Horrors of War(8)

– San Francisco, California, America - 12:26 AM –

Under the cloudy weather, Carson, Simmons, Ramsey, Rip who was carrying Zorin's head, entered an apartment building after losing the Reich and dark aether forces in the streets. They climbed the stairs to the third floor, forced open a room, and used a couch to barricade the door.

"Finally, we're safe," Carson sighed with relief, "Quite the exercise we had running. Now we just need to relax and move when the heat dies down, or not because it's a complete warzone out there." he joked.

"Shut the hell up for once, dummkopf!" Rip snapped.

"What? I'm just saying."

"No! I think you should stop with the puns and jokes, Carson!" Ramsay shouted, "I've been tolerating you for months, especially during our capture attempt with that fox bitch. You never get rid of that helmet for some reason and you never take anything seriously! As if everything is a joke to you!"

"Let's calm down guys, yelling is not helping," Simmons tried to intervene, attempting to ease the growing tension.

"SHUT IT SIMMONS!" Ramsay and Rip both shouted at him in unison.

"...Okay," he muttered.

"Can I say something?" Zorin asked.

"Quiet, head!" Ramsay snapped.

Zorin sighed, "And the cycle continues."

"Guys, I'm only just lightening the mood," Carson insisted.

"Lighten the mood?" Ramsey scoffed. "Knowing full fucking well an all-out-war is happening that could end us all and is a moment of time where we need to be serious!"

"Okay! Okay! Let's just calm down. I'm just who I am!" Carson replied innocently, trying to defend his demeanor.

Ramsay chuckled derisively, "Oh please, Carson. Don't give us an innocent tone. You leave people behind and always show up late when they are harmed, just like you did with Lawrence," she said with a harsh tone, "He's a better guy than you'll ever be."

"And not a cowardly cunt who runs away like your friends in the site mentioned during the iceberg incident with Lawrence." Rip added.

Pausing at the moment, Carson locked eyes with Rip with a serious tone as he spoke. "What the hell did you just call me?" he demanded.

Rip sneered, "A cowardly cunt, and a joke of a human who always likes cracking jokes in serious times."

Closing the distance from Rip, Carson didn't hesitate on pushing her back angrily, "And who are you to judge? Says the bitch who worked for the most despicable people in history!" he retorted as he pushed her back again "Since when did you start to understand cowardice and being a human! You were the true monsters!"

"True monsters lurk within us all, it doesn't fit to only one specific group," Rip replied calmly, "Anyone of us can become something we don't want to. That's the reality."

"You know what, I had enough with you. Not only you are a huge bitch and your prescence is intolerable here, you are nasty as a fucking faggot!"

Carson's harsh words brought the room to a stunned silence. Everyone stared at him, shocked by what he just said.

Zorin, Ramsey, Simmons: :0

"...You didn't just say that."

"Oh yes I did! Nazi fagg-"

Before Carson could continue, Rip punched him hard and knocked him to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Simmons and Zorin both exclaimed in surprise at the sudden development.

"YOU LITTLE HOMOPHOBIC CUNT!" Rip shouted angrily as she began throwing punches at Carson and would've broken his skull from her vampire strength if it wasn't for his helmet.

Seeing the danger, Ramsay quickly rushed over to intervene, trying to seperate them and break up the fight. "Rip, they'll hear us!"

"STAY OUT OF THIS BLACK WOMAN!" Rip pushed Ramsay back, but Carson seized the moment to grab a flower vase and smashed it against Rip's head.

Growling in anger, Rip grabbed him by the throat and lifted his body effortlessly with her vampiric strength before pinning him against a nearby wall.

Grunting in pain, Carson was still able to crack a smile and taunted, "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, RACIST WHORE?!"

"FUCK YOU, CISGENDER SWINE!"

—————————————————————

Outside of the apartment building, Jason was roaming along the north side of the structure, hunting for his prey until he suddenly heard yelling from within the building.

"..."

His prey was inside, so he made his way in through the backdoor.

🎶Ki Ki ki...ma ma ma🎶

On the opposite side of the building, the Chaos Insurgency's Project Jaeger stalked the south side, seeking out any Foundation members until he heard the commotion from within the building.

"...F O U N D A T I O N."

Entering the building through the front door, Project Jaeger immediately ignited the plank wood floor of the ground floor on fire with his flamethrower. The flames spread across the other floors quickly as he made his way up to the third floor.

—————————————————————

"Both of you, stop! We can't afford to fight among ourselves!" Simmons shouted at the two, alarmed by the escalating fight.

"GO FUCK YOURSELF SIMMONS!" Rip and Carson yelled back while strangling each other.

Simmons recoiled, feeling a little hurt by their harsh response.

Just then, the door of the room exploded into a hundred fragments, the force of the explosion propelled the group flying across the room and crashing into the wall.

