Rabid *HF* Chapter 9
By Gene
"Much as I want him now, I'm not sure how much help I'll be," Strider croaked, leaning on him. "My lungs are killing me."
Mufasa looked at him. Strider's life force was strong, but it was clear the elemental was in a lot of pain. "Do you think you can help me find Rune? Once we find him, I'll teleport the two of you back immediately. The Bastard literally blew him apart."
Strider winced. "I'll do it."
Khalid teleported the two of them to the rubble that was once a SEars store. Mufasa found himself thinking of the rubble of the World Trade Center, except there was the remnant of souls here. He began looking through the smoke and sniffing the air, searching for any parts of his fallen comrade. STrider morphed once more into a dog and whined as he nosed about the rubble.
Khalid heard a noise behind him and whirled about, sunblades ready.
"Need some help?" Echo said, stepping deftly among the rubble. Behind her, Mufasa saw a shorter blonde woman - Scrib.
"You could say that," Khalid said. He stepped forward and they shook hands as a sign of friendship between the WHite and Grey Courts. "The Bastard has decimated most of my team. Froze Strider's airways with pressurized Nitrogen and blew Rune to pieces. Rune can recover, but he'll have an easier time of it if we can find all his bits."
"No problem," Scrib said. "I'll clear this smoke and dust out of here first." With a wave of her hand, the air swirled and the smoke was pushed - not blown - away.
Echo looked over Mufasa's shoulder. "Strider's found something."
They turned and saw STrider sniffing at a mound of rubble. He barked and looked to them. He morphed into his humanoid form and pushed several chunks of shattered cinderblock aside.
"I've found him! Part of him, at least. There's a..." Suddenly, a hand connected to a severed forearm wrapped around his wrist and clamped down. Black lines formed on Stider's hand and stretched up toward his arm, pulsing beneath his green uniform. A gasp escaped his throat as he fell forward.
"Gahhh....help...m..." he moaned, shaking.
"Strider!" Mufasa shoated, bounding through the rubble. The others chased after him, a pace behind.
Mufasa tried to pry the fingers off of Strider's wrist, but the grip was too strong. When he looked more closely at the hand, he knew why -it was Rune's.
"Dammit! Let him go!" Mufasa growled.
"Look!" Echo said, pointing toward a patch of rubble further away. It began to tremble, as did another, and several other spots nearby.
"Ahhhhn...Khalid..." Strider gasped. "He's draining..."
"I know, Strider. I'm trying to stop him, but..."
Simultaneously, the quivering patches of rubble burst open and released objects of various size, moving too fast to be seen. They flew right at the group, who dove away and prepared for further attack. There was no need however, as the odd missiles converged on one place - Rune's arm. There was a sound like thunder, and suddenly Rune was there, Strider hanging by the wrist in his grip.
"Pain," Rune hissed. "Pain." He collapsed to his hands and knees, dropping STrider. The others went to his side.
"Rune...are you all right?" Mufasa asked.
"I will recover. I always do," RUne said.
Echo checked Strider's neck for a pulse and found none. She looked at Mufasa and shook her head. "He's even going cold, Khalid."
Mufasa growled. "Rune, you selfish prick! You killed Strider! You would have healed anyway!"
Rune shakily rose to his feet, then looked at Khalid. "There is always a chance I won't," he said. "I must go to heal. Good luck with the Bastard," he said. "If I recover in time, I will return to help you once more." His eyes glowed and he disappeared.
Mufasa turned to Echo and Scrib. He glanced at STrider's body as a teleportation circle formed around it, sending it back to the White Hellfire MAnsion. "Now it's just us. You still in on this?"
"We're on orders from the Grey King to stop this," Echo said. "And it needs to be done. Count us in for the long run."
Mufasa held a hand to his temple. "I'm told he's back in the building. Police, fire and rescue are on the way to check this out. Let's keep them from being victims, too."
***
"Gomurr says he's down this corridor, back in the storage and utility areas again," Mufasa said. He looked at Echo and Scrib with a grave expression. His voice was serious as well. "Don't underestimate him. We're walking right into a trap he may have spent days or weeks planning. Even spontaneous, Gene and the demon combined are as unpredictable as they are powerful."
"Goes with the territory," Echo said. "Besides, with your senses and Scrib's talents, we should be okay."
They began to walk down the corridor. Condendsation dripped from a pipe above their heads, measuring the time of their pursuit one drop at a time.
