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[Devil]

Belix, Clyde, and Evie were rushing through the halls when Evie suddenly shouted at them.

“Stop!” she yelled, coughing and spitting up blood, “Stop, please just give me a…”

Shoving them away, she ran to the other side of the hall and leaned heavily against the wall as she hacked up a mouthful of blood and spat it on the ground.

“God…” Evie whined miserably, then turned and glared at Clyde, “How the Hell do you do this all the time?!”

“Not as easy as it looks right?” Clyde joked, reaching into his tool belt and producing the golden elixir he had stashed away, and he offered it to her, “Will this help?”

She glanced at it then vehemently shook her head as she pushed it away.

“Where the Hell’d you get that anyway?” Evie demanded.

“Nice lady on the street gave it to me,” Clyde shrugged, “It’s a healing potion, right?”

“No,” she shook her head, “It’s something we call ‘The Slumber’, induces pleasant dreams so that the victim willfully starves to death.”

“So...not a healing potion…” Clyde winced as he studied the bottle.

As they stood there stunned, the hidden base started to shake, debris raining down on all their heads.

“Right,” Belix stepped forward, grabbing him by the arm, “This is fascinating and all, but we need to get moving.”

“I know…” Evie complained, fiddling with her needle pouch, “Just give me...Oooooh-yeah…”

finding the proper needle, she jammed it into her leg and her face suddenly took on a joyous expression. Clyde and Belix looked at each other and back at her as Evie hopped back to her feet and started to giggle.

“Alright, let’s go,” she declared as the other two remained rooted in spot, astonished at the sudden change in her manner.

“Narcotic?” Belix wondered.

“Stimulant,” Evie corrected her, “Agitates the adrenal glands and gets the blood flowing,” she sighed, “Which might actually be a problem, considering my condition, but I’m hoping it clots before I drown in it, either way, I’m good for now, tomorrow’s another story…”

“It always is,” Clyde muttered, letting Belix take his arm and guide him down the hall.

“On the other side of our problems…”

“Your problem!” Belix corrected her.

“…you’re still going to be pissy with me about…”

“Yes!”

“Fine…” she grumbled, “But where the Hell are we going anyway?”

“The waterway,” Belix pointed.

“Again?”

“They may have seen us coming,” Clyde explained, “But, they didn’t leave through the front doors, and if they’re trying to move around in the city undetected…”

“Sound reasoning,” Evie mentioned, “But, they’re not trying to move around, they’re trying to escape.”

“How’s that now?” Belix wondered.

“When I was working with Mr. Kelly, I was able to get a good look at his notes, get a feel for where they were and how far their plans had progressed.”

“...they’ve finished converting the senators,” Clyde surmised.

“In so many words,” Evie shrugged, “Besides which, it’s impossible to bug out this fast, not without leaving stuff behind, clothes, ornaments, jewelry, money, I’m thinking that this was never supposed to be their permanent base, probably just a stop on their tour.”

Clyde stopped in his tracks, his face downcast, glaring at the floor.

“They’re going to do this elsewhere, other kingdoms, other...cities….” he grunted, slapping himself in the head, “Why didn’t I think of that before now.”

“Yeah, why didn’t you?” Evie wondered, a smug smirk on her lips.

Before he could retort, the catacombs shuddered again and Belix started pulling him along again.

“I mean, it’s pretty damn obvious, a soft world conquest, solidifying the powers of those already in control while making yourself the figurehead that unites them all.”

“Oh? And that’s obvious?” Belix demanded.

“It is,” Clyde admitted, “He owes no loyalty to either side, plays them all against each other for his own personal benefit, and manages to suss out any enemies that might resist when it’s all said and done.”

“...right,” Belix bowed her head, “So...if they’re trying to leave...I’d assume they’re going through the docks then.

“And…” Evie insisted as they reached a door, slightly ajar and set into the brick and mortar in front of them, “If they’re trying to keep a low profile, I think I might have a way to head them off.”

They pushed through the doorway and arrived in the city’s waterway.

“Well,” Belix gestured, letting Evie take the lead, “After you.”

Deep in the catacombs, the battle between Granger and Mr. Kelly continued. Having utterly demolished the throne room, they now fought in what had been remade into a living quarters, grabbing hold of bed frames and shattering them against each other’s bodies. At one point, Mr. Kelly snatched up one of the bed sheets and used it to strangle Granger, but his drill arm made short work of the cloth and he planted his boot into Mr. Kelly’s human parts, breaking through the cage of teeth that protected them and sending him flying across the room. The Devil collapsed, a hand over the wound, and glaring hatefully at his enemy.

