"Your men should've searched me better than just take away my gun and knife. Now, there's a Dynadisc attached to our table, and if you're not going to answer my question, I'm going to blow us all up." Maileena heard Demilan through the earpiece. She never noticed that he took one of the Dynadiscs with him. She was sure they were all in the duffel bag. "Where is my wife?" he asked Kleon.
"She's not here," Kleon answered. Maileena almost fell to her knees.
"What do you mean?"
"After Blackburn warned us about you, Reus told me not only to increase security but to also take Telia McCloud and Vera Banister away from here." She almost lost her grip on her revolver's handle. No… this can't be… Vera…
All of a sudden she heard a noise outside the Showcase Room. The girls inside backed away to the wall in fright, looking scared and paranoid. Some held others in their arms, giving them what little warmth they could provide. Every day is this room was like this, Maileena remembered as she looked at them. Fear and loneliness were the dark clouds that hovered above everyone in that room. To be terrified by the mere sound of footsteps nearing the door, Maileena wished no such fate to anyone. She was one of the very few who always embraced what came her way in the Godly Succubi since she volunteered for that position just so she could get paid enough to feed both her and Vera.
The footsteps now drew closer to the door. Maileena held her revolver tightly, her first finger ever so ready on the trigger. In the background, she could still hear Demilan and Kleon talking to each other, but she was too focused on her incoming visitor to pay any attention to what they were saying.
She pegged herself against the wall in order to hide behind the door when it opens. The door opened and a man carrying an assault rifle appeared at the doorstep, his back facing Maileena. The man was bald and shaved, wearing a black plain shirt and jeans, like the rest of the club's employees. He looked at the frightened little girls in contempt, grinning a second later. Men like him don’t scare me anymore. Just like Demilan taught her, she took a deep breath as she aimed her gun. I will no longer be bound to crude, evil men. She had already grown accustomed to its weight, so it felt light in her hand. And I will kill them all to save Vera. She pulled the trigger. The blast echoed between the walls of the room. The mighty bullet tore through his head into the wall, painting several of the girls in red. The girls screamed in horror, only for their screams to be drowned by the sound of a big explosion. The Dynadisc! Maileena realized.
Soon enough, gunshots filled the club. Demilan and Winselt… I have to get the duffel bag to them. She hurried for the bag, her revolver still clutched in hand. Carrying it on her back, she left the Showcase Room. Walking through the hallway of the VIP section, she passed by the bedrooms where the clients would take the girls to and fulfill their twisted fantasies. At the moment, they were all empty, but she knew times where they had all been occupied simultaneously.
The loud firefight happening downstairs along with the deafening music filled her ears, so when the three men appeared in front of her at the end of the hallway, she couldn’t even hear their approaching footsteps. In a panic, she raised her revolver, but one of the men grabbed her hand and pulled it aside, landing a powerful slap to her face right afterward, causing the earpiece to fly off from her ear. Maileena fell to the floor, the duffel bag dropping along with her. The same man then grabbed her by her hair, hard and mercilessly, "Hey, I recognize that girl!" he said. "She used to be one of the VIP section's sluts!’’ the other two laughed. The man then threw her like a puppet into one of the bedrooms, leaving her revolver and bag on the floor behind.
Maileena hit herself against the bed's frame, writhing in pain. She held onto the mattress to keep herself from falling on the floor. As she heard the three men walk into the room, memories of her pleasuring men in that very room, on that very bed, came rushing at her.
"Well, I had no idea we were dealing with a whore," the second man of the three said in contempt, sneering. "We usually don’t tend to aim our weapons at whores!" he laughed. "We do other things to them, but no shooting, no sir!" he grabbed her waist with a tight grip. "Here, let me demonstrate you!" he started to pull down her pants and panties while forcing her to bend over the bed. Maileena closed her eyes. "I'll make sure to remind you that you're a whore, not a gunslinger," they all laughed. She heard him unbolting his pants, eventually letting them drop on the floor. "Say, whore, how do you like to get fucked?" he asked with a chilling grin.
The men's laughter reverberated infinitely in her mind. They were no different from any other men she knew in that bedroom. The last time she was bent over, submissive to the lecheries of such perverts, it was at that same warehouse where Demilan first found her. Back then, those men did whatever they wished to Maileena, grinning and smiling as they did, without a shred of caring or sympathy, and when Demilan broke her free from their tame she beat one of them to death with a wrench, feeling ever so joyful in doing that. Men like them don’t scare me anymore. She said the same words as earlier to herself. I will no longer be bound to crude, evil men, and I will kill them all to save Vera. She looked at the floor behind her. The man's pants that lay on the ground still held the pistol he holstered there. They see me as a little girl and fill themselves with over-confidence. That will be their undoing.
