A Dying Generation
BY AvidAkiraReader
Disclaimer: You know the procedure. I don't own it, you don't own it…we all play in the expansive sandbox game producers have created for us.
Eons before the Seraphim, existed, war happened between the Beasts and Man. It couldn't be called war. Because war is where both sides have an equal chance of winning.
And Man knew that there wasn't a chance of winning the fight, and yet like the stubborn men they were they built cities to keep them out, walls to shut them off.
And still they came, hungering for human flesh.
Beasts aren't your regular animals. Animals, died out long, long ago. Nothing could beat the Beasts, and nothing could make them stop.
Then the Seraphim came into existence. They were an accident if you want to call it that. The Seraphim are humans with high reflexes, instincts, senses, and intelligence with a prominent tattoo on their left hand of red flora patterns. However, despite their supernatural senses, they still die as mortals do.
There are five Seraphim from the first generation, but as each one dies, there is a young one in the world to replace them.
The first Seraphim who died gave his life without a fight.
Whoosh.
Plop.
A cloaked male crouched low to the ground and hugged the wall next to him. The wall had a sticky substance on it, and smelled faintly of rot. The slime shone an eerie green, and it illuminated the drawn, weary face that was next to it.
His cloak shifted a little, and revealed the red flora that was tattooed on his left hand. Green eyes flicked back to see another dark lump gracefully fall to the ground and stand up. The slight squelch made the other male wince, and had his tall friend cock his head at the tunnel in front of them.
"Where are the others?" The shorter one asked quietly. He moved stealthily through the dank, gloomy tunnel with caution. A thick, cloying smell filled the air and he signaled his companion to stop with a pale hand. He found a hole the size of his fist near his face.
"Isaac had more…important business to take care of in Barbara's area. Stop worrying for Jill, Saki. She can take care of herself." His hooded companion retorted in a low whisper. He stopped at Saki's raised hand. An intense look of concentration crossed Saki's face as he looked through a hole in the wall, and then his face slacked. Eyes wide, Saki looked at his companion, and fear glazed his green eyes. His friend's eyes followed Saki's hand as it motioned to a hole in the wall.
"Frank…we got to get out…there are hordes of Beasts in there…" Frank froze, and his muscles tensed. Despite his hood covering his eyes, Saki could see that his face was white. Ten or more Beasts was easy to kill; or at least the lower levels. Twenty or more…they were doomed if it was just the two of them. Right now, there were at least a hundred.
The smell of excrete reached their noses, and simultaneously wrinkled their noses in disgust. Frank peeked inside the hole, and his eyes grew wide. Blue furred monsters were fighting over human flesh, and saliva dripped out of their mouths. He covered his mouth with a tattooed hand discreetly.
Saki's pale face was blank, and if it wasn't for the slight rise of his cloaked chest, Frank would've have sworn he fainted.
But you don't faint in the Beasts' stronghold. Not if you wanted to live.
Gray eyes flickered over to Saki, and Saki motioned him to go back. Reinforcements would be required –
Saki's muscles tensed as he heard heavy panting behind him. Frank's face was frozen between shock and fear. He took a deep breath before bellowing.
"RUN!"
A fast paced chase happened, and Saki yelled, "Lose the cloaks!" Frank's long legs skidded through the gelatinous slime as he paused at the opening of the stronghold. The black woolen cloak he had ditched behind revealed simplistic, sturdy peasant brown clothing and an embroidered leather holster for a silver knife. Looking behind him for Saki, Frank quickly decided that Saki would be coming s—
"Jump already you idiot!" Saki roared, throwing a wide array of daggers at the Beasts for a distraction. He slid backwards on the slippery slime. Frank bent down and leapt up easily, catching the slick edge with two hands. He scrambled for a handhold, and panic began to settle in. Desperation took hold of his soul, and Frank frantically pulled himself up across the ground. He panted, trying to regain his breath.
Below, Saki was gritting his teeth, while fending off a Beast from getting to his jugular.
Crack.
Saki's muffled shriek of pain caught Frank's attention, and Frank threw a storm of needles down below in a fretful attempt to distract the Beasts. The thin slivers of metal pierced the Beasts' thick furred skin halfway, and distracted them for a few seconds.
And that was all Saki needed.
Saki looked at his left arm with a hiss of pain. The bone had pierced through the skin, and his brain was sending him urgent messages that he needed medical help. The tattooed dark red flora disappeared under the blood, and that was when Saki summoned the last of strength to jump. With his one good arm outstretched, Saki hoped that Frank was waiting there.
