Demon Rising

Chapter 14: Antidote- Part 1

Author's Note: This has been two months in the making. Not because of how long it is, but because of what it used to be. Both Chapter 14 and the upcoming 15th were going to be 1 large chapter, but I decided against it. I went through this chapter 3 times, plus the initial first string editting that took place when 14 and 15 were still one in the same, which took like, a month and half in it self. Pretty sure I caught all te mistakes, not 100% sure though. Anyhow. This chapter has lots of action, and lots of adventure, lots of blood, and lots of mayhem. This is the chapter that leads upto the battle with Vermillion, which will literally be, 30 pages pf pure action in my word processor. So. Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Antidote- Part 1



Slowly the sound of Vaugn’s beating heart began to fade away from an booming drum beat, to a gentle burble in Jinkara’s ears, only to be replaced by screams of terror erupting from all over the city, echoing off the many glassed windows of the Tokyo cityscape.

"Jin, what’s happening?", Vaugn asked desperately, though he knew he needn’t have asked.

"I think you know exactly what’s happening Vaugn!", Jinkara snarled, and without another word, he bent low on the edge of the building, and pushed powerfully into the air, sailing over the street below him and landing on the building opposite the hospital, running to the edge and leaping high into the air again, all the while scanning the road beneath him for any sign of what was happening.

Over and over, Jinkara continued to bound from building to building, arcing high into the air and scanning the valleys beneath him for any signs of who was screaming.

After leaping from roof top to roof top, covering some five city blocks, seeing nothing but grey concrete beneath him accompanied by the ever increasing screams, Jinkara caught a glimpse of what he had been searching for while soaring over his sixth city block.

Sailing over a particularly brightly lit street below, Jinkara saw a horde of people, maybe two or three hundred, running down the street like stampeding bulls, trying to escape from a pack of patients, maybe only fifty of them or so running shoulder to shoulder. Behind the patients, however, Vaugn could clearly see the street stained a dark, glistening red. Even from his high vantage point, Vaugn could make out small, motionless, figures laying in the river of blood casually oozing down the street below.

Smiling broadly to himself as he flew high over the road, Jinkara landed lightly on the edge of the next building, only to push himself off again, back flipping skywards, arcing gently through the air, seemingly afloat in midair. Slowly, gravity caught up with him,and in an instant, Jinkara was pulled back down to earth, rocketing downwards towards the ground like a missile, aiming squarely for the pack of limping and stumbling patients beneath him.

"Watch and learn Vaugn! Then maybe you can see how to deal with vermin like this!", Jinkara called happily as he rocketed down towards the group of patients feet first, now a mere twenty feet above them, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Whatever Jin. You’re all talk,", Vaugn replied casually as Jinkara was inches from the middle of the group.

Smiling to himself, Jinkara rocketed down through the air feet first. Readying himself for the impact, Jinkara drew his legs up to his chest, and in the blink of an eye, crashed down through the top of the pack of patients. Using their heads like landing pads, Jinkara’s clawed feet slammed into the tops of the heads of two infected people beneath him, snapping them in half at the waist and driving their heads into the ground below as he crashed feet first into the pavement. Like a meteor hitting the earth, the ground exploded into a thick cloud of dust, blowing away several patients around crater in the tidal surge of wind from the center of the impact. The patients who had not been tossed away from the explosion skidded and stumbled to a halt, crashing and bumping into one another in their haste to stop. Like a single entity, the patient’s heads twisted and craned for a better look at the billowing cloud of dust in the center of their pack.

Doubled over from the impact and concealed in the billowing dust cloud, Jinkara slowly straightened, standing tall within the slowly dissipating dust cloud. Slowly, as if seeing the world through an unfogging window, the faces of each and every patient around Jinkara began to appear, blurry at first, but gaining sharpened clarity. Like a magician appearing to his transfixxed audience, the dust cloud vanished completely, revealing Jinkara to the pack of patients, each of their blank faces staring blankly at him.

Slowly, Jinkara gazed around the group into the faces of each patient. It seemed to Jinkara that all the patients were momentarily stunned, their blank faces breaking into looks of slight confusion. The patients merely stood there, staring at Jinkara as if unsure of what to do, not daring to make a move it seemed. Gradually motion returned to the patients bodies, as they gave Jinkara a wide birth, walking around him and encircling him like a pack of wolves readying for the kill.

Smiling broadly, Jinkara slowly slid his feet apart, taking a somewhat wide-legged crouched position, digging his clawed feet into the pavement beneath him. Raising his clawed hands in front of him, Jinkara’s pose was very similar to a martial-artist preparing himself for battle.

"So, who wants to be the first to try me?", Jinkara asked, staring from patient to patient who had formed a large circle around him, as if daring them to run away.

As if to answer his question, each and every patient pushed itself forward, charging Jinkara as a single, rampaging mass, readying to destroy him. All around him, the patients grew closer and closer, the wide safe zone that once protected Jinkara shrinking faster and faster, until there was barely enough room for Jinkara to swing his clawed hands around. But that’s what he had been waiting for.

Like a swarm of bees, the patients all attacked at once, trying to over power Jinkara with their sheer numbers, only run to run into the furious claws of Jinkara

To his left, a patient lunged at Jinkara, it’s hand balled into a fist aiming for his head. In one fluid motion, Jinkara leaned back and let the fist fly by only inches from hitting squarely on the side of the head, and his clawed hand exploded upwards, tearing into and through the patient’s stomach and chest lifting it into the air and tossing it over the heads of it’s fellow patients, maggots flying in every direction from it’s torn open body. Like a tornado, Jinkara spun around from the force of the blow, pieces of flesh hanging onto his claws. In an instant, the patient behind threw a powerful fist at Jinkara like a missile. With a graceful brush of his hand, Jinkara blocked the blow, pushing the fist ofo course and brought his free hand ripping upwards into the stomach of the patient tearing it open from stomach to shoulder. As Jinkara’s claws ripped from the victims body, the force of the blow carried him over and upwards and he back flipped into the air, his claw feet cutting through the air. Cutting a wide arc through the air, Jinkara flipped around and second later,drove his clawed foot like a pick-axe into the center of a head of one of the patients who had been standing behind him, ripping it off the patient’s neck as he flipped right side up again, driving the patient’s head into the concrete below as he landed.

Landing on his feet infront of a tall patient, Jinkara’s clawed hand shot out straight in front of him, his fingers pointed straight out like arrows, and a heart beat later his hand ripped through a paitent’s chest. Jinkara’s hand exploded out the back of the patients body, a torrent of maggots spraying from the patients back as his hand tore out the back. Ripping his hand out of the patients body, Jinkara took a half step backwards and twisted his body like a spring. With all the power he could muster in a seemingly uniform motion, Jinkara uncoiled his twisted body and leapt into the air with one, driving his clawed foot out like a giant blade. Like a machete, Jinkara’s clawed toes slashed through the air, ripping through the necks of several paitents and tossing the heads over the swarming crowd of patients like beach balls. Landing on his feet in front of a male patient, Jinkara clawed hands shot into the air, and as fast as lightning, he brought them cutting down through the air, ripping his claws through both shoulders of the patient With two clean cuts, the man’s arms fell limply to the ground, and maggots began pouring from the mans shoulders like fountains.

All of this happened in the time span of four of five seconds, and when Jinkara was done, there was a circle of death all around him, managing to have slain about half of the pack of patients. The remaining patients were at the outskirts of the circle of death, moving inwards towards Jinkara as fast as they could, ready to continue what their fallen commorades had started.

"So, Vaugn? Still think I’m all talk?", Jinkara asked as he flexed his claws, the remaining patients stepping over the ripped apart bodies, closing in Jinkara as a single unit.

"Some what. But I see you can at least back it up,", Vaugn replied as Jinkara swiftly side stepped a punch thrown by one of the patients, and drove his clawed hand viciously in front of him, ramming it right through a patients face, the hand blowing out the back of it’s head.

"Maybe you weren’t watching close enough then,", Jinkara replied with a laugh as he ripped his hand sideways, tearing what was left of the patients head clean off it’s shoulder, and throwing himself into a blurring spin of steely talons, slashed his claws through the necks of every patient around him like some sort of demonic saw blade.

Jinkara continued his slashing and tearing of the patients around him, scattering bodies, limbs and heads as if they were pieces of trash. Laughing with glee at each lame attempt by the patients to try and kill him, Jinkara continued his merciless attack on the infected humans, a constant shower of maggots, flesh and body parts raining down to earth.

After what only seemed like a minute of flying claws, a large pile of bodies littered the street. The bodies had been tossed pell-mell around the street, several of them thrown against the walls of the buildings around. Body parts were mixxed in with one another, arms and leg laying intertwined with severed heads and ripped in half torsos. Each of the corpses were slowly deflating as their once skeleton of maggots escaped their bodies from the various wounds inflicted by Jinkara, squirming and crawling away in every direction, wading their way through the pools of blood covering the street.

Screams of terror could still be heard rising from distance areas of Tokyo, echoing around the valley of buildings. Despite the fact that many other Tokyo citizens were still in danger, everything at least was calm where Jinkara was.

Everything around Jinkara was still, except for the squirming maggots, slowly crawling away from Jinkara. The road, stained red with human blood, was littered with dead human corpses, severed human body parts, and mounds of pink flesh. Slowly gazing around the battle field around him, Jinkara couldn’t help but smile and savour it.

"I can’t see why you were complaining Vaugn. That was actually quite fun,", Jinkara growled, as he bent over, sunk his claws into a limp mound of flesh at his feet and picked it up. Straightening up once more, Jinkara brought it to eye level, studying it closely.

"Well maybe it’s because I need something more then infected humans to kill to have fun,", Vaugn replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Now come on Jin. There are still pleanty more people in danger. And leave that skin behind,", he finished in a slightly commanding tone.

"All work and no play Vaugn, all work and no play,", Jinkara said airily as he tossed the empty skin aside, which fluttered to the ground in a pile.

Bending low, Jinkara leapt powerfully into the air, aiming for the wall of a large, forty story building. Colliding lightly with the wall, Jinkara sunk his claws deeply into the stone face and began climbing to the top as fast as he could.

"I’ll play with Vermillion, Jin. He at least seems like a challenge,", Vaugn replied shortly as Jinkara continued his sprinting climb to the top of the wall.

"Don’t count on it Vaugn. How much fun can a rat truly be?", Jinkara replied with laughing growl, as he broke the top of the building and clambered his way to the top, pulling himself up to the edge and standing straight, "Where to next Vaugn?,", Jinkara finished, slowly scanning the Tokyo skyline with the Kojuni Office building towering above all others, listening to the screams of the city echoing around him.

"You’re the one in control. You choose, and choose fast,", Vaugn replied quickly, wanting Jinkara to jump into action as soon as possible

"Okay. What ever you say,", Jinkara said with a shrug, as he pushed himself off the ledge of the building, dashing across the empty roof top and leapt across the street and landing on the building opposite, running to the edge and leaping across the road again, heading towards the center of the city.

"So do you know where you’re going?", Vaugn asked as Jinkara continued to jump from building to building, appearing not have any pre-determined route.

"I’m just following the screams Vaugn. Where there’s screaming, there are infected people. And where there are infected people, there are clues to where Vermillion is,", Jinkara said wisely as he leapt from roof top to roof top, leaping over gently lit, empty streets.

"Seems reasonable,", Vaugn replied shortly as the buildings that Jinkara was leaping from began to gradually grow taller and taller, a sign of closing in on the center of the city.

