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Claircrystal: yup! Lynn and Rita continue to be the heads of the family but because both of them are almost completely absent from the household due to economic reasons... let's say that their children had to take care of these "heady of the family" matters.
Why does Lincoln insist on taking almost all the responsibility? we will find out in future chapters

Jim McCawley Darney: dunno man... I'm not fancy 'bout writting someone else ideas, but lets see what you got


11-. The Deadly Enemies of Man (part 2)

The corpses, and some severed limbs, of the creatures piled up in front of the siblings on what were once peaceful sidewalks, so quickly and so high that at times it was difficult for them to move freely or to see the road ahead.

Both had spent a few hours defeating and destroying the creatures that had been created to corrupt any people in the town, that was what the "final showdown" had been reduced to, simply destroying the advance forces of the Mortal Enemies of Man and it was beginning to weigh heavily on Lucy's shoulders. The lightning strikes and punches no longer had the expert precision they had had during the first moments of the fight.

However, her lack of physical fitness and low reserves of magic failed to completely limit the goth. Neither Lincoln nor she used only their physical power. They used all the powers they carried. They were summoning lightning, running and punching at breakneck speeds, and in Lucy's case casting spells, as well as throwing anything they could move or pluck from the surroundings.

Using her elbow, Lucy managed to take down four of the beasts with a shove, and she charred half a dozen more with a bolt of lightning. Lincoln dropped from the sky, just inches from the black haired woman, landing on the head of a creature unusually larger and tougher than the others, and running along the avenue as fast as he could, he took it upon himself to beat the hell out of all the demons blocking their way to West Street.

But it seemed that for every enemy defeated, five more appeared in front of the two siblings, creating an impenetrable barrier between them and the Grand Central mall where most of the refugees were hiding.

"SHIT!" Lincoln snarled through his teeth, "THIS IS USELESS, WE MUST STOP WASTING TIME WITH THESE LITTLE SHITS AND GO DIRECTLY FOR THE BOSS HEAD!"

"Brother, please calm down," Lucy managed to say between gasps, she was really getting tired and never being able to catch her breath didn't help. "You know perfectly well that there's no one else who can protect the citizens from these demons."

Lincoln turned an unpleasant grimace to his younger sister as soon as the last word left the black-haired girl's mouth.

"What citizens? Have you seen any non-demonized people in the last half hour?" Lincoln pointed to the avenue they'd just emptied of ghouls, the entire block seemingly empty of human life. "Maybe those bastards are too powerful to be locked up now, don't you think, 'Master of let oneself being possessed'?"

Before Lucy could defend herself against her brother's mean words, twenty more winged demons arrived from the sky. Spinning around on his heels, and letting out a snort of disgust, Lincoln took the first projectiles of fire with barely a blink of an eye and blasted the entire group of abominations with a massive electrical discharge.

Chagrined, and after releasing all his pent up anger against the creatures, the albino faced Lucy again, this time again using the soft tone of voice he always spoke to her with.

"I'm sorry Luz, I'm just starting to get desperate," even though he was talking to his sister with a calm tone of voice, the blush didn't disappear from the white-haired man's cheeks, "you know what, I have an idea! We'd better..."

Before Lincoln could finish speaking, more enemies appeared, shooting and destroying, and re-invading the avenue the brothers had just liberated.

"It's all a fucking game to those fuckers!" The blush on Lincoln's cheeks increased as his lips began to contract to show his teeth, giving his pale face an expression that only made Lucy worried. "But if what these bastards want is a test of my power... I'M HAPPY TO COOPERATE!"

Lincoln roared at the top of his lungs as he began to rise into the air, and as Lucy had expected, a bolt of lightning answered the call. However this attack possessed such power and rage that the entire sky lit up as the asphalt a couple of meters below Lincoln began to crack.

-o-

"Where is the mayor?" Pamela Foster demanded of the three private security guards standing outside the entrance to the private suite on the top floor of Grand Central.

Next to her, one of the police officers who had just joined the squad had one hand on the grip of his sidearm. Behind the two officers, four members of the local police and some mall guards were crowded together.

