The Demon's Clockwork Heart

[LU CAIN. Colorado River Demon Lair, Mojave Wilderness, United States of America. Tuesday 15th of June, 1880 Gregorian Calendar].

Lu Cain tried to touch the ache on the side of his head but was unable to move his arms. He opened his eyes and saw the beautiful green-eyed young woman who had stabbed him in the heart.

"You're awake," Josephine smiled, before quickly rushing out of the room.

Cain swivelled his neck to try and figure out where he was. It was clear that his body had been strapped down to a cold metallic surface. There were metal clamps securing his wrists and ankles. While leather straps pinned his hips, upper chest and forehead. This last strap prevented him from craning his neck, but did allow him some side to side movement. The fact that could feel the coldness of his restraints and the surface he was on, meant that he was fully naked.

The room he was in reminded him of the San Francisco Museum of Medical Oddities which his father had once taken him to. The right-hand wall had numerous shelves, on which stood large jars containing body parts. Around half the jars had the bodies of babies, with strange devices inserted into their chests. Meanwhile the left-hand wall had charts and diagrams of mechanical limbs and organs.

"Cain?" a familiar female voice called to him from out of his visual area.

"Olivia?" he questioned back.

"Yes," answered Olivia. "I'm strapped down to what I think is an operating table."

"Me too," replied Cain. "Do you know what happened?"

"I was attacked from behind at the brothel," recounted Olivia. "Someone hit me in the back of my head. Then I woke up here. A while ago."

"I think I was stabbed?" said Cain.

"Are you alright?" asked Olivia in a concerned voice.

"I think so," replied Cain. "The wound mustn't have been deep. Could be that Josephine put something in the food and drink she gave me."

"Probably, how do…." Josephine stopped mid-sentence, at the sound of something approaching.

Two voices, one of whom belonged to Josephine, were discussing something called a mechanical demon heart.

Without warning, the face of an extremely beautiful, blue eyed woman filled Cain's view.

"You don't know how happy I am to finally see you again," the woman smiled.

"I've never seen you before in my life," said Cain.

"It's only natural you don't remember my face," sighed the woman. "You may call me Mater. I'm the one who made you."

"You're crazy!" declared Cain.

"I get called that a lot," said the woman. "I could tell you more about who you are and how I made you. But as a scientist, I also want to show you."

Mater undid the leather strap around Cain's forehead. Cain immediately craned his neck towards where Olivia's voice had come from. He quickly noticed that there was a long mirror on the roof. The reflection showed the well-toned figure of a naked woman, with short brown hair and brown eyes. He recognised her as Olivia.

Josephine had put on a surgeon's outfit and held a large knife in her hand.

"Please! I don't want to die!" Olivia begged as the knife came to rest at the top her sternum.

"No! God help me!" Olivia screamed as the knife began to stab into her chest.

After a few moments, Olivia's screams were replaced with violent coughing as she began drowning in her own blood.

By the time, Josephine had finished cutting apart Olivia's sternum, the female soldier was already dead.

The demon in a young woman's form, then used a large surgical retractor to slowly splay open Olivia's rib cage. She expertly moved aside the corpse's lungs and did her beast to absorb the blood with towels.

"That's what a human looks like," stated the blue eyed demon.

"You monsters!" Cain swore at the demons. "How can you violate someone like that?"

"Don't humans do the same thing to demons?" asked Josephine, who had now moved to stand beside Mater. "You use our cores and other body parts to fuel and build your technologies. It's no different."

Cain knew that this was true, but there was no way he was willing to equate what these demons had done to Olivia, and what humans did to demons.

"What are you doing?" Cain panicked as he felt Olivia's hand massaging his manhood. "Don't chop it off!"

"Josephine now is not the time," Mater rebuked the young woman, before apologising to Cain. "You'll have to forgive my young assistant. Josephine is a succubus. It's hard for her to control her nature.

Well, back to what I was saying. As you can see from that… Olivia is clearly human. Now compare her, to you."

Josephine slid a second large roof mirror until it was directly over Cain. Allowing him to see his own form.

"That's not possible," gasped Cain.

His reflection showed that his chest was also splayed open. However, instead of the bloody organs displayed by Olivia's mutilated corpse, his own innards were clean. Furthermore, instead of an organic heart, a strange bronze mechanism lay at the centre of his chest.

"It's my masterpiece," said Mater with pride. "I call it the Demon's Clockwork Heart. I was tasked to create demonic sleeper agents which could pass as humans for extended periods of time. While there are some demons with shapeshifting abilities, such as Josephine and myself. In the end, we are able to maintain our disguises for a few days at most. Plus, some demons such a Josephine find it hard to control their demonic natures. Thus, I needed to create something new.

Inspired by the prosthetic creations of you humans, I transformed a demon into a heart. Which I could then implant into a human infant. The heart would grow as the baby grew. It would strengthen the child's body, making them a prime physical specimen. The sort of human that could rise to a position of authority, through the use of their innate physical superiority.

