A small shiver crept down Priscus' spine at the chilling words of the men before him.
Never before had he been confronted with someone who so obviously wanted to do him harm, and would take pleasure in it.
He thought he had been exposed to the evil of the world with the death of his father.
He couldn't be more wrong.
"Are you responsible for what happened to my father?"
Priscus was trying to sound confident, but the slight tremble in his voice betrayed his fear.
He was only 17 years old for goodness sake. And while he had been exposed to pain via the training simulations, he had yet to be exposed to raw bloodlust.
Until now.
"And why would we tell you that?" The masked man latched onto the fear Priscus was showing and wanted to push that button to make perhaps the young man more compliant.
Truthfully the two men before Priscus had nothing to do with his fathers death.
But having been in the interrogation business for so long they knew that the best way to get people to make mistakes was to get them flustered.
Fear was an excellent way to make that happen.
The thing they didn't expect was the sudden shift in the demeanor of the boy in front of them.
The moment the two men refused to answer Priscus took it as meaning they were indeed responsible and were coming back to finish the job.
He conveniently forgot that they told him their purpose was information. To the confused, frightened, and angry Priscus, it didn't matter.
The guilty party was in front of him, and he would make them pay.
The two men glanced at each other, noticing the subtle change. The boy before them had suddenly stopped shaking, and his eyes took on a cold glint.
And before they could react the young man exploded forward striking out at the man on the right.
So sudden was the attack that neither of the men could react in time, causing Priscus' large fist to smash into the face of the man with crushing force.
The man flew several feet before slamming into the ground and rolling to a stop.
Neither Priscus or the remaining man were too concerned about him however.
The man was more focused on just how the frack a boy of 17 had such terrible speed and power. And Priscus was worried about how effortless it was to incapacitate one of his assailants.
'I guess the training is as effective as advertised.' Priscus mused inwardly before turning his focus towards the remaining assailant.
But before Priscus could strike again the man melted away into shadows and was gone.
There were no delusions within the man's mind, he knew from just that one strike that the boy in front of him was worlds apart as far as strength goes.
But fortunately it seemed like the boy was incapable of tracking him while using his talent so he was able to make a clean getaway.
'We need to report this to Lucius immediately, this boy is far different than we were told.'
This and many similar thoughts raced through the man's mind as he made his escape, leaving his former comrade behind to the mercy of his former target.
They both had fallen victim to the old adage, F around and find out. If they had only known about his strength they would have told Lucius to shove it.
Their own lives were worth far more than the few petty coins paid to them for this job.
'I quit. After giving my report I am done.' This was the last thought that went through the fleeing mans mind before he was finally far enough away to relax.
Still unconscious the remaining assailant had no idea what was happening, although if he had been conscious he would have made his escape by now as well.
There was no love lost between the two men, they were hired for a job and came here to do it. But unfortunately for both of them, the information they had was wrong.
And he had unfortunately drawn the massively short end of the stick.
Priscus stood silently for several minutes.
The cool breeze flowing over his body calming him down, the pale moon hanging in the sky they only witness of the troubled emotions rapidly displaying themselves across the young man's face.
Priscus was ecstatic at his increased strength, horrified at how near he had been to killing a man, confused as to why they were there, and scared that more of them might be coming.
But most of all he was determined to get to the bottom of it. The man in front of him would be most helpful in getting the answers he needed, so he dragged the man into the villa and locked him in one of the rooms.
Sitting down across from the man now tied to one of the beds asleep, he waited.
More than an hour passed by before the man began to stir awake. And once he did he immediately tried to activate his talent and slip away, but unfortunately for him the room was brightly lit, meaning there were no shadows within reach for him to melt into.
Additionally sometime during the wait, Priscus thought it would be a good idea to more completely restrain the man. So with that thought in mind, he dressed the man in one of the restriction suits and turned it on to 10%
The setting was low as Priscus didn't want the man to be unable to speak, just unable to get away.
"Who sent you, and why are you here?" Priscus' voice was commanding and low, giving off a great sense of pressure to the man currently restrained before him.
Understanding the situation he was in the man quickly began to spill the beans hoping to be let go.
'Screw you Lucius!' he cried inwardly. 'If you had given me correct information I wouldn't be in this mess!'
"I'll tell you everything okay, just please don't hurt me." Despite the man's earlier bloodlust, he showed now that he was truly a coward. He is perfectly happy to maim, kill, and torture those who are weak, but terrified of those stronger than himself.
