The Rover pulled into a motel parking lot, next to a small car rental place, Amber walked in to get everyone rooms, Sam, and James would share a room, Cass, and Amber would also be sharing one. Eddy apparently preferred to sleep in the Rover. Meaning that me, and Jackson would share a room, which I expected meant he would throw stuff at me while I tried to sleep.
After putting our stuff in the room, and getting a greasy food at the diner across the street in the small town, we all gathered on the Rover, to go over plans. Amber stood there holding a piece of paper ready to get directions "okay so I'd like Cass, and James to go search in town see if any of the civilians have noticed anything weird has been happening around here". James smiled widely, and Cass nodded keeping her face from showing any emotion.
"Jackson, you and Sam will go to the warehouse, its not far, let us know what yo see when you get there". Jackson looked at me apologetically, I shrugged back, and waited for my instructions. "Eddy you will stay on the comms, and keep us updated on if HQ has any updates, as well as the other teams progression in their tasks" Eddy smiled, I was starting to realize that Eddy preferred tech to people. "John you and I will go, and check the old house where Margaret used to live, everyone meet here after you finish up". Amber said
I started to follow Amber off the bus, when I heard "your first job, Johnny, don't mess up". I stopped walking, a spark of anger started in my stomach, I turned around, and looked at Sam. I must have let a little anger slip out, with magic users, emotions can leak out through mana, if you aren't able to control it, it happens a lot. Sometimes when a user is extremely angry, or sad, some of that mana can slip out, which explains why every person in the RV looked ready to jump me. I kept my voice from betraying my emotions "it's John please".
I looked around, Jackson was the only one that didn't looked surprised, he mouthed sorry. I turned around, and walked off the bus.
Jackson and Sam
The group rented cars, one for each group, so that they could drive in the small rural town. The car was quiet, Jackson and Sam never had got along to well. Sam liked to tease people to a beyond anger point, Jackson always saw him as more of a bully because of that. Though he trusted John, who was like a brother to him, not to start a fight, he knew how Sam could be. Jackson sighed, problems for later, "whats up with your friend man, why did he go all psycho" Sam said in a annoying way. "John doesn't like to be called Johnny, just leave it alone man" Jackson said with an eye roll
"Maybe they should have told us that at the meeting" Sam said, realizing he was talking to the wrong person about this he went silent. Jackson turned up the music, The Red Hot Chili Peppers was on, "nice" Jackson thought to himself. Wasn't his favorite band, but he like it, they had good music, very chill.
"where here" Sam said a moment later, he pulled off into the alley, and they both got out of the car. As soon as they stepped out of the car the smell of death hit their nose, "ugh, smells like Amber's cooking" Sam said covering his nose with his jacket sleeve. "True" Jackson replied, "whatever died, shit itself twice before it did, they continued into the parking garage. It made sense no one had noticed the smell the block looked extremely abandoned, the building were falling down, they had plants growing up the sides.
They passed the spot where the girl had been, immediately the the temperature dropped like twenty degrees. Jackson looked over at Sam, they both nodded, Sams green revolver, which looked like it was from the days boys were made of cows. Jackson tapped his wrist which dissipated, two daggers popped out of thin air, they were curved with a golden hilt, and what looked like blue blades. Star Metal, specialized for killing nasties.
Jackson entered first, Sam following behind him holding his gun up, and ready, no longer covering their nose the smell bombarded them. Every step they took into the garage the smell worsened, there wasn't a single car, Jackson could believe it, considering the smell. "Jackson" Sam whispered. Jackson turned around, Sam who was holding his gun in one hand, and pointing up with the other looked terrified. Jackson looked up, his mouth dropped, in what looked like dried blood was a circle, which wasn't the bad part. In the middle of the circle nailed to the ceiling was a dress, the dress.
Jackson looked down at Sam, "Trap, go back" he said, he turned towards the door when he felt a whoosh of air. Immediately Jackson jumped, which his enhanced strength he cleared the gray figure that zoomed past crashing into a pole. The creature had no hair on its body, its body resembled that of a human, except it had a extended jaw, with gray skin, its eyes were larger than any humans, and solid red. A ghoul luckily a lesser ghoul, not to dangerous, except in large groups, the high ghouls had wings, and were giant, not fun.
Faster than the eye can see, Jackson sprinted forward, and stabbed his blade through the creatures skull. It kicked once and then went still, Jackson sighed what a horrible trap, one ghoul even a rookie could handle that. "Uh Jackson" Sam said, Jackson rolled his eyes "thanks for the hel-fuck" facing them was about ten ghouls, there was a dead one that Sam had obviously shot.
