The woods had been dark and gloomy that night. The air as cold as the black waters on the bay had been.

Each second brought forth another breeze and each new breeze sent a chill directly into my bones. A cold that sank into my insides. In the way stones sank into lakes when we strapped unclean people to them.

The gusts of air cut me, like knives. Like Chief Pa's knives whenever I did something wrong during training. Or the like the knives I used when cleansing. Or when cutting open the pigs. The real pigs we kept, not the oinkies.

Me and the big stripped kitty did not reach the compound until dawn. And by then, the sun was beginning to show its happy face again. Warming the earth and coloring the plains green and the muddy soil brown. All with extra touches of bright, golden orange hues. Complete with just a tinge of bright blue.

'Dawn is always so pretty.' I thought to myself. 'I wish I could stop and see it more often. But I keep having to go on missions.'

I breathed in a deep, calming breath and took in the smell of morning dew on the grass below. The smell of the trees singing as the light came up to greet them. Why, I could almost smell the life as it blossomed all around me at that moment.

Almost.

Then I smelled the fires as the wind carried the smell of soot.

I walked out of the woods and into the area surrounding the compound. Now noticing how some of the mines in the field had been triggered. How there were patches of blood around the spots where there was burning.

I continued walking. My legs now feeling as sore as ever as one of my shoes finally gave up and fell apart. That would be a pain, since Chief Pa hadn't replaced anything any of us wore for a long, long time. It would mean I needed to borrow more shoes from other people, and since most of the targets were adults, finding shoes my size would be all kinds of hard.

'Oh well. Live and learn. Could be worse I guess.'

I kept going. Now noticing how the fence had been torn open. Cut open.

"Huh, so that's how you got away kitty." I muttered. Moving closer towards the door.

The big kitty stopped and smelled the air. His eyes going to where some people were murmuring. And from there, to me.

"Aw come on big kitty!" I told him. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe! I mean, you're not scared of me are you?"

Big kitty bolted for the tree line.

"Damn." I muttered. "I really liked that kitty too. He was so big and fluffy."

After that, I entered through the main doors. Using my key and waiting for the gate to swing open.

When it did, I saw the oinkies.

And the bodies.

They looked at me, those who were close as well as those who were far away.

"You can't see me!" I roared on reflex.

They stopped briefly, but then continued to ignore me.

I walked around them and entered the main hall. Finding only bullet holes and blood and a few scattered bodies here and there.

None of the bodies belonged to the oinkies however. No, all of them belonged to my family.

They were laying down in places, weapons near their hands.

I counted them and found that of the four that had remained when I left, all but one were dead. The only exception being Chief Pa, who was being held in a helicopter when I got to where he was.

He was laying there on a, I don't know. One of those boards they carried away people in? Only, this one had lots of shackles. Like, a lot of shackles. They had Chief Pa all tied up in all kinds of places.

'Like, geez guys. He's not going to get up and cleanse you all by himself or anything. Calm down.'

"You can't see me!" I roared at the pilot and the other oinkies.

None of them so much as twitched.

I sat opposite Chief Pa. Waiting for him to wake up.

He didn't, but he said a lot of things while he was asleep. His mouth drooling a red foamy froth as he struggled against whatever they pumped into him to sedate him.

'Unless he was eating the mushrooms again when they found him.' I thought to myself. 'That's a perfectly possible thing that could have totally happened too.'

Though it would not have been ideal.

Chief Pa always got the runs when he mixed the mushrooms with vodka. And he was always mixing the mushrooms with vodka. He said it would put hair on any man's chest, but he did seem to be getting remarkably hairless as time went on.

"Revenge!" He would cry out. Twisting around the bindings. "Revenge on all you pigs! Think you take my kids! Think you can go around bullying me with the courts! Corrupt! You're all corrupt! I'll kill you all!"

Yeah.

This was Chief Pa alright.

I went to free him when he kept going.

"I'll get me some more tools! You'll see! My soldiers will never hesitate to kill! Their lives are mine! Mine! They'll come back and kill you all! They'll hide and do war like the best soldiers I've ever trained! They'll kill you all! It'll never stop! The killing will never stop! I'll be laughing at you all! No matter what happens to me!"

I stopped then. Bringing my hands back to my thighs.

This wasn't the first time Chief Pa had called me a tool. Not the first time he called someone a solider. He loved calling people tools and soldiers. But I thought he just did it. Like, it was his way of saying we were his. But he didn't sound like that right now.

