Tweak

He really, really, really did not like being almost naked. Really did not like it, not one bit. Being labelled a runt meant that certain assumptions were made about his size and while he wore a pair of boxers as his undergarments, they were tight boxers. The undergarments didn’t exactly leave much to the imagination, though many of the young women seemed to have opted for the naked option.

At a glance he could tell the tweakers from the genetics. Tweakers paid little mind to the bared chests and bottoms of the young women who waltzed past them. Genetics stared or were red faced as they tried to pretend that nothing was going on. The tweakers glanced at this one or that one and then at another tweaker. As Shin received such a glance, he could only assume that the tweakers were silently pointing out those who had never been to an after party before.

The air was not exactly cold, considering it was in the middle of summer. A cool breeze drifted over the garden, bringing the scent of bodies and sex and drugs. His family had a no drug policy, but what happened in an after party stayed there. Only a few questions were ever asked if something happened, like a female becoming pregnant the old fashioned way.

Most at the after party were not old enough to carry a child to full term without the aid of science. Females being harvested for their eggs, who were preparing to begin the lengthening process of making a child, were not permitted at the parties. Even the scent of drugs could alter the state of the female and ruin entire batches of eggs.

“There you are,” Layaent grinned and stepped up to Shin.

Shin glanced at his brother but refused to allow himself to look down. Without looking, just by seeing the look on Layaent’s face, he knew that his brother had no underwear on. This was nothing new for any of the other partiers, who all acted as if the man were fully clothed. Except for the first timers, who eyed Layaent as if he were a piece of meat.

Generations of scientific breeding couldn’t get rid of that aspect of the people. Despite no longer needing such archaic things as flirting and kissing and sex, everyone still wanted it.

“You look good,” Layaent said when Shin refused to acknowledge him, “you’ve gained a bit of muscle, I see. Been testing out the changes as they come, that’s good.”

“You do not need to patronise me,” Shin responded coldly, “I am no longer a child, I can withstand criticism.”

“Have you seen yourself in the mirror recently?” Layaent asked, “my brother might not be a runt in two month’s time. You’ve already grown taller, I’m sure of it. How are your eyes?”

“My.” Shin frowned and turned his body towards Layaent, “eyes?”

“Yes, it’s not too dim for you, is it? Can you see alright?”

Shin’s frown deepened. He looked out over the garden in confusion, not quite understanding what Layaent meant. Unfortunately there was nothing wrong with his eyes. He could see couples have sex on the lawns, witnessed Uhwan lighting up some sort of pipe and even spotted the wheat haired Bri amongst the crowd.

“Shin?”

Shin started and turned back to Layaent, “there is nothing wrong with my eyes, I can see perfectly fine.”

“And you don’t,” Layaent shook his head, “find that odd, considering the fact that there are no lights on? Just a little moonlight to light the way.”

He looked again and noticed, then, what Layaent meant, “I was unaware of that trait, I have read my own file-”

“That’s not a trait that can be programmed. It’s something that appears in most tweakers and has… leaked… into the genetics,” Layaent murmured, “just like the hearing, not something that was planned, but something that appears nonetheless. Congratulations, you can see in the dark.”

“Nothing is ever true darkness,” Shin said quietly.

“No, it’s not. If you will excuse me, I must go find Ash and thank him for the invite.”

“Of course.”

Shin watched Layaent walk off. He tried very hard not to be jealous of his brother, but that was difficult. Layaent was a fine example of breeding, with so little genetic modification. His breeding partner’s family had paid a fortune for the rights to his material. Each family would take two children. Layaent would have the eldest and youngest and the partner would have the two middle children. Once the partner was harvested, well, it would be a hop skip and a jump before the first foetus was frozen.

Then there was Shin, more altered than natural, a homosexual power user to boot.

He would never get a breeding contract.

Shin sighed and stepped onto the grass. He began wandering through the crowd, making his way to the back of the garden. A few people said hello, a few looked him up and down, stuck their noses into the air and turned away. Shin was used to it, he easily ignored those who snubbed him. What caught him off guard was the female staring at him, her eyes pulled him to a stop.

When he recognised her, he swallowed hard and tried not to squeak. Mally.

Dressed in lavender coloured undergarments with a plum lacing to outline them, Mally stood just under six feet with light brown hair and blue eyes that were almost gray. The woman was free of her chains and no longer had the brand at the hollow of her neck. Shin frowned and looked her up and down, but he was absolutely certain that the woman and Mally were one and the same. They both looked and felt the same.

“Hello.”

What was it that Mally had said, four days?

