Jan 27, 1935

“Something's come up they need you to handle”

That’s all he was told, all he’s ever told. Revenant acquired certain skills during the war and after. He adapted and attuned his senses living a life of ever-present danger. He blends into shadow and background by habit. He’s that guy nobody can ever describe but they remember the tats and nose mole of the other lug.

Sitting at a bar table with The GodMatron and a trio of crew leaders he’s slid a newspaper with a large envelope concealed in its folds. Without even looking, for he will study it thoroughly later he nods “It will be done”. It’s an honor to be chosen, recognized as someone who can be counted on to handle delicate issues. To be trusted to do it right and return successful.

8 days later and he’s making final preparations. They don’t call it doing the devil's work for nothing. One underboss in a Seattle branch has went Rogue in a manner of speaking. He set up connections across the Pacific. along with the regular opium or heroin shipments his company has been secretly importing people. There’s a thin line when it comes to peddling flesh in the mafia. For those who choose that profession it can be a lucrative partnership. When you steal children off the street and sell them to whoever has the money. Then it’s an embarrassing and disgusting mark on the family and one that will bring much unwanted attention if discovered.

He’s holed up in a fortress somewhere in the Northern California forests. There was some legwork in the permit’s office and a few greased palms to get the info but Revenant had little difficulty discovering its location once he dug a bit. He’s gathering up the rest of his special equipment when the phone rings. Its Shadow.

“Last set of prints were developed. Nice and clean, pattern follows previous nights. Need anything else before I see you tonight?” He asks.

“Yes I need the following items. 6 car batteries, 2500 feet of copper wire, 2 three phase arc welders. This is important if you cannot find a 3 phase one up there call home and have the 2 here in the shop sent up to us. I also need 50 pounds of very fine powdered thermite. The rest ill have with me if the courier ever arrives.”

The knock at the door announces its arrival and a good-sized crate is brought in by two very burly men. Tipping their hats, they leave Revenant with the job of opening it. Like a child on Christmas morning he tears into it. It was shipped at a premium cost on private plane from New York. There is a festive greeting card attached though its nowhere near Mother’s Day. Hes also not a wife or mother but the friend who sent this card is a bit of a card himself.

(the card)

Inside it reads “Hope this helps your bear problem. Please let me know how the Hawkeye Geese worked and if they survey your property satisfactorily. Hope you enjoy the extra item. its a prototype still in test phase. I included a spec sheet on it. I have a feeling you might get a chance to help me field test it. Looking forward to your thoughts on its performance.

With warm regards N.T.”

He met Nikola Tesla in 1929. Living in hotels in New York. He had spent his fortune and was considered by some to be mad. Revenant thought he was ahead of his time and a true genius. His ideas of communication with Wi-Fi frequencies, the potential of every person in the world being able to carry a communication device in their palm. It could send and receive sound, text information and images. Tesla's ideas on WI-FI and communication could change the world if the world ever stops thinking hes a nut and look at his ideas seriously. The sad fact is it seems like nobody in this time can see past his eccentric personality. If he could only get a few hundred thousand dollars investment to get things going he could have WI-FI devices in production now. Whenever he’s in New York Revenant always makes time for an evening of debate, discussion and discovery along with heavy drinking.

He wired his friend saying he had 2 problems. One he wanted to map and survey his property from the air without disturbing the wildlife or scaring neighbors with unidentified flying objects. The Hawkeye Geese were born, made of a balloon painted like a goose. It had a simple control rudder and wireless remote controls. They were powered by one of Tesla’s bladeless turbines. The final component was a high-speed camera. The Geese had taken multiple flights over the target for the last couple days. They had photographic timelines of guard posts and patrols. They knew every bit of the building from what was on the plans in city hall to what they could see from the pictures had been added after the initial construction. They even had images of the personnel and had picked up similar outfits and accessories even made some masks resembling them. Shadow was a master of disguise and had been busy making mustaches and other hair pieces.

The other problem he told his friend he had was bears. Long ago Revenant and Tesla came to a mutual understanding that they both lived interesting lives and they could not always be totally upfront with one another about some things. Tesla thought it was a quirk mostly exclusive to him. Being a well known inventor who worked on several secret government contracts there are many times Tesla has to tell Revenant the truth without telling the truth. On the flipside Tesla thinks Revenant is a government agent. If he knew his friend was a member of the mafia it would put him in danger to know him. Revenant chuckled thinking about it, more danger of Tesla trying to join and wanting to know more than he should. So sometimes things came up where there was "a need to know" basis with it.

This particular discussion was about how the bears in the area are getting dangerous and he needed to take action to remove them. They were getting unruly and raiding the vineyards. Their numbers were high in the area and they lost their instinctual fear for humans. There had been several close calls and for everyone's safety he needed a non lethal way to incapacitate them for relocating. However the basics of the problem were portrayed the jist of his needs was understood. With pieces and a technical diagram of the whole the other part of his plan used equipment meant to immobilize these bears. He isn't very concerned if it will be too strong or even lethal to bastards.

