Elfen Lied Fan Fiction ❯ Angel of Massacre ❯ Counterattack ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: I don’t own Elfen Lied, but I do own all of the original characters here. Elfen Lied belongs to Lynn Okamoto. Until the moment the copyright expires. Then the series is up for grabs!

Summary: Elfen Lied has ended with Lucy’s death. But the story lives on so long as the Diclonius Virus spreads. This is the story of Michael Mordare, the first Diclonius born in America. And more importantly, this is the story of the first male Diclonius born outside of captivity. This is the story of Michael’s decent into madness, and the beginning of Samael.

Warnings: This is rated T for bad language, intense dark themes, and gruesome murders.

Author’s Notes: This chapter was hard to write because I often imagine what my characters are feeling. That goes double when they’re cold and hungry. And since Michael is suffering from both hunger and freezing temperatures… Damn I wish it was summer already!

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An gel of Massacre

Chapter Five: Counterattack

Damn winter and damn Jack Frost! I don’t remember ever feeling this cold before. Every living particle of my person is screaming at me. I curled myself into a tighter ball and shivered uncontrollably. A voracious hunger gnawed at my aching stomach. It felt like a pump was affixed up to my abdomen and it was sucking all of my strength out of my limbs at a slow, but steady pace. The mere effort of shifting to a more comfortable position brought groans to my lips, yet I swallowed my misery. None of these conditions helped my melancholy.

How many hours have passed since I entered this damned forest? A tired and unhappy mind is no accurate clock. Nothing has changed. I am still being hunted like a wild beast. I have had no time for rest and I haven’t had anything to eat except my shirt collar. I realized I was once again chewing on my tattered collar and promptly spat it out. My shriveled stomach organ rumbled in outrage. For a second I was afraid that the soldiers would hear.

Something had to change otherwise I would be run ragged and easily shot down. I was bordering my limits for pain and misery. I couldn’t just run anymore. I had to take charge of this situation and I had to take charge fast. I was hardly able to think straight. If only I could find a haven for an hour at least. Suddenly I remember Rambo. Now I hate Sylvester Stallone. I bet he didn’t have to work in these conditions!

But now that I think about it, is the situation so different? Oh sure, I was no Green Beret, but with my powers I may be as dangerous as one. Also these guys were trying to kill me, not just capture me and lock me up in an easily escapable jail. And there is the whole “well-trained battalion armed to the teeth” thing. That’s a whole lot different than just a pathetic sheriff and a few deputies. Other than all of these things, I’m still on the wrong end of a manhunt and I still have these lethal weapons. If only I could think straighter!

At the moment I was roosted high in an oak tree. There wasn’t much cover as like every other tree this oak was completely bare of leaves. But I blended into the shadows easily enough and I have found a nice little niche to sit my butt in. Give me two dry sticks and call me Robinson Crusoe. I dropped my head between my knees. Wow, I really was going delirious if I was comparing myself to Crusoe!

I tried to think strategically. This was like a game of chess I thought. Except, I was outnumbered one to one thousand. Plus with chess you can see all of the pieces and where they are. And I’m pretty sure that they aren’t restricted to certain directions. Yeah, this wasn’t like chess at all. Maybe Othello®…?

Ah screw it, I can’t be rational on an empty stomach. I need to think of a way to escape, not think about board games. At my will a single ghostly hand pulled out of my back and hovered in front of my face. I studied the bizarre thing before me. It was shaped like a human hand with four fingers and a thumb. It was mostly opaque, but I could still see past it as though it were a tinted window. I held up my right hand and pressed my palm against the other hand. It felt smooth and silky yet it also felt coarse at the same time. It reminded me of broken glass and how it could be smooth and yet still sharp. And another thing I realized. These hands don’t feel the same way as my real hands. I was pressing my palm against one of them, but I could hardly feel the flesh palm. It made sense when I thought back. Otherwise it would have hurt when I was blocking bullets.

I wasn’t afraid of cutting my palm; these things weren’t lethal unless I willed them to be. I shouldn’t keep thinking of them as hands like my own. That would be confusing.

“These things are so powerful. Just like the hands of God.” I murmured to myself. Then I heard a strange, disembodied laughter. Then the same unexplainable voice spoke.