Shin frowned and stepped back as Mally stepped towards him. Four days, had he been triggered? Was he actually a link in the chain of people between Mally and the ring? If he could figure out how to plant commands in the minds of others, surely it was a task that nearly anyone with power could imitate.

“You’ve got my ring,” she held out her hand.

Shin instinctually reached for the ring, he was a silent witness as he watched his left hand try to pull the ring off his right. The ring didn’t budge, and it not budging broke the command. He was fully aware of Mally and suddenly recalled meeting her in the capital.

They had chatted for several hours over coffee about the genetics and the museum and the ring itself. How had he forgotten?

Shin stepped away from Mally and put his ringed hand between them, “you, the officers are after this and after me because of you!”

No one around them was paying attention, too caught up in their own worlds. Shin felt suddenly sick as the realisation dawned on him, as he understood what he had done and exactly how much trouble he was in. Mally had been so thorough with her setting everything up that Shin had thought that the theft had been his own idea.

“Give me the ring and they will no longer be after you,” Mally made a ‘come here’ motion and tried to plant the command in Shin’s mind.

The ring tingled against Shin’s finger. Mally’s eyes widened, she dropped her hand to her side and studied Shin. She looked him up and down as if assessing him, and perhaps she was. Her power was filling the garden where they stood, nipping at the edges of Shin’s awareness as the ring became heavier with each prod, with each attempt to elicit information.

“You’ve bonded with it.”

Did Mally know that Ash was there? Did she know that officers of the law were present at the after party, the officers who were searching for the ring itself.

“Fool,” she hissed, “you’ve no idea what you’ve done. Well, no helping it now, you’ll have to lose the finger. Come here and let me have your hand.”

Again, the ring vibrated against Shin’s skin, sending an unpleasant hum up the length of his arm and into the socket of his shoulder. Shin made a tight fist with his hand, trying to subdue the buzzing. Clenching his fingers together made his whole hand vibrate, made him feel like the time, when he was a child, he had stuck a butter knife into an electrical socket. But making a fist also stopped the vibrations from creeping up his arm and cleared his head, allowing him to meet Mally’s stare.

“That won’t work,” he said, voice cracking even as he tried to sound calm, “myself and the ring are one, taking my finger will do you no good. I’m sure the authorities are looking for you, would like to have a chat with you.”

“Who are they going to believe? You, or me?”

“An unregistered female who escaped the museum display, or the tenth generation genetic with no powers,” Shin growled back.

“You have…” Mally trailed off as her eyes unfocused, the woman was quiet a long moment before she muttered a curse under her breath, “fine, have it your way. I tried the civilized way, I tried asking and then I tried doing something that you could easily fix. However. You’ve declined at every turn and now you leave me with no choice. I shall have to take your head instead of your finger.”

“In a crowded garden, you are going to take my head?”

“No one else even realises what is going on,” Mally snapped, raising her voice as if to prove her point, “none of them will recall what happened to you.”

Something, or more like someone, slid between Mally and Shin. The voice that rumbled out of the chest sounded male, the growl that it formed was anything but human. Hunched forward, arms away from his sides, the male seemed to be leaning towards Mally.

And didn’t move further.

Shin had just enough time to process that thought before the woman named Bri, the one with the wheat coloured hair, grabbed hold of him and yanked him backwards. A moment later the ground that Shin had been standing on erupted as if struck by a small explosive device.

Power, they were fighting with power.

Neither opponent moved, but the ground around them rumbled and slashed, cut and destroyed by deflected shots. Shin concentrated hard enough to hurt his head but he still could not detect who was doing what, who was even winning. Mally lifted her hands suddenly and cried out in annoyed pain. Her hands and arms, exposed torso, broke out in bright red welts as she turned and fled.

The male straightened and made to tug down his shirt, ending up rubbing his sides as he turned and frowned at Bri. Ash’s lips pressed together as he seemed to recall where he was and who he was with. Dropping his hands to his sides, Ash stepped up to Shin.

“What was she after?”

“Aren’t you going to pursue her? She’s a thief and a trespasser,” Shin snapped, “is it not your duty to hunt down unregistered power users?”

Ash reached down and took Shin’s right hand in his left. The male brushed the tips of his finger over Shin’s palm, and over the ring. Star metal tingled in a not entirely unpleasant manner. Ash sighed out and let Shin yank his hand back.

“I think, Shin, that you have a good deal of explaining to do,” Ash motioned towards the back of the garden, “why don’t we go somewhere a little more private to discuss this issue?”

