Lauren was resting in one of the beds of the medical tent after they'd all returned to the camp within Cleveland. Though resting might not have been the right word for it. The wound she'd suffered during the helicopter crash had been cleaned and stitched shot and she was even given a mild pain killer to help put her in a more relaxed state. She was relaxed alright but she couldn't catch a wink of sleep because as it turned out the Lockjaw colony had figured out just where the Vega men had set up camp and were launching a full scale assault on them. There was gunfire, explosions, screams, and cries though it became hard to tell which were human and which were demon. As it turned out Lockjaws could learn to imitate certain sounds and they'd begun to scream as they marched onto the camp.
Leon had been in to see her only once and that was after her wound had been stitched up. His clothes had been all but shredded with the only bit of clothing he still wore being his boots, those tan cargo shorts and his Dragonscale gloves. His shirt had been ripped apart so much it looked like he was wearing a toga, and despite the amount of blood that had covered his body Lauren saw no wounds to speak of anywhere on him. She knew demons healed fast but she didn't think they could fully recover in a matter of minutes after being put through a meat grinder of Lockjaw pincers. It was because of him that she knew about the Lockjaws marching on them and he'd offered to have her carried out of there and back home which she turned down. It wasn't because she wanted to stay here where all the fighting was going on, but she felt safer when Leon was around, even when that psychotic freak Carny was with him she felt safe. She still didn't like the idea of him being a part of their little group but if Leon had faith in the other demon who was she to say no?
They were gone now, out on the frontlines against the horde of demons that were closing in on them. Nick was in the bed beside hers with a bandage wrapped around his head because of a large gash in his head. He didn't heal as quickly as Leon or Carny and required stitches in his hair much the same as Lauren had. Her hand reached up to the stitches that were somewhat hidden in her hair and winced when she touched them. She and Nick had decided to pass the time by talking; although she was sure he wanted someone that could keep up with him intellectually he must've sensed Lauren's need to talk even if it was about the demons outside. He'd showed her his cracked PET that he was already very close to repairing, he'd just need a new screen and the device would look as good as new.
On the screen of the PET he was showing her a diagram of a Lockjaw demon and read off some statistics about the creatures that Lauren forgot almost as soon as she heard them. What she did understand however is that Lockjaws can live in colonies that can be made up of literally millions of individual demons all working together to defend and steadily expand their territory, killing off any and all other species of demon or animal that intruded on their territory. He'd told her that a war between Lockjaw colonies could go on for centuries do to their massive populations, but they would end as soon as one of the queens was killed in which case the surviving members of the dead queen's colony would be assimilated into the other. Nick told her that this colony must've been a very old group to have so many soldiers to send out and that the queen must've easily been the size of a whale to have amassed such an army.
He went on at some length about the demons and how a queen Lockjaw will continue to grow as her colony grows until she's dethroned by a younger or rival queen, or she dies of natural causes. If that should happen then the Lockjaw army would actually turn on itself and the soldiers would fight amongst themselves until the entire army was dead. Lauren heard something about how he was trying to figure out where exactly a queen would want to hide in this place by using some sort of scan. Try as she might Lauren could only keep up with about half of what came out of Nick's mouth but she saw no reason to tell him because it was nice to hear something other than the fighting going on outside.
She let out a yawn and tried to close her eyes while Nick went on about whatever it was he was explaining now when the tent flap opened and in walked Raven. Lauren still didn't quite know what to make of this soldier since she knew almost nothing about him other than the fact that he didn't get along at all with Leon. Surprisingly she didn't think that he was a demon especially now that he wasn't covered head to toe in that plain white jumpsuit that he'd worn when he'd driven off the Lockjaws in the woods to save them. She didn't think he was a demon because of all the Cyberware that he wore which were honestly just performance enhancers for soldiers, but they were prohibit ably expensive which had to by why none of the others wore them.
She didn't know the exact make of the Cyberware since she'd only read about them in her history program when her class covered the military advances. But just looking at him it was clear to figure out that he only cared about upgrading his natural speed which made sense considering he took out that horde of Lockjaws single handedly. He wore Cyberware on his legs that looked to have some sort of thrusters all along them which was no doubt how he moved so fast, but even with them he shouldn't have been invisible to the naked eye. He wore a body piece as well that was designed for flexibility offering a light form of protection leaving several areas of his skin exposed, and even that had four other small thrusters along his back which would've added even more to his speed yet still wouldn't have made him disappear.
