CHAPTER 1: THE HUNT

Frederikssund, Europe

A lone woman stands on top of a hill several miles away looking over the town through binoculars. She could see them clearly. The Nazi Soldiers who'd occupied the town and taken it over. The burned charred corpses of the fighters, the ones who resisted, were left impaled on a giant wooden stake in the center of the town. The rest of the town is littered with blood, bodies and shells. Red and black are the new colors of what was once a peaceful, growing town, which was unfortunate to become the stage of a full-blown invasion. The air which would normally be filled with the scent of freshly baked bread and the sound of people is now thick with the stench of gunpowder, blood, gore and death, truly hell had descended upon this area. The toll on both nature and humanity is disastrous. It'll likely take decades before this village will have recovered. It's clear rubble, gore and blood have taken the place of monuments, homes and roads. Annabelle Ruby lowered her binoculars and sighed. She thought, after the last war, after all the blood she spilled fighting to end it, that surely humanity would learn their lesson. That, surely, after such a horrific war that dragged the entire world into it, that surely nobody would want to repeat the tragedy of that nightmare. How foolish she was. 21 years later and nothing had changed. Millions were dying around the world now while others experienced all of the horrors of war waging around them and all because some shithead Kraut had gotten too big for his britches and started the conflict all over again.

Just like this town the world would take decades to recover if it ever did. If there was even a world left after this nightmare. Annabelle hated to admit it to herself but she was starting to wonder if the world was really worth fighting for. She'd served in the last World War and lived through all of the nightmares that had taken the lives of so many of her friends and comrades fighting to survive and end that nightmare. The War To End All Wars. None of them could have realized what was waiting for the world. Twenty-One Years. So many of them were gone now. Either dead from the horrors of the wars, either one, or just retired or unable or unwilling to fight again after the last war...but she hand't aged a day. She still looked as young as she was back then. Her mind had developed, shaped by experiences, but her age was still the same as ever. Out of all of her abilities, all of her gifts, that was the strangest one.

Sometimes she wondered if The Old Man had any idea what the hell he was creating when he experimented on her. She needed to find him, someday, some way, somehow, and find her answers. But right now? She needed to focus on her job. Annabelle slapped her hands against her face and rubbed it. Her pain didn't matter. Her fear didn't matter. Her past didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that there were people suffering around the world even now at this very moment and she could do something about it. She could take out the Germans, free the town and move on to the next one. Because that's why she was here. That's why she was born into this world. It's what she was reborn into the Superhuman she was now.

She was Annabelle Ruby.

She was The All American Girl.

She was a Soldier.

She was a Weapon.

She was a Superhuman.

She was a Hero.

Annabelle returned the binoculars to her belt, adjusted her disguise, lowered her hat and began walking towards the town. She buried her emotions and concerns for now. She would worry about the state of the world after the war was over. They were on the move. She could see civilians being dragged out of their homes and being loaded up into trucks and driven out of the town towards a likely horrible fate. She needed to find out where they were going and put a stop to it.

It was time to kick some Nazi ass.

Annabelle walked down the road to the town while 'limping' and dragging her leg behind her to fake an injury to sell the illusion that she was an ally who'd escaped from a battle. Her outfit being a battle torn blood stained German Soldier's Uniform would help of course as would the dirt and grime on her face along with the blonde wig she was wearing underneath her helmet added to the illusion. Her eyes being naturally blue were just the finishing touch. Annabelle 'dragged' herself down the road towards the town until a sniper bullet kicked up a small cloud of dust in front of her and she stopped mid-stride and hesitantly raised her hand in the German Salute. "Heil!"

A few of the soldiers cautiously approached her. <"Who are you? What happened?"> One of them asked.

<"Angelika Bäumler. My platoon were wiped out by them...the...the island monkey bastards! I was the only one to make it out. I had to warn you. They're coming. We need to shape out the last of them now and destroy the evidence before its too late."*>

*Iinselaffe” (literally, “island monkey”; British isles) A term for the British by the Germans along with Tommies.*

<"The Allies are coming here? Already?">

<"They've gone mad. They're ruthless. Killing everyone. The Devil Woman was with them."> Annabelle 'warned' them with the little nickname they'd given her. The American Devil. The Bloody Angel. The Monstrosity. She kind of liked that one. It was fitting for her. After everything she'd done? She'd earned it.

<"The American Devil Woman? This is bad. We need to get the subjects shipped out to Doctor Krueger!">

There! A name! She needed to press harder. <"We have to evacuate the town! Now! Doctor Krueger's work is going to be vital to securing the reign of our Reich!">

Another one of the Germans scoffed. <"Silvio. We're putting an awful lot of faith in that maniac. What has he even provided to us? All those experiments and for what?">

<"Silence Frenzel! Have care how you speak! Silvio's work is critical! We just need to be patient!">

<"Oh shut it, Haerig! He's a lost cause and The Devil is on our doorstep!">

<"Enough! We need to get the girl inside, tend to her injuries and give her water. We'll ship out the last of them to Frauenhaarbach! Let the good doctor take care of them after. Come little lady. Lets get you inside.">

<"Yes. Thank you."> She nodded and allowed them to carry her inside to the town. Silvio Krueger. Frauenhaarbach. Experiments. She was on the right track now but she needed more information. As cold as it was she might need to let the last of the citizens be evacuated from the town. If she left them here with her they would get caught up in the explosion.

They set her down inside of a house on a bed and a few split up to find water for her. She couldn't help but noticed the blood splatters on the walls. The blood of the former occupants. From the way they'd been prattling on they likely murdered anyone who could fight back or looked like they were able to and shipped out the rest. Even for the Krauts this was psychotic. Annabelle had wrapped bloody bandages around various parts of her body to further sell the illusion and she groaned in pain as she was laid down on a bed while they scrambled to get the rest of the civilians evacuated. <"Ohhhhh th-that...that's better. Thank you."> She thanked them in the pitch perfect German accent she was faking. <"Please...some water...">

<"Of course. Of course. What else?">

<"Doctor Krueger. Can you tell me about him, Frenzel?">

<"I'm not sure if I should...">

<"Please? It's just us. With what's coming for us? We need to stand together and that includes speaking our minds together. To build trust together.">

Frenzel looked to the stairs and back to her. <"He's a madman. He's conducting some kind...experiments on civilians. Anybody who isn't part of our Reich or anyone deemed unworthy to survive in our New World Order? They're hunted down, captured and sent off to his factory. I don't know what he's building there. Or what he's doing. It's something big though. Something to do with The Thule Society. We think it has something to do with The American Girl. I think they're building something to kill her."> He sighed and relaxed. <"But forget that. It's not our business to worry about that maniac. We just need to do our jobs...and I need to check your injuries. If you don't mind?">

<"Go ahead.">

He smiled and removed her helmet only to remove the wig with it and reveal her red hair beneath it. That was when she sat right back up and covered his mouth with her hand. "Thank you, Frenzel. You've been a big help to me. Silvio Krueger. Frauenhaarbach. Mad Science. Got it. Thank you." Then she stole his gun, tossed him across the room into a wall and sat back up and pointed her gun at the stairs where the rest of the Germans were running back up to her. The moment they showed up on the second floor she opened fire on them.

She quickly gunned down five of them, her bullets burrowing into their throats and out the other side to paint the walls in gushes of blood, and then the others retaliated with Sturmgewehr 44's, spraying her with automatic 7.92x33mm Kurz bullets at a speed of 500-600 rounds/min. It hurt. Even with her Super Skin repelling the bullets she still felt the pain of the bullets hosing her skin, like she was being sprayed by high speed rocks, but she was able to remain standing while calmly and coldly returning fire. The bullets were ripping apart her outfit but that was not a problem. It had served its purpose. The gunfire hurt but it wasn't anything she wasn't used to or couldn't handle. She'd survived No Man's Land after all and that had turned her into a bloody mess with the multiple trench lines' overlapping lines of fire from multiple angles before it was over. Annabelle distinctly remembered needing to scarf down a lot of rations and drink and rest before her body stitched itself back together after that ordeal until she recovered. Now though? While bullets still hurt her they were more of an inconvenience than anything. What was also important was that every bullet that hit her would fuel The Blast. The Blast, as she understood it, was what happened when she just took so many hits that her body became energized and released all of that force back out and wiped out, well, everything around her!

Back then, in the last war, in No Man's Land, with hundreds of guns spewing hundreds of thousands of shells at her, The Blast was nearly apocalyptic and turned the area into a hellish wasteland. Afterword...she wasn't entirely sure what happened. She blacked out and when she came to she had ripped the Germans apart until she just couldn't go anymore. Annabelle had similar accidents since then whenever she took many hits in a fight and The Blast erupted out of her and afterword she would overheat, black out and go on a rampage until she exhausted her energy and was able to control herself again. Though thankfully none of her episodes were nearly as bad as No Man's Land had been. It was why she looked alone.

Back in the present she returned fire until she'd gunned down the Germans in front of her and discarded the gun and her tattered hole filled disguise to reveal her costume underneath. The skin tight costume has rough, dotted texture mixed with a medieval chain mail-esque texture, making it look like an otherworldly, lizard-esque second skin, the costume itself is a cherry pink color and covers her from the neck down. Her gloves and boots are both blue in color accentuated with a two in one white scarf around her neck attached to her shoulders that flows down her back and looks like a pair of wings almost. She wears a white belt with a metal buckle and the letter "A" on it which stands for "America." The belt has several pouches on either side of it. A shield on her chest possesses the "Stars and Stripes" of the flag of the United States. She has another on her back with an Angel Wing pattern on either side with the wings positioned upwards.

Not exactly a standard uniform, in fact it was as far from a uniform as one could get, but she wasn't exactly a standard soldier either. After discarding the tattered remains of her German Disguise and removing the bandages she turned around to look at Frenzel who was currently getting back up and she rushed him, grabbed his head again, leaped out of the window through the broken glass and slammed his head down on the ground with a sickening *CRUNCH!* sound on impact! She then scooped up his grenades, pulled the pins and tossed them at the Germans on either side of her even while they were shooting at her from all directions! Annabelle grimaced as the bullets sprayed her like raindrops until the grenades went off and took them out! Annabelle then ran forward through the resulting smoke cloud, grabbed a German's gun, pulled it out of his hand and struck him so hard in the chest she shattered the body of his ribcage and broke the ribs around it and sent him rocketing backward until he hit the wall of a building and shattered his spine! Annabelle then opened fire on the others with their own weapon and shot down everyone she could while the others spread out and took cover while the ones inside of the buildings continued to shoot at her through the windows. She withstood the pain of the bullets while she sprayed them back in return. Unlike her though they were humans, flesh and blood, and their own bullets ripped through them while the bullets she was being hit with, painful though they were, were considerably less effective and served to only ignite the flame within her.

Annabelle withstood the hailstorms of bullets until she shot down the Germans in through the windows, grabbed a pair of grenades and made a standing leap up to the second floor of one of the buildings, pulled the pins and tossed the grenades into the building through the window, yanked a gun away from one of them and leaped back down to the ground and walked towards the Germans while firing on them through their cover while the gunfire continued to rain down on her and the grenades exploded overhead and took out the Germans who were inside of the room. She gunned down more of the Germans and they fell back to change positions. With the storm of bullets finally halted Annabelle broke into a full on run! She kicked up dust in a burst of air as she raced towards them at incredible speeds far faster than a normal human she quickly closed the distance between them like she was in a speeding automobile! The Germans turned around and fired on her so Annabelle returned to a slow and gradual walk while she calmly and coldly shot them down. The bullets ripping through them while their own bullets impacted and pushed against her skin and then dropped to the ground as she collected thousands of joules of energy. The Germans in front of her dropped to the ground covered in blood while Annabelle continued to shoot until she ran out of ammunition. At which point she simply tossed it into the air, grabbed it by the barrel and rushed down another group of Germans shooting at her in a blind panic from one of the stores. She simply charged into the painful wall of bullets until she reached them, which took no time at all, and she turned around and swung the gun at one of them and cracked his head hard enough to take it off! She swatted the body aside and then she kicked another German across the room like he was a soccer ball! Another one was smashed to the floor. A neck was broken. Another was punched into the ceiling so hard he flew up into the second floor! Annabelle retrieved a gun from a German she'd dealt with and she gunned down the others while a cluster of grenades were thrown into the store. Annabelle just sighed. She'd be fine but this was gonna hurt.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM*



The resulting explosion blasted apart the store and the corpses of the German soldiers around her. A cloud of fire erupted out of the store with smoke billowing out around the street.

<I-s i-t d-ead? i-s i-t d-ead? Is that Monster dead?">

<"Has to be! No one could survive that!">

<"No human could survive that kind of an explosion like that, no, but that Monster is not human. Keep shooting.">

<"Keep shooting?">

<"Until we're certain that we've done everything we can to kill It.">

The Germans regrouped in  front of the burning remains of the store, locked and loaded, took their positions and unloaded every. last. bullet. into the store! A hailstorm of bullets were unloaded into the smoke cloud from every surviving German soldier on Annabelle until they finally ran out of bullets and lowered their weapons.

<"....It...It's dead right? It's dead now?">

<"It has to be. It has to be! We hit it with everything!">

They breathed sighs of relief until a tall humanoid female shape walked out of the smoke shining with light, both with a brilliant glowing aura and the inside of her body glowing as well, her bones glowing within her body, energy crackling wildly around her body and the light glowing brighter and brighter out of her body in rapid flashes of light that flashed out of her faster and faster and faster! The Germans screamed and dropped their weapons and turned to run away! She bellowed out an echoing deep roar as lights flashed out of her eyes and mouth and all of the energy she'd absorbed over the course of the battle was released out of her in an amplified spherical burning shockwave that obliterated the remains of the store and and washed over the town tearing apart and burning the buildings and it covered the Germans and flash fried and crumpled their bodies! 

Energy absorption, transference, and redistribution, Annabelle's greatest gift, was the ability to aggregate and refocus energy for alternate external release. When released, her body would greatly amplify the energy she'd collect over the course of a battle in a massive expulsion of energy all at once. She called it 'The Blast' for lack of a better name.  An appropriate name because of the large amount of energy released around her body explode out of her and flash frying everything within the radius. 

When the blast finally died down Annabelle was left standing in the center of the crater she'd created in the center of the town. The Blast had fried the town. The majority of it was burned to cinders leaving a smoking burning ruin. Annabelle stood in the center of all of it only briefly before she collapsed to her hands and knees on the ground with steam billowing around her now temporarily reddish-pink skin from the blood flow that had been greatly sped up by the surge of energy which caused her body to sweat profusely but her body was so hot from the power up that it became steam. She'd cool back down soon, quicker if she could find some fluids, but her body would be wracked with incredible pain from the energy release, overheating in the aftermath and the pain from every single attack she'd taken until now! She wasn't anywhere nearly as badly hurt as she'd been after No Man's Land of course but she wouldn't able to move for a while. Which was good because Overheating tended to have another nasty side effect. After Overheating her brain tended to go a little bit loopy for a bit and she would enter a temporary berserker state during which she would black out completely until she finally Powered Down and her senses came back to her. Unfortunately, since she was so out of it when she was in her Berserker State she wasn't able to distinguish friend from foe and would just attack blindly until her mind came back to her. At which point she would need food and drink to replenish herself. 

The Blast could be incredibly useful but it had serious drawbacks and she couldn't risk using it when around other people, both for the devastation and the chaotic aftermath, and it was why she worked alone.

As steam billowed out of her mouth and the darkness took her as the iris, pupil, and sclera of her eyes turned black Annabelle had to once again ask herself before she lost consciousness: 'What AM I?'

Annabelle woke up again in the dirt and pulled herself up out of it coughing and hacking. Her mouth and throat were dry and she felt a sense of dizziness. Her stomach was grumbling loudly. After a few tries she pulled herself back to her feet and stumbled across the burning ruin of the town in a blind daze until she finally stumbled into a bar and fell over the counter right on her face. Gasping for breath she blindly fumbled around until she reached a bottle and knocked it off of the shelf, grabbed it and brought the bottle to her lips with a trembling hand, popped the top and chugged down the entire bottle before smashing it down. Annabelle gasped and sat back up. "Ohhhhh that's better! I needed that!" She grabbed another bottle and chugged down that one as well just to be sure before turning around and sitting against the counter as a few more whisps of steam blew out of her mouth.

GROOOOOAAAANNNN!!!!!

"Yeah, yeah." She patted her stomach. "I hear you...well I got lucky with the bar still standing...maybe they still have some food too." She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the painful contractions of her empty stomach from her body using up so much energy and sniffed the air. *Sniff!* *Sniff!* *Sniff!* THERE! She stood back up and ran to the back of the bar where all of the remaining food was waiting. "Oh Baby."

Annabelle was about to start gathering the food when she finally noticed that she was covered in something other than dirt and grime and soil and ash....she was covered in blood and gore! She ran to a mirror and looked herself over. "The hell? Where did this come from? How out of it was....wait...out of it? Shiiiit that's right. I blacked out. I released The Blast, passed out and then....then..." She sighed. "I blacked out....and went berserk again." Annabelle ran to the sink and she began washing herself off. "But where did all of this shit come from? I fried the town....I fried the Germans....so where did all of this come from? Fuck! They must've had backup, of course they did, they probably saw the light for miles." Annabelle took off her gloves and resumed washing herself off and washing and washing and washing and washing until she finally cleaned the gore off of herself. Now, her stomach was giving her issues, so she frantically prepared some food, a big, giant, plate of it, and started cooking everything else, and once it was all done she began devouring it ravenously.

She tore into that giant plate of food to refresh herself until she felt a spray of bullets being emptied into her back. She lunged forward and then sat back up, patted her chest a few times, swallowed her food, sipped her drink and turned around to see a wounded SS Officer staring her down in horror. Annabelle calmly sipped from the bottle as she looked him over. His left arm was dislocated, he was missing two fingers on the hand of said arm, his right leg was broken and was barely standing on them, his uniform was covered in tears, tatters and blood splatters, and he had claw marks running down his face, apparently she'd raked her fingers down his face when she swiped at him, but he was one of the lucky ones. He must have done what he could to bind his wounds and hunted her down after. She set down the wine bottle and rushed him down, moving so fast she disappeared from the sight of his good eye, and grabbed him. "SS, huh? Good. I have some questions."

<"You fucking American Devil Whore! I will tell you nothing! You hear me? NOTHING!">

<"I just tore apart entire platoons of you Kraut shits, after having already killed countless others before you, after having done the exact same thing during the last war and you just shot at me from behind. Do you really want to piss me off further? You still have eight more fingers I can rip off if it's that important to you. You know who I am, you know what I can do you, you saw what I did to the town. Would you like me to focus all of that aggression on you?">

There was a long sullen pause before he spoke up again. <"After...careful deliberation....I have decided to cooperate.">

<"Good man. Do you speak English?">

"Y-yes?"

"Good." She sat him down at a table, retrieved her food and sat down across from him. "What's your name, Fritz?"

"Mein name iss Klaus Eugen Fenstermacher undt I am a proud soldier uff ze Fazzerlen!"

"Where'd you come from? You weren't here when I arrived in town."

"I vas assistingkt mein koHerrtes in securingkt anozzer town undt r-r-remofingkt its occupants vhen ve saw ze light undt felt ze schockwafe, hundreds uff feet away, undt r-r-rode into town to infestigate. Ve found you undt you slaughtered us all. You butchered mein koHerrtes like a r-r-rabid animal you monster! You tore me apart! You maimed me! You vere a r-r-ragingkt monster! A defil butcheringkt us vizzout r-r-remors!"

"You have a lot of nerve calling me a monster after all the things your kind have done, Nazi, but there is one in particular I want to know about. So lets discuss Doctor Silvio Krueger. Tell me everything you know."

Klaus' face blanched. "I know nothing! Nothing!"

"No. You do. You know who he is don't you? You know what he's doing. Good. You're going to tell me everything."

"Vhat vill you do if I tell you? Vill you spare mein life?"

"Can't hurt your chances." She grabbed another bottle and handed it to him. "Now talk."

Klaus sighed knowing he was screwed either way and took a drink and set it down. "Fery vell. I vill tell you eferyzzingkt. Silfio iss a madman vho klaims to be a true beliefer uff our proud National-Socialist Union. He's kertainly put in ze vork to be determined as ein but his insane experiments are insane efen by our schtentarts. He has a laboratory invFrauenhaarbach vhere ve haf been sendingkt ze unworzzy filzzy inferior masses uff ze vorld to him vhere he kan make somezzingkt vorzzvile out uff zem. But I haf seen his experiments. Vhat zey are doingkt in his lab. Under his leaderschip zey are kreatingkt monsters. Monsters uff twisted flesch mitt metal parts sewn onto zem. It iss beyond any mere proszzetics. Zey are butchered undt put back togezzer, reborn as immortal flesch golems zat vill serfe us in purgingkt ze Earzz uff Free Vill. All zose vho oppose our reich vill be hunted down undt slaughtered undt reborn to serfe us forefer undt Silfio vill be ze architect uff all uff it."

"What the fuck is a Flesh Golem?"

"Ist it nicht obfious little lady? Zey are masses uff human bodies merged undt sewn togezzer mitt schteel undt veapons. Hulkingkt abomination made uff farious parts uff human flesch, sometimes skinless, possessed uff extra limbs, organs undt heads vhere zey r-r-really schouldn't belong. Zey are kreatures uff nightmares zat only a true German beliefer kould kreate."

"Super Soldiers." She realized.

"Super Soldiers." He confirmed. "Ze likes uff vhich eclipse efen your power little girl. Zey vill follow our orters undt once ve haf enough uff zem ve vill swarm ze battlefields undt slaughter ze allied forces undt eferyone else vho opposes us undt ve deem unworzzy. Zey are but ze first schtep. Once ze process iss perfected it vill be applied to all uff us. A zousent year R-r-reich uff immortal true beliefers."

"And how many people have you done this to?"

He sneered at her and downed his drink before answering. "You know? It's funny. I lost kount."

She stood up and grabbed him by the shirt and punched him across the room and out of the broken window to the street. Killing him on impact.

Frauenhaarbach. She needed to get there immediately. Stopping this madness just became her top priority. With the Nazi disposed of she finished the last of her meal and wiped her mouth and hands. After taking care of clean up she began hunting the bar for anything she could carry and found some canned goods and drinks and placed them in a bag and exited the bar and began her hunt across the ruins of the town for any further supplies she could take with her.

The town was in ruins. Aside from the giant smoldering crater she'd left in the ground from The Blast the force of her explosion had torn apart entire buildings and left them as burning ruins. Vehicles in its path were obliterated and the ones that weren't were thrown across the town by the force of the shockwave like toys until they crashed to the ground or flew into the sides or roofs of buildings. Any of the Germans who were caught up in The Blast were incinerated and their bodies were pulverized and crushed into the ground leaving charred crushed corpses of the ones who were left with anything remaining of them amid the ashes of their incinerated comrades. The others who weren't caught obliterated by The Blast's energy were thrown through the air farther than the vehicles to land scattered around the town. Their bodies broken on impact with the ground or sides of buildings. Multi-story buildings were wiped out by the energy and force of The Blast. The explosion had been bad enough but the unfortunate soldiers who had arrived in the town to investigate it got the worst of it. Annabelle had slaughtered them all during her uncontrollable berserker state.

