Post by thefangedrose on Aug 20, 2024 20:50:08 GMT -8
Disclaimer
This series contains elements of a supernatural nature and will play a parody of the Judao-Christian faith. It is not meant to be mocking or subversive but simply done for a creative outlet.
You. Were. Warned.
There are also supernatural elements to this story now. Be warned of that in advance. The supernatural elements of this storyline were only hinted at before but asked by those who wanted this series for it to be added.
“The Pact” is a concept that kept Jesse’s original “Walk the Line” idea alive while honoring that none of them had these “abilities” five years ago to keep the original writer's concept alive.
I hope you enjoy it.
I give you Chapter 26!
Mood Setter: “Til I Collapse” Eminem Feat Nate Dogg
Civil War 2
Chapter 26
News at 7
Location: The Bronx
Date: August 20th
Time: 7:01 PM
Standing in the center of a large group of people was a tanned skinned woman in her early forties. She was dressed business casual with reddish hair pulled up into a ponytail of curls. Behind her people of every age and racial background had gathered babbling excitedly about being on TV.
“Hi folks! This is Wendy Lancaster of KWBH, New York News!”
The woman opened her hand and extended it to a part of the shopping center that was wrapped off with caution tape. Windows of shops were broken, large burnt and oily black spots covered the ground. The walls had strange three clawed claw marks as if someone had attempted to run up it. A bench was broken in what appeared to be half by a single clean slice.
As the camera scanned the crowd three figures stood out. The first was a woman in her early thirties with jet black hair wearing a low cut top showing off a respectable amount of blood spattered chest. Her hands were stuffed in the pockets of a pair of frayed black jeans and she seemed to be covered in tattoos. To those who knew?
Ashley Kenyon.
She was dirty, and had little cuts and bruises on her face and a healed slide in her shirt at around the stomach level.
Next to her was a woman wearing what looked like jogging clothes. Blonde hair with thick full lips. She was beyond cute even with her hair that had once been pulled into a ponytail frayed and pulled out at odd angles. Her lip was swollen and she had a piece of clothing taped to her shoulder where a wound appeared to be hiding.
And the final person stood beside her. They towered over the other two. His blonde hair was stained red in places with blood and hung down to about his chest. He wore a pair of simple blue jeans and sleeveless shirt. Tattoo’s ran down his right arm barely hiding a series of healed bullet wounds and on the left side of his face at about chin height was a thin piece of scarred skin where the beard didn’t grow. Another healed bullet wound.
And without the mask it was clear as day. Dean Matthews. No emotionless eyes. No rage. His face was weary and tired. Not The Sins….Dean.
“It is hard to believe ladies and gentlemen but we are being told that here only an hour ago as we are being told rival street gangs turned the once peaceful plaza I’m standing in into a warzone.”
The woman turned to a young woman who had been standing near her.
“You saw what happened here?”
The woman turned and looked directly at the trio and then back at the camera…as if she had already been spoken to.
“...Yeah.” The woman said firmly. “Everyone was shopping and this pair of groups seemed to just come out of nowhere. At first they were just sticking to each other and then they started to go after everyone else here. This woman of Asian descent came out of nowhere with a sword and attacked a couple that were shopping. At the same time it looked like they were breeding…like fighting dogs because these big dogs came with and attacked the couple.”
Ashley and Dean looked at one another and both kind of grimaced at the mention of them being a couple.
“But another bystander seemed to jump up to help them! And then it was like watching power rangers!”
The interviewer seemed to get more and more uncomfortable with each word the woman spoke. Behind her the trio were speaking quietly to one another and Ashley motioned with her head and they began to melt into the crowd.
“P…Power rangers? I’m sorry?”
“Yes!” The witness said excitedly “The two women were jumping all over the place. Flips and kicks and just…it was crazy. The Asian woman definitely got the best of the exchange but…”
“....Thank you Ma’am.” The interviewer turned to face the camera with the uncomfortable look still plastered over it. “I am told that the security cameras of the plaza malfunctioned and didn’t capture any footage, however I understand that we have never before seen footage from one of the bystanders….viewer discretion is advised.”
**
Location: The Bronx
Date: August 20th
Time: 3:00 PM
Danielle was comfortably resting in one of the Titans guest rooms when the company Michael had informed them was coming finally arrived. The Titans were all lounging around their large, loft like living area with the majority of Michael’s Children. Amanda was sitting on Trey’s lap idly playing with his dreads while Riley was doing the same with Cronos, except in their case the two were talking quietly.
