Chapter 141: Manhattan Crisis - Part 8
Ten minutes remained before the operation began.
Over a thousand soldiers from the SCP Foundation, the Global Occult Coalition, and the Horizon Initiative were gathered in the central plaza of Backdoor SoHo. Engineers bustled through the crowd, moving power cores and ritual stones. Scientists adjusted anomalous equipment glowing with faint blue lights. Prometheus Labs had set up mobile stations along the plaza's edges, cables weaving into the ground like roots.
The entire square buzzed with a tension that smelled like ozone and diesel.
Lina had been awake for only a few hours before they told her to gear up again. Her arms were still sore from the last fight, and her equipment still smelled faintly of sulfur. She moved through the sea of uniforms behind Colonel Mendoza, who parted the crowd with calm authority. Most of the soldiers gave him a wide berth and cast quick glances at Lina.
When they reached the edge of a ring of soldiers and researchers, Mendoza stopped.
"This is where I leave you," he said quietly. "This team is your temporary assignment for the incident. Good luck, Lina."
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and disappeared into the crowd.
Lina stepped into the circle cautiously. In its center, two Foundation researchers stood beside a high-ranking GOC general. One of the researchers, a man with neatly-combed brown hair and a white lab coat, wore a strange gemstone pendant that pulsed with ambient light. He glanced up as she approached.
"Okay. SCP-8888 has arrived. That makes us complete."
He stepped forward and raised his voice slightly, addressing the assembly of elite thaumaturges and operators.
"Mission briefing begins now. We'll be opening a stable portal right here, giving us direct access into the dome. Once inside, our engineers will set up a second-phase gate from within the anomalous zone. This will allow us to move heavier equipment through. Your job, combatants, is to protect the engineers and researchers at all costs."
He gestured to the man beside him.
"The research team will follow my lead. The combat force will be under the command of my colleague… Dr. Alto Clef."
The other man grinned like a crocodile on payday.
Dr. Clef was wearing a lab coat too, but beneath it was a garish Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, and old, stained flip-flops. A shotgun was slung lazily across his back. His eyes were unreadable beneath the brim of a battered fedora.
"Right," he said, his voice gravelly and amused. "Let's be real. Most of you won't live long enough to regret this. But hey, death's a learning experience. Just try not to scream too loud when it happens. Bad for morale."
The operators barely reacted. Most of them had heard worse.
But the GOC general snapped, clearly losing patience.
"I still don't understand why the hell a researcher is leading combat units. This is a joke."
Clef's smile didn't move. He turned his head, slow and deliberate, until he was looking the general dead in the eyes.
"Interrupt this briefing one more time, cupcake, and I swear I'll break a second bottle over your thick-ass skull, then shove your head so far up your own ass you'll invent a new occult theory on cave diving. Got it?"
Silence.
Even the engineers stopped typing.
The general stared at him, red-faced, fists clenched but said nothing.
Clef looked back at the operators. "Thought so."
The researcher with the gemstone cleared his throat. "Ahem. As I was saying, the initial insertion will be done in staggered waves. Portal stability must be maintained, so each group will go through in intervals of thirty seconds. Team Alpha will secure the immediate surroundings. Team Beta will follow. Team Gamma will move in to reinforce and suppress any threats during the second phase of gate deployment with the wave of engineers."
He looked directly at Lina. "You're assigned to Gamma."
Lina nodded silently, adjusting her gloves. She could already feel the shimmer of hostile demonic energy pulsing faintly from inside the portal pad. The entire dome over a part of Manhattan pulsed like a cancerous heart in the metaphysical plane. Whatever lay inside, Insurgency forces, demons, worse, they would face it soon.
One of the Prometheus technicians raised a hand. "Gate power at 97%. Stabilizers are locked. We're good for deployment in eight minutes."
From all around the plaza, thaumaturges began drawing runes in the air, speaking low incantations to reinforce their gear, bodies, and minds. Sparkling glyphs floated over their hands. Some operators kneeled in silent prayer. Others checked their rifles or balanced curved daggers across their palms. None of them showed fear but everyone felt it.
Across the square, strange silhouettes of walkers and hovercraft stood on standby. A few of the GOC exo-clad soldiers adjusted their shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. The Horizon Initiative's fighters stood in radiant armor near the gate platform, humming psalms in Old Syriac. The air was thick with the scent of iron, dust, and holy oil.
