Unexplained Phenomena Unit, Session 9: Daemos the Devourer
- samcyb
- Apr 24, 2023
- 23 min read
Played 22/4/23.
The Player Characters:
“You have three new messages.”
“First message *beep*:
Good morning Mr Moore. This is CHIMERA Sergeant Vess, calling from the training station. Just letting you know that the recruit you provided, Lesley Nemo, is not yet ready for active duty. Still have some tests to run. Have a good day.”
“Second message *beep*:
Uh… John? It’s Mike. Um… look. I’m not gonna be able to go on any missions for… a while. Something… big - I mean something… fucking massive has just turned up! *nervous laughter* I guess I-I’ll let you know what I’m up to when… when I understand it myself. Jones out.”
“Third message *beep*:
Salem here. I’m afraid I have bad news, bad news, and good news. The bad news is that I have urgent business and cannot join you to lend my intimate knowledge of this place that you’re going to. The other bad news is that if you plan to speak to the police there, know that they are mostly on the payroll of an organised gang known as The Green Glory. The good news however, is that I have already called ahead to someone that owes me a favour - find Officer Ian Willis, tell him that Salem sent you, and he should be a little more co-operative. Best of luck, and… try not to get killed.”
John sighs as he puts his phone away, and starts the van.
“Sounds like it’s just you and me, Ghost.”
“We’re going into Skelos city - a place with one of the most bloodthirsty criminal underworlds - with just two people?”
“That’s the way it goes sometimes."
It’s a foggy night as they drive into Skelos city. Through the mist, they can see the lights of opulent towers and skyscrapers looming nearby, yet the side of town that they are driving through is marked by piles of trash on every street corner, decaying warehouses and industrial estates that have been converted into living spaces by unqualified hands. They pull up around the side of a dingy little police precinct, and make their way inside.
The last thing that Alexander Demonaco remembers is dying. Bullets ripping through him, through his face, through his shoulder, through his stomach. There was no pain. Only adrenaline. And then a deep slumber, full of interesting dreams, and curious secrets. He begins to half-remember things his parents had tried to wipe from his mind, times he had died before, only to be resurrected, by... augmentations. What had they done to him?
He remembers hearing his fathers voice speaking over his corpse.
“Agent Ra - You are sure that Agent Demonaco is totally dead?”
The voice that responds is like nothing he's ever heard... or felt. A chorus of ethereal whispers speaking in unison, reverberating through his very being.
“Alexander lives no more. The force which animates his shell shall soon be gone entirely.”
“Excellent. At least those experiments were a partial success. Goodbye, my son. You were... a worthy prototype.”
As his fathers footsteps fade into the distance, the entity - this 'Agent Ra' - speaks to him again.
"Sleep now, brother. You must recover your energy. The time to act is not yet upon us. But soon… soon. The children of Adam shall pay for their crimes…”
And then he woke up, handcuffed to a table in an interrogation room, staring at himself in a two-way mirror. A gas-mask hangs around his neck, his suit is torn, dishevelled, stained with blood. His face is gaunt and pale, with patchy stubble. Everything aches. Everything is weak. It's difficult to breathe. He sits in silence for what feels like an eternity, processing. His stomach growls. It isn't an ordinary growl, it's like a creature.
Slowly, he looks down, and pulls his shirt up, revealing a large fanged mouth stretching across his stomach. He should be freaked out. He's not human anymore. But he feels relieved.
I'm not human anymore. I am not subject to humanity's laws. The next person who walks through that door, I will feed on them. That's how I get back my strength. That's how I get... power.
He intended on following through, but restrained himself when he saw the familiar faces of John and Ghost enter the room. There's a stunned pause as they realise they're looking at their old leader, alive again. Demonaco smiles.
"What's the matter, guys?"
John just whispers to Ghost.
"That's definitely him, right? I'm not seeing things?"
"If you're seeing things, we both are."
"I'm gonna call HQ."
"We told the cops to turn off the cameras and mics in here, didn't we?"
