Post by Bene Elohim on Feb 8, 2024 15:12:16 GMT -8
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:00 PM}~
1/16/2020
7:00 PM}~
The meeting was all set.
She knew the plan.
She knew exactly what was at stake and she knew she had to remain unmoved. She had to be unphased by the events that were taking place.
She had a role to play.
The meeting was set to take place in a four-story structure that had once been a warehouse and was now completely deserted. Half the glass windows were broken long ago and the other half were filthy. The place was riddled with rotten pieces of wood.
Danielle Anderson was pacing back and forth in the center of the building, dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans and a pink t-shirt with her fire-red hair tied back into a ponytail. Even though she didn’t show it, her heart was beating a thousand beats a minute in her chest.
She didn’t know how, but Danni suddenly realized she was no longer alone. Her sparkly blue eyes turned to the only doorway leading into the structure and found a massive figure standing in its center. Knowing she only had seconds before he would begin to inspect his surroundings, she launched right into it. She had to do anything to keep him from looking around the doorway as she had been instructed.
Danni Anderson: “Oh, hi Ant! I didn’t think you’d have the nerve to show up.”
The man in the doorway let out a dry, almost amused chuckle.
Anthony Crawford: “Why not? What can you do to me?”
Danni Anderson: “I know you don’t fear me. What you fear is the truth.”
As she had been instructed, she crossed the room towards him. Just as she had been told he would do, Anthony entered the room and slipped around her, giving her a wide berth to avoid her getting within range of any weapons she may have brought with her.
Anthony Crawford: “I fear nothing, stupid girl. Now, we had a deal. Ask your questions and give me the information on Dahlia!”
The change put him in the center of the room and her near the door.
Danni Anderson: “Questions? What questions?”
Anthony Crawford: “Our arrangement. I explain to you why I did what I did to Markus Rael and you give me the information.”
Danni Anderson: “Ah…”
Danielle leaned down, grabbed a small bag from beside the door, and straightened up. Anthony instinctively moved to stand near one of the stone pillars holding the second floor up as she rose back up, knowing she could have a ranged weapon in the bag, but all she did was smile.
Danni Anderson: “You misunderstood me, sir.”
Anthony Crawford: “...”
Every fiber in his being wanted to walk across the room and throttle the woman, but he wasn’t stupid enough to risk exposing himself when he didn’t know what she had in the bag. So instead, he growled.
Anthony Crawford: “Don’t make the mistake of making me force you to tell me what I need to know, little girl. That was his mistake.”
The Sweetheart Esper visibly flinched, but she remembered the words clear as crystal.
‘He’ll try to use Markus against you. You need to steel yourself. One mistake. One second of you not being in control, Danni, and Leina will lose another parent.’
So for Leina, she let the comment slip off her shoulder.
Danni Anderson: “You were never going to explain what you did… to me.”
The shock and confusion on the face of Anthony was the signal she had been waiting for. She grabbed the door handle and stepped outside, slamming the door closed in one fluid motion. As soon as the door closed, she knew he’d be sprinting for the door, so from the bag came the length of chain.
She had no sooner attached the chain to both the post and the door when the door slammed open a few inches. Danielle let out a yelp as Anthony’s enraged face appeared. He tried to power the door open a second time only for the locked chain to stop it again.
Anthony Crawford: “What the hell are you playing at?!”
Danni Anderson: “I want you to explain it to HIM!”
Letting out a yell, she motioned with a finger through the door and over Anthony. She then walked back the way she had originally come in from to an unmarked car and leaned back on it.
She had played her part.
Anthony slowly turned around, his eyes scanning the warehouse until they fell on the stairs leading to the second floor. That was when a pair of boots moved down the stairs. The legs appeared, a symbol on the outside of each leg, and the hem of the coat. More and more was revealed until Lord Lucifer himself reached the landing in the middle of the stairs and pulled his sunglasses off.
Michael Rivers: “Nowhere to run, Anthony. It’s just you and me now… and it’s time we finished this.”
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
7:00 PM}~
1/16/2020
7:00 PM}~
Johnny Dawkins had given Lucifer everything. Where Valdemar’s Hell was located, what the building looked like, wow to get around using the elevator system. Everything. Rigging a system to get inside had been so easy, it had been nearly amusing to the Twins. A place this big, out in the open like it was, needed to appear as if it were a legitimate business.