The broken bodies of her enemies littered the ruined town. Dead from either their caved in chests or broken necks or skulls or spines or from being thrown into rubble or having their weapons broken against their bodies. Those were the lucky ones. Others had been turned into piles of blood and gore. Chunks of flesh were splattered against walls and the ground. Broken bones were jammed into walls, struck where they'd been flung. Pieces of the Nazi cunts had been twisted or torn off or otherwise removed and thrown away while she ripped them apart. Their vehicles flipped and rolled over and bashed inward. Entire German Platoons, destroyed beyond recognition, their pieces scattered across the remains of the town. Nazi soldiers slaughtered by the dozens before she ran out of steam and passed out.

Annabelle stood in the middle of the town with packs full of supplies taking all of this in. The wind blowing through her hair and blowing her scarf back. She closed her eyes and started walking out of the town. This was why she had to fight alone. It was too dangerous for her to be around others.

"Ist it nicht obfious little lady? Zey are masses uff human bodies merged undt sewn togezzer mitt schteel undt veapons. Hulkingkt abomination made uff farious parts uff human flesch, sometimes skinless, possessed uff extra limbs, organs undt heads vhere zey r-r-really schouldn't belong. Zey are kreatures uff nightmares zat only a true German beliefer kould kreate."

"Send a Monster to kill other Monsters, eh? Makes sense I guess. One of these days I really need to track down the Old Man and get this all sorted out."

Annabelle trudged onward with a gun in her hand and holstered and a back of supplies on her back. (It's better this way. If I explode again at least I won't hurt my own allies. At any rate, any injuries I took beforehand, if there were any, have likely healed by now so I should be in top shape for the long walk. It will give me time to think and plan about how I am going to approach this situation. Monsters of Flesh and Steel? Fusing the two to create Monstrous Super Soldiers? Is such a thing possible? Doctor Raymond Lawrence back home has been creating splendid inventions years ahead of our time and The Old Man did create me so it's not impossible, sure, but the question is why? As far as I know my body was simply enhanced. I was not merged with any form of metal or reshaped to be a monster. So why do it? Sure the Nazi's are crazed animals but...well okay I just answered my own question. But the question remains why? What could he really hope to gain from all of this?)

She pondered while following the tracks the trucks left behind. (I suppose I'll just have to ask them when I arrive.) Annabelle decided while she continued following the trail. (Instead of questioning why they're doing these things I should come up with a plan to eliminate them. If they are machines then they will have wires and a power source. If I target those then I can disable them. From the way the German described them then they will likely have a lot of strength and firepower but...if their free will is removed and they really have been reduced to mindless zombified automatons then I can't imagine them being too smart so if I focus on using my agility and outsmarting them then I should be fine.)

She walked past a broken down vehicle that had been thrown out of the town by The Blast and crashed all the way out here and broken apart and then Annabelle calmly set aside her gun and grabbed the side of a large truck that was in her way in the middle of the road and she pushed it off the road before giving it a good shove another several feet to get it out of her way so she could continue. Neither of them were in any condition to be useful to her at the moment anyway. Annabelle retrieved her weapon and continued walking. (There's no telling how many monsters they've created in these labs. I could be looking at facing down another army. An army of monsters.)

She paused in her thoughts to consider this. (I...should be fine, I think, but this is going to be a tall order. I can't even use The Blast for this because there's no telling how many captives are still inside the labs either. Furthermore, there is the possibility of being captured by The Nazi Scientists in the area after I run out of steam AND the problem that I'll need food and drink after even if I manage to kill everyone inside first. So. I can't use The Blast. Unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Which means I'm going old school. Lots of guns and explosives and knives and my two gloved fists against an a Zombified Automaton Nazi Army.) "Ohhhh this is going to be fun." She mused sarcastically.

As she continued forward however another question arose. (Should I bring back the research notes? A project like this is bound to have left notes, right? There would have to be! The scale of such experiments terrifies me but with such a massive undertaking there would need to be people keeping notes on everything they're doing. That could be valuable! In the event that Silvio isn't the only one working on such a project, if there are others continuing their work in other locations, the Allies will need to know how to fight them in the future. But...what if the research is misused?) Annabelle stopped to consider this.

She wasn't blind. She knew there were plenty of people back home who would salivate over the chance to create another her. An army would be even better and The Nazi's Monster Research Notes, as insane as they were, would be the perfect starting point. Sure, the Krauts were insane, but the description of their experiments sounded like they were years ahead of America's own Super Soldier Research, and likely other countries as well, if the notes fell into the wrong hands the results could be catastrophic.

But what if it could save lives? What if they needed to know what they were fighting? What if the research was used for good? Wouldn't that be worth the risk? What if the research could lead to greater benefits in the world in the future? What if it was used for evil and lead to worse problems? What if the Government Suits decided to create their own Monsters?

WHAT IF? WHAT IF? WHATIFWHATIFHWATIFHWATIF?

"URRRRRGH!" She grabbed her head and rubbed it. "Too many questions not enough answers. I won't know how bad it is until get there." She sighed and calmed herself down. "For now I just have to focus. Just keep moving forward. That's all I can do."

Annabelle continued walking into the next town. Unlike the last one which was crawling with the Nazi's before she arrived this one was deserted. Either they'd joined the fight in the town and been slaughtered during her blackout or they'd retreated. Either way it made life easier for her. Annabelle hunted for supplies in the town, packed what she could and then searched some more among the bloodstained town past the dead bodies of the Nazi's murdered victims, until she found some car keys she could use and then she sought out the vehicle, set aside her bag and guns and drove off down the trail.

Her drive through the next town proved oddly uneventful as well. Nothing but a blood drenched bombed out ruin covered in rubble. It was insane. She couldn't even count how many innocent people must have been killed by The Germans in their mad quest to secure their test subjects. What kind of madman was Krueger anyway? Not finding any survivors despite her search she moved onward towards the next town. She wouldn't find any answers in a ghost town like this anyway. She uttered a silent prayer for the dead and the captured and continued driving. Pressing her foot on the gas pedal and moving on ahead.

Annabelle continued driving onward to the next town until a 7.92x57mm Mauser round from a Karabiner 98K was driven into her forehead and her head jerked back. "Oh there they are. Owwwww." She slammed her foot down on the gas and leaned forward. "Now where are you?"

Her answer came in the form of two shots into her chest. (OW! OW! OW!) She grunted and tossed her bag of supplies aside and slammed on the pedal and drove right towards the next town despite occasionally jerking from the sniper rounds peppering her until she reached the entrance of the town, retrieved a machine gun and leaped out of the car and left the vehicle to continue careening wildly into the town towards the German Army while she leaped into the window of a building, broke into it, landed on her feet and immediately punched one of the Germans in the face so hard he was knocked off of his feet and he faceplanted into the floorboards where his face broke into and through them turning his face into a bloody mess while she immediately moved on to shooting down the other Germans in the room and then she stepped around the German Solider she'd punched to the floor and kicked him across the room into the sniper who'd been taking potshots at her earlier and finished him off with a few quick shots to the head. His face was turned into a bloody gorey mess and their bodies fell out of the window. As she was retrieving another gun she was shot in the side of her head by another sniper in the adjacent building! She stumbled a little but she recovered and looked back up while she retrieved her own sniper rifle, stood up, aimed and fired the Karabiner, releasing a 7.92x57mm Mauser that crossed the distance between them through the scope of the German's scope and into his eye! She dropped the sniper rifle, retrieved a pair of grenades, walked to the window and threw the grenades into the window of the adjacent building where they exploded and took out the remaining Germans inside and destroyed the room!

With the snipers dealt with Annabelle leaped out of the window and down to the ground, landed on her feet and looked across the town to see where the car had crashed into some of the Germans who were now no doubt readying themselves for her approach. Annabelle rolled her neck while her scarves blew in the wind and she proceeded forward into the town while keeping an eye out for the enemy soldiers. She was hurting from the sniper rounds to her head but it was more of a bad headache than anything serious. Just to be certain though she ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her face and looked at her hand. No blood. Good. She could keep going. Annabelle was certain she would heal anyway even if something did seriously damage her but being incapacitated in enemy territory until then would be bad for her either way so it was important to be aware of her current condition.

As she continued walking through the town however she ran right into a trap where the Germans detonated a series of charges on either side of her and caught her in the resulting explosions and knocked Annabelle flat on her ass! The town shook from the resulting explosions and a cloud of flames and smoke was thrown into the sky with the rubble on either side of her! They didn't even wait for the cloud to disperse before another squad of them closed in on her from either side and began spraying the ground of the explosion with flamethrowers while another squad of them circled around behind her and began spraying MP40's and Sturmgewehr 44's into her! Annabelle gritted her teeth through the searing pain of the flamethrowers and the storm of bullets raining down on her and rolled over on her stomach. Her body was still feeling the pain of the explosions and literally everything hurt from her head to toes and everything in between and the pain was only getting worse by the second the more damage they delivered on her but she was able to force herself back up to her feet, stumbled a bit, found her footing and stood back up and leaped to the left where she landed on one of the soldiers and crushed his head with a punch that destroyed his skull and smashed into the ground beneath it! She didn't even hesitate to flip him over, punched into the fuel tank, ignited it and tossed him into the German soldier in front of her hard enough to send him flying backwards into another man where they were blown up in a giant fireball from the explosion of the fuel tank catching the others and exploding them as well! Still wreathed in flames she stood back up, grabbed the flamethrower from the next German, tore it from his grasp, tossed it aside, turned him around, punched into his fuel tank to ignite it and threw him to the others and barbecued them in the resulting explosions!

Annabelle gritted her teeth through the searing burning insane pain around her body and steled herself to go rush down the Germans who were spraying her with gunfire, ran through the storm of bullets and closed in on them before they could react, vanishing from their field of vision, and re-appearing in front of them and she drove her fist into one of them and sent him flying backwards past the others into the side of a building. He dropped to the ground his back broken.

This accomplished she swiftly began taking out the others. Wreathed in flames she punched out the two Germans on either side of her, stole a Sturmgewehr from another one and used it as a bat to crack open the skulls of three of the Germans around her before throwing it away and rushing the retreating Germans, appearing in front of them, and cracking them across their jaws before they had a chance to react and sending them crashing to the ground! Annabelle swiftly finished them off and looked around the area for the others until she heard the sound of tanks approaching and the roaring of the others. Annabelle ran towards a building and leaped up to the second floor, broke through a window, landed on one knee and straightened up and walked into a shower and turned it on to put out the flames surrounding her body while she listened to the sounds of the tanks outside and began formulating a plan.

The good news was that, between the spray of cold water and her healing ability, the pain was dissipating which would make it easier to think and make a plan.

Also, yes, she was indeed utilizing hot water. In the “heat” of the moment, it’s easy to forget, but the temperature of the water does actually matter, as it affects the water’s efficiency in extinguishing a fire. It’s a common misconception that spraying cold water on a fire will help put it out faster, but in reality, hot water is more effective in putting out a fire than cold water or water that is at room temperature. This is credited to a variety of factors, including the high heat capacity and the high latent heat of vaporization of water.

Water is more effective than most other liquids at putting out fires due to its chemical properties, specifically its heat capacity and latent heat of vaporization. Heat capacity is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature by one Kelvin. Water has one of the highest specific heats among other naturally occurring substances.

You would require about 4.182 KJ/kg to raise the temperature of water by 1 Kelvin. Thus, a large amount of heat is absorbed by the water when it is sprayed on fire in order to raise its own temperature.

However, the heat absorbed to raise the temperature only provides part of the cooling effect.

The heat absorbed when liquid water changes into steam is much greater than 4.182 KJ/kg and further boosts the cooling effect. Once the boiling point of water (100°c) is achieved, the heat being absorbed is no longer utilized to raise the temperature, but rather to break the bonds between the water molecules.

The amount of heat required to break all the bonds and thus convert liquid water to water vapor is called the latent heat of vaporization. For water, the latent heat of vaporization is quite high, standing at about 2,260 kJ/kg.

When cold water is used, time is first spent in bringing the cold water up to the boiling point. Since the temperature of hot water is already near its boiling point, less time is required to reach 100°c. Thus, the high latent heat of vaporization of water comes into play sooner for hot water than it does for cold water, so heat is absorbed at a faster rate by hot water. Also, a quicker conversion to steam means a faster establishment of a barrier between the burning fuel and oxygen.

This combination of higher heat absorption when converting to steam and a faster barrier establishment helps hot water extinguish a fire more rapidly than cold water.

Her costume now soaking wet Annabelle turned off the water and stepped out and began wiping herself down towels while the Nazi soldiers stormed up the stairs to look for her and kicked open the door to be met by Annabelle crashing into one of them, tackling him into the wall behind him and smashing him into it! She didn't even hesitate to grab his gun with one hand and quickly deal with the other three in front of her with the other. She flicked jabs out at the Nazi's in a jerking motion from various angles at high speeds and drove her super strong bullet like punches into them quickly before they could retaliate, cracking and shattering bones on impact, and smashing them to the ground. It wouldn't normally be a good idea to stretch your arm and side out this much, but since you "snap" your wrist at its climax it can use the added momentum to either rebound to the left opening up for a hook, or snap back to your body, ready to fire again.

With them disposed of she turned around and gunned down the others in the room and then tossed a set of grenades down the stairs. A little present for the others coming inside. Meanwhile she stole the grenades off of another one of them and ran towards the window and leaped back down to the ground below while the grenades she'd thrown down the stairs exploded and took out the Nazi's who'd been hurrying up the stairs. With that dealt with and the fire extinguished she stood tall again and stared down the tanks.

Annabelle took a deep breath and slowly blew it out as the military moved to surround her and the tanks aimed at her. She tossed a grenade up and down.

"You're going to need more than that."

A tank fired on her but she ducked back inside of the building leaving the tank shell to explode against something off in the distance while Annabelle ran across the room and leaped through a window to get to the window across from it, breaking through both windows, and into the following building where she landed on her feet and continued running. The Germans meanwhile were not about to let her escape and they backed up and began firing into the building while the tanks moved into position to take aim at her. Annabelle paid the Nazi's no mind and continued running and broke through the window on the far side of the building but this time she held back her strength to not go into the next building but just through the window. From there she jumped up to the roof of the building, landed and ran across the room towards the ledge and she leaped off of it and onto one of the tanks! She landed on top of it, grabbed the locked hatch, forced it open with her super soldier strength, pulled the pin off of the two grenades and tossed them inside.

"Viel Spaß!" She called to them in a taunting sing-song voice and jumped off of the tank as the grenades exploded inside of the tank, killing everyone inside, and then she landed in front of the shocked German soldiers, punching out one of them as she did, stole his gun, kicked him through air towards his comrades and she began spraying gunfire on the Germans. A number of them were gunned down on the spot while the others spread out and returned fire on her. Kira withstood the bullets however and simply shot them down, discarded the weapon, grabbed grenades and resumed running while the other tank aimed and fired at her but she evaded the aim of the tank with her speed leaving its shell to strike the inside of the building and exploded inside of it. She stumbled a little from the shock of the explosion but she regained her footing and kept right on running towards a building while the tank backed off and took aim and fired at her again but Annabelle leaped into the air and kicked off of a wall while the tank shell shot off into the distance and took out a building. She landed back on her feet and she closed in on the tank, closed in on it and leaped up to the top of the tank, wrenched open the hatch and tossed the grenades inside and shut the hatch and leaped off of it and landed on her feet and walked away as the inside of the tank exploded and blasted apart the crew inside.

"Anything else?" Annabelle questioned the German forces currently regrouping around the town. As far as she could tell, Plan A was the bombs and the flamethrowers and Plan B was the tanks, so what would they come up with for Plan C?

Annabelle rolled her shoulders, stretched and cracked her neck and chased after the German Forces. They turned around and tried to aim at her but Annabelle closed in quickly, outmaneuvered their aim and closed in to punch out one of them and smash his head to the ground and break his head open! She stole his gun, kicked him away and began gunning down the rest of the Germans immediately around her while another group of them ran into a building to regroup with their comrades and Annabelle chased them inside. She was met by a pair of them armed with Panzerschrecks! They opened fire but Annabelle was too fast for them and she jumped over them while the 88mm rockets missed her completely and continued forward until the sides of buildings and exploded on impact in giant fireballs that blew open huge chunks of the buildings! Annabelle landed behind them and shot them both down before she felt a rain of bullets down on her and she looked up to see the Germans spraying ammunition down on her and the others pulling the pins on grenades and throwing them down on the floor below. Annabelle leaped up to the second floor and the grenades exploded beneath her and shook the building with explosions of flames and smoke! The clouds of flames rose up beneath her and followed her up to the second floor as Annabelle landed on the second floor and gunned down the Germans who fired upon her in vain! The bullets from their own gun ripped through their guts and she continued running upwards while the building began burning down around her! Annabelle opened fire on the panicking German forces on the third floor as they screamed and rained gunfire on her. She withstood their bullets and gunned down a few of them, then she ran forward, grabbed one of them by his shirt, kicked another one of them out of the window and then she dragged the German she was holding onto and then she threw him down to the gathering flames below! The German Soldier screamed in horror as he fell in the growing inferno below and the impact broke his spine. He could only scream helplessly as the flames began to consume him while the smoke choked the air from his lungs. Annabelle paid him no mind and ran and leaped out the window towards an adjacent building, landed on a windowsill and she leaped into the air, grabbed onto the roof and hoisted herself up. Annabelle landed on her feet and leaped over to the next rooftop, landed on it and aimed her gun down on the German Forces and fired down on them. The German fired back up at her in return but it was all in vain. She could withstand their bullets despite the pain from the impacts but hers tore through them until she ran out of ammunition. She looked down at the gun, shrugged and discarded it and simply leaped down to the streets below where she cracked one of the soldiers across the face and knocked him to the ground! Then she turned around and punched another one across the face, stole his combat knife and flung into the throat of another one of the Germans! He staggered back a few feet before collapsing on the ground grasping at his throat in desperation as blood sprayed out of it! Annabelle meanwhile simply obtained a new gun and finished off the Germans around her.

Screams and explosions gunfire echoed through the air as the streets ran red with the blood of her enemies. Annabelle continued marching down the street taking them all out despite their best efforts as they lead her down a long road leading up to a giant tarp covering. Annabelle paused and pointed her gun at them. "What do you have there, boys?"

They unveiled it in response to reveal a giant machine gun nest with German Soldiers at the ready with MG42's, 2cm Flak 38's, MG34's and Panzerschreck's all pointed right at her!

(Oh so that's Plan C!) She realized and towards one of the buildings as they opened fire and she broke through the wall as the spray of gunfire littered the streets. Annabelle rolled across the floor and got back up as the Germans were moving into position now. Annabelle wasn't entirely sure if she could withstand Anti-Aircraft Gunfire and she wasn't willing to risk it if she didn't have to.

MG42

Known by the Allies as "Hitler's Buzzsaw", the German MG42 was perhaps the deadliest machine gun of World War II. Its extreme high rate of fire is accurately portrayed in the film. Its most notable appearance is during the Omaha Beach sequence, being fired from large pillboxes and sandbag positions overlooking the beach. Two pillboxes housing the MG42s are called 'Schnabelstand' and they were only used for observation and target spotting, not MG emplacement. However, there were none of these bunkers on the real Omaha Beach. The MG42 is later seen mounted on a lafette tripod, when Miller's squad encounter a German machine gun nest

The 2 cm FlaK 38 (2 cm Flugabwehrkanone 38) was a 20mm anti-aircraft gun widely used by various German forces throughout the Second World War. FlaK 38 and its predecessor 2cm FlaK 30 were produced by Rheinmetall and Mauser in large quantities (the base design of the gun was made by Solothurn, Switzerland). It was the primary German light anti-aircraft gun and was produced in a variety of models, notably the Flakvierling 38 which combined four FlaK 38 cannon on a single carriage.

The German 105mm heavy anti-air gun was also referred to as FlaK 38, despite being unrelated. This is why the German designation always included the caliber in front of the name and introduction year. It was originally used by the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) before being adopted by the Luftwaffe (German Air force, responsible for anti-air weapons) as an AA weapon.

The MG34 is a general-purpose machine gun produced by Germany during the Second World War. The forerunner of the more widely produced MG42, the weapon was noted for long production times due to use of time-intensive machined parts, but remained in production alongside its replacement throughout the war. It was developed to fit a tactical concept called the "universal machine gun," wherein the same weapon would be used in both the light and medium machine gun roles: what is today known as a general-purpose machine gun.

A variation of the gun, the MG34 Panzerlauf, was commonly used as secondary armament on German tanks, since the MG42's barrel change system could not easily be operated when it was mounted. This version lacked a stock, featured an armored barrel shroud and could be fitted with a solenoid for remote firing. Tanks carried a kit to allow the Panzerlauf variant to be converted for ground use, including a stock and bipod.

The MG34 could use several different feeding variations: for use as a medium machine gun, it was issued with loose 250 round metal belts with disintegrating links (which could be linked together as desired). When employed as a light machine gun it was instead used with a drum called the Gurttrommel 34 which mounted to the left side of the weapon and contained a 50-round belt. It could also use 75 round saddle drum magazines called Patronentrommel 34. To use the latter, the standard feed cover had to be replaced with a magazine holder. This feeding variant was mainly used early in the war and often when the MG34 was utilized as AA gun or mounted on a tripod. Later in the war those were not supplied anymore as they were very complicated to reload and even needed a tool for this, and the ability to use this magazine was eliminated entirely on the MG42.

Raketenpanzerbüchse 54

During the final battle, one of SS Grenadiers can be seen carrying a Raketenpanzerbüchse (RPzB) 54 rocket launcher, better known as the "Panzerschreck", and fires at a group of retreating U.S. troops, sending one paratrooper through a glass window. Another Grenadier is also seen with a RPzB but is killed by Pvt. Ryan.

As she was getting to her feet the Krauts on either side of the building readied their weapons, took their positions and fired the rockets into the building through the walls! She jumped up to the rafters and grabbed on as the rockets collided down below and erupted into a defeaning explosion that shook the entire building! The resulting fireball incinerating the inside of the building and blowing out the windows! As the building began shaking and collapsing she ran through the fire and smoke and out of the broken window and onto another roof. She climbed up onto it just as machine gun fire from below began chewing up the side of the building. Annabelle ran forward to the middle of the roof and then stopped to scope out her surroundings. The Krauts were reloading and getting into position with the rockets already and the Flak 38's were being wheeled out. However, Flak 38's weren't easy to move and if they were wheeling them forward out of the alley then that meant they would be vulnerable to an attack from behind! Annabelle's smile returned and she took off running towards them, leaping off of the roof and landing behind the German soldiers. They barely had time to turn around before she grabbed one of them and smashed his face into his own cannon, retrieved his knife and then she quickly sliced apart the throats of the German Soldiers around her while they were desperately trying to retrieve their guns, spraying the gun, the streets, their uniforms and her own with their blood. With them dealt with Annabelle ran from the guns at an angle to draw their fire away from the Flak's, just in case they turned out to be useful, and then she ran towards the Germans head-on! They split up and took aim and fired the rockets at her but Annabelle saw this coming a mile away and she leaped into the air to dodge the incoming rockets, leaving them to continue down the street until they impacted against buildings down the street and blew them open. Annabelle's leap carried her through the air, down the street and behind the Germans. She calmly turned back around to face them and the Germans dropped their weapons to pull up their sidearms but Annabelle rushed them dowm, grabbed the first one and drove the knife into his chest, twisted it and yanked it back out and threw him to his comrades before she grabbed the next one, stabbed him twice, threw him to the ground and she rushed down the last two panicking German Soldiers and quickly slashed their throats open. The German Soldiers dropped. She retrieved a gun from one of them as more of them began pouring out of the woodwork.

