"I'm sorry. He did WHAT!?!?" growled Beatle, sitting on the chair as the judge in court.
"He played pranks on a couple hundred people-..." said the lawyer.
"Lemme stop your fifth-time-spoken defense right there, my good American Attorney. I love ya, alright? I watched Daredevil, but this is very serious. You, a foreign lawyer, might think this is some kind of a fucking joke, but this man obstructed justice during a patrol, acted very undesirable by screaming into the phones of hardworking individuals, stole a fucking police vehicle, harassed an elderly person, struck an elderly person albeit playfully, made seven children cry, discriminated our people by overall being a fucking dick AKA race-baiting, and had showed no remorse for their actions."
"Your Honor. You must understand that this man gave no harm to these people."
"'NO HARM!!??'" Beatle is exasperated and repeats it. "'NO HARM!!!?!?'" He places 13 cases. "These are hardworking people. Liza Rodriguez. Claimed to have been on a business call and WAS FIRED for the insulting remark where you told her boss that she herself stated she is a 'Puta' which you knew clearly translated to 'whore'. You did that. Severino Gopez. You humiliated him in public. He's a tricycle driver. Now, your tomfoolery caused an accident and cost him his job. An old woman named Rosalina Sampaguita. She was clearly offering you a beverage and you grossly disrespected her by tossing her hat into a bridge, a very important heirloom-... ARE YOU FUCKING LAUGHING!?!?" asked Beatle, as the man, James Italia laughs. "Sssstop it."
"You Filipinos are hilarious, dude!" laughed the American man. "Just deport me already and blacklist me!"
"No. That's not how it works here. You commit the crime here, you get tried here."
"Wait, wait what? That's not legal. Like... United Nations legal..."
"Nope. That's not how it works in the Philippines. This isn't Japan. This isn't South Korea. You entered an English-speaking country that clearly understood everything you've done and you're gonna get at least 3 years sentence for each crime you committed."
"THIRTY-NINE YEARS!?!?"
"With possibility of probation for good behavior. SO SUCK IT UP!!!"
"WHY!?!? YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!"
"Oh. And let you harass other Asian countries? Ones that don't speak English? No. You've been tried in the United States and they keep letting you go. Not fucking here. You're gonna rot in jail for assaulting that child five years back."
"ALLEGEDLY!!!"
"Yeah. Sure. 'Allegedly.' You gonna pay us Kickback? Hm? Try to buy your way out of prison. Harassment isn't something this country takes lightly. Do NOT take advantage of our kindness. We will enjoy what we do to you and show no remorse for your sentence. Enjoy a cell with no air conditioning... Cramped... Get raped by the prisoners in constant why don't you? You'd be lucky if a man like you survives a month."
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!"
"I didn't decide that. The law did. And the law actually gave you the fucking minimum for your crimes. It could've been five. But fuck, I was generous."
The man is taken away.
Beatle sighs. "Alright. That's lunch. Anyone up for siopao? Chinese Pinoy? Hm?"
"Sir... You gave him 3 years for each case!"
"The... judges... in this courtroom wanted five... Because legally, the minimum is 5. I swayed them into 3 because I'm the Goddamned emperor."
"You call that mercy!?"
"Yes. Your client DODGED A FUCKING BULLET OF 65 FUCKING YEARS!!! Call it mercy."
"Could've made it one."
"Could've made it 6 and a half. Easy, asshole. My father was a lawyer and I FUCKING DRAFTED THIS CONSTITUTION!!!"
"Yes, your honor."
Later...
"You seriously gave him mercy?" asked the Reaper.
"I used everything in my power to lower that sentence. Best I could do was 39 years with possibility of parole."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Tch-..." sighed the Reaper. "Fuckin' dumbass. I don't like it when foreigners come to our land-..." said the Reaper, as a star can be seen falling from the sky and landing in a flash of light.
The pair turn behind them.
Miguel comes next to them. "What's wrong?"
Gabrielle just tilts her head.
"Nothing..." said Beatle. "I sense something weird... but don't let that ruin this camping. The others at home want us to have this break. Got it?"
Miguel and Gabrielle nod.
Meanwhile, from the crash, a strange invisible alien leaves the pod they thought was a star.
The alien makes some strange clicks as he went invisible, activating a strange radar on his arm.
The alien walks away from his pod and toward a camp nearby, where people singing and dancing around the fire suddenly scream in horror, before silence.
Miguel hears this. So does Gabrielle.
"Papa. What the hell was that?" asked Gabrielle.
Miguel charges into the woods and Gabrielle follows after him, both sprouting their own wings and ticking them to detect any enemy. They reach the abandoned camp and see that the people there, a family of 12, are mutilated, having lost certain body parts, usually their hands, others their feet, some their teeth.
"What the hell?" asked Miguel. "What in the world-? Is this MacJovial again!?"