It wasn’t one of the Children who broke the silence, it was instead the smallest of the Titans Hyperion by leading a pair of women into the room. Amanda and Riley both looked up with raised brows because the two women were not the titans type.
And definitely not Hyperion’s.
They were both Gothic to the letter of the word. The taller of the two wore what looked like a gothic take on riding leathers. She was slender with black hair, dark make-up and purple splashed throughout her hair. This one carried a strange air of confidence that was much like Sariel’s own. A sureness of self.
The smaller woman beside her was decked out the same way as the former but this one had on a spiked collar and was carrying a laptop case. She had the same black hair, but in her case it wasn’t splashed with purple, just straight black.
“Ladies say they have business with you Rivers.”
Michael looked up from where he had been talking to Hana and locked eyes on the pair.
“Welcome.”
“The Children of Nephilim….” The taller one said with the faintest hint of a London accent. “...And the Hit Squad. Together? Fascinating.”
Hearing the name come so freely out of the woman’s mouth Atlas glanced around Amanda’s head and locked eyes on her.
“You seem to know a lot about us Miss?”
The woman turned her attention to Atlas and just….smiled.
“I know a lot about alot.” She said in a strangely insufferable superior tone. “You can call me Widow.”
The woman who had called herself Widow looked around, as if taking in everyone and then lifted a perfectly manicured eyebrow.
“You’re missing someone.” She mused.
“He’s not here.” Michael said leaning back in his chair and folding his hands in front of his chest. “In case your intentions are less…Business than you claim and more personal.”
Window took her lip between her teeth, playing with the snake bite piercings for a moment and then shrugged.
“Smart.” She said finally. “You have what I asked for?”
It wasn’t Michael who held up a small black block phone. It was Hana.
“The calls, texts, GPS and search history are auto-delete every 96 hours.” Michael informed her. “You can give it a try, but I doubt you will find anything.”
“That….” Widow motions behind her to the second woman with her who placed the laptop case on the table and began to unpack. “Is why I brought her.”
Michael looked at the girl as she withdrew a laptop, a small box and a group of cables from the bag and took the phone from Hana.
“What exactly are you looking for?”
Widow just stood looking down at the laptop screen and Michael let out a sigh.
“A little professional courtesy here?”
Widow, with her eyes still on the laptop, rolled them slightly and then shifted them to Michael.
“I am sure you remember what happened a little over a year and a half ago?” Widow began. “Your…weapon…on a little backroad in Louisiana?”
“Mrs. Mitchell. Yes.”
“Well, she wasn’t the only casualty.” Widow growled. “Just the only one Shanna was aware of that he caused. There was also someone on a bike who hit a truck trailer during a hijacking a few hundred miles west the day before.”
“The day he took the truck.” Hana told Michael and the blonde nodded solemnly. “How could his phone help?”
“I’ve been digging…it doesn’t make sense.” Widow explained. “Drucilla was an expert rider. There is no way she couldn’t avoid a stopped truck. No way. Unless her bike was tampered with…and sure enough? It had been…and then I read something he said about his memories of that period. A dark lonely two lane road…and a phone call.”
Slowly one of Michael’s brows raised but it was a Titan that spoke.
“And?” Cronos asked with a hand on Riley’s thigh. “He got a call? And?”
“There was one set of tire cracks in the mud the night Robi died.” Widow informed them. “Hers. Up to the point where she had set the trap. She was trying to help Morgan. Tranq him. She walked the bike into the brush and waited. No other Bike came through that road…but a heavy set of boot prints did.”
“He was walking….” Michael gasped.
“Someone warned him!” Atlas announced. “He would have just drove right into the ambush….but the phone call was a warning.”
“I think so.” Widow agreed.
“Whooooaaaaaaaa” The woman with Widow suddenly exclaimed as she looked at the swirl of codes on the laptop screen.
“Tavi?”
“I ain’t never seen encryption like this before….” Tavi whispered with glee in her thick Cajun drawl then looked up at Michael. “It’s beautiful. You designed it?”
“Way beyond my skill little darlin.” Michael answered modestly. “His name is Alistair. He works for me.”
Tavi however was all but ignoring him now as she was fixated on the screen.
“It’s near military grade.”
Widow lifted a brow again and looked over at Michael who just shrugged. She had some idea of how the Children used to do…what they did. And how they got the reputation they got.
“Can you get in?”
“...Not all the way.” Tavi looked over at Michael again. “Unless we can take the phone?”