Annabelle gripped her knife and resumed the battle.

Gunfire, explosions and screams echoed out of the town as the battle waged on but while Annabelle was busy a pair of soldiers rode out of the town on motorcycles until they reached the outskirts of the town where a General was waiting.

<Report. What is the situation?> Hildebrand Wendell asked his men.

<It's a nightmare. A horrible nightmare! She's slaughtering us like pigs!> The exasperated Tobias Busch gasped and collapsed to his knees. <We've tried everything, we've thrown everything at her, still The Devil Woman persists!>

Koloman Kerner took off his helmet and ran his fingers through his hair. <Nothing we've tried has worked so far. Our men are being butchered and we can barely slow her down!>

Hildebrand nodded and looked out into the distance as the battle waged on. It was almost inconceivable to think that all those screams of rage and fear were the result of a single soldier tearing them apart. If Hildebrand had fought The Devil Woman himself in the last war he would find it equally impossible. But he did survive a fight with it, albeit barely, and he knew better than any of them how dangerous she could be. His men would not be able to hold out forever against the monster even with their weapons and superior numbers but they would be able to hold out long enough to lock her down in one place and that was all they needed.

It would be a shame to kill so many of their own men but if they were up against her they would all die anyway. At least this way their deaths would be for something. He snapped his fingers and the others began to wheel the Nebelwerfers into place as he got out of the way with the others and walked until they were all well behind them.

<Sir? Sir what are you planning to do?>

<Simple. We are going to gas the town. All of it.>

<WHAT? S-Sir, our men are still out there!>

<I am aware. But they won't stop her. She'll kill them all. I called in an air strike ahead of time but it will be a while yet before they arrive, we'll need to slow her down first of all while we gas the town. Believe me I do not make this decision lightly but I know better than anybody what we are up against. This is our only option. These are specially designed rockets. Once they land they will release clouds of gas into the air. The entire town will be consumed by the gas. She will have nowhere to hide. We will cover the entire town in it until we have no more weapons. Then our Jetpack troops will scout ahead and rain bombs down on the ruins. Then, after we've exhausted every other option, and if the planes haven't arrived to bomb the remains into rubble, THEN I will send our men in gas masks into the ruins to find her and finish her off, assuming she survived all of that.> He clenched his hands into fists. <I do not reach this decision lightly but it is our only option. YOU MAY FIRE WHEN READY!>

A hailstorm of artillery was fired from the Nebelwerfers and they soared through the air and came crashing down on the village where she was right in the middle of fighting off the swarms of German Soldiers. By the time she heard them coming it was too late and the rockets exploded releasing clouds of poison into the air! All hostilities in the town stopped as both sides collapsed to the ground coughing and hacking and gasping for breath.

A violent coughing fit took hold of Annabelle and she collapsed on the ground gasping and holding her throat. She coughed and coughed and coughed endlessly, gasping for breath, trying desperately to breathe, only able to weakly stagger away from the German's who had already collapsed. She was staggering and stumbling around now, barely able to walk, unable to see, she crashed into a wall and collapsed to the ground again, still gripped by the violent coughing fit. She could only reach up and fumble around until she grabbed the wall and pulled herself up. She felt along the wall while keeping herself pressed against it until she managed to find a doorknob, pushed it open and fell into the room and slammed the door behind herself. She collapsed on the floor and when she tried to push herself up again a wave of nausea washed over her and she began to vomit. "BLARGH PHLAP HUUURRRK MAAAAAAAAAAAARP!" She collapsed to the side and rolled away, hugging her chest and ducking her head down, making horrible, faint wheezing sounds in between her bouts of coughing.

(Dammmit....dammmit....dammmit....wh-what...what...hap-ha-happened? Think...poison...gas...gotta be. Dammit...th-that's...that's...their...own...men...why?) Annabelle rolled over onto her back gasping for breath. (Calm down....calm down....just calm down. I-I can beat this...there's...lot of it but...I can beat it. I-I can survive this...I just...need to rest...hide out here...catch my breath and heal.)

Annabelle rolled over onto her stomach and weakly reached up to a table and pulled herself up onto it and collapsed against it. (Gotta...keep...going.) She pushed herself up as much as she could and began feeling her way around the room, sliding her hands off of the table and around the room. Coughing and hacking the whole way while she listened the German army outside do the same desperately hopelessly breathing their last. Betrayed by their own commanders in a hopeless attempt to kill her. (Idiots...bastards...your own men...) Annabelle mused weakly as she felt along the wall until she reached a set of stairs and she fell against them. Still wheezing for breath she dragged herself up the entire staircase until she could reach the next floor and she weakly dragged herself across the floor. Coughing and hacking violently until she reached a bedroom, pushed open the door and continued crawling across the floor until she reached the bed and hid under it.

For now it was all she could do. Just hide and wait until she could recover as the artillery fire continued shelling the town.

<"This is madness. Sacrificing our own men and creating a cloud of death simply to kill one measly woman.">

<"Not a woman. Not a human either. That is a Devil masquerading, rather poorly at that, as a human being. If you had seen what it had done in the last war then I guarantee you would agree that this? This is the bare minimum of effort you need to put in to kill it.">

<"Are you sure you don't mean She?">

<"IT! No human, German or otherwise, could do that thing is capable of."> Hildebrand scolded his men and continued to watch the cloud of poison gas completely engulf the town until they ran out of rockets and the town disappeared underneath the gas cloud. Nothing HUMAN could survive in that cloud of gas, this would be complete and utter overkill on human troops, but he knew, he KNEW that IT wasn't dead yet. He wouldn't believe that IT was dead until the town lay in burned out ruins and ITs corpse was dragged before him and its head was removed and impaled on a pike. Even then they would have to burn the remains just be sure. After all of the shit that monster had survived in the last war and everything else up until now he wasn't going to take any chances.

<"Alright. Phase One is complete! Begin Phase 2! Himmelstürmers!*">

Himmelstürmer = Sky Stormer but literally Heaven Stormer. Essentially Nazi Jetpack Troops. Never really got off the ground in reality but this is Fiction.

www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/of-course-we-knew-this-nazi-secret-inventions-thejetpack.html?edg-c=1

JAWOHL MEIN KOMMANDANT!" They replied collectively. The jetpack rockets they had strapped to their backs were activated and whirred to life as they set up into position before belching out flames with a demon's roar and they rocketed into the sky swiftly flying higher and higher into the sky towards the gassed town. Since they were now flying high above the gas they didn't need to worry about it but their uniforms would protect them from the gas and flames anyway. As they passed over the town they readied their grenade launchers and fired downwards. Raining the grenades down upon the gassed out town! The grenades fell down upon the town like meteors resulting in the gas cloud now being blown open by the resulting explosions. Everything in the town that was still standing was being blown apart as the Himmelstürmer's flew around the town like wasps from hell. The Germans watched the explosions with grim determination. The jetpack soldiers continued doing so until they ran out of ammunition for their grenade launchers so they returned them to their straps and instead switched to simply dropping their remaining bombs on the town until they ran out and they flew back to Hildebrand's side and set down on the ground.

<"Report.">

<"SIR! We bombed the town until there was nothing left. It's nothing but an inferno there now. We also saw the bomber coming off in the distance. If all of THAT didn't kill the monster? This will. The town will be reduced to an inferno and the devil woman will burn with it.">

<"Wonderful. Excellent work. You have done the fuhrer proud this day gentlemen. Once we have confirmed its death and taken its head I will treat you all to a wonderful feast in honor of our victory and the memories of our fallen brothers. For once The Devil Woman is dead, America will fall to our superior firepower! Then the rest of the world! The sun will never set upon our eternal reich!">

The others roared their approval of his words. Despite their great losses today at the hands of the Devil Woman their spirits were high. Because if his strategy worked then they would have killed America's greatest soldier, their supposedly invincible, immortal monster, and if that was the case what on Earth could stop them?

They continued celebrating until the bombers, Heinkel He 111 bombers, finally closed in and he turned his head to watch through the binoculars as they dropped their payloads, 32 SC 50 50 kg (110 lb) bombs, turning the whole bombed out gassed out town into a blazing raging inferno. Anything that was left standing was obliterated by the blasts. Explosion after explosion after explosion. Hildebrand finally began to relax. Surely, surely, surely THIS would be enough wouldn't it? Not even that monster could survive all of this! He sighed with relief. It was over now. It had to be. It had to be dead. Nothing and no one could survive that.

The entire town was engulfed by flames and smoke now. It was over. He lowered his arms and laughed victoriously. It was over. It was OVER! He'd done it! He'd WON! It had taken decades but he finally had his revenge and avenged his fallen brothers! The monster was dead!

<"YESSSSSS! YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS! IT'S OVEEEEER! WE WOOOOON! I WOOOON! YOU'RE DEAD YOU ABOMINATION!"> He shouted in the direction of the burning town. <"BURN IN HELL WHERE YOU BELOOOOOONNNNG!">

20 MM flak rounds were fired into the air in the direction of the two bombers that were sent to their aid and ripped through them! The Commander could only stare in horror and disbelief as the bombers dropped out of the sky like stones and crashed to the ground in a fiery end.

<": ...Oh no. Oh NO. No, no, no, NO, NOOOO!!!"> He stammered out in horror. <""Nononononononononononononononononono...">

We quickly zoom into the remains of the town through the fire and smoke and debris and remaining lingering poison gas over the obliterated and destroyed corpses littering the town straight into Annabelle's face which is covered in blood and grime and dirt. She is draped over the 2 cm FlaK 38 with an expression of absolute rage on her face. Her breathing is ragged and pained. Her face is covered in sweat mixing with the dirt and blood she's covered in. Her body is trembling and she's wracked with unbelievable pain from the bombings and the gas but she is alive even through all of that. Half her body felt numb while the other half screamed in agony. The sharp, burning sensation was almost unbearable and biting the pain was barely an option as agonizing cramps seemed to crush her insides from within. With each passing moment the pain only seemed to get worse and worse but still she persevered.

Poison Gas Clouds, Grenades, Bombs, Explosions, bring them all on.

Annabelle Ruby is not so easy to kill.

<"Noooooo! NO! NO! YOU WILL NOT WIN, MONSTER! NOT AGAIN! NOT THIS TIME! GET OUT THERE! FLY! FILL THE WHORE WITH HOLES! GO! NOW!">

With no other choice the Himmelstürmers flew back up into the air and rocketed back over the town.

-

Annabelle slumped to the ground and heaved and hacked in a fit of coughing. A flurry of coughs spat blood out of her mouth onto the ground beneath her. Snot dribbling out of her nose and tears fell from her eyes in a puddle of water and snot and blood beneath her face. She continued her frantic aching agonizing fit of coughing onto the ground before she shakily stood up and fell backwards against the gun. She wheezed and desperately sucked in air while wiping her mouth and nose and eyes. "F-fuuuuck! Shit! Goddamn Krauts! What the FUCK is that gas? Gaaaaah!" She horked up some more blood onto the ground and leaned back against the gun. Her body was healing, she could feel it, but she was going to be in agony until then. She didn't know WHAT they put into that poison but it hurt like hell. Every inch of her body was in absolute anguish. It felt like her insides were on fire! She couldn't even imagine what this would've felt like for a normal human. If it was dangerous enough to do this to a Super like her...she didn't want to think about it. She turned around and grabbed onto the gun and used it to drag herself to her feet again while still wheezing in pain and looked up in the air as she heard the Jetpack Soldiers coming. "...Now what the hell's that?" She questioned. Sure they were here earlier, and had dropped grenades on the house she'd been staying in, but she'd been a little preoccupied with the initial gas bomb so she hadn't noticed their arrival. "More...planes? No...doesn't...sound...like that...similar....something....engines?" She questioned in between her gasps for breath. Annabelle raised the gun back up again and sucked in air while she listened for them to get closer to her. She couldn't see them clearly between her blurred vision and the smoke and gas overhead but she could hear them well enough. They were flying around overhead zooming through the air going left and right and back and forth. Annabelle was confused initially but she soon figured it out that she quickly realized the problem: She couldn't see them....but they couldn't see her either! The smoke and gas were choking the air but they were also concealing her! So long as she kept quiet they wouldn't be able to find her until she opened fire on them! Annabelle covered her mouth with her blood covered glove and closed her eyes and listened, listened, listened....until she figured out their pattern and raised the gun and turned it, held her breath, looked up into the air and opened fire! 

The Himmelstürmers flying around overhead looking for any sign of her were caught off guard by the barrage of gunfire that ripped them apart and tore through their flesh and ripped apart their Jetpacks and ignited them. Annabelle sprayed the gun around the gun while shooting up into the air at the Himmelstrumers. Their flight pattern was erratic but so was her gunfire. Neither side could see each other and she was shooting blindly. They tried to do the same thing shooting down into the spray of gunfire. Their bullets did strike Annabelle repeatedly, and they hurt like hell, moreso than normal, but Annabelle withstood them long enough to return fire up on them. She continued shooting up into the air as she picked off the Germans until finally a pair of grenades dropped down onto the gun and she jumped away and covered her face with her hands as the gun was blown apart. Annabelle was thrown a few feet through the air before she came down hard on the ground. Annabelle writhed in pain from the poison continuing to ravage her body before she pulled herself to her feet, still coughing and hacking, and she staggered forward initially before she broke into a run while still coughing and stumbling around before she would find her footing again as the remaining Germans flew around overhead until she tripped and fell on her face. Gunfire rained down on the area around her as she turned around and tried to figure out what she'd tripped over and she fumbled around and grabbed the gun. She picked it up and looked it over and smiled. Annabelle gritted her teeth and dragged herself to her feet and began marching towards one of the few remaining ruined buildings. Once she reached it, she slumped against the wall, coughed and hacked, sucked in air, backed away, crouched down, looked up into the air and she jumped up to the second level and then to another higher building and landed on a ruined part of it and turned around to look at the approaching Germans and raised the gun and fired on them. They were going too fast to stop and were shot down out of the air. They dropped out of the sky like stones while she turned around and shot down a few more of them but she quickly ran out of ammunition and she looked at it and tossed it up, turned it around and grabbed the middle of it and patted it against her open palm as she stared down the last approaching German who reloaded his own gun, raised it and took aim at her as he sped up and rocketed towards her. Their eyes locked. She nodded. She crouched down. She raised the gun. He raced towards her and Annabelle leaped into the air and flung herself at the Flying German while letting out a screaming roaring battle cry with blood spraying out of her mouth. The German crashed into her stomach and they flew backwards a considerable distance as she fumbled and grabbed his shirt and she slammed her fists down on top of his back hard enough to break his bones and sending both of them crashing to the ground below. Annabelle grappled with him in the air and they turned around each other and crashed down to the ground! The jetpack still going and dragging them across the ground until she turned him around, shoved him away and kicked him in the chest and sent him flying away into a wall that he hit hard enough to crash and break open his jetpack causing it to explode and blow his body apart. 

Annabelle pulled herself up again, inhaled deeply and let out another roaring screaming of victory.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" 

She doubled over briefly before she straightened back up again and began marching forward as her vision began to clear. 

-

Hildebrand stared at the burned out down through the binoculars. He'd seen their troops flying around the town but then they'd spontaneously exploded! No, not spontaneously. It was The Monster. She'd shot them down. They gave her everything they had, he'd planned this out perfectly, but she was somehow still alive! The Monster had shot down their planes and his troops and slaughtered their men and it still kept going! What was this abomination? Wait! Someone was coming! Something was exiting the cloud of smoke! He crouched down and looked forward. What was it? Was it one of their men? Wait, no, no, none of them could be alive and their flying troopers wouldn't need one...Nooooo....nooo it couldn't be! IT COULDN'T BE! His lips began quivering as he saw American Girl riding out of the town on a motorcycle coming right for them! 

<"....SHIIIIIIIT!"> 

EUER! FEUER! OFFENEN FEUER!" He called out to his soldiers. They immediately got into position and opened fire on her in unison. A hailstorm of gunfire rained down on American Girl but she just rode into it and withstood the storm of bullets. Her body was still in agony from the poison of course and the bullets weren't helping matters but at least she wasn't puking her guts out and her vision was clearing. She just had to keep going and take out these assholes and she could sit down and take a rest until she finished healing. She coughed and hacked but kept riding into the rain of bullets pelting her body like a hailstorm until she accidentally hit a few landmines the Germans had set down just in case. They went off immediately resulting in massive explosions that sent Annabelle flying backwards and obliterating her motorcycle. They didn't hesitate for a second before reloading and firing through the flames towards Annabelle while Hildebrand took out a rocket launcher and prepared for her. After a few minutes of waiting though he saw her coming for them. Her figure was briefly obscured by the smoke before she walked through it and into the raging flames. Despite the fire surrounding her body, her figure outright wreathed in flames, she continued strolling through the inferno never taking her eyes off of the Nazi's up on the hill. The silhouette of a tall musclebound woman engulfed in flames walked right through the inferno that licked at her form like a devil emerging straight from the gates of Hell. Hildebrand stared her down, got into position and fired the Panzer at her. The RPG shot through the air right on target with the Super Soldier right up until she dodged to the left in a sudden burst of speed. Her body blurred from the movement as it missed her completely and continued on before exploding in the distance. She resumed her casual stroll towards them to let them stew in the knowledge that they were about to get obliterated until she cleared the flames and stared up at the terrified soldiers for a few seconds before breaking into a full on RUN towards them! She ran up the hill towards the now panicking soldiers who were firing on her like mad until she reached them, leaped forward, grabbed one of the Germans and smashed the back of his head against a vehicle so hard it burst like a grape! Blood and bone and brain matter burst all over the truck while she stole his gun and flung the German's corpse to the ground and opened fire on the others. The Germans returned fire of course but they were mowed down regardless while she remained standing. As gunfire peppered her from behind Annabelle turned back around and retaliated until the gun ran out off ammunition so she just tossed it into the air, caught it and ran towards the remaining Germans swinging the gun around like a baseball bat and cracking it against their heads before she discarded it and she simply began driving her fists into them! Her burning blazing fists crashed against the Germans' more fragile human flesh and decimated them. The soldiers were thrown through the air and smashed to the ground! Their bodies broken and crushed the impact of her punches until only Hildebrand was left! He crawled backwards over the ground while Annabelle walked towards him.

<"D-Demon! DEMON! MONSTER! DEVIL! YOU MONSTER! GODDAMN YOU!"> He shouted at her in German while fumbling for his handgun and firing on her while Annabelle shrugged off the bullets. <"DAMN! DAMN YOU! DO REMEMBER ME, YOU DEVIL WOMAN? DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!">

Annabelle grabbed his neck with her burning powerful steel vice hands and carried him up into the air in a cast iron grip, pulled him close, looked at him carefully....and nonchalantly shrugged. "Nope." She replied and crushed his neck and threw him aside.  

She searched around the vehicles and discovered a few canteens and poured the water all over herself and rolled on the ground to snuff out the flames. Sighing with relief Annabelle took the last canteen, popped off the lid and downed and discarded it as she rested her aching pained body against a truck for a break. It would take a while before her body finished healing and purged the poison from her body and the pain died down but she could rest until then. 

For now though she looked back at the burned out remains of the town. It was in ruins. The bombs and gas and flames had destroyed the town completely. Another memorial to the devastation of war. The air which would normally be vibrant with the sound of work, trade and craftsmanship is now glowing red with fire and thick with smoke, poison, ash, embers and death. There's no coming back from this. The toll on both nature and humanity is unimaginable. Assuming it's even possible, it'll likely take decades before this town will have recovered. Annabelle understood why exactly people considered War to be Hell but she had to privately disagree. War was NOT Hell. It was worse. The innocent would be spared from Hell. War didn't give a shit. It would rain hellfire on the sinner and saints alike. 

She turned her head away and looked up at the sky. "Oh William. What would you say if you saw me now? Would you laugh at how foolish I must look? Would you fear me or feel sorry for the monster I've become? Would you hold me close and tell me its alright?" She asked the soul of her dearly departed Ex-husband. Even after they fell apart due to his insecurities from his body growing older all the time compared to her unageing body, even after the rigors of aging claimed him, Annabelle still loved him in her heart. Regrettably their children did not inherit her gifts and aged as normal humans would. As her war buddies did. Give it a few more decades and she'd outlive all of them if the war didn't kill her. There was the possibility of whatever homegrown Super Soldier they were cooking up in the lab back home but she had to assume that said soldier candidate would have their own life already and she didn't want to risk getting in the way of that. Besides, she had no idea what said candidate would even feel for a murder machine like her. As necessary as it was it was still dirty work. Furthermore she had no idea if the soldier would age like a human or like whatever she was now. Annabelle looked back down at her blood drenched gloves and closed her eyes. "Regrettably, I don't know if I'll be able to join you in Heaven. Assuming I even can die. However, I still have a long road ahead of me here on Earth. I ask that you lend me your strength once more my love. Because my greatest challenge still lies ahead. I love you William Ferguson." She finished and continued resting until her body healed and she stood tall again and got ready to move out.

After so much heat the heavens broke to release a torrent of rain. The parched soil wicked it away to the distant water table below. It was a gift to the burning buildings she'd left behind and dehydrated flora and the animals who grieved over the dry stream beds. The downpour was so heavy that to be caught unawares meant being drenched to the skin. Each drop was as large as a cartoon tear and they fell like gravity had been turned up a notch and the world was cast into more somber tones. In a way Annabelle was relieved. At the very least the flames from the fires wouldn't spread too far with this rain so that wouldn't become a problem and she could focus on the soldiers in the forest distracted by the downpour. The living fabric of rain pouring down upon the Earth was a perfect cover. They were so distracted by the rain that they never saw her coming. She lunged out from behind a tree, wrapped her arm around a German's neck, covered his mouth, leaped back behind the tree, broke his neck and threw him aside. She resumed darting through the trees and grabbed another of the enemy soldiers, yanked him backwards, turned him around and slammed the back of his head against a tree hard enough that the back of his head burst like a melon and sprayed blood all over it. It would soon be washed away. She discarded his corpse and resumed darting through the trees and taking out her enemies. She dragged one of them behind the trees and slit his throat. She lunged out from the trees and cut down another two of them. She tossed the knife into and through another German's helmet into his skull! She lunged at one of them, grabbed him and slammed him against a tree and punched him to the ground! As The Germans began to regroup though Annabelle leaped into the trees and hid among the leaves. She leaped between the trees overhead while she spied on them from above. Once they were all gathered together she leaped out of the trees and crashed down on them. She grabbed two of them by their heads as she came down and smashed them against the ground hard to break them. Then she immediately stood back up and got down to business. She utterly tore into the enemy soldiers with a barrage of efficient and deadly punches and kicks resulting in liberal splashes of blood emanating from every impact. The crowd of soldiers didn't stand a chance against her and she took them apart in but a moment. 


With the squads she'd encountered in the forest handled Annabelle paused to let the rain wash the blood and viscera off of her before she stole their guns and continued forward.

-

Annabelle's trip was a long and violent one taking several days of nonstop fighting. She fought everyone the Germans sent after her. She fought them at roadblocks, she fought them in the forests, she fought them in the towns...everywhere they came out to ambush her or snipe her or sent their men and machines after her she met them in combat as day turned into night and back again. American Girl emerged triumphant each time leaving behind the corpses of the enemy soldiers and their burned out destroyed vehicles and tanks behind her. When one of her cars or bikes were destroyed she just stole another one and kept going. Every hit she took adding to the accumulated energy building up inside of herself. If she got hungry or thirsty she just used the supplies she found and got back to work. 