Despite being notified in advance of the arrival of the uniformed men, the imposing bodyguards held their positions without moving. One of the men in suits, the one closest to the door, even puffed out his chest a bit to look even more intimidating.

"Where she is?" Pamela insisted firmly, also puffing out her chest, implying that she would talk to the mayor, whether by hook or by crook.

By way of support for her superior, the rookie officer raised his hand holding his sidearm and pointed it at one of the guards. It seemed that neither side would succeed in intimidating the other when, after an insufferable four seconds, the private guards relaxed their stance and stepped aside. One of them, the same one who had tried to look burlier, punched a code into the electronic panel on the wall and the automatic doors opened instantly.

"Come with me," said the same guard, bowing his head slightly and waving his arm in the familiar "may pass" gesture.

A large, well-lit hall, with sculptures and reproductions of famous paintings, met the group of policemen. From inside the foyer it was impossible to guess the exact size of the room, but the back wall followed the immense curve of the mall's exterior. A window revealed, behind thick glass, the typical view one might expect from a luxury suite located on the top floor of one of the tallest buildings in town: clouds gathering around a sunset that gave the sky a reddish hue. Only this time the distant buildings and roads on the outskirts looked burned out or crowded with people, a little farther still, almost reaching Hazeltucky, there was only smoke and fire.

A little higher up, between the banks of clouds that covered the sky, lights could be seen flickering.

«Lightning or gunfire» thought Officer Foster.

The leader of the town, the mayor, paced anxiously around the room, like a caged animal... only with her arms folded and shuffling her feet on the carpeted floor, she didn't even notice the intrusion of the policemen.

More black-suited bodyguards and some of the region's most influential people stared at her motionless. It didn't escape Officer Foster's notice that Mercy Graves, the assistant and second in command, seemed even more nervous than her boss.

"I thought you would be getting ready to evacuate by now. Why are you still here?" The rookie officer asked Mercy, barely returning his sidearm to its holster. The blonde just moved her mouth to answer.

"Ask the boss."

Pamela had to stand in front of the woman in the blue suit to get her attention.

"Ms. Amanda, you'll need to be escorted to a shelter." The two women already knew each other; the mayor had privately praised Officer Foster for her exemplary performance in a certain incident involving the matriarch of the largest family in the state, so she stopped briefly to greet her before continuing her nervous stomping.

"Pamela, I appreciate the concern, but you aren't needed here. This is the safest place in the whole city, the walls are thick, the windows are armored and tinted, from here I can communicate with whoever I want without the need to move, this is my 'work office', my place is here."

"We've already run computer simulations and drills, our assigned bunker is much better prepared for any eventuality than this place," Mercy insisted.

As soon as she heard her second-in-command's response, Mayor Amanda shot the blonde a sneer.

"We didn't make simulations for when the creatures from Dante's book came to kill us. I will not hide underground from my attackers."

It was obvious that the mayor was agitated and bewildered, but it was impossible to identify a hint of fear in her demeanor. During her years of service in military agencies she had been nicknamed "the Wall," and by her unflappable expression the nickname was well deserved.

"Please, Mayor, you must be reasonable," Mercy wouldn't give in so soon either.

"Reasonable?" The african-american woman pointed a finger at the office window. "Am I the only one who's seen the sky and the creatures that keep coming down from it? Does any of what's happening seem reasonable to you? Mercy, perhaps you need to take a stroll down the street to clear your…"

Before she could say anything else, Pamela was already running in her direction. Without a moment's hesitation, the fat officer pushed the chubby woman to the ground.

Without warning, a group of gargoyle-like beings appeared from the clouds, leaving a trail of dark smoke in their wake.

"LET ME GO!" shouted the mayor as she writhed on the floor, "HOW DARE YOU TO TOUCH ME?" Pamela had to use all her weight to pin the mayor to the ground before pulling her gun from the holster on her belt.

Years of training at the police academy couldn't have prepared her for what she saw for the next few seconds. Mouth agape in disbelief, Pamela Foster watched as the creatures' naked claws pierced and shattered the bulletproof glass. Moments later the window exploded inward, filling the room with shards of glass nearly an inch thick.

