Ralph and Kevin sprinted into the rugged building that housed a pair of their allies, quickly ascending the stairs to the top floor, Keys and Fid following closely.
"There you all are." He said to Grape and King, lowering his weapon. Xavier looked up to him.
"It seems we've ran into a bit of… a snag…" He said, a certain grimness taking place in his tone as he set his rifle against a wall and rummaged through a battered satchel. He withdrew a map and what appeared to be several explosives onto a nearby table, pulling Ralph's attention from the gunfire outside. "It would seem that your friends have been taken hostage." Xavier explained. He laid his finger over a certain building.
"What exactly is this?" Ralph asked, somewhat estranged and astounded by the news that had just really sunk in.
"The prison. Over 976 cells, various blocks, and probably fortified as all hell." Xavier said, not helping to ease Ralphs worry.
"And you want us to get in there?"
"Well, for one, not US" Xavier gestured to Grape, King, and the rest of his men. "You four." He stated, gesturing then to Ralph's squad. Xavier packed up the explosives and handed them to Kevin, pointing out an area to the side of the prison. "Here, there is a sewer entrance. I know Damion enough to know that he is too much of a dumbass and a junkie to know to shut it off, so this should be a guaranteed way in, and an iffy way out." Ralph looked up.
"It's the only way."
Ralph sighed and bit his lip, thinking.
"Then were on it." He turned to his men. "Lock and load boys, we're going behind enemy lines.
The room flickered with a dim flash of light, coming from the only light source in the room, a broken hanging bulb. Dmitri tried to look up. Tried, but failed. He was far too hurt to function normally, but he manage to force his head up on his second attempt, his blurred vision was making the room around him swirled and danced around him, images swaying and distorting. He was unable to make out where he was, but, he was sure it wasn't anywhere good. He looked down to the very near ground where he was kneeling. Blood had dripped from him and made small puddles on the concrete floor underneath him. He looked to his arms, both of them chained to the walls with incredibly thick steel. His vision began to straighten out and he was able to make out his general surroundings. He was in a room that was composed of nothing but grey, drab, faded concrete walls, with a large, thick glass window. He saw three figures enter on the other side of the pane of glass. A knock came against the glass followed by a horrible noise. Well, more a voice.
"Hey there Demmy boy, ya feelin' good? Rest well? Heh, hope you did buddy, you're gonna wanna see this." The unmistakable voice of Damion rang freshly in Dmitri's aching head. Dmitri's vision focused more, his pupils dilating and the figures becoming clearer. He could vaguely make out Peanut and Fido's bloodied faces, the fur on their muzzles matted with red and black gunk. This seemed to snap Dmitri out of whatever stupor he was in, as his vision was now clear, and he was sitting upright, feelings of mass worry and anger rang throughout him like church-bells. He tried to talk, to cry out to them, but simply coughed raggedly. They were bound that much he could tell. He watched as they were both forced to their knees, Fido struggled, but a swift kick to his legs sent him to the ground. Again Damion went to the glass. In his twisted and mangled face, Dmitri could see the lack of a human. Behind the dead eyes, Dmitri knew lived no man, but a demon. One that he so loathed. Images from the past flashed through his head, from the prison he had been enclosed in when he first arrived, to the bodies of his deceased comrades. Each thought further pressed both a rage and a sorrow into him, leaving him to stare at Damion's mocking face. In a way, Dmitri felt sorry for the man, who, unlike himself, had nothing else in the world except for his self-made kingdom. One that Dmitri hoped, would fall this day.
"I thought it'd be nice to let ya watch, ya know, for fun." He said, a glint of both joke and vengefulness in his eyes. He held up something to the glass for display, a handgun. Claire, to be exact. "Remember this? Heh, I do. I think it belonged to that one friend of yours, the one with the… what was his name? ... Ah, fuck it, who cares about that anymore." He finished with a fiendish laugh, the sickly green veins tracing around his face and neck, displaying his habits for large injection of various substances. Dmitri glared back
"His name, was Jackie, you insolent fuck." Dmitri spat.
"Oh, like it matters." Damion sneered. "All that matters, it that you know, that I'm gonna use THIS." He waved around the handgun like a child would a toy. "To paint these two's brains." He roughly seized Fido and Peanut by their necks and thrust them forward into the glass, thumping their faces against it before again tossing them to their knees, the glass smeared with their crimson blood and the grime of war. "All over my wall here." He pointed to the faded gray wall behind him. He slowly eased the pistol's magazine into place, gently pulling the slide back and chambering the first round, humming some cheesy musical tune all the while.
Through the glass Dmitri could see the tears running down Peanut's blood covered snout, and Fido attempting to console him. Dmitri moved forward, managing to stand and walk forward, not going too far until the chains around his wrists forbade him from moving any further. A single word tumbled from him.
