Upbeat Hyena 2 (Patreon)

Upbeat Hyena
Chapter 2

-VB-

I stared down at the newspaper in my hands.

I could not believe my luck.

Turning into a demonic prince was one thing, but to land myself on a deathworld at the same time? I must have done some deeply sick shit in my previous life or two ago, because the kind of misfortune required to become the very thing my religion and to be thrown into a world ripe for total annihilation was ridiculous.

I supposed that it made being here in 1990 made it easier for me. Parahuman capes still weren’t the norm. In fact, the biggest names running around the world were the Protectorate, the original four of Hero, Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend. They weren’t part of any team or organization yet, and they mostly did whatever needed help immediately.

I wondered who they were like in person...

“KYAAH!”

I paused and looked up.

People were running down the street to my left from my right. I looked to my right.

A giant person, as tall as four professional hockey players put on top of its each, with a hockey mask roared as he slammed his equally giant hockey stick onto a parked car.

I stared at the obvious cape in question and couldn’t help the sigh that escaped my lips.

Really?

Really?

A bloody hockey mask with gigantification? Where was the art in that? Where was the passion in mimicking that?

Ugh…

… I could do something about the man, but why should I? I mean, if it was me from before this demonification, I might have because I was a nosy little shit, but I saw no reason to help people.

Do you help a cow with a foot in the grave? Do you help a chicken in the slaughterhouse?

This entire world was a tomb waiting to happen, so what if I saved a person here and there? What would it change?

…

But no one would care if I ate him, right?

If he gets arrested, then he might end up in prison, and that’s a harder place to eat in peace.

No, no, no. I needed him to get beaten and slink away like a beaten dog. Once he was alone…

I felt drool pool in my mouth.

Ahh, what does a parahuman taste like? I want to eat eat EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT EA-!

But how? Showing myself would only draw attention to myself…

“HELP ME!”

“MOMMY!”

My eyes slid down and found a mother and daughter duo on the ground.

I felt nothing as the villain stepped on the mother’s head, splattering gore everywhere.

Wasteful.

I glanced at the daughter screaming.

I saw a gate in her head.

I saw through it a Shard.

I smiled.

Sorry, I told it as I cut in the line. The organic crystalline lifeform stuttered in surprise as the connection failed. These humans are mine.

And gave the girl a portion of my power.

I smiled gleefully with enough strain on my human lips to make them and the cheeks hurt.

---

Viviane screamed hoarsely as pain erupted from within her. It was nothing like what she felt looking at mom’s blood. It the latter drenched her core in agony, then this pain pulled at all corners of her body with hooks, lines, and needles.

And then the voices. The voices!

He killed mom.

He made us sad.

He’ll do this to others.

Kill him!

KILL HIM!

KILL HIM!

Her body split open, and she shrieked in wrath as limbs tore out of her.

She fell down to the ground, but her many hands slammed down onto the asphalt road and stopped her. She growled as she looked back up at the villain who killed mom.

He looked at her as if she was disgusting. As if he wasn’t the disgusting bastard killing people for shits and giggles!

“I’LL KILL YOU!” she shrieked with more voices than her own and charged forward.

The villain backpedaled but she was faster. She tore across the street even as she dodged the giant hockey stick that tried to squish her like a bug.

But this bug will kill you!

She latched onto his shoe and clawed her way up his pants.

He ignored his shrieking as she sped up the length of his front.

His exposed neck was in front of her.

Instinct drove her.

To cause pain.

To make him suffer!

She opened her maw and snapped down.

The giant screamed, a booming sound that shook the windows of all of the buildings around them, but she did not let go. Even as her ears bled, she did not let go!

The giant villain grabbed the end of her body and tried to pry her off.

She did not let go!

With a snap, she tore a chunk of his flesh away.

Blood guzzled out from the wound, and she shrieked and bit down again.

I’ll kill him even if I die!

---

I clapped in satisfaction as my new demon tore chunks out of the giant hockey villain’s throat.

After the third bite, the villain finally fell to his knees and gurgled as blood flowed out like a small river.

And then he keeled over.

I watched as the girl - Vivian, my Domain declared her name to me - tore into the villain.

Well… I supposed that a fresh meal was necessary for a baby demon to grow. I would give it up for now.

I grumbled as the police siren rang nearby. It had been growing ever closer, but this was pretty close. I looked around. Many people had already fled but there were also no heroes, which was odd for a city the size of Seattle. Why were no heroes to stop her?

Whatever. I didn’t want the baby demon to die the day it was born. It would have to come and gestate in my Domain.

I took a sip of the coffee still on my table, though now cold, and gave it the order. [Return to my Domain.]

Vivian froze before she pulled herself off of the dead cape, who was now slowly shrinking in size. A black portal opened up beneath her, and she allowed herself to sink.

The last of her sunk underneath as the police came around the corner.

I stood up, leaving a few dollars for tip, and left.

It wouldn’t do for me to be caught by the police for “suspicious activity,” which was basically me not behaving like the frightened locals.

No, no, no, that won’t do.

-VB-

Viviane wept as she sat in this hellish world.

She had to be dead. There was no way she would be here if she wasn’t.

She did … all of that.

She killed someone!

Naked, burnt, and alone, she sobbed on the uncomfortably warm brimstone of hell.

“Hey.”

She looked up.

The moment her eyes landed on the giant made out of shadows, her soul told her who this was to her.

[Father, progenitor of the demonic essence.]

And then everything that happened so far fit.

“You… you did this to me…” she croaked with her hoarse throat. “You made me into that … monster!”

The giant of shadows knelt down. “You accepted it.”

… She did.

When she heard that voice, the First Voice, that promised to avenge her mom, she took it without even properly thinking in her grief.

She bit her lips and hung her head.

“I-I really sold my soul to the devil, didn’t I?”

“Sold? No. I made you into the first of the demons,” Father crooned, and then a hand landed on top of her head. It wasn’t big or small; it was just right to pat her head. “You are now my daughter.”

And just like that, grief subsided - but not gone - and another feeling rose up within her.

Desperate hope.

She never had a dad. Mom always said dad died fighting the good fight, but her neighbors whispered otherwise.

How her dad ran the moment mom became pregnant.

The giant of shadows scooped her up and held her against its chest, gently swaying her.

Tired mentally and physically, she couldn’t resist the sleep that overcame her.

“Sleep, my dear. Tomorrow, we have work to be done together.”

She felt safe in the arms of a demon.

How fucking ironic.

-VB-

A/N: rough sketch of Viviane's demonic form and human form will be out ... probably tomorrow.