Jinkara and Vaugn dissolved into silence, listening to the screams of the terrified citizens of Tokyo getting louder and louder with each massive leap.

Quickly and quietly, Jinkara leapt swiftly from roof top to roof top of the tall Tokyo office buildings, the Kojuni Office tower set high in the distant background, towering above all others around it. It seemed to Vaugn that for one reason or another, the screams of terror were moving away from he and Jinkara, as if the patients were herding the citizens of Tokyo towards the center of the city. But why they’d be doing that, Vaugn wasn’t sure.

After only a few minutes of leaping from the building tops, like a frog from lilly pad to lilly pad, Jinkara landed lightly ontop of a large sixty-two story tall sky scraper. Dashing swiftly across the roof top and skidding to a halt at the edge, Jinkara gazed un-blinking down at the street below.

What Jinkara saw was nothing short of an armada of patients. The had to be at least five-thousand heads, all them stampeding down the street below, chasing after hundreds upon hundred of screaming Tokyo citizens. It seemed that these patients, like the group previous, were out for human blood. And judging by the number of terrified humans they were chasing, a lot of it.

Jinkara didn’t comment on the situation unfolding beneath them but rather hurled himself sideways, running along the edge of the building, leaping across the street to the edge of the next buidling, following the army of patients running along the road beneath.

"Think you can handle this group Vaugn?", Jinkara growled as he leapt lightly into the air, landing on the ledge of the next building.

"To much for you to handle Jin?", Vaugn asked, in a slightly mocking tone as Jinkara sped up, now running a small distance ahead of the patients high above on his perch.

"Dream on Vaugn. I figured you’d have more fun now that there are more patients to kill,", Jinkara replied with a snarl and a smile.

"Okay. What ever you say Jin,", Vaugn said in an offhand tone as Jinkara chuckled slightly.

Looking down on the street below him, Jinkara saw that the patients were slowly falling behind the group of fleeing citizens, which meant that most likely they’d be able to get to safety. To Jinkara, it seemed that everyone would be safe, and that he and Vaugn wouldn’t have to dirty their hands with this group of patients. Just as Jinkara was about to tell Vaugn this however, he saw far below him a woman stumble and trip, falling hard to the ground and tumbling head over heels.

Slowly the woman heaved herself back to her shaking legs, and began desperately limping away from the rapidly approaching army of murderous patients. Clearly she had hurt herself in the fall, and was now merely a slow moving target for the blood thirsty army behind her.

"Hold on Vaugn!", Jinkara snarled, and with one last step, he flung himself off the building and started to plummet down to earth, his arms and legs spread wide open like a skydivers, the wind whipping past his face like an icy chower.

"You’re going to help that woman I see. Very grown up of you Jin,", Vaugn said in an impressed voice, as Jinkara fell to earth, the wind rushing past his ears totally deafening.

"Please. I’m only doing it so you want pester me about not helping her in the future,", Jinkare growled as the two combatants continue to watch the woman limp away.

At the front of the pack, a large patient seemed to shift into top gear as it started to steadily pull away from the rest of the group. Gradually the gap shrunk to a mere twenty feet between the man and the woman, the distance getting smaller and smaller with every passing heart beat.

"This is gonna be close Jin,", Vaugn breathed as he and Jinkara were now only yards above the street, rocketing closer with each passing second

The patient, who was a very fat man, had now closed the gap to an arms reach. As Vaugn and Jinkara plummeted down to earth, now only several feet above the the ground, the man drew his hand back and launched it forward, it’s open hand shooting at the woman like a missile, aiming for her throat.

The woman, who had long blonde hair, glanced behind her and stumbled terribly as the patients hand flew towards her. Her eyes widened and her face contorted into an expression of utter terror. Her mouth fell open and she drew in a large, deep breath, readying for her final scream.

"But not close enough!", Jinkara roared as he pelted downwards on a collision course with the ground and the patient.

In the blink of an eye, Jinkara’s clawed hand exploded in front of him, and a blink of an eye later, his claws had ripped cleanly through the patients arm. A moment later, Jinkara crashed into the ground, his out stretched clawed hand slamming into the hard, concrete ground, shattering it instantly. With the force of a powerful bomb, an enormous crater exploded all around Jinkara, the windows of the nearby windows shaking and rattling slightly in their frames.

The woman stumbled and fell hard backwards on to her back, pushed over by the shockwave of the explosion between Jinkara’s hand and the ground. Momentarily dazed, the woman shook her head and slowly turned over to her stomach and began crawling away slowly from where she had fallen. With a very scared look on her face, the woman glanced behind her, seeing nothing but a dark outline of something human like enveloped by enormous, grey dust cloud.

The moment Jinkara’s claws had ripped through the patient’s arm, it had stopped instantly in it’s tracks. The patient stared at the cloud of dust, seemingly confused by what had happened moments before. At it’s side, the patients arm poured an endless stream of maggots from what remained of it, severed cleanly just above the elbow. As the patient stared into the seemingly infinite dust cloud, two red eyes blazed furiously to life, and a second later, a clawed hand shot out the dust cloud like lighting, tearing upwards. Faster then the patient could react, the clawed hand tore into it’s stomach, ripping the man open from gut to throat. The patient stumbled backwards as if he had been shot and fell over heavily, deflating instantly as maggots poured from his torn open body.

The woman watched as the dark figure in the dust cloud slowly twisted around to face her. Through the dust cloud, two large, red eyes glowed furiously through the cloud, locking her in an unblinking stare.

"You! Woman! Run!", Jinkara snarled, his fangs glinting in the low light through the dust cloud, his red eyes glowing furiously through the grey mass.

The woman squeaked in terror as she gazed upon the dark, shadowy figure facing her through the dust cloud with red glowing eyes, looking as if was about to attack her. Despite being as scared of Jinkara as she was of the patient, she nodded slightly, and hastily scrambling to her feet, hobbled away from Jinkara the best her injured leg would carry her.

As Jinkara watched the woman limp away to safety, the ground beneath him slowly began to rumble. Turning around and gazing down the street through the dust cloud, Jinkara saw the herd of patients sprinting all out towards him, knocking aside newspaper stands and benches, and knocking down the light posts that were bathing the street in their comforting glow.

Staring at the on coming tidal wave of patients, Jinkara couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the approaching patients, each of their eyes fixed firmly on the dust cloud concealing Jinkara.

"Okay Vaugn. It’s all yours,", Jinkara purred with amusement as he straightened up and letting his arms hang limply at his sides.

In an instant, Vaugn felt himself being dragged back to the foreground, regaining control of his body

"Thanks Jin,", Vaugn replied in a slightly exasperated tone as he took a deep breath of the cool night air, filling his lungs with concrete dust "Really appreciate it,", he finished, as he coughed hugely from the dust.

Slowly the cloud around Vaugn disipated, revealing him to the gently glowing street. For the first time, Vaugn could properly see the stampeding patients barreling down on him. Their faces were wearing the same, eerie, expressionless look, that seemed to contradict what they were doing. Fixing his gentle face into a look of unwavering determination, Vaugn reached behind and unsheathed a long, glowing white, gently vibrating broad sword. Letting Purity fall limply at his side, Vaugn began to slowly walk towards the on coming onslaught of infected patients, almost like a lone soldier standing tall against the enemy army.

The distance between the army of infected humans and Vaugn began to close at alarming speed. The army of rampaging patients had Vaugn firmly in their sights, each of their blank eyes starring into Vaugn’s gentle face. Vaugn had the army of patients firmly in his sight, determination etched all over his face, firming his grip on the handle of Purity, readying for his attack.

Slowly, Vaugn came to a complete halt in the middle of the road, and shouldered his blade. There he stood, stalk still, as the flood of patients barreled down on him, looking like a man facing the firing squad, unwavering in the face of the rampaging patients.

"Here they come Vaugn. I hope you can handle it,", Jinkara said inside Vaugn’s mind in a voice of icy calm.

"I hope you learn something from this,", Vaugn replied with a smile as the patients were now only feet from him.

Everything around Vaugn seemed to fade into blurriness, save the faces of the attacking patients. His body seemed to have gone oddly numb, as the only thing he felt was the rumbling of the earth, and the gently vibrating handle of Purity in his hand. The only thing Vaugn was focused on were the patients in front of him, a focus as strong as steel.

In the front of the pack, a large pale patient lunged at Vaugn, draw it’s arm back as far as he could, and launched it forward. The man’s hand was stretched wide open, aiming for Vaugn’s throat, looking like a bear trap. Closer and closer the hand got, it’s fingers pointed, ready to rip out Vaugn’s throat with a single swipe.

Vaugn, who had been watching the stampede of murderous patients with statue like resolve, suddenly exploded to life.

In one swift motion, Vaugn took a half step back and drew his sword back across his body, ready to strike. As quick as lightning, Vaugn pushed himself forward, lunging powerfully at the attacking patient. With a battle cryof pure anger, Vaugn’s arm exploded around, blurring Purity into a white blur as it cut through the air.

"Stop my children!"

From all around Vaugn, a menacing voice cried out to the patients, so loud it seemed as if the buildings themselves were speaking.

Instinctively reacting to the word ‘Stop’, every muscle in Vaugn’s arm instantly froze, bringing it to a dead halt in a matter of inches. Vaugn was a tad surprised when he saw that Purity had only been inches from slicing into the man’s torso.

Vaugn took a shallow breath and blinked, a little surprised. Not only was Purity inches from cutting the man in half, the mans fingers were quivering inches from Vaugn’s throat, ready to tear it out.

Looking past the man in front of him, Vaugn glimpsed the massive wave of patients behind him, now motionless as they stood at attention like soldiers, their arms hanging limply at their sides, their legs snapped together.

Together, Vaugn and the man stared into eachother eyes. Vaugn stared into the fathomless depths of the patients empty eyes, his image reflected in their endless stare.The man stared into Vaugn’s ash-blue eyes, full of life, sending a small chill through Vaugn’s body as he stared down Vaugn.

Slowly, the man nodded his head, as if congratulating Vaugn silently, and withdrew his hand, letting it fall limply at his side. Confused, but taking the patients lead, Vaugn withdrew his sword and shouldered it, but firming his grip on the handle none the less. Slowly, the man began to back away from Vaugn, and several steps later, rejoined the army of motionless patients, continuing to stare at him.

Vaugn stared at the army before him. Every where he looked, he saw blank, expressionless faces staring, not at him like he first thought, but rather at a point past him, as if they were able to see someone who was invisible. Slowly, as if controlled by some unseen force, the patients pulled their heads backwards and stared into starry night sky, transfixed by something unseen in the endless fathoms of space. There the patients remained, perfectly still, almost statue-like, not even swaying slightly on spot in the gentle night breeze.

"Jin…what’s going on?", Vaugn asked as he stared from face after face, gazing into the never ending depths of space.

"I think we’re about to find out Vaugn,", Jinkara replied, his voice emanating from all around Vaugn, sounding serious, yet unable to hide the slight note of confusion in his voice

"Come my children!", a cold voice called out from all around Vaugn, echoing off the buildings and street, shaking the windows of the buildings in their frames, "Leave these mortals, for my transformation is nearly complete. Return to me, so you may witness my rebirth!", the voice called out.

Slowly, each of the faces of the patients in front of Vaugn broke into the same, eerie,identical smiles. It was as if they had just received the greatest news of their infected lives, and their joy was beyond measure.