"No…..n-…..no." It was the only thing that came to mind, the only thing that he thought made sense to say. Damion stepped forward and placed the barrel of the handgun in line with the back of Fido's head, his fingers playing at the trigger, not yet firing. Fido looked up, not to the man who was poised to kill him, but to the man who had saved him. Tears where now flowing freely off of his battered face, and he looked up to Damion, asking for one last thing. Dmitri saw Damion groan and agree, lifting Fido to his feet. Dmitri quickly realized what was happening. Last words.
"Dmitri… I don't know if you can hear me through this glass…but… I wanted to thank you, for everything. For getting me out of that hell hole… for helping me see my brother again… for everything." Fido raised his bound hands to his face, giving a final salute. "It's been an honor serving alongside you sir." He shuddered with ragged weeping breaths. "A-…and tell Joey….Tell him I love hi-" Fido never got to finish his sentence. His words were cut off with a deafening bang, and he fell over, a pool of blood leaking from his head as the helmet his brother had given him rolled away. Dmitri blinked. He, he didn't seem to be able to register what had just happened. Damion yawned from the other side of the glass.
"Blah blah blah, BOOORING!" He said, his piercing shrill voice scratching at the last fibers of sanity left in Dmitri. Then, something in Dmitri snapped. Compassion, care, pity… all gone. He wasn't a man any longer. No, but a beast. One of pure rage and hatred. He glared at Damion through the glass, eyes seemingly burning within his absolutely anger filled skull, piercing the very depths on Damion's perverse and rotten soul.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" He roared, savagely pulling at the chains that bound him, rattling the walls around him. He pulled at the chains rhythmically almost, the ringing of the chains almost sounding like the chime of death and destruction, as though death himself where dragging chains across the barren floor. With one last yank, he wrenched the chains from the roots, two heavy chunks of concrete flying from the walls, releasing a cloud of debris that took a second to settle before revealing Dmitri's chalked and scarred body, now recovered from whatever punishment it had received, and ready to return the favor. Damion watched, in disbelief mostly, but also in pure, unadulterated fear.
"Well, what are ya gonna do now bud? This stuff is bullet proof, how ya gunna get through that?" There was an obvious tone of fear in Damion's shaky and high voice. Dmitri roared again, a bloodcurdling sound of savage bloodlust ringing through the walls as he slammed his bare fists into the glass. It had no visible effect. Damion rushed to hold the gun against Peanut's cut forehead, lifting him up by the throat and holding him like a shield of sorts.
"Go on! Do it! Break that glass and watch your little friend here loose his fucking head!" Damion stammered.
The statement didn't do anything to calm the torn man behind the glass, who again slammed into the glass with his fists, over and over, vibrating the very walls and making dust fall from the ceiling. In one last heavy strike, Dmitri made a small crack in the bullet proof glass. He slowly slinked to the back of the room, eyes still burning with a fire that was waiting to be doused with murder. Damion gulped at what was to come as Dmitri sprinted forward at the cracked barrier. His speed and weight collided with maximum force, breaking through the glass with ease and he lunged forward. He seized Damion and tore Peanut free from his drugged up grip, thrusting Peanut to the side as he knocked Claire free from Damion's grip, letting it skitter across the ground. "RUN!" he yelled at Peanut before being rocked across the face and sent back a few steps. Dmitri blinked a few times, regaining his senses before raising his still bound fists, the heavy steel cuffs still encasing his wrists. Damion had already raised his fists as well, preparing for what was sure to be a hell of a fight.
"Just you and I now buddy…. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide." Damion said through clenched teeth as he cracked his knuckles and assumed a fighting stance.
"I didn't plan on doing either." Dmitri countered, easily noticing that Damion had shot himself up with something prior to his wakening. Every breath that came from the man sounded as a deep and hate-filled growl, the bass of the sound rumbling throughout his body. He lunged forward, throwing a fist that bore all of his weight behind it. But it didn't connect Damion caught it and countered with a rough blow to the ribs of the already sore Dmitri. Dmitri coughed and staggered, but not for long before throwing another strike, this one making square impact into Damion's shoulder, making him turn to the side in an attempt to roll with the hit. One that failed when his shoulder made contact with the wall behind him, Dmitri's fist still in tow. They both heard a sickening crack as Damion felt his arm go limp. Damion yelped in pain, shoving the angry Russian back a few steps. Dmitri quickly seized another opportunity to attack, sending two quick strikes into Damion's face, allowing a steady stream of crimson blood to flow from his nose and lip. Damion was struggling to fight back, only able to throw effective blows with one hand. He did manage to connect jabs to the ribs a couple of times. Dmitri charged Damion, crushing him against a wall as Damion snaked his arm around the back of Dmitri's neck, pulling him down and slowly beginning to suffocate the Russian. Dmitri's hands went instinctively to his neck, clawing and pulling at Damion's arm for air in a futile effort. The ground beneath him began to sway, as if becoming further away. Damion was pulling his thin, drug-strengthened, bony arm tighter around Dmitri, as if to snap his neck. As he managed to barely suck in sharp gasps, Dmitri's eyes caught a glimpse of something glinting in the room's dim light. A single sliver of glass. Dmitri weakly reached down and grasped the shard, using the last of his strength to plunge it deeply into Damion's calf. Damion quickly released Dmitri and held his leg.
