The Soul Reaver

Chapter sixteen: Monsters and Tenderness

After Dropping off the apples at Twilight's, I headed to the train station to purchase a ticket to Canterlot. I still can't get over that name...

I found Steam standing there giving out the tickets as usual. She spotted me from the crowd and waved me over with a smile on her face. I returned the smile with my own grin and made my way through the crowd to her.

"Hello Dean. Canterlot again?" She says producing a ticket. I nodded.

"Wow Steam, it's almost like you can read minds." I joke. She laughs and gives me a ticket. I give her the required number of bits and head onto the train.

Sparkler spots me heading onto the train and smiles. She gestures to my usual boot that I take.

"Here you go Mr.Marcelo, it's open for you so you can take those naps of yours." She teases in front of everyone. I felt my eye twitch and sighed. I can't say anything since it's true, that is what I always do on these rides. I made my way into the booth and plopped my self onto the seat and closed my eyes.

Another memory invaded my pleasant dreams...

(Flashback)

I found myself breaking into an old abandoned house. Oh shit, not this memory...

You see, I was... well, just watch this play out and you'll understand.

My old self held a modified XM8 assault rifle. You see, this gun was modified to reduce the recoil, improve accuracy, and my personal favorite, the rounds were blessed. Now, you're probably wondering why I would have bullets blessed, well you're about to find out.

My old self was trailed by the three stooges, the nicknames I gave to Johnny, Vincent, and Freddie. They each held their own weapon, Johnny with a blessed Type 99, Vincent with a pair 1911 Colts and blessed rounds. Freddie held the same assault rifle as me.

"Okay boys, we've been trailing her for at least a week, and we found her hideout." I told the three. They nodded and waited for me to continue. "She has been making some pretty fucked up shit happen the past few years that she has been here. We got at least ten counts of murder, all with their hearts stolen." I peek through the window to find a solitary candle lit. I turn back to the three with determination. "I'm starting to think this bitch is a necromancer." I tell them. They tense up but nodded. But at that point a fact had popped into my head. "There's one other thing. Recently, a teenager has been kidnapped, and no body has turned up. So I'm suspecting that she's still alive and inside here. So check your fire, and make sure this bitch gets what's coming." I tell them as they nodded.

I picked the lock to the door, deciding that the quiet route was the best way to go. The atmosphere was fairly oppressing, and boy did it do its job. I felt a tightness in my chest that I normally don't feel on these jobs, and I could tell that the guys were feeling it as well.

I gestured to the others to spread out and search the house. I went to the basement, Johnny went upstairs, Freddie went through the attic, and Vincent went through the first floor.

I found the basement doorway after some frustrating minutes of searching, and it was really spotless. Makes it even more suspicious...

"Boss, you were right." Freddie's voice went through my communicator. I pressed some fingers against the device to allow myself to reply.

"We have a necromancer?" I asked for confirmation.

"Yeah." He answered. Shit...

"How old is she? sixty? eighty?" Vincent asked. A necromancers age tied into their power. the older they were, the more powerful they were and the more dangerous spells they knew.

"Hundred and eighty." Fuck all kinds of duck...

"That's not all, you know the drop of werewolf attacks that we've been having?" Johnny chimed in.

"What about it?" I asked.

"This lady is responsible for that. She has been taking young werewolves and experimenting on them. For what, I don't know, but this makes me nervous." Well fuck more duck...

What can a Necromancer want with the werewolves? There's not much you can research, unless it's something like weaknesses, but I doubt she's good. This just raises even more questions, and none of them are good...

I shook my head and focused. "Alright, Freddie, you check around and see if you can find anything else that will help us understand what's going on." I ordered.

"You got it boss." Freddie agreed. I began to search around the basement in greater detail in hopes to find something unusual. I felt all along the wall and I felt a crack in the wall. The crack was big enough for me to fit my hand in it, so I stuck it in and I felt a lever. Grinning with triumph, I pulled it and a section of the wall slid open, letting out a gust of wind.

