7: The Red Zone
^^ The Ultimate Storm ^^
--- Maximus ---
"Agent Maximus, Checkpoint?" My receiver crackled to life.
"I never left the office, worked an all-nighter... checkpoint received?" I asked.
"Uhm... your receiver has been on all night, so... we're aware of your... all nighter. Come to Bay#7 for your checkpoint and debriefing before departure?"
I tsk'ed at the misstep on my part. "You are to ignore any and all things you heard. That was a mistake on my part. I'll be there soon."
"Got it, well... I'm the only one able to hear your coms, so your secret is safe between me and the Boss, who receives my records daily via Email."
"Perfect. I'm sure he'll just delete it. Moving on, I'll be there. Agent Aurelius, Signing in to Duty." I stood, summoning my clothes, and covered my woman with a crocheted blanket from the back of the couch, which had been miraculously spared.
She mumbled softly about letting her sleep, and I chuckled, patting her bruised ass as I walked out, whistling a happy tune all the way to Bay#7, where not even Duval's disapproving eyebrows could dull me down.
She sighed. "No details. I don't want details. At all. Now I'm your driver, but most of the problems we'll be facing are supernatural, so I'll be basically useless, I'm warning you now."
I nodded. "So be it. Now let's get a Roll. We've got four Giants?" They sounded off, checking their weapons, which seemed to be massive maces. "Good, and two Dragonborn?" They glanced at me, sharpening their swords. "Fine, screw you to, and one Ifrit?" He nodded. "Plus one Drakon, me, and Duval, my cute human sidekick." I patted Duval's head and skipped away from her clawed hands.
She huffed and climbed into the drivers seat. "Jacobson, I hate you the least, so you're my Gunner." She called out.
The Ifrit shrugged and climbed into the passenger seat, checking the guns functionality and ammo. He fired a tester round into the floor, and nodded down to Duval. "Functional!"
I climbed on top, and shifted into my 50ft Albanian form, and laid my nose against the hole in the roof where the gun rose out. "This is actually very comfortable..." I mumbled.
"Good for you." Duval grumbled.
"Are you angry with me for some reason, Duval?"
"I just don't like Fuckboi's." she snapped and started the engine.
"I take offense to this... I have only copulated with one woman since coming here. I am not overly Promiscuous." I snorted.
She blinked. "Oh... I thought that was normal for you, because of your nonchalance."
"Au contrair, on the inside I am very pleased. I hope my children look like her." I purred.
The others climbed into the back seat, after having checked the fuel levels and the engine for any defects while we talked.
The Ifrit hummed. "You already impregnated her? Quick work." He nodded.
"Yes... it was Glorious. She is Dragonborn, and the perfect Mate for me. Feisty, strong... passionate." I grinned.
"Nope!!! No details! I said no details!!!" Duval growled.
I hummed. "Are you a virgin, Duval? You seem overly concerned with your Innocence. I can assure you that Innocence is highly overrated."
She blushed and looked forward. "I will curse your grave if you continue this topic." She said simply.
I hummed again. "I see. Then I will desist. Are we ready for departure? Our rations are acquired?"
The Giants grinned from the back. "All here! And they gave us 280 pounds extra, it looks like! All steak!!!"
"Those are for my meals. I require... a lot of carnivorous sustenance, because of my True Form." I explained.
They tsk'ed. "Damn, got all excited." One of them shrugged, and they sat down around the giant refrigerated crates.
I looked back down at Duval. "Seems we're all set."
She nodded and pushed the vehicle into drive, slowly pulling out of the Bay, and then maneuvering onto a large street.
I kept my head on a swivel, gazing around us to keep any and all threats in view. "How long to the Hostile Zone? Any last-minute information?" I rumbled, poking my nose into the truck a little.
"Ten minutes with no traffic, and there likely won't be... and yes, you might want to know that the people in the Red Zone don't like cops."
The Ifrit snorted derisively. "Understatement of the year." He muttered.