- 

After several days and nights of combat Annabelle climbed up a massively steep hill surrounded by trees to finally at last emerge on top of the hill overlooking Frauenhaarbach. She crouched down and looked over it. A sight to behold. There were soldiers everywhere, Anti-Air Guns, Tanks, Vehicles, Barracks, what she had to assume was armories stationed away from everything else...it was a base! They'd converted this city into an entire military base! There had to be hundreds of them down there! As she continued to scan the area Annabelle noticed two utterly massive tanks off in the distance and her eyes widened. "What...the....fuck?" She asked. They were MASSIVE! Bigger than anything she'd ever seen! Like grand armored behemoths! Battleships on land! Annabelle wasn't sure if even she could survive being hit by a cannon that absurdly huge! Annabelle couldn't even begin to understand the logistics of putting together or operating machines like that but....but....as she studied them from afar, Annabelle began to realize something. Massive monster tanks like that would have a lot of problems operating wouldn't they? They would put ridiculous strain on their transmission and engine and would likely need huge ones to power them. They'd guzzle fuel like mad. Bridges would be unable to support their weight. Their raw size would make them easy targets for bombers and artillery. That was likely what the big guns were for. So were they designed just for the sake of intimidation? Or were they designed to blast targets from afar or both? Annabelle did not like the idea of being shot by those things in the least but if she could get in close she could take them out. She looked past them and narrowed her eyes as she saw the entrance to the lab inside of a mountain. That had to be where Silvio Krueger was conducting his experiments. If she wanted the prisoners to escape safely she would need to take out everyone here first and then proceed inside. So here was the objective: Fight off another army, take them all out, destroy their tanks, destroy their armory, destroy their super tanks and then get inside and deal with whatever was waiting for her inside. 

"Alright. Back to work then."

Taking a deep breath and slowly blowing it out Annabelle descended the hill and advanced on the city. She was up against a massive amount of firepower, an absurd number of soldiers, entire divisions, multiple platoons, multiple vehicles, tanks included, and God only knew what else all before she even got inside. All of this was coming on her after a solid week of fighting as well. 

www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt09/german-infantry-regiment.html

This was going to be fun. 

As she descended the hill and approached the city turned military base the Germans stationed out front immediately saw her coming and got to work right away. A number of them gathered together in front of the gate into the city while the rest got up on stands behind pillboxes and sandbag positions from which they grabbed their mounted MG42's, turned them and aimed right at her. 

"Here we go." She whispered and raised her Colt M1911A1 and broke into a full on run like a woman possessed by hellhounds. As bullets flew through the air back and forth, most of them hitting her, spraying her all over, to which she repeatedly cursed and swore every single curse word she knew ( %&*#$)+%+^#?@! @!&$%*! *$@!& %@!*$&! &%$!*@ %@$!&! *$!@ $!% @$&%* @&! $&*% $@!) on account of being in a Metric Shit-Ton of pain! She pushed onwards regardless and continued running forward as she shot down the line of soldiers guarding the gate. Then she ducked into a slide, grabbed a gun from one of the dead soldiers, raised it and fired on the Germans on the pillbox on the right while withstanding bullets from both sides, 1200-1350 rounds per minute from both guns, until she took them out. After which she dropped the gun, stumbled briefly from the continued pressure spraying against her back, gritted her teeth, stood up and she turned around and ran towards the remaining Germans and she leaped into the air and landed on the barricade and then she hopped down, grabbed the gunner by his head and slammed it into the ground hard enough to crush his skull. This accomplished she stood up and swiftly took out the others, hitting them with death punches that crushed their chests and bones on impact and killing them. With the external defenses taken care of, Annabelle picked up the machine gun and hopped back over the barricade and walked up to the gate and then kicked the gate, literally sending the metal gate flying off of its hinges into the city where it landed on a few of the Germans and crushed them on impact. As the German Soldiers swarmed the city and took positions and their Tanks rumbled towards the entrance, Annabelle raised her gun and opened fire. With the ammo belt draped over her shoulder she sprayed a storm of bullets down on the army assembling in front of her with a cyclic rate of 1200 rounds per minute, the individual shots were mostly indiscernible. 

(Lets see now...Muzzle Velocity: 2,475 feet per second, Maximum range: 3,800 yards Maximum effective range: 1,000 yards, Cyclic rate of fire: 1200-1350 rounds per minute. This will do nicely. I just have to keep on shooting until I run out of ammo and then switch to the next weapon I find.) Annabelle reasoned as she mowed down the Germans around her. The ones immediately in front of her were being shredded by the machine gun so the others ducked around the buildings to get behind cover. Since they were hiding now she switched her attention to the Germans taking up firing positions on top of the buildings to snipe her and she quickly began gunning them down. Annabelle briefly considered getting on top of the roofs to shoot them down and get a better position to fight them from there but she had to keep the Super Tanks in mind. The less chances she gave them to shoot her the better and that meant staying on the ground. She still had to worry about the other tanks of course but Annabelle was certain she could handle them. Annabelle continued to shoot down the Germans until the gun ran empty and she discarded it and punched her fist into her hand. Annabelle was facing off against an entire army as a prelude to the army of monsters waiting for her inside of the labs. Which meant she could 100% let loose. 

With her big gun discarded Annabelle simply ran forward and grabbed up a machine gun from another downed German but as she did so the soldiers inside of and around the buildings immediately opened fire on her spraying her with a storm of bullets! Outright hosing with a hailstorm of lead! She withstood the gunfire though and she turned back around and raised the gun and fired back on them, spraying them back with bullets as she advanced on them while they continued to shoot at her. Unfortunately for them, while Annabelle was tough and durable enough to withstand everything they were shooting her with, The Germans were not and she quickly mowed most of them down until they ducked down and around cover. Annabelle broke into a run and leaped inside the closest building, breaking through a broken window, landing and turning back around and firing on the soldiers around her and shot them full of holes. With the gun empty she discarded it and turned to the side as the others broke into the building through the door and sprayed gunfire on her while vehicles began rolling up outside to continue firing on her. Since the soldiers were closest Annabelle rushed them first, running right through their gunfire, withstanding all of it, and reaching them quickly and rapidly striking them down. Blood spraying out of them with every explosively powerful punch and kick she landed on the soldiers, spraying her, their comrades, the ground and the walls while their bodies were sent flying around her. She didn't get to rest for even a moment though as a machine gun mounted jeep barreled down the street towards her. Annabelle turned around and braced herself for the impact. 

The 1598.35 lb Volkswagen Kübelwagen barreled into Annabelle's torso at a whopping 50 MPH, causing her to double over on top of the hood of the jeep and gasp in pain. However she managed to regain her footing and dig her boots into the ground even while the jeep forced her backwards and gradually pushed back against it. It continued to push her down the road despite her efforts in pushing back against it and slowing it back down until her feet dug right into the street and she brought it to a stop. Right before the soldiers inside pulled their guns on Annabelle and began shooting her in the face. Annabelle winced but withstood the impact of the bullets until she flipped up onto the jeep and then into it! She punched the soldier directly in front of her so hard his chest seemed to literally implode inwards sending blood flying everywhere as he was sent flying away a considerable distance to land on another oncoming jeep shocking the soldiers inside. Meanwhile, Annabelle swiftly killed the other soldiers around her, took what grenades she found, hopped out of the jeep and ran towards the next one despite the sprays of gunfire coming from the building next to her and the jeep. It was enough to make even Annabelle stumble and fall to one knee as she grimaced from the rain of bullets. However she managed to keep going and raised the grenades, pulled the pins and flung them at the jeep. They flew through the air, broke through the windshield, landed in the middle of the jeep and exploded. Taking out the soldiers inside. With them taken care of Annabelle dragged herself back to her feet, staggered briefly, and then she turned around and ran towards the building and dived through the window. She landed on her feet and turned around and stared down the soldiers around her. 

"Hi boys." She greeted and attacked the closest man to her and punched him right back out the same window she crashed through, sending him flying out the window and through the air until he hit the side wall of the building behind them. Then she took out the next man by smashing his head open against the wall, took his knife from him and tossed into the throat of the man behind her, withstood more gunfire despite wincing in pain, raised a gun and fired back on them and gunned them down. With this accomplished she discarded that gun in favor of a better one just in time before a team of them began running down from the second floor. Several of them took up positions on the ground floor and split up while the others remained on the second floor where they could shoot at her from a distance. Annabelle took a few deep breaths, braced herself and ran towards them and leaped up to the second floor and kicked out her foot and drove it into a German Skull that smashed against the floor. She then quickly stood back up, grabbed the next German's skull and smashed it into the wall and cracked it open. As more of the soldiers began after her from all around the building, Annabelle took out the others on the stairwell, took a gun and fired down at the soldiers shooting at her from the first floor. After an exchange of gunfire she shot them down but now she had to deal with the ones shooting at her from behind! The gunfire nearly caused her to fall over the railing but she managed to hold on, gritted her teeth and let the gun fall to the first floor while she grabbed onto the railing and pushed off of it and leaped back considerably into the crowd and she raised her fists and struck backwards and punched two of them out. Annabelle slid to a stop and looked back up at the soldiers around her with a smile. As the horrified soldiers recovered from the shock and took up firing positions around the room, so they wouldn't shoot each other by accident, Annabelle resumed her attack. She lunged towards two of them, grabbed them and clotheslined them into the wall and damn near broke them through it! She then caught a falling gun and turned around firing upon the Germans. Calmly and coldly gunning them down in an exchange of gunfire that she just tanked while her own bullets ripped through the Germans. Every bullet that hit her fueled her Kinetic Energy Reserves and that was the plan. She had a feeling she was going to need as much energy as she could muster for The Blast later. She'd been storing it up all week of course but she knew she could keep storing more until the time came. 

While she was busy inside however the building was surrounded by tanks which aimed up at the building, locked and loaded, and fired upon it regardless of how many of their own men were still alive inside. They knew exactly who was inside with them. Die Teufelin. The American Super Soldier Devil Woman who'd slaughtered so many soldiers during the previous World War, who'd triumphed over any and all assassins sent after her, and who now had arrived to disrupt their operations once more after killing who knows how many of their men en route to this destination. Die Teufelin. The horror story they told each other over the campfires. The monster that war veterans warned the new recruits about. They knew exactly who they were up against and they were going to seize this chance to bring the building down on her and blast her to pieces. 

Annabelle was mopping up the soldiers when the building began to collapse around her from the tank fire blasting into it from every direction! The building shook and trembled and broke apart falling down into fiery debris! Annabelle immediately dropped her gun and took a running leap across the crumbling floor as the building fell apart around her and she broke through the window and down into the city once more to another hailstorm of gunfire.

The moment Annabelle landed on the ground she braced herself for the impact, landed, withstood the gunfire barrage, withstood, readied herself and moved! She accelerated towards them like a Jaguar XK120! Slamming her foot on the gas and flying at the soldiers like a rocket! A trail of transparent shadowed speed image clones chasing after her. The ground underneath her feet was torn up. The wind wildly whipped her hair back. The world around her became a blur of speed. She crashed into a trio of soldiers and sent them flying backwards into the side of a wall which they broke into, went through, and landed on the other side. Their bodies broken and mangled from the impacts. While extremely useful, she wasn't quite fast enough yet to keep up with the sudden acceleration from the speed boost, and stopping was difficult, so she had to slam her left foot down and then the right foot, dig them into the ground, and slow herself back down first before she could use it again on a different target. If she was going to use it to dodge something like the rocket earlier it was no problem but a full on speeding tackle like that, where she went all out, required a brief cool down period before she could use it again on top of the fact that using it too much would put a strain on her, most notably her legs, and she would need to rest until her healing kicked in and fixed her back up. 

The good news though was that the soldiers were caught so completely off guard by this that it gave her a moment of breathing room to recover after she bumped into a wall, grabbed onto it, turned around, planted her feet, braced herself and accelerated forward at an angle this time to crash into another group of them with her arms raised in front of her, carried them with her for a considerable distance before she started slowing back down, dug her feet into the ground again and slowed herself to a stop then she flung her arms outwards and sent the soldiers flying around the town, grabbing two grenades off one of the soldiers while they were in mid-air, braced herself, turned her head to look at one of the tanks, and ran towards at her top 'normal' speed instead of utilizing the acceleration boost, quickly made her way up to it while the startled soldiers were busy trying to get their aim back on her, ran up to the tank, leaped up on top of it, grabbed the hatch, forced it open and dropped the two grenades inside as presents for the crew. Then she slammed it shut and jumped off of the tank as the grenades exploded inside the tank and destroyed it and killed the crew. She landed back on the ground and stared down the surrounding army as the tank burned behind her. 

They were afraid. Oh they were afraid. Veteran Soldiers, all experienced and knowledgeable in the horrors of war, were afraid. Because they were squaring off with something right out of their worst nightmares. A deadly unstoppable killing machine who would not stop until all of them were dead and buried for their sins. All of the atrocities they had helped their countrymen commit were finally about to be repaid to them in kind. The Devil Woman had arrived to send them, all of them, screaming down to the deepest pits of Hell. With the bloody smile of a Demon she charged into battle once more... 

-

Annabelle raced through the gunfire, withstanding the rain of bullets fired from the panicked terrified soldiers, reached them and got right back to work: Tearing through the soldiers! Every punch and kick was hurled with the force of canon fire and destroyed them on impact. She broke them to pieces like they were made of twigs. Blood bursting out of their bodies with every strike she landed on them. Gushing out of their bodies and spraying onto her. When she ran out of the soldiers in her immediate area she simply stole the guns from the dead Germans bodies around her and began hosing them down with gunfire of her own in retaliation even while they fled from her to take cover and come up with a plan to counter her. It wouldn't be enough.

-

Tank canons belched fire and smoke to thunderous roars as Annabelle raced around the town to evade their aim. Tanks were miserable machines, with temps over 130 degrees inside in the summer and freezing metal in the winter. They were dangerous death traps that stunk of engine exhaust and were incredibly loud. But tanks are also loud thundering behemoths of metal and machinery. They thud, thump, roar, and rev with each action the crew performs. When the guns were used the tanks were filled with hot gas and smoke. The sound of the gun could blow out your eardrums and the recoil could kill you if you were in the way of it. Even if they weren't enough to deal with her Annabelle had to admit that they were fantastically designed and terrifying to behold and encounter no matter which side of the war you were on and battling them without another tank or heavy ordinance would require nerves of steel or suicidal bravery unless you were a super soldier like her. Annabelle ducked into a slide while a tank shell flew past her previous position, soared through the air and hit a building where it exploded. Taking out the German Soldiers huddling inside of it. She got back up, raced towards the tank in a full on charge, pulled the pins on grenades and leaped forward towards the tank where she threw the grenades down the cannon. The resulting explosions wiped out the crew inside. Afterwords she leaped on top of the tank, eyed the next one, braced herself and flung herself forward the air towards the next one like a bullet. She landed on top of the tank, forced open its hatch and dropped inside among the tank crew. 

"Guten Abend, ihr Wichser." She quipped and quickly took apart the whole crew. Blood spurting everywhere. With yet another tank crew dealt with Annabelle took the liberty of decimating the insides of the tank before quickly climbing back out, flipping up onto the tank and leaping off of it just before another tank shell exploded against the one she'd just invaded. The explosion threw Annabelle for a loop but she was able to flip in the air, turn around and land on her feet just fine. After shaking off the explosion Annabelle braced herself and then raced towards the next tank, using a speed burst to quickly close the distance between them, rush past it, slide to a stop and then she raced towards the tank again and leaped onto it, broke open the hatch and dropped inside to once again slaughter the crew men inside, with liberal splashes of blood bursting from every hit, disable the tank and climb back out. 

The Germans could only watch in horror as one lone Super Soldier took out another three tanks on her own. 

With this dealt with Annabelle prepared to eliminate the others. She ran back after them.

-

Annabelle began ricocheting off of the sides of the buildings, bouncing off of them from side-to-side at angles overhead of the German Soldiers to confuse them until she finally landed on the ground and then she dashed at them from behind and then she began punching and kicking and tearing through the Germans and hitting them into and through the air like ragdolls! They splattered against the sides of buildings, landed on top of roofs, broke through them, broke through the walls, and fell down to the ground. As Annabelle was finishing off that group a jeep barreled towards her from behind but Annabelle turned right back around, braced herself and let it smash into her hands! Just like the last one she was able to slow the 1.146404 Ton 65 MPH Jeep to a crawl even when being shot in the face and she prepared to flip up into it but she quickly became aware of the one approaching her from behind in an attempt to crush her so she modified her plan a bit. With bullets spraying her back and face she flipped up into the jeep, landed next to the driver, yanked away grenades, smashed her foot on the gas, jumped back out of the jeep onto a building and left the first jeep to crash into the second one! The soldiers barely even had time to acknowledge the horrific crash before she tossed the grenades down into the jeeps. The resulting explosions annihilated the soldiers inside. She was snot repeatedly by sniper fire so she took out knives she'd stolen earlier, tossed them up into her hands and turned around and threw them into the snipers throats. With them dealt with Annabelle noticed one of the Super  Tanks off in the distance taking aim at her position so she immediately dived off of the rooftop down into the window of another building shortly before the tank shell soared through the air, missed where she'd been standing, and continued onward into the distance until it hit a hill and erupted in a massive explosion! Even Annabelle was left taken aback by the massive horrifically thunderous deafening booming explosion she heard! 

"Holy shit." She muttered. "Guess I was right about those things..."

She didn't get long to rest though before she was sprayed from all sides with gunfire though that did snap her back to the task at hand. "Right." She got back up and swiftly began eliminating the soldiers around her. In the middle of the fight however a new problem arose. A squad of gas mask equipped soldiers clad head to toe in black clothing underneath their military uniforms and with heavy oxygen tanks on their backs stepped up to the building and began spraying in a poisonous gas! Quickly filling up the building and causing Annabelle to stop fighting and take a few steps back as she began coughing. (D-Dammit! Is this that same shit from before?) While the Poisonous Gas cloud now filling the building up was certainly highly unpleasant to be in, Annabelle's earlier encounter with the same poison had allowed her to heal from it and develop immunities to the previously lethal cloud but the remaining Germans, who weren't already killed by Annabelle, were left screaming and coughing and thrashing and flailing around on the floor while their bodies swiftly began to rot away until they withered into desiccated husks. Their mouths still wide open in silent agonized screams. Annabelle continued coughing and hacking until her healing factor kicked in and she was healed of the poison. So that was one problem solved. Now she had to get out of here. It was a little hard to see through all of the gas but luckily she had a solution for that too: Breaking right through the wall! 

The outer wall of the building exploded outwards as Annabelle crashed through it and carried herself forward right out of the building, went into a combat role and then she skidded to a stop and stood tall facing the crowds of Germans again as their vehicles and soldiers gathered together. Annabelle ignored them to take a big breath of fresh air, blew it out, took in another one, blew it out and then she relaxed, leaned forward, braced herself and rushed the Germans with a powerful and intense burst of super speed. The speed burst broke the ground beneath her feet and kicked up a cloud of dust around her in an airburst. She rocketed forward into the soldiers, crashed into them like a speeding car, smashed into them and carried them forward as she gathered up more of the Germans and then she slammed her foot down, skidded to a stop and threw the Germans through the air! 

The battle was intense, with explosions and gunfire echoing through the streets. But Annabelle was a one-woman army, taking on the enemy with precision and determination backed up by her indestructible nature and lethal martial arts skills. As the sun began to set over the destroyed vehicles and rubble-strewn streets, Annabelle continued to fight, refusing to back down until the town was secured and the German forces were defeated.

Annabelle's training had prepared her well for this city-spanning battle. She navigated through the chaos with ease, using her superior agility and strength to take down enemy soldiers one by one. Despite being heavily outnumbered, she remained calm and focused, never losing sight of her objective. Her combat skills were unmatched, and she used them to devastating effect against the surprised German soldiers as Annabelle fought her way through the town, leaving a trail of destroyed vehicles and wounded enemies in her wake. She used her environment to her advantage, using buildings and other structures for cover and launching surprise attacks on the enemy. Despite taking several hits herself, Annabelle remained unscathed, her indestructible nature proving to be a valuable asset in the face of the ongoing destruction.

Using her agility and combat skills, Annabelle weaved her way through the chaos, taking out German soldiers one by one. Her enemies were caught off guard by her speed and ferocity, but they quickly rallied and began to outnumber her. Undeterred, Annabelle continued to fight, using every ounce of strength and determination she possessed. The German troops were continuously surprised by her strength and agility, and they struggled to keep up with her. She moved quickly from one part of the city to another, engaging in close-quarters combat when necessary and using her weapons to take down enemies from afar. Despite the intense battle raging around her, Annabelle remained focused on her mission, pushing forward with a determination that seemed unbreakable. As she fought her way through the chaos, Annabelle destroyed vehicles and took out soldiers with ease.

The battle raged on, spreading across the city as Annabelle fought her way deeper into the heart of the town. She was relentless, never giving an inch of ground to the German forces. As the sun began to set, Annabelle found herself surrounded by a vast army of German soldiers. This was the last of them. The last of the German Soldiers who stood between her and the laboratory. She wiped a mixture of blood and sweat from her body and smirked as she got ready to finish them off. Without hesitation, American Girl sprang into action, using her impressive martial arts skills to dispatch enemy soldiers left and right. Her razor-sharp reflexes and unyielding determination made her a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. The German soldiers, taken aback by this lone woman warrior, struggled to keep up with her lightning-fast movements. Vehicles were destroyed, buildings reduced to rubble, and chaos reigned supreme.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, American Girl fought on, her resolve stronger than ever. She weaved through the carnage with grace and precision, taking down enemy after enemy without breaking a sweat. The sound of her boots echoed through the streets as she tirelessly pushed forward, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. With precision and skill honed from countless hours of rigorous training and warfare, Annabelle Ruby engaged the first wave of German soldiers. Using a combination of martial arts and acquired weaponry, she systematically took down each enemy soldier, leaving behind a trail of destruction. The battle raged on, and soon vehicles began to explode all around her. Despite the chaos and carnage, American Girl remained focused and determined. She knew that every German soldier she destroyed was one less threat to the world, to their troops, to the prisoners she'd be freeing and the innocent civilians who'd called Frauenhaarbach home.

As darkness washed over the devastated town, American Girl stood alone, tired and panting hard from engaging in such a massive battle after over a straight week of fighting through everything else the Germans had thrown her way on her way there. She rested one hand against a jeep to steady herself and took a few more breaths as she rested until her stamina and strength began to return to her and she switched to leaning against it. Annabelle had to admit that this was not like her at all, it had been a long time since she felt this level of exhaustion and exertion but then again she hadn't slept after a week of straight fighting and intense battles. Apparently even someone like her had limits. Bombs, mines, flamethrowers, bullets, poison gas, tanks, jeeps, battalions, she'd been taking everything thrown her way and more and kept coming and she was finally starting to feel the effects. 

It didn't matter though. She had to keep pushing on. She still had to get into the laboratory and whatever was waiting for her there after all and to get inside there she would need to take out those two gigantic monster tanks out of commission. As she looked up and off into the distance a plan began to form in her mind on how to take care of them but she had one more thing to take care of first. 

Once her strength and stamina finally returned Annabelle picked up the remaining jeeps one-by-one and began dragging them behind buildings and setting them back down so that the escaped prisoners she'd be freeing would have something to escape with. 

