The duo quickly scaled down the side of the building into the dark alley, using the windowsills and fire escape as ledges to grab along the way to the street level. Lance readied his shield gauntlet and Adam his own new gear, a set of heavy impact gauntlets.
They were just about to charge at the creature when it turned its head at an odd angle back at them, reddish demonic-looking eyes glaring in the little light that shone near it. It barked at them and twisted around into the light to face the duo and revealed its truly horrid figure. It had the appearance of a heavily built Rottweiler, but greatly disfigured; one front leg was much smaller than the other, the shape of its body appeared malformed, and patches of the creature’s fur were missing. As if its misshapen form weren't enough, it had not one, not two, but three heads, all growling and snapping menacingly, heavy beads of saliva dripping from each mouth.
“I’d say divide and conquer, but this thing has more heads than we do combined!” said Adam.
“Never mind that,” stated Lance. “Take sides anyway; I have a hunch that aside from its heads it can't do more than one direction at once.”
Adam nodded and took the right while Lance moved to the left. As assumed, the creature couldn't decide which direction it wanted to go in and continued to growl and snarl, flinging saliva around.
“Ugh… nasty!” shouted Adam as he was slung with a splatter of drool.
The creature seemed to have finally made up its mind and turned at Adam.
“Yikes! Easy with the teeth and claws!” he said as he backed into the wall.
The beast pounced, missing Adam by mere inches as he pushed off the wall towards Noel. Lance held up his shield arm and charged forward, bashing the massive canine into the wall.
“Get her out of here!” he told Adam. “I’ll hold it off!”
Adam peered around the corner Noel was hiding in.
“Hey! Noe-” he caught himself saying. “…Miss! I'm going to get you out of here!” he said as he extended his hand.
Noel looked up fearfully at the sound of the deep, modulated voice, and then a look of surprise came to her face when she saw the black armored figure. She slowly reached for his hand when Lance groaned with strain as he wrestled the three-headed dog.
“GO ALREADY!” he shouted as he punched back a massive paw.
Adam reached farther and snatched Noel’s hand, quickly leading her through the other end of the alley.
“No wait!” she said. “There's another thing this way!”
Adam halted.
“Another thing?” he repeated. “Like another monster?”
“A different monster!” said Noel. “With horns!”
Just as the words left her, a grumbling bellow sounded around the corner of the winding alley. Adam glanced around and spotted a fire escape to their left. He ran and sprang off the wall to pull the ladder down.
“Can you climb up there?” he asked.
Noel hesitated a moment, then nodded and ran to the ladder. Adam made sure she reached the next floor and pushed the ladder back up.
“Get to the roof!” he told her and then turned back the way they came. "Call the police... or animal control... or something!"
Adam ran back to find Lance on the dog creature's back, a long cord woven around each of its necks. He glanced over and spotted Adam.
“Grab the other end!” he ordered as the beast flailed to try removing Lance.
The loose end whipped around as the canine thrashed around, just past Adam's reach. He closed the gap and took the risk of being pounced on, grabbed the rope, and pulled back. Lance jumped off and pulled the opposite direction, looping his end through a heavy metal pipe.
“PULL IT TIGHT!” yelled Lance as he turned, bracing the cord over his shoulder.
They pulled in opposite directions, tightening the weave around the monster’s necks. It continued to thrash, fighting against Adam and Lance, but in the end, it wasn’t strong enough to resist them. As the creature’s struggle lessened, they pulled even tighter to make sure to finish the job. After a few minutes, the three-headed dog finally collapsed to the ground, motionless.
They had a brief moment of respite, both breathing heavily from straining against the creature. A strange grunting sounded from the direction Adam had helped Noel from, bringing them back into ready stances.
“That doesn't sound like a three-headed dog at least,” stated Adam.
Another mishap of a beast clambered around the corner. It stumbled around on four limbs, was almost twice the size of the last, and it had large, curved horns.
“Oh yeah… we are so much better off getting attacked by a BULL INSTEAD!” said Lance with sarcasm.
The bull creature pawed at the ground with a snort, then charged at the two men. They waited until the last moment and narrowly dodged to either side of the alley, sharp horns barely missing them. The beast skidded to a halt and turned back around.
“Any suggestions?” asked Adam.
"Maybe we can find some way to trip it during a charge,” said Lance. “Problem would be how and where.”
To their surprise, the beast pushed off the ground with what they had originally assumed were its front legs and stood upright on its hind ones. It bellowed at them again and lunged forward with a heavy slam.