The Cyberware on his arms though were a different type of enhancement. They only covered his hand going up to his elbow with one small thrust along his forearm, yet despite that it was clear to her that the arm pieces weren't designed to up his speed because of their sheer bulk. They looked more like strength enhancers but she didn't understand why they didn't cover his entire arm though leaving the area from his shoulder to his elbow completely exposed except for his left arm which had light bit of armor that traveled up his entire arm. His last bit of Cyberware however was the most puzzling, a half mask with a breathing filter and a visor to protect his eyes. It didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to protect his eyes from anything that might harm them, unless the filter on his mask was meant to help him breath at those high velocities.
Raven seemed to be quite the paradox because of all the Cyberware that he wore which a demon would have absolutely no need of. But he wore such lightly armored enhancements that you'd think he was a demon, on top of that his hair and eye color definitely resembled that which would befit a demon. His hair which was slicked back for the most part and spiked in certain areas was a dark shade of blue that just wasn't natural and his eyes were a bright gold sheen that couldn't have belonged to a human. Now that Lauren thought about it, her thinking he wasn't a demon seemed a bit foolish, clearly he was a demon just simply based off of his hair and eyes but then why would he need all that Cyberware.
Regardless of what the answers were, they didn't seem quite so important anymore now that Raven was walking toward her. She tried to act as if she were asleep but he'd already known that was not the case as he pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. Lauren looked over at Nick in his bed but the other boy must've thought she fell asleep on him because he was watching something on his Pet with ear plugs in. She looked up at the man sitting before her as he stared expectantly at her with his arms crossed over his chest. She let out a sigh and slowly sat up to look at him her hair falling over her shoulder as well as in her face which she brushed away only to find Raven almost gazing was the only word she could think of to describe the way he was looking at her.
Folding her arms over her chest and crossing her legs she asked what he wanted. "Nothing." He said flatly. "Just curious as to what sort of person would willingly come out to a place like this without any special type of training. Do you have a death wish; are you just doing this for the thrill?"
"Would you believe me if I said it was because of a research paper?" Lauren said turning her head not wanting to look directly at this Raven. He only blinked though when she told him that without any other distinctive motions which made her feel incredibly small in her bed. "I'm studying a modern day demon's life style for a class of mine."
"Don't you have a boy at home? A nice looking girl like you must have someone waiting for her back home." Raven's muffled yet slightly echoed voice asked tilting his head to the side and narrowing his eyes at her. Again she didn't want to look at him so she became very interested in the dirt floor but that didn't stop him from going on. "You're silence speaks volumes. Is this class of yours more important to you than this boy of yours? More important than your own life?"
"Leon said he'd protect me." Lauren said in a voice that was so quiet she was amazed that Raven even heard her. It wasn't entirely a lie about Leon, he hadn't said that in as many words all he really said was that it was dangerous out her in the Badlands and that she should stick close to him.
"And you believed him?" Raven said almost shouting like he were scolding a child that'd just told him that they'd tried drinking because their friends said it was cool. Raven let out an exasperated sigh as he looked at her. "Don't you know that the word of a demon means nothing? You can't trust any of them! I'm shocked that someone like you even wants anything to do with demons you're so small and fragile any demon out there could murder you as easily as breaking a toothpick!"
"Like you?" Lauren said raising her voice to Raven not willing to be bullied or judged by someone she didn't even know. "You're a demon too or are those contacts you're wearing? And who the hell are you to judge me and tell me what I can't do?! You don't even know me I'm just Leon's assistant to you and there's not a damn thing that you or anyone else can say that will make me stop doing what I love!"
"You're right just about every demon in the world could probably rip me to pieces, but that doesn't scare me because I know that there are those of you who aren't as bad as you'd like us to think." Lauren was nearly yelling at this point now and Nick had sat up looking at the two of them ready to do something in case he was needed. Though what he thought he could do was a mystery if he was going to try and throw Raven out. "I have the right to live my life same as you, so just back off and shut the hell up or drop dead!"
Raven narrowed his eyes once again before he slowly got to his feet and was walking toward the exit when they all heard the same cry come from outside. "Giants!"
Just as the man outside screamed that word Raven vanished right before her eyes in a blue flash and Nick was rapidly running through his PET and scanning the area. Lauren's heart jumped into her throat as she leaned over as fast as her stitched would permit snatching up her boots and tugging them on. She'd never seen a giant demon and she was positive that she was the only person in the world that actually wanted to. Giants were just as their name suggested, they were giant versions of demons but they were many times stronger than their smaller cousins. Since Nick had told her than this place was home to mainly just Lockjaws, the Giants outside had to be enlarged versions of the insect like demons that were giving them such a hard time.