Frank's vice-like grip took a firm hold of his wrist, and all the blood Saki had on his left arm made Frank dizzy for a minute. Frank shook his head clear of the fuzziness, and hoisted Saki halfway up when his upper body was jerked down back to the opening of the hole. Saki grunted, and when looking down, his green eyes narrowed a fraction.
A Beast had latched his arms around his body, and had started to drag Saki down, back into that gloomy, slimy hole of a den. Frank strained to pull Saki back up, and his muscles tensed with the weight. "Goddammit Saki, what have you been eating behind my back?" He mumbled wearily. It wasn't the best place to be joking around, but Frank was half dizzy and almost fainting from fatigue
Saki shot an icy look back at him. "If you have time to talk, do you have time to –"
Yellow teeth bit into Saki's calf, and Saki groaned with agony through his teeth. Futilely trying to kick it off, Saki jerked his body back and forth. Another Beast grabbed on and began to pull Saki down without a second thought. Skin began to tear, blood began to trickle, and the dirty blonde bowed his head.
"If you dare give up on me Saki, I'm going to sick Jill on you, and tell Barbara to fucking sing hymns to you." Frank growled.
Saki looked up, and Frank loosened his grip for a second at the peaceful, if a little pained, gaze Saki gave him. The grip slid.
'Do not let go, you crazy sonuvabitch.' Frank tried to communicate without saying anything. Tired, exhausted gray eyes told Saki his strength was draining quickly.
"See you guys soon."
The words stunned Frank into losing Saki's hand, and on reflex, Frank tried to dive for it. Saki disappeared beneath the mass of Beasts, and left Frank with nothing to hold on.
A howl of anguish filled the air not a second later; a scream that told the world someone had just lost his best friend.
The second Seraphim died without fear.
A pink haired, tiny, girl glided across the empty, wet streets of Iza with cold indifference in her ruby eyes. Iza was a city for the ones in poverty, she discovered quickly. Even if it was one of the Great Cities, it was the prime place to find the poor, the weak, and the starving.
And it was under siege from Beasts. The girl had to congratulate whoever built the walls, because the walls slanted from the top left to the bottom right and were rather slippery.
Yet the gates were a problem. They were wooden, and easy to break. She had reinforced them heavily, but all things were meant to break down. Even the ones meant to be impenetrable. That's why they were built after all. The stench of rotting flesh reached the girl's nose, and she wrinkled it in disgust.
Beasts. They all looked the same; blue fur, beady black eyes, yellow teeth, and who could forget the way they smelled of blood and rotting meat?
Boom.
Boom.
The girl sighed, and told herself, 'Don't bother focusing Jill, you won't need it for this fight.'
'Because this is going to be fight you won't come out of.'
A few hours later, Jill found herself discarded of her woolen black cloak and a four inch dagger. She bent backwards to avoid a clumsy blow to her stomach, and stumbled into another Beast's furred chest. Digging in her boots with a hand, she quickly stabbed the Beast in the chest with a knife and flung herself off it towards another. Her gloved right hand flew towards one of the beady black eyes and scooped the organ out with chilling efficiency.
With the Beast roaring in pain, Jill rolled under him and jumped on his back. Jabbing the knife towards his jugular, Jill was suddenly pulled off of the Beast and was thrown towards a brick wall. Her left hand went to her right temple, and then pulled it back to see blood on the red flora tattoos on her hand.
Pushing herself up, Jill leaned against the wall to catch her breath. A stray pink lock of hair fell into her eye, and she absentmindedly pushed it back while staring at the two Beasts in front of her. The murderous look in their eyes told her everything.
Cursing, Jill subconsciously grinned as a saying came by her mind.
'Jill. Cursing is very unladylike, and if anything, you are a lady.'
Good ol' Saki.
She threw her knife with unerring accuracy at one Beast's occipital lobe. With the Beast dying instantly, Jill ran up, pulled the bloody knife out and jumped off it to the other Beast. Slicing her weapon at its stomach, its entrails spilled out messily along with a ton of blood. Some of it splashed onto her, and she looked at it with lack of interest.
Sighing, she launched herself into the next few abominations and drove herself to make their deaths as painful as Saki's must've been. Jill slashed open one's back and then broke the Beast's neck with a powerful kick. For good measure, she cut open its neck. Unblinking black eyes stared off in the distance while she bluntly kicked a Beast's knees and ignored its pitiful screeches of pain it emitted.
