"Come in, come in" do you read me. "It's no use, that thing must have." Kile said to herself.
Her mother, Giliseia had been aboard the last civilian facility for her people left in the ocean. All that was left of their entire civilisation now was the research center, where their few remaining scientists were desperately attempting to find a way to escape from the Demons.
"What was the point". She thought. "The Demon's will no doubt find them too." Kile sank to her knees in despair, but she was soon jolted up by a screaming sound coming from the end of the long, dark corridor. Kile raised her weapon in fear and walked slowly to the end of the corridor.
"They've found us." They've found us" She said to herself whilst trembling. As she reached the end of the corridor, she saw her old friend, Mozek lying on the floor, covered in blood, though he was still alive.
"They're here, the Ishika, they." He fainted before he could finish. Kile tried to rouse him again when suddenly a huge beast came bursting through the floor. It was one of the hideous Ishika, members of Kile's race who had been infected by the gigantic Demons that stalked the green oceans outside. The creatures were in some ways even more vicious and sadistic than the giants who had created them.
Kile fired at the monsters feet temporarily crippling it, whilst she then ran down a nearby corridor carrying her friend. Kile headed for the emergency room which was just a few corridors down. Her team had stumbled upon the room when they first arrived, and they always made sure at least some of the team stayed near it in case. Not that the room had done the civilians from the city any good.
When Kile reached the emergency room and opened the door, she was soon confronted by another one of the Ishika the emerged from it, covered in the blood of her team mates.
I thought we'd killed the last one!" The monster said with sadistic delight.
Kile fired at the monster repeatedly, but it simply laughed as her lasers only produced minor burns which quickly healed. The original Ishika that had pursued Kile meanwhile slowly crept up on the former soldier. She knew it was behind her, but she didn't care. She had to focus all of her power on the Demon blocking the path.
As Kile fired and fired more desperately, one of the many beams skidded off of the monsters hide and struck one of the explosives in the safe room behind. (The safe room was filled with various weapons. )
The explosion rocked the room, and knocked Kile, and the two Demons off of their feet, but Kile quickly jumped up, and pulled Mozek who was still unconscious with her. As they almost reached the room however, one of the Demons grabbed hold of Mozek's arm. Kile tried to pull him, but it was no use. Rather than engage in a pointless tug of war, Kile instead struck the Demon in the face with the butt of her gun. It didn't harm the monster, but it managed to catch it off guard for a few seconds for Kile to pull her friend into the safe room and shut the door behind her.
One of the Demons pounded on the door, whilst the Ishika who had come from the safe room started to punch in the code to the door. (Which it had earlier tortured from one of the Kile's team, so it could wait in the safe room for anyone who tried to flee there. It had managed to slaughter six of Kile's team that way.)
Kile however shot the door panel from her side, sealing the door shut on the outside. Both Demons started to claw furiously on the door.
"You can't escape us you'll die screaming just like we did!"
Kile however ignored the beasts and focused on helping her friend. Mozek had drifted in and out of consciousness during the ordeal.
"Stay with me" Kile said. "We might be the last two left." Kile searched around for any medical supplies. Sadly most of the supplies had been destroyed in the explosion. Parts of the room were still on fire. The remains of many of her team mates were scattered all of the place. "
"Kile, Kile" Mozek said pitifully.
"Please, Mozek just hang on" Kile said.
Suddenly however Mozek grabbed Kile by the throat and threw her across the room. As Kile looked up she could see to her horror, Mozek morphing into one of the hideous Ishika.
"I can't believe you fell for that." Mozek taunted and laughed.
The gargantuan Demon had began to crush the sub. It had only spared the Circus Folk for a few seconds longer as it felt a strange presence from some of these tiny creatures. There was an almost creeping sense of familiarity to them.
"We need to get out now." The Circus Master said as he started to pull the hatch open.
"If you think I'm going to swim in that green slime." Florence said with indignation.
"Oh how unreasonable to ask a Siren to swim!" The Circus Master snapped back.
"Don't worry though it's an escape pod." He continued as he pulled the hatch up.
The Strange Boy meanwhile had completely lost his mind. He was clawing at the walls as they came closer, and attacking anyone who came near him. None of the rest of the team could overpower him directly. Both Florence and the Circus Master were thrown across the room when they tried to restrain the child Vampire. Even Denika couldn't land a hit on the Vampire with her blasts before the Strange Boy knocked her down with one strike.
Carlene fished through her beehive. After a few seconds, that felt like an eternity under the circumstances, Carlene finally found what she was looking for.
It was a piece of yellow paper with a spell on it (written in Chinese), which if placed on the head of a Jiang Shi would freeze it in it's tracks. Taoist priests had used them on the mainland of China for centuries to tame the beasts.
Carlene was able to jump the Strange Boy from behind whilst he was wrestling with the Circus Master and placed the paper on his forehead.
The Circus Master looked on disapprovingly. "I'm not happy on one of those being used on the boy." He said to Carlene.