However, as the demonic apparitions began to prepare to enter the room and kill them all, they were interrupted by a shrill scream, another being larger than the creatures and green in color ascended from somewhere below the suite. The green creature's thin mouth was V shaped, it also had a wide forehead and a small chin... its emerald face reminded everyone present of a praying mantis.

The first two creatures were riddled by two pincers that came out from the back of that green beast. Before the other two demons could advance a couple of steps into the room they fell helplessly without head and arms after a brief fight with the green monster and as soon as it had destroyed the apparitions, the green entity stood completely still in the window sill despite the wind and the noise of the chaos below.

Pamela was sure that after butchering those creatures, the green thing would now kill them as well. Keeping the mayor down, Foster grabbed her by the collar of the blue suit and dragged her across the room to her security detail.

After leaving Amanda in the custody of her bodyguards, Pamela and her men took cover and aimed their pistols at the creature. But now there was little to see, the intimidating green beast was now in the form of an insectoid being, thin and small, barely comparable in size to the body of a young girl... though still sporting its characteristic green color.

«Flee with the others, if only four of these things were able to penetrate the "safest place in the whole city hall" you'll understand that you are in real danger», the voice of the green creature resounded in the minds of all present, it was a feminine and a little hoarse voice.

"Amanda Waller doesn't run away."

-o-

Lynn Jr., the enthusiastic Loud sister stood static in the skies above the center of Royal Woods, illuminated by the last rays of the sun. Now, thanks to the influence of the monsters rising from the Rock of Eternity, she looked quite like one of the graphic depictions Lucy collected of the natives of hell: a huge, majestic being, with claws and fangs, a pair of dark wings held her muscular, red body above the clouds. Various images of almost the entire town were projected in her mind, sent to her by every homunculus created every Sin. Lynn, or rather Wrath and Pride, studied them for a moment, before shifting position again.

The bright white patrol cars that were the pride of the current mayor were beginning to position themselves to protect some of the important places, mostly in the central area of the town. During the first minutes of the attack, Wrath had managed to catch some of those officers off guard, and now those people were also part of the growing number of subordinates forced to obey him. The remaining cops were momentarily keeping the invading creatures out of the central area, but that barely mattered, neither destruction nor death were the goals of the plan.

From the historical point of view of the Lightning Champions and other wizards who had faced them in the past, the Sins lacked a plan. Everyone believed that out of the desperation of hunger and overbearing, the Mortal Enemies of Man gathered all their resources and went on a blind attack and that's why they usually lost the battle. And the truth was that even the bland Sloth did his best not to contradict them. The creatures under the command of the Sins went everywhere and attacked at random, making themselves vulnerable to counterattacks while concentrating on smashing buildings and devouring whatever they could, only launching occasional attacks of fire and magic against some warlike target.

All of that was a fundamental part of the plan. The plan of terror that always paid off in the long run.

Endless rows of passenger and cargo vehicles were trying to escape from the town through its hundreds of roads. The number of people struggling to escape was almost as many as the number of people trying to get in and help, constricting the roads and making everyone present in them an easy victim of terror. In the fields near Royal Woods' edge, far from the conflict zones, some military vehicles were beginning to arrive, parked and waiting for official orders and thus indirectly contributing to cause more panic.

The streets and the space between the buildings were occupied by elements of the police and homunculi telepathically led by the Sins, both sides viciously destroying each other. At the beginning of the confrontation the officers' shots were completely effective against the creatures, leaving them completely destroyed or incapacitated. But as people grew angrier or more frightened as time went on, the Mortal Enemies gained power. Soon those suicide homunculus attacks were no longer necessary and they were content to just have them destroy the periphery. The sight of buildings widely known to everyone in Royal Woods collapsing in flames or the explosions of fire could be terrifying and demoralizing.

Columns of smoke rose from the farthest quarters of the center, indicating to Wrath that some of the creatures had begun to be created from frightened citizens with any virtue left.

As the number of attackers increased little by little, the maneuvers executed in the central zone indicated the growing anxiety of the policemen, who began to break formations, abandoning their designated shelters and starting to attack more directly.