"What now?" Ramsay coughed, disoriented.

Coming through the shattered doorway emerged Project Jaeger as he stared at them with a fierce and menacing gaze.

"What is that?!" Zorin exclaimed, taken aback by the menacing figure.

"F O U N D A T I O N!"

Simmons regained his footing and drew his handgun, firing at Jaeger's head repeatedly. The shots only tore through Jaeger's mask slightly, barely flinching the monster from the headshots.

In response to this, Jaeger swung a ferocious punch at the group.

"Dodge!" Simmons shouted.

Immediately, the group rolled in different directions, narrowly avoiding the punch as it impacted against the concrete wall, shattering it and obliterating it completely with a single punch.

"Let's not get hit by that!" Simmons called out as he regained his balance.

Turning to the group with murderous intent, Project Jaeger roared.

"F O U N D A T I O N! E X T E R M I N A T I O N!"

Bringing out his rocket launcher, he aimed it at the group, who quickly scrambled for the door, but Project Jaeger instead targeted the ceiling above them and fired. The rocket struck, causing the ceiling to collapse.

"Jump!" Simmons shouted as he and Ramsay leaped through the shattered door, but Carson and Rip, who was carrying Zorin, weren't quick enough before the falling debris blocked their path.

"We're trapped!" Rip shouted, her gaze fixed on Project Jaeger as he approached them with deadly intent.

"Take this!"

Aiming her musket rifle, Rip fired a magic bullet at Project Jaeger, but he instantly morphed his right arm into a curved blade made of metal and flesh. With one fast swing, he sliced the bullet in two as the halves flew past his head and embedded themselves in the wall.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Rip turned to Carson and Zorin in her hand and shouted, "Bedroom, quick!"

The three rushed into the bedroom and closed the door, quickly tipping over a cabinet to block the entrance. However, the door before them started to splinter and break apart.

"That's not going to hold!" Zorin warned as she scanned the room and spotted a window behind them. "Through there!"

Upon seeing the window that Zorin pointed out, Rip and Carson dashed toward it and opened it to find a fire escape outside. They quickly climbed out and descended the fire escape, not before long they noticed smoke billowing from the first and second floors, as well as the ground floor, due to Jaeger's flamethrower stunt.

"Building's burning, Rip!" Carson shouted.

"I noticed!" Rip replied tersely.

In a hurry, Rip and Carson descended the fire escape and re-entered the building through a nearby window that was next to the fire escape, which leads to a second floor room. They quickly made their way through a room and into the corridor.

But as they entered the corridor, Project Jaeger burst through the ceiling of the room and landed in front of Rip and Carson as they fell back in shock.

"F O U N D A T I O N"

The monstrous humanoid attempts to grab the two, but they roll aside and narrowly avoid its grasp. They scrambled out of the room and into the second-floor corridor, which was ablaze around them with fire.

Running towards an exit door, they shoulder bash into it and burst through, finding another fire escape. Descending the fire escape, they spotted a ladder leading down to ground level.

"That'll do," Carson said, relieved.

But as they approached the ladder, the wall beside the fire escape broke open to reveal Jaeger as he grabbed both Rip and Carson by the heads and threw them into the first-floor corridor, which was also engulfed in flames.

"This thing doesn't give up!" Carson shouted as he glanced up, only to see Project Jaeger rushed towards them at astonishing speed.

But Rip reacted quickly and wrapped her arms around Carson's waist. Using her vampiric strength, she threw themselves to the right, narrowly dodging Jaeger's fist that tore through the concrete floor, shattering it and sending the two falling to the ground-floor corridor, which it also ablaze with fire.

Carson recovered quickly and scanned his surroundings before spotting the exit door straight ahead.

"There!" he exclaimed.

Upon noticing the exit door, Rip and Carson immediately make a mad dash for it with project Jaeger in close pursuit. In a synchronized manner, the two kicked the door open and rushed into an alleyway. As they turned around, the ceiling next to the exit collapsed, blocking the door with debris and temporarily trapping Jaeger inside.

"Even though I'm just a head and strapped to your belt, that was intense," Zorin remarked while being strapped to Rip's belt.

"That thing had Chaos Insurgency logos on his leather clothes and it's hunting us so aggressively," Carson said as he panted heavily, "It kept screaming Foundation at us, I think…"

"What is it? You know what it is?" Rip asked, feeling curious.

"This could be Project Jaeger that the Foundation has been trying to get info on for a month." Carson replied.

"I see," Rip nodded in acknowledgement as she rose to her feet, "It doesn't matter what that thing is, we need to keep moving."

"But Ramsey and Simmons are still in there," Carson protested.

Rip grumbled, "Damn. We'll have to wait for them then. Be on your guard for now."

With that, the two settled in to wait for Ramsey and Simmons, while being prepared for any enemies that might approach them.