"Gah! F-fuck…. You bastard…" Damion managed, pulling the shard free from himself and throwing it aside, shattering against the now blood spattered ground. Dmitri quickly caught his breath and attacked again. He pulled one of his large arms back, winding up for what he hoped would finish Damion. He threw his fist forward and felt brutal contact. He saw, no, he FELT, Damion's jaw break beneath his fist, perhaps maybe even dislocating entirely as well. Damion crumpled to the ground, still conscious, but barely. Dmitri staggered where he stood, his ribs aching and his face bloodied. He bent down and retrieved Claire from the ground, slowly making his way to Damion, standing tall above him. Damion looked up.
"What? Ya gonna…." He coughed harshly, blood coming out as a red mist with each ragged and rough cough. "Ya gonna kill me? Well… go on then…. DO IT! DO IT YA BIG FUCK!" Dmitri held up the gun, and aimed for Damion's head, lining the sights up between his eyes. But… he didn't fire. He lowered the gun to his side.
"No."
"W….what are you doing?" Damion sputtered, the fear returning to him, replacing the tiny bit of defiance he had left in him.
"Putting a bullet in your head…. It is far to gentle a death for you… instead, I shall make you know pain… to know what you made me feel all those years ago…" Dmitri lifted the handgun again, firing into one round into Damion's knee, bone shattering beneath the slug.
"ARGH! YOU FUCKER!" Damion cursed loudly as he grasped his destroyed knee.
"For Tom…" Dmitri said, firing again into Damion's other knee, receiving a similar reaction. "For Matt…" Dmitri stepped forward and brought his heel down hard on both of Damion's shattered legs, splinters of bone visible through the mangled flesh that began to resemble ground beef with flecks of splintered and shattered bone. "For Jackie…" He said again, his voice rising with each name, anger pouring out in each wound he put into Damion. "And finally…" He grabbed Damion by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up to face level. He placed both of his thumbs at both of Damion's eyes.
"W…..wait…..n-no…..please…" Damion gasped. He was broken. By pain. But, Dmitri cared none. And for once, Dmitri's own soul had become as hollow as his foe. Not a single pang of empathy, forgiveness, or any other emotion but that of an executioner, a hollow nothingness. This had been a long time coming. Dmitri slowly forced his thumbs forward, feeling them press their way home, horrible blood curdling screams coming from Damion as his eyes were crushed to mush and Dmitri's thumbs pressed further into him. Dmitri didn't go deep enough to kill him, no, he instead grasped either side of Damion's head in his hands.
"For Fido." And with that, Dmitri ripped his hands in opposite directions, his pure, untamed strength tearing Damion's skull in two, revealing his brain matter as blood spurt out onto Dmitri. Dmitri let Damion's lifeless corpse fall to the side, blood still coming out of his torn-in-half skull.
Dmitri looked to Fido. He felt those same pangs of sorrow ring within him as his sense of normality began to return to him, anger subsiding. He sadly limped over and retrieved Fido's battered helmet, dents from crash visible in the burnt and rugged helmet. He eyed the head-wear, flipping it in his hands. He looked to Fido, who lay dead on the ground, the pool of blood encircling his head no longer growing.
"I am sorry brother…" He said, the heavy choking feeling in his throat forming, saluting Fido where he lay. A tear fell from his face. "It was an honor." He looked back to the helmet, noticing something off about it. There was a glint of metal coming from it. Dmitri pried it free, holding it in his hand and studying it. It was the round that Damion had fired, stopped in its tracks.
"Hey… waitaminute…" He heard a cough come from the floor. Fido stirred and groaned, holding his head and sitting up.
"FIDO!" Dmitri shouted as he ran and slid next to his comrade, hugging him. "I thought you were dead." He said as he held onto Fido. Fido coughed again.
"I'm fine man… but can you watch my ribs? You're strangling me dude…" He joked, Dmitri releasing him from embrace. Fido held his head. "Argh….I have a headache fit to kill King Kong." He muttered. "Speaking of killing, you're out of that cage, so that must mean that what's his face is dead right?" He said weakly, grinning. Dmitri pointed to Damion's mangled, blood covered body.
