Chapter 7: Techfest Takedown

The business district of Pentagram city was full of life more than any other day, people from all over Hell had come to the city to see the year's Techfest, an annual event hosted by Carmilla Carmine, where the scientific developments of the year were shown off.

Hereticus had about an hour before his company's premiere, time which he'd use to win over Carmilla and have her join the alliance. He was walking through the independent inventor's segment when he saw two familiar faces, Sir Pentious, who was holding a megaphone, and Seviathan, they were standing by some exhibit with what looked to be some sort of bipedal robot, about twice the size of a man with a dome shaped head, where one of the egg boys sat comfortably in a chair surrounded by a control panel with levers, buttons and switches. The machine was holding a gatling gun in one hand and a tower shield in the other.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked as he approached them.

"Oh? Hereticus!" Seviathan exclaimed with pleasant surprise as he turned his head, "I'm helping Sir Pentious with his exhibit, he needed help getting things set up so I thought I'd lend a hand."

"Yes!" said Pentious, "I've decided to show off my latest invention at this festival!" Pentious placed his megaphone near his mouth and began to speak through it, "Feast your eyes, sinners, on my latest creation! A bipedal tank, making even the smallest of creature a beast to be feared!" The passerbys turned their attention to Pentious, the Egg boy inside started pressing buttons and turning levers, causing the machine to walk around the stage, however, in a sudden moment the tank tripped and fell to the floor, causing the audience to laugh as it fell on top of Pentious.

Seviathan and Hereticus quickly made their way over and lifted the machine off Pentious, they helped him to his feet as he looked around.

"Oh dear…" Pentious said, disappointment and embarrassment in his voice.

"Come on, Pentious," said Seviathan, "let's get this thing back on its feet."

Hereticus helped Seviathan and Pentious get the tank to its feet, he then said goodbye as he continued on to meet Carmilla.

He made his way to the Carmine Exhibition, display cases holding the latest weaponry produced by the company were scattered around the showcase, with eager onlookers practically pressing their faces against the glass, where guards kept a close eye on the onlookers to make sure they didn't steal anything.

He made his way around the exhibition until he saw Carmilla, she was talking to one of the presenters, he made his way over to her, reading her lips as he walked.

"The blessing tipped rifle and some of the magic suppression bullets have gone missing with no sign of forced entry," she said to the presenter, "be on guard, there could be thieves around."

She saw Hereticus in her peripheral vision and locked eyes with him, knowing what he was here for and waited for him to make his way over, "Your alliance is all over the news, well done, to be honest I didn't expect your idea to get this far."

The pair walked behind a curtain into a staff only section of the exhibit so that they could speak in private. Hereticus was about to speak, but Carmine interrupted him, "I won't be joining," she said with a direct and unwavering tone.

"And why is that?" Hereticus asked, surprised.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing, the real purpose of your alliance isn't just to fight off the exorcists, you want to destroy the Vees, you're welcome to try but I won't be joining you in your war."

Hereticus reflected on his conversation with Zestial, he hadn't really been secretive with him about his intention to threaten the Vees, it was probably one of the reasons Zestial agreed to join in the first place, and Hereticus knew Zestial and Carmine were good friends, it was likely that Zestial had tried to convince Carmine to join. He wished he had asked Zestial to come here now, this conversation would probably go a lot smoother if he had.

"I take it you and Zestial have been talking," Hereticus said.

"Yes," replied Carmilla, "he tried winning me over earlier today, to which I said no, I'm not looking to make any enemies."

Hereticus decided that it would be best not to push Carmilla, she sounded like she had made her mind up a long time ago, although, as the date of the extermination approached it was likely her decision may falter as the prospect of death weighed on her mind, it would be best to wait.

"Very well," said Hereticus, "though, if you change your mind the offer still stands. Goodbye, Carmilla."

Hereticus walked back through the curtain and towards his own exhibit, on his way he could hear Vox loudly advertising his new angelic protection technology as he spoke through deafening speakers. Hereticus made his way to the stage to make his announcement. The stage sat at the end of a long street, where people sat on tables with chairs and accommodation buildings surrounding them on all sides. His company had done a lot in the past year and planned to do more, which he intended to announce here. Looking out from the stage was a crowd of people, not nearly as big as Vox or Carmilla's exhibitions, people in Hell didn't really care about energy as much as they did weapons and protection.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Hereticus said as he approached a microphone in the middle of the stage, "Blue energy prides itself on what it's done in the last year, we've managed to increase energy production all across Hell and have kept prices low, but we plan to-" Hereticus stopped as something caught his eye, down the street he was facing was an open window on the fifth floor of an apartment building, the room was too dark to see what was inside, but he did see something shine, like light being reflected off a piece of glass.

