[IC] Welcome to Nowhere

[Emma]

It was a crisp autumn morning. Erehwon was dressed up with pumpkins, and a slew of Halloween decorations. The town square was in the process of being set up for this weekend’s annual Fall Festival. Most of the fire department had volunteered to help the town council hang the banners, and twinkling lights all along Main Street. Erehwon always went all out when it came to holidays. People bustled about setting up booths, and covering hay bales in burlap for seating. Tupper farms, donated dozens of pumpkins for the carving contest. Mayor Thompson personally paid for the rental of a merry-go-round, and ferries wheel, just for the festival. Everyone was looking forward to the hay rides, hot apple cider, three legged race, and the high school's float parade. The high school’s homecoming court always road on the flashiest float, and it would be no different this year.

You could practically feel the lively energy and excitement bouncing throughout town. But there was also an edge of worry hidden under everyone’s smiling faces. The news of another person found dead in the town over, was weighing on everyone’s mind. Quite a few of Erehwon residents commuted to work over in Ruxbury, and this was the ninth unsolved murder in two months. For a town that averaged one murder or less a year this was scary. Another worry even closer to Erehwon was the seven campers that had gone missing in the past week. The Police department was in a frenzy to find them, or at least some clues to what happened. Last night half the town showed up to volunteer for the search party. A torn up pair of jeans, and a bloody sneaker was all that was found.

Oddly enough this year’s fall festival was taking place the same night a lunar eclipse was going to happen. All of the Mundane townsfolk were excited for the viewing. Most of the supernaturals though were preparing. Some people were gathering ingredients for rare potions that could only be concocted under a lunar eclipse. Most witches were setting up for some power enhancing ritual, or special coven magic. Others would be planning to chain themselves up in basements to combat a forced shift, or effects of moon madness. Full moons and lunar anomaly tended to mess with the Mundane and supernatural alike.

-----------------------

At Gringore, the new student orientation for this semester had just ended. As the students filed out of the auditorium, you could hear their excited chatter, and grumbles. Orientation was one of the few times during the school year; one could catch a glimpse of the famous Headmaster Alfred Gringore. Principal Honeycutt and other faculty had informed the newbies about the academy’s rules, policies, and code of honor. The presidents of each school club then had a few minutes to speak. The president of Gringore Auxiliaries speech was always popular.

It was your typical Gringore scene; nymphs dancing about in the courtyard, students relaxing in the halls. A group of gorgon sisters sat around the fountain gossiping, and making fun of peoples clothing choices. Two pixie girls flew overhead giggling as they sprinkled silver confetti over unsuspecting couples. A few Avians perched themselves on the roof. A circle of sorcerers flicked their fingers around showing off. The cafeteria was open, and serving everything you could imagine, from mundane things like burgers, waffles, sushi, and salads to the more exotic magical meals like fried newt, Elphyne ambrosia, and blood smoothies.

---

The Grand courtyard was in full bloom as it always was. It seemed eternal spring was the theme of the gardening club who tended the place. While the surrounding forests looked like fire, with all the autumn colors, plants at Gringore didn't seem to know it was the beginning of October. Classes started this morning, and for today most people were moving into the dorms, and getting settled.

Jadis had finished eating at the cafeteria and was meandering through the courtyard, when she spotted Drake Fitzroy and his buds on the roof with stacks of bright orange paper. They tossed all the paper off the roof, one sheet flew right into her face. People around her grabbed for them midair, but most of the paper fluttered to the ground. Apparently the whole school was now invited to the costume party at the Shack tonight, curtesy of the Fitzroy pack who was looking smug standing on the roof like they were royalty.

Jadis had grown up with a quarter of the students at Gringore, Drake was no different. He was a ladies man to say the least, but Jadis knew better and thankfully all she had to do was picture him back in third grade when they were once friends, and his favorite thing to do was catch frogs, make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, and tell fart jokes. Growing up is a small town was weird that way.

She made her way over to the gazebo that was thankfully not occupied by the Boggart couple that had practically never stopped making out in it last year. It was her third year at Gringore this time around; she had a long list of classes, and was even TAing for Professor Montesquie. Half of her friend group had graduated or left Gringore last semester. So first on her agenda was to find somebody to hang out with. Her roommate unfortunately turned out to be a no go. Kimbra Taipan was a snake of a woman, no pun intended, as she was in fact a gorgon. One of those stereotypical Gorgons who thought the sun shined out her ass, and that only her opinion mattered. Kimbra and her two sisters had basically take the dorm room over. There was now a huge painting of the three sisters on the wall in the living room area.

Jadis yawned and pulled her coat tighter as the autumn breeze picked up speed. She scanned the court yard for a familiar face, but saw none for the moment. Her thoughts switched to her list of materials and books she need to get before her first class started tomorrow. An orange piece of paper rustled at her feet, and so she picked it up glancing over the bold font, detailing the time and place of the party. She already knew about the party before hand. Her older brother owned The Shack, and the costume part of this party had been his idea. The place would most definitely be packed tonight, full of supernatrals and Mundanes. She still had no idea what to dress up as, but if she didn't figure something out she would probably just wear her pikachu kigurumi again, for the third year in a row...

---

Alice had woken up around seven in the morning, after sleeping for two hours. She felt refreshed, as she got ready for the day. The local news droned on the tv in the background. The news anchor man on looked worn out, as he babbled on about the fall festival coming up, the closing of the factory in Ruxbury, where to get flu shots, and that the local police wanted to thank everyone for their cooperation and efforts for yesterdays search. The weather girl was looking way to chipper this morning, as she explained today would be mild temperatures, 20% chance of rain, and that autumn was in full swing.

Alice turned the shower on. Undressing as she waited for the water to become hot. Looking in the mirror, a tall plain sad looking brunette was what Alice saw starring back at her. She had always liked her hazel eyes, and the shape for her lips, but she thought her chin was to big, and that her nose was not quite right.

The mirror began to fog from the steam of the shower. She stepped into the shower and let the hot water cascaded down her back. It soaked into her light brown hair, as she wondered what the day would bring. The problem with living for almost a 100 years isn't the loneliness or pain or the loss. Well, it is those things. But what really gets you is when life ceases to surprise you. And for Alice nothing really mattered anymore except for Etienne and his family. The idea that they would all be gone one day had been haunting her dreams lately. Journaling always helped her keep depressing thoughts at bay, so that what she had been doing for hours last night before going to sleep.

She stayed in shower until the water turned cold, and she stepped out smelling like her favorite honeysuckle soap. Wrapped in a soft ivory towel she walked into her closet, and sat down on the cushy ottoman. Alice had clothes and shoes from every decade she had been alive. She favored her clothes from the 40s, and missed the time when fancy hats were the norm. She glanced up on the shelves above, at the multitude of dust covered hat boxes. She slipped a gray dress off the hanger, and opened the dresser drawer to pull out a pretty sage sweater. She peeked at herself in the mirror again, fully dressed and ready for the day. Locking her door she went down stair into the shop. The place was full of antiques and vintage objects. Some of the items and furniture for sale were her own things she had collected over her long life.

She unlocked the stores front door, and flipped closed sign to open. She sat behind the register and opened up a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. With her vampire senses she could hear the crunch of fallen leaves under foot outside, the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls wafting from the bakery down the street, and all in all it was a pleasant morning.

[Sazama]

Anya Ngo

---

Anya had woken up at the buttcrack of dawn. Between last call at the bar and having to help out with orientation at Gringore, sleep was never an option for her. Despite that, Anya is still excited to see new faces at the academy. It was just only in the last year did Anya and her sister Amari move to Nowhere. In that time, the Ngo sisters had a bit of a reputation for themselves. For starters, they opened up a trendy bar in town called the "Tipsy Dragon".

Anya wants to say that the place is popular for her killer drinks and karaoke nights she hosts. Unfortunately beneath all of the glamor is the business Amari truely wants to run. For the past century or so, there's been a rise in demand for dragon's blood after a few of them learned how to make a hard drug out of it; Zauberblut is the official name for it with DB being the street name.

At the beginning the drug was nearly just as deadly as injecting pure dragon's blood into you. The only difference is, Zauberblut gave you that insane high and rush. But now with improvements and trials, the process of it now, when done correctly- is as 'safe' as it will ever get. Now Amari herself has entered into the trade, starting out in the town of Nowhere; a place where DB hasn't fully hit the streets just yet.

Amari had guilt tripped convinced Anya to come along since she needed all the help she could get. By "help", Amari meant for Anya to run the front of the business while she ran the back.

Flashfoward to today, by evidence of Anya's bags beneath her eyes, things were going smoothly. As orientation came to an end, Anya still had to stick around and answer any questions (that had already been answered) from students (who were not paying attention the first time around). She looks around at the lively scene and wonders if any of her friends were also here, or anyone she knows for that matter of fact.

It was then orange flyers fluttered down on them. Anya manages to reach out and snag one, seeing that it detailed a costume party at The Shack. All she could think of is that if Amari got a whiff of this, she'd make Anya and a few of her guys go just to sell some DB to the supernatural youths of Nowhere. A small wrinkle formed at the base of her forehead as she let the paper fall to the ground.

Anya sighs and walks away, she wonders if she'd ever have time to get in on the social scene a lot more, join some clubs even. For now, karaoke night was about as much fun as she could get in this town.

[vietmyke]

"Up and over! Go!"

There was the thud of half a dozen pairs of shoes slamming against a wooden wall as Tony and five other Guardians Auxiliaries flung themselves at the structure, feet and hands scrabbling for purchase against a flat, smooth surface as they half climbed half leapt to grab at the outstretched hands of an equal number of auxiliaries hanging their torsos down from the top of the wall. Pushing off the wall at the last possible moment, Tony made contact with a hand and grasped it tight as he heard the cries of two or three other auxiliaries as they missed and fell back down into the sandpit below. His feet dangled several feet above the ground for a moment before the auxiliary at the top of the wall began pulling him up, Tony's feet returning to the wall to help push/pull himself up.

Taking his teammate's place at the top of the wall, Tony quickly swung around, half throwing himself back down the wall he just climbed up to catch the clawing hand of another auxiliary. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he pulled up the 170 pound student up the wall without falling off himself. Using his team mate as a counterweight, Tony pulled up his mate while simultaneously lowering himself down the other side of the wall, where he would jump and tumble back onto the track. From there, his feet pounded pavement in a dead sprint to the next station, where the rest of his squad stood waiting around a litter.

Tony breathed out heavily, his breath a visible cloud in the early morning air. Up earlier than most people in town had any business being up, Tony could see the first half of the sun as it rose into the sky, tinging the sky a mixture of orange and light purple. The light mixed with the odd mix of orange, and green, blue and purple of Gringore's courtyard against the background of Nowhere. Still catching his breath, Tony bent over, his hands resting on his knees and spat out coagulated spittle, his face dripping with sweat as he watched several others run up to their respective squads. He and the rest of the Aux Company- shorthand for the 'Grincore Academy Guardian Auxiliaries' had been on the track around the Academy's Courtyard since five in the morning. Just because the semester had just started didn't mean they were getting any days off, and more than one freshman had missed the first half off the workout and were still in the middle of doing their several dozen pushup punishments. Guardians were after all, expected to be in peak physical form as well as peak efficiency over their respective abilities.

Shaking his head, sending sweat flying off to his sides, Tony's eyes were drawn to some of the others bouncing in place, keeping their blood flowing. For some, these training sessions were a walk in the park- demi-gods, shifters, some fae, and even vampires, had it easier than others like him- Maagias, Witches, and other non-physically inclined metahuman races. Not that it mattered, all Guardians, human or superhuman were expected to adhere to strict physical regulations, which meant people like Tony were stuck doing near Olympian workouts for mere warmup.

"Alright, Penny, on the litter," their squad leader barked as the last of their squad made it to the station. "TK, let's go! We're just getting started!"

With a deep exhale, Tony looked up at Rickard, his squad leader and Captain, and nodded in breathless acknowledgement. Easy for him to say- Rickard, President and Commander of Aux Company was easily one of the strongest metahumans in Nowhere, a demi-god widely regarded as the second coming of Hercules. Still, Tony complied. They laid Penny, easily the lightest member of the squad on the litter, while Tony, Rickard, and two others each grabbed a leg of the litter and lifted. The squad proceeded to do a mile run around the tracks, four members carrying the litter, and two running behind, switching off with one of the litter carriers as they got tired.

After the squad relay, and strength training, came power usage practice, and then finally mock skirmishes and combat drills. While Tony only managed to stay above average when it came to keeping up with demigods and superhumans, he excelled when it came to using his powers and in practical drills. This continued until around 7, at which point they cooled down to the tune of classic pop-rock before Rickard finally let them go. After a long, cold shower, and a few muscle relaxing spells from one of the team's Sanabit Witches, Tony, along with several others were marched into the auditorium, where they stood around and acted cool and daring while Rickard gave his ever popular speeches and recruitment pitch.

---

His running shoes changed out for a pair of comfortable adidas shoes in a bright bold orange, he made an easy walk through the courtyard. One hand was stuck firmly in the pockets of his joggers, while the other hand casually held a covered cup of coffee, edges of the blue and white of his jacket- emblazoned with the crest of the Guardians Auxilaries floating and glowing over the breast, and his last name across its back- whipping and floating lightly in the morning breeze. His amplifier glinted brightly as it was occasionally hit with sunlight, accenting his outfit in a similar manner to a watch, the crystal face dull and unlit. His sling backpack was relatively deflated and hung lazily off his shoulder, currently holding little more than his running shoes, a sweaty pair of shorts and t-shirt, a sweaty towel and a water bottle.

Tony's cool and casual persona spluttered for a moment as a orange flyer slapped across his face, blocking his breath for a moment. Pulling the flyer off of his face, he furtively shot a glance left and right to see if anyone saw what had just happened. There were others in the courtyards but they all seemed distracted by conversations with each other or the flyers themselves to pay much attention to him. One of the gorgon sisters pointed at him and giggled, but they were just as likely judging him for some other obscure reason as they were for the flyer. Finally taking a look at the neon flyer, he saw that the Fitzroy pack was throwing a party at the Shack. Inviting the whole school was a bold move, to say the least. Tony was sure there were plenty of people that the Fitzroy boys wouldn't want to come, but throw on a costume, and no one really knows whose who.

Looking up, Tony got a glimpse of Anya in the distance. Like him, she was a relative newcomer to the town- he'd been here a bit longer, but not by much. Maybe that's why they got along. With a lazy stretch, Tony began quickening his pace to close the distance, easy enough thanks to his longer strides. Tony whistled as though he was cat calling her- sometimes, it annoyed her, but sometimes that was the reason he did it.

"Hey, Annie," Tony greeted as he slowed back down to her pace, "Jeez, you look like death." he commented as he got a good look at the bags under her eyes, offering her some of his coffee as a temporary solution.

[Takida Inigo]

Truth

The room was dark and cold, the walls were covered in old moss covering ancient bricks of a bygone era from long before. The room itself was rather small and had no windows, the only light was from a candle atop a table with a selection of Hunters weapons upon its surface. The only noise came from a young man chained to a wall, his silent sniffles could be heard lowly as a man stood idly by before him. Both of them had been in that room for several hours now, neither one had muttered a word to each other aside from a couple angry remarks from earlier when the Hunter was first chained to the wall. Valon looked upon the Hunter, it was quite apparent that hanging from the wall had finally softened him up, the weakness of a mortal. Who would have thought that a young child would try to kill him, it was almost comical in some respects however the Demon was far from laughing or showing any kind of emotion. Valon shook his head as he turned his back and spoke in a deep lightly accented voice that resembled sandpaper against sandpaper:

“I thought you Hunters were suppose to wait for back up if you ever encountered Valon Valerious? After all, the warning label on my rather poorly written profile was rather direct. Heh don't be shocked I am more than aware of you Hunters and your little dossiers.”

Valon spoke coldly as he walked slowly towards the table of instruments before him, the Hunter with him was strapped to the wall by four iron chains constricting his wrists and feet and than bars going across his neck, chest, and knee's. The Hunter was young relatively, mousy looking, medium brown hair, blue eye's, his complexion that of a pimpled teenager. In reality it was very accurate to say that this man was no older than twenty at the highest. Equally so, it was painfully obvious that he had overestimated his own abilities in search for fame among his brothers and sister Hunters. To take down Valon was tantamount to being a Legend among Legends in the Hunter world, this fact was not hidden from Valon. It was the very reason that he spent most of his time within the walls of the main guardian facility within Rome. It was not solely by choice either, the truth was Valon was a special case in the Guardians ranks. His past was far too exotic when it came to history, the acts had committed against humanity were too great to ignore so every time he left those walls he was a target for any Hunter who spotted him. It was not the danger posed to himself, he was more than capable of protecting himself, it was the danger posed when he was around other supernatural entities.

Hunters are merciless when it comes to the Supernatural population, they had no such qualms about killing even children who were innocent if it was even a notion they were part supernatural. So having Valon a well known target in the vicinity of other Supernaturals would put not only his life in danger but theirs as well. It was not so much a problem when he first became a Guardian, in fact they did not actively search for him after the second Korikov incident years prior. To them he was just a drifter with no particular purpose anymore, he only killed those who tried to kill him and given his dangerous reputation, as long as they didn't send people after him than they could live with the fact that he was alive. They didn't like it no doubt, but it was better than losing more brothers and sisters, but being a Guardian he was tasked with protecting the other supernatural from the Hunters who would kill them. It became far to obvious that he was not a purposeless drifter anymore, he was a threat to them now in more ways than one so he was placed on the top lists of entities to be exterminated, a pitiful dossier was created on him and most Hunters with any salt to their names had read it by now. So he became an Elder Guardian and looked after the Facility in Rome and helped train potential Guardians and was sent out only on the highest priority assignments.

While he did not like it all that much, being constricted in Rome, he could at least understand the reasons and respect those that had made the decision. After all he wanted to protect not put them in anymore danger than was necessary. Valon stood at the marble top surface before him looking at the various instruments before him, they were various and all shapes and sizes. Knives serrated, metal plated stakes, gun with silver bullets. He had to admit the Hunter had come prepared. Valon could hear the Hunter behind him, honestly he was but a small child to him, one whom of which did not know any better, he could hear the low sniffling and knew he was crying to himself. It did not matter how tough one was, when your facing death the reality of your mortality becomes overwhelming. Valon reached his hand out to the table, however, he retracted it as he turned around and slowly strode back towards the young Hunter.

“I didn't kill my mother.”

The young Hunter looked up with hard eye's, there was slight confusion in them mixed with fear and anger.

“In my dossier it says that I killed my own mother to save my own skin. When in fact my mother sacrificed herself to save me. You see I was a young boy, I didn't know what I was, all I really knew was a I had a power. A power to control people, and to any young boy with such a power, would be crazy not to use such a cool power. I never hurt anyone with it, never committed terrible acts, in fact the only thing I was really guilty off was controlling people to make them give me food because we were starving. Even than it was... considered a power given to me by the devil himself, my mother knowing they would kill me convinced them she had been manipulating me in the shadows, using me as a conduit. They burned her alive shortly after she told me the truth of what I was and who my father was, just an innocent woman just trying to protect her own son.”

The Hunter scowled as he suddenly spit at Valon, it fell short however just before his feet, not enough saliva to make it that far, the benefits of being chained to a wall for hours. The Hunter angrily hissed at Valon as he spoke.

“Your mother was not innocent, she allowed herself to fall in love with a demon and gave birth to an abomination. She was a satanic whore and she deserved to be burned, and you with her, if only those people had know what they were allowing to live... a Monster!”

There was a sick crack as the back of Valon's hand smashed into the Hunters cheek ripping it open, blood splattering the wall next to him. Reaching forward Valon put his hand on the bar over the young Hunters neck and squeezed it, the metal constricted easily and tightened around his neck cutting off his air supply. Valon drove his eye's into the Hunters, the coldness in them was chilling and frightening.

“Do you want to hear something ironic? After my mother died I was alone, my father came for me and he told me everything. What I was, what I could be and how to become it. I was angry at him, angry at him for making me what I was, for not protecting my mom, for even suggesting that I would become like him. I pushed him away, I didn't want his powers or anything to do with being a full Mezmer. For years I barely scraped by, just barely getting enough food to not starve to death. I didn't want to be a monster, I wanted to be human and to accepted, to be somebody. But that was taken from me, and it was all because of a Hunter who decided to kill me, but instead killed my father right before my eye's. A man who sacrificed himself like my mother had before him to keep me alive.”

The Hunter was turning slightly blue now, his eye's bulging from his head from the lack of air to his brain. He choked on his own constricted airways.

