Post by Bene Elohim on Feb 8, 2024 13:56:55 GMT -8
~[7/14/2019]~
~[2:57AM]~
~[Disclaimer these scene contains firearms and extreme violence and blood. Viewer discretion advised.]~
In an unassuming little town in some quiet little corner of some unimportant little state sat a five-story apartment building that was all but empty now. It was bought out by some mysterious corporation in PA. They paid the landlord more than the building was worth and paid out of pocket to relocate all of the tenants to new homes somewhere else in the city.
Now there was only one resident. A man who never spoke to anyone on the street as he made his way in and out of the building. A man who never so much as looked at those who were moving out as he climbed the stairs to the top floor.
Now months after he was left alone in the building, he could be found on the top-most floor. The entire floor had been gutted, making one large loft out of the ten apartments. Candles littered the loft, covering the floor and countertops, dozens upon dozens of them.
Anthony Crawford was lying on a bed in the far corner of the room near the wall with his hands on thew caramel hips of a young woman, while she gently used those most delicate and secret of age-old techniques to moves her hips in that time-honored movements tradition. The sound of their passion and energy filled the loft all around them, their shadows moving on the walls.
Far, far below the shadows of the streets were filled with life. Nearly three dozen figures all quietly filing out of vans and cars, gathering bags from the vans and slipping into their mission attire.
Two dozen demons, the Watchers, and the Fallen Angels all dressed and ready for the fight they all knew was to come. The only one not dressed in the standard garb of the Children was the monster Cronos, who was simply too big to fit into any of the standard outfits.
All was well and calm until Ashley Kenyon, without her mask on yet, walked around to the trunk of the Camaro and popped the truck. She gave a soft whistle and the others all gathered around her. From the two large bags in her truck, courtesy of her time with K.I.S.S. (Katt Industries Special Services) she pulled weapons.
The handheld and the fully automatic type.
While Ashley began to pass them out to the Demons and the Watchers who would take them, Zachary Sears stepped forward. His face was livid with outrage but he kept his voice to a low whisper to avoid it carrying up.
Zachary Sears: “Vhat ze fuck are you doing, Ashley? Lucifer said no.”
Ashley Kenyon: “He said he wanted him dead…”
Ashley’s point made that much firmer as she drove the clip of the 9MM in her hand into its housing with a soft ‘click’.
Ashley Kenyon: “And I intend to end this, Zach. These people are holding the men who hurt Twoey. You’ve seen the before and after with her and they did that to her and they did it without a second thought! There’s nothing left to discuss with them, they’re too far gone! Now, he wants this done and one way or another, they are mine.”
The Demon Knight shook his head, gritting his teeth and hissing softly.
Zachary Sears: “...Ash, he’s not going to like this.”
Aerynn Maguire came up beside her best friend and answered with a clip of her own with another click and a whispered.
Aerynn Maguire: “We dinna fuckin’ care.”
When they tried to hand the weapons to Sariel, Ani, Ramiel, and Ananiel, all of them flatly refused. However, Sariel did have her hand wrapped around the sheathe of a beautiful Katana. Sariel looked from the door to the alley beside the building where a fire escape could be seen.
Sariel: “We’ll take the Demons and head up through the building. We’ll need time to clear it floor by floor. Ashley, take Aerynn and the Watchers and climb the fire escape to the floor. We’ll chirp your phone twice when we are in position on the fourth. We come in from below, you come in from above.”
Ashley gave the smallest nod then motioned with her head for the others to follow, while everyone else made for the front doors. With a soft groan, Zachary shook his head and pulled down on his black gloves
Zachary Sears: “This better fucking vork…”
~[
Inside the building
]~
Inside the building
]~
How many times had it been now? How much time had the pair spent in the throes of passion? He honestly didn’t know the answer to either of those questions. All he knew during it all was the feel of her lips, the curves of her body, and the sweet sounds coming from her full pouty lips.
