Chapter 6

Three-Way Combat

What Dana was standing before seemed like a scene from a horror movie. The sheer carnage and brutality that had happened in the club that she had gone to investigate was something no normal human would be able to do.

However, it appeared that normal was something that wasn’t a thing in the city any longer.

Not only was the violence that had obviously taken place in The Polar Bear Pit club something only the most twisted of minds could perform, but it was also a place that one couldn’t simply take on just like that. The place was known to have connections to Alexei Korchev, a big time crime lord no one would want to mess with. Any people that so much as had even the potential of damaging his businesses were quickly taken care of and never heard of again. Just the idea that someone would go into one of his clubs while the man himself was there and take out everybody in the room was just too impossible for anyone to even think of. Yet here were the results of just that very same idea.

What was even more terrifying was that it didn’t seem like the gangsters in the club were able to take out even a single attacker, if there were more than one. Not only that, but judging by the wounds inflicted on all the victims, no firearms were used by those that were attacking. In short, someone just took out a club full of people, some of them armed and involving the biggest crime group in the city, with their bare arms.

Dana had been lucky to get to the scene of the crime before any other cop was able to do so. One of her own sources had contacted her, telling her that something weird had happened here and she needed to see it. This had allowed her to have a fresh look at the place, before Cannary’s thugs managed to come in and mess up the place. While she was unfortunately not able to get everything she could from her investigation due to the time limit and lack of equipment, the detective was still able to make get a good idea of what had happened.

From what she could tell after looking around, it appeared that the one behind this massacre had been acting alone, judging by the lack of bodies belonging to anyone that seemed like an outsider and the fact that all the victims had been killed in similar ways. Dana could also tell that this wasn’t done by whoever had been responsible for the disappearance of Jennifer Harris and her friends or the one that had attacked her outside her apartment complex. This was someone she hadn’t met before. And judging by what they were capable of doing, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

“Jesus Christ almighty, this is some insane shit I’m dealing with here,” Dana said to herself as she looked around the bloodbath surrounding her. “Was this even a person or an animal that did this?”

As she explored the club more, the detective found the dead body of none other than Alexei Korchev himself. The mob boss had been torn open with his insides now decorating the walls.

“Well, if it isn’t big man Alex himself. Finally got yourself done in, didn’t you, asshole?” Dana said without any hint of sympathy, as she knew what the dead man had been responsible of and had watched him walk away from every attempt at catching him. “Kind of a shame, though. I wanted to be the one to put you down myself. Maybe the person who did this favor should get hired in the police force. Would certainly be better than most of the dickheads there.”

Suddenly, the detective heard the sound of sirens approaching. Knowing that she would only get in trouble by being caught there by Cannary’s underlings, Dana quickly made her way to the backdoor of the building, which allowed her to leave before any of cops even set foot in the club. She had also made sure to either avoid or take out any security cameras that were in the building, as well as cover any other traces she could leave behind, thus ensuring no evidence of her presence was left there.

With her investigation done, Dana started to think what her next move would be. The detective had looked through the files Shane had given him and could deduce that one of the killers that appeared in these files was the one behind this massacre as well. However, it was hard to track down this killer, as they seemed to attack random targets. These attacks varied from large groups of people to single individuals, but none of them were connected at all. Even the death of Alexei was most likely just a coincidence in the end.

To make matters worse, this was just one killer. There were still many more that appeared on the files, and the one that was responsible for the disappearance of the Harris girl. There could still be more out there, whose deeds hadn’t been discovered just yet. In order to get closer to even one of them, Dana would need a lead. Just something that would point her in the right direction.

As the detective was agonizing over what she could do to solve this case, her phone suddenly started ringing. She checked out who was calling her and saw that it was one of her informants, Ricky.

A couple of years ago, Ricky had gotten himself mixed up in some pretty bad business involving some of the shadier members of society. The guy had already been doing crime for some time by then, but had always made sure to not cross any lines that were better left untouched. Unfortunately, his new friends had convinced him to join them on a burglary that was supposed to be about robbing the house of some rich person who was put of town. Ricky had been hired as their driver and was supposed to just get the group away from the place, once they had looted it. A simple job where no one gets harmed and Ricky faces little to no risk.

