SMST5C: Journey into Mystery! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: None of the principle characters and situations belongs to me.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
C&C are welcomed.
Part 14
Throughout the night, Rayne and Usagi hunting Maraisreqs, while searching for more survivors…
"Hey," Usagi says, as she uses her enhanced eyesight to both see up close from 50 yards away, as she and Rayne spies upon the courthouse from on top of the town's warehouse.
Rayne, who was feeding on a mutated human, looks up from her meal. They had just cleared out the warehouse, as wanted to observe the activities in and around the town center.
"What?"
"I see…a patrol of four diseased humans. They seem to be just standing there."
"And Maraisreqs?"
Usagi concentrates harder, as her sight bored through the ground.
"These things are boring through the ground, alright."
"Options?"
"Personally, I rather avoid as much fighting as possible, so I propose we use the telephone cable to go above the ground…to the courthouse."
"Agreed," Rayne says, as she discards her carcass. "Lead on…"
Using the telephone cable to get across, Rayne and Usagi make it to the roof of the courthouse…
"Ready?" Usagi says, as she prepared to flip over and into the upper part of the courthouse.
"Yeah," Rayne says. "I'm right behind you."
"Here goes…"
Usagi performs a handstand on the ledge of the roof. She turns, and swings down…and into the court just below.
CRASH!
One of the mutated humans turns to aim his weapon at Usagi.
"My apologies," Usagi says, as she threw her chakram at the victim.
SLICE!
With the head lopped off, the circular weapon bounces off the far wall and back into Usagi's hands.
KTCH!
The Moon Princess shakes her head in disgust. At that stage of cellular mutation, there was nothing she could do to help these people-
"RAAWWR!" says a red Maraisreq, as it jumped into the court through the ceiling. No doubt it was hiding in the attic.
Usagi was about to deal with the creature, when Rayne kills it with her blades.
SLICE!
"Nasty things," Rayne says with a smirk.
"So says the person who drink mutated blood," Usagi replied.
"Whatever. Let's see if there are any survivors in this building…"
Eventually, they find the town sheriff. However, it took much convincing from Usagi to get him to head for the Family Mausoleum.
Well, not really…
"So you promise to go out with me, Cherie?" asked Sheriff Gorshin, as he continued to pack up his gear and guns.
"Next 'Mardi Gras', sure," Usagi says sweetly.
Gorshin smiles.
"Then, until then, adieu," the sheriff says, as he taps his hat before leaving.
Rayne rolls her eyes, as she made sure she had her own supply of guns and dynamite ready to go.
"What?" Usagi says.
"Let's just check out the Beauregard House and the power plant, and the get the hell out of this disgusting town," Rayne says.
"Not until we find that Maria person that Marissa was talking about earlier," Usagi says.
"What for?"
"If Maria was the one who caused all this, then I will have no choice but to perform the act of 'gilgul'."
"What's that?"
"It's when I take a person's ability to perform magic…permanently."
"Pretty harsh."
"Yeah, well, say that to the victims of this mess."
"Well, I'm ready," says Rayne, as she secured her pack on her back. "Let's go…"
After securing the town of Mortton, Usagi and Rayne return to the graveyard, where the Family Mausoleum was located. However…
"What the hell happened here?" Rayne yells incredulously. "Where're Mynce and the others?"
The iron doors to the mausoleum were turn apart, while the inside of the mausoleum itself looked like a blood bath.
Usagi scans the room, and closes her eyes…
"The Maraisreqs were here," Usagi says.
"Here?" Rayne says, as she goes up to Usagi. "But how?"
Usagi opens her eyes, as goes over to several broken crypts.
"They tunneled up from below the mausoleum," Usagi says. "Unfortunately, this wet environment didn't help matters."
Rayne nods her head, as she used her vampire senses to make out the tracks of these pesky demon-monsters…
"It looks like these tracks are heading south…through the old town, and towards the boat yard," Rayne says.
"Then that's were the mother of the underworld is located," Usagi says, as she slings her gear.
"How would YOU know?"
"Some body has to be making those 'bio-masses', and the old town and the boat yard are the places we have yet to check."
