000+ viewers were listening to the live feed, an incredible achievement of 1.2% of the global population. His voiceover was transmitted over a still-image of an alien smoking a cigarette against a black background. Tatsuki lit a stogie and took a deep drag, the first of the morning, then took a few gulps of his coffee. His hair was long, curly, black and greasy and he only wore boxers.

“Make sure you PROBE the thumbs-up and SHARE this video *ding!* because I have some DAMNING evidence *explosion sound effect* of our beloved political leaders *ahem* I mean, LOSERS fraternizing with, you guessed it, ALIENS! Outside of the walls! Right on time, the Citadel shills have entered the chat. BANNED! BANNED! This is no place for charlatans!

“Last week I exposed this crusty billionaire LOSER shaking hands with 3-foot-tall cloaked figures that looked a lot like, hmmm, do my eyes deceive me? Are those, *gasp*, GRAYS?!!”

The screen switched to a photo of an old man shaking hands with a three-foot tall entity in a hoodie. The image was of such pristine quality that ironically made it look even more fake.

“My source of this image was too much of a poon to come forward publicly, so they’ll simply be called ‘anon’. Not only do I have an image of the grays, I also have VIDEO evidence of the mysterious beasts that prowl the wastelands! I’ll be showing it at the end of this transmission, so be sure to stick around.

First, we’re gonna go over… drum roll please… DOCUMENTS! That’s right, I have the documents! Marked with official government stamps! Burn after reading! They detail direct dates, times and locations of these traitorous negotiations, timestamps of flights to the Citadel, eye-witness testimonies of a mothership—”

He paused from a knock on his door. Now who the hell is that?

“Please stand by…” he mumbled into his microphone and took another drag of his stogie. His live viewers posted comments like heart heart heart, he finna die, the men in black got him. Some posted bible verses (some banned book). Shill! Controlled op. Unsubbed. He’s so hot. Anti-alien bigot! I HATE YOU! KYS!!!! Don’t listen to them, we love you… Please disable the chat! Securi-Team didn’t kill himself! I’m high af right now… DON’T COME BACK. Any girls here?

He stood up and looked for some clothing on the floor. He had been wearing the same boxers for the last 3 days and hadn’t seen sunlight since grabbing some ramen and beer with a female viewer with nice feet. He accidentally stubbed his toe against one of the 500 empty beer bottles in his apartment and cursed as he fell.

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-Five minutes prior-

Five men in black suits and sunglasses turned the corner. Yoshi woke up its master. Mocha slowly opened her eyes and peeked out the window. Two of the men held submachine guns, two held stun batons and the one leading the pack was unarmed.

Behind the squad was a silent black vehicle trailing behind them that barely squeezed in-between the buildings. The unarmed man knocked on the plastic door and put his ear close. His face was faintly illuminated by rainbow lights. In reaction to Tatsuki’s painful shout from stubbing his toe, the man nodded to his comrades, took a step back and kicked the plastic door apart.

Tatsuki almost pissed himself as his near-naked form was lit up by flashlights attached to the guns. “Woah woah woah!” he shouted as he stood up with hands raised. The men in black were silent in their aggression. Both of the stun baton guys stabbed him simultaneously in the stomach and he fell to the ground with a yelp. He was out cold. They dragged his unconscious body into the street.

The submachine gun guys twirled their weapons behind their backs and flipped his computer table, flinging all his gadgets against the wall. They hammer-fisted the tech like it was an enemy of the state then stomped it into oblivion, not ceasing until they saw circuitry in a thousand pieces and there was no possibility of recovery. One guy kneeled down and counted 20 punches for good measure.

Tatsuki was pushed into the trunk and driven away to the west district where the warehouses were. He awoke in the back of the trunk and tried to break free, banging on whatever he felt. The vehicle stopped only for the men in black to open the trunk, zap him back unconscious and resume their journey.

Tatsuki awoke again, this time strapped down to a chair in front of a collection of torture devices. He was in what seemed to be a dark hospital room with the windows covered with tape. A blue haired female nurse in a surgical mask with mesmerizing blue eyes pointed at the materials with her latex gloves.

“Scalpel, check. Sponge, here. Ohp, Doctor, he’s awake…” The nurse shook with what seemed to be fear. She backed away into the dark corner and a figure approached. A man? Ah this sucks, bring back the girl!

“Hey BRO, I don’t know what’s going on, but I work for the press! Scan my eyes! You got the wrong cat, seriously, take a gander at—” Tatsuki shut up when the guy put on a transparent apron and grabbed a scalpel. The man pushed the rim of his glasses upwards. His lenses glared against the lightbulb hanging from the ceiling by a flimsy wire.

The guy smiled like a devil before covering his face with a surgical mask. His eyes were still covered by the glare on his glasses.

“Omega propagandist, Tatsuki Piyoto. Yet you didn’t do much to hide your tracks, did you? Securi-Team? Yesss, mmm, I’ve seen your content. Quite entertaining, I must admit. But my attention span is not what it once was. I prefer to get my hands dirty.”

Tatsuki heard that wicked smile in his voice. No matter what Tatsuki said, he was going to get killed; torture was just part of the fun, and maybe some golden nuggets of information would leak from his perishing mouth. Tatsuki cursed and struggled against his restraints as the man approached. The man hovered the scalpel against Tatsuki’s bare chest.

“Come on man! PLEASE just let me go! What do you want to know? You need informati—” Tatsuki’s pleading was replaced with screams. The blue haired nurse shut her eyes and melted deeper into the shadowy corner.