What you gained in being right under everyone's nose, you lost in security.
Lucifer’s Hell wasn’t ever under anyone’s nose, always out in the middle of nowhere with no way to get anywhere near it without being seen by a half a dozen different people. But no one arrived or left that wasn’t supposed to be there. Everything was delivered in secret by the Demons.
Valdemar, on the other hand, couldn’t do that. He needed to appear to be a legitimate businessman, and as such, he needed to allow third-party companies to serve as “distributors” for everything this place needed. From paper to food to all kinds of supplies. They were all brought by a different company.
Creating a shell company to service this need had been easy and the test run by the Watcher had been a resounding success. Samyaza had gotten in with a highly combustible substance without anyone even batting an eyelash. When the pair of women approached the double glass doors of the building, each one pulled a double stack of barrels on a dolly and knocked on the glass, the blonde behind the counter across from it buzzed them in.
The woman behind the counter, the same one who had greeted Samayaza, came around the desk holding the clipboard to check the day’s deliveries.
Minerva: “Names?”
Sariel: “Samantha Hess and Monique Terrel, Westward Construction.”
Minerva: “Ah yes, your colleague told me you would be coming in today. How many?”
Sariel: “Four.”
Beside her, Aniel slapped the top one, and Sariel’s eyes shot to her when the hollow sound rang out. Fortunately, Minerva didn’t seem to even take notice. She marked the arrivals on the clipboard and motioned to their right.
Minerva: “Basement Level 3.”
Sariel: “Thank you!”
Then the two women were on their way. They rolled the dollies across the polished floor to the elevator and soon disappeared inside. They knew enough not to stop the charade once inside as they could be monitored.
When the elevator doors opened on the third basement level, the pair rolled the dollies behind the already double-stacked barrels, out of view of the elevator and the camera above it. Once they were out of sight, they unstrapped the top from the barrels. Ramiel climbed out of one while Ananiel emerged from the other.
Sariel: “The elevator leading upstairs is directly across the hall from this one in the lobby. We’ll go up first and take out anyone on the lobby level. You two will wait five minutes and then follow, head up into Valdemar’s office and down into Hell.”
Ramiel: “We know what…”
Ananiel: “...we must do…”
Both: “Sara…”
Aniel: “Just get it done. Without that level being rigged, it won’t be a controlled blast and this whole place is gonna go.”
Sariel: “Minimal casualties.”
Ramiel: “You two just…”
Ananiel: “...Focus on coming back…”
Both: “...In one piece.”
Sariel and Aniel looked at one another, and without even thinking, each leaned up and planted a kiss on their respective brother. Ramiel and Ananiel each tenderly held the women they loved and returned the kiss.
Once the kisses were broken, Sariel and Aniel entered the elevator again and began to back up. The Twins each looked at one another and began to change.
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:20 PM}~
1/16/2020
7:20 PM}~
Anthony Crawford: “Saves me the trouble of having to find you.”
Anthony slowly removed the thick leather jacket and tossed it onto the floor next to him, his eyes never leaving Lucifer as he continued down the stairs. Michael shed his own coat, his eyes staring down into the focused pair staring up at him.
Michael Rivers: “Then let’s not keep you waiting any longer, shall we?”
Grabbing the railing of the stairs, Michael vaulted it and landed in front of his former friend and protégé. Lightning-fast, he lashed out a right hand that Anthony was easily able to block. A high kick was blocked with the back of Anthony’s arm, and when Michael threw another, Anthony spun around, connecting a kick into his stomach and staggering him back.
Michal threw a right hand that Anthony blocked, stepping to the side. When Rivers spun around with a roundhouse kick, Crawford rolled to the side under his leg. Michael spun around in a fluid motion and the two began to exchange right hands. Each blow that Michael threw was blocked and Anthony struck back with lethal precision and cobra-like speed. Each blow and kick connected with the face and the midsection until finally, after a brutal right hand spun Michael around, Anthony pressed his advantage which proved to be a mistake.