***

When he had first felt the wave of power, Ash couldn’t believe his senses. Several tweakers had power, some of them registered and some of them not, but none of the tweakers used power at after parties unless they were being attacked. Where some of the users were registered, none of the sensitives were.

Ash had been talking to the oldest female of the tweaker family hosting the party when she had cringed to a stop and begun whining. She wouldn’t look at Ash or come in contact with the man as he tried to comfort her. Others around him began making sounds of discomfort. Ash had opened his mind and followed the power back to the source.

Imagine his surprise when he stepped between the runt, Shin, and the guide from the museum. They had fought and Ash had won, barely. The problem with using power to fight was the fact that when using one’s power against another power user, both were on equal ground. Taking on an unregistered, untrained power user was simple. Taking on a fully trained user was an entirely different matter.

His fingers grazing over the star ring on Shin’s finger sent a chilled fear through Ash’s body, a warning to back off. The ring had protected Shin, for some very strange reason, it was not killing the runt. That was when Ash recognised the odd smell that was coming off of Shin, power. It wasn’t necessarily the smell of power, but it was the sudden lack of it, like a buzzing, background noise being shut off suddenly.

This Ash contemplated as he led the way to the back of the garden. He knew that there was a gazebo in the back corner that tweakers and genetics alike avoided during after parties. It was where the genetics had found Mysh after…

Ash shook his head and stepped into the gazebo. He slid into one of the available seats and watched Shin struggled with his emotions as Bri growled an order for the young man to sit. Bri folded her arms and leaned back, a move that, if she were dressed, was menacing. Nearly naked, as she was, it almost seemed sexual.

Shin didn’t seem to notice, the runt’s discomfort came more from the fact that he had been found out, than anything else.

“Explain,” Bri snapped, bending over Shin with her shoulders pushed back. Officers stood like that often, putting the shoulders and torso just out of reach of the suspect but putting the head close enough. It resulted in the perp striking at the head and the officer claiming to black out, right before they beat the perp into a bloody mess.

“Explain what?” Shin asked calmly, regaining control of his emotions.

Genetics had very little emotion and emotion was something Bri, and other officers of the law, used to their advantage. A suspect that was unmoved by the investigators could not be ‘inspired’ to confess. Tweakers had less emotions than commoners but more than the genetics. With the best of both worlds, the tweakers could rationalize like the genetics but still be concerned with those in their families, like the commoners.

“The ring on your finger,” Ash murmured, “where did you get it from?”

“My sister gifted it to me, for beginning my second growth.”

“And where did she get it from?”

“A ring dealer.”

“And where did the ring dealer get it from?”

“A bike courier.” Shin growled, “or perhaps it was a magical creature, come down from the heavens with the weekly load of rings, how should I know?”

“Where did the bike courier get it?”

Shin frowned, “Well. How should I know?”

“That is the star ring from the museum,” Bri growled, “we know it is.”

Her being overbearing would not work against Shin. The runt was called overemotional but really, brief shows of emotion were too much amongst the genetics. Layaent experienced a wide range of emotions, though those emotions were less than a commoner, but hid his feelings quite well. Shin had simply not learned to control his emotions, a thing that would come with practice and time.

Bri’s attempt shouldn’t have worked on Shin.

The young man shifted his attention from Ash, to Bri. He met her eyes and asked defiantly, “what if it is?”

“You could do serious jail time.”

“Does. It look like I care?”

“Tell us,” Ash leaned forward, drawing Shin’s attention to him, “how you came about to have the ring and we will not proceed with investigating you for having power. Something I can do because of the oddity I noticed when in your presence earlier tonight, at the ball.”

Ash made a motion to Bri to keep quiet as Shin considered. The runt was going over the laws and traditions of his family. He weighed his options compared to the laws he thought that he could get away with, given how much money he had in his bank account. Ash saw the moment Shin made up his mind. He allowed himself to relax a bit, to appear as friendly towards Shin.

“I met someone in the capital when I went for business. We spent several hours talking,” Shin fingered the ring, as if he were trying to turn it on his finger, “after which time I went back to work and seem to have forgotten the entire encounter. I returned here and began hatching a plan to steal the ring. I found out who had a connection to the museum and who had the best chance of getting it out.

“My sister was the first, the ring broker the second. A bike courier took the ring from a taxi driver, who got it from fare of his, who got it from a tablet vendor. The vendor got it from a businessman who got it from his secretary. The secretary got it from her child who got it from his teacher who got the ring from the curator on the guided tour through the museum. The guide was simply a distraction, a flash over here while you steal something from over there.

“The entire time I thought this, I recall thinking, there are fourteen people in the chain, with the guide being a distraction and thus part of the chain.”

