He wore the mask of a man oblivious to the pain of others: blank eyes and a face of stone.  He was trained to.  And it was natural for him.  And he liked it.

    Right now he was feeling pretty content.

    “You hungry, Syche?”

    “I am busy,” came the reply.

    He was hungry, but he had a job to do.  Not so much for necessity as for mentality.  The things were hideous, be they dead, alive, or a mass of boiled flesh.  How could he eat if he had to look at them?  Their eyes were windows to some cruel place that he wanted no part of.

    “Are you sure?”

    “Let me finish cleaning up.”

    “Whatever.”

    He looked at the battered man slumped against the wall.  His impact had cracked the bricks and left an imprint shaped like his body.  The blood was staining everything, including Syche’s consciousness.

    He blinked to clear his mind.  He grabbed the man by his shirt and lifted him away from the wall.  He dragged the corpse behind him as he picked up the last victim, a young one who had the misfortune of having his forearm jammed through his torso; he considered it a rather painful way to die.

    “You guys were too easy,” Syche mumbled.  “Next time you should not let your bodies devolve to frail glass sculptures.”

    He dragged them over to the burial pit and looked at the thousand or so bodies that he had tossed into the hole already.  He made it a thousand or so plus two.  He opened the fly on his pants and relieved himself.  It felt so good!

    He closed up and turned around to watch the black smoke roll off of the burning huts.  He grinned.  Easy or not, it had been fun ridding Planet Vegeta of yet another group of rebels.  It was always fun to kill things.

    He walked over to his team’s bonfire and took a seat on a moss-covered log.  He wiped his bloody hands on the charred grass and adjusted his armor.

    “Nothing beats the smell of a race burning away in an inferno.”

    The heat of the fire was annoying; it was hot and humid on this part of the planet; almost hot enough to cook your brain.  Scyche looked up at the stars; they were wildly twinkling because of the heat.  The stars’ gazes seemed unsure.

    It was a wonderful night for the insects and smaller nocturnal animals of the planet to be scurrying about.  The rustling of leaves and small bushes and the various sounds of birds and insects were almost too peaceful for Scyche’s ears.  Killing them wouldn’t be worth it.

    “Toss me a head.”

    “Adult or child?”

    “I don’t know.  They all have big heads.”

    “How hungry are you?”

    “Better make it an adult.”

    Beermius, the heavy strategist, pulled a bluish-green head from the pile at his side.

    “Want it cooked?”

    “No.”

    Beermius tossed the head to Scyhe and went back to feasting on a leg.

    Scyche held the watermelon-sized cranium in his lap face-up; it looked like all of the others that he had slaughtered on this mission; weak, ugly, inferior, scared, and most definitely hittable.  He liked the look of fear that this one would forever wear; it was hideously marvelous. 

    He jammed his fingers into its eye sockets and gouged its eyes out.  It was a bloody mess.

    He looked the thing over before sinking his teeth into its face.  Blood and fragments of bone oozed down his chin as he ate the identity of the head away and moved closer and closer to the best part.  He wasn’t bothering to chew or swallow; he was just getting as much as he could into his mouth as fast as possible.  When he got there, his saliva broke the dam of his lips, joined by a steady stream of foreign blood.  It looked so delicious.  He spit the gunk out of his mouth and licked his red lips.

    “It has been so long since we’ve had anything other than dehydrated god-only-knows-what,” Scyche said.  “This looks better than grilled Brakada!”

    “Maybe we should stop incinerating them.  I mean, if all of our targets are this tasty it would be worth the extra effort,” Beermius said.

    Scyche smiled.  Beermius was thinking with his stomach, his patented strategy.  It was a good idea, though.  It was more fun to torture them and pull them apart than to blast them straight to the recesses of the afterlife, and there would be food afterwards.  Very tasty food. 

    Scyche buried his face in the brain, letting blood, saliva, and sweat mix together in a disgusting display of barbarism.

    “Hey, guys!  Guess what I just found!” Holo called.

    Scyche swallowed and looked up.  Holo, the adventurous kid out on his first assignment, was coming out of the forest.  His short hair was matted with sweat and an army of ants was invading his face.

    “Hello,” Beermius replied.  “What did you find?”

    “Tsufuru-jin ruins!”

    “That might explain where these little varmints got their firepower,” Beermius said.

    Scyche cleared his throat rather loudly, and when Beermius turned to him, gave a menacing scowl; his eyes seemed to glow like suns in the darkness.  Scyche glanced at Holo, and then resumed his feasting.

    “Show some excitement, guys!  There are living Tsufuru-jins, too!”

    “Just settle down,” Beermius said in a soothing yet quick voice.  “Nothing to get excited about.”