“Such a violent disposition,” Mr. Kelly joked.

Granger, already breathing hard, wounded and bloody, approached cautiously but wasted no words, drawing back his drill arm and shoving it towards Mr. Kelly’s face. Mr. Kelly lifted his monstrous hand, taking the strike with his palm, and grabbing hold of the appendage as it bored its way through his deformed flesh.

“You tried this already!” the devil chided him while staring at the spinning blades as they danced in front of his eyes.

The mouth protecting his human frame opened up, allowing the massive eye in his spine to push forward and start to glow. Less than a second later, a blast of energy shot from the orb, lancing the side of Granger’s head and forcing him to turn away, his flesh smoking.

“You know what’s funny?” Mr. Kelly snickered, “I didn’t even know I could do that.”

He kicked Granger in the ribs while he was distracted but got a quick reprisal when the big man threw a wild haymaker that knocked Mr. Kelly off balance. They went punch for punch and blow for blow, hitting each other hard enough to crack the solid stone tiles beneath them and cause dirt and debris to rain down on their heads. With one final, massive exchange, the both of them fell to the dirt, gasping and barely able to stand up.

“...You’re…” Mr. Kelly grunted, wincing as he noticed the blue blood oozing from his split knuckles, “You’re finally taking this seriously, aren’t you?”

“...no…” Granger responded, standing up and raising his fists, “I’m ending it!”

Mr. Kelly rolled to the side, firing another blast that hit Granger full in the chest, sending him windmilling back with a burning red crater in his torso. Not wanting to let the opportunity to pass him by, Mr. Kelly jumped to his cloven feet and hit Granger with a backhand. Granger toppled over the devil was upon him, raining down blow after blow until the big man finally managed to grab his hands, getting the monster in a hold and refusing to let him go. With a self satisfied grin, Mr. Kelly leaned back, letting the eye swell forward, engorged with that dangerous light once again.

Gritting his teeth, Granger transformed his metal arm back into the drill, tearing open the monster’s bicep, and laying its flesh open to the bone, before shoving it into Mr. Kelly’s human shoulder. The blast flew wide, but Mr. Kelly didn’t back away, instead reaching down with his one good arm, and pressing it over Granger’s face, trying to smother him. In desperation, Granger reached out for the wound he had made in the devil’s arm and grabbed hold of the exposed bone, with a mighty heave, he pulled the appendage out of socket and then ripped it off of his body. Mr. Kelly let out a horrified, bloodcurdling shriek and finally relented, pulling away from his victim as he examined the ragged, gushing injury.

“Sucks don’t it?” Granger commented, then swung the severed arm like a club, and again and again, until it broke across the devil’s face.

Another blast caught Granger in the chest, but it didn’t stop there, the energy kept pouring out, trapping him in a cage of burning light until he reached out, grabbing both sides of the devil’s maw, and slamming it shut. Smoke poured from within the mouth as the blast recoiled and cooked the man inside, Granger could just barely hear Mr. Kelly letting out a muffled scream. The Devil lashed out, shoving it’s fingers into Granger’s gut and squeezing the metal and flesh into pulp.

In the midst of the struggle, Granger was suddenly distracted by a crackling noise and looked up just in time to see the ceiling starting to give way. He wanted to move out of the way, but with Mr. Kelly’s hand twisted around his guts, there was nowhere to run.

“Dammit!” the big man shouted, changing tactics, wrapping his arms around the monster and tackling him through a wall, the two just barely escaping the collapse as they separated, rolling away from each other on the far side of the breach.

Worn and battered, they lay there for a long time, neither able to move.

“You alive over there…” Mr. Kelly finally managed to groan.

“Fuck off,” Granger spat.

With an irritated grunt, Mr. Kelly pulled his arm out of the join between himself and the monstrous form he had created, looking down at his human hand, and finding it skinned to the bone.

“You…” he grumbled, shoving his ruined arm back into the monstrosity, “You really know how to piss me off!”

“Good,” Granger cleaned the blood from his face, “At least I can do that right?”

“...what is your problem with me exactly?” Mr. Kelly demanded, “I can’t imagine I’m the first person who’s ever captured you.”

“No…” Granger admitted, struggling, with a strength that defied all reason, to stand once more, “And you won’t be the last either, but I’m gonna kill you.”

“Why?!” Mr. Kelly shouted angrily, “What the Hell do you even gain out of this?”

“I dunno...catharsis,” Granger shrugged, leaning against a wall to just barely stay on his feet, “Maybe...I dunno, but I hate you, with every fiber of my being.”

