The Mortal Tartarus

"RUN MALAKAI!!!" Yelled Samuel as he led the way. "DON'T LOOK BACK!!!" However the young lad had already made that foolish mistake. The boy glanced over his shoulder to see nothing but horror chasing after him. Three monstrosities, all sporting the same ghastly features. Big burly frames, all running on four legs with horns sprouting out the top of their heads and backs of their legs. Their constant barking and chomping exposed their long and jagged yellow teeth, which just like their black fur, was stained with the blood of their previous victims.

Malakai quickly snatched back his gaze to the front of his body, too scared to speak. The poor boy now had an expression of horror on his face with tears to accompany it. However, his brother Samuel was too busy running ahead to notice. What are we going to do? He thought as his mind was racing, trying desperately to find a solution to this dire situation. He knew that they couldn't keep running like this forever, he was already starting to feel winded and if he felt this way, then he could only imagine how rough keeping this pace was for his younger brother.

This chase had been going on for quite sometime now and despite how scared he was, he couldn't help but wonder why all of this was happening. He and his brother had plans today. They were going to help there mother pick the crops and sell them at the village town square, then later go fishing with their father..."Nice work my boys." or "Wow! That's a big one!" or maybe at the very least a "I'm proud of you, my sons." Those were the words he wanted to hear from his father's mouth today, but instead all he heard were the screams of villagers and his father yelling to him when their house was attack. "GO! Take your brother and run to the forest,we'll come find you when we are done!"

However, this plan would be of no use now since these creatures were hot on there trail before even getting close to the forest. Their pursuers were determined to hunt the pair down to tear the boys limb from limb and Samuel knew all too well how capable the beasts were of doing so. Unlike his brother, he saw the unfortunate examples that were made of those who found themselves in between the jaws of those monstrocities. All of this just continued to send Samuel's brain into a rattle, until something unfortunate finally found its chance to occur...

"Samuel!" called Malakai as he was short on breath. "I...can't...keep... Ahhh!..." the boy shrieked while falling face first onto the ground. Still having trouble breathing Malakai looked up behind to find his ankle caught in some vines from the forest underbrush. Samuel stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to meet his brother's gaze, which was polluted with tears. Samuel quickly bolted over to help his brother to his feet but he witnessed the hellish hounds closing the gap as he made his way. He knew that there was no longer any chance of retreat or escape. Quickly turning his head he saw a large tree branch lying on the ground and snatched it up and into his hands, while also jumping in between Malakai and the hungry pursuers, readying himself to fight the blood thirsty animals.

He refused to leave his little brother's side, no matter what danger faced him. The demons widened their jaws in overwhelming excitement, their long pursuit was finally coming to an end. They pushed and shoved in attempts to run each other over just to be the first to sink their teeth into the children. This sight was too much to bear for Samuel as tears now started dripping down his face. He closed his eyes and lifted his wooden weapon above his head, preparing to strike. His heart was pounding faster than ever before and the mixture of barking along with Malakai's screams sent his brain into overload and deafening him for a short moment. He began to swing downward with his defensive tool and preceded to have a flashback while doing so... to a moment of joy in his memory.

He could hear faint crying coming from the room his father was ushering him into.The door was slighting opened just enough to see dim candle light shining through the crack, as his father opened the door, the boy saw his mother lying down in bed a and quickly ran over to her. When he got there he had noticed her holding something in her arms, after getting closer he saw what he at first thought was to be a little person. "He's your baby brother." said his mother as she broke the long silence in the room. "Would u like to hold him?" Samuel shook his head up and down as his mother placed the baby in his arms. "His name is Malakai." she told him, Samuel then repeated back "Malakai." His father stepped up to the bed and knelt down to him, "Your gonna have to teach him to be as smart as you are and protect him from any harm." whispered his father in a deep yet comforting tone "Can you do that for us?" Samuel looked up at his father and smiled as he shook his head up and down again. He looked down at his new brother and said "I will always protect you."

