Rise of the Fallen

Chapter 9: The First Mission

Portland, Oregon. A beautiful city complimented by its lush forests and snowcapped mountains. The people are friendly, and the town is welcoming, or at least that’s what the brochure says on the jet, but now, it’s a city of corpses.
Julius and I walk through the heart of the city with weapons in hand and fully geared. The smell of smoke and death mix into a noxious miasma. As we walk over the bodies of the citizens, I can’t help but notice that they all seem to have multiple wounds.
My grip around my bow tightens as I ask Julius, “You think we’re too late?”
Julius’ silence told me everything. “What are we even looking for?” I ask
“Not sure.” He answers coldly, “I guess we can try following the trail it left us.”
As we follow the trail of bodies, it leads all the way up to the city capitol building. Piles of bodies blocking the door have turned it into a fortress. “How are going to get in?” Julius says to himself.
I walk around the side of the building to see if they’re any windows or entrances. “You found anything yet!” Julius yells
All the windows have been boarded up and the one’s that aren’t are on the higher levels. Jogging back over to Julius I say, “We can’t use any windows. We might have to move the bodies one by one.”
Julius scratches his head and asks, “You’re going to help right?”
“Yea,” I say as I walk over to the front door, “What? You think I was going to let you do it on your own?”
Julius lets out a small laugh that fades and says, “I just really don’t want to do this.”
Julius and I start moving the bodies one by one with anger welling up with every man woman and child I move.
“That’s the last one.” I say moving the last body out of the way.
Julius furls his brow, opens the door, takes the folded shotgun from around his shoulder, and flips it out. I take my bow from around my shoulder and follow Julius into the building.
As we walk down the dark corridor the smell of death and iron grows stronger the closer we get to the center of city hall. My heart races and my scar starts to burn again.
“Heads up Its close.” I say taking an arrow out of my quiver.
Julius cocks his gun and slowly leads the way to a door at the end of the hall as my scar burns with the same intensity when we were on the plane.
“This is it.” I whisper as I nock the arrow in my hand.
Julius slowly opens the door and walks in. Coming in right after him, Julius stands with his weapon drawn and aims at the Fallen sitting down in the mayor’s seat. A bead of sweat slides down my forehead and my grip around my bow tightens. Something deep inside is telling me that this Fallen is more dangerous than the one on the plane.
“So, here you are. I was told you would come for me. I hope you don’t mind the decorations,” he says unemotionally as he turns around towards us, “I got a little bored waiting,”
BANG! Julius fires a shot from is shotgun and yells, “Stand up!”
The Fallen, dressed in a black pinstripe suit with a red shirt and black tie, leans forward and looks at us with his abyss like eyes and asks, “And what makes you think that you have the power to make me? That?”
“Yea,” Julius say as he presses the barrel of the shotgun against the Fallen’s forehead.
“Calm down a little bit Julius, we have some questions to ask,” I say trying to ease Julius off of the trigger.
Julius stakes a deep breath and reluctantly says, “Fine, but you so much as move wrong, and I’m blowing your head off.”
“Ooo, so angry,” The Fallen smirks as he continues, “I can see why you’re playing the bad cop but you’re terrible at it.”
Julius rams the butt of the gun into the side of the Fallen’s head, presses the barrel back against its forehead and warns, “Keep at it.” 
The fallen chuckles and says, “Fine I’ll play along, before I kill you and your timid little friend over there.”
Julius hits him again and presses the shotgun back up against its head. “First question what are you planning?” I ask.
The Fallen spits out black blood from its mouth and says, “I’m not planning anything. What’s wrong with doing as I please?”
“Ok, how about this what do you know about The Grigori?” I ask and as soon as the words Grigori come out of my mouth the Fallen’s entire body freezes up.
“H… How do you know about that?” the Fallen asks as his confident voice turns into a whimper.
“Tell me.” I say walking closer to the desk.
“The Grigori…” the Fallen starts to say.
“The Grigori what?”
The Fallen smiles and says, “They say that loose ends need to be cut.”
He reaches over the desk and grabs me by the throat. Julius shoots him point blank in the side of the head, but to our surprise, the slugs did nothing, neither a hole nor dent.
The Fallen swats Julius and he’s sent flying through the wall. Squeezing harder, the monster turns its attention towards me and asks, “Did you really think that because you had that little toy of a weapon you could threaten me?”
Dropping my bow, the Fallen throws me through the hole in the wall. Aching and catching my breath, Julius stands up and tosses his gun down on the ground.
“Alright now it show time.” He says putting up is guard while charging back into the office.
Just as I stand up Julius flies past me and crashes into a marble column.
“Julius!” I yell as piece of dry wall zings pass my ear.
“Don’t forget about me.” The Fallen says as I turn around to meet a fist sinking into my gut.
“You never had a chance.” The Fallen says laughing as I throw up all over the floor and shoes of the monster.
“Ugh, gross.” The Fallen says as he kicks my side.
A loud crack reverberates through the building as I get launched across the hallway. The Fallen laughs as the sound of his footsteps get closer. “I’m disappointed.” He says standing over me, “The ultimate weapon? Ha! They have got to be kidding me!”
“Get up!” The Fallen yells as he kicks my side again
Grunting, I force myself to stand using the wall to keep me from falling. The Fallen struts over to me and stares me down. As I glare into the eyes of the Fallen, I stare into the abyss. With eyes full of rage, I take out both of my knives and steel myself.
“Yes, I like the look in your eyes.” The fallen says, grinning as he gets closer, “Let me see the power of Leviathan!”
He lunges at me, but I use the knife in my right hand to slice his arm as soon as he comes within reach.
“So, you bleed like everybody else?” I say catching my breath as black blood drips off of my blade.
“Oh, kid,” he says as he heals the large gash on his arm, “You don’t get it do yo…”
Before he can finish his sentence a piece of the marble column that he threw Julius through flies through the air and slams into the Fallen. Looking to my right, Julius is standing in a pile of rubble with blood dripping down his forehead.
“Take that, ya freak.” He says as he limps to pick up his shot gun and my bow.
He walks over to me and shoves the bow into my chest, “Let’s get out of here while we can.”
I nod and follow Julius as we run out of city hall and into the streets of Portland. My nose is almost numb to the smell now. “This way.” Julius says, pointing in the direction of the airport.
We make it half way there before the searing pain in my scar comes back.
“He’s nearby.” I say grabbing Julius shoulder.
“Really? We’re like almost there.”
“Move!” I say pushing Julius out of the way as the Fallen cr6ashes where he was standing, leaving a crater in the street.
“You know, I don’t know how you did that, but that REALLY hurt.” The Fallen says as he cracks his neck, “Looks like I do get to kill you first.”
“Now, I just have to figure out how.” The Fallen says as he walks over to Julius and picks him up.