“You see the irony I am speaking of is that the only reason I took my own life and became the monster I was for so many years was because of you Hunters. I was a kid being Hunted for something I had no control over or even wanted anything to do with. Everything was taken from me one piece at a time, my mother, my father, my innocence, my humanity, my faith, one by one they all were destroyed. It was only when I realized my fate was cursed.. sealed for all eternity I decided that I would become the monster, Hunters just like you, made me out to be.”

The Hunter was fading now just barely able to do nothing more than roll his eye's into the back of his head. Valon raised his hand and gripped the metal, with no force at all he ripped it from the brick and let it cling to the floor. The Hunters head fell forward as let the air fill his lungs in huge choking gasps. His eye's were wide as he choked and coughed, his color slowly returning now, the redness in his face starting to subside some. Valon bent down and put his fingers under the Hunters chin and lifted his head so his eye's were boring into his.

“Hunters like to prostrate themselves as if they are warriors of god and are doing the holy work of one. The reality however I have learned is that you are just misguided, bias creatures who kill indiscriminately because your too blinded by your own prejudices. I admit fully that I have slain many innocent people and that there is no redemption for one like me, but you can not stand before me and act as if your form of justice is any better than mine. Standing on a high ground of morality claiming your the light in the darkness. I have seen what you do, the torture of innocent children because they were unfortunate to be born not fully human, the killing of mothers because they gave birth to those children, because they loved a “monster”. You made me who I became, and the lives I took, they are also on your heads, so in my eye's neither of us are innocent of horrible acts.”

Valon removed his fingers as the Hunters head slowly fell down towards his chest, he was sniffling again. The demon before him was not phased by any of it, there was no sympathy or remorse on his face as he drew his arms across his chest. Both were silent for a time, no words were spoken for what seemed like an eternity.

“If your gonna kill me... just kill me.”

Valon shook his head at the words, they were spoken with clarity but they were not spoken from one who was ready to die for his cause. He could tell from the pathetic defeat in their voice that this was just another child who had been put upon a path they did not want. This had become reality in this newer age, children becoming Hunters, most of them not heretics like their parents. Most were from family's who had parents who were traditionalist Hunters and thus their children were often marked for the same fate if they wanted it or not. Some took to it and others did not, some did not want to sacrifice their lives like their parents before them. One who had lived as long as him could tell the difference by now between one who wanted this life and one who didn't. Valon reached down and took the metal cross within his fingers that dangled around his chest, squeezing it gently in his hand looking up towards the ceiling as if some figure was there with him.

“No... you will not die today Hunter. Unlike you and your heretic brothers and sisters I do not kill children who can not even defend themselves. If you want to see it or not I was once human long ago, so a concept like mercy is not foreign to me even if it was never shown in kind. But I want you to think about what happened her today boy, I want you to look at yourself, and to reaffirm if you truly want to be a Hunter, a man who takes innocent life of defenseless creatures, most of which do not even wish harm upon this world. Every path has a consequence in this cursed world, every path has an end, and the path you are on now... I am that end, one who lives a life of cold violence will die in the same way. This is merely a reality, so if it is your intent to die than we will meet again.”

Valon removed a key from his pocket, reaching forward he grabbed one of the chains around the Hunters wrists and broke it, he placed the key in his hand. Turning away Valon released his hand and cross the room to the steel lined door on the other side opening it, the hall beyond was small in nature and filled with old brick on each side descending to a set of stairs at the end of the narrow path.

“Think long and hard about what you want in this life kid, because the next we meet under these circumstances, make no mistake, you will die, no talking and no mercy. One chance... remember that.”

The door slammed closed loudly there were no footsteps leaving and just like that Valon was gone leaving the Hunter to ponder his own fate.

Pain

Valon was increasingly silent as he stood in a room carved out of white sparkling stone, it was huge, the ceiling was high enough that one could hardly see it among the darkened stone rafters. This room was what they called Final Rest or Requiem Aeternam. It was to from a human standpoint a room of showing for fallen Guardians before they were put to eternal rest. His arms were crossed before his chest and it was obvious that he was visibly shaken, his body trembled slightly with anger. The cross was in his hand but he could not bring himself to feel any kind of peace knowing what lay before him. The stone table before him held the body of one of his pupils, a Guardian shifter named Conor. He had been sent in Valon's place to protect two Healers whom Valon had a strong bond with, he had chosen him to do this in his place and now all three of them were dead.

Valon looked upon Conor, he knew it should have been him who had gone, it should have been him there when those Korikov bastards showed up. Valon squeezed his fist tightly as there was a couple pops and cracks from his knuckles. Conor was an exceptional Guardian, he had trained the boy since he was young, he was exactly the opposite of everything Valon ever was. His tenacity, his dedication, the way he looked upon life... he was a true light in darkness. When he had first meant the boy he was annoyingly optimistic, had these stupid dreams about one day finding peace with the Hunters and everybody being able to live in harmony instead of this eternal hell that came full circle time and time again.

“Thats no fair! Your way more powerful than me Sir! I could never beat you!”

Valon shook his head at the young man, his name was Conor and he was taking his first steps towards becoming a Guardian, and low and behold he had drawn the one Guardian in all the world he was the exact opposite to. He was water and Conor was oil, he was darkness Conor was light, he was pessimistic and Conor was optimistic. So naturally they were already getting along splendidly, to the end Valon decided to start with one on one combat. Fist to fist would be his first lesson and so far he was not too impressed with his prowess.

“If you think anything in this cursed world is fair than your diluted boy. I am not running some fun little retreat, you will see no beaches or oceans, you will see my fist coming at your face until you can manage to strike me. Out there against an enemy there is no fair, there is no right or wrong, there is only life and death and you must decide which one becomes your fate. So get up and come at me with the intent to kill boy.”

Conor stood up slowly, he stood defiantly against Valon but it was obvious he lacked the conviction to come at him with an intent to hurt or kill. Conor lunged from his spot and brought his fist back to strike Valon, the fist came directly for Valon's chin, he caught the fist in his hand rather easily, moving sideways he dragged Conor's arm with him and flipped the boy head of heels slamming him onto his back. Valon brought his foot up and went to slam it into Conor's face, the man hesitated and clenched his eye's closed in fear. Valon stopped his foot an inch from his nose before slowly reverting it back to the ground releasing Conor's arm.

“Were you really going to let me stomp a hole in your face? You do realize I am not human, a real hit from me could go straight through you? I could rip your heart out of your chest still beating with one blow, you never hesitate boy, out there you would be dead. Get up and try again.”

Conor's eye's were hard as he leap back to his feet, he came at Valon even faster this time, he went to punch with his right hand and switched it up last second and tried to hit with the left. Valon however moved away from the blow and brought his head forward slamming his forehead into Conor's with a rather painful thump. Conor tumbled backward head over heels again as the blow busted his forehead open just slightly revealing a thin flow of blood. Gripping his head Conor rolled around on the ground for a couple moments, he was seeing stars right than and he felt like he had been hit by a bloody rock at high speed.

“Is that all you have boy? If you can't even land a single blow on me than how are you ever going to face an enemy outside these walls? The world beyond here is not so kind as to suffer weak fools. Other Supernaturals play to win, every time, every fight and they will do whatever they deem fit to win. Hunters they don't care even less when it comes to fighting, they will pull every trick and dirty tactic to win. So GET up... and HIT me.”

The sudden transformation was unexpected, Conor's body transition quickly from that of a young man and into a rather ferocious wolf. He snarled at Valon baring large white glistening fangs. Valon stood defiant and unafraid, he raised his hands up and in one single motion the large overcoat he wore flew from his arms and hit the ground behind him. Valon cracked his neck left and than right with force before he started to move, Conor circled with him growling angrily. They circled like this for seconds which felt much longer before Conor made his made, with a lightning fast lunge he went straight for Valon's chest to knock him to the ground. Valon side stepped, Conor missed the attack by a mile, but his reflexes and speed were remarkable he recovered quickly landing on his feet, going immediately for another strike.

Valon still had his back turned to Conor but it was useless still, with another lung his jaw opened to strike at Valon, he had not expected the elbow to fly back and crack him straight on the bridge of his nose. Before he had a moment to even register the first blow Valon twisted his body and brought his leg around and cracked Conor in the side with a devastating kick rag dolling him across the room, he landed hard to the ground and slid the wall stopping him painfully. There was a painful whimper as Conor tried to regain his feet but fell back to the ground in a slump, his body slowly transformed back into its human state, his chest heaving in and out. Valon walked over to him silently and stood above him, Conor tried weakly to get to his feet but that blow had driven the air from his lungs. He collapsed to the ground again. He reached forward and grabbed onto Valon's ankle and pulled, presumably to topple him but there was no chance. Valon raised his right arm and balled his hand into a fist, this would be the final decisive strike. Putting his arm back he quickly brought it forward to slam into Conor's face, the man closed his eye's awaiting inevitability. When it did not come he slowly opened his eye's, Valon's hand was opened now in a helping gesture. Conor was unsure if this was some kind of trick or what, but either way he didn't have the fight in him to do anything now. He gripped the hand, he was painfully but slowly risen to his feet.

“That enough for now, come, some food and rest will put you back at full strength.”

They sat silently at the table together, Conor himself was eating slowly but hungrily scooping food into his mouth, Valon on the other hand was slowly eating a piece of raw beef. He cut it up strip by strip almost meticulously.

“You like raw beef too?”

Valon looked up at the man who was not looking at him, his expression was glowing almost a cheerful happiness even as he shoveled more food in his mouth. Most people Valon had just kicked the hell out of were sitting there trying to think of ways to make him pay, so he was slightly thrown off at such a gracious expression. He was one of the tougher Guardian's when it came to training so it was common that he would make his pupils mad, but in the end they understood his reasons and he still held strong bonds with them until this day. Conor though seemed not plague by this normal train of thought.

“Yeah, being a Mezmer we usually prefer fresh flesh or blood, however raw beef can be somewhat of a good substitute plus the taste isn't half bad.”

Conor gave him a happy expression closing his eye's for a moment nodding his, Valon looked at him with an actual odd repression on his face. He was a lot different from others he had mentored, he genuinely seemed not to care at all about the training or even the fact he was a Mezmer. Most didn't even realize until he made some mention to it and they often wondered what the hell a Demon had become a Guardian for.

“Your a weird one kid, your the only one I have ever meant who got the hell beaten out of them and than eats with that person like there is no care in the world.”

“That was training Sir, I am sure your not going to slam my head into this table, besides you seem like a really nice person.”

Valon almost choked on a piece of raw beef as Conor called his a nice person, he slapped his chest a couple times as Conor laughed heartily over it. Valon had been called many things in his long existence but nice and person were words commonly used to refer to him.

“Whats makes you say that kid? I would like to agree but I am far from such niceties.”

Conor finished chewing a large piece of meat and took a large gulp of water to wash it down as he set the fork and spoon down looking at Valon.

“I can tell, your really tough, super tough and you show absolutely no emotions, but from what I know of Mezmers already most do not show much emotion. Strong emotions are bad for Mezmers or so I understand anyways, but your different even though you don't show them I can still feel them from your actions. You could have hurt me so much more than you did, as my trainer it is your duty to prepare me to be a Guardian how you see fit but you did not go anywhere near as hard as you could have. To me that is a kindness and it shows me your a good person, and even if you had gone hard, the fact your a Guardian at all shows me your a good person.”

“That sounds like naivety to me kid. To make such baseless assumptions is dangerous, a lot of creatures out there human or otherwise pose like they are good when in reality they are dark. Just because something does or does not happen does not mean the reasons for it are so clear cut. Good and evil hardly work that way, and if I were you I would take that too heart because thats a dangerous way to think.”

Conor shook his head back and forth as if saying no before speaking:

“Well I believe that everything has good in them and that just because one may appear evil does not mean they are evil. I am not so naive to believe everyone I come across won't try to kill me, but I do believe that if given the chance one can change. This war between Guardians and Hunters can not last forever, I truly believe one day there can be a peace, we just have to believe its possible.

Valon couldn't help but scoff at such remarks, he shook his head at Conor.

“Hunters will never change, they only believe in one thing kid and thats killing Supernatural beings if they be innocent or not. To think otherwise is a fools delusions, and you would do well to remember that or you may never become a Guardian.”

Conor's face took on kind of a serious expression as he wiped his mouth, he looked Valon in the eye's with an unshaken determination.

“If a fool is someone who believes that things can change, that there can be peace instead of bloodshed... than I guess... I will be a fool for the rest of my life.”

Conor closed his eye's and gave another large smile, Valon just cocked his head up silently looking at Conor questioningly. For that brief moment he sort of scoffed but smiled for just a couple seconds.~

A stray tear was making its way down Valon's cheek, he made no move to wipe it away but instead pressed his hand forward and slowly placed it upon Conor's cold cheek. He closed his eye's as he felt like he had a huge lump in his throat and his chest.

“I thought I might find you lingering here Valon.”

An aged voice echoed through the large empty chasm of the room, Valon did not move his hand as he opened his eye's. One of the Council was standing beside him, his own hand was placed on Conor's chest. Even though neither one of them looked at each other, the obvious connection formed between them was of unspoken words. They were both silent for awhile neither one of them really making any move to leave.

“It never becomes any easier does it?”

Valon didn't turn his head from Conor's peaceful face but he did finally speak if nothing more than to break the silent pain he was feeling in that moment.

“I thought he was a fool when I first became his trainer... he had all these... idea's about peace and how everyone had good inside them. Honestly I couldn't see how he harbored such beliefs, his own parents were murdered by Hunters when he was young. I often criticized him about his beliefs and even threatened that he would never become a Guardian with such idiot beliefs. He never got mad, not even once, in fact he thanked me for it, he held my words in his heart and respected them while at the same time never losing what he truly held dear to him.”

Valon finally looked over at him,the man standing next to him was tall, taller he was by at least a foot, he was aged with gray long hair tired into a ponytail and neatly trimmed beard which he had braided underneath his chin. He was muscular and well kept for his age and his voice no matter how aged was forceful and direct.

“Its stupid now to say it knowing he is gone, but I never was able to tell him how proud he had made me. That if my son had lived, it would have been through him, I always imagined my boy would hold true to his beliefs, be strong and happy and love this world for the both of us. The thing that truly nags at me is if he had known the full truth about who I was, would he have felt the same respect for me?”

“He did know you son, he never told you but he knew you before he ever came to be your pupil. When his parents were killed, a Guardian was there to save him from his fate, save him from death. He told me he remembered that this Guardian took care of him and even though he wasn't so good at talking he had taken the weight off his heart over losing his mom and dad. That Guardian was you.”

Valon looked at the man silently as he lowered his head and looked at the floor letting the words play through his head. To not find surprise in this revelation would have made him a lier. Had this boy truly known him this whole time?

“After you had saved him, he looked for you, he wanted to know about you and that knowledge came to him through when he found the Dossier the Hunters kept on you. He knew about your past, at least some of it and thats why he admired you so much. You never saw it or knew it, but you were the living proof that what he was saying was the truth. That even the most evil of us can walk another road if they choose to. It doesn't matter if he truly knew everything about your past or the deeds you committed. What he did know was you became a force for good, a protector, a Guardian. So that no one would have to go through what you did, that was what you told me during your first test, and it was because of that conviction that he found another path. One that was not filled with revenge but with hope for the future.”

“Do you think that this war with the Hunters can ever truly end, that one day we can exist in peace with each other?”

Valon watched the man sigh to himself as he removed his hand from Conors chest and turned to look at Valon catching his steel like eye's.

“I don't know, its not a question I can answer, what I do know though is he believed with everything he was that things could change. He died believing it, some might call him a fool still, an optimistic fool who truly didn't understand this world. But I truly believe that if there are others out there who have that same belief and the determination to make it real, that such a world could exist one day. Conor died a good death, and honorable death, do not pity the dead Valon, pity those who must live with it.”

Resolution (Collab Takida and Warp)

One still night, many years ago, there was a taiga which lay undisturbed. Mountains painted it’s background, and brisk air whistled throughout the trees. This boreal forest was located on the brink of Moscow, and it was one of the few locations that had not be permeated by the industrialization of its neighboring city. But beneath this air of calm, was a thriving ecosystem of the unimaginable. This forest was the home to tens if not hundreds of supernatural critters. And those with means to observe them would find an ecosystem unlike any other.

But tonight, the forest was still, even to those who could see its inhabitants. The only exception was for two entities, one vaulting from tree to tree in the dark.

“H-Hey! Over here!” the kitsune named Mikhail shrieked, darting from the top of one tree to another. The diction of its choice was confident, but its tone was anything but. Whomever it was speaking to, its presence was nearly undetectable to the kitsune, and he wasn’t sure if he had lost her or not. The kitsune stopped to look around, and was met with a thundering boom. The wood near its feet shattered into splinters, and the whistle of a bullet was apparent under the explosion.

“S-Shit!”. Just a little bit longer... The kitsune frantically scrambled from tree to tree. If it even stopped for a moment then its assailant would be able to take another shot. Mikhail was trying to confuse it’s assailant with its hallucinogenic abilities, but it wasn’t working deterring them in the slightest. He had heard stories about the hunter family which his enemy belonged to, and he had done exactly as requested of him, but he still felt utterly hopeless as he vaulted from tree to tree. He took solace in the person whom’s plan he was carrying out. As long as he didn’t make any mistakes, everything would be-

”G O T Y O U” The shrill voice of a woman pierced Mikhail like a knife. Her voice was enough to stop time, and Mikhail tilted his head towards the sound in what felt like an eternity. A cold hand was firmly grasping one of his tails. Somehow, his enemy had managed to get ahead of him and catch him off guard. She had even predicted which tree he would jump to.

“How did... “ Mikhail ducked to his left immediately, and another explosion pierced the night. The sound was deafening at this proximity, and he could almost taste the gunpowder in the air as the bullet whistled past his right side.

“Stop writhing.” The woman demanded, and the conviction in her voice nearly made Mikhail stop. Maybe if he just let her shoot him, he would be allowed to die peacefully. The korikov were known for their torturous ways, and if he did something to upset this one besides being born supernatural then he would surely pay.

Mikhail still continued to struggle. He couldn’t give up. That’s right! He was almost at the clearing. All he needed to do was…

Third time’s the charm, they say. Even though Kitsune instinctively jerked to his right before the woman fired, the shot hit him right between his eyes.

“What a bother. Now, I’m gonna have to wash your tails before I sell them.” The woman remarked, staring at Mikhail’s corpse with a smile. She grabbed the kitsunes body and tossed it off the tree, where it landed with a resounding thud. The smell of blood lingered for a moment, but followed him to the ground. Then, the woman followed after him, sliding from branch to branch until she reached the ground.

She spotted a clearing in the distance, and decided to set up camp there. She’d be able to dress the kitsune and rest for a little bit before returning home. Dragging the corpse of Mikhail behind her, she made her way into the clearing.

The clearing before her was slightly cloaked in a low hanging fog as she entered it, the entire area was still and completely silent. The air would feel almost thick as if the deed of killing Mikhail had altered the surrounding area. It would not take long before the merciless Hunter would realize she was far from alone. Standing almost like a statue, a shadow lay in the center of the clearing, cloaked in the darkness of the night. There would be an awful tension for a couple moments that would feel like an eternity before the shadow before her would raise its hand slowly into the air. The small clearing would suddenly come to life, several human forms would make their way into the area from the edges.

Two would appear from behind the Hunter, one more would appear to the left and another to the right, they coordinated themselves around the central figure in the center of the field forming a deformed barrier to make escape without a fight hard. When the four figures got into position the central figure moved forward, their walk was almost casual, they moved directly towards her without the slightest fear. As they moved their hands reached into their clothing pulling something from within, stopping a small distance away they raised their hands to their mouth and placed something in it. There was a click, as a flame appeared illuminating Valon’s face lighting the cigarette between his lips.

His face was emotionless before the flame disappeared, he took a long drag from the cigarette and blew smoke from his mouth. Valon would than speak, his voice low and deep, a scratchy sandpaper quality mixed with coldness.

“Vanessa Korikov I can not say that it is a pleasure to meet you, but before you decide to be stupid and fight.. You should first listen to what I have to say. You might be a good Hunter and a Korikov but not even you can face five individuals alone and hope to live.”

Vanessa looked around, taking count of the five individuals surrounding her. It was too dark to tell who or what they were. As she did so, she dropped Mikhail’s corpse, and duly noted the number of tails. Or, lack thereof. It seemed she hadn’t actually killed anyone important. She could abandon the corpse if it meant escaping. On top of that, she had used three bullets while shooting at this kitsune, which meant that she would only be able to take out three of them before resorting to a melee to dispose of the other two. The situation didn’t look that good for Vanessa, but she seemed relatively disillusioned by her predicament.

