23

I find a key in the floor and unlock Saundra's door.

"Hey babe, lets go." I poke my head through the door

He face lights up instantaneously, "About damn time." she chuckles

"Stay right behind me, move quickly and stay quiet." I instruct

"Obviously. Ivan, do you plan on talking all night or are we going to get out of here?"

"Good idea." I smile, "Lets get the hell outta this place." I start down the first hall that Leviathan told us to, making sure Saundra is close behind me.

When the armory comes within view, with it's guards, Saundra start to walk normally towards the guards. "Follow my." lead she says as she passes me

I follow, trying to trust she not leading us into death's embrace.

"Halt, this perimeter is off limits." One of the guards says

"Yes, I know. I'm very sorry to bother you this late but Lady Azmodaus sent us to get our gear. We're new recruits of hers." Saundra says apologetically

The guard stops to consider it, then inhale deeply through his nose. "You I can believe, but your friend there is a wolf. He should be with Master Lucifer."

"I'm a special breed and fiercely loyal to only my master. I follow her wherever she goes." I lie, sort of

"My lady made an exception for him. He's very special to me and has saved my life multiple times." Saundra continues our lie

"Fine. Follow us." The guard says, pulling the keys off a hook behind him

Guard A, the one who was speaking, goes in first with Saundra and myself behind him, then are followed in by the silent Guard B.

"So you will need the following equipment; helmet, cuirass, greaves, boots, gloves, and a weapon of your choosing." Guard A says, pointing to each piece as he says it's name

We go along and grab one of each. Saundra gets a plain, boring sword off the rack, along with a sheikh and begin to adorn her new outfit over what she was wearing. I, however, am caught up on the weapon rack, taking a weapon and swinging it around a bit, then replacing it and trying another.

"These are all so simplistic. Is there anything else here I could choose from?" I complain

"Later on, perhaps. But for now, what you see is what you get." Guard A says

"Damn it." I huff

"Ivan, how do I look?" Saundra asks, walking towards me and doing a quick spin

"Ivan?" Guard A says trying to remember the name. He remembers too little, too late. "Sound the-"

Guard A is cut off as I transform my hand and jab it into his exposed neck.

Saundra draws her sword and blocks the doorway for Guard B. she holds her ground as Guard B tries to charge. She angles her sword and catches a gap in his cuirass and impales him. It's not an immediately fatal wound but it'll make sure he doesn't follow us or set off the alarm.

"So where's our stuff." I ask rhetorically

"Look around for an evidence locker or something. My brother is a cop and he once told me that all confiscated items wind up there." Saundra says

"How about a treasure chest?" I say lifting the lid up

Sure enough our stuff is stored within. Now it might just be me but the collection of familiar belongings seemed to give off a golden glow.

"Hello beautiful." I say to the mount of metal accessories. As i attach my gear i must admit it feels good to have the straps and belts crisis crossing my body again. The weight of the metal is comforting.

We lock the doors behind us, with the dead guards inside, and take the keys with us. We continue down the hall to the left, walking apparently calm but over continuous caution. The seconds hall to our left comes quickly. This is it, the Hall of Gods, and the only thing between us and freedom. Four doors are in this hall, all made out of polished marble, and all of them were closed up tight, thankfully. I lead us down the hall, barely breathing if I am at all. We slink past the first set of doors  no problem. Now there's only a twenty-five foot gap and two more doors before we're out. We creep along at a an agonizingly slow rate, but get the distance behind us slowly but surely. We reach the second set of doors, and I'm running out of air in my lungs. Suddenly something happens and all I see is red. A single monotone siren blares, practically defending me. I drop to my knees and clutch my ears and try to muffle the dizzying noise.

"Here we go," I think, "we're dead. Any moment now."

But we don't. My eyes snap open and all the doors remain shut. I count to make sure, one, two, three, four. But the door we're at starts to rattle as a greenish-yellow mist seeps under the door. The hellish door swings open to a nightmare.

"The hell is that!?" I cry and stumble back

A creature, maybe a person, stands wearing the same greenish-yellow as the fog that cascades from its room. It's hands are skinny and a sickly pale color with jagged, yellow nails. The most discomforting thing about it, though, was its head. It is the same sickly skin tone, bald, and covered with scars. An old World War Two gas mask is covering its face; looking close I realize it's sewn to the things face.

The creature takes a shaky, rattling breath and steps out of the room and looks around. It's eyes, void of any color and clouded over, come across me and it c***s it's head to one side as it takes another breath. What it does next leaves me in shock. It lifts one of its hands and points a pale finger at the door leading to the courtyard. It then goes back into its room and shuts the door behind it.

I sit on the floor with my mouth agape even after the red lights fade and the siren is silenced. The sound of armored feet running towards us brings me back.

"Ahh hell, we gotta go." I say and run for the door, dragging Saundra behind me

"Ivan, what was that?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe a human, or used to be. Probably one of the gods. Looked odd enough to be related to Avengus." I say remembering Leviathan's warning

"And what's with the mist?"

"I don't know, but we can discuss this later. Lets get home first." I suggest

We crash through the heavy wooden doors leading out into the courtyard. We're greeted by a small troop of guards. Busted. A group of seven or eight guards surround us, the spear end of their halberd ready to strike.

"On your knees prisoner, hands where i can see them." A Dragonborn guard, without a helmet, orders, "You shall receive punishment for your transgression by Avengus shortly."

