My name is Gray Midway, you can blame the evil scientists who raised me for their terrible naming sense. Anyway, It turns out that demons and angels can actually get along, but no one said they'd take responsibility when they got along a little too well. The American government owned me from the moment I was born. Politicians really do make deals with devils, angels too.

I live in a secret facility called the Limbo project. Imagine Frankenstein's laboratory, with a bigger budget and a lot more manpower. Lots of men and women in labcoats being protected by bigger men and women with guns. Protected from what? Little ol’ me, that's who. Your friendly neighborhood abomination, cloaked in grey and ready for action.

My story starts like this, angels, demons, and all other manner of creature are real. They prey on humans without prejudice so when my parents had a kid that defied the taboos, the human government saw their chance to get a weapon to even the playing field. I wonder how much my parents got for me, hopefully at least a condo. Anyway, fast forward thirteen years later and we come to today, my birthday. I wanted to go somewhere special for today. Now that I'm in a helicopter thousands of feet above the Syrian desert, I wish I'd asked for a bike.

Officer Mays sat across from me with a slice of chocolate cake in her lap and a look of grim determination on her face. She was one of the younger agents that had ever been sent with me on a mission and was probably new to this kind of stuff; a mousy looking woman with blonde hair shaved close to her head.

I shrugged in the chains that had been used to secure me  and said “I don't bite officer Mays. Not unless I'm ordered to anyway.” I let a thin sliver of power hang on my words to soothe her and she started to relax subconsciously. A heavy fist smashed my head against the metal plating behind me and I groaned as agent Sid rubbed his knuckles and said “You know better than to use your powers on government personnel. Don't test me, boy.”  Agent Sid had been my primary caregiver over the last thirteen years and I often wondered if that title was some kind of a cruel joke. Agent Sid had made sure I knew exactly how much he hated his job everyday with a steady diet of beatings and punishments. His only effort to hide his contempt was a never-wavering smile that didn't reach his eyes. I sometimes wondered if he was actually human, he looked to be in his early twenties, but he'd looked that way as long as I'd known him, the years seemed unable to phase him. Agent Sid gestured to officer Mays and said “Feed the boy his cake.”

Officer Mays looked at me with eyes that told me  she was none too happy about me trying to influence her and I knew she probably wouldn't volunteer for this kind of thing again. She gripped the bottom of my mask with the type of revulsion normally reserved for dead rodents and rolled it up just enough to uncover my mouth. She gasped in a combination of stunned horror and awe as my power began to flow free without the masks full restrictions. Agent Sid shook her from her stupor and said in a voice that brooked no argument “Hurry it up.”

Officer Mays seemed to harden herself against my presence and proceeded to the arduous task of feeding me birthday cake. When she was finished she wiped my mouth and rolled the mask back down. A part of me sobbed at losing that small bit of freedom from my fetters.

I looked at agent Sid and asked “So Agent Sid, what’s the scoop on today’s job?”  His big fake smile got bigger and he said “There’s a city just west of here, Aleppo. We’ll be dropping you just four miles out; your job is to infiltrate a small compound on its outskirts and rescue the youngest daughter of one of our VIP’s. You will ensure her safety until you are extracted, as for how you deal with any resistance from the opposition, that will be left up to you. Questions?” I looked into that big fake smile and asked “How will I know what the target looks like?”

“It will be the little white girl. She’ll probably be cowering in a corner or something. I'm sure you’ll figure it out.” I looked out the door and tried to get a feel for the landscape in the cold Syrian night when my next question came to mind “So, you mentioned something about dropping me, that was a figure of speech, right?” Agent Sid just smiled at me and I gulped “Can't I have a parachute or something?” He pressed his foot against my chest and I started to fall to the side. I saw the ground far below and said “At least take the chains off!” Officer Mays put her hands over her mouth in shock and Agent Sid let out a grunt of effort before launching me from the helicopter. I screamed in terror as I fell and my ears caught the words “Try not to mess this up, Grey.”

