by C T Scribe
The large blackboard was now a giant TV screen for the class to view. The smaller class was asked to move up towards the screen as they watched the operative live. The Tall Man was following a report of a beast sighting. The immortals didn’t dwell on titles like humans. They simply called them beast most often. Tye new from experience that could mean any combination of violent immortal thing. This beast in question tonight was a Fenririan or Fren. The Tall Man wore a long trench coat. His hair was dark and long like an actor in a cult movie. He was handsome. Tye realized he noticed features both male and female more now. Not attraction, but he took in features unbiased. The Tall Man walked into a run down building. Not the type to be abandoned. Just the type where the landlord was a piece of shit, and never fixed anything. Some floorboards were missing from the landing. The ones still in place creaked loudly with each step the immortal took. The handrail for the stairs had fallen on one side so it angled uselessly to the ground. The room he had to investigate was near the top. The elevator seemed to be running, but with one glance at the decay of the building the tall man chose not to trust it. Effortlessly he bound up the steps in giant leaps, taking four or five steps at a time. He could probably clear an entire flight in each bound, but wanted to appear somewhat human as he ascended too fast for mortal eyes. Stopping on the seventh floor of the rundown building he searched for the apartment number. A few turns revealed his destination, room 706. He unholstered his guns before approaching the apartment door. Flicking bullets into the air he caught each one in the slots of his six shooters. Now armed, he knocked on the closed wood slat separating him from the beast inside. Quickly stepping to the side to hide his exact location as he awaited the doors opening the Tall Man crouched. Nothing happened. The Tall Man stood there almost cowering in the dimly lit hallway. Tye, unable to lower his eyes from the screen, watched anxiously. After several heart racing moments, the door swung open revealing only darkness inside. Silently watching the screen Tye felt his breath freeze. For a second he was the field operative crouched in the dimly lit hallway. For a second he was back in the small town where Highbrow University was built stalking through the streets. Desperately searching for Mari. The fear and panic resurfacing in his body made him want to stop the field operative from entering the darkness. He wanted to call out to the man in the hallway to run. With all eyes on the screen only Teach shifted his gaze to the feeling of his panic. The look calmed him. Marco shifted beside him. Tye wondered if he could sense his panic with those heightened senses he possessed.
The Tall Man remained still and unmoving beside the doorway, guns in hands. When the beast moved to the door frame he would get the first shots. This was routine to him. After the beast he’d tracked the past year and the lot from the bar, The Tall Man could use a normal mission. Unfortunately for him the hunt turned abnormal quickly as the beast hand emerged. The hand didn’t come from the doorway. The massive fury claw reached through the wall and grabbed the Tall Man by the waist. His hand nearly as big as the field operative on the screen. The beast Tye saw in the bar were tiny by comparison. The panic flared up again as the video surveillance jostled about. The beast didn’t drag The Tall Man as much and he dug his body through the floors and walls along the exit route. And then in mere seconds he was free falling through the midnight air. The glass around him shimmering from the street lamps and car lights as he drifted. The beast grip never loosening during the descent. The Tall Man’s hands clasped to his sides had no angle to shoot his weapons. His strength paled in comparison to the gargantuan beast gripping him. As they neared the end of the seven story dive The Tall Man found himself under the body of the mammoth fury monster. His body bounced off the ground like a basketball. The beast grinning as the crunch of broken bones reverberated through the night. His claw wrapped around the man’s leg as he hurled him through the first story glass windows. Somehow the man did not bleed. Keeping contact with his leg the man was thrown overhead, and then back hard into the pavement. Drool hit his face as the monster let out a low pitch growl. Tye barely registered the sound wasn’t the trademark wolf howl he expected. This was far more feral. The instinctual shout was the beast downfall. His prey fleeing at the first opportunity broken and limping. The beast stalked after the man slowly.
