Somewhere in a Euro-Asian Polis.

“Nein.” the man’s heavy voice echoed in the dimly lit room.

“Why are you so hesitant?” - interjected a younger, lighter voice - “Do you need more money as a payment? Is that it?” - his tone becoming more annoyed with each word.

“No, you misunderstand.” answered the first man; his thick, stumpy index finger tapping rhythmically on the metal table in the center of the room.

“That's Grinsender Teufel’s territory.”

“Grinsender Teufel?”

“Grinning Devil”

Saying that name brought all the movements in the room to a halt, as if this being, this Devil, would overhear what they would say.

“D-did he not retire years ago?” stuttered the younger voice, the dim light revealing his well-tailored suit.

“HA!” the deeper voice chuckled heartily, his slight movements showing his casual attire.

“You see…” began the man after some deep breaths -“an Unknown never retires, he either dies or he dies, no other end.”

Silence ensued for a few seconds; only to be interrupted by the tapping of the seated man’s fingers.

“What if we got other Grade A Unknowns to deal with him?”

“No one in the right mind would accept it kiddo.”

“...”

“You have not been in this business for long have you?” asked the man, his hands reaching in his pockets.

“I started a few months ago b-”

“So an ignorant child, no wonder you don’t know the extent of the... what’s the word…ah yes, fuck-upness of the Devil.” interrupted the man, now in his mouth, a smoking cigarette; a rare commodity nowadays.

“...What would it take you for you to get there and deal with our situation?” the young man asked, his shoulders slouching.

The smoking man, reclined on the chair, puffed a cloud of smoke and put three fingers up.

“Three doses of A.C.E.S.”

“W-what!?” - the young man's body started shaking, his clenched fists hitting the table - “That’s an outrageous request!”

“That’s what I would need to deal with an N.I. Grade Unknown.”

“...”

“...”

The two men stared each other in the eyes, one torn inside and the other quite carefree.

“... I will speak with my superiors about it.”

“Sure, do so kiddo.” said the casually-dressed man, slowly getting up from his chair.

“Please remain close by so we can contact you.”

“Ja, ja.”

The Grinning Devil

The sound of the rain hitting the window always soothed the Grinning Devil. The rhythmic tapping of the droplets on the glass gave him a false feeling of comfort which in these past few months he quite enjoyed.

The man slowly rose from his sofa and walked towards the entrance door. Before reaching for the eyelet, he stopped to look at the stairs leading to the second floor, the corner of his lips twitching.

He removed the metalic cover and saw through the hole. Outside he saw two figures rapidly approaching the door. They had dark blue cloaks that covered most of them, not allowing easy identification, but the Devil was quick to notice that it was a male and a young child.

This made him furrow his brow. While still looking at the figures, his hand moved towards a switch and flipped it upwards. His ears twitched, there was movement from upstairs. This brought some peace to his mind.

The man and child were right in front of the door. The former was reaching towards the door, but it suddenly flung open, the Devil, with impeccable timing, grabbed the man’s collar and threw him inside.

The man was going to hit the floor head first when the latter decided to open up and swallow the man down to the darkness below.

Before the child could begin to scream, the Devil grabbed her throat and threw her inside the hole too.

After that, the Devil looked outside to spot any possible witnesses. He did not see any. It would seem he had some time yet before they found the refuge. He closed the door, flipped the switch and turned around.

He looked towards the stairs leading upward and from its shadows he saw a masked figure looking at him. The Devil simply nodded and the figure nodded back, slipping back to the darkness it came from..

With a slowly forming grin on his face, he started walking towards the basement, where he would kindly ask their visitors as to why they came here.

Going downstairs, the Devil’s hand touched another switch. Lights, flickering weakly back to life, started to illuminate the stairs and the room in which the intruders were gently put.

A big lamp illuminated the room from its central position, not allowing a single shadow to exist. The pristine gray walls and floor, the lack of any sort of furniture except for a single square shaped structure, in which the intruders were slowly rising to their feet.

The inquisitive eye of the Devil gave a quick look at the both of them. The man, most probably in his sixties, had a reclining hairline, white hair and beard. Round glasses, one with a broken lense, probably thanks to the fall. From his white, now dirtied, lab coat he could deduce he was a lab guy. The eye stopped at the coat-of-arms of his chest pocket.

“The Human Development Department? Ohohoh.”

