Where's that deity when you need him? Kiah thought to herself as she raced frantically through the backyards of random strangers.
The lights were already turning on because of the noises she was causing. She cursed under her breath. They were going to catch up soon if he didn't hurry up and help her.
She kept running, her stamina lessening as she dodged people, who were starting to come out of their houses to see what was going on. They have to move, she suddenly realized, or they'll be crushed by it. She shoved people back into their houses, trying not to slow down at the same time.
"Hurry, get back into your houses!" she shouted back at the ones who still kept out. They can't see it coming, she remembered. She cursed again. It was already beginning on the first of the houses she had started through, but to the people she was warning, it was like everything exploded. The monster; the thing, was crashing through houses and people alike, ignoring its usual prey, concentrating completely on catching her, a grotesque smile ever-present on its face.
She stumbled, and it caught her scent. Damn! If she hadn't've slipped, it wouldn't have caught the scent through her aura. Of course, the aura was why it was following her in the first place, so either way she looked at it, it was coming for her. Except now she couldn't get away.
The root she had stumbled upon stubbornly hooked on her leg, refusing to detach itself. She struggled with the branch, while the thing got ever closer. It was too late, it was here.
It stopped in front of her, snuffling at the air for her scent. Its wide fugly eye focused on her general position, meaning it knew she had stopped. She sighed, and then stopped breathing, letting it attack her. Suddenly, Fafner was in front of her, repulsing the beast, sending out waves of energy that not only pushed the thing back, but also confused it.
"How is your energy level?!" He shouted back to her, and she got back up.
"Just fine, except for the fact that you made me wait until you got here before I could attack it!" she screamed back at him, and he yelled back,
"Well, now's your chance!" she rolled her eyes, half-exasperated, and pulled out a staff with hanging bells on it. The bells jingled through the air, suddenly making all noise stop, cutting through the creature's cries. The only sound was the bells, until Kiah slammed the staff, pole-vaulting style, into the single eye on the creature's huge face. The thing gave a last demented laugh, this time a cackle of death, and it was sucked into the staff, the energy making the wood pulse with power.
"Good job, Kiah." Fafner gasped, sinking to the ground and taking a deep breath.
"Don't rest just yet. Every one of these people just saw us." He gave her a tired look, but got up and announced to the people watching in fear and surprise, "Hello, friends. If I could have your full attention…" As if they didn't already. They must have the attention of the entire continent by now.
He spoke then in a different language, and the people all slumped to the ground, to wake in the morning to wonder why the heck they had fallen asleep in their backyards. Kiah turned to him.
"Sometimes I wonder why you even put up with me and my monster-hunting." He shook his head as she stored the staff in her pocket, miniaturizing it.
"Me, too." She slugged him, but he shrugged it off.
"Any other signals tonight?" he yawned, and she shoved him to the ground.
"You're a deity. You don't yawn. Stop pretending." He grinned impishly, and said, "Well?" she shook her head.
"I don't sense any more presences. Let's call it a day. Or night, or whatever." He nodded, then disappeared as Kiah started back toward her underground hideout. She found her way back to desolate Toledo, giving a sigh at of relief at the familiar, though extremely shady, surroundings.
Toledo, her birth town, one of the few cities who had survived the attacks of the things.
She wandered casually into a bar, and then waved to the bartender as she ducked behind the bar and stomped on the odd-colored floorboard. It rose up to reveal a cabinet behind the shelves of alcohol, and she stooped her head to go in. it was dark for a minute, until she heard Coir's voice.
"Smog doesn't show in the daytime-"
"-only out here it does," she quipped, completing their password which made absolutely no sense to anyone but Coir.
"Welcome back, Kiah." Coir said, and the empty panel in front slid forward to admit her into the underground lab. Coir was still at the computer, but he turned as soon as she entered.
"How many signals did you pick up?" he inquired, business-like.
"Eight."
"Out of that number, how many did you completely obliterate into the eighteenth dimension?" he asked, breaking into peals of laughter as his business tone was shattered.
"All eight, you straight-faced baboon. Fafner's already back in the spirit world." Coir turned back to his computer.
"Lazy deity."
Kiah shook her head. "Don't let Lumè hear you say that," she warned.
"Too late. What did you say, Coir?" Lumè stepped out of the elevator installed into the wall, followed by Treo and Mëm.
"We just said that he'd gone back to the spirit plane." Kiah said.
"Liar, liar, and you know it."
Treo grinned and quoted, "He who calls his brother a liar is in danger of burning in the pits of hell." Lumè turned on him ferociously.
"I'm not a guy, and Coir's not my brother, thank god, so you can go burn yourself."