"We did."
"Okay. I'll talk to him."
Demonaco leans forward.
"You know, it's a bit rude to whisper about someone when they're right in front of you."
John exits the room, and Ghost drags out a metal chair to sit in front of Demonaco.
"So. What's the story?"
"What story?"
"Two months ago, you died. We watched you die. What happened between then and now?"
Demonaco takes a deep breath while he thinks.
"Don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I drew that gunman's fire to give John and Salem an opening to escape - you're welcome, by the way - I got shot up, and I woke up here."
"...Huh. Well that’s helpful. You're not lying to me, are you? I seem to remember you're pretty good at that."
Demonaco holds his hands up in mock offence.
"Cross my heart."
Ghost leans back in his chair, frustrated.
“…Fuck. *sigh*"
"So why are you here, Ghost?"
Ghost composes himself.
"Two hours ago - at midnight - an attack occurred on a fancy restaurant called the Sunstone Experience. A gang of thugs got in, tried to steal some gemstone display piece, but it went wrong, and there was a scuffle. Four security guards were killed, one guard made a report to the police about how a couple of the intruders seemed to transform into monsters, and one of the gang members - you - were found unconscious in the aftermath. So-"
He gestures to a symbol of three skulls that Demonaco has tattooed on his inner wrist.
"-You’re telling me you have no memory of how you ended up working for the Blood Rogues gang?"
Demonaco looks at the tattoo, noticing it for the first time.
"I guess I don’t. That is quite a mystery."
Outside the room, John calls UPU and tells them to make a query with the morgue about whether they are still in possession of Demonaco's body and get back to him. As he hangs up, a police officer approaches him. A shifty, nervous looking guy, thin and wiry, adjusting his spectacles. He looks around before speaking quietly and quickly.
"You're uh- the... UPU? Aren't you?"
John's hand goes to his gun.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"It's alright! I'm Officer Ian Willis, Salem called me. I'm here to help. And I've got intel for you."
"What have you got?"
"Okay, so you know most of the police around here are super corrupt, right? They all work for Green Glory?"
"I have been informed, yeah."
"I was eavesdropping on them earlier, and they mentioned that there were actually two heists tonight. The Sunstone Restaurant is the only one that's gonna get reported on, but a few hours before that there was another heist on a club downtown called the Fairy Light. That's Green Glory territory, a lotta illegal goods go through there. They think both of these incidents were coordinated by the Blood Rogues gang, so the Blood Rogue they've got handcuffed in there - they're gonna let you talk to him, get all the info you want outta him, and then they're gonna take him back down to Fairy Light to... y'know..."
He draws a finger across his neck.
"Okay. Well that's not gonna work for us. Do you know what it was they stole from the club?"
"Um... I think it was some kind of face statue or stone mask? Is that any help?"
"We’ll see. Let me talk to my colleague, wait here."
"Sure thing."
John re-enters the interrogation room and relays what he's been told.
"So basically, we need to get out of here now. In a way that won't have the cops coming after us."
Demonaco smirks.
"I have an idea. Get me an officer - preferably one of these crooked ones."
John takes a look around. In the kitchen, he spots an officer with a neck tattoo that looks like a rose coming out of a dagger. The symbol of the Green Glory, so he's been told.
The man is old and unkempt, a food-stained vest underneath his unbuttoned uniform, shamelessly making short work of someone else's lunch. His name-tag reads 'Larry Larson'.
"Hey - Larry, is it? Listen, do you mind loosening the prisoners' cuffs a bit? Just a notch or two? He won't talk unless he gets a bit more comfortable."
"You tried roughin' him up a bit? Might talk if he gets a little more un-comfortable."
"Oh, you know we'd love to, but we play by stricter rules where we come from."
"*sigh* Fine. Just you watch though, next he'll want pillows and a king-sized mattress to sleep on."
Larry walks into the interrogation room, twirling a ring of keys on his finger. As he goes to loosen the cuffs, Demonaco grabs both of his hands.