Thomas, The Tall Man, was officially pissed off. First, he was suppose to be home recovering before being sent back into the field. He was enjoying his honeymooning with Deb. That’s how she referred to his time home at HQ with her. He was enjoying her energy infused home cooked meals. He was enjoying watching the new recruits. If it wasn’t for the damn love sick pup getting out of line he would be there instead of nearly dying in the street. A sick grin formed. He should have known the general, his best friend in this dark cold world, wouldn’t send him on an easy mission. Had he not been back home he had his doubts the general would send anyone after this thing. To be fair he had seen larger more viscous beast and monsters. To be more honest it had been a long damn time since he fought one. The larger beast typically signaled higher ups in the power ladder for the opposing fronts of the war. Such things weren’t common away from the front lines. Had he known what was in store he would have gone in shooting. Running away from that damn thing was his only move, even if the class was watching. He supposed it was a good thing they could see fleeing is necessary to survive some situations. The fall had broken several ribs, toes, and popped his shoulder out of place. His immortal body had already begun mending itself as he ran off. The beast took the rooftops stalking him slowly. In it’s mind it was toying with its food. Seemingly the beast was unaware of the speed he could heal himself. A fact he decided to capitalize on as he kept up the injured stance long after his healing was substantial. With a pretend limp he lured the beast into a more vacant part of the city. There were no bystanders that he could see. No one to get hurt or in the way as the real battle began. Atop the roof to his left the beast paced on all fours. His drool intensified by the second in anticipation of his meal. His sharp protruding canines glistening, and his claws shown with a unique gleam in the moonlight. His body contorted as his pacing continued. The large yet scrappy beast grew more muscled by the second. His body filling out into a fighting form. The Tall man had never seen shape manipulation from a lower beast. He now questioned if this was a lower beast at all. Higher level frens rarely assumed this shape for long. From what he’d seen over the centuries, higher level beast assume this base form only during the fight. To maintain it in the apartment, outside during the predatory hunt, and even now on the rooftops was out of place. The bulked up fren leapt down the buildings surface claws ripping through stone and glass. Midway down the building it leapt across the street, finishing it’s descent down another buildings facade. Thomas noted the speed of the jump. He noted the lack of fear as it soared over his head. He cursed himself for missing the exposed kill shot during the leap. His limping posture made his movement too slow. So he decided not to give up his small charade. Similar to his pacing on the roof, the beast headed for Thomas at a slow steady stroll. Drool spilling from his mouth each powerful step. It’s nostrils flaring to smell the meat before it, and its muscled bulged dominantly in his direction. Standing mere inches from Thomas the beast roared in his face. The shrieking so powerful he nearly lost his footing. Now was the time to attack. From his hunched position Thomas let off two shots for the beast mouth. The bullets soared through the air headed for the beast throat. With a too quick bite the blast were stopped with its teeth. Shit. Thomas, abandoning his fake injuries now standing tall as he fired the rounds into the fur covered creature before him. More bullets were flipped into the air and loaded into the chambers creating no breaks in automatic style shooting. With each blast the beast was forced back slightly. Blood spilled from the wounds, but not as much as Thomas liked. The hide of this creature was thick. Thomas found himself lost in the violence. It was no surprised he didn’t see the black claw swiping through the dark night. The impact was jarring as he shot through the air into the brick build
ing beside him. Giving no pause the beast slashed for his body. Sharp claws raking lines across his coat, shredding his shirt too. Thomas would once again need to replace his unconventional armour. The smiths would rob him blind for this one. Snapping its jaw feverishly, Thomas was barely able to dodge the bite with a well timed head tilt. Summoning all of his strength to push the thing from him didn’t work. He was pinned. Thomas the tall man was pinned by only one monster. His bullets weren’t doing enough damage. Taunting him, the gun shots seemed to do less damage each time. The wounds were healing as quickly as he made them. He was losing to a single beast. He couldn’t believe it. A too familiar madness began to coat his eyes as he dodged the monstrous snaps. He could feel the crazy leaking from his soul. The beast snapping for his head relentlessly wasn’t what scared him. The tight lid he kept on that monster inside had loosened. He felt the malice at the proving grounds. He heard it’s voice in his head that day. The curse. That mark on his mind. Thomas reminded himself of the control he’d learned over the decades, but as he fought against the oversized beast the control slipped. The grin on his face was not his own. The crazy leaking from him changed the pressure in the street. A green heavy thickness pushed against beast and Thomas alike. A low chuckle exited his mouth. The voice was not his. The blast from his guns grew stronger. The wounds in the beast hide healed slower. Thomas wasn’t in control when he kicked the beast away from him. The strength was his, but that thing in his head could pull every ounce of it on command. A marionette body at its fullest potential for it to manipulate. Thomas, not in control, walked over to the now limping beast. Guns blazing giving the fren no relief. Even when the metal weapons burned his skin he still fired. Even when the recoil sent pains through his hands he still fired. Even when the mana began to build dangerously in his body he still fired. The beast body shrunk to its original oversized yet scrappy thin frame. Each extremity covered in bullet holes forming massive wounds. It didn’t give pause to ending the damaged beast. The trigger squeeze was dismissive, as the dozen or so shots desecrated the beast head. The outward fight was over, but inside his mind Thomas fought the cursed thing in control. With all of his strength he struggled to regain control.
