Henrik and Stephan heeded the high alert. There was a god in their ranks. One who had confessed to murder. One who had signed the registry after his confession. They hadn't recovered yet from their foolhardy adventure chasing foreigners and professionals. No they were to hunt gods. It was their calling. Their only calling.
This kid knew how they operated. He'd been in HQ. He was American but he came from generations of cowboy Atharim. Men and women just like him - hunting creatures and gods. And he was a god! How could they not have known? Had they seen him walking through the halls?
They signed their names to the mission slip. They would hunt him. Their greatest achievement yet!
Jacinda kicked back in the safe house. Hood was gone and she wasn't sure when he'd be back. All and all, he'd been pretty cool to work with. Quietly deadly. In some ways he reminded her of Seth- minus the mouth that worked overtime to find exactly the one thing to say to try to piss you off. He wasn't Regan, not really- he didn't have the coldness that emanated from him.
There was still some softness in the man- his feelings, which had nothing to do with his actual abilities- however he tried to hide it. Nowhere near Ricky, of course. The look on his face when she had told the women who'd been held and raped by the nest of rougs back in Mexico city that they either downed the abortifactant in her hand or be put down had been priceless. He'd been too soft to do what was done, there. Still, not a bad kid for all that. He'd done good in that hunt and later with the quetz. Even saved her life.
Maybe he'd get there. But probably not. He'd taken the girl in. What was her name? She couldn't remember. Anyway.
Still, it had been quite fun chasing down those two punk Atharim who'd gone off the rails and after them. Morons, more like. Two seasons hunters, one of them in the Order? Hood was certainly one they should have feared, despite his contract status. Not too bright. Overzealous was the word. All about purification. As if the fact that they were non-Europeans made their loyalty suspect.
In the end, though, they let them go with a few injuries. She wasn't sure how many Atharim were still around in Moscow. Brandon had outed them and things were a bit sketchy now. Still they had a job. And she suspected that those two might be useful. As pawns, if nothing else.
And Yoshi. Now that was a good man, if bit stuffy. Whenever she was around him, it was all she could do not to needle him. She couldn't help it. Still, he was professional too.
Which was good because she got the notification and smiled. Nox Durante. She knew of him. Well, knew his parents years ago. Word was he was a great hunter too.
And now outed as a god. She realized her smile had widened. Now there was a hunt. An Atharim god. Damn but what a great challenge that would be. And what did we have here? Looked like those two morons wanted in as well. They'd already signed up for the hunt. Well, they could think that if they wanted. She was going to do this.
After a moment of thought, though. She messaged Yoshi. Be nice to have someone solid at her side. Someone she could trust. They were in the order together, after all. She used her computer to find those two idiots- Henrik and Stephan. Their wallets gave the same location. Good. Easy to track.
She added the location to another message to Yoshi. He would already know the particulars of this hunt. Good hunters were always alert.
She'd meet him there and then they'd see if Henrik and Stephan were smart enough to make the right decisions.
Edited by
Jacinda, Aug 18 2017, 01:44 PM.
Ichiro had gotten a message - two actually - from Jacinda Cross. He was in the know of what was going on. Nox Durante - an atharim and a reborn god. The thought itself was sickening. If the young one had honor, he would have taken his own life as Yoshiro had done. Most Americans, however, were honorless.
Cross had disappeared for awhile, but she was likely at a safehouse. The remnant had been scattered after Brandon's announcement. The Regus was gone - and assumed dead. Someone would need to rise to bring the Atharim together, but it wasn't Ichiro's place.
Ichiro had the god fighting weapons, but as always, his katana was at his side, hidden underneath his coat. The tanto, a familiar weight was also strapped to the small of his back.
Cross was easy to find, and for once she wasn't being loud. Ichiro wasn't used to her. She was loud, obnoxious, and a braggart, but that was her culture. Ichiro wasn't sure that he would ever get used to it however.
Ichiro approached her. "Is it just us, or are there others?"
Henrik and Stephan didn't like working with others. It was partially why they hadn't been selected for an Archangel team. Borovsky had said they were high strung, didn't play well with others and didn't obey orders. Which was complete bullshit! Sure they didn't like working with a team, but they worked with others.
The current safe house in the Enlightened District wasn't as nice as the Atharim HQ, but it was one of the closest and easiest to monitor the whelp of a girl the boy had called a friend. But it wasn't long before even she turned on him and gave a last known location. She was on her own mission - one handed down by the Regus himself - classified. And they didn't rank on that. They would one day - the Regus would see them fit and now that Borovsky was dead... or at least MIA with the Regus they had distinct opportunity.
They were gearing up to take out a god - well to scout his new location since the girl's apartment was a no go. It looked empty for months. They were about to head out the door when the fucking American woman they had hunted days before walked into the hall and blocked their way. Henrik grunted and clearly was manning up for a fight, "Out of our way. We got a job to do."
Yoshi arrived, sour expresson per uzhe. He still carried his sword, though it was hidden underneath his coat. She got that. New weapons or not, you still wanted the old stand-bys. She had her battle staves in a holster strapped to her leg, along with the .44 that had been Regan's.
Tweetle Dumb and and Tweetle-Dumbass were inside. She nodded to Yoshi in greeting. "Looks like you're staying out of trouble."
To his question, she answered, "Nah. Two morons are in there. Figure they'll be of use. Atharim with about have a brain between them. They, uh, owe me a favor."
Yeah. For not killing them.
The door opened as if they had been summoned. "Out of our way. We got a job to do." She smirked and rolled her eyes, then gave Yoshi a look .
