The Adventures of Lazarus Gray (33 page)

Chapter IV

The Beast

Eisner Way had once been a
nice residential area and the O’Reilly Church had been one of the
beating hearts of the community. But like so much else in Sovereign
City, it had gradually become grimier until all the beauty was
hidden beneath several layers of sludge. When the economy crashed
back in ’29, Eisner had slowly become a veritable graveyard as
families moved to less expensive parts of the city. The church had
finally shut its doors in ’32.

Lazarus Gray stood outside
the church and tried to imagine it in better times. This city was
so much like him in that both had held such promise. He had been a
brilliant student, for whom the whole world seemed to beckon.
Sovereign had been a port city that could have become the very best
of America.

But then Lazarus had fallen
prey to The Illuminati and corruption had threatened to overwhelm
him, just as Sovereign had become a breeding ground for those who
would use their power for abuse.

It had taken death and
resurrection for the man known as Richard Winthrop to become
Lazarus Gray. What would it take for Sovereign to rise phoenix-like
into a new and better form?

Lazarus looked up at the
sky and a drop of water struck him in the forehead. It felt as if
the city herself was about to cry. Gray hurried toward the doors of
the church and was unsurprised when they opened of their own accord
at his approach. He had kept his end of the bargain, arriving alone
but he was far from unarmed. Beneath his jacket he wore two guns
holstered over each breast, a knife at his hip and a police baton
strapped to his right calf. He wasn’t sure any of those things
would help against The Claw but he was willing to give them all a
try.

Nearly two-dozen candles,
arranged throughout, illuminated the interior of the church. Many
pews remained though almost all had been turned over or shattered.
The smells of mildew, urine and rotten wood filled Gray’s nostrils
but he ignored everything except the sight above the pulpit. Kelly
Emerson hung upside down, her arms and legs tied securely to an
inverted cross. A gag was clenched tightly in her open mouth and
her face was crimson, from the strain of her position and from the
fear she obviously felt. There were no bruises or marks on her,
though her shirt had been torn during the affair, revealing her
white brassiere and heaving bosom. Her eyes widened when she saw
her former lover and Gray could sense sudden hope springing forth
from her.

Addressing her, Lazarus
said, "I’m going to get you down from there, Kelly. Trust
me."

The girl nodded quickly,
indicating that she did.

"Enticing you here proved
ludicrously easy."

Gray jerked his head around
at the sudden intrusion. The Claw was stepping from the shadows to
his left, looking monstrous. The villain held his arms in front of
him, his hands clasped within voluminous robes. "If you wanted to
face me, you could have at any point," Gray said. "You proved that
when you broke into my home. So why kidnap Kelly? Why kill all
those innocent children?"

"You know the answer to
that," The Claw responded. "I did those things because I enjoyed
them."

Gray took a deep breath,
not enjoying this confrontation at all. He was on someone else’s
home field with a loved one in danger. And the creature behind it
all was insane enough that he was capable of anything. "Let her go
and we can settle this."

The God of Hate laughed and
in that bubbling sound there was no mirth, only promises of pain
and death. "I think not. Don’t you want her to see your heroism as
you seek to stop me? I’m sure it will warm the embers of romance
within her breast."

Lazarus had heard enough.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out one of his pistols,
firing it in the same motion. He snapped off four quick shots and
all of the bullets hit home, striking The Claw between his neck and
stomach. The villain jerked wildly before toppling backwards, his
body vanishing as it fell over a church pew.

Gray did not pretend to
think that this was the end of his opponent. Even as Kelly began to
scream into her gag, wanting him to cut her down, he slowly began
to approach the spot where he’d last seen The Claw. As he moved
within a few feet, he caught a brief glimpse of the monster’s robe
on the floor. He sprang forward, leaping over the pew. He landed
directly atop the robe but found that it was empty, having
obviously been discarded. A sudden flurry of movement from behind
him was coupled by another scream from Kelly. He realized that she
was trying to warn him but in truth, she was doing more harm than
good: with her making so much noise, he was unable to hear The Claw
with any effectiveness.

Still, he managed to turn
his body just in time to see the villain rushing toward him, claws
extended. Gray ducked under one swipe of the deadly knives but the
second caught him on the left shoulder, slicing through fabric and
skin easily enough. Gray dropped his gun deliberately at this
point, the weapon clattering at his feet. He used both hands to
grab hold of The Claw’s arm and yanked him forward. The motion took
The God of Hate by surprise and he nearly lost his footing. Gray
drove a hard punch into The Claw’s chin and the villain’s sharp
teeth bit through a section of his own bottom lip, causing blood to
flow freely.

The Claw jerked away, anger
clouding his eyes. He roared like a trapped lion and swiped out
with his claws again, narrowly missing taking off Gray’s
head.

Gray bent to retrieve his
pistol and charged forward, lowering his shoulder and slamming it
hard into The Claw’s midsection, lifting the villain off his feet.
Gray drove him back into the wall and plaster rained down on them
both. Lazarus began pummeling the villain’s body with punches,
slamming them home with all the strength of a desperate
man.

The Claw seemed shocked by
the way the combat was going and he angrily shoved Gray away from
him, giving him just enough time to indulge in one of his most
useful spells: before Gray’s shocked eyes, The Claw began to grow
in size, his entire body expanding until he was so tall that his
head scraped against the high vaulted ceiling. He looked down at
Gray and laughed at the man’s expression. "Do you see now? Do you
now grasp what it is you face? I am no mere goon for you to batter
with your fists! I am a force of nature! I am Hate
personified!"

