I still don't own anything.
Lycanthrope 2: The Prophecy
Chapter Fifteen: Secrets
Shinji watched tiredly as the sun slowly crept up over Madrid. He climbed out of the SS and took a drag in his cigar. "Can I help you sir?" Shinji turned and stared at the young man who had spoken.
"I'm here to see the Oracle," he said simply.
"I see," the young man said, his attitude suddenly becoming cold and untrusting. "Follow me." Shinji took one last draw on his cigarette and extinguished the end on his tongue. He slipped it into the pocket of his leather jacket and smiled at the man.
"Lead the way." The man nodded and turned. Shinji followed him down an alleyway and into a small rundown building. He stepped through a doorway of beaded strings and Shinji quickly followed. "Good Christ." Shinji stared at the old woman sitting in the middle of the incense smoke-filled room. She looked like she was pushing a thousand.
"I present the Oracle," the man said.
"I'm. . ."
"She knows who you are," the young man said. Shinji turned a sharp glare on him. "She also knows why you are here. She says she cannot help you." Shinji glared into the woman's cataract-covered eyes.
"Does she know what I'm going to do now?" he growled. The Oracle made several hand gestures to the man.
"It is strange," the man said. "She says that your actions are unknown to fate. She can only know what you've already done."
"Good," Shinji said. His hand caught the handle of his revolver and he was aiming before either could react. He pulled back the hammer and smiled at the audible click in the silent room. "Come on old lady. I know you've been alive long enough to know what that sound is."
"Now just a second!" the man roared. Shinji swung the revolver around and fired. The man stumbled back, screaming in pain as he clutched his arm.
"I want to know what Robert the Vicious knows," Shinji grated out. The old woman began swinging her arms around wildly. "What did she say?" Shinji frowned at the young man. "I know you're alive. Stop playing dead or I'll put a bullet where the sun doesn't shine." The man jerked upright.
"I have no clue," he said. "She's babbling." Shinji aimed again and the man screamed as a lead bullet slammed into his foot.
"Once again."
"She's babbling," the man screamed. "She says something about the one who will choose life or death, creation of destruction will arise from the very depths of sorrow and insanity."
"That's not babbling you idiot," Shinji said. "That's the prophecy I was asking about!"
"Well I'm sorry if I mistook some meaningless riddle from babbling!" the man screamed.
"I'm done here," Shinji said as he holstered his revolver. He turned to leave and heard the rustle of clothes. He whipped around, drawing the revolver again and fired. The man man's head whipped back as the bullet hit him dead center in his forehead. He dropped the pistol in his ground and fell to the ground. "Hey old lady," Shinji called as he picked up the man's revolver and tucked it into his belt. "You're going to need a new bitch. Your old one's brains are on the wall."
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"Are you ready to go?" Jen's eyes snapped open.
"Yes," Craven's voice said. "I am prepared to leave as soon as the sun is down. If we take too much time I may end of waiting out the day in the man's house."
"Do you have a problem with that?" Shinji's voice asked.
"Not at all," Craven said with a chuckle. "Do you think that bringing the human along is a good idea?"
"Absolutely not." Jen tried to get up to argue with him, but she was held fast by something. She looked over her shoulder and stared at the young redheaded woman spooning against her. A hand clamped over her mouth. "Don't scream," Shinji rasped. "You won't like her if you wake her up." Jen nodded. Shinji moved his hand and carefully pried Asuka's arms from around Jen's hips. The redhead immediately wrapped around Shinji's neck and he carefully picked her up.
"What's her deal?" Jen asked.
"She has nightmares if she sleeps alone," Shinji explained. "When she's on her pills she's too proud to mention it, but without them she's all cuddles as soon as the lights go out."
"I see," Jen said.
"Need a hand?" Jen turned and saw Yuki looking at them from her seat. Shinji laid Asuka carefully down and she latched on to Yuki.
"Oh my God."
"Quiet," Shinji hissed. He turned to face Jen.
"Holy shit." Shinji sighed in annoyance and ran a hand through his short hair. "When did you get all cleaned up?"
"While I was out," Shinji said. "Less hair means less stuff for me to clean blood out of."
"And you got a tattoo?" Shinji touched the small pentagram on his cheek bone under his left eye.
"I've had this for a few months," Shinji said. "It was just covered by my beard."