Her stave was out and at his throat, her finger on the switch that would send a thousand volts of fun through his braint. "Listen, prick! Don't make me angry. You already saw what happens when I get angry."
She jerked her head at Yoshi. "And you definitely don't want to get him upset. He's none too shy about playing with that sword of his."
She didn't glance at Yoshi- seeing the fear in dumbass' eyes was too much fun. But she wanted to imagine Yoshi glaring at her for her little double entendre.
She pushed him back into the room. "Now you and your boyfriend there are gonna be working with us. Nox Durante is our target."
She put the stave down and gave them both a look. "Got it?"
Jacinda was her usual self. He actually smirked a bit at her comment about him staying out of trouble. Morons with half a brain between them...that in itself could mean a lot of things, but even though her personality was biting, Ichiro believed that she actually was a decent judge of character. Still, why would these be chosen for this important mission.
Then the two men in question showed up, and their first words lent some credence to Jacinda's words. A brief show of force brought the other two in tow however. Ichiro raised his eyebrow slightly at her mention of him. To be fair, she wasn't wrong.
Ichiro waited wordlessly. There wasn't anything to say until the others actually joined them for the hunt. He just hoped they wouldn't get in the way.
Henrik glared at the American and the other foreigner. Never understood the Japanese thing about honor and the swords - who the fuck fought with swords. "We got it first, how many does your pretty little head have? one - with Borovsky as your leader." Henrik scoffed.
Stephan leaned in and showed Henrik his wallet and the information displayed on it. There were six kills under her belt and only one of them were with the Archangels. Henrik and Stephan had two, together and they weren't sick little kids. Henrik was about to smart off when Stephan grabbed his shoulder. "Don't mind him. We'll take any help we can. This isn't a normal god. He's not some sick kid and he's knows how we operate. We don't know what else he knew before he outted himself."
Henrik sighed but his glare continued as he let Stephan handle the new people. His mouth continually got in the way of progress. It's probably why they never were asked to be an Archangel in the first place. "The boy is hold up at some mansion in the rich part of town. He might still be at the station for all we know right now. Even his partner turned against him." Stephan laughed. "She's probably killing herself for not knowing now. We might have to kill her too."
Tweetle-dumb at least had a brain on him. Maybe it was that. Or maybe it was the shiner he was till sporting...and the slight limp. She and Hood had been none too friendly and he seemed to catch the worst of it. Eh, some lessons were learned better with a bit of pain.
Which meant that she might be doing a bit more teaching in the hurting department with Tweetle-dumbass. She quirked a smile. That would be fun. Later.
In any case, he continued on, explaining things. Not that she needed it, but he was trying to be helpful.
In moments they were inside and sitting on the couch. It was not a home. Just a waypoint. What he said had gotten her attention. Holed up in a mansion in the rich part of town. That could play into how they went after him. He was a god. But he had also been a good Atharim hunter.
"Find out whose mansion it is. Anything else you can tell us."
She could look it up for herself, but if they were gonna be lackeys, then they should be lackeys. Yoshi could interject his own criteria for the hunt. She trusted him enough to appreciate a different set of eyes and perspective on the matter.
It was a hunt for a hunter. So...what would she do, if she was hunted? She wouldn't sit around, that was sure. Aaaaaand she wouldn't run away. At least not yet. She'd make it painful for them to come after her. Cost them. And then disappear. The threat implicit. If you come after me, you die.
And Nox was a god. So his...tools...were considerable, if they were anything close to the gods that had been showing up of late. Andlain. Volodin. Vladimir. Let alone Brandon.
Which wasn't to say they wouldn't go after them. They just had to be smart about it. Real smart. Cuz god or know, Nox was a kid. A powerful kid. But still just a kid.
Stephan sighed as they had been regulated to lackies. He thought this bitch was going to get them killed because she wasn't doing her own work. If she wanted to lead then fucking lead. But Henrik couldn't. He was going to get them killed too.
He didn't have to look it up. He knew it by heart already. Stephan told the American all about how his family were American Hunters, which she seemed to already know. His sister was dead. The perp died of a heart attack in his apartment. So he had no one but friends who knew what he was.
The biggest problem wasn't who his friends were. Other than the fact that one was Atharim. He was staying with Dorian Vega, a rich playboy cop on the Atharim payroll. One trained by Borovsky and was the man's go to cover.
Outting Dorian would be a bad thing for their organization, but really he had no other choice. Stephan sighed. "The mansion belongs to one of our own, a patron and trained hunter but he's an officer of the CCDPD. He's part of this new department that handles supernatural issues. He's an ally we shouldn't upset. He could destroy the Atharim by undoing all his work he's done of the course of his career." Stephan pulled up a long list of cases that Dorian Vega had deterred the cops from finding the true reason and handed his wallet to the American woman. "You can see for yourself."
As they moved inside, Ichiro remained quiet. Some people liked to talk. He liked to let them talk. He would interject when needed. Ichiro looked over the information that Jacinda got. The mansion belonged to a Dorian Vega - another Atharim. Another traitor.
Yoshimura understood the caution in taking him out, despite being a traitor. It would be suicidal to the order to do so, especially when the Atharim were weakened.
"If that's the case we need to draw him out of the mansion, but make it look like we didn't. Any other way and it could be seen as a hostile action against Vega."
Yoshimura paused. "Besides - Durante is a hunter and one with a good record at that. He's not just a sitting duck in there. We know he's a god now, and he knows we know it. There will be some sort of traps there."
Yoshimura moved back to his spot and resumed his silence to let others answer.