    “Are you nuts?  What could be better than killing Tsufuru-jins?”

    “Holo, just calm down.  How about some meat?  This stuff is really good.  Just look at Scyche over there!”

    Holo cocked an eyebrow at Beermius.  “You nuts, man?  There are Tsufuru-jins ripe for the killing!  We could eat them!”

    “Holo, please, take a piece of meat.”  Beermius held a torso up for Holo.  “It has been a long day and you need some energy; you are delirious.”

    “My god,” Holo said.  He ran his hands through his hair.  “You old folks are no fun at all.”

    “No, I guess not,” Scyche replied in a hollow voice.

    “I guess I will just leave you cowards alone.  If you don’t want to come, that just means more for me.”

    As Holo turned to leave, Scyche dropped the head onto the ground and wiped the mess from his face.  The noises of the Vegetan wild went dead silent.  A sudden gust of wind sent a cloud of sparks out of the bonfire as Scyche stood and tensed his powerful body; his motions could be heard and felt.  He cracked his knuckles, causing little bolts of energy to shoot around his hands.

    “So you are coming?” Holo asked.  He turned back around.

    “So help me Koola, if you so much as think of thinking of going back to wherever the Heck those little rats are, I will jam your anterior as far as physically possible up your posterior, and then some!”

    “Okay, man, you are like nothing to me.  Before we left, I checked your file; you are an average Saiya-jin, and I am an elite!  I could crush you!” Holo replied.  “So just stay if you are a loser, and let me go have some fun.”

    “Kid, don’t be screwing with Scyche.  You have no idea how far you have sunken into the pile of Oozaru feces,” Beermius cautioned.  “In case you didn’t know, he isn’t all together in the mind…but he is definitely all together in power.”

    Tweg landed next to Holo and crossed his scrawny arms.

    “Don’t mind my uncle, Holo.  He is always like this on missions,” Tweg said.  “Just ignore him; he is my only family, and I don’t want you killing him.”

    “I am glad to know stupidity doesn’t run in the blood,” Holo mumbled.  “I just found some Tsufuru-jins.  Want to go kill?”

    “Tweg, I will kill you if you go with Holo,” Scyche growled.

    “Sure, man.”

    “Kids!  Stay here!  I am the commanding officer of this team!  If you leave this camp, I will have you executed for refusal to follow command!” Beermius boomed; his voice scared a flock of birds into the air.

    “Screw you,” Holo said.  “Come on Tweg.” 

    Holo turned and walked into the forest, his tail held up high.  Tweg followed suit, nearly tripping over everything.

    “Thanks for trying to keep the peace, Beermius,” Scyche said in a rather loud voice.  “Unfortunately, I only know of two ways to do this.”

    Scyche ran up behind the boys just before they came to the edge of the woods.

    “Tweg, you ever wonder why you live with your uncle?” Scyche whispered in his nephew’s ear.

    “So he is coming!” Holo exclaimed.

    “Ignore him for a second.  Ever wonder?”

    “Well…no.”

    “Ever wonder where your parents are?”

    “Now that I think about it, I never have.”

    “Or your aunt?  What about your grandparents?”

    “You are starting to creep me out,” Tweg responded.

    “That doesn’t surprise me.  I think I did a pretty good job of keeping you from thinking about it.”

    Tweg stopped abruptly, as did Scyche.  “What do you mean, uncle?”

    “I never even told you that you had siblings.”

    “What?” Tweg screamed.  “What in the universe are you talking about?”

    “Hey, guys, why are you stopping?” Holo asked from up ahead.  “We are almost there!”

    “Tweg…we are the only two people left from our family.  And we had a big family.”

    Tweg was dumbfounded.  He found he could not reply to his uncle.  His mind was paralyzed.

    “We were also a very strong family.  Do you know why were are the last two left?”

    “Why?” Tweg whispered.

    “During the War, a band of Tsufuru-jins came to our camp.  Despite the fact that we outnumbered them and outpowered them by unbeatable amounts, they killed everyone but you and me with their techno-doodads.”

    “Are you serious?” Tweg asked.

    Scyche just nodded.

    “You lying sack of party poop,” Tweg laughed.  “Let’s go, Holo.”

    The two boys ran on at top speed.  The darkness swallowed them up.

    Scyche cursed everything that he could think of and flew ahead, flattening the trees as he sped on.  He quickly came to a vast clearing illuminated by torches scattered around.  He ran his eyes over the gray rubble that stretched out before him.  Holo and Tweg were creeping towards a pile of rusty metal.

    Scyhe inhaled deeply.  He wasn’t going to succumb to the memories or the nightmares.  That would mean certain intensification.