Mëm stayed silent, listening to the conversation with her blind eyes focused in one spot. She was the only one not joking around, but for her that was to be expected.
Coir glanced at the clock above his computer. It was no ordinary clock, not like the ones the normal civilians seemed to prefer these days; the stupid ones that only told you the time.
What's the point of time, anyway? Kiah asked herself. It's just another creation of man to control one another. Her silent criticism was interrupted by Coir's sigh of defeat.
"It'll never be the same around here without Ratec." He muttered, and everyone nodded.
Ratec had been their main man, the one running and organizing all their operations. He had been recently killed by one of the creatures, leaving his brother Coir to take over. What reminded Coir of his dead brother was the clock, which was a memorial plaque that also served as an informant as to whether any of the members were dead. Ratec himself had created it, so that anyone killed in the line of duty or anywhere else would be able to let his fellow members know. All nine of the hands had been created from little carved bones from when they hadn't the staff to use the monsters for power, and they actually had to kill the things. That had been almost impossible, since the things were almost immortal. It took a hell of a lot of bullets to shoot them down, and other weapons often proved ineffectual. Ratec had been the one to create almost all of their technology, most of the weapons, the trackers, and even the little things, like improvements on the storage facility. When he's died a couple months ago, they'd held a funeral service for his spirit, since his body had been completely devoured.
Eight of the bone-hands were pointing toward the bottom of the clock, but the little bone marked with an 'R' pointed upward. That had been Ratec's hand. Kiah shook her eyes away and turned to the screen in front of Coir. He glanced at her, then turned back to his screen, beginning a scan.
"You ought to get that leg checked out." He said, gesturing at her blood-caked ankle.
"And you ought to help us with the monsters." He grimaced.
"You know I can't do that. My sixth sense isn't strong enough to track them or fight them. I can only see them."
Treo smirked. "Or so that's your excuse for staying in here while we fight."
Coir looked at him, and Treo shut up. Coir may have been the techie for their unit, but he certainly wasn't the big, sweaty nerd one would expect. Sure, he was pale, but he had piercing green cat's eyes and glossy black hair that always seemed to be in front of one eye.
Treo was his perfect opposite, tanned and brown-eyed with blonde hair. They were constantly snapping at each other, but if it got personal, they automatically stopped the pestering, a sign of their long-lasting friendship.
Lumè, however, didn't stop pestering people unless commanded, and sometimes even then she didn't stop. She had had her family eaten by the creatures, which explained her deep-running hatred of them. That was the only thing all of them had in common; a mutual hatred of the creatures and a goal to destroy them. Lumè was extremely hyperactive, and she insisted that Fafner was her soul mate, which was the probably the cause of him avoiding her constantly. She had the darkest skin, with flaming red hair that made her crimson eyes clash and burn.
Kiah herself felt overwhelmed by Mëm's beauty, despite Mëm being the ultimate in loners. She might have been blind, but her milky eyes only enhanced her features. She had frost-white hair and translucent skin, but she dressed all in black to tone down her pallid features. Kiah might have been slightly jealous of Mëm's looks, but she herself didn't look bad. She had violet eyes, a rare occurrence that was probably the cause of her ability to see the things, and her blue hair was silky, long and wavy down to her shoulders.
The last two of their unit, as they called it, were Abrena and Siven, and they were currently on a mission to a hot spot where the creatures were gathering in large groups. The threat was dying down, but there was still work for them to be done, and Coir estimated that they had at least another night to finish up.
Siven had an attitude to match Treo's jocular personality, and the only reason they put up with him was because of two reasons: he was one of the best fighters they had, and he had been a close friend of Ratec's.
The yellow-eyed, silver-haired demon Abrena had been paired with Siven because his blue eyes and golden hair attracted a lot of attention when they traveled, and Abrena's mastery of disguises was handy for keeping things under control. Blue eyes had been seen as devils' eyes since the twenty-eighth century, when the things started appearing, and they had a mysterious reaction to anyone with blue eyes, almost a reverent response. Siven, of course, denied any connection to the factor, but he did have a problem with Mëm, who had supposedly had blue eyes before she was blinded by the creatures. She wouldn't say anything on the subject, no matter who pressured her.
Their powers were all at varying levels, from Coir's inability to fight, ranging all the way to Mëm and Siven's prowess to capture or kill the grinning creatures by themselves, no partner at all. Even with all the work they could get done working individually, they had all agreed that partners were the best recourse. The partners system hadn't gone into effect until Coir created it when his brother died on an individual mission. Kiah was paired with their only deity Fafner, Abrena with Siven, Treo with Mëm, and Lumè worked at the hideout with Coir, protecting it if the monsters ever got smart enough to attack their base of operations, which Coir predicted they eventually would. Lumè often complained about having the most boring job, but she was secretly pleased because her weapon was extremely bulky and she hated having to lug it around when not fighting. Staying at the base was perfect for her. Coir finished up his scan and turned to them.
