The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  Well, the situation wasn't going to improve with her just standing around. She rushed across the street and pushed her way inside, past the flimsy security grate someone had crumpled like tin foil. The sign on the door marked it as an apartment building. Not good. Too many potential victims.

  Kat's screams led up the stairs at the back, but Akane was more interested in the muffled whimpering she could hear off to her right. It might be a trap, but she felt confident it was genuine.

  Kat had left survivors.

  It didn't mean much, she reminded herself. Kat hadn't done it on purpose. But still, Akane couldn't hear any new screamers, and she didn't see any bodies. Whatever the cause, it boded well.

  She rapped on the steel door twice, trying not to make too much noise, lest she attract unwanted attention. But whoever was on the other side heard her. The whimpering stopped immediately, and she heard footsteps come up to the door.

  “Hello?” a very small, probably male voice asked. He sounded young, probably five or six. Good. Akane could deal with kids. Usually.

  “I'm a Paladin,” she said softly. “Are you all right? How many people are in there?”

  “I'm fine. I-I think I am.”

  “That's good. What about everyone else? How are they?”

  “I'm the only one in here. I don't think... you're the first one to come looking.”

  The sole survivor was a kid? Well, at least there was a survivor. And better him than a dozen murderous Nosferatu.

  “I'm Akane. What's your name?”

  “P-Patrick.”

  “Okay Patrick, I need you to stay right here, okay? Don't open the door until an adult tells you its all clear. Can you do that for me?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “All right. Someone will be here soon enough.”

  Akane turned back and started up the stairs, not bothering to use her speed. Her reservoir was full, but she didn't want to risk facing Kat with anything less than full power. She still wasn't really sure how smart a defensive screamer would be, so she was being cautious, even though she didn't see Kat anywhere nearby.

  It was at the third floor that her caution became justified. She felt a tug at her ankles, and heard the distinct twang of a snare trap snapping.

  She didn't have time to think. She cranked her speed up to full and ran forward, desperately trying to escape the blast radius. But still, she couldn't resist looking back.

  Slow motion explosions were her favorite parts of most movies. Honestly, they were pretty much the only reason she ever went. Whether it was a real explosion or CG, the attention to detail required never ceased to impress her.

  In real life, she found that it was even better. The slowly expanding sphere of fire lighting up the stairwell was impressive enough on its own. But she could feel the rising heat. She could feel the air rushing past her into the temporary vacuum, feeding the hungry flame. Shrapnel, shards of the bomb and slivers of the stairwell, flew past her, shining like stars from the heat.

  Her reservoir dried up just as she managed to round the corner. She dodged the explosion by less than five feet. Worse yet, the fire had caught most of the stairwell. The entire 'scraper would go up soon, if she couldn't find the sprinkler system. Why wasn't it already on, anyway?

  But that could wait. Someone had set that trap, that meant they would be expecting an enemy. She had to get out quickly. They probably thought she was a screamer.

  Turned out she was mistaken. The trap hadn't been set for screamers.

  Something large and human-shaped dropped onto Akane's back, short but sharp claws tearing at her flesh. She shrugged her off, losing a bit of skin in the process, and confirmed her suspicions.

  Kat. She had set a trap and an ambush, and was trying to take Akane out before her reservoir could replenish.

  Her fur looked a little singed here and there, probably from hanging from the ceiling just outside the radius of an incendiary grenade. But if it pained her, she didn't show it. She slipped into a three-point stance as gracefully as a panther. She kept her right hand up, claws out, ready to leap forward and strike.

  Her mouth was still open, trying to scream, but nothing came out. But there was... something. Something in her expression. Anthros were hard to read, and nighteyes weren't much better, but Akane could tell she was analyzing the situation. Considering it from a tactical perspective, unlike the other screamers, who just rushed in like blind animals.

  Akane didn't give her a chance to come up with a plan. She rushed forward, hoping to catch her off guard. She didn't have her power to fall back on, but she was still pretty fast when she wanted to be.

