Beneath the Demolition site in a cramped underground cell, the stenchs of sweat, urine, vomit and faeces battled for supremacy. Their creators, the captured Demolishers formed the majority of the casualties of this fierce clash. The heat emanating from so many people packed in a small room with little in way of ventilation made the horrible situation so much worse. In many ways they were trapped in a hell of their own making. It had only been a week since their defeat but already their ranks had fallen into discord. Several fights had broken out and within that short span of time the old hierarchy had been broken down and another built on the strength of fist and the power of coercion had risen. The once cohesive guild had fractured into smaller gangs that seemed to always find cause to fight. In the dark, dank, crowded room the groups fought over space, women -former members of the guild who had now become items to be traded and won through battle-, food and prestige. It hadn't been nearly so bad before, you could say the shit hadn't piled up then and there were fewer dead bodies bloating in the corners but that wasn't the heart of it. The Demolishers had always been uncouth and conditions like those they were suffering bring out the worst in the best men, still in the beginning there was hardly any infighting because the deviants amongst them had kept the peace but that had all changed. Originally those whose abilities where deemed incapable of escaping the underground hell were packed with the bulk. Together the empowered individuals kept control of the Demolishers, fights still broke out, women were casually raped and knives found necks yet the Demolishers as a force weren't over, beaten yes but not finished. That is until the first deviant was called out never to return again, two sometimes three days passed between call outs but now only two deviants remained Rufus the Mad dog and Gerald. Both had lost interest in prison politics not that they could salvage the situation at this point, two days had passed since the last call out and tomorrow was fast approaching.

Rufus slammed his fists into a bloody corpse whose blood was still warm repeatedly. His eyes were wild and his lips sprayed spittle as he growled incoherently.

"Break fuk smish grrrr rah fuck bake shi!"

All around him people watched in fear, this was the fourth body today. Already there was talk of getting together to give him a red smile but knowing that tomorrow was a call out everyone would rather wait see if he got called out instead. Rufus wasn't entirely oblivious to the talk around him and he knew that if they truly worked together he wouldn't stand a chance and so he chose his targets carefully. Now however he no longer saw the point, he was going to die soon. Still he kept to his self imposed rules, there was someone he wanted revenge on and the person wasn't in the stupid cell, so he had to get out that meant not giving the rats a reason to kill him. Less of a reason to live and more of a reason to die later. People with too many enemies, members of teams that lacked members, and worthless women these were his marks but it wasn't enough the urge to just bash in every face he saw was getting harder to fight. Gods he just wanted to break every one of them, if they had just pulled their fucking weight they would have beaten the Staves and he wouldn't be in this bloody shit hole. He threw an angry right hook that caught a random stander-by in his hip and had him clutching it in pain. Rufus didn't linger, he shouldn't have done that but that idiot shouldn't have stood so close either. He pushed himself into the musty crowd, the sensation of feeling people all around him made his skin crawl. Grrrrgh, he hadn't felt this powerless since he deviated, if Carl hadn't fucked up, -he wasn't sure how exactly but obviously he had- shit wouldn't be well shitty! Fuck! Yet Carl was the last person he could get to, one would think that Carl would be dead or in a fucked up cell of his own but then Blinks had pointed out something, somehow the Staves were calling out the Deviants amongst them according to their guild rankings with perfect accuracy. Someone had switched sides Blinks said and Rufus could see it, Carl wasn't the kind to get the short end of the stick, the slimy bastard. Not that it made much difference in the end, even if Carl had been here he wouldn't have been able to do a thing. He just wished, he could break him, make him hurt but Carl wasn't here and Carl was too damned hard to break. Damn that bastard! He felt the sudden urge to draw in the despair within him and break everyone around him but no, once he did that his enemies would come out of the shadows and he would be defenceless. He needed to talk to Blinks they needed a new plan, Rufus didn't think he could carry out the current one. Not killing people was so hard, they were all so damned annoying.