"Oh," Jen said. She followed Shinji through the cabin and down into the cargo hold.
"She was already awake?" Craven asked.
"Yeah," Shinji said. "Do you have your weapons?"
"Yeah," Jen said as she picked up her duffel bag. Shinji nodded and shrugged on a shoulder harness rig over his turtle neck. He holstered several weapons and pulled on a long, black leather trench coat.
"Let's go."
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"This really is beautiful country side," Craven said.
"Yeah," Shinji said as he watched the countryside whip by the windows. "I stayed on the beaches the last time I was here. It's nice to see this country like this."
"You're acting weird," Jen said from the backseat. "It's creeping me out."
"How am I acting weird?" Shinji asked as he pushed the cigarette lighter down.
"You're acting normal," Jen said. "It's disturbing." Shinji shot her a broad grin over his shoulder. "This will sound weird, but that's much better." Shinji laughed and switched gears.
"Reach into the glove compartment."
"For what?" Craven asked as he opened the small storage compartment. "Holy shit." He pulled out one of Shinji's newest acquisitions. "This is a Taurus .454 Casull."
"Yep," Shinji said brightly. "I love the Raging Bull look. I mean that is one hell of an aggressive looking revolver." Craven reached further into the glove compartment and pulled out a similar, but smaller weapon. "Taurus Tracker Model 627," Shinji said before the other man could ask. "It's a .357. I would have gotten the eight-short model 608, but I couldn't find one."
"I see," Craven said as he tucked the .357 back into the glove compartment. He hefted the .454 and opened the cylinder. "Wow. That's a big bullet."
"Great isn't it?" Shinji asked.
"Have you ever heard of overkill?" Craven asked.
"There's no such thing as overkill!" Shinji cried, throwing back his head and cackling. That probably wasn't a very smart move when you're doing one hundred and eighty miles-per-hour.
"You idiot!" Jen shrieked as she leaned between the two fronts seats and grabbed the steering wheel to keep the SS from going off road.
"You're too tense," Shinji said as he leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest, and let Jen steer while he pressed the accelerator to the floor. "It's bad for your health."
"You're bad for my health!" Jen growled. "Now take the wheel."
"You're doing fine," Shinji said, cracking one eye and glancing at the speedometer. The little needle was all the way over, far past the last number of two hundred and fifty.
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"This is it." Shinji stared at the gates in front of him and nodded.
"Fancy."
"Yep," Craven said as he pushed a long, straight magazine into his Heckler and Koch .45 sub-machinegun. Shinji glanced in the mirror and frowned when he noticed Jen loading a P90.
"Check under Craven's seat," Shinji said.
"What?" Jen asked.
"Under the seat," Shinji said in annoyance. Jen reached under the seat and pulled out the weapon.
"This is an MP5."
"It's an MP5/10," Shinji corrected. "The American FBI wanted an MP5 in 10mm Auto and they got that."
"That's nice," Jen said. "What do you want me to do with it?"
"You're going to use it," Shinji said. "There should be at least twenty magazines back there."
"My P90 is fine!" Jen exclaimed.
"This isn't about drilling nice little holes through body armor!" Shinji yelled back. "This is about blowing a big fucking hole through someone's frontal lobe." Jen's jaw closed with an audible click. She silently pushed a magazine into the weapon and slapped the cocking handle.
"That was impressive," Craven commented as he pushed a magazine into his H&K USP Elite pistol.
"I have to do it every once in a while to keep Yuki and Asuka from doing something really nuts," Shinji explained. "It's rough on the throat though."
"I know," Craven said. "I remember back when I served in the German army. All the privates thought being a sergeant was easy. That was before modern cough drops."
"Were you in the Third Reich?"
"World War I," Craven corrected. "I served the Kaiser. Not some racist psycho."
"Watch it," Shinji growled. "I'm a psycho and I will not be lumped into the same group with Hitler."
"Then what should I call him?" Shinji thought for a minute.
"I don't know," he said. "That guy was just fucking nuts." Shinji checked him Tommy gun lying on the dash and looked up at the gate. "Hold on." Next to him Craven scrambled to pull on his seat belt. "Relax," Shinji said. "Just worry about a bar going through the window and into your skull."
