Six months had passed since I had moved to Dusklight. Six months filled with mercenary work and struggle, interspersed with moments of peace. Six months, in which I had started building a name for myself. Oddington had given me the moniker “Tamer”, due to my relationship with Century. “Summoner” and “Daemon Master” were labels I found myself having outside of Oddington, during the odd job here and there. One notorious gang, The Church of Delvers, had labelled me “Pact Binder”. I only heard that one third hand, having never had the distinct pleasure of working with the Delvers. And by pleasure I of course mean creep factor up to a thousand.
It felt weird, having a tiny amount of notoriety, enough for people to request me specifically, but not enough where I could pick and choose what jobs I took.
Which nicely leads to where I had found myself that day. A sawed-off shotgun strapped to my lower back, a handgun at my hip and a rifle in hand, standing opposite Joseph in front of a door. Joseph had managed to snag himself some ballistic protection, the ceramic plates on his shoulders and chest making him appear bigger than he already was, while the kevlar covered the rest of him. He had painted a pink triangle over where his heart was, as a dare to others and an act of reclamation for himself. He put on his helmet in short order, the faceplate and the tips of the antlers adorning it lighting up as it clicked into place, the rest of the RGB strips threaded throughout the outfit pulsing with rainbow colors.
I had thought it was a dumb tactical choice to have such visuals on his armored suit, that it made him obvious. He had thought it was campy and thus appropriate, and he pointed out he wasn’t built for stealth anyways, that Century and I were the sneaky type. I had dropped the topic back then. After all, my own helmet was modeled after Century. A helmet that I had just put on, connecting it with the much sleeker suit I wore under my normal clothes. Its eyes glowed the same ominous purple as Century’s eyes, and the inside lit up with an unrestricted view, a HUD popping up in the corner, displaying how much ammo I had left. I pulled the hood of my coat up, and let Century jump on my shoulder. “How long ago did the Ghouls grab the target?”
“Two hours ago, her girlfriend saw them grab her right outside their door, plugged something in her port, which is why Cyrillic hasn’t sent their search and rescue teams, can’t find her.” Joseph checked the ammo on his own rifle. Along with it he packed a pair of shotguns resting on his hips and a machete strapped to his lower back.
“Can’t find her, my ass, they just don’t want to bother.” I looked around the corridor until my HUD lit up a vent grate. “Century, Tom Copycat.” She leapt off towards the grate, cutting off the bars with her claws and climbing in. “If it’s only been two hours they wouldn’t have started harvesting yet.” A counter popped up. Eight people, all armed, one of them heavily. Minimal armor on all of them. “Must be a new branch, according to Century they’re all packing heat but no protection.” Even though my smile wasn’t visible through my mask, I hoped it was audible in my voice. “How about we moose-y in, Rainbow Buck?”
“I want you to know, I’ve always hated that pun.” Joseph kicked the door clean off its hinges after confessing his feelings. The two Ghouls standing guard there were shocked, and barely had time to pull up their guns before Century leapt down from the ceiling and sliced their throats with her wings, flicking off the blood as she landed. I was certain the thud of their bodies hitting the ground alerted the entire apartment, which is why I pulled one of the bodies off the ground, held them around their neck and kept them in front of me, figuring the extra inches of meat would slow down bullets. Another of the Ghouls walked into the entryway, noticing us, and I shot at them. They managed to jump around the corner.
“It’s the Fag Brigade! They got two of us already!” The Ghoul shot blindly around the corner, his hand shaking every time he moved it out of cover, but he kept missing Joseph by a mile and managed to hit the body I was carrying right above the crotch.
“Gonna get the rest of you for that, you cannibal pieces of shit!” I was projecting my voice, faking an echo, trying to make myself seem otherworldly. Carrying the body was a dumb choice, because it was a corpse, meaning it was all on me to carry the entire weight instead of just nudging the person forward. Two more Ghouls jumped into the entryway, firing at us with assault rifles. I threw the body at them, opening myself to get shot at, and a couple bullets grazed my jeans, exposing the suit underneath. The bruises were going to be a pain, but at least they were going to just be bruises. A couple bullets hit my coat, but they scrunched up on impact, bouncing off the coat. While the body flew forward Century used the cover of it to get closer, slicing at their ankles. They fell down on their knees and the body hit them both in the face, throwing them back somewhat. I fired at their chest, two bullets per Ghoul, and both of my counters went down.
“Shit, Kenny, they got another two! Get your meat here already and help!” the one behind the corner yelled. Joseph and I moved forward, and without looking Joseph fired, hitting the Ghoul right in the neck. It took a second for them to register it, a second during which blood began oozing out of the wound, bubbling from all the air that was getting trapped in it. The Ghoul reached for their neck, trying to gasp, to breathe, but all they sucked in was their own blood, blood they were currently drowning in. A door opened in the far part of the apartment, and someone who would fit much better with the Alphas stepped out. I jumped behind the couch and Joseph ran forward, his head angled to stab the Ghoul with his antlers, but the ghoul grabbed hold of them and threw him aside, sneering.
“I told you to call me Connoisseur, you worthless wingtip! Not even fit enough for stock!” the muscle referred to as Kenny roared at the Ghoul drowning in their own blood. Joseph pushed himself out of the cupboard he had landed in, groaning, the debris falling off of him.