When Anthony came in exposing himself, Michael spun with the force of the blow and kicked out a leg, catching Anthony in the face with enough force that he ended up on the ground. Both men groaned as Anthony rolled from his back to his stomach and looked up. Michael threw his head back, his hair flying from his face. Blood was running down the side of his mouth and from his eyebrows, but he just sucked in a mouthful and spit on the ground beside him.
Anthony quickly leaned back on his hands and kicked up as Michael came in. A kick from Rivers was blocked with both arms to fully straighten him up. Michael ducked under a right hand and jumped, pushing off the side of the stairs. He twisted in midair, only to meet a roundhouse kick to the chest the instant he came off the stairs. The force of the kick sent Michael over the railing and crashing to the stairs where he tumbled down them.
When he reached the floor, Michael pushed himself up, slowly creeping up the wall just as Anthony came over the railing and moved just as his foot slammed into the wall where his head had just been. Ducking past him, Michael jumped, landed on the railing, and came off of it, driving a knee into the side of Anthony’s head.
Anthony, however, just used the blow as momentum, spinning around and striking out with a boot. This struck Michael in the chest and sent him back over the railing and crashing into the ground.
Anthony took the railing in hand and vaulted over, coming down in front of the fallen Rivers. His eyes were intense and his mouth was drawn into a thin line. Michael ended up halfway leaned back on a rotten workbench, and when Anthony brought his foot down, Rivers rolled away, leaving Anthony to come down full force on the wooden seat, shattering it into a thousand pieces from the force.
Michael rose to his feet and threw a right hand. Unfortunately for him, Anthony caught it, twisted around him without releasing his wrist, and kicked straight upwards, catching Michael in the face. Blood exploded from Rivers’s mouth as he collapsed in the wreckage of the bench on his stomach. Meanwhile, Anthony stood over him and stared coldly down at him.
Anthony Crawford: “Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. To think you once taught me everything I knew.”
Michael Rivers: “There’s only one problem with that…”
Michael began to respond, spitting a mouthful of thick red blood into the wood shards beneath him.
Anthony Crawford: “And what’s that?”
Michael Rivers: “I wasn’t everything I knew!”
Michael threw himself up with all the force he could muster and swung one of the larger chunks of the bench like a baseball bat. Anthony never saw it coming and couldn’t get his hands up in time to defend himself.
The wood connected with a crunch and shattered into tiny shards that sprayed both of them.
**
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
7:23 PM}~
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
7:23 PM}~
Lord Apollyon sat behind his desk high above the lobby, leaning back on it. He happened to glance down and saw Minerva walk off the camera and thought nothing of it when it took her a few minutes before returning.
He did lift a brow when she seemed to reappear with darker hair. Instead of a bright blonde, it was a dirty blonde.
He silently watched as she escorted one of the deliveries back toward the door. Before he could follow anymore, a ding brought his attention up from the monitors and to the elevators. Two men dressed in the black and white jumpsuits of the Demons with their hoods up stepped off the elevator as one across from them opened simultaneously. The former Watcher of Lucifer stepped from the elevator dressed in street clothes.
From the other side of the small opening in the hallway, the three met. Although the pair tried to turn their faces away, it was already too late.
Armaros had seen them.
Armaros: “YOU!”
Valdemar rose from his chair as one of his commanders reached into his jacket for his weapon and the two men pounced without hesitation. He watched in shock as the two men dismantled their former comrades in arms in seconds, ending with the two men launching him spine first into the wall with such force the metal dented.
And then their eyes turned to him.
Ananiel and Ramiel.
Lord Apollyon: “IMPOSSIBLE!”
Slowly, the pair reached up, lowered the hoods over their faces, and pulled off the top of the suit, revealing their own black attire beneath. They parted enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder on the other side of the desk, while Valdemar slammed his palm down on the desktop.
Ramiel: “Hello, Valdemar…”
Ramiel: “You look like…”
Ananiel: “...you’ve seen…”
Both: “...a ghost.”
Lord Apollyon: “You fools, it won’t matter! You aren’t walking out of here alive.”
Ramiel: “We are…”
Ananiel: “...Ready for that.”
Both: “Are you?”
