Ch. 68: Closing in
A.N.:
Hey everyone!
Finally a new chapter!
I wanted to do one last little Halloween chapter in the main story, and I am thrilled that I was able to make it happen.
I feel a little rusty with my proofing and writing so I apologize if this chapter isn't up to code…so to speak. I tried really hard to make it fun and spoopy though.
Also, warning…there is a fluff bomb dropped near the end.
Sorry for the absence of a new chapter as of late. Between trying to finish college, family issues, and life in general, I have been a little busy. Hopefully I will be able to finish this story soon!
Anyway, enough of that, eh? Lol
Read and review if you want!
Happy Halloween!
The chorus of war assaulted my senses as I moved forward through the disgusting Apocalyptic landscape that Earth had become with my assault rifle held firmly in my grasp. The world beneath the ever darkening, hellish sky caused by the continuing series of Alma's supercharged psionic blasts was all but unrecognizable as the once colorful and vivid planet had been reduced to little more than a seemingly endless sea of sludge-like mud that was dotted with the occasional psionically warped, ruined city. A normal soldier might have found themselves being unnerved or at least slightly hindered by the Apocalyptic state of these new conditions. However, as I exited through the front of the crumbling remains of yet another warehouse, I could not help but smile beneath my bloodied, faded skull ski mask as I found myself never feeling more at home.
It had been a very wise decision to have F.E.A.R. and Spartan Special Ops readily on hand near the frontline as we advanced towards the Hell Portal in the heart of what had once been Russia because, in addition to the hostile paranormal entities that had been stirred up by Alma's psionic blasts, the remnants of my daughter's army that we were encountering were not what we had anticipated. Without Akira's influence, we had expected her army of Hellsoldiers to be greatly disorganized and have little, if any, real leadership amongst their ranks. The closest that we had to compare it to was how the rogue groups "impaired" Replica had been fighting the remnants of the original Dark Signal as we had closed in on the amplifier at Still Island.
While that was indeed the state of the hellspawn that we had thus encountered so far, the thing that had caught us off guard was that their appearances had started to vary slightly without Akira's influence to mold them into what she saw as the "perfect soldier" with most of them still somewhat resembling burned soldiers with features somewhat akin to my own but an increasing number of them were now only generic human-shaped figures with vague impressions of body armor and traditional military weaponry at best. In addition, some of them had even abandoned intelligent forms of armed military combat and had devolved into using physical attacks in suicidal, Banzai-style charges. I had noted that the later of these new hellspawn were very similar to that of Alma's own manifested shadow creatures.
As a result of the near complete disintegration of anything resembling discipline and order in the army of hellsoldiers and the ever-increasing number of encounters with supernatural entities that were being stirred up by the calamity going on around them, the war had become a chaotic mess that was summed up perfectly by the American military's infamous slang "FUBAR". However, despite all of this, we were still pushing forward towards the literal gates of Hell in an organized, disciplined manner.
I was currently making my way down the middle of what remained of a street with the burned out, crumbling remains of various buildings on either side of me. With the all too familiar sound of the crunching of charred asphalt beneath the soles of my well-worn combat boots and the sight of wrecked vehicles dotting the road, I could not help but wonder if Alma had actually been secretly using her Nightmare World to prepare me for the shock of what the real world would ultimately be turned into. If that was indeed the case, I had to admit that her foresight was both truly terrifying and truly awe-inspiring.
As I neared another 4-way intersection, this one having the smoldering husk of a city bus that was sitting in the middle of said intersection and positioned as if it was in the process of completing a right turn, my instincts caused me to literally jump into cover behind the bus as two machine gun emplacements in the far left and right office buildings began to open fire. However, I somehow managed to luck out once again as the thick frame of the rear-mounted engine block of the bus provided just enough protection from the deluge of rounds before Bravo 2 neutralized both emplacements with lethal, pinpoint supporting fire from where he was manning the cannon of Dark Signal's APC approximately fifteen yards behind me.
The already badly damaged walls and floors of the civilian-grade office buildings were no match for the powerful rounds from the APC's mounted cannon and the structures more or less caved in upon themselves in massive clouds of dust and flying debris. However, there was no time to even remotely celebrate as a wave of nearly a dozen specters charged out of the settling dust clouds towards us. The residual "imprints" of the recently deceased inhabitants of the city were understandably riled up by the collapse of the two buildings and, with the background psionic pollution levels easily approaching what it had been at Ground Zero for the Origin Explosion in Fairport, the transparent ghostly beings had a nearly unlimited energy source to draw from to physically attack anything that earned their ire.
With the world around me slowing to a crawl, I raised my worn and still bayonet tipped Patten PK470 Assault Rifle and then began to fire upon the approaching creatures. The shimmering supernatural entities were very little threat individually because they were easily neutralized with only two or three 7.8mm rounds to literally anywhere along their corporal forms. However, the numbers that we were encountering the swarm like-combatants in as we closed in on the portal was beginning to be a genuine threat.
My body seemed to move on its own as my extensive combat experience directed my movements in an almost instinctive manner. Meanwhile, Alpha 1 and Foxtrot 813 joined in as we mowed down the ghostly figures that, for a terrifying moment, seemed truly endless as they attempted to swarm us. Fortunately, however, despite the primal ferocity of the attack, the creatures were nearly helpless under the onslaught of our firepower. In fact, this time, only five of them actually managed to get close enough to potentially harm one of us. Just as the group of ghostly figures had closed in and tried to attack us, a blast of pure psionic energy manifested just in front of us and then shot forward to literally vaporize the ghostly figures mere inches away from where we were standing.
My surgically enhanced reflexes deactivated seconds later when it seemed as if the humanoid figures had either been wiped out or they had given up for the time being. The proverbial and literal dust began to settle as my comrades and I were once again the only inhabitants of the heavily war-torn street. Taking a breath, I allowed myself to momentarily relax as I began to regain my bearings. As I did so while reloaded my weathered assault rifle, I glanced to my left and saw that Alma had manifested next to me. She was in her child form with her red dress-clad, bloodied frame surrounded by a jet black, pulsing aura. My wife had an almost taunting expression on her slightly obscured face that informed me that she had been the one that had saved us just moments prior.
