1800hrs
Abandoned Warehouse, Kuoh Industrial Area

Walking towards the warehouse all I could smell was decay. I was hired by Sirzechs Lucifer, some big shot in the devil community, to remove a stray devil from the area. I have been working with Mr Lucifer for about 20 years now so I didn't bat an eyelid when he asked me to help. I had asked why his sister was not contacted but he said he needed it done effectively and that it would be less likely to result in failure if other strays were to be inside. I open the door and immediately realise why he contacted me over his sister Rias. Half eaten corpses littered the floor, intestines hung from the railings; blood painted the walls, normal minds wouldn't be able to cope in here let alone fight monsters.

"Fuck me," I say under my breath as I shut the door behind me. My cybernetic tail staying low to the ground, lowering my centre of gravity. The light was fading fast so I switch my bionic eye to thermal vision. 3 large heat signatures appear in front of me as clear as day; "by order of Sirzechs Lucifer you three are to…" I begin in a loud voice however another voice cuts me off

"Look who we have here," says a feminine voice, "what a handsome boy."

"Maybe we can get him to impregnate us and make little monsters," says another. I shake my head at the comment before continuing, "There are 2 options you have, work for me or dissection," my mechanical voice unsettles my opponents.

"Looks like he doesn't want to live, well at least we can ride his corpse once he dies," says the last one. I sigh, I was hoping for an easy 50K but nope, not today. I unsheathe my dual swords before clashing them together, causing sparks to fly. I was hoping that would make them reconsider but it only seemed to piss them off. The first to strike had a human top and the rest of her was a long snake about 20 metres or so. She tries to whip her tail around but all it rewards her with is getting two large incisions around the mid part of her snake body. She screams in pain as blood gushes out of her body. She creates a knot with her own body reducing the blood flow to the rest of her body. I rush into reengage but am stopped by a large body mass landing in front of me. I swiftly dodge an attack before identifying the main reason I was here, Viser. She is not a pretty sight. She tries to consume me by opening up a large cavity filled with teeth. Things were beginning to go downhill as the other 2 stray devils surrounded me. I throw my right sword into Viser's cavity, lodging itself into some very sensitive tissue. She screams but even that was causing her pain as she instantly stopped moving. I figure that every time she moved that sword would tear her apart from the inside, causing 'internal bleeding.' I turn back to my original target, she wasn't moving nearly as much and looked like she was about to pass out from the blood loss. Charging at her, I jump and slice her in two where human met beast. The escaping blood sprays onto my trench coat as the two halves fall back to earth; the muscles in the tail convulse causing it to continue to wriggle. I stab through her heart, pinning her to the ground as she screams in pain. The other 2 strays look on in horror as their 'sister' ceases screaming as her blood seeps out of her body, creating a large pool.

"You bastard," they hiss as I start sprinting towards them. As I close the other one tries to crush me with one of her massive feet, however, I dive directly underneath her and slice her stomach open. Her stomach and intestines instantly fall out and blood goes everywhere. She howls and tries to keep her internal organs, well internal. Viser is fuming but her body is slowly deteriorating.

"You will regret your actions," she fumes, getting ready to charge

"I hope I don't," I reply, raising my right arm and activating the electromagnet in my palm. My sword comes flying out of her. It is covered in blood all the way up to the hilt. I flick some of the blood off and return it to its sheath on my back as Viser's body begins to glow. She wails as her body slowly transforms and returns to her original human body.

I walk towards her, stopping just in front of her. There is blood pouring out of her thigh. I remove my Desert Eagle from its holster and push it flush to her forehead.

"Do it," she hisses

"You still have the chance to walk out of this situation alive, I either kill you now or you come and work for me."

She just sits there, looking me square in the eyes, "Why would I work for you anyway? I'm just going to be your sex slave?"

"I'm guessing you don't know who I am, my name is Anthon Winchester, leader of AIM. I do not require slaves but rather soldiers and scientists."

She looks at the ground, tears rolling down her cheeks,

"Just kill me," she mumbles, "there is no point in living anymore."

"If that is your final choice I will respect it."

The 50-cal. bullet makes her head explode. I sigh at the corpse, she would have been a good soldier. I survey the room before placing C4 at the base of two support pillars holding up the building. I see a slight bit of movement coming from the second stray I engaged. I walk over to the body and see her chest rising very slowly. There is nothing I can do for her as her internal organs are all cut up and stung out. I pull my Desert Eagle out of its holster before crouching and putting it flush to her head.

