275 262: A Plague of Phantoms: Peddlers of Monsters III

[Why are you going by yourself?] Jane demanded through the manacite communication rings.

[Because some things are better done alone.] I replied cryptically. I could practically hear Jane roll her eyes at that response so I elaborated. [Trust me I know Americans. They think splicers are weak and helpless without their evos. Showing up by myself makes me look cocky and sure of myself, things that will piss them off.]

[But you are cocky and full of yourself…] Jane chirped. This time I rolled my eyes.

[Anyway…I piss them off, draw a huge crowd around me which will probably draw Beaufort and then the Orkands can come in and move all that shit out of the way blocking the path. Easy!] I pressed on.

[In theory but it's one of your plans so it's probably not going go as planned.] Jane quipped.

[We'll see…] I said, turning my full attention to where I was going.

I was currently taking the long way around to the front of the center where the royals and military officials were being corralled. This route had me creeping through a lot of other companies presentation areas, which I was easily able to do by channeling muffle attribute mana through my feet to silence my footsteps. This also let me get a better look at the 'competition' and I had to admit there wasn't much.

All of the companies I saw had their areas set up in different variations of the same display. What's more the evos that they had in their tanks all looked like alternating, randomized variations of the same evo. Even the names seemed similar. This was probably a strategy concocted by Beaufort or Thomas, make their wares seem more interesting by flooding the market with imitation of lesser evos.

However the closer I got to the front of the center the more diversity I started to see in the evos. Though they were still all keeping with a similar theme. Naval attack evos about the size of dolphin or blue shark. Not that I could talk, both the Mer-as-folk and Lunar Liger Sharks were naval attack type evos but at least they looked unique compared to all the other evos being presented.

I finally reached the front of the Sadamas Center after a few close calls, one of them nearly be caught by a soldier while climbing over a military storage crate but loud cheering and shooting coming from what I assumed was the Justice Technologies area distracted him long enough for me to rush over to the center of the walkway and make it look like I had just came in from outside.

Ignoring the blatant sneer that the soldier had when he saw me, I walked past that company's area and across the aisle towards the largest group of royals, dignitaries, and military officials that were congregating around one company's area in particular: Justice Technologies. I heard a odd popping noise that was followed by a ding or rapping noise at random intervals. And if the whoops and hollers were anything to go off of they weren't crowded there completely against their will; except for the fact the main pathway was blocked.

Thanks to Bone-lasher; who was helping around my company's area; I was able to see what was going on past the crowd of people. It seems that instead of a display of their new evos Justice Technologies set up one of those booth firing range booths similar to a one you'd find at a carnival. As I neared the crowd and switched back to my regular vision I could see that instead of f brining the evo and tank inside the center they opted to set up a information booth with a scientist and saleswoman manning it answering questions about the evo. A passing glance at one of the leaflets that a nearby military officials was carrying confirmed a of information for me.

Today Justice Technologies was trying to sell a liger shark variant they made called the Ancient Liger Sharks. It was one of the lysdale scripts that Madilyn gave me and one of the evos she guessed Justice Technologies would most likely be presenting. This confirmed, at least partially, that she's been giving us good information up till now and even more importantly it meant I already had everything I needed to sabotage their presentation.

I suppressed as devious smile at this point and focused my attention to finding Beaufort, Thomas, and Logan. That wasn't a problem thanks to Bone-lasher, I quickly found all three at the shooting booths. Logan was shooting against a general from Rome and outperforming him by leagues. Not surprising considering the fact that Thomas had Logan shooting guns since he was old enough to crawl. Once the last shot was fired the crowd that watched them erupted into cheers and both Logan and the General put down their guns.

"Winner! Logan Kingston!" A salesman for Justice Technologies announced.

The general looked disappointed for losing but took it sportingly. I watched from afar as the general walked over and shook Logan's hand, offering congratulations. Logan accepted the handshake but and hid the revulsion he felt from touching a splicer but I knew him well enough to shoot the slight flinch and minute grimace he made involuntarily.

"Step right up! Step right up! Who wants to try for a chance to win Justice Technologies newest naval attack transport type evo: The Ancient Liger Shark! Whoever can beat The hero of St. Louis, Logan Kingston himself in a shootout will win one of these ferocious titans for their country for free!" The salesman called out.

