Pest Control

Wolf wasn’t exactly happy about our old boss going after Fell, but up to this point she had stayed out of it because she knew Fell wanted her to. Since the proxies had decided to involve her by dressing up as her in their last attack, however, Wolf decided it was time to step in.   

Osprey was too far gone from the torture inside Wolf to be useful, though anything he knew would probably have been too out of date anyway, but it wasn’t hard to find what we were looking for another way. We knew where Fell was, so all we had to do was follow at a distance until we caught the scent of our old boss. You should have seen the look on that proxy’s face when we saw us. We barely had to touch him to get him to squeal. We didn’t expect some random grunt to know any high-level shit, but he led us to his handler’s hang out, which was enough.

It was a fucking two-storey crack house that reeked of shit, piss, vomit, rot and the tall guy. I felt disgusted looking at the place because it reminded me of my oxy days. That feeling only got worse at the sight of the addicts. Not everyone in there was a proxy, but most, proxy or not, were on some shit. I went the front door, while Wolf went in the back, to prevent anyone from escaping. I don’t think it really mattered though, as we were able to kill a few of them before the rest even registered what was happening.

Some of those who cared enough to fight back, barely reacted to the damage we did to them. I’m pretty sure they weren’t hollows since they were yelling at us. They were just so high on whatever substances, that they were numbed to the pain. I remembered what that felt like and hated it. I hated them.

The only thing that stopped me from burning them all was the risk of killing the one in charge. Wolf was clearly thinking about that risk too, as she tore into them like I did.

With the lower floor reduced to a mess of blood and bodies, I let Wolf know what I was about to do through our psychic connection. Using my tentacles, I grabbed two addicts who were either dead or unconscious on the ground and held them up as meat shields as I started up the stairs. The proxies waiting above opened fire, but their attack didn’t last long. While I was distracting them, Wolf darted into our domain, only to dart back out behind them. A moment later and they were dead in her claws.

We found our target halfway out a window. He tried to jump, but Wolf caught his leg and hauled him back in. He wasn’t as willing to talk as the first proxy, but in the end, we got what we wanted. Dude had an iphone with touch ID, so we forced his thumb onto it and a moment later, Wolf was fishing around his messages. Between them and a few broken bones, we found out where to go next.

I guess the proxies around here have fallen on some hard times between the crack house and the shitty apartment building we arrived at. There were almost as many fucking addicts as the last place, except this time they were camped out in the parking lot thanks to a few dealers that were apparently operating out of their trucks. Watching the drugged-up mob mill around reminded me of Wolf’s old art projects. They may as well have been with the way they swarmed anyone going in or out of the building, most begging for money or cigarettes, some trying to start a fight. This province has gone to hell, I swear.

As much as I wanted to tear into them like I did to the ones in the crack house, it made more sense to avoid them entirely, so we didn’t give the proxy tenants or the superintendent a heads up that we were there. 

Thanks to our last target, we knew what floor the super lived on, so we stepped back into our dimension and back out into the building, Wolf on one end of the floor, me on the other. What a fucking slum. The people living in this “safehouse” didn’t seem to have it that much better than the crowd in the parking lot. The ceilings were water damaged and sinking in places and I could smell mold everywhere, almost as strong as the stench of our old boss. Despite the condition of the rest of the building, the security system seemed to work just fine, as an alarm started going off a few moments later. Tenants started coming out of their apartments. Some were proxies, but others were just confused people, probably thinking there was a fire or something. One knife-wielding proxy tried to grab a mother who had come out with her kid in her arms. I guess his plan was to use her as a hostage to get me to back down, but he wasn’t fast enough. I had a tentacle through his skull before he could hurt either of them. Freed from the proxy, the mother burst back into her apartment and slammed the door. Making sure that she and the kid got away safely cost me though. Another proxy had taken advantage of my distraction to shoot me with a fucking crossbow. I tore the bolt out of my shoulder which really stung thanks to the expandable blade, and probably would have put me out of commission if I was still human. She tried to take another shot, but I used the dude still stuck on my tentacle to block it. Not waiting to give her another chance, I leapt forward, extending my limbs. That made the wound hurt even worse, but I didn’t have time to wait for it to heal. She tried to run but didn’t get more than a couple of steps before I caught up to her, knocking her down before snapping her neck.

Gunfire rang out. I looked up to see one of the non-proxy tenants slumping against the wall. Dude had apparently panicked and ran instead of going back into his apartment, only to get hit by some trigger-happy assholes as he rounded the corner. Having that warning, I dragged the crossbow proxy up with another tentacle, deciding to use both her and the first dude as shields, like I did with the addicts, only this time I flung him around the corner while keeping her in front of me. Turning the corner, I saw one of the shooters under the body, having been knocked out. I sent a tentacle into him as I passed, just to make sure he was dead. His friend with the handgun was still up and firing though. Crossbow proxy made a decent bullet sponge while I closed the distance between us, though I still caught one in the arm. It hurt but not as much as the crossbow bolt and it definitely wasn’t enough to stop me. At the last minute, I pulled her to the side so I could slam my fist into the shooter’s face, feeling their bones breaking from the force.