When it was finally over, for now, Anthony pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the bed panting and covered in sweat. The ink tattooed across his chest and shoulders glimmering in the candle light. Maya sat up on her elbow, covered from the waist down by a thin silk sheet. Her hair was wet with sweat and sticking to her shoulders and throat, her breathing coming in whimpering pants. Slowly she leaned up and pressed her lips to his spine.
Maya Kennedy: “You alright, Boo?”
Anthony chuckled and opened his right arm for her to sneak inside and kissed the side of her head.
Anthony Crawford: “You are getting really good at that.”
Before Maya could respond, the entire dark floor came alive with bright flashing red light both from the bottom rail of the floor and from the top rails near the ceiling. Anthony’s head shot up, his eyes narrowed and surveying the room.
Maya Kennedy: “What’s going on? Those lights mean something?”
Anthony Crawford: “...someone is on the roof and someone else is coming up the stairs to the fourth floor.”
Maya Kennedy: “You expecting company, Boo?”
Anthony Crawford: “...Get down. Now.”
Anthony had time to rise from the bed, nude, and slip on a pair of loose fitting pants. Meanwhile, Maya slid down into that tight space between the bed and the wall. The sound of soft footsteps hitting the metal stairs leading to the roof access door sounded. Multiple footsteps. Crawford moved directly to the door and when he reached it, he kicked it hard, driving the door open straight into Aerynn’s face and sending her flying backward.
One of the Watchers came forward with his weapon at the ready. Anthony grabbed his arm, pulling it past him, and locking it in place as he spun with the man. Extending his leg, he caught Ashley across the face, spinning her around into the wall.
Twisting the wrist and arm of the Watcher he held forced the man backward to his back where Anthony laid a hard right hand into his face, knocking him smooth out. As he does, this another Watcher comes in behind him, leveling the barrel of a weapon at the back of his head. Anthony slowly rose with his arms outstretched, not speaking a word. But before the Watcher could do anything, he spun around, suddenly grabbing the hand holding the weapon.
It fired into the wall as Anthony spun under the arm, disarming the weapon by grabbing it with his free hand while kicking his left leg out into the back of the woman’s leg, sending her into the air. As she hit the ground, he brought the right leg around, kicking her in the face.
As another Watcher came around the corner of the roof Anthony threw the gun full force, the metal weapon hitting the woman in the face. The force of the impact stunned her long enough for Anthony to come through the doorway and jump, kicking both feet into her chest with such force she left the ground and slammed into the side of the building behind her.
The others came up to the fifth floor at the moment Anthony came back through the door into his home. When he saw the two figures, each holding automatic weapons, Anthony sprinted across the room and jumped over the stairwell leading down, landing on the stairs just as the projectiles slammed into the wall of the stairwell. Maya screamed in fear at the sudden shooting and kept herself down low.
When he heard the click of the weapons’ magazines being emptied, Anthony sprinted out from the corner and hit the pair, grabbing the weapon of the one in front and bringing it into a choke position as he jumped past, kicking both feet into the chest of the man standing slightly behind. The man hit one of the windows and disappeared through it, dropping the five stories to the concrete.
Anthony yanked backward on the automatic weapon until he heard the pop of the throat snap. He then tossed the weapon away. Panting, he slowly rose while the others came up the stairs and fanned out into a half circle between him and the only exit.
Sariel: “No more running now, Sathanas.”
Sariel snarled and the blade came out of its sheathe with a steely hiss. Anthony didn’t show a hint of fear as his arms came up and motioned for them to “come on”. When Sariel came forward alone and swung the blade, Anthony ducked under it. She turned and swung again, but Anthony jumped over her swing, landing on his shoulders and rolling to his feet while she came in behind him.
He sprinted to the wall and ran up it, using the height to assist a flip backward over her swing. He landed and spun as she was turning, taking the woman across the face. Sariel spun before hitting the ground, the sword clattering away from her across the floor.