I blew away the dust so I could breath easier, and signaled the others. "Guys, I found a passage way underground. I'm guessing it leads to the necromancers lab. Get down here as quick as you can," as soon as those words left my mouth, a loud moan of the familiar zombies and rattles of bones escaped the hole. "because we're going to have company."

"AW YEAH!"

"Tch, simple enough."

"Great..."

Through my communicator, the various responses of my team came through. Grinning, I waited patiently for them, and one by one they came down to the basement.

"You guys ready?" I asked them. They nodded and prepped their weapons for the fight. Grinning, I pulled back the bolt on my assault rifle. "Let's rock this joint."

We then charged into the abyss.

(Underground facility)

As we ran through the wide corridors, various undead tried to block our way. When zombies tried to grab us, One of us would smack the butt of our rifles into their heads, or if a group of skeletons would try to block us, we would unleash a hail of bullets upon them, shattering their bones to dust.

It wasn't until five minutes until we encountered a giant corpse pile. The smell was just disgusting, and Freddie nearly hurled up his lunch. It wasn't until I saw the Corpses shifting did I go on alert.

"Guys... look." I tell them, they do as they're told and their eyes widen as the corpses begin to shake even more. They began to dissolve into a bloody mist and gather into a giant blood bubble, forming some sort of monster that I later learned was called the abomination. The monster, having completed its formation, landed on the ground with a loud thud. It looked disgusting, to say the least. its left arm was giant one ended crab claw that could rip and tear flesh and meat with ease, and its body had various mis-colorations, easily showing the other corpses. On the body was also various faces that all held the same expression.

Terror.

The giant being let out a mighty roar. Damn thing had horrendous breath, too.

Freddie was the first to get his wits back.

"YOU WANT SOME!?!" He blasted the ceiling with a few bullets from his rifle. I grinned as we all prepared for a fight.

"It's time to kick some ass!" I shouted, and with that we surrounded the abomination and began to blast the thing with our guns. The thing didn't even flinch as It charged at me. It was about to bring its claw down on me to cut me in half, but I slid between its legs and fired into its crouch. Funny thing is, it doesn't have anything in between, so no getting tea-bagged. It was about to stomp on me but I rolled out of the way before it could. Vincent distracted it by climbing onto its back and let loose a shotgun blast into the upper back area with his sawed-off. The beast let out a great roar and threw Vincent off of him.

The giant let out a gasp of air as he smacked into the wall.

"Vincent, you alright!?" I called out as I continued to fire on the monster.

"Yeah... I'm fine." He breathed out. Shit, he probably has a fractured back...

I noticed a red glow from underneath the flesh, and realized something.

This fucker has a weak point.

"Everyone! Aim at the red glowing bit!" I command. They shout different forms of affirmation and concentrate their fire on the suggested weakpoint. The results were instantaneous. The body began to bubble and deform as we continued to fire upon it, finally it exploded in a cloud of blood and gore, covering me and the boys in blood and giblets.

"Fucking disgusting..." Johnny grimaced. I laughed at his distress, until we began to hear a woman screeching in rage.

"YOU BASTARDS!" A black mist poured out of the vents, coming together and forming a woman. She had disheveled black hair and Black pits for eyes. Around the sockets, black veins pulsed with visible black blood. "Years! Years! That's how long it took to gather all of the proper corpses to create that Abomination! The werewolves didn't give up their bodies easily, I'll have you know!" She yelled at us.

She then looked closer at us and spotted Johnny's Tattoo. "So, you're Hunters, are you? The order finally sent someone after me?" She taunted. Johnny's tattoo wasn't just a tattoo. We were members of the order called the knights of the holy lance. They're a group dedicated to hunting and killing any supernatural being that threatens the human world. They've obviously been doing a good job so far, since my ancestors was one of the founders. Frederick Damion Marcelo, one of the most magnificent bastards of history, was the founders name, and I wear the Marcelo name proudly. Hell, even I have the tattoo on my spine!