It was then that I heard a couple of loud bangs and then a roar. A moment later, Wolf’s voice was in my head, telling me to turn up the heat. That was good enough for me, so I turned that belly fire loose. Proxies from the lower floors had heard the chaos and those who were brave enough to join the fight were coming up behind me. They were the first to fry, falling into a crying, spasming, bulging heap as their insides boiled. Then I started sending it into the apartments around me, then downward to the floors below.    

I can’t even begin to describe how it felt to walk down the corridor like an angel of fucking death, hearing the screams of the proxies who stayed hidden in their holes.

When I turned the next corner, I found the super’s room with the door open. No one was in there, but the sliding door that led to a rickety little balcony was open, and I heard a commotion coming from outside. Looking out into the courtyard below, I saw Wolf down there with the super and our old boss. The dude was screaming in her grasp, with his arm torn off and laying on the ground next to them.

The tall guy roared at her, and she roared back and I… understood it.

Not that you’d need to -er- speak the language to know that they were both pissed. He was calling her a mistake and demanding that she stop this attack and submit so he could “correct” it.

“I didn’t want to do this, Ritter, but you forced my hand!” she responded. “All you had to do was leave Fell alone, but you wouldn’t and then you tried to take her after your little pissants weaponized me against her, yet again!” She was clearly thinking about Osprey. “Pull a stunt like this one more time and I will burn your “family” to the ground!”     

With that she ripped off the super’s head and flung it at him.

He swatted it away before slamming his tentacles into the ground in rage. I’ve never seen Wolf so angry at him and I’m not going to lie, I was enjoying it. It felt good to see her finally get mad at him, considering all the shit he’s done. Unfortunately, that’s when a certain someone decided to stick his beak into the confrontation.

Wolf’s body jerked as the Plague Doctor hit her hard with a load of infections. She let out a choking cough as she staggered forward a few steps. I thought she was going to fall over, but thankfully she stayed upright. Our old boss wasn’t about to let her go or be taken, however. He tried to impale her with his tentacles but was pushed back as the Plague Doctor refused to give her up. I was about to jump into our world so I could pull her out of there, but she managed to open a doorway herself. With her gone, they seemed to realize that I was watching, as they both looked up toward me. Suddenly Wolf’s hand was on my shoulder, hauling me back to our world. It’s not like she needed to though, as I wasn’t planning to stick around for them to fight over, or for the cops whose sirens I could hear in the distance.

Turning to face her, I realized how bad her condition was. Blood and mucus were oozing out of her nose, and she wheezed horribly like she couldn’t breathe. Her lips were a dark blue, while her eyes were red, swollen and crusty. Looking at her hands, I saw that her fingers had turned black, like they were decaying. She took a few shaky steps away from me before collapsing. Rolling onto her side, she started spasming before a flood of vomit burst out of her stomach maw. Worried, I asked if she was okay.

“Just… give me a minute…” she muttered. Pushing herself up onto her hands and knees she started heaving again. “There… I’m alright now.” When she looked up at me, her face was back to normal. Looking at her hands, I saw that they were also healed.  

Seeing that she was fine, I started to realize how woozy and cold I felt. I think using the belly fire as much as I had was taking a toll on me. I lay down on the ground, exhausted. It was Wolf’s turn to worry, but I told her not to, before asking what happened. Apparently, while she was dealing with another proxy, the super leaned out of his apartment with a pump action shotgun and fired. She managed to pull the proxy in front of her so that he took the brunt of the blast, but she still caught some of it in her arm and side. While he racked up another shot, she sent out a tentacle, knocking the gun back, sending the next shot into the ceiling before wrenching the weapon out of his hands. With him disarmed, she sprung towards him. He jumped back into his apartment, slamming the door as if that would stop her. She burst in to find him going for a handgun that was on his coffee table. With a roar, she rushed him, hitting him as he was turning to shoot. He landed hard on the floor, the impact leaving him dazed. Grabbing his wrist in her elongated hand, she broke it, then tossed away his gun. With him disarmed again she stood, dragging him up by his shirt before pinning him to the wall. It was then that she signaled to me, intending to make him listen to the others scream, but that plan changed when she noticed the tall guy outside. Stepping out through the sliding door, she took the super and leapt down to meet him, and well, you know the rest.   

I guess that’s everything. This was fun, aside from the Plague Doctor interfering. Hopefully this will be a lesson to anyone thinking about dressing up as Wolf or otherwise using her against Fell.

Oh! Speaking of dressing up, I guess I should finish this by wishing you all a Happy Halloween.