PCS to Eden – Rightful Ownership

He made sure to stay in the shadows, and low to the ground, and he slinked down the wide tunnel. Normally, Sunday afternoon would have seen the concrete space filled with men in cleats, pads, and helmets screaming motivation obsenities at each other. At the opening, two rows of beautiful women would wave them forward onto an immaculately kept field as tens of thousands of people cheered in the stands, and millions more at home.

The Carolina Panthers might have even been a Super Bowl contender this year, but that chance had been squashed as easily as either side of the stadium. Grimm knew nothing about Cam Newton, the Carolina Topcats, the NFC South, or Bank of America Stadium aside from the fact that Master told him to be there. What Master said, Grimm did.

He crawled forward on his furry belly, one paw at a time, toward the light. He made sure to stay concealed in the darkness, but he needed to get a good view of the field. He could smell the prey before he saw them. Their scent was unmistakable. Master had a little of that scent now, but it wasn’t overpowering. Grimm had to stop and fight back the urge to sneeze as he came into view of the field.

To every mortal eye the field was empty, but Grimm’s senses were heightened beyond that of some Infernals. Hellhounds had been used as reconnaissance assets and trackers by the various Infernal Lords for millennia. They could see beyond dull reality and into the æther. The angels gathered at midfield couldn’t hide form him.

<Good boy.> Master’s voice in Grimm’s mind was comforting, and a wave of calm passed over him which dispelled the urge to sneeze that would have given away his position. <Sit. Stay.>

Grimm lowered himself fully to the ground and placed his head down on his paws. His unblinking eyes kept an eye on the angels while his senses continued to stream information back to Master.

Gerry watched the enemy through Grimm’s eyes. The extrasensory input was overwhelming at first, but he quickly adapted. He’d left the comfort of his lakeside stronghold and advanced into the city with a few chosen lieutenants and legionnaires. They’d taken up position a few blocks from the stadium in an abandoned building that had only partially collapsed during Michael and Satan’s battle.

An ætherial overlay rose up from a collapsed pillar of concrete in front of them detailing the surrounding area. “The situation is as follows.” Gerry kept a part of his consciousness watching the enemy, but most of his attention went to his briefing. “I received intelligence that the majority of Divine forces in the area had to pull out unexpectedly due to what is occurring in New York.”

Gerry hadn’t known about the battle at first, but now, it was all anyone was talking about. Anyone whose power had been restored was watching it play out on live TV. Gerry recognized the snippets of footage showing Beelzebub and his Infernal legions, but his opponent was a mystery. It wasn’t Ava or Michael, and he didn’t know any other angels.

“From what my scout is seeing, I’ve determined that intelligence to be accurate, and it presents us with an opportunity.” Gerry inhaled deeply. Charlotte was dripping with fear and anxiety. If he’d trusted the environment more, and known more about the throne itself, he would have brought it into the city to feast on the emotions. He’d decided against it, and had to trust that he’d be able to deal with the situation with what his link with the throne could supply him from a distance.

“We will use the absence of the Divine’s main force to retake the city.” Gerry swept his gaze across the faces of his small strike force, and was mostly pleased by what he saw.

“What’s our procedure if the main body returns in the middle of the fight, or if the Divine send reinforcements to strengthen their position?” Gaius’ questions were valid, but they still sounded like they were undercutting Gerry’s plan.

“If the Divine thought they needed to deploy their reserves they would have done it already, and I doubt that the main body will be in any position to return with what’s going on in New York. Brock…” Gerry waved the Remnant forward.

Brock smiled at the group. They’d received word that Vicky had located Prometheus, and they were returning to Charlotte. Gerry had lived up to his end of the bargain, so Brock stepped forward and volunteered to participate. Gerry had also promised Jezebel to him when this was over, so that might have had something to do with his current eagerness.

“The creature that crawled out of the river, and is busy plowing through Midtown, is a leviathan.” The Remnant stated matter-of-factly.

“Leviathan?” Gaius wasn’t familiar with the terminology.

“The leviathans were born in the middle of the War for Eden,” Brock explained. “Cronus constructed them to kill God’s archangels. Six were born, and four died in the fighting. Two disappeared in the aftermath, and it appears one made up a chunk of the bedrock under the East River. Believe me, everyone is going to be busy for a while.”