Scrambling to take my bow from around my shoulder, I nock my arrow and aim. There’s no time to hesitate just shoot!
Just before I let the arrow fly, Julius headbutts him. The Fallen drops him and staggers back.
“Why you little…” The Fallen shouts before Julius starts throwing punches.
Taking a deep breath, I reset my shot. The burning pain coming from my scar starts to pulsate. I remember this feeling, this power, swelling up in my body. Everything seems so slow. I can see just how fast the Fallen is, dodging and deflecting every punch.
“If I line up my shot just right…” I mumble to myself as I let the arrow zip through the air. The Fallen dodges Julius’ punch, but catches an arrow in the side of his leg.
“Ahh!” He yells grabbing his leg.
Julius steps in and throws a right cross, but the Fallen dodges and back hands him, sending him into a car. The Fallen yanks out the arrow and turns its head towards me and throw the arrow back, piercing my right shoulder. Screaming in pain, I collapse to the ground. The Fallen limps towards me and says breathing heavy, “No more tricks?”
My vision starts to blur, and my arm begins to numb. The Fallen holds out his hands. A black orb comes out and stretches out into a spear. With each step he takes the sound of wings flapping makes me think that this is really it.
“Stop, 627.” a voice says, as a girl with a pair of crimson colored wings that shone like fire in the darkness lands in front of me.
She wore a black cloak and with her back turned towards me she says, “You can’t kill him.”
“And why not!” the Fallen spat
“They still need him.” She says
“What about the other one?”
“He’s the other one. So, no.” she says as my eyes get heavier.
“Tsk, fine.” He says as he vanishes into the darkness
The girl turns to me, kneels down and without saying a word she yanks the arrow out of my arm.  Screaming, so many questions rush through my head. Who is this girl and why is she helping us? Why did he call me the ultimate weapon, and Leviathan, what does that have to do with me? Next thing I know, everything goes dark.