As lovely as listening to new age music during traumatic
stress was, Daniel Mercer knew he couldn’t live in angst forever. The kind of
therapy he needed would have lasted longer than one measly stay at a hospital.
But Daniel had a job to do. He had people who depended on him. He had the souls
of his dead friends to atone for.
The burden was weighing so heavily on his shoulders that he
wasn’t sure his spine could hold it all. As soon as he gripped his sonic weapon
with the tightness of a chokehold, his spine didn’t feel like ordinary bones.
It felt like solid steel. His muscles felt like impregnable armor. His heart
was pumping diesel and jet fuel.
With one victorious scream into his microphone, the straps
on his bed snapped like the bones of anyone who dared put their hands on Raven
Triscloud. The door tumbled over like the dead corpses of anybody who
desecrated the memory of Daniel’s friends. Nurses, doctors, and even Shawn
Henry himself fell over like a biblical tidal wave knocked them down.
Daniel’s breathing was raspy and vigorous as he stepped out
of bed and changed into the fresh clothing Shawn brought form his apartment,
not giving two shits if anybody saw him naked. Everyone knew what he
represented when the came out in a red Demon Axe T-shirt, black jean shorts,
and black combat boots with gray socks.
The doctors and nurses gazed upon him with a hodgepodge of
amazement and fear. Even Shawn was taken aback by this newfound level of power.
The Lord of the Pit grinned his evilest grin as he tapped
his microphone into his palm for rhythmic effect. He could hear the electric
guitar playing in his head and it filled him with the true definition of demon
death juice. In no uncertain terms, he shouted into the instrument of
destruction, “I am Iron Man!”
Even though Shawn and Daniel were minutes later riding in a
cop car, they preferred the adrenaline-fueled rage of a Demon Axe CD over the
standard police radio. Communicating with other cops was out of the question
since Shawn couldn’t tell who was on who’s side. He could have asked for backup
and got a machete to the throat instead.
Shawn and Daniel banged their heads to the grinding guitars,
thunderous bass, deadly drums, and throaty vocals the first Demon Axe CD was
known for. Daniel even screamed along to the lyrics while Shawn flashed a smile
at him. This wasn’t musical torture. This was the second coming of a rock and
roll god.
It didn’t matter that the cop car’s ultimate destination
would be the same outdoor arena where Roger’s first strike took place. Even as
the road signs and landmarks looked familiar to Daniel, he didn’t cower in fear
any longer. He just kept rocking and rolling to his own music, same as he did
when he rode the tour bus to this concert with his old friends from young
years.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Shawn as he pulled up to
the parking lot of the outdoor arena and saw that an entire squadron of cops
and cop cars were guarding the portal to the elven world. There they were with
shotguns locked and loaded looking as stoic and mean as if they were actually
guarding something important. Never mind the fact that they were clearly
working for a “higher power”, or a certain elf with a blade who thought he was
everybody’s deity.
The music stopped, but Daniel never lost his sniper-sight
focus. If his facial expression could kill, this arena would have served as the
site of a secondary massacre. He even managed to look scarier than the cops,
giving Shawn a little bit of a nervous vibe. “Are you ready, Daniel?”
“I’m always ready when it’s show time. Let’s do this shit!”
he growled before pounding the dashboard and stomping out of the vehicle with
authority. Shawn was hesitant to follow knowing what these cops might do to him
and Daniel, but he trudged along anyways.
“Halt! Don’t come any further! This is private property!”
shouted the leader of this squadron while his underlings aimed their shotguns
in Shawn and Daniel’s directions.
“I’m a cop, you idiots!” yelled Shawn. “If you shoot me and
my friend, you might as well be committing treason! Hell, you’re probably doing
that anyway knowing who’s beyond that portal!”
The captain turned his attention to Daniel and roared, “Drop
the weapon before I…”
“No, dip shit!” bellowed Daniel into his microphone, the
tsunami-like sound waves forcing the cops to drop their shotguns and cover
their ears. Regardless of what political power they were serving, they were
going to listen whether they liked it or not.
The Lord of the Pit jumped on top of Shawn’s car and
unleashed a firestorm-like speech upon his audience through the devastating
microphone. “When I was growing up in Paulson City
Instead of curling up with their ears covered, the cops
slowly stood at full attention as if they actually gave a damn about what
Daniel was saying. The heavy metal god screamed into the microphone some more.
“Yeah, I know, I know. Roger Zee has the entire police force by the balls! He’s
got dirt on each and every one of you! He’s targeting your families and
friends! You’ve got no choice! I’ve heard this pile of crap for far too long
now! You do have a choice! You just make the conscious decision to give up your
freedom in exchange for comfort! And here I thought I was the pussy because I
couldn’t get over my trauma!”
Monstrous breaths echoed across the arena and Daniel’s fiery
eyes scorched the souls of everyone he spoke to. To further his point, he
pointed down at Shawn and growled, “You see this motherfucker?! You see him?!
He did something that all cops should aspire to do! He saved somebody’s life
even when the pressure was mounting against him! He raged against the machine
and brought justice to an already unfair exchange! He saved my life! And if he
hadn’t shown up when he did, I would be goddamn dead! Just so you morons know,
he too felt Roger Zee’s blackmail! He too had his family and career threatened!
He did what was right anyways! Imagine that: cops actually doing their jobs!”
The cops’ facial expressions morphed back into intense
anger, not at Daniel’s harsh criticisms, but at the fact that he was right all
along. One of them even yelled, “Preach!” while throwing his fist in the air.
“You want me to preach?! You want me to fucking preach?!”
roared Daniel. “Here’s the deal, nimrods! You can either clear a path to the
elven world or I can keep shouting in this microphone until your ears and
assholes are both bleeding like crazy! What’s that shit you macho men like to
say?! Lead, follow, or get out of the way?! I think it’s time you start
practicing what you preach! You want to be the good guys?! You want to serve
and protect?! Then grow a backbone and some testicles and do it!”
The captain’s face turned solemn as he broke harsh news to
Daniel and Shawn. “That was a hell of a speech, Mr. Demon Axe. But if you go
flying through the portal right now, you’ll be smack dab in the middle of a
war. We can listen to you talk all day long. But I’m not so sure our guys
beyond the portal are going to be so receptive. We’ll see if your rage-a-holic
oratory is going to be enough to pull my men out of a fight. And when I say
fight, I mean bloody ass massacre. Elves vs. humans in a big ass battlefield.
But hey, you’re used to controlling wild crowds, right?”
Daniel frowned and lowered his microphone before dropping to
his knees. “We’re too late, Shawn. We’re too damn late. I spent too long in the
hospital when I should have been doing my goddamn job!”
The Lord of the Put repeatedly punched the top of the car
with the blade end of his microphone aimed at the metal, to which Shawn bull
rushed him and yanked him off the car by his ankles. Daniel unleashed a
colorful burst of swear words while Shawn had his arms wrapped around the
singer in an attempt to calm him down. The detective even slammed Daniel on the
hood of the car and that finally got the musician’s attention.
“Listen to me, damn it!” bellowed Shawn. “Up until now
you’ve had a hot streak of aggression and rage! Don’t throw it all away just
because you think we’re too late to stop anything! We’re pretty fucking far
from late, my friend! So buck up, put your big boy boots on, and let’s march
through that goddamn portal together! Move it!”
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