Grimly, Jill methodically killed Beasts all the way to the Council Hall. The once majestic, if a little ominous, white marble building was painted with the blood of the Beasts. A human body was sprawled on the ground with part of its leg chewed off. It wore the gray clothing most of the Council members wore, but without the regal looking badge the Priests had.
The corpse's gray eyes were wide open in fear and pain, and with her tattooed hand, Jill gently closed them. Tilting her head at a sound she heard in the building, she heard the tell-tale heavy panting of one of the more intelligent Beasts in the building. Then she heard more.
And more.
They were taking lumbering steps outside of the building, and Jill could already see the malevolent stares they were giving her. More specifically, her hand.
Sometimes, the signs that told you were a Seraphim really sucked for you. Why? It got you the privilege that you got to live longer, in agony usually, that's why. A raindrop splattered on her cheek, which was covered in dried blood. She glanced at the sky, and tilted her head looking at the one clear spot in the sky where she could see a star winking down at her.
Jill snorted at the last words Frank exchanged with her before she was deported to Iza.
'Saki's last words?' Frank asked blankly after listening to Jill's request. She was pulling up her woolen cloak's hood over her head when she caught the small hesitation in Frank's voice.
'Yeah.'
Frank mulled over this for a few seconds and said bluntly, 'He implied that he'll see us soon.' Jill stared out the window.
'So this generation of Seraphim is doomed, hm?' Jill said thoughtfully. She shrugged, "Wouldn't be the first time."
Frank stared at her with surprise in his gray eyes. He ran a head through his pale blonde hair with frustration. Softly, he muttered, "Saki always had that gift of knowing what would happen to us."
She smiled, and turned. The Beasts were a few meters ahead of her, and Jill could smell their rancid breath and see their gleaming yellow teeth. Wiping her knife on her pants, she sharpened it for one last, loving time. It glimmered dully as she held it loosely in her hand. Dark ruby eyes glared defiantly at black ones.
A few minutes later, she lunged like a cornered animal towards a Beast and shredded its face apart easily while jumping off its chest to stab another in the stomach. Liquid gushed out of the Beast's wound onto the ground, and it howled in agony.
Jill inhaled and exhaled with a loud sound. Plastering a foolhardy grin on her face, she turned to the remaining amount of Beasts. They stared back at her, evaluating how many would die before she succumbed to death's cold grip. Clenching her tattooed hand into a fist, Jill looked at the sky and uttered, "See you soon indeed, Saki."
With a shriek of defiance, she leapt straight into the middle of the Beasts.
The third Seraphim was betrayed by the ones he fought for.
Isaac rushed into his small room in Jerik, his mouth curled in a grimace. He threw the customary black woolen cloak over shoulders, and pulled the hood over his bright blonde hair and blue eyes. Casting a careful look over the room, he opened drawers to make sure he hadn't left anything of importance. Flinging the sheets on his small bed over, Isaac cursed quietly as he pulled his dagger from the bed into the holster Jill had embroidered far before she had died in Iza.
It wasn't fair.
"But life never is." Isaac whispered bitterly. Throwing the covers back, he stuffed a hand under a pillow and found a leather bag of glass marbles. Smiling wistfully, he stowed it tenderly beneath his cloak. The Seraphim used to play marbles at their leisure. Not anymore, not with all the Beasts out playing siege with the Great Cities.
Taking one last look around his room, he nodded to himself, closed the door, and swiftly left through the window in the middle of the night. Isaac jumped down to the wet stones below and grunted on impact. It was always raining in the cities. With long strides, Isaac soon reached The Council's main entrance and banged on the stone door with a heavy fist. A few raindrops spilled from the sky.
After a drizzle came and passed, Isaac was finally admitted into the Council's room. Standing before them with his hood still up, Isaac stared ominously at the Head of the Council. There was a reason Isaac was here before the 'esteemed' Council today, tonight…
Barbara was in trouble over at Nuriox, and Frank was reporting signs of children who had a faint imprint of the typical red flora on their left hand. Frank would need a secluded place to train the children, and Barbara would need reinforcements, so it was (naturally) up to Isaac to go and ask the Council for help on both matters.
"I come before you –"Isaac was stopped when he sharply turned to the door. His blue eyes narrowed thoughtfully, and he heard a faint booming sound. Suddenly blinking, Isaac threw himself to the side as a guard was thrown towards him.
Thud.
The body of the guard had its face torn off, and its eyeballs were pierced. Isaac cautiously flipped the guard's body over, and hissed in pity at the pain the body must've gone through. The spine had been pulled out and a very intelligent Beast had surgically pulled organs out of its body.
