Sun Throne. Camp York. World Alpha.
Commissar Charlotte took a step forward.
"My lord, if you simply want to let off some steam, then go ahead, burn me alive. But keep in mind…" She glanced at the ashes on the ground. "I am far from alone. Kill me, and there will be consequences."
Apollo growled. If he was truly the reckless fool he pretended to be in front of Caity, then he might actually kill the Phasewalker. But in reality, he didn't become the head of Camp York by being a fool. He has eyes and ears across the camp, all of whom have been sent to find out what happened. He could kill Charlotte, but Fortress Alpha would certainly avenge her. Pissing off a faction of millions strong just because he had a murder-boner was the very definition of foolishness.
He sat back as Charlotte continued.
"The food originated from us, yes. But it was escorted here by your own troopers. It was stored in your own house, guarded by your own servants and sentries. It was prepared by your cooks, and delivered to you by your waiters. We Phasewalkers are hardly the only suspects, and if you want to find the true men, or women, responsible, then we should work together."
The others immediately found their positions threatened. General Johnson immediately dropped onto his knees.
"My lord! My men have all sworn their allegiance to you! They will die before betraying you!" He snapped to Charlotte with a vicious look in his eyes. "Fortress Alpha has the incentive to mean you ill, my lord! You are a threat to them!"
The general knew, between all these people, if Apollo wanted to kill someone, it was probably him. He didn't have the backing of a giant faction, nor powers that could threaten Apollo himself. All he had were thousands of gunners who would flee or turn on him before fighting Apollo. He had little value to the Tier 3 Mutant.
"Threat?" Charlotte smirked. "Fortress Alpha has no intention to seize Camp York. We need nothing from you."
"You are after our people!"
"In case you don't know, we have recently recovered New Sara from the grasp of the Mutated Animals. We rescued over 10,000 people, 3,000 of which joined our battle ranks." Once again, Charlotte rebutted. "We don't need your people."
New Sara...Apollo's gaze darkened. This Fortress Alpha was expanding quicker and quicker, but now wasn't the time to worry about the threat they posed. He had an attempted murder to solve, and if Fortress Alpha wasn't responsible…
He snapped to the Mutants, all of whom lowered their head, even the sadistic Joker.
"I will conduct a thorough investigation of what happened. For the best interest of everyone involved...I suggest no one leaves until the true culprit is discovered."
He said it was a suggestion, but anyone with a pair of functioning eyes and a semi-functioning brain knew it was not a suggestion, but rather an order. Disobey, and face the king's wrath.
With all the suspects detained, Apollo proceeded with his interrogation. The entire kitchen staff, along with many of the waiters who had access to the food, were rounded up. Apollo personally interrogated every single one of them. Caleb offered to help, but Apollo turned him down. Right now, anyone could be a suspect. The Sun King only trusted himself.
After a few servants, Apollo turned to a kitchen helping staff. Distinctly, he could see a look of fear on the man's face. Considering he just burned a cook alive, fear was understandable, but as the man was interrogated, he kept on sneaking peeks at the Tier 2 Mutants on the side.
Apollo knew the helping staff must be hiding something. All of a sudden, without warning, he formed a ball of flames in his hands and pressed it right next to the staff's face. The man screamed as Apollo pushed on.
"Give me a name!" The Tier 3 Mutant demanded as the smell of scorched flesh filled the room. "Give me a name and I will do this to that person instead!"
The man kept on screaming, but he kept his secret. Apollo was in no hurry. Instead of letting the entire man up, he slowly worked his way through the unfortunate man's skin, flesh, and then bones. Before long, half the man's face was melted, revealing pieces of white bone. Many troopers turned pale. Even a few Mutants found themselves disgusted.
Apollo kept on going. Finally, the man cracked.
"Joker!" He screamed with whatever was left of his mouth and vocal cord. "Joker made me do it!"
All eyes snapped to the Joker, who was obviously taken back. The death glare of Apollo made even he, a man who took pleasure in torturing and slaughtering defenseless, ordinary people, panic.
