Welcome to Hostile!

Behold, the mysterious endings in Halloween and Hazy are finally being made clear!

So, let's just get on with it, right?

Too bad. Here we go.

This is AU. This is OOC. It has demons, cussing, and generally lewd, crass remarks. If you haven't ready the other stories I've written, you'll be very, very lost. I'd recommend starting with Homeless and working your way around from there.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

So let's do this now. Hellcat?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"War. War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God, to justice, to simple, psychotic rage...After a millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer...But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world, but war? War never changes..."

Ron Perlman, Fallout 3: Introduction

Ajiiyahn

It was the oddest thing that the assertion that humans couldn't see planes was just now coming into question. Yahn had met a few people who could see through him over the years. They were far more common than Charmers, yet people still questioned the existence of that particular ability while readily accepting the Charm. Maybe it was because Charming was more visible, less hard to deny, than Sight. Maybe it was because Summoners wanted to think that no person was as special as them, or that nobody could share in demonic abilities.

To Ajiiyahn, however, it made no difference. He had seen the planes his whole life. It was nothing special to him. Besides, what could mortals do with it? Sure, they could see demons, but that was it.

At least, that had been it for thousands of years. Now, though...

Recently, more and more people had been glaring at Ajiiyahn whenever he was out with Adam as a bird or gecko. First one, then two in an outing, then two together, drawing a small, angry group. It was very unusual. These people didn't seem afraid. They seemed like they hated him for some reason. What did he ever do to them? He had never hurt a human in his life unless it was absolutely necessary.

After that, the rumors started. A whisper here, a comment under one's breath there. Imps spoke to djiinis, djiini's spoke to afrits and afrits spoke to imps in turn as all spoke to Masters. A summoner was beaten to death in the street in broad daylight. Some imps and an afrit were hunted by a small group armed with silver bullets, silver knives and an obvious wealth of knowledge and skill when it came to hunting demons, since the demons were all slain. Several other rumors and rumors of rumors ran through the underground society of demons and summoners, leading to a feeling of tension in the air whenever a demon was near someone who could see it. It was strange. Normal people who knew about demons were, for some reason, getting angry. They were targeting demons and their masters, something that Ajiiyahn had seen only rarely in history due to the secret nature of the entire summoning community. The mortals who had chosen to wage war with demons had usually fared badly. However, this particular group seemed much, much more organized than the petty uprisings he had seen before. They were prepared with their deadly, probably expensive silver weapons and the gift of the Sight and other abilities that might exist that no one knew about. It was unnerving.

Adam had said that it was nothing to worry about when told about it, but even his musical voice didn't fully calm Ajiiyahn's fears.

Something was coming. Something big and very dangerous that would come like a storm and leave nothing but destruction and death behind.

And the Council seemed not to care at all, since no one was doing anything about it.

Ajiiyahn was afraid. Not for the Council, whose arrogance would lead to their destruction. No, he was afraid for the Summoners who had never done anything wrong in their lives, and for the demons who were only forced to obey. He was afraid for his Charmer friend, Adam, and the family he had grown rather fond of. He was afraid for his Master and the other imps that trotted around - Olyanaeci and Ysthry - and the half-breed known as "Hellcat." If they were caught off guard by the impending attack, then he might well lose the people he cared about.

Yes, Ajiiyahn was afraid. A war was coming, and nobody seemed to care enough to stop it before it was too late.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"

H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

"Sometimes we want to believe something so badly that we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of."

Aaron B. Powell, Doomsday Diaries III: Luke the Protector

Chase

Sit down and let me tell you a story of the worst way to get caught conning the general public.

See, Douglas and I had noticed that the topic of never finding true love was coming up quite a bit on social networking websites. Now us, being the philanthropists we were, decided to dig deep and help these poor, lonely people. Just answer a short quiz, let us run it through the iPhone app we created, and get the name of your perfect match in seconds. Of course, since I was the one to run it through the app, none of our "satisfied" customers knew that it was just a program that, once a few names were entered, would randomly match them together based on absolutely nothing. However, most were pretty content with the matches, so neither Douglas nor I told them what we were really doing. Besides, the sign we made for our business - we had set up shop on a random street corner downtown to get a lot of traffic - did say that results may vary. It was in German, and we told people it that it meant "love is in the air," but it was there, damn it. If the customers didn't take the time to research a translation, then it was their loss. Besides, when we were getting about $20 per person, we weren't about to impede business by stating that we might actually not know what we were doing.

With this set up, we made a few hundred dollars from desperate, lovesick suckers in the span of a few hours. Douglas reeled them in with the promise of true love, since he was the marketing guy due to the charismatic charm he could employ like a weapon when he wanted to, and I sealed the deal with a test that looked legitimate, but didn't actually mean a thing. I just pretended to plug in answers and waited for a random name to pop up. Easy money, right?

Of course, our successful business caught the attention of a certain news station having a very slow news day and wanted to cover something "local" and "positive." That earned us a surprise visit from Tasha and a camera man. Upon seeing us, Tasha's eyes started flashing with rage. Apparently, she could smell our bullshit from a mile off. It was a bit scary. However, instead of calling us on it immediately, she just smiled that reporter's smile and approached Douglas and I as if we were legitimate business men. After a second, the camera guy got his camera up and running, and Tasha instantly started her whole introduction. She listed her name and the channel before starting in on us with her questions. They were innocent enough. "How did you two come up with this?"

Douglas grinned, obviously adoring his time on camera. "We were noticing that more people are signing up for dating sites lately, so we figured that we would help them meet someone more locally."

Tasha nodded, still smiling while her eyes held danger. "And how do you determine the matches?"