She shoved her elbow deep into the man's abdomen, causing him to gag and twitch. At that moment, she reached for his holstered pistol on the floor, took it and fired twice at him, once in the chest, and another in the head. The man's body fell on her, lifeless, and the two men aimed their guns at Maileena. The dead body above her, used as a human shield, suffered three shots from their weapons, saving her, and allowing her to land a bullet in each one's head.
Once the two fell on the ground, Maileena shoved the body above her aside. Her body was drenched in his blood, along with her clothes. She pulled up her pants and underwear and left the room.
After checking the hallway for more of Kleon's men, she grabbed her revolver and duffel bag and reinserted the earpiece back in her ear. She then headed to the end of the hallway. Just before walking through the door leading out of the VIP section, she looked back and saw the pool of blood that gathered from the three men outside the bedroom's door. This time, it felt much more than mere joyful. It felt just.
The main hall of the club was a wreck. Looking down from the balcony of the upper floor, she saw bodies littering the floor beneath her. Kleon's men who remained alive were firing in two directions. Some were shooting at Winselt, who hid behind the bar's counter, and others were shooting at Demilan, who hid behind a pillar on the opposite side. She couldn’t spot Kleon anywhere, wondering if he had died in that explosion she heard.
"Demilan," she called him over the earpiece.
"Maileena!" she heard the excitement in his voice. "Where were you? We need that bag right now!"
"I'm sorry. I had to deal with some of Kleon's men up here."
"Maileena," Winselt said. "I'm out of weapons. I need Umbra and Lux!" Maileena went through the bag, taking out the double-barreled pistols. She threw them off the balcony to the bar, one of them hitting Winselt, and the other landing next to him. "Finally!" he called. "Now, how about some ammunition?" she threw two magazines at him. "Thanks, kid," he said. Winselt waited a few moments for the firepower that headed his way to wind down, and then rose from his cover, wielding his beloved pistols. Two bullets came from each one at a time, tearing through two of the men who aimed at him. Maileena saw one of them get hit by two bullets in his throat, falling on the floor, choking on his own blood.
Demilan was under much heavier fire. The pillar he hid beneath looked bare bone, suffering enough damage to crumble down to almost half its size. Maileena wanted to throw some of the ammunition in Demilan's way but he was too far away for her to reach. "Demilan, how are you holding up?" she asked.
"Not very well," he said back. "I'm very low on bullets. I'm down to my last magazine and it's very hard to find opportunities to return fire from where I am."
Maileena dropped the bag on the balcony floor and aimed her revolver. She fired at the men who aimed at Demilan, providing what little assistance she could. Most of her shots missed, but one of them actually hit one of the men. Unfortunately for her, it also drew their attention to her, and before she knew it, the fire had turned to split from two ways to three ways. Maileena crouched, but the bullets whistled all around her, one even barely hitting her.
The exchange of gunshots went on and on, with bullets hitting seemingly every possible wall in the club, shattering every breakable thing around and destroying the club that so far had destroyed the lives of many poor girls. Now that he was reunited with his pistols, Winselt allowed himself to charge from the bar to a closer cover, behind a flipped table. He roared and yelled with sheer excitement every time he took a shot at his rivals while Demilan remained quiet and focused. After two more minutes, the gunfight started to slow down. When Maileena looked down, she saw that only three of the armed men downstairs remained.
Demilan took aim with his assault rifle and pulled the trigger once, hitting the first one right between the eyes. "I'm out of bullets," he then declared. Maileena reloaded her revolver with six new rounds and took aim at the two men below. She shot four rounds, but only one of them hit the second man in the shoulder. He fell on one knee, at first, but then rose again and fired at Maileena. While taking cover, Maileena shot the remaining two rounds she had left blindly in hopes to deter the man. After that, she heard Winselt's mighty pistols rip through the man she wounded. With only one man left standing, Maileena felt rejoiced, knowing that the battle was sure to be won, but when she peeked from her cover, she saw that the last man managed to make his way to Winselt. He charged at the scarred soldier, disarming him from Umbra and Lux, and punching him relentlessly.
Demilan is out of ammunition, she remembered. She started to reload her revolver in haste, but the bullets fell from her hand due to her panic. Looking down, she saw that Winselt managed to punch the man back, and got back on his feet. He shoved the man away from him with a powerful kick to the groin. Seeing the man wriggle in pain at a safe distance from Winselt gave Maileena an idea. She went through the duffel bag and found the other Dynadisc it held. She threw it from the balcony, landing it right beside the last guard. "Winselt, take distance!" she yelled at him. Once he spotted the Dynadisc he ran as fast as he could away from him. That was when Maileena held the rod in her hand and pushed the button. Once more, a Dynadisc exploded in the Godly Succubi, only, this time, it ended the fight, rather than start it.
