A Gladiator's War
Chapter 1: My Nightmare
I could hear the knocking at the door. I looked at the clock in my room and found it to be three thirty in the morning. Then I heard both of my parents leave their bedroom to answer it. They were talking in hushed voices. Suddenly my father was screaming, "No you can't take him!" Then I heard a loud smash and my mother screamed out in horror.
Whoever was at the door yelled, "Shut up bitch!" followed by another loud slap.
By this point I was looking out through a crack in my bedroom door. Two men entered our house, and stepped over my mother and father who were both holding their heads in pain. The first man in was wearing a black suit and tie and had and angry scowl on his face. The second wore a long trench coat and fedora and looked down sympathetically at my mother.
"Where is he? We know he's here. This can all end peacefully if you just hand him over," the man in the black trench coat and fedora questioned.
My father, being stubborn as he was stood a said defiantly, "We both know that's a lie. There is no peaceful solution to this." The man removed his fedora revealing a set of small antlers and spoke almost sadly, "Marcus, I'm willing to let you and Caiti live and you know we won't harm your son. I'll leave that bit out of my report, but we are not leaving here without the boy."
My mother spoke up this time, "We'll never give up our only son! How could you ask such a thing of us Felix?"
"You know I would never ask this of you. It's the agency, they want him. Marcus you know exactly why they want him," the man, apparently named Felix, answered.
"I never should have submitted those blood samples to the lab. I'm sorry Caiti, this is all my fault," my father looked very angry but also possessed tears in his eyes as he spoke. "You can't blame yourself Marc, it's the law," my mother said attempting to console my clearly distraught father.
Felix placed a comforting hand on both of my parent's shoulders, it was clear they knew each other from somewhere. The other man was standing there looking very impatient and disgusted at the scene unfolding. "Felix, we have a job to do! Now either they give us the kid or will blow their heads off and we take him!" Felix and my father looked at him in a very hostile manner.
"We will do no such thing Ulric! They are our friends, hell we graduated as the number 3 huntsman team in Beacon!" Felix took up a defensive stance between my parents and the man called Ulric. Ulric clearly didn't like this as he drew his weapon from inside his suit coat, a large handgun which he transformed into a wicked looking serrated dagger at least one foot in length. "I know but that was the past man! Sure we all joined the agency but they never did the dirty work we had to. They didn't go through the training and the torture we did. They don't know the things we've had to do. So what? Are you getting soft on me Felix? Are you just going to abandon all of your training for them? You didn't have a problem executing the other families. This is just a job and we have to do it. Now stand aside or I can't be held responsible for what may happen to you."
Felix answered this by drawing his own weapon from under his trench coat, a large pump shotgun that he then transformed into a battle axe. "Ulric don't do this. We can get the kid and let them live. We just need to negotiate."
"The time for that has past. They will never give him up so they need to die." With that Ulric lunged towards my father faster than anything I've ever seen. I shut my eyes not wanting to see my father's throat cut by the man's dagger. However, I then heard the clang of metal and opened my eyes to see that Felix had caught the strike on the blade of his axe. Ulric glared into the eyes of his partner then quickly spun aiming low on the other man and struck true to the back of his knee. Felix seemed unharmed by the attack and quickly swung the handle end of the axe down into Ulric's face. He took the blow in stride and was suddenly launching attack after attack at the Faunus. Most were hitting their mark. It was clear that Ulric was a much better fighter than Felix. My father then began to drag my mother towards the living room for safety, I also knew that his great sword was mounted above the fireplace there and was likely going for that. I found I was correct when after a few seconds my dad came rushing into the room attempting to protect his old friend from another of his friends.
Noticing the new combatant, Ulric threw Felix against the far wall, transformed his weapon and sent a volley of shots toward my father. Luckily my father was light on his feet and dodged all but one round. However, the shot was powerful enough to pierce through the weak aura my father possessed and sent him sprawling to the ground clutching his left shoulder. Felix attempted to stand but fell not being able to put any weight on the leg Ulric had stabbed first. Examining his leg, it appeared black and swollen. Ulric had poisoned his blade. Hearing his partner grunt in pain, Ulric turned and strolled up to him kicking his battle axe away from his reach. "This could have been another routine job Felix. All we had to do was follow protocol. But no, you had to try and save them. I know that we were all friends once, but the agency is too powerful and too threatening to double cross. You do your job or get killed. I sure as hell aren't going to die for two people who abandoned me. Shame you had to." He then aimed his revolver at Felix's head and pulled the trigger. I couldn't close my eyes in time and watched as the man's head was pretty much reduced to mush and his body fell limply to the ground, blood spilling on the carpet.