Mr. Kelly snarled from behind the cage of teeth and forced himself to upright to meet the big man’s challenge.

“Because…” the devil responded pensively, “I’m you.”

“You were,” Granger clenched his fists, “Past tense.”

They glared at each other, and then Mr. Kelly chuckled.

“What’s so fuckin’ funny?” Granger demanded.

“You’re not...me,” he continued to snicker, “You’re broken.”

“So are you,” Granger retorted, “You’re just too stupid to realize it…”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Mr. Kelly snarled as they rushed at each other one last time.

Not too far away from the fight, Belix, Clyde and Evie emerged from the sewers and started skulking their way towards the docks.

“What are we actually looking for?” Evie wondered.

“Anything that’s leaving at this… hour…” she ground to a halt seeing a dreadnought class ship hovering in the distance, visible even in the darkened sky thanks to the emergency spotlights pouring off of it from all sides, “You don’t suppose…”

“They’re arrogant pricks who don’t do things in half-measures,” Clyde mentioned, “I’d say it’s a pretty good chance.”

“It’s being loaded from up there,” Evie pointed as a brace of rafts detached from the docks and flew towards the dreadnought.

“Right…” Belix led them behind a building, just out of sight, “So how do we go about this?”

“I say we put a bomb on one of the rafts and let nature take its course,” Clyde suggested.

“Smart,” Evie admitted, “But where the Hell do we get a bomb from?”

“And what if it’s not actually them,” Belix mentioned, “I mean, it’s suspicious, but, would you really be okay with sinking a ship full of innocent people?”

“So, you’re saying we should get on it?” Evie suggested, “Poke around?”

“Problem?”

“What if we are wrong?” the blonde wondered, “It’s a military grade ship, it’ll be staffed by actual soldiers.”

“So was our last one…”

“No, that was staffed by Zelots and priests,” Evie corrected her, “And we were supposed to be there anyway, we got the drop on them, here, they’ll be trained, disciplined…”

“And, if we’re right, it’s full of crazy, asshole, bug-people who probably won’t know what they’re doing.”

“Do you know what the price for infiltrating a military ship is?” Evie snapped, “I’m just worried about our exit strategy.”

“We don’t have one!” Belix rolled her eyes, “Look, if we’re wrong, then I’ll bluff, tell them I’m here on work from the vizier or whatever, give us a chance to talk to her about this crap, see if we’ve got an ally in that direction.”

“And if we’re right?” Evie asked sincerely, “What then?”

“Then we…”

“Yeah, no offense,” Evie cut her off, “But, before you start throwing your bravado in my face, I’d just like to mention that we couldn’t even handle one of their lackeys, what makes you think that we’re anywhere capable of taking out their ‘God’?!”

Belix let out a deep sigh and leaned her back against a nearby wall, hanging her head pensively.

“I hate it when you have a point,” she muttered frustratedly.

“It might not be a good idea to go on the ship at all,” Clyde mentioned, stroking his chin, “Your man, Kelly said that they detected me coming, it’s how they knew…”

“He did?” Evie quirked an eyebrow at that statement.

“He was just messing with your head,” Belix brushed the comment away, “It was…”

“I’m going anyway,” he told them with determination, then sighed, “It’s possible, I’ll admit, but, if she could really sense me coming, she would have sent something out to blunt our approach, she would have to know what we’re planning, what we would do if we got over her road block.”

“You think she’s allowing us to approach?” Evie mused.

“I think…” Clyde responded somberly, “It’s my responsibility to end this, and leaving them to their own devices is...it’s far too dangerous to allow, so maybe I’m walking into a trap, maybe an ally waits there to lend a hand, or maybe…”

“We’re fucked no matter what we do,” Belix observed.

“So we’ve got to take the chance,” Clyde agreed, “Hope we can accomplish something, because...otherwise, I mean, what the Hell are we even here for?”

“Well…” Belix shrugged, “Yeah, sure, I’m sold.”

“Of course you are, you want to fuck him,” Evie grumbled.

“And you want to make sure that your nation doesn’t fall under the sway of some glorified blood sack,” Belix retorted, “You with us or not?”

“...ugh...fine,” Evie complained.

“Good,” Belix smirked, “Because I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who can get us on those rafts.”

Back in the catacombs, both Granger and Mr. Kelly continued to go blow for blow, both injured, bleeding, and weary, but neither willing to back down. The old base was practically in ruins now, piles of rubble swam around their feet and rained down on their heads.

“You…” Mr. Kelly grabbed him, just barely managing to keep him pinned down, “You moron! Don’t you see what’s happening?!”

Without a word, Granger drove his broken, jagged, metal fist into Kelly’s face, forcing him back.