However, things hadn’t gone the way they were supposed to. Instead of a burglary, it was a murder. The person whose home the group of people broke into was a lawyer that had been after Alexei Korchev for quite some time and was getting close to sending the mob boss behind bars for good. That was what the group Ricky was driving around had been really after.

Upon finding out what had really been going on, Ricky had obviously been horrified. Stealing was one thing, but killing was too far for him. Unfortunately, evidence was planted on him, making him the prime suspect. The group of thugs had even threatened Ricky’s life, if he were to say anything. With his mouth silenced through threats and evidence pointing at him as the murderer, it seemed like he was going away for a long time.

This was where Dana came in. She had looked into Ricky’s files and saw that there was absolutely no reason for him to kill a lawyer that was going after the biggest mob boss in the city. This seemed like it was something the small-time crook would never do, as he had stuck to petty theft to get by. In fact, Ricky had even once gotten caught due to staying at the crime scene to help the person he had tried to rob, as he had been an elderly man who would have died from a heart attack had it not been for Ricky.

Once Dana started looking, she found out about the real culprits of the murder. With some persuasion, she was able to get Ricky to testify against the real killers in court. This along with the evidence she had gathered got the real killers sent to prison for life and Ricky was freed. While they couldn’t get Alexei himself, they were able to at least correct things regarding the people involved in the murder.

With his life saved, Ricky decided to turn his life around. He went and got himself a real job and began to earn his money through hard work, instead of his usual thievery. However, he still had connections to the criminal elements of the city and knew where to look for information. Because of this, he became an informant for Dana, as he was grateful to her for saving him. This relationship went on even after the detective left the police due to the new chief.

Knowing just how reliable of a source Ricky was, Dana had a small grin on her face, as she answered the call. This was bound to be the lead she needed to her investigation started.

“Hey, Ricky! Got anything for-” Dana managed to say before being cut off by a panicked voice at the other end of the line.

“D, I need your help! Big time!” Ricky said in a panic while breathing heavily. “I tried to look into all sorts of weird stuff happening in the city, like you asked, and I stumbled into something that’s trying to get me killed! I need someone to save my ass before I end up dead!”

“Woah woah! Calm yourself, Rick!” the detective said in an effort to get her informant to calm down. “I’ll try to get there as soon as possible. Where are you and what happened?”

“I’m at the abandoned industrial area at the east side of the city. Near the old Mega Electronics warehouse,” Ricky answered the first question. “I looked into some stories the local homeless people were saying about some lady that was melting people around here. At first, I thought it was just some drunken bullshit, but turns out it was real! I saw several people that were melted right down to the bone! I even got to see the crazy bastard that was doing it! I tried following her to see where her hideout was, but she discovered me! I think I might have shaken her off my tail, but I’m too afraid to really move around, as she could still be there.”

“Okay. Stay hidden and wait for me. I’ll get there as soon as possible,” Dana instructed. “I don’t want you to go and get yourself hurt, so try not to make any sounds and stay out of sight. Understood?”

“I understand, D. Thank you.”

The call was ended at that and Dana immediately began to run towards her car. She needed to get to Ricky before it was too late. From what she had seen, the detective theorized that the thing that was chasing her informant was most likely one of the things that had been responsible for the recent deaths and disappearances. There had been a mention of a series of deaths involving victims being melted by what seemed like acid inside Shane’s files. Since this was most likely the same person, Ricky was in serious danger of becoming the next victim of this crazed killer.

Dana could only hope she got there in time, as she sped through the streets.

Over with Ricky, the informant was trying desperately to hide himself behind trash cans, while looking around in a panic for the person that had just been chasing him. Sweat was dripping down his brow, as he silently prayed to God in his mind that Dana would get there soon.

Upon getting his newest assignment from the detective, Ricky had wondered if Dana was losing her mind or something. The story she had told him about some crazy human-like monster attacking her with electricity sounded like it was something out of a comic book, not real life. He thought that he was going to snoop around some places, not really find anything and let the whole thing go.

However, upon looking around, he quickly learned that maybe Dana wasn’t completely crazy with her story, as he soon learned of people being killed in the most brutal and twisted ways possible, including getting electrified to death. When he learned about this, he tried to look into all of these cases as much as possible in an effort to possibly find the people behind them, but was unable to do so. The killings didn’t have any leads that could point him towards locating any suspects.