Nick called after her and fell out of his bed in an effort to catch her but Lauren was already outside by the time he picked himself off the floor. Outside the stench of blood and death hung heavily in the air and it was mixing with the smell of smoke and gunpowder as she looked around. There were hordes of Lockjaw bodies around the camp; some even had the limbs or heads of the Vega soldiers trapped in their pincers. She looked around and counted all the heads that were running across camp abandoning their automatic rifles for grenade and missile launchers, she counted a total of 33 soldiers where there had been over 150 when they'd arrived. The Lockjaws must be proving more of a challenge than they'd thought since they'd lost nearly 2/3's of their men.
Leon and Carny were nowhere to be seen but Lauren did spot Raven barking orders to all the remaining man telling a number of them to get on the machine guns and hold off the smaller demons while he and a team of two dealt with the Giants. There were murmurs but no one argued with Raven while Lauren searched for a place where she'd have a good vantage point of the field. She found a small tower that had a minimum on it and began to climb with Nick right behind her trying to convince her to get back inside. What use was a tent going to be if the Giants got through, she thought climbing the last rung of the ladder and gazing out into the trees.
There, probably 500 yards out she could see them, easily over fifty gigantic versions of the Lockjaw demons marching through the trees running them over as if they were blades of grass. One of them raised its head and let out a loud and deep moaning sound like that of a humpback whale before it fell over kicking up a wave of dust and knocking over a number of trees. It was then that she saw two extending arms fly upward followed quickly by what could only have been Carny being thrown into the air by the enormous demons. Further off she saw another one of the beasts kicking up dust and trying to get at something on the ground with its pincers. She watched for several seconds more before there was a red flash and suddenly the demon only had five legs where it once had six. They're fighting them separately, Lauren thought completely flabbergasted that Leon and Carny weren't fighting as a team against the large demons.
There was a whiff-ing noise and when Lauren turned she saw Raven standing amongst them in the tower looking none too pleased that they were out here. "What do you two think you're doing?" He demanded glaring at them both with his golden eyes. "Do you know how- Get down!"
Raven shoved the both of them down just as something big whizzed by them and when Lauren was allowed a look she saw that it was another Lockjaw demon, only this one was red instead of black and it had wings. It circled around Lauren got a look at its stinger on the bottom section of its body and got back down to the floor as it whizzed by them again. Raven drew his sword, a straight and narrow blade that curved like a katana near the end. He pressed a button on the handle of the blade letting out a very high pitched ringing that let Lauren know that what he held could only be a vibration blade. He got to his feet and climbed onto the rail of the tower before he jumped. Lauren was able to peer over the edge just in time to watch him vanish in a blue flash before the flying Lockjaw fell in the trees sliced into two pieces. Raven reappeared just above the trees managing to over there for a few seconds before he vanished again.
Lauren looked around searching the air for him screaming when she turned around to find another winged Lockjaw diving down at her and Nick. The demon was divided right down the middle though before it reached them with Raven reappearing not far from them suspended in the air by the thrusters that covered his Cyberware. Using his sword he pointed to his left and told his men to open fire as a whole wave of winged Lockjaws floated up from the cover of the trees. Lauren let out a cry and had to cover her ears as the men all began to fire their weapons at the oncoming swarm. Even Nick who was known to not like fighting very much set his PET down and inserted his ear plugs before he redirected the minigun on the tower toward the swarm of winged demons and opened fire.
The roar of the minigun was the loudest thing that Lauren had ever heard. Even with her hands over her ears it was deafening just how loud it was and she could see the heat rise from the barrel of the gun as it fired who knows how many bullets at a time. Several soldiers took a tip from Nick and got on the other miniguns and soon enough there were six miniguns cutting through the swarm of Lockjaws. They were dropping like flies above the tree line and within a few minutes almost the entire swarm was gone. However three of the miniguns had ceased firing due to the wingless Lockjaws emerging from the trees and going after the ones on the torrents. Raven did his best to keep the wingless ones at the tree line but by the looks of him doing his little vanishing act was taking its toll on him, he was getting slower and slower it would seem to the point that Lauren could actually follow his movements however blurred with her own eyes.