"Everyone, get down!" Hereticus shouted as he ducked down, he heard a bang as a shot rang out and felt something small move over his head. The crowd scattered in all directions, some people trampling over each other as they made their escape. Hereticus tried to avoid the crowds as he made his own escape, but they were blocking the way back and the only way was forward, he leapt off the stage and pushed one of the tables on its side, taking cover behind it.

He noticed the nearest speaker spark as a bolt of electricity shot out from it, hitting the floor next to him, where Vox suddenly appeared.

"Great announcement!" Vox said sarcastically, "seems like whatever you had to say really ticked someone off!" Of course, this was Vox's doing, he'd sent some sort of assassin after him to prevent the alliance from getting more problematic for him, and now he was here to gloat. "Should've taken my offer, Hereticus, seems like somebody really want you-" but Vox didn't get another word in, he screamed in agony as his suit was stained with blood, he fell to the floor on to the right side of Hereticus, behind the table.

"I take it they're not one of yours then?" Hereticus asked calmly despite underneath being in complete shock. Hereticus' mind began to race, if Vox hadn't sent this assassin after him then who had?

Vox continued to wail in agony, it'd been years since someone had managed to get a hit on him, somehow, he hadn't seen the bullet coming. Hereticus sighed as he realised that he stood a better chance of survival if Vox was able to fight with him.

He looked around for something he could use to stop Vox from bleeding, his eyes darted around, a few metres to his right were a handbag somebody had dropped as they made their escape. He climbed over Vox and reached out with his metal arm to grab it. Another shot rang out as his fingers gripped the straps of the bag, he felt the shot ricochet off it and saw the arm move to the left due to the force of the bullet, the sleeve of his jacket was torn by the impact. He pulled the bag towards him and looked through it, inside he found a purse, a phone, and most importantly, a sewing kit which he could use to stop Vox's bleeding. He checked Vox's wound and began sewing it up, he'd been shot in the lower half of his torso and it had narrowly missed his liver.

Vox began to calm down and he steadied his breathing, he reached out his hand towards the speaker he had exited from, but there was a confused look on his screen as he reached out, he was trying to run but was unable to leave through the speaker, which Hereticus picked up on.

"Anti-magic bullets," he said.

"What?" Vox asked.

"Someone stole them from Carmilla's exhibition, I bet whoever this sniper is wanted to stop you from running, that's why you can't use that escape trick of yours."

There was a moment of silence between the two, they could hear the panicked screams of the audience getting further and further away, the way was now clear for them to retreat.

"Screw it," Vox said as he got to a crouching position, he looked towards an alley away from the sniper's view, if he could make a run towards the alley he could get away, "I'm getting out of here."

"Wait," Hereticus said as he grabbed onto Vox's arm to keep him from peeking over their cover, "we need to capture that sniper, if they're not yours then we need to know who wants both of us dead."

"Oh yeah, and get ourselves killed?" Vox scoffed, "you're welcome to go on a little suicide mission but I won't be helping."

Things would be a lot easier if Hereticus had Vox's help, he needed to think of something to keep him from leaving, otherwise his chances were fatally low. Suddenly, something came to his mind, he knew how to keep Vox around.

"Vox, the great and powerful, running away?" Hereticus asked, Vox's screen turned to face Hereticus, with an angry scowl on his face.

"What did you say?" he asked, electrical anger in his voice.

"You get shot once and you start fleeing like a scared dog, can't do much without your powers?" Hereticus asked, to which Vox's fists shook, but then he slumped back down next to Hereticus, behind the table.

"Alright then, what's your plan, genius?" Vox asked.

"I'll keep them distracted, I'll make it look like I'm trying to get away, then you can sneak up to them and take them out."

"Why are you the distraction?" Vox asked with suspicion, he was surprised Hereticus would throw himself into danger, there was probably some other scheme at play.

"Because you've been shot already, I doubt you'll be able to run between cover quickly enough, plus, you're a much bigger target than I am," Hereticus responded.