'So that's what they're doing…' I thought. That was a scam in of itself, I would bet all my money that at least seventy percent of the royals and military officials present today had never laid their hands on a gun before let alone shot one and honestly that was low balling it. None of them had the skill to beat an American soldier in this type of contest.

Until now I had kept to the edge of the crowd and did as little as possible to draw attention to myself, a simple task given my life in St. Louis. Now, however I was ready to cause a scene!

"I'll have a go!" I called out and raised my hand. Everyone turned around to see who had said that and most of the royals and military officials sported a look of surprise when they saw me. The Americans all had a look that was a mix of surprise, apparition, and confusion. Logan's face was a mask of anger, plain and simple.

The salesman looked back towards where Beaufort and Thomas were standing, near Logan but far back enough that they didn't have to interact with people. Both looked heavily annoyed but quickly masked it.

"An American demon verses an American hero! And brothers no less! Like something out of those American comics my son has been obsessed with!" A royal exclaimed from the crowd.

'Was that one of the princes of the Ottoman Empire or Russia?' I thought as I looked towards the royal.

Regardless the prince's declaration earned cheers and encouragement from everyone in the crowd. Seeing this I saw Beaufort seethe and give the salesman a curt nod. The salesman nodded back and pointed to me. The crowd parted to allow me through. I made my way to the shooting booth and stood face to face with Logan, who made no attempt to hide hos displeasure in seeing me again.

"I guess you're next Sir! Mr…?" The salesman said and motioned to me to introduce myself, however I was beaten to the punch.

"Kingston, Chase Kingston of Sho'gaga Artifact Company." Logan said. I frowned and shook my head.

"Sho'lajah Artifact Company. Come on Loggie, I know words and stuff isn't your strong suit but that is easy to say." I said, smirking when I saw his jaw clenched.

"Loggie…" He growled.

"Oh, don't go blowing a gasket Logan. We're in public!" I exclaimed, faking a happy and cheerful tone. I turned and faced the crowd then patted Logan on the back, channeling a small amount of harden attribute mana into the palm of my hand to make every smack hurt just a little bit. Logan audibly hissed but recovered quickly. I saw his eyes scan the surroundings quickly and then his normal cocky smirk appeared.

"I'm surprised to see you without your evos Chase. I figured after pissing off not one but two government leaders you'd want to be protected." Logan jeered. This earned a few chuckles and ooohs from the crowd.

"Logan you should know better than that. After all we fought together when that Ascended thrad tore through St. Louis. I was shooting with the best of them…unlike that one guy that was with the army that cried and screamed like a little bitch the entire time while his squadmates were dying." I retorted.

Logan stiffened and shot me a cold glare. I fired one back at him, channeling attributeless mana throughout my body and releasing it in waves. All the splicers in the crowd collectively gasped and took a step back reflexively. This was a calculated and subtle power move. Since normies couldn't sense mana; at least not in the truest sense; it looked like every splicer in the area jumped back simply from the intensity of my glare.

Seeing all the high ranking royals and military officials back away from me, Logan looked less confident but still held up the façade of a powerful American soldier.

"Um…Kingston's two! Are you ready?" The salesman asked, breaking the tension that had formed. I looked towards the salesman and stopped channeling mana, flashing him a smile.

"I'm ready if Loggie is." I said then turned towards the booth.

"I'm ready…" Logan growled through bitterly gritted teeth and turned to face the booth with me.

In front of us on top of the booth was a Philips Mini 11 and a plastic bin filled with magazines of rubber bullet. Philips Mini 11 was also known as the roadrunner. An American made gun that is the modified version of the Philips Medla REK 18, a heavy duty sniper rifle capable of shooting .50 caliber rounds. They were designed to take down evos by mostly destroying their upper bodies or heads completely and took a lot of training to wield effectively, mostly because they were more than a four feet long and had the recoil of a cannon.

The Philips Mini 11 in front of me however was about half the size, more compact and rounded out for comfort and accuracy at shorter range. These were further customized to make them look easy enough wield but I had a feeling this was deceptive.

"Do you know how to use one of those Chase Kingston?" The salesman asked. I picked up the Philips Mini and looked down the sights then quickly and expertly broke the weapon down in under a minute and quickly looked over each part before putting it all back together again and loaded a magazine and cocked the rifle. Earning a couple impressed huffs and chuckles from royals and Americans alike.

"I think I can figure it out." I said shooting the bewildered salesman a cocky smile.