Then it happened. A tree was ripped from its roots as one of the Giants broke through and entered the field a whole other legion of smaller Lockjaws scurrying beneath it. Lauren watched as some of the soldiers picked up rocket launchers and shot at the large demon, their projectiles exploding right in the Giant's face completely vaporizing parts of its head. It let out a loud dying moan before it collapsed to the ground shaking the tower that Lauren and Nick were in. Yet it appeared that even more were getting closer and closer, Carny and Leon appeared to have dealt with maybe ten between them but that still left 19. Four of which were entering the field that the camp was in.
"Oh fuck this," Nick said letting go of the minigun and dropping down to the ground. Lauren was about to yell at him to keep shooting when he picked up his PET and opened up a program on it.
"Nick this isn't a time to go on the internet!" Lauren screamed at the younger demon.
"I know but I nearly figured out the queen's pheromone pattern when we were in the tent." He said tapping away at his screen. "If I can figure out where the queen is we can just kill her and all these Lockjaws will start tearing each other apart. But as long as that queen is alive these damn things will just keep coming. You shoot while I try and figure this out."
"Fine," She said reaching down and taking the second set of ear plugs from his PET and putting them in before she took hold of the minigun.
The side by side grip of the gun felt too large in her hands but at least it was easy to operate she thought aligning her thumbs on the two red buttons on top of the grips. She pressed down hard on both of them at the same time however only the left button went down right away, the multiple barrels of the minigun began to turn and when it was spinning fast enough she was able to press the right button to shoot. She was aiming at the line of Lockjaws that were coming through the trees when a giant flame shot from the gun as a stream of bullets beyond counting flew down to the ground kicking up a small wall of dust as she began turning the torrent fire along the tree line.
The ear plugs in her ears were doing a better job of dumbing down the roar of the gun, but even with them in the gun was still unbelievably loud. In front of her she saw the air actually ripple from the heat being generated by the minigun so her aim was always just a little off but as long as she got the demons it didn't really matter. The spray of bullets cut through the insects just as easily as Raven's vibration blade, although with her weapon there was quite a bit more of a mess than with the blade that always made clean cuts rather than the ripping wounds of the minigun. Not far along Lauren saw Raven on the ground leaning heavily on his sword that he'd stabbed into the ground, at first she'd thought he'd been hurt but not a moment later a Lockjaw leapt at him only to be cut in half by the demon letting her know he couldn't have been hurt badly if he could move that fast.
Then over the roar of the minigun Lauren heard a ping followed by Nick's voice yelling 'yes' before she turned around to find him getting to his feet. His eyes were wide and he was grinning ear to ear before showing her the screen of his PET that showed an image of Cleveland with a blinking red light with the letter Q connected to it by a small line. He brought his hand up to his ear before he spoke over the screaming of the Lockjaws, soldiers, and the moaning of the Giants. "Leon I found the queen!" He said his voice echoing through the ear plugs that Lauren was wearing. "She's hold up either in or below Key Tower."
"Where?" Leon's voice came through the ear plugs just before Lauren heard a loud screeching along with Leon grunting and a crash. She looked up to see one of the Giant Lockjaws fall over while other Giants finally began to gang up on the two demons out there. "God damn these things have sharp teeth. Now where is the queen?"
"Look for the tallest building in the city!" Nick shouted making Lauren flinch at the volume she heard it over the ear piece.
"No need to yell, sheesh."
There was a loud whooshing sound and when Lauren looked back out among the trees she saw a red light flying over the trees toward where Carny was battling with a Giant Lockjaw. The glowing red object crashed into the Giant just before there was a large explosion that blew part of its head clean off. As the Giant crashed to the ground she saw two figures leap from the trees heading toward town jumping at least 100 yards every time they jumped as Leon's voice came back over the mic. "You guys are going to have to hold up against these things until the Queen is brought down then."
"No need." Said a voice that could only be Raven's as he flew by the tower Lauren and Nick were in. A very small stream of blue flames were streaking behind him as he used the thrusters attached to his Cyberware to fly over the tops of the trees. "You two stay here and aid in holding off the Lockjaws. I can get there faster than you can."
"Like hell you can!" Leon's voice yelled over the earpiece. "Carny you stay here and hold them off and I'll go after the queen myself."
Lauren heard Carny say something as the two of them disappeared beneath the trees, one reemerged but heading back toward the Giant Lockjaws and crashing into one of them. But from where Carny had emerged Lauren saw a huge cloud of dust being kicked up from the ground leading into the city. Raven said something else that she didn't quite catch before he vanished into a blue flash leaving them here with only a winded Carny and a little over two dozen soldiers to fight off an army of demons that just didn't know how to quit. Finally Lauren raised her hand to the ear piece tapping the button that would allow her to communicate with the others before she spoke. "Just hurry you two, these things are getting closer and closer."
