Post by Bene Elohim on Feb 8, 2024 13:40:00 GMT -8
~[Reader discretion]~
~[The Civil War: series contains mature content and situations which may make some feel uncomfortable, even triggering.]~
~[Please read at your own discretion.]~
~[Please read at your own discretion.]~
The line of black vans and tinted SUV’s rolled along the quiet back country road in Kearney Nebraska, those inside the caravan readied themselves for what was to come. Ramiel, Ananiel, and Zachary had found the information on the trio that Lucifer wanted and tracked them to a Lumber yard just up the road.
For Ashley, Aerynn, and Zachary, it was their first time and as such they watched the others, but to the three, it seemed like Sariel, Ananiel, Ramiel, and Ani didn’t have a care in the world. They rode in silence while Ani drove each of them, staring out a different window as if watching for any sign of trouble.
And when you did the kind of things the Children did, you always had to have your head on a swivel.
The caravan rounded a corner on the two lane blacktop and came to the edges of a small lumber yard and began to park. Rather than in one long line that parked one beside the other on the small inlet beside the road.
The Fallen Angels filed out of the SUV’s and watched as nearly two dozen men and women left the van. All of them were dressed in a plain black prison-styled jumpsuit with two at the head of the group carrying large duffel bags, one in each hand.
Ani and Sariel each held one of their own as the two groups came around to the head of the vehicles. The bags were tossed onto the hood. From the bags, the Demons pulled folded black hooded robes and began to slip them on followed by the black skull masks. Each of them raised their hands and from the palms and fingertips came the sparks of a stun gun.
Ashley’s brow lifted and she let out a whistle.
Ashley Kenyon: “I wondered how you fuckers were able to take these people with minimal struggle. All you have to do is touch them.”
Sariel: “There is more do it…”
Sariel answered as she pulled the white hood of her top up and slid the white angel mask down over her face, muffling the sound of her voice with a built-in voice modulator.
Sariel: “...But yes.”
One by one the others all began to get ready as Ani unrolled a printed out map of the sky view of the yard across the hood of the car. She looked up and around the group and looked at the Demons gathered between the cars.
Ani: “You know what to do. Split up and come in from every entrance. Teams of four. Flush anyone who would see the Demons and flee toward us.”
Demons in unison: “Ma’am.”
Ani looked down and motioned to just inside the front gate, just inside the eastern gate and just inside the western gate.
Ani: “Here, here, and here. The spaces are tight and there are no blind corners for anyone to sneak up. Ananiel and I will take the eastern. Zach and Ramiel? You two take the front. Kenyon, you and Donnelly take the western.”
Sariel: “There’s a small abandoned house here…”
Sariel motioned to just beyond the north of the lumber yard.
Sariel: “If they get past those checkpoints, north is the only way they can go. I’ll wait inside.”
Zachary and the others expected someone to raise a complaint about her being all alone, but no one did. As if no one feared for her safety. She simply looked down at the large strange phones all the Children had intently.
Sariel: “Alistair is ready to black out the place. Going dark in ten… nine… eight… seven… six….”
She raised a hand and began walking toward the yard, counting down silently. The only sound now that of the men and women disturbing the gravel as they walked and Sariel counted with her fingers.
Five.
Four.
Thee.
Two.
One...
With an audible snap, the lights of the lumber yard shut off and the group disappeared into the darkness in three different directions. Ashley and Aerynn shifted around to slip through the darkness to just inside the eastern exit and waited.
They weren’t waiting long before a commotion began to ring out and a voice began to ring from the ear of their masks.
Zachary Sears: “Vhy ze hell did he not tell us about another team of Demons?!”
Sariel: “There wasn’t another team! What the hell is going on!”
Zachary Sears: “Zhere is another team fighting our team!”
Ashley and Aerynn looked at one another, confused when another voice called out.
Ramiel: “Kenyon! Coming!”
Just as Lucifer had promised, they had flushed the men directly at the women who he promised could deal with them. The three men came around the corner, running in panic and ran straight into Ashley and Aerynn.
Henry Ruvik was a middle aged olive-skinned bald man wearing a pair of torn pants and a filthy shirt from all the running. Michael Taylor was the youngest of the trio in his late twenties with short blonde hair and a scar running across his face, dressed as dirty as the first. Kellen Scott was the oldest of them in his forties but still wore his brown hair in a short fohawk.
All three of them tried to slide to a stop when they saw the pair, but Ashley’s white-gloved hand shot down and a expandable baton snapped open and she swung, taking Scott across the face. She took out Ruvik with a second swing, but before Ashley could scramble Taylor’s brains like she had the other two, Aerynn grabbed him by the base of his neck and violently convulsed as the elecrical current passed through him.
Aerynn Donnelly: “We need them alive.”
Ashley Kenyon: “Fuckin’ REALLY???!”
Aerynn Donnelly: “We made a deal Ash! Lucifer gets them first and then us.”
Ashley’s growl sounded more feral and demonic with the voice modulator in the mask but she submitted with one aggravated kick to the ribs of one of the downed men. Aerynn lifted a hand to her mask to activate the mic when a shadow engulfed the pair.
The two looked up just in time to see a man in all-black military tactical gear drop from the top of the wall of stacked lumber and land between them. The man landed in a crouch and spun around, sweeping Ashley’s legs out from under her and shot up as Aerynn turned, spinning into a roundhouse snap kick that took her square in the face.
