The Lion, Fjodor Anisimova

Fjodor had been tapping so hard and so fast on his new metal table, that it started making a denture in it in the shape of his index finger on it. Even when he informed he was going to be a father he did not feel this anxious or when he was chosen for the Enhanced Human Project.

“The new table is made with an alloy of titanium, sir.” Spoke Hakon, bringing him out of his nervous tapping.

“Uh? Oh yeah, otherwise I would have made a hole in it already…”

“We paid quite a lot for that not to happen.” Hakon said, tapping on his hand-held pad.

Fjodor was glad that Hakon wanted to stay with him while he talked to the Grinning Devil. He feared that he would goad him to do something stupid or make him fall for one of his devious traps.

“You sure you want to stay in, Hakon?” Asked Fjodor with a bit of worry.

“Other than losing the rare opportunity to meet a living legend…” - Hakon fake coughed a bit and muttered - “ I do not trust you to not be outwitted by him.”

Fjodor frowned a bit. He was a tad bit hurt, but the man was right. He had to keep his cool, he was not the 30 something years old superhuman with no responsibility, he had a whole city on his shoulder.

“Ughhhhh…” A groan escaped from Fjodor.

Hakon opened his mouth to say something but immediately turned his head towards the door.

“He’s here.”

Even Fjodor’s skin could feel his presence. His guts told him to be on alert, a predator was coming through. A moment later the door opened and a masked man walked through. He wore a fancy looking dress, with some modifications on it. The chest had what seemed to be a kevlar vest of sorts and on his elbow, sharp and recurve blades were placed. His head was not visible, wholly covered by a, according to what some people say, a modified Hannya mask.

He walked in with a confident stride, as if he was walking into his best friend’s house. His arms and hands behind his back, exposing his chest. The only thing missing was him whistling and Fjodor would have slammed his hand on the desk. He hated how carefree he always was.

The Grinning Devil, once the door closed behind him, smashed his feet together and mimicked a military salute.

“Private Ivan Anisimova, greets the Bloody Lion of Ural, Sergeant Fjodor Anisimova!” He shouted.

Fjodor took a deep breath, then another, then another, then another, until he felt something tap on his shoulder. It was Hakon, they both exchanged a nod.

“What do you want, Devil?”

The Grinning Devil scratched his chin.

“I want… everything?” He answered.

Fjodor got up from his chair, his face was red and the people in the room could hear the sound of teeth grinding on each other. He walked towards the Grinning Devil and stood in front of him. Their size difference was clearly visible here, just Fjodor’s hand was almost enough to cover the Devil’s whole helmet if he wanted. And he was one step away from really wanting.

“Stop fucking around and tell us else Imma fuck you so badly not even your lover will recognize you.” Fjodor’s voice was guttural, as if speaking was physically hurting him.

The Devil quieted for a second, but that jovial air that he always seemed to carry with him did not dissipate. Before he could say another word, Fjodor grabbed him from the top of the helmet and lifted him off the ground.

“I will crush you.” His eyes were wide open and bloodshot. This man had a way to make him go crazy that he could not put into words what it was.

“Hahaha,” - the Grinning Devil laughed - “ then get in line.”

Fjodor decided to put some more strength into his grip. Before the signal went from his brain to his arm, the Devil grabbed his wrist and, by applying little pressure, fractured and dislocated it. He harmlessly fell to the ground.

“You need to learn some self-control, dear Fjodor.” Stated the Devil while adjusting his vest.

Fjodor punched him with his other arm. The fist went wide and punched through the ceiling. The Devil had kicked the side of his knee to throw him off balance so he missed his mark. Once his hand healed itself he went for another strike. The Devil defly dodged it to the side and used his elbow blades to tear into his flesh, Fjodor felt that it had cut some tendons and after the strike his arm fell flat to his side. But that was not important.

Fjodor’s kick was not something the Grinning Devil could dodge away mid-air. Last thing he did was to use his arms as a shield as he was flung toward a wall. By the sound of it, Fjodor was sure his arms were broken. Fjodor smiled as he pulled out his bleeding fist from the ceiling.

“Cough That’s why I hate to deal with Vanguards…” Fjodor heard the Devil mutter.

Fjodor stepped confidently towards the Grinning Devil, on his face a feral smile.

“I expected more out of the Demon Slayer.” He said when he was in front of the Devil.

“Enough with games…” - The Devil pointed with his broken arms to him - “Fall.”

The Lion thought this was his desperation speaking but when he tried to move, he felt his body lock up. His body was paralyzed and his head was starting to develop a powerful headache. The Devil stood up and touched him with a single finger. That was enough to make him fall backwards with a sonorous thud.

While their fight was happening, Hakon had called security and now there were a dozen people in the office, all with their guns trained on him.

“I suggest you surrender, Grinning Devil.” Hakon offered hidden behind the firing line.