Two stories below the pair, Aniel, dressed in Minerva’s clothes, walked Sariel toward the desk when the lights suddenly darkened. A red light began to flash across the line at the floor and ceiling. Neither of them were prepared for this, as nothing in their briefing had said anything about this.
From the far side of the room, the wall itself seemed to peel back, revealing another elevator filled with black and white-clad Demons.
It was a damn alarm.
Aniel: “...SARA?!”
Sariel didn’t even hesitate. Sprinting forward, she planted a single hand on the desk and vaulted over it, kicking her legs out and taking the two in the lead clean in the face before twisting in midair and landed on her feet in a crouch.
Catching the right hand of one, she twisted and spun, kicking out her leg to catch another in the face as she tweaked the arm, flipping the woman in the black mask to her back. Aniel was beside her as the Demon hit the ground, kicking a leg out to catch the masked woman in the face.
The two stood panting and staring into the elevator before looking at one another.
Aniel: “You think they had the time to get his Fields wired?”
Sariel: “Not a chance.”
Aniel: “Sara, we have…”
Sariel: “I KNOW!”
Sariel stood with her head down and her eyes staring at the elevator, thinking. After only a few seconds, she gave a firm nod.
Sariel: “Go. Get it done. I’ll hold down the exit.”
Aniel: “Alone?! You can’t.”
Sariel: “Ani, we made this mess. It’s on all of us. The things we did? This is our chance to make it right. For Michael.”
Aniel drew in a deep sigh and shouldered the spare bag. She gave one final look at Sariel and sprinted into the elevator, hitting the only button inside to take her back down. It was up to Sariel now to secure their exit.
Alone.
On the second floor, Valdemar suddenly smirked as the elevator behind them rang out. The twins turned to the doors as they slid open and a half a dozen masked men and women rushed out at them.
**
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:39 PM}~
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:39 PM}~
Anthony hit the ground, blood pooling around his face from cuts to the jaw, cheek, and the side of the head. Planting a fist on the ground, he let out a scream of rage and threw himself up. Michael was behind him, blocking each of the strikes and knees that Anthony tried to throw.
It was only a matter of time, however, before the strikes were simply too much for Michael to keep up with. He was fast and extremely agile, but Anthony was a technician and it showed. It was a straight kick to the stomach that snuck through, and while Michael was stunned, Anthony caught him with a right cross to the jaw.
Shoving his left shoulder to straighten him out, Anthony hit him with three lightning-fast strikes to the chest and a left cross to the jaw. Spinning around, he jumped and connected a tornado kick to the face that sent Michael back into the railing of the stairs with such force, he broke the metal and hit the stairs on the other side.
Blood was now dripping from Michael’s mouth as he began to crawl up the stairs. Anthony reached out and grabbed the broken metal railing, pulling back with another scream of rage to rip a piece off. Climbing up through the opening, Anthony followed Michael up onto the second floor.
The second story of the building was much like the first with trash and other pieces of debris scattered about. Curtains blocked the windows on all sides, most torn and stained from the passage of time.
Michael got his feet under him and turned just as Anthony swung the metal baton-like weapon, taking him across the stomach. Even though every part of him now hurt, he ducked the one that followed like a fastball swing for the head. The metal connected with the bang, squeal of metal, and cascade of sparks.
The force of the weapon hitting the wall was enough to vibrate it in Anthony’s hands and he dropped it with a growl. Turning his eyes to follow as Michael ascended another story, stumbling all the way now.
Anthony Crawford: “Fucker, come here!”
He growled and stomped up the stairs after him. At the top, he grabbed Michael by the arm and spun him around, but Michael managed to throw himself into the air and connected a kick to the side of Anthony’s head.
The big man fell to a knee as Michael landed on his back with a groan. Slowly, he rolled himself to his stomach and pushed himself up on two shaking exhausted arms, blood rolling from his lips in a thin sticky line.
Anthony looked at Michael from a knee and the pair locked eyes as they both slowly rose to a vertical base again. Michael threw a kick to the knee as Anthony threw a right hand. Each of them connected, sending Michael staggering and Anthony dropping back to a knee.