Aerynn staggered back into the wall of lumber as Ashley straightened up and reached out to grab some part of the man, but he grasped her wrist and yanked her towards Aerynn, landing Ashley’s hand on Aerynn’s face and the current rushed through the Irishwoman. Without even waiting for her to react, the man kicked his leg out, taking out Ashley’s feet and leaving her to land head first on the hard gravel.
Anthony Crawford: “Take them!”
Ashley and Aerynn were both out cold as men and women in the black zip up-hooded sweatshirts and black masks came out of the shadows from both sides and gathered up the three unconscious men. Black bags were placed over their heads and their hands zip tied behind their backs.
Together, the group walked around the stacks of lumber and began north with Sathanas walking along behind them without a sound.
It was another fifteen minutes of voices taking into the girls' ears before Zachary, Ananiel, Ramiel, Aniel, and the demons all converged on the pair. They were trying to make some sense of what had just happened, but it was Ramiel who heard it.
The faintest whisper from the ear pieces.
Sariel: “There is another team…”
Zachary: “That is vhat I said!”
Sariel: “They are loading Ruvik and the other one into a van. One got… who the hell is that…”
Through the earpieces in the masks, the group heard someone talking before there was silence as Sariel stopped holding the button down.
Ramiel: “Sara? SARA!”
Ramiel turned and sprinted around the corner, heading north while Zachary and Aniel pulled Ashley and Aerynn up with Ananiel close on his brother's heels.
~[Outside the lumberyard]~
Sariel watched from the shadows of one of the abandoned homes a little ways north of the lumberyard covering the only exit the Children had left the men to create a singular choke point. She expected it to be over quickly as all the others were… that was until they came out of the darkness. A dozen people in hooded sweatshirts, wearing black masks, carrying Ruvik, Taylor, and Scott over their shoulders.
She watched as Scott was able to wiggle his way free and sprinted straight for the houses and what he thought was safety. As luck would have it, the man ran straight into the house she was standing behind and through the back door straight at her.
She had both hands locked around his head before he even knew she was standing there. The shock ran through him and he collapsed into the grass between a pair of trees to her right. She eased forward into the rear door of the house and watched as a man with short brown hair broke off from the crowd and headed off past the house. She knew he wouldn’t find Scott unless he was right up on him.
She watched the masked figures loading Ruvik and Taylor into a black van a lot like their own.
Sariel: “There’s another team.”
Zachary: “That is vhat I said!”
Sariel: “They are loading Ruvik and the other one into a van. One got…”
Sariel shifted her eyes from the van to the opened door on the far side of the room to find a man standing just outside it, staring inside at her.
Sariel: “…who the hell is that…”
Anthony Crawford: “Where is he?”
Sariel slowly rose and pulled the mask off, her brown hair in a ponytail and hanging down her back. This was a different Sariel than the one who appeared on television. The real Sariel. The Devil’s Right Hand.
Sariel: “Who?”
Anthony Crawford: “Don’t test me. I won’t ask again. Give me the Sinner.”
Each word the pair spoke brought them closer, step by step through the debris of the house around them. Two hundred yards into the trees, the masked figures continued to get the pair ready for transport.
Sariel: “Sinner? Are you working for Lucifer?”
Crawford kept true to his word, and the second he got within range, he blasted her across the face with a right hand. He swung a kick that she blocked with an arm and then ducked under the next one, slipping around behind him.
Crawford spun around, throwing rights and lefts, each one slipped and ducked as Sariel moved with a fluid grace that she had never shown on television. She was a manager; she never needed to.
She ducked under another kick and dropped, kicking her own leg out and taking him across the back of the planted leg kicking his leg out from under him. Crawford hit the hard ground and she twisted, bringing her other leg up and kicking him square in the face. He rolled backwards with the force and came up slowly, touching his now bloody lip.
Anthony Crawford: “Sariel, I am going to enjoy this.”
The shock of hearing her name from someone she’d never met gave him time to close the gap with his arms at his sides. He blocked a right and then a left. When she went for a kick, he dropped his elbow into her knee to block the kick before straightening up into a brutal uppercut that took her clean in the face.
Sariel staggered back from the force but threw another punch. Anthony caught her fist and yanked her forward, driving a brutal snap kick into her ribs before twisting beneath her arm, forcing it straight and slightly at an angle. He yanked her back toward him and kicked his leg out, taking her own out from under her.
Sariel flipped end over end in midair and landed hard on the ground. To her credit, she popped back up just as he jumped into a knee. She blocked the knee with her forearms, but he hit a right and then a left, blood shooting from her mouth.
She threw a punch that he easily ducked, kicked her legs out from under her again, and spun around, kicking her as hard as he could in the ribs and side. The force of the kick lifted her up and drove her face first into the corner of the wall.
Sariel hit the wall so hard, she spun and crashed into the ground, unconscious and bloody.
Just as he moved in to finish the job, he could hear the yelling of the Demons near the vans that people were approaching. Anthony glanced back behind him to see Ramiel and Ananiel coming across the grass at a sprint.
Slipping out the back door, Anthony came within feet of the unconscious Kellen Scott. He joined and the vans disappeared into the darkness, leaving the Children to find the brutalized Sariel. She stayed conscious long enough to tell them about Scott behind the house before passing out completely in Ramiel’s arms.
