MAVE
"Help her, you idiots!" It was a command that cut through the gray wave in an instant. Everybody in the Warden soup, whisking and swirling from task to task, stopped. Even the Warden General, pulling every string from the backline to unravel this most recent commotion, felt a static shiver run up her spine. She paused, looked toward the sound of the boyish demand, and followed it with an absurd prediction in mind.
Mave looked to be a child among men, but every agent who caught a glimpse of her made way for their leader. Whatever stole their attention prior to her passing, be it magical killer or abhorrent demon, did not matter. Her people bent around her until she was able to see, and what she saw was A dark boy struggling beneath a beast in the likeness of a girl. One that bit and snapped at his limbs like wolves upon deer. The boy was losing what little fight remained, but he demanded aid for someone not yet in Mave's view. When the last agent stepped out of Mave's path, she saw her. Naomi, painted in the image of death.
Mave's world was suddenly awash. Amid the muted murk she only saw the body. Naomi's body, and the slow rise and fall of her chest. The faint sounds of her daughter's exhale was a siren's song, but Mave stayed the madness with a nip of the tongue. The Warden General emerged, and she soon saw the scene as a Warden General should. In detached totality.
Mave gestured to the agents. "Get the civilian to triage. I want her seen immediately." On command, the agents rushed toward the sun-kissed girl and pulled her away from the wild sight. Gun points were then raised, signaled by a single hand from the Warden General, and they placed the dark boy and The Beast he braved at the end of their sights.
Mave watched as some of Warden's pups choked before their targets. The anxiety then spread when the dark boy gave a thundering kick to The Beast. An electric shock was seen where his foot connected and The Beast was blasted into a building that collapsed on impact. The dark boy, now free from predator and protectorate, surrendered himself to the pain and let out a shout. Blood soaked, static singed, and robbed of breath, he shook in response to an overtaxed, overloaded body. In this weakened state, apprehending him would not have been an impossible task. Only a herculean one. Mave's mind conjured a thousand methods of capture, for no effort could go without measure before creatures such as these. Alas, she did not expect for the dark boy to make a desperate plea.
"Naomi," the dark boy cried. "D-did you people get Naomi?! She needs help! She needs a hospital!"
Mave moved on pure instinct. Her pistols were drawn and their barrels were shoved into the dark boy's face before she realized her intent. Her gray-clad soldiers followed suit like shadows, and they each bore down on the boy with the bullet-spitting ends of over a dozen firearms. It was a foreboding vision of steel rain that the boy could not escape, but the impending flurry did not frighten him in the way Mave expected. No. His moonlight eyes ran up the trigger end of her bold, silvery pistols and gazed into her dark glare with a flickering revelation. Mave paid no mind to what the boy presumed to know. It simply did not matter.
"Do not move," said Mave. Her lips parted slowly as her cold gaze set upon the boy like a long night. "Disobey my order and I will fill your face with bullets." She pressed her silver pistols into his eye sockets. "Our data shows that your skin is tougher than most, but I doubt those pretty little eyes are just as sturdy. They never are."
It was then, and only then, that she saw the dark boy seize. The look on his face translated well. To him, she was irrefutably lethal. Now that she knew she was perfectly understood, Mave continued. "Tell me, Mr. Achim Arbitor, what have you been doing with my daughter?" In response, Mave saw some unreadable thoughts swimming in the light of his eyes. He then eased with some relief. Another unexpected reaction.
"This. This explains a lot," said a tired Achim.
Mave blinked before her scowl reset. "...You seem awfully calm for someone with a battalion's worth of guns and explosives trained on you," she replied. Indeed she had been perplexed, but she shoved the guns into his eyes with mounting force. "And yet you did not answer the question."
"Look lady! I didn't do anything, okay," said Achim. The outburst agitated his injuries causing him to curl in pain. "Ugh...I saved your stupid daughter from the thing that did this to me. That thing that I kicked into those buildings over there." He pushed her weapons out of his immediate space. "Would you stop," said the dark boy, clearly more annoyed than threatened.
Mave paused. Her mind assessed and reassessed every possibility. She then acted and gave her orders. "Colonel," said Mave. Colonel Damian, the first gun at her back, nodded. "Marshal a small force to surround the section where The Beast was pushed back. The impact caused the building to collapse on top of it, but I doubt it's dead under there. Be careful."
"Yes, Warden General," said the colonel.
"Lieutenant Delen, if it has not been done already, move the civilian to transport," Mave commanded. "I want her in urgent care by the end of the hour, and I need her out of the area yesterday."
"Yes, Warden General," said the lieutenant.
"The rest of you," said Mave. "Explosives front and center. Bring me a grenade for my personal use, on the double. Hold your fire until I give the order. If anyone fires before my mark, I will personally deal with you." Her dark eyes never pulled from Achim as she sounded her orders, but when she did refer to him, Mave pressed the firing end of her weapons against Achim's cheek. "Now for you, Mr. Arbitor. Seeing as you fought this thing and survived, what are our odds?"
There was a silent domineering that thickened the air around the two of them. The domineering was hers. The dark boy could only resist it, if capable. Alas, he seemed far too comfortable beneath the weight of her ego than Mave personally preferred. In fact, the dark boy stared at her as if he saw something eerily familiar. She could only wonder for so long, for The Beast stirred beneath the debris.
"Quickly, Mr. Arbitor!"
Achim scoffed. "Yeah well, your kid distracted me during the fight." He wiped his face of filth "Either way, I doubt you guys stand a chance. Not if all you've got is a bunch of toys."
"This is not the time for posturing, Mr. Arbitor Did you or did not get defeated in a clean, open contest of strength," asked Mave. The ruins began to rumble louder. The Beast was about to emerge. "Answer," Mave shouted.