A few minutes later, a Prometheus Labs technician shouted, "Gate Power at 100%. Ready for deployment!"
Clef took one last drag from a cigarette, crushed it under his flip-flop, then turned to the group with a crooked smirk.
"Well," he said, stretching his shoulders, "time to go kick down the devil's front door."
The man with the gemstone around his neck shouted, "Alpha team, prepare for departure!"
Lina saw several coalition operatives equipped with futuristic exoskeleton armor. Irantu, Nanku, Munru, and Onru from Tau-5 accompanied them. At the head of the group, Clef grabbed his shotgun and stepped through the portal. The rest of Alpha team followed him without hesitation.
The doctor shouted, "Bravo team, prepare yourselves. Departure in thirty seconds!"
Several knights and soldiers from the GOC lined up, facing the portal, ready to move in.
The Prometheus Labs technician began the countdown.
At the end of thirty seconds, he yelled, "Go!" and Bravo team charged into the portal.
Then the Prometheus technician called out, "Gamma team and engineering teams, get ready!"
Lina felt the pressure building as the last fighters from the Foundation, the GOC, and the Horizon Initiative gathered near the glowing portal. The air buzzed with tension, and even the silence was heavy.
Then, out of nowhere, a priest from the Horizon Initiative sprinted toward the group, nearly tripping over his own robes. In his hands, he carried something large wrapped in a cloth, and he was panting heavily.
"Doctor -huff-, here's your requested object… we blessed it, just like you asked…"
The doctor with the gemstone necklace grinned wide as he accepted the item. He yanked away the cloth to reveal-
A chainsaw.
He revved it to life with a roar, the blessed machine crackling faintly with residual akiva energy. Lifting it high above his head, he shouted with manic glee:
"Now this is what I call a holy chainsaw! Hahahahaha!"
Everyone around him paused.
A collective silence fell over the teams, followed by visible black lines forming across their foreheads. A few mouths hung open in disbelief.
A Foundation researcher facepalmed hard enough to make a slap echo.
"Goddammit… someone please update the Ethics Committee's list of things Dr. Bright is not allowed to do. Fast."
The Prometheus Labs technician, also wearing a very visible black line across his forehead, shouted over the moment:
"Gamma team, ten seconds!"
Then the Prometheus Labs technician shouted:
"GO!"
Lina sprinted forward without hesitation and dove straight into the portal.
The world twisted around her for a heartbeat, light collapsed in on itself and then she crashed down onto solid ground.
She landed in the middle of a large green rectangle, like a field or a park plaza, bordered on one side by a short line of trees and backed by the towering silhouettes of New York buildings. But this wasn't just any park.
Around her, chaos.
It was war.
Foundation operators, GOC soldiers, and Horizon Initiative warriors were locked in a brutal, supernatural melee. Magic flashed like lightning across the battlefield, bolts of energy, bullets, rippling force blasts. Combatants leapt through the air, teleported across rooftops, or charged headlong into hand-to-hand combat.
And in the middle of it all was Dr. Clef.
Wearing his Hawaiian shirt, flip-flops, and fedora, and armed with nothing but a pump-action shotgun, Clef danced through a sea of demons like a lunatic conductor in a concert of carnage. Each blast of his shotgun exploded with absurd power, blowing limbs off hellspawn, vaporizing lesser fiends, or sending larger ones tumbling backward in chunks.
He flipped over a horned abomination, landed in a roll, and casually shot it in the back of the head mid-spin.
"Yeehaw, baby!" he yelled, before disappearing again into the fray.
Behind Lina, the rest of Gamma Team emerged from the portal in formation. Without a word, they raised their rifles and opened fire. Controlled bursts of blessed ammunition tore through enemy ranks, providing immediate cover fire for their scattered allies.
Thaumaturgical sigils glowed on their gloves and equipment, casting defensive wards and explosive blasts as they moved.
And behind them, the engineering teams rushed out, each member already diving into action, setting up anchor pylons, erecting temporary shielding nodes, unsealing crates of thaumic relays and reality anchors.