"My lord!" He screamed, talking fast to get his message across before Apollo straight-up came for his head. The smugness he had when he tortured his victims was nowhere to be seen. "Why would I do it? And if I did make the attempt on your life, why am I still here? I should've escaped the camp by now!"
That made sense. After learning that Apollo lived, Joker had sufficient time and opportunity to flee Camp York. At that time, Apollo was still in his mansion, and a few York Troopers couldn't stop him. Joker could've gotten out to safety. Instead, he came here, alone and vulnerable to Apollo's reach. That didn't look like what the culprit would do.
Then again, all this could be reverse psychology.
Apollo growled in annoyance. If it was just a nobody, then he would've killed him, just to be sure. But Joker was one of the most powerful Mutants in the camp. Apollo could kill him, but it would take a lot of effort and he himself could be injured in the process. He wouldn't want to pull the trigger unless he was absolutely sure.
"If you are innocent, then you have nothing to hide." The Tier 3 Mutant looked straight into Joker's eyes. "Then you shouldn't mind my men checking out your mansion."
"Of course not. Feel free with that." Joker lowered his head in obedience. He knew well he didn't have a choice. Refuse, and Apollo would have his head.
"Then let's move." Apollo glanced at the others, including Charlotte and General Johnson. "All of you, come with me." They weren't completely exonerated yet.
The others nodded in agreement.
Joker's mansion sat a distance away from the Sun Throne. Before he left, Apollo took all of his personal guards with him, not to fight, but to do the searching. The group marched across several streets covered by endless filth and foul smell before reaching their destination.
Some of Joker's guards standing at the door quickly moved to the side upon seeing Apollo. With a wave of the hand, Apollo sent all of his guards charging into the building. The men acted recklessly, knocking over furniture and smashing open closets. Their leader was almost killed. If they acted incompetently now, then perhaps Apollo would choose to make examples out of a few of them.
The servants and guards in Joker's house were confused, initially, but when they realized what happened, they quickly moved to the side and gave up whatever weapons they had.
Seeing his properties tarnished, Joker tried his best to look perfectly content and obedient. As long as he could survive through this chaos, he could always clean up his house and find more furniture.
Suddenly, one of Apollo's guards charged out of the mansion holding something in his hand. He handed it over to Apollo, and Joker watched with horror as Apollo's expression changed from anger to utter fury.
"Joker…" The man snapped at Joker. Everyone could see a glass vial with the poison tag on it. "how do you explain this?"
Having a glass of poison in storage was normal in this day and age, but after everything that happened...all the evidence was piling up, and they were pointing at the same conclusion.
"I…" Joker's eyes widened. "that's not mine! Someone framed me! I...why would I keep the vial? I would've destroyed it! Someone planted this in my house!"
"Planted...planted it?" Apollo's face turned red. Did Joker think he was stupid? "This was found in your bedroom! You are a Tier 2 Mutant with magical spells at your disposal! Once, you literally discovered a Tier 2 Mutated Worm burrowed so deep in the ground no one else, not even me, sensed it! Are you really telling me someone sneaked this into your house without you realizing it? Do you think I'm stupid?"
"I…" Joker looked through the crowd before snapping to Caleb. "It's him! Caleb! He visited me a couple of times before, in my house! He was with me when you ordered us to come over! He's a psychic! He could've deceived me!"
Apollo snapped at Caleb. It was possible...but just before he could say anything else, Joker suddenly took a step back.
"Agony!"
"Chaos!"
"Confusion!"
"Decimate!"
The string of spells smashed into Apollo. The first spells weakened Apollo while the last sent him flying back.
What the hell?
The expression on everyone changed as the Joker unleashed a string of surprise attacks. Joker's own troops looked at their leader like he was mad before discovering, hey! This could actually work! Charlotte and Johnson quickly stepped back. As mere mortals, they had to keep themselves alive first before doing anything else. Caleb and Victoria both adopted a defensive posture, but none of them made a move on Joker.
They were waiting. Observing.