    “Come out and show your dirty little faces, you god mistaken clumps of evil!” Holo shouted at the pile.

    “Boys!  You have to get out of there now!” Scyche ordered.

    Holo turned his head to Scyche.

    “So you did come.”

    Scyche turned fiery eyes on the young boy; he had Holo in a paralyzing stare as he approached him.  He could see his reflection in the kid’s sweat.

    Scyche clenched his jaw and massaged his sweaty temples.  He let his tail fall limp behind him.  He blinked.

    Tweg was grinning.

    “What the Heck?” Scyche shouted.  He swatted at the fuzz ball clinging to his face.  “Get it off!”  Scyche charged up a glowing ball of energy.

    “Man, you are really psycho tonight,” Tweg said as he pulled the little creature off.

    “It is too hot out here,” Scyche said while letting his energy settle.  “We are all losing it.”

    “Dude, I know that you are losing it, but I don’t think I am.  Tsufuru-jins are recreational prey, ” Holo said.  “You need some recreation.”

    Scyche extended his right hand, palm down, index and middle fingers out.  He concentrated.  The air hummed as the energy filled it.  Scyche turned his hand over. 

    “Are you nuts?” Holo screamed.  “Wait, stupid question.”

    Holo covered his face with his crossed arms.  Tweg dove to the ground at his uncle’s feet.  Scyche laughed and raised his hand above his head.

    The whole area exploded in a bright flash.  Rocks and boulders crashed into the trees.  The ground shook as the shockwave raced outwards.

    Beermius kept eating as the wind rushed out of the trees and made the fire before him dance.  He closed his eyes and hummed just as the roar and flash hit him.  He ducked only an instant before a tree flew above him.  The momentary chaos passed and he resumed eating.

    “Man, I thought the files were just screwing with me when they said you blew the crap out of anything Tsufuru-jin!” Holo exclaimed.

    “Oh?  So you dragged me out here to see if they were the truth?  Do you two think it is fun to mess with a man’s mind?”

    Scyche’s muscles bulged under his armor and bodysuit.

    As Holo picked the rocks out of his ears, Scyche picked him up by his neck and held him above his head.  Holo clawed at his throat, but Scyche held firm, even as Holo’s face became a dark blue.  Scyche pulled back his other hand and punched Holo in the stomach.  Holo’s eyes went wide and he tried to scream; his bones managed a crack.

    “If you ever even say ‘Tsufuru-jin’ in front of me again, I will kick your skull into the afterlife!”

    “You were serious,” Tweg mumbled.

    Scyche dropped Holo, who fell limp to the ground.  He took in a huge breath.  After a moment of recovery, he propped himself up on his elbows and wiped some blood away from his mouth.

    “Chill, you uptight maniac!  I wasn’t screwing with you!  There are Tsufuru-jins here!  Look behind you!”

    Scyche raised his foot to hold true to his word when his super-sensitive ears heard a faint buzzing behind him.

    “Crap.”

    Scyche dove to the ground without a microsecond to spare.  A blue beam of energy ripped through the air and shattered a clump of trees at the edge of the ruins.  Scyche jumped into the air and twisted to face his attacker.

    A young Tsufuru-jin was standing on the other side of the smoldering rubble.  He was holding one of the energy blasters designed by his species.

    “Saiya-jin.”

    “Tsufuru-jin.”

    “Boys, call for backup.”

    “What?” Holo asked.

    The Tsufuru-jin shot at Scyche again.  Scyche moved to the side, letting the blast hurtle into the sky.

    “Hurry, brat!” Scyche thundered.

    “What the Heck?  You can crush his scrawny self!” Holo replied.

    Scyche tackled Holo.  The two hit the ground hard as the energy blast flew right above them.

    “Then I will do it!” Holo screamed.

    Holo jumped into the air and pulled his fists to his sides.  The ground began to heat up.

    Tweg shot past Holo and right into the face of the Tsufuru-jin.

    “No!” Scyche thundered.

    It was point-blank range, maybe less.  The weapon was extremely powerful.  Tweg’s body parts filled the sky.  The stars created odd patterns on the ground as the flood descended.

    The planet was silent.

    “Tsufuru-jin!” Scyche roared.

    His head was throbbing and his heart was beating like a war drum.

    He became a ball of energy hurtling towards the Tsufuru-jin at blinding speed.

    If only the moon had been out.

    “Quick, get him in.”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Pump some SD into him!”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Hurry!”

    “Oh my god…”

    “Dang it, kid!  Get yourself in here!  You need just as much help as he does!”

    “Oh my god…”

    The medic angrily pushed Holo into the hovercraft.

    “Oh my god…”