Catclaw/Goddess of flames

In a certain country, in a certain city and in a certain shopping district, tragedy struck.

The wide street was enclosed between two rows of buildings, all housing shops varying in size and content. The sound of thousands upon thousands of footsteps was only overpowered by the idle chatter of the countless people crowding the place. 

The numerous food stalls stationed along the middle of the street all gave off their own unique smell, resulting in a cacophony of odors strong enough to make anyone hungry.

Some people were there to shop, some were there as tourists, simply visiting the famous avenue. All of them were minding their own business, clueless about the events that were about to unfold.

"Are you sure this is the place?" A man asked.

"That was the intel." Another man simply replied.

"Then shouldn't we evacuate? There's thousands of people down there." A third man, younger than the other two, chipped in.

The three of them were waiting in an apartment, overlooking the junction leading to the shopping avenue.

"Don't be stupid. If they do actually come and see the place is empty, they'll just roll by and we'll miss the only chance we have of catching them." The first man replied.

"But still, what if something goes wrong? I mean, look at all these people. Are they worth risking over catching a few terrorists?" The young man argued back.

"If you have complaints, you should address them to the top brass, not me. Just do your job properly and nothing will go wrong."

They were all sitting besides the windows of the apartment, peeking through the shutters with pairs of binoculars. The bedroom was small and decrepit, but it was as far as their budget would take them.

A circular wooden table was situated in the middle of the room, upon which sat a large military-grade radio producing constant white noise.

The men were all waiting patiently for their orders.

Then, the white noise disappeared and a voice came out from the other side.

"Recon unit. Get ready to engage. Estimated time to contact, T-10 minutes." The voice said.

"You heard 'em. Lock and load pussies." 

Upon hearing the broadcast two of the men moved towards the radio and their equipment, while the young man opened his suitcase beside his chair. Inside of which lay multiple weapon parts that once he assembled, took the form of a heavy duty sniper rifle. 

He propped the muzzle of his gun against the window, slightly peeking through the horizontal shutters. 

"You don't need a scope?" The second man asked.

The young man adjusted his rifle and opened the window before speaking.

"Don't need it. Plus they can't spot the light reflecting off the scope if I don't have one." He said.

The second man turned his head towards their commander and gave him a questioning look, unsure about the kid manning the gun.

"Haha, sorry. I forgot you're new. This is our agency's best sniper, his ways are a little unorthodox, but you won't find anyone better than him. Obviously, I can't introduce you by your names, but we like to call him catclaw." 

"Hm, how'd he get a name like that?" 

Hearing their discussion, the young man propped his sniper against the window and looked at the newbie.

"That's why." 

The commander pointed at the young man's face, specifically at his left eye and cheek. He had a long vertical scar stretching from his cheekbone all the way up to his eyebrow  and another, bigger one running along his cheek.

"He's a cat fanatic." The commander chuckled. "Unfortunately, cats seem to hate him."

The young man turned around and picked up his rifle again, propping the stock on his right shoulder and looking down the ironsights.

"I'm telling you, animals can tell if you're a bad person. That's all." The young man said.

That seemed to sully the mood of the room as both men remained quiet while fiddling with their equipment.

The newbie picked up another set of binoculars while the commander picked up the radio transmitter before they both sat back down their chairs.

"Remember, we only serve as reconnaissance for our ground units, while catclaw will be their support if something goes wrong. Got it?" Said the commander.

"Copy that." Both men answered simultaneously.

The white noise from the radio disappeared again and the same voice sounded out.

"Estimated, T-2 minutes." 

"Get ready."

The newbie, despite being much older than catclaw, was showing more signs of nervousness than him as he nervously fidgeted with the diala on his digital binoculars.

Catclaw was deathly calm, his breathing even, a skill he'd learned after years of working as a sniper. One wrong breath, one slight twitch, one single mistake can mean the difference between putting a bullet through someone's eye and the same happening to him.

"Hey newbie, you're my spotter. You can do that right?" He asked, not even shifting his eyes to look at the person he was addressing.

The man turned his head towards Catclaw, taken aback by the brash remark coming from someone younger. In this situation, however,  the request only seemed reasonable.

"Sure." 

The atmosphere in the room was tight until a few minutes later, four black SUVs parked in front of the avenue, blocking the way for the pedestrians.

"That's them." The commander said.

He clicked a button on his transmitter and started talking.

"We have visual. Four black SUVs, at least 8 men. Assume they are heavily armed." 

"Copy that." The voice on the radio said.

A few seconds later, 8 armored cars and vans moved behind the SUVs, denying them a way out except through the crowds of people.

Then, a dozen armed agents made their way through the crowd and quietly evacuated them from the immediate vicinity, effectively surrounding the terrorists.

"It's over." The newbie said.

They continued carefully observing the scene without blinking, fearing they'd miss something.

In the back of one of the SUVs, the commander noticed some irregular movement. 

"It's not over." He muttered.

He picked up his receiver and clicked on one of the buttons in a hurry.

"RPG! 2 o'clock." He yelled through the radio.

The man holding the RPG was already done loading his rocket and was aiming in towards the crowd, while the man in the front seat kicked the windshield to clear a path for the explosive.

"CATCLAW!" The commander shouted.

"On it!" 