"Alright," Vox said after some hesitation, "any idea where the sniper is?"

"They're on the fifth floor of the apartment building down the street."

Vox peeked around the table, he could see the building from here, it was about three hundred metres away from them, as well as the scope's glare in the dark building on the fifth floor. He returned his head around the corner, another shot rang out and flew past Vox's head, mere inches from his screen.

"I think I saw it," he said with heavy breathing, he was trying to keep his cool but the sniper's relentless shots were making it difficult.

"Once you go out there you need to move quickly but carefully, you can't be seen, if they figure out what's going on they're probably going to run, also, be careful of any spotter they might have," Hereticus said.

"Yeah, okay," Vox said.

About three hundred metres away Striker sat in the apartment building, he'd rented this room out for the job, the pay was worth the risk and it was simple enough, he first planned to take out Hereticus and then take on Vox at a later date, but the idea of killing them at the same time was too exciting to pass up for him. His scope was trained on the table that Hereticus had flung over, his hands shook in anticipation, he couldn't wait for his prey to come out, he wondered which one would try to run first, he guessed Vox considering the bullets he stole would be supressing his powers for a while, he'd probably panic and try to make a run for it. He caught himself getting too excited again, he fidgeted the toothpick between his teeth, calming his nerves. One errant twitch and he could miss a shot, possibly sabotaging the whole job. Suddenly, he saw movement and time began to slow, he saw who it was, Hereticus, he was vaulting over the table. He aimed the rifle over his target's head, put his finger over the trigger and pulled.

A narrow miss. The bullet zoomed over Hereticus' head and he rushed forward, Striker pulled the bolt of the rifle back, a heavy brass bullet case came out of the receiver, hitting the desk the gun was perked upon. He opened his left eye to see where Hereticus had gone, but it was too late for him to fire, he only briefly caught a glimpse of him ducking underneath another table, he had made it about twenty metres forward. Striker took note of the miss, if he'd gone for Hereticus' central mass he would've hit, it would be best if he didn't try to do anything flashy from now on.

Vox saw Hereticus leap over the table they were both hiding behind, a gunshot nearly immediately following Hereticus' jump. He counted in his head three seconds, upon three he ran to his left as fast he could, the pain his wound was causing made it difficult, but he managed to push through and reached a long line of concrete barriers in the middle of the road, which he used to hide behind. He lay flat on his stomach and began crawling as quickly as he could towards the apartment buildings, hoping Hereticus hadn't been lethally shot and that the sniper hadn't seen him run.

Hereticus was lying underneath the table, which was tipped over at just the right angle to prevent the sniper from getting a shot. He looked around for where to run to next, he didn't really need to get close to the building, he just needed to make it look like he was trying to escape. His heart sunk, there was nowhere for him to go. He was trapped.

He thought for a moment, with no other options he pushed the table onto it's side like he did with the first one and began slowly pushing it towards the apartments. After about ten seconds of him moving, a shot rang out, the top left corner of the table flew off, chips of wood landing on Hereticus' cheek. A couple of seconds later, another shot, this time the bottom right corner. Another two seconds and Hereticus felt intense pain in his left shoulder and he felt magic powers were being drained from him. He screamed in agony, as blood dripped from his shoulder.

The scream was like music to Striker's ears, a teethy grin formed on his face, soon, Hereticus would be dead. A thought entered his mind, where was Vox? He aimed over to the first table and fired in the centre of it, the table shattered into a dozen pieces, nobody was hiding behind it. He looked around frantically for Vox, he'd been too focussed on Hereticus, had he let him get away? Suddenly, he saw movement, behind the concrete barriers he saw a black silhouette move close enough to him that the angle was just right for him to see them. He panicked as he turned his rifle to the target, his hands shaking, he pulled the trigger and missed entirely. Vox had gotten to him in such a short amount of time, he was only a hundred metres away.

Hereticus heard another shot ring out, but it wasn't directed at him, he took the opportunity to make a sprint forward, he saw a tree ahead and left to him, which he made a run towards. He felt the hairs on his neck stand up, he dived towards the tree, the bullet scraping by his torso, causing a gash to form in the side of his suit. He looked towards where Vox was, he was pulling himself over one of the concrete barriers and was making a full-on sprint towards the apartment building. The plan had failed, Vox had been spotted and the only hope was to hope that the snipers' nerves got the better of them as they both sprinted towards the building. Hereticus leapt around the corner and sprinted towards the right side of the apartment, while Vox ran towards the left.