I yelled back “I’m gonna kill you one day, Agent Sid!” He probably heard it, Agent Sid has impeccable hearing.

I turned in the air and looked at the ground, it was coming on pretty fast; I went over my options and realized there was only one. Crash as painlessly as possible.

I thought about landing on my feet, but an image of my shins being forced through my chest cavity sent that idea away. My head was out of the question, so all that left were my arms that had been so graciously bound in front of me. I braced myself for impact and closed my eyes as I hit the hard packed earth, no soft sandy landing for ol’ Gray.

The sound of bones breaking and tearing through muscle was almost as vivid as the pain that wracked my body. I thrashed uncontrollably and my chains broke away with the force of my tortured spasms. Soon I just laid still to let my mixed angel and demon blood begin the arduous task of healing my battered body. My full body grey suit was a miracle of ancient magic and modern science. It repaired itself and fed on any bodily fluids that might have leaked from me in the crash. By the time I finished healing, there wasn't even a smear of blood on my suit and to my chagrin I felt the magical seals inside it burn against my skin with renewed strength after the heavy feeding.

I stood up and looked in the direction that Aleppo was supposed to be in and started jogging, the cool mountain air felt good in the night, and the rocky, sandy ground wasn’t too hard to run on at this speed.

The scenery passed by me in a blur of browns and greens as my supernaturally strengthened muscles carried me across the landscape. I stopped when I could see signs of the first buildings, Aleppo wasn’t the most luxurious of cities, but to my eyes that had rarely seen outside the secured and sterile facility base, it was beautiful. The sprawling city, the people, so what if some of the buildings were bombed out and crumbling? You could get lost in there. There was a hopeful voice in my head that whispered “You could run away, for a time.” I shut it up, there was no running. I couldn’t escape and even if I could, they’d just find me and make my life worse. Could it really be worse? I shuddered at the thought and looked out over the city. There weren’t a lot of buildings on the outskirts of Aleppo, or at least not ones that would make a good hideout, I didn’t have to look very hard, I just stopped looking when I found the armed guards standing in front of a squat and crumbling building.

The guards were two well dressed men with submachine guns, they had matching sunglasses even though it was night, and long dark hair. I approached them slowly, they didn’t react well to a strange kid appearing out of the dark of night. They pointed their guns at me and started yelling in a language that I had never heard, my angel mind quickly translated the words “Get down on your knees or be shot.” I raised both of my hands and fell to my knees, the two guards cautiously came closer to me, one on the right and one on the left. The one on the right pulled a radio out of his pocket and pressed a button “We have an intruder at the front.” There was a pause, then a rough voice said “Deal with it quietly.” The man with the radio said “Yes, Sir.” and put the radio back in his pocket.

He pulled out a knife and reached down to grab me, I caught his wrist and wrenched his hand toward his friend on my left, the knife went deep into the guy's gut. I stood up and forced the knife up with me, forcing him to disembowel his partner, I crushed the first man's wrist as he tried to raise his gun and covered his mouth with my free hand to muffle his scream. I put my mouth next to his ear and whispered words that held a melody that promised warmth and safety “It’s okay, it will all be better when you wake up.” The words came out with a resonance like the sound of clear bell. I felt his body relax as he slumped to the ground in sleep. His partner was still alive, bleeding out and struggling with his innards, he whimpered as he watched his blood wet the earth. I broke his neck as a mercy and moved on.

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The front door was just a huge slab of stone with no handles, I pushed and it slowly began to slide open. I fell to my knees as the door opened, the smell! The stench of blood and death was cloying, under it all was a dark, oily stench, like sour meat and fear, and brimstone. I tried to control myself as my angel mind struggled not to vomit and my demon mind called to find the source of the wonderful smell, to stop everything and join whatever was here in this place.

I pulled myself up and walked through the poorly lit hallways. I passed abandoned rooms and walked down damp stairwells. Dried blood marred the walls and floors at irregular intervals. The smell only got stronger as I walked, as I neared its source. I poked my head around a corner and barely had time to pull back as a hail of bullets rushed by. I put my hand to my gut, three bullets had gone right through the stone and burrowed in. The wounds were already healing as the bullets were pushed out.