I smiled slightly beneath my skull ski mask and then addressed my companion, "Alma…"
A brief smile appeared on her otherwise blank, porcelain doll like face before she replied, "Michael…"
The hellish sky above us bathed her frame with its dark red light in a way that made the blood that now saturated her strikingly feminine, pale body almost appear to glow despite the pulsating black aura surrounding her. Despite the circumstances, I could not help but be struck by how unimaginably beautiful the demoness before me was at that moment.
However, as I continued to look at the raven-haired psionic before me, from behind me, I heard Foxtrot 813 remark with his modified Variant VII voice, "Get a fuckin' room, you two."
Alma hugged me as she shot back, "What's wrong? Are you jealous, 813?"
The battle-hardened "Elite" form of a standard Replica Trooper made an annoyed clicking noise before he then began to move towards our APC to restock on ammunition. As he did, the red dress-clad demoness stated with a reassuring tone, "You are just as precious to me, Foxtrot. After all, you are my son just like Point Man."
The clone of Paxton Fettel paused in almost mid-step and then began to silently look at his true biological mother for a moment before looking away and slowly continuing towards our APC. It had been a long time since he had been possessed by the Second Origin Prototype but it was still a touchy issue for 813. As I had learned during his confrontation with Fettel in the "Good" Universe, the rage of being used and the guilt of murdering the members of his squad while under Paxton's influence was very real beneath the bravado façade. However, lately, I had noticed that Foxtrot had indeed grown genuinely attached to his "mother".
Before I could try to make a comment, one of the Replica War Dog Commanders contacted me via our telepathic link as he informed me, 'Commander, we have lost contact with Recon Team Theta. Their last report was that they were nearing 5 of Spades and only encountering expected levels of supernatural resistance. They have failed to meet the last three mandatory check-ins and are not responding.'
Since the location that had been designated as "5 of Spades" was fairly close to our current location, I stated, 'Copy that. Part of Dark Signal will investigate and search 5 of Spades for Recon Team Theta. Meanwhile, have the rest of our forces continue with the operation as planned.'
The Replica Commander replied without question, 'Yes, sir! Continuing operation as planned.'
As the rest of the Replica Forces continued on with the operation, I turned to face my squad and then explained, "We have lost contact with Recon Team Theta. Alpha 1, Foxtrot 813, and Point Man…follow me. We're going to investigate. The rest of you continue towards the rendezvous point."
After they all gave their response, I turned and then began to make my way down the street that had been to the left of the road that we had been previously using to make our way towards the final rendezvous point. I could sense Alpha 1 close behind me while Foxtrot 813 and Point Man were both about two or three steps behind me as I methodically made my way down the war-torn, nightmarish street with my rifle at the ready. The gutted, destroyed buildings around us were casting eerie shadows along the surface of the road due to the hellish red sky above us and, now that we were becoming somewhat removed from the intense fighting that had consumed the area, I could just faintly hear the whisper of wind as it snaked through the maze-like contours of the city.
A new surge of nostalgia hit me as I saw Alma in her child form standing by a wrecked car about halfway down the street. The sedan was turned sideways in the road with its right side facing us. The ruined vehicle's paint had been burned almost completely off to reveal its charred skeletal frame by what had likely been a blaze fueled by its own gasoline tank. However, by now, the blaze had lone-since been extinguished since it had likely burned itself out.
As we continued to make our way down the street, Alma simply silently observed us from where she was standing by the destroyed car. Due to the shadows cast on the road by the buildings around us, I was able to more easily see her glowing left eye that was, at the moment, the only one not covered by the bangs of her long raven-colored hair that was being ever so slightly blown by the wind. As I got closer, I was able to see the immense amount of maternal pride in her visible eye as well as the ever so slight smug smile on her child form's normally mask-like facial expression.
When we finally got close enough, the raven-haired demoness remarked with traces of pride in her siren-like voice, "My four favorite boys…Mother gets to see you in action again."
Having become accustomed and even somewhat fond of my wife's creepy mannerisms, I simply smiled slightly beneath my skull ski mask. When we finally reached her, Alma simply giggled softly and then began to follow us while she playfully skipped along beside me. Despite being in her own little world, I was grateful for the demoness's presence during this search and rescue. The five man team of Recon Team Theta was comprised of Elite Replicas that were all veterans of assignments around Ground Zero at Fairport during the conflict to finally fight off ATC from the area. To say that they were formidable soldiers that could hold their own was an almost comical understatement.
For veterans such as Recon Team Theta to have been overpowered or to have at least run afoul of some kind of supernatural being was nothing less than disturbing. As such, having Alma nearby was very comforting. It could just be an extraordinarily strong local being, but it was also possible that it was the Plague Doctor. I knew that the four of us would be capable of facing the former, but the latter would require the assistance of the unimaginably powerful "Mother of the Apocalypse" in order for us to properly counter him in an area that was as close quarters and isolated as the area around 5 of Spades.
A few minutes later, we had finally made it to the far end of the street. We were met with the sight of an intersection with all three of the other directions of the four-way crossing being essentially blocked by rubble from the destroyed buildings. Our destination was about a block or so over from where we were, and, since time was of the essence, so we had no choice but to try to find a way around the piles of rubble.
Looking around, I noticed that the building in the upper left corner of the intersection from where I was standing was the most intact. Moreover, the entrance of what had likely once been a convince store was slightly open. Far more importantly, the only thing that appeared to be preventing the now only bare metal skeleton of a glass door from freely opening and closing was one of the white product shelves that had been forced out of position and against the entrance when, as best I could surmise, the roof and upper floors had collapsed in the middle of the four story building.
With nothing else to try, I made my way over to the entrance of the former store. When I arrived at the door, I saw that the shelving that was pinning the metal frame in place was not full and most of its former contents were visible on the floor around it. In addition, it was not very tall at about the chest height of an average sized man. As I looked further into the building, I felt a surge of relief when I saw that the back exit of the store was open and that there was a path along the outside of the pile of debris in the center of the abandoned establishment. Reaching through the opening where the glass had once been, I began to use my gloved left hand to push the shelving out of the way.
