"Heh...Didn't know you were into S & M."
Nox grin grew wider. He liked this guy. He winked.
"Oh you have no idea what I'm into."
Nox chuckled to himself while Nova danced eagerly and Ivan prepared himself.
Nox wasn't sure about the weapon of choice for a new hunter, but the guy wasn't exactly an amateur either. Nox started in the direction of an old nest of weird ass monster he and Aria had cleared. It had been maybe five or six at the time, and they'd killed them with ease. Nox didn't have intentions of going too deep, but he was itching to fight something - anything.
"I have two rules you need to follow. If I say move, you move, the same thing goes for if I say run. Don't be some macho hero and stay with me. If things get thick I will bring the walls down around me, and you don't want to be around for that. The second rule is is don't let ANYTHING bite you down here. If they bite you I will kill you. There are exceptions to this rule. But what we hunt are weird bizarre creatures that swarm and turn whatever they bite into them. Think zombie apocalypse movies except the zombies aren't dead and they aren't slow. We will hunt at the fringe of their territory, but I've not been down here for a little while and that fringe could be neck deep in shit."
Nox continued to ramble on.
"There are other things down here. They seem to be moving towards the surface more and more because of the swarms. We've seen oni. Signs of dreyken and rakashas. Rougarou and chupakabras have been rooted out down here too."
Nox laughed, but his thoughts weren't funny.
"But people like myself, Aria and your partner, Vega, are far more dangerous to our kind. Stay away from the ouroboros if at all possible. A war has started and you don't want any part of it I promise."
Edited by
Nox, Nov 9 2015, 11:51 AM.
Nox winked as he took up Ivan's quip. And then he got serious with a bunch of rules. Ivan got it, though. Nox was the expert here. Or at least he acted like it. Ivan had never heard of any of the creatures Nox referred to though he remembered those ones from his hunt with Xena back forever ago.
"Bite me? Yeah I think I can make sure their teeth don't get anywhere near me."
He shuddered at the thought.
And then Nox's conversation went right to the heart of his suspicions about Vega. Course the words, despite being mostly ones he could understand, all together made no sense at all.
Puzzlement colored his face. "What?What the hell is a bororo? And what do you mean about dangerous to 'our kind'? Do you know Vega?"
It had only been moments ago, really, that he had thought they worked together. Now Nox seemed to not care about implicating him in....whatever it was. Didn't sound like organized crime. Or at least Nox didn't seem worried about saying too much. Which, again, didn't sound like OC.
"Be straight. What are you talking about?"
Ivan had a lot more questions about things than Nox had anticipated. He probably would have been smacked by Aria at this point for running his mouth. Oh well.
Nox stopped and left the ball of light floating behind him. It was relatively safe and he could hear them coming if they decided to join them for their party. He hoped it was all well and clear but he was itching to fight something, the little tussle with Ivan had only wet his appetite for more dangerous play things.
He sighed.
"Aria and I, and Vega work for a secret organization. We hunt monsters for a living. This."
Nox waved his hands around him,
"is what I do every day for as long as I can remember. We don't just hunt the things that go bump in the night. As of late we've renewed our original charter full force and people like me and Aria, hunt people like you and me. They take us out before we become like that Theo guy. They kill you, they kill your family to make sure no more like us pop up."
Nox rolled up his sleeve.
"This is our mark. Stay away from it. And don't reveal yourself to anyone with that mark. You are kinda screwed now since Vega knows. He's pretty tight with one of the big bosses. He won't be able to keep the secret long. Yours or mine. And he really has no reason to."
"You seem a decent guy and all but knowing me is not going to be good for you. Knowing Vega isn't going to go down well with the big bosses. We have a zero tolerance policy. We hunt our own. Aria keeps my secret. I keep hers. We've several others we protect, some don't deserve it but it is what it is. I'm dead when they find out. And it doesn't matter if they find out I'm a god or if they find out I've been helping gods, either way it's a death sentence. The Atharim will be my end one way or the other. I'd like to get back to hunting if that's alright with you. While my life is still my own."
Edited by
Nox, Nov 10 2015, 04:06 PM.
The euphoria Ivan had been feeling dissolved, replaced by cold anger. He glared at Nox, though he knew the guy was just being honest. And was in a bad way, if what he said was true.
No, what pissed him off was the idea of killing people who could do what he did- and their families- on the off chance they'd be a Volodin or Andlain. Ivan was an officer of the law, sworn to uphold and protect that law and the people of his city. But it went far deeper than that. It was in his bones. Even though he knew, mentally, that the Ascendancy was really in charge of the city, of the whole CCD, he had personally taken the city under his protection. These were his people. Their safety was his to see to. And he would, too.
And any group who thought they would run around executing his people would be in for a rude awakening. He realized that he had squared his shoulders back, puffed his chest, and made his face hard. More telling, he felt the prickle of pain underneath his skin, like when he was working out and the pump was so hard and tight that he felt like his skin was about to burst. The rage of the power churned is his grasp, fighting him, and he tightened his grasp, mastering it.
