If there was a word to describe how fucked his situation was, fubar was that word. Captain Durante's head hung low as his knees were dragged on a solid floor. He was carried in the clutches of the Germans who knocked him out, but he felt their iron grip loosen as he recognized the accent of a German. "Release him." They released him out of their clutches as his face smashed into the floor.
Although it was small, it was a painful drop for him. The captain pushed himself off the ground and brought up one knee to support himself. The young man was trying to ask himself where he was and why was he here. His eyes were searching for someone, but he recognized the black polished boots of the German army. However, Monte noticed the lab coat shadow over boots that had seen better days.
"You must be Captain Durante, one of the American officers sent to find me." The voice said as Durante raised his head and saw a bald scientist press his glass up on his nose. "I am quite pleased to meet one of my pursuers."
Then the company commander reached down to his holster, only to find his sidearm missing. Monte looked to his holster and saw it unbuttoned and empty.
"Ah, ah, ah."
He looked back to the German scientist. "What the hell?"
The German reached down into his lab coat as he pulled out a the American-made pistol. "Captain, I am not stupid enough to leave you with a weapon." He answered before he inspected the pistol itself. "A pathetic excuse of a weapon." Then he tossed it aside as it slid across the floor and past the tables of lab equipment.
"Doctor Amsel, where the hell am I?"
Amsel placed his hands behind his back. "Nowhere." He answered. "All I can tell you is that you are in a place where you cannot escape and it is surrounded by monsters. Now it is time to conduct a new experiment, one that will require your blood." Out from behind his back, he brought out a syringe with a long needle at the end. He was everything Durante had expected from a Nazi scientist. "Hold his arm, I need a sample of him."
Once the order was given, the two German guards had immediately snatched his left arm and controlled it out of his ability. Monte tried to pry their hands off him before the German scientist stepped forward and sunk the needle into his wrist. The Ranger hate needles and he could not believe his eyes when the scientist took no procedure to handle this matter. When it was done, the scientist pulled out the syringe and walked off to a table behind him.
"Make sure that his wrist is bandaged all nice. I am going to need more of his blood for later." He stated.
As one of the two German soldiers were covering his wrist with a bandage, a question occurred out of the officer's mind. "Doctor Amsel, why are you releasing the Grimm into Europe. People are dying, even your own German people are suffering for it."
"A means to an end. I have observed that the Grimm in this world are always in need of new targets and the person in charge of them is rather interested our world as well." The doctor explained in detail. "Seeing how you Americans and the rest of the Allied forces have occupied the fatherland, I am obliged to allow the mistress to send her creatures to Germany and kill whoever tries to defend their new occupied space. If an Allied soldier is killed, it makes me feel better that it is the first step to denying your people the occupation of the Third Reich. If a German is killed, then they haven't done enough for the fatherland. It's quite simple, you see."
The captain could not believe what he was hearing. "You're a monster."
The doctor dumped the officer's blood into a dish that was filled with a strange black substance. Then he looked up at Monte's gaze. "A monster, you say? The true monster was the Versailles Treaty that you, the French, and the British unleashed upon Germany. We were going to defend the world against the Soviet swine, but no. Instead, you ally yourselves with those sub-humans to defy the glory of Germany. You have no right to call us monsters."
He shook his head. "I have seen what you Nazi fuckers do to people just because of some damn bohemian corporal. You are nothing, but madmen who think you can take on the world. You know what, you lost, but you just won't accept the fact that we kicked your sauerkraut asses again."
At this point, the officer knew he had cut the string that kept the scientist together. Amsel grabbed an object at the table, but Monte knew he was going to do something with it. As he walked away from the table and towards the American, the scientist walked towards him with a saw in his hand. His eyes were filled with rage was he stormed his way towards him. "I wonder if you regret those words if I dissect you on the spot." Then he gestured towards the two German soldiers, who were hidden underneath their gas masks. "You two, hold him down. I want him to squeal like the Russian pig."
The two guards slammed the captain to the ground as an evil monster was awakened at this moment. A moment of despair had occurred to Monte and the man was going to probably disembowel him, but he didn't want to give him the kind of pleasure to this person. Yet, never had the Ranger so scared in his entire life and here he was at the end of his journey. A young man who died at the hands of a Nazi scientist.