She shifted her sights toward the individual in front of her. The menacing glow of his cigarette was the only light in the entire clearing, and his features were all too evident. His olive green eyes seemed to glow apart from the cigarette, and Vanessa could only wonder what those eyes must have bore witness to. Vanessa looked at Valon the way a huntsman might look at a particularly large buck, and thought that Valon would make a beautiful trophy mount.

Vanessa regarded his words with callous insincerity. “I was wondering where this stupid animal was trying to lead me. Alright! It looks like it has worked, this is an ambush of sorts, right? So, I’ll let you tell me why I’m out here, and then I’m gonna show you that I can kill all five of you."

Valon took another drag off the cigarette, his olive eye’s were boring into Vanessa’s, her words were snark and deliberately meant to gain a rise. He didn’t even have to look at the other five shifters with him to know they were biting at the bit to kill her. Most of them were still young pups, they had earned their stripes having killed Hunters before but they were still susceptible to basic emotional manipulation.

“I can. Strong words. Kill you. Even stronger words, spoken by many others before you, the majority of which make you seem like a weak little girl, crying for her daddy to scare the monsters away. One thing I have noticed through my long years is that Hunters are no longer like the used to be, once upon a time they were stronger, smarter, and the thing that I preferred most in the past is they didn’t talk so much. They didn’t need words to hide the fact they are weak and words are all they have.”

Valon returned the cold sentiments to Vanessa with a certain tone that could get under anyone's skin. In truth to him, she was a bug, a bug that scurries on the ground living an insignificant life. Taking crumbs where she can and than bragging that she stole the whole piece of bread. It was a hollow mentality inspired when one kills children and than believes they are powerful because of it.

“I did not come here to exchange soured words with a parasite such as you, nor did I request one put their life in danger to lead you hear just to listen to weak words. I came here because I want to give you a chance, a chance at immortality among all Hunters. My very name is a source of both hatred and contempt among Hunters, even more so to the Korikov whom have tried for centuries to put me down only to fall short time and time again. To kill me is to become legend, and I can see by the look on your face that you would like to obtain that title.”

Valon took a couple more steps forward, the five shifters did the same, they kept a relatively safe distance though as not to make a foolish move and die.

“I am going to give you a choice, a very simple choice and depending on which one you take will decide your fate. Your first choice is your going to disarm yourself of all weapons except a knife and I will do the same, I will even choose not to use any weapon, choose this choice and the five individuals in this field will not join in on the fight, just me. The second choice is we fight with weapons and my friends here will join in, friends of which are already biting at the bit to take you down. You Korikov are merciless and heartless but you are not stupid, you already know that fighting all six of us is suicide. You don’t have near enough bullets to take them down nonetheless me. Besides I am the prize you want, and if your so skilled… than prove it. Decide.”

Vanessa cocked her eyebrow. The other four individuals in the clearing were shifters. That was rather unfortunate, as Vanessa had left her silver knife at home for this hunt. This close to an urban center it was almost implausible to find a shifter, so she did not think she would need it. Typically, they would reside in the countryside and terrorize the smaller villages. It was too risky in the northern cities.

The fact of the matter was that she would have to take the first option offered to her. If she had even a single bullet left in her chamber, she would be confident enough to challenge him with her full equipment. Her draw speed was anywhere from half a second to a second, and it would take a second more to aim. Or… That wasn’t true. If any of the shifters were a lycanthrope, or a similar animal with incredible agility, she would miss her mark by a few seconds. She would need a fifth bullet account for a less than perfect accuracy due to the rush, and if she missed more than two, she would be caught off guard by the fastest shifter. So even in a more ideal circumstance, she would have to accept Valons proposal.

It made her blood boil. What a nuisance. To have the audacity to impede a Korikov out of a delusional sense of justice. Vanessa couldn’t help but feel the very animosity that was the foundation of the Korikov family. She wasn’t just gonna kill this beast. She was make him suffer on the whole way down. But first, there was something she needed to do.

In her bag was a special flare. It was used by her and her husband to communicate while they were both on the hunt. Tonight, he was teaching the young Nikita Jr. how to track an elf who had been traveling in and out of Elphyne to harvest herbs from this forest. If she sent it up, they both would head to her location.

The problem was, she didn’t have a way to light it. If things went south then she would be killed if this didn’t activate. Vanessa hesitated; The conviction that froze the kitsune from before faltered, and when she looked at Valon, he suddenly looked so much larger than he did before. But she didn’t focus on this realization. Instead, she stared at his cigarette.

“Ooh. You’re smart, aren’t’cha. I’m surprised that someone as old as you is senile enough to make me drop my gun.” Vanessa dramattically kicked open the barrel to her gun and tossed it to the side as a way of agreeing to Valon’s first option. Even if she were to pick it up, the opened barrel allowed the bullets to be jostled by the fall. It would not be able to be fired immediately. While she did this, she also sneakily switched the flare from her backpack to her pocket with her other hand. “It’s the best decision you’ve made all night. Say, I don’t have my typical weapon with me, all I’ve got is this big ol’ thing” she motioned to her waist, where there was a belt with various pockets filled with unknown substances and tool. Where she was particularly motioning was a large steel bowie knife. “It’s practically a sword once it gets this big. I ain’t askin’ permission to use it, but I thought I’d warn ya either way.”

Valon said nothing, in truth he didn’t care if she used her gun or even a blade dropped by some all mighty god blessed with his power and could kill him instantly. This was not about a fight that tailored towards one or the other, this was about revenge. Simply killing her would not do, no... she would suffer at his hands, he would show her the hell that had brought him this far. Valon removed the blade he had strapped upon his back, the blade made a low zing as it exited the metal sheath. Taking it in his hand he thrust it back and than forward, the pieces of the blade suddenly came apart, the sword transformed into a blade whip. Swinging it forward the bladed whip hit the weapon on the ground and twisted around it, bringing his wrist back with a snap the gun flew from the ground and flew behind him disappearing in the darkness.

With another flick of his wrist the blade receded in and combined forming into a sword once more. He than tossed the blade to the shifter on his left, he caught it easily, Valon turned his head and nodded almost idly as the shifter nodded back. With quick agility the five of them quickly dispersed leaving Valon and Vanessa alone in the field.

“Senile. Interesting choice of phrase from a child like you. Did you know the very first Hunter I ever killed died because he was stupid enough to fall into a trap?”

Valon took one last drag off the cigarette, taking the butt between his finger and thumb he flicked it away, it flew fast and landed a short distance away. It was sudden almost like an explosion, flames licked up all around the field combining into one big circle trapping them both inside. The flames were immensely hot and burned bright, the flames licked high catching nearby tree’s a flame with ease. For the first time since they had meant that night Vanessa could now fully make out his appearance, his body illuminated by the bright flames.

“Did you know that when you live long enough that you have nothing but time in this world to think, to calculate, to plan? For example I am sure you must have someway to bring in reinforcements, I am sure you were going over in your head how if things took a turn for the worst that you would have a backup plan to overcome me. This is simple truth, those flames will burn continuously for many moments, and anything that tries to cross them in or out will not make it even an inch before their skin is melted away. It is time Vanessa Korikov to pay for what you have done, ALONE with no one to help you. But before I cause you immense pain beyond what your imagination can even grasp would you like to know… why all of this is happening right now or would you rather… I tell you when your on the ground an inch from death? Your choice.”

Valon moved his arms up as the overcoat he was wearing flew up, over his arms and fluttered backwards hitting the ground, he slowly rolled his sleeves up to his elbows revealing the chained tattoo on each of his arms.

The fire around Vanessa was a little disconcerting. On one hand, it would make lighting her flare easier. On the other hand… What exactly could they do once they arrived.

Vanessa didn’t care much for Valon’s exposé. “Weren’t you just telling me how much better my ancestors were for keeping quiet?” she said, practically spitting the words at him. She removed the knife from her belt and took the offensive.

First, she held the knife in her right hand but levied it to the left of her body. This way, she could arc the knife in a sweeping motion to hit Valon if he was directly in front of her. Then, she began to sprint around the circle of fire, making it so that Valon would have to turn to match her movements. For now, this was all she would do, as she was gauging her opponents reaction to such an elementary strategy.

Valon watched silently like an eagle as Vanessa removed the knife from her belt and placed it into her right hand. She placed the blade to her left side, giving her the ability to swipe that blade at a moments notice, she would know how to kill him, any Hunter with salt would know that much. She was in a perfect position to swipe at his neck and remove his head. She did not attack him haphazardly, he watched her run towards the flames and begin running in a circle around him. she was positioning close to the flames he had set. If she could somehow maneuver him into them, that could also end his existence if the conditions were right. He watched her circle for a couple moments, she was not attacking, she was waiting to see what he would do. If he approached her carelessly from the front she would attack with the knife, chasing her would be fruitless he was not built for speed. Valon shook his head, she was quite adept at strategy however he wondered if she was the same emotionally.

“You know… if your going to just run in a circle like a coward, perhaps I will just let the flames die down and go look for your husband or maybe even your son. I am sure I could get some entertainment out of them, especially your son, I am sure his screams would be worth the trouble. But I would understand if your not interested in keeping your son safe, after all Hunters do enjoy killing children.”

The fire really was hot, and as powerful as the hunter’s blessing made Vanesssa, she was still just like any human. The heat of the flames made her tire out quicker than she had hoped, and she slowed down to a brisk jog. She’d have to conserve her energy for later in the fight, if she burnt out now, death would be the only outcome.

She gauged her options. It seemed like Valon wasn’t taking the bait, and she’d have to readjust her strategy. She tried to push his words to the back of her mind; but a bit of her loathe escaped in her expression. Even though she was the only human for miles, her expression was by far the most monstrous. She didn’t respond to Valon’s insult, but instead focused on her new strategy.

His weapon, which looked like some sort of bastard child of a flail and a sword, was no longer on the field, which meant that there wasn’t any clever positioning or stratagem that would place her in a position to harm Valon. His reach was about as long as hers with the knife, and it from Vanessa’s experience, some of the creatures she faced would be able to incapacitate with just a single touch. This meant that neither side truly had an advantage, although honestly speaking, Vanessa was the only one with an armament. Quickly, she came up with a plan of attack.

She would lunge towards the center of the clearing, and make like she was about to release her arm in an arcing motion towards Valon. Given how far she was from Valon, he would almost certainly have an opportunity to brace himself. At the last second, about one or two strides from being within arms reach of Valon, she would lunge to the left side of Valon to dart behind him. This was another test of sorts, and she would sprint to the other side of the clearing if she successfully cleared him. If he somehow managed to stop her, she would also be prepared to attack with the knife in her right hand. Having rehearsed her plan in her head, she began her ‘assault’.

Valon had crossed his arm as Vanessa ran in a circle, it didn’t take long for her slow down and realize that she was only wasting energy. He had no intention of showing this woman his abilities. She would come to him, one way or another, she chose not to respond to his earlier retort which made it clear that in some way it bothered her. He could use that to his advantage, human emotion was just like a wall, all it took was time and pressure and the wall would crumble. Valon did cock his head when she suddenly lunged and drove straight for the center of the field where he was. What was she up to? Would she really try to attack him head on? No she wouldn’t dare, he could render her easily with one blow.

Was she testing his defences? Valon didn’t have much time to ponder, in either event she was expecting him to go on the defensive, so how about offensive instead? Valon leapt from the spot and ran right at Vanessa, she was still holding the blade to her left which meant she was prepared for a frontal attack. So instead of waiting for her to reach him, he would close the distance and force her hand, he would draw his arm back as if to punch her when he got close, wait until the very last second for her attack, than slide hard right into her legs and take her off her feet.

Huh?! Vanessa glowered at Valon as he came at her. Was she getting adrenalized for no reason? Surely someone who boasted such superiority over a hunter such as herself would know better to come at her arms swinging. Or, so she thought.

Vanessa was not prepared for Valon to predict her feint and react with his own. The only cue to a blow that would have knocked her to the ground was a split second between Valon sliding and him knocking her off her feet. By that point, she was already part-way towards her jump to the side. By that time, there was nothing she could do to fully avoid Valons attack. He caught her right foot and caused her to stumble. Vanessa braced her left foot for landing, and landed rather gracefully for her predicament. She grimaced as she lowered her right foot to the ground, and felt an unnatural pain as her foot lay flat on the ground. Valon’s slide had seemingly sprained her ankle. This was not good, as it meant that she had lost the advantage of agility. She turned to face Valon, who would have had an opportunity to right himself and face Vanessa again at this point.

There was no other option. She would need to light the flare as soon as possible, and to do so she would need to buy some time until she backed up to the wall of flames behind her. “Heh, is that all you got? Say, we’ve already started fighting, but I don’t know your name yet. How ‘bout it, tell me what your name is, and I’ll even get a special tag to identify you when I mount you on my wall” She took careful steps so as not to reveal her new injury, and slowly shuffled to increase the distance between her and Valon.

Valon’s expression didn’t change, not even in that moment, his eye’s just followed Vanessa as she backed away from him. He had struck her, even if it was one foot and even if she managed to land, he knew the force of the strike was enough to at least hurt her. Although she did not show any signs of it causing damage, although the point was rather moot, whatever she had planned was foiled before it had a chance to go through. Valon took a couple steps forward and followed her almost casually, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Why was she backing up towards the flames? He pondered this in his head, surely that would be a rather bad idea? He pondered it but truly it made no difference to him what she trying to do or not do at that point. So just for kicks he would satisfy her weak taunting.

“My name? I have been called many things over the years, The Red Plague, Blood Demon, Bane of Humanity, so many names during so many times. I doubt whatever your real reason for asking that you care to know my name, but I will answer just once, my name is Valon Vladimir Valerious. I am the demon that the Korikov have been trying to kill for centuries upon centuries, blah… blah… blah.”

Valon watched her get ever closer to the flames, he was still curious as to why she was going towards them. Did she believe she could escape? No, that was pretty clear that she wouldn’t, not just yet. Was she going to try and use the flames against him? No not likely she didn’t have the strength to push him into them and she had nothing to amplify them. Valon kept advancing his eyes trained on her ready for whatever she thought she was going to do.

Vanessa took one more step, and she could feel the singe of the flames on the back of her neck. If she stood here for too long, she would blister, but that was hardly of concern right now. As far as Vanessa was concerned, she was successful in her endeavor, and a small burn would be a price to pay of the same magnitude.

She kept her eyes trained on Valon for a moment longer, and quickly reached into her pocket and grabbed the flare with her left hand. She also relaxed her right arm, so that the knife was now on her right side. Just as quick as she grabbed the flare, she reached towards the flames with her left hand and extended the flare into the inferno. With a resounding crack, the flare activated, and it began spurting a flurry of white sparks. Vanessa wasted no time, even though sticking the flare into the fire had caused part of her left hand to become scorched, and threw the flare up into the air. As soon at the flare escaped her hands, it exploded into a large beam of light. The light was painfully blinding, and anyone within several miles of the clearing would have been able to see the flare, including Nikita Bollo. However, she did not have an opportunity to do anything else before Valon.

Valon watched as Vanessa quickly pulled something from her pocket as soon as the flames were practically licking her back. Moments later she thrust the mysterious item into the fire along with her hand. He was just barely feet away when she brought her left hand forward and released something into the air it exploded violently in a cascade of blinding white light. The realization quickly dawned on him what she had done, she had let her guard down to throw the flare, Valon capitalized on it and moved forward. With one hand he gripped her the wrist of her right hand which held the knife and with the other he wrapped his fingers around her throat and held her in place still close to the flames.

“Let me guess that was a flare to alert whoever is nearby to help you? Hunters… never capable of fighting their own battles, one thing that has never changed. Although it is of little consequence to me, I have more than enough time to finish what I started.”

Valon tightened his grip of Vanessa wrist with a resounding crack as he pulled it into a downward angle forcing her to drop the knife to the ground. He then picked her up off her feet by her throat and threw her bodily through the air and back into the middle of the field away from the wall of flames.

Vanessa coughed after she hit the ground, and idly ran her right hand over her throat. Well, she tried to run her hand over her throat. Valon’s grip was enough to break her wrist, and she was unable to do much more than rub it against her throat like a rubber glove. The endorphins and adrenaline pumping through Vanessa’s body made sure that she couldn’t feel this pain though, and she didn’t have any way to deal with an injury before Valon reached her again. Which meant, she would have to fight with only her left hand.

Vanessa pulled herself to her feet. “Huh. That’s a surprise. As it turns out, there is a brain in there.” She remarked, validating Valon’s theory. “Hey. So now that we’re on the same page, how ‘bout you call your shifter buddies back to join the fray. I did break your rules after all, I had kept the flare when you said to disarm myself of everything. That sounds like as good as reason as any to call them back over.”

As Vanessa spoke, she readied herself in a defensive position. Her right hand was dangling to her side, and her balance was clearly thrown off by her sprained ankle. Even all of this considered, it would still be a fool's errand to approach her head on.

The laugh came out of nowhere, Valon who was walking towards Vanessa was laughing, it was almost maniacal in its sound. It was obvious that Valon thought of Vanessa as a joke as he put on of his arms behind his back and raised the other to imitate her pain. However it would soon become apparent that the laughter was not purely at her physical condition, he would stop just a few feet away from her and bore his eye’s into hers.

“You just don’t get it yet do you? Your standing there definitely ready to fight until the last breath. I even told you before this was all a trap from the beginning but you never looked beyond that did you? Those Shifters had no intention of fighting in the first place, I merely wanted you to toss away your gun away, I wanted to fight you hand to hand, I wanted to see just how tough you really were.”

Valon’s smile faded quickly his face replaced itself with the usual emotionless cold glare of steel olive eye’s. He took one more step towards Vanessa stopping again.

“I wanted to cause you pain, I wanted to see how it felt to hurt you and if it would be enough in the end to justify the revenge I want. An clearly it's not going to be enough, not by any shot will it be enough. Killing you is not enough to repay what you and your family did, and I had surmised that would be the likely outcome.”

Valon continued walking towards Vanessa and covered the distance between him and her within another couple of steps. Vanessa seeing Valon approach her, drew one last punch, she mustered her remaining strength into the hit and struck at Valon. Valon put out his hand and her fist struck his open palm at the very last second, wrapping his fingers around her fist he pulled her in hard and raised his other hand catching her by the throat one last time. Go forward he picked her up and went forward slamming her back first in the softened ground, he knelt beside her, his hand was still wrapped around her throat as he spoke:

“I never had any intention of killing you Korikov, I wanted to and I still do… but killing you right here and now would be too easy for you. There are so many ways I could break your will, you think I can’t but I have meant Hunters FAR tougher than you woman. I could break all your limbs, I could rip off your arms, cripple you so you never Hunt again. Perhaps I could go put your face in those flames so EVERYTIME your family looks at you and ANYONE else, all they will see is the MONSTER you are.”

Valon pulled Vanessa up slightly from the ground by her throat and bore his hateful eye’s right into her’s, there was a malice in them that could stun a charging bull.

“I had no intention of killing you because I am going to make you suffer in ways you have never suffered before, both you and your husband. Just like you made them suffer, you remember don’t you, two unicorns and two Guardians one in which you killed whom was my pupil? The same pupil who often filled my ears with ridiculous ideas that someday we Supernatural and Hunters could coexist in peace, something he believed with all he was. Even I had to admit that with him around it was possible… but now he is dead and once again here I am in the midst of battle all because you and your family couldn’t leave well enough alone.”

Valon released Vanessa’s head and pushed it hard to the ground with a dull thump as he stood up and towered over here, he looked down on her, his eyes glimmered with an anger, a rage he had not felt for a long time.

“I am declaring war on the Korikov family, I am going to eliminate every elder, every child, every Hunter with that last name from the face of this cursed world. An lucky for you I am going to start with your family, my final reason why I am not going to kill you tonight. I am going to kill your son, your precious little boy, I am going to give you a true taste of what suffering is really like when your whole world crumbles around you. An the best part is, you won’t know when it's going to happen, from this day forward you will live in fear for when the Red Plague comes to takes your sons life once… and… for… all.”

Valon bent down to Vanessa one last time and glared into her eye’s as an evil smile crossed his lips.

“It was nice meeting you, Vanessa… Korikov… and... it was nice knowing your family.”

As the flames around them finally started to die down some Valon walked across the field and retrieved his coat, letting it glide into the air he let it slip over his arms before walking back to Mikhail, bending down he softly raised the Kitsune into his arms.

“I am sorry for your death, know that there will be revenge.”

From behind a nearly incinerated battlefield came a deep voice. “ I can smell the smoke, Druzhishche. Come this way.”

“H-Huh? Alright.” Came a notably less deep voice.