"Figures,", Jinkara spat, his voice ice cold, "Vermillion you cowardly bastard! Show yourself to me and stop all this hiding!", he roared, his voice echoing all around Vaugn, shaking the windows terribly in their frames.

"In due time Jinkara. But first I must…put on my face…as it,", Vermillion purred calmly, his voice smooth and unwavering, "Now my children. Come. Tonight will spell the beginning of the end of human kind, and the rise of all demon kind!", he finished, calling out to the patients like a captain motivating his soldiers.

In the blink of an eye, the patients, who seconds earlier had been transfixed by the starry sky, suddenly sprang to life and exploded forward, sprinting towards Vaugn at top speed. Before he could react, Vaugn found himself being shoved backwards and forwards, and side to side as the wave of patients crashed into him, engulfing him instantly withing their ranks.

Like a tiny boat in the center of a furious storm, Vaugn found himself being beaten and battered as the patients stampeded by. With what felt like the power of a massive tidal surge, Vaugn found himself being forcefully dragged along in the stampede of patients against his will.

Over and over, dozens of bodies crashed into Vaugn’s chest, winding him with each blow, his bones creaking under the powerful blows. With one particularly hard blow to his shoulder, Vaugn was twisted around on spot, each massive blow now crashing into his back, jolting him forward in a very awkward stumble-shuffle step. Just as Vaugn was beginning to get used to the blows and formulating a plan to escape the stampeding patients, a powerful blow crashed into the back of his head.

As if turned on by a light switch, small stars exploded into life in front of Vaugn’s eyes, blinding him slightly as he felt his legs give way, and his body topple forward. A dazed, heartbeat later, Vaugn crashed into the ground stomach first, his head and face smacking into the concrete, dazing him worse then before. Vaugn had no time to gather his senses, as from the instant he had toppled to the ground, dozens upon dozens of feet began to crash down ontop of his back, crushing him under their massive weight.

"Jin! Get me the hell out of here!!", Vaugn thought desperately covering himself the best he could with his arms as more and more feet crashed down ontop of him.

"With pleasure,", Jinkara growled, and a moment later, Vaugn felt himself being whisked away to the sidelines.

Uncovering himself with his arms, Jinkara stared along the rumbling ground, between the forest of legs running past him. Though he still felt the patients feet crashing down on his back, to Jinkara they felt as if he was being beaten by pillows. Pulling his arms and feet under him, looking something like a dog on all fours, Jinkara took a deep breath and pushed powerfully upwards with all fours, rocketing skywards. Jinkara burst through the top of the army of patients, scattering several patients in every direction who had been busy stepping on him, and emerging into the peace and calm that was above the street. Sailing high over the stampeding army patients, Jinkara slowly flipped over and around from all fours to feet as he flew through the air, arms outstretched like a bird, aiming for the nearest skycraper.

"Thanks Jin. I wasn’t expecting them to be so quick,", Vaugn said, his voice very grateful as Jinkara crashed lightly into the wall of the nearest skycraper, sinking his claws deep into the wall.

"So where do you think they’re going Vaugn?", Jinkara asked seriously, watching the patients beneath, as he pulled one of his clawed hands free of the wall and swung around, hanging from the building by his feet and one clawed hand, looking rather like a monkey

"Only one way to find out,", Vaugn replied simply, as Jinkara nodded in agreeance, swinging his arm around and sinking his claws back into the wall, began to climb to the top of the building as fast as he could, "So what do you think Vermillion meant by his rebirth?", Vaugn asked as Jinkara hurried to the top of the building, his claws leaving long gouge marks in the hard stone face.

"I’m not sure, but I have a feeling this has something to do with the rings,", Jinkara growled as he climbed over the top of the skyscraper, clambered to the edge, and turned around on spot, gazing down at the flood of stampeding patients below.

"How so?", Vaugn asked, not sure what Jinkara meant by that.

"Well think about it Vaugn,", Jinkara replied as he pushed himself sideways, running gracefully along the roof edge, following the patients along the road beneath, "Lucifor told us that the Feral Forty were evolving through the power of the rings. When Vermillion was following me during the Wars of Hell, he was nothing but a mere rat demon. But now, as it seems, he has the ability to control and destroy humans through this ‘plague’ of his. If that was the case, chances are his body as started to mutate to compliment his new powers,", Jinkara finished as he leapt from the edge of the building he was running along, sailing serenely over the street below and landing lightly on the edge of the building opposite, following the patients deeper and deeper into the heart of the city.

"So you think that Vermillion has changed from a mere rat to something more powerful?", Vaugn asked as Jinkara continued to leap from building edge to building edge, following the stampede of patients below him.

"I believe so Vaugn,", Jinkara replied with a growl, the buildings he was leaping from like lilly pads slowly growing taller and taller

On and on the horde of patients rampaged, tossing aside trash can and benches, over turning cars with surprising strength and tossing them aside, knocking down trees and snapping their trunks like tooth picks, knocking over light posts and tossing them into forth story floors of the buildings lining the street.

Citizens of Tokyo, who hadn’t been aware of the escape of the rampaging patients, suddenly found themselves diving through door way, down alley ways, and in some cases, diving into garbage dumpsters, trying to hide from the stampeding horde of infected patients.

As Vaugn watched the patients rampaging down the streets of Tokyo, he couldn’t help but notice that the Kojuni Office Building was constantly in the background. It seemed to Vaugn, that for whatever reason, the patients were being mysteriously drawn to the Kojuni Office Building.

"It seems the patients are heading for Kojuni, Jin. Seem familiar?", Vaugn asked Jinkara, as Jinkara pushed off powerfully from the ledge of a tall, seventy-six story building, and rocketing into the air, easily sailed over five buildings and landed gracefully on the empty roof of the building closest to the Kojuni Office Building.

Casually strolling across the roof top, climbing up on the ledge of the building and crossing his arms, Jinkara and Vaugn watched hawk-like as the patients stormed down the street, the building shaking slightly from the thousands upon thousands of feet thundering down the road. Closer and closer the patients drew, showing no sign of changing their course, the Kojuni Office Building held firmly in their sights. Closer and closer the patients drew to Kojuni, thundering down the main street of Tokyo like marathon runners. Tokyo’s main street of Tokyo, though a normally straight road, encircled Kojuni, forming a large,eight lane circular perimeter road around the entire office building, adding to the buildings already grand scale.

Like a flooded river breaking it’s dikes, the flood of patients exploded onto the perimeter road of Kojuni. As if the building had an invisible barrier around it, the stampeding mass of patients instantly broke into two smaller groups, skirting the building entirely and sprinting around the road to the other side.

"It seems they’re not heading for Kojuni afterall Vaugn,", Jinkara growled with a smile, as he bent down, and dropped to one knee, watching the progression of the patients around the circular roadway cloosely.

"Well the best of us make mistakes,", Vaugn replied simply as Jinkara slowly rose back to his feet, bent low and launched himself across the road beneath him, aiming head first for the wall of the gigantic structure that was Kojuni.

Crashing into the tower wall, Jinkara sunk his clawed feet and hands into the concrete wall, several windows nearby his landing spot cracking and shattering. Looking beneath him and gazing upon to flood of patients skirting the Kojuni Office Building, Jinkara smiled to himself, turning sideways on the wall, and crawling the building like a newt along a wall, following the progress of the patients like an attentive spider.

The patients ran around the large perimeter road of the Kojuni office building like a raging river, knocking down light posts and trees, scattering them like match sticks aswell as destroying anything else in their path.

Despite how large the perimeter road of Kojuni was, it took the patients very little time to reach the other side. Reaching the opposite side of the building they had started from, the patients took another sharp left and began to flooded a large 6 lane city street lined with restaurants, clothe stores and music stores.

"It seems they’re being drawn to some place on the other side of town,", Jinkara remarked as he stopped crawling around the outside of the building, his head pointing to the ground as he gazed at the scene beneath him upside down, "Do you know what’s on the other side of town?", he asked as he continued to watch the progression of the patients, several cars going flying from the street as they dashed by.

"Not a clue. I haven’t had any reason to go over that far,", Vaugn commented as Jinkara pushed hard off the building wall, sailing through the air upside down momentarily before flipping around and righting himself, landing moments later on the roof top of a large department store building in a sprinting run. Dashing to the opposite side, Jinkara spring boarded off the edge of the building and took flight from the edge of the building once more

For a half hour, Jinkara did nothing except follow the patients from his roof top perches. As he followed the patients away from the center of the city, Jinkara couldn’t help but notice the change of scenery that was taking place around him.

In the heart of the city, the buildings were clean, distinct, and lively buildings, usually bright white or light red, various angels forming the buildings exteriors, giving each one it’s own distinct look. On the outside of the buildings, there would be bright neon signs, large TV screens on the outside, or large speakers, broadcasting various images, advertisements, and sounds to the people of downtown Tokyo. These were the kinds of buildings in which successful business were run out of. Buildings, that when full of working people, would be alive with happy employees, full of laughter and warmth.

The further Jinkara and Vaugn journeyed from the center of the city, however, the more the buildings slowly began to contrast that of the center. Opposed to the unique designs of the buildings of the center, each building looked exactly the same; Square, built of either red or black bricks, with dreary looking exteriors devoid of any sign of brightness or life. The buildings were grungy, the walls thick with dirt and grease, the windows looking rather filth encrusted. Needless to say, each building became more and more depressing the further Jinkara ventured from the lively center of Tokyo, with many boarded up windows and vacated buildings littering the farside of the city.

Finally, it all made sense to Vaugn and Jinkara. Together, the two souls came to the same realization. And in a way, to both Jinkara and Vaugn, it made sense.

Jinkara had been following the patients for some forty-five minutes now on the farside of the city, and it appeared they were reaching it’s limits. The buildings were now small, three story tall grungy looking office buildings, lining cracked and potholed roads, many of them with patches of tar that gave the pavement the look of being veined, yet most still being in various states shabbiness.

With one last, powerful push into the air, Jinkara soared high over five buildings before falling back down to earth and landing heavily on the edge of a small, three story tall dilapidated office building, the stone beneath his feet cracking and breaking off, crashing to the ground beneath. Jinkara payed no attention to this as he took in the scene before him.

Jinkara was over looking a massive industrial port on the edge of the ocean, surrounded by a high, chain link fence. Shrouded in almost complete darkness, Jinkara and Vaugn could only make out the silhouettes of the enormous warehouses with rounded rooves that rose from the pitch black ground like giant redwoods. Towering above the warehouses in the background, imprinted against the black sky was a huge crane, the long cables and enormous grabbing claws swaying slightly in the darkness. Sitting silently in the water, dwarfing the warehouses and filling the whole of the horizon, a gigantic container ship bobbed slightly in the ocean as the water splashed quietly against the edge of the dock in the distance.

On the ground below, the stampeding patients had broken into the industrial port, knocking a large section of fence down as if it was a house of cards and were running deep into the heart of the port, being consumed by the darkness and disappearing completely after only a few footsteps.

"So this is where Vermillion is hiding,", Jinkara snarled, his mouth stretching back into an evil smile, "Time to flush him out like the rat he is", he finished as the last of the patients ran through the fence and was consumed by the darkness.

"Sounds good to me,", Vaugn replied as Jinkara stood straight and leapt lightly from the roof, sailing down through the air and touching down silently on the broken sidewalk pavement.

Quickly, yet silently, Jinkara crept forward, not wanting to be scene by anyone who may have been attracted by the hordes of patients. Not seeing or meeting anyone, or hearing anything remotely reminiscent of life, Jinkara crept through the large gap in fence and passed into the utter darkness of the port.