The memory started to fade and Samuel was now whimpering uncontrollably, "I'm sorry." he cried "I'm so sorry." With his eyes sealed shut and his arms still in swinging motion he slapped down on what he felt was cold hard ground. His heart dropped to his stomach as he awaited to be crushed in between the jaws of the blood thirsty beasts, But to his surprise nothing came. His heart beating in his chest was the only sound that he could make out while still being deafened. Am I dead? He wondered as he slowly opened his eyes to find not a scratch on his body or a drop of blood for that matter. Samuel was greatly confused and entered a sort of trance while checking his body from head to toe, his trance was only broken when he heard his brother yell "SAMUEL!!! LOOK HE SAVED US, LOOK!!!" After slightly glancing at his brother then finally turning back around to see a jet black hooded figure standing in front of him, along with the three dead bodies of the hideous creatures at the stranger's feet. The unknown savior was wearing a black trench coat, along with gloves, boots, and a face mask of the same color. Silver colored hair protruded from the hood and after looking at the stranger's left arm, Samuel noticed a spiral of chains that led to a shiny silver spiked ball with blood dripping from it. The man quickly turned and pulled down his face mask "Are you two alright?" he asked. Samuel started to shake his head to confirm that they were ok. The man walked over to help Malakai out of the vine trap, But as he did Samuel noticed something on the right side of the so called savior's neck. He had recognized the symbol from one of the books he had read, "I mean you no harm." he said as he undid the vines trapping Malakai. "just make sure you stay close and i'll..." he was abruptly cut off by Samuel jumping in front of him and pointing the fallen tree branch at his throat. "Get away from my brother!" He demanded as the man looked at him in confusion "Your no savior, your a prisoner from the Mortal Tartarus!"...

*5 years ago*

*DRIP* *DROP* *DRIP* *DROP*

Vexx slowly opened his eyes and awoke from his slumber to the feeling of water droplets hitting his face. He sat up while wiping the water off his forehead, he was surrounded by three cold hard rock walls and in front of him was a set of metal bars closely paired together. He the looked up to find that there was a leak in the concrete ceiling that aloud the water to have a passage way into the cell and drip onto his face. He wasn't surprised in the slightest due to the fact that this wasn't the first time he had been in this place before. His examination of his room was interrupted by the sound of whimpering in one of the cell corners.

He immediately shifted his sight to the area and saw a little boy with silver colored hair just like his and hazel brown skin that he also had. Vexx smiled at the boy since he already knew who it was. He got up and slowly walked over to the crying child and knelt down to put his hand on the young lad's head, then proceeded to softly rub his hair. "What are crying about this time Lexx?"He said with a smile. The younger boy lifted up his head, tears were still running down his face. "I had...*sniff* another bad dream." He whimpered, "I saw mommy being taken by the masked men." Vexx's smile started to fade a little bit, he then started to wipe the tears from his little brother's face. Lexx continued "What if she really did get taken by them and if so, whose gonna protect us...?" Vexx chimed in immediately "I will." he said as he grabbed Lexx's shoulders "Don't worry about mom, she's alot tougher than she looks." "You think so?" replied his younger brother "I know so." he said back with a smile.

-DING DONG-

The loud ringing of a bell had interrupted the wholesome brotherly moment. Vexx knew what the sound of that bell signaled and jumped up to his feet as fast as he could. ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL, IT IS TIME FOR SCHEDULED TESTING" Vexx turned back to look at Lexx who was beginning to cry again. He wasn't going to let them take him or his brother this time. The older brother rushed over to his now wet and dampened mattress and pulled a metal pipe from underneath. The barred wall slung open and men in white lab coats and masks popped into the cell-room. One reached down to pick up poor lexx and almost instantly met a slap in the face from Vexx's metallic weapon. The masked man fell backwords onto his back and went unconscious.

The men stepped back as Vexx put himself in between both them and his brother while swinging his weapon wildly at them. "So far so good" he thought until one of the men stepped up to him, Vexx swung his pipe at the man with no hesitation. Unfortunately the lab coat caught the tool with his hand and slashed Vexx in his right eye with his own claw-like weapon. The boy fell to the ground while holding the damaged right side of his face. Lexx attempted to run to Vexx's aid but got snatched up by a different lab coated man immediately and was carried off while frantically screaming to be put down. The claw wielding masked man pulled out a needle and injected some sort of substance into the wounded young lad on the ground. Then proceeded to drag the boy out of the cell.

Vexx kept blacking in and out while being taken to a white room with two operating tables. He was dropped on top of the table and left there, still blacking in and out. "Beginning Operation!" was called out by a loud speaker on the ceiling. Vexx slowly turned his head to the lab table next to him and saw a injured animal lying on the table. It appeared to be a small dog, but he couldn't get a good look due to his condition. Vexx could still hear the screams of his younger brother as his vision faded and he lost consciousness, "Im so sorry Lexx..." he whispered as his sight faded to black.

