Two years ago, a scientific breakthrough occurred. It was discovered that, through some odd application of microscopic machines, humans did not need to fear the aging process anymore. Wounds knit themselves closed within seconds, broken bones mended painlessly in mere minutes, and even previously-fatal falls only ever proved to be a minor hindrance. The discovery sparked a new age of unheard-of human advancement, but also bred one of the worst waves of crime that humanity had ever known. Without fear of death, criminals could do whatever they wanted- short of killing people, that is.
Functional immortality at an affordable price.
A fitting line for such an advertisement. The affordability meant that even the poorest of the poor could buy into immortality. One would think that this would cause quite the upset in society, but it was quite the opposite. The upper, middle, and lower classes remained more or less as they were. There was no shift of power, no riots or raids...
Entirely because nobody could die. You could torture a man and remove his limbs, but they would seemingly grow back within a few days. Even severed heads continued to speak, pierced hearts continued to beat, and seemingly dead men rose back to their feet, as if their injuries were only a slight inconvenience. This, of course, meant that the worst of criminals were nigh-impossible to kill.
Then, roughly a year after the nanomachines hit the open market, a method was discovered. It was not electrocution, as many believed- the nanomachines could protect themselves against that. To destroy a body completely with explosives or by means of a grinder did not work, either. The nanomachines worked far too quickly for that to have any meaningful effect- and their presence itself practically worked as shielding against trauma.
No... the method was much more simple than anyone could have guessed. Fire. One of humanity's longest-lasting friends returned to solve yet another issue for them. However, fire itself was a very trying method. It was not enough to set a man alight and have him die in only minutes. One had to burn for hours at the least, sometimes even days, before their nanomachines simply could not function anymore. Very few alive had the sort of criminally twisted mind required for such a thing, let alone ones who were still reasonable enough to fit into society otherwise. Still, some few of them existed, and the governments they belonged to often transported criminals directly to them for execution.
"Let's see here... A mister Tanner A. Smith. Charged with over two dozen counts of rape, eight counts of plasma draining, five counts of public intoxication, one count of urinating on a duty-holder... And the list does continue. My, they always send me the purely raunchy ones, don't they?"
A woman stood in a garage- a wide and spacious affair, with numerous odd pieces of machinery here and there. Everything about her screamed 'prim and proper'. She wore an elegant dress, held her hair in a braided bun, and even the way she spoke oozed what many might call 'class'. Nearby, a crate was being unloaded from a truck onto the floor of her garage. She held in her hand a clipboard, idly reading over it. "I must wonder just where you find these people."
"Is, uhh... everywhere a good enough answer?" one of the men unloading the crate asked her, quite sarcastically. They all wore the same black-and-red uniform, and they all carried guns, useless as they seemed. "Someone here gets their blood drained out, someone there gets their wallet stolen. Since people can't die, you'd think people would go do crazy, fun things, instead of-"
"This is what they consider fun, I suppose," the woman interrupted. "And this is what I consider fun. Thank you again for your hard work, gentlemen. If you'd warned me you were coming today with a phone call, I'd have prepared snacks."
The men shuddered, some of them instinctively backing away from her. "Thanks for the offer, Monique," one of them said, heading back toward the front of the truck. "But really, you don't have to do something like that. Really."
"But I do love baking so much," Monique replied, giving them all a parting, nearly-malicious grin. "Oh, well. Goodbye then, gentlemen. Do have yourselves a pleasant day."
The men got back into their truck following that, quietly muttering among themselves. Before long, it pulled away. The garage door shut automatically following that, leaving Monique alone with the crate.
The woman grabbed a crowbar, setting to prying the wooden thing open. Most criminals were not given even the slightest of comforts when being transported- as if they were a mere package to be delivered. One side of the crate popped off after the woman heaved for a moment, and a man in a straight jacket spilled out. His eyes were covered, and his mouth gagged. Monique grabbed him, quickly dragging him over toward a nearby table.
"What a shame. Fine build, tall," she commented to herself. "This man could have been a very productive person. Such a waste of potential." She unceremoniously hauled the bound man up onto the table, though after doing that she backed away, glancing idly around the room. In particular, she was looking between the many odd machines placed about. A metal shaper, nestled against one wall. A woodchipper, economy-sized and with the output vent placed against a hole in the wall. A series of saws, designed for cutting wood and occasionally thin metal.
All of which were pristine, cleaned to the point where no damning scents pervaded the room. Meticulous could be one word to describe the woman. Psychotic, perhaps another.
"... I always seem to feel bitter at first. Fire is my own enemy, yet also my only tool," Monique quietly muttered to herself. "I must wonder if this man has a family. Perhaps not. Perhaps so. In the end, it does not matter."
"Flames do not discriminate against who they burn, and this man must be burned for his sins." Saying that, she reached for a knife beneath the table, reaching to cut the bindings on the man's head. She'd come to rather enjoy it when people screamed.
(Welp, don't know if that's exactly the sort of thing that was wanted, but it's where my mind went. Might not make a lot of sense, though. I dunno- nanomachines.)