“Good enough?” Gerry asked Gaius, who simply nodded. “But if we do face a counterattack we’ll scatter as buddy teams and make your way back to the stronghold. Questions?”

There were none, so Gerry explained his plan.

 

***

 

“So…you and me…” Brock leaned against a crumbling wall and watched as Jezebel put down the pack she was carrying. Brock had offered to carry it, but the Infernal didn’t trust him.

The Infernals and Remnants weren’t necessarily enemies, but they weren’t exactly friends either. For the most part, they stayed out of each other’s way. Today was the most contact Jezebel had ever had with Brock, and she wasn’t enjoying it.

“Just…ick…” She knew she sounded like a pre-teen drama queen, but it felt warranted. A girl had a right to feel that way when ordered to fuck a dude to up her power level.

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it babe,” Brock took the insult in stride. “All I’m saying is that we can have some fun with it. I’ll get a nice bottle of wine, throw a few steaks on the barbeque, and we’ll make a good time out of it. What do you like, white or dark meat?”

Jezebel knew he meant people when he said meat. She couldn’t help but have elitist thoughts when it came to her and Brock, and who could blame her? She was an Infernal from Hell where the Infernal Lords had carved their kingdoms when being driven out of Heaven. Brock was a Remnant of a race that had lost a war that ended with the death of his Primordial and complete conquest by Heaven. Jezebel couldn’t help but think of herself as better than him on those points alone. That didn’t even touch on her former power and status in Charlotte while Brock played college frat boy.

It only made the situation worse that she was only at about half strength now. The battle with the guardians had done a number on her the first time around, and now they were going to go for round two. Thankfully, there weren’t any giant archangels to contend with, but a guardian still wasn’t something to take likely. After knowing Brock for a day, all he seemed to do was take things lightly.

“You’ve got to at least give me a chance.” Brock batted his eyes like a puppy dog.

“Words don’t really do it for me.” She shot back as she pulled blocks of C4 from the bag.

“Fair enough.” Brock held out his hand for the plastic explosives. He waited patiently, which only succeeded in making her more frustrated.

“Fine,” she gave up, and handed him the explosives.

With a grin, Brock sprang upward with surprising agility and began to stick the adhesive backside of the plastic explosive to strategic locations in the building. He blurred as he moved faster and faster to complete their part of Gerry’s mission.

The mission was simple. They didn’t have the numbers to take on the guardians and their boss, who Gerry confirmed was definitely stronger than his soldiers, so they needed to pick them off in smaller groups. Since the angels were here to reestablish order in the city after the battle and follow-up Infernal invasion, creating a little chaos should do the trick. Grimm was staying close by to relay information about the angels’ deployment, so Gerry could concentrate his limited resources accordingly.

The plan called for three separate distractions to occur simultaneously. Jezebel, Brock, and two legionnaires, currently standing watch, were the first team. Jeb, Gaius, and another handful of legionnaires were team two, and Gerry was team three all by himself.

Jezebel checked her watch to see what time it was. “Two minutes.” The watch was white gold with diamonds, and looked totally out of place in a section of the city that looked like it recently got hit by a nuke.

“Done.” Brock was already back by her side was an even wider grin.

“I hope you’re not always that fast.” Jezebel couldn’t resist the comeback, but like everything else she’d said, it only seemed to embolden the Remnant.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” Brock whistled to the legionnaires, and they all got into position.

 

***

 

“How long did you serve under Gerry?” Jeb asked as they arrived at their ambush site.

Gaius directed the legionnaires under his command to roll the barrel of fuel into position. “He served under me for a few hundred years.” Gaius snapped back. The subject was clearly a sore point for the former Infernal General. “Make sure to get plenty of fuel on the roof. I want a big, billowing, black cloud to draw them in.” He split his attention between the soldiers and Jeb.

“I didn’t serve him long before he…” Jeb’s statement faded off because he didn’t know how to finish it.

The Infernal had been at the battle up at the school. It had escalated beyond his wildest imagination, but he was sure of one thing. He’d seen the local Dominion kill Gerry, just like he’d seen her kill the former Dux. Then, a few weeks later, Gerry showed back up on his doorstep stronger than ever.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Jeb shook his head. “I just don’t have the experience you do with him.”