Before he could accept his fate, a door creaked open on the far side of the room. Monte looked down and saw past the legs of the German scientist, only to see a feminine figure stride past the tables of lab equipment. At the same time, she was accompanied by a group of bodyguards who Monte recognized their uniforms. They were not simply soldiers he had faced at Normandy nor the mechanized infantry of the Panzer Elite, but they were something above that category. They were a force he once fought at the Ardennes Offensive, these men who hid themselves behind their gas masks were wearing their iconic uniforms than any survivor could recognize. These bodyguards were the Obersoldaten.
The doctor glanced over his shoulder and the tension seemed to calm down as he spoke to her. "Mistress Salem, what brings you into the laboratory?" He asked as he openly carried the medical saw in his grip.
Captain Durante looked at the woman coming towards him with her band of bodyguards, only to see her dressed and clad in black. However, it was not her apparel that shocked him. No, it was the tone of her skin. She was as white as chalk and her veins were shown as deep red, but it was not what truly terrified him. It was the woman's eyes, they gave off a deathly look of the devil as her pupils were nothing except void of life. The woman named Salem glanced over to the bald scientist. "I sensed a new presence within these walls and felt the negative emotions that… originated from this room. It was a curiosity that is now sated." Then she looked to Monte's soul. "Who is this stranger and how did he come here?"
The Nazi scientist tossed his saw away before he turned his full attention onto the man. "It turns out that my portal accidentally sucked up one of the Americans who were trying to end my life." He answered. "This man is Captain Durante, the person Colonel Falkenrath personally hates."
At the mention of Falkenrath, the captain remained frozen and stiff as he leaned onto his knee for support. The mention of that man's name was enough to stir a sense of confusion out of him. After all, he was killed in a bombing.
Salem stepped forth and gave the young man her full attention. "This is the man who Falkenrath utterly despises. I wonder what he'll do to you once he returns, but before that I want to see if you were the kind of nemesis he says you are." Her hand began to reach forward to his head before he reluctantly pulled his head away. However, she quick to lunge the palm of her hand to his cheek. The woman's touch brought a stinging pain into his mind as Salem dug deep into his memories.
All the captain could do was scream.
It felt like the woman was digging into his very soul as his mind retraced the old memories of his life. The first memory that came to mind was on the very day his world went to war. He remembered how he walked into his house and found his mother crying. Monte could not forget the news, the telegram that told his family his brother was killed in Pearl Harbor.
Like a film, his memories shifted from that unforgettable painful moment in his life as he saw himself walking onto a ship, following Kurt Derby up the ramp. Then he glanced over his shoulder, only to see the dark-haired woman with a young lady beside her. His mother was seeing him off as many young bucking men were leaving off to fight a war across the sea. A tap on the young man's shoulder had turned him back to see Derby waiting for me. "Hurry up, Monte. You're holding everyone up."
Then he felt the scorching heat on his body before he heard Kurt's cry for sudden danger. "Tiger tank!" The cold seas changed when he Monte found himself standing in the sands of North Africa. Across the dunes, he saw the figures of German infantry following the sand-covered tanks coming towards him.
Before that moment could continue, that memory of reality was ripped away from him. Monte recognized the mountains he once seen in Italy. The infamous image of a church looking down at him while men died underneath their shadow. Artillery shells destroyed the once-peaceful land as men scaled up the mountainside in hopes of descending to a place that was once a house of god.
As if the intruder in his mind was not interested in those events, he was rushed through his memories. The person was looking for something important, something she desired. Captain Durante didn't know what it was, but he was sure it was important enough to keep him alive and not disemboweled by the crazed Nazi scientist.
There was a moment that happened a long time ago, the catalyst which brought him to the world of Remnant. He was looking at the image of Doctor Sauer standing in the snow.
Her voice had found something worthy of speaking. "There you are."
The pain Monte endured had slowly faded away, but he could still feel the pain of the stings she sent to him. Her hand moved away from his head as he found himself breathing hard.
Salem stepped back as she placed her hands behind her back. "You personally know Doctor Sauer." She began. "What a pity for you. I would have enjoyed your company." Then her pale face looked to the German scientist standing beside him. "You may do what wish with this man."
Doctor Amsel nodded his head. "Thank you." He acknowledged before her presence.
