Everyone looks up as I march into the hospital. "That big bitch ran in with a flamethrower-" The two Onyx Order Mercs make way. I force open the doors to find a Merc tapping a needle over Bullet's equipment. I pull my gun and shout, "Drop it!" He turns around and he smiles. "Hi Amber." I squint, that guy from four years ago. The bartender. I though he died. "I said drop it!" He tosses it my way and I shoot him. He falls down and pulls out a gun. I shoot his arm and it falls to the floor. He tries to grab his gun with the other, but I just fall on him. He grunts as my body weight comes down on him full force, along with an elbow to the head. He nods off for a second, then somehow manages punches my face. He groans at the pain in his knuckles as I grab his hair and swing his head up. I let go and push his head to the floor with my palm's heel. His head bounces up, then his body goes limp.

He wakes up cuffed to the space heater. He yawns awake, "Not everyday a big girl throws herself at me." I look away from Bullet, "I think I threw up a little from having to even touch you." His eyes pierce through me, forcing a chill down my spine, "If you puked up food like an actress, you would show off all that muscle you're hiding." I shudder, then squirt half of the needle's contents out, "Tell me why and I don't find out what's in this."

Bullet mutters, "Amber? What's going on?" I smile, "I see the drugs are wearing off." Bullet looks to him, "It's the bartender. No- he's a hitman." The bartender smiles, "You guys want to see a magic trick?" I get up and grab my gun as he grinds his teeth. He falls over, then the lights turn off. I can't see. I pull my gun and open fire at where he was. The emergency lights come on and the door closes. Onyx soldiers rush in and I shout, "Find the man running from this room! Now!" I march and open the door, our men clear rooms.

Bullet shouts, "Happy hunting!" I shout into my radio over our men searching every inch of the hospital, "Patch me into surveillance! Now!" A man sighs over the line, "Alright, Dirt. 96.1 AM." I sigh and switch channels, "An attempt has been made on Bullet Onyx's life! Hospital Site 2! Find the culprit running from room 117!" I march and tap a couple shoulders, they turn and follow me. "Someone give me a gun!" "Loaded!" A merc tosses me a shotgun. I march my boys out the hospital and the radio goes off, "Hospital Site 2, the man was running on foot, Kennel street. We get in a van and start patrolling.

Under the factory's rainy tin roof, this girl's tendrils squelch and throb against my deep wounds, "Could you let go of me already?" Her tendrils slither and the water turns into skin, arteries, whatever else. "But it was warm in you." I raise a brow, "Don't say it like that." Verank barges in, "Bitch!" She makes a fake gag, "Neckbeard." I try to get up through the pain, at least I got to sit hunched over a drenched couch. They both look down at me, "Quit staring and tell me about our guest." He raises a cleaver to the girl, "The bitch?" Her arms liquify and I sigh, "No, our other guest." He lowers the blade, "He's fine. Still in a trance." Water coils around her hips, "Who do you two have?" I scream through the sudden pain of standing up. With a forced smirk, I struggle to keep upright. Her body turns clear and envelops me as I limp downstairs.

I took a huge risk, for nothing. I grumble and Verank follows us down to the basement. Her head rolls onto my shoulder, "So will you keep me down here?" I smile, "Sure, how can I make sure you can't leave?" She digs lightly into my wounds and I halt at the pain, "I don't like that idea." I wave to Verank, "Open it." He tears the metal door and it creaks open violently. "I should buy oil on my way out." I walk in as she digs into my wounds. The man is strapped to an upright table as his black blood drips into a tube, which goes into a water heater. "I-I did not k-kidnap." She jumps off me and I fall into Verank's arms. She touches the man's body and he stammers, "M-M-Mary." "Aw, what's wrong with him?" Verank lowers me to the ground and points his cleaver at her again, "Slim doesn't want anyone touching him!" She looks back at him and I shout, "He's volatile! Don't touch him!" She rolls her eyes, "And here I thought you two were fun." I smile, "You want fun?" She turns, "Yeah." I laugh, "Turn the faucet, drink his blood." She shudders, "Your blood was nasty, now you want me to mix his with me?" Verank shouts to her, "That water heater holds a new drug, made from him!" My teeth grind as I turn to glare at him. You just told her everything! She's a fucking thrill seeker! She's dangerous!