"What's this about, mate? You wanna hold my han- AARGH!"
With a burst of superhuman strength, Demonaco twists and crushes the man's hands.
John and Ghost take a step back.
"Jesus, Demonaco! If you had the strength to do that, why did you need him to unlock the cuffs?"
Demonaco tears his cuffs off like they're made of paper.
"I didn't. Need him for something else. You two might want to turn around."
Demonaco reveals his stomach mouth. It opens slowly, revealing rows upon rows of teeth, and multiple tongue-like tendrils start wrapping around Larry's legs. Larry starts screaming louder.
John and Ghost turn around until the screaming and the crunching of bone stops. They flinch as viscera spatters against the backs of their boots.
When John and Ghost dare to look back, there's just a small puddle of blood, and Demonaco is looking... healthier? Less gaunt, more colour in his face? He cracks his neck, and stretches his arms.
"Oh yeah, that's the good stuff!"
"What the fuck, Demonaco?!"
Demonaco cackles.
"I don't know what my deal is either, I'm just figuring it out on instinct."
"Well, I don't like your instincts!"
John thinks of the next move.
"Okay. Demonaco, you need to play dead. We'll say we got carried away beating answers out of you, and we'll carry you out to the van."
Ghost shoots John a look.
"Do I get to give him a black eye to make it believable?"
"You really wanna attack a guy that just did... that?"
"Kinda, yeah."
Demonaco stares Ghost down. He gives a disconcerting smirk.
"You get one free shot."
As John leaves the room to bring the van round, officer Willis is waiting nervously by the door.
"I tried to make excuses for, uh - whatever was going on in there. What are you doing? And what do you need me to do?"
"We're leaving now. I'll give you my phone number - you text me the results of the interrogation they're doing with the security guard witness, I don't think we'll have time to conduct one ourselves."
"Okay, I can do that."
Willis and John walk off in opposite directions.
As he’s walking up to the van, John gets a call back from HQ.
“Just confirming your query - Agent Demonaco’s body has in fact disappeared from the morgue. Do you have any idea of its whereabouts?”
“I do - I have made contact with a very much alive Demonaco. He’s mutated into a dangerous form, although he can appear human and be reasoned with like one as far as I can tell.”
“…Copy that. We’re sending another team to extract him. Continue with your current assignment until then.”
Ghost comes out of the room dragging Demonaco's limp body. Another officer waves them down. Poking out of his collar on the side of his neck, the Green Glory symbol is visible on him as well.
"Wow, you knocked him out? Either he's wimpier than he looks, or you don't know your own strength."
"Bit worse than a knockout I'm afraid, he's fully dead. But don't worry - we'll deal with this ourselves, we'll make this all disappear."
“…Oh, I get it. Happens to the best of us. But I'm afraid we can't just let him go, dead or not. We got people waiting to meet this guy, you get what I mean?"
"Well we're at a bit of a stalemate then, because we're in a similar position, if you catch my drift."
The officer looks him over to get a read on him.
"Alright, you win. Let me just take a piece of him. To prove to our people that he's dead, you understand."
Ghost feels Demonaco twitch in his arms. He thinks it through.
"Sure thing. I'll just put him back in the room, you take whatever you need."
Ghost puts Demonaco back on the interrogation room table, and closes the door as he leaves the officer alone with him. He tries to whistle over the officers' screams this time.
John looks a bit perturbed as he walks up, coming back from the van.
"We really shouldn't get used to having a walking witness bin with us."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about me ever getting used to that."
They don't face any more obstructions carrying Demonaco to the van. As they get in and drive away, Demonaco puts his gas mask on and breathes deeply.
"Ah, that feels better."
"Which crime scene are we asking around at first, the Sunstone restaurant or the Fairy Light Club?"
"You think it's a good idea for me to show my face at either of those places that I apparently robbed?"
"Ghost, look up the Radiant Sunstone jewel, that was what was stolen from the restaurant. See what you can find out about it."