  But Akane wasn't packed with a few thousand dollars worth of buffs.

  Kat dodged the first slash easily by leaping to the side, landing on the solid railing of the stairwell with her hands. She then lithely brought her feet back down and started running up the rail. Akane followed along the stairs.

  Which, of course, was her intention.

  The second trap wasn't another grenade—either she ran out of explosives or she was afraid the first one would have set off the second prematurely. Rather, it was just a couple weak steps, probably weakened even more by the explosion. The second Akane stepped on them, they shattered under her feet without even a groan of warning.

  Akane managed to grab the unbroken step in front of her with one hand as she fell, but it wasn't enough to pull herself up. She scrambled to sheath her sword and get a free hand, but she didn't have much luck.

  Kat cartwheeled onto the stairs a few steps in front of Akane, the claws of her bare feet gripping the wood tightly.

  She didn't have a choice. She needed both hands.

  So she dropped her sword.

  Her sword wasn't all that important, in the long run. It wasn't a very high-quality sword, and it was getting old enough that she knew she really should be considering buying a new one. She definitely had the money to get one of the best on the market. It didn't have any real importance other than the fact that it was a gift.

  But it was her sword. A symbol of her dedication, a reminder of why she fought. No matter how little sense it made, some part of her was terrified that if something happened to it, her determination would suffer the same fate.

  She steeled her heart as she heard it clatter to the ground three or four stories below. She could collect it later, but she had to be alive to do that.

  Now that Akane had both hands free, she reached out and grabbed Kat's ankle and yanked hard. She didn't fall, but she did lose her balance long enough for Akane to scramble up out of her precarious position. On her hands and knees was better than dangling above a raging inferno.

  The fire was climbing higher, the temperature was rising, and smoke was filling the air. But Akane didn't have time to worry about any of that right now. Kat slashed upwards at her face with her claws, aiming at her eyes.

  But Akane had some power in her reservoir now.

  She didn't drain it completely, just tapped into it enough to leap to her feet faster than Kat anticipated and dodge her attack. Kat stepped forward and slashed with her other hand, but Akane dodged that one by stepping inside her reach and slamming her shoulder into her.

  Akane wasn't really used to fighting humans. Oh, she took care of a few angry ghouls now and again, and she was at the top of her kendo class, but most of her skills were geared towards fighting monsters. Humans were a different beast altogether, and not just because they walked upright. The fact that she got caught in no less than two traps was evidence enough of that.

  Kat, however, was used to fighting humans. She knew their tricks and how to play to their weaknesses. She was a sniper first and foremost, true, but a good sniper could mix it up in melee for when the enemy found their nest. The furry little screamer had black belts in at least three different martial arts disciplines, and could give pretty much anyone in the city a run for their money in hand-to-hand.

  Also, she had claws.

  Akane bit her lip to keep from crying
out as Kat embraced her tackle and started shredding her back. She was already bleeding from the earlier attack, but this was worse.

  Akane threw Kat to one side, intending to chuck her over the railing. But in her confusion, she accidentally threw her the wrong direction, thudding her heavily into the wall instead, stunning her for a moment.

  Akane headed farther up the stairs as her shirt and bra fell away in shreds. Some distant part of her mind was scandalized at her nudity, but the more practical parts noted that the front of the shirt was still intact, and she should be able to turn it into a makeshift bandage. Her wounds were already beginning to sting, and blood loss was getting to her, but she pushed it all aside for the moment. Everything could wait until she dealt with Kat.

  She didn't have any time to come up with a plan, though. Kat was hardy, with far more toughness and healing buffs than Akane had. Even though her skull had smacked hard against the wall, she shook off her disorientation and was after Akane in under half a minute.