“Not with the way you have been using them. You’ve got the right idea, but the wrong entity.”

For once I actually found myself agreeing.

“Yeah, you’re right. The hands of God create life. These hands just destroy everything. They are like the hands of a demon.”

With an enormous effort I pushed myself to my feet. I found balancing on the tree branch was relatively easy. The branch creaked and bent dangerously the straighter I stood. I quickly backed myself up so that my weight was on the point where the trunk and the branch joined. I was afraid that the noise had alerted the soldiers so I held my breath and listened intently. The only thing I heard was freezing wind blowing through the trees and the swish-swash of branches swaying back and forth. But still, there was something else I was not hearing. It was more of a feeling rather than a hearing. It was a very minor feeling that pressed around my temples and alerted me of unseen dangers.

At last I heard it with my two ears. It was the baying of hunting dogs! The option of running disappeared, leaving only the option to fight. I was so cold and hungry that I was bordering delirium, but I had no choice but to run. How many soldiers would be following the hounds? Maybe if I killed the dogs I could leave them with no way of tracking me? However, if I ran I would just get weaker. I needed to face them while I still had strength within me. Then there was no decision to be made. I would fight and I would kill them all.

The clamor of the dogs grew louder and before I knew it I could actually see vague shapes marching through the forest below me. I had a very good vantage point up in this tree, I discovered. Down at ground level all I could see was the blackness of the trees. But up here I also see the whitish blue grass extending all around me, which was acting as a contrast against the soldiers’ obsidian body armor. With my eyes adjusted to the dark of the night, I could even make out dark human forms trudging over the lighter undergrowth. Not only that, but I could also see smaller shapes darting toward my outlook. It was the canines.

Despite my grim situation I could feel a mirthless smile tugging at the ends of my lips. Suddenly the lead dog began to throw itself toward my tree. The dog holder had to let go otherwise the enormous dog would tear off his arm in excitement. The released canine charged ruthlessly at me. The bloodthirsty cur flung itself against the trunk and its black nails drew long gashes into the wood. It howled in frustration because it couldn’t possibly reach me. Suddenly four more mongrels escaped their owner’s control. They all circled beneath me, trying to leap high enough to knock me down into their awaiting teeth. The real danger wasn’t the dogs however.

Suddenly a blinding light engulfed my face. I could hardly see through the harsh light. I heard shouts of surprise and I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. I pulled myself to my full height and gazed down on the dogs and the mongrels. I lifted my real arms up at my sides and held my palms up. My eyes adjusted and I could see a group of gunmen pointing their rifles at me. I opened my mouth and spoke softly to myself.

“Let loose the dogs of war.”

With that quote I stepped off the branch and dropped straight down. While in midair my demonic hands extended from my back and pushed hard off of the trunk. I hurtled over the soldiers’ heads and noted that all but two of them dropped down and covered their heads. Those fools never even fired their guns. With two hands I grabbed their heads and twisted them all the way around. Their necks snapped audibly and simultaneously. The corpses landed on the ground at the same time as I did. Instantly the enormous dogs fell upon me. At this distance I could see that they were pure-breed Rottweiler’s. These dogs would tear me apart with their powerful jaws.

Surprisingly, I had no desire to kill the dogs. My fight was with humans, not with animals after all. But these dogs were the animals of humans and that was unforgivable. I erected my hands to fashion a cage. The ravenous hounds flung themselves upon my arms. Spittle dripped from their fangs as they tried desperately to fit their huge mouths through my arms. I closed my eyes before I flung the entire pack up into the air. My makeshift cage unwove itself and each of my arms found a midair target. Blood and gore began to rain down as my hands cut apart the helpless cur. Five sickening thuds resonated all around me.

Then I opened my eyes and all I saw were deplorable humans. There were eight armed soldiers in front of me, all of them staring death in the face. Two hands snaked out from behind me and grasped trees at either side of me. Then they jerked hard and flung me at the group like an arrow from a bow. Six hands bundled around me like a protective cloak. The remaining three hands tore into the closest soldiers. Screams and suppressed gunfire echoed throughout the forest. More blood and more gore began to coat the forest floor as each hand decapitated and dismembered again and again. At the climax a human arm cut off at the elbow was tossed into the air, painting the air in bright red colors.

