Arcanus Valiant II: The Sinthrax Imperative

Arcanus Valiant rode along in the back of a taxicab slightly discontent. The loss of his mustang had left him without sufficient transportation and as a result, he had set off on the only mission promising to also pay full cab fair there and back. It was this way because no one else wanted to do it.

The cab driver asked him what he carried in his two oversized briefcases.

"One is a gun, the other is a bomb," Valiant replied half-heartedly.

"Oh a wise guy," the Driver remarked.

A few minutes later, he pulled up to the Stenson Co office building. Well it wasn't all Stenson, just the top four floors. Regardless the entire building had been closed down and missing persons, reports had been filed for a significant number of employees.

"You shouldn’t go in there," the cabby said. “They have some sort of infestation."

"Yeah they do," Valiant replied as he cracked open his briefcase and pulled out his double-barreled shotgun. "I'm the exterminator."

He kicked open the building’s front door. Or at least he tried to. It didn't budge. He sighed, pulled a keycard out of his leather jacket, and swiped it in the nearest reader. The doors unlocked in a unified clunk. Valiant opened one and stepped in.

The lobby was a beautiful construct of marble and glass. In the middle was a large fountain, which glowed in an optimistic light. He had seen such a fountain before, but that had been a past life. His hand drifted over its edge as he walked towards the elevator. It had been a long time indeed. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and pressed 'up'.

The door opened almost instantly and he stepped inside. His ears were greeted with the grim music that can only be found in elevators. As he heard the last gasps of so many musicians’ careers, he could not help but reflect on his own life.

"You know we have pump action and semi automatic shotguns," Destin Herod - one of his fellow agents - had once said, "Then you don't have to reload every two shots."

"But then how would you give them both barrels?"

"You don't have to. You can give them one barrel over and over again."

Herod was an idiot.

Valiant pressed '52' - The top floor. He checked to see if everything was in order. His katana was at his side. Irony and Suffering - his twin desert eagles - were loaded and ready. His cell phone had no bars.

"Elevators," he mumbled.

Soon the elevator stopped and the inner doors opened, but the outer doors refused to.

Valiant pressed the button for the previous floor and he got off there. Whatever it was , was no doubt above him and had power over doors.

He started towards the stairwell. Soon he realized he didn't know where the stairs were. He dialed Marian.

"You can't find the stairs?" She laughed for a good solid minute. "They're actually right beside the elevator."

"What would I do without you?"

"Not much,"

Valiant hung up the phone and started up the stairwell. He stepped out on the top floor and saw a spider as big as a watermelon.

He called Marian again.

"What do you have on big spider?"

"How big? Tell me in fruit."

"Watermelon."

"Watermelon? Sounds like a monkey spider. Watch out they're poisonous, or maybe not. What animal named spiders are poisonous again? Wolf spider, bear spider, geurilla spider? Wait! They're is no such thing as a guerilla spider, or is there. Google here I come!"

Valiant had tuned her out long ago and slowly walked past the watermelon sized arachnid. He put his shotgun on his back and opened up his other suitcase. He started arming it - just in case. It was an incendiary charge designed to clean out approximately one floor of office building and leave most everything intact. They were very useful in these situations. He gave it a ten-minute timer.

"Nope no guerilla spider. I don't think there is a bear spider either. My brother used to have a tarantula. It would shed its skin and he'd hide it in my room. Now where were we?"

Valiant opened up the door to the 52nd floor mini lobby and found exactly what he didn't want to see. Eight cocooned figures hung from the sealing. One of them was wiggling a little. Valiant pulled out his katana, gave it a look, and switched it for a much smaller combat knife.

He walked up to the cocoon and started cutting it open.

"Hello?" An upside down face said to him. It was a girl’s voice.

"Hi I'm hear to save you,"

"Did you kill her?"

"Kill who?"

Valiant heard the clickity-clack of great pincers come up behind him. He slowly turned around.

"Who disturbs the Sinthrax," It bellowed in an also feminine yet substantially more terrifying voice.

Valiant turned to see a gigantic creature. Its lower half was of a great spider. It had to have been at least ten feet across and five feet tall. Its upper half was the top half of a woman with large scythe like pincers replacing its upper arms and hands.

Oddly, its face was stunningly beautiful, but more than that her hair was red and flowed like a continual flame. It glistened with life, glimmered excitement, and radiated the sensation of a spring breeze on a summer’s day laced with the colors of fall and the tranquility of winter. Each miniscule movement had within it such joy and adulation. Cynthia had red hair like that, before the incident.

Nevertheless, Valiant knew he couldn’t fixate on her breath taking hair. He had a job to do.

"Stand down," Valiant said. "Maybe we can reach an agreement."

