Those red orbs sought flesh and bone to quench upon a built-in rage that may never leave. Death may come to those within the warehouse, an outcome that Claire bid with no desire to stall. Even she clenched her fists as her nasal cavity flared by unburdened heat.
Revenge would be exacted onto all that may come to cease their function.
The Devil and his assistant pushed against the steel fence, one hand each, on its barbed covering. Then, with a mechanically held leg drawn to either's waist, they kicked to the surface. Their heels smashing on the steel, shot it meters apart without resistance. They entered into the complex eyeing each detail with scrutiny abound.
Puddles of forgotten rain spilled beneath the gutter to the building while its burning bulbs above cast their shadows long as well as deep across the courtyard. Several containers and boxes piled against each other to form mountains of materials. A quick snap of one of the boxes' lids led Kage to find bags of blood with medical equipment a foot below. The bags were of various colors mixed with combining scents. A snap of his bared teeth stole more hatred as the materials told of the amassing number of dead siphoned in their production.
Dozens of similar boxes crowded the outside before they maneuvered to a side door, one which was uncovered after four of the obstructions were tossed into a snapped heap of wood. Claire jiggled the handle yet the door stood still. She readied her throat in order to release a sonic blast that would not only blow down the door but also the attached wall, however, Kage stopped her attempt with his hand covering her mouth.
"You'll alert not only the people inside but everyone on the block if you do that." Kage then stepped from the door, producing a solid brick in his clutch. A swiftly precise toss smashed the brick into a window four feet above them. He briskly covered his eyes from the potential of falling glass before he jumped to the ledge of the now shattered window making sure to swipe away the crooked edges of glass. The ledge devoid of any sharp pieces allowed Kage to reach below for Claire's hand, an action instead denied as she jumped with little effort beside him. What remained of the apparent offer was a confused question from Claire as Kage absently wiped away the gesture; a smile perking her cheeks.
The two Evolved dropped from their post into the deafening silence of the warehouse. Inside, Kage expected to find a cramped space of horrors, however, the sight was not gifted to them. Instead, the place appeared to have been cleared long before their arrival.
A sudden pit of despair dropped in his stomach.
'Did I miss it? Was I too slow? No, NO! This can't be the end of it, never!'
He searched through the darkness as he bumped into shelves filled with nothing but the remnants of overturned cardboard cases as its wrapping cushioned the floor, slashed by the heels of countless boots. Earlier there must have been hundreds that entered the building clearing it of all that was important to the owners. Now leaving the building bare of all except the dribble of leaky roof tiles to bitterly harm the floor below.
A chilling mist conjoined Kage's figure. "Claire, find him." At his words she took off down the rows upon rows of shelves. Each box was emptied holding only the smudge of fingerprints to speak of another function.
Kage was alongside her as they progressed deeper into the belly of the building which spoke of unheard of horrors. Ones which may stay silent forever in the midst of their frantic search.
'I AM NOT WEAK! I WILL NOT LOSE HIM!' Kage screamed in the confines of himself. Powerlessness dragged him into a slower pittance of a hobble. Then, just when the darkness seemed to be encompassing his very soul, a sharp glint of light cut across the shelves exposing him to its aurora. Holding no sense of stealth anymore, Kage slid through the metal racks until the light grew larger, then even larger, until it was upon his frantic dash. Claire followed as the same hope drew her nearer.
At last Kage stood in the midst of its admonishing form. The light swung as a singular bulb which pranced back and forth to the tune of the sea's furtive chase while the wind from its waves seeped into the ill-manner of construction that made up the warehouse. Under its array lay simply nothing with existence itself perished from reality.
The boy fell to his knees as his hope was snuffed just as existence became. There was no lost soul to discover, thus a futile chance at redemption. His eyes dizzied in the grasp of the situation he couldn't hope to process.
Sounds of creaking metal while dampening fervor fell onto his shoulders. Claire took a step to ease the boy, but no words came. Thus she then tried a swipe of her hand, but none came. A conjure of her mind provoked blank, bringing forth more nothingness than thought possible. She as well was stuck in the pit of failure too. Claire forgot how to comfort one in this depth of loss for she now stood at the brink overlooking the swallowing chasm.
Kage failed in spectacular fashion which gave no hint of a course for where or what became of his friend. Wrenching grips caught onto his sleeves as they wished to pull him closer to his natural home. Death sought penance with Kage only left with the barren corpse of a skeletal warehouse, now made into a grave of his dreams.
