Chapter 28: The Smiling Devil


Hank quickly ran down the street to his next location: an underground facility. Why Dan was there, he doesn't know, but even to him it was obvious that something being built underneath peoples' feet meant bad news. REALLY bad news.

He checked Deimos's phone. They had swapped cells so Hank could see where exactly Dan was hiding while Deimos could still have the option of calling him. Finally, Hank stopped in his tracks and hid behind a large dumpster. The facility was right underneath him.

Hank looked around. 'How the fuck am I supposed to get down there?' he asked himself.

Suddenly, Hank saw two 1337 agents knock on a steel door from the building a couple of feet away from him. The door opened and Hank saw both of them go in. Hank smirked.

'Well, that's one way to crash a party.' he thought.

Hank pulled out the MK 14 rifle from behind his back, went to the other side of the street without being spotted, and knocked on the door.

The slit on the door opened, and an ATP agent peered out of the hole. His eyes widened as he saw Hank. Hank placed the front of the rifle right between the agent's eyes.

"Say cheese." he whispered.


Meanwhile, Sanford and Deimos were traveling to their own destination to destroy the Improbability Drive being constructed by the A.A.H.W. It wasn't hard to figure out where it was. When an Improbability Drive is being set, you can actually see some of the morphed features around the area where it's located. Like the atmosphere around it seems to feel different as well as the air seemingly grows harder to breathe in.

The two men went into stealth and saw their target. It was another large factory not so far from where they found Cathy.

Deimos groaned. "Another factory!?"

Sanford chuckled. "The A.A.H.W. sure lost their touch of imagination. Shh! Get down!"

Sanford pulled Deimos's head down before an ATP agent would spot them. The agent looked left and right, but merely passed the two men hiding near him. Sanford turned his head back as he watched the ATP agent walk away. There were about 8 of those bastards running all over the place. He turned to Deimos.

"You ready for this?" Sanford asked him.

Deimos grinned, placed a cigarette into his mouth, and lit it. He puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Sanford, if you're really asking me that question, then you don't know anything about me."

Sanford nodded, and turned his head to watch the agent walking away from them. He took out his hook and Deimos pulled out his pistol. Deimos checked his clip, satisfied to see a fair amount of ammunition still inside. He aimed the pistol to the back of the ATP engineer's head.

"Here we go again..." he muttered.

Deimos fired, and the two of them along with the other agents nearby saw his brains splatter all over the pavement. Sanford jumped up and threw his hook into a 1337's skull. The 1337's hands shook violently as he tried to pull out the hook lodged into his head, but Sanford jerked back violently, ripping out a chunk of flesh and blood from him.

Deimos covered Sanford as he did so, and shot two other agents behind him. He quickly reloaded with ammo he found earlier as Sanford picked up an MP 40 and began to switch from melee to firepower. As soon as the area was cleared, they quickly went into the factory, doing their casual wipe-out tactic by killing everyone before they even had the chance to turn around. Deimos picked up a Luger PO8 after putting his previous weapon into his pocket while Sanford tossed him some more ammo they could use. Deimos loaded his gun as they ran into the next room.

3 agents: two 1337s and an Advanced ATP engineer. Deimos shot two bullets into the first 1337's chest and thigh and Sanford shot 3 into the second's head. They saw the ATP agent hide behind two large boxes. Deimos charged at him, and as their enemy came out of cover to kill him, Sanford quickly aimed and fired. It was over in a matter of 10 seconds.

The duo went into the next room in front of them, even though there was an elevator nearby. They decided to save that for later. Sure enough, they found themselves at a dead end, but with a whole arsenal of weapons lined up on the walls around them.

Sanford whistled as Deimos gaped at their find.

"Looks like we found the armory, didn't we Deimos?" Sanford told his partner.

Deimos's open mouth had formed into a wide grin. "Jackpot!"

Sanford rolled his eyes as he saw Deimos run around the room, feasting his eyes on everything like a little boy in a candy store.