All at once all the ghouls rushed at the two slayers, "had to be ghouls" Sam muttered as he began shooting one gun while he summoned another. Sam had a known hatred for the gray terror humans, and honestly I didn't blame him, they ate everything near, they were tenacious.
Jackson slashed one ghouls head off, then rushed another, they would be fine, but this could still be a dangerous situation. Jackson zoomed through them, before he knew it he had killed four ghouls, another lunged at him, he did a back flip kicking the ghoul back, which gave Sam a perfect shot, which he used. The shot from the pistol was silent, but the ghouls head kicked to the left, it landed on the ground dead.
"well that was fun" Sam said panting slightly, "true, but if they set a trap here, that means the others could be in danger, we had better let them know" Jackson replied looking around. he looked at his shoulder, then moved his hand to flick off a piece of ghoul brain off his coat, at least he hoped it was ghoul brain.
James
James was excited, he was a relatively shy guy, because of that he had never had a girlfriend. Cass in fact was one of the only girls that had ever showed him any kindness, besides amber, but she was like a sister. Due to this James had been in love with Cass for a while now, he never did anything about it, because he didn't want her to feel awkward at all. The had made into the towns version of "downtown", it was practically deserted, the few people they had talked to hadn't noticed anything.
The only lead that they had gotten this whole time was from a man who looked like he was on a all drug diet. "Lots of gray people around here" he had said with a toothless smile, it was so ridiculous that when he told Cass she laughed, and called him a dork. Which made him smile, and forget all about what the toothless man said.
They were now walking down a street that looked like it was abandoned, they didn't really expect to find anything due to the fact they were on the other side of town from the garage. "So what do you think of that new guy" Cass asked James, "honestly I have no clue, I guess we will have to wait and see how he fights" James said thoughtfully.
Cass laughed, a beautiful sound to James, it made him smile wide every time, "What?" he said, unable to stop smiling. "I think its funny how much to base people off of their ability to fight" Cass said still laughing a little bit, James felt his face heat up. "Well to be fair thats an important part of this job, there are like infinite amounts of monsters out there" James said still smiling.
"That's true, its almost concerning how many more monsters have been showing up this year than last year." Cass added, suddenly her face looked concerned, "still beautiful" James thought. "Well if we keep up all the work, who knows maybe we will all get a promotion." James said with a smile. "true, lets hope that-" Cass started "ahhhhhh" came a sound from the building they were passing, James's face hardened, Cass and James looked at each other, then rushed into the building.
Cass had summoned her bow, how James had no idea, James summoned a large green axe, then headed into the building. The building was covered in old looking crates, maybe an old textile mill, it was a small building though, looking more like a barn than a mill. "lets look for the sound" James said moving forward
Suddenly there was a huge boom as a giant gray creature landed, it was taller than James, by like three feet, and a lot wider. It was gray, had a jaw like an alligators jaws, and claws the looked like knives. Its teeth were huge, and it looked like it could use them. "Found it" Cass quipped, grabbing a box, and converting it to a blue arrow, "I'll distract it, you charge" Cass ordered, James nodded.
Cass fired her arrow, James saw it strike, a blue explosion of electricity, James hardened his body with magic reinforcement, (merging his skin cells with mana temporarily). James charged forward, slamming the blade of the axe into the creatures chest, the creature which was temporarily stunned screamed. It twisted extremely fast slamming an arm into James, who stepped back. Thanks to the hardening he barely felt the blow, his shirt could not say the same, the shirt had ripped where it was hit, leaving it in tatters.
Thanks to this James noticed the sharp bone sticking out of its arm, an explosion hit the creatures head, followed by three more to the body, the creature turned and screamed. Not giving the creature time to go after Cass, James slammed his axe into the arm of the beast, the best part about summoned weapons, is that they weighed nothing to the user, unless he or she wanted it to. Meaning James could make the weapon lighter to move quickly, and then rack up the weight to make the weapon more effective.
Which is why the arm came off immediately, another piercing shot it the creature in the head, it bounced off, meaning the skull is had to be extremely strong to repel a arrow with magic. Another explosion arrow hid the creature int he back, Cass was the best as sneaking, she was invisible to James, and the creature. James focused on a barrage of attacks on the creatures body, finally the creature began to slow down, James clothes were almost in tatters, but he was fine on magical power though. Another four explosions, the creature stumbled back, falling against a support beam, James charged him slamming his axe into its chest.