Now that she'd taken care of all of that she investigated the Germans bodies, gathered up as many grenades as she could find, packed them up and began making her way towards the tanks via the long way around to take them from the left under the cover of the night.

As Annabelle approached the tanks she ducked behind a boulder and looked up at them in awe. Seeing them from far away was one thing but it was another to see them up close like this. They were as majestic as they were terrifying. Normal tanks were already huge but these were gargantuan! They were like something out of a dream! She'd never imagined seeing tanks this large! They were more like battleships than tanks! If the Germans got these up and running the Allies would've been in serious trouble. She wasn't sure if their own vehicles would even make a dent in them! It was just such a colossal shame that such majestic, beautiful, shiny and chrome vehicles were being used by The Enemy and she'd have to destroy them. Annabelle gripped her bag tightly and prepared herself. She might be tiny compared to these beautiful beasts but that was her advantage. They were too massive to move properly and could only swivel their guns around. So if she jumped on them and was able to find and force open their hatch and pour the grenades in that should either take out the crew inside or at least severely damage it. Then she could proceed to the other one. Annabelle was an ant compared to the behemoths but so was David to Goliath and looked what happened to him. Annabelle took a deep breath and slowly blew it out as she quietly sneaked up on the tank while keeping her head down just to be certain that they didn't see her and then when she got close enough she jumped up onto the tank, soaring several stories straight up and landing comfortably on top of it. Her feet made a tiny *ping* noise on impact that she doubted they even heard.



Now on top of the tank, Annabelle began searching it for the hatch. Once she found it, she grabbed onto it and tore it off of the tank and tossed it down and away from the tank while she readied the grenades. Annabelle was met with gunfire from the soldiers inside but she paid them no mind and just poured the readied grenades into the tank and tossed away the bag. The resulting explosions within the tank annihilated the crew inside while Annabelle leaped over to the other tank. Since she was out of grenades now she instead grabbed the hatch, forced it open, threw it away and climbed down inside. Now that she was inside with them the soldiers never stood a chance. Annabelle made her way through the interior of the tank, cornering and hammering the soldiers within one by one, taking them out and killing them with super strong punches that crushed them on impact. While doing so she took the time to admire the interior of the tank. It was as amazing on the outside as it was on the inside. Splendid craftsmanship and engineering if it was a giant target with a massive gun. Regardless she continued her work until she'd killed all of the soldiers inside. Having accomplished her task she exited the tank and hopped up on top of it, did a biiig stretch with her arms raised up and her fingers laced together while taking a deep breath in, blowing it out and hopping down from the tank to land on the ground and walk up to the large metal door they'd been guarding. Annabelle walked up to it and looked it up and down. There was a large keyhole in front of her but not a key in sight! Annabelle knocked on it and sighed. "Dear me. Oh dear oh dear. And here I am without my house key? Whatever shall I do?" She asked before she stepped up to it, placed her fist against the door, smiled and began hammering it! Just utterly beating into the steel door leaving progressively bigger and bigger fist shaped dents into the door until she began to force it open and then broke it open the rest of the way with a spinning roundhouse kick. The door broke open and both halves slammed open against the walls on the other side. This revealed a lengthy mountain path leading upwards. Annabelle rolled her shoulders and began walking up the path leading up to the base entrance.

Annabelle Ruby walked up the lengthy mountain path in the dead of night leaving behind the carnage and destruction she wrought to get up here. Now that she had a second to breathe she couldn't help but enjoy the relaxing cold night air. She knew she had another major battle waiting for her inside of course but she'd take her quiet moments of peace where she could get them. It was cold, it was chilly, it was dark, it was wonderful. As she walked up the mountain path, the cool night air enveloped her like a soothing blanket. The stars twinkled above and the sounds of crickets mixed surprisingly beautifully with the crackling flames she'd left behind. The gentle breeze carried the scent of pine and Earth and warfare, transporting her to a place of serenity and peace. The path wounds its way up the mountain, sometimes steeply, sometimes gradually, but always with a sense of purpose just like her. That feeling of purpose, of duty, grew heavier with each step but the fresh air and the beauty of the night sky lifted her spirits. After a straight week of combat and battles it was the momentary peace she knew she dreadfully needed. As she climbed higher, the trees grew shorter and the stars grew brighter. The world seemed to slow down and she felt a sense of timelessness wash over her. The only sounds were the crunch of gravel beneath her feet and the soft rustling of the wind through the trees and insects and the dancing flames back in the city. She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath of the cool night air. The world seemed to hold its breath with her and she felt a connection to the universe that she had never experienced before. The stars twinkled like a diamonds scattered across the sky and she felt small compared to them. Small but not insignificant. Strangely she instead felt a connection to the stars. To the vast expanse of the cosmos above her. 

The twinkling stars seemed to stretch on forever, like diamonds scattered across the velvet blackness of the night sky. The feeling persisted within her, the feeling of a sense of belonging to something much greater than herself. The stars seemed to whisper secrets to her, their light and beauty a reminder of the magic and mystery that lay just beyond her reach. She felt a sense of awe and wonders, as if she was catching a glimpse of the divine in the stars above. As she stood there, looking up at them, Annabelle felt a sense of peace wash over her. The stars seemed to beckon her to come closer, to explore the vastness of the universe and all of its secrets. She felt a sense of adventure and excitement, knowing that, whenever they'd find a way up there, if indeed they ever did, there would be so much to discover, so much more to learn. The stars reminded her that she was a small part of something much bigger, something that was constantly evolving and expanding, they reminded her that the universe was full of mysteries and wonders, waiting to be discovered and explored. As she gazed up at them, she felt them calling to her, beckoning her, filling her with that connection to the cosmos, a sense of belonging to the universe. She felt small but also powerful, knowing that she was a part of something so much greater than herself. Perhaps, she pondered, perhaps The Old Man was from the stars? Someone who came from them to experiment upon her to turn her into The Super Soldier she was now? Would that explain the connection and pull she felt whenever she looked up at them? Ridiculous. She looked back down, took a deep breath in, and slowly blew it back out to regain her focus. It was a ridiculous notion. Whyever would someone come down from the stars just for her? But if he didn't come from there, why did she feel such a connection and the pull of the stars? 

Questions to contemplate at a later time. She had a job to focus on. Annabelle resumed her journey up the mountain. Her attention returning to her mission. The weight of her mission growing heavier with each step but her heart felt lighter now that she took that momentary contemplative break. The mountain path and the stars above were a reminder that life's journeys can be challenging but the beauty of the world around us can bring us peace and joy. One day, when this war was over, that peace would return to the world at large and all of the innocents and the soldiers would be able to sit back and enjoy that peace once again. Annabelle would never stop fighting until they did. 

Annabelle continued her traversal until she reached the steel doors on top constructed under a large doorway leading into the mountain. Annabelle knocked on them politely but nobody answered so she shrugged, stretched and got to work. She grabbed one of them and began to slide and push and force it open. There was a brief pause before it gave way and even then the door resisted but Annabelle was able to force it open enough to get around it and then she began to force it backwards. Forcing the large steel bunker door backwards until the mechanism broke and it was left open. With this accomplished Annabelle turned right back around and did the same to the other door. Now with both doors broken and forced to remain open that would give the prisoners a way to escape after she freed them. Now that she had this taken care of Annabelle resumed her journey inside of the mountain base. Inside their lair. Down the winding staircase into the hellish nightmare that awaited her. 

For as long as she lived Annabelle would never forget the madness that she would find inside. 

As she descended the long dark staircase down, down, down into the den of nightmares waiting for her below she couldn't help but look around the interior of the mountain. The cave she'd entered into had been transformed into the German's lair with their swastikas painted on the walls bright red, if that was indeed paint and not blood, which she wouldn't put past them, along with putting in the necessary adjustments to install the staircase she was currently descending. They'd also strung up lights above which was helpful at least. Honestly, she would've been impressed by the engineering if it wasn't for the fact that the people responsible were using it for the same heinous atrocities they'd been committing for years now. God only knew what she would find down here. As she descended the long metal staircase, the air grew colder and the shadows seemed to twist and writhe around her. Bizarrely she could swear she heard the sound of labored breathing all around her, as if the mountain itself was alive and watching her and she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. As she descended the long metal staircase inside of the dark cave the air grew colder and the sound of her breathing echoed off the walls around her making it feel even more claustrophobic. The staircase seemed to stretch on forever, winding down into the depths of the Earth like a serpentine path. The metal rails were slick with moisture so she just rested her hand on them as she descended rather than grip them. The only lights came from the ones they'd installed above her, casting eerie shadows on the walls as she descended deeper into the cave.  Finally she reached the bottom of the staircase at long last and she hopped off of it to land in front of the door and pressed her ear against it. The air beyond the door was thick with the smell of ozone and burning wires and she could hear the faint hum of electricity in the air. That had to explain the breathing sounds she heard earlier. The generators or machines or whatever they'd brought in here. Annabelle tested the door and discovered that it was unlocked. On the one hand, there was no way that they didn't know she was coming, but on the other hand, why would they leave it unlocked? Unless this was a trap or....Super Soldiers! The German Soldier said they were making Super Soldier Monsters here...if that was the case then did Silvio deliberately leave it unlocked to test her against the monsters he was making? A Test Trap? Either way she wouldn't find out by playing it safe. Annabelle took a deep breath, slowly blew it out, and then she braced herself and opened the door. to step into the laboratory. 

Despite her anticipations there was nobody waiting for her. She cautiously walked through the door and into a cavern tunnel. As she walked through the cavern she took notice of the various machines around her, the clocks on the walls, the hanging lights she had to walk around and the pipes above and around her all leading her forward down the cavern towards her destination. It was bizarre. It really felt like Annabelle was in another world. Like she was walking towards something that was completely out of her depths. This whole situation felt like a nightmare and something in her mind told her that she should get out of here while she could but she immediately squashed that feeling down. There were people in here that were being experimented on by madmen against their will and she was the only one who could save them. If she deserted them now they would die screaming and she would never forgive herself. No. No she had to keep going regardless of what was waiting for her. Regardless of whatever Hell was waiting for her inside she would not give up until they were free and each and every one of the maniacs responsible for the experiments in here had paid for their crimes.

Even with her boundless determination however she couldn't deny the sensation of underlying tension, the sense of unease as she continued down the path in front of her. The only sounds were the machines around her and her own footfalls against the ground but she could tell that there was something else here. Something at the far end of cavern waiting to jump out at her. Annabelle balled her hand into a fist as she drew ever closer to the far end of the cavern waiting for whatever they had in store for her. She gradually drew ever closer to the end of the cavern's path until she reached the end. There was a large metal door at the other end of the cavern with what looked like several locks and bolts on it. This had to be the door to the interior of the laboratory. She was finally here. That meant that whatever was waiting for her on the other end was just behind the door. She paused before she walked up to it and looked around. All this machinery....the pipes, the tubes, the wires, the valves, the gauges, the lights...it had all been built into the mountain's interior! 

"What kind of engineers did they hire? This is insane." She muttered to herself as she walked over to the computer terminals next to her and the wall. Annabelle bent over and looked at the computer screen and the one above it. It was security feed! Security feed showing the city! Everywhere Annabelle had been fighting! They must have hidden security cameras everywhere! Even on the mountain path! The sons of bitches had known she was here since she first arrived! What she didn't understand though was how the camera feed reached all the way down here? How were they connected? "Remarkable engineering to be sure."

Annabelle's heart raced as she absorbed the grim reality of the situation. The cold, sterile glow of the screens illuminated her face, casting shadows that danced ominously in the dim light. She could see herself on one of the feeds—her own silhouette flickering across the screen like a ghost caught in a web of deceit. They had been watching her every move, and she felt a fresh wave of anger surge within her.

"How could they do this?" she whispered, shaking her head as if to dispel the horrifying implications of their surveillance. It wasn't just about capturing footage; it was about control, about instilling fear in those who dared to oppose them. Each frame told a story—a story of lives disrupted and futures stolen.

Her gaze shifted back to the large metal door before her. It loomed like an impenetrable fortress, adorned with locks and bolts that seemed to mock her resolve. A quick glance at the terminals revealed that they were equipped with keypads and biometric scanners—defenses against anyone uninvited. But Annabelle was not deterred; she had come too far to turn back now.

“Alright,” she muttered under her breath, steeling herself for what lay ahead. “Let’s see if I can outsmart you bastards.”

She scanned the area for anything useful—a tool or a weapon—and noticed a maintenance kit tucked beneath one of the workbenches nearby. With hurried steps, she approached it and rifled through its contents: wrenches, screwdrivers, and even a crowbar glinted dully in the low light. An idea sparked in her mind.

Using the crowbar, she carefully pried open one of the access panels on the wall beside the door. Inside lay tangled wires and circuits that pulsed with energy like veins in a living organism. If she could disable some part of their security system or perhaps reroute power to unlock that door… Her hands moved deftly over the components as she worked quickly but methodically, focusing on every detail.

As she manipulated wires and connected circuits, each click echoed ominously around her. Sweat beaded on her brow as tension thickened in the air; it felt like time itself was holding its breath alongside her. Just then, from somewhere deep within the lab beyond that heavy door came a muffled sound—a low growl followed by an unsettling silence that made her skin crawl.

"Come on…" Annabelle urged under her breath as she focused intently on completing her makeshift hack.

With one final twist of wire and an awkward shove into place, there was an unexpected jolt—lights flickered above as systems rebooted momentarily before plunging into darkness once again. And then… there was a soft click—the sound reverberated through her bones.

Heart pounding in anticipation, Annabelle stepped back from her makeshift control panel and turned towards the imposing door just as it began to creak open slowly with a groan reminiscent of ancient wood under strain. She braced herself for whatever horrors awaited inside but felt an undeniable thrill surge through her veins—the thrill of defiance against monstrous oppression.

Without warning, the door swung open with a force that sent a shiver down Annabelle's spine, unveiling a gigantic creature! It was a horrifying amalgamation of flesh and metal, a sight so grotesque that Annabelle had never imagined it could exist. She instinctively stepped back, her heart racing as the nightmarish vision assaulted her senses. The tales she had heard about the monstrous Flesh Golems being crafted in this very place echoed in her mind, and now, she found herself face to face with one. It was a twisted and blasphemous mockery of God's creation. The enormous figure loomed before her, representing the climax of her entire journey, and to think this was just one of many? Her mission had taken a dark and unexpected turn, plunging her into a perilous situation she had not anticipated.

The beast lunged at her with incredible speed, its enormous metal claw gripping her face tightly before it violently hurled her around the cavern. Annabelle Ruby found herself soaring through the air, crashing into the walls like a mere ragdoll! The creature tossed her about as if she were nothing more than a child's plaything, subjecting her to the same brutal treatment she had often inflicted on German soldiers. SMASH! CRASH! BOOM! BANG! As if that wasn't enough, the monster twisted its grip and began to pound the back of her head against the wall, as if driving in a nail, before turning once more and flinging her across the cavern into a far wall! She hit the ground with a thud and let out a groan. That was certainly a new experience! Annabelle shook off the disorientation and glared defiantly at the monster. Equally horrified and intrigued by the abomnation. "Alright then. Care to explain what the hell you are?"

The Creature said nothing. The only sounds it made were a deep heavy echoed breathing through the mask in between sprays of steam and the whirring of the machines inside of it. She could also just about hear something else. Something almost...squelchy? Squishy? Whatever it was it didn't sound natural. What the fuck did they do to this man? She would figure it out later. Right now she had to deal with the big heavily armored brute stomping towards her. The Monster swung on her again with surprising speed despite its huge monstrous size but Annabelle was able to dodge to the left and slip its punch. It swung its arm around at her again and Annabelle dodged it once more, dodged its right punch, and continued to evade and slip its attempts at grabbing her as she backed up against the wall and then she dodged again leaving it to punch into the wall and smash a claw sized hole in it! A hole bigger than her head! The Monster pulled its arm back out and that was when Annabelle struck it! 

"Alright, Monster, lets see how tough you are!" She called out to it and lunged towards the Monster and landed a brutal haymaker on its chest earning her a clanging sound on impact that rang out around them and the force of her punch sent the Monster sliding backwards a few feet until it bumped into the remains of the giant computer it smashed earlier and then it resumed stomping towards her now with renewed vigor and speed. Annabelle and the Monster struck out at each other again this time both of their punches colliding together causing another loud echoing clanging sound from its heavy metal colliding with her iron skin. Annabelle stepped back afterword and shook her hand out as the Monster advanced on her and swung on her again but Annabelle blocked the impact with her forearms so she was only forced to skid backwards a few feet before she stopped.

"Well now. This is definitely new. I haven't had a fight like this in a long time." The Monster said nothing and quickly advanced on her and the fight resumed with Annabelle closing in on it in return. She dodged around The Creature's attempts to grab and swipe at her while dishing out her own punches in retaliation, outright hammering it with repeated strikes to its torso, unleashing a torrent of body blows that would have destroyed the body of a normal human but The Monster's armored body withstood them as it slammed its arms down on her but Annabelle dodged backwards and left its arms striking the cave floor beneath it so hard that it broke open a hole in the ground and sent a spider web of cracks through the ground around it. "Woah." She admitted in surprise before jumping back into the fight to unleash some hits on The Monster's helmet. She succeeded in knocking it around briefly before it caught her wrist in its claw! Caught off guard but its speed she began struggling to get her arm free and that was when she noticed The Monster's claw beginning to glow and buzz and hum with electricity that was swiftly channeled through its claw onto her arm! Annabelle cried out as the electricity crackled up and down her arm and down to the rest of her body! The electricity visibly and audibly crackling around her body as it poured more energy into Annabelle while rearing back with its free arm and driving its claw into her face like a sledgehammer and it smashed into her like an anvil sending Annabelle flying backwards until she flying backwards into the opposite wall to smash into the pipes on the wall. Annabelle crashed into them and broke them on impact as she dropped down to the ground.

"Unnggghhh....owww...okay...that hurt." She admitted and wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. Annabelle looked down at her forearm and noticed the blood on it. "Wow....that's also new." She turned her head and spat a glob of blood on the cave floor, spat another out and she began climbing herself back up to her feet. The Monster struck at her again but Annabelle dodged to the side by throwing herself into a roll and she got back up on her feet and stood back up while rubbing her arm. She knew she'd heal back up and that the energy it just gave her would fuel The Blast for later but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. The Monster stomped towards her again and closed in and swung at her but Annabelle leaped into the air and flipped clean over it and landed behind it and she kicked it in the back hard enough to make it stumble forward a bit before it turned back around and swung the back of its arm at her but Annabelle leaned back to dodge it and she began moving around it slipping and dodging and evading its hits until she felt ready again and she slipped around it and struck the back of its head with the back of her hand and then she turned around and kicked it in the back again. The Monster recovered though and resumed attacking her but Annabelle moved around it and she began hammering it again with a barrage of body blows and low kicks to its shin. The Monster gave no indication that this was hurting it of course but she was doing more damage to its armor that she was starting to dent it inwards and then she stepped back, evaded and dodged around its attempts to grab and claw at her until it raised its arm up to try and smash its arm down on her and Annabelle acted quickly, lunging forward, grabbing its arm, turning and throwing it over her shoulder and slammed it down on the ground! With this accomplished Annabelle reached down, grabbed one of its tubes and pulled out and tore it out!

"This looks important!" She quipped only for a creepy unnatural vile black fluid began spraying out of its torso and covering the monster and the floor and walls and some of it even got on Annabelle herself!

"GAAAAAH!" She yelled out and jumped back from the monster and looked down at the bubbling black sludge now covering her body. The moment it impacted her Annabelle felt a strange tingling sensation that seemed to seep into her body and alarm bells immediately started ringing in her body as all of her senses went on red alert and screamed at her to get it off! 

"The fuck is this?! Oil? No....then what the hell?!" She asked as The Monster briefly thrashed on the floor before it turned over and climbed back to its feet with the sludge still spraying out of its body! Annabelle tried to swipe off the sludge but some of it began to stretch out and stuck to her gloved hands! "...The fuck is this stuff?" She questioned again and shook it off of her gloves. Whatever the hell it was it definitely felt wrong to have it on her. Not just on her, not just touching it, but it felt flat out wrong to even look at! Like it was something horrible and disgusting and evil! Something that shouldn't exist in the world with her! It seemed to be alive, its surface rippling and churning like a living entity.  She had to get it off and she had get it off fast. 

Her body did not like having this gunk on her. Beyond just the bizarre sickening sensation she had from even looking at it, Annabelle's body was starting to feel sick just from having it on her. Her body felt like it was on fire. Her temperature began spiking to a frightening degree and she felt her body began to give her a chilling sensation. Her mind was clouded with confusion and it felt foggy and disoriented. Her heart pounded with each heartbeat and her vision began to blur slightly. This was bad. This was very, very, bad. The only time she'd felt this bad in recent memory was when the poison gas was sprayed everywhere. Whatever the hell that gas had been made from it nearly killed her. It certainly took her out of commission until the bombs going off all around the city jolted her back to reality. This...this gunk...it felt almost as bad as that. If not worse. She felt her strength dropping as the gunk began to spread, literally spread, over her body. This gunk was coming off. Now. Her healing would hopefully take care of the rest afterword but tearing this gunk off was imperative right now.

Annabelle returned her attention to The Monster. It was still alive, for as much as this thing could be considered alive, and it was on the attack but it's movements were more sluggish and unsteady now. Whatever the gunk was, The Monster needed it to remain functional. Smiling at finding a weakness in it, Annabelle crouched down, braced herself, gritted her teeth and flung herself at the monster and drop kicked it away as hard as she could while it was still off balance and sent it flying backwards across the cavern. That would keep it away from her while she worked. Annabelle ran over to the wall, grabbed a pipe and tore it off of the wall. She was immediately greeted by a spray of steam to the face but she ignored it and focused on the task at hand. Her symptoms were getting worse, she could feel it, the longer this stuff was on her body the worse she would feel but that ended now. Annabelle used the pipe to stab into the gunk and tear it off of her and fling it away. The sludge might be spreading around her body but if something interrupted it then it would be forced to come right off. Even better, the moment she tore it off of herself she felt her symptoms beginning to lighten. As if a huge weight had been taken off of her shoulders! Smiling now, Annabelle continued to tear at the gunky sludge until the pipe was covered in it and then tossed it aside. Annabelle didn't slow down for a moment though and she lunged at the broken computer, slammed into it, and used the broken down machine to tear more of the sludge off of herself even if she had to smear it on the machine in response. She tore the monitor off of it and used that to tear the gunk away from her as well. She even went so far as to smash and bash into the machine to tear off more pieces from it to rip off more of the sludge and then she turned around and slammed her back against the jagged broken pieces of machinery and thrashed around as she forced it off of herself.

As The Monster regained its footing and resumed stalking towards her, Annabelle began slamming her punches into the wall and smeared it against the wall to get the last of it off. Annabelle gasped and collapsed to one knee and desperately began sucking in air as fever broke and her body began to settle. Her vision started to clear and her breathing settled down. Her heartbeat returned to normal and she began to warm back up. Annabelle looked up at The Monster and she began to slowly stand up.

