The Lion, Fjodor Anisimova

The Lion of Ural Polis was not angry. He just broke his desk in half not because he was angry, but because he was annoyed. Annoyed by that damned cyborg priest coming here with two Angels and wanting to just talk. Just remembering his damn smile was almost enough to make him break the wall in half.

Fjodor took a very deep breath. He had already broken two desks, and this one was made of steel. If he did not contain his destructive urges, he would really need to set a budget just for his desks. Not a bad idea.

“May I come in sir?” Asked Hakon.

“You may.”

His left hand man walked in, his eyes scanning the room, focusing mostly on him and the broken desk.

“If you wanted more space for your legs we could have asked for a bigger desk, sir.”

Fjodor chuckled.

There was something about this man, but not even the Lion of Ural could pinpoint what it was. Maybe the cold-blood that never seemed to run out. While it was quite unlucky for him to have been stuck here during the Last Great War, it had been quite the blessing for Fjordor. Men as capable as him were very few, unfortunately.

“Did you do as I asked Hakon?”

The other man nodded. Good.

“Do you think it is for the best, sir?”

“No, but my options are limited.”

“You could always do that.” Offered Haon while looking at the broken desk.

“No, not yet.”

He had been waiting for her Officer Mk III Enhancer , but the Church still was not able to produce. Their scientists were able to make up to Mk II Enhancers. That was the only thing keeping them on his Polis. Some days, like this one, he had the impulse to go there and thrash their place up. Even if they have more Angels hidden somewhere, he was sure he would be able to deal with them.

“You should not clench your hand so hard.” Said Hakon, bringing him out of his savage thoughts.

Fjodor looked down at his right hand. There was a piece of the desk that he had just shaped into a steel ball. He looked hard at it, looked outside of his window and with all his strength, threw it outside, towards the Third District.

Hakon looked on with a calm face as the glass of the window shattered into millions of fragments. Obviously the scene was not new to him.

“Satisfied?” Asked Hakon after a while.

“Not really, no.”

“Well, we have more important things to deal with.”

“Such us?”

“The Grinning Devil is on the move?”

Fjodor’s eyebrow shot up.

“That thing is still alive?”

“Yes sir, our branch in Poland has informed us of movements from the G.D.”

“That guy is still alive?”

The Lion felt like a huge burden had disappeared from his shoulder when the Grinning Devil went quiet. He was too unpredictable, even as an ally.

“Yes, the latest reports say he was directed est… towards us.”

“Damn!” - Fjodor kicked the broken desk, shattering it further - “Anything more?”

“We are trying to contact Legion but he is busy currently.”

“You think he knew about it before us?”

“I doubt that.”

Fjodor paced around his office.If it was a few years ago, he would have not cared much about it, but now he had something to protect: The Lion’s Share. He could not allow it to fall prey to the Church or the damn Chinese.

“This could be a… tilaisuus?”

Hakon had been living in Russia and now Ural Polis for 10 years. At the beginning he knew little of the language, but the man was adaptable and so he quickly became proficient in it. Though, rarely he would mix up words or forget them.

“I have no idea what that means Hakon.” Fjodor told him. He knew it was one of the Nordic EU languages but he never asked which one it was. The recently shaved man always liked his privacy, even when threatened, he would not speak. The Lion respected his will, just because he was useful.

Hakon frowned heavily, the man hated forgetting things. Then he shook his head and sighed.

“We could use the Grinning Devil to deal with the status quo in the Polis.”

That… did not sound like a bad idea. The man was a ticking bomb, ready to blow up anyone unlucky enough to be close to it. If they were able to somehow control it...

“That is something we could consider…”

Fjodor was hesitant, but the allure of fucking with both of his rival factions was too strong.

Hakon looked down at his watch, then brought a pad out from his belt. Within a few clicks he was done.

“The doses of Vanguard I have arrived.” Hakon stated.

“No Vanguard II?”

“None.”

The Lion groaned and started aggressively stroking his beard. His scientists were not able to make Vanguard II stable enough for human use. If only that case had had more than just one Vanguard III, he would have already taken over the Polis.

