by Grimm and GoozX
Monroeville, Pennsylvania:
The Spirit of Vengeance stood in the middle of the cellar of the Dragon's Den occult bookstore. He was staring at a small stone altar in the middle of the room. The top of the altar was covered with reddish-brown stains.
It ends tonight, he thought to himself. Months of fighting these things. Day after day, night after night. Now it will be over.
He entwined the fingers of both of his hands and raised his arms above his head. Swiftly bringing both arms crashing down onto the altar, he shattered it into several pieces with one blow.
I've done it. I've destroyed their source. I'm free to move on.
Quickly, he raced back up the stairs and outside the bookstore. He looked around, expecting to see the bodies laying on the ground, finally at rest. The Spirit of Vengeance was to be disappointed this day.
They're still alive, dammit!
He jumped onto his unearthly bike and drove forward, slamming into zombies right and left, plowing through them like driftwood. He ran over as many of them as he could, pulling into a half-turn stop directly in front of the courthouse. He looked behind him, seeing the creatures, mutilated, broken in half, still attempting to move after him.
Suddenly, his senses shifted. He looked over at the door of the courthouse. He began to steer his bike in that direction when the front door exploded open and several more zombies flew outward, going over the stairway and landing shortly behind him.
The huge figure of an angry Grimm came crashing through the rest of the doorway, taking out the rest of the door, and hurtling straight for where Vengeance and zombies sat.
"Get down!" came the gravelly, sepulchral voice of Grimm as his axe flew past Vengeance's head. The spirit quickly ducked down out of the way as the axe, surrounded by its trademark light blue energy, took out two more zombies.
Grimm kicked through a ground window and leaped back into another part of the huge, maze-like basement of the courthouse to confront the zombie horde deep within. The Spirit of Vengeance followed him through the window on his motorcycle. Within moments, the two living dead men stood back to back, fighting off the creatures deep below the courthouse.
"You're the biker we saw blow past us earlier," Grimm commented with another swing of his axe.
"...Yes," Vengeance answered, shattering another zombie with his strength.
"How did you know these things were here?" Grimm asked, kicking another corpse's head off of its emaciated shoulders.
Vengeance deliberated on whether to answer or not, while transmitting his pain pulse through two more of the creatures, shattering them into dust.
"I've been fighting these things for months," the spirit's slightly muffled voice came through the dark red helmet, "trying to keep them contained here, looking for what may have brought them to life."
A flash of blue light momentarily lit up Vengeance's next target. A preternaturally strong right cross exploded the being's head. The body dropped to the ground. Vengeance noticed a small blue glow around the creature's neck, similar to the one coming from Grimm's axe.
"Finally, today, I thought I had found the source, an old sacrificial altar to the Old Ones in the cellar of an occult bookstore here in town. I shattered the altar, thinking I had destroyed the source of power for the creatures, but apparently I was wrong." Vengeance glanced behind him, watching Grimm.
Grimm swung his axe, taking out more of the creatures. As Vengeance watched, he noticed similar small blue sparks from the fallen creatures; these sparks, however, leaped up from the corpses and joined with the energy flowing out of Grimm's axe.
"I think I know what the source is," Grimm said, his dropping a bit, his limbs continuing to swing back and forth steadily.
"Do you now?" Vengeance asked, reaching under his long coat with one arm and removing something from the side of his leather belt.
"It's me," Grimm said, taking another zombie's head off.
Vengeance turned around, raising his right hand, which now brandished an ornate sword hilt. Suddenly, a flame erupted at the top of the hilt.
"You see, a few months back, I--" Grimm was interrupted by a searing pain in his abdomen. "AAAUUUGHHH!!" He gripped his side, dropping to his knees. He looked down at his stomach, which now sported a large searing cut, crackling and blistering. The black liquid that passed for blood in Grimm's body poured forth from the wound. He looked up at Vengeance, who now stood above him, brandishing a flaming sword.
"Wh-what--?" Grimm began to stammer.
"Several months ago," Vengeance began, "I was brought to this world by a human meddler in the dark arts." He reached up to his helmet and began to unfasten it with his free hand.
Not many months ago, Aurochs stumbled by chance over an authentic clay tablet from the time of ancient Sumeria, written by a slave writer of Gilgamesh himself. A tablet talking about magic, the only one in the world containing the spell to summon angels.