*Present time*

Samuel yelled again at the man "Leave me and my brother alone!" Vexx slowly came out of his trance with a tear now trickling down from his right eye that he began to wipe from his face. Samuel was surprised by this and also noticed a scar over the eye that the man drew tears from. Vexx chuckled "Sorry about that, you just reminded of someone." He said while still giggling. He stepped back and put his hands up, "I apologize for forgetting my manners. My name's Vexx" He said with a smile as he dropped one knee to the ground. "And like I said before, I mean you no harm." Samuel saw this expression and felt comfortable to ease his guard. He acknowledged what Vexx said with a nod and dropped the branch on the forest floor, then later slumped down on his butt and let out a huge sigh of relief. Malakai walked over and hugged his brother tightly. "My hero." he said as he chuckled, Vexx also started to laugh as well. Samuel didn't care, he was just happy to finally catch a break and most importantly still be alive.

After calming down from all the excitement, Samuel was able to actually get a good look at the man. The hero who saved them actually looked quite young, "You know you look a bit too young to be a high class criminal." He said to Vexx, who stopped laughing and said in return "Look whose talking, aren't you a bit young to be fighting Lycans. Just then, "AAAAHHHHH!!!" someone screamed from a distance far off from where they were. "The village!" Yelled the boys in unison. Vexx quickly put his face mask over his mouth and started chanting in a foreign language unknown to Samuel or Malakai. Orange light bursted from his right eye and a wolf the size of the Lycans appeared in front of them. The animal had bright orange colored eyes and orange symbols across its body. "Let's go Fenrir!" Called Vexx as he shot out chains from his left arm and wrapped them around the boys to strap them to Fenrir. In a flash the majestic beast bolted towered the direction that the screaming came from...

Meanwhile, "FEAST ON THEM MY BABIES!!!" called a wolf with a mans voice. The wolf man walked over to a man who was trapped underneath a wooden cart and began to chuckle. "Help me plz! Someone, anyone!" yelled the unfortunate fellow. "Heehee! Don't worry i'll be glad to assist you!" The wolf-man beckoned as he widened his jaws, until -BOOOOOM- a loud explosion went off and caught the attention of the Lycan. Then emerged Vexx and the boys riding Fenrir as he burned up a large group of Lycans with fiery breath. The pack of monsters quickly tried to make a retreat but Vexx hopped off Fenrir and stopped their escape with a spell. "Divine Art: Spiral Chain Abyss!" Hundreds of chains left his hand and spun in the air upon the casting of this spell. The metal weaponry quickly bolted down from the sky and pierced through each and everyone of the beasts that tormented the village.

Vexx then proceeded to lift up his left finger and opened up a fiery gate that sucked up all the Lycans in the area before closing back up. However there was still one Lycan that remained. "Damn you Mortal Tartarus" shrieked the beast. It lunged at Vexx in anger, but was quickly met to the face by a fiery fist. Vexx waisted no time and surrounded the creature in chains, locking him down. "It's off to Tartarus with you Pelasgus!" He said in a low toned voiced that the boys had not heard come out of him before. The gate opened up once more and swallowed the creature whole as it yelled in retaliation to its capture, then it finally closed for good. There was a long silence that filled the square, that was later annihilated by the sounds of cheers and screams of joy. The towns folk who locked themselves up in their houses emerged to see the cause of the new commotion. Then popped out Samuel and Malakai's mother and father. Both pairs rushed toward the other to get the chance to embrace each other. Samuel and Malakai wept tears of joy along with their parents. Malakai broke free of his mother's grasp to point at Vexx and Fenrir. "Mommy look... look at him he saved us..." but as he turned to present the town saviors, he was surprised to find that they were gone without a trace...

While leaving the village Fenrir finally decided to speak "Should you really have left without saying goodbye?" Vexx glanced over at him and said "Nah, parties and celebrations aren't really my style." Fenrir grumbled "Could've at least got a few treats or some food for all our hard work." Vexx chuckled uncontrollably. "Come on big guy, let's get some food. It'll be my treat." Fenrir hopped out of his funky state and was panting excitedly as they made their way out the forest.

END