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STRIFE APOCALYPTO
Chapter 3 - Non-Negotiable

Chapter 3 - Non-Negotiable

A man wakes up with a sharp gasp, shooting to sit up straight as he breathes heavily and tries to get his bearings. Bloody bandages covered his chest and immense pain filled his body from moving so fast, putting a hand over his chest as he recalled exactly what did this to him with no fondness. His head snaps to look at a man kneeling next to him holding some gauze, quick to raise his hands to show he was no threat. Sighing, the injured man leans back a bit and looks up at the ceiling. He can remember what happened to him all too well, reaching into his black blazer thrown over his mostly bare body to try and find a cigarette to no avail.

“You know… it wasn’t your fau-”

“Shut up.” Before letting the other man even finish he’d snap back, making him flinch and quit speaking all at once as the room filled with silence.

Gunshots could be heard in the distance, and with the well dressed man realizing his job wasn’t done slowly started to stand back up and lean against the wall behind him. Looking outside from a busted out window he could see the night sky is as beautiful as ever, with the raging flames all around doing little to obscure its beauty. He looks around for a moment for two things, and was unable to find either of them.

“I need my knife and glasses.”

“I wasn’t able to find them. As soon as I saw you were down I just-”

“Then I’m going to go get them.” Once more he’d interrupt, not seeming to care much for anything except the bare minimum of information.

“... sir, are you sure? You really shouldn’t be going out in this state. Rainbow is doing fine, we-”

Knowing all he needed to know, the man lets out a sigh of relief and walks out of the blown out building into the streets. Sometime during the chaos he’d lost his pin and he felt naked without his pin and glasses, worried someone might just mistake him for some random suit.

The time to prove himself came sooner than he liked as a shadowy beast resembling a big cat nearly his size on all fours alone stood at the end of the street staring right at him. He stared back at it and for a moment neither moved, but it didn’t last long as the beast began to run right at him. Not intending to run away he stood his ground, staring the beast down as it ran straight for him with nothing else in the world existing to it at that moment.

Just as it was about to be in range of him it would swipe with one of its massive paws. Faster than it could react he wove to the side of the creature, placing his palm on it as a not previously seen symbol would glow bright blue on his hand and cause the beast to spontaneously combust as he quickly pulled away from the now madly flailing creature, grunting in pain and shaking his hand in the air like something had hurt him. Once more it would try to senselessly attack him by charging, swiping, flailing, anything it could as it time and time again missed its target and succumbed to the flames. Soon it would collapse, and the moment it did the man would walk away, not bothering to confirm the kill.

Still having a job to do though, the man didn’t move all too slowly as he had to ensure that what he was told was actually true. Sometimes the lesser soldiers simply didn’t know or miscommunicated, and he had to see with his own two eyes what was happening. He power hobbled down the street, knowing the layout of the town well enough to be able to get through without trouble on his own. The occasional monster would slow him down a little bit, but they would all fall like the first had. Within about five minutes he made it to the town hall, seeing people in and around it and the surrounding buildings holding off beasts.

Having little time to waste he’d walk right down the center of the street, being confronted by two that resembled wolves and one a bear, easily dwarfing him. The people in the buildings would fire at them with their guns, but obviously this could only do so much. One of the wolves would be far closer than the others and run at him from the side, taking a shot to the side of the head and being grabbed by the muzzle as it leapt at the man, having its muzzle crushed with his bare hand and lit on fire as it was thrown to the side. Unfortunately the other two remaining beasts would approach at the same time, both wanting to see the insides of the man made into outsides. Now too close for his allies to freely shoot at the creatures, it was up to him.

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Seeming to have his patience tested at this point, the man snaps and shout out in pain as runes quickly formed on his fingers and glowed, and just as they did the wolf would whimper and be crushed into a ball suspended in the air as he pinched his fingers down, contorting into disgusting positions as grotesque crunching noises would be made at every one of its movements. With his other hand he punches the bear and ducks as it snaps at his head, trying to decapitate him in an instant. Wrapping his free arm around its neck, he jumps up onto it and shouts out again, glowing runes appearing all over his arm as black spikes start protruding all over the body of the bear inside and out. He yanks his arm up and it slices right through the neck of the bear like a reverse guillotine as it falls lifeless to the ground, headless.

Panting and thoroughly covered in ichor, the man dismounts the bear and walks right up to the town hall, banging on the door with one arm as the other was limp. His bandages were quickly being bled through and he was already regretting taking such a direct way here, cursing himself for a moment before the door opens quickly and he’s ushered in as fast as he can go as the door slams behind him as soon as he enters. Before the man was a pathetic sight, the soldiers of Power - an organization within his own mostly supplying grunts and technology - were worn down and fighting with whatever junk they could salvage after weeks of battle with no support. Ignoring everyone around himself, the man would walk by the soldiers without sparing as much as a passing glance and ignored any questions or pleads they had to make as he made his way to the former mayor’s office. He opened the door and slammed it behind himself, finding exactly who he needed to speak to, who looked no worse for wear the entire time they’ve been here.

“Oh, you made it. I was worried that you and whoever dragged you off had been killed. We need to evacuate immediately, our defenses won’t hold for much longer and day by day we just lose more soldiers. Almost every Purity soldier we brought with us is dead or incapacitated, all we have left is the Power units that were already occupying this area.”

“No.”

“... what? You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious you’ll find, Rainbow.” The man said, glaring at the other agent and scornfully looking at his badge, feeling he didn’t deserve to wear it for showing such cowardice.

“You just woke up after being overheated and concussed, maybe we should take some time to-”

“No.”

For a moment there was complete and utter silence, Rainbow had been at a loss for words and just looked in awe at the man. Rainbow quickly tried to raise his arm. Not knowing or caring what the reason for it was, the man would pounce at him with unexpected speed and used his still enchanted arm to put a hole right through Rainbow’s chest, his hand even going out the other side and protruding from his back. A surprised gasp was all Rainbow could muster, looking down at the new hole in his chest as the arm was pulled from it and he subsequently got scratched across the chest by the man, getting gnarly claw marks. The man who just gravely injured his comrade simply let out an indignant huff as he let Rainbow fall to the ground.

Not letting the ichor on his body go to waste, the man would splatter some of it onto Rainbow and get it into his wounds as he had nothing more than a completely indifferent expression on his face. Walking over to the end of the room he’d smash one of the windows and the runes on his arm would fade. A creaking noise could be heard and he’d quickly turn, only to see nothing.

“Pass out like a good dog. Bark and I’ll put you down.” With no more to say, he’d deliver a swift and painful kick to the head, knocking Rainbow out thoroughly.

“HEEELP!” He’d yell out, trying to get the attention of the other soldiers in the building.

Wasting no time, it took a matter of seconds before they’d bust down the door with their weapons ready, only to see the man leaning against a wall and still bleeding with Rainbow on the floor, passed out.

“Something broke in and then escaped… he needs a medic, and I could use one too…”

Men yelled and moved around, calling in one of the few medics who weren’t arms deep in someone to save their life. It was like watching ants with their antennae scatter and try to figure out what to do as their colony was under attack, he hated it. Rainbow was quickly picked up and put on a stretcher, escorted out of the room so he could be brought to the room that had been turned into a medical bay. Declining help, the man would be the last to leave the room. For a moment he looked back, as if he was looking for something. His eyes fell upon nothing he hadn’t seen before, so after a couple more seconds of scouring the room he’d shake his head and walk out.