The only ones that did act were Apollo's personal guards. They knew their fate was tied with their leader. If Joker won, there was no way he would accept their surrender. The best case was him slaughtering them to the last. The worst case...it terrified the guards.
But just as the guards raised their Defender I Gauss Rifles, Joker whispered a single word.
"Incinerate."
Screams covered the field as dozens of men were lit up by the Tier 2 Mutant.
Joker's Mutation was very different from most of the Mutants. For most, their Mutations granted them additional strength, speed, rapid regeneration and so on. Others enhanced certain parts of their bodies, like their brains or their bones. But Joker…somehow, he possessed the power of words. The power of spells.
No one seemed to know where his powers came from, but it was undeniable that he was much more unpredictable in the field of battle than most Mutants.
That was why neither Caleb nor Victoria did anything to Joker. One misstep and even they could fall.
Suddenly, a figure slowly stood back up. Joker's vicious smile disappeared, replaced with a slight hint of fear as he realized Apollo was perfectly fine.
"You have grown arrogant, fool!" Apollo declared. Before Joker could act, hundreds of fireballs condensed all around him in less than a second. The next moment, they converged in the center, smashing into Joker almost simultaneously. Each of them exploded with the power of an RPG round.
The full might of a Tier 3 Mutant was truly demonstrated. That blast along was enough to destroy a squad of Predator II tanks.
"Shield!" In the middle of dozens of explosions, Joker's spell could be easily ignored.
When the smoke cleared, half of Joker's court was destroyed. Dozens of troopers and servants that got too close were burned alive. Charlotte and Johnson were a bit more fortunate. While neither Victoria nor Caleb got into the fight, the psychic actually formed an invisible shield that protected the two ordinary people.
Johnson could be replaced, but if Charlotte died here, it would be quite a blow to the Fortress Alpha - Camp York relationship.
Joker survived the blast, at least his body did. But one look at his pale face and bloody eyes suggested he was far from well. Before he could craft another spell, Apollo pushed forward. No way he was letting Joker live, not after it was clear he was responsible for all of this.
Fireball after fireball smashed into Joker. The man's defenses were getting more and more pathetic with every collision. Finally, using an opening in Joker's defenses, a burst of flames was lit up inside Joker's body, frying his guts in just moments.
Finally, the Tier 2 Mutant was on the ground. His sadistic life was coming to an end. Apollo slowly walked up and stood over him, a victorious smirk on his face.
"You should've fled when you had the chance. With your powers, you could've survived anywhere. Instead, you stayed here! Did you think you could kill me? Me?"
He raised his hand. Just before he was about to bring it down and kill Joker once and for all, Joker suddenly whispered another word.
"Decimate!"
Once again, Apollo felt a surge of violent energy appearing out of nowhere and coursing through his body. The Decimate spell was one of the most powerful tricks Joker had up his sleeves. It was extremely laboring on his part, and it took Joker quite some time to cast. It worked by filling the target with volatile energy that would destroy the target from within.
Apollo did what he did just moments ago, when the first Decimate spell struck. A wave of flames washed over his own body, cleansing that hostile, foreign energy that came from Joker. It worked. The flames purged that foreign power and saved Apollo's life, but at the same time, the Tier 3 Mutant realized victory came at a cost. His power was extremely exhausted, and the damage inside his body has already been done.
He was weak and he was wounded. He could recover, but it would take a while.
Turning his attention back to the culprit of all this, Apollo realized, in his complete fury, that Joker was no longer breathing. That final Decimate spell seemed to have taken all the wind out of him. As Apollo looked down on the body, he swore he saw a smirk on Joker's face.
Indeed, even if Apollo knew Joker was behind this, there was no way he could get back at him. There was no way to torture the dead, unfortunately. Furious beyond what words could describe, Apollo snapped to the few personal guards that he survived.
"I want every person that is connected to Joker dead! Kill everyone in the house and then burn it down! Do it now!"
The guards nodded and charged back into the mansion. Soon, gunshots and screams erupted.