“Should we go to the Training Grounds, sir?”

Fjodor took a deep breath and quickly let it out, his arms falling to his sides.

“Yeah, I need to blow some steam.”

What better way to deal with stress than some good ‘ol fighting. It was a way to train the troops too mind you! It was not an excuse to thrash around his henchmen, no sir.

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Evelyne

Evelyne did not know what to say or do. Ludomir had seen her like that. She could easily recognize the look of disgust and fear he had when he saw her. Even now, some hours after the event, she tried not to look or be even close to him. Something within her told her it would be best to leave it be, at least for now.

Her ears twitched, there was something flying over their heads but it was not one of the drones. Evelyne focused her sight and saw what seemed to be a metallic ball cutting through the air. She honestly had no idea what that was. Something to ask of the man named Legion.

She looked down at the plastic wrap of the Sugar Bomb. Back at the laboratory, they would never allow her to eat such a thing. Altering her metabolism in any way before an experiment could have been catastrophic, or so she heard them say. Thankfully she was free now, sorta.

The Grinning Devil was… eccentric, for a lack of better adjective. The man seemed nice enough and yet he did not seem naive as most kind people are, the opposite actually. That scared her, how much of his kindness was just fake? How much of him was truly him? It felt like she was talking to an android that knew how to be human.

Khutulun on the other hand was much simpler than Eve's eyes. She was a brute, but that surprisingly had some human qualities to her. If the Devil was a robot pretending to be human, she was a human pretending to be a robot. Unlike the Devil, she showed signs of pity or even embarrassment in a natural way. But for some reason she squashed those emotions. Evelyne could sympathize with that.

She looked around, to familiarize herself with the place. She had gone outside on occasion, though she always had someone with her and never outside the, so called Safe Zone. Evelyne was now seeing the world for what it truly was: a messy, ugly and unforgiving place: buildings in such conditions that even the weakest of winds could blow them down, the roads had big enough cracks that

could swallow a careless man whole.

On the side of the road there were many people. Some resting by the side, some whispering while glancing at her. It made her feel uncomfortable. The look in their eyes was what unsettled her the most. Most of them had their pupils dilated, showing clear signs of substance abuse.

Looking into the less lit and more hidden corners of the streets, Eve noticed some people exchanging some plastic bags containing some purple pills. She took note of that and will remember to ask Legion about it.

“Where are your guardians, child?” A voice asked from her left.

She turned to look at the source. It was a young man, barely in his 20s. The worry in his eyes looked genuine enough to not warrant an hostile response.

Before the words left her mouth, Ludomir caught up to her.

“Sorry, she is with me.” He said with confidence. It surprised her.

“Ah, I see.” - Said the man while looking Ludomir up and down - “Is she your daughter or sister?”

Ludomir's expression tightened up, he was clearly irritated.

“Ah… do not worry, I was just curious, it is not everyday we get visitors from the Warszawa Polis.”

Evelyne saw Ludomir’s hand moving towards the gun on his back. She herself was getting ready for the situation to escalate. Even the people around them seemed to have gone silent, all their attention on them.

“Yeah, you know how it is.” Said Ludomir after a few seconds of silence.

“I do know well, Pshek.”

The young man sighed.

“Here, have my business card, I have a feeling we will meet each other again.” He extended the card to Ludomir, who after some moments of hesitation took it.

After that, the man nodded to them both and disappeared among the many streets of the Polis. What a strange encounter. Obviously the man had come here to find them, otherwise it would be too much of a coincidence for him to be here and know where they come from.

Ludomir was busy looking at the card. Unfortunately she was not tall enough to read it too. Ludomir, seeing her on the tips of her toes, passed the card to her.

Abraham Wu

Solution Manager

For your every trouble.

Evelyne had never heard of a Solution Manager. Was he a chemist of sorts? She turned to look at Ludomir, but he looked less confused than she.

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“We should proceed.” He said, checking the strappings of his gun.