Anthony turned, arching himself in mid-spin and catching Zachary and the Twins across the mouth with a roundhouse kick. But when he finished his turn, he found himself grasped by the throat by a huge hand from a man he’d never seen before.
He threw a right hand into the side of the head of the hulking bald figure covered in tattoos, but the beast never so much as flinched. After the second of the blows, Cronos turned and launched Anthony through the air and into a glass partition between the room being used as a bedroom as the room being used as a living room.
Anthony hit the reinforced glass and went clean through it from the force Cronos threw him. The glass shattered and Anthony hit the ground, rolling through the shards before finally coming to a stop on his stomach.
Before Cronos could do anything at all, the tiny blue-haired woman known as Maiko Adachi suddenly darted forward, her eyes narrowed and her lips pulled back to bare her teeth at the man. She dropped down as she sprinted, snatching a large shard of glass from the ground. When she reached Anthony, she brought the glass down toward his face, but Anthony grabbed her wrist.
Anthony Crawford: “I...don’t wanna hurt you. You’ve...been hurt enough...”
Asmodeus: “GIVE THEM TO ME! THEY ARE MINE TO DESTROY!”
Anthony Crawford: “DAMMIT!”
He arched his leg up, kicking Maiko square in the mouth and sending her staggering back away from him. Anthony took this chance to lean back on his shoulders and kick up, his bare feet sliding in the glass, spreading blood across the floor. Maiko came back again, slashing the glass shard wildly while shrieking bestially at the top of her lungs.
Each of the swipes was sidestepped or slapped to the side until one of them finally caught him across the stomach slicing him open. At that moment, Anthony was done playing. When she swung, he blocked her arm with his own and jumped, twisting and driving his knee into her hand. The force caused her hand to close around the shard, shattering the glass and cutting her deeply.
Without pausing, he yanked her arm, sending her past him and onto the stairs where she tumbled down end over end. When he turned his head, Cronos was coming at him full speed. He ducked under a right hand and twisted around, driving a kick full force into the big man’s stomach, but it didn’t so much as move him backward.
When Cronos swung again, Anthony managed to slip beneath the arm and behind him, making his way across the room to put some distance between him and the berserker. Unfortunately for him, Zachary stepped in front of him with a handful of Demons, each of them throwing blows that Anthony was able to block and counter, but too many to turn those counters into attacks.
Cronos charged in again, but once more, Anthony was able to get beneath him, leaving the behemoth to slam into Zachary and the Demons full force. This turned all of them into a tangle of limbs. Anthony stepped away, his foot sliding a bit from the blood leaking from his bare feet.
As Cronos began to untangle himself from the mass of human flesh, Maiko came back up the stairs on her hands and feet, screaming in demonic rage. She sprinted at Anthony, only for him to catch her coming in, driving his shoulder into her armpit as she swung and flipped her over his shoulder.
Maiko hit the ground so hard she bounced, the sound of her bones cracking heard by anyone close. Her head came up, expression confused and in pain. However, as soon as it came up, Anthony turned and kicked her square in the face, sending her rolling away from him limply.
Cronos made it to his feet as Ashley was coming through the door. She was just in time to see Anthony had nearly killed the woman she loved. Cronos charged forward, while Ashley screamed in pain and lifted her arm holding the Glock 9MM, squeezing off shots.
Anthony instinctively turned away from the sound of the gunfire while Cronos charged at him. The big man hit him around the stomach just as a projectile ripped through the hulk’s forearm. What could have been the final scene of Anthony’s life now that Cronos had his hands on him, however, proved otherwise as the big man grabbed his forearm in pain, giving Anthony time to scramble to his feet and dive through the window behind him to get away from Ashley and the gunfire.
Anthony fell five feet and slammed back first onto the third story fire escape they had climbed to get to the roof. He rolled to his feet and ran down the metal stairs to the first floor, never looking up before jumping over the railing.