“We’re going to kill each other!!” Mr. Kelly snarled at him.

“That’s the plan,” Granger growled back, cracking his knuckles against his chin.

“You’re going to bury us alive if...we have to get out of here!”

“...No!”

Mr. Kelly looked at his severed arm, at this battered and wounded, monstrous body that he had conjured up, and shook his head.

“Is this really it?” he demanded, “Is this all your life is worth?”

“Yes!” Granger declared, and kicked him across the room.

“All this?” Mr. Kelly gasped, a look of confused despair washing over his face, “Just to kill me?”

“To keep you away from them, to stop you here,” Granger declared, “To keep them safe, yes fucker, it’s worth it!”

“Well, not for me,” Mr. Kelly ripped his body from the monstrous construct, and took off, barefoot and naked, rushing away for all he was worth to escape the collapsing base.

“Don’t you Run!!” Granger shouted as he tried to chase the other man down, but the roof finally gave way.

A slab of stone fell on his back, driving him to the floor as pebbles and dust rained down on his unprotected head. In the distance, he could almost hear his opponent laughing at him. He gagged, and breathed in a mouthful of dirt, he tried to move his arm, to summon the drill once more, but it hardly turned, either trapped or too badly damaged to work properly.

“...n...n...no…” he murmured around the mouthful of filth, “...have...to…”

He panicked, started to suffocate, and then despaired, letting his body go limp, letting the weight of the rocks crush and crack his bones. In the dying haze of his mind, he wondered if it was enough, if they had gotten far enough away, escaped. He wondered if Belix would stay, when he didn’t return, abandon her dreams out of obligation, and he wondered about Lynnie.

Gremlins didn’t believe the same way he did, to them there was no life or death, just the endless cycle, energy and matter joining and separating, being born, and changing. The thought almost made him laugh, how long had he staved off death, fought so hard to live, but, then, what had been the point. Die, he told himself, die and be reborn, one with the rocks and trees, the light and the ocean, the eternal setting sun. Maybe he’d even see her again, then he could smile, and laugh, and hear her voice. The thoughts quickly turned sour, and his fists clenched in anger.

“Is this all you are?” she had asked, “Just metal and bone...and blood…”

“It’s what I’m good for,” he had responded.

“I’m not denying it,” she mentioned while bandaging him up after a particularly nasty brawl, “But, is that all you want to be?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Of course you do,” she had such a sweet little laugh, “You’re alive, so live, make it worthwhile.”

“Can I make this flesh?” he had asked, lifting up his metal hand, “Can I get my eyes back?!”

“You already did,” she had whispered back at him, “Devolous Mondis Prosta, do you know what that means?”

“Devil take the Hindmost?”

“Hey, you’ve been studying,” she had smiled as she worked, told stories and jokes, just like always, “It doesn’t mean the slowest you know, it’s the ones who give up, the devil always comes for them in the end.”

“If that prick’s got the stones for it, he can take his best shot.”

“He will,” she had told him, “Maybe not today, but he always shows up, eventually.”

“So what?”

“You won’t be ready for it when it happens, you’ll be weak and hurt and you’ll want to give up…”

“Who fucking cares?!”

“I Care!” she had yelled in his face, grabbing both sides of his head to look him in the eye

He had killed two men that night and grievously wounded another for far less that what she was doing, but, as she stood there, staring him down, he felt like crying.

“You’re a good man Granger Fordham.”

“That’s debatable.”

“You’re infuriating sometimes, but your heart’s in the right place,” she had explained, “And I love you for it, people like you, you’re the ones who need protecting, most of all from yourselves.”

“It doesn’t…”

“Yes It Does!” she had yelled at him, “It hurts me when you do this, and you can’t...you need to stop…”

“...I can’t…” he had told her pensively, “The pain...it’s the only thing that makes me feel alive…”

“So fight,” she had told him tearfully, hugging him and quietly weeping into his neck, “When the devil comes, you promise me that you’ll fight back...don’t you die on me Granger...please...don’t die…”

The memory faded, and Granger spat out a mouthful of dirt, a fire roared to life in his belly fueled by the disgust he felt for every thinking he could betray that promise. So he fought, digging, clawing, ripping open his own flesh, tearing his wounds even deeper, and slithering through the gap on a river of blood. Finally his head burst through the other side and he roared as loud as his voice could sound.

“I HOPE YOU CAN HEAR ME YOU COWARD!!” Granger shouted, spying an exit through the piles of broken stone and crashing his way through with a reckless abandon, “’CAUSE I’M COMMING FOR YA!!”

