Rise of the Dunamy (24 page)

48

S
ofia ran in the direction she believed the sound to be coming from. The blasts became much more frequent and much louder as she approached what appeared to be another old apartment complex. Just as was the case with the rest of the area, the building appeared to be abandoned, as were all of the surrounding homes and shops. The sounds were constant now and reminded Sofia of a wrecking ball hammering away at the walls of a building, only much more frequent than any wrecking ball could swing. The entire building quaked with each blast. Tiny pieces of the block wall flaked away with each quake and fell to the ground all around Sofia’s feet. The sounds seemed to be coming from around the back side of the building. Realizing that the building did not appear to be structurally sound and knowing that she would have to proceed with much more caution by going through, Sofia drew her weapon and ran down the alley that lead to the back of the building.

As she approached the rear corner, Sofia pressed herself up against the wall and slowly peered around the corner just in time to see a hulking figure run through a large hole leading into the back of the building. Sofia quickly jerked her head back. For the first time in her pursuit for this man she became very unnerved by his size. If that had in fact been Quintin that entered the building, she had grossly underestimated what the numbers in his description represented. The picture and the information that they had at the station did not do Quintin justice. It was possible that he had not grown any, but Sofia had clearly misjudged what a man with those measurements would look like. Sofia had only caught a glimpse of his arm and some of his profile as he dashed into the building, but that was enough to cause her more than a little concern. As she stood pressed to the wall, she felt the building shake beneath what she could only imagine was a fierce blow from Quintin. Sofia pressed her ear against the cold brick in an effort to see if she could hear what was happening on the other side. She could barely make out what sounded like the grunting and groaning of two men locked in combat. Suddenly there was another powerful blow that rattled the building accompanied by the loud cry of one of the men. Concerned or not, Sofia had come this far to stop Lucian and she wasn’t about to let him become this man’s judge, jury and executioner. She clutched her weapon tightly, rounded the corner and slowly approached the opening.

Sofia stood at the entrance of the tattered building attempting to muster the courage to look inside. Between what she had witnessed with Lucian and the figure that she had just seen enter the building, the possibilities were terrifying. The fact was, at this point she wasn’t even sure that her presence was even going to make an impact on this situation. Sofia was all but certain that Lucian was the one inside with Quintin. Her only hope was that her presence alone would force him to realize that she was against what he was doing and cause him to leave. She wished that it was in her to just let Lucian end Quintin’s tyrannical influence over this neighborhood, but she didn’t believe for one second that she was capable of allowing anyone to stop crime with more crime. From the sound of the loud blasts, the fight had moved towards the front of the building. Feeling confident that she could enter the building unseen, Sofia slowly peered into the gaping hole.

49

T
he only light in the building was what was allowed in through the various sized holes in the walls all along the hallway. Heavy, dark clouds had moved in, and blocked out most of the direct sunlight, so there was little to see. Sofia peered down the long, dark hallway where she saw two figures moving back and forth in the darkness ahead, giving her only glimpses of dark silhouettes among the shadows. While she couldn’t make out the particulars of the men, she could have guessed which one was Quintin. While both were very large in their build, one loomed over the other by several inches. One thing that Sofia had noticed when Lucian was fighting the men on the street was that though he had packed much more muscle mass onto his frame, he had not grown any taller. She had not mentioned this to him, but assumed that he would have some sort of explanation for it; such as “Muscles are made to grow and shrink, bones grow to a certain length and then only grow to repair themselves, Sofia.” His endless logic on such an unreal situation was maddening to her, even when he wasn’t the one making the observation.

The hallway had been destroyed in the wake of the battle that had just passed through it. All of the doorways had been collapsed in the melee, so there was no longer a reason for Sofia to clear them before passing. The structure of the building was even more compromised than before, but she did not want to lose site of the men as she approached so she began to make her way down the hall.