Lina exhaled slowly, her boots crunching on broken glass and dirt as the full scope of the battlefield came into view. The sky above was cracked like a glass dome under too much pressure and streaked with threads of unnatural red lightning. Demons shrieked and howled through the ruined streets, dragging their malformed limbs through fire and rubble, hunting anything warm-blooded.
A missile streaked past her, smashing into the husk of a nearby building and turning its upper floor into a collapsing fireball.
But Lina wasn't afraid.
She rolled her shoulders, stepped forward and began to change.
The skin of her arms rippled. Bones cracked, then shifted beneath the surface. Her fingernails elongated and fused, growing into smooth, curved blades. Muscle twisted and split apart with sickening wet sounds, reforming into dense cords along her forearms. Her flesh became armor. Her hands were no longer hands, they were weapons.
Organic, chitinous, and wickedly sharp.
She could feel the Sarkic patterns inscribed in her soul take over, her blood humming with ancient power. Her body moved like it remembered something her mind had forgotten, like this was her natural form.
Around her, the air shifted.
A GOC soldier standing nearby froze mid-step and stared, eyebrows raised in horror.
Another muttered, "What the fuck is that? A fucking sarkic ?"
Even a few Horizon Initiative warriors stopped to look. The revulsion in their expressions was obvious. One priest clutched his talisman and whispered a prayer, as if expecting Lina to turn on them at any moment.
But the Foundation operatives didn't flinch. Not even a little.
They had seen her like this before.
From behind, a voice boomed:
"Engaging support protocol. Tau-5 moving in."
Lina turned her head and saw them: Irantu, Nanku, Munru, and Onru, the Samsara Squad, storming forward with inhuman grace, their forms moving like mirrored gods of war.
Irantu opened fire with his battle rifle, each shot precisely aimed and enhanced by combat algorithms. Nanku followed close behind, using his own body to shield two pinned Foundation agents, while Munru unleashed a torrent of suppressive fire from a mounted autocannon, the recoil barely disturbing his stance.
And Onru…
Onru appeared in a flicker, her body phasing through a collapsing wall before carving through two demons with a monomolecular blade. She met Lina's eyes for half a second and gave a subtle nod.
That was all Lina needed.
She charged.
The ground beneath her cracked as she sprinted forward, her monstrous blades gleaming in the infernal light. A hulking demon the size of a truck swung a cleaver-like arm at her. She ducked, slid under the strike, and drove both arm-blades into its exposed belly. The beast howled, tried to grab her, but she pulled upward, splitting it open from waist to throat. Gore sprayed in an arc across the street.
She kept moving.
Another demon, a quadrupedal thing with too many eyes, leapt at her from a rooftop. She twisted mid-jump, caught it with her claws, and slammed it to the ground in a single smooth motion. Her blade pierced the back of its skull. It spasmed, then went limp.
To her left, Nanku lifted a struggling demon over his head and threw it into a cluster of hostiles. Irantu fired into the tangle immediately, turning it into a storm of black ichor and writhing limbs.
"Lina, right flank!" Irantu called out.
She was already moving.
A trio of lesser demons had broken past the Coalition's line, sprinting toward a downed GOC combat medic. Lina darted in front of them, spinning low and slicing two of them clean in half. The third she impaled through the throat, lifting it off the ground with one arm. It flailed for a moment, then burst into ash.
Behind her, the engineers continued building their structures, portable reality anchors, portal equipment and defensive constructs. But this battle wasn't technical. This was raw.
Another wave came.
Larger this time.
Winged demons descended from the corrupted clouds, their mouths spewing fire and curses in forgotten tongues. Some carried jagged weapons, others simply were weapons, bladed and twisted and covered in boiling blood.
A heavy impact shook the ground.
A horned demon with molten skin and six arms landed ahead of her. It let out a scream that rattled nearby windows, then pointed at Lina with a burning finger.
"Nälkä… FLESH!." it growled, voice dripping with malice.
Lina smiled with blood on her cheeks.
"Nälkä?" she whispered.
Then she leapt.
They clashed in the middle of the field, blades on claws, flame against muscle. The demon slammed a molten fist into her side, her ribs groaned but held. She retaliated with a spinning slash that sliced off two of its arms. It roared in rage, swinging wildly. She ducked, danced, then stabbed into its eye with both blades. It went down screaming.
But there was no time to breathe.
A shadow fell across her, five more demons rushing forward.
And behind them… something bigger.
