~Demons~

April 22nd
6:00 am
The Pentagon, Lower Research Division
Jeremy "Dirge" Dakol

I awoke from my slumber rather suddenly. We had arrived back to D.C. with the creatures' corpses pretty late last night, so the techies let my squad and myself take the bunks located here. We had little to change into, so I simply slept in the undershirt and boxers of my uniform. I quickly threw on some pants and shoes, only to find my team had already left the bunk room. I could hear some talk down the hallway, so that's where I'll go.

"…and then the big ones jumped us," I heard Raiden say. "But my unique brand of ass-whooping helped us through it!"

"Oh please," Angel said, cutting him off. "You were the first to tuck your tail between your legs and cry for mommy!"

"Shut up, both of you," Skye said. He still wasn't talkative. "I still have a migraine from your shouting match last night." A chuckle came from the techie in the room. Although not officially part of Task Force 152, we considered Sonata a full member of the Skyrunners due to us being in constant contact with her. She always studied what we brought back, and she was often the one on the other end of the comm. link to oversee our missions. She even designed our flight suits.

The woman in question wore a white lab coat, as befitting her current activity of dissection, while glasses rested in front of her brown eyes. Her hair was long and a dark chestnut, tied in a bun currently to keep it out of her way. "I see our fearless leader is alive and well." She said, resuming the stabbing of the corpse.

"Yeah, more or less. Did you find out anything unusual from the bodies we brought back?" I asked. Buisness before pleasure, that was Sonata's motto.

"Their bone structure appears to resemble a dog's, but with some feline characteristics. This one has a gland the others didn't, though. It's the small blue organ here. It seems to be similar to the appendix of us humans, but I'm not sure. This is the only one of the three that has it, after all." She stated, while still cutting into the creature. "It's blood also lacks hemoglobin, and instead contains an unknown compound, which gives it the black color it is."

"Interesting." I said. "What do you think that blue-" at that moment, the base shook, and the alarms went off.

"Attention all personnel, there is a breach in the laboratories! Repeat, hostiles in the-" the soldier's announcement was cut off with his death throes.

"Head to the bunks, get your uniforms and weapons back on, double-time!" I commanded, indicating all of us. Sonata followed suit, calmly pulling a USP .45 out of a pocket inside her coat. She slid a magazine in it when we reached the room I awoke in. My team and I threw on our clothes in record time (save Raiden, as he tried to sneak a peek at Angel) and I loaded my weapon to maximum capacity before exiting the room again.

"Let's do this quickly and cleanly." Skye said. His sniper rifle wouldn't be a viable weapon inside the base, so Angel tossed him one of her machine pistols. "Not my first choice, but it's better than nothing."

A soldier ran down the hallway, his arm obviously injured. "What's going on over there?" I asked, shouting over the alarm buzzers.

"There's these things, they just appeared!" He said. "They're not human, hey took out my whole squad!" he was about to add in more, but was shot in the back. The culprit was a small, flying baby-like thing with a crossbow of all things in one hand.

Sonata was the quickest on the draw. She shot once, the bullet cleanly slicing through its head, and the creature fell to the ground. "Another creature, another lovely experiment." She said, sending shivers down my spine with her morbid humor. We headed down the hallway the soldier ran from, Angel and Skye shooting down three more of those crossbow things.

That's when we found the main battle - in the war room. Our enemies lacked guns, but were ferocious in numbers. Many lay dead on both sides, both humans and… things. These new creatures resembled humans, but with white, porcelain-like bodies, no faces, and a sharp, single-edged cleaver for one arm. More of the flying ones flitted around, taking pot shots, but many of them missed.

"Skye, take the high ground with Angel. Stay here, Sonata, and try not to die. Raiden, you're with me- we're getting up close and personal." My orders were fast and carried out faster. Black blood erupted in a spray around me as I introduced a creature's head to a shotgun slug. Nearby, the sound of a firing ARX let me know Raiden was doing his fair share of the carnage.

We charged straight through the enemy lines, clearing out most of the ground floor. They seemed to be coming out of the DEFCON room, and Raiden and I wouldn't have support from Skye and Angel after going in. Nevertheless, we managed to get inside the room, killing a few dozen more monsters in the process. The room contained a few more creatures, these with blue feathers coming off their heads and large, serrated blade-arms. It also contained what I assume was their leader- a human-like being, but his forearms and hair glowed a light cyan. His eyes were pure white as well.

"So, you are the ones killing my demons. It's a pleasure to meet you." The man said.

"Who the fuck are you," Raiden started, "And how did you get in here?"

"My name, you ask? Vergil." The man said. "I arrived here with powers you petty humans don't yet understand."

"Petty humans? And what are you then?" I asked, shouldering my shotgun and aiming at his unnaturally colored head.

"I am a god." He stated flatly. He pulled a sword out of nowhere, blocking the bullets and slugs Raiden and I fired constantly. Not a single one managed to hit the target. "But I seem to have missed my target destination. I'll be taking my leave now." Without another word, he and the rest of his forces (demons, he said) disappeared in flashes of light.

"Hey, Dirge?" Raiden asked.

"What?"

"Why do I get the feeling we just got dumped on?"

~End of Chapter~

Author's Notice: A kind of short chapter to move things along. This story was just a test by me at first, so a solid storyline isn't quite set yet. Bear with me for the first few chapters while I get to setting one in stone. ~Nano

Editor's Note: the above notice is author talk for "I'm making this shit up as I go along." Nothing more. ~Sheogorath