Evelyne nodded, and they continued walking towards the safe apartment Legion had made from them.

“Safe place…”

The thought seemed so alien to her. She had grown up in a bubble, yes, but she knew of the dangers. Just some hours ago she had to defend herself against those bandits. Yet, till now she felt like all the situations had been surreal. Even now she could hardly believe her eyes. Some parts of her mind thought this was all a dream and she would wake up to her white room.

But this was no such thing, and slowly that realizations started dawning on her. She was not Number 9 anymore. She was Evelyne, she was a free human. An errant thought passed her mind, why not try to escape? She knew that with the Devil she had no possibility, that was even more true with Khutulun. But Ludomir? He was just a simple human.

Evelyne had heard the contract about him and the Grinning Devil. For as long as he was helping the Devil, he would pay for his sister's treatment in the Warsaw Polis Main Hospital. That made her hesitate. If she left, his sister would most likely die; from what she understood, her conditions seemed to be quite a heavy one. On the other hand… why should she care?

Ludomir and his sister were nothing to her. Yes, he had helped her but Evelyne owned nothing to these people. They were likely bringing her from one prison to the next for all she knew! And that did not sit well with her. Yet, she felt something tugging at her heart when she thought of the distraught Ludomir. What was this strange feeling… pity? Compassion? Whatever it was, it whispered to her that she would regret leaving like this.

So what was the right choice? Evelyne did not know, she hoped that time would tell. While she was lost in thought, Ludomir caught up to her. Eve turned her attention to him.

“Evelyne… I…” - he was looking at his feet all this time, but turned to look at her for the last part of the sentence - ”I am sorry.”

Evelyne just looked at him.

“I don’t know anything about you, but I know that you are a kid.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he interrupted her.

“And as such, even if you put the fear of God in me, I will not leave you alone.”

“Not like it is not your choice…” She muttered under her breath.

Ludomir showed a weary, but not fake, smile.

“I do have a contract with the Devil, that is true…” - he started - “ But even if that had not been the case, I would have most likely joined in this journey.”

Evelyne was stupefied.

“Why?” The words came out without being filtered from her brain.

“I Couldn’t leave a child to be taken care of by a Devil now could I?” He said with a shit-eating grin.

“That is stupid.”

“True” He said laughing.

She could not understand him. It was illogical, not even that, just plain stupid. How did he survive this long out here? Dumb luck? Or was this place not as dangerous as the Grinning Devil made it out to be?

“I know that this is all new to you, and that you want to escape.”

She suppressed the instinct to turn her head to look at him. How did he know?

“I have been a kid too, you know.” He stated, pointing at himself while smiling.

“An orphan to boot.” He added.

He then stretched his hand towards her.

“For once, do try to believe in us adults. We are not all that bad.”

The smile which he had while saying that casted away every shadow that was lingering in her heart. Maybe… he was not wrong…

Gingerly, she extended her hand into his.

“See? Not that hard.”

“We shall see…” She kept her cynicism to herself.

Legion, the old cyborg, reached them a few minutes later. The three of them continued their walk, some of them with less weight on their heart and some with more weight on their shoulders.

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Khutulun

She was ready to take on the Grinning Devil. In a straight fight, he had never won against her, his Officer Enhancer was not enough to balance the scale of this fight. Unfortunately for her, that was not the only thing in his repertoire.

With every exhale, a red mist surrounded the Devil for a second before vanishing into the air. It was his helmet filtering the air, or to be more exact: the blood, from the inside of the helmet. She most likely had a few minutes before he would choke on his own blood.

While she was making her battle plan, she felt something cold press against her throat.

“What do we have here… a friend?”

The stranger had survived the blow, and was able to get close without alerting her. Khutulun concluded that he was most likely an Officer class, most likely Mk I, otherwise he would have not survived a blow like that.

The Devil looked at them both, moving his head erratically. He then started making strange sounds with his tongue.

“Now, do you know how to bring that thing down?” Gently asked the stranger, pressing the knife deeper into her flesh.

“Thanks to you, I know now.”