The classroom was loud. The fight had been more brutal than they expected. The famed Tall Man nearly lost his life on screen. That beast grew larger and stronger on command. Was that normal? A greenish shroud covered The Tall Man as he laughed crazily in the night. Does everyone emit a color when using their abilities? Teach weighed his options before speaking. He looked at the screen so hard he thought it might break. He hadn’t seen that green aura before, but he’d heard the stories. Thomas was older than him by over a century. By the time he turned immortal the famed tracker had mastered his inner demons, but the stories remained. They were the type of thing heard from drunkards at the bar. They were the type of warnings the enemy probably told their own field operatives. A case of the madness they called it. When The Tall Man fought on the front lines of the war. The green glow would sweep across the battlefield. Death personified. Teach knew that what he just saw wasn’t the madness of legend, but the man had taken the first step into madness tonight. If he couldn’t regain control fast Teach struggled to think of the loses they’d endure to retrieve him. He shuddered to think of the collateral damage the streets surrounding him would endure. Ultimately deciding this wasn’t his call to make he excused himself from the class. He didn’t want to alarm the new recruits, but he needed to inform the general and Deb. As he opened the door the general was already on the other side reaching for the handle. The man was Thomas’s only true friend. He always knew what was going on in HQ. He gave Teach the I already know eye before entering the class, and turned his attention to the screen. His eyes widened in a way Teach had never seen.
47
Chapter 47
Thomas was losing his fight with the thing trapped inside his mind. The green tint blanketed the streets like fog. The grin on his face widened further signaling his madness. The lid was off the bottle containing his inner demon. Perhaps the bottle broke. Thomas couldn’t tell as he fought against the long dormant power controlling him. His body moved against his will. The movements smooth as if he didn’t resist them with every part of his being. The streets remained empty of humans. The rats in the alley seemed to cower as the fog spread over them. Madness and fear incarnate claimed this area. The green fog spread quickly from his body. It seemed to be searching for someone to infect. People to corrupt and kill. Thomas remembered the effect that fog had on weaker immortals on the front lines. As he walked across the battlefield murdering his way through the enemy. The fog would leak from inside him. The weaker immortals would cower and beg. They offered no fight, no resistance. This power was too much for a human to handle. Thomas fought harder against the demon controlling him to no avail. The fog continued to spread further through the city. The first humans it conquered were a group of vagrants. Huddled together under a bridge in sleeping bags. The homeless group was immobilized in seconds as the fog spread over their encampment. It continued to spread blanketing apartment buildings and street walkers alike. No one resisted it’s dominance. Thomas begged the demon to stop. Begged the bottle to close. Not realizing that he himself was trapped in the bottle now. There was nothing he could do until the demon let him out. A city of madness. His city. Thomas could never control the fog willingly. It simply spread from him. The demon however used it as an arrow seeking a distant enemy. The demon used it as both sword and shield. The effects of it grew increasingly potent nearest him. There was nothing he could do but watch as the fog hit the main road. Car driver’s crashed under the crippling madness. Couples walking hand in hand now rolled on the dirty pavement In fear. Animals and humans alike fell at it’s touch. Thomas tried go talk with the demon. He wanted to reason with the controller of his body, but the demon seemed far far away. If it heard his pleas, it gave no indication. The fog spread nearly 10 city blocks before it finally ceased encroachment. Above Thomas a green face formed in the fog in the sky. His demons face. The face so many enemies ran from on those killing fields. He remembered the prophecy. He realized this was the true meaning. One beast lay before him dead, and he, a second more powerful monster controlling his body, now rose to his true power. The ominous face in the sky boomed, “do you feel it