But Lina didn't stop. Her body was already healing. Her blades were still sharp. Her blood still burned with power.
She turned her head to the side.
Tau-5 was moving in beside her.
Together, they charged.
They tore through the frontline like a storm of blades and fire.
Lina ducked beneath Onru's sweeping arc, her flesh-blades glistening, soaked in the blood of abominations. The two moved in perfect unison, one Sarkic, one demi-god, both born to kill.
To Lina's right, Munru stood like a turret, pivoting with mechanical precision as he unleashed controlled bursts into the horde. Every shot dropped something. Every shot was death.
"Collapse their left flank!" Irantu's voice cut through the comms, flat and calm even amidst the chaos.
Lina didn't wait.
She sprinted, her legs enhanced by muscle hardened into tight cords, her reflexes honed through a hundred flesh-sculpted alterations. A demon with chitinous armor blocked her path. She slid low, kicked off a fallen body, and sprang upward, driving both blades into its back.
The thing convulsed. She rode it down, landing in a crouch as it fell.
No pause.
No mercy.
She lunged at the next one, a bloated monstrosity dripping acid from its jaws and cleaved straight through its belly with a diagonal slash. As it shrieked and collapsed in two, a second demon surged behind her, jaws wide open, rows of teeth ready to clamp.
She twisted at the last second, letting its teeth rake harmlessly across hardened bone. Then her blade whipped backward, slicing clean through its neck.
More were coming. A wave of them, half a dozen at least, bounding over overturned vehicles and crawling along the walls like insects. The battlefield was lit in orange and black, flickers of thaumaturgy clashing with burning debris.
Suddenly, something shifted.
A tremor in the air. A flicker of movement above.
Lina's instincts screamed.
She looked up.
Too late.
A contrail streaked across the sky, sharp, fast, metallic.
From one of the distant rooftops, a launcher had just fired.
A rocket.
Coming straight at her.
Time slowed.
Her heart pounded once, heavy.
The rocket hissed through smoke and fire, a needle of death aimed for her spine. She could feel its heat on her skin before it even hit.
MOVE.
She threw herself to the side, twisting mid-air as the rocket streaked past, barely a meter from her torso.
It smashed into the demon behind her instead.
The explosion lit up the entire street in a blossom of fire and bone.
The shockwave hit Lina like a wall, flinging her sideways into a shattered sedan. Metal crumpled under her weight. Glass exploded outward. For a moment, her vision was nothing but flame and smoke and ringing ears.
But she stood.
Her flesh was torn, but already repairing. Burns sizzled and faded. The black veins of Sarkicism surged through her arms as she snarled and rolled her shoulders back into position.
The crowd had quieted.
Even the demons had stopped for a breath.
She was standing in the smoking crater, skin bloodied, eyes burning. Her blades hissed in the wind.
The sound of metal crushing concrete echoed through the war-torn street.
A colossal demon strode forward, skin like tar-covered iron, each footstep shattering pavement beneath its hooves. Its ribs jutted outward like serrated blades, its back arched with a second spinal column pulsing with molten ichor. Perched on its massive shoulder, two Chaos Insurgency commandos, shoulder-fired rocket launchers braced and primed, scanning for Foundation targets.
Behind the beast, dozens more emerged from the smoke, Insurgents in urban combat gear, some marked with red skull insignias, others wearing stitched leather armor over tactical suits, as if mocking the hybrid of the arcane and the technological. They moved fast, flanking through alleys, vaulting over wreckage, shouting war chants in broken Latin and English.
One of them screamed as he pointed forward:
"THESE FUCKIN' FOUNDATION DOGS ARE OURS!"
Another added:
"DON'T LET THE SARKIC BITCH REACH HIM!"
Dr. Clef, firing mid-air with his shotgun, barked out orders as he landed behind cover.
"Irantu, Onru, Nanku, take the infantry! Suppression and flank!
Munru, Lina, take the big bastard.
GO!"
Lina didn't wait. She sprinted.
And Munru, towering, silent, a cybernetic executioner of impossible weight and precision, matched her pace step for step.
The demon roared, shaking the street.
The commandos on its shoulders locked onto them.
Two rockets launched.
"DOWN!" Munru bellowed.
Lina dove forward, bones snapping as her body restructured mid-air. She hit the ground as the rocket exploded behind her, flames licking her back.
