Joseph and the Mutant Killers Read online

  JOSEPH AND THE MUTANT KILLERS

  by

  John Martinez Hulsey

  Joseph and the Mutant Killers

  All Rights Reserved © 2014 by John Martinez Hulsey

  No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by Johnny Veins

  www.johnnyveins.com

  San Antonio, TX

  JOSEPH AND THE MUTANT KILLERS

  Dedicated to my brother, Joseph R. Hulsey

  PREFACE

  Few humans survived the last great Earth war – Armageddon.

  Scientists, anticipating the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, had taken refuge in underground bunkers, taking all the knowledge and technology of Earth with them. Politicians, the military, and the rich who could buy a spot in the safe haven of these shelters, quickly followed.

  The rich and the politicians were just extra baggage. Their money and the privileges to which they were accustomed did not exist in the devastation and chaos that ruled after Armageddon, so together the scientists and the military forged the future of Earth. They had nothing to lose and they let no one stand in their way.

  The new order looked within the Solar System to expand humankind’s quest for new resources and new places to live. To quickly and efficiently explore the cosmos, the remnants of Earth used cloned man, a stronger and more proficient version of a human.

  In the late 22nd Century, the first genetic copies were born. Because of their genetic enhancement, clones were physically stronger than their human “parent” in every way. They were able to use all of their bodies, brains included, to an amazing capacity.

  With their superior brain power, the clones made great strides in all the sciences, especially in astro-telepathy and in astro-physics. With this new technology, it took a full man crew of clones approximately 200 days to reach Saturn’s moon, Titan. The view of Planet X, light years from Earth, became clearer from this vantage point, and Earth planned explorations outside its solar system. With new astro-technology, scientists and astronomers performed tests. Long distance photographs showed the thickness and size of Planet X’s moons; measurements helped determine what materials made up the planet’s clouds, atmosphere, and interior; cloned man scanned the planet for any form of energy. It proved to be parallel to Earth.

  Humans had explored and colonized other locations in their solar system – the Earth’s moon, satellites around Mars and Venus, and the moon Titan. Now they were ready to move onto intergalactic exploration. An elite exploration team of clones – scientists and construction workers – were transported to make Planet X livable for the last remaining humans of Earth. It would become another “new world” colonized by man at the expense of cloned human life.

  BOOK ONE—

  The Legacy

  “For fate has woven the thread of life with pain¸ and twins ev’n from birth are Misery and Man!” – Homer

  Very little is written in the annals of human history about the Mutant Civil War other than it happened in the 23rd Century Earth time, and that human victory would have been impossible without the heroism of a small elite force called the Mutant Kill Squad. This is also the era when the human cloning experiment on Earth ceased. Very little is recorded as to why this was abandoned.

  Some historians theorize it ended because the experiment went “wrong.”

  Clones were not only genetically enhanced but they had also been genetically altered. To control their genetic composition, they had been created infertile, unable to reproduce on their own. Surprise pregnancies occurred, though, when humans mated with clones. This was not supposed to happen, but since it had, genetic scientists were interested in the results of such an accident.

  Scientists did DNA tests on the half-clone babies and they were delighted with the results. These babies were genetically superior to both their parents. Scientists discovered that as these half-clone offspring matured in age, so did their strengths – physical, mental, and emotional. Realizing the evolution of a super human race, they called this generation of half clones – neosapiens.

  Scientists greedily encouraged humans to mate with clones, and they encouraged the mating of neosapiens with each other. Generational studies found these babies were even more evolved than their grandparents. They became stronger and smarter than the humans who controlled them.

  While telepathic strengths and superior intelligence could be assets in good neosapiens, the same could be detriments in bad neosapiens. Good Neos proved good partners; evil Neos proved formidable adversaries; after all, pureblooded humans could not compete with them mentally or physically nor could they control them.

  Some humans refused to mate with clones or neosapiens, because of ethics, free will, or pride. Neos were so removed from their human roots that some humans considered them abominations. They refused to interact with them or allow their families to do so. They called them Mutants and the demeaning moniker took hold.

  No intelligent, sentient being likes being called a Mutant. No intelligent, sentient being likes being an experimental rat. So the neosapiens demanded the same human rights as pureblooded humans. Inversely some neosapiens considered the humans an inferior race and refused to interact with them or allow their families to do so.

  Caught in between were those, both human and neosapiens, who still judged others by their actions and not their DNA compositions, but hatred and suspicion, are powerful evils. There were those in each group who thought less of the other and thought the other needed to be reminded of their place.

  The Earth President ordered that all Mutants be registered and their whereabouts monitored. Numbers of Mutants were quickly outnumbering purebloods. Clone production was stopped and mating was outlawed outside one’s race. All pregnancies and births were DNA tested and identified by level of human pure bloodedness. Suspicion, segregation, and stigmas flared on Earth, reminiscent of pre-Armageddon days. The President demanded the Senate provide him with tougher legislation, limiting the growing Mutant population.

  There were rumors of forced abortions, mandatory sterilizations, and Mutant lobotomies.