The silence and the darkness was like being deep in the sea, feeling as if a tremendous weight was pushing in on Jinkara’s body. Through the darkness and silence, Jinkara became aware of every little sound, every movement that was around him.

Passing into the port yielded a giant forest of large, identical warehouses. Every warehouse had a large wall sized door on the front, which gaped openly on small, two lane streets that intertwined in between the large, cavernous warehouses that dotted the landscape of the port. Each road was seemingly leading to the edge of the dock, where the outlines of the gigantic crane and titanic-like container ship dwarfed everything before them.

"Remember Jin. If we find any of the patients, just leave them alone. We’ve already killed enough of them as is,", Vaugn told Jinkara, finally breaking the perpetual silence around them as Jinkara crept silently along the side of one of the intertwining roadways, peering into the warehouses he passed for any sign of life.

"I’ll try and remember that Vaugn,", Jinkara growled as he passed by a silent warehouse full of wooden crates, yet not seeing any signs of life

Vaugn had to admit that for such a large and wide open place, it was rather creepy in the port.

Everything was silent except for the occasional whistle of wind the would blow in between the warehouses, or the occasional low, rumbling groan of the docked container ship as it twisted and shifted in the ocean, or the occasional clanking of chains in the distant. The only sound that anything other then Jinkara and Vaugn were alive, if you could call it that, was the distant echoing, rumble of the thousands of patients as they ran further and further into the center of the port.

"It’s kind of creepy in here, huh Jin?", Vaugn said as Jinkara passed several more warehouses packed to the roof with wooden crates.

"Losing your nerve Vaugn?", Jinkara asked with a smile as he reached the end of the road he had been creeping along, emerging onto a large, four lane demi-highway.

The road looked large enough for four semitrailers to drive side by side comfortably, running along the waters edge and the massive container ship that was moored beside it. The road passed underneath the enormous, towering crane, which was supported on metal legs several feet thick, all of which rolled along the edge of the dock on large metal wheels twice as tall as Vaugn.

"Hardly,", Vaugn replied with a scoff as Jinkara looked around for any sign of the patients.

"Good. Because I don’t want to be associated with anyone who is afraid of a little darkness,", Jinkara remarked as he gazed into the thick darkness to his right, and without hesitation, began trotting down the road, continuing to peer into the warehouses that rose above the concrete ground along dock’s edge.

The deeper Jinkara walked through the port, the heavier the darkness became, the more absolute the silence grew. Every warehouses was silent and still, the wooden crates held within their bowls like so many tombstones in a cemetery. The roads that criss crossed one another were empty and silent, like deserted roads in a ghost town. No matter where Jinkara and Vaugn looked, everything was identical, as if they were walking through a giant hall of mirrors.

Further and further Jinkara ventured into the port, poking his head around every corner and looking into every warehouse, yet seeing nothing except dark, shadow filled interior, and hearing nothing except the distant rumble of foot steps of escaping patients, punctured by the occasional groan of creaking metal, or the gentle patter of scurrying rats.

"Hey Vaugn…you see that?", Jinkara asked quietly, as he suddenly stopped in his tracks and squinted into the darkness.

In the distance, the faint outline of something slightly block shaped in the middle of the road slowly materialized in front of Jinkara from the very darkness itself, the faint smell of blood starting to tickle his nose.

"Yeah, I do. Better go check it out,", Vaugn replied as Jinkara nodded, slowly creeping forward on the balls of his feet, readying his claws to attack whatever it was he was about to encounter.

The closer Jinkara crept towards the strange ,shadowy figure, the more saturated the air became with the scent of fresh blood. Closer and closer Jinkara crept to the shadowy figure, which slowly became sharper and more defined with each cautious step, the louder the patter of something dripping gently to the ground became.

After a dozen cautious steps, the strange figure emerged in all it’s clarity, and with it the first clue that Vaugn and Jinkara were on the right trail.

In the middle of the road, a yellow fork lift sat puttering quietly, as if the driver had abandoned it in their haste to escape, or in this case, had been ripped from it. Firmly impaled on the front of the forklift was a man who looked like he worked in the port, who’s feet were inches above the ground, hanging from one of the forklifts tines was cleanly driven through his chest. Wearing a yellow hard hat and reflective orange cover-alls, it seemed the man was doing late night work before he was killed.

The mans head hung limply to the side, his eyes wide and staring in death. Blood gently seeped from his chest, completely soaking his clothes and dripping onto the ground from his feet, forming a very large, glistening pool of crimson red blood.

Gazing at the forklift upclose, Jinkara saw that the entire front of it was splattered with blood, meaning the man must have been killed quite violently, more then likely terrified beyond belief. Out of the corner of his eye, quite noticeable in the low light, a faint, radiating orange glow behind the forklift caught Jinkara’s attention.

Moving around the forklift, splashing quietly through the pool of blood, Jinkara gazed down on a body of man laying on his stomach with a large, gaping hole in his back and arms spread wide like an eagle. It looked as if this man had tried to run away from something but had been killed on the spot before he could take a single step.

"It seems we’re on the right path Vaugn,", Jinkara purred as he dug a clawed foot under the motionless body on the ground, and gently rolling it over with a clawed foot, peered into the blank, wide eyes of the slaughtered port worker.

"It sure does. Let’s hope these are the only workers who have died tonight,", Vaugn replied, his voice cold with anger as Jinkara nodded and began again to stalk down the deserted road between the warehouses.

The further and further Jinkara ventured however, the more mistaken Vaugn could see he was,the patients leaving a clear path of death and destruction for Vaugn and Jinkara to follow.

Bodies littered the every inch of the road JInkara was stalking along, laying in various states of death. Some of the bodies were on their stomach, in a clear attempt to run away from their killers. Others were laying on their back, slain where they stood. Each of the bodies had the clear sign of same wound inflicted upon them: A single, large hole ripped cleanly through their bodies front to back. The rest of the bodies appeared to have been something along the lines of play things for the patients, their clothes ripped and torn off their bodies, either to have the chest torn open and organs scattered around the road, or thrown head first through the steel wall siding of the warehouses, blood gently streaking down the dark wall face.

As Jinkara stalked through the valley of death, the scent of blood was over powering everyone one of his senses, his eyes welling with tears but managing to them back. The intensity was beyond anything Jinkara had experienced or had prepared himself for, and it was a true test of his metal to continue going as he was.

"Damn this port is huge! We could be out here all night!", Jinkara snarled as he splashed moodily through pools of blood flooding the roadway, passing more and more slaughtered humans littered about the warehouse road around him in various death poses.

"Quiet Jin! Do you hear that?", Vaugn snapped, his voice nothing more then a sharp whisper.

Jinkara stopped and held his breath, listen very carefully to his surroundings. Coming from somewhere a head of him, a faint, uniform murmuring could be heard, bring some life to the unworldly calm around Jinkara.

"Things just keep getting more and more interesting,", Jinkara snarled, his mouth stretching into a wide, evil fanged smile.

Walking at top speed down the port road, splashing noisily through more pools of blood which echoed gently in the dark warehouses around him, Jinkara hurried in the direction of the odd murmuring. Faster and faster Jinkara walked, finally breaking into a powerful run, blurring the dead bodies into nothing more then orange streaks within in his vision.

After what seemed to be but a mere moment of hurried running, the warehouses vanished from around him, and Jinkara emerged on the edge of what appeared to be a large, open concrete field. This area of the port was most likely where the containers were stored when taken off the container ships: as long as six football fields, and three times as wide as it was long. A long, chain link fence topped with razor wire, barely visible at the end of the concrete field, shone steely grey in the white moonlight at the far end of the lot.

Forming long, un-naturally straight lines, the patients stood stock still, murmuring quietly to the cool night air. They were standing like soldiers at attention, their arms at their sides, their legs snapped together. All of the patients had their backs to Jinkara and were seemingly staring at something at the far end of the container-lot.

"What’s going on Jin?", Vaugn asked as Jinkara scanned the scene before him, taking in every inch of it.

"You’re guess it as good as mine,", Jinkara replied, his brow furrowed as he glanced behind him, and figuring the answers to all his questions were at the end of the rows of patients, began to tread lightly into the concrete field, slowly approaching the group of patients.

As he stalked between the rows of patients, Jinkara would gaze into the faces of the occasional patient. For the first time, Jinkara could say this was the most alive the patients looked; their eyes bright with excitement, their mouths moving fluidly as they spoke as one giant being, though their faces were still expressionless.

"Rise Vermillion. Purveyor of destruction of the human race. Harbinger for the destruction of mankind!Rise, so we may serve you!", the patients would say in a steady, monotonous voice, repeating everytime they finished.

"What are they doing Jin?", Vaugn asked, utterly at a lost for words at what he was seeing and hearing.

"It seems like they’re calling out for Vermillion,", Jinkara replied, leaning close to a tall male patient with wispy brown hair and studying his face cloosely from the side, "I wonder…", he breathed, more to himself then anything.

Taking a half step back from the patient, Jinkara slowly drew his arm back, balling his clawed hand into a hammer like fist.

"Jin…what are you doing?", Vaugn asked cautiously, worried about what Jinkara was about to do.

Jinkara didn’t answer, but thought it rather self explanatory when he brought his fist rocketing forward. With the force of car crash, Jinkara’s fist crashed into the mans jaw, pushing the whole mans head sideways on his shoulder and lifting him completely off his feet and hurling him into the air, doing a magnificent corkscrew. The man soared over several rows of patients like a misshapen football, before gradually falling from the air and crash landing back down to earth. Like giant dominoes, dozens upon dozens of patients were mowed down, tossed haphazardly to the ground and cast aside,as the man tumbled and skidded along the ground like a ragdoll.

"Jin! What the hell was that for!", Vaugn exploded, outraged that Jinkara had strike someone who wasn’t doing anything to harm him.

"You’ll see,", Jinkara breathed, his eyes fixed firmly on the spot where the male patient had crashed landed, felling his fellow infected humans.

As if watching what had happened moments before in reverse, the patients who had been knocked unceremoniously to the ground in a jumble of intertwined bodies, slowly began to stir, and one by one they slowly rose to their feet. Acting as if nothing had happened, the patients who had been knocked down hurried back to where they had been standing moments before, reforming the perfectly straight lines, and continuing their monotonous chant.

"What the hell…", Vaugn breathed, sounding dumbfounded, as the man who Jinkara had sent flying with a single blow ran back to his spot, paying no attention to Jinkara at all.

"Just as I thought,", Jinkara breathed, slowly turning and starting down the row of the patients once more.

"What’s going on Jin?", Vaugn asked, unsure of what had happened

"Vermillion must be in the final stages of his transformation,", Jinkara replied slowly, "Vermillion was controlling the patients through his maggots that are now filling their bodies. They were part of his conscious being, requiring a large amount of energy to keep the connection going. But now they seemed to be stuck in the moment, meaning that the connection between Vermillion and the patients has been broken. If my hunch is correct, he severed the connection so he could use all his power to complete his transformation as quickly as possible,", Jinkara finished with a snarl, as he pulled himself away from the chanting patient and broke into a brisk trot down the row of patients.

Breaking into a sprinting dash, Jinkara hurled himself down the rows of patients, which blurred into chanting white blobs at the edges of his vision. For some reason, Jinkara knew that whatever was at the end of the row of patients would lead him to Vermillion.