Well… that was the theory. Unfortunately, the project was deemed a failure. So, I was tasked with new lines of experimentation. Such as transferring my clockwork hearts into adult humans. Plus, creating a demonic blood parasite which could take over their hosts. Neither of these projects were particularly exciting for me. The parasitic demons spread quickly but nine times out of ten, they failed to retain their host's original intelligence. While adult humans seemed unable to survive the replacement of their original hearts.

I continued to work on my Demon's Clockwork Heart in my spare time. These jarred children were the failures. Not all the failures though, just the ones which almost succeeded. I thought you were a close success as well. I was would have placed you in a jar, but already had enough specimens. So, I disposed of you by throwing you in the river.

Yet it seems I was wrong. You survived. No… more than that. You thrived. You are just as magnificent as your twin, who I had thought was my only successful creation. My other beautiful child has returned to me."

The blue-eyed demon affectionately stroked Cain's face.

"I'm not a demon," said Cain. "You're lying. My heart is manmade. It must be."

Cain started to struggle, mentally and physically. There was no way that what this woman said was true. He was a human; Lu Cain. His adopted parents found him by the river. They named him Cain, due the medical anklet which had his name upon it.

"Do you know why I named all my creations Cain?" asked Mater pointing towards the wall of jarred babies. "It's because in one of your world's most famous stories, Cain is the name of man who betrayed his brother and was cursed by God."

"Not true, not true," Cain kept muttering the mantra to himself as he struggled against his containment. "Not true!"

BOOM! BOOM!

Two large explosions rocked the demonic lair. This was followed by a large youth rushing into the room.

"Mater, humans attacking!" shouted the young man who resembled Cain in almost every way. "They lured us into a trap and used explosives. We need to retreat."

Clang! Clang! Snap!

Cain struggled with all his might and felt the restraints on wrists and chest snap undone.

"Roar!" Cain screamed as he tore away the strap across his hips and metal restraints immobilising his ankles.

"Magnificent," smiled Mater.

"Die!" shouted Cain, smashing his fist into the blue-eyed woman's mouth.

The demon's once beautiful face became a mess of fractured bones and pulped flesh. The strength of his punch surprised even Cain.

"Damn it!" screamed Josephine as she took to her heals.

"Mater…" mumbled the young man, before turning toward Cain. "I'll kill you!"

The demonic doppelganger gently placed the dead demon woman down and rushed at Cain. Bronze coloured, hairlike tendrils pierced out of the demon's chest and spread across its body. Quickly covering its head, arms and upper torso with metallic skin.

"Kill you!" the demonic doppelganger raged.

Tink! Tink! Fwoom!

Two shotgun slugs bounced off the demon's back. Followed by a jet of flame.

The final attack caused the monster to pause.

Cain capitalised by sending a powerful right hook at the demon's face.

Clang!

The blow sent Cain's demonic twin staggering backwards. At that point, Cain realised that his right arm and upper torso were covered by the same bronze like skin as his monstrous doppelganger.

"Retreat!" Morris shouted.

Cain followed a trio of figures; Morris, Catherine and Jei-Rong out of the room and into a tunnel. The hundred meter long tunnel had a number of doors along its side, but the group of four headed straight for the end, and were greeted by the cool night air.

"Roar!" they heard Cain's demonic twin shout out, followed by heavy footstep.

Cain turned to see the demon launch itself at them.

CRACK!

John, who had been waiting outside the tunnel, smashed the rocket maul into the monster's face. Causing it to stagger backwards.

Without saying a word, the group ran from the cave entrance. Jei-Rong threw a dragon's breath grenade, burying the abomination by collapsing the tunnel.

Rumble!

The pile of rocks which covered the tunnel entrance and the demon beneath it, began to shake.

"Roar!" Cain's demonic twin burst forth from the rubble. Now its whole body was coated in the bronze coloured skin.

"It has two more cannisters," said John as he threw the rocket maul towards Cain.

The way John threw the weapon, gave clear indication that he was suffering internal injuries. Possibly broken ribs.

"I'll kill you!" declared the demonic doppelganger.

Without warning, it ran towards the group at an incredible speed. Cain barely had time to block. Even after stabilising his body in a deep stance, Cain still skidded backwards a full three meters before coming to a stop.

Thankfully the demon had only targeted Cain. His companions were unharmed.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Rei-Long launched a flurry of three strikes with his dao. Each blow managed to penetrate the demon's bronze skin. However, these cuts were quickly healed by hairlike metallic tendrils.

"I hate demons with regeneration," complained Catherine, before letting loose with another jet of flames.

The demon coughed but was otherwise unhurt.

"Burn it's lungs!" ordered Morris.

"Roar!" the demonic doppelganger shoulder charged towards Catherine as she prepared another fire attack.

Clang!

Cain tackled his demonic twin from the side. He caught a dragon breath grenade which Jei-Rong had thrown and held it against the monster's face

Boom!