"Could have just said yes." Logan grumbled and picked up his rifle.

"That way was more fun." I said. The Salesman rang a bell besides him and cleared his throat.

"Alright here are the rules: both shooters will fire down range at their targets designated by color. Red is the challenger, blue is Lieutenant Kingston's, the rubber bullets in your magazines are tipped with the corresponding paint color. You will get points based off where you hit your target. Red outer ring is zero points, blue middle ring is five points, yellow inner ring is ten points, and bulls eye is fifty. Those points are multiplied by their distance. The closest target is standard, midrange target points are doubled, farthest target points are tripled. Do you both understand?"

"Understand." Logan said.

"Yeppers!" I replied.

"The time limit is one minute and thirty seconds or until the last shot is fired. Who will win, the Challenger Chase Kingston, or the Hero of St. Louis: Logan Kingston?" The salesman asked the crowd.

"Lieutenant Kingston would never lose!" A young voice called out from the crowd behind us. Logan looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at someone.

"That's enough of that Private Oliver!" He said sternly they turned his attention back to the booth.

[Bone, I have everyone distracted, send the Orkands to clear that roadblock and tell them to be quick and quiet.] I told Bone-lasher through our mental connection.

[Got it Boss!] Bone-lasher replied.

"Shooters at the ready!" The salesman called out. Logan and I quickly took a firing stance and aimed down range towards our targets. "READYYYYY! GO!"

Neither of us fired immediately, it was a habit drilled into us by our respective teachers. For him Thomas, for me Grandma Lulu. We each took a brief second to line up our targets before we pulled the trigger simultaneously. My first shot soaring down the range and hitting the farthest target in the yellow ring, earning thirty points.

'Sights off….' I thought as I fired my next few shots. All of them grouping in the farthest yellow ring in the upper right corner of the ring.. 'It's down and to the left…'

I corrected my aim and fired another shot hitting a bulls eye in the farthest target, earning a hundred fifty points. I fired the rest of my shots each one hitting the farthest bulls eye. As Logan and I fired our last shots the cheers and applause from crowd behind quieted down. The salesman seeing both of us has fired all our shots rang the bell besides him.

"THAT'S IT!" He bellowed and pointed down to the ground. "Guns down! Guns downs while we tally the score."

Logan and I complied. I glanced over at his targets and saw that all of his shots landed on the mid ranged target. Most were clustered around the bulls eye but there were some that struck the yellow ring.When the salesman rushed over to confirm the scores he looked confident in Logan's score as he tallied it up. He nodded and smiled then turn to the crowd.

"Logan Kingston: 1100 points." The salesman exclaimed. That caused a low murmur from everyone in the crowd.

The salesman then turned his attention to my targets. He froze instantly when he saw that all of mine were on the farthest target and most the bulls eye. I eyed the salesman with a smirk as I crossed my arms, a silent dare to try anything. The salesman looked to Logan who had a look of defeat on his face since he saw my targets then scurried over to tally my points. I watched as the salesman tallied them once, twice, three times before he paused and tugged at his collar. And turned to face everyone.

Beaufort and Thomas's gazes bore into the side of the salesmanship head. Both demanding to know the outcome, the poor salesman did the upmost to keep from looking in their direction as he addressed the crowd.

"Chase Kingston…:1890 points…winner Chase Kingston." The salesman announce.

The area erupted in a chorus of cheers by the royals and military officials and outright denials from the Americans in the area.

"Ain't no way a splicer beat the Lieutenant!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

It belonged to that private that Logan admonished earlier. Several more statements like that started flying from other soldiers, each sounding progressively more racist and anti-splicer than the last. Judging by the looks of several foreign military officials this wasn't a side of the Americans they were used to seeing at Evo-cutions.

The crowd was quickly devolving into a less than civilized mob, which was great since Natesl's Orkand squad had arrived several minutes earlier and were already more than halfway done clearing up the blockade to the main walkway. No one had noticed them yet, surprisingly, so I just needed to keep them busy for a little while longer.

"Hey now! Private Oliver was it?" I called out, grabbing everyone's attention. The private in question glared daggers at me, as of cursing the very air I breathed for daring to call him out. "You wouldn't happen to trying to sow doubt in these results and make it easier for your boss to worm out of giving me my free Ancient Liger Shark, would you?"