Description

[Devil]

Belix, Clyde, and Evie were rushing through the halls when Evie suddenly shouted at them.

“Stop!” she yelled, coughing and spitting up blood, “Stop, please just give me a…”

Shoving them away, she ran to the other side of the hall and leaned heavily against the wall as she hacked up a mouthful of blood and spat it on the ground.

“God…” Evie whined miserably, then turned and glared at Clyde, “How the Hell do you do this all the time?!”

“Not as easy as it looks right?” Clyde joked, reaching into his tool belt and producing the golden elixir he had stashed away, and he offered it to her, “Will this help?”

She glanced at it then vehemently shook her head as she pushed it away.

“Where the Hell’d you get that anyway?” Evie demanded.

“Nice lady on the street gave it to me,” Clyde shrugged, “It’s a healing potion, right?”

“No,” she shook her head, “It’s something we call ‘The Slumber’, induces pleasant dreams so that the victim willfully starves to death.”

“So...not a healing potion…” Clyde winced as he studied the bottle.

As they stood there stunned, the hidden base started to shake, debris raining down on all their heads.

“Right,” Belix stepped forward, grabbing him by the arm, “This is fascinating and all, but we need to get moving.”

“I know…” Evie complained, fiddling with her needle pouch, “Just give me...Oooooh-yeah…”

finding the proper needle, she jammed it into her leg and her face suddenly took on a joyous expression. Clyde and Belix looked at each other and back at her as Evie hopped back to her feet and started to giggle.

“Alright, let’s go,” she declared as the other two remained rooted in spot, astonished at the sudden change in her manner.

“Narcotic?” Belix wondered.

“Stimulant,” Evie corrected her, “Agitates the adrenal glands and gets the blood flowing,” she sighed, “Which might actually be a problem, considering my condition, but I’m hoping it clots before I drown in it, either way, I’m good for now, tomorrow’s another story…”

“It always is,” Clyde muttered, letting Belix take his arm and guide him down the hall.

“On the other side of our problems…”

“Your problem!” Belix corrected her.

“…you’re still going to be pissy with me about…”

“Yes!”

“Fine…” she grumbled, “But where the Hell are we going anyway?”

“The waterway,” Belix pointed.

“Again?”

“They may have seen us coming,” Clyde explained, “But, they didn’t leave through the front doors, and if they’re trying to move around in the city undetected…”

“Sound reasoning,” Evie mentioned, “But, they’re not trying to move around, they’re trying to escape.”

“How’s that now?” Belix wondered.

“When I was working with Mr. Kelly, I was able to get a good look at his notes, get a feel for where they were and how far their plans had progressed.”

“...they’ve finished converting the senators,” Clyde surmised.

“In so many words,” Evie shrugged, “Besides which, it’s impossible to bug out this fast, not without leaving stuff behind, clothes, ornaments, jewelry, money, I’m thinking that this was never supposed to be their permanent base, probably just a stop on their tour.”

Clyde stopped in his tracks, his face downcast, glaring at the floor.

“They’re going to do this elsewhere, other kingdoms, other...cities….” he grunted, slapping himself in the head, “Why didn’t I think of that before now.”

“Yeah, why didn’t you?” Evie wondered, a smug smirk on her lips.

Before he could retort, the catacombs shuddered again and Belix started pulling him along again.

“I mean, it’s pretty damn obvious, a soft world conquest, solidifying the powers of those already in control while making yourself the figurehead that unites them all.”

“Oh? And that’s obvious?” Belix demanded.

“It is,” Clyde admitted, “He owes no loyalty to either side, plays them all against each other for his own personal benefit, and manages to suss out any enemies that might resist when it’s all said and done.”

“...right,” Belix bowed her head, “So...if they’re trying to leave...I’d assume they’re going through the docks then.

“And…” Evie insisted as they reached a door, slightly ajar and set into the brick and mortar in front of them, “If they’re trying to keep a low profile, I think I might have a way to head them off.”

They pushed through the doorway and arrived in the city’s waterway.

“Well,” Belix gestured, letting Evie take the lead, “After you.”

Deep in the catacombs, the battle between Granger and Mr. Kelly continued. Having utterly demolished the throne room, they now fought in what had been remade into a living quarters, grabbing hold of bed frames and shattering them against each other’s bodies. At one point, Mr. Kelly snatched up one of the bed sheets and used it to strangle Granger, but his drill arm made short work of the cloth and he planted his boot into Mr. Kelly’s human parts, breaking through the cage of teeth that protected them and sending him flying across the room. The Devil collapsed, a hand over the wound, and glaring hatefully at his enemy.