"That's very assuring." Shinji grinned at the man and stepped on the brake and gas. He could here the wheels scream and smoke began to pour from the back wheels.
"Here we go!"
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"Knock, knock," Shinji called cautiously as he looked around the massive entryway. "Wow."
"I can't believe you drove through the front door," Jen said monotonously. "We just caused more destruction then I'll ever be able to pay for."
"That's why its fun," Shinji said. He looked around the lobby again. "I am having some serious flashes of Resident Evil."
"Incoming," Craven called. Shinji turned and saw a lone figure stagger out of a doorway. "It's one of them."
"Are you sure?" Shinji asked as he eyed the rather normal looking young man. Craven lowered his sub-machinegun and drew his pistol. He fired and the young man's left knee cap exploded. The man stumbled and continued forward.
"I'm sure," Craven said as he holstered his pistol. He leaned back against the car.
"How are these things dangerous again?" Jen asked as she watched the zombies continue to stagger forward.
"Swarm attacks," Shinji said. "Think Chinese soldiers with less screaming." He walked to the back of the SS and opened the trunk. Something moaned behind him and he turned to see half a dozen siholettes advancing towards the door. He tugged a grenade from the trunk and pulled the pin. "Fire in the hole." He tossed the grenade out and turned away. The concussion hurt his ears and he felt something sharp dig into the back of his left leg.
"Should I just shoot it?" Jen asked.
"Go ahead," Shinji said as he began hunting around in the SS's small trunk. "It'll be good to get you used to the hardballer." He found his weapon and lifted it out of the trunk.
"That's a big Tommy," Craven said over the single gunshot. Shinji hefted his weapon with a grin and pushed a one hundred round drum into it.
"What is that?" Jen asked.
"CIS Ultimax 100," Shinji said, "caliber 5.56mm light machinegun." He hefted the massive Thompson look alike. "One night I had too much to drink and woke up next to this thing." More moans echoes throughout the lobby. Shinji turned and saw a wall of people advancing towards them. "Watch and learn kiddies." His thumb found the fire selector and he opened fire.
"Head shots!" Craven yelled. Shinji stopped firing and stared at the severed torsos crawling towards him.
"That is so cool."
"Yeah," Jen said. Shinji turned and stared at the young human.
"Your dad is going to cut my balls off if he hears you talking like that."
"That's not my problem," Jen said as she racked her shotgun and began walking.
"I like her," Craven said. "Would you mind if I tried to. . ."
"I'd cut your balls off," Shinji said simply.
"Right."
"We better hurry before the human takes all the good kills."
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"I'm bored," Asuka whined. Yuki sighed and leaned back in her seat.
"Well what do you want to do?"
"I want to go find Shinji," Asuka said.
"I doubt Shinji wants to be found," Touji said as he finished shoving things into his duffel bag. "I just finished talking to the lady at the front desk. I have a flight to catch in thirty minutes."
"Are you going back to Ireland?" Rei asked.
"Yeah," Touji said. "Tell Shinji I'll see him when he finishes up being Bob's errand boy."
"Will do," Yuki said. "See you later Touji."
"Yeah." The half-angel walked out of the plane and into the night beyond.
"I cannot believe that pompous prick is a gunfighter."
"Get over it!" Yuki yelled in annoyance. "Gunfighters come in all shapes and sizes. You'll get used to it."
"But Craven isn't just any shape or size," Mana said. "He's a fucking accountant."
"Look at Shinji," Yuki said with a shrug. "He doesn't look like a gunfighter, does he?"
"He looks like a hobo," Asuka said with a giggle.
"You missed him when he left," Yuki said. "He looked like he did when we were in Jamaica."
"Before or after he grew dreadlocks?" Asuka asked.
"After," Yuki said. "He found out he had lice and set his hair on fire."
"That was funny," Asuka said. Nearby Mana was on the ground laughing.
"Anyway," Yuki said. "Remember when his hair started growing back and he kept it short for a couple of weeks."
"I didn't like that," Asuka said.
"Neither did I," Yuki said. "I like to have something I can tug on a little."
"You're a pervert," Mana said.
"Yeah," Yuki said. "And you would kill to be me, wouldn't you?"
"That's besides the point!"
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"Damn it," Shinji growled as a cold shiver worked its way down his spine. "Someone is talking about me."