“;Connoisseur’ and you go after a lesbian tech worker. I’d have gone for the fattened up people living up top.” Joseph squared up, and I aimed the rifle at Kenny’s head.
“Shut up, you fairy. You’re going to be excellent for steaks.” Kenny reached behind themself into the room they had come out of, and pulled out a sledgehammer reminiscent of a meat mallet. I fired at them, but they were quick enough to put the hammer in the way of my shot, deflecting the bullet. They jumped my way, their hammer held overhead, and I rolled to the side, pulling out my shotgun in the process and firing at their knee. The meat flew off first, and the bone snapped right after that, sending the musclehead tumbling down on the ground. They only stopped themself from falling down completely by using their sledgehammer as a cane, jumping around on one leg. “Good job spoiling the meat with pellets!”
“Honestly I don’t think anyone would want to eat your meat, in any sense of the word.” I aimed the shotgun up and fired, making Kenny’s jaw shatter while Kenny fell back. The counter showed two people remaining. I got off the floor, stashed away my shotgun and grabbed the rifle I dropped during my roll. The only room left to check was the bathroom, and Joseph opened the door slowly, pointing his own rifle in. I walked right up next to him and pointed my own, the two Ghouls having turned to look at us, one of them busy with a sharpie and an implant detector, standing over the person we were told to retrieve. “Alright you prion-brains, step away from the body, I already have six of your friends on my conscience and I would like to sleep peacefully tonight.” They gave each other a look when I finished speaking, reached for the ceiling, but the one with the detector started pulling his arm back. I rolled my eyes. Century walked next to them and with her tail sliced a shallow cut on their hand, making them drop the detector. “The amount of wrenches I’ve dodged numbers in the hundreds, I know the tells. Now get up, fuck off, and leave, and if I see either of you as part of the Ghouls again your faces will be choosing baby room paints with the pavement from how close they’ll be.”
“M, that one didn’t work.” Joseph said, while Century sent me a thumbs down.
“Oh do be quiet, I’m still pissed off that a gang of cannibals that kidnaps people and sells their implants had the gall to use a slur against us.” I turned to the two Ghouls. “The fuck are you two still staring at? I said LEAVE!” I made the ‘leave’ loud and echoey while turning up the brightness of my mask’s lenses to really sell the intimidation factor. The two Ghouls scurried out of the room on all fours and ran out of the apartment, leaving the three of us with a body. I checked her vitals. “Her heart’s still beating, they were marking up the top half for cuts.”
“Did we get them before they marked her thighs for hams?”
“I sure hope so, not like they’d have gotten much out of them anyway. Have none of those fucks read Hansel and Gretel?” I took off my coat and covered our target up with it, Century unplugged and sneezed, surprising all of us. “What did they put in her to make you sneeze, Cent? You don’t even have the ability to smell!” Century’s response was a gif of a black cat saying ‘If you find a white cat tomorrow it’s me.’ “Something like dust? Tsk. What kind of bullshit are the Ghouls getting their hands on?” I took a vial out of my pocket, opened it and held it near the target’s nostrils. In short order she coughed and slowly opened her eyes, waking up. She screamed as she laid her eyes on me. “Oh, right, oops, hold on.” Taking off my mask and laying it down next to me, I offered my hand. “I’m M, some Ghouls kidnapped you and your girlfriend asked us to rescue you. The one with the antlers is Joseph, and the gryphon is Century.”
“Asami.” She reluctantly took it, which made the coat slip. I helped her into it once she was up, closing it properly.
“Sorry if the material feels rough, it’s shock absorbent.” I threw my rifle to Joseph and grabbed Asami’s shoulders, leading her out. Joseph grabbed my helmet on the way.
“Wait.” She stopped. “How can I trust you two? What if you’re taking me somewhere else to be sold or something?” I rolled my eyes and started dialing a number on my phone, making sure it was set to speaker.
“M? M, did something happen? Did you find her?” Came the voice of the client, and Asami’s hand shot up to her face, tears in her eyes.
“Cara? Cara, I’m okay now! I think!” Asami spoke up, and a gasp came from my phone, followed by sobs.
“You two can finish up reuniting once I deliver Asami home, I do not want to spend a minute longer in a Ghoul nest. See you in a bit, Cara!” I hung up, and was about to walk her out of the bathroom when I realised. “Shit, hold on.” I walked around the bodies, checking the shoes of each one before I settled on a pair, took it off and dropped it in front of Asami. “Don’t want you stepping on glass or something by accident. I can see you making a face, stop that, half the shoes I wore before moving here were from corpses. If you’d rather Joseph carry you the whole way, be my guest.” She stepped in them quickly after that, and I led her downstairs, sitting her down in the back seat of my ride, which had gotten some improvements over my months of living in Dusklight. Primarily tune ups, armor plating, expanded trunk space and a special seat to make it clear Century always rode shotgun. I grabbed all the guns off of Joseph, opened the trunk and stashed them away in their designated spots, only keeping the handgun on my hip. “There, now to get you home, get paid and go get some lunch. What’re you thinking today, Joseph?”
“I wouldn’t say no to pho.”
“Know what? Me neither. Hold on tight Asami, the ride might get bumpy.” I shifted gears and drove off, dust kicking up behind me. All in all, a job well done.
Thanks for the chappy !
Thank you for the chapter.