How could Isaac tell?
Well, the corpse's stomach was caved in.
Squish.
Roll.
Plop.
Isaac paled as the body's organs were rolled one at a time towards him and the Council. A heart leaked blood spun in place, making a very wet sound echo in the oppressively silent Council Room. A liver pierced in half. A pair of sliced lungs was actually thrown to the body.
The sound of heavy breathing was audible in the Council Room, and a few of the members were uneasily looking at each other. Isaac's eyes furtively looked in the dark for a sign that something was coming out while the Council began to walk apprehensively towards a single spot at the back of the room. They crowded around another trying to get in the middle for full safety.
Isaac snorted quietly at the squabble they were making. He said in a hoarse voice, effectively silencing the Council, "Is there a back door you can escape through? A safe house?"
"No!" A rather thin man with a crooked, angular black mustache burst out saying. His piggy black eyes reminded Isaac of a Beast. It sickened him to see the once great Council fall to this. The man continued in a whine, "We never needed one before you came to supervise the defenses of Jerik!" Isaac gritted his teeth and bit back a retort.
It was odd that the Beasts would come here right when he came to inspect the defenses of Jerik.
He pondered this while another member grinned evilly at another. Isaac never noticed. The man nudged his partner, and pressed a button which caused a high pitched shriek to ring out. Menacing footsteps began to reverberating loudly in the area, and Isaac clutched his head painfully. He fell to the ground; his eyes squinted in the pain.
God, make it stop!
Stop, for Christ's sake!
STOP!
A single word ran its current beneath the pleas for the sound to stop.
Traitor.
Traitor.
Isaac rose to one knee, and spotted the Beast, a huge monstrosity skidding into the room. Its own eyes were glazed with pain, but it still had enough strength to bowl over all of the Council members, thankfully stopping the throbbing distress that was running its course in Isaac's brain. He slipped off his cloak and took out his knife slowly out of its holster.
Pain shot through his nerves, and Isaac let out a pitiful moan. He leaned against the wall while watching the Council be decimated by the Beast. Some were torn in two; a few were still screaming and concentrating on their own misery. The Beast was ponderously ripping the arms off the traitorous Council member, who was straining to press the button and spin it to a higher frequency when he frantically threw it to his partner.
His partner, a red haired man pressed it desperately and Isaac was dropping to the ground again, clinging to his head, his cerulean blue eyes wide with pain.
Another man was being strangled when the red haired man pressed the button, and then the Beast was roaring in rage. Its face was screwed up, and it lashed out angrily. Isaac writhed on the floor, cursing in his mind, because in reality, he was far too gone in his pain that he couldn't speak coherently.
'What a pathetic way to die, Isaac.'
He blurrily thought to himself. Glancing out of chance at the red flora imprinted on his hands, his mind sharpened despite the shape of his mind. A perilous thought took form.
'Let the Beast kill the humans, and then you can kill the Beast.'
Isaac curled up in a fetal position and heard the faint noises of human screams of fear and pleas of mercy end abruptly with a roar of rage. The pain ended. Breathing heavily, Isaac coughed out blood onto the floor, and looked at the trembling body of the Beast. It turned to face him.
Hoisting himself up, Isaac pulled out his knife, wincing at the sudden pain. The Beast watched him warily, and suddenly, Isaac pounced. Slashing its neck easily, Isaac did not get away without his own injuries. The Beast had clawed Isaac mortally at his stomach, and as Isaac fell to the bloodied ground, he could see his marbles fall out of its leather bag's clutch, rolling around, gathering a smooth garnish of red for its shell.
"Damn Saki, "Isaac coughed tiredly, "You were right…The first generation is finally dying off." He stared off at the distance, and smiled despite it all.
"Let's hope Frank and Barbara die off a bit better."
The fourth Seraphim died alone, the last one alive out of a battlefield of corpses.
Barbara's hood was drawn, and she was glad for it so it could hide her baggy eyes and porcelain skin. She was with two other generals, planning an ambush against the Beasts outside the Great City of Nuriox. Her bloodshot green eyes stared blankly at a wrinkled, worn map.
Timidly, a general nudged her, and flinched when she turned to look at him with dead eyes. The general had a very young face, and his blond hair was cropped short into that militaristic buzz-cut all soldiers were fond of. However, through his glasses, he looked at her. "'Xcuse me ma'am, but how should we deploy the P.O.K.E Unit? The animals the Master has are…" He paused at her narrowed eyes.