~*~*~*~Leon~*~*~*~
"Just hurry you two," Lauren's voice said over the ear piece. "These things are getting closer and closer."
Leon got even lower than he already was and sprinted as fast as he possibly could, he lowered his shoulder to bowl over a tree that stood in his way while others flew by him. His unnatural strength throughout his body gave him this ability to run like this and thanks to his special heart he could run for miles on end if he had to without any fatigue at all. Not only that but thanks to him sprinting now to end this as quickly as possible, his heart was working double time to give him his little boost of strength that he knew he was going to need if he was going to need take on the queen of this unprecedentedly large army of Lockjaws. For a single queen to command such a large host he knew this demon would most likely dwarf even a blue whale and would be no slouch when it came to a fight.
Truth be told, he was glad that Raven was heading to the queen's location too because Leon wasn't all too sure he could handle it by himself which is why he was going to bring Carny. But when Raven said he was going too he had to leave the other demon behind to keep the Giants busy. He had every bit of faith that the weapon's that the Vega soldiers had would be enough to handle the Giants, it was his faith in the men using them that concerned him. After seeing them fire multiple rounds at just one Giant when they only needed one to slay the beast he knew that at least one of the demons would have to stay behind to give them a fighting chance. Plus now that the Lockjaws had sent in their flying warriors Carny just might be the best one to leave there thanks to his ability to clear out a whole group of demons with one swipe of his arms.
Nick was there too, he thought as he exited the wooded area and was running along broken blacktop bobbing and weaving through cars. No doubt he'd be able to at least form some kind of plan to keep the smaller Lockjaws at bay, but again it was Leon's lack of faith in the men that Nick had with him that gave him doubts. If the odds looked grim he had no doubt in his mind that the soldiers would leave Nick and the others for dead. Carny had already promised that he'd fight to the death if Leon asked it of him, and Nick had proven multiple times on past jobs that he won't just roll over and die, but Lauren wasn't only a human, albeit a feisty one but she was no fighter. Nick would do his best to keep her alive but if its only him against that horde there wasn't much he'd be able to do.
Leon's red eyes flashed as he jumped over a ruin of a semi-truck, jumping again even higher this time and again after that climbing ever higher until his legs felt like they were on fire. That was when he built up all that power into his arms as a red light built up in his left arm while he fell back to the ground. He told Raven that he hoped he could see him before he threw his arm down just as he hit the ground, there was a loud whirring and the earth below his hand exploded sending Leon soaring through the air. He tried his best to straighten himself out in the air but it was hard to do since he was riding the force of the explosion, he might as well had been trying to fight a tornado with his bare hands.
He was flying over the tops of buildings until finally he spotted one that towered over the rest just a few blocks down when he began to descend. "Dammit Raven where are you!?" Leon shouted as he began to fall toward the hard ground below him. He knew he would survive, but a fall from this height would most definitely break something and then what would he do against the queen? "Raven!"
Whiff. Whiff.
Suddenly Leon wasn't falling anymore and he felt someone holding onto his arm for the briefest of moments. So brief in fact he wasn't quite sure if he whether or not he'd actually felt it until he was suddenly tumbling on a rooftop where he cracked the back of his head on the edge of the roof. He yelped and ran his hand over the area of his head that he'd hit before looking up at a rather tired looking Raven. He wasn't wearing his white jumpsuit anymore which gave Leon a good look at all of the Cyberware that he'd been wearing beneath it. Whatever little respect he may have had for the demon standing before him vanished as soon as he saw those cybernetic enhancements. No self respecting demon would ever dream of wearing something that was originally designed and manufactured specifically for both physically and genetically inferior creatures; aka humans.
"You are more trouble than you're worth you know that?" Raven said his visor disappearing into his half mask before he doubled over and put his hands on his knees. "You must have a death wish going after a queen in your condition."
"Condition?" Leon repeated getting to his feet and pointed at all the things that Raven was wearing. "Mind explaining to the rest of the class why you're wearing human accessories? What kind of demon would bring himself down to their level?"
At that Raven looked furious as he pushed himself back up to his full height though the fatigue was plain on his face when he spoke. "I don't need to explain myself to someone who brings along a child, a human, and a psychopath on his job. What kind of professional would stoop to that level?"
"One who doesn't need Cyberware!" Leon fired back and that was the breaking point.