The Devil scratched his chin again.

“I could or…” As soon as he left that sentence hanging the lights went out.

Between the sounds of panic and some wildly fired shot that illuminated the room, they heard his laugh and for the brief moment they saw him, they thought they were seeing a vengeful ghost ready to devour their soul.

The lights came back on. All the guards inside the room were knocked out, some lucky enough to escape the massacre, were trying to get back inside but the door was locked and they could not override its security. The Devil stood before Hakon, his sleeves dripping with blood.

“You do seem like a rational fellow, so why don’t we speak business?” His carefree aura had come back, he hid his hand and arms behind his back while walking towards the metal table.

“Motherfucker used poison on me!”

It was quite the powerful one if Fjodor was still paralyzed.

“Damned Devil!” He was able to shout.

He just looked at him, and Fjodor could swear that he was grinning at him.

“Don’t worry Fjordor, in an hour or so you can move again.”

“Fuck off!”

“... I hope you truly did not expect me to go into a fight against a Vanguard III without a little subterfuge now.”

Fjodor’s muscles bulged and twitched in response, but that only helped for the toxin to spread even faster in his body.

“Hey Hakon, could you tell the guys on the other side to stop trying to get in? It is quite annoying.”

Hakon just nodded and with a few taps from his pad, the noise stopped.

“Much better,” - he started while sitting on Fjodor’s chair - “ getting back to business… I need a plane.”

“A… plane?” - Hakon could hardly hide his surprise - “Why?”

“None of your business~”

Hakon looked at the paralyzed figure of Fjodor.

“We do not have one.” Said Hakon with a frown.

“I know that you don’t, but you have the materials to make one.” Countered the Grinning Devil.

Hakon frown deepened.

“If we had the whole Polis for us, yea- wait.” Hakon eyes opened even wider while looking at the Devil.

“You have found a smart one Fjodor, I am envious.” Commented the Devil

“B-but that is madness!” His voice is getting sharper.

“Madness? No, this is the Grinning Devil’s contract!” After saying that line, the Devil’s boisterous laugh filled the room for a while.

“Do you dare accept?” He asked while offering his blood stained hand at Hakon.

Fjodor’s tongue was swollen so he could not speak right now, so he just nodded at Hakon. He trusted in his judgment. After a deep breath, Hakon grabbed the Devil’s hand.

“We do.”

“Wonderful!” He said jumping from the chair and walking towards the door.

Then he stopped right after putting one foot outside.

“Oh and, do tell your daughter to be more careful, the world’s a dangerous place after all.” The Grinning Devil walked out of the door, the other guard's weapon trained on him but he did not care. He was sure they would not dare to shoot him. Unfortunately he was right.

Hakon walked closer to the prone figure of Fjodor.

“I am sorry.” apologied Hakon.

Fjodor tried to shake his head, but he could not.

“If we were the one to be offered that contract, we have all to gain…” - Hakon looked at the Devil’s figure slowly disappearing out of sight - “but even so, he could do the same game to the other factions so we need to look out for ourselves regardless.”

Then Hakon glanced at the side, not looking at Fjodor’s eyes.

“And honestly, I feared what he would have done if we declined.” Admitted his left hand man.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” The thought was shared between Hakon and Fjodor.

Grinning Devil

The Grinning Devil bid farewell to the receptionist and went outside of the Lion’s Share HQ, into the open and bustling streets of Ural Polis.

“FFFFFUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!” That was the first word that came to the Devil’s mind.

His arms had been thoroughly broken, especially his right arm.

“This is gonna take at least an hour to heal.”

It was his fault for trying to go against one of the heroes of the Last Great War. But he was curious about how much stronger he was compared to himself. Looking at his broken right arm, whole leagues stronger. Not only physically, even his regeneration was something otherworldly. The Devil got really lucky to have come out only with this much damage. Thankfully he had some toxin ready for him, otherwise the fight would have ended much differently.

“I wonder how K would fare up.”

Khutulun was more agile and more used to brawling than him, but even so… he was unsure. He needed to make sure that such a situation would never happen. The Devil started walking away from the Lion’s Share building and into one of the many alleys of the Polis. He tapped his chin and the horns on his helmet receded inside his helmet. While pulling his hood up, he checked something on his pad.

The poor thing looked like it came from the nearest trash bin. Its leather cover, if you could still call it so, was mostly gone. The screen was so cracked, it made one wonder how one could see what was on the screen at all. It was only a cover-up. The thing was one of the most advanced pieces of technology in this time and age. He would regularly swap the internal components with more advanced ones while keeping the worn appearance. Khutulun hated that, which is one of the main motives he kept it so; the other being that people would let down their guard seeing that.