"I haven't gotten any word from Siven or Abrena, but they seem to be fine. Treo, how did your missions go?" he grinned, his white teeth glistening.
"Absolutely wonderful. I—I mean, of course, we—bagged eleven of the buggers." He grinned, glancing at Mëm, who really didn't mind his misuse of pronouns. Coir grinned along with him, his eyes glittering.
"When Unit One get back, we can really dent those suckers." Each pairing was nicknamed a unit number for simple reasons; security over transmission lines for one thing, plus it was a lot shorter than saying 'Abrena and Siven.' Unit two was Mëm and Treo, and Unit Three was Kiah and Fafner. They each carried radios for crises, and that had worked fairly well.
Coir's computer beeped, and a small envelope icon flashed to the front of his screen, blipping at him impatiently until he opened it. He clicked the message.
"It's from Siven, speak of the devil. He sent it by Urgenmail, though…"
Urgenmail was the fastest form of email they had, and it was annoying as heck when there was work to be done. It kept flashing in front of any windows open, and wouldn't go away until it was opened. It was often used by spammers and virus spreaders to ensure that messages were read.
Siven's face popped into blurry view as Coir clicked the envelope, and a static voice, out of sync with the mouth, began speaking.
"Abrena and I shall be home within the night, so don't bother worrying—wipe that grin off your face, Treo—and save me some food, I'm starving. Shuret's got some of the worst food. Siven out, Abrena in." he ducked out of the way as Abrena's yellow demon eyes flashed into view. She grinned. "The action died down soon as we arrived, so it was small potatoes to waste the rest of the creatures, qeta no? To quote Siven, 'We'll be home within the night.' Or somethin' like that. Never did pay attention to the prick." They heard an off-screen 'Hey!' as Abrena waved and the screen went blank.
Lumè laughed.
"Siven is a prick; he's rather full of himself," she giggled, and Treo grinned.
"I find it funny how he knows exactly what I'm doing even though that message had no two-way feed."
Kiah had felt something weird as soon as that message arrived but she couldn't place it. Something wasn't right about that video feed… Mëm spoke up, confirming her suspicion. Her melodic icy voice cut their laughter immediately. When Mëm spoke, which was rarely, everybody listened instantly, because the things she had to say were always important.
"Did anyone else hear what was in the background of the feed?" the silence in the room seemed to echo with her statement. Treo and Lumè shook their heads in unison, and Coir was already trying to replay the Urgenmail. It was destroyed, the link to the video stating that the file for that link could not be found, do you want to search for it manually?
"Odd…and there's also the fact that this was Urgenmail, and all they sent was a report on their whereabouts. What did you hear, Mëm?" She blinked, her eyes completely focused on Coir despite her milky pupils.
"A laugh. One of their laughs. Whoever was sending that message, it wasn't Abrena or Siven."
Kiah's breath caught in her throat painfully, like she had just swallowed too much at once.
"I'm calling their video two-ways right now, just to make sure." Lumè was biting her lip.
"Mëm's hearing's sharper than even the monsters. She's never been wrong before."
Another icon, this time a ringing telephone, signified that Coir's message was transmitting to their video two-ways, the two-way camera messages they carried for live reports. Siven picked up, his face confused when he saw it was really Coir.
"Something wrong, Coir?" Coir listened closely for a second, and answered carefully, "Actually, are you guys okay?" Siven looked at him like he was insane, and Abrena said in the background, "S'at Coir?" Siven turned back to her and nodded.
"We're fine. Didn't you receive that message we sent you?" Coir looked relieved, glancing back at Mëm, who was listening as intently as he had been. She didn't notice his glance.
"Yeah, we did. Mëm thought she heard something…else…in your message, so we had to check in on you guys." Siven's face momentarily distorted, his eyes turning briefly red and his mouth twisting into a misshapen smile, but it snapped back into place with a small static fuzz.
"Oh, that's all. I thought the things had attacked the base, or something." He said, laughing uneasily. Siven turned to Mëm on the screen, and said, fake-sniffling, "You really don't have faith in me, do you, Mëm?" she smiled briefly, but it was extremely fake and insincere. She was troubled.
"There seems to be a break-up in the transmission." Siven said worriedly as his appearance warped again, and Coir nodded.
"See you when you get back."
He quickly ended the transmission, turning to Mëm.
"I didn't hear what you heard, but there were several things that tipped me off. You were right, that is not Siven. First of all, Ratec's technology does not glitch or break up like that. Second, he never calls Mëm by her name, remember?" Treo nodded, his face growing surprised as he remembered.