This changed when he learned of what had been happening to the homeless population in the abandoned industrial are in the city’s east side. What he gathered from some of the witnesses was that there was some sort of a “female demon” going around and killing people. On the outside, she seemed to be a beautiful redheaded woman, but in reality she was a monster that mercilessly killed those that made the mistake of coming near her by melting them with acid she spat from her mouth. Despite his common sense telling him that such a thing was impossible, the melted bodies told a different story.

It took some searching, but Ricky was eventually able to find the person in question. As he was walking down the empty streets, he suddenly heard screaming and rushed to investigate. What he discovered was a horror scene that involved two homeless men and a woman. One of the two men had already been killed, as his melting body laid on the ground with smoke rising up from it. The other man was also on the ground, desperately crawling backwards in an attempt to get away from the woman that was standing still, staring down at the still living man.

The next thing that happened was something Ricky would never be able to forget, as the woman grabbed the fleeing homeless man by his face with one hand and lifted him off the ground. The man tried to cry out for help, but all of his cries came out muffled and barely audible. The next thing that Ricky saw was smoke rising from the man’s face, as his screams intensified. The woman was somehow melting her victim with just her hand, all the while a cruel smile was on her face.

It didn’t take long for the homeless man’s cries to end, as he finally died. When this happened, the woman simply dropped her victim to the ground, like he was just a piece of trash. The smoke from the melting bodies started to clear up, allowing Ricky to get a better look at the killer.

She seemed to be a rather young lady of average height. She had bright red hair that was cut short along with make-up on her face. Her outfit consisted of a tight black bodysuit that had light blue stripes on the arms and the legs, as well as what appeared to be whit fur on the neck area. The suit had a zipper that had been opened up to the stomach area, most likely as a way to distract her victims. On her feet were black high-heeled boots that had white fur similar to the bodysuit on them.

Had he not witnessed this woman commit horrific murders right in front of his eyes, Ricky could have been taken in by her looks. But since he knew her true nature, he was able to stay in focus.

As he kept observing this bizarre killer, he heard a strange beeping sound come from her direction. This was revealed to be coming from her smartphone, which she took out from her outfit and checked out. Whatever it was, it seemed to have taken the killer’s attention completely, giving Ricky a chance to leave.

Unfortunately, his footsteps were loud enough for the acid woman to hear, who quickly turned her attention to him. Knowing the danger he was in, Ricky took off running in a desperate escape attempt. This led to him finding his current hiding spot, where he hoped that he had managed to get away from the killer.

The informant kept looking around, wondering if the thing that he had seen was still somewhere around. With the acid woman nowhere in sight, Ricky let out a sigh of relief and got up from his hiding spot. It seemed like he was in the clear.

“Hey,” a feminine voice whispered from above Ricky, causing him to freeze on the spot. He turned around and looked up to see the killer hanging from the wall behind him. “It’s not nice to leave a girl like that, you know?”

Ricky began to panic and wondered how she was able to stick to the wall the way she did. He then noticed that the areas of the wall that were underneath her hands and feet were melting, much like the people she had killed. This person was able to use her acid to create footholds for her to use in climbing walls.

The acid woman dropped down to the ground in front of Ricky and stared at him with a wicked smile. Normally the informant wouldn’t mind having a beautiful woman give him a look like that, but this wasn’t someone he would ever be able to get excited over in any way. He knew that his life was in danger and he needed to do something. It was a fight or flight situation where he needed to choose one of the two options.

His choice was to fight, which proved to be a mistake.

While he didn’t have any guns, Ricky knew his way around a fight. He also carried a switchblade with him at all times, as it helped keep him safe. Due to the nature of work he was often doing, it was a good idea to come prepared.

“STAY BACK!” Ricky shouted as he pulled out his switchblade and pointed it towards the acid woman. “I mean it! I will-”

The rest of his threat was cut off by his wrist getting grabbed. The woman’s grip was insanely strong, enough to make Ricky feel like his bones would break like toothpicks. She even twisted his arm to the side, causing him to cry out in pain and drop his blade.

“W-What the hell are you?” Ricky managed to ask while trying to bear the pain.

“I don’t really have a name. But I’m called Acidspring, if that makes you feel any better,” the woman answered with a wicked smile. “Let me show you why I have that name.”