"Okay. I don't know what that was or what the hell you are but this ends here and now." . With a fierce cry of "HIYAH!!", she charged at the monster while already prepping herself for its counterattack. The Monster regained it senses, or whatever counted for senses for this mechanical creature, and swiped at her but Annabelle danced around its attacks, feinting left and right, her feet moving quicker than a human would be able to follow. The monster swung wildly but she dodged each blow with ease now that she not only knew how it fought but it was weakening as well, so she bobbed and weaved around its attacks and then she stepped in and went on the attack. She landed a series of quick jabs to its face to set up her next attack, her fists flashing like lightning in the dim cavern lights, 

In a flurry of fists and kicks, lightning-fast strikes and deadly kicks, Annabelle unleashed a torrent of violence upon the monster. It tried to power through her assault and retaliate, and Annabelle had to give it credit, it was certainly doing an admirable job of doing so, forcing her to break off her attack while she dodged around its attacks while she hammered it whenever she found an opening, her fists connecting with the monster again and again in a relentless ruthless assault that beat it back and dented its body more and more and sparks began flying off of the monster while it started to smoke and steam from the continued damage. The creature tried to hammer her but Annabelle dodged it and backed off. The monster's claws broke a large hole in the cave floor hitting it so hard that the ceiling rattled and dust rained down on both of them. Annabelle looked up at the ceiling in surprise and then The Monster raised its arm and launched its claw through the air at her on a chain faster than a bullet! Annabelle dodged it and watched as the claw arm stabbed into the wall. She blinked and looked at the chain and back to the Monster. "Seriously? What the hell are you? That's just weird!" She shouted at it. "I know I'm one to talk but arms aren't supposed to do that!" The Monster didn't give an answer and retracted its claw, now holding a large chunk of the wall, and it then crushed the chunk of stone into powder. "So what? Are you showing off now? You looking for praise or something?" It said nothing so Annabelle shrugged and charged in. "Alright then. Lets compare." She grabbed its claws and forced The Monster backwards against the wall and began squeezing its claws as it struggled against her in a contest of strength. The cavern trembled as the two fought, the dust falling from the ceiling like snow. The Monster thrashed and bucked, trying to free itself, but Annabelle held on with a grim determination, her muscles standing out on her arms like steel cables. The crowd, if there had been one, would have been on its feet, cheering for this epic battle of wills and strength. They pushed against each other in a back and forth push and pull contest of power. Annabelle gritted her teeth and pushed harder and she began pushing its clawed metallic fingers down as she leaned forward further, her feet digging into the cave floor.

The Monster let out a metallic screech as one of its claws bent, the metal creaking under the strain. Annabelle's face contorted into a grimace of determination, her muscles bulging as she put every ounce of her strength into the struggle. The cavern shook with the force of their battle, dust falling like a heavy curtain around them.

The Monsters right leg pushed against the wall behind it, trying to push off of it, but Annabelle was unrelenting. She pushed harder, her body tensing as she felt the metal of the claws begin to yield. With a final, mighty thrust, she snapped the right claw hand clean off, sending it clattering to the ground. The cavern fell silent, the dust slowly beginning to settle. The Monster stared at her, its remaining claw trembling with rage. Annabelle held her ground, her chest heaving from the exertion. For a moment, they were locked in a standoff, neither one willing to give in. Then, with a metallic growl, the Monster lunged forward, aiming its remaining claw at Annabelle's throat. She dodged nimbly to the side, the claw missing her by inches.

The two combatants circled each other warily, their gazes locked in a battle of wills. Annabelle's muscles were screaming from the effort, but she refused to give in. The Monster too seemed to be tiring, its movements growing less precise. With a final burst of speed, Annabelle launched herself at the creature, her fists flying like a whirlwind. The Monster tried to defend itself, but Annabelle's attacks were too fast, too powerful. One blow sent the creature spinning across the cavern floor, another drove it into the wall with a resounding clang.

As the Monster struggled to get back to its feet, Annabelle pressed her advantage, her fists a blur as she struck over and over again. With a final, crushing blow, she landed a punch directly on the creature's remaining claw, sending it clattering to the ground. The Monster let out a metallic groan, its body slumping to the ground. Annabelle stood over it, panting heavily, her fists clenched in triumph.

"I guess that answers that question. It was definitely a big risk but it was worth it. I needed to know for sure how strong you monsters were." She took a breather and then she lunged at it again, put her foot on it, and began tearing the various pipes and wires off of it. "By the way, are these important?" Steam and sparks once again began flying out of it as the monster flailed wildly with its handless limbs. The wires were obviously providing power to it and the steam must've been important to its regulation somehow. The light in its eyes began to rapidly flash on and off. It was having trouble active. "I'll take that as a yes." She commented and threw it down and she grabbed onto its head and she began to twist it left and right while she pulled and pulled and pulled as hard as she could. All too soon she was able to snap the monster's neck. Then, she put her foot onto its back and pulled upwards until she finally succeeded in pulling the monster's head off! Literally tearing its head off of its body and pulling it up into the air complete with its wire strewn spinal cord dangling down from its head with black goop falling out of it like a waterfall! She looked at the monster's head in shock and turned it around to face her, looking up and down at the monster's skull and the countless wires that covered its dangling spinal cord, the black gunk and back up to its helmet covered head. "Sweeet Jesus, what did they do to you?" She questioned in a quiet,  hushed abject horror. Handling the monster's head carefully she grabbed one of its severed claw hands and then she walked over to the computer, lay it down and she began working on its helmet, using the claws and her strength to crack it open only to reveal a severely mutilated face maimed into looking like a skull with its eyes replaced with the red lights, dull grey veins across the face, most of its flesh replaced with machinery, the jaw lower jaw removed for the machinery that it spew out its steam, the cheeks cut open, pipes and wiring intertwined into the skull, metal melded into the top of its head....it was horrifying. Beyond horrifying. It was like something out of a nightmare! Even Annabelle, who had seen and experienced more than her share of horror, ended up shrieking and dropping the skull as she fell to the side and covered her mouth as she fought to keep from vomiting at the sight of this atrocity. The now severed head fell to the ground behind her. 

"Oh-oh....ohhhh Gooooodddd...." She moaned. "Oh, Lord, Oh Sweet Jesus! What in the Hell? What the hell? What even IS that?! What? What was that?" She desperately sucked in air as she grappled with this revelation. "Oh Lord....Oh Good Lord....are....are they...doing that to the others? Is that what is waiting for me within this hell? How many....how many are they? How many have they butchered into it...THAT?! I-I-I...." She looked down the cavern but then she slapped herself. "I have to press on. I can't give up. I can't get scared. I'm their last hope. I have to press on. I can't run away. I can do this. I can do this. I have to do this. I must do this!" Annabelle pulled herself together and stood tall again and looked down at the severed head. "Whoever you are, whoever you were, rest in peace now. I'll make them pay for this. I swear it. I'll make them all pay and I'll lay you all to eternal rest. I swear to God" She closed her eyes briefly and then she re-opened them, her eyes burning with rage and determination. "They will all pay." She marched forward, through the broken door, into the main lab. 

Annabelle wasn't quite sure how to describe what she walked into. It honestly felt like she'd stepped into another world. This laboratory, this factory, was massive! It was immense! It was so impossibly large she couldn't even begin to imagine how in the blue blazes the krauts managed to put it together! The labyrinthine complex was thick with the smell of oil and smoke and the sound of whirring machinery filled her ears. The walls were lined with pipes and wires, and strange contraptions that hissed and clanked as they worked tirelessly in unison to produce whatever the hell that thing she just fought was.  It was here that the Germans, lead by Silvio Krueger, had been conducting their most sinister experiments, pushing the boundaries of science and technology in pursuit of ultimate power. A place where the boundaries between science, technology and madness blurred beyond recognition. She stepped up to the railing and looked out. Every now and then, a dull thud echoes through the tunnels as another experiment is conducted and she could hear the distant hum of generators and muffled whispers of voices speaking in hushed tones.  But it's not just the machinery that makes this place feel alive - there's something else here, too. Something that lingers in the air like a malevolent presence, watching and waiting. She could sense its eyes upon her, feeling its cold breath on the back of her neck.

It wasn't fear or the cold that she was feeling, Annabelle knew that much, but something else. An evil presence. Even among the cacophony of mechanical hissing, clanging and whirring filling the air as the massive, industrial machines coming to life around her, their glowing copper tubes and steel arms reaching out like the tendrils of some malevolent, otherworldly vines, the world felt heavy with an unnatural stillness from the chilling evil presence that lurked in the darkness around her. A sense of foreboding A sense of foreboding surrounded her, as if an invisible hand reached out from the shadows, caressing the back of her neck while the presence whispered promises of doom and destruction in her ears. It was more than the machines. It was more than the Germans. There was something else in here with her, with all of them, lurking in the darkness and looming over all of them. Watching all of the madness unfold below and throughout the factory and, Annabelle assumed, smiling the entire time. Annabelle looked down at her uniform and then back to the doorway. Could it have something to do with whatever the black sludge was? If so, that would mean that whatever it was that they were using to fuel the monsters was beyond unnatural. It was linked to something that was the very definition of evil in the world. But how long had it been here? Had it been waiting to be discovered all this time? What for? For this? For something else? It just raised too many damn questions and she wouldn't find the answers just sitting around here. She had to take action and get moving. There were still a lot of people in here that needed her help and it was time she busted them out of here. Annabelle pushed the evil presence out of her mind and turned aside as she began walking down the metal walkway to the stairs down below.

The air was thick with the acrid tang of burning coal and the metallic scent of blood. Rusted gears ground and whined as they turned, powering the immense machinery that stretched as far as the eye could see. Lights flickered ominously, casting eerie shadows across the twisted pipes and gantries that crisscrossed the ceiling. The steady thrum of engines hummed through the floor, vibrating the very foundations of the Earth. This was a place of industry, of mad science, of terrifying possibility. The lab coated scientists, their faces obscured by gas masks and thick goggles, hurried about their tasks, pouring mysterious liquids and adjusting dials with a practiced efficiency that betrayed their expertise. The air was thick with the acrid stench of burning oil and chemicals, making it difficult to breathe, but none of the workers seemed to notice or care. They were too focused on the task at hand: the creation of something unspeakable, something that would change the course of the war and the entire world and it was up to Annabelle to put a stop to all of it.

As she proceeded forward however she noted that, despite the fact that they clearly knew she was coming, and had more than enough time to mobilize their troops with how long her fight with the monster took, they weren't anywhere to be seen. She paused on the stairs and looked across the laboratory while she pondered this. Was it because she killed everyone outside? Possible but there would logically be at least a few of them still waiting inside. They wouldn't have run away just because she killed only one of the monsters. So was it because they didn't want to risk damaging the equipment and machines throughout the lab? That was certainly possible. It looked sensitive and important so a firefight wouldn't be a good idea for them. But then where did they go? She had a lot of paths ahead of her with a massive wide open cavernous laboratory, so, were they planning to circle back around and ambush her? That seemed likely but what about The Monsters? There had to be more of them, potentially multiple monsters, then were they going out to wake them up and then ambush her? Yeah, that sounded like the most likely outcome. But then why did they leave the scientists behind? What were they doing down there?

Time to find out.

Annabelle resumed walking down the circular staircase until she reached the bottom and then she hopped down the last set of them and she began approaching the scientists working on the various machines and taking notes until she grabbed one of them and slammed him against a wall. "<Hello, sir, I have some questions for you.>" She spoke to him in flawless German. The others paused in their work and they slowly turned around and watched her. Annabelle smirked and looked back at them. "<Go ahead, try me, see what happens.>" They said nothing. They just watched her. Still as statues. She returned her attention the one she was holding. She pulled him forward and then slammed him against the wall again. "<Now talk: What are you doing here? What was that machine monster? What is all of this? Where are the prisoners? I want answers and you're going to tell me what I want to know!>" At first there was nothing but then he slowly leaned his head forward and spoke to her. At first his voice came out in a strained coughing hacking laugh with a mechanical whirring buzz to his voice that was soon echoed by the others who were shaking and trembling while they laughed along with him. "What...what the hell?"

"Kahhhh...kahhh...kah...kah...frau...frau..frau...leeeiiiiinnnn...you.come...you.came. Won.der.ful." Their voices spoke to her in unison. Their voices were strained, pained, as if it was actually painful for them to even speak at all. They were coughing and hacking at first, still with that whirring buzz, and they stammered at first but they flat out had trouble talking and stringing their words together. What was going on here? "Won.der.ful. So. Happ.py. to. meet. you. I. Have. Been. Waiting. For. Th.is. D.a.y. for. so. long."

"You boys know who I am?"

"Of. Cou.rse. The.they. Do. But. Mo.ore. Impo.rtan.ly. I. Do."

She lowered the one she was holding and looked from him to the others. "What are....talking about...you wanted to meet me?" She pointed at the one next to her while stepping back and then she turned and pointed at the others. "You're...you're...Silvio? Are you controlling them? How? Tell me what you've done to them!"

"Impre.sssss.ive. That. Was. Qui.ck. You. Are. Sharp. Yes. Yes. Yes. These. Are. Not. Just. Scientists. These. Are. My. Marionettes. My. Puppets. Puppets. With.Out. Strings. No. Strings. Wires. Gears. Machines. I. Alt.er.ed. Them. Adjus.ted. Them. Now. I. Control. Them. Revolu.tion.ary. Tech.nolo.gee. Proto.type. But. Revolu.tion.ary."

"That...that's impossible! You can't control people with machines! There has to be a trick to it!" She insisted.

"As. I. Sai.ad. Revolu.tion.ary. Tech.nolo.gee. Years. Ahead. Of. Our. Time. Eve.ree. Scien.tist. Down. Here. Works. For. Me. Becau.ssss. They. Are. Me. My. Puppets."

"You're insane! You're a monster! You cannot control people like that! Let me go, do you hear me, you son of a bitch?! You let them go and face me yourself!"

"But. I. Am. They. Are. Me. I. Am. Them. They. Volun.teeeered. For. This. All. In. The. Name. Of. Advancing. Science. Wonder.ful. Is. It. Not?"

Annabelle lunged forward and grabbed one of them and pushed him backwards. "You bastard! You cannot treat humans like this!"

"But. Of. Course. I. Can. I. Am. Advan.cing. Science. Through. My. Exper.iments. That. Is. My. Goal. My. Dream. My. Design. Marvel.Us. Is. It. Not?"

"So sche has finally arrifed. Ze American Defil. Ze Butcheress. Zeir Hero. At long last sche arrifed. Vonderful." Silvio chuckled to himself while he slid his gloved down the screen displaying the camera feed of Annabelle Ruby proceeding into the factory. His low-pitched, gravelly voice was muffled due to his gas mask and helmet but the twisted, jovial, almost affectionate tone of his voice was loud and clear as he watched Annabelle "If you're here zat must mean you'fe already slaughtered eferyone else in your pazz. Splendid. Vhat an exqfisite kreature you are, Annabelle Ruby..."

A soldier ran into the room. "Professor Krueger! Ve haf a situation!"

"I already know zat sche's here undt I haf been vaitingkt fur her fur such a long time now. Her appearance in mein factory iss perfect actually. At long last I haf a vorzzy opponent to test mein kreations against. Ze First Super Soldier. Ze Greatest Soldier In Ze Vorld. I kannot zink uff a greater adfersary fur mein machine armein. Superhuman Flesch Against Mein Schteel Soldiers. Zis vill be ze greatest battle efer vitnessed! Ze greatest experiment!" He explained as he stood up and put his blood drenched labcoat back on and adjusted his suit.

"But sir! Vhat if sche makes to you?"

"Zen all zat means iss zat mein kreations vere nicht schtrong enough to schtop her. But haf faizz soldier. I haf infested so much uff mein life in kreatingkt zese monstrosities undt I am kompletely konfident in zeir abilities. Besides, imagine if ve killed her instead? Vhen her kountrymen hear about her deazz zeir spirits vill schatter like glass. Imagine if ve take her korpse undt dissect her? Find out vhat makes her tick? Undt adopt zat into our own armein? An immortal, infincible armein, zat vill fight at our beck undt kall. Let her proceed. Let her kome. Let her chourney into ze depzzs uff hell. LET THE EXPERIMENT BEGIN!"

"Marvelous isn't the word I'd use. It's sick! You're nothing but a madman! NOW TELL ME HOW TO SAVE THEM!"

"Ohhhhh. Fraulein. You. Do. Not. Listen. The. Procedure. Has. Already. Been. Completed. They. Are. Mine. Now. It. is. Irr.ever.sible."

"BULLSHIT!"

"It. Is. True. You. Know. This. Ins.side. You. Can.Not. Sav.ve. Them. They. Volun.teer.reed. For. This. Ask.ed. For. This. There. Is. Noth.thing. Left. But. Me. But. Enough. Talk.king. Now. Is. Time. For. Act.shon. List.ten. Well. Fraulein. Humans. Have. Limits. Brain. Imp.poses. Limits. On. Muscles. And. Other. Parts. Of. Body. To. Prev.vent. It. From. Destro.ying. It.self. But. What. Happens. When. Limiters. Are. Removed?" He asked her. "Puppets. Attack!"

The scientist Annabelle was clinging to suddenly burst into laughter and struck her across the face, catching her off guard with his speed and strength. Her head snapped to the side and she let go of him. Without hesitation, he and his companions pounced on her, unleashing a frenzy of savage attacks fueled by some unknown force, perhaps a result of Silvio's experiments. Their wild, animalistic movements made it impossible for Annabelle to anticipate their next move as they mercilessly assaulted her with unrelenting blows. Despite the overwhelming force, Annabelle couldn't help but admire their impressive display. She gritted her teeth and braced herself against their onslaught, determined to learn their attacks and use it against them.

She was tough enough to withstand their assaults, confident that she could eventually overpower them. As she absorbed their attacks, Annabelle focused on building up her energy for The Blast that she would unleash later. Suddenly, she managed to dodge a wild punch that left a small hole in the wall. Taking advantage of the opening, she kicked one of her attackers into the wall and sent him flying with a powerful kick. With one down, Annabelle turned her attention to the next one, blocking and deflecting his furious attacks with booming echoes every time they made contact with her arms. She grabbed his arm, twisted it, and punched him in the chest, sending him crashing into a large machine and denting it. The other attacker quickly recovered and resumed his onslaught, but Annabelle deftly dodged and weaved around his unfocused attacks. With her impressive agility and quick reflexes, she was able to evade his blows and eventually incapacitated him with a punch to the chest. Despite their ferociousness, Annabelle was determined to come out on top.



"You. Are. So. Strong. Annabelle." Silvio's voice was calm, almost admiring. "But. You. Can. Not. Stop. Them. All. Forever."

"Want to fucking bet?" She challenged Silvio as she dodged the attacks and retaliated with her own. She unleashed a barrage of brutal punches on it and the Scientist Puppet retaliated in kind. Their punches collided against each others fists and bodies but between the two of them, only Annabelle was fast and sensible enough to dodge her opponent's attacks, meaning The Puppets punches missed her more often than not, but not the other way around. As she kept dodging and counterattacking, she could see The Scientist Puppet starting to slow down, his movements less fluid and precise. Annabelle saw her opening and slammed a haymaker into it, sending it flying down the path into another one that was running back to the fight. That was when the one she'd smashed into the machine earlier got back up and attacked her again and then she dodged and weaved around his attacks as well.

"You. Can.Not. Stop. Them. All. With. Just. Your. Hands." Silvio told her as he watched the fight with interest.

"WATCH ME!" She called out while she dodged. Each step was a fluid motion, each pivot perfectly timed as she danced around her opponent, her legs carrying her effortlessly out of each of her opponent's clumsy counterattacks while she retaliated with her own in a flurry of quick, precise punches that seemed to come from all directions at once. It was a thing of beauty, a symphony of movement and sound, a display of raw power and grace that completely overwhelmed the puppet. Her fists flying, her legs pumping, her body twisting and turning in a hurricane of blurring speed and overwhelming power that trounced the puppet and sent it flying down the path into the other two and knocked them over. "Heh." 

Her moment of relief was short-lived as she watched all three of them get back up, moving like puppets with awkward, disjointed movements. They lifted their heads and charged towards her with feral rage, their previous puppet-like motions now replaced with inhuman speed. 'Well damn. Did you guys even feel that?' She asked, but they gave no answer. They were solely focused on tearing her apart. 'Okay then, I've already traumatized myself once today, what's one more?' Annabelle thought as she prepared to face them without hesitation. It was time to see what was under those helmets. Despite their wild and uncoordinated attacks, Annabelle was skilled enough to block all three of them before sending one flying down the path with a punch and kicking the other after it. She then grabbed the third one, twisting its arm behind its back and forcing it to the ground with a swift kick. With a determined look on her face, she yanked off the back of the helmet, then the front with the gas mask attached, revealing the man's face. She didn't flinch at the tubes, wires, and machinery that were revealed, nor did she pay attention to the blood and sludge spraying from his head. She simply tossed the helmet aside and examined the horrific mess that Silvio had made of the man's skull. The top half had been completely replaced with strange mechanical contraptions, leaving no trace of his original features. It was a horrifying mess. The entire top half of his skull had been replaced with machinery. Tubes and wires and gears and pistons and bizarre clicking-clacking machines. His hair, flesh, muscle, bone and brain were all gone. It was clear that Silvio's experiments had turned this man and others into mindless puppets, controlled by his twisted machinations.

"Silvio, you bastard." She muttered and lowered the flailing man back down. "You're gone, aren't you? You're gone and broken. Poor guy. I don't know whether or not you really, truly, volunteered like he said, somehow I doubt it. But I'll set you free. Hush now. Go to the afterlife in peace." Annabelle Ruby kept him pinned down, raised her other arm and drove her fist into the machinery in his head and demolished it with a single punch. Her punch obliterated the machinery in his head leaving a giant empty hole in the contraptions. The man's arms went limp and he dropped to the floor lifeless. Dead and lifeless and finally free. Annabelle turned to face the others. "Alright. Come and get me." They attacked again with their feral assault but she was able to fend them off. She sent one flying back into the giant hunk of machinery with a kick to get him off of her back, then she brought down the other one and drove her fist into the back of his head, through the helmet, and into the machinery which her punch proceeded to destroy as well. His corpse dropped to the floor. The last one staggered over to her and Annabelle swiftly defeated him and destroyed the machinery in his skull. The third puppet scientist dropped to the floor. All three of them were dead now. Free of Silvio's control. Despite this fact, the sheer horror of what she witnessed, what he'd done to these people, what he must have done to countless amounts of people, potentially hundreds of them, if not more, filled her with a furious seething rage of her own. The weight of the horror she had just witnessed – the inhumanity and suffering inflicted on these innocent people – ignited a fiery rage within her. Was torturing and tormenting these people not enough for The Germans? They had to strip them of their humanity and turn them into their monstrous puppets?! Mindless Automatons?! NO! NO! NO! This was completely and utterly "Unforgiveable. Unforgiveable. Unforgiveable. Unforgiveable." She muttered before clenching her fists in rage. "What you have done is utterly unforgiveable! Do you hear me, Silvio, you heartless bastard?! What you have done to these people is UNFORGIVEABLE!" 

His voice spoke up again through the loudspeakers. "Ahhhh, such fiery passion, Fraulein. Ahhhh, such fiery passion, Annabelle! It's so beautiful. You are efery bit ze Monster I'fe heart you are. How vonderful. How magnificent. But how kan you kall it unforgifeable? I'fe told you before, eferyzzingkt I haf done iss simply fur ze goal uff adfancingkt schcientific understentingkt..."