His voice was low and tight. "I will have to talk to Vega."
Oh yeah he would. "And if I see any of your 'friends' about...."
He let things trail off. He wasn't joking. Vega was worse than a dirty cop. Ivan was looking forward to confronting him. Traitor. He was a traitor to the badge, to his oath. He was a liar. They were on Ivan's radar now. He'd get more information from Nox, that was for sure.
Nox wanted to hunt, looked hungry to hunt. Ivan felt the same. He flexed his fists and saw the way his "arms" moved their massive form. This might not be the safest thing....but damn but it would feel good!
He nodded. "Lead the way."
Nox rolled his eyes at the impending threat of violence to his so-called friends. He muttered under his breath, but he knew Ivan could hear him with his power enhanced ears. "What you gonna do kill them?"
Nox shook his head and frowned as he turned back to Ivan. "Stay away from them. Don't pretend you can take them on. They will look like normal people. You are a man of the law. If you want to make them pay, then find out who killed Sebastian Volodin. Get the evidence. Convict them. You won't take down the Atharim. But you'll do that one person damage. For every weird occurrence and missing persons case do the work, find the real killer the real reason. Don't make idle threats to an entire organization who has been doing what it does since the dawn of time."
Nox sighed and turned around his blood was boiling. At this point in time he didn't care if Ivan followed. He was going hunting. He started down the corridor again. Carefully watching each step, watching for signs of creatures.
"And I'd give anyone with the mark the benefit of the doubt. You don't know what brought them to the fold. If I'd told you about them two months ago you'd been hell bent against me. And where would you be now? Not holding the power freely."
Nox walked around the corner. He'd been so busy talking he'd missed the scrapping sounds of large claws on the rocks. In front of him stood a very large creature with horns and scales. The ball of light blinded the creature and Nox came back around the corner as the hulk barreled through him tossing him to the side.
Ivan looked at Nox for a moment, puzzled. Then he realized that Nox thought he was physically threatening their secret group or whatever. Ivan wouldn't shy away from a fight, that was true. And if he saw one of their group doing what Nox said they did- killing someone like him-
like both of them, he amended- or their family, he would stop them. But he had been thinking of legal methods and exposure.
An idea occurred to him and he pulled out his wallet and sent a brief text to LT as Nox walked away. He didn't have time to explain in detail, but it needed to be done now. Who knew when Volodin's family would be targeted? Or if, if Nox could be trusted. Still, it was worth a shot. Might even kill two birds with one stone.
He started to walk toward where Nox had turned when suddenly Nox's form flew to the side. Suddenly there was one of those massive beasts from before bearing down on him. Ivan swung his fist without thinking and the thing flew into the tunnel wall. Without giving it at a chance, Ivan slammed a blow into the center of the things face, driving the head into the concrete. Right, left, right, left, he hit again and again until the head was a just a bloody mass. He stepped back and the thing fell forward.
He looked back to see if Nox was ok.
Edited by
Ivan Sarkozy, Nov 12 2015, 11:25 AM.
The side of the cave wall crunched beneath him as the flew into the side of it. Nox was fairly certain there was probably a cracked rib. It hurt to breath, but he wasn't gushing blood so that was a good thing. When his head finally cleared there was nothing left to fight. Ivan had decemated the skull. Nox gave Ivan an impressed look as he winced into standing position.
"I wouldn't do that where we are going. The blood could get into wounds. Don't know how it's transmitted. You might want to pick something a little more ranged."
Nox took a few steps and winced. It was going to hurt for a while. But he wanted to hunt. And he'd done worse damage to himself before. He wished he could have learned how to heal. But that was not a talent Aurora could explain to him, much less for him to see. It sucked either way. He couldn't heal himself.
Nox felt a trickle of blood flowing down his ear and sighed. Damn! He likely had a concussion too. He really didn't want to go to the field medic. He didn't want the Atharim looking at him too hard.
"That is impressive work. That is an Oni. They are solidary hunters. They rarely hunt in packs, but they do tend to group up when food is scarce."
Nox put a pin in the map location and marked Oni sighting. There was definitely an exodus from the lower levels. That's two they'd seen in a matter of months.
"I'm good if you still want to keep going?"
And nodded.
"And if you do, I should probably show you some ranged stuff so you can start out farther away."
Edited by
Nox, Nov 12 2015, 12:47 PM.
Ivan appreciated Nox's comment. The guy clearly knew these things. If he said that his method was dangerous, he'd be a fool not to listen. He looked at the fake arms that stretched out from his own a good five feet. He thought about extending them, even tried it another five feet. It looked pretty dumb but if it did the job then it didn't matter. Then again, it gave him a huge inner radius for something to slip into. If that happened he'd be reduced to using his actual hands and, as Nox said, touching these things physically was not something they wanted to be doing.