Gunshot wounds always brought me back to when I was five. I had fallen and scraped my knee while training, I cried until one of the researchers came to check on me. I told the man with the clipboard and he nodded, he left the room and came back with Agent Sid. Agent Sid had pulled a 9mm from his holster and commenced to empty the clip into my chest, stomach, arms, and legs as I screamed. He just smiled and said “Monsters don’t get to feel pain, Gray. We haven’t spent all this money for a weakling, get over it.”

The firing stopped when I was no longer in sight and I sighed in disappointment, whatever happened to firing all your ammo uselessly into the wall. I waited for the suit to stitch itself up and took a deep breath and rushed around the corner. There were five gunmen, lined up and pulling the triggers, I fell forward until I was almost lying flat on the floor and used my toes and fingertips to propel myself down the hall. Bullets sailed just overhead as the gunmen panicked under an unexpected route of attack, I smashed my fist into the knee of the gunman farthest to the right and kicked off the wall as he fell, I spun on the ground and swept the feet out from under the next man and caught his weapon on his fall. The M16 was on a strap around his neck and I used the man’s body weight to break his neck. I held his body in front of me and aimed under the dead man’s right armpit using his gun to mow down the remaining gunmen in the small confines. It all happened in about three seconds. I used another gun to finish off the man with the broken knee before discarding the weapon and moving forward.

There was a rickety wooden door further down the hall, the terrible smell was all-encompassing, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a deep breath and basking in the stink, so much evil, to conquer, to destroy, to save. That was the thing about being half demon and half angel, no black and white, only Gray, I never really knew how I’d react in these situations.

I opened the wooden door and gazed into the large room beyond, a dark haired little girl with big blue eyes sat in the middle of the floor, she was playing with something, I walked into the room and stepped closer to see what she was holding, human hands. The little girl was playing with torn and bloody limbs, her pink dress was smeared in dark blood, her eyes looked empty and she didn’t seem to take notice of me. For the first time, I noticed a short, almost boring man in a black suit standing just to the far side of the room. The man was average in every way, boring hair cut, boring face, he almost made me want to overlook him, except for the huge cloud of filth surrounding him, the smell of him had drawn me here, had spread all throughout the building. The man looked at me with a bored expression, but there was a smoldering fire behind his eyes. The smell of brimstone  brought me a faint sense of longing. The brimstone confirmed it, a demon, an imp, based on the smell.

The imp opened it’s mouth revealing sharp, yellow teeth and it’s voice was far deeper than it had any right to be as it said “An abomination? How dare you enter the lair of your better? A disgusting half breed? Not possible and yet it is.” I didn’t answer, I crouched low to the ground, on all fours to readily move in any direction, the imp licked his lips “Disgusting, but your blood is strong, your flesh will give me great strength. The likes of you was never meant to exist, your whore mother has done you a wrong, but your father may thank me for killing his shame, the angels can be such hypocrites.” I felt my blood rush, I charged forward, the stone beneath my feet, cracking with the force, I closed the distance, and raised my fist to smash the imp’s skull. It moved it’s head with unnatural speed and I missed, the imp caught my leg and swung me. My upper body bent at an agonizing angle with the force of the swing and I hit the ceiling, ground, and wall in quick succession. I went through the wall and smashed into the ground in the next room, the imp still had my leg, it pulled me back and grabbed me by my head with one hand, lifting me into the air. It’s breath was hot in my face, rotten eggs would've been an improvement to the reek. “Pathetic, so young, so stupid, so weak. What is under the mask I wonder?” The imp began to pull my mask from my face, I grabbed it’s wrist “Don’t touch.” It laughed in my face, black spittle flying “You’re in no position for demands, abomination.” It smacked my hand away and pulled off my mask, the imp stared at me for a second with recognition in it’s eyes “That face. There is no doubt of your parents. I will be made a Lord when I tell my masters of this.”