Once the dust settled, all that remained in the club was the booming music. While Maileena made her way downstairs, Demilan had found his way to the club's control panel and turned off the music. Only a harrowing silence now filled their ears, one that could only exist should the club ever be ridden of the filthy-minded men who ran it. To Maileena, it felt peaceful. It felt liberating.
"Are you alright?" she asked Demilan when she met him downstairs. His nose was bleeding and his forehead looked bruised and swollen.
"I'm all right," he said. Winselt joined the two, appearing drenched and reeking of alcohol. He suffered from several cuts on his face and hands. "I'm going to look for the security control room," Winselt said. "I need to make sure I delete whatever records the cameras in this place just took. I can't have APD on my tail and I sure as hell can't have Blackburn finding out I helped you." He split from the two.
Demilan walked several steps to a body that lay on the floor. Only when he picked the man up and carried him over to Maileena did she notice he was not a corpse, but a living person too wounded to make any significant movements. His face was disfigured, maimed by the Dynadisc's explosion, yet she could still recognize Kleon Hanford. To her, he was now as ugly outside as he was inside. His leg had a bullet wound in it. Deep inside, she knew that it was Demilan's doing. She knew that he kept him alive despite having the opportunity to kill him just so she can have him for herself. It warmed her heart.
Without saying any words, he simply handed his black knife over to her. She held it in her hand, feeling like it was exactly where it was supposed to be at that moment. She held the blade to Kleon's neck and looked deep into his eyes. He recognized her immediately. "If I could have stabbed you for each girl in this place whose life you've ruined, I would, but you'll die long before that," Maileena said in a cold tone. "Instead, I'll do it only once… for my sister." She stuck the blade into his neck. Kleon started gagging, his mouth held open. His entire body shivered and his eyes rolled upwards. She let him choke for several more seconds, allowing him to suffer as much as his body could let him before pulling out her revolver, loading a single bullet and firing it through his head.
As his body fell to the ground, she looked at her revolver, now stained with blood, and remembered what Demilan had said before regarding its name. Think of something that defines you… that's what Demilan said to me. "Sinful." The word dropped from her mouth without her noticing, as if her subconscious was telling her something. "That is what defines me. That is this gun's new name. Sinful." She held it up with pride.
Winselt rejoined the two, claiming to have succeeded in deleting the camera records of the last hour.
"Demilan McCloud and Maileena Banister!" a loud male voice suddenly called. It broke the silence unexpectedly. Demilan looked everywhere around him to find the man who called for him, but to no avail. Maileena and Winselt seemed just as baffled as he was.
"Who is this?" Demilan called. His finger tightened on his rifles handle, ready to jump the trigger if needed.
"I want to make you an offer. A deal, you may call it. I wish to show myself, so I ask that you don't shoot me. I am unarmed." the voice said, echoing between the bloody, riddled walls of the club. Demilan had now located the voice to be originating from the front doors though no one was there. Whoever the man was, he was hiding behind those doors.
"What deal?" Demilan asked, concentrating on the door in an effort to catch a glimpse of the man.
"A deal to reunite you with Telia McCloud and Vera Banister." Demilan, Maileena, and Winselt immediately exchanged glances, filled with both doubt and thrill. Hesitant as he was, Demilan called for the man to show himself, promising that he won't harm him though his hand remained tightly clutched around the handle and trigger.
The man showed himself, standing at the very entrance to the club. Empty shells and blood spots lay littered under his feet. He seemed to be in his 20's, with long blonde hair waving all the way to his neck, a shaved face, and eyes as blue as the skies. His face seemed cold and blank, with no hints of emotion on it. He didn't wear any Elastics, yet he gave off an ominous feeling. "My name is Arkaneh Frye," the man said. "I am a member of Men of Midas." Within the second, all three raised their guns and aimed it at Arkaneh. "Please… lower your weapons," he remained calm despite the hollow barrels that faced him. "I know where Telia and Vera are, and I can help you get them. Like I said, I wish to make a deal." Maileena couldn't tell if Arkaneh was lying or not. His face was too blank and empty to read into. It was as if the man was nothing but a shell, a shadow of a person. "I think you'll find my deal quite worth it as it requires very little of you. I just ask that you lower your guns."
"And why would you help us?" Demilan asked.
"Because I too have lost my loved one, and I know what it's like to be willing to go to every length in the world to get them back."
Maileena turned to look at Demilan as if she was asking for permission to do so. With an approving nod from Demilan, the three lowered their guns and heard the man's offer