Michael pressed the advantage, grabbing Anthony by the throat with one arm while throwing a punch with the other. However, Anthony just grabbed the wrist holding his throat and threw his head to the side, the top of his head striking the hand, opening Michael up to a right cross that took him across the face sending him staggering backward.
Anthony exploded forward, actually climbed Michael, and threw himself into a backflip, connecting with the kick as he flipped to Rivers’s jaw. Blood once again exploded from Michael’s mouth as he hit the ground with a groan.
Anthony watched the downed man from where he was kneeling, opening and closing his hand in rage. The signs of the blows were showing in the half a dozen bleeding cuts on Sathanas’s face.
Michael Rivers was done and Anthony Crawford knew it.
**
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
7:45 PM}~
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
7:45 PM}~
They came out of the elevator in waves. As soon as Ananiel and Ramiel would dispatch one group, another would emerge with an electronic “ding”. They did the best they could to keep the hordes of Demons from surrounding them by working as a unit as they had been trained to do.
Each time one of the Demons would get the upper hand on one of the brothers, the other would adjust and get the Demon off him to give his brother that fraction of a section to recover. It was the only thing keeping them standing at this point.
Bodies were lying all over Valdemar’s office. The man who would become a God watched it all with a sick glee and a smirk on his face as his Demons washed over the Twins like an endless tsunami.
Two levels below them, the woman known as Sister Sara fought alone. Whirling around people this way and that, the flash of steel and screams of pain matched as she did all she could to do to keep the lobby secure.
She bled from a half a dozen different wounds on her stomach, leg, arms, and face as she stood there panting. She held the Katana point down and stared at the wounded, or dead, Demons around her.
Unable to hold herself up anymore, she collapsed to the side and found support leaning on the side of the desk that had once served as a fake front desk. Panting, her eyes rose from the floor to the wall as the telltale “ding” rang out and the doors opened, releasing another group of the masked Demons.
‘Was this what it was like for them?’
She thought as she pushed herself up, blood running down her arm and onto the handle of the weapon in her hand.
‘All those people we hurt for all those years... Was it like this?’
Two floors above, the Twins finished another group and turned with exhaustion to the doors as they opened. They breathed a sigh of relief as the battle-weary and bloody Aniel appeared, staggering out of the elevator and holding a small square box in her hand.
Valdemar let out a deep, belly laugh when he saw the woman and shook his head.
Lord Apollyon: “You’ll never make it out of here. Sooner or later, your bodies will just give out, and then... it’s over. You can’t win!”
Ananiel lifted Aniel’s face with a shaking hand and the two locked eyes. She was battered, her left eye swollen, and blood ran from her lip. He had two deep gouges across the side of his face that leaked blood down his jaw.
The two saw it in the eyes of the other.
Ramiel shifted his eyes slowly from them to the man standing behind the desk as the elevator whirred to a slow stop and rang out the “ding”.
Ramiel: “We don’t have to win.”
The two brothers locked eyes and each wrapped their arms around Aniel.
Trio: “For Michael.”
They whispered as Aniel pressed the button.
**
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:50 PM}~
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
7:50 PM}~
Anthony pushed himself up from where he knelt, groaning as he did, and scanned the top floor of the structure. A small grin touched the corners of his mouth as his eyes fell on what could only have been a fabric-cutting station stationed near the far wall of the room. There was a large bay window behind it.
Anthony stepped over the body of Michael and began across the room. Behind him, Michael rolled onto his back, panting, his entire body racked with pain.
Anthony Crawford: “You know what your problem is, Michael?”
Sathanas never so much as turned around to look at Michael as he crossed the room.
Anthony Crawford: “You had it all. You had an army. You had a purpose to exist… but you had to get all uppity, didn’t you?”
Finally coming to a stop in front of the table, Anthony reached out and wrapped his bloody fingers around the handle of a sling blade-style fabric cutter. A hard blow from his other hand, palm open, snapped the blade off its base, and Anthony stared down at it.
Anthony Crawford: “And now I am gonna split your skull.”
Get up!
The voice was as clear as day in his ears. The voice of Ashley Kenyon.
Get up!
Called the voice of Zachary Sears.
Get up!
Called the voices of his Twins, Aniel, and Sariel.
