Upbeat Hyena 15 (Patreon)

Upbeat Hyena
Chapter 15

-VB-

BOOM!

Alexandria flew out of the dust, and missed her grappling. Her target, an infamous demon, cackled as he dove out of her way. Not to be outdone, the demon lashed out at her with his “curses,” a cloud of miasmic plague that withered all those that touched it.

She didn’t believe in magic or demons, but she’s seen what his powers do enough to know that there was no blocking, only dodging. So she dodged, completely reversing her flight path.

But the demon predicted her movement.

He appeared, running right behind his own curses, and when said cloud missed her, he jumped towards her.

This time, she struck.

Her fist slammed into the demon’s forehead and sent him flipping, but she also retreated after that single attack.

She stared down and grimaced, because her knuckles bled.

She saw the reports and analysis about Avenger. He was a villain who killed hundreds, maybe even a thousand, but no one could touch him because of his power.

He claimed to the “All of the Curses of Humanity,” and those who touched him suffered all manners of cruel deaths.

And apparently, even she was not immune to his power. No, it felt like she struck him with the force of her usual attack, but she couldn’t rely on her defenses against him. It felt like it had been negated. Could it be the “withering” effect? It was one of the twelve known methods of death Avenger gave those who struck him with their own bodies, covered or bare. Withering was an acceleration of time and she was locked in time.

This innate defense coupled with his ability to shoot such effects on top of Brute durability had made him a formidable enemy.

Avenger got back up and grinned at her.

“I see a sinner before me!” he cackled.

He was also very insane. He didn’t care about what kind of crisis he generated, what kind of disaster he left behind, what kind of traumas he caused, or what kind of chaos he was. He found “sinners” to punish and punished them with a finality not even capital punishment could rarely deliver. Sure, death sentence resulted in death, but at least the families had a body to bury or burn. Avenger left nothing behind.

She pulled out the stop sign next to her and bludgeoned him. Avenger took the hit, a little too slow to dodge her attacks, and bounced away. He got back up quickly and grinned at her, no worse for wear and definitely no injury present on him.

“You are annoying,” she stated factually.

“Aww, but you’re not, Alexa!”

“My name is Alexandria.”

“I know. Alexa.”

Then he attacked again.

As she dodged and struck, she pondered how she would keep this monster away from people and infrastructure.

One of the reasons Avenger roamed around was not because he liked emulating the Slaughterhouse Nine, according to one of the survivors, but because if he stayed in one place, his “curses” would distort and corrupt the location. If this was a “passive” ability, then she could not send him to the newly constructed Birdcage or even bury him. What would burying do? He would eventually just dig out.

She couldn’t even kill him; she just tried. The stop sign she used was a wreck.

And then she had an epiphany.

She didn’t need to kill him. She just needed him to be away from people for a long time.

Alexandria struck out with the ruined stop sign and then wrapped him up with the metal. Avenger finally lost his grin and screamed at her as he tried to break down the metal, but metal took longer than organic bodies to break down.

She pulled up even as he grappled with her forearm and inflicted all sorts of damages, and flew up.

Then she faced the ocean and pulled Avenger back.

Avenger realized what she was trying to do.

“No, you bitch-!”

“FLY!”

And she threw him.

The sound barrier broke and Avenger ragdolled away from her. Mid-way through the flight, his bindings broke, but it was too late.

He screamed as he fell into the ocean far away from Seattle. Still within the horizon, but that was still a long ways away, and he would need to swim a lot.

“Good riddance,” she huffed as she dropped back down to the city. She intentionally landed on top of the PRT Seattle’s headquarters… and then she dropped to her knees, even though she tried to keep herself from falling. The heroes and staff who were waiting to receive her quickly swarmed her.

“Alexandria! You’re bleeding!”

“Get a stretcher and all non-essential personnel leave!” Gasconade, the local Protectorate leader, commanded. Many people obeyed hesitantly.

It was at this point that someone else was brought forward.

“This is Materia,” Gasconade introduced the young man who now stood beside her. “He’s here to heal you.”

Alexandria slowly stood back up even as she rolled that name inside her head. If there was a healer in Seattle, then she would have heard about them. She narrowed her eyes and then noticed something, a tattoo on the left jaw of Materia.

She recognized that tattoo.

“What … is a member of the cults doing with you?” she demanded firmly despite the pain that was starting to spread throughout her arm.

“Because no one but those treated by the cults survive Avenger’s curses,” Materia spoke up before bowing. “I am Materia, nineteenth daughter of the [Prince of Demons].”

“...” Alexandria didn’t say anything before she turned to Gasconade. “Why is she here?”

By this point, only the director, deputy director, Gasconade, his second, Alexandria, and Materia on the rooftop.

“Because I’ve seen people die to Avenger, Alexandria. Brutes, Breakers, Changers, it doesn’t matter. They died slowly and horribly,” he replied earnestly with a worried grimace. “Materia here is the only one we know who can undo Avenger’s curses.”

“Why is she here?”

“Because the local PRT works with the ‘sects’ of the [Prince of Demons],” Director Namichyan spoke up. “You already know this.”

Alexandria did, but to the extent that they allowed possible capes of the cults into the PRT HQ?

“Fine. Fix it.”

Materia stepped forward … and began to sing.

-VB-

Days later, Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown sat in her office.

She remained quiet as her mind remembered what she felt that day, and then closed her eyes.

The situation at Seattle grew more and more complicated each day.

Because who would believe her if she said that demons praised God and that she … saw things?

Contessa would remove her for sure for “security reasons.”

Complicated didn’t cut it.