"Animals?" Barbara asked.
"Well, they aren't like the Beasts we are fighting, ma'am. They have more intelligence, and are element based. The animals their leader, Red, orders could be our –"He was cut off by Barbara.
"Either our salvation, or our damnation, is that what you were saying?" Barbara asked, with a wistful look in her eyes. "It'd certainly be new, but if that's what Man needs to survive, we must take it."
This time, the general's friend, a slightly older male with green hair and the same shade of eyes his friend had butted in with a mischievous tone, "But you can kill 'em anytime you want right? I mean, you're the Seraphim!" His friend elbowed him roughly, and the general hunched over. Barbara's eyes had glazed and though they could barely hear it, they could hear an 'I wish.'
The blonde's eyes hardened and he looked at his friend reproachfully.
Barbara left the tent silently, and looked at the soon to be battlefield of choice. It was a flat terrain, and only a few weeds were scattered through the land. The side Barbara was leading would have no problem with tripping over rocks and menial things, but so would the Beasts. Her lip curled at the very thought of the Beasts. Barbara had spoken with Frank before she had departed to the Great city Nuriox, and she was just now starting to believe what Saki had implied.
'See you guys soon.'
Hmph. A few weeks ago, Barbara would've been her raucous self not believing anything in the world could kill the Seraphim so easily, especially by the ones they fought. Now with the Seraphim disappearing so quickly, Barbara was forced to retake her observation so hastily made at the time.
Staring across the brown, dusty area, Barbara absentmindedly pulled her purple hair back into a ponytail. Turquoise eyes noted the horizon with a wary gaze at what would happen tomorrow.
'Such thoughts are at best kept for the next morning of battle, instead of the night before.' Barbara softly smiled. Philosophical thoughts were always uttered by Saki, who was the most gentlemanly of all of the Seraphim.
She retired for the night with a baleful look at the moon, dreading what would happen tomorrow if Isaac didn't bring reinforcements.
The very next day, a very bright sun blinded Barbara for a few seconds as she emerged from her drab looking tent looking worse for wear. Gliding over to the main tent where the general and his friend were, she yawned silently. The general's hair was tousled and his black eyes were a little groggy. Directly next to him, his friend looked a little better, but not by much.
"War begins, gentlemen. Is everyone ready?" Barbara asked tensely. Her urgent tone shook the men from their dazed look, and they both saluted to her.
"We start ambushing the hordes in approximately two hours ma'am." The blonde answered crisply. His brown clothing blended rather well with the landscape, Barbara privately thought to herself.
"And before that, I need to get the troops in line and their blades sharpened." His friend joked quietly. Barbara looked sharply at him, and told him in a brisk voice that no nonsensical things or jokes were appropriate in a battlefield.
Such things were luxuries fit for brawls and bar fights, she finished after a few seconds of silence.
Two hours later, Barbara sprang the first ambush and with bared teeth, twisted a Beast's neck with gloved hands. Making sure it was dead; Barbara leapt off the corpse and took off to a stumbling, confused Beast who was trying to run away. The sounds of bullets rang through the air, but Barbara ignored it in favor of murdering the Beast by strangling it with a hidden sash.
The chokes it emitted were worthless in their attempt to gain pity. If anything, it helped the opposing side get a little motivation to murder more Beasts. Soon, the Beasts' numbers lowered, and Barbara was breathing heavily after the skirmish. She accepted help from a field doctor, and with his gentle advice, Barbara bandaged a 'small' scratch on her arm.
Twenty dead, five with her hands, six by her knife, nine riddled with numerous amounts of bullets.
"Are you okay?" The general's concerned voice, jolted her out of her dark thoughts, and she smiled a fake, bright smile to reassure him.
"Yeah. Perfectly fine."
The next hour was filled by another skirmish, this time by the Beasts. Barbara bent over backwards, and while supporting her weight with her arms, kicked a Beast in the eye. The other Seraphim worked mainly with knives, but Barbara had an affinity for physical fighting. There was some style to it, Barbara reasoned.
Pulling out her usually unused knife, she gutted a Beast swiftly and slashed through its neck for good measure.
Boom.
She froze, and looked behind her warily. Everyone had heard the ominous sound, and even the Beasts were curious as to what was happening. Then Barbara realized what was happening as the sounds grew in pace and tone.
Boom.
One of those really big Beasts, the intelligent ones Frank had mentioned once while scouting a den filled with Beasts. The 'enhancements' were bigger muscles, more stamina, and a lot more brainpower. It could speak.