He sounded scared. Weak. Like an oinky gasping for air after you cleansed him through the throat.

He had always been a giant. But now…

Now he felt small.

Like, a squirrel. Or that first kitty he always had us kill before giving us our first meals.

He had always said that we needed to be strong. To be able to do things without a second to hesitate.

But here he was.

A small old man who was more scared than anything else.

Also, the oinkies had taken him alive, when all he ever said was that we should never be taken alive. A few brothers, I knew, had taken themselves out.

But it seemed as though Chief Pa had not had the courage.

I did not know where the voice had come from, but when it came, it had all my attention.

'Weak.' The voice whispered. 'He is weak. He did not have the strength to fight for himself. He is weak.'

I could only agree.

By Chief Pa's own standards, someone who surrendered alive was the worst kind of soldier, because it meant they didn't have the guts to die for what they believed in. Someone who was taken was, if anything, worse. Because they had let someone else take charge of their lives.

This was the motto Chief Pa held on to. This had always been his way.

'Soft.' The voice repeated. 'He is soft. He is did not have the guts to do the cleansing himself.'

No, he always said he was more needed in the compound, training more brothers and sisters.

'He lied.'

I knew it was true at once and then I thought back to all the people I cleansed. All the little and big men who were targets at one point or another.

I looked down at Chief Pa again.

By his own rules, I was supposed to cleanse him. But then, here I was questioning his rules.

I looked around the compound again and thought about the things I would miss. My room wasn't very nice. In fact, most of the washrooms I hid bodies in were nicer.

I would miss the animals though.

The big kitty for sure, even though he was new.

I would miss the dogs, but I saw that the oinkies had killed them.

I would miss the chickens too, but it looked as though they had run away after the coop was left open.

I would not miss the pigs. I hated the way they looked at me after I butchered one of them. When Chief Pa wanted bacon for breakfast.

It was like… like they knew what I was doing. Like they knew me personally. Like they were holding grudges.

Some of the very first nightmares I'd had after coming here had to do with pigs too. I always imagined the first one I butchered would come for me. An old, fat, mean hog that was bigger than I was. I would fall asleep and there he'd be. Munching on my legs and tearing off chunks of flesh while I lay paralyzed.

'Right.' I said to myself. 'No pigs this time. They're way too dirty anyways. I need a clean place to cleanse from.'

I got off the helicopter for a second. Looking for the nicest-dressed man among the group.

"Hey sir." I began. "Do you have pigs in your house?"

He looked down. His face confused.

"No?"

I nodded.

"Okay. You're my pa now." I informed him. "Keep me safe and teach me how to act while I keep finding bad people to cleanse. You should help me, because I'm a good person."

He nodded absentmindedly. His eyes unfocused on everything around me.

Then, having done that, I walked over to where Chief Pa was laying. Taking a loose brick from nearby and smashing him in the face until his skull caved in.

"Okay, you can take him." I told the pilot.

He too nodded absentmindedly. Before then taking off into the sky.

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The ride to the new home was very long and very loud. I kept being awoken by New Pa as he kept getting calls.

"No! Gerald! I don't know how the insane terrorist nutjob got killed in the helicopter! I don't care what the forensics team is saying! None of us bashed his skull in with a brick! Do you think I wanna lose my job, my pension!? Over what!? Some junkie demented inbred yahoo not going to prison for life? He was gonna get the chair anyway! Why the fuck would anyone on my team bash him in the face!? Why would anyone risk that!? No! Gerald! I don't know how the fuck the cameras went all staticky! How the fuck should I know! Ask Norma from IT! Tell her to get off her fat lazy ass and… and… wait… what? Horace was mauled by a tiger!? HOW!?"

This was the third time he'd woken me up and I was feeling kind of cranky.

What with all the cleansing, running, hiding, running, rowing, cleansing, driving, hiking and running I'd had to do last night. All I wanted to do was sleep, but New Pa kept taking call after call after call. Going on and on about some crazy killer that escaped the raid and how the judge's widow was going nuts on TV and how the state troopers had been deployed cause there was some kind of mass panic going on.

Apparently one of the men this crazy killer had killed last night was some S-Rank Projector hero. Shatter-storm or something. They'd found him stuffed into a toilet Jenga tower. Along with lots of other bodies.

'Damn. That's crazy.' I thought to myself. Yawning.

Still, I couldn't use my cheats on people on the phone and they would keep calling, so I chose to just lay back down and make the most of it.