Ricky’s eyes went wide as he began a desperate struggle to free his arm. It was all for nothing, as smoke soon began to rise from the part of his arm that Acidspring was holding. The acid quickly melted through the flesh and bones Acidspring was holding, causing the now severed hand to fall to the ground in a dull thud. Losing a limb in such a horrific manner caused Ricky to scream and fall on his knees.

“God I love this… The smell and the screams. I just can’t get enough of it,” Acidspring said with a wide and evil smile on her face. “It’s just too bad that it all has to come to an end. It was fun playing with you, though.”

The monster of a woman started to reach her hand towards Ricky, who closed his eyes and prepared for death. He was certain that his end would come.

“BACK OFF, LADY!” someone suddenly yelled in a voice that the informant recognized. “Don’t get even an inch closer to him or I’ll blow your brains out before you freaking know it!”

Ricky opened his eyes and looked up at his savior. Dana was standing there with her gun out and aimed right at Acidspring.

“D! YOU CAME!” Ricky said happily.

“Hey, Rick. Sorry for taking so long,” Dana said back, her eyes still on the lady that was just about to kill her informant. “Who’s your friend there? I know you don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to girls, but I think this might be the worst of the bunch so far.”

“Be careful, Dana! This bitch is dangerous!” Ricky said. “If she gets her hands on you, it’s over!”

“Well, good thing I have a gun then.”

To the surprise of both Dana and Ricky, Acidspring began to chuckle. It wasn’t even a normal chuckle either, as it sounded more ominous than anything.

“What’s so funny, asshole!?” Dana shouted, keeping her gun aimed at the woman. “You’re about to get some extra ventilation in your brains! I don’t see why that would be funny!”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I find your attitude towards me so amusing,” Acidspring answered with a smile. “Here you are, pointing your gun at me and thinking that you’ve already won. How can I not find that amusing?”

“Well, from the way I see it, the only way for you to win is to get a hold of me, but that’s not gonna happen. The second you even try to take a step towards me I will decorate this place with your brains,” the detective threatened. “So unless you’re faster than a bullet, I’d say that you’re pretty much screwed. But go ahead and take the chance. I wouldn’t mind blasting you to hell.”

“I won’t be doing that,” the redheaded killer said as she put her hands up with a smile still on her face. “However, are you absolutely sure that I can’t get you from here?”

Before Dana could ask what Acidspring meant, she noticed a weird bulge start rising up from the killer’s throat. Thanks to the detective’s instincts kicking in, she was able to move out of the way just in time, before a big ball of acid came flying out of Acidspring’s mouth. It still managed to hit Dana’s shoulder a bit, which burned her jacket and skin, but it was far from the damage a direct hit would have caused.

The detective tried to set her aims at the acid-using killer, but wasn’t fast enough. Now Dana was very skilled when it came to firefights, as she was one of the top gunmen in the whole police force. The problem was that she wasn’t fighting your average thug this time, but a being with powers far above a normal human.

Before the detective could fire her pistol, Acidspring was already close enough to deliver a powerful kick that sent Dana flying backwards. The impact was so powerful that it knocked the air out of Dana’s lungs and caused her to cough up blood. Her body hit the ground with an audible thud and rolled back a bit before coming to a stop.

Seeing as how the detective didn’t seem to be getting up, Acidspring smirked and began to turn her attention to Ricky. The way she saw it, she could kill the blonde woman at her leisure, other prey needed to be dealt with first.

“YOU FREAKING BASTARD!” Ricky roared in anger as he tried to slash at the killer with his switchblade that he had picked up with his remaining hand. While this could have been a perfect opportunity for him to escape, seeing his friend and savior get hurt in such a way sent Ricky into a blinding rage. Right now, he wanted to make Acidspring pay for what she had done.

The killer herself had not been expecting such an attack at all, as she had so far only encountered people that were turned into terrified messes upon seeing her abilities. No major resistance had come her way before now, which made her assume that this would go down similarly. While this assumption had left her open for an attack, the redheaded killer was still swift enough to dodge Ricky’s wild swings with ease.

However, one of those attacks did manage to land, leaving a shallow cut on her cheek. But it didn’t matter how deep the cut was, as the mere fact she had been cut was enough to send Acidspring into a rage.