  Of course, she had a power as well, and she seemed to know how to put it to best use. She jumped back onto the railing and then leaped diagonally forward, towards a spot about ten feet ahead of Akane on the stairwell. She would never make the jump, but she didn't have to. Just before she started to lose momentum, she exploded into black smoke, which reformed into a bat, flapping madly. It only lasted a few seconds before the process reversed, but that was more than enough time for her to get ahead of Akane and land gracefully.

  The smoke was getting thicker as the flames devoured more of the building. Akane needed to end this before the entire place went up. Even before that, she'd start choking on the smoke soon.

  Akane's reservoir was mostly full at this point, and she still had the net clipped to her belt, but even at super speed she wasn't confident she'd be able to capture Kat. The net was huge for bird catching, but only barely big enough for a human. If Akane tried to grab her, she would probably be able to just slip out as a bat.

  While Akane hesitated, Kat acted. She leaped forward, claws out, ready to tear out Akane's throat.

  Akane might not have her sword, but that didn't mean she was defenseless. She whipped out one of the combat knives she kept on her belt and met Kat's attack.

  Kat's experience reared its head again. While most people would have flinched away or taken the hit, she grabbed Akane's wrist, moved her strike aside, and slashed at her bare chest with her other hand.

  Not many people have ever had an angry cat claw at their boobs. Suffice it to say it hurt. Akane yowled involuntarily and tore her claws away, losing a bit more skin in the process and splattering her tawny fur with blood. Kat jerked her arm out of Akane's grip and leaped backwards, where she could watch warily.

  Between the roaring fire and the blood loss... this was taking too long. But Kat still held the advantage due to the simple fact that she was trying to kill Akane, while Akane was trying to capture her. Her only chance to even the odds was to stop holding back and start aiming to kill. Derek would be upset, and the retinue would be angry, but they'd understand.

  Akane flipped her knife in a reverse grip and rushed forward without hesitation. Kat was ready for her, of course. She knew better than to try to grab Akane's wrist again, but she had other tricks up her sleeve.

  Kat dove at Akane's feet, under her knife, probably to try and upend her. It was a risky maneuver, but a well-played one. It wasn't something anyone would expect, and since she wasn't injured and Akane was, she had a much larger margin of error to work with.

  But by this point, Akane's reservoir was full again.

  Akane dipped into it to move at about ten percent of her maximum, just enough to give her the speed to hop up onto Kat's head and run along her back. She let her power go and wheeled around. As expected, Kat was sprawled face down on the steps, just a few feet from the yawning hole that was already filling with flame from down below.

  Kat was a bit stunned from the complete failure of her unorthodox maneuver—not to mention nearly falling to her death—and Akane didn't intend to give her time to recover. She didn't try and push her into the fire. Kat was ready for that, and it would snap her back to her senses faster than smelling salts. Instead, she did away with all that complicated tactical frippery and stabbed at the back of her neck.

  Except...

  She was at Akane's mercy now. Not for long, true, but she had a chance. It was a chance that probably wouldn't come again. Despite this close call, she was still fresh, while Akane was getting weaker by the second. Luck accounted for a lot in combat, but not everything.

  But if Akane killed her, the retinue would be devastated. Kelly and Sax had known her for a while, and she was one of their only friends. Alex and George were warming up to her. Her death would create a rift that might never be repaired. Or, more specifically, her death at Akane's hands would hit them like a bullet to the gut. Death was common. One friend killing another... less so.

  So, using her speed to gain a little extra time, she flipped the knife back around and smacked Kat as hard as she could in the back of the head with the hilt.

  Akane didn't have time to worry about giving her a concussion. With Kat's toys, she wasn't entirely sure she could knock her out.

  Turned out she could. Kat slumped against the steps like a sack of sand. Akane checked her pulse, confirming she was alive.

  But not for long, if Akane wasn't careful. The fire was spreading. Looking down, maybe half of the lower floors was already aflame. That didn't make much sense—fire tended to eat up faster than down—but there could have been something exceptionally flammable down there or whatever that caught when the grenade first blew. This wasn't the first time Akane had seen a fire burn in unexpected directions.