"My name is Golo, I'm an interrogator hired by Lucius Claudius to find out what happened to his new gladiator Kaius.
When Kaius was in transit to the Claudius family he was involved in a terrible accident, but that wasn't the worst of it. The doctors said that his injuries were impossible given his reported strength and the nature of the crash. It was as though all the vitality of his body had been drained away, and his body was on the verge of giving up altogether.
In fact if Lucius hadn't spent so much money to pump him full of E-grade gene supplements its likely that he would have died within just a couple of hours of the crash.
The only thing Kaius could tell us was that he fell ill sometime after leaving your compound, and Lucius took that to mean that you were responsible.
As a result, we were sent to get the truth from you by any means necessary, however, we were not told that you were so strong. If we had been we'd have told that pompous prick to shove it before we put ourselves in this kind of situation."
Once the explanation was done Priscus sat quietly, mulling over the information he was given and what exactly he was supposed to do with it.
'I could inform the authorities,' Priscus thought amusedly 'With this man, Golo, confessing everything there should be sufficient evidence to really put a bee in Lucius' bonnet.
And with the system in place...' A slow grin began to spread across Priscus' face.
The sight of which raised the hair on the back of Golo's neck.
Priscus fixed Golo with one of his piercing blue eyes saying. "I need some information..." his grin growing even bigger as he stood up and slowly approached him. "And YOU'RE going to give it to me."
The only thought running through Golo's mind was, '....Frack....'
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Several days had passed since Lucius had sent the interrigators to find out the truth. And the games were now only 9 days away.
With every moment that went by with no news the more anxious Lucius became.
'They have never taken this long.' He mused as he paced back and forth in his opulent office.
'What on earth could have happened that would delay them for days on end? Did they kill him? Was he not there? Did they kill him?'
That thought repeated itself because he was truly hoping for it.
Forget finding out the truth, if the punk was dead it would be a simple matter to acquire all of his family's assets, what little remained of them.
'I can't afford to screw this up...' he thought worriedly. 'One more little mishap and I'm gonna be...' The thought died there as his door suddenly burst open with a team of officers rushing into his office and forcing him to the ground.
Indignant and frightened he immediately began to scream.
"What the frack do you think you're doing!! Get off me do you know who I am!!" These and other increasingly inane phrases were spewed forth continually from Lucius' mouth.
The officers completely ignored him until after he was cuffed and once again dragged to his feet. Whereupon he was slapped silent by the commanding officer cutting the tirade short.
"Silence!" The officer bellowed, immediately causing all attention to be drawn to him. "Lucius Claudius under Imperial code 1143 section 4 you are under arrest for illegal use of force and intimidation against a competitor, section 7 for espionage, and section 41 for illegal use of nondisclosed gladiators to frighten, interrogate, and or otherwise harm a lanista or members of their family without cause."
Lucius was stunned.
'impossible...' It couldn't be true that the reason he hadn't heard from his subordinates was that they were captured, could it?
Those same subordinates couldn't possibly have turned on him, could they?
That brat isn't behind this, is he? IS HE!?
These thoughts swirled relentlessly through his mind as Lucius was slowly drug out of his luxurious compound, still refusing to accept the reality before him.
Meanwhile, Priscus was having an altogether different conversation with his lawyer and new best friend...Golo.
"Am I free to go now?" Golo asked nervously. He had spent the last few days being interrogated by Priscus and his new lawyer. Mostly the lawyer as Priscus was still keeping up with his daily routine.
Filling them in on all the shady deals Lucius had been involved with, at least the ones he knew about.
Golo wasn't the only contractor Lucius hired to do his less-than-pleasant work.
"Almost," Priscus replied cheerfully. "There is just one more thing we need to ask you to do."
Raising a quizzical and semi-hopeful eyebrow Golo asked, "And what might that be?"
Priscus smiled and then pointed behind Golo towards the door, where a young officer had just at that moment entered the room.
"Follow this nice young officer down to the station for booking."
Golo was dumbfounded, hadn't he been helpful and cooperative!?
Why was he being sold out to the cops after all he had done for this little bastich!?
Then he looked closely at Priscus' eyes and saw there only a cold light devoid of sympathy.
It was at this point, as he was cuffed and dragged away, that he realized he had been the victim of a grand reversal of fortune.
And he had no one but himself to blame.