“Such a violent disposition,” Mr. Kelly joked.

Granger, already breathing hard, wounded and bloody, approached cautiously but wasted no words, drawing back his drill arm and shoving it towards Mr. Kelly’s face. Mr. Kelly lifted his monstrous hand, taking the strike with his palm, and grabbing hold of the appendage as it bored its way through his deformed flesh.

“You tried this already!” the devil chided him while staring at the spinning blades as they danced in front of his eyes.

The mouth protecting his human frame opened up, allowing the massive eye in his spine to push forward and start to glow. Less than a second later, a blast of energy shot from the orb, lancing the side of Granger’s head and forcing him to turn away, his flesh smoking.

“You know what’s funny?” Mr. Kelly snickered, “I didn’t even know I could do that.”

He kicked Granger in the ribs while he was distracted but got a quick reprisal when the big man threw a wild haymaker that knocked Mr. Kelly off balance. They went punch for punch and blow for blow, hitting each other hard enough to crack the solid stone tiles beneath them and cause dirt and debris to rain down on their heads. With one final, massive exchange, the both of them fell to the dirt, gasping and barely able to stand up.

“...You’re…” Mr. Kelly grunted, wincing as he noticed the blue blood oozing from his split knuckles, “You’re finally taking this seriously, aren’t you?”

“...no…” Granger responded, standing up and raising his fists, “I’m ending it!”

Mr. Kelly rolled to the side, firing another blast that hit Granger full in the chest, sending him windmilling back with a burning red crater in his torso. Not wanting to let the opportunity to pass him by, Mr. Kelly jumped to his cloven feet and hit Granger with a backhand. Granger toppled over the devil was upon him, raining down blow after blow until the big man finally managed to grab his hands, getting the monster in a hold and refusing to let him go. With a self satisfied grin, Mr. Kelly leaned back, letting the eye swell forward, engorged with that dangerous light once again.

Gritting his teeth, Granger transformed his metal arm back into the drill, tearing open the monster’s bicep, and laying its flesh open to the bone, before shoving it into Mr. Kelly’s human shoulder. The blast flew wide, but Mr. Kelly didn’t back away, instead reaching down with his one good arm, and pressing it over Granger’s face, trying to smother him. In desperation, Granger reached out for the wound he had made in the devil’s arm and grabbed hold of the exposed bone, with a mighty heave, he pulled the appendage out of socket and then ripped it off of his body. Mr. Kelly let out a horrified, bloodcurdling shriek and finally relented, pulling away from his victim as he examined the ragged, gushing injury.

“Sucks don’t it?” Granger commented, then swung the severed arm like a club, and again and again, until it broke across the devil’s face.

Another blast caught Granger in the chest, but it didn’t stop there, the energy kept pouring out, trapping him in a cage of burning light until he reached out, grabbing both sides of the devil’s maw, and slamming it shut. Smoke poured from within the mouth as the blast recoiled and cooked the man inside, Granger could just barely hear Mr. Kelly letting out a muffled scream. The Devil lashed out, shoving it’s fingers into Granger’s gut and squeezing the metal and flesh into pulp.

In the midst of the struggle, Granger was suddenly distracted by a crackling noise and looked up just in time to see the ceiling starting to give way. He wanted to move out of the way, but with Mr. Kelly’s hand twisted around his guts, there was nowhere to run.

“Dammit!” the big man shouted, changing tactics, wrapping his arms around the monster and tackling him through a wall, the two just barely escaping the collapse as they separated, rolling away from each other on the far side of the breach.

Worn and battered, they lay there for a long time, neither able to move.

“You alive over there…” Mr. Kelly finally managed to groan.

“Fuck off,” Granger spat.

With an irritated grunt, Mr. Kelly pulled his arm out of the join between himself and the monstrous form he had created, looking down at his human hand, and finding it skinned to the bone.

“You…” he grumbled, shoving his ruined arm back into the monstrosity, “You really know how to piss me off!”

“Good,” Granger cleaned the blood from his face, “At least I can do that right?”

“...what is your problem with me exactly?” Mr. Kelly demanded, “I can’t imagine I’m the first person who’s ever captured you.”

“No…” Granger admitted, struggling, with a strength that defied all reason, to stand once more, “And you won’t be the last either, but I’m gonna kill you.”

“Why?!” Mr. Kelly shouted angrily, “What the Hell do you even gain out of this?”

“I dunno...catharsis,” Granger shrugged, leaning against a wall to just barely stay on his feet, “Maybe...I dunno, but I hate you, with every fiber of my being.”