"Thank you," she whimpers, turning her head slightly towards me

"Why are you thanking me?" I ask, curious about her motives

"Well, living like we have isn't easy and for a while now I have been searching for a way out and now my knight in shining armour has arrived," she smiles.

"Trust me I am no knight, I am just a machine … slowly becoming obsolete."

She closes her eyes as I flick off the safety and position the gun as to kill her instantly. The gunshot could be heard for miles around. I get up and turn to walk out however I stop when I hear clapping coming from a balcony above me.

"Bravo, well done, good show," says a well-presented male on the balcony

"What do you want?" I ask looking straight into his eyes as I holster my pistol

"Me? Well I just wanted to talk to the last heir of the Aim Clan about land rights."

"I have already told you that I'm not giving up my mother's land, even if I am only human, it is still my birthright," I say, the tone in my voice becoming more serious.

"If you aren't going to cooperate then you leave me no choice," he says before whistling. 12 armed devils surround me, all looking to kill me.

"You can't be serious, Threat level: 7," I mutter, taking up a defensive position, my right arm suddenly breaks apart and reveals a 5.56mm triple barrel microgun. The microgun is a modified XM556 microgun capable of firing 3000 rounds per minute. I took the original microgun and striped it down into its main components before reassembling it, so it would fit into the frame of my arm.

"This is your last chance, cooperate or die," he says in a threatening tone

"No Deal," I reply before firing, tearing apart the 12 devils in front of me, blood sprays everywhere. I turn around to face their leader but the man is turning around and beginning to run away.

"Skyraider, come in," I say over the radio

"What's up Colonel?" a voice replies

"We have an escapee exiting the building as we speak, I need you to immobilise him then you can proceed with clean-up,"

"Roger that,"

I leave the warehouse and head towards the Landrover Defender ute. The green camouflage paint makes it stand out from its surroundings.

"Let's move Defender," I say climbing onto the tray as the Landrover roars to life. Defender guns the engine as I hang on the outside with my microgun ready to fire. An AD-1D Skyraider dives down in front of us, opening fire on the target, before going vertical and gaining altitude. We pull up next to the victim of Skyraider's attack; he is still trying to crawl away even though his legs have been effectively sawn off by the Skyraider's 4 20mm cannons. I hop off Defender and my cybernetic tail wraps around the man's throat as my arm returns to normal.

"No, please don't do this," he wheezes

"Don't do this, he pleads," I say, bringing his face in line with mine. He is franticly trying to loosen the grip my tail has around his throat.

"You have received warning after warning not to pursue me, now look where it has gotten you. That group you had brought with you is in that building, lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood. And here you are trying to escape, not fighting me because you are too much of a coward to do the deed yourself. Sirzechs even told you to cease your attacks but you didn't listen, so I am going to do what I should have done a long time ago," I say, my mechanical voice makes him realise the amount of trouble he is in before my tail begins to crush his wind pipe till a satisfying snap is heard, making his body go limp. I drop him and reach into a pocket on my DPU combat shorts and retrieve a box of matches before lighting a match on fire and dropping it on to the corpse of the devil in front of me. I climb into Defender and trigger the C4. He shakes slightly as the shockwave blasts by. I turn and look out the back window to see large fireballs explode out of what remains of the warehouse.

1900hrs
Kuoh city outskirts

"Time to head back to base," I say as I turn down the road that leads back home, however on the out skirts of town a man walks out in front of Defender forcing me to slam on the brakes. I managed to stop before I plough straight through him. I jump out and walk over to ask why he did not look before walking across the street. He looks at me, his eyes running up and down my attire which consisted of a black bullet proof vest plus tactical webbing, a black t-shirt, DPU shorts and black combat boots, as if evaluating me. He then replies, "You're the 'Commander' aren't you?"

"No, I'm not," I shoot back at him, he hands me an envelope.

"There's 1 billion US in it for you for a job well done," he says as I look at the envelope. I look up in however to my surprise there was no-one there. I have a quick look around but no-one is around. I look at the sky as I hear a rumble of thunder and get back into Defender.

"So, what was that about?" asked a voice seemingly out of nowhere.

"I believe I have a new job," I reply to the voice of my car's AI program as I put my seat belt on.

"Heading home?" he asks

"Yeah mate."