Striker began to panic; he aimed over to Hereticus and pulled the trigger, miss. He pulled the bolt back and aimed over to Vox, miss. He pulled the bolt back again and aimed back over to Hereticus. Click. The gun had run out of bullets. He threw the empty magazine out of its well and replaced it with a fresh one, he pulled the bolt back to load a bullet and looked around for the targets, but could see neither. They'd reached the building. He put the rifle over his shoulder and sprinted out of the apartment, he raced down the stairs to the ground floor, where there was a door on each end of the corridor. Striker ran towards the door to his right, but as he made his way over, it swung open, where Vox stood, an expression of anger on his face, he knelt down as he made his way inside to reach the one who shot him. Striker turned on his heels but was faced with the other door being flung open, where Hereticus stood, an equally pissed off expression on his face.

He tried to take the rifle off his shoulder and aim it at Hereticus, but found that the gun was pulled away from behind him, he didn't even get the chance to face Vox, as he felt the stock of his rifle hit the back of his head. He fell to the floor, and everything faded to black.

Striker woke up inside the dark apartment, his legs and arms tied down by rope to the back of a chair. Infront of him were to figures, to his left, Hereticus, arms crossed and looking down at the imp. On his right was Vox, the effects of the bullet he'd been shot with had since faded, and bolts of electricity jumped between each of his right hand's fingers, which he kept aloft so that Striker could see.

Hereticus squatted down so that he was eye level with Striker, they were mere inches away from each other and the imp felt trapped, he desperately tried to break free from his bonds.

"So, who sent you?" Hereticus asked, to which Striker responded by spitting in his face.

"I don't break so easily, sinner," He said, there was a particular emphasis on the word 'sinner,' as if it held years of detestation in it.

"We've got ways of making you talk," said Vox as the electricity between his fingers intensified and he clenched his fist. Striker chuckled defiantly, but with noticeable nervousness.

"I'm not gonna snitch to a couple a' red bloods like you."

"We'll see if you're saying that an hour from now," Vox said as he got closer.

Hereticus wanted to stop Vox, physical torture wasn't the best route to take here, but he also didn't want to make it seem like they weren't in agreement with each other in front of the assassin. Striker's eyes widened as Vox got closer, but then Vox stopped in his tracks as the door to the apartment opened, with three figures standing in the doorway, Pentious, Seviathan and Carmilla.

"Is everything alright?" Pentious asked with worry in his voice.

"Yeah, we heard you got attacked and we came looking for you," Seviathan said, he looked over to the imp tied into the chair, his expression changed to one of confusion, "who's this?"

"An assassin," Hereticus replied, his attention turned to Carmilla, "what are you doing here?"

"This incident has disrupted the entire festival, I needed to see what had happened," she responded, her eyes darted to the corner of the room, where the gun Striker had used was leaning on the wall, "so, this is the little runt who stole my rifle?"

"Should a' had better security, lady," Striker said with a smug grin on his face.

"And you should've had an escape plan," Carmilla said, the grin on Striker's face faded quickly, instead being replaced by a hateful scowl, Carmilla's gaze focussed away from the gun and towards Vox and Hereticus, "so, what are you two going to do with el rato?"

"We're gonna shock info on who brought him here out of him," Vox responded, to which Hereticus put up his right hand to tell Vox to wait.

"Seviathan, you've got memory powers, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, you want me to look and see who hired him?" Seviathan asked, immediately catching on to what Hereticus wanted him to do, he walked over to Striker and placed his hand a few inches from the assassin's head, a faint green light emanating from it. Striker tossed and turned as he tried to stop Seviathan from seeing inside his head.

"Get out of my head!" he screamed; he began to shake the chair as he panicked.

Suddenly, a look of shock appeared on Seviathan's face and he pulled his hand away, Striker had built up quite a bit of momentum in the chair and it fell to the side, his head hit the floor on his way down and he let out a pained groan.

Seviathan's fists clenched and he closed his eyes, his teeth began to grit as whatever he had seen was causing him to become angry, the look on his face showed a deep history, what he'd seen had invoked some bad memories.

"What did you see? Who sent him?" Hereticus asked frantically, to which Seviathan only said one name.

"Goetia."