Chapter 114: Katrina vs. Loren

The large man roared at Katrina and charged, causing her to run and leap over him, sending a small plume of flames from Sektors Gauntlets as she flipped onto her feet, yet as she turned, she saw the brute was getting more angry than hurt, and charging at her while covered in flames. Katrina swore aloud and rolled out of the way of the speeding man, quietly exchanging her Knight powers for that of a Rook, and her enhanced speed was swapped for enhanced strength. The brute was turning around, ready to start charging at Katrina once again as the last bit of fire went out, and once he was close enough, Katrina raised a fist up, and slammed a powerful fist to the monsters' jaw, sending it reeling back, grabbing at its' jaw. It glared at Katrina, released its injured jaw, and let loose an even more ferocious roar, speeding for Katrina once again, but before it could close the distance, a hailstorm of bullets rained upon the monster man. He turned towards the source, seeing Boss, Shaundi and Pierce all unloading their weapons into the beast, and it charged for them, not even remotely slowed by the ammo wasted on him. Katrina followed, leapt up onto its back and him into a headlock, causing him to start thrashing his arms around, trying to throw the young goddess of his back. As the bullets continued flying, and Katrina tightening her grip, the brute began to slow, kneeling down on one knee as it was slowly loseing consciousness, until a bullet zipped past Katrina, grazing her arm, and making her loosen her grip just enough for him to reach up, grab her by the hair and slam her onto the ground.

Katrina rubbed her head, seeing dark spots as the brute stood over her, a foot raised, and braced herself for impact, but that impact never came as a shotgun blast hit the monster right in the knee, forcing him down, and in ran Jason, tossing his gun down, reaching into his coat for his handgun, smacked the brute onto his back, jumped towards his head, and unloaded the clip into his head, causing it to burst in a splatter of blood. Jason stood up, turning to Katrina as she checked on her grazed arm, and both of them turned to the three lead Saints,

"Alright, which one of you decided to graze Katrina with a bullet?" Shaundi and Boss turned to Pierce, sharing each others dissappointment as he slowly put away his gun. Jason shook his head, "Pierce, when this is over, I am punching you in the face." The man raised a hand,

"My bad Jay."

"'My bad?' That's all you have to say?"

"Jason it's fine," said Katrina, gaining a look from the Saints, and she held up her injured hand, showing her missing ring finger, "I've had worse dealt to me." Right then, a large yellow flatbed truck rolled into the loading dock, carrying an unbelievably huge faded green bomb, making Katrinas' jaw drop.

"HOLY SHIT THAT IS HUGE!!"

Back to Katrina and Damon in the present...

Damon, who had been quietly sitting in the drivers seat of Weskers car, listening to Katrina tell her tale as she sat in the passenger seat, began bursting into fits of laughter,

"That's what she said!" He giggled, causing Katrina to roll her eyes,

"Dammit Damon, are you going to let me finish telling you what happened or what?"

"Okay, okay," said Damon, calming himself down slowly but surely, "proceed."

"As I was saying..."

Steelport...almost twenty four hours ago...

Pierce had just pressed a pair of buttons on the bomb, making it beep to life,

"Bomb is set, and the clock is ticking," said Pierce.

"Why didn't we set it after we killed Loren?" Asked Shaundi. All eyes were on Pierce, and his eyes widened as hehe realized his blunder,

"That's...a very good question...we should move!" Katrina rolled her eyes, then turned away from the bomb to see a set of elevators in the furthest part of the loading dock, she began to approach them, until she looked up, and with her enhanced devil vision she saw a giant metal ball at the top, easily close to the top floor, and an idea sprung to her mind,

"Hey Jason! You got any spray paint on you?"

Soon Jason, Boss, Shaundi and Pierce were grouped into the elevator, with Jason giving Katrina a smirk as the doors closed, and the devil goddess made her way to one of the delivery trucks, making sure she was out of sight of the other Saints arriving into the loading dock. Once she knew no one was looking, she formed a magic circle underneath herself, and dropped through, reappearing on the top floor, right outside of an elegant office, decorated with dark mahogany wood, pink lights, and a large desk, with a older male figure standing behind it, facing the window, a trail of smoke floating above his head,

"Let me guess," said Katrina, "you must be Phillipe Loren." The older man turned around, and the young goddess recieved a clear look at the man; he was dressed in a grey suit jacket, dress pants, dark dress shoes, black button up shirt with a red vest, a pink neck tie and a scarf draped on his shoulders, hanging down the front of his outfit. Most noticable about the man however was that he had a black eye patch over his left eye, the right simply giving her a cold glare as he drew a cigarette from his lips.