"Oh? Why's that?" I prodded her vocally.
"We pulled out of their District when they needed us most, and so they despise us almost as much as the Demons that took our places as the ruling faction. You're about to be exposed to the ugliest anger you will ever see, now or ever." Duval sighed.
"Why did we pull away? Clearly the police lived there to. Did they abandon their Dens?"
"Yes. The Demons were slaughtering any policeman or soldier that came, and then they hunted the families of those they killed... trust me when I say it wasn't pretty. So they stopped sending people in, and the police that were left ran away, went to different provinces... I was only a rookie beat cop at the time, so they didn't ever try to send me. I lived in Long Island."
"What is 'Long Island'?" I asked, curious.
"Doesn't matter. It doesn't exist anymore. The point is, the people here hate us, and rightly so."
"But... none of us are cops. We're the NTF." I said simply.
She blinked slowly. "Hmm... maybe they'll not hate us immediately, then... or they can eventually be won over... but we'll know when we show up, won't we?" She sighed.
I hummed and nodded. "So be it."
---
I stood slowly, gazing at the blazing Skyline of Harlem, and blinked slowly to clear the Ashe. "I assumed... that 'Red Zone' was a cute nickname... not a description."
"Not in the slightest." Jacobson shook his head below me.
Above the burning skyline, the Ashe and Fire had accumulated massive amounts of Electrostatic energy, and was sparking red lightning, which didn't touch the ground often, but instead moved within the massive cloud.
The Ashe couldn't fall all the way down, because the heat was strong enough to create crazy strong Thermals, (which I would love to ride when this was over,) so the Ashe never fell down. That alone should mean that it was building itself bigger, but new Ashe wasn't being made. I was confused, at first, as to how that came about, until I spied magic flames, cleverly hidden.
The buildings couldn't burn anymore, they had nothing left to give, but the flames were being fueled by magic. The cloud covered the city, meaning satellites were useless, and the tops of the ten or so Sky-Scrapers that I knew were inside that city would be inside the cloud as well...
'Who would want to live inside a Cloud of Ashe, besides a Dragon?'... most dragons wouldn't be able to do this type of magic, and there's no stupid little way to pour our magic together, so one being had to be doing each of these fires, or all of them... and that person was likely the one living in the clouds.
"You might want to get inside, it's about to get hairy." Duval snapped suddenly, and Jacobson stood up, guiding the .50 Cal into the brace, and loading Full-Metal rounds.
I hummed, and then realized why they were gearing up, as I heard flapping wings. I took a preemptive route and looked up into the smoke and Ashe, breathing white flames into them.
Four streams of bluish-red flame came back, and my extended wing shielded the vehicle from them, as Jacobson started firing in the direction of the fire streams.
One stopped, flying away in fear, but those who stayed committed, launching out of the smoke directly at us.
I leapt and shifted again, slamming them down under my paws, while my jaws snapped the third one out of the air.
I looked at Duval. "Orthers?"
"We can't take prisoners, Maximus." She said simply.
I nodded and dropped him, then stomped on his wings and legs, shattering them, then his comrades. Once crippled, I threw their limp bodies off the road, and shifted to my smaller form. "That should do, then." I nodded, mounting the vehicle again.
"Well, at least he didn't kill them... I think." She muttered as the vehicle pushed forward.
I chuckled and held on as we went further into the flaming city.
It quickly became clear that the inside of the city wasn't on fire, only the outer ring, which left a large gap between the buildings. The inner part of the city was actually quite nice, despite the low levels of sunlight, and the dilapidated structures.
They were all repaired skillfully, and in the same fashion, leading me to believe there was a mason here somewhere. The people moved out of our way, eying us curiously, but not hostile, at the moment.
I hummed and nodded slowly. "I like it... very quaint. And this heat is very agreeable."
Duval pulled her collar away from her neck uncomfortably, while Jacobson grinned, and nodded in agreement. "If only there weren't psycho demons controlling the place." He murmured.
