Dakū -The Dark One

Face your Enemy

I sit across from Jackie, who stares down at a small Polaroid.
My mind still lingers on my dream.
The man who spoke to me.
The man in the golden armor.
I thought he was one of my Nolite ancestors.
He is coming.
Jackie folds the picture and placed it in her vest pocket.
Daunte.
She still looks at it before every fight.
Rone sits next to her, cleaning his rifle.
Sam is next to me, listening to music trying to clear his mind.
Cassie is back at home, keeping Alice safe.
Red, Keepers, and Xander all sit across the row from us.
Finley and Kree are in the cockpit.
They're speeding as fast as they can, going over 600.
We've been on the run for almost two hours. They say we'll be there within the hour.
But by then I fear they'll already be attacking and we'll be too late.
I look out the window, staring out at the white haze we call clouds.
"Ready up. We land in 5."
Calls Finley.
Keepers tightens his bulletproof vest, and chambers a round in his rifle.
In all the time I've known him, I never thought I'd see him getting ready to fight someone.
The rifle in his hands looks unnatural, and weird.
Memory flashes hit me one after another.
A girl, a voice.
"Come find me."
I don't remember a face, just blue eyes, and a soft voice.
She was scared.
Afraid.
Maybe it was just a dream but, it felt real.
And that scares me.
"Donnie?"
Says Sam.
I turn to him.
"Look."
He says, fear in his voice too.
Smoke rises from the city streets.
Hundreds of them rampage through the city streets. "I'm getting out!"
I say, yanking open the door.
"Shift, wait!"
Shouts Kree, but I don't.
My body smashes through the glass of a nearby office building.
Sam follows me, soaring by in a blazing inferno. People run away from me, screaming. "Everybody get to the roof, stay off the streets!" I shout. I turn, and fall back out of the hole I made. I hit the ground with a heavy thud sending chunks of cement flying. Sam barrels into one of the smaller ones, throwing it against the wall. It falls limply to the ground. "Focus on the Depeer." Says Keepers. "What?" I ask. "The bigger ones, kill them. They're the bigger threat." One of the smaller ones roars at me. I swipe the blade across it's face killing it. I turn back to the street filled with screaming, running people. Sam flies down the street, and finds one. It hurls a car at him. I turn and run towards it, hoping to get to it before it kills anyone. It's hulking form lurches towards me, flipping vehicles and causing earthquakes with each step. This ones big. Sam retaliates, barreling into it with a flaming wall. It powers through it, smacking him out of the air like a fly. It holds him to the ground, and readies it's offhand. I rush, intercepting its swing by severing the tendons. It's arm hangs limply at its side. It lifts its arm hitting me like a truck. My body slams into a wall.
"Dammit and you said there's an army of these things?!" Shouts Sam. "Just keep going!" Shouts Rone.
Kree, Xander and Red join us on the street. "Alright, make sure none of them get past that mall, Sam I want you to make a perimeter, keep them here. Red, Xander, keep him company.
Shift, you and Rone stay here and fight them on the ground. Keep they're attention, keepers is up there with a sniper ready to pick them off. Finley and Jackie are gonna be providing air support." Sam flies off with Red and Xander chasing him. "What about you?" I ask. "I'm going to keep they're attention on this street. Make sure they don't go anywhere else." Finley flies by in the chopper laying down a line of fire. A few of them fall only to be replaced by more. They continue running towards us with long thick arms and twin claws to match. They're snouts are short and ugly, the bottom jaw containing two mandibles attached. I turn, cutting another one down. I turn back, Sam is sending wave upon wave of fire at them killing tens of them at a time. Red gats them down with an automatic rifle at his side. Xander gets up close to them, blowing them away with the end of his shotgun. I turn back to my objective. A hoard of G'hunawae running towards Rone and I. I swing the staff, energy flairs around my arm flowing through to the blade. Rone and I stand side by side, in an attacking stance. Nothing's getting past us. Before I know it, they're upon us. We go crazy, shooting and swinging. I bat them down as they come. My knuckles crash against a bony cheek. It staggers back long enough for me to hit it with a bolt of energy. One of the Depeer screams from the other end of the street. I look up into the mid-morning sun. It's hot here. I'm already sweating. It lifts its huge leg, kicking a Bentley over to us. I leap in front of Rone, chopping it in half with the blade. It screams as more of the G'hunawae come pouring from the ocean. "How are we gonna fight that many?!" I shout. A hollow gunshot anchors in the air. The Depeer falls to the ground with a wound in its head. "As a team." Says Keepers. I look up at a building to see him settled atop it. He pulls back the slide chambering another round. He pulls the trigger and another giant creature falls to the ground. "Hey, what kind of rifle is that?" I ask. "Hard Light rifle, from the same technology that ripped that building in half." This should be easy.