"SILENCE!" She shouted. Her eyes flashed and a flickering burning bright reddish aura surrounded her body like a fire. "I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY, SILVIO! HIDE IN YOUR LABORATORY AND PRAY TO WHATEVER GOD YOU BELIEVE IN BECAUSE I AM COMING FOR YOUR ASS AND I AM GOING TO SMASH YOUR HEAD INTO FUCKING PULP FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! NOTHING WILL SAVE YOU FROM ME, SILVIO! NOT SOLDIERS! NOT TANKS! NOT PUPPETS! NOT MONSTERS! NOTHING! YOU PRAY, SILVIO, YOU START FUCKING PRAYING BECAUSE THE DEVIL WOMAN IS COMING FOR YOU! YOU WANT A MONSTER, KRAUT?! I'LL SHOW YOU A GODDAMN MONSTER! WHEN I SMASH! YOUR! HEAD IN!" Annabelle's aura erupted from her body, unleashing a powerful shockwave that obliterated the lifeless puppet corpses, crumpled the pipes, fractured the ground beneath her, and caused a cascade of sparks to rain down upon her as lights shattered and fell  I'M COMING FOR YOU, SILVIO!" 

The camera switched off and Silvio stood back up from his chair as he looked at the remaining screens in complete and utter awe and fascination. His expression was hidden behind his ever present helmet but his body language made it clear that he was like a child at Christmas right now. The power he'd just witnessed was like nothing he'd ever seen! Annabelle Ruby was unlike anyone he'd ever met! She was breathtaking! She was magnificent! She was glorius! This was the greatest experiment he could have ever asked for! 

"Vonderful. A perfect response, Annabelle, you truly are a vorzzy opponent fur us. Zen kome undt find me if you kan, Defil Voman! Begin your chourney zrough Hell undt kome face me! I'll be vaitingkt fur you! Kome undt get me, Annabelle Ruby, I'd like to see you try!" 

It was time to unleash his creations. His marionettes, his automatons, his soldiers and his Wiedergänger. The Wiedergänger could best be described as his failed experiments. The result of injecting the serum into less than ideal subjects without performing the additional surgeries upon them. Much like the mystical wiedergänger they rose from their graves to torment the living. The problem was that, without the surgeries, they were utterly uncontrollable, stuck in a primal state of murderous rage in an animalistic state of permanent hostility and aggression driving them to attack and kill anything that wasn't them with reckless abandon, unconcerned with their own safety and no morals or other inhibitions that could control their actions. On top of their muscle tissue being strengthened, the infection continuously pumped adrenaline into the host's systems, giving them deadly feats of strength, agility and endurance. Coupled with the fact that they no longer concerned themselves with feeling pain and they would be excellent shock troops if not for their berserker nature. Another problem came from the fact that this hormonal distribution placed enormous stress on their metabolism, so their bodies would only last temporarily once unleashed, succumbing to their wounds or their metabolisms causing them to break down.  There was also the plant infected of course but he was still figuring those out. So this would be a fantastic opportunity to test them as well. 

Silvio took a seat, intertwining his fingers as he fixed his gaze on the surveillance cameras. Oh, how he relished this moment, for it would be his most grand experiment yet. The anticipation made his mouth water as he envisioned the clash between his creations and The American Super Soldier. With a flick of a few switches, shutter doors scattered throughout the facility swung open, revealing a path for his marionettes. They obediently marched into the rooms beyond, heading towards rows of coffins that trembled with fear.

Approaching the coffins, the marionettes skillfully broke the chains that bound them, setting the reanimated corpses free. The lids were lifted, exposing the bloodshot eyes and the eerie black blood oozing from their mouths. Kneeling down, the marionettes diligently removed the final set of chains that held the wiedergängers captive. In an instant, the undead creatures burst forth from their coffins, seizing the marionettes with a frenzy of violence. They tore, ripped, smashed, and bit into their puppet-like counterparts, rending them apart and exposing their innards.

Silvio, unfazed by the destruction, severed the strings controlling his marionettes and simply observed as the wiedergängers continued their savage assault. They pummeled the marionettes' helmets, using the coffins' lids and chains as weapons, relentlessly striking them against the floor. Yet, it mattered not to Silvio, for he had an abundance of replacements. Besides, he yearned to witness their performance against the intruder. As he expected, they didn't hesitate for a second after they finally dismembered the marionettes. They ran right out of the rooms down the hallways to kill anyone and anything they ran into.

Let the games begin.

With the Wiedergänger's being freed and the remaining soldiers gearing up with whatever they could find, he decided he would arm The Marionettes as well and commanded them to retrieve The Lightning Bolters, elegantly crafted rifles encased in brass and gold and adorned with intricate gears, they were prototype weapons that combined elements of steam-powered machinery with electric propulsion systems and the small crystals they were fitted with that harnessed electricity from the air around them, allowing each shot to propel electrically charged projectiles that packed a deadly punch. He hadn't quite gotten around to mass producing them just yet but the ones they did have were still quite powerful and he was curious to see how she'd handle such firepower. 

Annabelle meanwhile was running down the hallways of this labyrinthine cave without any real idea of where she was going. She would run one hallway and then down another hallway without any German Monster encounters or even the soldiers. She was following the pipes to try and figure out where she was going. This place didn't exactly have any maps to give her directions after all. It boggled her mind as to how anybody could navigate this place with any idea of where they were going. 




As she ventured further, the scenery remained unchanged: the cave, the machinery, the lights, the pipes...not a single clue to indicate her whereabouts! It felt like she was trapped in an endless loop, going round and round. Each twist and turn only added to the confusion, turning the cavern into an enigmatic maze that defied all logic and reason. She sprinted tirelessly until she stumbled upon a rail, with a cart swiftly passing by. A glimmer of hope sparkled in Annabelle's eyes as she decided to follow the rail's chosen path. Surely, this rail had to lead somewhere! Maybe not to the prison or wherever they held their captives, but at least to a destination more purposeful than aimlessly circling around like a fly. Logically speaking, if the items in the cart were being shipped down the rail, then there would be someone at the end waiting to begin assembling it. She kept running until she reached a gate on the rails and she smiled. Finally some damn progress! Annabelle ran up to it, knelt down, grabbed it and then she forced it upward and open and then she kept walking inside.

It was a simple room that the carts were transported through but she had to question why it was so expansive and why it needed a gate. Was it just part of the cave that they put the gate door on? But then why put all the metal on the walls? She got her answer when the slots opened up and flamethrowers sprayed out of the walls and hosed her down with the raging flames. (Well. That answers that question!) She noted as she recoiled from the flames. The heat was intense and it felt like it was growing worse with every step! She could feel the heat emanating from the flames, she could feel the heat suffocating her, the flames dancing across the skin but she kept on pushing forward and powering on through. (It's a clever trap to be sure, but, did he really think it would work on me?) She kept walking forward until she reached the door at the end of the room and she reached out and felt on it. It was the exact same as the other one so she grabbed onto the door and forced it open and then she slammed it shut down behind her.  She stumbled backwards, away from the raging flames of the inferno room, and tried to get her bearings. She was fine but she was also now wreathed in flames once again which made it a little hard to see. Annoyed, Annabelle fell down on her back and rolled around and around until she was able to start dampening the flames. She sat back up and began patting down the remaining flames until they went out. 

After she finished brushing herself off, Annabelle stood up and resumed walking forward only for machine guns to pop out of the walls around her. (Oh hey, more Death Traps! Fun!) They opened fire on her and she shielded herself with her arms and then ran forward until she reached the door at the end and she slammed into it and knocked it over. Annabelle rolled into the next room and stood up to face whatever was coming for her next. (Okay, see, at least that shit made sense. The bullets didn't feel good either but at least they made sense. Who the fuck sets up that many damn flamethrowers? Seriously?!) She was just getting to her feet when the door opened on its own down the tunnel to reveal another one of the Metal Monsters. 

"Of course. Alright then. COME ON!"

The Monster did not need to be told twice and they immediately charged each other! The thundering booming footfalls of the monster echoing off the walls around them with each massive step of the mechanical horror. She reached him first and immediately started boxing. She quickly began hammering away at its helmet with repeated left and right combinations. There wasn't much room to maneuver in a narrow tunnel like this though so she would have to be careful in how eh dodged around its own retaliatory strikes. The Monster swiped at her in retaliation so she leaped backwards to dodge it. Annabelle landed on her feet and then she approached him again. The Monster resumed swinging back at her but Annabelle dodged and weaved around his strikes while retaliating with her own on its chest and helmet until it lunged at her with a surprising amount of speed, grabbed onto her and swung her around into the wall so hard that she broke into the wall! She withstood the impact however and continued punching it in the face in retaliation. The Monster responded by grabbing her and swinging her into the opposite wall, smashing her into that, swinging her into the wall again, lifting her up, slamming her into the ground and then bringing down the claws on its hand towards her face but Annabelle blocked it with her forearm! Annabelle and The Monster struggled against each other until she managed to throw its claws off of her so The Monster lifted her up into the air with its other hand and Annabelle kicked out with her feet and kicked its helmet again to force it to let her go. She landed on her feet and The Monster immediately recovered from being kicked in the face and attacked her again. The fight intensified as The Monster's attacks began increasing in ferocity. Annabelle went on the defensive, backing away and dodging around its attacks and leaving them to either hit the air or the walls in which case it would just smash into and tear through them before it continued its assault on her. Annabelle continued retaliating with her own punches and kicks when she could but she was focusing on evasion right now. Annabelle kept the area in mind though and she knew where the door was so Annabelle suddenly backflipped backwards, flipped over the door, grabbed onto it and then she rushed the monster again. The Monster thrusted its claws forward again and she used the metal door as a shield only for The Monster to plunge its claws straight through it! She backed off and then she flipped over it while The Monster was distracted by tearing the door apart. Annabelle landed behind it, backflipped again, put sufficient distance between them and then she knelt down and smiled. The Monster turned around to face her again but it was too slow and Annabelle rushed it with a Speed Boost, slammed into the monster, and carried it through the air until they flew into the previous tunnel that was lined with machine guns! Annabelle let it go and sent it flying down the tunnel until it was smashed into the door leading to the flamethrower room! The Monster smashed its hands against the walls and it stood right back up and squared off with her as the machine guns began spraying both of them. But that was part of Annabelle's plan. Not only would this give her some good intel as to whether or not these things were completely bulletproof but just in case the prisoners she'd be rescuing needed to escape through here, it would be a good idea if the guns were either destroyed or empty. Same with the flamethrowers. Besides, the more hits and flames she hit the more energy she'd build up. That would important when she decided to obliterate this entire mountain base. 

Annabelle watched as The Monster approached her and the bullets bounced off of it. It did seem to slow down a bit from the constant barrage but it was still coming at her. That was good. This would give her an advantage. Annabelle closed in on The Monster and she began exchanging punches with it once again. The Monster attacked her with a ruthless relentless onslaught of punches, swipes and claw slashes while Annabelle dodged and weaved around his punches while retaliating with her own, unleashing a series of thunderous punches at The Monster's midsection. Each strike reverberated through the tunnels like cannon fire even above the constant barrage of gunfire endlessly hosing them both! But, The Monster was able to withstand the brutal assault and retaliated with a sudden metal uppercut that caught her jaw and sent her flying backwards across the tunnel until she hit her head on the upper part of the doorway on the far end of the tunnel. She landed on her feet and groaned as she rubbed her jaw. The Monster wasn't about to let her run away however and it fired its right hand on her on a long chain! Annabelle saw it coming however and she raised up her arm and let it latch onto her. The Monster's arm quickly retracted and she leaped towards her while pulling her other arm back and their punches collided so hard that an air burst shockwave erupted from the collision that briefly pushed the bullets around them off course and pushed Annabelle away from it. She recovered and unleashed a barrage of thunderous lightning fast punches on its helmet until she finally managed to knock it off of its face to reveal the monstrous mechanical face of The Monster. Its face was a twisted metal replication of a face with its 'mouth' wide open in a Cheshire Cat Grin and a single shining glowing hellish red eye staring at her. Annabelle smiled and she continued to bob and weave around its attacks before knocking its arm aside and lunging in to finish it only for The Monster to release a wide spray of flames from a built in flamethrower in its mouth! Annabelle stepped back from surprise as the flames washed over, engulfed her, consumed her. The Monster immediately seized this chance to grab onto Annabelle and it began viciously assaulting her. She was being smashed and crashed into the floor and walls around her with a wild raging berserk ferocity! 

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

Annabelle gritted her teeth and withstood the relentless assaults. During the attack however she reached into the wall, grabbed onto a gun and pulled it out of the wall and then she began repeatedly hitting the monster with it in retaliation while hitting it with her own punches and then she kicked out at it and forced it to release her! Annabelle landed on her feet and stumbled backwards and she sucked in air. While taking her breath in, Annabelle looked at the broken remains of the gun and she fell against a wall, grabbed onto a gun and tore it out of the wall as well, tossed it into the air, caught it and then she began attacking The Monster with it again. The gun was quickly broken down but the impacts made it fall back and then she tossed it aside, leaned back and drove a vicious haymaker into its chest that landed so hard it sent it flying backwards again, through the metal door behind it and into the flamethrower room! Annabelle took a breather, recovered, rolled her shoulders and then she ran into the fight again, leaped at it, leaped into the inferno, and she cracked it across its metal face once again! She landed on her feet and resumed her attack. Despite being surrounded by flames now she just flat out began laying into it with a vicious boxing combination of her own, absolutely hammering it!

The result was a brutal savage fist fight between her and the monster among the flames surrounding them. Their fists collided in a deafening clash that reverberated through the room. Each blow sent shockwaves across their surroundings as they fought tooth and nail for supremacy. Annabelle screamed in rage as she continued slamming her fists into The Monster who only replied with metallic screeching while lunging at her with lightning speed, grappling her and forcing her backwards into the wall so hard that she was smashed into the flamethrower hard enough to crumple it and cause it to explode! The resulting fireball scorched her back but Annabelle managed to withstand it and focus on the fight. She repeatedly punched The Monster until it stumbled backwards and released her. Annabelle then used a Speed Burst to SLAM herself into it and smash The Metal Monster into the wall and the flamethrowers behind it! The impact shook the room and caused pieces of the ceiling to fall down onto them alongside the dust and pebbles mixing with the pieces of the wall exploding out on them with the flames. She pressed it further into the wall and then she pulled it out, swung it into the opposite wall, and threw it at it! The Monster smashed into the wall face first and then Annabelle leaped onto it, pulled its head back, and then she began repeatedly smashing The Monster's head into the wall with savagery nearly matching what The Monster displayed when it was ragdolling her earlier! She smashed its head into the wall again and again, over and over, more and more, in a brutal savage manner until she felt something tearing across her leg and Annabelle dropped it and fell over onto her back and screamed as she grabbed her leg. "AHHHHHHHHH! Wh-what the hell?!" She tried to figure out what was wrong with her leg but it was hard to see it properly through the flames obscuring her vision. She could at least tell that something had indeed cut into her. That was definitely new...she couldn't remember the last time she fought someone that could cut her like that! She gritted her teeth and began pulling herself up to her feet. Or at least she tried because she was having trouble standing up with that wound on her leg. She tried to figure out what was going on. There was...something there. Something she could just about hear over The Monster's flailing and thunderous footsteps and the flames. Something was...spinning and...grinding....some kind of saw...a mini-saw? Wait, no, that wasn't the word...a buzzsaw? Did The Monster have a fucking buzzsaw in its arm? Was that what cut her? It had to be! But it didn't matter. So she had a cut on her leg. SO WHAT?! She could still fight! This wouldn't stop her! It hurt like hell but she could withstand it. Annabelle backed away while favoring her injured leg and keeping her fist up. "Is that all you got? Come on already! Come and get me!"


The battle raged on, with both combatants unleashing their full force upon each other, crashing into walls and shaking the cavern with each blow. The Monster was finally starting to weaken, but Annabelle was also feeling the toll of the fight. The Monster's attacks were excruciatingly painful, each one feeling like a high-speed car collision. Its saw blade sliced through her, while the room grew hotter and smoke filled the air, making it difficult to see and breathe. All of this on top of the week she spent without sleep fighting for every inch of ground she gained. Even for Annabelle it was a Herculean undertaking and she was finally starting to feel the effects of the war. But she would not, could not, give up. There were still people here. People who needed her help. People who were counting on her to save them. She could not give up. She could not surrender. No matter how incredibly hard this was. No matter how bad of a beating she was taking. No matter the pain exploding from her body from every hit or the blood spraying from her wounds, Annabelle could not surrender. So she just kept punching him. She kept hammering him. She kept smashing him against the walls and floor and The Monster at last began to breakdown from the beating she was giving it and the rising heat around them. In desperation The Monster released its chain claw again. Grabbing onto her face and sending her flying backwards across the cavern. She slammed into the wall and then it retracted the claw but Annabelle broke the chain, flipped over The Monster, turned it around and forcibly slammed The Monster's claw hand into its face as hard as she could! The metallic claws broke through its eye in an explosion of sparks and circuitry and The Monster stumbled backwards and fell down on its back. Annabelle immediately seized the chance to jump on top of it and drive her fist into the claw again and smash the claw through other side of its head and destroy it. The Monster spasmed briefly and then it went still.  

She'd done it again. She'd killed another one of them. She hurt like hell and she felt like shit but she'd defeated another one of Silvio's Monsters. Annabelle stood up, coughing and hacking from the smoke that now completely surrounded her, and then she slumped against the wall and began feeling across it. Finding a flamethrower, she ripped it out of the wall and threw it to the ground and then she began fumbling around for the others and she began ripping the others out of the wall and she smashed them down to the ground and then she stumbled out of the room in a blind haze.

-

She eventually stopped and fell to the ground in another cavern and she rolled around to put out the flames. It took her a while but she was eventually able to snuff them out. She stood up gasping for breath, took a few steps and then she collapsed on the ground again, still coughing and gasping and desperately sucking in air. She was bloody and bruised and burned from her fight with The Monster, her costume was likely as scorched as her body, and the best thing she could do right now was stay there and wait for her wounds to heal before she continued. Two down. Two down. She'd already defeated two of Silvio's Monsters. They were strong as hell, certainly giving her the best fights she'd had in years, but she'd managed to do it. It didn't matter how many more there were. She would smash them and everything else in her way to save the captives and get them out of here. Then she would go find Silvio, punch HIS head off, and then she would obliterate this whole damn hellhole laboratory and burn it down to ashes. But first she needed to recover. She felt pain in her chest, she felt pain in her arms and in her mind. She tried the best she could to block out the pain, to find some form of meditative trance in order to cope with the agonizing sensations, but nothing came to mind. Blood dripped from her wounds and every muscle in her body ached from the pain and burns she'd endured. She squeezed her eyes shut tight and her face turned into a grimace. Swallowing the pain and ignoring it the best she could was her only option right now until her body finished mending itself. It took a while but she gradually felt a warm sensation spread throughout her body like a soothing balm had been applied to her wounds. She felt a surge of energy coursing through her veins as if an invisible force embraced her, mending every wound and revitalizing her weary spirit.  The deep gashes on her body sealed shut with barely a trace left behind. Broken bones realigned themselves with audible cracks as they fused back together seamlessly. The burns faded away replaced with healthy new flesh. Her bruises faded away until there wasn't a single mark left to remind her of the brutal battle that just took place.  


"Ohhhh yeah, that's better." She coughed a couple of times and then stopped, wiped her mouth, and then she stood back up to continue the mission. But first....there was one last thing to take care of.

-

After she finished ripping the guns out of the walls and discarding all but one of them she continued to descend further into the laboratory. Dragging one of the broken guns with her as a club.

Silvio wasted no time before speaking up once more, reaching out to her through the intercom. "Absolutely remarkable, my dear Fraulein. It would be an extraordinary accomplishment for any human to defeat even one of my creations. But to conquer two? Astonishing! Annabelle, you have exceeded all expectations and truly impressed me."

"Compliments appreciated, Silvio, but I'm still going to tear your head off when I find you." 

"You are more than welcome to take your chance if you make it that far. In the meantime, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me." 

"Ask away."

"You have endured more pain and anguish than any human should ever have to endure. Why do you subject to all this suffering?  "You could have chosen an easier path, you know. You could have lived a normal life without all of this agony or even forgotten about these insects and lived your life as a Queen that stands above the teeming masses. Yet, here you are: One woman against an army of monsters from out of your worst nightmares. Why? What exactly is it that you fight for?"

"Damn you're stupid. You really don't understand a thing about me do you? I'm not better than humans just because I have Superpowers. Right now, in this War and the last, there are people all over the world doing their damnedest to make the world a better place, to pull off feats that others would consider impossible, without powers. The fact that I have them just means that I'm obligated to put in that much more effort to end this war and save whoever I can. If that means I have to wipe out you bastards and your Monsters? Then so be it. I may be just one person against all odds, but I believe that every act of kindness and bravery can make a difference in this world. And that is worth fighting for. Oh, and one more thing, Silvio, about your little monsters? Motherfucker...you haven't seen my nightmares. So I'll tell you what: Send all of them. Everything you've got. All of your little pets and puppets."

"Interesting, interesting, do you really wish to fight all of them at once? Even with your magnificent abilities that would be an impossible challenge."

"I've killed two of your Monsters and several puppets. So yeah. I want to go ahead and kill the rest. You have control of them, right? So send them to meet me. You guide me to where they are and then sit back in your little hidey hole and watch me tear them apart." Annabelle challenged.

There was a momentary pause before he burst out laughing. His voice echoing out of the intercom in a dark distorted raspy cackle that echoed all around her as Annabelle continued trudging forward. After he finally calmed down and regained his composure he spoke up to her again. "Is that your challenge? Are you really so confident that you think that you can fight all of them at once?" 

"Of course. Besides, it would take too long to track all of them down. So just bring them all together at once so I can dismantle them all at once."

Another raspy cackle echoed all around her before he spoke up again. "Alright. Alright. Okay. I'll take that bet. I'll gladly lead you to your death. Show me exactly how powerful you truly are, Miss Ruby."

"Gladly." Annabelle replied with a wicked smile. (Oh Good this will save me time. Saving all of the prisoners with the monsters still running around would've been problematic. This way I can clear out all of them at once and then find the prisoners and get them out of here. It won't be easy, just two of those monsters one-on-one were extremely difficult, but I can't risk the prisoners being attacked by those things. I might not be able to fight AND protect them at the same time in that case. So eliminating them all at once is just the easiest solution.) Annabelle took a deep breath, slowly blew it out, and began mentally preparing herself for the fight.

 

This place was a damn maze, an entire underground labyrinth, and Annabelle hated to admit it but she would've been lost completely without instructions. That was not to say however that she wouldn't be able to find her way back buuuut since she didn't have any way to mark herself she jabbed her hand into the wall and carved arrows into the cavern. This would allow Annabelle to not only find her way back just in case the Kraut was trying to fuck her over but also give the prisoners a way back in the event that he was telling the truth. Either way, the biggest things he needed to worry about right now was the monsters. Regardless, she continued to follow the instructions blaring overhead as she traversed the tunnels and carved the arrows into the walls around her. Tunnel after tunnel after tunnel. It was a winding path but she continued running through them. The good news about taking her time like this was it gave her more than enough time to recover from the fight. Her wounds were healed and her stamina had returned to her so she was ready to fight. It gave her time to strategize. The monsters were strong, at the very least close to her levels of power, and that last one's weapons had somehow been sharp enough to wound her so she would need to watch out for those. After dealing with two of them, she'd come to realize that she would need to focus on her speed and agility against them, wear them down, break them down and take them out. Then there was The Puppets. Annabelle knew she could deal with them easily enough but she would have to be sure that they wouldn't slow her down when fighting The Monsters. Speaking of which, there was no real telling what else he would send out to fight her so she would have to be extra careful.