My turn. "We created an app that uses a complex algorithm to determine your most compatible matches based off of the results of our personality test." I couldn't help my prideful grin. "You know, because we're geniuses."

Tasha nodded again before looking back at Douglas. "And you're giving all the money to the local Red Cross, too! You are very generous men."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement, and a clever one, at that. See, if we refused, we would essentially destroy our reputation in the town, meaning that we could never pull another scam again. And, since she had said it on live television, people would want a follow-up report to make sure that we actually did donate the money. It was how the business game worked. Without a good reputation, you lost business.

How Tasha understood that so well, I would never know. However, she had backed us into a corner that we couldn't escape unscathed. Douglas' final response was almost hissed through his teeth, his face looking as if it was painful. "Of course, we're donating the money." I could almost hear the insult he bit down after that. Oh, well. At least we'd live to con another day.

Tasha, however, decided to rub it in. "How much will you be donating?"

I almost cringed as I answered. "About -"

Douglas elbowed me in the ribs, silencing me. "We've made a little over $200," he lied smoothly. At least now, we'd have around $150 a piece that Tasha and the general public didn't know about. Clever guy, lying about the amount.

The interview wrapped up smoothly after that, even ending with Tasha bidding us good luck. As soon as the camera was off, though, she turned her television cheerfulness off. In the span of minutes, she shut us down by herself, and we both knew better than to try to stop her. She took the sign down and gathered up the box of money - I probably should have guarded it better; at least, I think that's what Douglas was trying to communicate with his accusing glare at me, since Tasha now was in possession of our profits - and marched straight to the Red Cross with it, us in tow. We at least had the decency to look like kicked puppies, even if it was because we were caught instead of out of shame for our scheme. And, as glad as I was that the Red Cross got a donation for just shy of $600, I was a bit upset that it was the money we had spent all afternoon conning from people.

Outside, in the parking lot of the Red Cross building, was where we got our lecture. Tasha whirled on us, fury written across her features. "I can't believe you two!"

Douglas instantly launched into a dramatic monologue, his expression making him look like Tasha has wounded him. "We were helping people unite with their soulmates! What is a lifetime of happiness worth? Surely, it's worth more than our minor fee. Besides, most everybody was satisfied with their match."

Tasha narrowed her eyes. "Because they didn't realize that they were screwed out of their money yet!"

Douglas crossed his arms defiantly and raised his chin a bit. I backed up a few steps, covering my ears a bit as he adopted the stance that meant he was going to lock horns with Tasha. "Excuse me? Rude much? We didn't screw people out of anything. In fact, there was no screwing involved. At least, not on our part. Prostitution is illegal. Now, what our clients did with each other afterwards is their business. There may be some screwing there."

Tasha looked mortified and enraged at the same time. "That's -"

"What two consenting adults do in their bedroom is -"

"Don't talk like that in public, you perverted-"

"Don't throw labels around as if they're insulting to me! You know that I'm not embarrassed by-"

"Douglas, I swear!"

It went on like that for several minutes, both interrupting each other constantly. I think it was how they bonded, to be honest. They would squabble for a few minutes before getting along like they were fast friends.

Until the next argument, of course.

Now, back to the story. Why was it even important that I told you about this particular incident, you ask? See, it was during Tasha's and Douglas' petty spat that I first started to notice someone staring at me from across the parking lot. I frowned and glanced around a bit - unless she was watching the bushes by the Red Cross' entrance, she was definitely focused on me - before looking back at her again. This time, though, she had alerted her friends to my presence so that I now had a group of admirers.

Actually, I didn't think they were admiring me. They glared as if they hated me, and it made me uncomfortable. I didn't understand it. None of my demon parts were visible, and I wasn't doing anything to keep their attention. In fact, I had no idea who the hell they were and why they seemed to want to jump me in a back alley.

Would they? I hoped not. I could probably take them - a group of three wouldn't prove a major ordeal if I played my hand right - but something about them was actually quite terrifying. Add that to memories of getting my ass kicked in Seattle, and I wasn't doing too well.

I wanted to get out of there immediately.

Run! Run away! They're dangerous!

Okay, my voice telling me to run instead of attack was a major red flag.

Whimpering a bit - shameful, I know - I tugged on Douglas' shirt a bit. He glanced at me with annoyance before noticing my expression and frowning. Tasha broke off in the middle of her rant seconds later, now watching me. I glanced at the group again, moving closer to Douglas and Tasha. "Can we go?"

Douglas looked at the group, scoffing. "Why? Those guys? Just ignore them."

I looked at Tasha pleadingly. If anyone could make Douglas do something, it was Tasha.

Well, his boyfriend was better at it, but for different reasons.

However, Tasha studied me for a second before - thankfully - helping me. "Come on. We're making a scene." She pointed at Douglas and me. "You're not off the hook, though. We're discussing this at home."

Douglas rolled his eyes, but followed as Tasha walked away. I gratefully followed Tasha, not looking at the group that was staring at me. I could still feel their burning eyes, though. They glared at me until I passed out of view - I think - but that was okay. The more distance I put between myself and them, the less terrified I felt. I didn't know why, but it was great. My voice seemed to think so, too. Good. They're gone...Wait, why didn't you kill them?!

I tried not to snort. You were urging me to run not a moment ago.

You didn't have to do it, moron, huffed the voice.

I walked very closely to Tasha - yay, motherly comfort - and ignored the voice after that. It liked to bitch. I liked to chew on things. The world kept spinning.

I would've liked to know what was so terrifying about that group, though.

I know: Odd. But it gets better, I promise. :3

So, until we come back to solve these mysteries, feel free to review. Or don't. Meh.

And, enjoy.

*Bows and exits*