“You little shit!” the redheaded killer yelled in rage, as she grabbed Ricky’s other arm and melted it with her acid, causing the informant to scream in pain again.

Acidspring wasn’t done yet, as she delivered a quick and powerful kick to Ricky’s leg, breaking it in half. Ricky was about to fall to the ground, but the acid woman grabbed him by the head and snapped his neck with a simple twist, which killed him instantly.

With one of her opponents dead for good, Acidspring turned her attention to the still unconscious Dana. She walked up to the detective, crouched next to her and started to reach towards her, intending to melt the blonde woman with her touch.

Just as she was about to end Dana’s life, Acidspring heard something behind her and rolled out of the way, just in time as a trash can flew past her at a fast speed. The redheaded killer turned to see who had just tried to attack her and saw what seemed like a young boy in a hoodie standing there. He had his hood up in order to cover his face, but Acidspring fully knew who this person was. After all, they had come from the same place.

“Telekyne… What a displeasure,” the redhead said with a sneer. “You couldn’t wait until I came to you? You just had to come here and ruin my fun?”

“Your sick fun ends here,” the hooded boy said with anger dripping from his voice. “I’ve come here to put you down.”

“Really now?” Acidspring said mockingly, as a small smile made its way to her face. “And just how are you going to do that? From what I remember, you were the runt of the pack back in the lab. How is a loser like you supposed to take me on?”

“The only reason you can say that is because you don’t know what I’m truly capable of,” the boy answered. “Unlike the rest of you, I never showed all of my skills. That’s the difference between people like me and idiots like you. You’re too drunk on your power to realize how to use it efficiently. While you have shown me everything you can do, I haven’t shown you everything I can do.”

“You better watch your mouth or-”

Acidspring’s threat was cut off as Telekyne suddenly lifted another trash can from the ground and threw it at her. The thing was that he didn’t actually touch it in order to do so. He simply made some movements with his hand and the object moved on its own.

The trash can hit its target, knocking her to the ground. Just as she was about to get up, she felt something suddenly hit her in the face and send her flying backwards. This was a telekinetic strike by Telekyne that he could do without grabbing an object.

“Do you see what I was talking about?” the boy said to his opponent, who was getting up from the ground.

Acidspring didn’t respond to her opponent’s taunt, as she was too focused on what had happened to her face. The last strike had broken her nose, causing it to bleed uncontrollably. Fury burned in her eyes, as she turned to glare at the one who had done this to her.

“You’ll pay for that, you brat,” the redheaded killer growled.

The two combatants charged towards each other, determined to kill their opponent. Acidspring had better physical abilities overall, which allowed her to move quickly in order to avoid anything that was thrown at her. She knew that her opponent wasn’t good at close combat, which is why she was desperately trying to close the distance and use her hands to end the fight.

However, Telekyne was proving to be a rather difficult opponent to handle. He was aware of his weakness when it came to fighting at close range, so he decided to keep the distance to his opponent, using whatever his telekinetic abilities managed to grab to do so. Luckily for him, the abandoned industrial are had plenty of ammunition for him, as there were old crates, oil drums and other large containers that had been left laying around. If those weren’t nearby, he could even tear out pieces of the ground or the walls of the building to provide more weapons.

Things weren’t looking too good for Acidspring, as she was starting to run out of stamina. Thanks to Telekyne not needing to get close to his opponent, he could bombard her without exerting his strength too much. To make matters worse for the redhead, she had been forced to shoot out acid from her mouth in large quantities a couple of times, which drained her strength even further.

It seemed like the telekinesis user hadn’t been bluffing about not showing all of his skills up to this point. Acidspring was starting to lose ground and wouldn’t be able to last for much longer as a result.

The lack in stamina caused Acidspring to slow down for just a second, but that was more than enough for Telekyne. A large dumpster smashed into her, knocking her to the wall of an abandoned warehouse right behind her. As she struggled to get up, she was once again pushed back by an invisible force. She looked up to see her opponent standing in front of her, while holding an old forklift far above himself with his telekinesis.

“Any last words?” Telekyne asked with his arms up, using them to channel his telekinetic force to keep the forklift above himself.

Acidspring furiously tried to think of a way for her to get out of this situation. If she didn’t think of something soon, it would be the end for her and she would be turned into a stain on the ground.