"Naomi got in the way, b-but only at first," Achim confessed.
"So you did lose." Mave thought aloud. "Was it a close fight?"
"I-I mean I'm faster, but it can take a lot more hits," said Achim
"Can it be reasoned with," Mave quickly inquired.
"It bit me in the shoulder," Achim defiantly responded.
"Good enough," said Mave. "I want all guns aimed at the thing beneath that rubble! Stagger your fire based on how the creature is affected. Shoot only when you have a clean shot! We will need every single bullet and missile in our arsenal in order to win, but we CAN win."
Her command turned the aim of every agent beneath her authority. The way the people snapped into action at her word, it was a display of power so awesome that it could only be described as artful. Mave, then lifted the injured boy up by his underarm. "You are going to fight with us, Mr. Arbitor," she stated.
"What!?" Achim collapsed as if her words tripped him, but the Caitlyn Queen firmly held him up. "You and your kid don't make sense! You trust people way too quickly," said the dark boy.
Mave responded with bitter words. "Naomi has proven to be a child who thinks as such. My reasons do not overlap with hers."
"...You do seem more reasonable. Pragmatic," Achim clarified. Pulling away from Mave's support, the dark boy stood as straight as he could. "I can't move much, but I'll do what I can," he said with strain.
"As long as you refrain from killing my agents again, doing what you can is all that I will ask of you," said Mave. Her eyes then narrowed on the emergent beast. "When you see an opportunity, take it."
Achim tsked his teeth; a juvenile remark was on the tip of his tongue, but The Beast burst from the earth beneath her feet before the dark boy spoke. The unholy thing snapped its jaws at her black boots but barely snagged the leather. The Caitlyn Queen proved too clever to succumb to such a trick. She and her best agents endured the hail of rocks that erupted from the emergence and quickly saw the monster's aim. Achim, pained and kneeling, cursed aloud as The Beast careened toward him. The feral creature pounced and the dark boy fell flat to avoid the attack. Its sharp teeth shaved the tip of his afro as it passed, but he had been spared a new wound. When The Beast drifted around for a second assault, Mave saw Achim's steps stuttering. The rebound had been so fast that he could not recover. From yards to inches in an instant, the demon closed the distance faster than anyone knew; anyone save for Mave.
She pulled Achim by the collar and into a narrow escape, but her deft hand left an explosive surprise to replace the dark boy's hide. The Beast bit down on a grenade and the blast that followed left its jaw crooked at the seams. The battalion had been rattled by the shockwave, but Mave shouted so loud and with such hefty authority that every shell shocked brain heeded her command. "FIRE!"
And so came a rain of ballistics. The dazed demon had not even tasted the black blood in its mouth before a hail of bullets converged upon it. A missile was released amid the flurry and it detonated on the creature until a smoking husk was left. After all the shots were fired, The Beast seemed defeated. Lying in the center of a bellowing crater, all was still until the monster – barely burned and bleeding - stepped out of the gunpowder plume. Mave, from a distant hideaway with Achim in-arm, shouted. "KEEP FIRING!"
A second volley bore down before ending with a second explosive blast! The Beast shrieked but it eventually crawled out of the newest plume. It had been weakened, but the fact that it was still intact and moving left the agents reeling with fear. They doubted their weapons but Mave held true. "DO NOT HESITATE! AGAIN! SHOOT UNTIL YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT!"
"R-reloading, Warden General!" said a group of fumbling missilemen. Between her quick command and the unyielding demon, the reloading team were simply not prepared. The Beast approached on all-fours and it drooled black bile like a rabid hellhound. Achim had been its intended prey but the abuse of battle deepened the creature's appetite. When The Beast dashed it did so toward the battalion. Mave soon saw sanguine stains paint the nearest party. They did not even see the victim go down, but a bleeding arm hung from the demon's spindly jaws. It bit the limb in two before inhaling the remains. Screams ripped from the unfortunate soldier. He was alive but gravely injured.
The Beast was not done. The cannibal bore its teeth upon its victim, intent on devouring him whole after the first taste, but Achim slipped from Mave's care and soon fell from on high. He tackled The Beast before it could consume and he grappled it into submission. Locking The Beast's joints using his own arms and legs, the demon would have to fight far harder than him to break free, but still the monster fought. The two dragged one another across the dirty arena while the agents scrambled, but Mave watched intently as Achim slowly lost his grip.
"I NEED MORE EXPLOSIVES," Mave shouted. "SOMEONE, GET ME A GRENADE AND" --
"NO!" Achim shouted from the ground. "G-Get back! EVERYONE GET BACK!" In that instant, the air began to ionize but only a few felt the sting.
Mave was one of those who noticed and she knew, immediately, the scope of what was to come. "YOU HEARD HIM," Said Mave. "GET THE WOUNDED AND FALL BACK BEHIND THE VEHICLES! MOVE PEOPLE! MOVE MOVE MOVE!"
As commanded, the militant mass quickly cut away from the wrestling titans. The last man had only just vacated the arena when Achim let out one last surge. A flash of electricity bursts from the dark boy's body. Static streams scarred the earth during the discharge as The Beast – bound at the center of that violent shock– seized from the high voltage. When the brazen blue light show finally sputtered out, a smoking husk simmered in Achim's grasp. The Beast had been burned so deeply that its flesh bubbled at the point of direct contact. Even then, after being beaten, blasted, burned, and electrocuted, the demon still struggled, but - much to Mave's relief, its attempts only amounted to blood curdling growls and slow swiping claws.
"We can do this," she said in shock. It was a possibility she had not fully embraced, but now she knew. "With enough damage, we can kill them."