And speaking is not a very common thing for a Beast.
Boom.
Boom.
BOOM.
BOOM.
"Run!" She shrieked. Heeding her advice, the general began to shout the orders to retreat when the Beast came in holding a spiked club. Noting the loincloth it wore subconsciously, Barbara started to pull a few soldiers out of the way for their safety.
The Beast (or the male beast as there haven't been any real distinctions in gender before) swung his club at a mass of soldiers screaming for mercy. Barbara snorted.
Mercy was something only humans could understand.
He then punched the ground with a humongous, blue, furry fist and the shockwaves made the earth vibrate. Barbara crouched low to the trembling ground, sizing up the new Beast with calculating, blue-green eyes. While muscular, it lacked the speed smaller Beasts had, and was quite slow. She made up her mind quickly, and grasped the general's arm. With a fierce look, she told him, "I'm going to distract him, and you better get your men out of here –"
Barbara was cut off by the yells of pain from the general's soldiers. As the blonde started to move towards them reflexively with a pained look on his face, Barbara grabbed him fiercely by the shoulders and said roughly, "Get them out." He nodded, a grim look of concentration settling over the original panic.
Barbara rolled her neck, and tested her knife's edge. It would hold out for about thirty minutes she estimated. After that, if she didn't break the blade, she wouldn't have to go use her hands and go dirty. She started sprinting at the massive animal, and leapt up, flashing her blade menacingly. Landing on the back of the Beast, she let him wriggle a bit before starting to get a firm grip on his fur.
With a bellow of rage, he swept dozens of humans off their feet; some of the spikes on his club speared through a few bodies, and made the club heavier and stronger. It created deep gouges in the dirt, and while Barbara struggled to hold on and stab him in the jugular or his brain, he continued to rage on the soldiers below him.
"G…get…..o…of…off…." He growled menacingly, and Barbara, shocked, was thrown off easily next to a bloodied corpse of an unnamed soldier. The Beast howled a triumphant sound, and called for reinforcements. Barbara silently wished, 'Goddammit Isaac, where are our own reinforcements?'
Rolling to avoid a crashing step from the Beast, she went into a crouching position and held her knife in a backwards grip. Rushing forward, blood gushed out fluidly from another, insignificant Beast's wound while Barbara spun to face another one. Coldly hollowing out a yellow eye, she then stabbed it in the middle of its forehead. Decimating the ranks of the Beasts in a blind rage, Barbara was soon stopped when she realized something.
While she was murdering all the Beasts, the largest one decided to kill off her own team.
She was surrounded, swimming in a pile of corpses. Barbara wanted to vomit as she discovered how much blood stained her clothing and body. Divesting herself of the dark, wet cloak, she stared at her hands and rubbed them together as if to get rid of the blood. Then she rubbed her hands furiously on her clothing. The faint imprint of the typical red flora began to show….barely.
Barbara looked blankly at her hands as the Beast came limping closer to her.
What is the Seraphim worth if we cannot even save a single human?
Nothing.
Barbara faced the Beast with a blank, blue-green stare.
She's killed everyone.
A knife was held loosely in her hand, and as she locked eyes with the Beast, he was shocked to see a very small, grim spark of life.
With an inhuman shriek of rage, Barbara lunged forward for her last fight. She wouldn't come away from this particular fight. No doctors going to come and help her heal her wounds, Barbara observed without any emotions. Jabbing her knife upwards followed by a swift kick to the shin, her arm was then sliced open when she was smashed to the ground by the Beast's fist.
More blood? Feeling a little light-headed, Barbara stumbled to her feet and then blindly waved her knife around. The grace that was usually accompanied by the Seraphim had disappeared under all the blood and gore.
She's pounded into the ground, flung into the air, and somehow, somehow she finds the strength to wound the Beast mortally.
Rain clouds began to darken the sky and spill its tears on Barbara. Injuries laced her upper torso, limbs, and even a few scratches got on her temple. None of this bothered her though. She was flat against the ground; mud staining one side of her body while the other half was slowly cleaned, if a little cut up, by the rain.
'You better be waiting for Frank and I Saki, because if you aren't I might even tear apart Heaven and Hell for you.'
The last Seraphim dies to save the next generation; letting all his burdens go.
A hideout near Jerik
June 17, 3***
It's been twenty years, since all my friends died. I'm watching the next generation right now.