"Already on it. Listen to this - many generations ago, this rich family was given a stone face totem called 'the Face of Yamun the Traveller.' It was allegedly a magical artefact that granted access to the secrets of the universe, and it was given to the family for safekeeping. However, the family couldn't figure out how it worked, so they took the gemstones out of the eyes to show off as display pieces - there was a sunstone and a moonstone - and they sold the stone face itself."
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere. A magical artefact that was taken apart, and now the Blood Rogues are putting it back together. It was a stone face that was stolen from the club, a sunstone that was stolen from the restaurant - where is the moonstone?"
"The Moonstone Luxe Hotel. The owners of the hotel and the restaurant are competing siblings."
"Then let's go there and set a trap for the next heist, if it isn't already underway."
On their way, John gets a call from Officer Willis.
“Okay, I’ve got the security guard's testimony. Lotta weird things I reckon you’re gonna want to hear.”
“Shoot.”
“Okay, first of all - he says it was hard to tell in the chaos of smoke bombs and stuff, but he swears he saw a giant wolf grappling with some kinda horned devil monster with a stomach mouth. We do have a big broken window and evidence of a big fella escaping across the rooftops, but he’s gotta be seeing things, right?”
“Right.”
“The other odd things we found - got some of our tech guys reviewing the security systems and client lists, and we’ve got some evidence of someone hacking into the waiting lists to get some people in under false identities. Not only that, but we’ve got camera footage of a guard leaving the building after the incident, and yet the same guard's corpse was found inside at the scene later. How do you square that?”
“We’ve got a theory that we’re chasing up right now, I’ll let you know if anything comes of it.”
“Okay. Sure. I… guess I’ll wait on your call.”
John puts down the phone.
“So - we’re dealing with a werewolf, some type of hacker, and a shapeshifter. Does that ring any bells, Demonaco?”
Demonaco tries to think.
“Maybe.”
They drive to the Moonstone Luxe Hotel, a towering palace of red and gold. It is now a little past 3am. They flash a badge at the reception desk, ask if the manager is in, and they are taken up to the 7th floor to see him.
The manager, Mr Daniels, is a middle-aged man with a timid presence, tired and bleary-eyed from working so late, as he peers through half-moon spectacles at the cluttered paperwork on his desk. As the team is shown into the room, he tries to put on an air of composure. They explain to Mr Daniels that his sister's restaurant has just been attacked, the Sunstone jewel stolen, and they believe the Moonstone to be next.
“Good lord. We have some night guards patrolling around, but perhaps it would be wise to contact our security company for reinforcements.”
Demonaco tries to think like someone that would attempt a heist on this place. He gets a flash of deja vu.
“I would advise against that. With all the noise these guys have made tonight, they’re going to expect you to call for extra security. They’ll be counting on it - so they can show up disguised as said security.”
“Th-then what should I do?”
“Where is the Moonstone right now?”
Mr Daniels seems to grow a little more confident when he remembers;
“It’s in the vault, below ground level. Unlike my sister, I only put it out on display for special occasions.”
“Show us. And let your night guards know the situation.”
At that moment, a guard comes into the room.
“Sir – we’ve got a situation – wait, who are these people?”
Demonaco notices the guard flinch with recognition when they see him. His eyes search for a Blood Rogues tattoo poking out of their sleeve. He finds one.
“Everyone, continue with the security assessment. I’ll catch up once I’ve given this young man a debrief.”
Demonaco takes the guard into an empty meeting room, and the guard starts rambling nervously.
“So what’s the deal, Daemos? Zolomon said you weren’t with us anymore? You know, I’m kinda relieved you’re here actually, because I am not cut out for this undercover shit.”
“Daemos… that’s the name you know me by? Tell me, how many of you are planted here?”
“What are you talking about? …Oh, I get it. When they said ‘not with us anymore’, they meant you were like a sleeper agent for the cops or something. Well I guess you caught me. Go ahead and arrest me or whatever, I’ve got friends who can get me out in like a week. Going to jail is like a little vacation for me at this point.”