It was obvious that they were expecting reinforcements from the neighboring towns. Greed and Lust had already anticipated that, destroying the telecommunication towers and preparing small traps on the roads. Though that hadn't stopped some military units from arriving not too far behind.

Still everything was going according to plan, the forces of the sins would grow large enough long before the human forces were organized enough to pose a serious threat.

Wrath took some time to absorb the magical potential gained from the battle below. He hated being so far away from the action and the bloodshed, but experience had taught him that he had to keep waiting and building up power. When the time came, all the waiting and frustration would be paid off.

"Big brother, shortwave calls are being generated in the center of the merchants' guild," Sloth said. "They're realizing that we only destroy without harming them... they're losing their fear."

"It's to be expected," Wrath replied without blinking. "This is when we rip their hope from them, and they end up plunging into chaos."

"Musclehead, can't you see we've started to lose too many extensions?" Greed screamed, "We're starting to lose more than we gain!"

Knowing that his annoying younger brother was correct, Wrath searched through his many eyes for the group of homunculi closest to the fallen ones.

When he found it he noticed that the only two surviving creatures were fleeing at full speed, one of the homunculi was missing its wings and an arm. Both were bathed in arcane magic.

Overriding their survival instincts, Wrath ordered them to turn around and make a suicidal attack on their attackers, both entities disappeared before they could even turn.

"We'll have to speed things up, we'll attack any building with greater intensity, especially the nearby area of the merchants' guild."

"Mine are already in that sector," Gluttony said.

"Then attack the landing points of those metal vehicles, the walkways, all the flashy stuff! Start smashing that pathetic defense but make sure the refugees see you do it!"

"Excellent, brother, I'll command them to go and..."

The connection with Gluttony's forces was nullified, the last thing the seven sins could see was a duo of magical lightning bolts destroying the entirety of the creatures present. The main game had begun.

"All our forces must intercept that bastard, lest the Lightning Champion escape!" the Mortal Enemies of Man shouted in unison.

It had come sooner than expected... The problem with the fear plan was that it distracted them so much that they forgot to make a contingency plan. It didn't matter anymore, little more than half the town was already in their clutches and those that were left were either dead or scared to death. They would have to stick to a type of fighting they had never practiced: a fight of attrition, where apparent victories ultimately ended in defeat for an exhausted Lightning Champion. Yet this was a fight in which if they lost, they would lose everything.

Sins train of thought fell silent as a new group of creatures headed into a first battle they already knew they lost, hopefully they would get a small update on the situation and ultimately end up winning by exhausting the Champion.

They fell silent again as they saw that they would now have to face two lightning bearers, Gluttony took the floor.

"A second Champion has emerged, we'll have to increase the number of attackers, as many as necessary!"

"The assault patrol is ready," Lust interjected. "Our escort forces have formed up. Forty-nine elite creations."

"That should be enough to finish off both champions, after all one of them already look tired..."

Wrath smirked.

-o-

After Lincoln's angry attack, the street in front of them had become empty, taking advantage of the opportunity both brothers ran until they reached the mall.

Once inside, and pretty much calmer, Lincoln wondered what had become of his other sisters. He wanted to believe that Lana or Lola had had a fight or that something had happened and the movie outing that Luna and Luan had planned had been cancelled, that at that very moment their family was at home unharmed... far from all the chaos; but neither, Luna or Luan, had called them asking, worried, where they were... so it was certain that no one was home yet. All they had as a trace was Lana's cap, Lucy had found it a few blocks from the mall.

Had Luna and the other victims of the attack been trapped under the rubble of one of the many collapsed buildings, or perhaps they were already part of the enemy ranks?

The biggest concern on Lincoln's mind was his mother and Lily well-being.

The mall, to the sibling's surprise, was crowded with people who had tried to flee the attack and the central part of town without success. If had it not been for the intervention of the police force, it was certain that the creatures would have rushed inside the building long ago. But even those brave men needed help, for they were beginning to run out of ammunition and moral strength with which to fight on.

The dwindling daylight filtered into the main hall through the tinted windows in the ceiling. The sun was beginning to set, with each second the interior resembled a little more of a warren that would only allow the monsters lurking in the night to pass through.