  As in all confrontations, leadership on both sides used this to promote their own interests. Those who benefitted from the use of clones and their Mutant offspring wanted legislation to keep them in line. Not considering them human, scientists and the military used them as cheap, expendable grunts that did the work for Earthlings who did not want to risk their lives exploring and colonizing the galaxy. Likewise, Mutant crime lords, who made sociopathic human killers look like petty thugs, saw this as an opportunity to take over and rule the Earth and its colonies. They recruited disgruntled Mutants into their armies in great numbers.

  So war was declared.

  Syn led the Headhunters, a powerful Mutant clan who worked as assassins in the employ of the mystic Mutant Cardinal known as Seth the Sinister. Sinister had sent the Headhunters to slay the entire population of weak, human-loving, “good” Mutants living underground in the ruins of the Los Angeles area in the late 23rd Century. The crime lords wanted Mutants who talked publicly about peace and compromise eliminated. Syn and his gang almost succeeded in that task, killing the vast majority. They would have exterminated all these weaklings, but, in the course of the “Mutant Massacre”, the Headhunters clashed for the first time with a young guerilla group called the Mutant Kill Squad.

  Syn and his Headhunters barely escaped with their lives had they not used the Mutant powers they each possessed. Syn himself teleported and displaced himself into
another dimension, traveling through it, and then returning to his own dimension at a safe distance from his point of departure. The teleportation mechanism was energized by an unknown force which he triggered mentally, leaving in its wake tears of red plasma.

  Their second encounter with the Mutant Kill Squad had been just as disastrous for the Headhunters. The MKS thwarted the Headhunters’ endeavor to assassinate the human Earth President during the Mutant Civil War. Sinister had sent the Headhunters to take advantage of the war to rid the Earth of the President and its worldwide government. With the government out of the way, Seth the Sinister could take over the Earth and all its remaining wealth, but the MKS once again interfered with the Mutants’ plans. Up to now the weaker humans had been no match for them, but the Mutant Kill Squad was a formidable adversary. The MKS lay in wait and ambushed the Headhunters when they attacked the President’s entourage. Once again the Headhunters barely escaped with their lives.

  The MKS quickly gained a reputation for being elite Mutant Killers.

  * * *

  Michele strolled into the throne-chambers of Syn's Palace, undaunted by the chains around her ankles and wrists.

  Her physical appearance was what most others dreamt about – beautiful and alluring on the outside, but what dwelled deep within her soul were all nightmares.

  “Ah... Michele-Marie,” Syn hissed, “the individual that has caused my organization a great loss...”

  Michele-Marie was a well-known case in the psychiatric community. Her dual personality was discovered while she was still a Mutant infant, and she spent much of her life in psychiatric institutions being studied. The community was unable to explain the cause of Michele-Marie's split character, much less cure it.

  In her Marie persona she was a physically fragile human, prone to seizures and other disorders. She was highly emotionally dependent on others, kind and gentle. Marie had no knowledge of her alter personality, and because of this she could not utilize her Michele abilities for good.

  Michele-Marie's heartbeat rate, alpha waves, electroencephalogram patterns, biorhythms and even her smell were different in her Michele persona than they were in her Marie persona.

  In her Michele persona, she was a murderous neosapien – a dark Mutant, uncontrollable, and persistently vicious. After escaping the asylum in which she was detained, the authorities lost track of her until a year later, when she emerged as a highly successful businesswoman, believed by many to be potentially the greatest entrepreneur of her generation. Upon discovery, she abruptly disappeared from public sight again and reemerged on Planet X as a master thief and extortionist. Subsequently, Michele ended up in the city of New Armenia, where she began vandalizing and pilfering gambling houses and headquarters of drug-dealers, seducing and later slaughtering the criminals she encountered.

  The gambling and drug operations she hit were all part of the wicked Empire of Syn who had renamed himself the God of Crime. Much of the New Armenian Press regarded Michele favorably, respecting her as a vigilante, since she killed vicious criminals and kept the lesser ones in line. Even the police seemed to look the other way and tolerate her actions.

  She was a highly formidable hand-to-hand combatant, had great agility, and was highly skilled in wielding and hurling sharp weapons, but Michele-Marie possessed supernatural cerebral powers that provided her with telekinetic powers. She could levitate small objects for several meters. She also possessed pyrokinetic powers that allowed her to set objects in her immediate vicinity aflame. But her most formidable weapon was her power of seduction. Like a venomous spider, she would lure her victims into close vicinity, and then eradicate them easily after she used them and got what she wanted.

  Michele gazed at Syn with her seductive green eyes. “You're not going to punish me, are you? I mean... I'm positive you can find some good use for me in your... organization.” Her voice was soft and smooth.

  “I'm positive too.” He avoided her eyes. “That's why I've brought you here. I want you to join my forces in conquering Celestial World.”

  She had thought that he had brought her here to torture and kill her; this offer gave her an opportunity to gain access to his operation. She would pretend to help him and gain his trust. When the moment was ripe, she would kill him and take his place as the Goddess of Crime.

