Like I said this arc of the story deals with some pretty heavy themes and this chapter will showcase some of it. Characters will be returning and be RADICALLY different than they were the last time we saw them but I'm writing them as I think people would really react. So keep in mind this is just to show how afraid people are of demons after what Skorge has done.
~*~*~*~Leon~*~*~*~
"Leon!?" A voice said as Leon was shaking the cobwebs from his head. He heard someone rushing over before they got on the ground right beside him. "What happened? Where's Nick?!?"
"Nick-" Leon said still feeling groggy. "He's- there was an android. It was Adapt!"
"Adapt?" Kayos' voice said as Leon looked up at him and got up to his feet. "I thought you destroyed all of them."
"These ones didn't look like they were finished." Leon said rubbing his eyes. Whatever kind of blast that thing had hit him with must have messed with his vision because no matter how much he shook his head everything looked blurry. "There's one on the floor over there. God I can't see!"
"Let me look-"
"Get away from me!" Leon yelled all but shoving Kayos off of him. "You've done far than enough to me in my life time."
"Leon no is not the time for you to be angry with me." Kayos said flatly as he tried again to get a look at Leon only to be shoved again, this time with even more force that sent him tumbling over the control panel that Nick had been using. "Damn it why won't you let me help you!?"
"Are you really asking me that?!?" Leon screamed at Kayos blurry image before he brought his hand beck up to rub them. They felt so dry that it was almost like he was touching sand paper instead of an eyeball. "If you want to help then look at that pile of scrap metal and see what the hell it hit me with. It was in it's right arm."
Kayos let out a scoff before he went over to where Leon had left the first android. He stumbled over to where Nick had his table of tools, feeling for the metal table and prayed that he'd find his little sink that he had in here to wash his hands. He felt so damned helpless feeling his way for a sink in his own damn place! And as if that weren't bad enough, the Gods saw fit to salt his wounds by having Kayos show up just when Leon couldn't do so much as walk by himself.
Kayos must've seen Leon trying to find the sink because he was suddenly beside Leon and although it was still blurry he could still make out a hand reaching for his arm. "Touch me and I swear to go I'm going to rip that arm off." Leon growled.
Again Kayo scoffed before he walked ahead of Leon and turned on the water before disappearing back toward the first android. Leon muttered to himself under his breath as he made his way toward the sound of running water his hands still out in front of him. When he finally did find the sink Leon leaned forward, cupping his hands underneath the running water he brought them up to his face. It was cold but it still felt amazing especially on his eyes and forehead area which as it turns out was probably burned because he felt loose bits of skin falling off.
He let out a groan as he continued to soak his face, and after the fourth handful Leon stood straight up to try looking around. It was still a bit blurry but after blinking a few more times everything began to come into focus. Leon turned off the water as he turned his head to find Kayos looking over the android's right arm for any traces of a weapon.
"It's on the inside." Leon said walking over and getting into a crouch on the opposite side of the metal arm. He took the arm from Kayos and tore off the metal plating revealing a hollowed out cylinder with all manners of tubes connected to it. "They used the same kind of beam as the first one. That Adapt copied that ability from Rite."
"The L'ok leader that was with Skorge?" Kayos asked looking at Leon who was still quite wet not only from the splashing but from that block of ice the second Adapt covered his head in. "How would these one's have those abilities than?"
"Must've copied the original Adapt's data." Leon said standing up to his full height. "They had Roy's ability too."
"Roy?" Kayos repeated.
"Oh my god do I have a goddamn echo?" Leon snapped at Kayos who only ignored that.
"Leon if these things have Roy's ability to move across a long distance in a short amount of time, even if they aren't complete they can be a huge problem even for us."
"Relax, don't hit your doomsday button just yet. These things aren't nearly as strong as they could be." Leon said kicking the android's upper half. "But the one that got away wasn't being controlled. It was more like an A.I. but those are supposed to be illegal..."
"You sound surprised that someone's using an Artificial Intelligence system for these things." Kayos said as Leon asked him what he was doing here and not going back to the Chain. "Like I said, I was told to monitor you for awhile. As for what I'm doing here specifically, one of the Chain's undercover agents informed us that President Faye Williams has been tinkering with some of Thomas Vega's scientific achievements."