"You want to see my hands? Very well, wish granted!" I lunge at a guard, ripping the halberd from his hands. I hit him in the head with the handle, causing him to fall backwards. "Saundra, get down!" I command as I swing the weapon is a complete circle before letting if fly off randomly.

The guards scatter, diving to the ground to avoid the free flying weapon.

I turn and charge towards the Dragonborn guard that's in charge, not wanting him to recover.

He sees me too late as he spits a fountain of fire but I'm able to force his mouth shut with hands. He tries to pry my hands off desperately.

With the other guards are now getting back to their feet, we're running out of time.

A pain grips my head as the Dragonborn's claws drag down my face. I peel away from him howling, clutching my face my face as my vision goes red. The pain spreads throughout my body as it shifts itself. I let out a defiant roar and cause the guards to all stop in their tracks. "I'll kill you, all of you." I yell before standing and roaring again in fury

The roar must've woken everyone in the castle. Its time to go, but I've lost control. I try to take command over my body but I'm focused only on blood at this point.

The guards encircle me. A pair of them have Saundra backed into a corner where she's keeping them at bay.

A guard to my left thrusts his weapon and misses. Another to my front right tries the same thing, but not well enough. I dodge his attack and grab hold of his arms and pull. They come off. Little more than armored sausages.

The guard wheels back in shock.

I toss the arms at the guards on either side of the armless one, creating a gap in the circle. I suddenly appear behind the two guards by Saundra, a hairy hand through both of their chests. They're dead before they realize what's happened.

I remember the last time id changed like this back in Greece, and again in D.C.. I move extraordinarily fast, like I did just now. What is this frightening ability?

I shake my head head clear of the thought and grab Saundra so that I'm carrying her in both arms, then I'm gone.

I don't know where we are and can't really recall how we got here. I'm in a cave, though not very big, just a hole in a hill. Maybe I made it. It's looking out into a vast field of green. It takes me a moment to realize I'm practically naked. My weapon belts are all still in one piece, but only scraps remain of my shirt. My pants aren't in great condition, but they're usable albeit covered in blood. I fix my clothes so that I'm decent and walk out of the cave to find Saundra.

She's sitting out in the field staring out at the emerald waves in the moonlight and playing with the grass and wildflowers around her.  "Oh, you're up." She smiles when she sees me approach, "I have to admit hun, you've looked better."

"I've felt better too. I'm starting to retain more of my memory though. How're you feeling?" I ask

"I feel fine. I got a little sick when we left but other than that I'm good."

"Any idea where we are?" I wonder, rubbing my neck

"We're back in Washington state, not too far from home I don't think. The ocean is only about a mile away."

"A road can't be too far away then. I suppose we should look for one soon. How long was I out?"

"A while. It was daytime when we got here. You made that hole to protect me from the sun and passed out shortly after. I thought you died at first until you started snoring." Saundra stands and dusts herself off. "Well then, I suppose we should probably get going huh?"

We walk for about an hour before we find a backstreet road. Cars occasionally drive by, but none stop when we signal for help. Can't say I really blame them. The, finally, someone stops. A man on a motorcycle pulls to the side of the road when we signal for help. He rides a red street bike with a tribal design going down its side.

"Bloody hell, what happened here?" The biker asks.

"Bad run in with a bear, sir. Do you have a cellphone. Could use to call for help?" Saundra pleas

"Absolutely." He pulls out a phone and hands it to Saundra. The biker turns to me, "Christ. You sure got a hell of a beating from that beast didn't you. You alright?"

"I'm fine. It looks worse than it actually is." I shrug. "What road is this? Rather, how far away is the nearest town?"

"This here is, well I don't really know. The nearest town is probably twenty-five miles north. However, there's an underground not too far off, Ivan."

"Pardon? Do I know you?" I ask

"Must've been one hell of a bear." The biker removes his helmet to reveal the biggest, goofiest smile ever.

We fly into each other's arms.

"Taylor you son of a b***h." I laugh hysterically, "What're you doing here?"

 Saundra tosses back the phone, "And all alone too?"

"Maurine is with, just had to stop for gas. We caught word that there was a monster sighting down here. Said there was a big hairy beast with green on its head, hauling around a girl. Figured who else could it be?"

The roar of another motorcycle can be faintly heard now, steadily increasing in volume. Maurine is riding a large, extremely loud chopper. She's decked out in leather with a dark helmet. "Oh, you found them. That was easier than I anticipated." She says taking off her helmet

"You're telling me. Never thought we'd find them this soon. We've only been at this for what, two days?" Taylor turns to me, "Seriously dude, what happened? Last I knew you were storming off to Washington D.C. to recruit humans, then we didn't hear back from you for a week. Then your fight with Silvermain aired."

"So you know about him? How the b*****d was in league with Avengus this whole damn time?" I spit

"Know about it? The maniac almost leveled the Den when the other Elders refused to join the Chaos Eclipse." Taylor replies

Saundra steps forward, "Things just keep getting better don't they? Is everyone okay?"

"There were a few deaths, Bloodlust is pretty banged up along with some others. Besides that though, everyone is okay. We're fixing the entrance to the Den, it got demolished the worst." Maurine says

"Lets get back home, there's much to do and far less time to do it in. Maurine, are we still able to meet with your president?" I ask

"Yeah, you should be able to. I'll set up an appointment when we get back." Maurine says, "There are some spare clothes for you in the bike's bag, Ivan. Get dressed and we'll head back."

In the cover of some nearby trees I change into a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a leather jacket. Saundra gets a similar jacket. I ride back on the chopper with Saundra and Maurine rides back with Taylor.