"Doubt? There shouldn't be any doubt that you cheated! There's no way you could have beaten lieutenant Kingston! He's the freaking hero of St. Louis!" Private Oliver exclaimed then pointed at my gun. "You must have done something to your gun when you took it apart!"

"Awww! That's so sweet! Someone has a little crush." I said in a childish and mocking tone. That earned a round of laughter from all the splicers and a few of the Americans as well. Private Oliver's face burned bright red and he narrower his eyes at me in a glare.

"You didn't deny it!" He exclaimed. I smirked and grabbed Logan's Philips Mini again and loaded another magazine then reached into my pocket and pulled our a quarter.

"I didn't cheat…" I said then flicked the coin high into the air. Everyone looked up to follow the coin. I quickly brought my rifle up and fired, hitting the coin mid-flip, I fired again, knocking the coin further up into the air. I emptied the entire magazine while I juggled the coin in the air before finally letting it fall directly above me. I held my hand out and caught the coin them rested the rifle on my shoulder. "…I don't need to."

"I…you…that's…" Private Oliver stammered.

"Private Oliver, that's enough!" Logan snapped suddenly, making the private flinch. "I lost, he wasn't cheating. Now settle down! It's unbecoming of a soldier of the Zeonic States of America's army to throw around baseless claims of cheating."

"Sorry Sir." Private Oliver apologized. The defeated look he had almost made me feel bad, like kicking a puppy or clubbing a seal kind of bad. That was until he flashed me a look of pure bile, hatred, and malice. I rolled my eyes visibly then looked to Logan.

"Nice shooting either way. I can tell you got better. Your aim has definitely improved from two years ago. I think you hit the targets more here than you did in St. Louis." I said. Logan's jaw clenched and as he shot me a quick glare. I simply chuckled and set the rifle down on the booth.

I saw the orkands move the last of the crates and other stuff blocking the path and then quickly scurrying away, back to our area. For big guys they could be stealthy when they wanted. With my main objective completed I figured it was time to end this farce. I looked to Beaufort and smiled, clasping my hands together.

"So when do I get this Ancient Liger Shark?" I asked.

Beaufort's jaw clenched as well as Thomas. All eyes were on them now and it was obvious, at least to me, that they had never intended to actually give away a free evo to anyone here. But now faced with the commercial backlash of backing out on their promise they had no choice. They were cornered, they knew that, I knew that, and worse of all; at least in their eyes; I had been the one to put them into this situation.

"Later tonight…" Beaufort responded after a moment. His thick southern accent sounding hoarse under of the strain of keeping his cool. "…we'll give it to you tonight before the combat demonstration."

"I'll be looking forward to it, the way your people hyped them up got me excited. Too bad the other ones in the demonstration will get destroyed by the evos my company brought." I said walked around the crowd to stand in front of Beaufort.

"Destroyed huh? By those new types of evo you was bragging about during your speech earlier?" Beaufort jeered. I nodded and smirked, Beaufort didn't realize he gave me just the queue I needed and I was going to play it up.

"Yeah, we brought two for today actually. The Mer-as-folk and the Lunar Liger Shark. You can come see them at our area if you want." I said in a slightly raises voice.

"Boy, I think you overestimate the power of your evos. The ancient liger shark is unlike any evo on display here today!" Beaufort exclaimed with a broad sweep of his arm to motion to the rest of the displays. "It is so massive that we had to house them in a specially constructed pen off-shore. No small little evo that you brought is going to beat them."

"You sound confident. But I guess you would be, after all that ancient liger shark has a extinct shark as a base. A colossal one in fact...a Megalodon I think it was called." I said. My smirk widened as I saw Beaufort and Thomas eyes widen. But before they could say anything else I turned and started towards the freshly cleared walkway, glancing back only to address the crowd.. "Well I gotta head back, stuff to do, but in case anyone wants to stop by my company is having a special on enchanted items for the next hour, twenty percent off!"

Hearing that all the splicer's eyes widened, there was a split second to where they all looked at each other before all at once they started speed walking down the pathway towards my company's area. They all overtook me in a few short seconds.

[They're headed your way…] I warned everyone in our area via the communication rings. [And look no deaths or explosions!]

[Bite me!] Jane replied. I smirked and continued on down the pathway, feeling Logan's, Thomas, Beaufort's and all the soldiers ire as I walked away when a voice suddenly boomed into my mind.

[CHASE! OH MY GODS! YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!]