  After making a few quick bandages, including one that conveniently doubled as a bra, Akane wrapped Kat up in the net the bulezau had given her, then strapped her to her back with her belt. Her pants were a little loose without it, but she could manage. At least as a fel, Kat was pretty light. If this was almost anyone else, Akane probably would have been forced to cut her losses and abandon them.

  Once she was sure Kat was secure and her own reservoir was full, she didn't waste any more time. She jumped off the railing, aiming carefully for a patch of non-burning floor four levels below.

  The split-second before we landed, she cranked up her speed as high as it would go. For some reason, this worked. When she had my speed up, the laws of physics—including the inertia that would kill her from a fall like this—didn't seem to apply quite as strictly.

  The floor cracked a bit as they landed and they threw up a huge ash cloud as everything within ten feet was blown away by air pressure, but other than that there was no harm. In fact, the ash actually put out some of the nearby fires.

  Akane found her sword where it had bounced under the stairwell, and took both it and Kat outside. She laid them on the sidewalk a door or two down, made sure Kat's netting was secure, and headed back in. She couldn't leave Kat alone for long, but she had one last thing to take care of.

  She found the door from earlier easier than she thought. Thankfully, the fire seemed to have skipped over this part in favor of the more flammable back rooms, so there was no debris, and not much smoke.

  “Patrick!” she cried as she got closer. “Are you in there? We need to go now!”

  She didn't hear any response other than the flames roaring from every direction. She didn't have time to wait. She reared back and kicked the door, near the lock. It didn't break, of course—it was a steel door—but she heard the lock squeal a little under the pressure. She kicked again, then again, and—

  Then she realized that the sole of her shoe was melting from the heat of the door.

  Then the door exploded.

  She had weakened the lock sufficiently that the pressure of the hot air was able to do the rest of the job. Using what little of her speed she had left, she was able to dodge the brief fireball, although only by hiding behind the door and getting third-
degree burns on her arm in the process.

  She had more to worry about right now than a couple burns, though. The second the burst of flame had passed, she jumped back around and headed into the room. She knew what she was going to find, but she had to check—

  She shouldn't have. Musashi's broken sword, she shouldn't have.

  Most of the room was on fire. Turned out it was one of those flammable rooms. The fire had just taken a roundabout rout to get to it, through a cheap wooden door on another wall. There was a lot of old burning furniture, but no windows, which had probably combined to create the overpressure.

  In the center of the room, laying on a couch, was the corpse of a small child.

  She couldn't tell any details. He was already burned mostly beyond recognition. The couch was burning violently, and had probably caught far to quickly for him to run. Akane couldn't tell if he had died in pain or not. The fire made it hard to tell what position his body was in, whether it was a horrible throe of pain or the gentle repose of a boy who died in his sleep.

  She left quickly but quietly, knowing that if she stayed much longer she wouldn't be able to function.

  She had a job to do, and it wasn't over yet.

  The second she was out of the burning building, she flipped out her phone and dialed MC, even as she was checking Kat's bonds again.

  Once she got to the real MC, she didn't waste any time. “I need an interrogation van over at the burning 'scraper in Nosferatu territory. Make sure they have lots of sedatives. If she wakes up she's going to escape, no matter what kind of cages they have on hand.”

  “Wait, you set another building on fire? Sooner or later we're going to start charging you, and not even you can afford that.”

  Akane groaned. “This was not my fault. And neither was the dog house or the rat warren.”

  “Yeah, yeah...” MC muttered, distracted by something. Probably the main fight, with the angels and all that. “Whatever. You injured?”

  “I need treatment for...” Akane winced and did a quick tally. “Multiple lacerations, a bad burn, severe blood loss...” She coughed. “And maybe a little bit of smoke inhalation. How soon can they be here?”