After asking around a bit he found Blinks, Blinks was bug eyed and a little on the small side, still he worked hard to give the impression of being tough and spent hours at gym such that he had muscles that looked as tough as he claimed to be. Some scars marked his body, most of them were self inflicted he had told Rufus in confidence, all part of an act he said. The guy was a half way decent fighter but he talked like he was the king of knives and almost everyone believed him. Not everyone though, Rufus saw right through him, his talk might fool those without the talent but any fighter worth his salt could see it was all bull. Still Blinks was useful, he noticed things that others did not and he was eager to tell Rufus these things simply because it made him look tough to hang around the most unpredictable deviant Demolisher.

"It's not going to work"

"The plan?" Blinks asked uncertain.

"Yes the plan" Rufus growled.

"Well it definitely won't work if you keep killing people. You understand thats the opposite of what-"

"SILENCE!" Rufus yelled, he shot the other man a glare that made him pale. Good, Blinks better remember who was top dog here.

Blinks blinked slowly, collecting his thoughts.

"I understand that this is difficult but if you lose control and you accidentally kill someone like-" Blinks stopped short, blinking rapidly as if he had almost let something slip.

"Look I know better than to kill Boros, not that the idiots he surrounds himself with would let me get close" Rufus studied Blinks expression, no not Boros. If not then who? "Blinks who am I not supposed kill" 

"Listen Rufus-"

"WHO AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO KILL! Look, you just said it yourself I might kill him by accident. So TELL ME DAMN IT!"

"Kael! don't, kill Kael. I'm not sure..." Blinks was still talking but Rufus had stopped listening. Don't kill Kael? Why would he even do that? Seconds ticked by and finally even the dim witted Rufus understood. He wanted to break Carl but since he couldn't do that then why not break Kael and in the process break Carl indirectly, at the very least hurt him. Carl wasn't here! Rufus laughed loud and deep, all around people were listening in, no doubt trying to gather information for the underground leaders they served, weaklings like Boros being leaders. It was all stupid. He started to walk away, kill Kael that was a good idea.

"Rufus no! Rufus don't do this! Think about it Ru-" Rufus turned to face Blinks, his eyes shining red, the mark of all physically aspected War deviants.

"You don't tell me what to do!" He struck Blinks across the face, knocking the weakling to the floor. There were seven common physical War deviations; perceptive, agility (commonly and incorrectly refered to as speed), strength, control, cognitive, regenerative and balanced. Rufus had been blessed with regenerative talents but as a War God deviant he benefited from all the others as well although only slightly, Blinks would not be getting up any time soon. 

Now to find Kael, the kid had been dropped in long after everyone else for some reason or so Rufus had heard. He shoved a woman who had been too slow hard, someone had said the boy had been unconscious probably hit too hard in the head. Rufus hoped he wasn't dead, he wanted to be the one to hurt Carl. A choking and two back hand slaps later he had found Kael. Blinks was such a little coward still afraid of Carl, it wasn't even for sure Carl had switched sides, it could have been anyone really. When Rufus got that he would make sure Blinks understood that, for someone who acted so smart he sure could be stupid.

Kael lay on the ground, covered in piss and vomit, with some bumps and bruises here and there but otherwise left alone. Rufus picked up the limp body by the neck. It was breathing, good. With a low growl he began to choke the boy, crushing the neck with only his fingers. Wake up you little shit fuck. Look me in the eye before you die. As if Kael had heard Rufus's thoughts he opened his eyes wide, gasping! His face was taut and his pupils rolled back. The boy stared at him with blank sockets and then grabbed him by the wrists. Futile. The boy seemed to realise this because he let go soon after. Still something about this was wrong he had expected the boy to spasm, kick and wheeze, try to claw out his eyes but not this. He squeezed harder. 