In a short time nine human corpses (including the first two) were laying on the ground at my feet. Cruor had stained all my clothes and tennis shoes. My red hair was matted down with blood that didn’t belong to me. I could feel a warm spot on my left cheek where blood had splattered. But I didn’t care one bit. I was exhilarated and breathless. You will never understand how it feels to be all powerful. I was completely superior and had no equal. I simply stood there, bathing in the afterglow.

I was careless.

It was almost too late when I realized my mistake. I had snapped two necks and then fought eight soldiers. That means that there were ten gunmen. Yet only nine torsos lay on the ground. The numbers didn’t add up unless I had somehow overlooked one! Where was the final bastard…?

All eleven demon hands appeared and flung themselves around my form. At the same time I heard a muted puff sound from somewhere. I felt something strike the shield at my right. I turned my neck and found myself staring at the tip of a lead bullet. The single round had been pinched between two arms in midflight. If I had been any slower, even by a nanosecond, I wouldn’t be alive.

I wouldn’t be alive anymore.

Have you ever been walking down a street and minding your own business when a speeding car runs by you? I’m talking so close one wheel is on your sidewalk. So close that you can feel the thrumming of the car’s engine in your chest like a drum? And then you just keep walking for a few steps before falling to your feet in shock. You remember that feeling that you get, just a complete realization that you could have been killed for absolutely no reason. And you walk away from the street with a new appreciation for the miracle known as life?

If you have had this happen, then you know exactly how I felt right now. The point of the bullet seemed to glare at me, taunting me. It had gotten so close, much closer than any other bullet. I dropped the bullet and watched it disappear under a patch of grass. I realized that I was holding my breath. I exhaled and focused my eyes into the forest around me. The gunman had to be somewhere in the direction the bullet came from, but I couldn’t tell where. Even if I ran toward there, I would probably miss him in this blackness. Even worse, I would probably expose my back once more. How was I going to find him? I glanced down at the heavily armed bodies behind me.

A look of realization dawned on my haggard face. There was an idea. I glanced briefly into the dark before I walked over to the corpses. “When you think you have no weapons, then your enemies will provide eagerly”, I thought gleefully. I knelt down in the grass beside the nearest body. I reached toward the neck and felt for a clasp to his helmet. The body was still warm to the touch. Finally I managed to pry the obsidian helmet off of his head. Even though it was still very dark I could tell that the man behind the visor was still young. He had a round face with stout cheeks. His open eyes were rolled into the back of his skull. I didn’t give him another thought and tried to fit the heavy piece of equipment over my head. Unfortunately I ran into two problems: my horns. I could hardly see out of the visor and the inside of the helmet was pressing down painfully on my protrusions. Finally I managed to adjust the equipment so I could see through the eye pieces. It still hurt my horns but some discomfort was a small price to pay for this huge advantage. When I looked through the eyepiece everything was cast into a bright green color. “Just as I thought, night vision!”

This was how they could maneuver so easily in the dark. Not only that I realized, but there appear to be other settings as well. I groped around the side of the plating and found a few buttons of different shapes. A triangular shape purged the world in darkness. That was normal vision. A circular button brought up night vision again. I fumbled with a square button and immediately everything became a hideously dark azure color. For a second I thought there were two buttons for normal vision. I held my hand in front of my face and found a multicolored shape. I immediately recognized it for thermal vision. Damn this was a fine piece of equipment! Probably cost a pretty penny as well. Well its mine now!

Suddenly I saw an orange and red shroud moving between pillars of blue. A merciless grin split across my face. “There you are!” I crowed in my mind. I started toward the moving threat when I felt my left foot catch on a root. Immediately I was sprawled on the ground and tasting dirt in between my teeth. In thermal vision everything the same temperature looks the same, so I can’t make out my surroundings easily. “That explains why they didn’t just use thermal vision all the time to find me out.” I groaned inwardly. Hopefully nobody saw that…

I sprang to my feet and depressed the circular trigger. The forest sprang into 3-D and I could make see clearly again. At the same time I could make out movement in the darkened horizon. I didn’t need thermal vision to find him anymore. Carefully picking my path through the trees and the shoe-grabbing roots, I slowly zeroed in on my target. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. My demon hands swept aside a low-hanging branch and I skulked beneath it. Finally the target was in range!