"Watch your back!" Jen shrieked. Shinji whipped around and growled as a set of teeth sank into his shoulder. He ripped the zombie away.
"Time to show you what real biting is!" Shinji bared his fangs and bit hard into the zombie's throat. He gurgled and Shinji ripped his head back. He shoved the zombie and watched as it twitched on the ground. "Is it going to die?"
"It'll asphyxiate eventually," Craven said with a shrug.
"Uh. . .help?" Shinji turned and saw Jen struggling with another zombie. He hand wrapped around its throat and he shoved it face first into a large mirror. He pulled it away from the shattered glass and put a bullet through its jaw and into its brain. "Thanks," Jen managed to pant.
"Eh," Shinji said with a wave of his hand. "Let's not make a saint of a sinner."
"Especially since you would take offense to it," Craven said dryly as he loaded his pistol. "I'm running low."
"Same here," Jen said. They both looked at Shinji.
"What?" he asked. "I carry weapons with an ammunition capacity of one hundred rounds. Why the hell do you think I would be out of ammo?"
"Because you're a fucking trigger happy nutcase!" Jen shrieked. Shinji grinned and dropped the drum of his machinegun.
"Right you are." He hooked the empty drum on his belt and slung the weapon over his shoulder. "I am completely out of ammo for this thing and I don't have any loaded Tommy drums."
"Shotgun?"
"Have plenty left for that," Shinji said as he un-slung the Benelli. "Get down." Craven dropped to the ground and Shinji fired. The zombie's head disappeared in a burst of gore. "That never gets old."
"I know," Craven said. "I remember the Americans and their shotguns back in the Great War."
"Didn't Germany call them a lethal weapon even thought they were using Mustard gas?"
"I never said Germany's politics were the brightest men on the planet," Craven said with a shrug. Shinji racked his shotgun.
"Any clue how many that was?"
"It's got to be two hundred," Jen said. "Not counting the ones Shinji blew up. God only knows how many."
"Yeah," Shinji said. "How about it? Are you listening?"
"Who are you yelling at?" Jen asked.
"Holier-then-though bastard," Shinji growled.
"Who are you yelling at?" Jen repeated.
"Something tells me we don't want to know," Craven said. He finished loading a clip for his sub-machinegun with rounds from his pistol's magazines. He pushed it into the weapon and slapped the charging handle. "Let's go."
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Shinji sighed and tried to doorknob of the door in front of him. It was locked. "Now I know this is Resident Evil."
"Don't worry," Craven said. "We already have the master key for the house." Shinji watched as he pulled a small weapon from the small of his pack. He pointed the muzzle of the tiny Remington at the door and pulled the trigger. The lock disappeared in a cloud of wood.
"I wish it was that easy in the video game," Shinji said as he pushed the door open and swept the room with his shotgun.
"Freeze," Shinji stared at the old man pointing a handgun at them. It was almost laughable. Actually it was very laughable.
"Get up," Craven growled. "You don't look very dignified down there." Shinji managed to fight down his giggles and stood up.
"I know what you are," the man said. "I know and I can kill you."
"The stupid guy with glasses thought the same thing ten years ago," Shinji said. "I'm here he's not, nuff said."
"But I won't make his mistake," the man said. "I won't gloat." The gun cracked loudly and Shinji grinned at the man though the transparent orange octagon in front of him.
"Gloating wasn't his problem," Shinji said. "He had the same problem as you. You're both dumb asses." He raised his .44. "Well do you feel lucky punk?" He fired and peeled the top off the man's skull. "That was kind of anticlimactic, eh?" Shinji turned and noticed both Jen and Craven staring at him. "What?"
"They left a few things out of your file," Craven said simply. Shinji shrugged and moved to the man's desk. He opened the drawers and poked around.
"Eureka!"
"What?" Craven asked.
"I knew it would be here!" Shinji continued. He pushed the big red button and listened as a loud beep sounded from hidden speakers.
"Attention," a calm woman's voice said. "The self destruct has been set and this residence will be destroyed in thirty seconds. Have a nice day."
"You set the self destruct?" Jen shrieked. Shinji ignored her and slung her over his shoulder.
"Less talk more move!"
-End
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-Author's notes. Is violence funny? You bet your ass it is! Jen is going crazy and becoming violent. Her dad is going to cut Shinji's ball off if/when he finds out.