Ulric turned around to find that my father was gone. He knew this trick well having fought with my father for many years. He listened intently and heard a slight shuffle to his left and struck out towards the noise with the handle of his revolver. It stopped suddenly and my father appeared out of thin air hold the man by the wrist. He then tried a stab towards Ulric's chest only for him to spin free and dodge, shifting his weapon back to dagger form. My father was quick to attack again, wanting to keep Ulric on the defensive. Though he wielded a great sword, he was surprisingly fast and kept vanishing and reappearing on all sides of Ulric. Few blows made it past Ulric's defenses but not enough to do any major damage. Suddenly, there were two Ulrics and both spun in opposite directions and struck out towards my father's stomach. He was able to block one but the other hit true to his mark. The dagger dug deep into my father's stomach and he fell to his knees.
Yanking the blade out dealt even more damage with the serrated edge. Reaching down and grabbing the top of my father's head he forced him to look up at him. "You put up a good fight Marcus, but we all know Caiti and I were always the best fighters on our team. I hate to do this but I must." With that Ulric placed the blade against my father's throat and cut it open with a swift motion. Too shocked by what was happening I couldn't look away. My father fell to the ground coughing and gurgling, blood spilling out of his open neck. He fell facing my room. He looked me in the eyes and all I could see was sadness and shock at that fact his son just witnessed him die. Then he stopped convulsing and laid still, dead. Eyes still locked on me.
That was when I heard a loud, blood curling scream come from the living room. My mother came rushing out with her giant mace. Her eyes were not there gentle grayish-blue but they were bright fiery orange. Her pupils had become long like the eyes of a lion. Her nails were replaced with claws. And her teeth were now sharpened like those of a lion. It made sense since we were both lion Faunus. However, the inner lion rage was coming out. She had always told me that she could make the primal part come out when she wanted. I think she called it a semblance? I am not entirely sure. She also said it came at a price but would never tell me more beyond that.
Ulric looked in terror as she came running out. He took a hasty stance and sloppily parried her first few attacks. She then reached out and dug into his shoulder with her claws and threw him across the room. Not wanting him to get back up she quickly jumped on him and continued her wild swings at his head. He was quick though and as she landed he slashed her thigh with his dagger clearly cutting deep. My mother didn't seem to notice and continued the assault. He managed to create another clone and threw her off of him. Her leg was beginning to turn black but she paid little attention to it. Primal lioness rage coursing through her. She swung at the clone and took its head clean off. It fell and turned to ash. Looking confused she let her guard down and Ulric slipped behind her and stabbed her through the back. The roared and reached behind her throwing him again back to the front hall. She began stalking up to her pray only to stumble and fall just outside my room. The poison obviously setting in. As she tried to stand she began to change back to normal. Ulric stood and strolled up to her stretching the sore muscles in his back from being thrown twice. My mother looked towards me and saw with a shock that I was witnessing all of this. "Ulric, please don't do this in front of him!"
Realizing what she meant he opened up my door. He smiled down at me, the cowering five-year-old clutching his stuffed lion toy. "Looks to me like he's already had quite a show," he said with that wicked smile on his face. "might as well give him the big finale."
He then reached down and pulled my mother up by her hair and held her in front of me. Tears were streaming down her face. She began yelling, "Jake, Jacob look away! Jacob, Jacob!" The blade was now at her throat. "Jacob look away!" I couldn't. my body was numb and I had no control. "Jacob!" The blade began to move across her neck and blood was coming out. "Penn! Penn wake up!" I opened my eyes to find my team leader shaking me.
"You were really shaking around that time. You alright?" He had a genuine look of concern on his face as he looked down at me.
"Yes sergeant, I'm fine." I tried and succeed at hiding the shakiness in my voice.
"Alright well get you helmet on and get prepped. We drop in thirty." He then stood and placed his own helmet on walking to his drop pod and stowing his weapon. "You may be able to grab a quick snack if you hurry!" he Hollard over to me.
"Roger that!" I yelled as I began putting on my helmet. I then stowed my Dust energy blade and my rifle into my drop pod. I never eat before a drop. Fucks with the stomach. As I climbed in I saw the rest of my team making their way to their pods. The mission is supposed to be simple. The last one before our team would be disbanded. We just drop in, eliminate the insurgency rising up in town, get picked up, and we are done. Simple. Nothing we haven't done before.