"Oh."
"Exactly. Elementary, my dear Rayne…elementary," Usagi says, as she put a pipe in her mouth, and a dual-billed cap on her head.
"Great, now I'm dealing with a REAL Sherlock Holmes now…"
Eventually, after going through a slew of more Maraisreqs and mutated humans, that lurked and fought amongst themselves, Rayne and Usagi came upon the old boat yard. The yard was filled with old boats, most of which were derelicts.
"I wished we could have done something about those guys," Usagi says sadly.
"Just be glad the cycle of the disease is as quick as it is," Rayne says, as the pair hop on an old yacht. "Hey, take a look at THIS."
Usagi squats unto the deck. She sees a summoning book and a recently lit cigarette…
"Someone was here recently," Usagi says, as she picks up the book.
"What does the book say?" Rayne asked, as she scanned the area.
"A lot of it is in Latin, but it says how to summon the mother of the underworld, but…"
"But what?"
"Well, we're in a good news, bad news situation."
"The bad?"
"This spell requires a sacrifice."
"Then, what's the good?"
"It won't summon the TRUE mother of the underworld."
"And you know this because…?"
"The energy needed to make a successful summons requires a high-level magus, and I don't think this Marissa person is IT."
"Then…did she do all this?"
Usagi licks the tip of the cigarette attachment.
"Ptui!" Usagi says, as she spits out her mouth.
"What?"
"Male."
"Then…?"
"Someone ELSE is trying to summon the mother, and I wouldn't be surprised if this 'mother' is the parent creature of all these Maraisreqs-"
Suddenly, both Usagi and Rayne sensed danger.
"Hello?" Rayne yells.
Usagi quickly closes the summoning book, sealed it in a plastic bag, and stuffed it in her pack. She then takes out her pair of chakram weapons. The chakram is a circular weapon that is capable of cutting an object, while being used as a boomerang-like object…
FWOOSH!
From the murky depths of the boat yard, a very large version of the Maraisreqs pops up.
"RRRROOOOOAAAAARRRR!" the creature roars.
"THAT is the mother monster," Usagi says.
"Whoa, big momma," Rayne quipped. She then unfurls her blades. "Now what?"
"Go around the creature while I distract it."
"Then what?"
"I'll cut off its limbs, and you take care of its underbelly."
"Sounds like a reasonable plan. Let's do it."
And, with that, the pair immediately gets to work.
"Hey, ugly!" Usagi yells, as she twists her body. "Come and get me!"
At first, the creature seemed unsure as to what to do. That issue was resolved when Usagi cut off the creature's first limb.
SLICE!
The creature roars, and moves quickly to intercept Usagi's position.
SLICE!
The creature lumbers closer, as it begins to struggle with its remaining four limbs.
SLICE!
"Rayne!" Usagi yells, as she begins to back up. "Are you there YET?"
"Yeah!" Rayne says, as she embraced her inner rage. All around her, the half-vampire sees red. However, while in the throes of her bloodlust, Rayne's physical prowess increases significantly.
"Here I go!" Rayne roars, as she begins slicing up the creature's underbelly like a rotary tiller.
SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-!
Usagi removes the last of the creature's limbs, as it falls to the ground. In some way, she felt sorry for the creature for what she was doing, but Usagi was not about to let more people suffer the same fate as these townsfolk.
THOOM!
The mother of the Maraisreqs falls to the water-soaked ground, just as Rayne delivers the killing blow.
"Back to bed for you," Rayne says.
"Pity that this creature had to die," Usagi says, as she goes towards Rayne's position.
"Huh," Rayne says, as she notices a glowing piece of bone stuck in the underbelly of the mother-creature. "Tummy ache?"
Usagi looks at the glowing piece of bone. She could feel the sheer power emanating from the alien artifact.
"Huh," Rayne says, as she pulls the bone fragment out of the creature. "This looks like a rib-"
"Rayne, wait-!" Usagi says, as she sensed the bone fragments' power spiking.
"What the-?"
Rayne seemed to struggle with the fragment before it goes into her body.
"Arrgh!"