Munru leapt straight into the second rocket's path and punched it.
The rocket detonated mid-air, the blast ripping into his armor. But he kept going, unfazed, his metal torso now ablaze with black fire.
"Big one's got regenerative plating," he growled into comms. "Targeting spine and skull."
"I'll carve 'em out." Lina's voice was low, guttural. Sarkic rage coursed through her blood.
She reached the demon's legs first. The beast swung its fist like a truck, she slid under it, her blades cutting across its tendons. Black ichor sprayed as the thing howled and staggered. One of the commandos lost his balance and tumbled from the shoulder, screaming until his spine cracked against a lamppost.
Munru came in from behind, targeting the demon's spine. His fists slammed into its lower back, metal cracking bone, until the second commando swiveled around with a fresh RPG.
Click.
The warhead launched.
Munru spun, shielding himself with his reinforced arm. The blast knocked him to his knees, but he stayed conscious, smoke pouring from his shoulder.
"Alive," he said through gritted teeth.
Lina was already climbing.
Her hands stabbed into flesh, using the demon's ribs like a ladder. The beast roared and twisted, trying to shake her off, but she held fast, tendrils bursting from her back and anchoring into its skin.
The last commando turned toward her, raising a sidearm.
Too slow.
She reached him in a single pull.
Her blade-arm drove straight through his chest.
He twitched once, tried to say something but she pulled him off the demon and threw him aside like trash.
Then she turned to the demon's neck.
She screamed as her body shifted again, blades growing longer, more jagged. She drove them deep into the side of its throat. Blood erupted in gouts of black fire. The beast howled and flailed, swinging wildly.
Below, Munru rose, his right arm now glowing with internal plasma.
"Neural cluster exposed!" he called.
"Got it!" Lina screamed.
She pulled herself onto the demon's upper back, then plunged both blades down through its neck. Once. Twice. A third time.
The demon lurched, one final stagger then collapsed, its head crashing into a van and taking the entire vehicle with it in a screech of metal and glass.
Dust and silence followed.
For half a breath.
Then gunfire erupted again from behind, dozens of Insurgency soldiers engaging with Irantu's squad, now trading grenades and bullets alike.
But Lina didn't look back.
She stood atop the demon's corpse, soaked in its black ichor, her blades dripping, eyes wild. Below, Munru looked up at her.
"Not bad SCP-8888, you are evolving fast." he said.
Suddenly, a deep rumble rolled across the battlefield, followed by a violent tremor that shook the ground beneath Lina's feet.
She turned her head toward the south end of the park, just in time to see a massive plume of smoke erupting into the sky. A black wave began to surge out of the urban ruins, sweeping aside crushed cars and flaming debris like leaves in a storm.
And then she saw them.
Thousands of demons.
Charging forward like a tide of nightmares, their forms twisting with malice and rage, their screeches forming a chorus of hate and madness. Some were no larger than men, others towered like ancient giants, easily forty meters tall. Their burning eyes locked on the green field of the park, on the defenders gathered there.
"Incoming! Thousands of hostiles!" shouted a GOC soldier, his voice cracking.
Clef's voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
"All units, fall back to the park and form a defensive line! REGROUP NOW!"
Operators from all factions, Foundation, GOC, THI, began pulling back under heavy fire, dragging injured comrades, covering each other, forming a crescent around the engineers still working behind them. Lina, her claws still dripping with dark ichor, ran to the front without hesitation.
And then something unexpected happened.
From the very heart of the park behind them, a piercing hum vibrated through the air. A deep azure glow began to rise from the grass itself, swirling into a spiral of unnatural light.
Lina turned, eyes wide, as a massive portal tore itself open in the middle of the battlefield. The light roared out, forcing even the demons to pause briefly.
From the other side of the portal, she heard the grinding roar of an engine.
A tank.
The first to emerge.
A thunderous steel beast rolled through the opening, its treads crushing the dirt beneath it. Its turret turned smoothly, targeting one of the massive demons still storming forward.
Then-
BOOM!
A flash of light. The demon's chest exploded in fire and gore, its legs crumpling beneath it as it collapsed to the side of a building, taking down a whole section of concrete with it.
The shot had been the signal.
An army followed.