I nodded. "Soon there won't be... can you open a one-way portal to a prison-like dimension that I can shove Demons and Demonborn down, without falling in myself?"
He hummed. "I can, with a few weeks preparation."
"Good. We have Seven Days." I nodded, and then hissed gently at a human child that came too close to our wheels.
He backed away, and avoided being squished, though his mother didn't seem too pleased with me.
I looked around for a place for our vehicle, and soon found a large empty lot, big enough for my true form.
I smelled it, suspicious of such a large open space, and it smelled of nothing but refuse and ash, at first. Underneath that was the pervasive scent of Asbestos, meaning this was some sort of dump, before it got burned down, making it toxic.
I nodded to Duval, and she carefully backed the vehicle in, at the edge, and I shifted human, dressing swiftly. "First things first, we need you to start that Demon Trap, Jacobson." She said, dusting her hands, then coughing softly. She paused. "Does anyone smell Asbestos?"
I nodded. "Seems to be why humans aren't living here. You will be alright inside the Vehicle. Good filtration system."
She sighed and retrieved an inhaler of some kind, breathing a deep gulp of whatever laid within.
I raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. "The Superiors sent me, knowing what it was like here. I came prepared." She shrugged.
I hummed slowly. "Alrighty then... I'll cast something to make us invisible... can't have them knowing what Jacobson is up to." I cast a complicated invisibility spell, which would show an empty lot where we stood, not what we were going to do with it.
"I need a flat surface." He said simply, cracking his neck.
I nodded and shifted again, using my flaming breath to dissolved the entire field of Asbestos and glass, down to the soil underneath, and then melted the soil, letting it cool. Once it was finished, I breathed ice over it, creating a black crystal floor.
It was bumpy and wavy, even worse than the sloped dome from before, but I started rubbing my scales against it, slowly sanding it down into a very smooth finish, with lots of glass sand.
"The sand helps, yes?" I asked, and then shifted again into my human form.
He nodded and cracked his neck this time, and then began measuring the entire field, by hand.
I shook my head sympathetically, and sat down next to Duval. "So what do we need to do now?"
She raised an eyebrow. "You want me to tell you?"
"You're the detective. We're just muscle, for the most part." I said simply, and the others, gathered close, nodded in agreement.
She sighed. "Alright, alright... well, we need to know who's sending out those Demonborn... the Draconic Front gang is mostly based here, and there's an incredibly high dragon population in the Red Zone, for obvious reasons, so our Dragonborn, Talbot and Sands, you two need to walk around, make yourselves known. Cause trouble, start fights with dragon hoodlums, you know that drill."
They smirked, nodding.
"Giants, we need you to get into some trouble as well. Just start some low-level fights with lower-class Lumina, say Class F-C, things that any rational person would call normal for a Giant... nothing abnormal, but make it clear you're gifted fighters, definitely worthy of recruitment, versus elimination."
They grinned as well, nudging and shoving each other. "No problem, lass." The eldest nodded, after smacking the younger ones around lazily.
"Alright... I'm the only actual cop, so my presence could be very bad. I'll stay here and guard Jacobson so he's not interrupted..."
"And me?" I asked.
"You... I've no clue. You were our trump card, but they saw you as we came in, so you're more of a Nuclear Deterrent now. Go... be you, I guess. Get wild, have some fun, don't make it look like you're here on a mission." She shrugged.
I grinned. "Have fun? My specialty." I patted her head, dodging her talons, and then slung my arms around the Dragonborn's shoulders. "Let's go get into trouble." I grinned at them.
They chuckled and nodded, following me out of the bubble of relative safety.
We walked through the streets, and I slowly noticed that the reason we stood out wasn't our size. There were several Giants around, after all... it was our clothes. We were dressed normally, not in the thin cotton clothes they wore to get away from the heat, and that left us hopelessly overdressed.
I led us into an alley, ignoring the many people staring at us, and stripped my shirt, then cut my jeans off right below the knees, which would have to work for now. My shoes and socks also disappeared, tossed into a fire, though I kept my electronics in my second plane for now.