The situation had just gotten more interesting. He turned his gaze to the child. She was wearing civilian clothes and a cap to hide, though not too well, her platinum colored hair. The thing that jumped out more were her eyes, a deep purple.

“Overdose of ACE?”

Overdosing on ACEs has been known to change the iris into an unseen color, but the Devil wondered why this kid was not yet a bumbling and twitching mess of flesh on the floor.

*Cough*

The Devil turned to look at the old man. Now noticing the discoloration of his nails hinting to a frequent consumer of nicotine. Of more interest, was the ring around his left hand anular, very old fashioned, but fitting.

“I am here for a very urgent request.” spoke the scientist, his voice deep confirming his smoking habits.

“And for that you come uninvited before my house?” his ever present grin somehow made the interaction more unsettling than it had a right to me.

“I came knowing the risks well, please listen to it then you decide what to do.” the man’s voice did not even crack for a moment.

The Devil shrugged, seemingly amused by the old man. He loved this kind of person, people that had accepted death but still charged forward without fear.

“I...we are currently escaping from the H.D.D.” - he started, his arm grabbing the girl’s shoulder and bringing her closer to him - “and we need your help.”

“No.” was the immediate response.

The scientist sighed.

“I knew you would say that, which is why I brought this with me.” in his hand now a flashdrive.

The Devil kept his smile, only raising his eyebrow a bit.

“I knew a man such as yourself would not be moved by anything that did not benefit him, so right here I have all the information the Department had over the Slaughter of the Hong Kong Polis.”

A cold shiver went up and down the Devil’s spine, his hair all stood up as if to warm him. Behind him, he felt that familiar presence. That tall masked figure stood now beside him. The wooden mask did not show even an inch of her face. Even so he could feel all that she was in the highest state of alertness.

The child immediately hid behind the scientist, closing and opening her eyes in the vain hope that the masked stranger would disappear. The old man was doing a great job keeping a straight face, but his excessive sweating was giving him out.

“Speak.” demanded the new member of the conversation, her voice deep and grated, but still recognizable as that of a female.

The scientist gulped.

“Y-yes, I read old reports from the departed and noticed that rarely did the Devil and Khutulun ever accept monetary payment, what they wanted was information.” - he turned to look at the masked figure known as Khutulun - “Especially those concerning the Second Pacific War and Asian Polis #2.”

She just stared at him silently. The uncertainty in knowing her feelings made the old scientist feel like he was playing chess with Death, while being blindfolded. It was not a nice sensation.

The single clap of the Devil’s hand brought all the attention in the room back to him.

“I assume the flash drive is encrypted and that I cannot take it from you by force.”

“That would be correct.”

“Fantastic.” - a sigh escaped from the Devil’s lips - “Tell us more about what we need to do.”

“So you acce-”

“Yeah yeah, come on, you don’t have all day do you?” interrupted the Devil, his grin back to his face.

The scientist remained silent, then a chuckle from him.

“There is nothing that the Devil cannot notice uh?”

“Devil is in the details Doc, and failing to see the sign of late-stage poisoning would be quite a hit to my reputation.”

“Indeed.” sighed the old man.

The child behind him, having heard that, grabbed more firmly the leg of the scientist. Her voice but a whisper, begging him to remain. The man only showed her a weary smile.

“Ok Doc, give us the details of this contract.”

The scientist coughed gently, drawing worried glances from the child beside him.

“I need you to bring this child to Takamagahara.”

“Are you referring to the one in old Japan, I assume?”

“Yes, you see…” - he stopped and brought the child forward - “Evelyne here is a prodigious child, born through the joint collaboration of all the Departments all over the globe.”

The Devil and Khutulun looked hard at the girl. The latter, not used to being stared at by strangers, hid her face with her hands, but still one could notice that particular shine in her eye.

“There is an explanation as to why she is not rolling on the ground and forming fleshy growths all over here?” asked the Devil, his right hand in his pocket.

“Yes, as you have noticed, Eve shows the classic symptom of A.C.E. overdose but her body has grown used to it so she will never show any negative consequences from it.”

“...” Khutulun turned to look at the girl, then to the doc and finally to the Devil.

“You mean to say that she is able to regenerate any wounds?”

“Depending on the severity, the dosage is still low, but she is still growing. In a few years she will be truly immortal.” The scientist's eyes were shining, as if he was a kid showing his drawing to his parents.