That said, I was doing really well with these nice car seats. They were all nice and comfy and warm. Perfect for napping, even with New Pa screaming in the corner.

By the time we got back to his home, it was night again and I was famished.

I got out of the car behind New Pa and then walked over to the people I assumed were New Ma and my new siblings. I just hoped that I didn't have to share my new room with too many people. It would make cleansing such a bother.

"I'm your new child!" I screamed at New Ma. While saying something similar to the new siblings.

"Also, I am hungry and want chicken nuggets!"

Time passed after that. Days turning to weeks and weeks turning to months.

New Pa was sooo much nicer than old Chief Pa.

He had a wife and a family, so I had a Ma now and siblings that didn't poke me with switchblades when I fell asleep first.

It was soooo nice.

And the breakfasts? Amazing.

I had food every morning! Every day! And not just for breakfast! I had lunch and dinner anytime I wanted and I could even have seconds every now and then!

It was soooo nice! Sooo good!

I went to school again! For the first time in sooo long.

It was sooooo…

"Hey scar freak. Going off to cut yourself again?"

I turned my head to see who was speaking.

It was Herman. The big boy in the blue shirt.

He wasn't speaking to me of course. I was very good at teaching lessons and I was fairly sure Herman could recall those missing teeth, even if he couldn't quite recall how they'd gone missing.

Also, they still hadn't found his pa after he tried to run me over, so that must have been bothering him.

He was talking to Clive. My friend Clive. Or rather, my new brother from my new family. The one who had just come home from the hospital after being run over.

I stepped in between them.

"Stop picking on my brother." I told Herman. His friends chuckled behind him.

Herman, not so much.

His brows furrowed as his mind turned its gears.

He looked as if he was thinking very hard. Then he licked his teeth and the spots where a few were missing.

"Never mind this man. This is stupid."

He left and his buddies started egging him on.

Then I turned to them and spoke softly, but firmly.

"You can't see me. You can't remember me. Go run in the highway."

They left with blank stares and I had a feeling that they wouldn't be picking on Clive anytime soon.

I hugged him and brought him with me.

"Come on Clive. Let's have lunch."

Years had passed after that. I went to school and I did well in school. I played with Clive and Helen and Britta and we had a blast. I got the best grades, because I was the best person, and I even managed to keep cleansing the world of bad people here and there.

New Pa got harassed by a bad boss? Cleanse.

New Ma was accosted by a burglar while we were at the store? Cleanse.

Clive was targeted by some bad men who wanted him to sell drugs for them? Cleanse!

I did so much cleansing at one point that the nice lady at the news gave me a nickname. The Green Hills Throat-Slitter. Or GHTS for short.

Clive started an ourtube channel and made videos about him and other true crime stuff. He was so much fun to watch. Thinking that it was some weird old man or something.

Then more years passed and we went to uni. Me going into engineering and him going into forensic something or other. Him swearing that he'd be a detective like New Pa and that he'd catch me in the end.

So funny.

Clive was the best honestly. He was always so nice and he always picked the side of good when he saw people being picked on. He was the one person I wanted to be like.

Then, as we were walking after our exams one Spring, the earth swallowed us and took us to a bad place.

Clive stopped Randall from burning someone else. Randall killed Clive before I could stop him.

"You don't see me!" I roared. Driving my knife into Randall over and over again.

I cried then. I cried next to Clive for hours. Days.

When I got up, I was all out of tears. Instead, I was recalling all the people who had chosen to follow Randall.

The unclean ones.

I started back up again and hunted them throughout the dark tunnels. My eyes hard and unblinking.

My heart set on cleansing.

My lips muttering.

"I'm a good person. I'm a good person. I'm a good person."

I hurled from sheer shock of sadness that overcame me and from there, I blinked. Finding myself back in my own realm.

I whirled. Trying to find the spot where Horrible Trauma Sully was hiding.

No such luck.

I started to get up, then hurled again as another surge of memories overcame me. His experiences flowing into me like an unstoppable river.

I blinked again and struggled to place a hand on a couch in order to steady myself.

'Get up.' I commanded. 'Get up you fool. Don't dwell on the horrible trauma. That's not stuff you should be worried about. You don't even live in that reality. Get up and focus on what's in front of you.'

I needed to get out of here. Now.

I needed to get back home and check on how much damage had been done to the people of my Earth. I needed to make sure all of them were at least at the point where their minds could be salvaged. I needed to get there and stop this Veiled Prince. This, Troubadour that Cultist Sully had unleashed on me. On my people.

