It was a beautiful fall morning. The air was crisp and cool as a black suburban drive through the streets of Allario. The sun was just beginning to rise above the sleeping city as the vehicle easily made its way through the empty streets.
Soft music played through the speakers as the man inside drove calmly towards the warehouse district. A phone call rang through the car's audio system. The man clicked the answer button on the steering wheel. "Yeah, it's me."
"You almost here?" Another man's voice rang through the car.
"Yeah Cedrion. I'm about five minutes out. Behave yourself until I get there, and do not terrify my staff."
A cruel, dark laughter was the only response as Cedrion ended the call.
The man arrived in front of a large multi-story warehouse. It was simple in appearance. It housed a dozen or so shipping docks on the north and west sides respectively, a small section for employee parking, and a few bench tables settled outside for a break area. Nothing fancy to draw unwarranted suspicion.
He pulled into his designated parking spot. As the owner he enjoyed a few privileges, front row parking being one of them. He got out and shut the door as he took in a deep lung full of the chilled morning air. Such a beautiful sunrise today. Almost poetic.
"It's going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood," the man said to himself as he chuckled and walked up to the main entrance. It was a simple glass door that he walked through as the receptionist looked up from the computer she was sitting at and greeted him with a polite nod as he shut the door behind him. "Morning, Grace," the man greeted her cheerily as he walked past her desk and down the black tile carpet towards the rear of the front offices.
"Morning Mr. Deluge," she greeted him professionally as she hurried over and handed him a small stack of business papers. "These are the latest deliveries we've made, and these stacks are the ones we are still waiting for from our partners to arrive," she informed him as he took the papers from her hand as he paused in the hallway. The woman's skin had a slight flush on it as she stood close to the CEO of their company. He rarely arrived unannounced to the warehouse itself, and it threw her off her game.
Mr. Deluge smiled down at the young, attractive brunette who handed him the paperwork. He knew he would get this kind of reaction. He normally didn't come all the way down to the warehouse district. But this meeting was special and needed to be conducted in a secret office he had on site. He gently took the papers from her and offered her a charming smile. "Many thanks, Grace," he said as he opened the door that led into the warehouse.
He made his way down, keeping an eye on the traffic in the warehouse as he did so. Employees nodded in greeting as they worked to unload and reload the different trucks on the docks. Electric pallet jacks and forklift horns were going off as employees came around corners, both empty and with pallets hooked on. Employees on foot bustled around as they worked to pick the orders their headsets told them too. It was a beautiful type of organized chaos, just the way he liked to live his life.
To most people here, he was the ideal CEO. Kind, caring, respectful of their time and effort. As such he constantly gave his employees monthly bonuses, and health care initiatives to promote other bonuses. He ran a very lucrative shipping company and had an image of a major humanitarian who gave back to his employees from the bottom cleaning staff to the most senior employee.
All of this was a front for where his real business and objectives lay. He approached his special soundproof room as he entered the code into the electronic pin pad that was on the side of the wall. A second later, the display turned green, and the door unlocked. He turned the handle and walked into the room, shutting the door behind him. As he entered the room, he noticed there was another man sitting in a large, black luxury office chair behind a computer desk on the far side of the room.
The man seated in the chair looked up with a grin on his face, his eyes covered by dark round sunglasses. "Hey Xenon… It's about time that you arrived, baby brother," the man spoke; the faint hint of a scar that ran down the left side of his face was visible behind his glasses. He had a cocky and brash attitude as he sized up his younger brother.
Xenon sighed as he turned around and made sure the door was locked securely before he walked over and sat his papers down on the desk. "You only call me that because you popped out of mum twenty minutes before I did," Xenon said with a chuckle as he pulled out a second chair, identical to the first one and took a seat across from his brother.
"We both know that I am the more handsome, sexier, and more terrifying twin," Xenon replied as he looked at the man. There were only two main differences between the brothers. Xenon's hair was long, past his shoulders, and he had a small silver stud in both his ears. He was physically imposing and well-toned for a man in his early forties.
His brother had almost the same identical physical build that he did. The only difference was that he kept his hair short, standing in spikes. He also sported a deep scar that ran down the left side of his face from his temple to his chin. Three white lines. A gift from a particularly skilled Were-Wolf. "Oh, kiss my ass, Xee," his brother said with boisterous laughter.
Xenon shook his head as he looked at his brother, "Are all the plans finally put together then Cedrion?" Xenon's tone lacked the mirth that Cedrion had.
Cedrion removed his glasses, the scar now prominent on his otherwise handsome face as he looked at Xenon. "Yeah, all the team captains are set to meet us at noon near the target location to go over final assignments and troop allocations." Cedrion's voice was almost gleeful in anticipation. He was looking forward to the upcoming bloodshed. He couldn't wait to get his knives and hands dirty with the blood of mangy Shifters.
He loved the thrill of battle and slaying the scum of the earth. The more brutal, painful death they experienced, the more he got off on it.
Xenon pulled out one of the sleek silver and black pistols he had strapped under his suit jacket and dropped the mag, cleared the chamber and brought out a gun cleaning kit from a drawer behind his desk next to Cedrion. "This isn't the time to play games. You did that once, remember?" Xenon pointed to the scar on his cheek.
Cedrion grinned as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at Xenon. "Do you want the lie or the truth?" Cedrion asked him.
Xenon let out a frustrated sigh as he responded to their usual game. "Always the truth, so I can plan the damage control."
"That's the spirit brother," Cedrion said as he clapped his hand on Xenon's back. "Then the truth is I plan on doing both. I'm going to kill as many of the disgusting little creatures, as painfully as possible," he finished with another boisterous laugh.
"See that's where I don't get you," Xenon said as he put his weapon back together and holstered it beneath his jacket.
"Instead of playing around with the trash and vermin for a long period of time. You should just snap their necks and move on. Let it be no more of a thought than that. But instead, you enjoy wasting time inflicting as much pain, suffering, and degradation as you can on them. You get cocky, and you get sloppy," Xenon said as he then pointed to the scar down the left side of Cedrion's face. "Is that not how you got that scar there big brother?" Xenon asked.
Cedrion tensed up at the mention of his humiliation. That damned wolf got the better of him momentarily while he was playing with another one. He had been bearing the results of his own stupidity for eighteen years now. "That's beyond the point. Anyone can get injured in a battle like that one," Cedrion argued defensively.
Xenon shook his head. "Not with our abilities they don't. You only got that deep of a scar because you got careless, Ced," Xenon replied. His brother shut his mouth and quit arguing. He knew Xenon was right and that was what chaffed his rear most of all.
"Fine. I will attempt to be more cautious when I slaughter the filthy animals," Cedrion begrudgingly said as he glared at Xenon.
Xenon smiled at his brother in appreciation. "No, you won't. But I appreciate the gesture," Xenon said with a laugh as Cedrion then grinned and joined him.
"You're right, I won't," he said with a laugh. An alarm rang on Xenon's phone. He pulled it out and noticed the time. "Well, shall we go meet the captains and get this slaughter started?" Xenon asked his brother as he stood up from the office chair.
"Oh, hell yeah," Cedrion said with a grin on his face. "The campus of Allario will soon be painted red with the blood of animals."