After several moments of hurried sprinting, the blurring patients at the edge of the of Jinkara’s vision suddenly disappeared as he burst into a giant open space at the end of the rows of patients. Knowing he had reached his goal, Jinkara dug his clawed feet into the ground and skidded to a halt, his razor sharp claws gouging long marks in the solid concrete ground.

His face alive with excitement, Jinkara’s eyes scanned the giant open space in front of him for any sign of Vermillion, but to no avail. The space was completely devoid of any life, let alone anything even remotely resembling a demon.

Jinkara stared, bewildered by what he was seeing. It only seemed natural that Vermillion would be here, with his followers gathered around him. But yet he was oddly absent. Raising a clawed hand and scratching his head in a very confused way, Jinkara continued to stare around in bewilderment. Scanning the open space once more for even the slightest clue as to where Vermillion was, something caught his eye. Something so large that it should have been noticed long before now in Vaugn’s opinion.

Sunk into the ground was a large, four lane ramp that gradually sloped downwards and disappeared into a dark opening deep below the ground. All around the large down ramp, the patients formed a large circle, like guards standing watch around royalty. Clearly, this is where they were waiting for Vermillion to make his arrival, like some sort of God rising from the underworld, revealing himself to his loyal followers.

The air around the wide, down-ramp opening was rank with the stench of rotting flesh, as powerful and completely overwhelming as the air in the hospital where Vaugn and Jinkara had first made contact with Vermillion.

"You smell that Vaugn?", Jinkara asked, staring down at the large down ramp and shuttering slightly with each deep breath of the putrid air.

"Yeah, I can. Good thing I’m not you right now,", Vaugn replied as Jinkara looked up from the down ramp and staring around the circle into the distant face of the chanting patients.

"I have a feeling that if we follow this smell, it’ll lead us to Vermillion,", Jinkara growled happily, staring back down at the dark ramp and licking his lips in longing sort of way.

"Well let’s stop talking about it and get going,", Vaugn replied briskly.

Without thinking twice of the situation at hand, Jinkara focused his red eyes on the down-ramp before him and walked purposely forward, the chanting patients merely watching as he approached the down ramp that would lead him to Vermillion. A moment later, Jinkara felt the ground gradually fall away and his body tilt downwards, his feet slowly carrying him deep under ground and to the battle awaiting him.

The ramp was much longer then either Vaugn or Jinkara had expected. The ramp gently curved to the left, creating what seemed like a giant spiral ramp-way that only added to the length of it. It was fifteen minutes, though it felt longer due to the darkness and pressing silence, before the ramp began to level off.

After a minute of walking on level ground, Jinkara emerged into a large, gently glowing, sub-terrainian cavern. Momentarily stunned by the size of the underground cavern, Jinkara eventually realized that the cavern was infact a giant, concrete room seven stories tall, that was most likely meant for more storage space of cargo containers.

The only light was coming from several blue-white lights in the center of the roof forming a long line, that lit the area immediately under them, but quickly fading away so as the walls and much of the floor were still shrouded in almost complete darkness. Regardless, through the darkness Jinkara could make out the faint outlines of tall, gaping doorways set deeply in the distant walls with yellow arrows painted on the ground before them, directing underground traffic to different areas of the underground container lot.

The air was now absolutely saturated with the stench of rotting flesh, so much so that Jinkara was finding it rather hard to breathe. Despite this small problem however, Jinkara knew that he was getting closer to destroying Vermillion.

"Kind of cliché don’t you think Vaugn?", Jinkara asked as he slowly started to walk into the underground parking lot, passing in out of the circles of light he walked beneath.

"How so?", Vaugn asked conversationally.

"Well you know. A bunch of slaughtered human corpses and zombies outside, and the monster is deep under ground in the darkness, waiting for the hero to show up,", Jinkara replied, as he stalked through the underground parking lot, passing from light to light.

"Well, there is usually something watching the hero in those movies that the heroes have to kill before they meet the head honcho monster,", Vaugn said fairly, Jinkara nodding in agreeance.

Despite the room being completely still and silent, Vaugn couldn’t escape the feeling he had that he and Jinkara were being watched. Consequently, the further Jinkara ventured into the underground container lot, the more Vaugn knew his feeling of being watched was correct.

The darkness has a way of warping ones senses, and to Vaugn and Jinkara, it felt as if they had been walking through the pitch black lot for at least an hour, covering only half the distance of the massive underground lot.

Though Jinkara or Vaugn could explain it, they both felt like something was watching and following them. At first Jinkara was sure that it was just his ears adjusting to the pressing silence around him, but with each passing heartbeat, his uncertainty was replaced by unquestionable proof. It had started off with a gentle clicking sound, like a dog walking on a hardwood floor, accompanied by what sound like a bag being dragged along the floor. At first, Jinkara thought it to be his own claws tapping the ground and Vaugn’s shoes scuffling along the pavement beneath. But now, after adjusting fully to his bleak surroundings, his ears now full atuned to every sound around him, Jinkara was sure that he wasn’t alone.

Finally, unable to take being followed any longer, Jinkara took a deep breath and stopped in the middle of lit patch of ground.

"I think we’re being followed Vaugn,", Jinkara said unnecessarily, stopping in the middle of an illuminated patch and heaving a deep sigh..

"What was your first clue", Vaugn asked, who had been listening to the odd sound following himself and Jinkara for some time before Jinkara mentioned it.

Jinkara didn’t respond, but merely smiled as he began slowly spinning around, scanning the walls carefully. Slowly he revolved on spot, straining his eyes in an attempt to spot through the darkness what had been following him. After spinning around several times, making himself slightly dizzy, Jinkara spotted what he had been looking for.

Imprinted against the wall, though only a hair lighter then the cold stone itself, was the faint outline of a human being. Though it was upside down, it’s head pointing to the ground, and it’s feet to the ceiling, it was clearly a human, with it’s slightly broad shoulders and narrow hips. Though what was strangest of all was the fact that it was hanging on the wall like a spider.

"I’ve found you!", Jinkara snarled, his mouth stretching into a wide smile, squaring his body with the human figure hanging on the wall

The human outline merely stared at Jinkara-was it even staring thought Vaugn-, but didn’t move, or show any sign that it was paying any attention to Jinkara.

"Fine. If that’s how it’ll be,", Jinkara said with an innocent shrug, "Then I’ll just bring the fight to you!", he roared, quickly bending low, and launching himself into the darkness head first.

Rocketing through the darkness like a bullet, Jinkara fixed his eyes on the motionless body, his clawed hand pulled back to somewhere around his ear. Closer and closer Jinkara shot towards the human-like body, which remained as still as a painting hanging on a wall. In a heart beat, when space had closed to nothing more then a few feet, Jinkara’s clawed hand exploded forward his claws ready to tear into the body now only inches in front of him.

In the split second before the impact, the body threw itself side ways, shooting sideways like a missile, just as Jinkara collided claws first with the concrete wall. Instantly, Jinkara’s claws tore into the concrete wall, reducing it to nothing but thick, billowing cloud of dust that engulfed him instantly, blinding him even worse then the darkness itself, clogging his lungs with the delicate dust.

"So you’re fast! Fine! It looks like I’ll have even more fun then!", Jinkara coughed, as he stared around the darkness from within the dust cloud, trying to clear his lungs of dust he had inhaled.

"Oh yes. It is faster. Even faster then you Jinkara,", a cold voice called out, echoing off the concrete around him.

"What the? I should have known!", Jinkara murmured to himself, his head freezing on his neck and forgetting about the current task at hand, "Vermillion! Where the hell are you!", he roared, his voice just as loud as Vermillion’s.

"Where do you think I am?", Vermillion asked, his voice shaking slightly with amusement, daring Jinkara to answer.

Before Jinkara could answer however, a enormous blow struck him in the back of the head, lifting him easily off his feet, and tossing him through the air. Like a thrown ragdoll, Jinkara crashed back down to earth a distance from where he had been standing moments before, tumbling and rolling end over end along the cold, concrete ground towards the center of the room. Stunned by the blow, Jinkara was only really aware of the darkness around him, momentarily shattered by a quick flash of bright, white-blue light, meaning he had just rolled and tumbled underneath the lights in the center of the room. Coming to his senses slightly, Jinkara managed roll over onto his feet and dig his clawed hands and feet into the ground, sliding backwards on all fours as his claws gouged long slash marks in the concrete floor.

"What the hell was that?", Jinkara growled, slowly climbing to his feet and rubbing the back of his head angrily

"I dunno Jin. But there’s definitely something unhuman here,", Vaugn replied as Jinkara steadied himself on his slightly shaking legs and squinted into the sea of black around him, trying to find what had hit him.

"Like you need to t…", Jinkara spat before another powerful blow struck him in the side of the head and lifting him once more off his feet.

From the moment of impact, little lights exploded in front of Jinkara’s eyes, a dazzling dance of white, blue, and red bursts playing out in front of his eyes. Stunned by the blow, Jinkara was unaware of where he was or what he was doing, until he crashed heavily into the hard stone wall as if shot out of a cannon, shattering the stone as easily as if it were glass.

Dazed and winded, Jinkara rolled his head back on his shoulder and stared into the darkness, the show of blue, red, and white lights continuing their infinite dance. Before he could gather his thoughts and catch his breath, a bone shattering blow collide with the center of Jinkara’s face, slamming his head back into the concrete wall. As Jinkara was starting to slowly comprehend what had happened, another powerful blow landed squarely in the middle of his face, slamming his head back into the concrete once more, the blow shaking his brain within his skull. A heart beat later, yet another powerful blow landed squarely on Jinkara’s face, easily his nose instantly. Over and over, blow after blow continued to crash into Jinkara’s face, slamming his head into the solid stone wall with each massive blow, feeling as if his skull was about to shatter.

With each massive blow that landed on it’s mark, Jinkara could feel his brain bouncing around inside his skull, overloading his mind and sending it into a tail spin of jumbled thoughts and blurred memories. Despite being as soundly beaten as he was, Jinkara couldn’t help but notice through his daze, that was ever hitting him was strangely cold, each hit feeling as cold as the hard stone in his head was being drive into.

Despite his head being as thoroughly beaten as it was, and his mind as scatter-brained as it was, Jinkara’s fury, which had been on the verge of boiling over from the second he had spoken to Vermillion in the hospital, had reached it’s breaking point, and flooded his system with pure, undiluted rage, ready to destroy his attacker.

"I’ve had enough of this shit!", Jinkara roared with fury as he lunged forward, swinging his clawed hand around in front of him at neck height like a sword, ready to tear into the skull of whatever was attacking him.

Before his claws could do any tearing what so ever, two powerful blows crashed into his face -this time feeling like a pair of feet- and pushed off powerfully as if Jinkara’s face was a diving board, slamming his head into the concrete wall once more, driving it even deeper into the stone then any of the single blows had done.

Feeling as if he had been beaten by a baseball bat for hours on end, Jinkara slid down the wall and dropped to on knee, panting slightly and his head hanging limply from on his neck, his face bleeding rather badly. Staring at the dark floor, Jinkara’s visions was blurred and drowned by exploding lights, his brain overloaded and disoriented with jumbled thoughts and blurred memories. His ears were filled with a loud, shrieking ringing sound that seemed to only daze him further. Though enraged well beyond anything in memory, Jinkara seemed to lose some of his fighting spirit somewhat. He felt it maybe better if he just let what ever had attacked him come to him instead of giving chase. Shaking his head, Jinkara quickly banished this cowardice thought from his rattled brain. With some difficulty, Jinkara slowly raised his head from the ground and stared into the darkness infront of him, preparing to launch his own attack.