I needed to do all of that while also keeping my new helpers away from the truth. Regardless of how much they'd helped me and my cause so far, I was under no illusions that folks like the Golden Cruelty would snap up any opportunities to squeeze a little more for themselves. If that meant dangling a favor or two in front of me while I was weakened, then they would gladly do so. If that meant killing me outright to end this costly war and prevent anyone else from being boosted… well…

Golden Cruelty would certainly try it if she thought there was enough of a chance that I'd die like a good little boy. If she knew how much my Telepathy was crippled.

The others, were a mixed bag.

Mercy could be relied on, if only because she'd seen the end.

'No. Wait. Actually, scratch that.' I thought quickly. 'I haven't read Mercy since going deeper into Pandemonium. Into the other possible versions of me. It's perfectly possible that the whole [Eternal Silence] bit would have put her off. She wouldn't have seen the actual Sully responsible, or what I'd tried to do with the power, but she would have seen the aftermath. This will require a more… diplomatic touch. And the Drake! Oh my goodness. Who even fucking knows how the Drake is going to react.'

"Did you at least get anything good?"

I stopped and looked up.

My vision landing on the human form of the Seeking Drake. His searching eyes piercing mine.

'Oh great.' I thought to myself. 'There go my plans to head straight back home after this. I swear, this day just keeps getting better and better.'

I would have to set him on some goose chase before I went back home. Lest he decided to follow me and generously 'Heal' someone back in my own dimension.

"Oh. Never mind. I think I'll go back to sleep."

He kicked me.

"Get up already fool!" He hissed. "You're not the one who got hogtied and slashed up and down all day for the past century! Do you have any idea what Hazimon might have done during that time!?"

"It's only been five months on their end." I muttered. My fingers instinctively going for the spots that Trauma Sully liked to scratch. The ones where he'd been cut.

The Drake stopped, then sighed with relief.

"Thank goodness for small blessings I suppose. We've only managed to turn a disastrous situation into one where we've only lost all our advantages. Nice."

"We've gotten more than enough to cover the losses." I told him casually. "I did in any case. And it's not like I've been sitting back and doing nothing."

"Oh?" The Drake raised a questioning eyebrow. "And how is it that you, oh paragon of goodness, managed to tilt the scales in our favor while stuck in here with an even more unhinged version of yourself?"

I began listing off the names of all the near-top-Tier Masters and Savants that had been unceremoniously killed while I was stuck in that limbo. Helpfully stopping shy of explaining how they'd died of how I knew about their demises.

The Drake opened his eyes then. Putting on a show of acting surprised.

Then he smiled.

"Well, well… Aren't we the little monster Sully? Hehe." He rubbed his palms in a very human-like manner. Licking his lips in a completely un-human like manner while he did so.

"Very well. I think I can forgive your trespasses. This time. But only this one time, you hear me? If we end up in Pandemonium again after all this is said and done, I will be very, very upset."

"You and me both." I muttered.

Opening a gateway back to the greater Labyrinth as my sight began kicking back in. Making a very good showing of not expressing the excruciating pain such an action brought me.

We both passed through the aperture and thusly, we both took in the massive amounts of lobster-taur warriors geared up and ready for battle.

The Seeking Drake turned to me.

"I thought Frigid Bloodline was on our side?"

"He wasn't." I told him. "I had to kill him."

"Oh. Oh that little red traitor! I knew I should have boiled him in Juntra oil the second he showed up!"

The Drake stomped, before appearing suitably impressed.

"Kudos on killing him though. It's not as easy as it sounds. Trust me, I should know."

We were interrupted by a deafening war-cry. Thousands of warriors throwing themselves at us in a blind, homicidal rage.

I was about to yell: "You can't see me!" on instinct, but I managed to hold myself back. Instead, I rushed forwards like a charging bull. Using my new Enhancer powers to their fullest.

Each kick disintegrated whatever my foot struck and each punch liquified whatever my fingers touched. Each blow sending shockwaves throughout the interior of the ship.

The Drake, for his part, expanded as a thick jelly that swallowed up the lobsters. His inner goo dissolving their bodies within the span of a single blink of an eye.

He and I were done within a few seconds and from there, we had a whole ship to play with.

"I need you to take this and go hunt down the Veiled Assassin." I told him.

He blinked in my direction. In a wholly un-human-like manner.