"Don't make a mess. Doctor Watts prefers that he doesn't have to clean the laboratory himself."
The woman turned her back on the captain as she walked towards the door on the other side of the room. The German bodyguards followed her as they closed the door on her way out. When the doors were sealed shut, Monte looked to the scientist's gaze. "What do you know? I still get to gut you." Amsel grinned in his presence before he turned away. "Why did I throw it?" He asked himself before he left the American under the care of the guards.
The captain, looked at the two masked guards and noticed how they didn't focus their attention on him. Why they didn't was curious question, but he didn't care to tell them that. He was not going to get gutted by a Nazi scientist.
Monte slowly reached for his knife as the two guards watched Doctor Amsel get ahold of his medical saw. "You know, American. There will be a time when your country of weaklings will get what it asks for." He ignored his thoughts as he reached for the guard on his right and brought his knife to the guard's gut.
The German guard looked to him as if the knife in his body didn't give any effect. Maybe the knife to the gut wasn't enough to kill him. The American followed up with many other stabs to the gut as he rose from the floor and grabbed the guard's barrel out of his way. The consecutive stabs should have killed him.
Then the captain looked down at his knife, only to see dust spill off the metal. He gasped in surprise as the guard slowly burst into flames as he screamed in agony. His body glowed brighter until he imploded into ash. Monte coughed at the particles of dust, but he grabbed the MP40 covered in ash from the floor and brought the weapon at the other guard.
The German brought his assault rifle to bear and swung the barrel in his direction, but Monte was quick to bring his weapon to bear. He pulled the trigger and watched as the German take in the bullets into his chest before he fell back and died the same way as his comrade. When his body exploded into ash, Monte could not believe his eyes. They were men, they were acting like men, and they taking orders like humans. Yet, they didn't die like men.
When he freed himself from the two German guards, Monte found himself surrounded in ash. Then he heard Doctor Amsel's voice speak up. "I should have had more guards with me. Nonetheless, it would greatly enjoy this moment to kill you."
Monte heard a pair of footsteps coming towards him and he knew the doctor had the full advantage. His sub-machinegun wasn't going to do much if he couldn't see. He immediately slung the MP40 under his shoulder as he grabbed the Sturmgewehr off the floor and fired three shots out of the cloud. The captain ran in the opposite direction where he last saw the German scientist.
As he left the cloud of ash, he looked over his shoulder and saw Amsel running after him. Luckily, he ran faster than him and achieved more distance than what the older man could ever do. Then he turned around and lined up the sights of the Sturmgewehr at him.
His eyes looked at his foe and saw him sprinting towards him with no hesitation to stop or even take cover. Captain Durante pulled the trigger and caused a rifle round to be spewed out the barrel. Then he watched as the doctor was struck in the chest before he flew back and landed on his back. The company commander lowered his weapon as he walked towards the knocked down man bleeding on the floor.
Doctor Amsel began to laugh as he looked up at his former prisoner. He breathed hard at the impact of the bullet, but he still had enough air to talk. "You shot me, you're going to pay for that."
Monte was in no mood for this man's madness and so he had to ask one question. "What the hell were you doing to those men? Why didn't they die like people?"
"Human? People?" Amsel answered with his question. "These men were not people. They were a new breed of Grimm one that no soldier like you could easily kill. They can survive much longer and they feed off the suffering of others. I created them to destroy the Allies."
"Then I guess I stopped you from doing that."
He shook his head in disappointment. "No American, what I created cannot be undone? Now enough talk!" The German pulled out a grenade from underneath his lab coat. Durante immediately reacted violently as he fired off three shots into his chest for good measure. This time, he was bleeding out of his lips as he slowly rested back on his head. "If that is the case, I'll see you in hell." He slowly gasped out of air as the German stick grenade rolled off his hand.
Monte looked at the dead man as he shook his head. "You're the reason I had to come all this way to stop you. I guess the colonel is going to have a hell of time once I tell him about what you did."
The captain heard the laboratory door swing open and saw the Grimm Obersoldaten enter the room with their various automatic weapons at hand. They scanned the area and immediately looked at the only survivor in the room. Soon after, they immediately followed up with a barrage of gunfire. Monte quickly jumped to the side and took cover behind a laboratory counter as the bullets smashed at anything made of glass.