"YIKES!” shouted Adam as they both leaped backward. “This thing isn't just a bull, it's a straight-up Minotaur!”
“Then the three-headed dog makes sense now,” said Lance. “A Cerberus.”
“So... someone is cooking up failed attempts at mythological creatures?” said Adam. “Cool in concept, but bad idea…”
The minotaur continued its rampage, attempting to either slam them with its grotesque “hands” or gore them with its horns. Adam and Lance kept up their game of evasion, leading the monstrosity further into the alley while narrowly avoiding the attacks.
It was when Adam tripped on a set of orange construction cones and fell on his back that the creature came even closer to landing a potentially deadly attack. Lance used his shield to soften the blow of the slam, straining his arm in the process, letting out a pained yell as he took the hit.
“Are you okay?” asked Adam as he rolled out of the way.
“Just great...” grunted Lance.
He took a glance over his shoulder to see a wide hole in the pavement behind them open through to several lower levels, construction and utility equipment laying around it. In the hole was a series of exposed metal poles, in process to rebuild the supports under that segment of the upper level.
“Dead end…” he said as he ducked from another swipe. “We need to figure something out: we can’t keep this up forever.”
Adam looked around for something… anything of use and spotted a bundle of metal poles, each a few inches in diameter. An idea dawned on him, and he leaped to the side in a roll and grabbed one. He quickly drew his grapple and used it to propel himself up and over the minotaur as it tried to swipe at him again.
“Follow me!” he said to Lance, who did the same.
The minotaur furiously charged at them, and they once again prepared to dodge.
“Trip it with the pole!” shouted Adam.
The two swung low, sweeping the beast’s legs from under it and causing it to stumble forwards. Adam dashed madly back to where he was near the hole, Lance noting his movement and predicting the intent. The two positioned themselves close to the center of the alley just as the minotaur shook itself off and turned back to them.
“Come get some, ugly! Your mother was a double-stacker bacon cheeseburger!” yelled Adam.
Though it wasn't clear if the creature understood speech, it seemed to respond to the aggressive tone. Pawing the ground, the minotaur launched forwards, intent on slamming right into both of its targets. At the last possible moment, they took separate sides and tripped the minotaur into their trap. It tumbled forward, flailing wildly before being impaled on the metal poles in the hole.
The two breathed heavily as they relaxed for the moment, watching as the monster kicked for a few moments and then went still. Lance pulled a flashlight from his utility belt and shined it on the body. Both of them were slightly taken back at the sight of not red blood, but a blackish-green ooze dripping from it.
“I’m no biologist, but that doesn't look normal...” said Adam.
“Let’s take a closer look,” suggested Lance as he upholstered his grapple gun and used it to drop into the deep hole.
Adam followed and the two descended to a point where they could examine the thick substance. They followed the trail of ooze all the way up to the body just before it seemed to dissolve into a shower of more of the same “blood” and a haze of green mist.
“Gross!” complained Adam as he shook the slime off himself. “Hopefully this washes off!”
“We should take some samples to analyze,” stated Lance. “And probably check back on the Cerberus for some as well.”
They looked around for a means to contain and carry a small portion of the substance that wouldn't be contaminated and found nothing much of use but some plastic wrap binding construction materials together. Lance pulled out a utility knife and cut a set of squares out and used one to smear the sludge on. Carefully folding it up, he put it in a pouch on his belt.
“Hopefully the stench won't linger either…” said Lance as he smelled the air.
“So... what do you think this is all about?” asked Adam as they scaled back to the top level.
“No clue, but I don't like it…” said Lance.
Meanwhile, in a laboratory elsewhere…
A man in a white lab coat hurriedly marched down a short hall. He briefly fumbled with his I.D. badge then pulled it on its retractable leash to unlock the door in front of him. He quickly entered while he rifled through the pages on his clipboard and passed the group of other scientists and researchers in the large room. He was too busy looking at his readouts to notice that no one else was moving or working as he approached the man at the head of the group, who was hovering over a series of displays showing various biometric readouts and other vital information regarding whatever was happening in this section of the lab.
“Sir….? The test subjects…” he began as he finally looked at the lead scientist. “They’re… they’ve…”
“Shh…” hushed the man he was speaking to, who held out a single index finger without turning from the displays.
Suddenly, a single pulse waved across the screen directly in front of him with a faint “beep”.
And then a second… and a third.
A smile cracked across the lead scientist’s face as he adjusted his glasses.
“It worked.”
To be continued in Season Three….
Comments