He landed on the ground, the pain in his feet causing him to stumble and fall to a knee. When Aerynn and Zachary looked out the broken window, all they saw was the empty alley. The pair leaned back inside and found Ashley cradling Maiko’s head in her lap while the blue-haired woman wept. Cronos was kneeling, being tended to by Sariel and the Twins.
Ani crossed the room and put herself directly in the path of Aerynn, her face angry and her tone no longer quiet.
Ani: “Lord Lucifer said no guns! He said it for a reason! WE HAD HIM!”
Ashley looked up from holding Maiko and shouted.
Ashley Kenyon: “I FUCKED UP, OKAY?! I’M SORRY!”
Sariel shook her head and left the Twins to handle Cronos so she could stop this before it escalated.
Sariel: “Ashley was scared that Mother was dead, Ani. You’d have lost your cool if it had been Naani. I know I would have had it been Rami. Lucifer won’t be happy… but this is a win.”
The outcasted Sears sibling grit his teeth and clenched his fists.
Zachary Sears: “How is zhis a fucking vin?! He got away, AGAIN!”
Sariel: “HE got away. He ran. We were victorious in this fight and the Lord himself only knows what kind of information is here.”
Maya Kennedy: “Um...excuse me?”
Maya leaned up from behind the bar, shaking and pale.
Maya Kennedy: “...Can I go?”
Ani knew Sariel was right, and when she saw that Maya was still here, she crossed the room. She covered the young woman with a blanket and whispered instructions to her while she assisted her and her clothes down the stairs to one of the empty apartments to get dressed.
Sariel walked across the room to the Watchers, all gathered together and doing as their name suggested.
Sariel: “Someone reported all those shots. Contact our contacts here and make sure no one comes. The last thing Lucifer will want is some idiots searching through all the secrets Sathanas may have had here.”
Watchers: “Yes, Right Hand. It will be done.”
Sariel returned across the room and paused long enough to crouch and whisper to Maiko in Ashley’s arms. Soothing words that everything would be okay. Once that was done, she crossed the room back to Cronos and the Twins, motioning away with her head.
Cronos gave a small nod, holding the rags to his forearm as he walked over to talk to Zachary and Aerynn. Once it was just Ani, the Twins, and Sariel, the Storm Bringer brought her phone out of her pocket and hit the button to call Lucifer.
He picked up on the first ring.
Lucifer: “Is it done?”
Sariel: “Not the way you wanted, Sire.”
Lucifer: “Explain.”
Sariel: “He escaped. We lost at least two more Demons.”
This was met with silence from the other side of the phone. It went on so long that Sariel was concerned they had lost connection until Lucifer’s quiet, angry voice returned.
Lucifer: “What went wrong?”
Sariel looked over at Ashley and the woman she called Mother. Ashley looked up, ready to accept the prize for what she had done, but Sariel whispered.
Sariel: “There was a gun on site, Sire. It came into play and Cronos was winged before he could finish Anthony. He’s not seriously hurt, but Sathanas did escape.”
Lucifer: “Was there any hint that he will be useful?”
Sariel: “Yes, Sire. Sathanas was fast, but he couldn’t do much damage to Cronos.”
Lucifer: “Good. Secure the scene; I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. Send Ani back to watch the children.”
Sariel: “Yes, Sire.”
Sariel hit the button, ending the call, and glanced over to find Ashley standing beside her while Aerynn sat with Maiko. The black-haired woman crossed her arms over her chest.
Ashley Kenyon: “Why would you do that?”
Sariel: “You are one of us now, Ashley. We protect our own. Even from themselves.”
Sariel gave the woman a pat on the shoulder and turned to return to the Twins. They began searching the place, leaving Ashley with a lot to think about and consider.
She had joined them for no other reason than to be with Twoey and to punish the men who had hurt her…
But perhaps there was more to it than that.
Perhaps there was more to them than she had realized.