He aimed his sniper rifle at the man holding the rocket launcher and pulled the trigger. In an instant, the 51mm bullet pierced through the air and found its way in the man's skull.

"One and done." 

What he didn't notice was that the man had already pulled the trigger, but with the kickback from the bullet, the rocket's trajectory had changed. The explosive that was originally meant for the crowd was quickly heading his way.

Unfortunately, he only spotted the rocket as it was already halfway through its journey.

"Get back! Now!" He yelled.

The two other men, sporting binoculars, had already spotted the rocket being fired way before catclaw did. Yet they already thought themselves to be dead. There wasn't much anyone could do in a second against an incoming rocket.

But Catclaw could do something. He aligned his sights with the rocket and pulled the trigger.

The bullet he fired met the explosive head on, triggering an explosion in mid air only a few feet away from where he was sitting.

The resulting explosion sent the men flying backwards, but the one who took the brunt of the explosion was him. 

Hundreds of big and small shards of glass were embedded in his skin, striking a few major arteries. Half of his face was blown off while the arm closest to the explosion was completely vaporized.

His ears were ringing while his surroundings swirled around in strange spiraling patterns. He knew he didn't have much time.

Taking one last look at his companions, he noticed that they were relatively unharmed. Unconscious, but neither of their bodies were heavily injured.

His vision began to get darker and darker, until eventually he couldn't see anymore. All he could hear was the constant ringing in his ears. 

'What a way to die.' He scoffed. 

He expected the ringing to eventually fade away as his life was nearing its end, but it never did. 

'What's happening?' He thought, his consciousness all muddled like in a fever dream. The concepts of life and death had become meaningless, he knew the words, yet their meanings were lost on him.

"Oh sweet child, what causes you to suffer so?" A crisp, angelic voice rang out in the deep void of his mind.

Again, he could understand the words, yet they were hollow, as though nothing more than a slew of incoherent thoughts strung together with masking tape.

"A child blessed by the holy fire, one born in flames, died in flames. Ironic, is it not?" The silky smooth voice echoed through. "What a pity those blazing flames have been stifled by the indifference of your world. My sympathy lies with you."

As the feminine sounding voice spoke, catclaw began regaining his consciousness. He remained dazed and confused, yet now the words he was hearing became understandable. The problem, however, laid in the voice's words. Their abstract nature made them difficult to make sense of.

"You, who holds the envy of men and gods alike, cannot remain here for long. There is no other way I am afraid." The voice spoke with a solemn tone. "There is… nothing more I can do for you, my child." 

He tried opening his eyes, barely managing to hold them open long enough to peek at his surroundings. 

'What the hell?' He thought as he looked around at the void stretching endlessly above him and the scorching inferno below him.

"Hell? I suppose you could call it that. Though brutish, incorrect and thoroughly misguided, human beliefs hold some weight to them." The voice said. "No, you are in my domain. A space of my creation. I have brought you here, my child, to make you an offer."

'An offer?' 

"Indeed. An offer." The voice reaffirmed. "Your soul is deeply sought after, returning you to the afterlife would be unwise. Thus, heed my words and call my name for I will send you back to the land of the mortals. There, no one can interfere with you."

'Your… name? What is it?'

"To that question, the answer you already know." The voice replied. "Now, hurry, there is not much time."

Catclaw was thoroughly confused. Maybe it was a post mortem dream of some sorts, maybe it was the afterlife and this was just a test. A test he did not know the answers to.

Then, as if by divine revelation, a thought appeared in his muddled mind. A thought so entirely foreign and unnatural that he wanted to ignore it and expunge it from his mind, yet every time he tried doing so, the thought would get louder, more aggressive. 

'Shut up.' He thought

"Child, your time is running thin." The voice hurried.

'Shut up.'

"Are you so foolish as to go against my advice?" 

'Shut up!' He yelled.

"Call my name. It is the only way." 

'SHUT UP!'

His brain was short circuiting. He wanted nothing more than his mind to be quiet. Never before had he experienced something so deeply unsettling, not even when he stared at the corpses of his enemies. The feeling of his very mind being violated was disgusting and unbearable.

"There is no other way." The voice impatiently said.

'Be quiet be quiet be quiet be quiet. Be quiet!' He begged.

"Child, you must act now, if you do not…" 

Catclaw was close to the edge, any more and his mortal mind would not be able to take it. He wanted to make it stop.

'I-Ign-' He muttered.

"Yes, just like that." 

'Igni…' He muttered again.

The voice was on the proverbial edge of its seat.

"Yes, say it, say my name."

"Ignis!" He yelled out into the void with his voice instead of his thoughts.

The flames of the inferno enveloped his surroundings as they climbed up the edges of the space, conquering the endless void and dousing it in a crimson red.

The voice, finally personified in the image of a woman with sunset hair, smiled warmly. Like a mother would to her own child.

The flames branched out in his direction, reaching his body in mere instants. The flames didn't feel hot, it felt as though the fire only burned away and cleansed him of his sins as they harmlessly passed over his body. 

Though, the flames did not stop at the soul as what they lacked for in heat, they made up for in intensity and soon, they burned through his flesh, through his muscles and through his bones. Then finally, after there was none left but ashes, the eternal flame burned those too, leaving behind no trace of his existence.

"Be off now, blessed one."