Chapter 179: Prisoner Exchange While Tyler Visits the Outskirts

Zed stood alone in his purple mask while Dak escorted prisoners to a spot with no one around so he could teleport each prisoner to the marked drop off spot while they were unconscious with Zinnia waiting on the other end. She was in a small, blocked off alley way in the south outskirts of Vespa. One of her demon arts allowed her to manipulate physical space, much like her office, where the area could be small and she could expand it without others knowing. This was especially useful for what they were currently doing.

"Ok, that’s the last one. One from each solo recruit, one from Dak and I, one from the trio. What’s with all the commotion on the other side of the alley?" Zed asked, hearing the people being much livelier.

"Beats me. We have something to stay focused on. Z will be here in five minutes." Zinnia responded casually, not really caring what was on the other side of her blocked off demon art.

Tyler and his wives were walking the south outskirts and interacting with people. Many of them stopped, asking for autographs, signatures, pictures, things of that nature. Tyler wanted to interact with the people and his wives didn’t mind, but he had to let people know that he didn’t want pictures ending up all over the internet right now.

"I’m so sorry, but what can we do to help your neighborhood and situation?" Nyxara asked a group of vampires.

"Well, it’s not as bad as the slums. They’re the ones who really need help. The outskirts aren’t terrible," the husband of a family of 3 told Nyxara.

Each of them was having conversations with members of the outskirts and Tyler was starting to see how certain people avoided him or his wives, looked away from them and would duck away.

’Can’t win everyone over.’ Tyler sighed. ’Something feels broken, we need to fix it.’

******

"11 out of 14?" Agent Z asked, appearing out of nowhere.

’That wasn’t teleportation. What the hell was that?’ Zed thought.

’Invisibility?’ Zinnia thought. ’Why didn’t I pick it up? This is the area I expanded. I would have noticed his presence. How strong is this person and what powers was he given by the Necrams?’

"As you can see, we have brought you what you asked for," Zed said calmly. "Our boss is doing a good job handling these situations and every recruit pulled through. You only see 11 because she allowed people to work in groups. Each recruit or group brought back a prisoner with an ability or some knowledge."

’Why did he speak for me? He’s undercutting my authority...little prick!’ Zinnia thought while carefully keeping her poker face.

She knew she wore a mask, but Agent Z seemed different and already forced it off her once. She wasn’t going to risk him being able to see through the mask.

"I see you no longer wear your contacts. So, the real Zinnia has shown herself to the slums. Here is $500,000. Zed, take it back and return quickly, our contact will be here right about..."

"Z," a Necram general wearing a silver mask said quietly.

’A humanoid...’ Zinnia and Zed both thought.

Zed disappeared with the money and returned.

"General. Here are your users. Do what you must," Agent Z spoke calmly and clearly.

"Here? You’re sure. These are low level ranks. Why the trust?" The masked General asked curiously.

"Because you will transfer some of their power to both of them under orders from 0. You keep 9 and we take 2. That was the deal, was it not?" Z asked confidently.

"Just surprised, not questioning 0’s judgement. Fine." The general said while walking over to the prisoners.

"I guess they can see," the General laughed while extending a rod from their hand into one of the unconscious prisoners.

’His body is literally deteriorating into nothingness and the rod is sucking his power and lifeforce away? What in the actual fuck?’ Zed gulped.

One by one, every single prisoner eventually withered away into specs of dust that blew away with a breeze. The general’s left arm was robotic and had a tank attached, filling each time with a thin green substance that moved around like it was alive.

"Well, which one first Z?" The general snickered.

"Light purple, let’s mix it up." Z laughed.

"Step forward then and remove your mask." the general demanded.

’Shit. Hopefully they don’t recognize me. I’m a secret to the Atwood family and the elves didn’t have data on our King’s undercover operatives, so I should be safe, but who the fuck knows. I might be dead already.’

Zed quickly took off the mask.

"Well then, are you just going to stand there or are you going to come get your reward?" The general scoffed.

’Phew,’ Zed thought, confident Z nor the unknown general knew him. He noticed Zinnia’s temporarily tensed body language relaxed. It was a rare change in her otherwise calm demeanor.

He walked forward confidently, "Thank you for this gift."

"A good little soldier for Zinnia. Now I see, Z. 0 has put a lot of faith in you. I was starting to wonder whether or not we had a spy amongst us but it appears we are clear," the general said before extending their left arm and rod into Zed’s chest.

’I’m glad I was right about him, I had my suspicions,’ Zinnia thought. ’The whole pretend act worried me with Mojo, but if Z and this general don’t know him but 0 knows who I am, I made a good selection.’

Zed screamed in pain, only to quickly muffle it. "Fuck, a warning would have been nice so no one would hear."

"No one can hear us you fool," the general scoffed while less than 1/11th of the tank poured into Zed, who keeled over from the pain.

’What the fuck just happened to me? It’s so painful but I feel so much more powerful. All of my senses are heightened, I feel like every cell in my body is more powerful, but I want blood really badly now.’ Zed thought, enduring the pain as best he could.

Without warning, the rod was removed and shot directly into Zinnia, who didn’t make a sound or flinch in the slightest.

’How? Who is this woman?’ Zed thought. He was impressed she acted like this was a simple blood injection.

Zinnia stood tall and strong while the tank depleted more than it did for Zed. When the rod was removed, Zed noticed the giant hole in her chest rebuilt itself in reverse, not like a normal demon wound or vampire wound would heal.

"Thank you. I feel so much more alive!" Zinnia cackled with joy.

"Excellent. Well, this never happened and Z, we’ll talk later."

Before Z responded, the general was gone.

’What is he using to travel? It’s not teleportation. Is it from the mask?’ Zed thought, more confused than he was earlier.

"Well Zinnia, you have certainly proved your worth. Enjoy the gift and I look forward to seeing what you do with your slums. In the meantime, keep your head low and don’t get into any conflicts with Tyler or his group. They’re right on the other side of your little demon art. Surprised you didn’t catch that," Z said in an unreadable tone of voice.

’He’s fucking what?!’ Zinnia thought angrily, still maintaining her perfect demeanor.

"He must have arrived after I used my demon art. I should have paid more attention to my surroundings, but I was ensuring the safest spot for our meetup," Zinnia said with a polite bow.

"You focused on the correct thing. Zed, learn a thing or two from your boss. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on not knowing because you’re quite new. Moving forward, you should know it goes without saying that if I find out you mention you’ve received power, exposed anything about me, the Necrams or the exchange, you’re both dead. You two are the only two slum recruits to see a general. I’m not sure what 0’s fascination is with you Zinnia, but I default to her. Good day."

’Her?! A female runs this all! So, both Zinnia and I are dead if either of us speaks about it or gets charmed into telling. We need to get out of here before Tyler spots us or we’re cooked.’