As I pushed the obstacle out of the way, I began to hear what sounded like the distorted voice of a middle-aged man coming from inside what I had been certain was an empty building. Despite the sound of the shelf scraping along the dirty tile floor beneath it, I was able to pinpoint the voice as coming from inside the store about twenty or so yards away from the door. As such, after moving the obstacle, I motioned towards Alpha 1 and my brother nodded.
The Replica Heavy Trooper moved to stand on the opposite side of the entrance and then retrieved a shock grenade from his equipment reserve along his worn, thick armor. I gripped the handle of the door and then swiftly opened it fully outwards. At the same time, my brother just as swiftly cocked the grenade and then threw it inside the establishment through the now fully open entrance. Moments later, the explosive device detonated and discharged its special payload throughout the store. Just after the shock grenade exploded, I rushed through the open doorway with my 7.8mm Assault Rifle at the ready and the world moving at a snail's pace due to my enhanced reflexes.
As I did so, I yelled, "Breaching, Breaching!"
Just behind me, Alpha 1 yelled, "Go! Go! Go!"
However, upon entering the store and taking in the scene before me, I deactivated my reflexes and lowered my weapon as I called out, "Clear!"
Along the left wall beyond the entrance was the remains of the checkout counter. The ghostly image of a middle aged man with what might have been short black hair and a clad in a set of professional clothing that included a buttoned up, short sleeve, collared shirt that was neatly tucked into what might have been cargo pants with a belt and slightly polished shoes. Given the man's attire and age, I surmised that he might have once been the manager of the convenience store.
As I watched, the man moved out from around the counter and began yelling and motioning towards an unseen individual. His ghostly voice was too warped for me to properly make out what he was saying but the anger was clearly evident, and his energetic demeanor made it very evident that he was having some kind of heated argument with the other individual or individuals. Moreover, the man motioned angrily towards the main exit a few times as he appeared to have moved to be directly in front of someone that was potentially threatening him or just refusing to leave the store.
However, suddenly, about a minute or so after the man had apparently first approached the individual or individuals that were causing him so much distress, he suddenly recoiled back with both of his arms up in a shocked, surrendering motion. Seconds later, his body jerked and then collapsed onto the ground while a dark spot appeared on his chest. As the man laid on the ground giving off anguished moans, the sounds of frantic movement that included the sound of various items around the store being grabbed and also the sound of various pairs of heavy footsteps filled the air of the store. Then, about thirty seconds later, the man was seemingly left to die by the individuals as the footsteps faded out the door.
Almost immediately afterwards, the scene repeated as the man once again appeared as he moved out from behind the counter to once again approach his soon-to-be murderers. I felt a slight stab of guilt as it soon became apparent that, much like the spirits of the woman and child that I had encountered inside the ruins of the subway tunnel in Hong Kong, there was nothing that we could do for this poor individual. His tormented spirit was now effectively etched into the psychic landscape of where he had been murdered.
Much like a looping scene from a movie, the man was forced to repeat his death over and over for as long as this plane of reality continued to exist. Alma and I had come to theorize that it required a perfect storm to create "ghosts" such as this. Not unlike Alma herself, they had some level of psionic abilities but, unlike her, their abilities were likely so weak that the individuals were likely never aware of them. Thus, unlike Alma, who was infamous for not only her extraordinary psionic power but also for her unbreakable willpower, these individuals were left as slaves to their own intense emotions and memories of their violent and brutal demise. Thus, they simply repeated their deaths over and over again as they were unable to break the vicious cycle that they had been trapped in by their own unknown psionic powers.
Sighing, I began to move towards the back exit. None of my companions made any comments on the sight of the replaying murder. It was not that we did not sympathize with the man or his untimely demise. It was because, at this point, there was simply nothing to say about yet another supernatural encounter.
Upon exiting the store and entering the dark alley behind it, I saw Alma in her child form leaning against the apartment building directly behind the store with her back resting against its brick exterior. Anyone else would have believed that the raven-haired demoness was simply staring blankly at them, but I was easily able to see the almost smug look of pride that was beneath her mask-like expression. I let out a confused hum at her as I moved closer as I saw that the far end of the alley was blocked by rubble but there was a fire exit that allowed access into the apartment complex directly above her.
In response, my wife explained, "You've come a long way from the shy, frail little boy that I used to enjoy frightening and teasing."
With my gloved left hand briefly surrounded by a dark red aura, I lifted my arm up and then forced the ladder of the fire escape to lower.
Then, after lowered my arm back down and reaching out towards the closest part of the ladder with my left hand, I shot back with an irritated tone, "You still enjoy frightening and teasing me."
Alma let out a soft, creepy giggle before she remarked, "Naughty boy knows he loves it when the dirty girl treats him like her plaything."
I made an irritated clicking noise and then shouldered my rifle before I began to ascend the ladder. If my calculations were correct, I would be able to reach 5 of Spades if I managed to find a way out the front of the apartment complex.
As I ascended the ladder, a pair of Replica Apache helicopters roared overhead before disappearing out of view as they flew to assist the Replica-lead allied armed forces that had descended upon the city as we closed in on the portal to Hell itself. I felt a brief surge of pride in the Replica. We were the last of our worlds that was still standing but we were not going into the proverbial quiet night without a fight. We were achieving the seemingly impossible by overpowering a literal unlimited army of hellspawn through our use of Alma's supercharged explosions to force our way through a narrow window in their forces. Granted, we were burning the world in order to save it, but, in my opinion, a burned world was better than no world at all.
However, upon reaching the landing of the fire escape, my sense of pride was replaced by an ominous feeling of dread. I had long since learned that such feelings were the telltale sign of the presence of either malignant entities or simply powerful entities that had enough free will to be dangerous if they were provoked. In addition, as I examined the windows that were within reach of the fire escape, I saw that only the one on the fourth floor of the seven-story tall building was not boarded up.
Sighing once again, I retrieved my rifle and began to ascend the winding metal staircase that connected the landings of the fire escape. I could hear my companions following me on the creaking, rusted staircase as I ascended it on my way towards the fourth floor. Alma was waiting for me when I reached my destination in her child form as she was once again leaning against the building though, this time, she was resting just to the left of the open window.