The Dragonborn with me, 'Talbot' and 'Sands', quickly caught onto my logic, and followed suit. We merged back into the crowded main streets, and more successfully blended in.
I found the perfect spot to cause some havoc that people would know about quickly, in what seemed to be a Sex Parlor.
Several woman danced on the stages, and I smelled several more private rooms, filled with both humans and Lumina sating their desires.
Sands went off into the back, nearly skipping with happiness, and I sighed, but let him go.
We sat a bit back from the stage, and watched a woman with admirable control of her abdominals and ass, moving and twisting to a rhythm.
But she made a mistake, and gave me an opportunity, a byproduct of someone else's actions.
One of the men watching her dance reached out as she got too close, and pulled her off the stage, into his lap. I nodded, and Talbot stalked over purposefully, staring the Dragon down, while the bouncers, low-level Demonborn who had no chance, stayed back.
"I was watching that woman dance, you ugly little jackass..." he ground out.
The Dragon shrugged and tossed the woman to one of the men next to him. "Hold her, I've got some business with this runt here." He shrugged carelessly, and stood up, drawing a large dagger from his belt.
I whistled gently, and tossed Talbot mine. "Fair fight's the best fight, eh?" I said happily when the dragon glared at me.
He snorted. "Not exactly fair, either way, is it?"
Talbot darted forward and cut his hand off, not bothering with any more semantics, and then broke one of his knees while he dumbly stared at his arm in shock.
"I only meant to cut his hand... this knife is deadly sharp, eh?" Talbot looked back at me.
The man's friends stood up, all over the club, and I tensed slightly. '13 dragons versus me... even odds, if there ever were any... I don't like that number, either...'
Just before anything drastic happened, Sands yelped loudly, and stumbled out of the back rooms, pulling his shorts up laughably, while a demoness kicked him.
"If ye've got no wallet, why'd ye even bother trying to buy me, ye stupid git?!?" She roared, and kicked him again.
I chuckled, and suddenly everyone was laughing at him, as was likely his intention.
The man who'd lost a hand had reattached it, using weak magic to heal it, and his knee had realigned, so no one was permanently hurt, and with the tension gone, the room relaxed, and they let the girl go.
I grinned and gathered the two Dragonborn, and made a silent retreat.
Once outside, I snickered. "Sands, I've decided I like you. You're rather good at making a fool of yourself."
"It's a developed talent. I go undercover a lot as the lovable idiot." He shrugged.
"Well, unfortunately for you, the entire Dragon Community will have heard that story by tomorrow, so you're stuck like that." I patted his shoulder.
He sighed and nodded. "No problem."
As we walked away, the street around us suddenly cleared, as if someone had dropped the first shoe, and everyone hear knew some sign of trouble that we missed.
A small shadow fell over us, and I froze, intentionally keeping my eyes down at the dirt. "Oh for fucks sake..." I hissed.
"Well Hel~lo LOVELY!!! If it isn't Prince Maximus Decius Aurelius, Heir of the Aurelian Turkish Drakons... and my dearest old friend." Banri chuckled sadistically.
I sighed. "Hello, Banri. So surprising to see you here in this burning pile of crime and sin. To be honest, I'd hoped you joined a convent, like all the other Slutty Noble Girls cast out by their fathers for being little whores." I spat back venomously.
He tsk'ed. "Now Maxie... You know, that there is just not nice." He said gently.
Demonborn started filling up the rooftops and alleys.
"Who is this guy?" Sands asked me.
"Oh, I haven't introduced myself to your friends! How rude of me! I am known as Hellion, the Ravager, the Banished Prince, and many other Colorful little titles, but my Name is Banri Sjill, Son of Bærd Sjill, the 352nd Chief of the Shadow Clan." He introduced himself, bowing in the air as his smoking wings worked overtime, and his Draconic claws clicked gently.
"Well, now we know who wanted to live in a smoky penthouse." I muttered.
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