“But that’s only thirteen,” Bri said.

“I,” Shin looked down at the ring and sighed, “I was the fourteenth. When I went on the tour upon returning to the city, it was to look over the ring and the security. While I was there I met the display, the woman who was here tonight.”

“I’m…” Bri stepped away from Shin and looked at Ash, “how did the display get out of the museum.”

“I have a better question,” Ash muttered, “how did the display switch places with the guide and none of us realise it? How did the display manage to lock the guide into her own chains and then present herself as a guide?”

“What?” Bri said.

“The woman I fought with tonight was not the display I witnessed at the museum. The woman I fought was the guide I spoke to. That explains why the display was broken, because the display broke the guide, trapped her inside her own mind and then dumped her in the exhibit,” Ash sighed and rubbed at the side of his face, “well, I’ve seen her now. I can…” even as he thought of it, the face escaped him. He was certain the offender was female. Or. Was he?

“Female,” Shin nodded, “young, I think. It’s hard for me to tell the age of commoners now. She said she …” he frowned, “a broken chain, but I don’t recall the generations. Blue eyes, or gray eyes. Or green eyes. I’m not entirely certain. But her name I remember, Mally.”

“Mally?”

“Yes.”

“What about Talla?” Ash asked, “the guide was repeating the name over and over again.”

“That was the name of the toddler in the front row. She was oddly obsessed with the child, as if Talla was the perfect example of everything. Talla is a fourth generation.”

“There’s only a handful of them in the city at any given time,” Bri said, reaching for her phone, only to graze her hand over her hip.

“Third generation has been able to reproduce for almost ten years,” Shin muttered, “there are children all over the place. The schools aren’t exactly under populated.”

“Young thirds,” Ash said, standing, “you’ve just given us the information we need to start hunting down the thief. We’ve been searching for her for a good long time.”

“But,” Bri held out her hand, “I have to take the ring back.”

“Uhm,” Shin lifted his hand, then dropped it to his lap, “there’s a slight problem with that.”

“What’s that?”

Shin sighed, “the ring has, uhm. Adhered or attached or something, to my skin. It won’t come off or move and I’ve tried several times. Won’t even turn on my finger, look.” Shin demonstrated, attempting to turn the ring between his forefinger and thumb. The band of metal refused to budge.

“We’ll have to take the finger,” Ash growled.

“No,” Bri responded, “the ring has bonded with him. Let’s find out what we can about it before we go about removing people of their fingers. We might end up killing him, given the fact that the ring being on his finger hasn’t killed him yet.” Bri opened her mouth and paused for the briefest of moments before she said, “the other one said that a person being given the ring has proven to be lethal.”

“What?” Shin squeaked, showing a moment of panic before the young man brought himself back under control.

“You didn’t know?” Ash asked, “the simple act of putting the ring on your finger results in death within a matter of moments. Your choice to put it on-”

“I didn’t originally plan on it, it never occurred to me until my sister brought the ring to me,” Shin paused and looked down at the ring, then back up at Ash, “but when she brings you something, you open it and play with it immediately. If it’s clothing or jewellery, you put it on. So when she brought me my ring, I put it on my finger.”

“Odd, how a millennia old ring fits you,” Bri muttered.

“It was loose, when I put it on,” Shin responded, “it seems to have adjusted to the size of my finger. Not too tight and I barely notice it is there. At least, I had all but forgotten about it when the female had attacked me. As soon as she did, it began tingling and buzzing in a bad way.”

Ash clenched his jaw, “well, we need to keep you alive and in possession of the ring until we get it off of you.”

“Is there any way for Ash to accompany you without drawing suspicion?” Bri asked.

“Why him?” Shin protested.

“Because,” Bri growled, “having a female third generation is worse than having a tweaker of another family. Is it possible, what with the investigation you are about to begin on his fund family, that you can hold him hostage, as a key witness?”

Ash sat back in his seat. He didn’t like the sound of it at all, but he understood the need. If he stayed with Shin as Shin investigated his fund family, then his blood relations could be used against him. Those he loved could be put in harm’s way.

But tweakers were never defenceless.

“I believe it is possible,” Shin said quietly, “there have been cases coming before the council of six before where a key witness was held by family not their own. But those were cases of theft, of breaches of contract.”

“He has a point,” Ash said, “this isn’t about theft against his family.”

“Plus, we’re going to the wilds in a few days. Us tenths and my parents. It is a tradition, when one enters second growth, they’re taken to the wilds.”