Readying to push himself forward, Jinkara was halfway between standing and kneeling when something flashed through the gently lit center of the room, something that made Jinkara forget what he was doing and loose all desire to fight.

It was the body of human being, though in all honestly, it was as if it had been mutilated and mutated to the point where the only thing human about it was, indeed, the shape of the body.

The skin was dark grey, like a body that had decayed in water, the flesh pulled tight over the skeleton, revealing the bones beneath it’s thin, spindly body. The head and neck were sitting at top the shoulders at a strange angel. Instead of being in the center of the body, it looked as if the neck and head had been dislocated from the body and then reset improperly, the neck and head sitting more the right then normal. The jaw, instead of being tight and clenched, was now hanging open loosely, wobbling and swinging back and forth violently with each motion of the creature, the jaw lined with broken, jagged teeth. The flesh of the creatures face was covered in seeping wounds, which oozed an unknown green liquid, and seeped down the creatures face. The eye-sockets were empty, seeping like the wounds on the creatures face. The hands and feet of the creature looked human, except for the fingers and toes. The skin had been torn away, and what looked like claws turned out to actually be the bones of the digits, sharpened to vicious points.

Clearly, this thing, whatever it was, wasn’t human. Despite it’s mutated and mutilated appearance however, both Vaugn and Jinkara knew that this creature used to be human..

The creature, whatever it was continued, to back flip away from Jinkara, and a moment later, flipped out of the patch of light and was consumed once more by the utter darkness.

"So…that’s your little game,", Jinkara snarled,pushing himself to his feet, yet swaying slightly as he was still a tad dazed from the constant pounding he took, "What sort of abomination is that?", he called out all around him, his voice echoing furiously off the walls..

"No abomination Jinkara. Merely an experiment,", Vermillion replied, sounding like a college professor explaining a problem to his students "You see, my plague was originally meant for killing and controlling demons. It turns out that when a human is infected long enough, the soul begins to mutate and change into something like very similar to a demon. You see, it’s stronger and faster, yet impervious to pain, utterly soulless, and deaf to all knowledge of self. They are, in short, living shells of their former selves. Rejected by their bodies, and left wondering, I now control them. I believe you witnessed their handy work back at the hospital. Those pesky doctors and police fell at the hands of these suedo-demons. I couldn’t be prouder,", Vermillion finished, his voice positively glowing with pride.

"Figures,", Jinkara spat as he wiped the stream of blood away from his bleeding nose, "You always were weak, using others to do what you cannot. And I see things haven’t changed at all,", he finished, trying to goad Vermillion the best he could given his present situation.

"That will all soon change Jinkara. But sadly you won’t be around to witness it,", Vermillion said coldly, yet calmly, "Kill him my minion. Leave nothing,", he finished, his voice ringing around the room, slowly dying away to nothing.

Before Jinkara could think of a plan or course of action, a powerful blow crashed into the middle of his back, bending it backwards and pushing his gut out, feeling as if it was about to snap in half like a toothpick. As if hit by a car, Jinkara was launched forward by the force of the impact, throwing him into the air with his back still bent backwards before crashing heavily to the ground, bouncing and tumbling along the ground like a rag doll.

Over and over Jinkara rolled, bouncing off his head, then his back, then his backside, tumbling end over end from the force of the hit. In the blurring darkness, his vision was illuminated for an instance but was suddenly extinguished, as he tumbled and bounced under the small patch of lit ceiling once again. Finally regaining his composure the best he could, Jinkara plated his hands on the cold pavement just as he was sliding on his backside. Pulling himself off the ground with all his strength, Jinkara lifted himself into a magnificent handstand as he slid on the palms of his hands. Kicking and twisting his legs around, Jinkara spun around on his hands like axle, and let his body gradually fall to earth. Ramming his clawed feet into the pavement, Jinkara slid backwards on all fours like a dog. Winded from the hit, Jinkara eventually came to a rest at the end of several large slash marks in the solid stone surface, his head hanging limply on his neck.

"Okay. So this is going to be harder then I thought,", Jinkara panted as he slowly raised his head and stared at the illuminated center of the room.

Jinkara fixed the illuminated patch with his furious, yet slightly blurry stare, trying to clear his addled mind. However, the instant Jinkara stared into the patch of light before him, the mutated human streaked through the light and leapt silently into the air.

The last thing Jinkara saw was the creature flying feet first at him like a missile before being completely engulfed by the darkness. Before he had anytime to react, Jinkara was smashed in the face as the creature collided with his body feet first. The force of the blow bent Jinkara’s whole body backwards, his back feeling once more as if it were about to snap in half. Over his body bent, slowly dragging his legs off the ground and sliding his clawed feet around beneath him.

Before he could hit the ground however, Jinkara felt an ice cold hand grasp him around the ankle and jerk it powerfully into the air. For a moment, Jinkara was suspended in midair, the hand seemingly holding his body taught, not allowing him to hit the ground. For a moment, Jinkara was slightly confused by this, until that is, with a powerful pull of his leg, feeling as if it was going to be ripped off his body. With the feeling of his organs staying still while his body was ripped backwards, Jinkara suddenly found himself flying through the air like a javelin

Jinkara didn’t touch the ground, but instead flew feet above it, as if held by invisible strings. Still dazed by the impact, Jinkara stared blearily at the roof as he rocketed through the air. Once more, a momentary explosion of light flashed through his vision, the only sign of life in the room, before being extinguished. In the brief moment when Jinkara had passed underneath the lit ceiling, he saw the grey, mutated creature mirroring him as he flew through the air, the creature running along the roof upside down as easily as if it was running along the sidewalk.

"What the hell…", Jinkara breathed, as once more he was engulfed by the darkness.

As soon as he was engulfed by the darkness, Jinkara felt an ice cold fist ram into his gut, knocking all the air out of him and blasting him cleanly out of the air, slamming him into the pavement beneath him.

Jinkara crashed into the pavement, his head bouncing off the stone, dazing him worse then before. Like an airplane crash landing, Jinkara slid and skidded along the ground, his head bouncing limply around on his neck.

Slowly Jinkara slid to halt, staring at the ceiling through the darkness. Though it was dark, a colourful array of lights and shapes danced of front of his eyes, an obvious side-effect of his head bouncing off the concrete like a basketball. Before Jinkara could think of a counter strike, or even lift a hand to his throbbing head, a large weight land crash on to his chest, knocking what air he had in him out. Before he could comprehend what had happened, Jinkara felt a fist collide with his face, slamming his head back into the ground harder then before, cracking the pavement beneath it easily. A split second later, another fist collided with Jinkara’s face, driving his head deeper into the pavement beneath, blasting a small crater the size of Jinkara’s head out of the concrete cleanly. One after another, fist after fist collided with Jinkara’s face, pounding his head deeper and deeper into the ground beneath him, each fist drawing more and more blood from Jinkara’s already beaten face

"Damn it Jin! Do something!", Vaugn roared from around the room as Jinkara continued to be pummeled with each powerful blow of the mutate patient.

Without wasting time responding to Vaugn’s un-asked for advice, Jinkara summoned all his strength, and balling his hand into a solid fist, his arm exploded upwards as fast as lightning.

In the blink of an eye, Jinkara’s fist crashed into something ice cold and the weight Jinkara’s chest was instantly lifted. Above him, Jinkara heard a body crash painfully with the ceiling of the room, several loud cracks echoing around the room, shattering the perpetual silence.

Not skipping a beat, Jinkara ran his hand over his now very bloodied face, and flicking his hand through the air like back-hand slapping someone, several large, crimson red blood drops flew from his fingers, lengthening and solidifying into long, slender spears of blood. The spears were momentarily suspended in mid air, hovering silently, glowing crimson red, before they exploded forward in gently humming rush.

Jinkara stared as the spears rocketed upwards and peppered the dark ceiling, unsure if he had hit his target or not. Glowing crimson red momentarily, looking like stars in the dark night sky, the spears exploded violently is an enormous red fire ball, bathing the whole room in a deep, crimson light.

In the instant before the shockwave hit him, Jinkara was able to take in the cavernous area around him. Just as expected, he was in a giant underground parking lot for cargo containers. The roof was set in an enormous arch-like curve, giving the room the appearance of an empty church or barn. Down at the end of the room, the roadway underneath the lights branched off into three paths -one left, one right, one continuing straight- which surely lead to more container storage in the underground parkade.

Twisting his head around, and grazing about the room from his ground point of view, Jinkara saw the creature running from the explosion towards the furthest wall.

"Clearly this thing is smart,", Jinkara thought to himself as the shockwave from the explosion crashed into him, shredding the clothes that Vaugn had been wearing in to wisps of fabric and tearing through his body, slamming it further into the concrete floor, which exploded into a cascade of thick, white dust that consumed Jinkara’s beaten body.

"To bad I can’t say the same for you Jin!", Vaugn snarled, very upset that once more his body was being destroyed.

"You’ll be eating those words by the time the night is done!", Jinkara replied, panting slightly, each breath feeling as if he had broken a rib or two.

Steadying himself and taking a deep breath, Jinkara rolled back onto his shoulders and kicked upwards, flipping up onto his feet and standing tall, ready for his attack.

Regaining his senses the best he could in the split second he was standing, Jinkara sprung into action. Though his ears were ringing terribly from the deafening explosion, his eyes were as sharp as ever. Through the darkness, Jinkara could make out the faint outline of the creature stalking stealthily around the edge of the room, readying for another sneak attack.

"I don’t think so!", Jinkara roared, quickly running his hand over his bloodied face and swatting it in front of him, drops of blood flicking from his hand and instantly forming once again into long, slender, blood spears.

The spears rocketed towards the wall where the creature was creeping along, glowing gently in the darkness. Seconds later, the spears peppered the wall only feet behind the creature. Glowing gently for a second, the spears exploded like an erupting volcano, shattering the darkness and once again bathing the dark trailer lot in crimson light. With a menacing, the shockwave raced towards Jinkara, and moments later, blew the dust cloud surrounding Jinkara away like blowing out a candle and rattling Jinkara once more.

In the second of clear vision Jinkara was afforded, he watched as the creature launched itself forward away from the explosion to the opposite side of the room, covering itself with it’s arm and cowering, as if scared of the explosion.

"Time to play you son of a bitch!", Jinkara roared as he launched himself forward, sprinting towards the cowering creature as the room was gradually taken over by darkness once more.

The creature continued to cower in the corner, seemingly unaware that Jinkara was barreling down on it. In a matter of seconds, Jinkara had covered the great distance and drawn his fist back, ready to pulverise the mutated human being.

Uncovering it’s head and raising it’s disfigured face from the ground, the creature stared into the darkness with it’s empty eye-sockets. A moment later, the dark emptiness was suddenly shattered by two vicious red eyes flying towards it. As if my magic, Jinkara’s body exploded out of the darkness in full figure, his mouth pulled back in a vicious smile, his fist drawn as far back as it’d go.