The glass was missing from the window frame and the interior of the room just beyond it was pitch black. In addition, as I approached the opening, the sense of dread increased, and the air began to feel much colder. The atmosphere of the apartment was almost as oppressive as the one of the basement area of Wade Elementary. Sensing my uneasiness, the red dress-clad demoness cheekily remarked while she playfully raised her arms up as if she was offering a hug, "Mother will go first if it is too scary."
My wife's tactic worked as I became too annoyed to be afraid to enter the apartment complex and, after turning on the flashlights on both my HUD glasses and on my assault rifle, I stepped into the room beyond the window. Alma had always had a way of riling me up enough to let me push on through events that might have otherwise made me think twice about continuing any further. Though I would likely never admit it, especially not to her directly, I would certainly have not made it as far as I had in my life without her help that had started from when she had essentially saved me during my childhood.
The air in the building was ice cold and initially nearly as silent as a tomb. However, the silence was shattered by the almost deafening sound of crunching glass as my boots made contact with the remains of the window as I stepped into the room. Upon entering the abandoned residence, I found myself in the tiny dining area of the tiny apartment. Beyond it, I saw a small attached kitchen that had an open doorway to the left of it. Through the open doorway, I saw a short, narrow hallway that led to the front door. I could see two closed doors along the left wall of the hallway at the quarter and then three-quarter mark down the approximately twenty-yard-long wall.
About halfway down the right wall, I saw a door-less opening that most likely led into the utility room that might also double as the laundry room. Meanwhile, the faded wooden front door had a peephole and it was open slightly inwards. However, I was unable to see anything distinct about the dark hallway beyond the front door through the narrow view allowed by the opening in the doorway.
There were various pieced of broken furniture around the apartment such as the remains of the small dinner table in the dining room that was lying on its left side and four shattered chairs that were around the small bar area of the kitchen. As I moved deeper into the residence to let my companions enter through the window frame, I also noticed the dust-covered pictures of a small family that were likely the former residents of the apartment on top of a small stand along the left wall about halfway between the dining room and the kitchen area.
Despite the dust obscuring the majority of the details of the photos, I was able to make out that the young-looking man and woman appeared to have a daughter that appeared to be around six or seven years old. However, before I could study the pictures any further, my focus was diverted to the lights and shadows on the area before me as well as the sound of the built-in night vision optics in Alpha 1's one functional glowing yellow "eye" and Foxtrot 813's glowing faceplate powering on as they entered the pitch black apartment complex. Looking back, I felt a brief ting of jealously as I saw the two Replica calmly looking around without the need for a source of light while both Point Man and I were forced to rely on our flashlights.
Focusing back on the task at hand, I turned back around to face the slightly open front door of the apartment and then began to slowly make my way towards it with my assault rifle held at the ready with a vice-like grip. I made it to the open doorway that lead into the narrow hallway and found that the air had become so cold that I would have likely been able to see my own breath had it not been for my mask. In addition, my psionic senses were giving off increasingly intense alarm bells as I could detect the nearby presence of multiple, sentient entities. While I could normally home in and focus on such beings, in this case, there were so many that I was unable to make sense of the "noise". The closest comparison that I could make was being in a huge crowd and trying to listen to a single conversation that was clear on the opposite side of the crowd.
As I neared the entrance to the utility room, my flashlights began to flicker, and my HUD glasses began to malfunction as the display became filled with static and various pieces of the displayed information erratically moved out of their proper spot before almost instantly snapping back into place. Just as I neared the open doorway, I involuntarily recoiled slightly back from the utility room as an inhumanly pale blonde-haired girl that appeared to be about eleven or twelve years old peered out of the utility room and stared at me with three pairs of wide open jet-black eyes and a disturbingly blank expression.
However, it was not the mask-like blank look on the girl's face or her set of jet-black eyes, which gave off an insect-like vibe to her appearance, that were the most disturbing part of the encounter. It was the fact that only the blonde-haired girl's head was visible as she peered out from the utility room.
My two flashlights illuminated her frost grey face while their flickering lights reflected off both her pitch-black eyes and the thick strands of venom that were dripping from the four massive fangs that appeared as she opened her insect-like mouth as we stared at each other for a moment. If the monstrous child had felt any fear in that moment, it was not visible as she hid it beneath a display of bravado as she bared her lethal fangs at me in a brief display of power. However, before my enhanced reflexes could even kick in, the mysterious young girl then let out a deafening, high-pitched hiss before she retreated back into the pitch-dark utility room.
Unable to recover from her disorientating cry in time, I could not chase after the blonde, insect-like girl for several seconds. By the time I was able to recover, I heard the distinct, unmistakable sound of something large moving through the walls of the building as the blonde-haired girl made her retreat. Before she moved too far into the bowls of the building, I was able to pick up on a bizarre noise that sounded just like a louder version of the scurrying noise that a large insect made as it used its multiple legs to propel itself.
Once I collected my thoughts, I realized what kind of entity I was dealing with. As far as I was aware, there was not a particularly unique origin for what was known as the "Spider Woman". I knew that it existed in Japanese Folklore as a kind of Yōkai. However, it also existed in some form in several other cultures. Admittedly, my knowledge of the background stories of any supernatural creatures beyond specters or "ghosts" was limited and likely incomplete or outright incorrect. Even Alma's knowledge of creatures such as this was surprisingly scant considering her normally encyclopedic-like knowledge of the supernatural.
Trying to confirm my suspicions, I looked down at my feet. There, my theory proven correct as I saw the nearly invisible strands of vibration-sensitive webbing on the floor beneath the soles of combat boots that must have given away my presence. The Spider Woman had probably known that we were in the apartment from the moment I stepped on the floor by the window thanks to her network of webbing. She had just been waiting for us to move deeper into the apartment towards the utility room so she could ambush us. Our weapons, heavy armor, and numbers had likely been the only reasons that she had decided against the ambush at the last moment.
We had gotten lucky. Our weapons, heavy armor, and numbers had likely been the only reasons that she had decided against the ambush at the last moment. While I did know the folkloric origins of such a creature, F.E.A.R.'s combat reports of encounters before the Fairport Incident and The War were burned into my mind. I knew what kind of monster that we were about to have to engage in close quarters combat.