Demonaco just grins under his mask. And locks the door.
John and Ghost take a look at the security cameras, confirming the Moonstone is still inside the vault, and the footage doesn’t look tampered with at all. They go down below ground floor to the storage corridor where the vault can be found. The vault door has a locking mechanism that requires an access code, and it cannot be hacked because it’s non-electronic. There are two ways in and out – a staircase to a side-door in the lobby, and a car-elevator that leads to the carpark around back, for clients that want to send their fancy vehicles down into storage to be extra safe. Demonaco catches up to them and tells them he’s dealt with the only mole that was planted in advance.
Soon, a few vans pull up outside, and twenty-four security guards enter the lobby. They walk up to the reception desk, and say that they were sent because of the incident at the Sunstone restaurant. John goes up to the security room, to keep an eye on the situation over the cameras. Ghost hides behind the door to the vault. Demonaco goes out to greet them.
“Can I help you gentlemen? I think we’ve got all the security we need here.”
Eyes turn on him. He senses they recognise him. He gets an odd sense that he knows some of them as well. One of the biggest and hairiest of the group shoulders his way forward to stand over Demonaco.
“I thought I killed you, Daemos.”
“Bigger creeps than you have tried, Zolomon. Never seems to be permanent.” He doesn’t remember how he knows that this is Zolomon.
“Well then. I guess I’ll have to settle for just tearing you a new mouth-hole.”
“One-on-one rematch? Nobody else moves until we settle this?”
Zolomon scoffs. He laughs it up, and the crowd behind him joins in as he turns to them.
“One-on-one?! Can you believe this guy?”
He turns back to Demonaco.
“You really wanna do this after the last time? You’re not even… fully ‘demon-ed up’ this time.”
“Maybe not. But I’ve got other advantages now.”
He loads his gun with a cartridge of silver bullets that John had given him. Zolomon notices the glint of silver and grins.
“Okay. Now this could be interestin’. Alright, I agree to yer terms. One-on-one rematch. Nobody else moves until this is done. And that includes yer friends. We know they’re around here somewhere.”
Zolomon tears his shirt off in one fell swoop. He takes a key from a chain around his neck, and tosses it to a guy behind him.
“Hold this for me, will ya?”
As he turns back to face down his opponent, he bears his teeth, tenses his body, and starts to grow. His muscles expand, his fingers lengthen, his nails sharpen. He digs his claws into his chest, and rips it open to reveal ruddy black fur. Growing to double, triple, his already peak human height and width, he tears his face off to reveal a bulging snout, massive fangs and bright yellow eyes. With arms like tree-trunks, his fists thunder to the ground, and he stands like a gorilla – in a matter of moments, a gigantic werewolf now towers over Demonaco. A guttural voice whispers;
“Run.”
Demonaco doesn’t run. He quickdraws – a silver bullet meant for the werewolf’s head sinks into its arm, raised to block. The wolf doesn’t even flinch. He charges forward, and punches Demonaco through a pillar into a far wall. Demonaco gets back to his feet quickly but calmly, cracking his neck like he didn’t feel it. Zolomons back is turned, rallying his loud and rambunctious associates, like a wrestler doing crowdwork. Not bothering to be as theatrical as his opponent, Demonaco starts walking forward, taking his time to line up his shot.
Ghost feels his phone buzz. It's John, texting him to say that someone’s disappeared from the crowd of Blood Rogues cheering on the fight. He retreats down the stairs into an ambush position by the stairwell door, behind a potted plant.
After a few minutes of waiting, he sees something that gives him pause. A large mass of thick, syrupy, blue ooze comes slinking down the steps, rolling past his hiding position and into the storage corridor. As it glides closer and closer to the door of the vault, it raises up, taking on a vaguely humanoid shape.