"Leshi-unn, of the Kite flocks, come! Clear the Earth from the walking dirt of Hell!"
A tall winged man with long black hair and wearing a long tunic interweaved with arcane symbols appeared, holding a flaming sword, right in front of Naecken.
"Clear the Earth from the walking dirt of Hell!" he commanded me. And I obeyed... I struck down one demon, only be killed by one of its unholy allies." He removed his helmet, revealing a once-handsome face, now split down the middle by a gruesome red scar. It was a face Grimm remembered.
"I was killed by YOU."
Everyone in the tunnels had stopped. Naecken was down on his knees, one arm reached up to the spot where his other had formerly been. He was screaming. Those who had known him for some time were shocked into stillness.
Grimm looked over at Naecken and the being with the flaming sword that stood over him, triumphantly, preparing what seemed to be a killing blow. A low growl began rising in Grimm's throat. He turned and ran toward the being, chopping and cutting off limbs and assorted parts of the strange amalgamated creatures along the way. The growl built until it became a loud scream.
The angel began lowering its sword, aimed to take off Naecken's head. It was too far; Grimm would not make it. Instinctively, he threw the axe, putting everything he had into it. The vague blue energy glistened (it seemed as if briefly, for one nanosecond, the axe appeared to be something else, a scythe, and then was an axe again) as the axe flew toward the angel's form.
Everything seemed to be going in slow motion.
The axe struck dead center in the middle of the angel's head, cleaving it in two right down the middle. The angel fell back against one wall of the corridor and slumped down to the floor. The flaming sword slowly stopped burning, to reveal a hilt with no blade. Naecken seemed to have passed out.
Grimm just stood there, watching. What had he just done? He didn't know, and tried to put the possible origins of the being and consequences of killing one out of his mind.
Grimm looked up at the being before him, while holding his side. Zombies still milled about, surrounding them on both sides. And Vengeance readied his sword for another blow. This just isn't my day, Grimm thought to himself.
Inside the courthouse:
Tayden was the first on the scene, quickly followed by Dirk Bell and finally Jason Hill. The others stayed behind.
"What the--?"
The entranceway of the courthouse had been all but destroyed. The support columns hung, barely able to maintain the weight of the huge structure. A huge gouging hole was in the middle of the floor, leading to the basement. Something or someone had busted through the floor. Dirk looked over the edge of the hole. Zombies jumped and clawed at him, not able to reach. They were stuck in between levels. Dirk pulled out a small explosive and let it drop into the hole. As he walked back toward Tayden, it went off, sending blood and organs flying through the air.
"Where is Grimm, Priest?" Tayden brushed his hand over his head before rushing over to the stairwell downstairs.
As he entered the dark basement, he cocked back his shotgun. All electricity in the basement had gone out with the collapse. He fumbled and lit a match that broke through the darkness. Only feet from him was the body of Priest, laying still. Tayden shone the light over Priest, who laid face down.
Rolling him over, for a moment, Tayden froze. Priest's skin was lighter and sickly looking, and his face was puffed up, with dark rings under his eyes, a purple hue to them. He looked like a cross between a man and a monster. His features moved ever so slightly and formed a smile.
"Priest?" Tayden asked as his stomach dropped. "Are you okay, buddy?"
Priest smiled and grabbed Tayden around the neck, lifting him off the ground. "I'm fine, angel."
Priest tightened his hand. Tayden attempted to free himself but was unable to. Panicking, he lowered the shotgun, placing it point blank on Priest's stomach. "Forgive me, father."
BLAM!
Priest stumbled back into the darkness, dropping Tayden to the floor. He took a deep breath and looked forward. Lighting another match, he prayed that Priest would be fine.
Standing only feet from him was Priest. He laughed as his body increased in mass, ripping his shirt apart.
"What's going on?"
"Your time has come."
"Don't make me do this."
"Do it." Priest stepped closer. "Do it."
Tayden turned the shotgun upward and shot twice into the ceiling. He quickly moved as more of the ceiling collapsed, covering Priest with rubble.
Tayden quickly exited the stairwell, where Dirk quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the back rooms and the second floor. Glancing back, he saw that zombies had begun to fill the courthouse in the dozens.