The two individuals who were speaking appeared from the trees opposite where Vanessa had first entered the clearing. One of them was an enormous dark-skinned man, wearing a large coat that only exemplified his astounding girth. While he was particularly large, he looked almost as solid as a rock, and one would be hard pressed to find a part of his body that wasn’t in peak condition. This man was Nikita Bollo, the husband of Vanessa Korikov.

To his side was a much smaller and shorter individual who was also male. His appearance was almost shrouded in the dark of the night, and the only defined characteristics were his skin that matched the man next to him and his light brown eyes. Compared to Vanessa, who was writhing on the ground in the center of the clearing, and Nikita Bollo, who seemed to dwarf even the trees in the taiga, he did not seem consequential in the slightest. This was Nikita Jr, also known as the first Nikita Korikov.

Nikita Bollo, who had been searching the clearing for any signs of the flare, quickly located his wife and scrambled across the clearing to get to her. He didn’t let a sound out as he worked, and he took the backpack which he had been carrying and laid it next to Vanessa. He pulled out what appeared to be a first aid kit, and prepared to treat her wounds. Nikita Bollo looked around to see if there was any threat, but he couldn’t find anything with his initial survey. He couldn’t cross out the possibility that this was some sort of trap with Vanessa as bait, and motioned to his son.

“Moy Khoroshiy, survey the surrounding area. Return once you are sure there is no one waiting for us in this clearing.”

“A-Alright!" The boy wasted no time, and jogged to the edge of the clearing with plans to climb a tree to survey the landscape. Generations of Bollo and Korikov hunters have resulted in Nikita having extraordinarily good eyesight, and he was confident that he would be able to see any potential threats even in the dark.

Carefully, so as not to break any of the branches, Nikita scrambled up a tree on the edge of the clearing and began to look around. There didn’t appear to be anyone around the clearing besides his parents… Wait, that’s not right. There was a shadowy figure on the brink of the clearing, moving away from said location. Nikita tried to focus, but he couldn’t quite make out who it was. He didn’t look like some kind of extraordinary beast, although his clothing was a little odd, and Nikita wondered if he posed any threat to his mother and father. If he wanted to find an answer to that question, he would have to get a little bit closer. Nikita marked the location in his head and slid down the tree.

He jogged around the perimeter of the clearing, until he was at its furthest point closest to where he saw the man. In the distance, through some trees, Nikita could nearly see the man in the woods. How was he walking away so calmly, when it looked like there was the clearing was engulfed in a ring of fire just moments earlier? Could this have been the man who had put Vanessa Korikov, one of the most feared names in Russia, into such a state as that which he had observed earlier.

“Hey! Who are you?” He shouted after the man, stepping out of the clearing and into the forest. But he received no reply. Instead, all Nikita received was a sight he would remember for the rest of his life.

The man turned around. He appeared to be carrying the body of someone, but Nikita couldn’t quite make out who it was, or if it was even human. The man’s appearance was both stoic and maniacal, and he gave off an air of danger that Nikita had never been met with before. But the worse part by far was his eyes. They were dark but light, and colorful but gray. They showed off three thousand years of suffering, and they stared back into Nikita’s own eyes as if the man was prying into his very soul. Nikita froze, and for a moment it felt like time itself had stopped. Nikita couldn’t tell if it was slowly, or quickly, but Valon smiled at him before turning away.

Nikita was so taken aback by this man, that he nearly stumbled. He looked around him and back to the spot where he had seen this man, but in the instant he looked away the man was gone. Nikita didn’t know what to make of this, and returned to his father, where he reported that there was nothing in the vicinity that posed a threat to the two of them while they dealt with Vanessa’s injuries. Later, after he had learned what had happened to his mother that night, he had come to wonder if the man he came to face with was the Seraph himself, Valon Vladimir Valerious.

Valon lay on his knee's, his body was straight and his head was bowed down with his eye's closed tightly. The area around him was cold, an early morning chill had taken the it, mist clung to the ground lowly obscuring a small portion of Valon's ankles. All around him tree's of various kinds were scattered in every direction, the place he was kneeling was deep within what appeared to be a wooded area. The entire area was silent save for the crunching footsteps from Valon's left. They were steady and nearing with every second, Valon moved his arms slowly up, pulling them in he removed the overcoat he was wearing revealing the red long sleeved shirt below. Gently he placed it on the ground, folded neatly beside him. The footsteps increased in sound as they drew even closer, Valon slowly unbuttoned the red sleeves and moved them up his arms cuffing them at the elbows. The chain tattoo on his arms was now showing, the black loops almost glistened, the spikes on the edges looking as if they were digging into his arm like thorns. Each chain held a word in its loop in a language that looked long forgotten.

The footsteps which had been increasing in sound suddenly stopped, the entire area going silent around him save the creaking of tree limbs in the wind. Valon's eye's were still closed as he reached down his dominant hand and lay it on the hilt of the sword within the sheath on his back. The sword was broad in nature but slightly more slimmed down, the hilt was black and enlarged, a red gem lay in the center between the guard, the handle wrapped by black cloth tightly wound. There was a sound of metal against metal as he pulled it out, the sword was divided into what appeared to be pieces, each one connected to the next from hilt to tip of blade. Valon did not moved he stayed in his current position the sword half unsheathed on his back, the world around him was completely still and silent, not even a bug dared to breath. The attack came from the left, a tall muscular figure flew down from the tree above Valon, their face was covered with a leather face mask, their body draped in light black leather armor.

The sword in their hand aimed straight for Valon's head, it seemed like it would almost definitely hit, the sudden clank of metal upon metal however shattered that certainty. Valon's sword was above his head now, the opponent who had tried to strike him pressing down with all their might but unable to move Valon's sword down and further towards his skull. The figure quick in speed removed their blade and jumped back hitting their feet and sliding across the ground. They placed their sword before them pointed at Valon. The Mezmer demon remained still, his legs bent up at a weird angle as he got to his feet, a couple pops sounded as he did. He cracked his neck once to the right and than once to the left, each crack loud and cringe worthy. Turning his eye's were still closed but he faced his opponent, he said nothing, did nothing. Merely stood there for a couple moments as if in thought before he finally did open his eye's.

“Too loud.”

The words were simple and direct to the opponent before him, their eye's closed into slits at the remark, they quickly moved forward with intent to kill. Their approach was steadfast, their sword arced and came from the left of Valon. The sword in Valon's hand moved, the blade pointed to the ground, he lowered it as he caught his opponents blow blocking his legs. As metal struck metal once more Valon drove his sword out forcing his opponents sword back, in the same instance he turned his entire body in quick succession, his sword changing direction in his hand, the blade now facing up, he used the momentum from his turn driving his blade in a horizontal arc for his opponents mid section. His opponent blocked the attack, but their sword was driven back from the power behind the blow, just barely they held the block. They grunted as they tried to force Valon's sword away, unable to overpower him the opponent quickly let go of the sword and flipped back, Valon's sword barely missing their legs.

“Sloppy.”

Again Valon spoke directly to his opponent, placing the sword over his back after twirling it he clicked it into the sheath with a metallic zing. Reaching forward he took the discarded sword from the ground, he tossed it sideways at a hard arc as it hit a trick and stuck in deep. His opponent took a fighting stance, they raised their fists in anticipation. Valon did not bother to raised his guard, he stared down his attacker, daring them to approach him. They did not hesitate moving from their spot at great speed, the blow came for Valon's chest. The blow landed squarely in Valon's chest, he had not bothered to block it. His opponent looked up in confusion just in time for Valon's forehead to slam into theirs with a sickening thud. His attacker yelped loudly as they fell backwards and slammed onto their back. Valon moved forward slowly, almost methodically, sadistically as his opponent was shaking their head, trying to clear the cobwebs from the decisive blow.

They quickly regained their composure and flipped backwards head first and landed on their feet. They flung forward and threw three quick punches. One struck Valon's stomach, another struck his chest and the last landed across his jaw. The blows barely seemed to register, his opponent than quickly flipped back onto to their hands, their feet going into the air, twisting on their hands they threw a kick for Valon's head. There was a loud smack as Valon caught his opponents ankle, a small sharp blade was sticking out of his opponents boot just inches from his face. The counter attack was unexpected as Valon let go of the ankle and bent low, he drove his legs right into his opponents arms knocking them off balance and forcing their momentum upwards into the air where he drove his fist forward and caught them mid air in the stomach rag dolling them across the field. Their body crumbled on the ground as they rolled a couple times before coming to a stop at the base of a tree.

“How did I beat you so easily Elise?”

Valon watched as his pupil slowly got to their feet, they were holding their stomach with one hand and leaning on the tree with the other. When she was steady she removed the leather mask over her face and head revealing long black straight hair, a soft fair complexioned face with eagle like green eye's.

“I faced you head on... when I should have pressed a medium to long distance attack. I should have worked on fast strikes and than retreating and thinking my next moves.”

“Exactly. You do not face an opponent with superior strength in close combat unless you know you can fell them before they can strike you. You must always take into account what your opponent is as well as their strengths and weakness's. What is one strength a Mezmer has in close quarters combat?”

“A Mezmer has inhuman strength so their blows at close range are lethal if not deadly. Mezmers are also capable of taking a lot of pain, some in fact can not even feel pain, so attacks with hand to hand are useless unless combined by some form of magic or ability that makes the blow more effective.”

Valon walked up to Elise, his face was expressionless as it always was but he raised one of his hands and put it on top of her head.

“Good. Remember that mistakes like this can cause death, do not underestimate your opponents and even more so never overestimate your own abilities. Guardian's have no need to prove anything, nor should they ever live in a mindset where they want to prove something. We protect that which can not protect itself, nothing more and nothing less. Do you understand?”

“Yes Sir, next time I will do better.”

Valon nodded his approval as he removed his hand from her head, he motioned his head for her to leave the courtyard.

“Get something to eat than I want you to return to study and review your texts, more specifically the different types of races and cultures.”

Elise bowed her head and put her fist to her chest in respect and limped slowly to the entrance and disappeared from sight. Valon watched her nodding his head at her, walking back over to his original spot he picked up his overcoat.

“I see your training is as rough as always, I have been hit by many a blows but only a Mezmer makes a point to put so much strength into even the simplest punch. Although now and days you seem to be holding back, seems like a time ago your hits did a lot more damage.”

Valon turned as he unfolded his coat and tossed it upwards in the air and let his arms slide through the sleeves as it slid down his body resting on his shoulders.

“Times change Councilor, Pupils in this day and age are not so willing to have their ribs broken while merely training. Seems like the more time goes on the more soft applicants seem to become. Even Hunters are not as fierce as they once were.”

“Hm. Maybe your just really old. There is no shame in it, I remember once upon a time a Mezmer who barely uttered one single word. His eye's were always cold as steel and his entire being was tense and always on edge regardless of where he was, his first pupils were so scared of him that they nearly quit. Time does change us all in the end, even those of us who look the same as they did thousands of years ago. Alas though I did not come here to ramble about age, there is something I must discuss with you, if you would meet me in my chambers, a situation has arisen and time is short.”

- - -

Valon sat quietly in Councilor Lucretia's chambers. Very much like much of the Rome Facility the office was tantamount to stepping back in time a good hundreds of years. The walls were very tall and large and made of travertine, complimented by white half stone pillars, the floor was made of stone tiles with engravings around each corner. The area was fairly spacious and took the shape of an small oval. The furnishings all appeared to be fair bit more modern when concerning the large desk in the center of the room, the plush large chairs among various other assortments. Much of the walls on the other hand were lined with books, very old and very delicate books mixed among artifacts and a long gone era. It was always did surprise him some that no one ever guessed so many years prior that Councilor Lucretia whom was a ranking member in the old Roman Empire was in fact not completely human. Looking up Lucretia entered through the double wide doors and let them close behind him, situating himself behind the desk he looked to Valon and spoke:

“We have a situation Valon, first and foremost have you ever heard of a town called Erehwon?”

In truth most supernatural had heard of that small town practically in the middle of nowhere, it was a virtual safe haven for supernatural and with the Hunters constantly lurking in every country side waiting to kill... that was a much needed thing in the past years.

“Yes. I have heard of it, its is where Gringore Academy is located and maintained. I have never been there myself, I have always remained in Europe even before joining the Guardians. I believe it is in a state called Vermont.”

“Yes your right, we have a delicate situation brewing near Erehwon and if allowed to continue it could blow up into a full blown Hunter convention. We have been receiving reports from Guardians around Erehwon that humans have been disappearing outside of Erehwon and many supernatural as well have come up missing. From what I have gathered it has been restricted outside of Erehwon but it appears to be moving closer and closer to the town. About three days ago a pack of young Hunters were missing near Erehwon, no trace of them.”

Valon's face took on that of subtle confusion, the news that supernaturals and humans alike were going missing one after another was very disconcerting. It was one think for humans to disappear the reality was Humans were weak and often easily manipulated by the supernatural. Depending on who you asked they were an easy meal in some eye's. But to attack supernatural was another situation entirely, most could defend themselves and many different kinds of supernatural could not be used like humans could.

“Everyone just disappears? No trace?”

“Well the ones who don't disappear are usually found in several pieces without even a drop of blood in their entire body. An most of the supernatural who disappear always return again dead not too long after. We believe they maybe trying to help the humans and being killed for their trouble.”

Valon thought on it silently, obviously this had to do with a vampire, only they would drain a victim completely of blood. An they had the strength to rip and tear their victims apart after their feeding was done.

“A rogue Vampire? Than again Vampires do not usually disembowel their victims after they drain them and leave them to rot in pieces. Nor do they usually find it prudent to kill other supernatural beings indiscriminately.”

“Accept for newly blooded vampires who don't know how to control themselves.”

“Even than newly blooded vampire do not have a natural desire to decapitate victims. There must be some other mitigating factor to make them act in such a manner.”

Valon did not like where this heading, the only thing that he could think of would be an Elder Vampire who had gone rogue. Elder Vampires were a phenomenon all on their own, he had said many times that living a long life can bring you perspective and give you skills beyond that of even ordinary supernatural and Elder Vampires were no different. The older vampires got the more powerful they seem to get and even more so they develop in rare cases a strong telepathic link to the vampires they blood and those vampires are called their “children” whom basically become slaves.

“I believe your right, my suspicion is that we might be dealing with an Elder Vampire who is creating a nest somewhere near Erehwon. We can't sure though, you already know Elder Vampires rarely show themselves unless provoked personally and it seems logical this one is sending it's “children” to hunt for new humans to be blooded or for food. We have been able to hide the the fact that people are dieing left and right, but one body was discovered in a place close by called Ruxbury. Search parties are now being formed and going back and forth looking for the reported missing people.”

“An they have no idea what they are going to find if they find themselves close enough to whats causing this.. this is a volatile situation.”

Valon put his hand to his chin, the situation was not good, if this was an Elder Vampire and those search parties accidentally stumbled across it or its next somehow...

“Not to mention with those Hunters disappearing there has been a rise in their numbers in the area. The situation is spiraling, and now the Guardian I had looking into this situation is missing.”

Valon looked up slowly.

“Missing? Hunters?”

“No I don't think so, the Hunters are concentrating their search further west for now, they seem to think whatever they are looking for will be there. His last report detailed that he was looking into something in town, it was rather vague though, he said it was unrelated, it had to do with dragons blood.”

Dragons blood... it was getting better and better. Once upon a time someone had come up with the idea to take the very toxic dragon blood and use as it a weapon against humans and even supernatural alike. There was an entire situation many year prior where Dragons were being kidnapped and held for their blood to make weapons against Hunters. The only problem was Guardian's take a dim view on kidnapping and imprisonment and the operation was shut down. Permanently. Valon had been one of the Guardians present during the raid. Further more the weapons they were creating often times more than not ended up affecting innocent bystanders, it was one big problem. Valon had heard rumors that Dragon Blood was now being used in some sort of drug that gave Supernaturals and edge, however proof on the contrary was the real issue.

“What is the plan Councilor?”

“Your the plan Valon, given the extreme elements of the situation I can not afford to send Guardians whom don't have enough actual real world experience, especially if this is an Elder Vampire in the mix. You faced one before, something not many if any Guardians have had the displeasure of doing and as far as experience goes you have the most in this case. I have an outside Agent who has been working with us for many years now, he has been monitoring the situation with our Guardian who went missing, he will be waiting for you when you arrive. Apparently he had meant you before and is looking forward to seeing you again."

Valon cocked his head at Councilor Lucretia, someone he knew outside of the Guardians...

“Who?...”

---

“Vivo my friend! It has been so long since we last saw each other! How are you doing?!”

Valon's body twitched as a man wrapped his arms around him, enveloping him in a huge hug, one of which violated every rule of physical contact he had made within the last many years. His eye's were wide and scary as the man released him and backed away. Valon looked at him and his eye's become hard, it couldn't be... mousy looking man but older, long medium brown hair pulled into a pony tail, shitty complexion. Valon recalled and incident years ago when a young Hunter tried to kill him in Rome, he had captured him and chained him to a wall for hours on end to soften him up. Though he did not kill him that day, he pitied him and let him live to fight another day when he was not so weak. In all his years though he had never imagined that same kid would not be working on their side. An Vivo... did he just call him... Vivo?

“Okay, the hug was probably a bit over the top but we don't want anyone thinking anything around here, just two old friends greeting each other... and jesus do your eye's ever change or is that hereditary or something? Did anyone ever tell you to try decaf by chance?"

He whispered lower in Valon's ear as the Mezmer looked around the train station quietly. There was quite a few humans in here, he was not used to big crowds like this anymore, he hadn't been in the real world for many odd years now. Not to mention considering where he came from it was almost like he had stepped through some portal into the 21st century. The train ride in itself had been filled with people, all of them on some sort of handheld device, they talked to them like they were people. Playing images with music, something called Youtube.

“Also by the by you wouldn't happen to have any other clothes your looking a bit ancient, you could really use...”

The man stopped cold in his talking as Valon was glaring at him very hard and very scary as if he finished that line of wording he would die instantly. The man suddenly laughed nervously placing a hand on Valon's shoulder.

“You could really use another set so I can have the same outfit! It is awesome its almost like going back in time to another era! Love it! I have always enjoyed cosplaying myself!”

Cosplaying? What the hell was that? Valon didn't get a chance to ask as he was lead away from the arrival platform and through another entrance into the station itself. The man was going on about this and that, about the town in general, and famous landmarks and places to visit. To tell the truth Valon was a Demon lost in time as he looked around, everything was... different way different from the facility in Rome.

“By the way my name is Calvin, or Cal I don't think you ever got my name all those years ago. Also I grabbed this from the post office...”

Cal handed a large wrapped package to Valon, the package was most definitely his sword which had to be sent separately to avoid questions. Valon started to unravel the package but Cal quickly stopped him.

“Lets just uh.. open that in the car while were driving to Erehwon. I already had to convince the post office it was a family heirloom and not to be used in a mass murder.”

“Car? Aren't we just going to... walk?”

Cal snorted before he started laughing really hard like the thought of walking was the funniest thing in the world. When he realized the death gaze was on him again he immediately coughed into his hand a couple times and cleared his throat.

“Um no, its a bit of a distance from here so a car would be faster, you know, vroom, vroom. Please follow me and we will be on our way.”

Valon sighed to himself, maybe the Councilor was right... maybe he was just... old.

[Knight of Doom]

𝓒𝓸𝓯𝓯𝓮𝓮 𝓑𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴

Collab with @Knight of Doom and @BlueAjah

---

Nadia wasn’t necessarily a morning person, but she did like the aesthetic and ambiance it provided. However, when you live in a dorm room, there are very few windows for natural light and the air is usually stuffy from living in close quarters with others. This morning still called for excitement, classes were about to begin. Nadia woke up to an annoying alarm beeping at her. Normally she woke up before her alarm, but it seemed as though the curtains were drawn over the window. Looking over at her roommate and adopted sister, Nadia saw Kayley awake and staring at the wall over her bed. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, the merrow sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

“What are you doing?” She asked, the sleep still prevalent in her groggy voice.

“One sec,” Kayley muttered as she finished pinning another image into her large corkboard. Nine unsolved murders. Seven missing campers. None of this was a coincidence. The supernatural world had to be involved. Kayley had visited the police station four times in the past week, but they had told her to stay out of it. All of the victim's’ blood had been drained, some even had missing limbs. The obvious answer was that a Vampire was at work. The news had released little to no information about the two events, but Kayley was determined to figure out the truth.

Kayley rubbed her tired eyes before glancing back at Nadia.“Good morning, Nadia. Sorry, I’ve been working on some stuff.”

“Oh, still trying to figure out those disappearances and what not?” Nadia crossed the short gap between their beds and examined the board briefly. ”You know you kinda look like a conspiracy theorist, right?”