In this creeping facility the only semblance of change lay in the rattle of the lightbulb. Its sole accordance drowned out the shadows which crawled forward to tear open Kage for his misgivings unto the world. All that came with its illumination was the square tiling of the concrete floor…
A tiled floor that was made for a warehouse of all places. Tiles that were not in some constant pattern that decorated the inside but rather of a random selection that told of another tale instead. Tiles that when Kage stuffed his finger into their crevice, lifted without so much as a penny of effort.
He crouched low to the floor tracing his finger into the crevice as soot moved with the flimsy article of flesh. The finger dug into the concrete, scooping out handfuls of the lining as Kage shifted position, eventually forcing out enough of the stuff so that a square approximately six feet in width and seven in height was cut from the floor. Claire joined him once she too spotted the design that Kage had created. She aided by forcing back the solid material with a gust of her breath blowing off the dusted leftovers of their excavation. This act allowed either of their hands to reach down, taking more from the crevice.
After a dozen or so minutes passed of them removing the concrete lining, the two stood back to shove their hands into the top of the square piece, now cut from the floor. "On the count of three." Kage seethed.
"One…" Claire readied her arms and thighs for the expenditure of her strength.
"Two…" Kage gulped his own worry away as resolve replaced the doubt from the stomach of his gut.
"THREE!" He bellowed out while the rage manifested in his body then out to the concrete they strived to lift. Claire and him cried with animalistic anger as slowly but surely their evolved strength bulged the veins from their biceps as well as in their temples. And with that strength, the tile lifted as they willed it to do so.
Their digging of the concrete spoke of the depth this slab of concrete bore, which was not light in size with nearly a foot of the material dug into the earth. In total the weight they needed to excavate amounted to no less than 5,881 pounds which Kage rounded down to five tons rather than six. A measly number that was allowed to escape from his rational mind.
Claire and Kage's cries wailed on the sheet metal of the building which gave credence to the slab that rose high enough for the two of them to rest it on the edge of the flooring. From there they took position on the adjacent edge to push the rest away from the pit it hid.
Successfully, they removed the covering which now revealed the ghastly abode below. A hovel carved into the pattern of a rectangle which fit the diameters of the same concrete block that kept its resident inside. The pit made of a stainless metal, Kage presumed to be iliun, lined the pit as it stretched fifteen feet below them. Bubbles of a sulfuric stench rose from its container while the couple peered at the resident, recognition soon overcoming them.
It was a home to some cruelly disheveled figure torn from flesh with only bone serving as a sign of its humanity. Blood caked the walls in its gore while chained claws stretched from the pit's bottom clasping the legs and feet of the corpse balled into a corner. Any sense of what may have been musculature or fat had lost itself from the body as the skin tightened around his flimsy bones. Scouring the person's figure further, Kage honed in on the black dots which spoke of injection sites into his spine. All that remained of those locations plumed into bumps swelling with clotted blood while its black lacquer calmly seeped from the wounds.
Orange strands, perhaps beholden to length at some point, were no more other than buzzed tufts that sprang in a chaotic fashion on the scalp of the person. It wasn't done by the use of a razor but rather hands wrought in madness seeking any outlet for its pain to be enacted upon.
"Claire…" His voice was smooth, unmarred by the sight which would be staked into his mind until reality's end. It spoke more than any occurrence of vitriol which would spew from the boy's lips.
She subsequently dropped into the pit easing the toll of gravity with the use of her sonic capabilities. Behind her, Kage was not far, as he seamlessly pushed past her no more than a foot from the chained Evolved. Before, the boy could recount how a simple scent may have wafted from the person's body on a day absent in flavor. However, that once born aura had been sapped leaving nothing behind but a stale clot of powerlessness.
Somehow, some way, his aura was nulled then stolen.
Kage bent down raising a hand to what was presumed to be the shoulder of the child yet no acknowledgment was granted by him. "..." Although he wished to speak out to the skeletal remains nothing came to reconcile a nearly dead apparition. Regret bloomed into a great wandering cloak covering those within the pit.
For once, lost without reason, Kage muttered unknown tales beneath his chin while stuttered phrases ran, reminding the boy of the very thing in front of him. Bound by similar chains which forced him in place, the stretched corpse twisted to the side ensuring that the forgotten friend may gaze upon the malnourished face beyond.
Narrow cheekbones bit outward wishing to scrape away the skin that blocked its purpose to disintegrate. Only beaten by the hallowed eye sockets that bore no version of sight any more. Stolen just as was the boy's power. The twitch to the corpse's ears furthered to say that there lay something amiss, but as Kage snapped his fingers the answer was given without reaction.