Second growth wasn’t kind to everyone. Genetics tended to migrate to the wilds so that if something happened during the first few weeks, the most tumultuous time, then it could be blamed on a wilds creature. The last second growth induced death, barring ones where the growth began with a fever, had been two generations previous. The genetics were hoping that the deaths were done for good, that the rough patch had been gone through. But still the migration took place.

Bri looked at Ash, “Well, invite yourself along.”

“It’s not that simple,” Ash snapped back, “to begin with, such a thing is extremely rude, for another, Layaent would flay me alive. Only lovers are taken to the wilds and I am asexual, if you recall.”

“Are not, you’re gay, he’s obviously not straight, make something happen.” Bri was making the assumption based on the fact that Shin had very little interest in her form, which had very little to do with Shin’s sexuality and more to do with the young man’s self control.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Ash snapped, “just because two people are gay and single does not mean that they would be a good pair for each other.”

“Why not, it goes that way for heterosexual singles.”

“Uh,” Shin raised a finger and pointed at Bri, “one of my generational siblings has a third generation, sterile lover. Layaent’s been looking for a lover on the side.”

“On the side?” Bri looked to Ash.

“His contract likely allows him to take two lovers, on the side means that he has a lover and wants another. But he is also not one to pretend to be a lover to someone to get them to a certain place.”

“Ash could tag along as your escort,” Layaent stepped into the gazebo and looked around, “most wouldn’t hear you, but you’ve called my attention. What exactly going on,” Layaent looked Bri up and down, “she’s not quite my type. More warrior, kick your ass. My breeding partner is like that. Very. How do you say…”

“Bitchy?” Bri growled.

“Feisty. She’s a good woman, but while she is being harvested, I cannot have her and she will be harvested for at least a year more, perhaps two. Several of her sisters have been found infertile, she is going to be donating eggs to them as well. Which leaves me without sexual relations and. Well, ask Shin how I am without sexual relations.”

“Brother is affected by an odd case of nature wherein he gets moody and irrational if sexual gratification is not received over long periods of time.”

“But I’m not a whore,” Bri spat at Layaent.

“If you did, you would get a good deal of genetic material,” Layaent smiled.

Him smiling was an indication of him opening the bidding. Layaent was being generous and Ash knew that Bri enjoyed the way Layaent looked, the female was having the typical reaction to an attractive male. Layaent meant well by his comment, he meant that he would give Bri as much genetic material as she wanted for her own personal use.

But to commoners, what Layaent had said was a pickup line. It implied that the male wanted to have ridiculous amounts of sex with the female and then leave. The female would, in a round about way, receive the male’s genetic material.

Bri grabbed Layaent by the shoulders and pushed herself close to him. Ash stood to stop it, but Layaent glared over the woman’s shoulder.

“So,” Bri was close enough to brush against Layaent, “you want to give me your genetic material? Mm, that sounds nice, why don’t we go out back and you give me some right now.”

Layaent grinned, but it was a confused sort of grin, “whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want?”

“Yes.”

Bri kneed Layaent in the groin, then elbowed the male between the shoulders. Layaent hit the floor of the gazebo as Ash stepped forward and dragged a kicking and spitting Bri away. Shin made no effort to protect his brother, he didn’t even flinch as Bri dropped, rather reluctantly into the seat beside him.

It took a long moment for Layaent to recover and a moment longer for him to struggle to his feet. Layaent covered himself with an arm, a casual covering that expressed his wariness as much as the distance he put between himself and Bri did. The man glanced at Ash and back to Bri.

“Explain.” Layaent whined out.

“She thought you were flirting with her, implying that she was worse than a whore, but instead was a slut,” Shin said quietly, “a slut being-”

“I know what a slut is,” Layaent snapped at his brother, promptly putting Ash’s seat between himself and Bri, “Ash.”

“Bri, that was not what he meant,” Ash sighed and sat in his seat once more, “he meant-”

“I take it back,” Layaent growled, leaning over Ash, “I’ll take her to the wilds as a lover. No requirements on her part, you can come along as an escort.”

Ash cringed. Bri huffed out and held herself straighter. She thought she had won, she thought she was getting to go free of anything at all. What she didn’t realise was that Layaent hadn’t said they could simply go to the wilds with his family. Layaent had said he would take Bri as his lover, which meant that Layaent had every intention of seducing Bri.

“So long as we understand that I don’t need an escort to protect me,” Bri snapped.

“Oh, the escort isn’t to protect you,” Layaent said, “it’s to keep you from killing me before I get to bed you.”

Ash dove out of the way as Bri dove for Layaent.

It was going to be a very long night.


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