The creature screeched loudly, but James kept pushing his axe deeper, the creature went quiet, then stopped struggling all together. "well that was fun" Cass said, James didn't her come next to him, and jumped, she laughed. Come one wuss, lets call it in"
John
Maybe God is real, and he just wants me to have a bad day, I mean like currently I was having the worst time ever. Since we had gotten to this small farm house Amber hadn't said a word to me, and everytime I say something she totally ignores me. Next time I see Ron I'm going to slap him harder than Will Smith.
"Do you sense anything?" Amber asked suddenly, I was so shocked I delayed my response, "uh no - sorry" I replied. She sighed, great I had annoyed her, by existing, to be honest I was already having a hard time liking her, she looked like someone I used to know, someone I very much would like to cover in peanut butter, and feed to bears.
"So why'd you do it" Amber said casually, too casually like she was trying really hard to make it seem like a casual question. "Do what?" I asked confused, "Join the team, and leave me in charge" She said stopping, turning to look at me. "oh" I said lamely, I took a second to think about my answer, "well?" she asked after a second. "I am doing this because I don't know what I wanna do, this whole week of work, I don't even know if I want to do this." I said "how can I lead people who know they want to do it" I said, there more reasons, but that would get me off the hook.
Amber looked confused at my answer, "that's the full reason?" she asked me looking at me incredulous. "well that, and being a leader sounds like a lot of extra work" I replied with a laugh, to my surprise she laughed too, well chuckled really. "yeah well, I agree, I've wanted to do it since I was young, its a lot harder than I thought" She said with a sigh, it showed that to a certain level she was struggling with her problems. "well you know, if you ever need advice you can always ask me" I said giving her a thumbs up, which she probably couldn't see in the dark woods of the house.
The woods around the Farm had grown in the like two hundred years, who would have thought. "maybe your not too bad" I thought looking at Amber. There was a knock far off in the woods, I summoned my chains silently I felt them coil around my arms, the rings appeared. My arms were now covered in red chains my preferred weapon.
Quick explanation of my chains, they're awesome I can swing them like a whip stab them out, and they will pierce almost anything. Based on how much energy I place into them they can be as sharp as razors, or dull as bats, either way the will do damage. They also cannot tangle, and will immediately reappear around my arms in a instant.
Amber who had spacial capacity magic, summoned a short sword, it had a black blade, with a gray guard, and a brown hill, the blade was more narrow than normal short swords. In the other hand she had a pistol with a silencer. She held the gun, and knife call of duty style she had glasses on, which I assumed helped her see in the dark. I could see as clear as day, better in fact, I was born to the darkness, it was part of me.
Amber and I moved forward cautiously, keeping an eye out for any movement, I looked around often, I assumed my eyes where the best out of the two of us. I held out my hand, Amber stopped, I tapped my ear I had hoped she read in the file given to her about my superhuman hearing.
I signaled that they were not far, Amber nodded, and signaled I take the lead, I nodded. Say what you will about Amber she was smart enough to realize I had the advantage in the situation. as we moved, we saw a slight light, as we got closer it was followed by another, and another. We made it to the tree line, when I saw what beetle juice would look like if he did crack.
In the middle of the field was a clown, the clown was covered in a translucent glue, his yellow clown suit was covered in blood stains, because of course it was. Clown man was standing the middle of a but of glow sticks hanging from trees. There was something huddled on the ground in front of him, Then I smelled it blood. Something was covering the scent, which is why I was just now smelling it, I also hadn't smelled the clown himself. I looked around for the culprit, but didn't see anything just the clown, I signaled the sign for body to Amber. I couldn't see her eyes through the opaque goggles, but I saw her shake with anger.
I waited for the signal, when I would immediately attack clown man, I waited she was thinking, she moved moved three fingers up, I smiled. The first went down, my smile widened, the send went down, I adjusted my stance, the third went down.
The clown was decapitated instantly my chains returned without any blood on them, the crimson chains glinted in the blue light, but they still held their red color, proof of their magic origin. "well then that was fast", Amber said stepping out of the bushes, she looked impressed, Or at least I think she did, I couldn't her her eyes. Her mouth looked impressed I promise.
I looked around the clowns body, its next had a back of some kind, I reached down and grabbed it. I ripped it off the body which proceeded to disapear, Amber jumped a little bit "that boring I wanted the nose" I said focusing on the bag. "What is that, I don't know for sure but I think its blocking my smelling" I said, "can you destroy it" Amber asked looking at the body the clown was huddled over. I through up the pouch, whipped my chain up, splitting the sack.
My eyes widened, "ghouls" I said loudly, Amber turned in surprise, "what!? where?". I looked at her "Everywhere."