Even for a Special Ops-level soldier, a Spider Woman was a formidable foe. Their webbing was a strong as steel and their fangs could easily pierce traditional body armor. That was, of course, in addition to their vastly superior physical strength and speed. They were ambush predators by nature so it was possible to avoid a confrontation with a display of overwhelming strength but that was not always a guarantee because, as past experience had shown, it was ultimately up to whether the Spider Woman thought that she could successfully take down her prey in the moment that decided whether or not she would pounce.
The most dangerous weapon in their arsenal, however, was the venom that they would inject into their prey. It was, of course, far more potent than even the most dangerous normal spider species. F.E.A.R. had described it as "a natural equivalent of super concentrated hydrochloric acid". Once a victim was injected with her venom, he or she would literally have their insides melted while she or he was still alive. There was no method to counter a full, direct injection by a full-grown Spider Woman.
In effect, her venom combined with her immense physical prowess used in conjunction with a body evolved for stealth to ambush prey made a Spider Woman an unparalleled, highly efficient predator and a true marvel of the supernatural world.
I quickly turned and remarked to my companions, "Watch yourself, we got a Spider Woman in here."
After I did, I immediately returned to being at full alert. Considering how formidable a Spider Woman was, this one could very easily be responsible for the missing Recon Team Theta if she had gotten the drop on them. Her territory could easily extend beyond this single apartment building so it was seemingly inevitable that we would have to neutralize her. In addition, she was actually not a psionic being. Therefore, she could not be the one that was responsible for the high levels of psionic energy in the apartment building. That meant that there were other, just as dangerous, beings present in the structure.
My intuition was rewarded moments later when the front door to the apartment burst fully open with enough force to vibrate the walls as a shadow-like humanoid with bright red eyes rushed towards me. In the second or so that I had thanks to my activated enhanced reflexes, I noted that it moved like a normal human being but, instead of making noise as it rushed towards me, it was completely silent.
With only a second or so to spare, I began to open fire with my 7.8mm PK470 Assault Rifle. The shadow being let out a loud screech of agony as beams of light appeared in a tight grouping in the center of its chest as my rounds hit their mark and punched through their target. However, even after emptying half a clip into the being, it continued towards me with its claw-like hands reaching out seemingly ready to rip into me. Finally, after firing approximately twenty five of my thirty round clip, the shadow creature let out a final cry of fury and then evaporated into an ash-like cloud only a few inches in front of me.
There was little cause for celebration, however. The ruckus had stirred up the other resident spirits in the apartment building. Mere seconds after deactivating my reflexes, I began to see multiple figures dart past the open doorway while I also heard multiple doors began to violently open and close throughout the building. I could not help but note that, all in all, the uproar was remarkably similar to the chaotic scene in the hallway beyond the Music Room at Wade Elementary.
I heard Alma let out an irritated noise and turned to see her placing both hands over her ears as she commented with an annoyed tone, "So noisy!"
I smiled slightly at her childish outburst before then turning back to face the exit to the apartment once again. We had to find a way out of the front of the apartment building and into the area of Five of Spades before it was too late. Our forces would be approaching a certain crossing point soon and control over Five of Spades would be vital to keep our final advance towards the Hell Portal on schedule.
After quickly reloading my rifle, I then began to move towards the open doorway with my weapon at the ready. As I moved past the utility room, I saw the abandoned lair of the young Spider Woman. From what was visible in the brief second or so that it was in my field of view, I saw that nearly the entire room was filled floor to ceiling with thick collections of spiderweb save for the large, human-sized hole in the far back wall that had allowed her to escape.
The webbing was so thick that it would not surprise me if even a Variant VII Replica had trouble escaping from it if he was overpowered and dragged into one of her "nests". I was also able to see the dried husk of what was most likely a man considering the broadness of the shoulders wrapped up in a cocoon-like covering in the left corner of the room. The cocoon had a noticeable opening around the right side of the chest with a dried mixture of bodily fluids around the rim of the jagged fist-sized hole where the spider woman had "drank" her victim dry after her venom had worked its disgusting magic on his insides. Fortunately, the husk and the webbing surrounding it looked far too old to be a member of the missing recon team and, thus, I simply dismissed it and kept moving towards the open doorway.
Upon exiting the small apartment, I quickly looked in both directions to survey the hallway beyond the doorway. The hallway was approximately fifty yards long in both directions and had apartments in equal spacing of along both sides. The stairwell down to the next floor was to the left and a dead end was to the right.
As I had both heard and seen inside the apartment, there were multiple shadow spirits darting around the hallway as they seemed to be trying to flee in a chaotic frenzy but were unable to find an exit. Meanwhile all the intact doors were slamming open and close as the aforementioned spirits were running in and out of the various apartments in their seemingly futile attempts to flee the building. However, much like the tragic spirits of the children that had died at Wade Elementary, the "imprints" of the residents of the apartment building were always going to be effectively trapped with its walls.
Fortunately, these types of supernatural beings, despite being semi-sentient, were almost completely harmless and, thus, were not going to be a threat for the most part aside from having the ability to potentially inconvenience us. The biggest obstacle between us and a way to Five of Spades would still most likely be the Spider Woman. Steeling myself, I exited the doorway and then began to make my way to the left.
The hallway was just wide enough to allow two heavily armed soldier to stand next to each other. Thus, as we moved towards the staircase, Alpha 1 was directly to my right while Foxtrot 813 and Point Man were a few steps behind us. Meanwhile, Alma was skipping towards the stairs as she was slightly out in front of us and was once again in her own little world.
As I watched my wife casually skip down the hallway in her child form, I could not help but have a flash of a memory of me casually following after her down the hallways of Wade Elementary back during the days of my still foggy childhood to appear for the briefest of moments before my mind's eye. With her ability to "read" the teachers' minds and her genius-level intellect, Alma hardly had any need for the traditional purpose of a school. What took years of schooling for a normal person to learn, she had memorized and mastered within mere minutes or hours at the latest. However, she still had almost as much of a fascination with school as she did with me and, thus, spent nearly every minute of every school day by following me around right under Armacham's nose.
