Back at Headquarters

Tom had spent enough time waiting for Michael to get in contact. Before he could get up to go talk to his people about declaring Michael a lost asset, an aide walked in. “Sir,” she said with urgency in her voice, “we intercepted a 911 call in West Richland, on the southeastern corner of Washington State. Apparently there were explosions followed immediately by shooting.”

Tom stared blankly at her. “How did that become an intercept for us to catch?”

“The address is very close to one of our encrypted beacons,” she said sounding a little more frantically, “It’s Michael.”

“Get our emergency team up,” Tom said with narrowed eyes, “If that’s where the fight is taking place, he’s gonna need help with this one. And get Fairchild on the line, if this cult I’ve been reading about is who he’s fighting, he may very well need air support.”

“How will Michael coordinate?” the aide asked.

“We’ll figure that out on the way.” Tom said as he got up and started walking briskly to the basement where he would use his thumb to enter a command room.

In West Richland

Lani grabbed a food can from the cupboard and threw it down the stairs. Between bursts, he heard someone yell out ‘fuck’ before there was a prolonged pause. Her feint had worked, allowing her to get into the doorway and get halfway down the stairs before the PKM came back up. She took this opportunity to shoot the weapon, destroying the feed tray and the belt before it could be pointed at her. She noticed how effortlessly he was wielding the not-so-light machine gun. He’s enhanced! She realized sharply as she burned the magazine on him.

While Lani sprayed the last of the magazine of her rifle into the machinegunner, causing him to drop his weapon and fumble out of her way, the shotgunner managed to get his gun aimed at Lani and fire two buckshot blasts at her. Her armor caught the blasts, but by this time her rifle magazines were ruined and she was unholstering her pistol and firing quickly at him to keep him from getting off any more shots. The shotgunner was so focused on firing his weapon that he didn't get out of the way when three shots landed in his head. One tearing through his eye, one through his nose, and one through his cheek under the eye she had hit.

As the shotgunner fell to his knees, looking at her as he fell over, Lani had moved on to finish the machinegunner. He had thrown his gun down and grabbed a desert eagle, but he didn't get an opportunity to use it as Lani threw so many 9mm rounds into his head that he dropped his gun before he could aim it at her.

The five in the circle held tightly to each other's hands. “Don’t stop!” one of them yelled out as they kept reciting the chant. Lani picked up the desert eagle from the ground and aimed it at the first person she could get it sighted on.

The kick jumped the gun forty five degrees up, but Lani’s strength brought it back on target almost instantly though she held it in one hand. As she aimed for a second target, the body of the first slumped over into the circle and bled into the carvings on the floor. She fired a second shot, landing in the forehead of a man across from the first person who had fallen. Though a .50 Action Express projectile had smashed through his head, he still stayed upright for a moment before falling. Lani fired at the remaining three individuals, all of whom took their 300 grain shots to the faces almost too well, even for enhanced individuals. Why aren’t they getting up to fight me, Lani thought as she executed the last one. Lani looked, and noticed that each of them had fallen forward and was now bleeding into the circle.

Meanwhile

As Michael barged through the door, he saw a strange being that looked relatively incomplete. It was a skeleton with only a partially developed muscular structure, and no skin. As thundering could be heard in the ceiling of the cave, blood dripped down and fed the still body as it gradually developed more form.

Michael approached with his katana held in front of him, taking no chance that this thing was as inanimate as it appeared. Sure enough, he was right in his assumption. After a brief moment, the barely developed being gasped for air and growled loudly. As skin started to form, it began to shout words. The words were less than coherent until finally he was complete. Grabbing a robe out of practically nowhere, he looked straight at Michael. His face was familiar. Michael realized why he recognized this particular face. It was his.

The creature with the imitated face screamed out, “you’re that mother fucker!”

Michael nodded, twirling his katana in his hand to stretch out his wrist. “And you’ve chosen to embody the one thing I hate,” Michael shouted back through a snarl.

“You wanna talk hate!?” the creature shouted back as he took steps forward, reaching upward and clenching his fists tightly. “You think you know the true essence of hatred!?” He pulled downward with almost a ripping motion, his hands now engulfed in fire. “You wanna fuck with a god!?” he finally shouted out before cocking his arm back and hurling the flames at Michael like a baseball.

Michael swung his blade at the flame as he stepped sideways to get out of the way. As he cut the flame, he felt a hot blast push him back. These things fuckin explode, he realized as he fell on his back. He used the momentum of his fall to roll himself further out of the way. Getting quickly back to his feet, he ran sideways and tried to find something to get behind as he unslung his AK and started spraying.

The spawn flinched and groaned as he was shot, but it didn’t stop him from hurling more fire at Michael. He groaned and shouted incoherently as he started hurling the flames faster at Michael who had found cover behind a short wall.

As Michael ducked his head down, he grabbed another magazine and reloaded. Blasts of heat and flame exploded around him. He desperately needed to kill this thing before it caught him on fire and burned him alive.

“Fuck with me!” the imitation shouted out as he channeled his energy and threw a straight shot of fire at the wall Michael hid behind. The wall started falling apart, the cover was losing its effectiveness.

Michael rolled aside before the hole ate through and allowed a blast of fire to shoot through. As he got himself aside, he pushed himself up to his knees and aimed his AKM at the fire throwing man and opened fire. As he spent the magazine, he was struck in the chest by a blast of flame. His vest was now on fire, and his magazines were no longer functional. Michael threw himself to the ground and dug the pull cord from under the square on the vest and yanked it down hard. As the vest detached, he grabbed the rear section and hurled it violently at the imitation. It flew like a frisbee and struck him hard in the collarbone.

As the imitation was struck by the plate carrier section, he felt himself being shoved sideways from the force of the impact. He tried to charge up for another attack, but as he turned, he saw Michael swinging his burning plate carrier full force at his face. Though he tried to block, it was not enough to keep the sheer force of the strike from knocking him to the ground.

As Michael knocked the imitation down, he lunged at him as he drew his knife and began stabbing his legs repeatedly. He jabbed the thigh, then finally got the knife stuck in the pelvic bone. I’m killing you motherfucker was his only thought as he left the knife in the bone and began striking the imitators face with his bare hands.

The imitation had one leg that worked, which he used to knee Michael in the side of his chest. He used the sudden shift in body position to take a couple swings at Michaels face. The blows were staggering, but the pummeling did not stop. Michael was still gripped tightly on the imitator’s neck and slamming his head repeatedly into the floor.

As Michael continued slamming, slight crunches could be heard. The imitator’s head was losing skull strength. Michael held the head down and began slamming his fist into the side of it’s head, forcing the skull to break the rest of the way open.

As Michael stood up from the now killed imitation, the girl stood there watching on. “You were a good choice,” she said in her flat tone, “you have kept his evil from your world.”

“What the fuck did I really deal with?” Michael asked in an agitated tone. “Why was this place almost tailored to me?”

“Because my father isn’t a person,” she said softly, “he’s an entity.”