A blur of reddish light passed over the glass ceiling, immediately attracting the attention of the champions and the panic of the others. Aware that his sister had not yet fully recovered her breath, Lincoln rose into the air, approached the ceiling and, taking care not to make any noise, opened the vent nearest the strange glow; two creatures far larger than any they had faced so far were gnawing with their massive jaws and melting the metal sheets of the ceiling with their infernal fire. One of those titans opened with its claws a series of holes in one of the gas tanks before throwing the container into the street, the cylinder exploded as it hit the floor of the private park on one of the nearby terraces, almost tearing the trees from their roots.

The screams of the refugees holed up in the mall below him, all of them completely frightened by the explosion, reached Lincoln's ears.

"These are much bigger than anything we've seen so far!" Lincoln shouted to his sister and the policemen who were still ready to fight.

Before closing the gap he had just made in the roof, Lincoln saw one of those huge monsters rise above the plaza to descend down the opposite side of the building, setting off a series of explosions each time it broke a different one of the many pipes that supplied the entire building with electricity, water, and gas.

As soon as they heard Lincoln scream, the creatures responsible for the chaos resulting from the destroyed infrastructure rose again, disappearing from sight through the clouds, however, despite the fact that there were no more homunculi nearby, a smell of sulfur and cold air from outside began to waft in through the vents. From one of the shops on the upper floor, a small shop selling handmade chocolates, came a terrified wailing and a hysterical pounding of hands and feet against the metal containment curtain.

A man who was part of the mall security staff looked at Lucy with wild eyes and in a trembling voice groaned.

"If they are getting bigger we won't be able to fight them anymore!"

Lincoln stepped down from the roof and keeping a calm tone of voice addressed the leader of the assembled policemen.

"You get these people out of here, the two of us will take care of eliminating any creatures that come close to attacking you."

Highsmith, the highest ranking officer in the entire plaza, looked at Thunder as if he was insane.

"But the whole place is full of people and we're completely surrounded by those things! "

"I know, you'll have to find a solution while we're distracting those bastards."

As the cops cleared the main corridor, Lincoln gestured the fat security guard shivering next to Lucy to open an alternate emergency exit so the police could start getting people out.

As soon as the policemen began to organize the refugees into small groups to evacuate them more easily, Lincoln beckoned to Lucy and the two of them headed for the upstairs store that had just gone silent. The siblings let the power of the Lightning Champion flow through their bodies. Seeing the electric flashes coursing through the bodies of their mysterious saviors, the uniformed men began to back away, fighting off the civilians behind them who were pushing them to get a glimpse of the scene.

Without hesitation, Lucy and he broke through the containment curtain and entered the shop, where the bodies and corpses of different people huddled on the floor and still-warm blood dripped from the walls and the shelves full of candy. A fetid wind with the scent of rotten eggs, the scent of freshly summoned magic, blew through the entire store from a gaping hole in the store's roof, through which half a dozen of the same monsters Lincoln and Lucy had been fighting all day came down. Lincoln allowed himself a moment's puzzlement. These little homunculi were no match for the ones that had just opened the hole in the ceiling, and that could only mean that these giants were destined for something more important.

Without granting a second's respite, the newly arrived monsters began to fire from their mouths at their sworn enemies.

Just by being able to see the glowing fire of the creatures' gunfire as well as the rapid electric flashes the others were defending themselves with, the situation began to seem hopeless to the refugees and police officers outside the candy shop. Not because the two tall, muscular and super-powered fellows couldn't defend themselves, but because they were sure they couldn't destroy the enemies and defend them as well. But it was obvious that no one present knew that one of those mysterious guys had been chosen to carry the powers of the Lightning Champion, the one who had destroyed a world-devouring parasite a few hours ago, and that the other was an incipient expert in the mystic arts.

Together, the siblings exterminated the enemies. Sparks and smoke billowed from the candy shop, billowing out into the rest of the mall as the legs and arms of the vanquished foes flew out of the shop. Both champions had made sure against all odds that none of the refugees were hit by anything too large as they were evacuated.

