I Kill Because I’m A Killer

A letter arrived from Level 37, but it wasn’t delivered by the same gloved hand this time…and it wasn’t from J…
 
“I don’t know about this,” Layna thought to herself.
 
At that moment, she realized she could smell this Broker. The typical letters from Level 37 came to her from a gloved hand extended from an invisible space — a space into which she could not smell.
 
But this purple sealed “37” letter was delivered by someone else. And as soon as he left, she changed into his form and likeness.
 
The letter contained the following message:
 
"Acolyte, Level 37 is asking you to show your devotion to the cause and advance your knowledge and standing in The Way of 37. Your presence is required in Chattanooga, Tennessee at 10 AM local time approximately 36 hours from now. You will be participating alongside other Acolytes and devotees of a higher order to complete a mission critical to the success of Level 37. You must assist in the completion of this mission using whatever means are necessary. Further details will be provided upon arrival.
 
In F, S, & P, Elder Yoshida Teru"
 
After reading the letter, she thought to herself nervously, “I am an acolyte now…” and then just as quickly, “Chattanooga is really far away….”
 
But Layna gathered her composure and set out to make a plan to arrive at the address provided in the letter:
 
She requested an UberAI to the train station, purchased a ticket, and then made her way to Chattanooga. With some effort, she made up a conversation with a woman on the train who was traveling to California — learning her name (Susan Robinson) and some of her basic details. Once at the station in Chattanooga, Layna bid the woman farewell and found a private restroom where she was able to change into Susan’s form and likeness.
 
From there, she hailed a cab and paid in cash for the driver to take her to a nearby hotel, paying him another $200 to return the next morning at 9:00AM.
 
The next morning, Layna instructed the cab driver to take her to an address nearly one mile from the directed meet-up location. After walking the last mile, she arrived at the site at roughly 9:35AM.

---

Walking up the road, now in the form and likeness of the hotel clerk, she surveyed the building. It was nondescript. A factory, probably.
 
Layna could smell another person near the building, though they must’ve been hiding. She breathed in and smelled their unique scent — it was like a mixture of thick dust floating heavily in the air. Layna found a spot outside the building and sat down, leaning her back against the concrete wall.
 
Another person arrived soon afterward — a man neatly dressed, wearing a suit and tie. Layna inhaled and exhaled deeply — his scent was complicated. At first it was pleasant, but then it burned her nostrils. She wrinkled her nose as her eyes watered. Before she could speak to the man, at exactly 10AM, the ‘factory’ doors opened and they walked in, joined by the ‘blue man’, whose smell was like thick dust.
 
The interior of the building was expansive. Layna was looking upward and around, stumbling into corners until an authoritative man spoke, giving instructions to her and to the group of individuals in the nearby vicinity.
 
She didn’t recognize his name nor anyone else’s.
 
“Where is ‘J’?” She thought to herself.
 
But there was no time for conversation. Their leader, by the name “Takashi”, asked straightforward and gruff questions - instructing Layna to exhibit her powers, or something like that. With a quick inhale/exhale, she turned into the form and likeness of Takashi…which he didn’t seem to like.
 
The smells of everyone in the room were too overwhelming, Layna wasn’t paying close attention to instructions.
 
After Takashi finished speaking, Layna had a question, “Is bloodshed allowed?”
 
Takashi seemed irritated by the question. All she heard of his response was, “…by ANY means necessary.” Layna smiled with her razor-sharp toothy grin.
 
The team was divided into two armored SUVs. Layna sat in the back seat of the first SUV next to the well-dressed man named Dominic whose scent burned her nostrils.
 
Soon after departing, the SUVs were tracking down a SWAT van on the highway, quickly gaining speed on it. She naively asked Takashi, “Do you want me to jump out onto the SWAT truck?”
 
With increased irritation, Takashi answered, “You’ve seen too many movies.” Then he got on the phone and coordinated with someone named “Widow” as he shot a curious weapon at the SWAT truck, which quickly slowed to a stop.
 
Takashi got out of the SUV and Layna intended to follow. But she reverted to her ‘hideous’ form before exiting the SUV. Heart racing, Layna began looking up and around again. The smells of humans were coursing through her…and she noticed a quickly approaching scent.
 
“Takashi — there is a quickly approaching object from behind us, it is red and gold with wings.”, she spoke quietly.
 
“I know who that is — Chromium Condor!”, he exclaimed.
 
And with that, the fight was on. SWAT Officers began firing and, from somewhere, IERA agents appeared and began attacking them with their electrical ‘wands’.
 
But Layna was overwhelmed with it all. Her previous assignments were in secret; in surprise. But this was combat… Everything was a blur until Takashi dove for cover underneath the SUV, brushing against Layna. She ‘snapped’ back into the moment.
 
Layna ran toward the first SWAT officer she could see and swung at him with her claw-like hands but stumbled and caught herself on the ground with ‘all fours’, as her father would call it.
 
Still flustered with the adrenaline of combat, she began to think to herself,
 
“I kill because I’m a killer. I kill because I’m a killer.”
 
She inhaled and exhaled, but instead of changing shape, her arms extended to a point and the edges of her bones flattened into razor sharp edges.
 
“I kill because I’m a killer.”, she repeated to herself.
 
And with a piercing scream, she slashed at the closest SWAT officer and sliced him diagonally across his torso. His body fell to the ground in pieces.
 
Now, with blood splattered on her face and the scent of another man in the tall grass, she lunged forward again, with a downward slice into the grass. Her razor-sharp arms cut deep into an IERA agent hiding in the grass and he wailed with agony. He grabbed at his stomach through his armored vest — intestines exposed, blood seeping from clean-cut wounds. The man looked back at Layna and she inhaled his scent as he collapsed.
 
Layna screamed into the air, anxious for more.
 
But the battle was over. The ‘blue man’ who went by the name Switchblade had captured another man in a light blue suit and tie. And the group had been instructed to return to the SUVs.
 
Layna inhaled the scent of the man they’d captured — he smelled like olive oil and sweaty money. She didn’t mind that smell much, and so she changed into his form and likeness.
 
The return trip wasn’t back to the ‘factory’ but to a secluded place in the woods, instead. Someone wearing red robes spoke authoritatively to the group, welcoming them and thanking them for their work.
 
Layna was disoriented by the smells.
 
And so the next moments were disorienting as blinding lights and overwhelming smells were intertwined from locations unfamiliar to Layna.
 
The man in the light blue suit — the man they’d captured — walked over to a desk and sat down. Then, another flash of disorienting lights and smells and Layna and the others were returned back to the ‘factory’.
 
She had obeyed…
 
They would call upon her again.