The more time she spent at Wade Elementary with me, the more that the raven-haired psionic was convinced that public school was nothing more than a "propaganda and brainwashing machine" and would actually sabotage me during things like tests by practically forcing me to play with her all night beforehand to ensure that I "did not become their puppet". It was almost comical that her seemingly delusional, paranoid beliefs about public school had turned out to be proven almost perfectly correct upon both my childhood and adult investigations into Wade Elementary and ATC as a whole. Out of concern for what Armacham would have done to me if they had known just how much I knew by the end of my snooping and in addition to what was already I enduring by growing up in an abusive household, Alma had forbidden me from taking much action against ATC during my childhood.
However, just as quickly as the memory flashed into my mind, I forced it back out and focused back on the hallway while I chastised myself for letting my free-spirited wife make me lose my concentration once again. Luckily, we made it to the end of the hallway without incident beyond having to sidestep and dodge the shadow spirits darting around us. Fortunately, it turned out that the apartment building had this single, main staircase that moved in the traditional occasional, sharp ninety degree turn pattern all the way down through the floors and ultimately to what looked like the lobby. Unfortunately, however, the landing for the floor that we were currently on had collapsed along with the majority of the flight of stairs leading down to the next floor.
In a moment of curiosity, I leaned over to get a better look at the staircase and the area of the lobby that was visible. Just as I did, in the most cliché horror movie-style move possible, the Spider Woman moved into view at the landing of the lobby. In the split second that I had, I was finally able to see portions of her torso, which was clad in an oversized and plain white shirt that was partially obscured by her long blonde hair and the front pair of shiny, armored black legs of her "full" spider form.
One a rare occasion, I had encountered creatures and beings that possessed reflexes and movements that were actually superior to my own surgically enhanced reflexes. The Spider Woman proved herself to be one such adversary as she as not only displayed her masterful marksmanship with her wedding by hitting me with a burst of strands despite the distance between us but also her superior physical speed by pulling me over the edge that I was standing near and down towards her before my own reflexes had even kicked in by instinct.
Just as I began to fall, my body became enveloped by a dark red, almost black aura as I used my battle-hardened psionic abilities to form a kind of protective barrier as I pinballed my way down through the winding staircase before landing on my feet before the Spider Woman after only suffering minor injuries. Letting out a low, demonic growl out of both pain and irritation, I used my aura to burn myself free from her strands of webbing as I quickly recovered from the landing.
While I began to fully stand before her, I simultaneously began to "charge" a blast of energy that would be powerful enough to liquify the supernatural being and finish the fight before it even truly started. However, upon getting a good look at the young humanoid spider before me, I dialed back my power just in time to merely blast her back about halfway across the one-hundred-yard-long, rectangular shaped lobby.
It suddenly became clear why she had singled me out as I saw that her still formidable segmented and armored body was showing clear signs of malnutrition and starvation as she looked back at me with an agonized expression despite her still trying to intimidate me with her fangs after she stood back up as best she could considering how much her spider limbs were now shaking. The light provided by my flashlights also illuminated the spiderweb-enshrouded, metal double doors of the main exit. The state of the girl and what I had seen inside the building told her story all too well.
This Spider Woman had run out of prey after Akira and her hellspawn army had taken over the area during their blitzkrieg-style advance across the world. In a last ditch attempt, she must have turned the apartment into a trap with the intention of using the resident spirits to distract any potential prey so that her weakened body would stand a better chance of overpowering whatever living creatures that she managed to ensnare with her ambush tactics. Akira had likely intended to find and eliminate the remaining pockets of survivors after her initial conquest ensured that there were not any significant military threats to her. The tactic had worked for her in other worlds but, in our world, she had eventually been overpowered by our Sparta-led allied forces. Thus, the Spider Woman had likely managed to ensnare enough occasional survivors to just barely sustain herself.
My comparatively lighter armor must have seemed like her last hope of enough nutrition to fight off the latest group of intruders in her sanctuary considering her weakened jaws. However, despite her pitiful appearance and state, the Spider Woman was still a significant threat. I moved to the left just in time to allow Alpha 1 to land on his feet next to me with enough force to shake the building and crack the dirty, cheaply tiled floor beneath him as my brother was able to survive the fall with ease due to his highly advanced, heavy armor and genetically engineered frame.
With our weapons at the ready, we began to advance towards the humanoid spider. As I moved across the lobby, my still flickering flashlights were able to illuminate enough of it to reveal the Reception Desk near the far back left corner of the lobby. The far back left corner of the lobby noticeably jutted out from the back wall and there appeared to be large room beyond the Reception Desk. The door to the aforementioned area beyond the desk was closed and, if I had to guess, I would have to say that it was likely the Master Utility Room of the building given the size of the space and the fact that there was another closed door directly across from it along the right wall that might have led to some kind of auxiliary staircase for the maintenance staff of the apartment.
As we began to close in on the supernatural being, we both began to fire upon her with our weapons. However, despite her panic-filled cries, our rounds seemed to fail to inflict any significant damage at first due to her protective layer of armor. She remained stationary as she seemed to be briefly overwhelmed by the combination of pain, fear, and hunger and, thus, we simply continued our assault after we reloaded our weapons and began to fire a second hail of rounds at her. As we closed to within approximately fifteen yards, it finally seemed to dawn on her to try to make a break for the rear of the lobby and a potential escape route that might have been there. However, as the Spider Woman started to try to flee, she was stopped in her tracks by a series of events that happened almost simultaneously.
First, a moderate explosion originated from inside the Master Utility Room with enough force to create a hole large enough for a full-grown man to escape through. Mere moments later, the cause of the explosion was revealed as Theta 1, 3, and 5 of the missing recon team rushed out of the hole with Theta 1 leading the way. The Elite Replica had visible pieces of webbing still attached to their heavily armored frames, which indicated that they had been captured and been left either knocked unconscious or otherwise temporary incapacitated in the utility room by the Spider Woman when she had been unable to pierce their armor with her fangs due to her weakened jaws.
The Recon Team began to move towards their attacker while they opened fire upon her as Theta 1 yelled with his modified voice, "Target acquired…advance, advance!"