"Oh, there he is….whoa…." Fido looked from Damion to Dmitri, staying quiet for a moment before chuckling. "That's fucked up dude…. 'S fucked up." He laughed. "Wait, where'd Peanut go? Don't tell me…"
"Peanut is fine, I'm sure. He ran once I freed myself." Dmitri said, standing. He held out a hand to Fido. "We should be going, no doubt that guards are going to swarm this place…" he said, looking up the long hallway. He already heard footsteps in the distance. "Damn…. Can't catch a break huh?" Dmitri said as he held up Claire. "I only got a few rounds left, it was nice knowin ya Fido."
"Likewise." Fido said, still holding his head and awaiting fate. He looked up to Dmitri, noting the large amount of Damion's blood that covered him. "Hey." He managed, already weakly laughing at the joke in his head.
Dmitri looked down. "Yeah man?"
"You got red on you." Fido mumbled, wiping the spot he saw.
"They're this way!" Another familiar voice rang against the concrete, echoing towards them. Dmitri lowered the gun.
"Oh thank god." He said as Peanut came around the corner of the hall, followed by Ralph, leading Kevin, Keys, Fid, and another female he had never seen before, or at least, didn't remember.
"Glad you all made it." Dmitri mumbled, hefting Fido up to his feet.
"Glad you two are alive." Peanut said happily, hugging the pair and handing them SMGs that he had snatched from some guards he had had to kill. Fido took the gun weakly, looking up to the new member of their party, a wide eyed grin spreading across his face as he managed to stand.
"S… Sabrina…" He choked out with a smile. The woman of his dreams ran up and hugged him in her ragged attire, a handgun in her free hand.
"Fido… oh god I though… I thought I'd never see you again." She mumbled into his chest as he held her close while the rest of the group locked and loaded.
"Plenty of time for you two to reunite later, but we need to leave now." Ralph said, running off down the lengthy corridor, glancing at the mangled boy at the floor on the way. "Follow Me!" He shouted back to everyone else as he felt his stomach slightly churn at the nasty sight. Dmitri followed close, as did the rest, Fido limping by as quickly as he could, Sabrina with his am over her shoulders, helping him along. Key's had a funny grin spread across her face, looking to her partner as the two sprinted alongside their comrades.
"This whole war thing… it has been fun, no?" She said, a world weary smile followed her question. Fiddler laughed and nodded. "The most fun I've had in a long while dear." He replied. The two followed Ralph and Kevin, who were on point, using their police training to their advantage whenever they came around a corner or through a doorway, killing a few drugged up guards along the way.
"How did you all get in here?" Dmitri asked as they cleared another room full of cells.
"We took an underground route. That demo team you introduced us to, instructed us to rig the place. Speaking of, we should hurry." Ralph said as he checked his watch. "We only have about five minutes till this whole place blows." He stated grimly. Dmitri nodded and took point.
"How much farther is this route you took here?" He asked they all went down a flight of stairs.
"Just ahead." Kevin's bass deep voice replied. As he skipped the stairs, hopping over the stair's railing and landing in a kneel a story down. "Follow me." Kevin lifted a heavy manhole cover one handedly, hopping down into the sewers below the prison. Dmitri and Fid lowered Keys, Fido, Sabrina and Peanut down, before hopping down themselves, followed by Ralph, who whipped a flare against the brick wall of the underground passage, striking a bright red flame to light the dark tunnel. He ran ahead of the group, sprinting ahead.
"Move! Now! He shouted to those behind him as he ran along. Dmitri lifted up Fido over his shoulder to help the group move faster as Fid and Keys followed in tow. Ralph looked to his watch. "Shit." He said through clenched teeth and an angered look. The tunnel shook around them, almost forcing them to loose footing a few times. They could see light ahead, growing closer by each step, but Fido, who was draped over Dmitri's shoulder, could see light coming from the other direction as well, and this one, not so friendly. He patted Dmitri's back, issuing him to go faster, feeling the heat from the nearby fireball beginning to seep into his skin. The light at the end of the tunnel was now only inches away, And Ralph lead the charge, leaping from the tunnel first, diving into the lake below. He was quickly followed by everyone else, Dmitri leaping last, the fire almost touching him as he made contact with the water. The fire above them took what seemed like whatever to expire and allow them to return to the surface for air. Dmitri broke the surface of the lake and looked around for his companions, who quickly rose one by one. "All heads accounted for, now let's get the hell out of here." He said weakly, leading the swim to dry land.
Hiya readers… err… id anybody even remembers this story… hello? *cricket noises* Huh… well… anyway, I would like to apologize for being gone for so long, if you can forgive me. Understand that I have been busy, and, yes, I will resume work on retribution and MVM, and, I appreciate all the support I've gotten. Love all of ya.
-Plavoko12