Tall Man?” Giving some control back to him Thomas was able to move his mouth in reply. He did feel it. At the edge of his fog lurked an immense power. Was the demon protecting him? He would have to consider that later as the powerful force moved steadily towards him. It wasn’t crippled our even slowed by his fog. It took only seconds for the enemy to walk into the street. Seconds to make it through the fog, yet it moved swiftly with no stagger. As the power came within his sight line he understood. He understood the demon readying him. He understood the danger the girl standing before him brought. She was tall for a woman and athletically built. Her face hidden under her yellow raincoat. No other clothes visible besides her yellow boots. Behind her it rained, but the water didn’t move past her. It had been over a century since anyone had seen her kind. She and her sisters were the reason the drought began. She was a daughter of rain. She was an elemental. More than an immortal. Thomas took her in. He smelled the rain in the air. He drew his guns. His muscles taught in anticipation. He knew he was fucked.
This wasn’t part of her assignment. She was strictly a getaway driver. A damned good getaway driver too. She knew the risk when her target entered her vehicle, but this was different. It had been over a month since her first mission with Thomas. His regular driver Morris death left the infamous tracker without a driver he could trust. The first night she drove him they bonded. They reacted to the fren blocking their path in unison as if they’d been partnered up for decades not minutes. She had drove for other field operatives while the tall man was on leave at HQ. They were decent to work with, but none of them gave her electricity like Thomas. It wasn’t the fact that he was hot either, but she swore to the Seven he was the sexiest m
an “kinda” alive. She wasn’t assigned to this mission tonight. Thomas had actually requested her. She couldn’t refuse the chance to see him again. No to work with him again. She still remembered the flush through her body as she stared at his ass after their last mission. This was supposed to be an easy take down to show the new recruits how it’s done. Tasha found herself on the hardest mission of her second life. From her parked location outside the building she saw him falling from the seventh story window. Not just falling either, he had the largest fren she’d ever seen on top of him. As the fight spilled onto the street Tasha kept her distance. Following far enough back to not be a liability, but close enough to provide pick up in a jam. That was before all the end of the world shit started. The thick green fog came for her first. She didn’t know where it came from, but she could feel the danger emanating from substance. Slamming her car in reverse she outran the fog for over 10 city blocks. Using her e-brake she drifted the car smoothly changing directions only to see a bigger threat. A fucking rain storm. Under different circumstances she would love to play in the rain, but currently her souped up car was missing one important thing, rain tires. They were in the middle of a drought. She made the choice to use a dry surface tire that provided better speed. How was she to know tonight she’d run into some tall chick in a raincoat with a biblical flood wall behind her. Tasha was once again accelerating through the city blocks at top speed. Caught between water and fog, she chose the fog. The green gas entered her car through the vents quickly. She could feel it draining her. Cranking her music to resist, she regained control as she zigzagged through the city. She could do this. Thomas, now out of sight, was close enough to her based on his tracker. The small screen kept his location blinking red at all times. Looking down for a moment at the screen cost her. She saw the water in her rear view, but she didn’t notice the fire hydrant to the left of her car. The water shot at the side door, but right before impact it splashed down to her tires. She was spinning out at too fast speeds immediately. Crash. The car rolled. She could feel each crack against the metal container she infused herself with. The rolling felt like it would never stop, but the building she collided into painfully gave enough force to resist it. She lay there upside down in a near useless car. Stuck. The gas encircling her stronger than her immortal body. She couldn’t resist its power as she went under. The cars emergency lights flashing for no one to see.