It took five days before Emma came back to see Jake to tell him he could now change the barriers parameters and reinstate herself as a council member sadly within those five days the old council members had died from their injuries obtained from Matt and Jess when they took over the council Jake had spent those last five days by their side trying to help them as best he could but no matter how hardy tried he couldn’t upgrade his healing skills to help in any meaningful way Emma even used her healing skills on the but the damage was far to grate.
“Okay, but not until after we send off the dead.”
A group of twelve people, humans and beast folk, came into the tent where the two council members lay in coffins and lifted them up over their shoulders as they waited for the signal to proceed with the ceremony of the fallen. Jake gave a nod to the dogmen standing at the front. Jake walked out of the tent and stood to the side where all the demon’s hand mercenary group stood making a continuous path to the Funeral pier. As the coffins exited the tent, Jake shaped to attention and saluted the coffins draped in flowers as he saluted every member of the demon’s hand mercenary group followed suit, shaping to attention and raising their hands in salute to the fallen heroes.
The coffins rested high on the top of the pier. One by one the mercenaries surround the pier, guarding the fallen as jake and Emma packed up a burning stick each out of a nearby fire pit, walking over to the pier. Jake and Emma lowered their arms, lighting the pier.
Jake turned to the crowd and said in a loud and clear voice, “To the heroes they gave their lives, as such now they have become our new heroes and we honour their passing. Demon’s hand mercenaries, keep vigil.” Jake and his mercenaries stood guard all night and into the next day as it rained on them. Not a single person moved the whole time.
As the fire petted out, Jake gave the command they had all been waiting for. “Move out and take back our home.” all the mercenaries started marching out of the bushland and headed straight for the main gate.
Jake opened up his interface and instantly removed all the council’s members, then changed the parameters to the barrier and finally added Emma as a council member and gave her all the permission she would require to manage the settlement.
“It’s done let us Join the battle.” Jake said as he changed into his demon form. Looking over at Emma, he noticed she had also changed forms back to the one she preferred.
“That look really suits you.”
“Thank you.”
Teleporting away, Jake moved towards the main gate as he bypassed the miserable screams echoing through the air once he reached the main gate. The guard that was on duty when he arrived was on duty once again. Jake stopped in front of the man.
“We meet again.”
“Have we met? I don’t remember you.”
“You don’t.” Jake deactivated his demon form.
“It’s you. What have you done? Why are you attacking the embassies?”
“Just taking back what belongs to me.”
“Your the demon of the past. After our conversation the other day, I asked about the question you asked me. You were right. It belongs to you.”
“Are you going to get in our way?” Jake asked
“No, I am here to guard the settlement from outside threats, not to get involved with internal issues.”
“Good. Do your fellow guards feel the same?”
“I can’t speak for them.”
“Well, if they don’t, tell them not to try and enter the settlement or it will kill them.” Jake said this, then teleported into the shadows and vanished.
Jake stood outside the embassy of the Australian government pulling out his F88 he fired five rounds directly into the men at the gate putting to down fast before the mercenaries arrived making their assault Jake took up over-watch firing in support of the main assault once the group entered the building Jake shifted his attention to his next target the mercenaries were being held back over at the US embassy so Jake shifted his attention over there this time jake teleported behind the gate guards and fired at near point blank range blowing away five guards before he retreated to the mercenaries and began lobbing grenades into the embassy. After fifteen minutes, the gate guards fell, and the group of mercenaries stormed the embassy.
“And now it’s time to play,” a voice behind Jake said with a distinctive cat tone.
“Kiki, I haven’t seen you for ages. Were you at the funeral? I didn’t see you there,”
“No, boss, I was gathering intelligence on our enemies. It seems the UN is only interested in protecting humanity’s freedoms and is actively rounding up beast folk for some unknown reason.”
“Good work. Shall we dance?” Jake asked as he held out his hand to the embassy
“We shall.” Kiki said leaping into the air changing into her cat form and ran at full speed into the embassy she targeted the first soldier jumping at the man changing back into her humanoid form as she ripped out the man’s throat as she pirouetted onto the next man. Jake watched as she ripped apart soldier after soldier.
“She really does like to dance.” Eric said as he too dashed past jake and into battle.
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“Are you going to just stand and watch, boss?” Emma asked
Jake just looked at her before saying with a grin, “you took your time.”
“Well, some of us don’t have that ability.”
Jake smiled and did just that. Popping out of the behind a man as his dagger lodged in the man’s neck he then dashed across the square firing his rifle ripping apart the feeble defence the soldiers could erect in time to top it off Jake launched a grenade into the back ranks of the enemy blowing them apart and giving him a clear line of sight to his target. Erupting from the shadow a hail of projectiles flow into the backs of his enemies, tearing them apart.
Matt and Jess
Matt looked down at the chaos going on just outside his window on the top floor of the US embassy’s main building.
