11: Mar stood outside the Wolf Cub Elementary school. He had observed the Defectors for an entire day now. These people were in desperate need of direction. This man, this Richard Finestra as he was called, had no real leadership skills, but he seemed to revel in the power of his assumed position. Once Mar showed up, Richard would not be willing to give up his place at the top. There was one very simple solution to that.
The gutter by the curb offered him a way onto the school grounds. He had decided that a dramatic entrance was the approach he wanted to take. The playground had a system of lawn sprinklers that were set to a timer. Richard was currently sitting in a lawn chair right beside one of those sprinklers sipping lemonade. Showtime.
Moments later, a noisy spray of water gushed forth from the sprinkler and formed up in mid air into Mar's body. He looked Richard in the eyes and said, "Richard Finestra. My name is Mar. I will now be leading the Defectors."
Richard's eyes went wide and his glass of lemonade fell with a dull thud onto the grass, splashing onto his leg. At the same time, his chair tipped so far back from his involuntary leg jerk that he fell backward. As soon as he was able to scramble to his feet he ran for the door to the main school house. Mar entered through the garden hose. If it was a chase Richard wanted, Mar would be more than happy to oblige.
Richard was hiding in the kitchen. Mar quietly snuck out of the sink and tapped him on the shoulder. Richard bugged out and fled, looking for another hiding place. Mar was going to toy with him for a bit before engaging the kill switch. Next, Richard chose the janitor's closet on the second floor. This was too easy. Mar came out of the utility sink and tapped him once again. Richard actually let out a yelp and ran some more. He ran up the stairs to the third, uppermost level and hid in a classroom. One small problem. There just happened to be a bathroom which opened into the classroom. Easy pickings.
Mar was through with games. He sprayed out of the toilet and grabbed Richard by the ankles. Richard struggled free, but fell backwards and went right through the glass of a window. Mar watched as he plummeted three stories to his death in a shower of wood fragments and glass shards. A guy named Finestra being defenestrated. Mar just couldn't resist laughing at the irony of the whole thing. That was a goddamn masterpiece and fuck it all, no one was around who could appreciate the true genius of it. Mar sighed, shook his head and headed downstairs on foot to address his new army.
The Defectors shied away from his approach. There were many questions. "Who are you? Are you Rend? We thought you were dead. Why did you kill Richard?"
Mar put his hands up to silence the crowd. "No, I'm not Rend, though he was a good friend of mine. I was sad to see him go. I've been watching everything that has been going on. I know about the Collective, about the Untaken, the Revenant and about you guys, the Defectors. I figured it was about time to step in and take the reins. My name is Mar. I'm your leader now and I want nothing more than to destroy every last one of the Collective and the Untaken."
At this, there were several nods of agreement. The tension seemed to ease just a little. "Now I killed that motherfucker out there because I didn't like the way he was running things. The Revenant are an asset to us. They can take care of the Untaken if there are sufficient numbers of them. Richard was mindlessly destroying so many of them without even thinking about the fact that he could be using them if he was smart. If he had a plan. If he had a goal. If he had two fuckin' brain cells to rub together. He also took you for granted."
Heads were nodding more vigorously now. Mar could see that he had them in his grasp. "He should have been training you to fight so that you could mount your own attack against that damn hotel. Well, that's what I'm here to do. We will be a formidable army by the time I'm through with you. Now let's get to work." A small round of applause materialized and vanished quickly, but Mar could still see some fear in their eyes.
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