“You created a damn immortal human…”

“Now humanity shal-”

The Devil quickly drew a small caliber revolver from his pocket and shot the child.

The bullet scraped her skin, though enough to draw blood. Surprisingly, she showed no sight of pain, or even distress. The wound stopped bleeding in less than a second and already there was a scab forming over it.

“...is that enough to clear your doubts?”

The man turned to look at his partner. She nodded.

“Think so.” The grinning man shrugged.

The Devil crossed his arm and awaited for the man to continue, his eyes though, were looking something behind them. The old man did not notice it.

“A classic escort mission.” - The Devil nodded - “Easy enough.”

“The other Departments will give you no quarter and are paying multiple Unknowns to deal with you.” informed the scientist.

“Competition! Something I dearly missed!” exulted the man, with a smile that threatened to tear his cheeks open.

“We should get ready.” interjected Khutulun, her voice low as that of a whisper.

“I will retrieve the equipment in a bit…” - said the Devil, his glare stopping at the doc, his smile seemingly oozing malice - “ I need you to do something for us Doc, which will aid us greatly in escaping the Polis.”

“I will help however I can.” responded the Doc, his hand on his chest.

The Sniper

“Yes sir, the target is inside the Silver Dragon HQ.” said the sniper, looking below through his binoculars.

“Roger that S-1, try to keep us updated on his position and for the love of whatever is sacred, do not take a shot, under any circumstances.” cautioned the stern voice from the radio.

“Will do sir, S-1 out.” The sniper hooked his radio to his vest.

The sniper looked around for any possible sign of changing weather. Once he was sure that there was no presence of winds or clouds, he put his bag down and started assembling his sniper rifle.

He had done it so many times that it was second nature to him and because of it, his mind started thinking about the contract.

“To keep track of the movements of the Grinning Devil and, if the opportunity arises, to help the ground force while on the high ground.”

The sniper chuckled.

“Like it would be that easy.”

He had read some previous reports on the movements of the Devil. Well, rather than read it he skimmed through it. It was one of the shorter reconnaissance reports he had ever read, but while reading it and seeing the results of the operations, he understood one thing.

“If you find him, it is because he wants to be found.”

He did not tell anything to his client, his job was to simply find him, nothing more, nothing less. He was mostly done with his job, he just had to sometimes tell them where he was and get the money once they failed to capture him.

“Easy as it comes…I hope.”

The sniper picked up his phone and started reading through the chat. After doing so, he put it back in his pocket and looked at the entrance of the building.

“That is quite the squad they have there…”

Most of them seemed normal humans, though the equipment and exoskeleton they were using was of the highest grade. One of them seemed different, wearing only the bare meaning and not sporting one of the high-tech helmets.

The sniper whistled.

“They even called in the Mad Dog?”

Now the sniper was starting to worry. If they called in so much firepower, this place would become a wasteland soon.

“Should I bail?”

This thought had been floating in his mind since he accepted the contract. He knew the Devil kills only in retaliation, so his life would be safe. The doubt lingered in his heart, for trying to predict what the Grinning Devil would do is something only Oracles can do, even barely so.

He sighed.

The sniper laid down on his stomach, rested his check on the cheek pad and started to regulate his breath.

“Update S-1.”

With trained movements he started looking through the various windows.

“Gotcha.”

“Third floor and I have a clear line of sight on the target, sir.”

“Good, don’t take the shot unless I say otherwise.”

“Yes, sir.”

All it would take is to press the trigger and he would become the one to have killed the Grinning Devil. The sniper would lie if that thought had not passed his mind, who would not love to be recognized for his amazing achievement?

His finger trembled, he aimed a bit higher than the Devil’s head.

“A perfect shot…”

In that instant, as if he had heard his thoughts, the Devil turned his head to look straight at him.

Before he could think or do anything else, he heard a voice from his radio.

“Look behind you.”

A moment of confusion was all that was needed. The sniper felt something cold hit his neck, his vision blacked out and soon he was off somewhere else.

The Doc

“There is nothing out there Devil.” said the Doc.

“That’s reassuring.” the Devil’s voice spoke directly into his ear.

The Doc was wearing his mask and clothes prepared by the Devil. That was his plan. The Doc would be the bait, pretending to be him. Going to the Silver Dragon HQ was to add more chaos to the mayhem that this place was soon to become.