"That must be why those things wanted Nick." Kayos asked if they said anything at all to them to which Leon replied. "They said something about a Project Fury, I'm not sure what exactly I was in and out. But they needed Nick for that, I know that for sure but what's Project Fury?"
"It must be what they're calling these new versions of Adapt and the Cyclops serum." Kayos said before pulling out his PET and tapping the screen while Leon began to pull on his boots. "Ramon, has Agent Vance said anything about a Project Fury?"
"The name was mentioned but he couldn't give me any details." A voice said from the PET and when Leon looked he saw the man who got Nick deported for correcting his work on the screen. "As for your other request I have the list of people for-"
"No need they took the one they wanted already." Kayos said flatly. "Nik'Alahs Grifter was the one they wanted. Is there any current excuse we can use to get inside the Dome?"
Ramon was going on about some sort of settlement that needed to be brought up to the United States Congress, but Leon didn't care about any of that. Now that he knew where Nick was he wasn't going to just sit around and wait for an excuse to go there. Saving his adopted brother was all the reason he needed to go."
~*~*~*~Lauren~*~*~*~
Lauren was packing up a few of her things in a duffle bag while Roy waited for her outside. She'd decided that she was going to be staying with him for a little while, because--although she hadn't told Roy because she didn't think it was worth mentioning--things hadn't been going very well between her and Becca ever since she'd yelled at Ashton. Becca was on Ashton's side about the demons being dangerous because apparently she was one of those who were almost killed at Party Town along with her brother.
She had figured they'd been there but ever since the even she kind of just thought that they'd left before all the fighting broke out because neither of them had said anything. That is until the riots started happening again. Becca was of the mind that all the demons weak or strong should all just be rounded up and killed or they should just get off of 'their' planet. Lauren had tried telling them that not all demons were like Skorge but nothing she said was getting through to them.
Ashton had even gone as far as calling her a 'Demon Whore' and Becca had even begun to agree with him because she actually knew about Roy unlike her brother. Hopefully she wouldn't tell him otherwise Roy's secret would be out in the open. Thankfully neither of them were here right now. They were the real reason why she'd wanted Roy to wait outside because she wasn't too sure at all just how he'd react to them jumping all over her like they'd been doing lately. It was a good thing she did too because Demon Whore was apparently catching on in the dorm because she found someone had posted that on her door outside.
It seemed to her that even though they were called demons, they weren't the ones who were acting like monsters. Just last week Lauren heard about a boy being stabbed because he was a demon and he had to be life-flighted to another hospital. She may not have been a demon herself but it wasn't a big secret that Lauren was a 'fanatic' for demons and that seemed to be more than enough for some people to turn on her...even her own brother. Lauren zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder before she made her way toward the door.
She was just bout to turn the knob when she suddenly heard raised voiced outside that was quickly followed by a loud crashing sound. She ripped open her door to see what in the world was going on and found several students had someone on the floor and were kicking him while a girl was screaming at them to stop. She was short and had hair that was almost a purplish shade of black. Lauren recognized her instantly as her friend Talia, the one who'd started calling her a fanatic because Lauren had originally wanted to do her report on.
Lauren looked down at the boy on the floor and realized that it had to be Talia's human boyfriend Jarrod they were ganging up on. She wasn't sure if it was because Lauren was just sick of not fighting back against her brother and best friend or if maybe some of Leon's tendencies to do first and never thing rubbed off on her, either way the next thing she knew Lauren was on one of the boy's back clawing at his eyes. Lauren might've been pretty scrappy when she was younger, and Roy might've even taught her to defend herself, but that didn't change just how small she was compared to the boy she was on top of.
He reached back for her and caught a handful of hair and pulled on it so hard that Lauren was absolutely amazed that she didn't have a new bald spot the size of a fist. She did however let out a shriek of pain before the boy threw his body backwards against the wall making her catch a doorknob to the tailbone. Again she let out a shriek before letting go of him and sliding down to the floor, leaving her wide open to any one of these guys. The one she'd clawed turned around and looked like he was going to kick her but one of the others stopped him.
"Chris don't she's dating the police commissioner's son." He said but his friend didn't seem to care.