"Yeah, he always calls her 'little one.'" Mëm's eyes flicked toward him momentarily (it was rather evident she detested that nickname), but she continued on Coir's sentence, "And third, he also doesn't call the monsters anything but 'bastards.' That imposter called them 'things.'"
Lumè hesitated, deep in thought. As she lifted her head, Coir announced, "Unit two and three, head to Shuret immediately. Take equipment packs D, two, and three, take a C pack."
Kiah shook her staff, and Fafner appeared beside her, ready for action. Lumè didn't even glance at Fafner, knowing it was not the time.
The four of them, Mëm, Treo, Kiah, and Fafner, headed to the weapons storage rooms. Treo was the only one who grabbed a weapon from the closet labeled 'D,' and Unit three unlocked the C door. Coir had efficiently organized all their biggest weapons into five classifications, A, B, C, D, and Specialized. D were the least powerful weapons, C the next weakest, and so on. Specialized were the big guns, and they hadn't ever been needed because Coir felt that their missions had no use for such destructive weapons. They had been developed not by Ratec alone, but with a certain someone in their group who had chosen not to reveal themselves. So basically, only one person alive actually knew how they worked or even what they looked like, and that person had obviously decided they could make do with the other four classifications of weapons. The arsenal was pretty gigantic even without Specialized. When I say Coir felt that they had no use, it was really a lie, because whether or not he thought they were needed was irrelevant. The key to the Specialized door lay with the anonymous person who had been close enough to Ratec to develop the weapons.
Kiah always felt amazed when she walked into any of the arsenal closets, because even the D closet was full of gadgetry and artillery that would make James Bond himself feel faint. C closet was, of course, a step up. Kiah selected a Blossomb, a compact little flower bomb that held enough power to short out Shuret, and an Arc Shell (besides her staff, those were her favorite little buggers), which released an electric shock in a wide beam around the user, sending each killer spark to the next object the targets happened to brush. It was a deadly little piece of metal.
The last thing she snapped up was the prototype Phantom. Coir hadn't gotten around to drawing names to see who would the test the palm-sized globe, though he had briefly explained the effects of Phantom to them. It didn't do much damage to the enemy, but it set up a barrier around the target(s) and temporarily deprived them of all senses. Sight, hearing, touch, taste, and scent were overloaded, and it was up to the user of Phantom to decide exactly what to do with the target or targets then. Since most of the weapons were developed primarily for battling the monsters, the decision was never debated for very long.
None of the others would be very happy with her after they realized she'd been the one to snatch the Phantom and try it out, but it just might save their lives.
Fafner grabbed his one weapon that he stored in the closet, a gun about the caliber of a .42, but its effect was much different than a normal gun. Instead of bullets, the precious little item spit out sharp little metal stakes, designed to puncture and filled with deadly poison.
Fafner and Kiah chased after Mëm and Treo, who were already lifting off in the Phoenix Wing, and they jumped on at the last minute. Treo was at the wheel, and he closed the back hatch as Unit three made it on. Mëm sat tensely in the back, listening to Coir as he briefed them from inside the little video transmit they kept in the copter.
"Base to Units two and three, you read me?" Treo kept his hands on the steering controls and his eyes on the skies, and Kiah slid into the second pilot's seat, slipping the headset on.
"Phoenix Wing, Units two and three, we read you. Any ideas on who might have our friends?"
Coir looked away from their screen, turning to his computer.
"An idea, and only an idea. The monsters, obviously, but it seems the hotspot they were gathering at was an old cathedral site. There've been alleged reports on the things joining at sites such as these and joining into one massive entity, but the reports were never investigated because they came from crackpots in insane asylums who went mad from the sight."
Fafner looked over Kiah's shoulder at Coir.
"So basically, people like us that didn't understand what the things were?" Coir nodded.
"Correct. It would seem like the mad people are correct, also, because these two creatures that've taken Unit one captive are much more intelligent than any of the ones we've encountered. They're capable of human speech, transformation, and have a basic knowledge of electrical devices. I take satisfaction in the fact that Abrena and Siven probably broke up their literal 'get-together' because those two aren't as strong as they could be. They couldn't hold the transformations very well, remember? Still, as strong as they could be but aren't, I don't envy you this mission."
Fafner spoke up, his voice carrying to the mike so that Coir could hear. "So what do you propose we do if these things are so much stronger than they usually are?" Coir bit his lip, glancing at his computer.
"I can't think of a plan for you, because I really don't know all the circumstances. You guys are going to have to scout these guys and get back to me. Then I devise a nice little plot to get Unit one back. Base, over and out."