As soon as the last gargoyle fell, Lincoln soared through the hole in the roof, and landed on the roof, the wind whipping his face and cloak making the latter flap uncontrollably behind his back, the albino was sure that at that moment he looked very cool.

With all his senses alert, Lincoln saw the duo of winged giants that had destroyed the roof of the plaza approaching through the air in a wide curve. Farther still, but rapidly approaching in a straight line, were two army helicopters.

The albino turned to follow the sight of the terrifying duo of overgrown homunculi approaching. At the sight of him, the beasts readied claws and fangs. Lincoln, with a childish gesture, stuck his tongue out at them, provoking them to face him directly.

But none of the wraiths managed to get close enough to attack. Wings punctured and torso severely damaged by shells fired from the pursuing helicopters, the beasts plummeted in mid-flight, bounced off Lincoln's legs, rolled and tumbled across the roof to hit the asphalt that awaited them four stories below.

Seeing that there were no more beasts nearby, Lincoln dropped through the hole in the roof and rejoined Lucy, now the square wasn't as crowded as the cops were finishing moving the refugees to a new safe place.

Among one of the groups of civilians that were hurrying to get out of the mall while everything was safe, the white-haired man managed to distinguish a familiar pair of chestnuts, both were surrounded by a group of blonde heads, only Lana was missing but the albino was confident that the young plumber was with the previous group of refugees, surrounded by policemen that would take care of her, just like her sisters who were just leaving.

Unable to contain herself Lucy let out an exhausted yawn. It was beginning to get dark and the goth was reaching the edge of her strength.

-o-

Amanda Waller was still in her private room, in the center of a circle formed by her numerous bodyguards. The plump woman looked, extremely serious, through a camera at the duo of hooded saviors who were guarding the civilian refugees in the mall.

The military helicopters, with no abominations left near Grand Central, dispersed to support other refugee extraction points, leaving the square silent.

"I don't understand Lincoln, those things that smashed the roof could have gotten in and killed everyone gathered here and escaped before the helicopters arrived."

"And there are too many creatures roaming the heights but almost none of them fall from the sky, only a few descend and force people to head for the center... almost as if they were herding a flock."

Lucy's pale eyes glowed as she understood what the Mortal Enemies of Man really wanted, with a nod of her head she gestured to the last refugees to leave.

"They don't want to kill them all... they want them alive... demoralized and scared."

The black-haired woman had just said those words when something struck the ceiling with enough force to shake everyone still inside the building. Waller's guards had barely regained their balance and resumed their defensive postures when the entire building began to echo with the rhythm of heavy footsteps, announcing a creature whose claws were digging into the concrete outside the plaza.

"The real enemies are here," Lincoln growled.

Despite sweating and panting, Lucy smiled and winked at her older brother.

"I'm ready for anything."

They sped toward the destroyed candy store, quickly rose up and passed through the roof. Still several meters away was the receptacle of the Mortal Enemies of Man, accompanied by several dozen of those gigantic, monstrous creatures.

Undaunted by his corrupted sister's new appearance, Lincoln raised his arms from within his billowing cloak, putting himself on guard, and wrapped his hands with the power of lightning. Just as his fingers were beginning to glow with electricity, Lynn was already on top of him, attacking him with her claws and fangs. Lincoln, who was trying to keep the beast his older sister had transformed into at bay while dodging its attacks, rolled between the monster's legs and limited himself to striking only at the beast's hardened face, for he knew that was the only way to stun such a creature.

The paws of the receptacle of the Mortal Enemies of Man vibrated and hissed every time they slammed into the Champion's forearms surrounded by reaper lightning. Lynn kept herself anchored to the ceiling of the plaza by her claws, however that method limited her movements as well, and Lincoln, on the other hand, and thanks to his ability to fly, moved freely across the ceiling without staying in the same place for too long, exploiting blind spots in lynn's defense and slipping away from the creature's blows.

Lincoln's first and only mistake was to blink, in that small instant the creature decided to attack with full force. Lynn swung its torso so that its clawed arms arced parallel to the surface of the ceiling, the claw slashed both forearms and knocked the white-haired man off the ceiling. In pain, Lincoln couldn't break his fall until he hit the ground floor.