One final thing in the crate is a large case with a manual

“Teleforce”

The New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy through the Natural Media,

Revenant scanned the pages of descriptive text then stopped with his jaw dropped.

“The SOB invented a death ray”

Grinning widely he hoped he had a chance to try it out. Unwieldy it was about the size and weight of a machine gun. With a backpack containing power source and capacitors. It had 3 different gas cartridges marked only in color. This was typical and as Tesla would put it “I don’t give out the secret till I got the patent and you can thank that thief MR Edison for that”. Even the manual had some crucial pieces of info missing and the gasses used are only listed as red yellow and blue. Revenant chuckled, his friend was a odd one indeed but very talented. The device created a field of vacuum where massive voltage was held in place and compressed. When it reaches a preset level the jets angle and its repelled like a magnet out the barrel. The difference between this and a magnet is magnets aren’t balls of intensely compressed electron energy moving at the speed of light. This was.

Holding back the urge to try it there as it had multiple settings, he vowed to see what it could do. It was the least he could do for his good friend and would give them something to talk about when he visited to report on the other items.

He arrived at the cabin they had leased to serve as operations base. Taking one more night to do another series of flights. Revenant was delighted to see the prints and the details that could be gleaned. Mr. Jung liked his dinner promptly at 6 and sat in his dining room admiring the sunset while eating. It was always 6 no matter if sunset was well under way in the dead of winter or hours away in mid summer he would always sup at 6. He would leave meetings and refused to schedule any business after 5 if he could just so he knew nothing would interfere with his dinnertime. If Revenant ever wrote a list of things not to do if you want to live a long life one of them would be don’t be predictable.

The final plan was simple. Using their knowledge of where everyone was at what time the team installed and camouflaged devices along the front and North side of the building. Coiled around various parts of the structure it was the culmination of the anti-bear system. Specter would man the controls for this. The Wraiths were to accompany Shadow to the South entrance where they would subdue the guards. Using an improvised Ruhmkorff coil they hit the guards with a jolt that left them twitching. They both had on prosthesis and clothing to match the guard they took down. They would then converge on 2 other outer perimeter guards before entering the barracks and taking out the sleeping shift. Shadow would cut off the communications and the guard manning that room. Then he would sound the general alarm but shut it off after 3 cycles. This is the signal for a stations alert. usually used for drills Drill or not it meant all guards would move to positions along the outer walls for further instructions. Nonchalantly they gather at their rally points. Its the 3rd drill this week. That’s when Specter hits the main switches on the modified arc welders.

Current has been flowing from the batteries to charge several capacitors. As the switch is hit hundreds of thousands of volts leap through the cables. Magnifying transmitters, another Tesla invention are placed at intervals along the lines. Each one comes to life arcing a lightning bolt with other transmitters, lights other electrical devices, men, the ground,,, everywhere. All along the walls the remaining guards were now assembling around.

With astonishment Revenant noted the devastation. It was supposed to be set up on an acre sized area. With 4 transmitters set up at each corner and a 5th in the center. These were placed much closer. The building was less than an acre and there were 10 transmitters along its walls. It intensified the results significantly more than he had planned. It was way more than the transmitters were supposed to put out. He made sure to note it and let Tesla know somehow that it barbequed and ignited the "bears", Oh those poor bears. His assistant misunderstood the directions and put all the transmitters in one acre, yea that's what happened. Revenant chuckles at how creative his interpretation of this event will be when he relates it to Tesla. It should have been enough to make sure and knock out everyone and maybe kill them but this was way beyond overkill. It still put out roughly 25%-37% of a natural lightning bolts strength. But that fried everything within 20 yards of a transmitter. The smells of ozone, cooked flesh, burnt building materials, and smoldering grass and other stuff wafted through the air.

Revenant marches through the South gate wearing a Devil mask. He's saluted comically by the 2 guards stationed there and returns the salute with a smug smile. . Several low-level office staff turn pale when they see him.

“Release the cargo, NOW and take a message, a warning, with you. This business is a dead end, anyone who picks up where the dead will leave it today will end the same way." He growls menacingly.

They rush to several cargo containers. Had he said release the people, prisoners, or slaves, they would not understand him. To their mindset it was only cargo, just business. They only saw numbers on paper. The realization when they opened the doors and saw what came out staggered them. They do not know how lucky they really were Revenant had moved on before he saw too. Boys girls, mostly girls. Babies stolen from their mothers to sell to childless couples. Young children bought to grow up a domestic servant to someone who thought they were helping them. Or worse, oh yes much worse things could happen to them. There were young teens who were already taught what they would have to do to pay off some debt. They were told their family would be killed if they did not pay. Nobody told them they will never in 20 lifetimes make enough to pay it off. Even some middle-aged people and elderly, ordered for any purpose an evil mind could think of. Up till now if you wanted to buy a disposable human being or needed an organ to try some kind of transplant this was the place it came from.