Sofia moved as quickly as she was able without making her presence known. She didn’t have to be overly concerned with that due to the claps of thunder that were generated with each blow which were now being accompanied by occasional bursts of actual thunder from the growing storm outside. She shuffled down the hallway hoping that it would not collapse on her as the men slammed against all remaining supports in the lobby. The two warriors continued trading blows as she approached, neither having an obvious edge that Sofia could see. She wondered how it was possible for anyone to keep up with Lucian in a fight when he was able to grow to match any opponent. Maybe he hadn’t had enough time to reach Quintin’s level of strength, or maybe this was the biggest opponent he had ever faced and he was unable to match Quntin. If he just hadn’t reached Quintin’s size, Sofia was in a great position as it had clearly given her a much better chance of reaching them in time to stop Lucian. Conversely, if Lucian was unable to match Quintin’s size altogether, she would have to stop Quintin in order to arrest Lucian.

Sofia slipped into the only room that remained intact as she approached the lobby. A hole had been created in the wall, allowing her access to the office that had been built in behind the front counter. From this location Sofia could see the entire front lobby and had some level of protection from the counter if the fight drew too close. The office stood in a particularly dark area and provided Sofia with a nearly undetectable hiding spot where she could survey the situation and plan how she would proceed. She looked through the door in amazement as she got her first real glimpse of the two men up close. Each was physically unbelievable and had she not been in the room to see it, she never could have believed it.

Quintin was enormous. There was no place on his flesh that was not covered with muscle and not an inch of muscle that was not tattooed. His body was a giant canvas, and someone had taken a great deal of time to paint him. His tattoos depicted a terrifying picture that only made Sofia wish she could get on board with Lucian’s philosophy for ridding the world of such evil. Every item that had been tattooed on his body oozed with hatred. Every hate filled symbol and word imaginable had been etched into his flesh. There were graphic images of women being raped and the bloody corpses of men all across his back. In the middle of the corpses and battered women was an image of Quintin standing with a giant open mouthed grin, giving the illusion that he was laughing maniacally at the carnage that surrounded him.

Sofia had never before seen someone that was so filled with evil and showed no signs of caring or compassion for anything or anyone else. Even the worst criminals that she had ever put away had shown some tiny sign that they were able to care about something. Whether it had been their mother or a dog or even a motorcycle, they had all found something that they cared for. It appeared that the only thing that Quintin loved was his all-consuming hate. The veins in his body were engorged and ran across the surface of his skin like a topographical map. They were splattered all over his arms and neck and led up to and around his shining bald head, which was also coated with tattoo ink.

He was drenched in sweat which now seeped through the waistband of his oversized, all-black gym shorts. His face was the only place Sofia could locate that didn’t have any signs of tattoo ink, but it was now covered in deep lacerations from Lucian’s blows. There was no doubt in her mind that this was likely the hardest this man had ever had to fight to defeat an opponent in his adult life. The grimace that was slathered across his face confirmed her suspicion. She knew from what she had seen in the streets that Lucian would give any man an incredible fight, no matter what size he was. She also believed that he would, in all likelihood, defeat any opponent he came across.

Lucian’s size was also stunning, and still so difficult for Sofia to grasp. He was still several inches shorter than Quintin, but his speed was phenomenal. He landed explosive punches in rapid spurts that kept his enormous foe off balance as well as inflicting serious damage that was beginning to take its toll on Quintin. He also appeared to be using various different techniques as he fought; techniques that would have taken immense amounts of training to perfect, and he was bouncing between them effortlessly. She had seen him for so long as this small, docile, fun loving man. Now he stood before her a giant; an animal; an exquisite monster.

His body was massive and packed tightly with muscle, just as it had been before. He looked as though he had reached the limit of muscle mass that his frame would allow. Sofia couldn’t help but realize how beautiful he was. She had always thought that he was a pretty-boy, but the way that his body was filled out made him look incredible. She had not had the time nor was she in the right frame of mind to admire him the last time that she had seen him this way, but now she had a second to realize how perfect he was when he was in full form.

The most obvious change was his unbelievably chiseled body from head to toe. From the definition of his muscles to the sharp, tight build of his face. But now his hair was longer than the tightly manicured styles that he normally maintained and his eyes were a vivid green like she had never seen before. Sofia shook the thoughts from her head and attempted to refocus on the task at hand before the thoughts could influence her actions. She had come to stop Lucian, and that was exactly what was going to happen. Sofia prepared herself to enter the room and took one last look in before making her move.

As she watched for a minute something occurred to her. Sofia realized that she may have overestimated Lucian’s ability. She may not have even needed to be there to help Quintin. Lucian was more than holding his own in the fight, but Quintin wasn’t wearing down.