“While I have no right to speak, don’t you think it is too much?” asked the Doc, fiddling with something in his jacket’s pocket.

The helmet prevented any sound from the inside to be heard, unless the internal microphone was turned on.

“These are all criminals Doc, and for the others…they know what is the fate of those that try to kill me…”

The last sentence, while said in the same tone as the other, sent a shiver through the Doc’s spine. This fear came from the knowledge of the Devil’s previous achievements, this was someone who could walk the walk, if needed.

“The only one that I would feel bad about is you Doc, but you are already a dead man walking.”

The Doc chuckled. The members of the Silver Dragon charged to keep an eye on him till the boss came, started to sweat.

“You are incapable of not being blunt are you?”

“It is a quality I take pride in, though it has put me in trouble in the past.”

“Like the Spider Pandemonium?”

“...”

The Doc resisted his urge to laugh, else the guards would be shitting bricks soon. Remembering that event made the scientist curious to how the Spider Queen was able to modify the spiders and remotely control them. The most believed theory is that her body was able to produce specific pheromones that allowed her to manipulate the spiders. Shame it did not work when one of her creations ate her alive.

“Or maybe that was the Devil’s doing?”

The Doc shook his head. No use thinking such stuff now.

The door opened and a new figure entered. Short, lanky, most of his body cybernetically-enhanced, the silver reflection of his body seemed to blind his guards which quietly left the room and closed the door behind them.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” asked the Cyborg; his voice was modified too, making it impossible to determine his accent.

“I have a rat infestation to deal with, so I need some capable hands.” The Devil’s voice projected from the helmet.

“Oh? that will be costly…even for someone like you.”

“While I would love to negotiate a price, I think it is time for you to do your job.”

The Cyborg looked confused, until one of his lackeys came up and whispered something in his still-human left ear.

His face twisted itself in a mask of anger.

The Doc felt his knees tremble and almost brought out his hand from his pocket. Thankfully he did not.

“I will charge you double for this…” ended the Cyborg before leaving the room.

The Doc breathed a sigh of relief.

“How do you deal with something like this?” asked the faux Devil.

“After you deal with the truly terrific, these ones are more like puppies showing their teeths, it is adorable.”

“I do not want to know what you find truly horrific…”

“You are in luck then, you will never!”

The Doc groaned.

“You made peace with yourself Doc?” asked the Devil, his voice lower and with what the scientist would call, concern.

“I already made peace with myself when I left the Department…” he answered, his hand rubbing the object he had in his pocket.

“If you say so.”

Now it was the waiting game. Outside he could already hear the sounds of combat. Firearms, mechanical pistons, some lasers and…an explosive? The whole building seemed to shake. Moments later, a man wearing a swat uniform and exoskeleton opened the door.

They both stared at one another for a split second, before the soldier opened fire. The bullets did not hurt the Doc, the Devil had given him painkillers but he still slumped on the wall behind him. Blood smeared the wall until he reached a sitting position, in which the blood started pooling under him.

It is said that one’s life flashes before you when you die, but that was just a lie. The only thing that he was thinking about was his regrets. How he could not protect his wife or save his son…all for the greater good, for a new future!

The Doc coughed up some blood. Seeing the Devil in such a state, made the soldier cautiously approach him.

“Fuck all of this.” he thought.

He took out the object in his pocket, but before he could do anything with it, the soldier took a shot, destroying his helmet and head.

The object fell from his dead hand and rolled to the soldier’s boot. He glanced at it and immediately did a double take.

A dead man’s switch.

The soldier started shouting obscenities on the radio and warning the others. But it was too late. The whole building came down on itself, the debris hitting the neighboring apartments and whatever else they found in the streets.

The Grinning Devil

The Grinning Devil threw the radio away. The Doc had done his job perfectly and he was able to deal with three problems with no expenses on his side, well except for the mask, but he could always make another one.

“Come on K, we have quite the journey ahead of us.” he said hopping on the car’s driver’s seat.

The masked lady nodded, and after throwing a heavy bag on the car’s trunk, she sitted on the front passanger postion. Evelyne was behind, sleeping heavily after a hearty meal offered from the Devil. The Devil pressed on the accelerator pedal and started driving towards the city exit. Soon they would find themselves outside of this unnamed Polis and be on the road to their next destination: Ural Polis.