Children of a Lesser God

Laz spent the rest of the night reorganizing things with Julia. As a surprise to Laz, Julia seemed to have quite a few good ideas as to how they should organize everyone. It seemed that she had already put in a lot of thought as to what they could do to make themselves a better organization. For the first time since Laz had met her, Laz wondered just what kind of background she had.

But he wasn't going to press on it. Since she was capable, that's all he needed to know.

Not only did Julia break up the individual groupings within the council, she also placed a few of the more moderate foundation realm experts in charge of legions, or so she called them. Assistant leaders were also chosen from the foundational realm experts as well, but these were the ones who were more domineering in the past. Making sure that someone else was above them was the best way to ensure that they would be kept under control.

The main lynchpin that would hold all of this together was Laz though. Without him, no one would have even looked at Julia, much less listened to her orders.

But because Laz was there as the driving factor, they did as they were told.

'It really wasn't as bad as it could have been,' Laz felt. Luckily, none of the current leaders were completely unsavory characters, minus the now departed Greg. They had managed to hold on to their humanity despite the changing environment. Laz was sure that at some point, he would come across ones who had already lost themselves.

History was filled with examples of sadistic leaders.

The real interesting one during the entire reorganization was Remi who stayed out of the entire thing. In turn, Julia didn't bother assigning her anywhere or giving her any jobs to do since there was no way she could comply even if she wanted to. Her condition didn't allow for it.

"Boss?" Damien asked as Julia was still getting the weaker members placed. Although the entire organization was going to be different from now on, it was still just a members club so to speak. Everyone still had to go about their own lives, jobs and families. If anything, the council was now going to be more like a support group with a mission.

"Yeah?" Laz had been watching Julia working but kept out of it. He wasn't good at this kind of thing. Instead, he had been sitting back, drinking while thinking about how he could drag the other two groups into it.

"Why are you so intent on figuring out what is happening with these people? It's not like we are involved at all..." Damien asked the question that everyone was thinking. Did their new boss just come tonight and beat them all up just so he could use them to take care of information gathering? It seemed a bit of a stretch.

"Who thinks we are not involved?" Laz asked back.

"Well.. I mean. We aren't. I think we would have noticed if someone here had been taking so many people off the street, right?"

"Would you?"

"Well..." Damien wondered if Laz had information he didn't. But that wasn't what Laz was trying to get at.

"Alright. Ignore that. No one here is involved as far as I know. If they were, I would kill them after getting any useful information out of them." Although Laz spoke casually, no one thought his words were a joke.

"Anyway, that's not the problem. You, all of you, ignored this because... you aren't involved, right?" Laz didn't ask this question to Damien but instead looked at everyone who had started gathering in their new groups.

"Yeah..."

"Well... I mean. If your not guilty, then..."

"Why would we get involved in it?"

Everyone had the same idea no matter how high they stood on the power poll. It seemed like Julia was the only one who had read into how bad this could be..

"Ok. But you are guilty, all of you. And now, with the police saying that you, this group of dangerous infected criminals, have been snatching people off the street, it gives them the right to treat all of you as terrorists and detain you as such without the need of proper procedures. So as you're sitting there, alone and shackled in a jail cell, I would be willing to bet that you wished you had some information about what really went on... right?"

"But that wouldn't happen, right?"

"That's just paranoid, isn't it?"

"We have rights..."

Although Laz was just exaggerating, some people began to understand. Even the slowest ones started to get the hint.

"Are you saying... that they will pin this on us? Even though we didn't do it? Come on. This isn't some third world dictatorship where whatever the government says goes. This is America. We have our rights."

"American citizens have rights. Who knows what we will be if we even make it to trial," Laz voice was flat and somewhat unfeeling. Law wasn't his strong point, but it didn't need to be. Anyone with half a brain and the internet could figure out just what would happen the second enough people are scared.

Internment camps wasn't just a policy that happened overseas. Even the US had a long history of using them.

"Do you know this?" Damien asked, seeing that everyone had quieted down.