Twelve twenty year olds with red flora spiraling in patterns around their left hand are sparring with grim faces. Despite their age, I still think of them as children, especially the first Seraphim I found. The first one, Mario, was stout for his age, but a good man with a big heart. More than what I have, anyways.
He is practicing an uppercut with his younger brother, Luigi. Luigi is thinner and a lot like Saki. He never speaks unless he has too, and is very passionate about certain things. I found the pair of them in the streets of Iza, Mario protecting his brother from harm while he tussled with a larger boy. Pulling the two boys (the one Mario was fighting) apart, would you believe Mario had sworn at me?
The two of them like to wear white cotton gloves over their left hand, and I don't blame them. I sent them out for a practice run a few years ago, and they came back without any wounds whatsoever. Yes, I was admittedly shocked when they told me that the only reason they came back without injuries was because they had hidden their tattoos from sight until they were directly in front of the Beasts.
I'm so proud of them.
Next to them is Falcon and Kong. Falcon is actually the abbreviation of Captain Falcon, and I found the tall child beating a few criminals to a pulp in Nuriox, a few months after the battle. He's actually blind, but he has this amazing ability to sketch a rough image in his mind of the current area. I tested him on this closely, and while I put him in thorny maze, he came out unscathed.
I personally blame the light armor I let him have for blocking the thorns.
Kong is like one of my old friends who weren't a Seraphim, Goroh. Muscles bulging all over, but polite around groups of people. He wears a red tie with his initials 'DK' around his collared black shirt. I discovered him in Jerik, after Isaac was slain.
The new Seraphim absolutely hated the generic black woolen cloaks the first generation had and decided that they would create their own. Mario and Luigi had gone for the unassuming farmer-like men while Kong decided he was going to look the formal one. Falcon had the casual look of slacks and a button shirt.
What has happened to the old days?
Samus is one of the few girls of the new generation. When I found her crouched on the sidewalk of Opta, the newest of the Great Cities, she looked very forlorn. Her blonde hair was all loose and straggly while her blue eyes were staring off in the distance where a few children were somberly playing. She was very hot-tempered, I discovered quickly after talking about morals and the like.
She wears a peculiar armor that masks her gender. I've finally persuaded her to spray paint the once detestable orange and red into a deep purple and black. The visor of the 'Varia' suit, however remains an iridescent bottle green despite my efforts.
Samus has jabbed a hand into her colleague Link's stomach. This is one of those times when she finally takes the gender hiding suit off for something less vibrant but equally conspicuous jumpsuit for sparring.
Link is a quiet fellow, and after the massacre of Iza, I found him locked in a basement, where he was piteously crying for help. He's a most resilient boy, and he's very quiet among even us. Like Luigi, he has a fondness for wearing green, but Link prefers a tunic and beige baggy leggings compared to the overalls and plaid shirt Luigi owns.
Link is a versatile fellow, and when he fights with weapons, he becomes a deadly force. There's something strange about him though. He becomes almost zealous with the thought of a girl whose name I haven't been able to discern yet. What I've found out from Link is that she's also a Seraph if the tell-tale tattoo is a point.
He viciously kicked out at Samus's leg, and as she stumbled, he followed up with a slap to the head.
A twenty year old man who we've all nicknamed 'Fox', lunged to place both his hands on another blonde male's shoulders to flip over him with ease. Fox prefers to look adventurous and daring compared to his friends, and there's a futuristic looking eye-piece that Samus assures me is safe and very informational. He prefers using gadgets instead of physical combat, especially his gun.
A futuristic weapon the first generation of Seraphim could've used.
He was also found in Opta, living off anything he could find in the streets.
The blonde's name is 'Pikachu.' It's very curious really. When I found him rummaging through a garbage can after the Jerik Ambush, he looked somewhat like a rodent. He introduced himself to me as 'Pikachu', and said nothing else. However, we've nicknamed him a little less prominent sounding name, Ryan.
What I find odd is that when I met most the Seraphim, they covered up their tattoos as if to hide their identity. Was it an instinctual thing to do, or just out of vanity?
But I digress.
Ryan's method of combat composes of tasers and other electric equipment. What he's really useful at is surveillance and scouting. The thin boy is excellent at creeping under barriers and is the 'techie' of the new generation. He wears, thankfully, black clothing to hide his obvious golden blonde hair and he generally wears fingerless gloves when he spars or fights Beasts.
At the other side of the room is 'Jigglypuff' and 'Kirby.' I quote 'Jigglypuff' because she's perhaps one of the least lethal and most well endowed girls of our group. Samus cuts a close second however. The nickname is a private joke amongst the Seraphim, but her real name is Nevaeh. Spelled backwards, it means 'heaven.'