"Oh my God! These weapons are so cool! And they're so brand-new! I want this one!" Deimos said, as he picked up an MK 23.

Deimos dropped it onto the floor as he ran across the room.

"No, no, no, wait! THIS ONE!" he corrected himself as he looked at an S&W 500. Deimos dropped that too and grabbed another firearm from the wall.

"Or maybe this one! Or how about-"

"DEIMOS!" Sanford interrupted.

Deimos stopped his over-obsession on the weapons he longed to see and turned to Sanford.

"WE'RE NOT IN A FUCKING MALL SO JUST PICK ONE AND GO!" Sanford finished.

Deimos groaned. "Who died and made you boss?"

Sanford sighed in anger. "Do you remember what happened at 'The Rift'?"

("The Rift" is the A.A.H.W. shop in Madness Combat 6.5)

Now it was Deimos's turn to roll eyes. "But Sanford! We needed the supplies and-"

"No." Sanford firmly stated. "We didn't. You decided to get all ballsy by walking in and grabbing some shit we didn't need. And we were nearly killed by those A.A.H.W. agents."

Deimos narrowed his eyes at him. "Hey! Don't take it as a bad thing! You wouldn't have the clothes on your back right now if it wasn't for my idea back then!"

Sanford shook his head. "Well, it's nice to know that my partner acts like a teenage girl when it comes to shopping."

Deimos turned away from Sanford angrily. "You're no fun Sanford..." he muttered as he picked up a pistol.

Deimos saw a melee weapon in particular that caught his eye. He chuckled.

'Hank's gonna love this.' Deimos thought as he put his gift onto his back.

Sanford heard footsteps from outside.

"Hurry up Deimos!"

"Okay! Okay!"

Sanford quickly dashed out of the room, getting the elevator ready. Deimos ran in next to him after a few seconds of scavenging, just before the door closed. Sanford pressed the button to the basement, knowing that the core was deep inside the facility.

The elevator was slow, so Deimos rose up his pistol and pretended to aim it at an enemy from boredom. He started moving the gun up and down, making sound-effects.

"Pew! Pew! Pew!" he said quietly to himself.

Sanford banged his own head into the wall.

"Are you fucking serious?" he questioned Deimos as they met eyes.

Deimos shrugged. "What? It's not like you've never done it before!"

Sanford gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I did. WHEN I WAS A SIX YEAR OLD."

Sanford noticed Deimos's pockets sag.

"Deimos?"

Deimos turned to him angrily. "What NOW?"

"What do you have in your pockets?"

Deimos's eyes widened. "N-nothing!"

Sanford immediately saw Deimos stutter and glared at him. Deimos sighed in defeat as he emptied both pockets out. Sanford saw ten different pistols fall to the floor.

"What the fuck Deimos? I told you only ONE weapon! This'll slow us both down!"

Deimos quickly dragged the pile of firearms away from Sanford. "You don't appreciate the guns, then you don't appreciate ME, bitch!"

Sanford bit his lip, restraining himself from beating the crap out of Deimos.

Deimos ignored Sanford's action and continued his...pew-ing...

The bell on the elevator door dinged and the doors opened. Sanford's and Deimos's eyes widened as they saw the horde of agents in front of them. Their enemies were unarmed, but with 20 people staring at you with death-glares, it won't really matter whether or not they have weapons to see you're screwed.

Sanford face-palmed himself.

"Pew..." Deimos trailed off one last time.

"Deimos?"

"Yeah?"

"If we die, I'm going to make sure Satan screws you in the ass, personally..."


Hank looked around the room he had finished off in satisfaction. He had killed 30 people without a scratch on him. Hank had kept his rifle behind his back and picked up a sawed-off in his hands. Good to clear up a particularly crowded room by blowing up peoples' heads with a barrage of bullets.

Hank ran down another flight of stairs. He was happy to see another group of men to eliminate as he fired once, blasting an ATP agent's body off. The other four agents saw Hank quickly go behind a metal barrel. Hank pulled out his rifle and was able to shoot with only one hand due to his massive strength. He killed two agents shooting at him, while the others flinched. Hank cocked his shotgun for a second attack as he made one man's head explode.