I turn on the spotlights and started moving down the dirt track in front of me. About an hour later we arrive at 'The Compound'. The Compound as I like to call it is an old Airforce base that was used by the Americans during the Vietnam War for training purposes. They happened to be selling it when I first arrived in Kuoh as it was just costing them money. It sat on 1.2 thousand hectares of land and it had a skeleton crew for security. They didn't bother taking any equipment with them after the contracts were signed, which is a bonus. As I pull up at the gate 2 automated defence turrets train their sights on my car however return to their normal position as the gate slides open. Racing up the asphalt road I pulled up at the recently renovated control tower. I get out of Defender and enter the building as he pulls away, heading towards one of the hangers on the base.

I walk into my bedroom, which was once an office, and turn on the light. I remove my bullet proof vest, followed by my t-shirt. I look at myself in the mirror, I look at my augments. My right arm, lower legs, the right side of my head, hell my entire back has different sockets and plugs running down it. All my augments make me look relatively human except for the colour differentiation but all house different equipment that help in either day to day life or on the job. The only thing not human is the mechanical tail that extends off my tail bone.

"CQC," I say and a mechanical spider lowers from the roof. It removes my arm and replaces it with another one however this one contains an AA12 instead of the XM556 Microgun. I put a grey t-shirt on then grab my other trench coat.

Exiting my room, I head to the back of the building before heading up a flight of stairs and into the observation deck. There is a board on the wall with a list of vehicle names on it and their status. I run my finger down the list till I find the name VTOL then I check its status before pressing a button next to the name. Walking back into the living room I remember the envelope and pull it out of my pocket and place it on the coffee table while I wait a few minutes for my ride to be ready. A small light on the wall suddenly turns on signalling that my ride is ready.

I walk out of the building onto the road. I move across the tarmac as machines rush around. Up a head there is a V-22 Tiltrotor being fuelled and loaded. A small smile crosses my face, "AI's are so useful. Each machine having their own AI on board, allowing them to do tasks without any direct human interaction, meaning one-man operations on this scale is possible."

After entering the V-22, I fasten my safety harnesses as a M1161 Growler drives up the cargo ramp. Closing the ramp, I do the final pre-flight checks before firing up the engines. The engines spur to life and the rotors quickly gain speed. Lifting off the ground slowly I increase the throttle till I am cruising at 600km/h. A green panel lights up, the letters on the panel spell the word 'charged'.

A display screen changes and displays the word 'location' with a flashing question mark at the end,

"Underworld," I reply before outside the V-22 changes to a deep purple and is shaped as if we a going through a tunnel.

2100hrs
Aim clan territory, underworld

Exiting the tunnel, I thunder over the forests, scaring all kinds of creatures below. 2 jets boom past, one on either side before firing off green signal flares. I fire off my own flares before reducing speed. Large spotlights point up into the sky, tracking my movements as I come in for landing. Softly touching down on the tarmac, I power down the engines and lower the cargo ramp,

Getting out my seat with practiced efficiency, I grab the small bag next to me before climbing into the Growler that had exited VTOL. The ramp closes as I drive off into the distance.

2120hrs

I can see the mansion coming into view but compared to the mansions of other clans … it would be more realistic to call this place a large estate home rather than a mansion as it only has about 20 bedrooms and is only 2 stores tall. That may be the case it is the perfect size for the clan as of current. Standing in front of the building wait to greet me is a group of 8 people. Getting closer I can tell 6 of them are armed guards, there is a tall man dressed as a butler and there is a child standing next to him. Stopping just in from of them, I get out just as the child rushes up to me. I kneel and embrace her in a loving hug,

"Hello dad," she whispers in my ear

"Hello little Miss," I whisper back, picking her up, "aren't you meant to be in bed?"

"I tried to get her to go to bed, but she just wouldn't, I am sorry master," says the man in a very British accent, walking up to me before bowing apologetically.

"It's alright Walter," I extend my hand; "I will let this slide, but remember she is to be in bed before 8pm, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," he replies, quickly standing up straight and extending his hand to meet mine, "Welcome home."

"New recruits?" I turn around and begin walking towards the building.

"Unfortunately, the Commanders are all either deployed or neck deep in work otherwise they would have been here to greet you," he replies. All the soldiers salute as I walk past and I return the gesture as does my daughter. Walter barks some orders and they quickly fall in and follow as well. Walking into the building, we stop in the main foyer,

"Alright recruits, you are to meet here at 9:00 tomorrow, till then you are free to do as you like to, is that understood?"