Rows of Foundation operators in advanced combat armor surged through the gate, side by side with GOC soldiers and THI warriors. Behind them came more vehicles, armored transports, artillery platforms, and mechanized walkers glowing with energy.
They didn't wait.
They charged.
The battlefield erupted into total war.
Lina grinned, her claws flexing. "Finally," she whispered, eyes gleaming. "Let's see how many of you bastards I can carve through."
Then she ran straight back into the storm.
Suddenly, Lina's earpiece crackled to life.
Clef's voice came through, sharp and clear.
"SCP-8888. You're now part of the Anti-Divine Strike Force. Regroup on the north side of the park."
She blinked. Then, with a sigh, retracted her claws, her fingers folding back into human form with a wet snap.
"Received," she replied calmly.
She stood there for a second, breathing in the stench of blood and ozone, scanning the chaos that still raged across the battlefield. Who would've thought? Just a few months ago, she'd been a terrified teenager, flinching at the smallest anomaly. Now she was SCP-8888, a powerful Foundation asset, battle-tested and recognized for her raw potential.
Lina turned and began walking toward the rear, weaving through columns of armored vehicles and clusters of soldiers. Foundation troops, GOC squads, THI warriors covered in soot and ichor, they all moved with grim purpose. A massive IFV rolled past, shaking the ground. The humming of railguns and the clicking of reloading mechanisms filled the air.
She finally reached the rally point.
A black armored APC stood under the shade of a collapsed billboard, its doors open. Around it, a cluster of high-value personnel waited, dozens of elite fighters, and two very familiar faces.
Dr. Clef stood, blood-spattered from head to toe. Beside him, Dr. Bright leaned against the vehicle casually, polishing his chainsaw with far too much enthusiasm.
Bright looked up and grinned.
"Ah, the sarkic girl's here. Good. Let's get started."
He raised his voice so all nearby could hear.
"Phase One: success. Phase Two: underway. That's the good news."
He tapped the side of the APC.
"Now we hold this position until the bridgehead is stable. Once it is, Phase Three begins."
Clef took over, his tone like gravel.
"Nu-7 is cutting a path through the enemy. They'll open a corridor straight to the base of the Empire State Building."
He pointed toward the tower, still looming in the distance like a spear stabbed into the sky.
"Once we're in, we climb. Room by room. Floor by floor. We kick in the Insurgency's teeth, and we eject whatever self-proclaimed god they've summoned."
Bright chuckled darkly.
"So yeah. Lock and load. Rest, reload, piss if you have to. We move in ten minutes."
Everyone nodded.
Lina stepped back from the group and leaned against the APC, eyes on the skyline, her breathing slow and steady. Her fingers twitched slightly as her flesh remembered the sensation of tearing through bone.
She didn't feel fear anymore.
Only the calm before the next storm.
Everyone was still finishing their checks, tightening armor straps, reloading magazines, sharpening blades, when Bright reappeared with a manic grin.
"Alright, listen up!" he shouted. "Nu-7 has begun their push, accompanied by Strike Team 9100 'Metal Buck'. That's our window. Move out!"
Engines roared to life as the convoy surged forward. Lina boarded one of the IFVs alongside several members of the Anti-Divine Strike Force, her eyes cold and focused. The vehicle shook as it rolled across debris-strewn streets toward the front line.
A few hundred meters ahead…
Captain Rourke of the 1st Company, Nu-7, crouched behind the sloped plating of an armored personnel carrier. Dust and fragments rained around him as the APC took another hit from a heavy-caliber round. His grip tightened on his rifle.
"Advance!" he barked, waving his men forward.
Dozens of Nu-7 infantry surged ahead, staying low, moving in perfect sync behind a wave of armored vehicles. The street was a canyon of death, glass glittered across the pavement, smoke curled up from ruined storefronts, and every window above was a potential kill zone.
Suddenly, muzzle flashes lit up the upper floors of the surrounding buildings.
RATATATATAT!
Bullets tore through the air, slamming into plating and asphalt. Sparks flew as tracer rounds ricocheted off turret housings. A Nu-7 trooper took a hit and collapsed sideways, dragged back by a teammate before another burst shredded the wall behind them.
"Suppressing fire! Third squad, light up those windows!"