Gaius stopped directing a handful of legionnaires into overwatch positions on a nearby rooftop, and turned to consider Jeb. “Gerry was a good soldier,” the general chose his words carefully, “but he doesn’t have a lot of leadership experience. I commanded tens of thousands of legionnaires in battles all across Seere’s kingdom. I’ve fought Beelzebub’s hordes, Cain’s skeletal soldiers, and even some of Lilith’s snake-haired she-demons, so I know what I’m talking about. I have some . . . concerns . . . with Gerry’s approach to all of this.”

Jeb’s eyes went wide, but he didn’t say anything one way or the other. Gaius didn’t say anything either, but Jeb could feel the other Infernal’s greed pulsing stronger. It didn’t take a genius for Jeb to see that Gaius thought he should be in charge, but that was something Jeb could use to his advantage. The greed-powered Infernal would attach himself to whoever’s star was burning brightest. Whoever that was, Jeb didn’t really care. What he did care about was keeping his head on his shoulders, so he nodded noncommittally to the general and took up a position in an adjacent alleyway. He popped open a garbage container, ignored the smell, and jumped in. The last place a pretentious Divine would look form him was in the garbage, especially after a little warding made it seem like there was nothing but rotting fruit and days-old pizza fermenting in the southern heat.

While he sat there surrounded by the stench, Jeb plotted his next move; not only considering the best way to kill these angels, but also the best way to get what he really wanted: more power, respect, and wealth. That’s what he was after all: a creature of habit.

 

***

 

Gerry didn’t have any of the explosives with him. He didn’t need them. He was alone to the north of the stadium while the other teams were to the east and west. The I-77 overpass stood just a few hundred feet to the right. Traffic was light, but there were still cars coming and going along the major artery. One of the reconstruction crew’s first jobs was to get the roads operable again. If the roads were working, then they could move people and supplies freely in and out of the city. It was a literal lifeline that needed to be repaired, and Gerry was going to fuck it up again.

Sound echoed down to where he stood on an abandoned sidewalk. If anyone glanced out of the window and saw him standing there alone it would have looked weird, but this part of the city was destroyed or abandoned, and people driving needed to keep their eyes on the road.

Gerry looked down at the phone’s digital clock. <One minute.> They’d agreed on a time of execution that gave everyone enough time to get into position and plant their charges. Brock and Jezebel were taking down a building to make a big racket, and Gaius’ team was setting a big-ass fire, but most importantly, they were using non- ætherial means of destruction. If the angels were looking out for expenditures of æther to send a large reaction force, then Gerry wanted them coming his way. Not only because he was the strongest, but because he wanted to test himself. He was full of power from the throne, and he really wanted to see what he was capable of.

He put a ward’s final touches on a graffiti-covered brick wall behind him. ‘The End is Here’ was written in big letters by a talented artist, and they had no idea how right they were. He counted down the seconds until it was go-time. He heard the boom of the explosions in the distance. He saw a large building starting to shudder and collapse to the side, while the first black wisps of a large fire were getting caught by the breeze.

<My turn.> Gerry focused on channeling the power.

It was easier than it looked and he directed the energy from the core of his being, up his chest, onto his face, and finally to his eyes. They burned for a moment like he’d opened them in the middle of a sandstorm, before two beams of energy flashed. The smashed into the road beneath the overpass and melted the asphalt and concrete into something approaching pudding. Slowly, Gerry raised his head, and drew a line upward across the underside of the overpass. Just like the road beneath it, the overpass melted and giant chunks sloshed out of place. Car continued to pass overhead, oblivious to the danger, until the support structure was crippled.

The road crumbled and began to fall away. Brakes screeched and horns honked as people tried to go from seventy-five to zero in the blink of an eye. If they kept their speed up, they might have jumped the giant missing section of road, but instead they ended up hitting the opening going thirty-five miles an hour. They launched into the air, missed the other side and plowed into the concrete slope.

<Two . . . four . . . six . . .> Gerry counted the cars as they plummeted. It was a four lane road, so there were plenty of victims.

There was a lot of crunching and grating of metal as cars smacked into each other, but it didn’t seem like enough to get the Divine’s attention. Gerry was about to start blasting away when an eighteen wheeler, with a large tank on the back, plunged through the gap. Gerry didn’t even have to think twice. He put a short burst of energy into that tank, through the metal, and watched the fireworks.

He wrapped himself in energy and road out the blast as eighty-thousand pounds of fuel went up in flames. <That’ll get their attention.>

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