Raven's hand went to the blade on his back and he took a swing at Leon who dodged it as if he'd had all the time in the world to avoid the blade. Raven stumbled but he turned back around and was ready to swing again only to have a glowing red hand clamp onto his mask. The demon may have been a lot of things but stupid wasn't one of them, he'd seen what Leon could do with a simple touch and he lowered his sword and went completely still once he'd seen it. Leon gave the demon a disappointed sigh before he released him ripping away his sword in the process pointing it at his throat. "And here I thought you had some potential."
Leon tossed the blade across the roof top and turned toward the tower that Nick had said the queen would be in. Without so much as a backwards look at Raven he jumped across the near thirty foot gap to the next building that was a good two floors below him. He'd be on his own against the queen now he knew as he ran across the rooftops and leapt to the next building. Raven was only going because of his tech, he'd probably just get killed against the queen or worse yet he'd get in the way and get them both killed.
Leon was strong, but he had no illusions about this being a walk in the park. He knew that he could very well die against this queen but he had to kill it in order to clear out this section of the road or else he wasn't going to get his money. The possibility of Nick, Lauren, and even Carny dying before he could kill the queen was very real but when it came down to it they knew the risk when they came with him. Except for Carny but he knew the risks when he decided to leap into the field of Lockjaws and so Leon could hardly feel guilty if any of them died. But if that was true why did he have such a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach?
Leon heard them before he saw them. A whole other swarm of flying Lockjaw demons appearing from below the rooftops and blotting out the sky with their wings. He didn't waste even a fraction of a second of his time on them however as he grabbed a good sized dish from one of the smaller towers on his building and backed to the furthest corner from the big tower. Holding the dish in front of him he took a deep breath and took off at a dead sprint heading for the tower and leaped with all of his strength at it holding the dish in front of him to act as a sort of battering ram through all the Lockjaws that were flying around him. The rapid pat-pat of the insect like demons smashing off of the dish filled Leon's ears before he crashed through a glass window, losing the dish when it clipped a bit of the concrete frame before tumbling to a stop.
He rolled up to his feet and found himself looking at an absolutely disgusting sight before him. The floor was a sickly green that reminded him of vomit and all around him there were streams of what could only have been slime dangling from ceiling down to the floor. But all of them seemed to be leading to a thick greenish mass near the center of the room no bigger than a small car. That's it he thought, walking over toward it and giving the slimy mass a few pokes with his finger. This is the big bad queen that was commanding all of those Lockjaw demons? It didn't look like it could command a regular insect to do what it said much less a demon insect. He gave the mass a kick with his foot and then the whole building shook before the mass began to quiver making the floor fallout from Leon's feet.
He fell about twenty feet before he finally caught a hold of something a small crevice in the very large mass that had appeared when the floor fell out from beneath him. He looked around and was puzzled to see the whole building was actually moving and it wasn't until he looked directly in front of him that he noticed that the 'crevice' that he'd grabbed a hold of was actually this things eyelid. A large bloodshot eye was staring at him and Leon found himself for one of the few times in his life at a loss for words as the massive eye that was as big as he was tall glared at him.
"Oh-" Was all he was able to say before the Queen let out a roar so deafening that it actually made Leon let go of her eyelid and risk the fall just to cover his ears.
He fell probably about forty more feet when he landed hard on a large, slimy, and grossly hair leg just as it began to move. Right then Leon realized that the Queen was climbing out of this building and when he saw several large chunks of debris fall past him. He held on for dear life as the Queen ripped its way through the remaining floors of the tower until finally it burst out from the top and let out a scream that was far too like a human's for Leon's taste. The Queen pulled the rest of its enormous body out of the building revealing a stinger like rear like an enormous bee, and like a bee Leon saw four massive wings extend from the Queen's body. Above him he saw two large scorpion like pinchers, and that the mass he'd seen before was actually part of the demon's head, a horn that resembled a Hercules bug.
"Damn you're a big mother!" Leon shouted and the Queen's large head turned to look at him, her one single eye moving disturbingly around her head to catch sight of him. He smiled at it and waved before he got to his feet and smiled. "That's good though. Wouldn't want this to end too quickly right?"
The Queen let out another ear popping scream which Leon did his best to ignore before he jumped up toward the Queen's back. Her massive wings had begun to beat against the air beginning to create a sound not unlike that of a helicopter but Leon wasn't about to let this thing just take off. He ran along the demon's back toward the wing his arms glowing a bright red as he neared the right side wings. The wind coming off of them was nearly enough to blow him right off of her back, but he managed hold on just long enough to take a hold of the base of her wing. There was another humming sound before her wing was blown right off from the base making her scream before she fell down from the top of the tower toward the rapidly approaching blacktop.