“Yeah,” Kayley shrugged, “There’s something going on, Nadia. I just need to figure out who’s behind all of this.” With a hum, Nadia jumped back off the bed and traveled over to the window to finally let some light in. She was pleasantly surprised at the vibrant colors of the leaves. Just to be sure, Nadia checked the temperature on her phone.

“Yay! It’s finally fall weather. You know what that means,” Nadia rushed over to her closet. She had to jump, but she managed to grab a large box on the top shelf labeled ‘Sweaters’. When she opened it, the fabric inside puffed out, finally released from it’s tight confines. As Nadia went through her clothes trying to find something to wear, Kayley pulled her frizzy hair into a tight pony. She slipped into a pair of clean jeans, discarding the one she currently wore, and replaced her wrinkly t-shirt with a white blouse. She glanced at her neatly made bed and shook her head in regret. She often pulled all nighters to complete her projects and assignments, but they never became easier.

“I’m going to go grab some coffee, do you want to come?” Kayley asked, taking a peek at her face in the mirror. Bags fell under her eyes, visible despite her light makeup, and her already white skin looked sickly pale. Kayley sighed. She needed coffee. Coffee would help.

“Sure. Just a sec, though.” Nadia pulled out a long, deep red sweater. “What do you think? Should I do something more fall-ish?” A short black skirt sat at the edge of her bed as well. “I want to wear this new skirt, I have some black tights and boots that go great with it. Oh! I should add a scarf. Hmm, what color? I have a beige one. Or maybe a red plaid? As she continued to ramble, Nadia pulled out said articles of clothing from the depths of her closet.

Kayley raised her eyebrow at Nadia. “Don’t wear the red sweater, it’ll look off with both of your scarfs. Wear your pink sweater, you look cute in that one.”

“Oooh. You’re right! Then I could wear the cream scarf.” After a few moments, she got out the clothes and put the outfit on. Not wanting to waste too much time, Nadia went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit.

Taking the moment to look at her board again, Kayley started writing in her pocket sized composition notebook. Filled with various information about the supernatural world as well as her own combat techniques, she took the notebook wherever she went. Hundreds of them were stacked in a box under her bed. She would often flip through them every so often to refresh her memory. The current one she used was filled with theories of the murders and disappearances. She had been studying Vampires more closely as well.

When Nadia came back into the room, she quickly grabbed her grey backpack. It wasn’t very big and only really carried a laptop, a few noted books, and some writing utensils. ”Alright, let’s go! I have a class at 11 and I don’t know how long we want to spend at the coffee shop,”

Breaking her attention from her work again, Kayley grabbed her light pink backpack and held the door for Nadia. “I have class at 10:00 so we can’t spend too long there.” Nodding her head, Nadia exited and the two headed over to Coffee Central. The cafe was a ways away, but it was nice outside. As the two passed through the courtyard, it was obvious that a flurry of orange papers had been dumped all over the place. Nadia pick up one of the papers.

“It looks like someone’s throwing a party.” She tucked the paper in a side pocket. People really shouldn’t be littering. “I don’t think I want to go, but you should.”

“A party? There are so many more important things people could be doing than that, Nadia. I need to be focused on school work and all of these disappearances.” Students of all kinds of races walked by laughing carelessly. Kayley was the complete opposite of the majority of the students within her school. All of them had the luxury and freedom to go to parties, spend time with their friends, and enjoy school. Kayley couldn’t afford that. There was simply no time. She made a vow to her parents, and she would work her hardest until she had fulfilled that promise. “Let’s go, Nadia.” She said before rushing the two of them out of the crowd.

“Well I think you need to relax a little.” Nadia whined, but reluctantly followed. “Oh, I know! You should get a boyfriend. There are plenty of cute guys here. What about him?” Nadia pointed to a dark haired guy. He was talking to another girl, but that didn’t deter her. ”Isn’t he in the Guardian Auxiliary thing? You two could bond over your mutual goal of becoming a Guardian!”

At the mention of a boyfriend, Kayley eyes widened in both surprise and annoyance. “Nadia, what?” Kayley barely had enough time to sleep, let alone spend time with a boy. The thought was absolutely ridiculous. “Nadia, stop,” Kayley snapped. She glanced over to see if the boy overheard them, and identified him as Tony. Just Great. Quickly grabbing Nadia’s wrist, she hurried the two of them away from the courtyard. Once they were several paces from Tony, Kayley turned to face her. “You can’t do that, okay? I don’t have time for any of that. I made a promise, and you know how important that is to me. So please, stop.”

“I know your promise is important to you, but you spend so much time on it. I think you would do good to take a little time for yourself. At least get a good night’s rest every night.” Nadia felt herself shrink in. She didn’t like confrontations like this, but she cared for Kayley’s health too much to not say anything.

Clutching her hand tightly, Kayley took a deep breath before responding. “Nadia. I don’t have the luxury to sleep. I don’t care about boys or parties, all of that is childish and irrelevant to everything. I thought you understood that?” She heard her voice slowly grow louder, but she couldn’t help but feel hurt by Nadia’s request. Becoming a Guardian meant everything to Kayley. “I have to get to class now so let’s just do coffee another time.” Kayley hurriedly walked away from Nadia and the entire impossible situation.

Nadia could feel the hot pressure of tears in her eyes, but she was in public. There was no way she could cry in public. “I’m sorry,” She muttered after Kayley had left. It hurt to see her like that, but it seemed like no matter what she did, Kayley wouldn’t listen to her. Trying to keep it together, Nadia kept heading to the coffee shop. She’d at least be able to hide in the bathroom if she needed.

[InfernoBlaze]

"Shut up!" and a thud.

The noise of glass breaking and a not so appropriate vocabulary being yelled by the residents next door were enough to wake Jack up, who, in his sleep, punched a nice little crack on the wall. He grunted, realizing he had to pay for the damage, as usual.

"Stupid wall..."

He spent the last three nights at Vertigo Motel, following a brawl he had at Greely's, which caused another dispute with his Pa. He didn't like sleeping at the motel, since it was noisy and he usually had a hangover, but the Harrisons were friends with his father and they were the few people unfazed by the fact that Jack was usually into trouble, probably because they knew him well.enough to know he usually has a reason to.

He sat at the edge of the bed to collect himself and stared at the window. People were moving around preparing for the Fall Festival. Everyone seemed to try to get the uneasiness of the eight murders out of their system by focusing on the upcoming festivities. The costumes, the decoration, the music, everything would contribute to cheer everyone up. Well, not everyone.

Festivals and celebrations were not Jack's cup of tea. It was certain that someone would try to show off to his girl or friends by picking on the town's infamous brawling drunkard or just be drunk enough to ask for a fight. A bad idea, considering Jack was stronger than your average Joe, leading to the other side's broken nose.

A few minutes were spent in silence, after which Jack decided to stand up from his bed. He had a bath, brushed his teeth, trimmed his beard a bit -he liked his beard a lot- and finally dressed himself -today's getup consisted of a simple black jeans, a black T-shirt and his beige-brown Timberland boots-, readying himself for the upcoming trouble. He opened the window and realized he should also wear a jacket, the autumn chill embracing his body. He went downstairs and met Ms. Martha Harisson, one of the owners of the motel. She was busy helping cleaning the place, as usual, she was psychotic with cleanliness, after all.

"Goodmorning Martha...I damaged your wall in the room, here is some money for the repairs", Jack said and picked some money out of his wallet.

He was down to his last 120 dollars and his flask was almost empty, so he had to be careful to keep some money for his liquor. He left 100 dollars on the reception counter and glanced at the Erehwon Report lying there. Another murder occured, under the same mysterious circumstances. Jack was quite sure that it was because of an alien -the name Jack uses for all supernaturals- going wild on the town.

"Another murder? What in the world is Archeletta doing, waiting Sherlock Holmes to catch the culprit?

After a brief chat with Ms. Harrison and having her deliciius omelette for breakfast, Jack headed for the liquor store, puffing a cigarette, the first of many during the day, on the way.

However, his Fall Festival bad luck had already started. A careless little girl just bumped on his foot, spilling some ice-cream she had on his jeans. Jack looked at the girl.

"You should be more careful, girl..."

"I...I am really sorry, m-mister..."

Jack' appearance and voice never madw a good impression with kids. The lite girl was really scared of the muscular bearded man facing her. Jack picked the last twenty bucks he had, patted the girl's head and gave her the money.

"Never mind...here, get yourself an even bigger and tastier ice-cream. Just be careful, it's cold now, your voice might get coarse...

The little girl was delighted to see that the stranger gave her enough money to buy a gigantic ice-cream cone.

"Thank you mister! You are not a bad person, after all!

Jack wiped the ice-cream off his jeans as much as he could, then sighed at his misfortune.

"Shit, now I am broke...Guess I will have to involve myself with the murder case after all. I hope they have issued a reward by now.

Jack changed his course to the Erehwon polixe department. If there was a chance to get some money, it was by finding a murderer and smacking him a new one and, to do that, he needed as much information as possible. Jack had to speak with his "friend" at the station, Terrence Archeletta.

[Argetlam350]

Bartholomew Whitlock

---

Bartholomew was awoken from his slumber by the piercing ringing noise that resonated from the bedside alarm clock. Without opening his eyes he swiftly hit the top of the alarm clock to turn it off and slowly rose from his bed. Upon exiting his room, he began his normal everyday routine starting with making coffee before heading to the shower and letting the water help get him fully awake. Once dressed and having eaten and had his coffee he made his way out the door of his home and began the walk to work.

As he made his way to work his mind went to the preparations he needed to completed before the fall festival. It had been seven years since he had stumbled into the new world of Nowhere, seven years of discovering what it meant to be a shifter as well as a lycanthrope. While being a shifter provided benefits, the lycanthrope portion provided problems, at least only under the full moon. Thus he needed to take precautions as to keep the beast from doing harm to actual citizens, be it human or other supernaturals. The first couple of years of changing under the full moon, he had locked himself in his own basement, having built a quick home made cage room for him to contain the beast during those nights. It had not always worked out, and occasionally the beast did escape though luckily not to far off from home he would notice when waking up the next morning. He devised a better idea over time deciding to build a large shed out in his back yard, a little ways into the treeline of the woods. It had a concrete base, and four sturdy steel walls. He had managed a means of locking the door on the inside while not allowing the beast access to unlocking it, if it was even smart enough to do so. Commonly he brought fresh meat with him on those nights to the shed, as a means of hopefully in some way appeasing the monster that came out on the full moon.

Having the shed as a safe spot to change without harming anyone was good, but the monster still had always wanted out and did do a number on the walls that at time needed to be repaired so they kept there integrity. It was more important now with all the recent disappearances around Nowhere. He had garnered little trust from the local shifter population. Wile he was part shifter, he was still part lycanthrope something that shifters had strong hatred towards. He would rather not have fingers being pointed as him as some murderer that stalked the full moon nights from unwilling victims to disembowel and become some form of scapegoat.

He arrived at the Fireball Auto Repair an hour earlier then he needed to be there, as usual the first to arrive for the day of work ahead. He enjoyed having a little time to himself before his coworkers came into the shop as well. It let him focus on the idea that despite becoming part of something bigger he still was just a man making a living, still in some ways human. Thinking on the idea of being human he was reminded that he needed to give his family a call and see what had been going on since he had last checked in. He wished to tell them at times of all the things that had happened to him. They knew about the attack and the death of his friend but none of the things he had come to learn shortly there after, probably because saying it aloud without proof made it sound crazy.

[Warpcircuit]

77686f20697320686964696e67

“I’m telling you! We’ve seen through his eyes at one point, we all have, and we’ve always been worse off for it. We can’t just let him chase after his instinct like some sort of dog following the scent of his own shit!”

”Moya Lyubov, he is no longer our little one. We must trust his choice.”

”Is he really ready to follow after us?”

”Certainly. And if he does find need of assistance, all he must do is speak his name.”

”And what if one of those Deveraux shows their ugly face? They may as well be a Weevil for all the help he’d get from telling them his name.”

”You’ve past the realm of reality and are seeded in speculation. We must not fret over such unlikely contingencies.”

”And… What if he’s there?”

”Hah. Now you’re past even the realm of speculation. We are free tonight, Lyubov, so suspend your worries. And by morning, I’ll have ensured that they’re gone for good.”

---

”The scourge escaped to Nowhere, but the huntsman still followed”

A murder in the town over; It could just be a homicide. Another murder in the town over; it could be a serial killer. A ninth murder? This infuriated Nikita. Nine individuals, all of which had families, friends, significant others, and maybe even children. He clicked the remote, and his television set crackled off. He began to walk towards the kitchen.

How unbelievably selfish. He could understand human killers. Homicide was based on something sentimental. It had sustenance. Monsters killed because humans are tasty. They didn’t see a person. They saw an animal for slaughter. They were inhumane. They were irredeemable. They were the animals, and it was Nikita’s job to show them that.

Huh. How long had it been been? It’d been about seven years by now that he had been hunting on his own. That wasn’t that long at all, but Nikita felt like it had been a millennium. He had been hunting to some extent in back in Russia, but that was a lifestyle closely observed and maintained by his parents. This was something different entirely.

Ever since he had graduated from school, about three years ago, his entirely life has been solely about stocks and hunting. He had either spent his day following the news or following a trail, or some combination of both. And he had a lot to show for it. In his room, under his bed, were trophies he had taken from major kill. He had neglected to take souvenirs from his weaker prey; but if that was anything to go by, he has had a wildly successful career. On top of that, Nikita lived very frugally. He was not especially materialistic, although he may lean towards that side when it comes to equipment, and he was an extraordinary investor. If there was one thing that the townsfolk knew about Nikita, it was that he had a special way with money. In the past three years alone, he has increased his capital by a very considerable amount.

His kitchen was spotless but barren. There was hardly even a crumb out of place, and it seemed like it had never been used before. On one wall, next to the sink, was a whiteboard with a calendar grid. Next to that grid was another whiteboard, this one larger and filled with neat handwriting. There were different notes on the board written in Russian, such as “Lunar Eclipse”, “Campers - IIIIIIIII”, and “Ruxbury Murders - IIIIIIII ”.

Nikita grabbed a marker that was on top of the whiteboard and struck another dash next to the word Ruxbury Murders.

---

Since the Fall Festival was happening today, Nikita decided to volunteer at the town center in order to acquaint himself with his fellow townsfolk. It had not been long at all since he had moved here, and in all honesty he did not have any friends. Before he left his apartment, he made sure that everything in his backpack was in place, and took it with him. If there was one thing he had learned from his hunting, it was that the supernatural waits until you’re unprepared to rear its head.

As he walked from the Olympus Complex to the Town Square, he made a mental note of everyone he came across. Keeping track of a crowd was a good way to rat out the supernatural, as they seemed to have the delusion that a crowd was some sort of cover in which they could do whatever they’d like.

Once he arrived at the Square, he made some small talk with one of the vendors who was setting up a booth. Initially, the vendor had trouble understanding Nikita through his heavy accent, but eventually, Nikita found himself helping the vendor set up the booth. Although it seemed to be standard fare, Nikita got the feeling that this night was going to get interesting.

[The Whacko]

Terrence Archeletta

"Fuckin' bullshit." Terrence Archeletta, Terry to his small circle of friends, groaned as he slumped back in his worn office chair with calloused fingers pinching the bridge of her nose as he pushed the report aside. Victim number nine. Nine. That was on top of the seven missing campers, of which they had found precisely dick aside from one pair of bloody jeans. That was un-fucking-acceptable to a man like Terry, especially with the crowd he was charged with looking over. Which was why the whole situation was driving him up a wall; The murder was out of his jurisdiction, and without anything substantial to go with on the campers he would have to comb the woods for weeks, and even then he would be lucky if anything at all was found.

"So we are at square one on this little shitshow. Any news on where the Red Caps might be hidin'?" The detective asked of the lone officer in the office with him, lighting a Marlboro Black in blatant disregard of the 'No Smoking' sign hanging on the wall across from his office. Willard Douglas was new to the station, and a Mundy at that; Tall, lanky, redheaded and reminding most that saw him of a scarecrow when he stood at a distance, it would have been hard to buy him as a cop when he wasn't in uniform. Despite his mundane heritage, he was fully aware of Erewhon's peculiarities and was always the first to volunteer to help out his fellow man whatever the race. The deputy was scratching at the back of his head right then, looking just a little abashed at the situation himself.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Mr. Archeletta. They're doing like they were told far as I can tell. They haven't moved from the ranch and there's only been a few missing dogs and cats." Terry frowned hearing that. He never cared much for Fae, especially those Red Cap savages quartered off in their little ranch to the North where they did God knows what, mostly involving whichever of the town's family pets that were left unprotected that they could catch. In the past they hadn't been shy about taking the occasional child too, but ever since the town had rioted and killed nearly three quarters of those little monsters in response to a Witch boy turning up with a Red Cap knife in his belly, they'd been content to keep to less sapient prey. They were of course the first suspects in any new murder in this town, but to the Witch's disappointment he'd yet to have an excuse to arrest the lot of them for those crimes. It looked like this time wouldn't be any different.

"Well, we better get a cruiser down there anyway just in case. Sharpes and Deych only I think. Sheriff should be amenable to that." He said, taking a long, frustrated drag on his smoke, exhaling a pungent cloud as he swung his feet up onto the table. He wasn't sure if the Sheriff was in the know about the supernatural, but the man had always been happy to listen to his chief of detectives, and didn't blanch at the odder doings in town. He didn't expect much from the search at the farm, but best to eliminate all possibilities. He sighed, looking out the window of his office out toward the forest.

This was going to be the start of a long week.

[Arachnid0]

* * * YESTERDAY * * *

Dimitri pulled up in his black Ford pick-up to the house whose address his sister Circe had given him and sent him pics of. He had been away at college and got into an exchange program three years ago. He had graduated a year ago. But it took him months to leave Paris and come back to the States. His dad had been the one to convince him, saying he'd fit right in in the new neighborhood. The family had relocated to Erehwon shortly after he went to France.

No sooner did he leave his vehicle and close the door than his step-mother arrived with a car full of groceries. Thea rolled the window down and after a quick greeting, asked for some assistance with the bags. He quickly agreed and took as many grocery bags as he could carry.

"Abby! Your brother's home!" Thea called out as they walked in and went to the kitchen. They put the bags on the floor, and made idle chatter about his time away and their time in this small town. It was slowly established that she loved it here, Abigail still refused to give the town a chance, and Dimitri was expected to get a real job quickly if he intended in staying at the house.

"As long as I can paint when I'm home." He shrugged.

"Of course you can. The attic is all yours while your here. Just no sneaking in any models in the middle of the night."

"Well," he smiled. "As long as sneak them out by morning, you'll never even know the rule was broken."

Thea whacked him with a bag of marshmallows in response.

"Honestly Dee, why you took Art History is beyond me! Your father and I told you that you'd need something to fall back on."

"That's why I minored in philosophy." He shot back with youthful assurance.

"Yes. And I'm sure they're hiring philosophers by the busload. Especially here in a small town."

"Hey, just because it's a small town does not mean there aren't curious souls wondering why they're here." Noticing his step-mother's frown, he changed to a more serious note. "Worst case scenario, I can go work at a café or deliver pizzas for a while. But Circe gave me a tip the last time she called. The local library might have some old books that need translated from French and Greek..."

It had taken a few minutes before a ruckus sounded upstairs. Shortly thereafter a wild teenager appeared in the kitchen, rummaged through the groceries and tore into a bag of chips like they were an elixer of everlasting youth and beauty. Once the bag was mostly demolished, she finally acknowledged Dimitri.

"Hey, Dickface, how was Europe?"

He just repeated the words mockingly, making a silly face, and slurring his speech to sound like a village idiot.

She rolled her eyes, but in a way that wasn't all that harsh. While Dimitri turned to Thea and said with obvious sarcasm. "Nice attitude! Where'd she pick that up at?

"Oh, I don't know," Thea continued putting groceries away while she spoke. "It might have something to do with the fact her father's always away on some top secret mission and her brother up and left us to go galavanting across Paris."

"Mom, it's called studying abroad-" he started to mount a defense but was abruptly cut off by his step-sibling.

"Only one?"

He laughed but played at being hurt. "Geez, are you guys even a little happy to see me at all?"

Abigail held out her hand and made a "so-so" gesture, but Thea went and hugged him and said that of course they were.

It looked like this was home now. At least for a while. It was too bad Circe wasn't there. And Dad was missing. Of course he worried about them both. But, unfortunately, he had to deal with that alone.

* * * LAST NIGHT * * *

If Paris had taught Dee anything, it was that a good woman could take a man's mind off his troubles in minutes. And a bad woman could do it in seconds. So he had gone out to see if he could find a bad woman.