Then, just as it seemed that the situation could not get any worse for the humanoid being, the closed door directly across from the utility room suddenly opened as it was almost knocked off its hinges by Point Man as my guess about it leading to an auxiliary staircase was proven to be correct as both the First Origin Prototype and Foxtrot 813 stormed into the lobby and then joined the Recon Team while opening fire on the spider woman.
Due to the potential of friendly fire, we were all forced to slow our fire rate to single shots and controlled bursts as we attempted to neutralize the supernatural threat with our combined firepower. When it became a far too dangerous proposition to continue to discharge our weapons as we moved closer to each other and the increasingly cornered but still mobile humanoid, I lowered my weapon and called out, "Hold your fire!"
Then, before the young Spider Woman could try to take advantage of our cease fire, with my body once again enveloped by a nearly black aura, I willed multiple lengths of barbwire to manifest through the tiled floor beneath her and then forcibly immobilized her with the unnaturally strong strands of metal. Normally, my manifested barbwire was molten hot and razor sharp, but I was not as sadistic as my wife in these situations. As the others continued to aim their weapons at the immobilized humanoid spider, I shouldered my rifle and then began to calmly advance towards the now terrified young girl as I drew my stainless steel Super Redhawk .44 Magnum Revolver from its holster.
However, as I began to raise the business end of my revolver to the supernatural being's forehead, Alma materialized between us in a cloud of glowing ember-like particles. I immediately recoiled as I saw the chilling, intimidating aura that the demoness was giving off as she advanced on the now even more terrified young Spider Woman. While my wife had indeed become far more stable and approachable as of late, the unimaginably dangerous feral side of her was always still just below her child-like playful demeanor.
As the demoness approached her, the Spider Woman used what was likely the last of her strength to change her form into a seemingly normal-looking young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and nothing more than a dirty, oversized plain shirt to cover her body in an attempt to use her smaller frame to squeeze out through the barbwire that was holding her in place. However, her final bid for freedom was little more than a futile gesture as my manifested lengths of steel easily overpowered her weakened body.
Reaching out with her child form's tiny left hand, Alma addressed the trapped humanoid girl with a soothing tone that seemed alien to the dissipating but still intimating pitch black aura that was visible in the light of my flashlights, "Enough of that now…hold still."
When the Spider Woman tried to turn her head away from my wife's hand, the raven-haired demoness manifested a small piece of meat in her right hand and then gently moved her left hand to lightly grasp the back of the humanoid's head.
As she slowly lowered the blonde girl's head towards the meat in her right hand, Alma addressed her again with a soft, gentle tone, "Come here…be a good girl and trust Mother."
Without even needing her verbal instruction, I willed the lengths of barbwire back into the ground. The Spider Woman let out a soft cry of surprise before falling silent as she was caught and gently held by the comparatively shorter demoness in front of her. With the meat now irresistibly close to her face, the starving supernatural predator finally submitted and began to quietly eat the offered piece of food.
She remained in her human form as she began to cry softly and tremble as Alma held her head close to her red dress-clad chest in a maternal manner. As the unimaginably powerful psionic calmly stroked the top of the crying young humanoid's head while the blonde girl continued to quietly eat, my wife addressed her with a motherly tone, "Shh…Mother is here. That's it…good girl…go on, keep eating."
Looking down at my .44 Magnum Revolver, I paused before letting out a soft growl of disgust as the memory of when I had pressed the muzzle of my then 9mm handgun against my beautiful daughter's head briefly flashed before my mind's eye. Filled with disgust and self-loathing, I unceremoniously placed the remnant of my father back into its holster.
Almost as soon as I had holstered my sidearm, however, a soft, enchanting voice that held a noticeable amount of weakness but now also had a renewed level of increasing strength in its beautiful tone addressed me as she manifested beside me on my right, "It doesn't make you a bad person, Father."
Before I even realized what I was doing, I had dropped to my knees and gently wrapped my arms around Akira's tiny frame. To my delight, my recovering daughter returned the gesture by wrapping her delicate arms around my neck.
As I continued to enjoy holding the alternate form of Amara, I heard Alpha 1 approach and then address her with his deep, modified Heavy Trooper voice, "Pleasure to see you again, Miss Wade."
The black dress-clad girl requested with a somewhat amused tone in response, "Just call me 'Akira' from now on, Uncle."
Before I could comment, I felt a second pair of almost identical arms wrap around the other side of my neck as the white dress-clad Amara manifested next to me to share the moment with her sister. I could not help but notice how Amara's presence had an immediate calming effect on the resident spirits of the apartment building as an eerie silence returned as they returned to their passive state once again. In addition, my HUD display finally returned to normal.
At one time, I might have been overwhelmed by how drastically the situation had changed in less than a minute. However, by now, I had become accustomed to such a chaotic type of life. Finally, after enjoying the presence of my two precious daughters for what felt like hours, but was likely only several minutes, I relented and stood back up before then looking down at them. The pair of immensely powerful little girls looked back up at me with equally bright smiles on their porcelain doll-like faces while they were noticeably holding hands.
I smiled back down at them from beneath my skull ski mask for a brief moment and then addressed Akira, "Please don't push yourself, sweetie."
The black dress-clad child smiled even brighter and then replied, "I promise that I will not, Father." After a brief pause, she then said with shinning eyes and a trembling, enchanting voice, "Thank you for not abandoning me…Papa. I love you."
Feeling as though I was about to die from the meltdown inside my heart that my daughter had caused with her mere words, I just barely managed to remain composed as I replied with a gentle tone, "No problem, sweetie…I love you too. I would do anything to save you."
I paused and then addressed my white-dress clad daughter, "That all goes for you too, Amara."
Amara smiled even brighter for a moment and then replied, "I know, Father. I love you too. Do not worry, I will keep my sister from doing anything foolish."
I laughed slightly as Akira's childish side came to the surface as her sister's comment caused her to quickly stick her tongue out at her sibling.
Trying to regain my focus on the task at hand, I retrieved my rifle and then cleared my throat before making my way over to the recon team. By then, the previous absent Theta 2 and 4 had been freed from the nest inside the utility room. Thus, the entire team was waiting for me by the Reception Desk.