No one was sure when it happened, one moment Rufus was choking Kael the next black tentacles burst out of Kael's hand and knocked Rufus back. He tried to get back up. His sides were a red mess where the tentacles had gouged him but before he could make it up Kael was upon him. Thin white needled tubes emerged from Kaels right arm, they forced their way into the wounds the tentacles had made. The white tubes were now red with the blood of Rufus, It was feeding, the thought made everyone shudder. Even in the dark it was a gruesome sight, Rufus was screaming and all they could do was watch, murmuring out burst, unique deviation, dead for sure. Rufus's body stilled stilled and everyone assumed it over but it wasn't. Rufus pulled a pointed glass shard from his pants with a sudden jerk and the drove it into Kaels ribs. Desperately Rufus stabbed Kael repeatedly but if Kael felt it he gave indication whatsoever. Finally it was over Rufus was nothing more than an emaciated corpse. Kael rose up stared at his wound with pupiless eyes pulled out a broken shard of glass and went back to sleeping on the floor. What the fuck! A deviant who had triggered recntly spent one or two hours in a state called outbusrt. For one or two hours the newly deviated would possess far more power than they would otherwise but this, this was insane. Outburst or not a newly deviated did not kill an expert deviant whose abilities focused on regeneration and redundancies in under a minute. 

Blinks nursed his swollen lip with careful hands. Dealing with rabid dogs was always risky business sometimes it was just best to put them down. He sighed, weary, this whole defeated by the Staves thing had undone a lot of work. Still there were opportunities here if one knew were to look. He heard footsteps approaching, with Rufus gone people would be wondering if now was a good time to off him. Idiots all of them but even idiots could be made to see reason. Blinks looked up, blinking like a sleepy man. He recognised the faces these were Boros's men. Slowly the men parted to reveal the leader, the underground king himself Boros, Blinks mocked mentally.

"Blinks I have to say that you are something else! you know that?"

Blinks smiled thinly but didn't answer, he really couldn't tell what the man wanted him to say. 

"When you told me you had a plan to get rid of Rufus without losing any men I thougt you were insane!" Boros laughed

Stupid laughter, stupid face, stupid man Blinks thought. The last part wasn't his fault Blinks had been surrounded by stupid men since birth. He supposed that was a good thing, smarter men were harder to fool.

"But now...?" Blinks responded smiling.

"Now I think you are bloody brilliant! How did you know Kael would Deviate and that his outburst would allow him to kill Rufus?"

Blinks smiled and shrugged. Mystery was good, mystery inflated power but perhaps today inflating power would be the wrong move. Boros might very well kill him for being too much of a threat.

"I didn't, the possibility was acknowledged yes but know for sure? No." 

The question Blinks was waiting for was asked.

"Then why?"

"The boy was a GodMarked and young whoever leads the Staves now would have had plans for him. By killing him, Rufus would anger the Staves, killing himself or at least getting him out for sure and you would avenge your dear friend."

The mention of the dead girl had veins appearing on Boros's face.

"Yes, well a deal is a deal. You have my protection and if you ever want more than that you know what to do... you know I have been thinking and I figure you are cold bitch. He was your friend and your protector."

"Friend? Please lets not kid ourselves Rufus had no friends, the man was half beast and the way he was going if he wasn't called in the next call out you would have had a knife find me just to send him a message, that is if he didn't beat you to it himself. Not very protecting, no he needed to go"

Boros laughed again. 

"I guess you could say that. I guess you could also say he left you with a little farewell" with said that he turned around and walked away. His entourage close as always.

The slap had been unexpected really, you thought you a guy and then he went and did something contrary. Normally when Rufus had a goal he forgot everyone and everything else, this time though the pressure had gotten to him it seemed. Blinks really wanted to shrug it off but he couldn't shake the feeling that he might have died from an unnecessary comment.

Boros was smiling but he didn't real feel good. He needed more, all of this was pointless. Just petty posturing for when they got out, so people remembered he had the most men in the cell, that he was the most successful, that rumours have it that he planned Rufus's death. It was all for the after and yet there was a chance that it would all be for nothing. The notion gnawed at his insides like a feral rodent. 

"Boros... about Blinks... I think we should kill him"

Stephen brave, clever and very loyal.

"He's useful"

"He's dangerous"

"Like my knife dangerous but thats kinda what makes it dangerous"

Stephen sighed.

"Things are fucked up right now and we fuck up thats it. Normally that means we should either stay away or kill that ffake smiling sack of bull but if we do nothing If we achieve nothing whats the point of staying safe. Everything we've worked for since joining the Demolishers will be lost to wind! Trust me"

Stephen nodded.

Tommorow someone would be called out and they would be one step closer to the after.