“Absolutely not.” Michael answered firmly.
Widow glanced over at Michael as if she was gauging how much she wanted to push this. Her eyes moving covertly around the room and then back to Tavi.
“I know.” Tavi told her. “...there are a shocking number of….” Tavi clears her throat. “...Spicy? Messages here…”
Michael actually placed his face in his hand and groaned.
“Fucking Peyton…..”
“Date” Tavi suddenly said intently.
“April 4th.” Widow answered. “Last year.”
Tavi began to type furiously and her eyes narrowed on the screen.
“Canton, Ohio.” She said firmly. “Wait…No. L.A….Phoenix….Toyko.”
“Someone is bouncing the location.” Widow growled. “I was afraid of that.”
She then turned her attention to Michael and inclined her head.
“You have my thanks. And Tell…him….his debt to the Black Hand is not paid. However we shall consider this…partial payment.”
“Stopping Lucifer pay off the rest?”
Widow simply shrugged.
“We’ll see.”
“U.S….Canada….Brazil….China….Jamaica…Thailand…this is pinging everywhere but Mexico.”
The words caused Widow’s head to snap around and lock her eyes on the computer. Atlas slowly arches a brow at her sudden interest.
“Someone you know?”
“We’re done here.”
Window moved to the window and simply stood with her hands folded behind her back while Tavi packed up.
“You know I may call this favor in?”
“What favor?” Widow asked without turning around. “You weren’t doing me a favor. You were paying a debt.”
Tavi packed up without a word, but once she had packed she did give the faintest of nods to the group before she moved to her sister's side and the pair of women simply…left.
Once they had Amanda slowly pulled her hand out from where she had been resting it and in her palm sat a 9MM pistol.
“Glad it all was peaceful.” She said wearily. “And I didn’t have to…..”
Michael glanced back at the blonde woman and chuckled.
“Don’t kid yourself.” He said softly. “I imagine both of them were fully armed. They’d be stupid not to be.”
**
Location: The Bronx
Date: August 19th
Time: 6:19 PM
The video that played for those in the New York area showed a group of young women who seemed to be taking advantage of one or another of the tik tok dances. Five of them all danced in a line to music pumping from a boombox. The set seemed to be coming to an end, as if the editor of the news station had cut all the previous dancing out.
Behind the group a pair seemed to be walking through the shopping center. They didn’t seem to really be looking at much but seemed to be talking. Or more accurately the man wearing the strange reptilian scaled mask was talking and the black haired woman was listening.
The woman was pale and had dark bags around her eyes that could be seen even from a distance. It had been a hard week on her, it appeared.
The pair suddenly swung around as someone shouted something nearly inaudible off to the left side of the camera. Whoever the pair saw distressed them as they both immediately went into fight mode causing their bodies to tense. The masked man put a hand on the black haired woman’s shoulder as she shouted at the person off camera.
“DID YOU KNOW?!” Ashley screamed. “Did you know what he did to Twoey, Sara?!”
The figure off camera said something that the microphone didn’t pick up but suddenly both of the people went completely rigid. The woman’s hands dropped to her hips where the camera zoomed in on holsters for weapons.
But they were empty.
But before they could shout about the possibility of the firearms someone to their left screamed. The camera swung around shakily to see an asian woman standing on the balcony of the Plaza’s second floor and she apparently had let her dogs off the leash.
Six of them, bigger than any mastiff the any of them had ever seen. They also appeared to be sick, some kind of strange fungal infection perhaps as they were covered in mange and had patches of fur missing. Their eyes appeared to be black and rows of sharp, wolf-like teeth spread up the mouth.
“Consider this your final warning.” The asian woman said calmly. “Give it to us or else.”
The woman then jumped off the balcony and at that moment the hounds followed suit. The Hounds seemed to be going straight for the black haired woman below but her companion shoved her aside and they hit him instead..
They became a tangle of limbs as the camera, shaking as they tried to get behind the fountain, saw the teeth sinking into the shoulder and biceps of the masked man. The black haired woman staggered to the side but recovered fast. She grabbed the hound closest to her that was going for a bite to the throat and reached over its head, sinking her nails into its eyes.
The breast screamed in a sound no one in the plaza had ever heard before and began to thrash its head. The asian woman came at the black haired one, who turned and threw a punch as she saw her coming in. She ducked under the right hand, dropping into a backbend as she slid by on her knees.