Anthony Crawford: “And there is nothing you can do about it.”
Get up, Pure!
Cried the voice of his late wife, Dahlia.
Anthony Crawford: “Don’t worry about the others. I’ll send them all to see you real soon, Lucifer.”
GET UP!!
Screamed the voice of Xaria Linette.
Michael slowly reached out, grabbed the un-sturdy legs of a table, and began to pull himself up. Blood dripped down his mouth, one of his eyes was swollen nearly shut, and his legs were shaking… and yet he slowly began to rise.
Anthony’s lips curled into an amused smile as he closed the gap between the two men fast and swung for the head. Michael ducked and twisted first to one side and then to the other, slipping each of the attempts to slice into him by millimeters.
Anthony took another swing and Michael ducked it again. He shifted into a spin on an unsteady knee and threw his elbow out. The point of the elbow hit Anthony square in the crotch full force. The blade clattered from Anthony’s hand and Michael stood to throw all of his weight and power into an uppercut.
The blow, however, didn’t knock Anthony out. He staggered back into the window and came to a stop, weakly leaning on the glass.
At that moment, Michael knew what he needed to do. He couldn’t win this fight. Anthony was simply too skilled. Sooner or later, those skills would outmatch them.
He needed to end this now.
No matter the cost.
**
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
8:00 PM}~
~{Philadelphia, PA
1/16/2020
8:00 PM}~
When the elevator rang out for the final time, Sariel turned to face it, nearly exhausted and found herself staring at a man who could have given Cronos a run for his money. The man had to have been near seven feet tall and as thick around as a tree trunk.
She was barely able to ready herself when the man let out an elephant-like bellow and sprinted at her. Grabbing her by the wrist, he kept the smaller woman from using the katana and the other grabbed her by the throat, lifting her up.
She felt her spine hit the glass window leading outside and wasn’t sure if it was the glass or her spine that cracked. The behemoth drove the wrist holding the blade into the glass over and over again. Each time, the glass cracked a bit more before the blade flew from her hand.
Doing all she could do, Sariel leaned down and actually began to claw with her free hand and bite the man in the face. With a roar of pain, the behemoth launched Sariel away from him and into the window which shattered from the cracks, sending her rolling across the ground and onto the sidewalk.
She pushed herself up to her feet with a groan, while he shoved the large chunks of glass out of his way to get through the window. Before he could even begin to step out, the whole building blew.
The force of the blast threw Sariel clear into the street where she landed hard and rolled into the gutter. Luckily, no cars were on the street as the entire building blew, raining down chunks of metal, glass, and stone on the street and shooting a fireball into the air.
Sariel placed a hand on the ground and put the other to her chest, letting out a scream of pain as the realization of what had happened washed over her.
Ananiel, Ramiel, and Aniel knew there was no way out... so they blew the building with themselves still inside to stop Valdemar.
She sat there in the gutter, weeping as people began to gather. All of them thought she was just an innocent citizen who happened to have been injured in the blast.
No one had seen anything.
No one could explain it to the cops and fire department when they arrived.
**
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
8:00 PM}~
~{Raleigh, NC
1/16/2020
8:00 PM}~
Anthony leaned against the glass, while Michael sat in a kneeling position with one hand against the filth-covered floor of the warehouse. ‘No matter the cost’ was all that ran through his head as Rivers sprinted at the man and took him square in the chest and stomach. The spear-like maneuver carried Anthony’s great bulk backward into, and through, the glass window.
And then it was just a free fall from the fourth floor.
Anthony hit the ground head and shoulders first with a wet cracking sound.
In a free fall, Michael flipped to his back and came down spine-first on the roof of the car Danielle Anderson was standing beside.
Hitting the roof with a loud, bone-shattering crunch, Michael bounced off and landed on the concrete in a limp bloody heap. Danni let out a fearful scream at the sudden impact of the two men.
One look at Anthony’s open, vacant eyes told Danni all she needed to know. Anthony Crawford was dead. It was, however, a gurgling that brought her head snapping around. Michael was lying on his back, motionless, with his head turned to the side and his eyes closed… but he was breathing.
Barely.
And just like that, with two moments of the ultimate sacrifice...
...The Civil War has ended.