"You fools are worms beneath the mighty claw of the Sinthrax," She screamed in response

"Your hair is... I'm sorry what did you say?"

The hanging woman cried out "She's going to kill us!" And Valiant sprung into action.

"What's there?" Marian yelled.

"Big spider woman with,” Valiant paused in his speech unsure what to say. “Hair,"

"I got nothing,"

Valiant activate the bomb, tore down the woman and pushed her towards the stairs.

She ran towards them, but not before she grabbed Valiant's shotgun.

More spiders started pouring into the room. They were sized anywhere from house spiders to wolf-like spiders.

"Wolf spiders!" Valiant yelled as he drew his magnums. He took shots at a few of the big ones and then aimed for the Queen. He pulled the riggers sending two 44-caliber shots at her middle section. Irony and Suffering tore through her abdomen and left two surprisingly small holes.

Within seconds, brownish green ooze came from the wounds and sealed them shut.

"Ha you'll find we are much stronger than your frail bodies,"

He shot at her head, but one of the bigger spiders tackled him. He rolled over and shot it off. Its back was blown clean off. Valiant rolled back onto his feat, ran out of the room, and slammed the door. He holstered Irony and grabbed a chair to lean against the doorknob.

"That'll hold em,"

"Come on!" He heard the upside down lady yell at him from the stairwell. "What are you waiting for."

"Eight minutes." Valiant replied.

"See you then," She yelled as she ducked down the stairwell.

Valiant walked to the edge of the room, and reloaded. He prepared himself. Soon the door would break and all would come through.

Then the roof broke. In a hail of plaster and lighting equipment, the Spider Queen came crashing down. Valiant was blindsided by a leg and it send flying across the room. Suffering flew out of his hand and slide across the room.

He sucked in a gasp of air and tried to stand. He aimed Irony with both hands.

The Queen of Sinthrax turned to face him.

"I can smell your fear. It is delicious."

"Smell this,” He pulled the trigger, as she lunged towards him. Eight powerful legs close the gap faster than he could have imagined. The bullet merely glanced off her carapace.

Valiant was snatched up by one of the pincers and pulled off the ground. His feat kicked in the air ineffectively and Irony fell to the floor. His face was brought near to hers. Her unnatural eyes looked into his and stared right through him. Her hair was even more stunning from up close.

"How does it feel to be so insignificant human," She said revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs.

Valiant grabbed his katana and in one fluid motion chopped into her shoulder. It cut several inches into her, but she only grinned. "When will you learn!" She threw him across the room and he hit the far wall.

He sucked in another breath and saw Suffering was only a few feet away. He dived for it, but she was faster and sent him flying across the room again.

Beaten, battered and out of breath, he had a tough time getting to his feat, and he was by a large window fifty stories up. He wiped the blood away from his lip and pulled out his combat knife. It was a solid foot in length, but that just didn't seem big enough. He held it in front of him. Irony was about fifteen feet away from him and she was standing above Suffering.

"I'm going to die," he muttered.

"Yes, yes you are," she replied in dark refrain.

He heard a gunshot. She was obviously hit and stumbled several feet. His katana fell out of her shoulder.

Valiant took this moment to close the distance to Irony, picked it up and fired a shot. It hit her arm.

"What is this insolence!" She screamed and lunged at valiant. Valiant shot one of her forelegs and another gunshot came from behind. It threw her off balance. She hit the ground unevenly and collided with Valiant and the nearest window.

Valiant fell down and saw the Sinthrax Queen sail over him and out the window. Then a pincer hit him and seconds later, he found himself dangling from the ledge with one hand clinging for life.

Looking down, the Spider Queen was climbing up the side of the wall and she was closing fast. Valiant started shooting, but his clip ran out far too soon.

Looking up he saw the girl from before peering over the edge.

"Give her both barrels!" Valiant yelled.

"What?"

"Fire both barrels!"

The Queen grasped for Valiant’s leg and then the glorious sound of a double barreled shotgun erupted. A death rain of buck and shot screamed forth, ripped into the Spider Queen, and hit her with a force unimaginable. One by one her claws broke free of the surface and she plummeted to the streets below. She screamed a curse in words unknown.

Valiant threw his magnum up above and climbed to safety. He grabbed the girl and his Katana and they ran down the stairs as fast as they could.

Second, later an explosion erupted above them and ended the existence of the Sinthrax.

In the aftermath, a cleanup crew was called in to deal with the splatter. After the building cooled, Valiant ventured to the top floor to find the scrap metal that had previously been Suffering. He put it in his pocket and pulled out several strands of red hair. He would always remember the beast, which had destroyed his prized weapon, and they would be twin magnums never more, but more than that, he would remember the hair.

"Like seriously,” He said in a mix of awe, confusion, and lust, “How can a such a being be so evil, and have such… hair."

Valiant Index