“Wha-”

Before he could finish his phrase, Khutulun slipped under his grasp and did a leg sweep. The man started falling horizontally, his grip on the knife gone. Khutulun grabbed the knife mid air and stabbed through the second and third ribs, straight to his heart. The man hit the ground dead, without even understanding what had happened.

Khutulun yanked the knife out and analyzed it. It was an ornate bowie knife, nothing too fancy. She would have prefered her own but this had to do for now. She turned to look at the Devil, which had found the stranger’s gun.

Slowly, he took aim at her. Even with her speed and reflexes, she knew at least one shot would go in, and if that was an Anti-Enhancement gun, she would be dead the moment she starts having seizures.

She turned her sight to the corpse at her feet and had an idea.

With a powerful kick, the corpse flew toward the Devil. This one started shooting with impunity, thankfully the bullets that were shot through the corpse, were slowed enough for her to easily dodge and get close.

With a single sweeping motion of his hand, the Devil was able to swat away the corpse blocking his sight. Khutulun ducked under the arm and threw her knife in the air above them both. The Devil was now engaged in close quarter combat with her.

She immediately blocked the hand that was holding the gun by the wrist. The Devil tried to break her out her grasp, but seeing that she was holding him in place, he used his free hand to punch her. It was all going according to Khutulun’s plan.

She easily blocked the blow by grabbing on the inside of his elbow, his arms were not long enough to reach her if she did that. Seeing as both of his arms were blocked, the Devil went for a kick. This was what Khutulun had been waiting for.

She jumped on his upper leg and used it as a spring to launch herself in the air. While there she grabbed the knife that was beginning to fall down and hit it with her palm towards the Devil’s chest.

The knife’s ornate handle started showing cracks from the impact of her palm, but it did not break down. It flew straight towards his chest. As a last ditch attempt, the Devil put his hand in-between them. The knife went through both.

“Not deep enough!”

Khutulun brought her leg as far back as she could. Every muscle in her lower body stretched to its utmost potential, threatening to break apart. She then kicked. Like the crack of a whip, even the air was blown by it. The Devil’s remaining free arm tried to block it, but was miserably smashed into his chest and his other hand. The knife finally going all the way through.

She landed on her feet. Normally this was enough, and seeing that he had stopped attacking her then it was ov-

She felt something hard hitting her face, her mask shattering on impact. She flew a few meters back, thankfully she had been fast enough to jump away at the last second, though she could clearly feel that her nose was broken.

“Never… lower… your guard… Li.” After saying those words, the Devil fell on his knees. The hand that he had used to punch her was broken in multiple places, with some even showing the bones.

She runned up to him and lowered him down gently, his head laying on her lap. While doing so she extracted what remained of the knife from his chest and threw it away. His breathing was ragged, but she could see that wound on his chest was slowly healing.

Khutulun got rid of his helmet. The moment she threw it to the side, the Devil spat some blood, dirtying her clothes.

“Ha… did… did I make a mess?” He asked between breaths.

“Like usual.”

“Haha.” He laughed softly, his lungs were still holding some blood in them.

He coughed again, this time a big phlem of blood. Khutulun took a handkerchief and started cleaning him up.

“I feel… like an old couple.” He teased her.

“You certainly feel the role of the violent husband.” She retorted.

His laughing fit was interrupted by his coughs.

“You know…” - he said while stretching his hand towards her face - “ I missed seeing your beautiful face…”

“Did not know you were into gore, Devil.”

“I wish I were in one thing.” He insinuated with that shit-eating grin of his.

She punched him in the guts. His hand recoiled from the hit but it still got closer to Khutulum’s face. When the finger reached her cheek she leaned into the hand. That simple act made her feel all fuzzy inside. Something that she did not know she had so dearly missed.

Slowly, both of their faces came closer to each other until their lips made contact with each other. Between blood, sweat and other bodily liquids they kissed each other, nonchalant about their deadly environment. For most it would be disgusting, but for them, who were born and molded into such places, it was like being back at home. And back home was where their love story began, in the Hong Kong Polis.