"And you must be Katrina Lagos," he said in a Belgian accent.

"How did-?!" Katrina swiftly drew out her Blades of Exhile, and threw it at the old man, only for him to catch it, and with an unbelievable show of strength, yanked the chain so hard that Katrina was sent flying to the window with so much force that cracks spiderwebbed all across the glass, making land roughly on the floor. As blood trickled down her head, she looked up at the old man in disbelief,

"But...how...?"

"Our mutual friend Zeus already wanted me to be sure that no harm befell you. But I suppose he didn't forsee you joining the very gang out to destroy my empire." Katrina shakily stood up,

"So what...you made a deal with Zeus...for what? Money? That strength?" Lorens' already stern face hardened,

"A cure for my cancer," Katrina gasped, "the superhuman speed and strength was simply a bonus." Katrina pulled the chain on her blades, drawing them back to herself, and began to swing at Loren, but he simply ducked and dodged, eventually grabbing her wrists, giving them a rough squeeze, forcing her to drop the blades, and kicked her back, knocking the wind out of her and sent her flying to the wall. Katrina coughed, spitting blood onto the floor as her head spun, seeing Loren typing on a computer at his desk, speaking into the imtercom system, and she knew he was speaking to the other Saints, but her ears were ringing from the force of Lorens kick. She picked herself up again, putting away her blades, and summoned Sektors Gauntlets, teleporting behind him to try and land a punch to the back of his head, only to see him turn around, grab her fist, lift her up and slam her through his desk, breaking the wood like it were cardboard. Loren readjusted his tie that had come loose, and began to leave the room, but not before Katrina grabbed at his leg, making him stop,

"Why...would Zeus cure the cancer...of some French gang leader?" Loren frowned, and brought a swift foot to Katrinas' face, making her release him while clutching her face,

"I am Belgian!" He shouted, right before recollecting himself and speaking in a calmer tone, "Zeus came to me with a deal. A cure for my stage four lung cancer in exchange for a few assets to assist him. Money, weapons, schematics for my cloneing machines."

"Cloning machines?"

"I've been trying to make a successful clone of a giant. You fought one in the loading dock, but it was all brawn with no brain."

Why the fuck would Zeus want plans for something like that? Katrina wondered to herself.

"Anyhow, I must be leaving," said Loren, "I can't kill Zeus' prized possession or he may place the cancer back in me." He then strode out of the office, taking a drag of his cigarette as he went. Katrina shakily returned to her feet once again, and with all her willpower she ran after him, smashing into walls as she went due to being dazed by Loren. Soon she saw him entering an elevator, and as she dove in after him, a blast of gunfire rang out, with one bullet catching her right in her left shoulder as she slammed into Loren, the elevator doors closing behind them. As the metal box sped down the skyscraper, Katrina swung punch after kick and kick after punch at Loren, but the surprisingly fast gang leader dodged every single hit, landing a punch to Katrinas' injured shoulder, making her stumble back, allowing Loren to land a swift set of attacke to Katrinas' head and torso, stunning her, and right as the elevator doors opened, Loren landed a hard thrust punch to Katrinas' sternum, launching her from the elevator and sliding across the concrete in the loading dock. Loren pulled the cigarette from his lips, exhaling smoke as he walked towards Katrina, "Forgive me Miss Lagos, for I wish I didn't have to hurt you," he said honestly, "believe it or not I don't like the way hurting children sits in my stomach." Katrina spit out more blood as her shirt began to grow red from her shoulder wound,

"Trust me when I say this Phillipe, I get the same feeling when it comes to hurting elderies..." Loren clenched his free hand into a fist at the disrespect, but his eyes widened at what Katrina said next, "...that's why I left the X." Loren then looked down, seeing a large purple X spray painted on the floor, and was standing right in the middle! He then looked up, cursing in perfect French,

"Fuck me!"

CRASH!!

The large metal ball Katrina had been eyeing before landed right on top of Loren, crushing the old man out of exsistance. As it rolled off of the bloody pulp that was Loren, Katrina saw Boss rolling off the top, wrapping an arm around his abdomen.

"Boss! You okay?" He weakly smiled while holding a thumbs up, and the two watched as the giant metal ball rolled out of the loading dock and into the street...