"Something's happening," Scrib said. "Pressure's changing behind us. Hard to describe. Like a whole wall moving, but...spongey."
They turned and their eyes grew wide as they stared into a wall of darkness closing behind them quickly.
"IT controls a kind of shadow...very dense," Mufasa said. "Be ready."
They heard a hissing and whirled back around to see another wall of black coming from in front of them. They had time to gasp and draw their weapons before the darkness was complete.
Mufasa called up three photon balls and suspended them in the air before each of them. Even with the balls right next to their faces, it was nearly impossible to see.
"Scrib, can you determine anything?" Echo asked.
"No. This murky stuff totally negates my powers. I can shift air, control the pressure of it, but this stuff isn't natural. It has dense and thin pockets that keep shifting, I can't make out a thing."
"Same here," Mufasa said. "My senses are all out of whack in this. Sight is inhibited. I can make out your life essences because you're near. Hearing is off. It's like being in a thick fog. And I've lost communication with Gomurr. Wait. There!"
"I feel it!" Scrib cried. "A man! He ran close and is running away!"
"Got him!" Mufasa roared,firing a massive photon burst down the hall. THey saw it travel about two meters before the darkness swallowed it up. THey heard it explode, then heard a man screaming. They pursued cautiously as they heard a labored groan and shuffling steps.
"It's over, Gene" Mufasa said. "You're wounded. Let us take you back to get this thing out of you. You've been fighting it. We'll help you. Gomurr knows what to do."
"Khalid, don't make us targets. Take those spheres off of our faces and concentrate on cutting the darkness ahead of us," Echo said.
"Done and done," Mufasa said. The spheres gone, their faces disappeared in the darkness, but they could see some of the corridor ahead of them.
"Something's up there! He's...look out!" Scrib yelled, pulling Mufasa down with her as she ducked. They heard something whiz overhead and clatter behind them.
"He's got his bow," Mufasa said. "I'll put up a shield."
They heard the air in front of them pop as a photon shield was erected in front of the three of them.
"Arrows, bullets, they can't get through this, Gene," Mufasa said. "You know that. There's no escape. Help us,"
Echo's eyes narrowed and her heart sped up even more. "Something...he's behind us!"
The whiz of an arrow flew again and Scrib began to duck, but not in time. A large THOK was heard, then a clatter and a thump as SCrib fell to the floor. A flathead arrow lay next to her where it dropped after slamming into her skull.
"Bastard!" Echo yelled, running forward. She held twin Japanese short swords in her hands. Not her typical choice of weapon, but she thought they fit the circumstance, and she was more than proficient with them.
Mufasa heard the clanging of angry steel on steel, and his enhanced vision detected sparks that even the unholy blackness could not hide. Mufasa heard a man cry out.
"Khalid! I got him! He's running!"
Mufasa jogged down the corridor, following Echo's scent more than anything else. After several seconds, he noticed the darkness starting to dissipate. He could now make out the walls, the floor, and the form of Echo running ahead of him. She turned her head toward him and yelled.
"He's going this way! He's hurt! Come on, we can catch him!"
Mufasa increased his pace, almost catching up to Echo. HE would be with her in a second. A sinking in his gut told him it couldn't be this simple.
"Echo! Be careful! Wait for..."
"Hurry up!" she cried. "He's down this way!"
She turned the corner, two strides ahead of him. As soon as she was out of sight, the darkness in the hall Khalid was in lifted and the hall was filled with light. Blinded for a moment, Khalid stumbled for a pace, then continued around the corner. Two paces up ahead, the hall was lost in blackness again. Mufasa stopped in front of it, listening.
"Echo?" he called out.
He heard nothing.
He took a step forward, straining his eyes and senses to pierce the darkness. He looked up, hearing a scuttling on the pipes above his head. An inhuman voice broke the silence.
"A tisket, a tasket, Mufasa in a casket," it sang. "He brought his people to take me down, but in the end he lost it, he lost it. In the end he lost it. Thanks for the present, Khalid. She sure was pretty."
Mufasa snarled. "Enough running. You're dead."
Photon energy exploded from him and plowed down the hall, searing the concrete and cinderblock before impacting the wall at the end. It was meant to destroy Gene as much as it was to clear any obstacles in Mufasa's path. He began running down the hall at top speed, intent on ending the game.
"I'm healed now, Mufasa," the voice said. "Come find me."