The explosion destroyed most of Cain's left hand. It also ripped apart the demon's lower jaw and half its cheek.

"Burn!" Catherine launched another burst of flame. This time into the demon's ripped and gaping mouth, causing it to gasp and choke.

Smash! Smash!

Cain used his remaining strength to rapidly strike the demon's chest with the rocket maul. Activating the compressed air cspsules on both strikes. Even though the damage to Cain's left hand made the weapon harder to control, he still managed to guide the blows on target due to the massive increase in strength granted to him by his transformation.

The two blows opened the demonic doppelganger's chest, exposing a Demon's Clockwork Heart, that was identical to Cain's own. The mechanical organ began spinning out more bronze tendrils in an effort to regenerate its host wounds.

Cain gripped the heart and began to pull, but the mechanical organ spun tendrils to keep itself in place.

"Let me help," Catherine smiled and placed her hands on the demon's open rib cage.

Her touch froze the tendrils being used by the heart as anchors. Cain once more began to pull.

"No, you don't!" John exclaimed as he wrapped his body around the demon's struggling legs.

Morris and Jei-Rong did likewise. Grabbing one massive arm each.

Crick! Crick! RIP!

The frozen tendrils began to snap. Without its anchors, the Demon's Clockwork Heart was pulled from its chest. Cain's demonic twin ceased its struggle.

After a few moments spent catching their breaths, the group of five companions gave a near simultaneous sign of relief.

"I'm so glad you survived," Cain said to John. "My father?"

"I'm sorry," John apologised. "I saw him fall. But at least he didn't get back up."

"Where's Olivia?" asked Morris.

"She didn't make it," replied Cain. "I couldn't save her…."

"It's alright Cain," comforted Catherine. "It wasn't just you who couldn't save her. We all are responsible."

"So, what happened in there?" asked Morris.

Cain explained in detail what had occurred including what the demon told him of his own history.

"I don't believe that blue-eyed liar," said John. "I think she lied to confuse you. It's obvious that you and the poor bastard we just killed… were probably experimented on. They were going to do the same to me."

"I agree," said Catherine. "People are the greatest assets. If an enemy can turn them to their cause, then they've won half the war."

"It doesn't explain why that demon looked so much like me," said Cain, who wasn't totally convinced that Mater had been lying.

"It was your twin," said Morris. "He was probably an orphan just like you. I don't know how this Mater got a hold of him. But she clearly did and then experimented on him. The reason you both lived while the others died, probably has to do with some innate ability of yours."

"Yes," agreed Jei-Rong. "I remember reading something about mutations and genes. Some believe that these genetic mutations are the reason we have the Gifted. Maybe you and your twin had a mutation that allowed you to survive."

"That makes sense," added Catherine. "Though I don't like being called a mutant."

"Apologies," laughed Jei-Rong.

"Well," said Morris. "We need to be getting back. John here definitely needs some treatment. We have a lot to report."

"If I may?" asked Jei-Rong. "I'd like Cain to take me to where his father fell. So, I can pay my respects. We will return together to Fort Las Vegas after this."

"I'll go with them," said Catherine. "This whole area will be quarantined as soon as Corporal Mason gives his report. Cain and Lei-Rong could be mistaken for enemy agents. Especially now that we know demons can disguise themselves as humans. But I'm a Special Agent. So, I can clarify should the need arise."

"You have my permission," agreed Morris.

"Take care," farewelled John.

"May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live," Catherine shouted to the two men as they walked off into the night, with the mechanical heart in their possession.

"Will they be alright?" asked Cain.

"The battle wagon is only a few hours walk and some of the men camped by even closer at a nearby ridge, after one of the corporal's inspiring speeches," stated Jei-Rong. "Plus, we encountered no demons on the way here. They'll be fine."

"We're more worried about you," frowned Catherine.

"What do you mean?" asked Cain.

"If we take you back, they're going to cut you up for study," explained Catherine. "I doubt you'd survive."

"I know that," confirmed Cain.

"You're not afraid of dying?" gasped Catherine.

"I am afraid," replied Cain. "But if my sacrifice can help humanity, then I'm willing to make that sacrifice."

"Said like a truly noble spirit," nodded Jei-Rong.

"Alright then," smiled Catherine. "If that's what you truly want. We'll pay respects to your folks. Then return to Fort Las Vegas."

"Thank you," smiled Cain. "But before I return to Fort Las Vegas… could we perhaps visit a brothel?"

"Ha! Ha!" laughed Catherine. "Even after what happened last time?"

"My only regret would be to die a virgin," admitted Cain.

"Glad to see you have your priorities straight," laughed Jei-Rong. "Any particular type of girl?"

"A fiery red-head like Catherine or that Josephine demon-girl," Cain replied.

"You are shameless!" Catherine blushed. "But you have good taste."

The three companions laughed and headed off into the night. Although Cain's future was far from bright. He at least planned to enjoy his last few days, to their fullest.