The other saw him close in, and shot at Hank with his pistol, but Hank jumped up to the ceiling, holding onto the metal pipe hanging down with his left hand, and fired again at the 1337 agent with his sawed-off on his right. As he came down, however, he noticed that there seemed to be a trail of black liquid leading to the door on the other side of the room.

Hank checked Deimos's phone again, trying to confirm what it meant. He knew it.

Dan was behind the door in front of him.

Hank threw down his empty shotgun and picked up a Browning HP in its place. It didn't have much left in it, but it was better than nothing, as he realized his MK 14 was done for too. Hank didn't have time to mess around anymore. Hungry for revenge, he was impatient to kill the man who had nearly destroyed everything precious to him.


Dan was shaking rapidly. Tar-black liquids poured out of his body, assuming it was "blood". Both his arms were gone, the back part of his head now looked as if it was ripped off, and the skin on his legs were peeling off too; all replaced with the black flames emanating from his essence.

At this point, both of the guards next to him were scared out of their minds. They knew what Dan did to their teammate back at Langstone Bar, and whatever he planned to their disapproval would definitely be a lot worse. The only option they had was to follow orders from the deranged psychopath they called their leader.

Dan fell to the side and hit the wall. One of the Advanced ATPs was going to help him up, but Dan slapped his helping-hand away, breathing heavily. He looked up and smirked at the large glass tube in front of him. Although it wasn't visible from the outside, he already knew what was inside of it.

Hank's worst nightmare.

He put his right hand onto the lone engineer's shoulder, working on the project as he typed in codes without seeing Dan's face.

"Are you done?" he questioned.

The engineer turned around and nearly gasped from Dan's horrific form. He quickly nodded, even though he knew that he needed more time. But Dan wasn't willing to hear it, and he definitely wasn't going to leave the tardiness unpunished.

Dan laughed, but just before the engineer was going to sigh in relief, he felt the pair of eyes stare him down.

"I know you're lying."

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of the engineer's head. He didn't know what to do at this point. But it wouldn't matter by then because Dan made the first move.

Dan smacked his head into the control panel, leaving a dent on the metal box and a large crack on the man's skull. Dan rose up his head slowly, without turning to his men.

"He's here. Right in front of the door." he suddenly said.

The two ATPs looked at each other, confused.

"Who's-"

But just before the soldier was able to finish his sentence, Hank came running in, shooting the both of them in the back of the head. Dan didn't even bother to turn his head around from the gunfire. Hank quickly aimed and fired at Dan, but Dan merely cocked his head to the right as the bullet went flying millimeters over his neck.

Dan smirked.

"You're out of ammo, aren't you, Hank?"

Hank pulled the trigger again, only to be met with silence instead of a bang. He cursed himself and threw down the gun behind him.

"Doesn't matter. I'll fuck you up with my fists." Hank responded ominously, cracking his knuckles.

Dan shook his head. "Hank. You and I both know that after the disaster in the bar, you won't be able to defeat me alone, especially without something to beat me down with."

Hank ignored Dan's statement. Dan crossed his arms, knowing that Hank was about to say something.

"I talked to Cathy and read everything in her diary. What the fuck is the 'M Virus'?" Hank questioned.

A glimmer of interest flickered across Dan's eyes when Hank said that.

"Ah, I see you're referring to the Madness Virus." he stated in nonchalance.

Hank twitched from Dan's calmness. The guy treated him as a joke. And that made him angry. VERY angry.

Dan still didn't turn to meet Hank. "It's a very funny story. But I'm sure Cathy told you it all, since she's such a blabber-mouth, so I'll stick to the details. Do you remember Jebus, Hank? Jebus Christ? Yes, I'm sure you did. When Jebus joined the A.A.H.W., we knew that his massive resource of power had to be controlled, in a sense. The Auditor secretly mixed his DNA with the same gene that had mixed into yours. With this, the Auditor was able to break down Jebus's body from the inside with a massive symptom of regurgitating blood. Eventually, Jebus was weakened to the point where the Auditor didn't even have to take a hit in their final battle."

