Unlikely Heroes-Draft 1

Chapter 4

Their presence had not gone unnoticed. Pazuzu had not only tortured and corrupted humans to make his demons, once he had the rare opportunity to capture and torture an infant banshee. It had no memory of it former life, and its body bore almost no resemblance to the plushy furred and feathered form common to banshee hunters. No, instead its bare body was covered in scars and welts. It had been blinded, its tendrils removed and its face exposed, and its skull reshaped into the likeness of a crown. A blasphemous mockery of Lilith's Matriarch. Instead of walking on two legs she skittered like an insect on her four hands and her feet.

All it knew was pain, all it knew was to kill. And a new scent had caught its attention. Negativity, sadness, hatred...delicious. It was there to attack the Matriarch of the banshees, but the scent was too alluring, and it slunk through the long grass towards the two figures on the hill.

Distracted by the sight of the fire, Nocturne and Chimney were caught unawares. Just as Noc was going to reply to Chim he felt something heavy and sharp slam him in the sternum, causing a cracking noise and knocking the wind right out of him. He went flying several feet into a tree, smacking into it with a sickening crunch as he felt several of his ribs break. The tree didn't fare much better, snapping under his impact and crashing to the ground. He sat stunned and tangled under the branches, wheezing

Chim was startled by Noc suddenly taking to air when he felt needle-like claws shred into his arm as something took ahold of him. "FUCK!" was all he was able to get out as it tossed him like a ragdoll to the ground. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it slammed a huge hand against his head, attempting to crush his skull while his limbs flailed. He was too injured to turn to mist and escape, and he groaned in agony as the pressure built.

Nocturne managed to get his breath back, but it was still coming in wheezes. He slowly got up with a pained groan. He felt his broken ribs grind and fresh blood spurted, making his shirt stick to his skin. His chest burned from where the creature had struck its claws, this was not like any normal scratch, and there was some added vileness that was keeping him from healing as quickly as he should. He spat as he stood, blood spattering against nearby stone, "Fine. Let's do this.", and with a gut-wrenching scream snapped his ribs into place.

This caught the attention of the creature, who turned and made a strange hollow metallic screech. At least the pressure was released from Chim's head, and he took a deep breath before it dragged him by the neck with it in a vice-like grip. He beat and clawed against its hands but it didn't even seem to notice, causing him to groan out, "What the fuck are you?"

Nocturne faced his opponent, his eyes burning like a pair of blue flames, "That's right you fucking shit. Ven a mí!", and as it shrieked at him again he replied with a roar of his own. It was running headlong at him, still dragging a flailing and cursing Chimney, and it slammed into him with its full weight, knocking him over. One of its large hands pinned him to the ground, digging its claws deep into his flesh, the two smaller hands shredding at his face and chest. He snarled as he felt its weight on his damaged body and started swinging, its head darting out of the way with every fist he tried to land. He heard Chimney shouting at him, "GET UP YOU MORON", but above even that, was another distant cry of a child. He felt himself get even angrier, causing his whole body to pulse with white hot intensity, and with a satisfying crack he landed a punch to the creature's jaw, before taking advantage of its stunned state and kicking it off of him.

Angrily the creature shook its head and tossed a still-swearing Chimney to the side, before it slid its jaw side to side and stood up. It towered above Noc, a good 8 feet in height. Its larger hands were dripping with his blood and twitching, while the smaller hands curled, joints popping.

Noc was on his feet once more and facing it, he was in bad shape, but he was too pissed off to care. He was going to win, one way or another. It was his turn this time, and he flung himself at it, aiming his strikes towards its middle in an attempt to make it crash to the ground. It did not go as planned however, the creature merely hissed and yanked him off of it, leaving him dangling by an arm before smashing him into the ground repeatedly. It then placed a clawed foot on his back, causing him to scream as its full weight crushed more bones and squeezed the breath out of his lungs. It grabbed onto his head with one of its giant claws, attempting to tear his head right off of his neck.

A new sound caught its attention, Chimney had found his feet and was weakly staggering away from the area, trying to get away as fast as he could. This caused it to give Noc's head one more slam to the ground before going back on all six limbs, skittering through the grasses after its preferred quarry.

Nocturne lay there, bleeding and hoarsely coughing between wheezes. He thought he heard a faint voice calling to him, "Papa? Papa please get up. You have to get up Papa."

The sound of his daughter's voice made his voice catch in his throat, he shook his head wearily, "No, not now, please not now. Just let me die." He hurt everywhere, outside and in, what the hell was the point of all of this?

"Papa please, they need you."

He heard the screams of the child, mixing with the screams off his daughter. His eyes flew open, and he pushed himself back up on his knuckles, he could barely see from all the blood in his eyes, but he knew what needed to be done. He groaned, his body had taken a lot of punishment, but this was another one of those rare times he was thankful he was no longer human.

He heard Chimney shouting, if that smug bastard was going to die it was going to be by his hands, and he would be damned again if someone took that small bit of satisfaction away from him.

He staggered to his feet, and with a concentrated effort, his body began expand and change. His clothes ripped, horns shredded through the flesh of his head and wings exploded out of his back. It was pure agony, his bones lengthening and his skin stretching to accommodate his new form. His feet cracked and snapped as they changed to animalistic claws, and sharp nails burst from the ends of his fingers. He howled in pain, and it was finally done. He stood, heaving with effort and his vision now so much clearer, and with a roar flapped his wings and took off after the demon who dared attack him.

Chimney was in trouble, and he knew it. But even so that was not enough to stop him from having the last word. He was backed up against a boulder, his hand clutching his still bleeding arm. He glared at the beast as it approached him, "Fuck you're ugly...come on..."

But before it could even react Nocturne was on it. It shrieked as his claws dug into its sides, ripping off a huge shred of skin and muscle and leaving its ribs exposed. Chimney wasn't sure what the hell was happening, but he was not one to pass up an opportunity when he saw it, and using the miasma pouring from his wounds formed shadowy claws, stabbing them deeply and repeatedly into the exposed hole. He smashed his hand so hard into the bones that he broke his hand, but his anger and pain was so intense that he didn't even notice.

In the meantime, Nocturne was ripping into the creature still, pounding and biting it even as it tried to tear away from him, screeching in surprise and pain. With a mighty wrench it ripped itself free of him and skittered off into the dense woods, leaving behind a trail of gore, along with one of its smaller arms.

Chimney looked up at the demon who suddenly appeared to attack the creature, and just as he was saying "What the fuck are y-", Nocturne grabbed him by the throat. Chim, his eyes blazing red, snarled and slashed at the arm holding him. "Put me the fuck down!"

Nocturne raised his other hand, demonic rage overtaking his senses, he was seconds away from ripping Chimney in two when he heard the crying again. His eyes turned back to blue and Chimney took the opportunity to press his boots against distracted Noc's chest and push himself off and away. He landed on his feet like a cat and angrily exclaimed "Fuck this place. Fuck that thing, and most of all, fuck you. I'm getting the fuck out of here. Have fun bring stuck in whatever hellish nightmare carnival of shit this is"

Nocturne slowly turned, the cries had his full attention, and he left Chim to his own devices...