Rone slams the butt of his rifle into a face blowing its head back. I finish the job for him, swiping the sword across its back. He ejects the magazine cracking it across the head of a G'hunawae. I pull the pistol from my holster, firing off round after round until it falls to the ground. It flips around in my hand just before I swipe the handle across the lower jaw of another one. It drops to the ground after I spear it.
The blade turns in my hands as I get ready for another swing. "Sir, they're spreading!" Shouts Finley. "What do you mean?" Asks Keepers, another gunshot echoes through his com piece.
"We just got news of landfall in Jacksonville." Kree sighs, quite audibly. "Finley, circle around and pick up Xander and Red. Take them to Jacksonville, bottleneck the beaches. Hold that position until we're done here, until than your on your own."
"Got it." She says. I look up at the chopper that soars above us, Jackie gives me a thumbs up. Something barrels into me. My back hits the ground. It pins me down hard. Energy runs around me shocking it until it falls off me. I get up and stab it. "Shift!" Shouts Rone. I look up. A giant fist slams into me throwing me across the street. Tar and black pebbles fly everywhere as I lay in the new pothole.
I'm quick to my feet, just in time to see the creature fall to the ground, dead.
I look at Rone. "We got company!" He says. I turn behind me where one strays away, running towards the buildings. The buildings filled with scared people. An axe enters is head throwing it aside. I turn slowly. Judger leaps over another hoard of them, hurling three axes. They go swirling around him slicing and chopping. Rone runs and slides underneath them before getting up and shooting at the creatures from behind the safety of the spinning weapons. I smile. Never thought I'd do that. I run back towards them using my momentum to jump. I fly clean over them landing on one of the G'hunawae. Three of them converge on my position. Two of them are shot down by Rone, the third is killed by the axe from Judger's hand.
I turn back to look at him. Beneath the hood, he nods. He can't see it, but I'm smiling beneath my helmet. I pull my pistol and Begin shooting them down as they run. "Keep it up guys were winning!" Yells Sam. "Don't call it yet Sam." Says Rone. Another of the Depeer emerges from the ocean. "How many are there?" He groans, comeing down flying and crashing to the ground. "Sam, try to keep the damage controlled, no need to increase the tax here." I say. He looks at me and gestures to the car I chopped in half. "I can justify that." I say. "Mhmm." He says crossing his arms. Judger runs towards the ocean to meet the giant creature. With two swipes of his weapons it falls to the floor clutching its throat. He gets up and hurls both axes into two separate beasts. He pulls two more and begins slicing them up as the come out of the water. Sam, Rone, and I just stand and watch in awe. "That guys rules." Says Sam. "Stay on Target." Says Kree. "Right." Says Sam. "Sir we've arrived, but there's a problem." Says Finley.
"Hit me." Replies Kree. "They're too strong for us. We tried to push them back best we can, but there's too many of them. Even the police are being pushed back. What do we do?"
Kree freezes. "Come get us, I know what they're doing." He says. I turn to him. "What!? Do you not see the army crawling out of the water right now? We can't leave." He looks at me. "Look, I know it's a tuff call. But this guy, V'in, he's sending all his strongest troops over there and sending us the weaker ones. He's trying to cut off Florida. If they take that town, they'll take the entire East Coast. The cops can handle this. Lets go." He says. I turn back to Judger, who slays them one by one. "Okay."