Dan raised his head into the air. "Oh, but the tale doesn't end here, Wimbleton. We had salvaged this genetic weapon from Jebus's remains, and enhanced it."

Hank raised an eyebrow. "Enhanced it?"

Dan nodded. "Yes, enhanced it. How? Well, we basically added more commands to it so that not only does it deteriorate your body as well Hank, but also your mind. Images that you wanted to lock away, images that you wanted to forget so badly, images that you wished you never saw at all, brought back in flashes."

Hank suddenly understood why he saw those visions. They were mere annoyances to him, but no doubt they had affected his fighting capabilities.

Hank clenched his fists. "There's more, isn't there?"

Dan laughed heartily. "You're catching on fast. That's good. I enjoy my prey having the knowledge of what they suffer from before they die. Makes everything more fun. Correct Hank J. Wimbleton. We went over the extremes in the three years we hid under Nevada. Severe headaches, near-death heart-attacks, and of course, hallucinations. It's a beauty. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I decided to use it on a young boy I met from the Order of the Gray Blood and see it for myself. Hmm...what was his name? Oh yes! Carlos! Carlos Vendetti! The man who slit his own throat in the hospital!"

Hank was over the edge at that point. "You fucking monster."

Dan turned his head around to Hank, but concealed it by staring down at the floor. Blackish-blood was dripping from where he was looking.

"A monster? No, I am not a monster. I am merely an improvement to this shameful body God had given all of us. I am meant to change this planet. That is my reason for existence. My only fear is failure. Because when I fail, I make sure that EVERYBODY fails with me. There is no cure to the Madness Virus and there never will be. It's just like an STD only that it does not spread. It kills the person who is infected and self-destructs. You may be able to destroy the macroscopic components of life, but not the microscopic."

Dan suddenly raised his head up and scarred Hank. Hank saw half his face was gone, the other half sagging to the floor like glop.

"I AM THE MEANING OF BEAUTY. AND I AM THE BEAST. THERE IS NONE WHO CAN SURPASS ME. I AM AN IMMORTAL."

Hank took a step back, not willing to see the new qualities Dan developed in the past hour.

Dan expressed joy from Hank's hesitation. He continued to stare at him with wide-eyes and a smile full of hate.

"I'VE DONE A LOT OF RESEARCHING INTO YOU HANK, AND I FINALLY REALIZED WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST. I WILL MAKE SURE YOU SUFFER, AND THEN GRANT YOU THE GIFT OF DEATH. I WILL LET YOU DIE BY THE ONE THING YOU HATED MOST. THE ONE PERSON THAT YOU SECRETLY PRAYED WOULD NEVER RETURN."

Hank's eyes widened as he realized Dan's words. "No. Dan. Don't do it."

Dan stumbled backwards, clutching his face. He threw up more black blood and pulled out an iron slab. He threw it down to the ground. Hank suddenly realized why that photo Harley took from the crime scene seemed so awkward.

The iron slab was showing in the picture. Dan had placed it there on purpose without anyone noticing.

Dan slammed his fist onto a large red button on the control panel as he held his face with the other hand. The panel made a beeping noise.

"Good luck Hank J. Wimbleton!" Dan's final words were before he ran out of the room through the door beside him. Hank would've chased after him, but he knew that whatever Dan did was going to kill them all if Dan guessed right on Hank's fears.

The large glass tube slowly opened up, steam billowing out from the sides. As soon as Hank saw what was inside, he fell backwards.

Hank saw a green, zombie claw hold onto the side of the tube.

"FR33..." the figure inside hissed.

Another hand popped out.

"FR33 4T L4ST..."

Hank felt sweat go down his chin. He saw the face pop out in horror. That same face that had never stopped haunting him.