Mr. Kelly snarled from behind the cage of teeth and forced himself to upright to meet the big man’s challenge.

“Because…” the devil responded pensively, “I’m you.”

“You were,” Granger clenched his fists, “Past tense.”

They glared at each other, and then Mr. Kelly chuckled.

“What’s so fuckin’ funny?” Granger demanded.

“You’re not...me,” he continued to snicker, “You’re broken.”

“So are you,” Granger retorted, “You’re just too stupid to realize it…”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Mr. Kelly snarled as they rushed at each other one last time.

Not too far away from the fight, Belix, Clyde and Evie emerged from the sewers and started skulking their way towards the docks.

“What are we actually looking for?” Evie wondered.

“Anything that’s leaving at this… hour…” she ground to a halt seeing a dreadnought class ship hovering in the distance, visible even in the darkened sky thanks to the emergency spotlights pouring off of it from all sides, “You don’t suppose…”

“They’re arrogant pricks who don’t do things in half-measures,” Clyde mentioned, “I’d say it’s a pretty good chance.”

“It’s being loaded from up there,” Evie pointed as a brace of rafts detached from the docks and flew towards the dreadnought.

“Right…” Belix led them behind a building, just out of sight, “So how do we go about this?”

“I say we put a bomb on one of the rafts and let nature take its course,” Clyde suggested.

“Smart,” Evie admitted, “But where the Hell do we get a bomb from?”

“And what if it’s not actually them,” Belix mentioned, “I mean, it’s suspicious, but, would you really be okay with sinking a ship full of innocent people?”

“So, you’re saying we should get on it?” Evie suggested, “Poke around?”

“Problem?”

“What if we are wrong?” the blonde wondered, “It’s a military grade ship, it’ll be staffed by actual soldiers.”

“So was our last one…”

“No, that was staffed by Zelots and priests,” Evie corrected her, “And we were supposed to be there anyway, we got the drop on them, here, they’ll be trained, disciplined…”

“And, if we’re right, it’s full of crazy, asshole, bug-people who probably won’t know what they’re doing.”

“Do you know what the price for infiltrating a military ship is?” Evie snapped, “I’m just worried about our exit strategy.”

“We don’t have one!” Belix rolled her eyes, “Look, if we’re wrong, then I’ll bluff, tell them I’m here on work from the vizier or whatever, give us a chance to talk to her about this crap, see if we’ve got an ally in that direction.”

“And if we’re right?” Evie asked sincerely, “What then?”

“Then we…”

“Yeah, no offense,” Evie cut her off, “But, before you start throwing your bravado in my face, I’d just like to mention that we couldn’t even handle one of their lackeys, what makes you think that we’re anywhere capable of taking out their ‘God’?!”

Belix let out a deep sigh and leaned her back against a nearby wall, hanging her head pensively.

“I hate it when you have a point,” she muttered frustratedly.

“It might not be a good idea to go on the ship at all,” Clyde mentioned, stroking his chin, “Your man, Kelly said that they detected me coming, it’s how they knew…”

“He did?” Evie quirked an eyebrow at that statement.

“He was just messing with your head,” Belix brushed the comment away, “It was…”

“I’m going anyway,” he told them with determination, then sighed, “It’s possible, I’ll admit, but, if she could really sense me coming, she would have sent something out to blunt our approach, she would have to know what we’re planning, what we would do if we got over her road block.”

“You think she’s allowing us to approach?” Evie mused.

“I think…” Clyde responded somberly, “It’s my responsibility to end this, and leaving them to their own devices is...it’s far too dangerous to allow, so maybe I’m walking into a trap, maybe an ally waits there to lend a hand, or maybe…”

“We’re fucked no matter what we do,” Belix observed.

“So we’ve got to take the chance,” Clyde agreed, “Hope we can accomplish something, because...otherwise, I mean, what the Hell are we even here for?”

“Well…” Belix shrugged, “Yeah, sure, I’m sold.”

“Of course you are, you want to fuck him,” Evie grumbled.

“And you want to make sure that your nation doesn’t fall under the sway of some glorified blood sack,” Belix retorted, “You with us or not?”

“...ugh...fine,” Evie complained.

“Good,” Belix smirked, “Because I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who can get us on those rafts.”

Back in the catacombs, both Granger and Mr. Kelly continued to go blow for blow, both injured, bleeding, and weary, but neither willing to back down. The old base was practically in ruins now, piles of rubble swam around their feet and rained down on their heads.

“You…” Mr. Kelly grabbed him, just barely managing to keep him pinned down, “You moron! Don’t you see what’s happening?!”

Without a word, Granger drove his broken, jagged, metal fist into Kelly’s face, forcing him back.