As the fight waged on, Quintin continued landing volatile punches, powerful enough to have killed normal men. Lucian was able to recover from each shot, but was unable to mount any sort of attack for several seconds. Suddenly, pulling from some well of reserved energy, he lashed out with a flurry of blows that knocked Quintin to the ground. Lucian leapt on top of him quickly and sunk his teeth deep into the thick muscle surrounding Quintin’s neck. Quintin let out a chilling roar as Lucian pulled away, taking a large chunk of flesh with him. Quintin knocked Lucian away and got to his feet. As Lucian reached his feet, both of the men refrained from attacking long enough to catch their breath.

Both men stood in their respective corner, sucking down wind and checking the amount of damage that had been inflicted on them before continuing. They looked over their wounds, Quintin paying special attention to his neck, and Lucian focusing mainly on his ribs. Quintin’s problem was obvious, the blood cascaded down covering every inch of the right side of his body from the massive wound on his neck. Lucian seemed to have an internal injury that was causing him considerable pain. It seemed likely that he had broken a rib and possibly punctured a lung. Even if he was able to regenerate tissue easily, there was no way that he could mend a broken bone if it had shifted from its normal position.

“Bitches bite!” Quintin bellowed as he looked over the amount of blood that covering his hand.

“No such thing as a fair fight, Q-Ball” Lucian mocked. “Not that this was ever a fair fight.”

“What the hell is going on? When I chased you in here, you were a little runt. How the hell did you get so big!”

“That’s for me to know… And that’s about it.” Lucian smirked. Placing his left palm against the base of his ribs on the left side, he used the other hand to force his lower rib back away from his lung. There was a grating noise as the bone grinded against itself as he slid it back towards its intended resting place. Lucian grimaced some before sprouting a grin. He held his rib in place as he stared at Quintin. His breathing quickly returned to normal, and he stood fully upright. Taking his own fighting stance, he leered at Quintin as a smirk crawled across his lips.

“Now, I’m done playin’ around with you!” Lucian surged forward at a dead sprint from the first step. After all of his talking, Sofia had lowered many of her expectations as to what Lucian was capable of doing. He had mentioned that he was able to move fast, but this was faster than Sofia had imagined. He didn’t move at the speed of light; he wasn’t even a blur, but he was close and when he combined multiple moves, it was difficult to catch each one. He caught Quintin in the ribs with a series of powerful punches. The explosive shots rung out around the room just as they had before. Quintin had no time to react. He was caught completely off guard by Lucian’s speed. He recoiled from the punches and let out a loud yell as Lucian landed blow after blow. Sofia could hear his ribs cracking mixed with the sounds of the punches.

After being driven back several feet, Quintin fell to one knee. Sofia was so caught up in Lucian’s recovery, she didn’t even realize that he had just gone in for the kill. “I’ve seen what you have done to this place, and the people in this area. I can’t allow these people to have to suffer by your hands anymore.” Just as Lucian reared back to throw the final punch that would surely end Quintin, Sofia screamed out from her location behind the wall, “Lucian, no!”

Lucian’s head snapped over to see Sofia come running from her hiding place. Seeing her face, he smiled. At that moment, Quintin seized the opportunity to make his way back into the fight. Using every ounce of energy he could manage, Quintin landed a fierce uppercut that sent Lucian off of his feet, and sailing into a darkened corner of the room a few feet from where they were standing.

“Freeze, Quintin! APD!” Screamed Sofia. Quintin, who had barely noticed her presence to this point, turned his head and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He paid her little attention, turning back to look at Lucian. Sofia approached him with her gun drawn. Quintin was still on his knees but remained as tall as Sofia. She approached him from her position behind him and placed her gun against his head as she tossed her cuffs in front of him.

“Put those on! Now!” Quintin didn’t move. He was gasping for air at this point and struggling to breath. After that last barrage by Lucian, Sofia had no doubt that he was dealing with some broken ribs as well as possibly some internal bleeding. “Don’t you worry about him, I’m taking him in too. Just put the cuffs on.” Sofia stayed focused on the back of Quintin’s head as she waited for him to put the handcuffs on. Quintin turned his head slowly to try and look at her as he spoke. “Take him where? That fool’s done.” Puzzled by his comment, Sofia leaned over and looked around his enormous body to see what he was talking about.