Before Gray could respond,
The Claw reached out with one of his hands and swiped at Kelly’s
back like he was swatting a fly. The inverted cross that held her
aloft snapped in two and she was sent hurtling to the floor.
Lazarus burst into action, throwing himself toward her. He made it
just in time, slowing the woman’s impact by literally placing his
body between her and the floor. Gray screamed in pain as a shard of
the cross buried itself in his midsection, pinning him to the
floor. His hands were free and, despite the pain, he quickly undid
Kelly’s bonds as The Claw stomped toward them.

"Get out of here," he
wheezed.

Kelly looked indecisive.
Her eyes kept flitting back to the mammoth horror that was now
towering over them but she was obviously hesitant to leave Lazarus.
"Maybe I can get you free," she said.

"No." Lazarus gripped her
arm painfully hard. "If you stay here, you’ll get hurt. I need you
to get out of here."

"The argument is moot," The
Claw stated. "Because there is no freedom to be had for either of
you." The villain raised his foot, obviously intending to grind
both Kelly and Gray into paste. Before he could do so, however, a
powerful spear-like object passed through his chest, entering from
the back and exiting in the front. The object, which upon closer
inspection Kelly recognized as a harpoon, imbedded itself in the
wall. Blood spurted from The Claw’s wound and he whirled about to
see where the attack had come from.

Eun Jiwon stood in the
doorway of the church, quickly pushing another slender harpoon into
a handheld variant of the device so common on whaling vessels. It
was one of the group’s many emergency weapons and upon first seeing
it, Eun had wondered when they would have ever have cause to use
it. Now, he knew. "It’s a good thing Lazarus has friends, huh?" he
taunted.

Gray wasn’t sure whether he
should be pleased or angry. "What are you doing here?" he
shouted.

"Ignoring your orders," Eun
answered, pointing the weapon back toward The Claw. "Samantha and I
figured that you’d need the help so we decided to split up." Eun
pulled the trigger and another harpoon shot forth, this one
catching The Claw in the throat. It hung there and the monster
began to shrink almost immediately, using most of his energy to try
and heal his wounds.

Eun tossed aside the
harpoon gun – it was a powerful weapon but the weight of it and the
ammunition made it impractical to use for very long. As the young
Korean dropped into a fighting stance, The Claw hissed at him in
fury.

Kelly, meanwhile, was using
every ounce of strength to yank the shrapnel out of Gray’s belly.
The normally placid features of her former lover were now twisted
into a mask of pain but he stood up despite the fact he was losing
blood at a prodigious rate. "Thank you, Kelly. Now please – get to
safety."

"You’re in no shape for
fighting," she began but Gray was already on the move.

The Claw was struggling to
move – the harpoon was now much larger in relation to his shrunken
body and it was almost impossible for him to remain
upright.

Lazarus grabbed hold of the
point of the harpoon and used it drive The Claw to his knees.
"Surrender," he hissed between clenched teeth.

The Claw turned baleful
yellow eyes upon him. "Never."

Lazarus stared at the God
of Hate and felt bile rise up in his throat. He suddenly knew why
the monster was here and why innocents had died along the way.
"They sent you here, didn’t they? They wanted you to kill
me."

"You frighten them," The
Claw whispered. "They hate you with every fiber of their
being."

"Then let’s give them
reason to do so." Gray motioned for Eun to come over and take over
for him. The young man grabbed hold of the harpoon, twisting it
painfully every time The Claw looked like he was starting to
resist.

Gray removed his second
handgun and swapped out the clip that it held. Part of his arsenal
consisted of explosive shells that looked like ordinary bullets.
But they carried enormous power that could blow a hole in an
elephant. He held the barrel against The Claw’s head now and his
mismatched eyes – one emerald green, the other a dull brown –
seemed to shine with an inner fire. "Go back to Hell."

"This will not be the end
of me," The Claw gasped, each word punctuated by a flow of blood
from his neck.

"Let’s test that, shall
we?"

***

Several days later, the
entire Assistance Unlimited group sat together in one of the
expansive meeting rooms of their headquarters. Morgan and Samantha
had returned from Paris the night before and the story that Morgan
had revealed had left the entire room feeling somewhat
despairing.

"So we’re not just dealing
with a worldwide conspiracy… we’re trying to prevent the return of
The Old Ones?" Samantha looked pretty in a peach-colored dress but
the look on her face was so grave that not even Morgan felt like
flirting with her.

"We already knew it was
going to be tough," Eun countered. "This doesn’t change
anything."

"That thing I saw," Morgan
whispered, "It was…
wrong
. I don’t know how else to describe
it. I can still see it when I close my eyes, can still hear the
noises it made. We have to not just stop them… we have to destroy
them."

"That’s not going to be
easy," Eun said. "I was there when Lazarus blew the head off The
Claw. And do you know what happened? The thing’s body turned to
smoke. He’s not dead. He’s still out there."

Morgan nodded. "Maybe so.
But I killed that little bastard that was in the box. They
can
die. Maybe we’ve just got to get them so weak first that
they can’t perform their magic…."

Gray cleared his throat and
all eyes turned to him. He was dressed in a somber black suit and
tie, his handsome face looking as still as the grave. "Morgan got
us some useful information while in Paris and our defeat of The
Claw will let The Illuminati know that we’re not to be trifled
with. We have to consider this a victory."

"Won’t they just send The
Claw back after you? Or somebody even worse?" Samantha
asked.

"In time, yes. But for now
I think we’ve given them enough to think about that Sovereign
should be free of their influence for the time being." Gray stood
up, smoothing down his suit. "And now I’d like to take all of you
out to dinner."

Morgan blinked in surprise.
The group often ate together in the dining room but they’d never
gone out en masse before. "What’s the occasion, Chief?"

"As I said, we’ve won some
hard-earned victories lately. And I want to show my appreciation to
all of you. Though it’s not always easy for me to admit it, we’re
more than coworkers. We’re friends."