Gabrielle sniffs the air. "No. That smell is weird, though. But... Something... or someone... took the body parts of these people... Particularly body parts they used to attack whatever it was. Biting-..." She turns to the dead child without teeth. "-...punching-..." She turns to the old man who has no hands. "Kicking..." She turns to the women who lost her legs.
"Like trophies?" asked Miguel.
"Yes, Papa."
Miguel's eyes widen. "No... Crap..."
Miguel and Gabrielle turn to the same area, their left, where the creature watches them.
"You see that... too...?" asked Gabrielle, as MIguel shushes her.
Gabrielle turns into an Aswang,
"Stand down, love."
"That thing killed all those people."
Miguel senses so much animosity from the creature. He turns into an Aswang and activates his Usog. "Fuck it. I agree..."
The alien creature shoots at Miguel but Miguel tanks the hit, only to see that he is now wounded and not healing. "Spiced..." he whispered, before falling to his knees.
Gabrielle dodges the next shots as she blasts fire into the creature's body, but its armor is immune to the elements and the creature takes out a blade.
She smells garlic, onions, pepper, and salt all over the blade and dodges it.
She grabs her father and carries him, flying away from the fight before being grabbed by the wings, losing most of her strength as the creature stab her over and over, swiftly and efficiently as she strangles the creature and tries snapping its neck.
But the creature takes out an alien blaster, one that she sees to be unfamiliar from Maharlica, and kicks the creature away as she runs, bleeding all over to Beatle and the Reaper.
Gabrielle reaches the camp, but sees that they're gone as the creature reveals its face to her, a deadly creature resembling a dragonfly Nymph with four arms.
The creature, with its grotesque reptilian scales and wings that constantly click, prepares to take out two blasters with its lower arms to kill Gabrielle...
Beatle and the Reaper then land before the creature, protecting the pair.
"Holy shit..." said Beatle. "It's an Artemian."
The Reaper turns to the Artemian, which justs stares at the Reaper, particularly intrigued with him.
Beatle smirks. "Wanna take this one? I can go heal those two idiots."
"Eh. Sure. Besides. Artemians killed other Prometheuses before."
"Bitch, I'm Beatle."
"I know. Doesn't mean you ain't immune from Demon's Blood." The Reaper smiles, crackling his knuckles. "Look, you ugly motherfucker... I visited to bond with my family... Not have my evening disturbed by a fucking Artemian Nymph."
The Artemian just clicks its jaws and wings.
"What IS that thing!?" asked Gabrielle, bleeding with Miguel.
"That is an Artemian. After the Pantheons experimented on Humanity, they struck a deal with a specialized alien species from the planet Artem to hunt Halimaws if and only if the Artemians would act as assassins to serve the Pantheons. They're insectoids that live and hunt in tribes. They have one Alpha that lays all the eggs, lest the Alpha is killed or defeated, then the eggs will be laid by the new Alpha. Artemians usually hunt in groups and are capable of wiping out entire armies of even Demis like Miguel or you... Or Prometheuses in some cases. That thing must've been hired by the Pantheons to kill us. I apologize. We have a little feud very lately."
"WHY DID IT TRY TO LURE US!?!?"
"This one seems to have two motives. Kill you, and be CAPABLE of killing you. It, like other Artemians, just love to kill the strongest and most dangerous of creatures in the universe. They take trophies from their most frequently-used weapons."
"Great. We have a target on our heads. Ugh..."
The Reaper smirks and intimidates the Artemian. The Artemian shoots at the Reaper who takes out his scythe and tries killing the Artemian but the Artemian blasts at the Reaper, forcing him to use his flame armor and tackle the Artemian, pinning him down and efficiently beating him.
The armor of the Artemian is quite strong, but the Reaper takes out a gadget that causes the armor to turn into air. The creature is horrified, whispering, "YOU'RE A REAPER!?!?"
The Reaper activates his own suit, revealing his skull as he beats the Artemian to death. "Yeah... I am..." said the Reaper, killing the Artemian successfully.
"Be glad Reaps is here. The Artemians fear the Reaper."
"Why?"
"The Reapers are specifically trained to kill Halimaws... They're basically competition... A better... bigger fish in the Nymphs' bonds. Artemian Nymphs are the ones that hunt. Then they shed their armors and become normal Artemian citizens. Too bad this one died a Nymph. Such a shame for its hubris..." said Beatle, as Miguel wakes up as he injects him with a healing device.
Miguel gasps. "WHAT HAPPENED!?!? Is the fuckin' Artemian dead!?"
Beatle slaps the back of his head. "DON'T FUCKIN' DO THAT, KID!!! WE WERE WORRIED SICK!!!"
"Sorry..." said Miguel.
"Why do they hunt us?" asked Gabrielle.
"Some cultures... just view justice... good... bad... and law... differently. To them, this isn't just a sport. It's an honor," said Miguel.
"Hm... Weird."