"Damn, this is definitely not my day. Isn't it?" He wondered to himself as he checked his weapons. He was limited in ammunition and he didn't check for any ammunition, but he knew he wasn't going to survive this encounter. Monte recalled that there were eight of those German Grimm soldiers, but one of them was equipped with light machine gun and those were something to watch out for. After all, they carried more ammunition than most weapons.
Then he heard a large amount of glass shatter. This wasn't the delicate lab equipment that he saw earlier. No, it was something big and a loud bird call that echoed throughout the room. The officer looked over the counter, only to see a Nevermore with blue eyes facing off against the Obersoldaten. The enemy infantry was quick to open fire, but the giant Grimm bird had flapped its wings. The result came with dozens of feathers peppering the soldiers to cover.
He saw five men caught in the shower of large feathers ignite on fire before they exploded into clouds of ash. Monte didn't know why, but now as not the time to ask. However, the remaining three continued to fire upon the monster that was flying in the room. Yet, they were caught by surprise when an old man slipped off the Nevermore's legs and raised his hand. Black energy shot like lightning as they connected with the remaining three soldiers, only to result with their deaths.
Monte noticed that the man was wearing a similar outfit to someone he did know. When the man looked back, he recognized older person wearing the sweatshirt. "Doctor Sauer? What the hell are you doing here?" He asked. The older man had said he was supposed to be busy with something else. Then he looked up at the ceiling, only to see broken shards of glass.
The old man walked over to a nearby counter and took a folder off with him. Then he dropped to the ground and held the tossed aside American sidearm in his hand. "Captain Durante, I could ask you the same thing." Sauer answered.
The captain walked towards him with his weapon lowered.
"Get on the Nevermore, I overstayed my welcome here."
Monte looked to the creature and pointed at its massive size as Sauer handed him his sidearm. "Wait, you want me to get on that thing? Isn't that a Grimm?"
"Yes, but it's also your only way out of here." He replied. "Hang on to the creature, I'm going to look for something." Sauer immediately turned away from the captain as he walked over to a counter that was not disturbed by the fighting. Unlike the others that were filled with lab equipment, the father of the Grimm was looking at a knapsack that seemed to be filled. "Captain, come here." He came over to the counter as the doctor took the knapsack and gave it to him. "Here, I need you to carry this along with us."
"Why?" When Durante was given the knapsack, he felt the weight pull him down a bit. "What's in here?"
"Something important, but first let's leave this place." The man answered as he walked over to the legs of the Nevermore and looked to the officer. "Are you ready?"
The young man made his first step before he held on to the Grimm's leg. "Y-Yeah, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Now hold."
Durante screamed to the top of his lungs as he was lifted off the ground. He couldn't believe what he was experiencing as it flew out of the small opening in the ceiling. Monte held onto its leg since it was his own life he was worried about before he spoke. "I take we're going back to Atlas after this?"
"No, I am going to drop you off to a familiar friend of mine and both of you are going back to Atlas to tell General Ironwood you have a relic." Sauer replied.
As the two descended up into the clouds, Monte glanced over to the old man. "Wait, you're not coming with me? Why not?"
"I raided this place just so I could get ahold of a relic they stole from Beacon Academy. That we just did, but they're going to go after me since I am more likely to steal it than you."
"We'll that sounds so comforting that I just happened to be there."
"Yes, but if I drop you off you won't be hunted down alongside the journey. I am fully aware that I am asking much from you; however, it is imperative that you are dropped off with the relic instead of me."
A stupid question came from Monte. "Is it that important for me to do this?" He asked. "I'm not sure I'm up to take care of myself."
"Don't worry, I am going to put you somewhere where you can be safely guarded." Sauer replied to the officer. "As for the relic itself, it can change the world if used right, but could also bring chaos and darkness if mishandled."
"You're giving some kind of special relic capable of changing the world to a misfit who steals guns off people just for shits and giggles. I do not understand that goddamn logic."
The scientist chuckled at his statement. "Believe me, I wondered if that was a good idea in the first place."
"Where are you going to drop me off?"
"We're heading to Mistral." He explained. I am going to drop you off at an isolated village where you can be found so don't worry, you'll be near civilization in no time. Now you rest up, it's a long ride."
"I am a few miles off the ground, I am not going to take that risk." Stated Captain Durante.