The Mortal Enemies of Man already knew what to expect when facing a Lightning Champion, they could consider themselves experts in countering magical techniques and the human they had chosen was an expert in the martial arts. Looking into the memories of the body they now occupied, the sins discovered that the teenage girl had already defeated the human identity of the Champion countless times in any kind of physical competition.

It became obvious to the Sins that Lincoln didn't know how to fight with the dark and elegant techniques that his sister Lynn mastered, so completely confident in their physical superiority, they rushed to continue the fight against Thunder.

Still in the skies above the mall, the flock of elite homunculi, the escort of the Mortal Enemies of Man, made the mistake of engaging in a ranged duel with Lucy. The goth's body was a cyclone of fatuous fire. The creatures' stony skin was certainly resistant to magical energy discharges, making them formidable foes but in order to counterattack they first needed to identify a target and Lucy wouldn't allow them to fire even a single fireball.

With spells and attacks that even a hero of legend would envy, the black-haired woman circled the monsters, dodging their attacks and taking down a different abomination with each energy shot.

The power of the air finally pushed away the remains of their defeated opponents, the power of the Mortal Enemies of Man along with that of both Champions had summoned a massive thunderstorm that covered the entire town.

The loss of their elite escort and the changing weather didn't go unnoticed by any of Man's Mortal Enemies, but it didn't distract or slow them down at all. Blindly confident in their physical superiority, they were only concerned with relentlessly attacking Lincoln.

Achilles' courage and Solomon's intelligence, after exchanging a few blows with Lynn, ended up helping Lincoln analyze the combat technique that the Sin's receptacle was using, so after some meditation, Thunder began to change his stance and fighting style, altering the angle from which he struck, his responses and blocks to each enemy attack.

The result could not be considered a martial 'art', but it was certainly effective in countering all the techniques that the Mortal Enemies of Man tried to employ. When the Sins began to take more hits than they could block or return they lost interest in fighting any longer. They began to attack blindly and furiously, desperate to end the fight as quickly as possible.

Noticing almost instantly the desperation of his enemies and taking advantage of an oversight on their part, Lincoln kicked the inside of the monster's right knee as the creature stubbornly continued to advance. From the surprised look in the avatar's glowing eyes, Lincoln understood that for all its power, the human side was not always completely under the control of the dark beings. His sister, the brave woman and excellent buddy in play and mischief, wanted to avoid Lincoln's trip, but the monster, commanded by the Sins, only wanted to tear Lincoln in half with its claws.

The creature's right hoof buckled, causing its knee to quickly touch the ground. Unable to support its full weight with one foot, the beast lost its balance and staggered. Lincoln stood up with tears in his eyes, he raised both arms above his head ready to sink his fists into his sister's head, if he had he succeeded in his purpose he would have burst Lynn's skull and sent the sins into a deep sleep, but a sudden impact to his right eye forced him to cover his face. A army helicopter had returned and was firing at the two indiscriminately, Lincoln had to relent in his attempt to deliver the final blow and fly a couple of yards away. Staying out of range of the bullets, Lincoln sent a powerful bolt of lightning at the craft and brought it down on the spot.

Seeing himself free of interruption, the white-haired man tried to continue his attack on the sins, but the creature had fled... Had it flown away? Had the helicopter managed to harm it now that it was weak? Was he really willing to kill his older sister?

Lincoln didn't have much time to think about his questions. A hundred yards away, more helicopters and some ground troops could be seen approaching.

What was really worrying was that before they left, the avatar of the Mortal Enemies of Man had already prepared one last trick to cover they escape; the columns of the mall exploded into a thousand pieces and the whole building began to fall, with people still inside.


remember guys, I'm not a native english speaker but I'm eager to learn, please tell me when I'm wrong

And before you go... or I forget
Let me tell you guys that If you enjoyed my fic, please send me an PM with any feedback you may have... pretty pretty please (
if you ever, ever feel like you're nothing you're fucking perfect to me) that will help and motivate me to create more fanfics in the future.