"Sorry I'll just let him go crazy and get crushed to death" Carlene replied as she hoisted the boy over her shoulders and headed to the pod with the rest of the Circus Folk.
The pod was tiny. It could barely hold all of the folk. They all had to press back against the wall to give the Circus Master space to work the controls.
"Oh no, oh no" The Circus Master said as he pounded furiously on the controls.
"It's the demon, it's crushing the hatch to release the pod. It's too small for the pod to get through. We're trapped."
In desperation, Denika blasted the pod out of the hatch using her magic.
The pod fired out into the demon and bounced off its scales before plummeting through the depths.
The Circus Folk were shaken by the blast, with Ashlei and Keptis even being knocked out.
"What would we do without you" Carlene said to Denika after making sure Ashlei was okay.
"Well there was a 50/50 chance we could have been blown up too, but what choice did we have." Denika said whilst clutching to the back wall.
"Don't get too cocky yet. I can't control this thing. We're headed for a crash." The Circus Master interrupted as he frantically worked the controls.
Fortunately the giant Demon hadn't noticed the pod. It was too small, though it could still sense the Circus Folk, or at least some of them. The Demon looked around, but it couldn't find anything. The pod had long since fallen into the murky depths. The Demon had more important things to worry about anyway and soon left.
The Circus Master was able to steer the pod into a large sandy area of the ocean floor. It still hit the ground with tremendous force, and had the Circus Master been human he would have been killed by the impact. The rest of the Circus Folk meanwhile were safe at the back thanks to a forcefield from Denika.
"Sometimes being a Demon can be handy" The Circus Master said as his smashed skull began to heal itself.
Carlene looked at the two giant Demons above on the scanner. Both were swimming away from the ruins of the city.
"There's something about those monsters" Carlene said. "Every time I look at them I want. I want."
"What." Ashlei asked.
"I want to hurt you. I want to hurt everyone here." Carlene said with self loathing.
"Of course you do." The Circus Master interrupted. "I feel the same, as I'd reckon do you Florence."
Florence didn't answer, but she didn't have to.
"Those monsters up there are Kardons."
The others except for Ashlei all froze in terror at the mention of that name.
"It can't be." Carlene said.
"What the hell is a Kardon?" Ashlei asked?
"Our forebears. The Kardons were believed to be the original Demon race, created by the Creator of all things. They were the most evil, fearsome and powerful of all Demon races. Their leader, Khastran, many eons ago conquered the earth to try and gain access to the mystic realm."
"Yes I remember." Ashlei said. "The book he left behind killed my brother. You don't tend to forget little things like that."
"I'm sorry Ashlei." The Circus Master said sincerely.
"According to legends." The Circus Master continued. "During the battle to banish the Kardons, the Angels were forced to seal several of his army deep below the earth the Angels were so vastly outnumbered. They sealed his most dangerous and powerful minions below the earth's crust. Being near those creatures awakens the Demon within us. The poor Strange Boy it seems was the most affected because the Demon in him is the strongest, but we have to be careful. All of us."
Suddenly a transmission came in through the speaker. It was very faint.
"Hello, please, someone come in."
The Circus Master grabbed the speaker.
"Hello we read you, can you hear me? This is." He paused for a few seconds. "I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you who we are, but we're here to help."
"I don't have time for jokes. My name is Kile and I'm trapped in the safe room in one of the ruins. You have to help me. My entire team is dead."
"Hang on, we're tracing the signal." The Circus Master said.
"Got you, it should take about twenty minutes or so to reach you."
"I can wait that long. Be careful. There are hundreds of Ishika's crawling through the ruins."
"Ishika?" The Circus Master said.
"Please I am in no mood for your jokes. Get here now!" The signal cut off.
"We need to get there now. I'm afraid Florence, we're going to have leave the pod."
"No, no you have got to be."
"This pod won't move. There are too many people in it. Besides it's been damaged in the crash."
"Oh okay fine, but I just want you to know I spent close to 50 years under the sea, yet I can't bare the thought of letting that green gloop touch me. What does that tell you?"
Denika blew a hole in the pod. It had been so badly damaged that the hatch wouldn't open by itself.
The magic protected the Circus folk from the green slime, but it was so thick and foul smelling that it was hard to swim just a few feet it.
"I take it back. These oceans are more polluted." The Circus Master said. "It's the Kardons. Their evil has corrupted it. If weren't for the magic, one touch would probably be enough to turn us into monsters."
"We're already monsters darling." Carlene said.
"Well bigger monsters."
Denika used her magics to light up ahead through the green slime. Just up ahead was a large building that had begun to crumble.
Carlene stared at the building transfixed for a few seconds, not really sure why.
"Carlene" Ashlei nudged her.
"Sorry Ashlei darling, I don't know why but."
Suddenly a horde of Ishika came swarm out of the top of the building. They moved through the waters with a lightening speed and in a matter of seconds they had swarmed the Circus Folk.
To Be Continued