"So what not like he's here and can do anything about it can he? Besides that's the Demon Whore, everyone knows she goes about spreading her legs for any demon who'll take her." The boy made a gagging sound before he sloshed it about in his mouth and he spat it out right at her. "Bet that's not even close to the worst thing that she'd had on her."
Chris made a noise of disgust before had waved he off. "Eh, these demon lovers have had enough for now."
Lauren watched them to make sure they were gone before she got to up while Talia was checking on her boyfriend. "I'm fine." He told her doing his best to make it actually sound believable as he got up to his knees and got site of Lauren. "Are you okay?"
"Thanks." Talia said to her as if she were just noticing her for the first time. "You didn't have to help though..."
"I didn't help because I had to." Lauren said rubbing her tailbone and telling them that Jarrod should definitely go see a doctor. It looked to her like he took a few kicks right to the face because there was a lot of blood dripping down his face and shirt and even covering the floor.
Lauren grabbed her bag and was going to start heading downstairs when Talia called her back. She turned around to find Talia giving her an almost anxious look. "Um, is it true what those guys were saying about you?"
Lauren felt her eyes grow when she heard that and the anger she felt was so hard to contain that for a moment she thought about finishing what those boys started. How could she just ask her something like that after Lauren went out of her way to help them?! But rather than attacking her she just said; "Get him to the hospital." And when she was at the bottom of the first flight of stairs she added. "Bitch."
Lauren was already steamed by the time she was leaving the dorm, and Roy seeing her limp didn't do much to help her mood. She really didn't want to be babied right now, she just wanted to get the hell out of here. She voiced as much to him and Roy probably sensed the tension in her voice and didn't say or do anything after that. The two of them were heading for the parking lot where Lauren's already bad day had just gotten even worse.
"Hey whore." She heard Ashton's voice call after her as he an Becca were probably just arriving.
Lauren did her best to ignore him but she couldn't help the tears that were starting to flow down her cheeks as she got in the car. Roy was getting in the car but Ashton's taunting must've gotten to him because he got out and started storming over to where he and Becca were. Lauren saw it and she was out of the car in a heartbeat racing over to them as Roy gave her brother a hard shove making him fall to the ground. Lauren was telling him to stop but Roy was deaf to her right now as he gave her little brother a solid kick to the gut making him groan and even tumble a few feet. He wasn't done though as he rolled Ashton onto his back and gave him one solid punch that instantly made blood come out of his mouth.
Lauren was trying her best to pull Roy off of her little brother by then and Becca was screaming for someone to help while Roy was screaming into Ashton's face. "That's your sister you're calling a whore you little shit!" He gave him another sold punch before he finally let Lauren pull him off and for a moment Lauren thought that Roy was going to go after him again so she put herself between them telling him that was enough. "No I'm going to teach that little shit some manners Lauren. No one talks to you like that in front of me NO ONE NOT EVER!"
"Just get out of here you fucking demon!" Becca screamed at Roy who froze up and just stared at her. Lauren looked around and saw that with that one word 'demon' everyone on campus had suddenly turned to see what was going on. Becca noticed to because in an even louder voice she screamed. "This demon's going after my boyfriend someone call the cops!"
"I'm not a demon you BITCH! And what kind of person let's someone call their best friend a whore?!?" Roy screamed while Lauren was doing her best to get Roy out of there before everyone on campus showed up. "You're the demon you hear me! You and that little weasel of a boyfriend of yours! If I catch either one of you around Lauren again I'll tear out your goddamned hearts!"
"Roy that's enough let's get out of here!" Lauren screamed as some other students started saying a demon had just threatened to kill someone.
Finally after another few agonizing moments she got Roy into his blue car and the two of them were driving away passing several on-looking students who were no doubt talking to 911. Once they were at Roy's house a fair distance away from the school, Roy let out snarl before he started hitting his steering wheel over and over until it was so badly bent that it was useless. He was hyperventilating and Lauren was actually starting to get a little afraid of him but he was the only one in the world right now that she could be with. Leon was in the hospital and her brother thought she was some kind of whore who slept with every demon in the world. But she forgot all of that as she timidly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.