Could she get up and rush towards her opponent? No, she wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to do that without getting crushed. Could she spit more acid at him? She had pretty much run out of it during the battle and only had one shot left before going completely dry, and her charging a shot would be noticed too soon. Maybe she could talk her way out of this? Telekyne knew what she was like and wouldn’t show any mercy towards her.

As she was running out of options, Acidspring became more and more desperate. It seemed like there was nothing she could do to save herself from this predicament. Just as she was beginning to lose hope, she found a way that would get her out of this situation and smiled.

“Well, look at you now… Acting like a real big shot now that you’ve got me at your mercy. Too bad that I happen to know your biggest weakness,” Acidspring said with a chuckle. “You’re way too kind for your own good!”

Before Telekyne could ask what his opponent meant, she turned her face away from him and let out a shot of acid. It was then that he realized that she was actually aiming for the still unconscious Dana, who was completely defenseless. Time seemed to slow down for the telekinesis user, as he quickly threw the forklift he had been holding up with his powers to intercept the ball of corrosive substance.

Luckily for both him and Dana, the machine managed to hit the ball of acid and crash into the wall of a warehouse, leaving the detective unharmed. Unfortunately for him this also allowed Acidspring to use this moment of him being defenseless to her advantage. She delivered a powerful kick to Telekyne’s chest, sending him flying backwards to an empty crate, where he then fell unconscious.

Acidspring had a wicked smile on her face as she approached the unconscious boy. It was a good thing she remembered that Telekyne was very different from all the others of their kind. While most of them were bloodthirsty and violent killers, he tried his best to avoid killing as much as possible and would even risk his own life to keep others safe. She didn’t know why he was like this, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was that she had come out on top in this fight to the death.

“Next time you get a chance to take out your opponent, don’t hesitate,” Acidspring said as she leaned over her unconscious opponent and got ready to deliver the final blow.

Just as she was about to finish her opponent, the redheaded killer was suddenly interrupted by an arm wrapping around her neck from behind, putting her in a chokehold. Before she could fight back, she felt a stinging pain in her back, which was soon followed by the feeling of something warm spreading around that area, while the rest of her body was starting to lose strength and warmth.

“Thanks for the tip, asshole. But I think you should have used it when you were dealing with me,” Dana whispered with hatred to Acidspring, as she kept a firm grip on Ricky’s switchblade, which was now fully buried into the redhead’s back.

“Y-You bastard… How dare you-” Acidspring began to say as she coughed up blood, but was cut off by the detective.

“Don’t you even dare start saying shit like that with me! This is for Ricky and all the other people you killed!” Dana roared before letting her rage take control of her. This person had just killed one of her friends and the blonde was going to make sure she paid for it.

In her fit of rage, Dana began to furiously stab Acidspring in the back, leaving behind more and more deep cuts. The redhead herself was coughing up blood and soon fell to her knees, being held up only by the arm still wrapped around her neck. It was then that the arm holding the killer switched positions and now grabbed hold of the killer’s hair and pulled her head back a bit. This allowed Dana to stab the blade into her enemy’s throat and the slice it open, causing even more blood to flow out. This last attack was most likely unnecessary, but the detective wanted to be absolutely sure that the person that was such a dangerous killer would die and stay dead for good.

With Acidspring’s body going completely limp and lifeless over the lethal assault she had just been at the receiving end of, Dana finally allowed her to fall to the ground dead. She herself was panting heavily, as she had poured all of her hatred into killing the one responsible for Ricky’s death. Now that she was out, Dana could take a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

“When you see Alexei in hell, tell him I said “screw you,” the detective said and spat on her enemy’s corpse. She then turned her attention towards the young boy, who had been fighting Acidspring.

Towards the end of the fight, Dana had begun to regain her consciousness. She had been able to hear and see enough to tell her that the person fighting the acid user was not her enemy and had actually saved her life. Whoever this person was, she owed her life to him now and she was going to make sure she would repay her debt to him.

“Don’t know who you are, kid, but you saved my ass,” Dana muttered as she went to check on the still unconscious boy. “Let’s get you out of here and fix you-”

The rest of the detective’s words stopped as she took off the boy’s hood, revealing his face. What she saw made her completely speechless and caused her eyes to go as wide as possible.

“Holy fucking shit…”