I chuckled at her stupidity. "Oh please. The only reason we even noticed you was because of the increase of murders you performed." I paused for a moment in thought. "That, and the werewolves called in a favor from me. I do owe them, after all." I added. I really did, they saved my hide from the wendigo. NEVER. FUCK. WITH. A WENDIGO.

"Oh well. The one I serve will provide me with enough corpses to continue my research, but you'll have to suffice for now." She shrugged. Immediatly, we felt a force push down on us, as if it was trying to crush us.

I struggled and finally lined up a shot with her thigh. I fired, and the shot stayed true and hit the intended target. With a cry of pain, she let up the spell. We then prepared to fight her.

Team Hunter V. Valentine

Rebel 1, ACTION!

(Valentine Battle Theme)

I dodged a fireball aimed at my head by rolling out of the way and fired a barrage of bullets. Her flesh armor took the brunt to the attacks, completely protecting her from harm. Her only unprotected point was her face, but we couldn't line up a decent shot with the projectiles she was sending at us.

She launched a kinetic blast at Johnny, who also rolled out of the way. he fired some rounds from his type 99 before he continued to move around.

"Boss!" Vincent called me. I turned and caught his sawed off shotgun in my hands. I looked at him and he was resting against the wall. "Give her one for me, huh?" He asked before he lost conciousness. With grim determination, I charged at her.

She sent spell after spell at me, but I would roll out of the way and manage to escape. I was finally in front of her and aimed the sawed-off at her face. She stopped and stared in shock that I was able to get past her. I grinned viciously.

"Adios, asshole." I smirked and opened fire. The buckshot absolutely shredded her face to bits, leaving nothing but a bunch of holes where her face once was. With a sigh of exhaustion, I sat on my knees and breathed deeply but ended up coughing. "Dammit this place smells like nipples and ass..." I grimaced. I shook my head and continued to look around the complex as I checked on the others.

"Boss, you may want to look at this." Johnny called out to me. I moved to where he was and he gestured towards a holding cell with a peep hole. I looked at him with confusion and he flipped a switch next to it and pointed at it once more. With the light on, I looked inside and had the biggest shock of this case.

There was a werewolf in there.

It was a teenager from what I'm guessing, and her wolf ears were Grey. She had the body of a human female but the only sign of her being a werewolf were the tail and ears. However, she looked malnourished as all hell. She was practically skin and bones and she was in the fetal position in the corner crying.

"Hey." I called to her. Her head lifted and her eyes were golden, another sign that she was a werewolf. She got up quickly and ran to the peephole. She had a hopeful look in her eyes...

Adorable, I guess.

"Please... please tell me your real..." She whispered hoarsely. I chuckled with mirth.

"'bout as real as can be," I unlocked the door and opened it. "You gonna stand there all day or you coming with us?" I asked her with a grin. She smiled lightly before she collapsed. I quickly caught her and hoisted her bridal style. I looked at johnny with humor written all over his and my face.

"Tell Freddie to get Vincent. We're done here." I order. He nods and heads out to give the order. I look at the unconcious werewolf in my arms and smiled. "Let's get you home.

I awoke with a start as I scrambled awake. Geez... How long has it been since that day? I placed my face into my hands and breathed a sigh of exhaustion. I looked out the window and saw that the train ride wasn't done yet, so I decided to stay awake from now on.

I guess I tell her about that piece of history as well...

*Excerpts from Mary Valentine's journal*

I've arrived in detroit. The werewolves should be plentiful here. Maybe I could-*Text is illegible*

I've caught another one. She seems to be a fine specimen, healthy, and fairly well fed. Will have to break her of that. Lord*Text illegible* will be pleased when I find something to present to him.

They are coming. I can hear them fighting my abomination as I write this down. The Knights of the Holy Lance are barging down my door. I can't die now, not when I'm so close to unlocking the secrets of Death! I will find a way to free the great plague. I will free the destroyer of Babylon.

All will hail lord *Text is illegible, as it seems the writer was in a hurry*