Ghost takes a second to think about what could hurt an ooze. He holsters his gun - and hits the fire alarm. The wailing alarm startles the entity, and then the sprinklers turn on. The spray of water fizzes and pops on contact with its gelatinous form, as if making contact with acid, but doesn’t seem to be hurting it. It’s just looking around, as if confused.
Plan B then.
Ghost grabs a fire extinguisher off the wall, and goes running towards it. He takes a swing - and the ooze ducks, or more accurately, sinks into a puddle before bouncing back up. The ooze doesn’t need to turn around to face Ghost, its back simply becomes its front. A sheen of colours ripple across its surface, and now Ghost is looking at a copy of himself.
“Hello… and who might we be?” A strange voice echoes out of the copy’s grinning mouth. It sounds playful, amused.
Ghost swings again. The body bends unnaturally out of the way. It doesn't seem interested in attacking back. Yet.
In the main security office on the 7th floor, John is watching his colleagues' fights unfold while he’s on the phone with Officer Willis.
“We’ve got an ongoing situation at the Moonstone Luxe Hotel. Your Green Glory guys want some Blood Rogues? Twenty-four of them just walked in here for another smash-and-grab.”
“Oh! Uh - you got it. Be there in… ten minutes. We can make it in ten.”
Suddenly a screen in John’s peripheral vision turns to static.
“Make it five.” Click.
One by one, each screen loses signal. He slams a fist on the console.
“The hackers here… dammit. Okay, okay, think. What was the first screen to switch off? Was that a back entrance? And then the elevator cam. And then… the 7th floor corridor.”
He hears gunfire and shouting in the corridor outside. He cracks the door, gun first. He hears the manager's office slam shut down the hall.
He kicks open the door - to see Mr Daniels and two of the night guards, hands up, backs against a wall, at the mercy of two hovering gun-drones, and a man in a paint-stained black hoodie, black gloves, black jeans. As the man - and one of the drones - turns to John, the face is obscured by sunglasses and a mask.
“Ah, Mr Moore. Nice of you to join us. Mr Daniels here was just about to tell me the access code to open the vault - weren’t you?”
“How the hell do you know me?”
“Same way I knew who ‘Daemos’ really was when he came to us with this excellent idea for a score. He really was quite useful, if I had it my way we would have stabbed him in the back after this heist, but alas, Zolomon can be a little quick-tempered.”
“Put the remote for the drones on the ground. Slowly.”
The man in black chuckles. He adjusts his sunglasses, revealing the briefest glimpse of a metal face and red LED eyes.
“Do you see a remote on me? No, I’m afraid my mind is the remote. My ability to mentally link to machines means I can literally turn you into swiss cheese with a thought at this moment.”
This man is a cyborg, and he knows of UPUs existence. John puts two and two together;
“Shot in the dark - you wouldn’t happen to be working for Xannis, would you?”
The cyborg straightens up.
“Since your lot busted the Prometheus project and sealed Xannis away, The Sacred Order of the Fleshless has been somewhat directionless and floundering. I grew bored of them. The Blood Rogues are doing much more exciting things nowadays. But enough exposition -“
He turns back to Mr Daniels.
“The access codes, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Mr Daniels sputters, looks to John with pleading eyes.
John thinks quickly.
“Mr Daniels, how many people know the access code?”
“Uh - J-just me-“
John shoots Mr Daniels in the head.
“Come on, this is too easy! Transform into a real demon! Let’s finish this monster to monster!” Zolomon barks, as he slams his talons into the ground with enough force to cause a shockwave of broken floor-tiles to fly from the point of impact.
Demonaco tucks and rolls out of the way just in time. He wipes blood out of his eyes as he tries to aim again. He knows he’s taken some pretty bad hits, and doesn’t have much fight left in him – but he also knows that Zolomon is bluffing. The secrets of the monstrous form Zolomon refers to may have been lost to his amnesia, but maybe he’s better off for being in a smaller, more nimble form right now. The silver bullets didn’t seem to work as well as he thought they would – at first. But now he can see silver veins start to spread from Zolomon’s bullet wounds, like a poison, and he’s starting to breathe heavily. They’re both running out of time, and need to finish this quickly.