“The fuck off me!” The masked man shouted in that broken voice and the shaking cameras caught one of the man’s legs shove upward hard, launching the large dogs into the air through the window of one of the shops. Another came off the pile, used the wall to jump off, digging large gouges into the foundation before launching itself on the man.
The black haired woman attempted to come to his aid as the Dogs were on him like a horde of ants on prey. She could hear the teeth snapping as they snapped at his arms, legs and torso. Lucky for him, the thick clothes he wore offered some type of protection but the little droplets of blood were beginning to bleed through.
Before she could reach him however the Asian woman grabbed her by the ponytail with her left hand while pulling the sword sitting at her side with the right. The strike came so fast as she brought the blade up, trailing the edge up the dark haired woman’s side ripping open her shirt and stomach.
The Asian woman then spun the blade around and took a strike down at the pinned down man but it seemed luck was on his side again. He was shoving another dog off, into its companion coming out of the broken window moving him just enough that the sword hit the mask instead, slicing it clean in two and it fell to his chest revealing the bearded face.
A pair of empty, cold blue eyes moved up to look at her as one of the dog's paws hit him in the side of the face, slicing open just above the ear, blood running into the long blonde hair causing him to let out a groan of pain.
People were screaming now and running away in every direction from what they believed was some type of gang fight. The Hounds, looking around at the fleeing crowd, broke off and began to give chase. The bleeding man grabbed the one remaining dog by the head and rolled pinning it to the ground. His head came up and the blue eyes were no longer empty and cold. They were filled with concern and fear.
“PROTECT THEM!”
“We have bigger concerns!” She answered tartly watching Sariel stepping back to attack.
“Protect the damn people. AK!”
The black haired woman looked down as he struggled with the hound and then with a groan reached down, pulled a knife from her boot and took off after the crowd. The dog below him began to snap, its jaws closing inches from his bloody face as the asian woman slowly approached…but the look in her eyes seemed….almost sorry.
Her lips moved, showing she whispered something and then raised her arms to drive the kill blow. His eyes closed as his arms, flexing from the effort, held the Hound down.
Behind her the camera caught a figure coming through the fleeing crowd. One of the bystanders who had simply been shopping.
She was wearing a pair of loose fitting jogging pants and a loose tank top with dirty blonde hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She jumped over the dog, planted a foot into the side of the shop and spun into a kick.
The kick should have taken the asian woman in the face but to the bystanders surprise her arm shot up and she blocked the kick with the side of the sword. The force of the kick slid back a handful of steps.
The woman landed next to the struggling bloody man but when she turned to help him she had to lean away from a sword slash and then ducked under another one. She spun away as a downward strike down came, sending the sword into the wooden bench slicing it in half. The woman was simply so fast that the blonde was having some trouble keeping her away.
A loud snapping CRACK sounded behind the pair and the camera peeked out a little further. The dog seemed to be gone completely now and the man was getting to his feet, blood running down his face. A dark, oil like black spot now stained the ground where he had been lying.
The blonde stranger got one final spin before she found herself flat on her face from a sudden roundhouse kick. The asian woman raised the sword, readied her strike only for it to be caught as it came down by a hand on her wrist.
The hand no sooner touched her than her free hand shot over and knocked it off. She then used the movement to spin, dropped down and kicked the legs out from under him. The Asian woman popped back up, raised a leg and brought it down heel into his face but her calf hit the blonde woman’s shoulder as she slid into place beside the man.
The woman kicked out her other leg taking the Asian woman in the back of the calf, sending her onto her back. She immediately lifted up onto her shoulders and spun, sending a kick into the blonde woman’s mouth sending her reeling and slamming into the ground.
The asian woman finished the spin by throwing herself to her knees with her sword out. Suddenly a second woman entered the frame, bringing a knife covered in black dripping oil like blood down. The asian woman caught the woman’s wrist, moved her leg back and flipped her clean over her shoulder where she slammed spine first into the ground between the two others.
Around this time sirens could be heard and the asian woman looked down, over at the crowd…and then took off vanishing into the people.
The camera man continued to hide, but the angle of the shot caught the black haired woman grimace and get to her feet and help the bloodied man to his own before he extended a hand and pulled the stranger to her feet.
“Thanks….”
“....Where did the dog go?”
“.,.” The black haired woman glanced over and saw the camera. “....Fuck. Not here.”
“...They’ll come for her now Ash….”
And the video was cut off as the news broadcast went off the air.
“Until the roof.,..the roof comes off. Until my legs, give out from underneath me…I, I will not fall. I will stand tall. Feels like no one can beat me….”