The loneliness of the warehouse soon ended as a rattled voice echoed from its trachea. Or, so Kage thought it would be but instead a high-pitched screech mumbled from the dryly stretched lips of the boy. Claire, startled by the screech, jumped a few feet away with Kage taking the brunt of its cry.
The corpse's lasting bits of hydration splattered into the boy's expression, muddying the surface more. Kage could not draw away from the person's harrowing denial of reality. For, the fault lied with him, therefore, leaving him the one to take responsibility. A duty expected now controlled as fear encompassed all that the boy, turned dead, mustered.
Recipient to the attack, Kage bore the brunt of the scream which petered out seconds after. The expenditure of the boy's strength left him limp as his limbs flopped without use, subtle slashes on the tendons exposed the truth of the matter.
Finally, he opened his mouth, able to command the room again. "I'm sorry…" He motioned for Claire's aid as they broke the chains off the person's arms then legs, placing the naked Daniel onto Kage's back without opposition. While he climbed out from the smooth pit, the reverberations of coughing vomit fell on the blackened hole's floor. A girl wished no more for the night as the friend's image tainted his life within her memory.
He laid Daniel's still body on the solid surface of concrete, reaching a hand down into the crevice for Claire's usage. This time, she gladly took the gesture sprawling out next to Kage's dizzied gaze.
An unbearable silence passed throughout the structure of the building, releasing its own creaks and quaking gasps which seemed to come closer to the dreadful inhales of a hungering beast.
"We need to get him to a hospital." Kage broke the silence. "Otherwise, he'll be dead before the night's end."
Claire nodded along, then stood preparing to take the boy onto her back subsequently to fly his body into the nearest emergency room. However, her action was stopped just as it began with a harsh grasp of Kage's hand around her wrist. She accusingly questioned the hand but found her stupidity readied to be lambasted.
"If you take him through flight, his body will be railed by the pressure then torn apart. He'll never make it, so we have to use a car - We have to get a car…"
She perked up as an idea came to mind, "Ah! I bet we can hotwire one of the ones out front, I learned how to do that last year." Claire's expression betrayed a wish to be away from the scene. She wanted to disappear from the remnants of the dying child. Thus, this was all she could come up with, a foolish idea that would surely land them in greater trouble. That was at least what she expected from Kage with a soon to be more concrete idea formed, yet she was mistaken.
He let go of her wrist then fell to the floor bending his right knee up to his face allowing the other to remain flat. Without turning his face he answered, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Go bring the car to the front then come back for Daniel. I'll wait here. I'll be here with him."
The silence returned in a foreboding sense that pushed against her back as a means to change scenery. She allowed this pressure to push her away with her glancing at Kage's back, only once more out of a discrepancy she heard. It was subtle, as if a worm had wiggled through a patch of dirt. His back lifted then dropped low as a fit of muted laughter braced against the boy. In the mix of this laughter were the splotches of wetness which iced the floor, transforming it into a darkened puddle.
Claire hoped to leave Kage alone as the emotions burst from the dam of welled thoughts, but her approach back to the shattered window was suddenly halted.
'CREAK!'
A loud rusted screech, not too dissimilar from Daniel's, poured over the warehouse like a billowing dragon claiming the land as its territory.
On the far end of the structure its sliding door, standing twenty feet in height then another twenty-five in width, eased open. The entrance clasped by a steel lock then barred with beams were no obstacle to the being that pushed such protections away. All those objects shifted into position, to stop the force of an intruder, failed, as the beams snapped like a stuffed animal with the locks proving no better a chance with their hasty expulsion flung bits of metal closer to the two Evolved. Throughout the process all they could do was to stare down the beholder granting them the visage of such displayed power.
Then, there with the door shoved wide, exposing the vast vista of an oceanic tide splashing upon grains of sand, a lone figure stole the center of this image. Muscles exploded with an untold strength that painted their rotundness a sickly vermillion. Of course, they weren't synonymous with his entire body but rather were grown in his arms' biceps, shoulders, then legs and thighs. The core of the person stayed its twig-like self that could easily be blown away by the incoming wind.
In its midst, an alarm of steaming heat stormed out from the maw of the Evolved. Accompanied by his creepingly blistered aura that found vibrations in the warehouse's foundation. The person stepped into the building, shaking the beams which were conducted as support for the ramshackle ruin.
Gan arrived on time, if not but a little too early, contemplating the course he shall take.