Smoking a cigar Mr. Jung is stomping back and forth angrily. Its 6:05 and his dinner isn’t served. A short fat bald man his jowly expression resembles a pig when he frowns. Hearing footsteps he turns, and yells COOK

Then he sees Revenant, for a moment his mind can’t put the scene together. Then panic hits and he goes for his gun. Revenant shoots him in the shoulder just as he grabs it causing him to flinch and send it flying across the room. Wary of back up weapons he may have Revenant slowly advances with his pistol leveled at the man. If man is what the puddle of quivering blubbering jelly this creature had become. He begged, pleaded, tried to buy him off. He offered him a partnership..

“I am here to do the Devils work.” Was Revenant's only reply. then shooting Jung's knees out from under him. Still trying to make a deal he watches Revenant with wide eyes. Pulling a bag out from his backpack Revenant dumps a fine black powder all around and on him. Opening another pound package, he circles the pig dumping the powder all round circling this blubbering fiend while doing so. Another and another, Revenant pauses and leisurely dumps out the sparkling powder then tossing the other half of the bag at this turd's head who still is trying to bargain for forgiveness. He walks behind a very well stocked bar and takes off the mask.

He picks a bottle of rum out of the 5 brands available. He takes a long pull off it then tosses it at the, corpse.

“Corpse, that’s what you are already. You've killed your soul long ago and have been rotting away since.”

Tossing more bottles sometimes taking a drink out of them first. “You deal in pain, misery, hopelessness. You are a tear monger. Your moneys no good with me”

Grimacing wickedly because normally he would believe anyone could be redeemed Revenant continues to raid the bar for bottles to toss around the mark. This roach has not shown any regret for what he did only ways he thinks he could get out if it. In his mind he has nothing to be sorry for its just a matter of how much his fine should be. Its really pissing Revenant off.

Revenant pulls the last 2-pound packages of thermite out of his pack and takes the whole scene in. Thermite is scattered all around and all over this talking dead man in density of a heavy dusting to small scattered piles in a 4 foot circle. Sprinkled in and around this are sparkles of glass and dark spots where the alcohol soaked into the powder. The blood spatters from the first shot and the puddles forming around the center. Together it was artistic like a surreal masterpiece. He tore open one package and began to make a small trail across the floor. Using the last package to complete the trail to the door leading out he finished the line with a small pile of the dark glittering powder. Popping a road flare he looks over at the blubbering jellyfish who has now began shouting how he will give him everything he owns to be let go.

"You took everything away from countless people. You made it your life's goal to profit from the most vile sins. Your death was ordered from the highest levels. If I even thought for a moment to disobey my orders and spare you it would only delay your death and ensure mine. You have made me several offers to buy your way out of this. Not once did you offer any remorse, ask for forgiveness. You never even thought if there was any way you could make amends to everyone you hurt. The wages of sin is death and you have worked overtime. Its payday. Right now I offer you one last chance to redeem your soul and ask Gods forgiveness while you can."

Jung scoffs then starts laughing and simply says "Fuck you".

Without a word Revenant turns and drops the flare which lands on the small pile of thermite at his feet. As the exothermic reaction starts this finely powdered iron oxide ignites and rapidly burns at around 2500 centigrade. Spun round and already walking away Revenant is silhouetted on the wall by a brilliant flash

Thermite is great for starting fires Revenant mused as they were packing up the salvageable equipment. The building already had flames jetting from the roof in the entire West wing. Revenant suddenly realized they never used the Teleforce. Glancing through the field manual one more time he sets the device up and powers it on. Bracing the weapon on a log to the whine of charging capacitors. This and the hissing of gas as the cylinders are attached make it apparent this isn’t a stealth weapon. As everything is set up and charged he dials the setting to one. Revenant points the barrel at the building and hits the arm button. Vibrations and the humming of mechanics inside the device whirling round get louder before the green ready light glows and Revenant hits the trigger buttons.

There was a loud FOOM and this strange bend in the air. The building is scattered like it was made of cards and someone hit it with a truck. There's a wide swath of trees blown to toothpicks behind the complex Part of the distant hillside has a gap where light moving at light speed went through it. He looks at the devastation in awe and curses himself.

"One day ill remember that for Tesla's prototypes one is the highest setting and ten is the lowest. Until its put in production and reversed to the "normal" way everyone else's brain thinks. Its like the world lives inside a box and my friend thinks outside it." He says with a chuckle.

They hastily gathered up the gear and got out of there. Back home there was no need to report. His return was assurance what had to be done had been done successfully. Revenant was thinking ahead and planning time to meet with his dear friend to discuss the field test reports and the possibilities of imagination, inspiration and innovation.