Looking around he found a place called the Tipsy Dragon. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind. But he found a girl there. A young, lovely girl with the body of a succubus, and the face of an angel. A girl whom he absolutely HAD to paint. He told her so. And she laughed.

"No, I mean it. I MUST paint you. It can be however you feel comfortable. In any kind of style, but you are simply RADIANT! It will overwhelm the eyes to see your attitude, and complexity brought in to the light on canvas."

"You don't even know me." She continued to be amused. "How can you say that I am complex? I could be exceedingly simple, you know?"

"No, you couldn't." Dee spoke with all the certainty of an expert. The girl, who looked as if she wasn't even really 21 yet, raised an eyebrow. But he went on to explain. "You see if you were a simple girl, you would have been intimidated when you realized that talking about painting your portrait wasn't just some interesting pick-up strategy. And if you were EXCEEDINGLY simple... Well, then you would have been interested before you realized that."

She stared at him. Finding his boldness ridiculous. And she was smiling.

"How do I even know you're really an artist?" She said.

"I'll show you." He smiled, went to the bar, and came back with three mixed drinks, a glass of light beer and several napkins. The shots were red, green, and blue. And he proceeded to twist up some of the napkins to use by dipping into the drinks and "painting" onto the stack. When he was finished he turned the stack of soggy napkins to face her. She was unimpressed by the blobs of color she saw until he lifted the stack to reveal the bottom napkin. It was a proper representation of The Scream by Munch.

"Alright." She said, clearly impressed. "My name's Annette."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Annette." He took her hand, raised it in his, and kissed it. "My name is Dimitri, but you can call me Dee."

Annette grinned, and raised an eyebrow. But they said nothing now. They just prepared to leave together. And thus did the artist succeed in finding ample distraction for an evening.

* * * TODAY * * *

Dee opened his eyes, and was startled to find that the sun was up. Not good. He jumped to his feet, and getting dressed, went over to the window to look out front. His step-mom's car was gone. Good. She was at work. And his step-sister was probably on her to school. No need to sneak the girl out after all.

He went down to the kitchen where he made some eggs, bacon, and toast. He was planning to bring breakfast up to Annette, but she came down dressed, not hungry, and ready to part ways. Probably for good.

"Well, I'll call you. We can get together, and I can finish painting you."

Annette made that expression with her lips that humans make when they are trying to not hurt another human's feelings but finding it difficult to actually not do if they want to be honest.

"Look, Dee, I had fun last night. But it wasn't anything more than that."

Dimitri suddenly realized he was burning breakfast, and turned the stove off, and flipped everything on to a plate. When he turned around he was a clearly a little unnerved. Paris it seemed, had spoiled him.

"Alright. There's no need to exchange numbers, or anything. But you really aren't going to keep modeling for me?"

She shook her head.

"You're a talented painter. You don't need me to." And with that she left.

He turned to walk back up to the attic, when he was nearly startled out of his glamour by Abigail standing there in the doorway.

"Heeeeeeeyyy!" Dee did his best to sound extra innocent, and loving. "It's my favorite sibling!"

He quickly grabbed the food, and presented it to her. "Look: I made you breakfast."

"Nice try, Dimwit, but it's going to take more than burnt toast to buy your way out of this one." The teen was relentless. She was beginning to remind him of the evil step-sisters from those human legends.

"Awww, c'mon Abby! What do you want from me?!" He threw his arms up in exasperation as he spoke.

"Take me here. Let me do what ever I want. Don't bring me home until I'm ready." She threw an orange paper on the table with details of a costume party happening tonight. After a small while of internal diliberationn he agreed. After he agreed, she finished the meal and left to go to school.

He locked up, and went to his truck not long after. Time to find new diatractions, before he remembered to worry about things. Time to check out this town in depth. And for that, he would start at the Coffee Central.

[Takida Inigo]

Disguise

Active

---

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Valon sat in the passenger side of the car silently as the mile markers quickly passed them by, neither one of them had bother to look at the other since leaving the train depot. Cal probably out of fear or concern for his well being and Valon because he did not trust even in the slightest the man he was sitting next to right now. Thirty years ago he had captured Calvin if that was even a real name and chained him to a wall, broke his jaw, slit his cheek open and nearly choked him to death. So in a real manner of speaking how was it that thirty some years later he was sitting next to the older version of Calvin and him as his partner? The only thing he could think of was it was a trap, somehow this Hunter had played the good guy long enough to be trusted and this was the moment where he would get his revenge. Although... in many ways such a thing was damn near impossible, trying to fool the upper levels of the Guardian's was no simple task, not by any means. When Valon had taken his first test, the man whom interviewed him... saw right through him as if his entire life was a book in big print.

“I am not going to stab you in the back, just so you know.”

Valon looked over slowly as the sudden voice made a remark of sincerity, Calvin was sort of looking his way, as much as he could while driving. Sweat was dripping down the side of his face even though it was not really all that hot inside the car or out. The fear in his eye's were all too evident, Valon looked away again returning his eye's to the road, he said nothing but Calvin did continue to speak.

“I know what your thinking man... honestly I thought about it too for a long time. You an me... we ain't exactly had what one would call a pleasant history with each other. I tried to kill you and you than almost killed me and gave me this scar on my cheek. I won't lie I wanted to kill you for a long time after that.”

Valon hardened his brow as he listened, likely words from someone who was trying to deceive another. It was not the first time a Hunter tried to lull him with false words of friendship or that they had seen some light that showed them the way.

“I know you don't trust me and honestly I don't trust you all that much, in fact when I saw those eye's back there I nearly had a flashback to the wall you had me on. But things ain't like that no more man, I had to make a choice and I made it. Whether you understand this or not, I chose to become an exile among my own blood. You don't have to love me, hell you don't even have to consider me as part of this existence... but I have a job to do and I am going to do it if you want my help or not. So for the time being can we forego the tension and just co-exist until this is done?”

Calvin slowly pulled up his free hand and offered it to Valon in what could only be assumed as some sort of an olive branch between them. Valon glared at Calvin's hand as he slowly looked up and caught Calvin's eyes for a couple moments. Ever so slowly, like it was some game Valon raised his hand from the arm rest and gripped onto Calvin's hand an closing his fingers around his. Calvin's hand was full of tension as Valon gripped it. Calvin sighed lowly to himself as Valon shook his hand, he didn't expect Valon to tighten his grip enough that his knuckles were cracked for him.

Calvin yelped in surprise as the car swerved wildly before he got control over it again, Valon released his hand as he pulled it back giving his a rather angry look.

“What the hell was that...”

Calvin was surprised to see Valon giving a small, barely noticeable smile, Calvin merely rolled his eye's as he shook his hand. He scoffed lowly in amusement.

“Thats real mature Valon, while don't we try to act our age. Me a fifty year old single man and you somewhere between God and Jesus.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend... don't mistake my intent. I still don't trust you but I will at least give you the benefit of the doubt... for now. But if you make one wrong move towards me, your head will fly for miles before it touches ground again.”

Calvin went white in the face as he put his eye's back on the road, well that pretty much took that little moment of break through and ruined it... with authority for that matter. Both of them sat silently after that not really making much conversation, at least until Valon lite a cigarette and blew the smoke all around the car.

“You know those things will kill you right?”

Valon slowly turned his head and looked at Calvin with an expression that made him nearly bust out laughing. Maybe Valon wasn't so bad, he was rough as hell but he seemed okay minus the death gaze and the head rolling comment.

“By the way on a more serious note we really need to think about some new clothes for you, maybe a wig too or something. You stand out pretty good Valon, no insult meant but even though Halloween is here you would still look sorely out of place. I know a drift store in town th...”

Calvin's face went into shock as he accidentally jerked away from Valon, the car flew into the other lane hard coming right at a semi.

“Shiiiiiet!”

Calvin yelled and he pulled the car back into the other lane, the semi was blaring its horn at him as he got the car back under control. He looked over again, Valon was no longer sitting next to him but some other dude, younger and prettier.

Valon Disguised

“Is this better?”

Calvin's heart was still beating out of his chest as he pulled the car over to the side of the road and bent his head back taking large deep breaths.

“Damn you... its been all but twenty minutes and you nearly killed me again... what the hell is that? Are you some sort of shape shifter too? If your gonna do that shit can you at least give me forewarning or something, heart attacks ain't much to you but to me they are very real... jesus. How did you do that?”

Valon raised his now youthful hand and move a ring on his pointer finger back and forth silently, the same ring he had removed from his pocket moments before putting it on his finger.

“Its an enchanted ring, it was made for me years ago so I could go on high profile assignments and not be sighted by Hunters, well at least not easily anyways. It is among the same concept supernatural creatures use to blend in as humans just a bit more powerful. Not even Hunters can see through this easily, not unless they know who they are looking at anyways. Try it... think of my face and look at me again.”

Calvin did as he was told and pictures Valons face and just like that the illusion the ring created was broken and he could easily see him again.

“Damn... thats a nifty little ring to have, did you choose the appearance or did they naturally want you to look like an emo pretty boy?”

“This is what I looked like when I was younger...”

Calvin was going to say something but than decided against it, he slowly pulled back onto the road continuing their journey.

“So... do you know what the hell this is all about by chance. I keep thinking vampire but there are characteristics that just don't add up.”

“It could be.. an rogue Elder Vampire. But as of yet I am unsure, I won't know until I can do some looking around.”

“Elder Vampire?”

Valon sat watching the tree's pass by outside as he thought about his last encounter with an Elder Vampire. He had been much younger back than and he was not a Guardian at the time. He had crossed paths with it when he was but a wanderer.

“Its a Vampire that is about one thousand years or so older, as you may know some supernatural the older they get they stronger they get, the more their abilities develop. Elder Vampires for the most part are usually tycoons or billionaires in this day and age, most live the good life. But there are a few that turn to a life of darkness for one reason or another. Think of it like this, a supernatural being of immense strength speed and agility with an army of newly blooded vampires under its control.”

“Under its control?”

When he had encountered him, he had been taking shelter in a large cave system for awhile to rest. He had stumbled into the nest by complete accident, by time he had realized what was happening the children had swarmed him. Most of them were barely older than eighteen.

“It rare but vampires who reach high age can develop an extremely rare ability to control the vampires that they blood, its tatamount to mind control but more like a hive. Every blooded is connected the Elder, they can feel each other, its been said they can even feel each others pain. They start what we refer to as a nest, the Elder finds an out of the way spot, usually well hidden and bloods new vampires, these become known as their children. Once they do this they send their children out to bring more humans to be blooded or for food.”

“If this is a distinct possibility than why kill other supernatural than?”

Truth was supernatural were enemies to rogue Elder Vampires merely for the fact that they only fear other supernatural creatures that could put up a fight. Naturally he had been a big threat and what happened afterwards would be something he would never forget.

“There are various reasons, the most likely one being that other supernatural could find the nest, its very possible they got too close and were killed for their trouble, maybe they knew something. There is no way to know right now and speculation is a worthless sediment.”

“Have you ever faced an Elder Vampire before?”

Valon became silent as he looked out the window of the vehicle and saw a sign indicating that they were nearing their destination, looking ahead he could already see the outskirts of the town coming up.

“Once. A long time ago.”

Valon said nothing more, the tone of his voice was enough to deter Cal from asking any deeper into the topic, atleast for the time being. As they drove into town Valon watched the tree's turn to houses and very soon the houses turned into buildings of various natures. For such a small town there were plenty of people within, everywhere he looked people were decorating, children were running around. This was the perfect playground for new bloods.

“You want a coffee? I need a coffee, I hate mornings.”

Valon looked at Cal shaking his head. Did it really look like he was someone who actually drank coffee, hell he barely drank water. The car slowly pulled to a curve within the bustling streets in front of a building named Coffee Central. Cal shut off the engine and got out of the car quietly, Valon did the same, he took a step outside into the crisp air. Reaching back into the car he retrieved his blade and attached it to his back and tightened it, making sure it was firmly in the square of his back.

“Are you really going to carry that thing around town? Never mind stupid question, listen try not to draw attention to yourself. I will be back out in a bit so stay by the car please.”

Cal disappeared into the coffee shop as Valon shook his head at the man, he was not a child nor did he need some glorified babysitter. Cal could have his coffee, Valon on the other hand was curious too look around, after all this was the first time in 8 years he had been allowed to leave Rome. Valon walked quietly down the sidewalk as various people passed him by, most seemed to not even pay him any heed as he went by. His eye's darted back and forth from store front to store front, the one that caught his attention was a place called Treasures of Time. The name was interesting enough to catch his interest, walking up to the entrance he opened the door with a ding as he walked into the shop.

Valon stood in the doorway looking around almost methodically as his eye's scanned the room he was standing within. It seemed that this was some sort of antique shop. At least in some sort of way he kind of felt like he was somewhere he kind of felt familiar with. Unknown to him Cal was already standing outside with a coffee in one hand and a look of annoyance on his face.

“Really Valon... I knew I should have gotten the coffee before picking him up..”

[Helo]

---

---

Dark red eyes shot open in a dark room, what little sunlight that snuck in through heavy curtains glinted of a pair of white fangs; Ivan Weston awoke from sleep with a hunger that made his throat burn. He was having the dreams again, the ones that felt like they were pushing him toward madness. He couldn’t call them nightmares because in all honest, he enjoyed them. Dreams that were vivid memories of his past kills, and tonight’s was no different; this memory of an entire family he’d slaughtered while his humanity was turned off, the euphoria gorging on blood used to bring him. It made him wanted to give up control, either through turning that humanity off once again for good, or even just through drinking blood until he didn’t care about anything else. Every time he slept he wake up and have to fight to keep control, to remind himself why he couldn’t just let go.

Ivan rose from the lumpy and stiff mattress inside his room of the Vertigo Motel, his feet felt the uncomfortable tickle of the dark green shag carpet. He didn’t bother to turn on the lights, he could see just fine in the almost darkness and he didn’t have it in him to look at that hideous wallpaper, a cross between a psychedelic trip gone wrong and what it would look like if a rainbow could vomit, in the light of day. As unappealing as the Vertigo was aesthetically it was cheap and the owners were decent people who didn’t bother him too much. Ivan grabbed the one glass in the room as well as a bottle of whiskey from the end table and a bag of human blood from the mini fridge. He poured himself a drink that was two parts whiskey and one part blood and allowed the mixture to quench his thirst. He drank it slowly, focusing on calming himself down, controlling himself. He headed to the small bathroom within the room and washed his face with cold water, setting his drink down on the sink, and starring at his reflection. He tried to focus, tried to see whatever it was in him that she had seen within him that made him worthy of a second chance. He figured if he tried enough he would eventually see a better man looking back at him in that mirror, but today, just like every day, he saw the man that was just one moment of weakness away from causing a massacre.

Although he had slept for almost two hours, more than enough for a vampire, he was still so tired. His sleep, when he got any and it had been almost a week since he had, was restless. His dreams scared him, and every time he did sleep he either dreamed of his kills or even worse he dreamt that she was still around. For some people the initial loss of a loved one is the most painful thing imaginable, for Ivan there was something worse. There were the nights he dreamt of Amelia, his lost love, still alive and then waking up in that haze after a beautiful dream. Then there was living in those few seconds where he wasn’t sure if the dream was real or not, followed by the realization that it was just a dream. It was losing a person all over again, having hope snatched away, it was his own mind betraying him.

He finished off the remains of his drink, showered, and dressed himself in a dark jacket, black t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. He made himself another drink, this one a bit more whiskey heavy, before the remaining bagged blood was placed back into the mini fridge. The whiskey helped with the thirst, it helped keep him calm, and it look a lot more alcohol to get a vampire drunk so watering down his blood with booze was Ivan’s current drug of choice. He rinsed the glass off in the bathroom sink and set it back by the nearly empty whiskey bottle by the bed. The room was cluttered with undone laundry, empty bottles, and a small trash can with empty blood bags inside. He needed to buy more whiskey and eventually he would need to do laundry but the latter would likely be put off until absolutely necessary.

Before he left the room, he made sure to hand the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on his door, he knew it was likely driving Mrs. Harrison crazy not being able to clean the room every day but he certainly couldn’t have humans poking around and finding blood bags in the fridge. He never ate with them, he couldn’t really stomach human food, some vampires could but he hadn’t eaten it in centuries and lost any taste for it long ago. He did stop to chat with Mr. Harrison, a man who kept insisting that Ivan call him Jimmy instead, about old western movies. The conversation seemed to please Jimmy who kept commenting on how most kids these days never appreciated the classics. It amused Ivan some to be referred to as a kid by a man who was likely a hundred year his junior. The first thing he did when he got outside was light up a cigarette, it had always brought him that small window of peace, ever since he shared his first cigarette with his father as a mortal boy. It was getting harder to find them unfiltered, vampires certainly weren’t worried about getting cancer, so he rolled his own now. He found it incredibly annoying that he couldn’t smoke indoors anymore, people these days were too sensitive.

Ivan had spent the past few days acclimating himself to the city of Erehwon, or Nowhere as supernaturals tended to call it. Nowhere was a fitting name; it was quaint, people were unnaturally friendly, and worst of all it was boring. For the past century, he’d spent his time in major cities; Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas, cities where there was always something exciting going on. The nightlife of this town seemed to consist of a barn called The Shack, he got a job here as it was the closest thing to fun this town had. He hadn’t made up his mind yet, whether or not he was here for a fresh start or to place himself in some sort of purgatory. Today was apparently the Fall Festival, something every person in the town seemed to be excited for, in fact he was pretty sure there was more talk about the night’s festivities than there was about the series of murders happening around the town.

The murders sounded like vampire attacks, so at first he thought of it as something to avoid. Being around other vampires brought out the more animalistic side of Ivan, he was too easily influenced by others, something he was well aware of, so staying away from any vampires actively killing around town was a must. Not to mention with it being so obviously supernatural, hunters would flock to the town to investigate and he didn’t feel like crossing paths with hunters either. Stay out of trouble, try and keep hold of his humanity, and learn to live like a person; that was the plan. On the other hand, if it was vampire’s maybe he could see if he could help stop them, find something useful to do with his time, maybe this was the right kind of trouble. If they could put a stop to this before any hunters came to town that would certainly be in his best interest, and stopping a murderous vampire would be easy on his heavy conscious as well.

Shortly after Amelia had died he’d tried to channel his grief and anger into hunting down his sire, Marius, the vampire who had turned him almost a hundred and sixty years ago. He spent months looking for the ancient vampire, he’d convinced himself that he’d find some kind of closer through an epic quest for vengeance, he’d clearly watched too many modern action films, only to find the vampire had been slain over a century ago. Back when he was busy tearing through every neck he could sink his teeth into some Guardians had taken the old psycho out. It made sense of course, Marius was vicious with no regard for other supernatural or whether or not he was risking exposure, turning as many and as often as he wanted, not covering his tracks. It had been foolish to think that he’d still be out there somewhere, and even stupid to believe that killing one vampire would solve his problems. There was no cinematic arch of redemption through vengeance for him, only the mundane every day struggle of trying to better than he was, all while knowing there would be no absolution for the things he’d done, he’d have to deal with his past by learning from it and by doing better.

Later that night he had a shift at The Shack during the costume party but he figured he’d check out the fall festival before that, try and enjoy himself a little bit, it was the human thing to do after all but before all that he thought he might poke around the police station, see if there was anything he could do to help. He wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to convince a mundane police department that he could potentially be helpful in tracking down the person responsible for multiple homicides, but since planning was never his strong suite he was just going to wing it and see what happened.

Upon arrival at the police station he wondered around the front for a bit the way a customer would wander a store. “Can I help you?” A slightly confused man at the front desk asked. Ivan paused for a bit before responding, he couldn’t exactly go with ‘Hi I’m a 158-year-old vampire looking to help you track down whatever supernatural, and probably more specifically vampire, you have murdering campers and folks just outside town’.

Instead he went with, “Yes, I was just wondering how the investigation was going, any leads on the Roxbury murders or those missing campers?”

“Are you with the Report because we already gave you our statement.” The guy responded, thinking Ivan was with the town newspaper.

“No, more of an independent investigation.”

“Like a blog or podcast, you’re not one of those true crime nuts, are you?” He asked annoyed.

I don’t think so.

“You wanna tell me why you’re here then?”

"I think I can help you with solve the case," Ivan paused, trying to think of a reason why he’d be able to help. "Because I’m psychic, I was thinking I could get a vision from any evidence you might have or…” Ivan went to plot of a tv show he’d seen once but was cut off by the man’s exasperated sigh. The guy behind the desk did not seem to be buying it one bit.