He was still breathing raggedly but Roy did seem to be calming down a bit as he rested his forehead on the steering wheel. Not long at all after that did his hand come up and touch hers making her suddenly aware of how warm he'd gotten, almost like the way Leon had been when she'd snuggled up to him almost two months ago. Was that a demon thing, she found herself wondering. Was Roy getting hot right now because he was letting his demon half get a little too much control over him right now?
"I'm sorry." He said in a somewhat horse voice, not looking up at her. "I shouldn't have gone after him like that. I should've left when you said. But I'm sorry most of all that you even had to go through that with him."
Lauren felt her throat beginning to close on her and before she knew it she was wound tightly around Roy, her face buried deep in his shoulder and letting out several loud sobs. Roy didn't say anything to her then. He just held her and she had to admit that was all she wanted in that moment, to just be held by someone she knew loved her. Because even though she hated feeling like this, she really did feel like no one else in the world cared for her in the slightest besides him. And that was a very, very lonely feeling.
~*~*~*~Leon~*~*~*~
Leon was tapping his foot impatiently while he waited for Kayos to get them through security. The guards seemed like they were taking their precious time validating them and every second that he had to wait, could've been another second of torture that Nick could be going through for all he knew. He was getting more than a little pissed right now and if Leon decided to say screw it and tear through both the guards as well as the door he didn't think there was anyone out there who could blame him for doing so.
He was literally one second away from killing every single guard in this place when they finally decided to let them through. Leon unfolded his arms and hurried through the door with Kayos right behind him. He wasted no time and was heading right for the Presidential Quarters of the Dome on the far side of the massive patch of grass that was inside. Kayos could keep up their cover if he wanted, but Leon was going to have a chat with Madam President right now. Surprisingly enough to him Kayos didn't seem to have any objections to that either as the two of them hurried across the yard to the small tower that went along the Dome's wall.
"So what exactly is your plan?" Kayos asked.
"Get inside make her give Nick back, torture her if she doesn't."
"Oh I don't see how that could possibly go wrong-" Kayos said freezing mid-sentence as all the anti-demon weapons in the Dome were activated, and every single one of them were trained on them. Leon counted a total of 75 guns in total, counting the guards that were around the Presidential Quarters. "We're only cleared to visit the Senate." Kayos said as if he were answering and unasked question. "I suppose it was too much to ask that they just let us in."
"Whether they let me in or not doesn't matter." Leon said looking at all the guns pointed at them. "I'm getting in there."
Just then there was the loud whining sound of a speaker's feedback before a woman's voice spoke. "Let them in." Just like that, all of the guns that were trained on them were suddenly lowered and the torrents returned to their places in the ground.
Leon clenched his fist before he began walking toward the three story tower with Kayos in toe. He couldn't help but notice that all the guards were standing absolutely still making Leon wonder if they were really human at all and not just androids like the security that Vega had used. From what he knew Vega did have some security and weapons contracts with the world leaders which of curse included the Madam President. For all he knew those could all be Adapt androids wearing synthetic skin like some security androids did to give them the illusion of being human.
When the two of them reached the door they were greeted by a man wearing a black suit with his hands folded behind his back. "Mister Sondair, and Mister Saunders, the president is delighted to receive you. Especially you Mr. Saunders, she has something she very much wants to discuss with you."
"Yeah I bet." Leon said not bothering to stop walking and wound up going right through the man in front of them proving to him that he was a hologram. "So how many of the guards here are actually human?"
"None sir." The hologram said with a cheerful smile. "We here at the Presidential Quarters believe that enhanced cybernetic security drones are quite proficient. Would you like me to show you to the Madam President's office?"
"Please do." Leon said giving the hologram a cold look.
"At once sir." The hologram said again with a large smile on is face as it began walking into the building which opened its doors as if the hologram were a real person. Leon followed after the 'servant' his fists still clenching as he walked through the room and towards the elevator. The doors opened up as the approached while the hologram turned to them. "Madam President will be waiting for you on the top floor."
"Thanks." Leon said getting in with Kayos following him in.
The elevator doors closed and within a moment they were moving up to the third floor. When the doors opened back up Leon was greeted to a sight that reminded him too much of Vega for his taste. President Williams was seated at her desk working on something, or at least pretending to with a man stationed at her side. Unlike Vega's office however though there were no nanopads for Leon to stretch out on, just plain old fashioned chairs. The president saw them both and stood up to greet them before gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk inviting them to sit.