"Come again?" He said. "Did you just order me around as soon as we got back from the depths of your madness Sully? And what was that about anyway?"

He came closer. His massive gelatinous bulk reducing itself to the shape of a human woman with platinum silver hair.

"You, didn't use any Telepath abilities back there?"

"I'm trying out new things." I told him bluntly. Flexing my Psy as a Master Enhancer would. As Hazimon would.

"I got out of there with some gifts. I'm just trying them out. But really, I need you out there fighting the forces the Veiled Assassin is trying to gather."

He did not move.

"Please." I added.

He smiled.

"Oh all-right! Go check up on your family you silly goose you!"

I cringed.

"Yeah. They had me tied up in there so I listened to all they had to say. And boy my Sully, you really do have a habit of mucking things up don't you?"

He leered.

"Can't even use your Telepath powers when they're this broken?"

"I'm in the middle of fixing myself." I snapped. "Now if you really know so much, please consider where I'm coming from."

He whistled, but nodded. Opening a portal by himself and stepping out. To his own home, I wagered.

It was a coin toss whether he would relax for a bit then, or if he would follow up with the Veiled Assassin. But I was thankful for the reprieve regardless.

I myself opened a portal back home.

Stepping through it to find people. Moving like zombies as they gazed up into the sky. Their minds a homogenous mess of gently rolling hills marred with sunlight, and the visage of Cultist Sully.

All a swamp of happiness that could not retreat or reform.

All a bunch of [Presence] junkies.

I looked up to the now-vacant Toronto skyline. To where a statue of me was half-completed.

And there it was.

A figure holding a silver lute. Dressed all in shades of purple and silver, with a large renaissance hat that held seven multicolored flowers.

He was a sun all unto himself as he floated there. A shining beacon of Psy that seemed to have no end. Yet, he didn't quite pierce the Veil further. Instead, he played and with every note he sang into the world, a bit more of material reality was made to bear the burden of his [Presence]. The power shining off of his figure like burning radiation. Unseen, but no less potent.

It was still playing that lute when I used my Projector powers to fly there. It was still holding its head high as its wings failed to flutter or move.

"How are you still here?" I asked the Troubadour.

The Veiled Prince refused to look my way.

I clenched my teeth and tried to call upon the Tall Man and all my Intruders. The connection did not lead back to Pandemonium, but to this foreign Veiled Prince floating before me.

"Oh. I see." I said after checking. "Real nice. So I have to make you go away for this to stop. Right. My pleasure."

I called on my powers to re-enforce the Veil or reality. And the agony that followed almost sent me tumbling down towards the streets below.

The Troubadour, this Intruder that I did not make, glanced my way. Then he wagged a finger at me, as if disappointed, and went back to his lute. Playing a song of loss and regret.

I tried to fight him then. Using the rest of my Types.

I failed and he punched me back towards the Earth.

I tried many more times, and only earned myself a shattered block or two for my trouble, as well as roads that would have to be fixed before anything with wheels could cross them again.

It was twilight when I made my way home. My eyes following the road and all the empty husks walking or driving through it. Their figures acted as one hivemind of bugs. All following a pre-written script as if they were NPC characters in a simulation.

I opened the door to my house. My shoulders slumped and my eyes downcast as I entered.

On the rug, was a little card. The words written in red crayon.

"Better than what would have happened, if you lost control."

I threw it in the garbage and moved deeper into the home. Finding mom and dad the way I imagined them. Completely zoned out of their minds. My [Presence] running rampant in their minds.

Same with grandpa and with…

"Oh no." I groaned. "He left you alone?"

Puffin roared silently in the corner. The tape around her mouth and wrists unyielding, despite her fury.

"How are you not breaking out?" I asked as I approached. Slumping down next to her.

"No. Actually. Forget I asked. This is a massive improvement."

She struggled a bit more and I figure the Veiled Prince must be suppressing her abilities. The one good thing that bastard did so far.

I put my head in my hands and wept freely.

"Oh my goodness. Yeah. That makes sense. I lose just about everything. All while trying to make things better, and you're still here."

She struggled harder.

"No. No you're right." I said calmly. Wiping away some tears as I did so.

"I haven't lost anything. Not truly. I can bring them back to normal with enough work. Only, I'll have to keep pushing off the new power. My new ace. Back to good old boring [Presence] for me!"

I sighed again.

Then I placed my head in my hands. Trying to stifle tears that I knew were not forthcoming.

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