Rourke sprinted forward, ducking behind a scorched truck as two fireteams raised their SAWs and poured rounds into the buildings. Dust clouds erupted from the stone façades as entire chunks of concrete crumbled under the barrage.
From the other side of the boulevard, more Insurgency fighters opened fire. RPGs streaked across the sky, one hit an APC square in the side, flipping it onto its roof with a deafening explosion.
"We're getting pinned!" someone shouted.
"No we're not," Rourke growled into his radio.
"Metal Buck, where the hell are you?"
Then, like gods walking through fire, the Strike Team arrived.
From an alley to the east, the heavy footfalls of exosuit troopers echoed like war drums. Strike Team 9100 "Metal Buck", massive, reinforced infantry clad in powered armor entered the fray. One of them stepped in front of a machine gun nest and fired a wrist-mounted launcher, reducing the position to molten ruin.
"CLEARING PATH!" one of them roared.
The balance shifted.
Nu-7 surged forward again. Rourke vaulted a sandbag barrier and dropped two Insurgency fighters with clean bursts. Overhead, drones buzzed past, deploying smoke and thermal flares.
An entire apartment building exploded as a Foundation tank fired its main gun directly into the third floor.
Rourke didn't flinch.
"We push to the base of the tower! Stack up! Don't stop for anything unless it bleeds and screams!"
With every meter gained, they paid in sweat and blood but the line moved forward, relentless.
And behind them, more soldiers came.
---
The Anti-Divine Strike Force advanced through the war-torn street, flanked by fire and ash. At its head, Dr. Alto Clef marched with his usual expression, half grim focus, half unhinged amusement. Behind him: the infamous Samsara Squad of Tau-5, Lina, a five-men team from Beta-777 "Hecate Spear", and four grim-faced operators from Strike Team 6350 "Hound".
They moved quickly, stepping over rubble and crushed demon corpses, until they passed a barricade soaked in blood and viscera. The source was obvious: the handiwork of Nu-7. Clef gave a satisfied grunt.
Ahead, rising like a goddamn monolith above the battlefield, stood the Empire State Building. Its base was ringed with chaos, vehicles, gunfire, trails of smoke but beneath it all, Nu-7 and Strike Team 9100 "Metal Buck" were performing miracles. Hulking exo-suits moved with deadly grace, carving down Insurgency remnants and infernal constructs alike. The street had become a killing floor.
Their APC rumbled to a halt a few meters from the main entrance. As the side hatch swung open, Clef stepped out and let out a low whistle.
"Damn. This almost looks professional."
Suddenly-
"LOOK UP!" someone shouted.
All eyes turned skyward.
Dozens… no, hundreds of small dark objects were falling from the sky in wide arcs, surrounding the tower. For a split second, it looked like ash, or debris.
But then-
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The first ones landed with soft, almost squishy impacts. One bounced off the roof of the APC and landed next to Lina's boot.
It was… a cupcake.
Lina blinked, confused. A cupcake?
There were dozens of them, scattered across the pavement, warm, fresh, topped with golden crumble. Blueberry. Chocolate chip. Some had rainbow sprinkles.
She bent down, hand outstretched.
"No…wait-"
"SHIT!" Clef roared. "DON'T TOUCH THE CUPCAKE!"
Without missing a beat, he sprinted toward one of the APCs, ripped open the hatch, shoved the driver aside, and slammed the throttle.
"GET TO COVER!" he yelled through the comms.
The APC's engine howled as it surged forward, straight into the side of the Empire State Building.
CRASH!
Steel and stone erupted as the vehicle slammed through the wall, creating a ragged entryway in the base of the tower. Smoke poured from the twisted wreck, but it held.
The operators didn't need further orders. Samsara led the charge, followed by Lina, the witches, and the Hound team. Gunfire and thaumaturgy cleared their path as they stormed into the opening.
Then, the world exploded.
Every muffin outside detonated simultaneously.
Not with fire, but with screams. Reality itself bent as waves of fire surged outward, painting the surrounding street in kaleidoscopic hellfire. The blast wave hurled debris into the air like confetti from a giant's funeral. Flames roared to life, coiling around the tower like a snake of living combustion.
When Lina looked back, all she saw was a wall of searing, warping flame. The world outside was gone, cut off by an inferno that no human, no demon, no machine could pass.
They were inside.
And they were alone.