A video feed could be seen from the cracked screen. The Grinning Devil had one single, highly modified stealth drone, that he could use to keep track of various people. Especially the one following him. Thanks to his eyes in the sky, he was able to easily lose his wannabe followers. He would kill all of them but one, but he knew who sent them so he was trying to reign on that instinct. And he had broken bones so dealing with them would make it a tiny bit more complex. Which honestly made him want to do it just for the challenge.

“But alas…”

His pad screen started showing a map of Ural Polis. On it he could see three pings, one of them in the center of the city, the other two quite close by and to each other. He pressed one of the pings and the name Evelyne popped up.

“Why is she so far from Ludomir?”

With some worry in his heart, the Grinning Devil sprinted as fast as his body could allow. People underestimate how hard it is to run without using your arms until they find themselves in that exact position. It was quite the funny and embarrassing sight, fortunately no one was able to spot him. The Devil thanked his superhuman running speed.

He arrived in an hour where Evelyne was, but he could not see her. He focused his hearing and jumped at the first sound he heard. His hand grabbed what seemed like a little ball of red fur.

“A puppy?”

Before he could rationalize his astonishment he felt something sharp penetrate his calf. With his other free arm he grabbed what was that had the gall to hurt him even further. But before he could see what it was, something cold drew blood from the top of his hand. He decided with the little strength he had in his fingers yet, to throw it towards the wall. And that he did, the impact making cracks on the wall. The would-be attacker was dead…oops.

The Devil focused on his hand and calf, so that they would be ready to use again. Whoever this assassin one, it was most likely an Enhanced Mk II or an Advanced Cyborg seeing as he was not able to detect their presence.

The figure that had crashed to the wall and was now on the ground, most likely with a broken spine, was quite petite. One would even consider it a kid. Then the Devil saw her platinum hair and the name escaped his mouth.

“Evelyne?”

Her eyes shoot up. Pale blue eyes looking straight at him. It was her.

“Devil?”

The Grinning Devil could hardly contain his laugh. He walked towards her, gently lowering the puppy to his side. The Devil noticed that her attention was focused on the puppy beside him.

“You thought I was one of the bad guys wanting to kill a poor pup?” He easily faked indignation in his voice.

She looked down, clearly she did not want to look at him in the mask. Poor child.

“...sorry.” She muttered.

The Devil focused on the puppy. The thing was injured, its blood stained its fur. He had seen many animals in this condition all of his life so he had grown cold to it, but this kid was not as jaded as him. This could be a good opportunity to net some good will however.

“You know, even if we take it to a medic, I don’t think we will be in time to save it.” Told the Devil truthfully to her.

“...”

A grin started forming under his mask.

“We could do something however…” He said while bringing out a single vial of A.C.E.

A.C.E. was a derivative of the Human Enhancers, most of them made from the more common Vanguard Enhancers, so they tended to upgrade one's healing powers and physicality. But as the name suggests, it is made for Human use. Trying it on animals not only would be seen as quite a waste, but even something that only a madman would do considering the after-effects of A.C.E.

“I am just a tad bit curious… and will get some goodwill from Eve, it’s a win-win.”

Evelyne was hesitant. Her skin was pale and sweat was starting to form on her face. She knew the implications of giving A.C.E. to a puppy. She was a smart kid.

“What will it be, little princess?” He asked while shaking the vial. The puppy's life was slowly leaving his mortal coil, so he had to press the kid, otherwise she would get too lost in her own thoughts. Or hell forbid she would find an alternative, he could not allow that.

With much reluctance in the end, she nodded. The Devil’s smile was as big as it could get. He took and assembled the pieces of the syringe he had on his person. He put the vial inside the object and with practiced movement, injected the purple liquid inside the puppy’s heart.

After doing that, he threw the empty vial in a nearby trash can and disassembled his syringe. The puppy meanwhile was going through a metamorphosis, and it was not pretty. It had lost all of its fur and some cancerous growth had started appearing all over its body.

“What a shame…” The Devil sighed.

Evelyne walked closer to the dog. The Devil did not stop her, he knew that she was not that stupid to go closer to such thing without a plan. Nevertheless, he readied his handgun to take down the beast, just in case. His other hand was busy tapping on his pad.

The kid used her nails to cut her skin, enough to draw blood. The Devil now understood what had cut his hand so easily a few minutes before. She crouched close to it and let some droplets of blood on its open mouth. In the span of a few seconds, the skin turned healthy and fur started visibly growing out of it, the tumors had all disappeared. She crawled the dog between her arms and shot a look at the Devil.

“Of course we are keeping it.” He answered her non vocal question.

“Like Hell I will let such a creature off my sight.”

Before the Devil’s mind could ponder more about the power of Evelyne’s blood, his ears twitched. They had been surrounded, again without him noticing it. He was starting to get annoyed. But his mood was still uplifted by the experiment that had been performed

A figure walked out from one of the many alleys. It was a short, stocky man of Asian descent.

“Hello Grinning Devil, I am Abraham Fu… we have much to discuss.”