"YES SIR!" they respond in unison

"Dismissed," the Recruits snap a salute before walking down the left hallway.

"Well let's get you to bed then," I look at my daughter asleep with her head resting on my shoulder.

"Would you like me to do that?" Walter asks, stepping in front of me.

"It's alright Walter; it is the least I could do while I am around. You are dismissed for now,"

"Thank you master," he bows before quickly walking down the hallway.

"Always dependable that one," I mutter before walking up the main stairs.

A sentry walks past me as I enter a room full of colour, splashes of blue, yellow, pink, every colour of the rainbow is present in this room somewhere. I pull the sheets back and lay my daughter down before covering her back up again.

"Good night Phoenix," I gently kiss her on the forehead before walking out of the room, the light going out as I shut the door.

I walk down the corridor till I reach a vault like door on the northern end of the building. Standing in front of the door I can hear the bolts moving before it pops open. Dust exits the room as I enter, the lights turning on as I walk down a flight of stairs. I run my left hand along the wall as I walk towards a bookshelf filled with rolled up sheets of paper. I grab one of the rolls from the bottom shelf and move to the desk in the centre of the room. Unrolling it, it isn't just any sheet of paper; it is a blueprint of an experimental strategic bomber, a Handley Page Victor sub variant, capable of carrying 20 metric tonnes of payload into an orbit of 300km and be able to return to earth on a single tank of fuel. The only thing standard is the look. I go back to the blueprints on the wall and grab a few more before returning to the desk. This is an almost complete design but some of the engineers working on the project have found some flaws that need to be address before I can jump into the pilot seat and test it.

I spend almost 2 hours on it before I realise that my body is falling asleep on me. I put the blueprints away before turning the lights off and exiting the vault. I slowly make my way to my room on the other side of the building but as I close in, a feeling crosses my mind and I look down at my legs to see them covered in blood.

"Those need to be cleaned, thinking about it I need to shower anyway," I mumble, walking into my room. Grabbing a towel, I head into to my personal sauna/bath room. After stripping down to nothing I walk straight into the bath; the dried blood instantly began to come off, creating a small ring of red around me. My lower legs detach from their sockets and rise to the surface. After a few minutes of relaxing in solitude I hear the door open and close very quietly. I turn to see Walter standing at the door with a can of soft drink in his hand.

"Just like old times huh. So how goes the R&D? Are those custom orders finished?" I watch my mechanical lower legs and feet drift around the bath aimlessly.

"Well the mobile railgun system is almost ready to be prototyped as is the point defence systems. Your particle shield is ready for combat assessment, the claws are complete as is the amplifier," he sits down directly behind to me before throwing the can into the water in front of me.

"How is Phoenix? Has she had any signs of her wings?"

"Not yet but I would be expecting to see her wings anytime now,"

"Well it seems that I am cutting it close; hopefully I can get my life sorted out enough that she could live with me back in the human world and have a somewhat normal upbringing."

"That's what every parent wants for their children," Walter replies, fishing my right leg out of the water and beginning to clean it as I crack open the can.

"Do you have any kids?"

"I did, but that was a long time ago," he replies in a mellow tone while scrubbing the shin plate

"Walter, is there something that you want to do?"

"No, being your butler is good enough for me. I don't know of any butler who cleans his master's legs with steel wool or trains at a firing range in their time off to protect someone who will grow up to be so much more powerful."

Finishing the can, I pull myself out of the bath and attach my replacement legs, which are effectively just a rod with a spring-loaded plate at the base. Walking over to the shelving on the other side I grab out one of the plain grey shirts and black shorts. I put the clothes on before turning to face Walter, who was still scrubbing away.

"Tomorrow is a normal day, make sure VTOL is loaded and ready to fly," I say walking towards the door.

"Yes master, sleep well," he replies fishing out the other leg.

I walk to and enter my room; it's a very basic room as I don't spend a lot of time in the underworld. The bed is only a king single as I don't require anything bigger. It's big enough to allow my daughter to fall asleep beside me but it isn't too large that it is annoying. I pull the covers back and lie down before slowly drifting to sleep.

A.N

First chapter of the large overhaul, everyone hold onto your socks because this new story line has a few new twists in store. Reviews are always accepted and much appreciated.

Anyway, this is Anthon signing off