As I neared them, the Elite Replicas all simultaneously went to attention and saluted me. I returned the gesture and then ordered their leader, "Theta 1, sitrep."
The battle-hardened veteran replied, "Yes, sir. I take full responsibility for the delay. I made the decision to cut through this structure to try to find an alternate route to Five of Spades. We were ambushed and then held captive inside her nest on this floor when she could not inject us with her venom. However, Theta 3, 5, and I were able to free ourselves and used a small charge to make our way out of the nest to pursue her."
He then paused before requesting, "All the members of my team are ready to finish our assignment, sir. Please forgive me but I request your permission to redeem myself by finishing the mission, sir."
I smiled slightly before I then replied, "Don't worry Theta 1, I will not hold this against you. Permission granted so long as you allow me the honor of assisting your team."
Theta 1 replied with just the faintest trace of relief in his modified voice as he replied, "Granted. Thank you, sir."
After we properly saluted each other once again, I turned back to see Alma facing me with a proud, motherly expression on her normally blank, doll-like face. Standing slightly in front of her, now clad in a beautiful blue dress that had a bright white lace spiderweb-like design around its neck, hem, and cuffs of its short, mid upper arm-length sleeves, the eleven or twelve-year-old Spider Woman was bowing towards me. The supernatural being's now clean, shoulder-length blonde hair slightly obscured the fact that she was blushing in response to Amara and Akira clapping their hands in approval of her new, strangely adorable attire that Alma had manifested for her.
After introducing all of us to her, Alma then whispered in the Spider Woman's right ear, "Now, Mother is about to send you somewhere. A woman in a maid uniform is waiting for you and will show you around your new home. Be a good girl and help keep any…intruders…out of your new home for Mother and she will ensure that you will never go hungry again."
Before the humanoid could reply, my wife transported her to Wade Mansion in Sparta in a cloud of glowing red particles. Alma then smiled at me and remarked with a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, Michael. Annabelle will be a good girl. As a Spider Woman, she will be perfect for keeping spies and other vermin out of our home."
I nodded in agreement before I then teased my wife in response, "Figures that even in this hellish nightmare, the 'Mother of the Apocalypse' is still the scariest being here."
Alma winked at me before she replied as her beautiful glowing eyes were burning with a combination of pride and amusement, "You know no one crosses Mother, Michael. All the good little boys and girls get rewarded for doing as they are told while all the bad children get punished."
Trying to hide the shiver that ran down my side with bravado, I remarked, "Okay, you have a fetish for being called 'Mom'…we get it already. Now, dial it back some weirdo."
My wife smiled slightly before she replied calmly, "Fine…Stockholm Syndrome."
I retorted, "Yeah, yeah…I love you too."
I then turned to look over at Alpha 1 to see that both Amara and Akira were hugging him. I sighed and then addressed them, "Sorry girls, I need Uncle again."
After they flashed me a quick but incredibly cute pouting expression, my daughters relented and disappeared in matching clouds of glowing particles as they went to go find ways to amuse themselves. I knew that I could trust Amara to keep Akira out of trouble for the time being and focused back on reaching Five of Spades. After using explosives to clear a path through the main exit to the apartment building, we left the structure and found our objective within easy walking distance.
Five of Spades was the control tower to a large draw bridge that would allow access to the still open Hell Portal that was now finally in full view from where we were standing. The draw bridge was the only structure within several hundred miles that was strong enough to allow our army to cross the manifested river of lava that the Plague Doctor had willed into existence as a kind of moat around the open portal. It was currently raised but "Wolf Pack" had been tasked with ensuring that power had been restored to it and, thus, all we had to do now was make our way through the short maze-like collection of shipping containers that were one of few remnants of the small harbor like area of what had once been an actual river channel beneath the bridge.
After turning off my flashlights and then reloading my rifle, I then took point as we quickly made our way to the control tower. With the hellsoldiers in disarray and engaging our allied forces elsewhere in the city, we were nearly completely unimpeded as we moved towards our objective and we managed to reach the main control room of the tower within minutes.
I actually smiled slightly upon reaching the top of the tower as I realized that we had secured Five of Spades right on time despite the delays. The King Kong EPAs and the Dark Signal APC-led Replica 1st Division were waiting at the bridge as I left Recon Team Theta inside the control tower and returned to lead my unwaveringly loyal Replica soldiers from the front. After the majority of the rest of our allies had made it to the bridge along with fresh supplies, I climbed on top of Dark Signal's APC.
Projecting my voice, I yelled at the dirty, war-torn soldiers before me, "I know that you're all tired and sick of this shit!"
I pointed at the visible portal with my gloved left hand and then continued, "We close that fucker and this OUR WORLD again!"
Thrusting my balled left hand up towards the hellish sky, I then asked, "Are you with me?"
The massive crowd of soldiers let out a deafening roar that shook the heavens and I jumped back down to the ground. Then, with my rifle at the ready, I faced the still raised bridge and then telepathically ordered Theta 1, 'It was your mission, Spartan. You have the honor…hit it!'
The veteran of Fairport replied with a proud tone, 'Yes, sir!'
Letting out a loud metallic screech, the draw bridge began to lower. Alma manifested beside me in her child form with a noticeably increased amount of blood covering her entire body. As both of our bodies became enveloped by our own respective auras, I smiled at her from beneath my bloodied, faded skull ski mask and my wife return it as her porcelain doll-like face was partially obscured by her beautiful, long raven hair.
On my other side, I heard my brother reloading his shotgun. Looking over at him, I saw Alpha 1 looking back at me with the single glowing "eye" of his cracked porcelain face mask. There were so many things that I could have said to the man that had had stood beside me through the near constant hellish nightmares that we had fought out our way out of for so long.
However, the veteran Replica Heavy Trooper beat me to it and summarized it all in his ridiculously humble and selfless way by simply remarking with his deep voice, "I've got your back until the bitter end, brother."
As the bridge finally lowered into place, I began to charge across it and into the incoming fire of the hellsoldiers that had rallied to try to stop us from reaching the Hell Portal.
With my enhanced reflexes beginning to activate, I prepared to return fire with my worn, bayonet tipped PK470 Assault Rifle as I yelled, "Follow me!"