[Emma]

Alice interacting with Valon @Takida Inigo

---

Alice was half way through the book. It was her twentieth time reading it, so her focus was on other matters as she flipped through the pages. This year’s Fall Festival was thankfully not cancelled due to the multiple homicides in Ruxbury. All the grieving and fear that had been surrounding the town for weeks now was lightened by the upcoming festivities. There were rumors that the Mayor and Chief of police were thinking of enacting a nightly curfew for all the teenagers in town. From the bits of gossip and news she had gathered, it seemed that all the murders were the work of someone supernatural. The culprit was most likely a Vampire or Demon. There was a small chance though it was actually a plain old human. Alice remembered back in 1946 when it was confirmed by guardians that Hitler was in fact a human. And in the late 1960s Charles Manson was confirmed to be a Mezmer Demon. Being alive for almost a hundred years Alice learned that all people, no matter what race were capable of good or evil. Even herself…

Her store was full of items from different decades. Most of her walk in customers came looking for engagement rings, and the occasional Tiffany lamp. It was brightly lit inside from the twenty or so chandeliers and light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. There was a whole wall of antique clocks, and paintings. There were cases full of jewelry, Fabergé eggs, snuff boxes, pocket watches, empty perfume bottles, rare coins and trinkets. All of the furniture in the store was antique, even the tables and shelves used for displays. The antique weapons were on display on the wall behind her, and the place was full of vases, candelabras, and oriental rugs. Classical music played quietly in the background, and the whole place smelled of jasmine thanks to the dozen or so candles lit around the front of the store.

The light chime from the bell hanging on the front door briefly surprised her. She always could hear someone coming into the store before they even opened it, so this was new. She looked up from her book, and placed it on the counter in front of her. The kid that came in seemed to already be dressed and ready for the costume party at the shack tonight. His steps were masterfully quite, no wonder she hadn’t heard him coming. The older gentleman on the other hand, was heavy footed and out of breath from running, so he was no surprise. Alice didn’t get many costumers under the age of thirty. The antique business had its niche, and teenage boys were not it. “Good Morning gentlemen. Are we looking for anything in particular today?” she asked as she stood up to greet them, and smiled. She caught the old man calling the boy Valon, but the idea that the teenager could be thee Valon didn't even cross her mind.

[Takida Inigo]

Valon interacting with @Emma

Disguise

Active

---

---

“Oh no, sorry ma'am, Val here is new to town and he started to wonder around. He is quite interested in the old world. You could say it's almost like he lived in it somedays. But me and him have to get going, we got lots of places to be.”

Cal placed his hand on Valon's shoulder and turned to go out the door, his arm pulled rather hard as Cal was not expecting to meet a resistance similar to a brick wall. He damn near tripped himself over, he caught himself haphazardly his coffee sloshing under the rim of his cup spilling on his hand. Cal bite his tongue as various words of dirty nature crossed his mind like a well figured woman. His face creased into a mix between agitation and misgivings. He was about to say something but when Valon reached his hand up and placed it on top of his the look of pain was replaced on his face as there was a very low crack in the joints of his fingers as Valon squeezed his hand. His fingers crunched together as his mouth opened to scream but he forcefully smiled at Alice like nothing was really going on.

“Val... we really gotta... go.”

Cal was speaking liking he had to take a huge dump and was squeezing for dear life. His face twitched as sweat poured down his head, there was another very low crack as Cal let out a yelp and quickly forced it into a weird laugh.

“Well perhaps.. we can spare.. some time. Yeah we.. we definitely.. got time.”

A low squeal was holding in Cal's throat before Valon finally released the grip on his hand, he yanked it back, slowly though. His fingers looked like spiders legs, they somewhat bent inward and blood was pooled the tips of his fingers. He quickly put his hand in his pocket as he smiled at Alice again.

“Why don't we go over here I think I see something interesting.”

Cal walked further into the store and found a nook out of sight and a distance from the counter, at least as far as he could. Valon followed almost methodically disappearing from view as Cal's eye's were still slightly popped out of his head. The blood was slowly starting to leave his face, he was furiously shaking his hand like it had fallen asleep, it was white as a ghost but regaining its color. Cal moved in and spoke very lowly to Valon, his tone was of anger.

“Damn it, were you trying to break my damn hand you psychopath. What the hell is with you? I told you to wait by the car, I wasn't in there for longer than five minutes and you were gone.”

Cal hissed into Valon's ear as he bore his eye's into Valons, to be honest Valon didn't give a damn one way or the other about Cal or his demand. Even the insult about him being a psychopath didn't bother him, however Cal placing his hand on his shoulder and treating him a child who didn't listen, that was another story entirely.

“Shut...up... or your going to find that squished fingers are the least of your worries Calvin. I do not work for you, nor do you have any kind of pull over what I do or where I go. The only reason I am entertaining this fellowship at is all is because it was requested of me. Don't mistake that smile from earlier as a sign that I like you, or even that I care you exist.”

Cal's face crunched up into an expression of one who was hurt and equally angry, very much like a man just got slapped right in the face by a perfect stranger on the street. He shook his head frustrated at the whole situation. This had to be by far the worst situation he had ever found himself in, at least when Valon had him chained to a wall he knew where he actually stood but this was far beyond that. In fact he was afraid for his life, Valon was not the nicest of demons, in fact he was known for working alone. Anyone who worked with him couldn't handle his cold attitude, or the fact that he knew about one thousand ways to kill one, if they be supernatural or man. He wasn't a Guardian but he damn well knew about Valon and his tendencies to kill in the blink of an eye.

“You know what I don't that you exist either.. I truly don't. I thought you might be different but you are the exact same. I must have been crazy to think this kind of match up could ever work. Do what you want, I have better things to do than entertain a monster such as you.”

Cal turned to walked away but when Valon's hand hit his shoulder and squeezed with the force of of two large rocks crushing against each other he found him seeing stars through the pain. He found himself lowering to his knee's.

“Call me a monster... one more time... and you will know what a true monster is...”

Valon whispered the words directly into Cal's ear, his entire body shook, for the first time since they had meant each other again his danger intuition was screaming inside. He could feel panic bubbling up inside as he turned his head slowly to face the demonic gaze of a thousand deaths. He couldn't bare to keep eye contact as he forced himself to look away. What was worse is Cal could feel the anger radiating from Valon's every syllable, it felt like a pit of infinite hatred. He had hit quite the sore spot and he felt his life flashing before his eye's now because of it. When the hold on his shoulder suddenly relinquished he found himself normal again, the feeling of fear slowly fading from him. He shook his head, the transition was so instantaneous it felt like he had for that moment just been in some sort of dream.

When he looked back Valon was holding out something to him, he looked at the object and realized it was his cup of coffee. He must have let go of it when Valon grabbed him, he got back fully to his feet and took the cup from him swallowing hard. What was it with this demon? One second he was so cold and scary you feel like your life is about to end and in the next he is emotionless like nothing had ever happened.

“I... will wait outside.”

Cal sounded defeated as he rolled his shoulder a couple times reappearing from around the shelving, he smiled at Alice but it was a rather pitiful smile, he exited the shop as Valon came around the shelving and walked up to the counter. Slowly reaching into his pocket he removed something from it, it was small, reaching forward he lay it on the counter for Alice to see. It was a ring, a rather ancient looking ring, from appearance it was bronze in nature and very faded, the band had small delicate engravings that spiraled the band, the head of the ring was a roman coin depicting a roman emperor. He looked into her eye's briefly before he spoke, the light Albanian accent playing through:

“Do you buy antiques here? If so I would like to sell this, it is Roman made, many years old. From the various items within your store I can tell you appreciate antiquities. This one in particular could use a new home, if your interested.”

Valon was direct with Alice, a convincing teenager he did not make that was for certain however when it was all said and done a human Alice did not make it seemed. So in this instance he supposed that it made no real difference at this exact moment.

[Sazama]

Anya Ngo

---

Anya interacting with: @vietmyke

Anya turns around, expecting to chew out one of the Fitzroy or Frat boys for even glancing at her. Instead she finds Tony, as per usual finding a way to her nerves. She couldn't help but crack a smile when he extended his cup of coffee out to her. She gladly took the cup into her hands and took a big sip before handing it back.

"When I told my sister I wanted a new bag for school, I was thinking maybe Jansport... not these." Anya joked as she pats the bags underneath her eyes. She best be careful not to run into any of the Taipan sisters. Who knows what they have to say about her current appearance. When Anya first came to Gringore, Kimbra befriended her since they both were cold-blooded. That quickly turned however, when Anya found out that the Taipan sisters only were nice to her just to get free drinks at the Tipsy Dragon. Besides her sister, she finally found more 'snakes' that were cold-blooded inside and out.

"How goes your training? Getting your ass kicked by anyone lately?" She teased at Tony.
When Anya first met Tony through the wonders of karaoke night, she hadn't a clue of his desire to become a Guardian. It was when Tony started being a regular at karaoke night did they become friends. Which makes her feel even more guilty to hide the fact that Amari is running a drug ring in this town.

[Warpcircuit]

Nadia managed to make it to Coffee Central without an incident by keeping her head down. By then she had gotten a hold of herself by focusing on the beautiful weather and excitement in the air. The wonderful smell of coffee helped soothe her as well, but also reminded her of the classes and work ahead of her. Sighing, she looked up at the menu to see the new in-season drinks available. There was of course, all of the pumpkin spice, but she was hoping for maybe something different. As she sat there contemplating, she kept to the side, not getting in line until she was sure of what she wanted.

Dee drove down the streets with the local rock radio station on. The windows were down. Enter Sandman came on and he cranked up the volume. Leaves danced in his wake, and cats glared at his approach. His speed increased, and for a moment he briefly considered just driving away until he got lost. Of course, he realized, that wasn't really a solid option. There was too much technology to allow him to actually get lost. Sure, he could throw his cell phone out the window. But then he wouldn't know if Circe called. Accursed practicality, always preventing cathartic bursts of random action. But then he had decided on his destination already, and he was nearly there.

He found parking a few storefronts away from Coffee Central and walked down from there. He passed a seemingly stressed out man standing in front of a traditional looking antique shop. He smoothed his hair back, double checking his appearance in the windows before heading in. He knew what he wanted. He wasn't a coffee drinker, himself. And though the scent of pumpkin and spice flavoring was a truly difficult temptation to overcome, he was not about to give in to distractions. Not even the distraction of an incredibly attractive young lady in line in front of him.

Just as Nadia decided on what to get, she started to step forward. However, her eyes were still glued to the menu. Just before she ran into him, she saw a taller dark figure out of the corner of her eye. “Oh, sorry,” She stopped moving, letting her eyes focus on the man in front of her. “You can go ahead,”

”Tah! Of course. Until we meet again, moya priyatel — Nono, not pray tell; Priyatel. Is term of endearment in Russia. Farewell.”

Before Dee had a chance to respond to Nadia, a loud man barged into the coffee shop. His accent was distinctly Russian, and his large coat reeked of Autumn. On various parts of his body were stray pieces of straw, and it was not clear where they had come from. Despite his boisterous first impression, the man quietly resigned himself to waiting in line.

For a moment, Nikita (the man) scrutinized the individuals in front of him; but whatever he was looking for — if he was looking for anything, even — he did not find. He then raised his sights to the menu, and cocked a fuzzy eyebrow in confusion. Although Nikita was more or less acquainted with American culture, he still found some of the finer aspects to be befuddling. What exactly was an Espresso Romano? It seemed that Nikita was also having trouble deciding what he was going to get.

Dimitri was about to respond the the polite, indecisive girl when he was distracted by a loud Russian accent at the entrance. This newcomer had a certain quality of speech that was very direct and not American at all. It reminded Dee of being out if the country. No time to reminisce though. There was a cute girl to talk to, after all. And she seemed to not know what to drink.

”I’d recommend hot ginger tea. You can't go wrong with hot tea on a day like today. Plus most of the coffee drinks are overpriced in these places, anyway.” Dimitri spoke with a crispness to his voice. It couldn't help but bring to mind the phrase happy-go-lucky. ”I'll tell you what. I’ll buy you one. If you don't like it, more tea for me. What do you think?”

The last question was shown to be somewhat rhetorical, as the long haired man stepped up, and placed the order anyway. Everything happened so quickly for Nadia that she had to take a moment to process it. On one hand she really needed the caffeine to keep her going through the day, but on the other, she really couldn’t refuse the stranger’s offer. Especially since he went ahead and placed the order. She turned to take a look at the loud customer who came in, but barely spared a glance as she had to catch up to Dimitri.

“Um, you didn’t have to do that, but thank you.” Nadia couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him. Talking to strangers wasn’t really her forte, but she needed to learn how to. “My name’s Nadia, by the way,” She hesitantly held out a hand, feeling a bit awkward. Hopefully this wasn’t a weird thing to do? It felt like everyone else in the store was staring at her, judging. Even though her ears turned red under her dark hair and her heart pounded, she kept her hand extended.

He smiled and took her hand, and lowered his head as if to kiss it. But he stopped short of actually doing so. Instead he merely lifted his gaze to hers saying ”Enchanté Nadia. My name is Dimitri. But you may call me Dee if you like.” with that he gently lowered her hand, slowly letting go. He then turned, grabbed the drinks, and started towards a table. ”Grab some sugar if you like. None for me though, thanks.”

Nadia was most definitely red at this point. She could feel her face burning. If that’s the response she got, next time, she’s gonna keep it to a simple introduction. Otherwise she was going to implode. To give herself a second to breathe, she turned to grab a couple of the raw sugar packets. Usually she didn’t take sugar with her tea, but it was a new drink and she needed the moment to take a look at her phone. It seemed like she had a bit of time before class. Then she headed towards the table and sat opposite of Dee, keeping her body posture rigidly straight.

Dimitri was not rigid in posture at all. But he was attentive. Her rigidity seemed forced, but after the morning he’d had so far, he wasn't about to let such things sway him from his path of getting to know Nowhere. The tea still needed time to steep, so he spoke up. ”So, Nadia, what do you do here in Erehwon? What does anyone do here for that matter? I’ve only just arrived yesterday, you see. My family lives here. But I have spent the past few years in Paris studying art.”

Now, the tea was ready to drink, so he drank, and prepared to listen. Nadia looked up surprised at the mention of Paris. It was only the most romantic place in the world, so of course topped her chart of ‘Top Ten Places’ she wanted to visit. However, she had a question to answer before she could ask about that.

“Erehwon is a small town, so there’s not too much to do around here.” Even as the words left her mouth Nadia wanted to retract them. Stupid. Anyone with eyes could see that. “I mean, a lot of people are here because they’ve always lived here. Others stay here because they like the small town environment or because…” She stopped herself before she said something even remotely relating to the supernatural part of town. “Uh, because they have family here,” She forced a smile to cover her mistake, but her gaze quickly fell to the cup to take a drink. “But, Halloween is coming up soon. There’s usually a big celebration for that.” There really was much here, but she was trying her best to keep up some sort of conversation. “But, I assume nothing here can come close to what Paris is like. I’ve always wanted to visit, but… Um, what was it like? In Paris, I mean.” Nadia took a long drink of her tea. At this point, she was too preoccupied with trying not to embarrass herself to even think about what the drink tasted like.

Now she had done it. Dee could go on about Paris for hours provided his audience seemed truly interested. But he wasn't going to rush in all at once. Besides, she had brought up an almost equally interesting topic as far as he was concerned. ”That's good to here. Halloween deserves a big celebration. They aren't too interested in it in France at. Too American. Too commercial. And they don't understand Trick’or’Treating at all. ‘Des bonbons ou un sort!’ the kids will say on the rare occasions when kids actually get to try it out. Which means “would you like candy or a spell?’. So that's a plus about being here, I guess. Better than some other places in America where some small-minded preachers are liable to tell you you're doing the devil's work by simply allowing kids to dress up like the little monsters that they oftentimes actually are.”That last sentence was carefully constructed to be noticed by someone who might have ties to the supernatural, while also being incredibly easy to dismiss as just a commonplace opinion. Dee also pronounced his French words with a full accent, which he considered proper to speaking the language.

Here, he paused to drink some more tea before continuing. ”But Paris itself… Astonishing. Vibrant. At times dangerous, but always full of love. It is like the ideal woman made into a city. Everybody in the U.S. knows about Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, the famous Opera House and all of these glorious places. Well, I can tell you, that in person they are even more glorious than you will picture them in your mind’s eye. And at the center of it all, a small island district, the Île de la Cité. Shaped like a ship. Or an eye. And of course, it is connected to many bridges. But the oldest bridge that has never been rebuilt is Pont Neuf. It goes all the way across the Seine, and sort of through the Île de la Cité, very near what you might call the corner of the eye. And that corner stretches out below and away from the bridge in a small triangle of grass, and pavement, and ancient trees. In that little park, beneath those elder trees they say that you can receive a holy vision.”

Meanwhile, as Dee and Nadia were discussing their endeavours in their origins and voyages, Nikita was struggling to actually order a coffee from the barista. After what felt like an hour, Nikita finally found himself in possession of something that barely even resembled a beverage. The bottom of a foggy gradient of white and black, and the top had something that resembled an… egg? Nikita hesitantly took a sip of this excrescence concoction, and scowled at the taste. Nikita didn’t often travel to coffee shops, and truthfully, he wasn’t here for the coffee. He still was perplexed by this aberration which he was somehow convinced to purchase.

As Nikita was walking to a seat near the back of the coffee shop, he couldn’t help but overhear Dee’s exposition. He might have ignored it, but his story of the holy visions caught Nikita’s attention.

”My pardon. You speak of holy visions under bridge? One in France, no? There is french folklore story I know of, that tells of an ancient family of magical creatures, traced all the way back to Romans. As story goes, these magical creatures reside in special locations, such as under a bridge, and grant wishes to the ones who seek them out. I have always been, ah-” Nikita cleared his throat “-em, interested by these stories, and yours reminded me of this one.” As Nikita spoke, he stared directly at Dee, and if he noticed whether Nadia was there or not was something ambiguous.

”Say, it sounds like you are not from around here, no? My name is Nick Bollo. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Nikita extended an almost too large hand towards Dee, and smiled heartily.

”And to meet you. Dimitri Calazans. Or Dee for short.”Dee accepted Nick’s hand in his, and shook it firmly.

”Well, I can't say that I saw any goblins or genies while I was there. Unfortunately no mermaids either. Though the stories of them were much more plentiful. Nor did I ever receive a vision. Although, I confess that I did try.” Dee took a sip of his tea and made eye contact with Nadia, hoping that he was keeping her interest, before returning his attention to the newcomer. ”It was the artists who told these particular stories, though. About the visions. They said that the old decadent painters and students from the Latin Quarter would go there and return to create masterful paintings. I guess since they were decadents, the very pious would presume the visions to have been demonic, rather than holy. But then I have never been very pious myself.

Dee then turned quite noticeably to Nadia and asked for her input. ”What about you, Nadia? Have you ever seen any evidence of the supernatural around here?”

Of all the conversations to stumble upon, this one was the absolute worst. Even at the mention of mermaids, Nadia could feel a different kind of panic rise in her throat. However, she did her best to maintain composure. There had to be someway to remove herself from this situation. “I’ve heard rumors of weird things happening, but they’re mainly stories made up by kids to scare each other. But small towns like this always have stories.” She shrugged seemingly uninterested. “The only thing that’s truly supernatural around here is how fast time flies.” She forced a laugh, picking up her things as well as her unfinished tea. “Thanks for the tea Dee, but I have a class to get to soon, so I’d best be off.” She waved at the two still at the table. “Have a good day!” Trying not to look like she’s running away, Nadia walked out of the store, pacing herself and taking deep breaths. She really needed to be better at talking with others.

”Tough break, huh?” Nikita remarked, watching Nadia. He squinted as she left, and frowned. ”I am sorry, I did not mean to chase off your devushka.”

Nikita then chuckled, a little uncomfortably. ”Well, it is as she says. Time really does fly, and I’ll be on my way.” Nikita looked around, confirming that him and Dee were the only ones within earshot. The tone of his voice changed remarkably, and he spoke a lot quieter. ”Listen. You’re interested in the Supernatural, right? I get a, ah, feeling you’ve come to the right town then. If you hear anything, even just some gossip or rumours, come find me. I promise I can make it worth your while.”

Nikita then turned, as if to leave, but stopped in front of the table. He turned back to Dee. ”Tah, one more thing, priyatel. You seem to have traveled around the world, and as a fellow proponent of odd occurrences, I have to ask. Does the name Valon Valerious ring any bells?”

”Don't worry, Nick, I don't think she was my devushka just yet anyway. I’ll tell you, I haven't been away that long, but I feel like American women are a bit odd.” Though, she certainly made an impression. And Dee did hope that they would meet again. ”You some kind of paranormal investigator, I guess. Well, sure, I can let you know if I hear about any hauntings or anything. As for that name: no. I couldn't pick it out of a room full of bad vampire novels.”