"The truth is only important when it paints a pretty picture for the people. Currently, we are the biggest group with a target on our backs. Not just us, but the vampyres and the Vodun as well. The difference between the three of us is that we are weak while the other two, or at least the vampyres, are united. I can only assume the Vodun are the same way since this council had never even been mentioned in the same sentence with the others."

Laz took another look around the room.

"I'm not looking for trouble, nor am I trying to be some defender of justice. I don't really give a shit about people going missing. There are only two things that I care about that makes me want to do something. Number one, that Church is up to something. I'm not sure if you've ever met with a Chosen before, or even come across them. From what I can tell, there are less of them than there are of us. Still, I have run into a few of them and I can tell you this. They hate us and we don't like them. I can't explain to you why that is, it just is. It's like a gut feeling. It's like how you know something is shit because of the smell. It's the same thing being around them. And they feel the same about us. So since the church wants something, I kind of want to stop them from doing it. Because anything that's good for them is bad for us. The second thing is that currently, the chosen are on the side of the police. Why? Who the fuck knows. Someone is writing a pretty little narrative which makes us seem like the bad guys. So that means that if something does go down and things get exposed, then they will point their fingers and their guns at us. That's just how it is. And I don't mean to let myself get caught like that. Not again." The last part Laz said under his breath. Thinking back to the ride he had towards a detainment facility. They underestimated him then. Laz knew they wouldn't be so gentle the next time.

"Wait.... Wait.... I knew it. It's you, isn't it?" Damien seemed excited for a minute while looking Laz up and down like some sort of fan taking mental snap shots of his idle.

"Me?" Laz felt a bit confused.

"You. YEAH. Sure, it was a while ago and you're a bit older now... and your skin is no longer grey... but it is you huh?"

"Uh...?"

"The guy... the guy who they are looking for. The one who killed that chosen pervert and saved those girls. Then escaped from police custody???"

"Oh... shit..."

"Yeah. Yeah. I see it."

"Damn, he really is young..."

Although the foundational realm members of the council were all older than Laz, it was only the difference of at most, ten years. As such, they were still all somewhat younger men under the age of thirty. As such, they were much more in tune with the things that were happening and paid attention to people like Laz who had become notorious after the events that took place. It also helped that the video of his fight had circulated all over the net and had been viewed millions of times. For some people, Laz was a devil. But for infected like them, he was a hero.

Even Julia was shocked at Damien's discovery. She had been around Laz the longest but she never tied him to the crazed bastard who despite getting almost totally destroyed by lightning, would still struggle with his last breath to kill Brian.

The change in the surroundings was instantaneous.

Maybe the group would have listened to Laz based on his strength, but once you added his fame on top of that, they would follow him wholeheartedly from now on.

Even Laz had no idea that him being recognized would change the situation that much.

There was no longer a voice of dissent within the gathered people. They were going to take his orders to heart and carry it out.

When the devil calls, you listen.

When the devil resembles you, you become the devil.

After this, things progressed smoothly and finished up quickly. It was almost two in the morning when they finally were able to leave and since they were heading in the same direction, they left together. Although everyone seemed very excited, there was one person who was following Laz's departure with a strange look.

'Is he the one Remi was looking for?' She thought to herself, her mind sinking into a memory of the past.

"You never once mentioned who you are," Julia complained as they walked.

"You never asked."

"But that's just... nuts.... I mean..."

"I wasn't hiding anything, but being on the government's most wanted list isn't something I felt like advertising," Laz responded.

Julia was going to say something back, but decided not to. He was right, after all.

Although it didn't take them long to get back, they noticed that the lights were off at the apartment when they finally got there. Considering that everyone had to work in the morning, including them, it wasn't surprising.

They quickly said their good nights, knowing they would both be awake in a few hours anyway to work out and Laz snuck quietly into his room. He was just about the get changed when he noticed that something wasn't right about Abraham. He seemed... hot...

Using his sense, Laz quickly figured out the problem.

"Shit!"