He let the weaves go. He remembered how he'd used fire with Xena the last time. There was also using air to slice. Now that he could ties stuff off he could do more things. He wove air and fire together to make a small ball that pulsed. Then he flattened it until it was a disk the size of his hand, edges finer than that of a razor blade. He "threw" it, somehow, not with his hands, imparting energy to it. At the same time he tied it off so that it held its from and hit the wall in an explosion of sparks. When it dissipated, he could see that it had definitely gouged a section of wall out.
Satisfied, he wove the whole thing all over again, faster this time, throwing it harder. The damage was bigger. He looked up at the massive cavern of concrete and pipes over them whose mass he could feel pressing down on them and decided hitting the wall- whether it was a support or not- was kinda dumb.
Instead, he wove again, 5 disks this time thrown in rapid succession down the length of the tunnel the thing had come from. The lights from them flashed along the side of the tunnel before hitting something far in the distance.
Satisfied, he looked at Nox. "Like that?"
He didn't feel tired at all. He wondered if he would if he doing that. "Can we do this indefinitely or is there a limit?"
He didn't wanna run out of juice when they were in the middle of a fight.
Nox's ears were still ringing but Ivan listened and did change tactics. The little disks were interesting and they'd work against the creatures they were going to hunt. "Those wouldn't have worked against an Oni though. Their skin is really tough, bullets bounce off them. I've never seen one pummeled to death but the head was the right place to go."
Nox nodded towards the Oni that laid on the ground. "But what we are going after are fleshy creatures. They want living flesh. And if they don't kill you you end up like them. Never seen these things before."
"Just make sure you can use them quickly."
Nox had almost forgotten the handful of the warehouse he'd picked up and stuffed in his pockets. He wished for his little vials but now they were all gone. He sighed.
"No. It has a limit. You will tire out even faster than physically exerting yourself. So your boxing stuff you'd probably tire out three times faster."
Nox picked up a pile of rocks from the floor of the tunnel. "It takes a little practice but to make it last a little longer I used to carry small projectile objects."
Nox let the handful float in the air and he flung them down the tunnel with weaves of air. He heard them pepper across the walls. "I had all sorts of little toys."
But they went up in the warehouse.
Nox grinned. "You might want to make sure your gun is handy too. I've not actually done with without Aria before."
Nox hoped that they didn't get swarmed.
They headed down the tunnel passage way again. Nox disliked looking down at his wallet every tunnel they passed so he knew where he was going. It was all thankfully charted territory. His head still was ringing, and it hurt to breathe, but the more he walked the less he actually felt. Feeling numb was probably not a good thing.
The shadows started to move in front of them. Nox made the universal motion for stop. TV had it's uses, everyone knew the signals even those not trained by any military or police force. Nox whispered. "Get ready.
Nox drew fire up around his hand and sent a fireball down the middle of the tunnel. As it flickered down the tunnel the walls turned from stone to flesh. A mass of bizarre creatures turned their eyes their direction and in the next second a mass of them were running at them.
Ivan listened carefully. Nox seemed to know what he was doing. And he was there to learn. And to keep his people safe.
He looked down at that creature, filing the name Oni away, as well as its weak spot. When he'd taken its head with a thread of razor thin air it had come away easy enough. Still, he'd make sure to adjust his attack next time.
He did like the feel of punch the thing, though. That had been something. Like when he and his brother were younger and they'd be in the woods just before spring. Lots of dead trees and growth. They'd plow through it all feeling powerful and god-like as they physically chopped at limbs and branches and even trunks and felt that satisfying split. It was a purely male thing, an expression of just destructive physical power. That was how it had felt fighting the Oni. Still, he could see Nox was right. Doing that would tire him out quickly.
He followed Nox as the crept down the tunnel, Nox constantly fumbling with his wallet. Ivan saw glimpses of some sort of map app. Smart man. No need to get lost down here. Not that he got lost much. He seemed to always know where he was. But if all hell broke loose and they were running, it would be far harder to figure out where they were. And being lost down here would seriously suck.
Nox gestured to stop, using signals he'd obviously learned from TV. Ivan smiled, but said nothing and stopped, watching carefully. On the force, the signaling was actually pretty sophisticated. It was nearly its own language at this point. Maybe he'd teach that to Nox. It would only be fair, as Nox was teaching him. Especially if they did this again.
Nox sent a fireball down the tunnel and the light illuminated writhing hairy limbed bodies that seemed to turn in unison. Right toward them. The glimpse of them confirmed they were the same type as he'd seen before. They'd be moving fast.
The fireball exploded and he heard screams but had no other time to think. He immediately wove his fire-disks as fast as possible and threw them down the tunnel as hard as he could. He alternating between going down the center and along side the walls. The thought of those things getting near them was terrifying.
The screams of the creatures as they fell mixed with the rage of those who continued forward. There was a whine to it that wanted to dig into this skull, like nails on a chalk board. He made his disks bigger, spinning disks like circular saw blades. He could see limbs and necks and torsos sliced into. Thankfully, there were no gouting sprays of blood and he was glad he'd used fire as part of the weave, as it seemed to be cauterizing the gaping wounds.
Still, they came, a swarm of them like an army of hornets whose nest had been disturbed.