“We’re going to kill each other!!” Mr. Kelly snarled at him.

“That’s the plan,” Granger growled back, cracking his knuckles against his chin.

“You’re going to bury us alive if...we have to get out of here!”

“...No!”

Mr. Kelly looked at his severed arm, at this battered and wounded, monstrous body that he had conjured up, and shook his head.

“Is this really it?” he demanded, “Is this all your life is worth?”

“Yes!” Granger declared, and kicked him across the room.

“All this?” Mr. Kelly gasped, a look of confused despair washing over his face, “Just to kill me?”

“To keep you away from them, to stop you here,” Granger declared, “To keep them safe, yes fucker, it’s worth it!”

“Well, not for me,” Mr. Kelly ripped his body from the monstrous construct, and took off, barefoot and naked, rushing away for all he was worth to escape the collapsing base.

“Don’t you Run!!” Granger shouted as he tried to chase the other man down, but the roof finally gave way.

A slab of stone fell on his back, driving him to the floor as pebbles and dust rained down on his unprotected head. In the distance, he could almost hear his opponent laughing at him. He gagged, and breathed in a mouthful of dirt, he tried to move his arm, to summon the drill once more, but it hardly turned, either trapped or too badly damaged to work properly.

“...n...n...no…” he murmured around the mouthful of filth, “...have...to…”

He panicked, started to suffocate, and then despaired, letting his body go limp, letting the weight of the rocks crush and crack his bones. In the dying haze of his mind, he wondered if it was enough, if they had gotten far enough away, escaped. He wondered if Belix would stay, when he didn’t return, abandon her dreams out of obligation, and he wondered about Lynnie.

Gremlins didn’t believe the same way he did, to them there was no life or death, just the endless cycle, energy and matter joining and separating, being born, and changing. The thought almost made him laugh, how long had he staved off death, fought so hard to live, but, then, what had been the point. Die, he told himself, die and be reborn, one with the rocks and trees, the light and the ocean, the eternal setting sun. Maybe he’d even see her again, then he could smile, and laugh, and hear her voice. The thoughts quickly turned sour, and his fists clenched in anger.

“Is this all you are?” she had asked, “Just metal and bone...and blood…”

“It’s what I’m good for,” he had responded.

“I’m not denying it,” she mentioned while bandaging him up after a particularly nasty brawl, “But, is that all you want to be?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Of course you do,” she had such a sweet little laugh, “You’re alive, so live, make it worthwhile.”

“Can I make this flesh?” he had asked, lifting up his metal hand, “Can I get my eyes back?!”

“You already did,” she had whispered back at him, “Devolous Mondis Prosta, do you know what that means?”

“Devil take the Hindmost?”

“Hey, you’ve been studying,” she had smiled as she worked, told stories and jokes, just like always, “It doesn’t mean the slowest you know, it’s the ones who give up, the devil always comes for them in the end.”

“If that prick’s got the stones for it, he can take his best shot.”

“He will,” she had told him, “Maybe not today, but he always shows up, eventually.”

“So what?”

“You won’t be ready for it when it happens, you’ll be weak and hurt and you’ll want to give up…”

“Who fucking cares?!”

“I Care!” she had yelled in his face, grabbing both sides of his head to look him in the eye

He had killed two men that night and grievously wounded another for far less that what she was doing, but, as she stood there, staring him down, he felt like crying.

“You’re a good man Granger Fordham.”

“That’s debatable.”

“You’re infuriating sometimes, but your heart’s in the right place,” she had explained, “And I love you for it, people like you, you’re the ones who need protecting, most of all from yourselves.”

“It doesn’t…”

“Yes It Does!” she had yelled at him, “It hurts me when you do this, and you can’t...you need to stop…”

“...I can’t…” he had told her pensively, “The pain...it’s the only thing that makes me feel alive…”

“So fight,” she had told him tearfully, hugging him and quietly weeping into his neck, “When the devil comes, you promise me that you’ll fight back...don’t you die on me Granger...please...don’t die…”

The memory faded, and Granger spat out a mouthful of dirt, a fire roared to life in his belly fueled by the disgust he felt for every thinking he could betray that promise. So he fought, digging, clawing, ripping open his own flesh, tearing his wounds even deeper, and slithering through the gap on a river of blood. Finally his head burst through the other side and he roared as loud as his voice could sound.

“I HOPE YOU CAN HEAR ME YOU COWARD!!” Granger shouted, spying an exit through the piles of broken stone and crashing his way through with a reckless abandon, “’CAUSE I’M COMMING FOR YA!!”