“This is worse than I thought it would be,” Jess said
A demon appeared from a shadow in the distance, orchestrating an attack on the Australian embassy.
“It fell two quick.” An American officer said before running out of the room yelling commands to his men.
The shape of a demon appeared outside the embassy’s walls. Beside him stood a cat lady that could only be one of the two directors the demon’s hand mercenary group had. After Jake gave her the command to attack, the limited stability that was established vanished as the cat’s first target was the officer in charge of the embassy’s defence. After The cats attack a dog man entered the battle, then Matt’s face went pale as Emma was the next to arrive. Looking over at the two demons, Jess let out a startled cry as she covered her mouth.
“Didn’t we look her up?” Jess asked the next moment Jake entered the battle as the building they were in shook
“Why did we let them talk us into this?” Matt asked
“Um, I think we should run.”
“Where they have us surrounded?”
“Are you an idiot? We have spaceships, just get to the roof.” Jess said as she left the room and ran to the roof.
Emma
“Am I even needed here?” Emma asked herself as she watched Jake and the two directors tear apart the enemy ranks. Looking at the building roof, she saw two people moving around up there. Her eyes opened wide as she saw their faces.
“They’re trying to run.”
Emma ran down, using her movement skill to pass by the enemies as she headed straight for the roof. Kicking open the door she noticed the two small spaceships on the roof Jess was sitting in one of the as Matt struggling to climb up into his cockpit Emma ran as fast as she could come up behind Matt and kicked his knees out sending him to the ground Jess was looking down from her cockpit as her husband's body was being brutalised by one of the demon’s people. Jess looked down at Matt, water in her eyes as she mounted the words I’m so sorry. Then, without trying to assist, she started her engine and blasted off, blowing half of the roof apart while leaving Emma and Matt on what remained. Emma was on top of Matt as she pulled his face into the shape of a hamburger, but she stopped just before his death as she didn’t know what would happen to the spaceship if he died. To make sure he didn’t run, Emma Broke his legs and arms, leaving him a whimpering mess waiting for scavengers to pick over his bones.
Jake
Jake watched from the ground as one of the light fighters from the tutorial took off, sending shrapnel plummeting down on top of them. Jake essentially gave the command for the demon’s hand mercenary group to take cover as he teleported into the crumbling building. Moving up to the roof, he encountered a group of people wearing suits hiding in a conference room. Kicking the door off its hinges, he looked inside then said in a deadpan tone,
“If you move from this room, you will die. If you try to fight, you will die and if you are from the Australian government or work for them, your life will be very miserable till you eventually die.”
Jake really didn’t have any intention of killing anyone that didn’t harm him or his people. But he needed them to not try to fight back.
After encountering the people in the room, Jake vlined it on the roof. On the roof, he saw Emma dragging what appeared to be a sack of meat across the roof, heading back towards the entrance.
“Hay Emma, what that?”
She looked up at Jake and pointed to the light fighter, then back at the meat sack. Only now did Jake realise that the meat sack was actually a human and it looked to be still breathing. Walking over to her, he asked if it was Matt or Jess. Erica replied to Matt and gave him a little kick, making him awaken from unconsciousness, coughing up blood. Matt yelled for his death. Jake knelt down beside and whispered in his ear.
“I wouldn’t let you die so easy.” Placing his hand on Matt, Jake activated his healing skills to seal the wounds and numb the pain. Matt’s eyes shot open as he realised whose voice that was.
“Jake, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do any of that to you. It was all that Jess, she just couldn’t put aside her stupid ideas of rolling over people.”
Jake just looked at the man.
“Believe me, she.”
“Just stop. No one here believes a word you say. It was you that killed and betrayed us, not your wife,” Emma snapped back at him.
“You know what I’m going to ask you?”
“I didn’t me–”
Jake kicked him in the leg
“Just do as you’re told and you will be fine. Remove your soulbond from the ship.”
“I don’t know ho–”
Emma kicked his other leg
“It’s very simple. You can do it.”
Matt, not wanting to be in any more pain, removed the soulbound from the light fighter, then felt a finger poke him on the forehead before his eyes got too heavy to keep open.
Jake looked over at the light fighter and said, “it’s yours. Go figure out how it works and fly it back to the camp-site in the bushland. I’m going to make that area into a construction site just for building more of them later and having one physical version and the blueprints will make it much easier for profession users. I hope you don’t mind. To make it up to you, I’ll give you some weapons for it.”
Emma got into the cockpit and began to soul bind the light fighter. Once she was done, she gave the signal to Jake. Moving overtone edge and down on the battle raging below, Jake yelled, “demon’s hand mercenary group, fall back to the staging area.” After he said this, Jake teleported off of the roof and out of the embassy. Standing atop a hill, Jake could see into the embassy. The demon’s hand mercenary group had just left the embassy gates when the building the soldiers were guarding collapsed, covering the enemy.
“Oh shit, I forgot about them.”