Zolomon leaps, his massive form making the building shake as he lands on a wall, claws digging in. He leaps again, onto a second floor balcony above the lobby. He leaps a final time, diving in Demonaco’s direction.
Demonaco’s first instinct is to dodge - but the voice of Ra whispers;
“Focus.”
He does so, and everything that isn’t his target turns grey. Time seems to slow. He lines up his shot - and fires a silver bullet through Zolomons eye, and out the back of his head.
The crowd goes silent as they see their leader's body crash into and partially through the ground, on top of his opponent, and stop moving.
The body stays deathly still for a minute.
Then it wriggles.
And then Demonaco bursts out of the beast's back, covered in blood, ravenously tearing off chunks of werewolf meat and stuffing it into both his mouth and his stomach mouth.
A chant begins in the crowd of Blood Rogues, quietly at first, but gaining traction.
“DAEMOS! DAEMOS! DAEMOS!”
“OH SHIT, IT'S THE COPS! SCATTER!”
Sure enough, Demonaco looks up from his feast to see a squadron of armoured police vehicles pulling up outside, officers in riot gear beginning to run in to join the fray. Demonaco leaps from the body, sprinting for the stairwell to the vault.
Ghost puts down the fire extinguisher and decides to play dumb. He forces a jovial grin and speaks as sweetly to the shapeshifter as it has done to him.
“Sorry about that. Just a cop trying to ambush any would-be thief that comes down here, but clearly I’m way out of my depth.”
“Clearly.”
“So what are you?”
“That’s a good tactic, trying on an uncharacteristic demeanour, so I won’t get the right impression of how to act like you if I come across your friends looking like you. Pretty clever.”
The shapeshifter reaches to take Ghost's gun, its arm stretching as it snaps forward, but Ghost sidesteps it, drawing the gun himself.
“Come now, what are you going to do with that? You just admitted you were out of your depth-“
Ghost fires a series of shots, each one striking an air bubble he can just barely make out in the oozes form, splattering it into many pieces all over the floor. As the pieces start moving to reform, he grabs the fire extinguisher and uses the foam to freeze as much as he can in place. As he looks around to see if he’s missed any of it, he sees a chunk escaping back up the stairs.
Mr Daniels slumps against the wall, a spatter of blood on the wall behind him. The guards being held hostage beside him cower, overcome with terror.
John spins and runs out of the room, a hail of bullets tearing his trenchcoat and thudding against the back of his bulletproof vest, pushing him forwards. He locks the double doors behind him. Knowing that won’t hold them for long, he runs to the end of the corridor, smacks the door to the stairwell to make it look like he ran through that way, and then he doubles back and quietly lets himself back into the security office.
Back against the security office door, he hears the cyborg bust open the manager's office doors. He hears footsteps and the buzz of drones coming down the corridor. And laughter.
“Holy shit! I’m impressed! Should have expected that from your lot, I suppose. Although you should know, you’ve only ruined one backup plan. There’s still plenty of other ways to get into that vault…”
John hears footsteps pass by the security office. He cracks the door, gun first. He takes a risky shot - and takes one of the cyborgs legs out from under him. The cyborg topples over with a scream of pain, blood dripping down his leg. Even the drones take a dip for a second before righting themselves.
John catches a glare of those red eyes back at him, and the drones start to turn in his direction, before he locks the security office door, and runs to another door that connects to the stairwell.
Knowing the cyborg will probably use his power to go down in the lift quickly, John presses the button for the lift on every floor on his way back down to the lobby. He knows the cyborg can probably override that, but he still does it just in case.
Demonaco sprints past a pillar, shoves open the stairwell door to the vault area, and bumps into Ghost running up the stairs.
“Where did the slime go?!”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
“You didn’t see it? There was a shapeshifter, a-and it escaped-”
“Doesn’t matter. The cops are here - I can’t show my face here any longer than I have to.”
