The Hammer.
The sound of roaring engines woke her up. Her hand shot to her holster, unclasping the revolver from the magnetic plate. She shifted about in her seat and turned to her side, lightly shaking the child to wake him as well. Green eyes groggily looked at her green optics with confusion, quickly turning into fear as the noise filled his ears.
She shushed him with her offhand and pointed downwards. She gestured to between the passenger seats where the foot rests were and whispered.
"Stay down here, don't get up until I tell you."
He wiggled out of his chair and down to where she told him. Making sure to cover him up more, she took off her scarf and scrawled it out on top of him.
She sat still in front seat, peering up towards the sky and scanning around. Her optics drifted down to both sides of the road, a couple more cars nearby in a cluster until she saw it to her left.
A lone vehicle sat around fifty meters where they were, its design foreign compared to the ancient cars dotting the highway. Brown metal curved into bulbous shapes at the front of it with a red paint job splashed on, what looked to be barrels attacked to the front of it. To the sides of the seat were long flaps that seemed to help with balancing out the thing, sporting another splash of red. The seat extended into a long, narrow tail, its end sharpened. Strangely, its rider was nowhere to be found.
Her senses sharpened and her optics narrowed, before a loud crash came a couple cars down, a few meters from the alien vehicle. The revolver slowly rose up and she stared down the sights, the barrel pointed in that direction.
A sharp inhale came from the child and she turned her head to the right, four eyes glaring at two green.
The thing roared at the closed window, spittle hitting the glass before it raised its hand and smashed the window. His arm shook off some of the broken shards and reached in, grasping for whatever inside. She held in a scream and her gun took aim at the creature, firing haphazardly without aiming to scare it. At the very least it did the job, the arm retracting and a screech coming outside. On the opposite end, her head rang as the gunshot had her dazed, shooting the gun inside probably wasn't the best idea.
Creaking the old car's door open, she stumbled outside and leaned on the vehicle's side, taking a moment to recuperate. It was cut short when the creature roared again, jumping on top of their car. At least she could get a good look at it now.
The thing was far taller than her, a head's size worth even when it was slouching over. It seemed humanoid, bar the extra pair of eyes and limbs. Red cloth wrapped around its neck and down its back into a cape, holes and tatters on the edges. Leathery straps bound pieces of white armor to its hips and chest over its black wetsuit, as well as bracers on each arm. On its side were a pair of blades, the only weapons she could see on it. Spikes had also been adorned on the armor, adding to the intimidation factor. Its helmet, similar to the rest of the armor with hornlike protrusions pointing downwards on its side, covered all of its face except four glowing blue eyes that were currently glaring at her. Must've done something to piss it off.
She took a couple steps back and raised her gun, lining up her shot to hit it this time. The gun made it burst into action, leaping at her. Its two upper limbs smacked the gun out of her hands and held onto her wrists. She struggled to move but it meant little compared to the creature's strength. It leaned in inches away and laughed, the sound it made scratchy and deep, wisps of white cloudy smoke escaping what must've been its mouth. Raising its lower limbs, the thing started to throw jabs at her stomach, a dull pain forming and the metal crunching inwards. She gasped out, a reaction that made it laugh even more to her pain.
A door groaned as it opened, prompting the thing to stop punching her. It slowly turned away, still grasping onto her as they both looked to see what made the sound.
Just peaking out of the doorframe was the child, regret evident in how his eyes widened at the sight. Her eyes did the same, her's in fear.
The thing dropped her and smashed a claw into her cheek, sparking flying as she crumpled onto the ground. It made its way towards the child, clawed feet kicking up dust.
Wheezing, she looked as the child quickly shut the door but it only stalled for a moment as it was torn off and tossed to the side. He screamed.
She got up onto her knees and scrambled for the gun, time of the essence. Shakily, she brought up the only thing that could stop the creature, trying to better her aim but wasn't able to. Wasting no more time, she pulled the trigger.
The bullet bursted out of the barrel and pierced the monster. Blueish blood and cloudy smoke poured out of where the bullet hit, her aim managing to nick some exposed skin. Now enraged, the monster held up its upper limbs and roared, the lower limbs unclasping its dual swords. The swords began to cackle as a wave of electricity came over the metal, arcs spreading along the blades. It turned back to her, a fury burning deep into her eyes. To be honest, she would've shat herself if she could.
The creature got down onto it's forelimbs and crawled to her, its speed nearly a blur. Just a moment before it reached her, it leaped into the air with the two blades held up high above their heads, ready to come down and slice her to scraps.
Time seemed to crawl to a snail's pace, her eyes locking onto the creature's. She didn't have to aim the revolver much this time, seeing as how death was leaping at her face. The only thing she had to do was pull the trigger again. All of her nerves washed away, the shaking now gone.
The hammer fired.