M4DN3SS R3DACT3D (a sh!t madness combat story)

[[S1X]]

Demos hit the rocky ground hard- nothing he hadn't felt before. He took a moment to regather himself and get past that initial pain before standing up.

He scanned the area, trying to keep himself calm. The deep red "sky", the floating rocks, all of it was so familiar in the worst way possible. His worst trauma had come out of this place. Why the fuck would it want him back now?

"Haha, your partner-in-crime is possessed and in excruciating pain, and you haven't healed properly," Deimos mumbled to himself in a mocking tone, "Why don't we jus bring ya here physically instead of just mentally? Hahah, fuck you."

At least knowing he could get out of it took that feeling of panic and hopelessness away. But how hard would it be this time?

Was he alone? There had to be something, or someone-

Deimos' eyes caught a figure walking a short distance away. Their bare, muscled back was to him, but he knew who it was right away.

But was he still...

"Sanford? S'that you?"

Clearly it was, physically. But was that him in that mind of his or was it that fucking thing again?

The man kept walking, completely ignoring Deimos.

"Hello?! Hey! Sanford!"

Deimos attempted to make his way over to him, but he was stopped by a bullet flying right past, barely missing him.

Agents. Of-fucking-course.

Deimos, more annoyed by them than threatened at this point, easily shot them down. But Sanford was gone, and-

...There was a building a little farther up their path.

"Oh, thank-fuckin'-god."

Deimos continued the rest of the way with his back to the building, letting off rounds on all of the agents and bandits. They seemed to just keep coming in out of nowhere.

He finally felt his back hit the door. Opened the door, still turned to the crowd of agents behind him, the agent inside the building hit him over the head with the barrel of their gun.

Deimos was knocked to the ground, but he recovered and turned around quick enough to shift the aim of their shotgun over his shoulder instead of his head.

"Hahah! Gotcha, fucker!"

The agent wasn't given enough time to react before Deimos pulled the gun from their hands, flipped it, and shot them in the chest.

He let off the rest of the ammo on the remaining agents behind him, and once again, he was met with silence.

He could tell it would be short-lived.

Stepping over a body and trudging through pooling blood on the floor, Deimos made his way around the room, searching for anything that could be of use to him. The room appeared to be completely empty except for some bottles-

One of which Deimos had a drink from, feeling he needed it-

And some extra guns. The second door at the back of the room was shut.

"Mm.. oh no that one sucks. Maybe- mm.. I don't like that one actually. Ehh, everything here just fuckin' sucks."

Taking the moment of peace for granted, Deimos took out a cigarette and lit it in his mouth- having the ability to spark fires on his fingers had never been more useful.

Some footsteps just outside of the building caught him off-guard. It couldn't have been any bigger of a threat than one of those agents.. he should be able to take care of them no problem.

He abandoned his place in the building and slipped out through the back. He heard a small noise from around the other side.

"There you are..."

When Deimos turned the corner and aimed his gun straight at what he assumed was an agent, the barrel was grabbed by a bigger, stronger hand instead.

His eyes met bright red lenses.

"Huh? Hank?!"

"Yep. Fortunately for you." Hank effortlessly pulled the gun from Deimos's hand and walked around him, shoving it at the back of his head before walking away from the building. Deimos reluctantly followed.

"Fuckin' asshole, that's the second time I've been hit there!"

"It won't be the last if you don't get it together and help me find Sanford."

"Wait." Deimos paused, turning to look at Hank. "You're looking for him too?"

"Yes. And I was looking for you. Heard a lot of noise so I figured I'd make sure the two of you were alive..."

Aww.. he cares..

"...found 'Ford in the room alone, and you were missing.. without a trace. N'based on what we had to deal with a while back, I knew what that meant."

Deimos' eyebrows knit together in concern. "Did he go after you too..?"

"That's how I got here." Hank seemed to be a lot more unbothered about the situation than Deimos currently was. "Surprising, I know."

"But- you're reaction time is, like, crazy high now, isn't it?" The pair had come up on another series of buildings, and they paused to prepare themselves for more battle. "And your strength.."

"Listen, if that was just Sanford, I could've had him down in seconds."

Deimos's heart dropped.

"No, no, I wouldn't actually do it. I know what you're thinkin'. But that wasn't him, you could see that, right?"

"Unfortunately, yeah."

"The only thing harder than stayin' dead is dealing with that thing."

Deimos stayed silent, watching Hank reload his shotgun. "And in a crazy-ass bodybuilder type guy like Sanford? Forget it. He was havin' fun with me. I might've had the reaction time, but not the strength on my own up there- compared to it. He was totally unfazed every time I hit him."

"You hit him?!"

"Wh- Yes I fucking hit him, the fuck was I supposed to do?! Sit there scared or try talking him out of it?"

Deimos had no response.

"Sounds like a familiar strategy, right?"

The venom backing Hank's voice made his blood boil.

"He was still there and he was hurtin'." Deimos spoke through gritted teeth. "I saw 'im, both times it happened. He was listenin', I just know it."

"There's no reasoning with that thing, Deimos. There's no reasoning with anything here."

Deimos continued to leave him with no response as they approached the buildings. Just as they'd been before, they were all oddly small, some of them had entrances up onto the roofs.

"Looks like we got our work cut out for us." Hank cocked his gun.

Deimos did the same, Hank shot him a look, and he reluctantly took his cigarette and stomped it out.

"I want our boy back. Let's go."