I smiled as I felt the limiters inside the mask release their grip. I moved my tongue over razor sharp, and perfectly white teeth and licked my lips “Imps really are stupid.” His face showed confusion, and then rage “What was that, abomination!? The final defiance in your last moments?” He slammed my head into the ground and squeezed, I slapped his hand away with ease and planted my foot in his stomach, kicking him into the ceiling. Dude was dense, like kicking a boulder. He bounced off the ceiling in a shower of concrete and landed against a wall, gasping. I stood up and looked at the mask that the imp still held in his hand, pulsing yellow sigils covered the inside. The imp looked at the mask, I let him examine it, just to see the moment when he realized how many seals had been placed on the “Abomination”. His gaze met mine and he made an audible gulp sound as I rushed at him, my eyes flashed and burned him with holy light as he struggled to his feet, he raised a weakened hand that I grabbed in my jaws. My teeth clamped down and I spun my whole body against his weight. Flesh tore and bone broke in a sticky crack, rancid black blood sprayed my face as I jumped back and  began to feast on the prize in my mouth. I gagged as I tore into the meaty arm, taking huge bites, swallowing chunks in a frenzy, it burned on the way down, sickening yet intoxicating. My angel mind screamed in disgust as I relished the feeling of crushed bone between my teeth, but I was lost to the madness.

I finished and felt the imp’s power flow through me in a torrent of diseased power. I turned to see the imp trying to crawl away, a look of fear on it’s borrowed human face. I fell upon the creature, battering it’s one flailing arm away as it struggled against me, my gaze burned it’s strength to cinders and slowly it lost it’s will to struggle, even to scream. The next hour was a blank, as I fed on the body of the dead demon, retching and hating myself even as I ate, as I became stronger with its putrid flesh.

When I finished, I stood, wiping the blood from my face with my arm and picking up the mask with contempt. I turned to the little girl, she had dropped the hands and was now staring at me with a look of joy and acceptance, like I was her savior. The faint swirl of light and shadow in her eyes told me she had been enthralled, turned into an unwilling worshipper of the Gray Midway fellowship by my unearthly power. Power that I still had no idea how to control and a downside of not having my mask. I walked for the exit without looking back, the girl would follow me, to the ends of the earth if I asked.

I left the building and walked back in the direction I had come from, little girl in tow. After a long while I saw a helicopter in the distance, a spotlight shined down on a single man with a megaphone, Agent Sid. Agent Sid held the megaphone to his mouth “Stop right there, Gray.” I stopped walking, I was still a good hundred meters from him. “So, Gray. You got the girl, very good. Why is your mask off, little monster?” I spoke at normal volume, somehow Agent Sid would manage to hear me, impeccable hearing and all “A demon took it off me.” There was a pause “So put it back on. Now.” I took a step forward “No.” Agent Sid’s tone didn’t change but there was a subtle menace in his voice “What was that, monster? It sounded like you said no. Look at what you’ve done to that little girl, you know how low the chances of recovery for an enthralling are, and at her age, maybe impossible. You don’t care, little monster?” I took another step forward “I said no.”

There was a pause as Agent Sid said something into a radio on his chest, he raised his hand up in the air with five fingers spread “Now Gray, I’ve raised you better than this, let’s not get violent.” I took another step forward “I’m done listening to you.” Agent Sid sighed as I broke into a full sprint. He closed his hand into a fist and gunfire exploded through the air. I rushed as I felt my body getting pincushioned with tranqs, dozens of them pelleting my legs, arms, and torso. The tranqs had been made for me and I could feel my body slowing down, feel my brain getting sluggish. The world lurched and twisted, it felt like I was moving in slow motion, I hit the ground just a couple feet from Agent Sid. He looked in my eyes as I reached for him. I let all my hate and rage boil to the surface, I felt hellfire and holy flame mingle as they flowed from my eyes, Agent Sid didn’t even flinch, he just smiled and laughed as he put his 9mm to my forehead and pulled the trigger, the world became darkness.