The two combatants stared into eachothers eyes. Jinkara fixed the blank, empty, oozing eye-sockets of the mutated human with a look of pure rage. The mutated human stared back into the smiling face of Jinkara, locking it’s empty sockets on the fiery eyes of Jinkara

Slowly, the creature rose to it’s feet watching as Jinkara rocketed towards it, seemingly knowing the inevitable was inescapable. Closer and closer Jinkara rocketed through the cold, underground air, until finally, with a roar of pure fury, his fist exploded forwards with all the force of a run away locomotive

In the blink of an eye, Jinkara’s fist crashed into the creature’s face, the bones underneath the skin exploding on impact, the creatures head deforming as Jinkara’s fist pushed inwards. The fist continued to push backwards, pushing the creature whole head and neck backwards, leaving the creatures feet firmly planted on the ground, the body seemingly two steps behind the head.
As if pulled by an invisible giant, the creature feet finally left the ground, only seconds from having it’s head torn cleanly off from Jinkara’s powerful blow and rocketed backwards like a comet, it’s limp body the comets tail.

Faster then a blink of an eye, the creature crashed head first, it’s head driven deeply into the wall like a nail, the creatures body following suit as it compressed the creature body like an accordion. For a moment, the creatures body stuck out of the wall comically, hovering above the ground, before gradually falling to the ground and landing on it’s feet, dislodging and pulling the creatures head out as it fell.

Jinkara lunged after the creature, not wanting to let it have a chance to recover. He flew through the darkness like an enraged animal chasing it’s prey. Against the dark stone wall, the faint outline of the creature could be vividly seen, it’s arms hanging limply at it’s side, it’s squashed head rolled to one side on it’s neck.

Jinkara was all over the creature in a heart beat. Like a spring loaded trap, Jinkara’s hand shot out and rammed into the creature’s neck, pinning it against the wall, as he drew his fist back and launched it forward, slamming it into the creatures face and turning the concrete behind it’s head to dust from the force of the punch. Pulling his fist from the creatures face, Jinkara drew his fist back and delivered another massive blow to it’s face, pushing it deeper into the creature’s already broken face. Wrenching his fist once more from the creature’s face, maggots spurted from the creatures collapsed face as Jinkara threw another devastating blow into the creatures face, driving his fist all the way to the back of the creature’s skull.

Over and over he drew back his hand, and let it fly, ramming it into the creatures face with tremendous force, completely pummeling the creatures face, which became softer and softer, flatter and flatter. Over and over, Jinkara threw devastating punch after devastating punch, the concrete wall behind the creature slowly starting to crack and shutter with each massive blow.

Despite how strong the creature had appeared to be, it was nothing compared to Jinkara. After only a few heartbeats of an unrelenting attack, the creatures once deformed head was now nothing more then a shattered, oozing lump of flesh a top it’s shoulders. Panting slightly from the effort of destroying the creature, Jinkara let go of the creatures neck, and slowly backed away, letting the creature slide down the wall, slumping down on the ground, it’s formless and flat head hanging in a large lump of flesh that had fallen like a deflated balloon onto it’s chest.

"For something that strong it sure can’t take a hit,", Jinkara scoffed, slowly turning and walking away from the the beaten creature, heading back towards the row of lights in the center of the room.

"Geez Jin. Don’t you think you could have lightened up just a bit?", Vaugn asked seriously as Jinkara wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I thought I said not to destroy anymore patients? Now when we destroy Vermillion, it’ll never be cured of it’s infection,", he finished pointedly as Jinkara merely shrugged in a non-chalant kind of way.

"Do you really think it’d be that easy?", a cold, cynical voice called out from all around Vaugn and Jinkara, making Jinkara stop instantly in the perfect darkness around him.

"Vermillion! Figures you’d be watching in some form!", Jinkara snarled to the empty blackness around him, "If you had been watching, then you’d know that this battle is over. And you’d know that you’re next!", he spat, continuing his march away from the beaten creature.

"Is it really?", Vermillion asked slyly, "Turn around and see for yourself,", he finished, his voice shaking with amusement.

Jinkara stopped once more, and after a long, loud sigh, turned around and looked at the fallen creature. Though he had walked a ways away from it, Jinkara could see the faint outline of it decently well. The creature was slumped against the wall with it’s back resting on it, totally motionless. It had no head, but rather just a lump of flesh hanging limply on it’s shoulders.

Jinkara was about to let out a snort of disdain and turn around once more when he noticed motion at the top of the creature’s body. Squinting through the darkness, Jinkara gazed upon the motionless, beaten creature slumped against the wall. Figuring Vermillion was full of it, Jinkara was about to turn around and ignore the creature when a twitch in the shapeless form of flesh caught his attention. Squinting harder through the darkness, Jinkara watched as the mound of flesh that used to be the creatures head appear to slowly inflate with air, starting at the neck and slowly rising up. Slowly, the mound of flesh began to reshape and regain it’s original shape, the top of the head becoming rounding and the jaw somewhat pointed. In no time flat, the once shattered and destroyed skull of the creature reformed into it’s former self.

Jinkara stared transfixed at the creature, who moments before, had been beaten and left for dead, was now regenerating itself. Slowly, the creatures arms began to twitch, as did it’s legs. Gradually, the creature pulled it’s legs underneath it and heaved itself to it’s feet, lifting it’s newly reformed head up and staring blankly at Jinkara.

"What the hell…", Jinkara breathed, not taking his eyes off the creature.

"If you thought that simply crushing it’s bones would kill it, you are a fool Jinkara!", Vermillion laughed, as the creature bent low, and pushed itself forward with all it’s might, sprinting towards Jinkara at top speed.

"What were you saying about this thing unable to take a hit?", Vaugn asked casually as Jinkara leapt backwards from the creature, which had thrown a powerful punch at Jinkara, missing him by inches.

"Shut it Vaugn!", Jinkara snarled, as he leapt back powerfully from the attacking creature, landing thirty feet from it, before planting a clawed foot firmly on the ground and pushing himself forward, exploding forward and charging the creature down.

Pushing himself forward with all his might, Jinkara charged the creature like a stampeding bull, his claws clattering loudly on the concrete ground. Like lightning, the two combatants charged one another, the creature slowly drawing it’s fist back, Jinkara mirroring it perfectly.

Closer and closer the two drew together, both unwavering from their collision course. Finally, when Jinkara could smell the putrid smell of rotting flesh rising from the creatures skin, he summoned all his all his power and threw his entire weight behind his fist, the creature mirroring him perfectly, as it’s own clawed fist rocketed forwards.

Deftly blocking the blow with his free hand, so the creatures fist merely grazed his cheek, Jinkara swung his fist around, sinking it into the creatures gut. With the force of a car wreck, Jinkara’s hand shattered every bone in it’s way; the ribs, hips, and what felt like the spine, all shattered as easily as glass. The creature body went oddly limp as it’s feet slid off the ground, and it’s body bent around Jinkara’s fist. For a moment, the creature appeared to be riding Jinkara’s fist as it continued to swing around. As if his arm was a catapult, the creature flew off of Jinkara’s hand and soared serenely through the air.

As if nothing had impeded his pursuit of the creature, Jinkara continued to sprint powerfully after the creature. Through the darkness, Jinkara could clearly see the creature collided with the heavily damaged wall,a dull thud punctured by the loud cracking of shattering bones breaking the silence, and blasting yet another crater in the concrete wall.

Jinkara smiled to himself as he threw himself into the air and rocketed towards the creature feet first. In no time flat, Jinkara shot through the air and rammed his feet into the creatures chest, drop-kicking it with all his might. Instantly the creatures chest shattered and squashed, his feet sinking slightly into the creature chest as he fell out of the air and landed on his backside with a dull thud.

Not skipping a beat, Jinkara rolled backwards off his backside, over his shoulders and rolled over onto his feet, grabbing the creatures feet as he righted himself. Heaving himself upwards to a standing position, Jinkara wrenched the ankles of the creature skyward, heaving it into the air like it was nothing. Momentarily, the creature was suspended in midair by it’s ankles, looking like a cheerleader lifted by their teammates into the air and standing on their hands, before Jinkara pulled it back down to earth with all his might, slamming it down into the concrete ground back first with, with bone shattering ferocity. With a an explosion of power, Jinkara dragged the creatures slightly limp body back into the air, holding it high in the air for a moment before pulling it down to earth as fast as he could, slamming it with all his might into the concrete ground.

Twisting his body like a spring, Jinkara spun around on the heels of his foot, dragging the creature into the air and swinging it like a baseball bat, slammed the creature into the now heavily crack and cratered wall, blowing yet another crater in the stone surface. Twisting around in the opposite direction, Jinkara ripped the creature from the newly formed crater and swung it around to his other side, slamming it once more into the wall, knocking out several large concrete chunks from the wall.

Round and round, Jinkara continued to viciously slam the creature from wall to wall and wall to floor, the creatures seemingly having an unlimited amount of bones for Jinkara to shatter, as each time the creature was slammed into a hard surface, loud snacks and cracks would shatter the pressing silence. Finally, wrenching the creature from the wall and lifting it high into the air,suspending it by it’s ankles, Jinkara took a deep breath as he with sudden, massive burst of strength, ripped the creature out of the air and slammed it into the pavement. The force of the impact shook the very ground itself, feeling as if a car had been dropped from the roof, and cracked under the creatures weight, the impact shaking loose several pieces of concrete from the heavily damaged wall.

Staring at the motionless creature laying on the ground at his feet, Jinkara stood panting, the creatures ankel’s still firmly held within his clawed hands. Smiling slightly, Jinkara let go of the creature’s ankles, it’s legs falling lifelessly to the ground with a dull thud. Taking several slow steps backwards from the beaten and broken creature, Jinkara continued to stare at it, wanting to make sure it wasn’t going to get back up and attack from behind.

After what seemed like several hours of staring at the motionless body of the creature, Jinkara’s face broke into a wide, victorious smile. Panting slightly, Jinkara turned his back to the thoroughly beaten creature and strolled away in a leisurely sort of way.

"Doesn’t look so tough now, huh Vaugn?", Jinkara growled happily to the darkness

"Okay. So you proven that you could beat a mutated human being into dust. No biggy. And just a heads up, that was kind of overkill,", Vaugn replied in an offhand voice as Jinkara chuckled in an appreciating sort of way.

"Sometimes to kill, one has to over kill. Rem…", Jinkara began but unable to finish as a powerful blow struck him on the back of head like a baseball bat, lifting him off his feet and sending him rocketing through the air head over heels.

Rolling and tumbling over the ground like a ragdoll, Jinkara was stunned by the sudden impact, unable to clearly think of what had just happened to him. Bouncing off his head one last time, Jinkara managed to roll over to his stomach and dig his claws into the ground, tearing backwards on all fours again.Though the impact had rattled Jinkara’s brain, it was nothing compared to the rage that was coursing through his veins. Showing no fear what so ever, the creature was charging full speed towards Jinkara, it’s spindly limbs flying with each powerful step.

This was all Jinkara could take. His eyes erupted into blazing red inferno’s, piercing the darkness like arrows. His mouth stretched as far as it could, each razor sharp fang bared in a rage filled snarled. Jinkara’s chest was heaving, each breath coming short and shallow. Finally, like a volcano, Jinkara exploded

"This is starting to piss me off!", Jinkara roared, his claws tearing through the pavement as he pushed himself forward on all fours, rearing to a standing sprint as he charged down the creature.

In a matter of a second, the two combatants were within striking distance. With one last, long stride, the creature lunged at Jinkara, drawing it’s fist back and throwing all it’s weight behind it. With a roar of pure fury, Jinkara’s clawed hand shot up from his side, his hand stretched wide open like a bear trap. Like two cars barreling down on one another on the highway, the creatures balled fist and Jinkara’s open hand rocketed towards one another, until…

BAM!