The figure jumped out of its cylindrical prison and saw the iron slab lying on the floor. He picked it up to hide his disgustingly horrific face: a face that made Dan's look like a supermodel's. His hands had turned from the zombie-green to a normal white as if the mask had powers over him.

Hank crawled backwards in haste, not caring in the least that he was acting so weak in front of the person that had made his life a living hell back then.

"HAHAHAH4HAHHAHA4HAH!1!1!1!" It roared in laughter as Hank saw red static fizz his vision and the words appear underneath him in bold red. The Improbability Drive was in effect.

The Clown has been engaged.


A/N: Okay, that's all for this time folks. 3,000 words. Can't make this any longer or else it'll get too tiring to read. I bet most of you were expecting this. After all, how can you forget Tricky in the longest Madness Combat Fanfiction that has ever been written to date?

I'm sorry this took way too long to update. My life is a living hell right now in school, and by Monday, things won't go any easier. Anyways, this took me two hours to type, edit, and re-type again. Still, I did the best I could in making this epic, and it is pretty difficult shifting to different P.O.V.'s at the right moment to make things click.

Let's get down to the important stuff: Reviewer's Credit:


Sackrum: You're welcome on how I cleared things up for you. I'm going to explain all the surprises and hidden secrets by the end of this so nobody's going to be left off with some crappy cliffhangers and shit. It's good that you're thinking about my story: I actually wrote this in a sense to show an angle of life not many people think about. Also, yes, I read your 2nd Chapter of Fallout and reviewed it. That fanfic was pretty awesome dude, for a start, and I hope things go easy for ya in the future! Keep up the writing, and I'll keep up the reading along with my own stuff!


Nikolai247: That was actually an amazing point you pulled out. I didn't realize that until you said so in Chapter 27. Actually, I was wondering why the symptoms I was describing seemed so familiar before, and now I know why. I used that information in this chapter, so kudos to you bro!


Kagami: Thank you for your support on my life and my story. Your review was touching to me, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. It was awful when my grandmother passed away, especially seeing my father break down. He took a flight to his hometown (since he used to live in Egypt until he immigrated here) to meet with our relatives and talk. My grandmother was so nice though...she was always in pain when she was younger and she never had the chance to do the things she wanted. I miss her, but I can't let it interfere with my life. I just have to accept facts, but at the same time to never forget.

Also, Kagami, speaking of Creepypastas, if you liked the ones I recommended to you, read the "Russian Sleep Experiment". That's an awesome one I just heard from a friend of mine's. Nikolai247 had a Creepypasta he PM'd to me, but I don't remember the title since I'm typing this on a separated computer with no internet. Sucks? Yes indeed. It does suck. Balls.


Xenophobic: Wow, you are really getting into the story! That's pretty neat too ya know. I chuckled though at what you said. Trust me, if you said that in front of Dan, he'd probably just shrug and walk off some place. Or, he could send humanity into a holocaust. Yeah...big difference right there...


Okay, Reviewer's Credit is over. Remember, any review will be mention at the end of the chapters I write as long as the story I am writing is still on-going, so say what you have to say now, or forever hold your peace. I do respond to all reviews on accounts via PM'ing, but I can't do so with guest accounts. So please, and especially if you write as a guest most of the time, review now, otherwise it'll be too late for you to have your name appear publicly.

Well, with that all said and done, I can merely say, thank you all for your support. This story actually hit the 1,000 view mark (Yes! Go Madness Combat!) and I am extremely proud of it. You guys are the best supporters ever! I just can't believe how much success I'm racking in on my first story in TWO MONTHS, not to mention that this is a MADNESS COMBAT fanfiction: one of the most neglected, super-awesome topics when it comes to fanfictions. That's just freakin' awesome right there. And, in return for all of your enthusiasm, I will give you guys fanfictions that you will never forget on Madness Combat. Just remember to keep reading, and I'll keep writing!

Later bros! I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Final Salvation! Chapter 29 will be up as soon as possible!

~Spirit9871