The address was 608 Wagner Hill Road. It was shoddy, shabby, shady and all those bad words that start with S. It was a large structure though. It was probably a factory back in its heyday, before the Pulse hit. Yet the windows were broken, the hinges of the front door rusty and it was painted brown. The paint was also worn and chipping and there was mold forming towards the bottom and something was eating away at the corners.
Max stepped off her cycle, looking over her shoulder for those damn Steelheads. Another bad S word. Max took off her sunglasses, wiped the rain from the lenses and tucked them into her coat pocket.
Aurelius Parvo was most likely inside that S building, along with about two hundred and eighty followers of the Chosen. The reliquary was most likely with him.
I can't believe I'm risking my ass for a glass box of Jesus bones, especially a glass box of Jesus bones that don't even hold the real power it supposedly possesses. It's not like I believe in Jesus anyway…
Max kicked the rusted door off the hinges and it clunked to the floor inside, sending an infantry of all sorts of creepy crawlers her way. With a look of disgust, she stepped over them and ducked inside and was almost immediately dive-bombed by a bunch of bats. Max muffled her own scream and took cover. How could the Chosen hang out in here? It's like Frankenstein's lair.
When Max stood perfectly still, she could hear the faint sound of chanting by dozens upon dozens of people. Her excellent hearing faintly picked up their words:
"In the name of Jesus, we honor thou power and thou judgment, Father Grigory. We art thou chosen followers. We art thy children. We shall show thy love and thy devotion…"
Whoa. Max shivered. They were praying to Grigory Efminovitch. She was definitely about to deal with some fruit cakes. Being as quiet as she could, Max wandered around the factory. The voices, it seemed, were getting louder by the minute. In the distance, she saw a door, just as rusted as the front, but there was an ominous white light coming from underneath.
"In the name of Jesus, we honor thou power and thou judgment, Father Grigory. We art thou chosen followers. We art thou children. We shall show thy love and thy devotion…"
The voices were almost deafening now. Max gathered up her strength and kicked down the door. The hinges, under the weight of rust, practically disintegrated. The door hit the floor with a earsplitting bang. Max froze, fists up in fighting stance, with her eyes open wide when she saw what was in front of her: easily two hundred and fifty to three hundred people, covered head to toe in green robes tied about the middle with blue sashes were bowed before a very tall (easily seven foot) man with a very pale complexion with dark eyes and dark hair, also wearing a green robe, but his had a black sash. He stood on a raised platform. Max figured him to be Aurelius Parvo. He was holding the reliquary up high over his head and there was a powerful white light emitting from it. He was chanting along with everyone else.
Shit, that thing's power is real? Max thought. "Party's over, freaks! Hand over the reliquary and no one meets Father Grigory in hell tonight." she roared at the top of her lungs. Aurelius Parvo looked at her in surprise.
"Who dishonors the holy name of Grigory?!" bellowed Aurelius, lowering the reliquary. The white light diminished slightly and the followers began to stop chanting and raise their heads in interest to see what was happening. "I shall have no such disgrace in my presence! Guards!"
Three men, in green robes with black sashes and easily twice Max's sized, ganged up on her. Max released a roundhouse kick, stunning them slightly but not letting up. They closed in on her while Aurelius barked at his cohorts,
"Who said you could stop chanting? Continue, continue! Father Grigory is not pleased!" he barked and stepped off the platform and produced a whip from between the folds of his green robe. He walked up and down the aisles of people snapping it left and right. The reliquary was still in hand.
While Max was distracted, two of Aurelius's three guards held her hands behind her back while the third threw a mean punch. Max jumped up and sprung her feet out in a high kick, catching her assailant in the jaw. He staggered, cupping his chin with one hand. Dribbling a fine line of blood from his mouth, he sneered, straightened up and gave Max another hit, but she ducked and he hit one of the two men holding her arms back. She bent over, throwing both men off and sending them flat on their backs. Without having time to catch her breath, she went after Aurelius. He wielded his whip, flicked it and caught Max about the neck, wrapping it around. Max frantically clawed at the strong leather as it choked her. All of a sudden, one of the chanters stood, pointed at Aurelius and announced,
"Let go of her!" It was a feminine voice. Max's eyes roamed the room to see who it was.
"You dare speak to the Chosen father?" Aurelius asked, sounding very powerful.
The woman unrobed herself. She was slim but her hips were a little wider. Her shoulder-length hair was red and she wore light blue pedal pushers, a black tank-top and black army boots. "I dare speak, period. Let go of her, now!"
Aurelius laughed. Whilst he was sidetracked, Max was able to get a kick in, hitting him in the solar plexus. He fell to the floor, dropping the whip and she unwound it from around her neck, coughing as she caught the sweet breath of oxygen. The woman who had unrobed ran over to Max.
"I'll take the guards, you work on Parvo," she said hurriedly.
"Gotcha," Max agreed and took her fighting stance. As soon as Aurelius stood up, Max kicked the side of his head, sending him reeling once again. This time, he bounced back quicker. He held the reliquary up, chanted something not in English and then the reliquary shot a while light towards Max's chest.
Oh yeah, I'm so sure it doesn't have any powers. Sure, Logan.
The blast of light gave her an electric shock and it sent her to the floor. As she lay gasping, Aurelius delivered several harsh kicks to her abdomen. She re-gathered her strength, shot out her leg and fired a sweep kick, flinging Aurelius down. Max heard his head hit hard and saw a pool of blood form almost immediately, yet his eyes were still open. Standing, she grabbed the reliquary, threw it on the hard ground and stomped on it.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Aurelius bellowed when he heard the shatter of the glass.
When the reliquary was destroyed, Max dragged Aurelius down the aisle (leaving a messy trail of blood and tissue), rolled him onto the altar and pinned him, delivering three hard punches to his face. He was now unconscious.
The woman who had helped Max earlier was now two down, one to go. She was no bigger than Max herself but delivered the same hardcore Manticore military styling and kick ass moves. Was this woman an X5?
"Need a little help?" Max called.
"Yeah," the woman answered between blows. There was a cut gushing blood down the side of her face. Softly, Max snuck up behind the man the woman was beating on and kicked him hard in the back. He turned in surprise and she punched him hard. So hard, there were marks on Max's fist and she heard his jaw crack. Down he collapsed. Breathing hard, the woman gave Max a high five.
The chanters had now stopped chanting all together and were gathered in a large mass on one side of the room.
"You can all go home to your families now!" Max announced. "Aurelius Parvo can control your lives no longer!"
With that, she turned and ran from the room. The red-haired woman followed her. Max didn't look back and notice her until they were outside. The cool night air greeted them.
"Thanks for your help," Max said to the woman. She extended her hand. "I'm Max, X5-452."
"You're a Manticore soldier?" the woman's eyes went wide. "I knew it. I'm X5-803, but you can call me Clio."
"I knew you were, too. No other chick I know can take out a guy like that."
"Ditto."
"So," Max sighed. "How did you know about Aurelius Parvo?"
Clio blew some stray hairs away from her face. "My ex tried to get me to join the Chosen once. I had an inkling Parvo was up to no good."
Max laughed and mounted her Ninja. "I mean it though. Thanks a whole lot. You local?"
"Yeah, I live in sector four."
"Cool. You ever need any help, Clio, look me up. I'll be happy to do a favor for you if need be." She added her address, put her sunglasses on, advised Clio to take care of her cut and sped off.
After a change of heart, Max turned around and beckoned Clio to get on the back of the Ninja. "I'll take you to get cleaned up."
Clio resisted for a second but gladly hopped on. "Thanks."
"No problem," Max said. "It's the least I can do for now."