Rayne fell onto the wet floor, as Usagi goes towards her partner's side.
"Stay calm," Usagi says, as she takes off her pack. She had heard of incidents of biological matter merging with other creatures. Could she be dealing with something in this case?
"Easy…for you to say," Rayne managed to say, as she rolls on the wet ground.
"I may be able to remove it here-"
WOK!
Suddenly, Usagi goes down, just as Rayne saw the culprit's smirk.
"I will be the one to remove that artifact," says a bald man with a German accent, who placed a cigarette holder (with the cigarette in place) in his mouth. He then raised his left hand, as it morphs into a clawed hand.
"Nothing personal, though I will enjoy this…"
"Who…who are you?" Rayne asked.
"You do not need to know. Good-bye."
THOK!
The German pulls out the bone fragment from Rayne's body.
"I found my prize," the German says, as he placed the rib into his body. "Urgh!"
Luckily, the other bone fragments the German has been collecting of late, and thus subsequently absorbed, had made the pain easier to deal with.
"There," the German says, as he straighten himself out. He then turns to an unconscious Usagi.
"I think you will serve me well as my own personal agent…"
Five years later…
"This way," says a masked man in a commando outfit, as he slings his German-made machine gun. His outfit was gray, and lightly armored with the usual military attachments (including flash grenades)
"You better be right…Kommando," Rayne says with suspicion, as she followed the GGG officer.
"Hey, I'm the one who saved your life, remember?" Kommando says.
"With these Daemites running loose, THAT remains to be seen…"
For an hour now, Rayne had done her best to infiltrate a major GGG excavation facility in Argentina. Apparently, the Brimstone Society had caught word that the GGG was searching for the so-called the "Skull of Beliar". Unfortunately, in doing so, they woke up creatures known as "Daemites". Essentially, they are floating emaciated heads with tails with the ability to force themselves into the mouths of their victims. Afterwards, they force their tails into the spines of their victims' bodies, while popping the victim's heads off in the process. Essentially, the Daemites take over the victim's bodies like a puppeteer, while increasing the victim's physical prowess.
Still, in spite of this added danger, Rayne's mission was clear: secure the skull of Beliar, and eliminate the GGG that is at the Argentina facility. "Kommando" was one of those targets, and even fought him, until a series of events caused Rayne to realize that Kommando was a double agent FOR the Brimstone Society. Kommando proved his loyalty after killing one of Rayne's targets, who tried to gas them. Now…it was time to deal with the Butcheress, the Daemite researcher…and who happens to be one of her targets.
"Good thing we have our 'hall pass'," Rayne says, as she shows Kommando the head of one of her targets.
"Is that really necessary to keep Eckstein's head?" Kommando asked warily.
"Yes, yes it is."
"…"
Like all members of the GGG, the Butchress enhanced. However, in her particular case, the enhancements made her taller, and more attractive…as evident by her ample cleavage and shapely body. Although, to her victims (er, patients) would care not a wit about such things. At any rate, the Butcheress, whose name was Dr. Serena Mondkinder, was a medical doctor and scientist who sought to control the Darmites, as well as use them for experimentation. Interestingly, Kommando insisted that he deals with the Butcheress first, causing Rayne to wonder about his relationship with the doctor…
BAM-BAM!
The Butcheress opens the eyehole, and sees Eckstein's face.
"Eckstein, finally!" the Butcheress says in a German accent. "Where's Kommando?"
The Butcheress opens the iron door that lead to her personal death tower. She sees the Eckstein's head, Kommando and Rayne herself.
"WHAT?" The Butcheress yells, as she yelled through her surgical mask. "What trickery is this?"
Kommando takes off his commando ski mask.
"You aren't German!" The Butcheress yells, as she wielded her butcher's knife.
"Tell me about it," Rayne says with a smirk, as she eyes the handsome, young Japanese man.
"I know," says Ranma, as he steps up to the Butcheress. "And neither are YOU."
Ranma removes the Butcheress' surgical mask, revealing-
"YOU?" Rayne says.
Usagi stared at Ranma and Rayne with wild eyes.
"I do not know what is going on, but I shall end your lives!"
Tbc.