I fingered the square button and saw a heat signature crouching on the other side of the blue pillar (tree). I strode up to the tree and leaned weight against it. I sneered and spoke ruthlessly to the man.

“Looks like I’ve found you!”

With my hands I grabbed at the man. All of the sudden the “body” fell apart. Several red-orange blobs dumped out. I looked up at what I had grabbed and found it was a recently worn set of body armor. I quickly activated night vision and saw that each blob was a spherical ball with blinking lights.

“Predictable diclonius.”

I whirled around and wrapped my demon hands around me tightly. There was the soldier I was looking for. But he wasn’t wearing the usual obsidian armor, he was wearing a skin-tight suit that seemed to reflect and shimmer. With a sudden dawning, I realized that this suit must obscure his heat signature. It was only then that I saw what the gunman was holding in his palm. It was a pen-shaped device with a trigger on one end. It was a detonator! The soldier grinned before thumbing the trigger.

“Oh fu-.”

Each of the spheres exploded simultaneously. The shock wave was powerful enough to shatter the tree trunk. All of my demon hands were swatted away as though by a giant's hand. What felt like a solid brick wall crushed my body and flung me high into the air. Heaven and Earth spun over and over my head. No, that was wrong; I was the one tumbling gracelessly through the air. Everything I felt was pain and pain and pain! I tried to scream but all the breath had been knocked out of my lungs. Suddenly the kaleidoscope of the sky and the soil ended with a sickening crunch and agony in my side. I couldn’t tell which side, they both hurt equally. I could feel myself rolling in the dirt before the roller coaster finally stopped. I was lying on my stomach and feeling every particle of my being throb in anguish. My ears began to ring painfully like a thousand alarm clocks. I couldn’t move at all. None of my beaten muscles would budge. With each breath I could feel a terrible grinding in one or more of my ribs. I’ve never broken a bone before, but I was pretty sure that I had now. It felt like a demon was thrusting a flaming pitchfork in my right side.

Then a steel-tipped boot drove itself in my right ribcage. I howled in agony, my cries echoed back in my ears. The boot sought leverage beneath my body and finally pushed me over on my back. It was easier to breath now. Then the same heavy boot stomped directly on my chest. I could feel the busted rib stabbing into me. My head snapped back and I tried to scream, but there was no air in my lungs. I could only draw in haggard breaths, each one accompanied with agony. I was so overwhelmed with suffering that I almost missed the lone soldier talking just above me. He sounded pleased at the sound of my strangled breathing.

“Oh this is just too much! I’ve finally brought down a monster of my own. And I did it on my own too!”

I squinted through the black haze and up at his face. He was a large man with broad shoulders. He had a solid face and a sharp chin sprinkled with stubble. His eyes were lost in the shadows. I could see a wide open grin plastered on his goddamned face. I wanted to grab that jaw of his and tear it off his head! He seemed to read the expression on my face and just expulsed a deep laugh. The bastard leaned down further and pushed more weight onto my injured chest. Again I wanted to scream but the noise only came out as a strangled gurgle.

“It’s common knowledge that diclonius can’t use their vectors when they’re in pain. You’re all mine now fucker.”

His right hand reached down to his thigh and produced a small caliber pistol. It looked like a Heckler & Koch MK23 Mod 0 with a silencer attached. He held the pistol in front of my face, just below the hairline. I stared unmoving at the muzzle. The bastard then pointed the gun directly at my right eyeball. I couldn’t even see the tip out of my left eye. His grin split even wider and he began to resemble a killer shark. Finally he leaned back all the way and lined the gun up directly at my forehead.

“If you weren’t so goddamn stupid then you wouldn’t be the one dying right now. Just remember that when you meet your bastard parents in Hell! Oh now that’s a nice glare you’re giving me!”

He barked in laughter before fixating on me the most sadistic face. He mouthed the words good-bye mutherfucka and pulled the trigger.

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End Chapter Five: Counterattack

Diclonius can’t use their vectors while they are in pain. That has been established and repeated time after time. Without a doubt there is no escape possible. Surely Michael has died like the baby he swore to protect. Except I don’t see a “Story Completed” tag on this tale, do you?

Trivia: Which Austrian artist was paid homage to in the opening sequence of the Elfen Lied anime series? Include first and last name.