The creatures balled fist crashed into Jinkara’s open hand with the force of two colliding cars. Like a chain reaction, Jinkara’s clawed hand snapped shut, sinking his claws into the creatures hand, the creatures arm compressed, the elbow pushing towards Jinkara’s clenched hand, until finally it was to much. With the force of a small stick of dynamite, the bones in the creatures arm exploded, sending shockwaves through the creatures tight skin followed by jagged pieces of bone ripping through the skin. The creature stumbled slightly, and stared at it’s arm, seemingly confused that it’s arm had shattered. Recovering quickly, the creature fixed Jinkara with it’s empty stare as it’s free arm swung around like a sledge hammer, ready to split Jinkara’s head open. As easily as catching a baseball, Jinkara’s free hand shot out and stopped the fist before it even had time to come with in a foot of Jinkara's head. Slowly, Jinkara sunk his claws into the skin of the hand, ooze spurting from around the claws like tiny fountains. Gradually, Jinkara began pushing the creature back, the creature mirroring him exactly, locking themselves in an unmistakable shoving match.

Like two bulls locked in a shoving contest, the two combatants began pushing with all their might. Slowly, the creature, though frail and weak looking, began to upseat Jinkara, his feet beginning to slide against the cold concrete ground. Not wanting to lose any give to the creature, Jinkara dug his clawed toes into the solid ground beneath him, his razor sharp claws tearing into the concrete as it was human flesh. Straining his arms and legs with everything he had, Jinkara took a hard step forward and planting his clawed foot in the ground, began slowly pushing the creature back. Despite being an empty shell of it’s former self, the creature was incredibly strong, much stronger then it’s body let on.

"So you want a shoving match huh? Fine by me!", Jinkara snarled, gritting his teeth and firming his grip on the creatures bony hands.

With all the strength he had in reserve, Jinkara took another difficult step forward and pushed himself forward, pushing the creature back several inches, feeling as if the muscles in his legs were about to tear.

With an obvious exertion of it’s own strength, the creature took a difficult step forward, it’s spindly leg shaking terribly as it planted it’s own foot on the ground and heaved itself forward, shoving Jinkara back several inches.

For what seemed like an hour, the stalemate continued. Both Jinkara and the creature remained still, intertwined at the hand, pushing one another with all their might, not wanting to give an inch to the other, as that would surely mean destruction for the weaker of the two.

The minutes passed in silence between Vaugn, Jinkara and the creature as the combatants continued to try and overpower one another and gain the upperhand. The only sounds to be heard were the occasional clatter of cement chunks falling from the heavily damaged wall to the ground, and what sounded like the joints of the creature groaning and creaking as it continued to strain against Jinkara with all it’s might.

Slowly, Jinkara’s sweating face broke into a wide, strained sort of smile, his red eyes glowing in a some what appreciatory way.

"I can see why Vermillion is so proud of you. You’re strong and very resilient, I’ll give you that,", Jinkara said with a smile, breaking the silence for the first time since the shoving match began, "But this is gone on long enough. This is where it ends!,", Jinkara roared, and with a huge explosion of power, Jinkara ripped one of his clawed feet from the ground and drove it into the patients stomach, impaling the creature as if his foot was a spear.

The creature doubled over as maggots spurted from around Jinkara’s foot, breaking it’s statue like resolve for the first time since tangling with Jinkara. It’s strength seemed to wain from the blow, and this had been what Jinkara had been waiting for. Gritting his teeth, Jinkara summoned all the strength he had left, and with a roar of fury wrenched his arms backwards. In the blink of an eye, the skin around the shoulders tore, and a heart beat later, Jinkara ripped the creature’s arms completely off it’s body.

Like a dammed river breaking it’s banks, a torrent of maggots exploded from the severed stumps of the creature body, spraying sideways like a fountain and splashing loudly to the ground. The maggots covered the ground in crawling,squirming white blanket, hurrying away from the wounded creature as if it was trying to kill them.

As if it had been shot, the creature jerked itself free of Jinkara’s foot and slowly stumbled away from him, sliding slightly over the maggot covered floor. Jinkara,who had sunk his claws into the now severed arms, unstuck his claws and tossed the arms aside like they were trash. For a moment, Jinkara stared at the creature, with it’s gushing stumps on it’s shoulders, and the wound in it’s stomach, maggots pouring from it like a faucet. Smiling broadly to himself, Jinkara bent low and pushed himself forward lightning quick, pulling his clawed hand back and readying it like a bear trap. Covering the distance faster then a blink of an eye, Jinkara planted his clawed foot firmly in the concrete and lunged forward at the creature. Gritting his teeth in a victorious snarl, Jinkara’s hand exploded forward, and a moment later, had rammed it into the open mouth of the creature. Pushing his clawed hand all the way to the back of the creatures throat, Jinkara’s hand ripped through the back palate of the creatures throat, shattering the creatures teeth and jaw bones, before his hand crashed into a firm column of bone, his hand snapping shut around the creatures spine.

As if both combatants knew what was about to happen, all motion between Jinkara and the creature ceased immediately. Jinkara stared into the empty, black, oozing sockets of the creature’s deformed face, all signs of human life gone, replaced by this soulless killing machine that stood before him. The creature stared back into the viciously glowing red eyes of Jinkara, it’s face slightly reflected in the red orbs, yet no sign of recognizing itself sparking life into it’s deformed face

Slowly, Jinkara’s face broke it’s ice like solidarity, his mouth stretching into a wide, toothy grin. Tightening his grip on the creatures spin, Jinkara’s firmed his muscles, and in one elegant motion, his arm exploded skywards, ripping the creatures head completely off of it’s shoulder in a graceful arch. It was rather comical how the creatures spine dangled from it’s severed head like a dead snake, maggots cascading from the hole now between the creatures shoulders.

The now headless creature stumbled backwards, dragging it’s feet heavily, looking as if it was intoxicated. Smiling at the pathetic sight of the once formidable creature, Jinkara slowly brought his free hand up to face, rubbing it over his blood covered cheeked.

Lazily flicking his hand at the creature, several droplets flew from the end of Jinkara’s clawed fingers, and instantly solidified and lengthened into sharp spears of crystallized blood. As if driven by invisible rocket boosters, the spears shot forward, streaking towards the maggot-leaking, headless and armless creatures.

In no time flat, the spears had covered the distance between the creature and Jinkara. Like watching an execution with machine guns,the blood spears peppered the creatures body, impaling it cleanly through the chest, stomach, knees, and any other part of flesh that was exposed.

Taking one last look at the creature, Jinkara bent low and leapt backwards from the creature. Landing lightly on the ground some fifty feet from the glowing creature, which resembled a Christmas tree, Jinkara watched as it took one final, heavy step backwards, the end so close, Jinkara could taste it.

Like the grand finale to fireworks display, the blood spears exploded violently in a deafening roar, and the creature was engulfed by a massive fire ball that bathed the entire underground parking lot in crimson light, a large rooster tail of dust kicked up my the rampaging shockwave.

Crossing his arms and ducking his head behind them, Jinkara dug his clawed feet into the ground as the shockwave crashed into him, pushing him backwards with all the power of a locomotive, the rush of the massive pillow of air absolutely deafening.

As quickly as it had hit Jinkara, the shockwave had washed over him and was running away towards the wall, slamming into the walls and damaging them even worse then before. Slowly, Jinkara uncovered his head and peered through the hazy darkness in front of him.

Despite a large amount of smoke hanging in the air, Jinkara could clearly see that the creature was gone, pieces of bone, flesh and maggots splattered on the floor behind where it had been standing moments earlier. Comically, the only remains of the creature were a pair of feet, jagged pieces of bone sticking out the top of the ankle, sitting motionless on the ground where the creature had been standing before being engulfed by the fiery explosion.

"Now that’s overkill Vaugn,", Jinkara purred happily as flecks of flesh and bone once suspended in the air by the shockwave, started to rain back down to earth and pelt Jinkara like hail.

"I’ll give you that one Jin,", Vaugn replied in an agreeing tone, "It definitely was overkill,", he finished, Jinkara smiling in an indulgent sort of way.

"I’ve had enough of these games however Vaugn,", Jinkara said, brushing off specks of flesh and bone from him, "Lets go and destroy Vermillion before he sends another one of his little distractions after us,", he finished as the smoke cloud cleared completely, revealing wall behind it, sporting a perfect coat of bone, flesh and squirming maggots.

Leaving the remains of the creature behind, Jinkara walked slowly towards the illuminated center of the room. Emerging in a illuminated patch of light, Jinkara was momentarily blinded by the brightness, but quickly readjusted. Taking a last lazy look around the battlefield that was once a container parking lot, Jinkara stared down the patch of illuminated concrete in front of him like a fighter pilot preparing for take off. Pushing himself forward, Jinkara broke into a slow walk, eventually turning into a casual jog, the lights of the roof forming one large glowing blur.

It seemed that Vermillion had thought that one mutated human would have been enough to stop Jinkara, as they didn’t meet another mutated human as they jogged down the underground trailer lot. The subterranean parking lot was completely silent, save except the sounds of Jinkara’s claws gently clacking on the pavement beneath him.

Like in the previous room-turn-battlefield, the path of lights slowly broke off into to three separate paths, two paths splitting off and going left and right, the other continuing to go straight, delving deeper into the subterranean lair that concealed Vermillion.

The further Vaugn and Jinkara ventured into the underground parking lot, the heavier and heavier the air became. It was as if pure evil was blowing in the gentle underground breeze washing over Jinkara’s skin, seemingly freezing the air and biting at his flesh.

After jogging through the slowly thickening air, Jinkara came to the end of the path, the row of lights on the roof splitting into two arms of light, one stretching to the left, one stretching to the right, both fading into distant spears of light in the utter darkness.

"Which way do you think it is Jin?", Vaugn asked as Jinkara stared from one dark path to the other, seemingly deep in thought of his choice.

"I think it’s this way Vaugn,", Jinkara snarled, pointing to the right, his nose wrinkling as if what he was sensing was disgusting, but none the less pushing himself forward, jogging down the barely illuminated right path.

Only a few steps down the illuminated path, the air was suddenly so thick with pulsating evil, that it seemingly formed a wall of pure hatred. The air was now as cold as ice, Jinkara’s breath rising up in thick clouds in front of his face, the skin of his arms and face starting to sting slightly from the freezing bite.

"So this is where Vermillion’s been hiding,", Jinkara snarled, slowing down to a walk, his body being weighted down by the crushing evil and utter cold around him.

Shaking his head to clear his mind, and pushing himself forward, Jinkara broke back into a brisk jog underneath the glowing roof lights. The air grew heavier and heavier with each step, feeling as if the air itself was about to harden into a solid wall of evil with the next step.

None of this mattered to Jinkara however. All that mattered to him was that he was getting closer and closer to Vermillion with each step, and closer and closer to slaughtering another of his former followers turned traitors.

Gradually in the distant, a gentle light could be scene, slowly growing larger and larger with each step, like the light at the end of a long tunnel. Though he was unsure of what it was, Jinkara knew that this light meant that his search was coming to an end, and that he’d be rewarded for his effort.

Breaking into a powerful sprint, Jinkara ran as fast as he could, the lights above blurring once more. The light at the end of the tunnel was growing as if on fast forward, Jinkara’s anger and excitement growing as fast as the light he was pursuing, reaching it’s breaking point in no time flat.

With a final, powerful burst of speed forward, Jinkara broke through the end of the hallway and was born into the flood of light, temporarily blinded by the explosion of light that met his eyes.




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