He ran along the Queen's rotating body so that he was directly on top of her so that she'd take the front of the fall. They hit the ground not nearly as hard as he'd thought they would have but when he looked around he saw that the swarm that'd been hovering among the rooftops had sacrificed a large portion of their group to cushion their Queen's fall. Now that's dedication, he thought running along the demon's body and jumping up with his second glowing arm ready aiming for the Queen's head. He landed arm first thrusting his hand into the massive demon's eye blowing a decent sized hole into it but freakishly enough when he looked down all he saw was a hollow shell of the creature.
"What in the holy hell-" Leon began only to have something wrap around his arms and hurl him down onto the hard cement.
The impact made him bounce and nearly drove the wind from his lungs, but when he looked up to see what had done that he found himself looking at a gray-green pincer that'd ripped its way from within the Queen's body. He waited a few more seconds to see what would happen when the Queen's body was ripped apart by a tall almost humanoid demon; at least from the waist up she looked humanoid. From the waist down she had a scorpion like body where her legs should have been with a tail that looked more like a centipede's body complete with dozens of tiny little legs that went all the way up to her ribcage. She was naked too giving Leon a rather nice view of her breasts which on any other circumstances he would have enjoyed, but even though he was getting to see a naked woman the rest of her body was absolutely repulsive.
Her skin was a gray-blue shade and scorpion pincers not unlike the one that'd grabbed him were jutting out from where her hips should be and her arms were black with pincer claws in place of hands. Her blue-gray face could've passed for pretty if it weren't for her two foot long black tongue that was wiggling at him and the slime that coated her hair looked far too much like snot to him. He tilted his head at her and much to his surprise she imitated him as she crawled down from the shell she had emerged from. She was still enormous easily over ten feet tall which was but a small fraction to the beast that she'd been but regardless of her size she was still disgusting and only another pay check to Leon.
"Well, let's do this you ugly bitch." Leon said curling his fingers toward him urging the Queen on.
She tilted her head again before she let out a scream and came at him with a speed that he wasn't expecting, her eight legs were gray blurs as she moved and the next thing Leon knew she was being held up by her pincers. Not only was she fast but her strength was breathtaking, literally, Leon couldn't breathe while he was in her grip so he threw a kick as hard as he could at the pincer that had him. He caught her right at a joint that made her whole limb bend in on itself being him closer to her, she opened her mouth that looked like it was large enough to fit his entire head in but before she could chomp down he threw a mule kick catching her in the gut.
She let out a very human like gasp before her grip on Leon gave way and he fell to the ground drinking in air like no tomorrow. He turned around and growling at her as she lunged again only to catch a hard punch right to her face. The blow was hard enough to send her to the ground but before Leon could get close enough her centipede tail lashed out and hit him hard enough to send him flying into the side of a building. He let out a groan as he pulled himself from the destroyed wall just in time to duck another large pincer come down like a spear and bury itself deep in the concrete. Leon saw his chance and threw himself as hard as he could at the arm and made it bend completely the wrong way snapping who knows how many bones.
The Queen screamed in agony as she ripped her arm from the concrete while Leon pressed the attack running at her only to be bowled over by a flying Lockjaw. He and the insect rolled on the ground until Leon ripped its head off and turn around to find he facing down a whole wall of flying Lockjaws. He snarled and grabbed an old rusty light post with both hands and ripping it from the ground before twirling it around himself like a flag twirler twirled a flag. Behind the wall of Lockjaws he heard the Queen screech just before the entire wall of insects flew at him. Leon spun around twirling the light post as quickly as he could knocking demons right out of the air before he dug in his feet and swung it with all his might intending to end this with one blow.
Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be; the Queen used her arms like battle axes and ripped right through the light post like it was paper. Leon though spun around again and jumped high into the air and brought the post down like an axe across the Queen's head. The post broke in half and the Queen only seemed stunned for a moment or two before she smacked Leon right out of the air again. He hit with a hard thud that he could've swore had cracked the blacktop before he felt an explosion of pain in his stomach where the Queen had thrust one of its pincers through. Leon yelled and tried to get a grip on the Queen's pincer but every time he tried one of her legs brushed his arms away while she twisted her arm around inside of him.