Leon though raced across the room as fast as he could leaping at the president only to hit something that was like solid steel and be shot backwards like he'd just been fired out of a cannon. Leon groaned and looked up just in time to see the final ripples of the shield the president had in place vanish. He let out a snarl and got up before giving it a hard punch making ripples and sparks dance across the entire thing showing him that it went about the entire room.
"Where is he!?!" Leon screamed hitting the shield again, this time when he hit it, it felt like the entire building shifted. "Where's my brother Nick! I know you took him!!!"
"Leon don't-" Kayos shouted but Leon wanted nothing to do with Kayos as he punched the shield again cracking one of his knuckles this time.
"My your temper really is quite explosive." Faye Williams said looking at the shield generators that ran along the wall as the ripples vanished. "Still its nice to know that the shield will hold up even against an S-class demon's assault."
"What are you talking about S-class?" Kayos asked.
"Oh don't play dumb with my Kayos, I know all about the Chain's dirty little secrets. Don't forget that I too am a demon." Faye said before training her eye on Leon. "As for your brother Nick... It's true I have him but for now I cannot give him back."
"Do it or you'll really be able to put these shields to the test." Leon threatened.
"You'll get him back soon Mr. Saunders that I swear to you. But you have to do a little something for me first." Leon scoffed before raising his hand up and placing it flatly against shield making it look like the air was rippling. "If you try your concussion trick then I assure you Nick's life will be forfeit."
That made Leon bring his arm back down as he glared at the president from the other side of these shields. "Okay now if you'll please listen to me I need to ask a favor of you Mr. Saunders. I have a job for you and for you alone."
"If you wanted to hire me all you had to do was ask." Leon snapped as he began to pace. "The kidnapping was completely unnecessary."
"Oh it was quite necessary Mr. Saunders, you see this job I have for you is somewhat of a suicide mission." Leon pointed out that if that was the case there was no guarantee that she'd let go of Nick. "True but should I not do it your female companion will no doubt be more than happy to kill me."
"Faye Williams blackmailing a demon to get what she wants." Kayos said narrowing his eyes. "This isn't the first time you've done something like this I'm sure. And you can rest assured the Chain and the rest of the world leaders will hear of this."
"Oh the rest of the leaders already know. All except for the Chain that is." Faye said with a smug look on her face. In fact this tactic was approved by the United Nations in order to secure Mr. Saunders' help with the current situation."
"And what situation is that?" Kayos asked.
Faye gave him a measured look before she spoke again. "90 Degrees South, Zero Degrees Longitude."
"The South Pole?" Kayos asked making a face at Faye.
"We found it Kayos." Faye said ominously making Leon tilt his head and ask what she meant. "Well I supposed I should say, we found him."
"What the hell is she talking about Kayos." Leon demanded but the other demon just looked too stunned to even speak. Something which Faye Williams seemed to be relishing in.
Faye frowned before she answered. "The End, Mr. Saunders. We found the End of the World, the prison of Legion, Breaker of the Chain before there even was a Chain."
"The only demon in recorded history that was able to fight off several S-class demons at once." Kayos said as he sat down. "Your simply knowing about that place means more to me than you know. You're not using it as a bluff, but neither are you saying it just to say are you? What's happened? What did you let out?"
"We didn't mean to let it out." Faye said letting a shadow pass over her face. "Our team found the base and the equipment was damaged. We thought you were using the core as an energy source an tried to do what we could to fix it. We never would've guessed that the base we'd found was in truth the End of the World.
"Legion escaped, and slaughtered our team. Our weapons seemed more like insects to that- creature. Nothing we did stopped it or even slowed it down. Our last image had it approaching the southern most tip of South America, it'll be there in a matter of hours." Faye turned to Leon then. "And so we need your help Leon Saunders. We need the strength of the Light to stop this creature. We cannot risk going the Chain with this news, not yet at least. If you can't stop it then we'll go to the Chain but we request that you solve this problem for us Mr. Saunders. You've saved the world once already, will you do it again?"
A/N: Who else doesn't trust this broad? LOL What's going to happen guys!?!?!?!!?