An appropriate name for a girl like her.
I found her at Opta, scurrying around the city with fear in her sea green eyes. Her pink locks were somehow staying up by a cord of rope, and she was rather frantic about finding her friend.
Neveah excels at receiving information, and is best at long range weapons. She's mediocre at hand-to-hand combat, but her close friend, Kirby, aims to help her with it.
Kirby is also a nickname for another of our Seraphim, Evan. Evan has the same shade of hair that Neveah has, which he is embarrassed of. He hides it by cutting it short every so often and by using a black hooded sweater to cover it. Kirby, or Evan, specializes in what his friend can't. He was recruited in Nuriox, right after Barbara was dead.
Hand-to-hand combat is his favorite way of fighting, just like Barbara.
He just lightly tapped her by the jugular, and Neveah has reacted by sweeping her leg to trip him.
Futile, but very quick.
The last two partners fighting are Ness, and 'Yoshi', both children. Ness was a very rambunctious child, and he carried that nature all the way to his twenties, although…It has died somewhat when I sent him out on his first mission.
Ness has a way of charging his weapons and hands with a kinetic energy that is quite lethal close range. He was a strange child, because he came to me, lugging Yoshi behind him. His eyes were very bright and mischievous, and his hair was dusty. He's found the most intolerable way to identify himself with the other Beasts.
He dresses himself in conflicting colors, and lets the tattoo be seen by all without any kind of regret. I've chastised him about this for years, but does he listen to me?
No. He doesn't care about subtleness at all.
Ness has just stabbed his knife downwards at 'Yoshi's' head. She retaliates by grabbing his wrist and twisting it until he let the knife go.
'Yoshi' is actually Midori, and she is vicious when it comes to fighting Ness in particular. She was brought, more like dragged, by Ness to find me, and as she has an eidetic memory (I was surprised about that), she can't possibly forget what happened.
As I recall, she was really angry at the time. After all, when one is yelling in a foreign language, I expect it means something really rude. I suspect, mind you.
Midori is probably the one that looks the closest to the original Seraphim. The only difference is the technology she has.
But I suspect—
*the line stops there
Frank stopped writing as he heard a loud ringing noise. His gray eyes turned towards the door as the other Seraphim did. He looked at his journal, and Frank scowled. Blowing at the ink for it to dry quicker, he closed the old leather journal and tucked it in Mario's bag inconspicuously. Tersely, Frank ordered, "Everyone pack their bags. I'm judging twenty minutes at least before they get here. Start packing."
Mario protested, "What about you? I don't see you packing!" Anxious blue eyes followed the old Seraphim lace the doorway with explosive gel. Dark streaks of gray hair lined his pale blonde head. Luigi placed a hand on his outspoken brother with a warning gaze, and Mario faltered. "You…you aren't planning to stay, right…sir?"
Frank sadly smiled to a door. The loud pounding of feet shook dust from the cavern the Seraphim, old and new, was residing in. "Calm down kid. I'll see you." There was a slight hesitation to his voice that Falcon caught with his supernatural hearing.
"…When?" Falcon asked in a thick voice. Frank paused what he was doing.
"When time lets me. Now take everyone and go through the back door. It'll take you through to a safe house in Opta. Hurry, there's only ten minutes before the door explodes." Frank quietly replied. Midori (Yoshi) strained with wide black eyes to look back at him while being pushed out another door by DK.
When the last few Seraphim were out the door, Mario, the last one looked back at Frank with worried eyes. Frank's gray eyes were narrowed, and the stomping of feet was growing ominously loud. Glancing up at the cavern's dark ceiling, Frank saw Mario pause while getting out the door.
"Run." Frank whispered.
Slam.
ROAR!
Splat.
Holy mother of God…this is insanely long. I didn't feel like cutting it into pieces so I just mashed it all together into a oneshot. The beginning of the second generation part is Frank's diary, and I realize that the history of the Seraphim is very convoluted. No, I didn't plan it out thoroughly. Yes it's the original cast of the first Smash installment.
Any more questions? I'm running through the entire thing (all damn 7,900+ words of it) so I don't get taken off for grammar again. Hopefully, this gets a 7/10. Hopefully. I highly doubt it.
(GRAMMAR CHECK: 11:18 PM) Oh Jesus…my head…too…much…grammar…ARGH. You better appreciate all this, Guessworks, because I have been agonizing over this for so long...
Go ahead and review if you bloody want to...