The most immediate problem was that the dark feeling from before was coming back to her. That sensation, that presence, she felt before was back and it was stronger than before. Annabelle wasn't mistaken earlier. There was something evil in here with her. It wasn't fear or dread of a looming battle, no, this was something evil. There was some kind of evil spirit inside of the mountain. She wasn't sure if it was Silvio, or something inside of him, or something...wait. Wait! That was it! That gunk, or oil, or tar, or whatever the hell it was! That had to be it! That shit was not natural. It made her sick when it covered her. Just like the poison gas cloud from earlier but...worse. Like it didn't belong in the world with them. She had to find out what it was and dispose of it. Silvio would be the one working on it, right? So she would need to force him to tell him about what it was. A few broken bones would go a long way to getting her the information she needed. He also would have kept notes and files about it, whatever it was, so she would need to find and read and those to find out more information about it.

One thing at a time though! She had some monsters to kill! Annabelle kept on running until she emerged into a larger wide open cavern with several entrances and staircases leading every which way. "...Oh what the fuck? How is this even in a...what the hell's...ugh! Fucking lunatic." She groaned.

"Hey Asshole! Which way?!" She called out to Silvio.

"You know we'd work much better together if you would refer to me as Professor. I'd like you to work on that while you're getting your head stomped into the ground."

"I'd like you to remove your head from your ass but I don't see that happening anytime soon!"

"Fraulein, I have never once said this about any of my test subjects, but I am going to enjoy watching you die screaming. Take the middle path and keep running through it until you find your way into The Arena."

"You test your subjects in there often?"

"Often, yes, but I specifically prepared it for you. For the day I test my wonderful creations against you in a fight to the death."

"Then your wish is about to come true. Congratulations. Sit back and enjoy bitch. Because I'm going to absolutely dismantle all of them."

"By all means, Fraulein, continue your blissful little dream. My wonderful creations will beat you back into reality."

"Now who's dreaming?" Annabelle scoffed as she jumped down to the ground in front of the stairs and she hit the ground running, paused to carve more arrows into the cave wall, and then she kept running down the long lengthy path until she finally emerged out to behold a massive sprawling wide open stadium arena. It was a massive cavern that appeared to have somehow been hollowed out and a ceiling, lights, seats and multiple entrances. The seats were filled with an army of German Soldiers all of whom simultaneously stood up and applauded Annabelle as she entered! Lights flashed on and a whole army of The Monsters and Puppets emerged from the entrances on the other end. 

"Now this...this is more like it." Annabelle responded with a smile as she walked into the middle of the arena. She punched her hand into her fist as she beheld the small army of monsters he'd prepared for her. These Monsters...even just one-on-one had given her serious trouble and now she was staring down a whole entire group of them.  This was going to be one hell of a fight.

Annabelle rolled her shoulders and neck and pumped her fists to get ready and then she full on ran towards the enemies. The Monsters didn't hesitate to engage her in return and their clash began in the middle of the arena. She crashed into the Monster with enough force that their combined clash shook the air around them! The Puppets stumbled but got their footing right back, The Monsters didn't even budge from the force and the soldiers were knocked off their feet but they recovered. The lights flickered overhead as the dust flew into the air. Annabelle managed to push The Monster back a few feet but it recovered and attempted to slam its arms down on her but Annabelle jumped back to avoid it leaving the monsters large metal arms to smash into the floor. The ground trembled from the force of the impacts but Annabelle kept kept her footing upon landing and then she ran back over to it and leaped into the air and drove her right fist into the side of its head!

The clanging of fist against steel echoed through the cave and the monster turned its head and thus its body from the force of the impact while Annabelle kept right on moving towards another one of them! This one immediately attacked her with a barrage of quick piston powered punches releasing sprays of steam from its arms as the punches fired into her like machine gun fire. The punches weren't quite as strong as the punches from the earlier cyborgs but they were coming at a much faster rate as the monster rapidly advanced on her to release an endless onslaught of relentless punches that continuously forced her backwards until Annabelle crossed her arms in front of her chest to block the constant hammering of punches but they just kept coming at her! Aimed at her face and stomach and chest while Annabelle did her best to block them until she switched tactics and threw herself backwards several feet until she bumped against the far wall and she took the chance to take a quick breather and rub her chest and stomach and shake out her arms.

The Monsters weren't interested in letting up on her though and another one stepped up and sprayed her with a flamethrower! Despite the pain she was feeling after the piston punch barrage she still had to keep fighting so she quickly dodge out of the way! The flame kept right on going and lit up the wall where she'd just been standing and covered the wall with flames. The Monster slowly turned off its flamethrower and the others advanced on her while Annabelle got up to her feet and paused to catch her breath from the damage she took from that earlier attack.

She knew that she'd heal soon but the assault she'd just endured still hurt like hell all the same. They weren't letting up though and they kept attacking! One of them shot out its claw on a chain to grab her while she was recovering and grabbed her arm and yanked her through the air towards it while another Monster revealed a fucking chainsaw blade and swiped at her head! Annabelle immediately fell back and ducked down and slid underneath it! With the others still closing in and that particular monster now pursuing her, Annabelle knew she had to act fast! She allowed The Monster to continue to drag her while she found her footing and then she lunged at him while cocking back her fist and delivering a brutal haymaker into its chest that forced it backwards across the floor and forced it release her.

That was when another one of them came charging in from her left, barreled into her and sideswiped Annabelle and threw her through the air like a softball until she smashed into the far wall, crashed into it and made a hole into the cave wall and dropped to the ground. She coughed a few times causing the dust around her to spray away. Another painful hit like every strike these Monsters unleashed on her. But it wouldn't be enough to defeat Annabelle or put her down. She was made of stronger material than that. She grimaced and dragged herself up to her feet, throwing the bits of stone rubble off of her back and she stood tall once again and raised her fists. 

"Is that all you've got?" 

Obviously The Monsters didn't respond but they continued advancing towards her which said more than words ever could. Annabelle responded in turn and ran towards them and she drove her fist into the first one she ran into, knocked it back, kept running, struck another one, dodged a swipe from another one, dodged another one and then she kicked another one and pushed it back. Another one, a hulking armored beast with several drills and bladed weapons plugged into its large arm barreled towards her and began swiping and swinging at while Annabelle dodged around it and then she backflipped away from it to put some distance between them. She landed on her feet and then another one cam rushing towards her and Annabelle actually had to do a double-take at it to double-check what she was looking at: A giant mess of flesh and mechanical parts and a giant engine with a high speed propeller in place of its upper torso! (WHAT THE HELL?! WHY IS THAT A THING?!) She internally demanded.

She didn't have time to finishing processing the appearance of the monster though because it was coming in fast! Annabelle super jumped clean over it and got a good look at the back of its legs which had smaller engines installed in its legs. That explained its speed at least but it didn't look like that particular Monster had much intelligence or it was able to stop and then it kept right on running until it hit the wall, tore up the chunks of the cave wall and then it slowly pulled itself back out and turned around while its blades continued to chew up the wall.

Annabelle landed on her feet and then another one of The Monsters' tackled her to the ground hard enough to smash her into the floor! The Monster didn't give her a chance to breathe however and it began furiously swiping and clawing at her forcing Annabelle to quickly grab onto its wrists and they began struggling with each other until Annabelle was able to throw it off and spring back to her feet only for another one to strike her and send her flying into the wall. She slammed into it and then dropped down on one knee before she recovered and got ready for more fighting with The Monsters. The next one floated into the air and flew towards her with a jetpack like device and artificial wings that emerged from its back!

The Monster attempted to stab into her head with a sword arm but she dodged the attack and kicked it backwards through the air and sent it flying backwards. She landed back on the ground and another Monster attacked her with a pair of giant scissors attached to each of its hands. Annabelle quickly backed off from the snipping and slashing Scissors Monster and dodged its attacks until another one attacked her from the side and she got out of the way.

This dodge however put her right in the crosshairs of another Monster with a pair of giant maces for hands and another one close by with a giant hammer! The hammer Monster immediately reared back and swung down at her so Annabelle got out of the way leaving its massive hammer to hit the floor of the arena instead! The impact of the attack making a large hole in the floor that kicked up dust and bits of rocks everywhere as the chamber shook around them! Annabelle rolled to her feet and was immediately attacked by the other one with the spiked maces for hands so she went on the evasion, bobbing and weaving around The Monster's attacks, slipping and dodging its wild swings until she could take its side, grabs its arm, force it down and then she punched it in the side to knock it off of its feet and sent it flying towards the others.

Hammer attacked her again however so Annabelle once again dodged out of the way to evade its hammer followed by leaping into the air to avoid being knocked off of her feet and turned that into a flying dropkick that launched it away! It crashed into some of the others and Annabelle landed back on her feet and she continued her strategy of dodging and evading around The Monsters while hitting them back and then moving on to attacking the others. There were certainly a LOT of them but she could manuever around them easily and wear them down this way. She just hoped she didn't drop first.

While she was preoccupied however the Puppets all silently watched and observed the battle and how Annabelle was moving around the battlefield as they took their positions, took aim, charged up their guns and waited. Annabelle continued clashing with the forces of evil until she was able to knock a few of them away. She was about to move against the others when she heard the humming sounds behind her. (The Hell?) She turned around to face what she thought would be new enemies only to see lightning bolts striking through the air! Annabelle was struck in the chest by a couple of the bolts and found herself suddenly screaming in pain as the lightning bolts crackled and arced around her body! Her body was absorbing the energy but she still took the damage when it hit her all the same and now she was being blasted by multiple lightning bolts all at once! It was unlike anything she'd ever experienced before!

Annabelle's body twitched and spasmed as the electricity was poured into her in a constant stream! The pain was excruciating but Annabelle would not let this stop her or take it lying down. She grimaced and raised her head back up and she began forcing her body to stand back up but then she was struck aside by another one of The Monsters and sent flying through the air and another one of them struck her while she was mid-flight and sent her flying upwards into the wall! Annabelle crashed into the wall, smashed into it, and then she dropped down to the floor of the cavern. After that The Flamethrower Monster immediately stepped up and sprayed her with flames!

The Flamethrower Monster advanced on Annabelle while it continued to hose her with its weapon until Annabelle suddenly burst out of the flames, accelerated across the cavern, crashed into The Monster, tackled it across the arena and smashed into the far wall! Despite being covered head to toe in the flames that now surrounded her, Annabelle nevertheless began absolutely hammering it with a barrage of heavy punches before she ended her combination with a punch to its head that knocked it to the ground! Annabelle then stomped on its back and found the back of its flamethrower and grinned wickedly. "Heeee\~ey! Do you wanna go boom-boom?!" She asked and smashed her burning fists into it, lifted it up and threw it across the arena towards the other Monsters where it exploded in a massive fireball that consumed a few of them, knocked over the others and blasted back the Puppets and the Soldiers! Annabelle laughed at the destruction and then she began walking towards the others while still covered in flames.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!! AHAHAHAHA!! HOW'S THAT FEEL HUH? HOW'S THAT FUCKING FEEL? COME ON AND GET YOUR ASSES UP YOU PUPPETS! IT'S TIME TO DANCE WITH THE DEVIL!"

The soldiers' ears were ringing loudly as they coughed and struggled to recover from the shock of the sudden explosion. The roar, echoing off the cave walls, had shaken them all. Their minds were reeling in shock and confusion from the unexpected blast. But there was more weighing on them—a sense of abject dread and horror. The American was not yet dead. The Monsters, possessing inhuman strength beyond mortal capabilities, were fighting her as a team, something the soldiers had never witnessed before. Yet, she was not dead. She continued to fight. Each time they struck her with a blow that would have been fatal for an ordinary human, she rose again.

The advanced weaponry, crafted by the Professor, which they had seen scorching through the flesh of men, had been unleashed upon her. Still, she withstood it and fought on. Now, set ablaze, she battled like a demon from hell itself! They had all heard the tales of the American Girl, America's Super Soldier, The Devil Woman, The Walking Wasteland, The Guardian Angel—she had many names, spoken since the first World War and throughout the current conflict. They had usually scoffed at the stories, dismissing them as nonsense or gross exaggerations... until she appeared at the mountain's doorstep, having decimated the entire military base outside. Then, all the legends resurfaced, and they confronted the embodiment of terror. For one never truly comprehends the dread and fear of facing The Super Soldier until witnessing her in action. If there was a God looking down upon The Earth then he must be smiling upon them as his Avenging Angel took them apart. The Angel Of Wrath, in the form of an American Super Soldier, had arrived to dispense judgment upon them all.

One of the soldiers gasped for breath as American Girl lifted him up into the air by his throat with her burning blazing hand, took his gun with the other one and snapped his neck before discarding him. It was time to start thinning the heard. First she'd eliminate the soldiers since they'd be the easiest to take out and she didn't want any of them getting out. Next, she'd use the high ground to gun down the scientist puppets, steal their lightning weapons and then use those to wipe out the rest of the monsters. It was the most efficient way to take them all out. The puppets and monsters wouldn't stop fighting until they were all dead but the soldiers could potentially escape and kill the prisoners so she had to eliminate them first. She immediately began opening fire on the scattered downed soldiers and started gunning them down on the spot. The soldiers screamed as the bullets drilled through their bodies.

While she was occupied with this however one of the monsters righted itself and raised up a hose like device on its arm that was attached to a large tank on its back. The hose device was activated and it began spraying the black sludge from before towards the stands. Fortunately for Annabelle, she heard it coming and had enough time to turn around and see it coming! Her eyes widened in shock as she recognized it well from her fight with the first monster. She immediately dived out of the way and sailed across the stands. She reached out towards the wall, planted her hand against it and then she jumped down to the ground again. Annabelle landed on her feet and looked back up at the stands as the soldiers, all of them, either standing or not, were thoroughly hosed down with it. (What the hell? What's it doing to them?) She questioned. (When that shit got all over me it felt like I was sick and I was dying like I was going to puke but I'm a Superhuman. What kind of effect will it have on normal-SHIT!)

She leaped up into the air to dodge out of the way of the lightning blast. She managed to evade it but then the others aimed up at her and fired at her with the other Lightning Guns. The lightning blasts streaked through the air but she managed to dodge it by kicking off of the wall and accelerating herself across the cave towards another wall. On the way though she saw the soldiers wriggling and writhing on the stands as they screamed their lungs out. Change of plans then. She had to bring it down hard right now. If that thing was hosing those guys down so thoroughly while she was still such a clear and present threat to them then it likely had a very good reason and she didn't want to find out what it was. She planted against the wall with her hands out stretched to stop herself and then she sprung off of it to kick The Sprayer in the back and send it flying into a wall. She landed on her feet as the soldiers began slowly standing up while still writhing and wriggling as they twitched and spasmed uncontrollably. They began gurgling and snarling and gnashing their teeth like animals!

"What...the...hell?" Annabelle asked in shock as she watched this all happen in front of her. Then she heard the sounds of gears turning and chains being pulled as the gates were raised up. "Now what?" She asked as she raised her fists up ready for the next enemy. Her answer came in the form of a cacophony of snarling and roaring and screaming from an onrushing hoard reanimated corpses bursting out of the gates in an onrushing wave of bodies! "WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE NOW?!" She demanded and leaped backwards to give herself some distance as she adjusted to the new threat. She looked at the creatures and then up at the sprayed soldiers who were now leaping down to the cave floor now completely out of their minds. She stared at the onrushing hoards got ready to fight the new threats. (It's that gunk! That sludge! That...whatever the hell it is! That stuff is used for the monsters and it must've also been used to create whatever these things are just like the soldiers it just hosed down.

Which means...which means...every single one of these things....every single one...was one a human being. Just like the pawns. Just like the machines. Every single one of them was once a human being until Silvio ripped it away from them and turned them all into these abominations!) She gritted her teeth and tightly squeezed her hands into her fists. A red light began swirling around her fists as her anger this atrocity surged to the surface once again. She screamed and ran back into battle once more to strike them down and set them free. Silvio would pay. No matter what happened to her down here she would make absolutely certain to tear his goddamned heart out! But first...first she would set these people free and finally allow them to rest in the afterlife.

The Zombies rushed her head-on in an enraged blind fury. Their faces were contorted in rage. Their eyes glowing faintly. They charged her, far faster than a normal human, let alone one in their condition, should be able to move. These creatures, these beings that had once been human, had lost all semblance of rational thought and it was replaced by an uncontrollable and violent fury. Annabelle could feel it radiating off of them. The blind rage, the fury, the crazed blind bloodlust, like something inside of them was driving them into a state of absolute berserk violence. It wasn't just the new ones either. The ones who'd just been sprayed were feeling the exact same blind rage! So Annabelle now had to deal with dozens of raging maniacs, the machine monsters and the marionettes. If it wasn't for her own rage building and the awareness that this might very well be exactly how she looks when she's in her berserker mode she might've found some form of amusement in how utterly bizarre the situation really was. For now though she was focusing on the horror in front of her.

The Presence was back. The same darkness she'd sensed the moment she stepped into this hell had returned stronger than before. It was everywhere now. It was pressing down on her. It felt like it was weighing down every inch of her body. She felt a sense of dread in her heart now as the sensation of fear built up within her mixing with the boiling rage and threatened to push her completely over the edge into her own ballistic rage but she pushed it down. Annabelle focused on the task at hand and braced herself for the attack. She met the oncoming horde of maniacs. She was still on fire, her hands were glowing with power and she was ready to end this battle.

Annabelle struck first and cracked one of the corpses square in the face and sent it flying back into the horde behind it. A few of them were caught and knocked down but the others were completely unfazed and just kept charging her. She turned around and cracked one of them in the face while hoping to nail the one next to it only for the creature to inhumanly twist its torso to duck under her punch, its body snaking around her attack like a liquid! With a fluid roll the creature slipped around her and attacked her from behind only to be met with a brutal kick to its torso that sent it flying away. She put her foot down and immediately went back on the attack against the creatures swarming around her now charging over each other like a tidal wave of flesh all of them snarling and snapping their jaws madly while flailing with their arms and twisting their bodies with serpent-like grace slipping from each other and flowing over each other like a vision of hell closing in all around her. Annabelle quickly backflipped out of the closing horde, flipped herself back across the chamber, kicked off of the wall, landed on the floor and then she crouched down, held her fists out in front of her and then she rocketed herself towards the horde and smashed her burning body and energy fists into the horde. Several of them were blasted across the cavern as a result but the rest recovered and retaliated by surrounding Annabelle and closing in on her.

Annabelle twisted in place, dodging a clawed swipe from one of the twisted soldiers while delivering a devastating elbow to the side of another’s skull. The thing’s head snapped to the side with a sickening *crack*, but it barely reacted, only staggering for a second before lunging at her again, its jaw unhinging like a snake’s.

Her body burned—not just from the lingering flames clinging to her suit but from the electricity still crackling beneath her skin. She could feel the aftershocks surging through her nervous system, making her limbs spasm slightly with every sudden move. But she pushed past it. Pain was secondary.

She drove a fist into the lunging zombie’s open maw, shattering its jaw entirely, then spun on her heel, catching another with a high kick that sent it sailing into the mass of incoming bodies. They were everywhere now—grabbing at her, clawing, snapping their jaws in an animalistic frenzy.

One of the newly converted soldiers—its uniform still tattered and smoking from the explosion—lunged at her with inhuman speed, wrapping its arms around her midsection in a bear hug, its strength unnatural, monstrous. Annabelle gritted her teeth and flexed, forcing her arms outward in a powerful burst that sent the creature’s body ripping apart at the seams. It screamed, more from instinct than pain, as its torso split open and it collapsed into two twitching halves.

The rest didn’t hesitate. They piled onto her, a wave of grotesque bodies pressing her down to the cavern floor. Hands clawed at her hair, her arms, her legs. Nails—some human, some metallic—dug into her flesh, trying to pin her, trying to hold her still. Annabelle roared, her muscles surging with power, and then—BOOM!m A shockwave blasted outward from her body, sending corpses and cyborgs alike flying through the air. The ground cracked beneath her from the force. Some of the creatures hit the cavern walls so hard their bodies exploded on impact. Others were sent tumbling like ragdolls across the arena floor.

She shot up to her feet, her eyes glowing red with fury, the flames around her flaring hotter than before.

But before she could capitalize on her momentary advantage, the lights flickered again. A loud, mechanical *clank* echoed through the cavern as something massive shifted within the factory walls. The heavy metal doors at the far end of the chamber slid open with an agonizing *grind*.

Annabelle took a step back, fists raised, heart pounding.

And then she saw it.

Emerging from the darkness was something much larger than the rest. A towering thing, a fusion of rusted iron, mechanical tubing, and *raw, pulsating flesh*. Its body was stitched together from multiple corpses, twisted and reshaped into something barely recognizable as human. It had four arms—two massive, piston-driven limbs ending in crushing metal fists, and two skeletal arms that still bore remnants of tattered Nazi officer uniforms, their fingers elongated into jagged claws. At the center of its stitched-together chest, buried deep within the pulsing mass of flesh and wires, was a single, beating heart. A human heart.

Annabelle felt her own heartbeat hammering in her ears as the creature raised its grotesque head. It had three faces. One was human—pale, twisted into an eternal scream, its eyes wide and unblinking. The second was a metal-plated skull, one eye socket filled with a dimly glowing red lens. The third… the third was a gas mask, warped and fused to a rotten skull, its filters wheezing as if still trying to breathe.

The creature exhaled. A long, shuddering breath. And then it charged.

Annabelle barely had time to brace before it was on her. The cavern floor shook beneath its thunderous steps. It swung one of its massive metal fists—Annabelle dodged, barely, the sheer force of the strike sending a shockwave through the air that cracked the stone floor beneath them. She spun low, aiming to take out its legs, but one of its skeletal arms lashed out, clawed fingers raking across her back. Sparks flew from the impact as its sharpened talons tore through the fabric of her suit, slicing across her flesh. Annabelle gritted her teeth against the pain and retaliated. She lunged upward, fist cocked back, and drove it straight into the creature’s central heart.

CRACK!

The impact was solid—too solid. The flesh around the heart rippled, but the organ itself barely reacted. Instead, the thing *laughed*—a twisted, warbling noise that echoed from all three of its mouths.

And then it slammed its metal fist into her chest. Annabelle felt her ribs shatter as she was launched backward. She hit the cavern wall so hard the rock fractured around her. Blood bubbled in her throat, and for a moment, everything went dark. The world around her blurred. Her vision swam. She could hear the footsteps—heavy, relentless. The monster was coming for her. The other creatures, the twisted soldiers and berserk zombies, were closing in again.

Her mind screamed at her to move, but her body felt slow, sluggish. She had to do something. She had to end this. Annabelle’s fingers twitched. Her breath came in ragged, uneven bursts. And then—deep inside her core—she felt it. The red light. It flared within her, hotter than ever before. Annabelle opened her eyes. And they were glowing.

A grin slowly spread across her bloodied lips. "Alright, you ugly bastard." she growled, rolling her shoulders as the energy built up inside her. The flames around her body burned hotter, but this time, they weren’t just flames. They were *something more*. "Show me what you've got." Red lightning arced around her form. She stepped forward. Then she launched herself straight at the abomination, a crimson comet of pure, concentrated rage. The battle was far from over.

It was just getting started.