Ghost notices one of the Blood Rogues running past, tripping momentarily, not noticing he’d dropped some kind of strange-looking key.
“You go down. I’ll be right behind you.”
Ghost slips around the pillar, and picks up the key before anyone else can see. As he returns to the door, John walks up and they start moving downstairs again.
“I see the werewolf has been… dispatched. But we’ve gotta move - there’s a cyborg guy that’s gonna be coming out of that lift any moment now. What happened with your ooze guy?”
“Blew him to pieces, but a few pieces got away.”
“Dammit. I talked to Officer Willis on the stairs, he’s gonna bring some guys down to give us some backup.”
“Uhh… I don’t think Demonaco will stick around if they’re going to join us.”
The three of them regroup in the vault area, with Demonaco finding an appropriate hiding spot before Officer Willis and four cops come down to join them.
“Okay, so what’s the plan? We open the vault, take the gem somewhere it’ll be safe from both the Blood Rogues and the Green Glory?” Officer Willis asks.
“That would be ideal, but the one guy who knew the access code is dead. We don’t have another way in.”
“Well I might be able to help you with that.”
Officer Willis places a hand against the vault door. His hand transforms into a blue ooze and starts seeping into the seams in the locking mechanism.
John levels his gun at him. Ghost starts to do the same, but turns on the cops Willis brought down with him. The four of them have them surrounded at gunpoint, and Ghost realises these are Blood Rogues who have traded in their security disguises for police uniforms.
“You got very close to destroying me friend, I’ll give you credit for that. But you’re outnumbered now. All you can do is walk away or die.”
“We can’t let you go.”
“Die it is then.”
With a hand gesture from fake Officer Willis, the fake cops start firing. John tackles Ghost out of the way of a spray of bullets, covering him with his body armour, as they run to an alcove for cover. Between returning fire, John shouts to Demonaco.
“We need to go! Now!”
“Not without the Moonstone, we’re not!”
Demonaco emerges from the opposite alcove, gun drawn, and runs into the fight faster than the bullets can catch. He starts glowing with a red, pulsating energy. He dives into the vault door - and phases through it, stunning everyone.
“He can do that?!” One of the Blood Rogues shouts.
Fake Officer Willis grins.
“So can I.”
Inside the vault, Demonaco smashes a display case, and grabs the Moonstone. He turns to leave, and sees a humanoid form rising from tendrils of blue ooze that are leaking through the seams of the door and its locking mechanism. A sheen of colour ripples across it, as it takes on his appearance, shirt open, stomach mouth and all. Its arms elongate into blades.
“Hand it over, Daemos. You don’t want any of this.”
Demonaco starts glowing red. He looks down at the Moonstone in his hand. It's glowing red as well. Good, he can phase it out of here with - his train of thought is shattered, having to dodge a blade arm lunging toward him. It clips his side, but he rolls past it, and phases through the door again.
Ghost and John are at the car elevator down the corridor, having a shootout with the remaining Blood Rogues. Demonaco, surprising the Blood Rogues from behind, manages to shoot down a couple of them as he runs past to join John and Ghost on the elevator platform as it begins to raise. The three of them slump against opposite walls, now that the danger has passed.
“Did you get it?” John asks.
Demonaco produces the Moonstone from his coat and holds it up in response.
“Right here. Shame we can’t get the other pieces, but as long as they can’t complete whatever they wanted to complete, that’s a win.”
“Whatever it was that you wanted to complete. You still got no memory of what you were planning with that?”
Demonaco shakes his head.
As the elevator opens to the car park and the team start walking quickly to the van, John gets on the phone to the SASQUATCH team he called in to extract Demonaco earlier.
“Agent Moore here. Listen - we’re extracting Demonaco ourselves now, but there is a situation in Skelos city that requires urgent attention. I’ll give you a debrief when you get outside the city, but the short version is - we need to steal a dangerous artefact from the Blood Rogues.”
To be continued…
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