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She puts her mouth to the faucet and opens it up, it spews out as I scoot back. Verank carefully closes the tap as she sprawls out in a pool of the man's black blood. It steams against her skin as I grip the floor. Verank runs out as I watch her. She mumbles, "Digger. You're so strong." Subject doesn't mutate violently, close to same state as my potential cash cow.

Verank stomps in the doorway flamethrower first with maniacal laughter. She doesn't seem to respond as I crawl towards him. I shout and he stops laughing, "Hey, hand me it, grab someone off the street, human. Bring him down here." He blushes, "A-anyone?" I wince. "Just make sure they're alone." He lowers the flamethrower into my hands and rushes away, hollering cheerfully. I wince as my finger wraps around the trigger. "J-James." I shake my head as her body produces steam when in contact with his blood.

"Hospital Site 2, you are on top of him!" I look to my men and shout, "This warehouse!" I kick the door and it almost swings off the hinges as my men flood the room. Men and women jump and turn. They raise their hands as I let myself fall on my side, "Get down!" A hail of rocks, jets of water crack and splash against the concrete column. I turn and open fire, wind cuts past as I close the gap. My men shout and cover me as the demons take cover. A hail of bullets go against them as I try to flank. I hug another column and take a deep breath as the room goes silent. My earpiece goes off in morse code, "Four." I grip my pistol hard and lean out of cover. There they all are, only one man looks my way with wide eyes.

I emerge, he waves his hand and a white line wooshes towards my neck as I pull the trigger. The buckshot smacks into the man's skull and the white line dissipates, the now gentle breeze almost freezes the water on my skin. A stone smacks against my leg as another man blocks my bullets with his hard skin. I cock the shotgun and raise it to find a merc swinging a pickaxe into the man's skull. The demons still alive, myself included, jump at the sudden sight and it's sudden, bloody aftermath. I gulp as their throats get cut. They collapse as my men shout, "I hear more movement upstairs! Requesting backup!" I rush behind them up the stairs with shotgun in hand. Those poor people. I hug the wall as my men engage the enemy. That guy really just took a pickaxe to that man.

My men scream for me and I duck through the door way and the floor shakes as I run in. A women holds a gun to my vest, but my shotgun pushes to her mouth. She jumps and shoots. Mother- I shut my eyes, shoot, then jump as blood spatters on my face. I take a knee and wipe some off with my forearm. A man screams and punches my face to the floor. I open my eyes and turn to swing my arm. He ducks under and his fist slams into my gut. I fall back and grab at my lungs, gasping for air. The Bartender shakes his now bloody fist, picks up my shotgun and fires at what must be my men. He retreats and my men grab hold of me, "You ok!?" I wheeze and wave to where the bartender went. All but one runs off to keep up the pursuit. He scans the room for threats as my breathing gets better. "I-I'm good now." "Your vest held up to his pistol." I push up, take out my pistol and tap his shoulder, "It was her." I take his hand and he helps me up. "Thanks- Let's catch up!" He grunts and we rush off.

We stop in front of our team, a sizeable blood pool in the alley, along with my shotgun left behind. I press my lips together as one holds up a bloodied, rusted old cleaver, "Rippers, now some third party?" I get on the radio, "Hospital Site Two Here, Find me what left the alley, Kang Warehouse." Cornelius' voice sends a chill down my spine, "You can't even hunt my son's would-be murderer?!" I grab at my gut, "DIRT! ANSWER ME, YOU BITCH!" I quiver, "I-I-" "NEVERMIND! GET BACK TO MY SON, YOU FAILURE!" I look to my men and they scratch their heads, the one who helped me up finally taps my shoulder with a sad expression, "Go back, dirt. We've got this." I nod as he grabs his radio, "Master Cornelius, I said for that bitch to get packing!" "Now find my son's assassin!"

Something on me beeps and I jump, "Don't forget who owns you, peasant girl." I tremble, it feels as if chains are wrapped around my body. Despite the feeling, I trudge through the freezing cold rain, slapping against my skin. I finally sit down and cry in the rain, at the horrors of today. Of what the bleak tomorrow has in store for me.