So Dee stayed sitting with his tea, Nick walked off with his coffee, and Nadia was getting farther from Coffee Central by the second.

[InfernoBlaze]

(Collab post with Whacko/Terry Archeletta)

________________________________________________

Before making his way to the police deparmtment, Jack spent some time discussing about the murders with some townsfolk passing by. Of course, given the bad name Jack created for himself, speaking with the people in town was never easy. He was no criminal and it got on his nerves when people avoided him. The bully of a broken family, it was a prejudice he faced from a small age and it got even worse when he had to use his fists. Being physically stronger than his classmates bullying him never ended well for him, mostly because he didn't have a mother's support like the others after things had to be cleared out and his father wasn't helpful either.

"You are stronger than most people, you should be more mindful of your actions..." was Pa's usual lecture.

But, maybe, it was this lecture that kept Jack from despising or hating his fellow citizens, even though he kept almost everyone at arm's length to stay out of trouble.

The few peeople kind enough to spend a minute or two to share some info were not helpful either, commenting only on the mysterious mature of the murders and that the police is keeping the investigation a bit too secretive for a small town like this. It was to be expected of course. In small towns like Erehwon, news should spread like wildfire, especially when serial murders, something unusual for the town, are the topic. Of course, if aliens were involved, there would not be much to say, anyways, is what Jack thought. Other humans like him can not see aliens and most of them, do not even know of their existence, so it would be hard to explain that the murders occured due to other reasons.

After tbe unsuccesful information gathering, Jack arrived at the police station. It was obvious that the uproar of the murders and the disappearings, would cause the whole department to be on his toes, as everyone was uneasy. On the front desk, someone was speaking to the officer, a familiar face around town, Ivan something, if Jack remembered well. He knew about him, because his line of work is similar to his father's, being a bartender at the Shack, making fancy drinks for college brats. For some reason, Jack always felt uneasy when around him, although he never paid much attention to it. He heard a bit of the conversation, something along the lines of being a psychic and that he could help with the case, but ignored both of what they said and the front desk officer altogether, heading straight for Archeletta's office. The officer took notice of him, interrupted his conversation with Ivan for a moment and asked:

"Can i help you, sir?"

"Not at all, I am here to see Archeletta..."

"I am really sorry, he is busy in his office right now, he asked to not be interrupted"

"I do not have the time for formalities, fella...", Jack indifferently replied.

The front desk officer stopped Jack on his tracks.

"I strongly recommend that you do not cause trouble in a police department, sir..."

"Listen, pal...I am too sober to be in a good mood, so step aside..."

"Jesus Christ, let him in." Came a familiar, muffled voice from the office, the man's tone tired and with just the faintest hint of annoyance.Terry damn well knew that voice, and it was one of the last one he wanted to hear right now. Then again the man it belonged to might be one of the few that could be of genuine help in this shitshow. Mixed bags always sucked, he decided, lighting up a fresh smoke and taking a long drag as he waited for Jack to step through his office door.

The officer, although annoyed, followed his superior's orders, making way for Jack, who indifferently marched into Archeletta's office. Another guy was there, but it didn't stop Jack from saying:

"What the hell are you doing, you bastard? Are you waiting for the whole town to be murdered before you find the criminal?"

Jack said that more because he was constantly annoyed by Archeletta's preaching for the collateral damage caused when Jack chased criminals and his constant whining about the paperwork he has to take care of after he captured them, rather because of disrespect. In fact, Jack respecred both Terry's commitment to law and his work and his deductive prowess, although he would never admit it, despite believing that Archeletta knew it, which annoyed him even more.

"Never mind that. I want to help. I am broke and, this time, the case seems big enough for me to get a good reward. I just need your ok, any "strange" information that you might have and your permission to check Ruxbury up close."

"Don't you take that fuckin' tone with me, Jack. I'm doin' the best I can here but as you can see, I got dick to go on." Terry shot back with a scowl, tapping out the ashes from the tip of his cigarette as he glared at the hunter. " Please tell me where I should be looking. I got one body out of my jurisdiction and a half dozen that nobody can find. Where would you like me to look, hm?"

Jack had always been a source of mixed feelings for the detective. The man was never not in some sort of trouble with that temper of his, and he was in the county jail so often tha3t they had a cell that practically had a his name on it. On the other hand, Jack was a hunter whether he knew it or not. That made him useful. He was also a good, if rough man, which made Terry less reluctant to put him to work. He sighed then, taking another drag on the cig before he stood.

"We'll discuss a reward after you tell me what exactly you think you can do. And why I should bring you in for this instead of Troutdale." Troutdale Supernatural Services was the premeire hunter company in the region. There were in fact two differnet kinds of hunters in Terry's experience; The born type that most of his kind knew and loathed for their...zealous nature, and the more mundane, goverment liscenced and regulated hunters that were more akin to professional exterminators. The latter were more popular for obvious reasons, and because they tended to keep their mayhem limited to those rogues that were a danger to supernaturals and mundies. Troutdale was one of those; 24/7/365 rapid response, discretion, no more than three hours on site, all for the measly price of $1,000 a month. Terry'd been looking into getting them into the police budget, but that would mean telling the sheriff about the 'Unearthly Forces Department'. Not the kind of thing most small town cops were used to. So he had to settle for using Jack.

"I'm guessin' you can beat them on the job?"

Jack ignored the non-smocking sign on Terry's office as well and lit a cigarette on his own. From what he knew, Troudale is some kind of alien hunting pro group. Jack was not a pro, Archeletta usually sending him off to small scale cases, probably concerned of his well-being. Not that he ever had trouble beating crooks up to now, but apparently Archeletta was concerned enough to not send him to vicious superpowered aliens. He tried to think of a good enough reason to take this one and not let the opportunity slip. Inhaling a good puff and letting it out, he replied:

"Seeing as nine murders happened by now and you still have no leads, it seems that the guy in question is dangerous. So, worst comes to worst, it would be easier to explain my murder as a citizen of the town, than a bunch of outsiders popping out of nowhere and dying all the same. Plus, I am content with any price you name, as long as you also treat me to a nice single malt.

He puffed another deep one and added:

"Besides that, I always bring back the culprit alive. Killing people is not my style and it makes, at least, that part of your job easier!"

"A bottle of scotch and $2,000." Terry offered quickly, eyes narrowed at the other man. "And three conditions. First off you're not going to be getting into any brawls with the drunks at the Head of the Wolf again. Second, you'll report to me on everything you find before you do anything. Third, you will not go off guns blazing like some jackass cowboy and shoot up half the town. Am I clear?"

"I already told you that it was an accident, didn't I? I had to empty the gun so no one would get shot...besides, I didn't shoot anyone! Anyway, it's a deal! I'm off to Ruxbury. Anything I find, I report as soon as possible. I'm off", Jack replied.

He then put out his cigarette and headed for the exit. For Jack, next stop was Ruxbury.

[Helo]

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Ivan studied the man who entered the police station, he recognized him as someone he’d seen around the motel before, his beard was rather memorable. Jack easily bypassed the somewhat grumpy office at the desk and headed straight for the office of the man in charge making Ivan wonder why he was wasting time talking to an underling. Jack seemed to know the man inside the office; Chief Detective Archeletta according to the name plate affixed to the door. His heighted hearing made it fairly easy to make out what the two men were discussing, the Roxbury murders; the same topic most of the town was obsessing over and the reason why he was at the police station. It didn’t sound like they had too much to go on.

“Like I said, we’re all very busy here working to solve these murders, you’ll know just as soon as everybody else when we have any more information.” The officer behind the desk told Ivan who was more focused on what they were discussing inside Archeletta’s office. He heard mention of Troutdales, the Pinkerton’s of the supernatural world, a group of hunters in it for the money which, in Ivan’s mind made them basically pond scum. Hunter’s that fought for a cause they believed in, protecting humanity for everything supernatural were understandable, there was nobility in that, Ivan had once been that and while his current state of being now made those hunter’s his enemy he could still respect them. Ivan glanced back at the officer who stood between him and what he wanted to know.

“I had this vision of…a horrible murder, blood everywhere and in it an owl told me I needed to come here, to help you stop these…horrible atrocities.” While Ivan was trying to sound convincing and only slightly dramatic, in reality, to the office in front on him, he sounded like a lunatic.

“I don’t know how much television you’ve been watching, son, but real police departments don’t actually work with ever nut case looking to involve themselves with police matters.” The officer was losing patience.

“Fine, let’s be real here, you’ve got steadily rising body count and no leads, don’t you think maybe, it’s worth taking a chance on someone who might be able to help, it’s not like I could make you guys look more incompetent.” Ivan continued wearing down the annoyed looking officer. “I mean you let that other guy help, right?”

“Fine,” The other man said. “You go talk to Archeletta and see what he says.” The annoyed man was more than happy with passing off the problem to his superior.

Ivan, finally passed the officer that acted as Archeletta’s gatekeeper, made his way towards the Chief Detective’s office and without bothering to knock he entered the room. The first thing he noticed was that both men were smoking so he immediately lit one of his own cigarettes glad to have found a place that was a bit less rigid about rules. He took a long drag on his cigarette; although he’d lost any taste for human food long ago, the robust flavor of tobacco and the effects of nicotine still satisfied him. A habit carried over from his mortal days that subtly reminded him of what it was like to be human.

“Sir, I have decided to offer my help in solving these terrible crimes.” He announced, before exhaling the smoke from his rarely used lungs; as a vampire his lungs only functioned when willed to. “The name’s Ivan, I happen to have a connection to the supernatural, as I was telling you’re associate out there,” Ivan paused and gestured through the doorway, as he had left the door wide open when he entered the room, to the exasperated officer at the desk, “I have abilities that could be of use to you in this case. And I am willing to help, free of charge, just think of me as an unpaid intern. Without the bringing you coffee part, I’m not doing that.” Ivan explained before taking another drag on his cigarette. He was sticking with the psychic lie as it was much easier to go with than the truth, that he was just a bored vampire.

“Nut-job thinks he’s psychic.” The officer from the desk exclaimed to his boss without looking up from his paperwork.

[Saint Girralo]

The drive back from the airport was relaxing. James had just spent the past two weeks in France paying his respects to fallen soldiers, people he had considered brothers, and culminating in a visit to the beaches of Normandy. Simply closing his eyes there transported him back seventy four years to that fateful day, D-Day. But that was another life, his previous one, his first one to be truthful. He was born as Alexander Marcus Reese and that was the name he used then during World War Two. The memories of that life left scars that he will carry the rest of his time on this Earth, not physically but they would be there. That was a benefit and a curse to being a dragon in this world. At the end of one cycle they would burst into flame, shedding the injuries of their past life and being reborn in a sense from the ashes, whole and unmarked. That was how he got his left leg back.

Shaking his head he banished those thoughts and thought instead about the new memories he was making. All the good he was doing in the community. He would return home and check in with the guys at the firehouse and see if there was any more murders had happened while he was away. It was scary and it brought the soldier mentality to the forefront of his mind. Eight murders in the past two months and this was just one town over in Roxbury. He would have to forge a knife when he got home. It wouldn’t be much but it would be something to protect himself with and something to help get his mind off the madness going on around him.

His Black 2007 Ford F-150 finally crossed the border to his hometown. It was good to be home again. The sights of Erehwon in the autumn as it prepared itself for the annual fall festival were something to behold. He pulled into the parking lot next to the fire department, just off of main and carefully pulled into the spot next to the Boss’ car. Putting the car in park he began to quietly make his way to the side entrance and scanned his key fob to let him in.

“Welcome back James!” Hollered a man’s voice from his left, just behind a closed door. This started off a chain reaction of all his coworkers coming in and clapping him on the back and welcoming him.

“How’d you know it was me Carl?”

“Your truck has a distinctive sound to it. Sounds like a piece of …”

“Woah woah woah. Don’t go dissing my truck. I take care of it and it still gets me from place to place so it’s good in my book.” He cut Carl off as most of the guys went back to what they were doing before hand.

“Just calling it like I see it man. It’s good to have you back. You enjoy your trip?” Carl asks as he walks out of the bathroom with a paper towel still in his hands. Carl Renard was a tall man, dark skinned and strong and was someone who enjoyed his job. Though a mundane, he is aware of the otherworldly nature that comprises a number of the town's citizens.

“Yeah. It was nice. First time I’ve been over there in a long time. Visited the Beaches, went to Paris. Relaxed.” He right ear twitched as he stated that last part.

“Yeah right, I somewhat doubt you would know what relaxation was if it went and smacked you in your face.” Carl shot back as embraced his friend.

“Yeah, I missed you too. Anyway I’m just stopping in to let you know I’m back and will be back on the clock tomorrow. I’m going to stop at the house and drop my stuff off, then head into town.” He said as he embraced his friend back quickly before backing off. He had jet lag real bad, but he would force himself to stay up so he could get a proper night’s sleep.

“Alright I’ll see you then. You be careful out there.” Carl told James.

“See you tomorrow, Boss.” James waved as he made his way back to the door. He had to stifle a yawn as he stepped outside. He looked out to the street and went to his truck. He needed coffee before he went anywhere else. Coffee Central was only few blocks away, he didn’t really need to drive there. He checked to see if he locked the door and began walking when he was confident that the truck was secure.

[Emma]

Valon's Disguise

Active

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Alice watched the exchange between the two men in the front of the store. Oddly the older gentleman face looked to be twisted in pain, but he smiled back at her. It was forced, and there body language was unusual to say the least. This was becoming a slightly amusing, highly interesting situation to observe. Her curiosity was peaked, that was for sure, but she didn’t let on. She brushed a stray hair behind her hair, and preoccupied herself sorting through the emails on her laptop. “Feel free to browse, I’m here if you have questions.” she said in a practiced shopkeeper voice.

They walked just out of sight, but with her fancy ass vampire hearing the men’s private whispered conversation and threats didn’t go unheard. Alice didn’t have a habit of eavesdropping, but she was intrigued. Whoever they were it was obvious the kid was in charge. Once there was pause in their rather disturbing chat, the older guy looked defeated and left. The teenager on the other hand seemed completely stoic, as he came over the counter and placed an ancient looking ring in front of her.

Blissfully unaware human woman, was what she was going for as she politely smiled, and picked up the ring to examine. The way he spoke was extremely old fashioned and nothing like the teenagers of today. If anything he reminded her of the headmaster of Gingore. Alfred was the oldest person she had ever met. Then again it also sounded like English was not his first language, and so maybe he was just taught to speak overly eloquent and politely.

“We do buy antiques.“ She replied to him as she looked closer at the ring. It was genuine, though she couldn’t date it exactly. Her expertise had more to do with French, German, and Dutch antiques. “How much were you hoping to sell it for?” She asked looking him in the eye, trying to figure him out.

Valon was not exactly expecting her to ask him that, in truth he had no idea how much this ring was even worth to begin with. The only reason he was trying to sell it was because Councilor Lucretia told him to do so. He didn’t really understand the need for money, it was not like he really ate or drank anything anyways, in some ways he was pretty sure Lucretia just wanted him to fit in the best he could so he didn’t draw attention to himself. The ring in question was actually Lucretia’s from back when he was a Roman senator, in his words it was the only thing he would part with as he wanted no reminders to that era in time.

“I am… not exactly what you would call someone who sells antiques, more or less I appreciate them for their age and the status in which they represent. This ring dates back to at the very least two thousand years and it was worn by a prominent Roman senator of the time. In either case perhaps you can give me what you consider a fair price and I will… trust… your judgement. I am sure you would not give me… a bad deal.”

Valon lay his hand on the counter, the ring that gave him his disguise glinted in the light above. The ring was made of a black metal, the band was carved delicately with ancient glyphs. He eye’d Alice, took in her demeanor, her looks, her everything, almost as if he was trying to suss out her very soul. This would look rather eerie but he hardly realized it as this was something he usually did when he was making idle conversation with someone he did not know or really trust.

“Also… if its not impolite to ask… your not human, right?”

Alice smirked. “If the ring is as old as you claim I can give you three grand for it, but you would get more selling it to a museum, or at auction.” She said placing the ring back on the counter. Internally she was trying to figure out how in the hell he saw through her. She was pretty damn sure she hadn't done or said anything to give herself away. She was not some fae who used glamour or a shifter who smelled overwhelmingly like wet dog. She was a vampire, meaning unless he had better hearing then her, and could tell she had no heartbeat…there was no definite way of knowing she was anything but human. It’s not like he ever saw her feeding. For the last two decades she had been drinking from blood bags in the privacy of her own home.

His gaze was intense to say the least. And she felt just the slightest bit uncomfortable. Weirdly she was still amused though, so she decided to play along. “Not human? Is this a roundabout way of asking what I’ll be for Halloween?” she looked him up and down. “I see you’re enthusiastic…already in costume and everything.” She said in the friendliest of tones. “I’ll most likely dress up as a vampire.” She said looking him in the eye for a brief moment, before noticing the black ring he wore. It was definitely spelled for something. Her brows knit together and she looked back at him.

Valon looked at Alice silently, no emotion was playing across his face. He was however starting to get a notion that this line about him being dressed up for Halloween was becoming an constant occurrence. What exactly was so off about his clothing either with his disguise or original clothes that made him look like he was dressed up? It was safe to say in small ways that Valon did not like this country thus far, it made him wonder though, in no small amount… did everyone see him like this and they just didn’t tell him? A subtle thought did occur to him in that exact moment…

Everyday is Halloween around here, it's like a pirate with terrible taste, give him an eye patch and a peg leg and we could have a start to a bad movie.

Son of a bitch… they were talking about him… all those years of snide remarks about clothing… oh when he got back to Rome the recruits were going to pay… Valon mentally chastised himself from his self induced moment of realized future revenge and got back to the task at hand.

“I am afraid that I do not possess the time or… patience for sustained contact with other… humans. People tend to annoy me. Three thousand dollars will be fine for this ring, with that said I wish you luck on your Halloween costume. Although I get the feeling it won’t be too.. Hard to make it work.”

Valon became quite silent for a moment before he casually leaned in on the counter as to get closer to Alice so he could speak lower to her.

“The only reason I asked in the first place is because… I would appreciate it if you just forget the altercation with my… partner. We both know he only made it worse with terrible acting, and if your not human then surely you must have overheard what we spoke of. Specifically.. My name, I ask that you keep it to yourself.”

Valon leaned up off the counter he hoped that she understood the implications or at least that if his name got out, there could be complications.

The legendary Elder Guardian Valon Valerious, was this pirate costumed, teenage pretty boy? For some reason Alice didn’t have any trouble believing him. She had heard stories about Valon back during her first few months as a vampire. In the eight months Paul had kept her locked away, he would sometimes chatter away about the amazing bloodthirsty Mezmer Guardian. Not that she had paid much attention to Paul’s yammering. At the time, she had been more preoccupied with not losing her mind.

“Well…Mr. Customer, some friendly advice… Asking someone if they’re human, can be considered… tactless. People like their secrets. Especially the ones that keep them safe…” Alice said completely serious. The amusement from before was waning. She took the ring and then stepped back, and crouched down behind the counter to unlock the safe. “I hope hundreds work for you.” She said to him as she place the ring inside, and took out three stacks of bills. She placed the money in a blue paper shopping bag that had Treasures of Time in silver script on the front. After a few second of deliberating she also tossed in her business card.

She stood up and held out the bag for him to take. “Pleasure doing business with you, and considered it all forgotten.” She said calmly. If he was here that meant whatever was happening in Ruxbury was bigger then she had thought, unless he was here for something else?

Valon took the bag silently, perhaps he had been a bit too forward on such a subject, after all there were far too many dangers in this world. One can forget that when you spend to much time staring at an ancient brick wall in a converted dungeon. He opened the bag and looked inside, he didn’t bother to count the money, it didn’t matter as much if it was all their perfectly, he just needed it to fit in more around this town until he resolved this situation and returned to Rome. He noticed something foreign among the cash, it appeared to be a card, he reached in and turned it over in the bag and read it. He looked back up at Alice, turning his head he looked around the store but no one was around still and no one seemed to be outside within view.

“I don’t have much skill or tact when it comes to talking, I can be rather forward and even more so being I am in such a… new place. I think an apology might be in order… I am not good with… apologies so I will make up for it another way.”

Valon moved forward, farther out of sight from the door and reached down removing the black ring from his finger. His appearance changed instantly, the teenager gone replaced by the older man. It was only for a moment his Olive eye’s glowed just ever so slightly before he slipped the ring back on his finger and the teenage boy appeared before Alice.

“Perhaps… now, we're even. Thank you.”

Valon simply nodded without so much as another word and strode towards the front door to the shop.