  “Looks like I’ll be adding conqueror to my resume.” She grinned.

  “But first to prove yourself to me, I need your special powers to help me eliminate . . . a small problem.”

  * * *

  Like Planet X, Celestial World exists in the neighboring solar system, equidistant from its sun as Earth is from its own. Generations ago the Celestials had achieved virtual Utopia, having eradicated disease, poverty, and a variety of other social ills. After a war similar to Earth’s Armageddon, instead of looking to the galaxy to help them recover from their holocaust, the Celestials had looked to their own planet to rebuild what remained.

  To look at these peaceful people, one would underestimate their capabilities, but these were the warriors who had survived their own devastating world war. They were the strongest of their race. Once fierce warriors, they had deliberately resolved to dedicate themselves to the more difficult discipline of peace instead.

  Their cities and homes were built into the lush natural surroundings of their planet. Great palaces perched atop lofty, colossal rock pillars or were built unobtrusively into the sides of mountains. Cities faced the deep, vast canyons below and expansive vistas colored by the strata of purple and pink layers of ancient rock. At first glance, a visitor to this planet only saw the crystal blue skies, the lush vegetation, and the majestic waterfalls. At first glance, one was awed by the green expanses and the perpetual mists that created radiant rainbows. Because their planet had once been brought to near ruin by war, the Celestials had recovered its beauty and assimilated themselves into its former natural grandeur.

  Any visitor or invader to this celestial, utopian planet would be mistaken to underestimate the ability of these peaceful looking inhabitants – at a moment’s notice the people of Celestial could transform themselves into mighty warriors.

  Empress Elissa was the youthful matriarch of this extremely long-lived race of human-like aliens who resided on Celestial World. For centuries, her people had lived in ideal bliss, but recently this peace had been shattered by the dreaded Headhunters, who misjudged the ferocity with which these people would defend their planet from invaders. Elissa and her people with the help of an Earth human who had made it his life’s work to pursue the Headhunters, defeated the assassins and sent them running with their supernatural tails between their legs. Once again the Mutant Kill Squad had thwarted Syn’s plans of interstellar domination. Their leader seemed to anticipate Syn’s every move, showing up whenever he attacked the unguarded and the goodhearted.

  Now that Syn had eliminated his “small problem” with the help of Michelle –Marie (she had seduced and lured Seth the Sinister into a fatal trap), now that he had taken total control of the entire mutants’ criminal empire, now that he led the legions of malevolence throughout the universe, it was time to lure his worst pain in the ass, the head Mutant Killer, into a trap and get rid of him once and for all.

  * * *

  Several years prior to the Mutant Civil War, Rafael Martinez had been a leading member of the Anti-Mutant Organization opposed to superhuman neosapiens. He hated Mutants. They were an abomination of the human race. They should never have been created and needed to be stopped and eradicated.

  Rafael and his wife Jessica had finally gotten pregnant after years of trying with no success. Prenatal screenings revealed that she was carrying twin girls, but tests also indicated that one had a non-human form. Ironically, though both he and his wife Jessica were pureblooded humans, they were now pregnant with a Mutant. The other fetus tested human. No one could explain how this could happen. The only explanation was that one of them was not a true pureblood, so by law both parents had to submit to tests, but they were
both found to be purebloods.

  The mutation of the twin was unexplainable. Jessica agreed to undergo a medical procedure whereby the unborn Mutant twin would be bombarded with a laser that would kill the fetus while sparing the human twin. During the procedure, though, the “normal” fetus moved and accidentally intercepted the beam aimed at her sister.

  Alarmed by what had happened Jessica and Rafael halted the experiment, hoping their human baby was okay. Doctors continued to monitor the growth of both twins, planning to deal with the mutant baby at birth. But eight months later, only one child was born to the Martinez'. There were no signs of Jenny’s neosapien twin.

  * * *

  “I'll be sure to visit soon, Elissa,” Joseph spoke into a huge video screen that showed the face and upper-torso of a blond whose unique features made her presence almost perfect.

  “All right, love. Good-bye,” replied the blond, blowing him a loving kiss.

  As the screen faded, a beautiful woman with jet-black hair strolled into Joseph’s Greater San Antonio office. As Joseph turned to her, she spoke in a monotone, “The Punks from Hell have taken the GSA city council hostage.”

  “They probably deserve it, but we are here to serve. Let's get a move on,” Joseph smiled at Jenny. “You ready for some action?”

  Joseph Crow Blades was not your average young thirty year-old man, law enforcer, Marine/Solar SeAL, Mercenary, and leader of the Elite Mutant Opposition known in the media as the Mutant Kill Squad. His resume was rather accomplished.

  He was unusually strong for a human, and in 2287, only the strongest survived. Legend boasts he was the mightiest of the famous Mutant Killers. Legend also says that Joseph was so powerful that once, when he was hung by a Kevlar rope while as a POW during the Mutant Civil War his augmented neck muscles withstood the strangulation.