Mufasa charged down the hall, sunblades ready. Energy crackled around him like electricity spitting from a downed wire. The darkness began to lift again, and he reached a fork in the corridor. The darkness was significantly lighter down one way.
"I've lit the way for you. Even you should be able to follow this trail.
Mufasa cautiously looked over the floor, walls and ceiling, then ran down the hall.
"No need to run, big boy. You'll get all tuckered out. Then how will you beat me? Hit me in the knee again? This body doesn't feel pain the same way anymore. I've come to like it."
Mufasa slowed his pace. Up ahead, the darkness grew thicker again.
"What are you hiding from me, Gene?" Mufasa shouted. "What's in the shadow?" He squinted as he drew nearer. Suddenly, the shadow thinned. Gene leaned casually against the right wall, one leg crossed over the other. Echo was collapsed at his feet, a gag of cloth duct-taped in her mouth, her hands and feet bound. A noose of wire ran around her neck and up to Gene's hand, looking more like a leash. He smiled, showing far too many teeth for a human.
"Here she is, Khalid," he said. "I didn't hurt her much, though she tried to hurt me. Have you ever taken a look at her, or has your vow of chastity forbidden you? She has the finest ass and legs I've seen in ages. Must be a dancer. Moves like one, too. Decent swordswoman, though she relies to heavily on Japanese swordplay. Clever, but easy to predict after a few minutes. Do you want her alive?"
"I wanted them all alive, motherfucker. How many people have you killed in the last few weeks? How many have you injured?"
Gene waved his hand dismissively and shrugged. "I don't count. I prefer to think of quality than quantity. If I keep this up, traffic will improve all up and down the East Coast. Crime will drop. Fewer assholes to clog the wheel of life. Then I'll have to move on, returning only for shall we say...maintenance. You Hellfire clods did put on a good chase today, though. Not very talented or organized, but you were fun to beat up on. The public just doesn't satisfy on that level as well."
Mufasa analyzed Gene's aura and smiled. "Why the talk, asshole? Need an audience?"
Gene smiled. "Forgive an old drama student for the showmanship and need for an audience. I like to be appreciated." He continued to smile, turning to face Mufasa straight on. His smile widened and his teeth grew, his lower teeth growing over the upper and up into his upper lip, piercing the flesh under his nose and around his mouth. His eyes lost all color, turning pure black, and the tips of his gloves burst out, revealing sharp talons.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" Khalid growled. "I've seen demons before, and much worse than you. All that's left now is the killing."
Gene's tongue poked out between his lips, licking the side of one of his teeth. "Yes, and the matter of whom." He leapt forward and Mufasa caught him in mid-air, hurling him into the wall. Gene slammed into it with his back, laughing and began to roll to his feet. Before he could, Mufasa cut him down with a photon blast.
Staggered, Gene drew a tonfa from the holster on his thigh and swung it at Mufasa, who blocked it with a sunblade. The weapon spun out of Gene's hand and clattered on the floor. Mufasa spun the sunblade then struck out, severing Gene's left hand. Gene cried out as Mufasa dropped on the man knees first and began pounding on his face with his fists. AFter several punches, the overgrown teeth coming from Gene's mouth began to crack, and after several more, they began to break off and shatter. Gene was smiling underneath.
"Die! You sick fuck! Die!" Mufasa screamed, pounding on Gene's face.
Gene stopped struggling. He opened his remaining hand and closed it quickly, then extended his index finger at Mufasa. At his command, the shards of teeth littered onthe floor and Gene's chest launched themselces at Mufasa's face, imbedding in his cheeks, nose, lips and eyes. Mufasa snarled and grabbed at his face. Gene bucked him off, drew his other tonfa and clubbed Mufasa in the head with its handle. Mufasa fell to one side, and Gene was gone. The shadows in the corridor lifted and Mufasa was left with Echo, bleeding but alive.
Minutes later, Gomurr and SHaman appeared.
"Complete failure," Gomurr said. "1 dead, three wounded, one wounded and missing." He turned to Shaman. "How did we let this happen?"
Shaman removed Echo's bonds and cradled her head. "We underestimated him. Tried to be careful, humane. Now it's time to bring out the big guns and finish this."
End Part 9
Gene
Original and Longest-Running Editor
White Bastard/King's Pawn--HellFire Club
Knight of the Long-Necked Bottle
Forbidden by Law to Eat Onion Rings
Selectively Sterile
Wielder of Unbridled Contempt for Humanity