"You die now!" The Queen said sounding like she had something stuck in her throat before she raised another pincer up ready to smash his head in.
"Not today!" Leon shouted right before his whole body light up like a flare and a small concussive force was sent throughout his entire body knocking the Queen back a step or two.
She screeched before lunging back at him driving her pincer down only to have it stopped by something that sounded metallic. Leon looked up and saw Raven holding back the Queen's pincer from piercing his skull but stopping it just a few inches short from his head. The other demon was brought down to his knees by the Queen who just kept on pushing and pushing until her pincers tip was scraping skin from Leon's cheek. The Cyberware that Rave was wearing was whirring and steam was rising from the ones on his arms while his biceps were bulging out with his veins popping out almost disturbingly so. His face was taut with effort and even from where he was Leon could see that it was bright red as he was fighting off the Queen's pincer.
Raven's Cyberware had begun to spark and he let out a loud cry of effort before he pulled the trigger on the vibration blade. There was an intense high pitched ringing before the blade sliced through the Queen's pincer like it was nothing leaving her missing the upper half of her left arm. She screamed in agony before ripping the pincer out that had Leon pinned to the ground and struck the other demon so hard that she actually knocked his Cyberware right off. Raven flew like a ragdoll through the air where he hit the ground hard enough to bounce and crash into a wall.
Leon's eyes flashed red as he let out an ungodly loud roar shooting up to his feet and ignoring the pain that the hole in his stomach was causing. The Queen swung her massive pincer at him which he caught and ripped her arm right off of her hip and jumping up in the air before driving it down into her back pinning her to the ground. Again she screamed and swung at Leon with her last remaining arm which he ducked and rolled along the ground picking up Raven's sword he whirled around to face the Queen. She swung wildly with her arm which Leon cleaved off without even turning the vibration blade on, snapping the blade in half before he moved in on her with the blade fragment. He was ripped off his feet however by the centipede tail, but before she could do much else Leon took hold of the tail with both arms, dug in his feet, and pulled as hard as he could ripping it along with a good deal of her spin out with it.
The Queen's legs had stopped moving instantly but she was still trying t move with her broken arm but Leon took her by the back of the head, the whirring sounding as the red light traveled down his arm. "Bang." He said before the Queen's head was vaporized in the palm of his hand. Her body kept moving for a few seconds longer before it finally slumped forward into the pale green splatter on the blacktop while his hand was dripping tiny green droplets. He heard a loud screeching behind him followed by the crash of a window shattering, and when he turned he saw a most joyous sight. The Lockjaws had turned on each other and were tearing each other limb from limb just as he was sure they'd done to countless other demons.
"Good riddance," Leon said turning around to look at Raven who had yet to get up from where the Queen had struck him. "Hey, you dead?"
"In your dreams," A strained voice said as Raven began to slowly rise to his hands and knees the half mask falling to pieces as he got up, and the white strap on his left arm fell to the ground revealing a tattoo of a black bird with its wings folded in the shape of a crown. "I take it you got her?"
"Would I be talking if I didn't" Leon said bringing his hand to his stomach which looked good as new but the internal wounds were still repairing themselves. He walked over to Raven and threw the handle of his sword in front of him. "Sorry I broke your toy."
"I don't care," Raven said turning over so he was sitting up against the wall and holding his stomach where a bruise was already starting to form. Leon raised his brows at Raven when he saw his face without the half mask and he recognized him almost instantly. He opened his mouth to say something but Raven cut him off. "You say a word about this and the next time we see each other only one of us is walking away alive."
Leon just smirked at the boy lying in front of him as he crouched down in front of him and tilted his head. "Oh I won't say anything don't worry. But now I know why you got so worked up before. Who would've thought that a 'son of a king' was actually a demon?"
Raven just looked up at Leon with a sharp glare before he grabbed what remained of his mask and put it back on. The Cyberware that was still attached to him clicked and whirred as he put it on and his voice came out muffled again when he spoke. "You promise you won't say anything?"
"Why would I?" Leon asked with a smirk on his face. "Believe it or not I never cared who you were, it interests me now that I know, but I have nothing to gain by telling anyone. I'll keep your secret for now, until I need it."
A/N: THREE IN A ROW!?!?! Fight was a little short I know, sorry, but the Queen sounded like one twisted looking creature didn't she??? And talk about a brutal way to die huh? Don't I just suck for not telling you who it is? Lol don't worry Raven's identity will be revealed all in good time but until then; Let me know all your reactions down below!!!
Pic is of LEON!!!!