The pair were walking down a busy corridor at the local marketplace talking back and forth about the creation of the new Hunters Guild. It was a lifesaver for them. Before it's foundation they had to search the lands for jobs. That was the time when the hunters were called "Wanderers". It was also at that time when they were all looked down upon as vigilantes and criminals. They were never as highly thought of or glamorized like they are now.
"Hey, hold on for a second Ky... it's a call from the guild," said Falz with a sudden lack of emotion.
"What is it this time? Nel's cat get 'abducted' again," asked an angry Ky who had just gotten the papers for his vacation time.
"Sounds like it just might be, they're not giving me all the details. It happened at her house and the little critter is gone but there is one strange thing about the whole thing. There was a large scale struggle. She got to her building and it was in total disarray, no one was left ad there were bloodstains everywhere. Weird," muttered Falz.
"Yeah... weird," echoed Ky.
Both of them instinctively walked to the nearest Com-Station to get th rest of the team assembled. They were going to see action, and by the sound of it there would be plenty to go around.
"Hunters Guild, Dew speaking," said the new Hunters Guild secretary.
"This is Falz, assemble my team and tell them to go to the bar in District B. They'll know which one, just get them this message as fast as you can.
"Yes sir, they will be there shortly. Happy hunting Falz," said the cheery secretary before the transmission was closed.
Falz and Ky made their way to the bar faster than normal. Falz had ulterior motives for picking this bar, it had strong drinks. All Ky knew was that if Falz was meeting at the bar then you had better get a strong drink because the news won't be good.
"I'll take a Darva," said Ky in a tired and frustrated voice.
"Make mine a Gotter's Gutt, wait... make that a double."
"Damn Falz, that's the strongest legal drink they can make. Something is really erking you about this mission isn't it? Give it to me straight," said Ky as he looked Falz straight in the face. "Do you think that it's going to happen again?"
Falz sat there and waited for their drinks, ignoring Ky's question for the moment. When they came Ky began to sip at his while Falz picked up the stein and began to chug at it. Ky took a look at Falz slam his stein to the table and ask for another. He hadn't seen Falz like this since eight years ago. Falz turned to face Ky.
"Ky... it's 'that' feeling again. I don't know what's going to happen but I know it's going to be bad."
"Don't worry... we'll be fine. Yeah. We haven't lost a job yet or failed at anything. Don't worry," said Ky now very worried.
"This is different... something is going to tear at the world until it is destroyed. It won't be fast either. I'm thinking that this may be the end," stated Falz now emotionless.
Ky turned to his drink which was mostly full. After little thought he downed the whole glass without problem. Moments later Falz ordered a second Gotter's Gutt and Ky chimed in that he would like one too. This time the drinks were there much faster than the first round. As Falz was about to start drinking the rest of his squad showed up.
"Welcome to the land of crap kiddies, get some drinks and make 'em strong," shouted Ky to Naomi and Den.
"What's going on? Is the mission really that bad Falz," asked Den, the real second in command of the squad.
Before Falz could answer Ky chimed in casually.
"Well, not the mission per se. The situation and feel of it, really. Falz has 'that feeling' again."
"Is that true Falz," Naomi asked Falz with a puzzled look.
"Yes it is Naomi. Now I know you're not old enough to drink but I'll cover for you tonight, you're going to need it," said Falz sounding casual once again.
They all sat silent at their table with their drinks, occasionally sipping at them. Naomi, being the curious person she is, wanted to know the details of this "feeling" that Falz had that seemed to terrify the other two.
"Naomi, I know that you're new with us and that you're still young, but somethings just aren't worth knowing. Take this at face value please," said Falz.
"Dammit Falz! Just tell me, I'm in you're squad after all!"
"Fine Naomi, just keep in mind that you wanted to know," said Falz after he took a long swig of his drink.
Falz got up and escorted Naomi to a secluded table in the back of the bar. When they got there Falz ordered another drink for himself, Naomi passed... she hadn't even finished her first one.
"Eight years ago Den, Ky, me, and six others were on a job we came across as wanderers that just didn't seem legit. You could smell fake all over it but we took it anyway. It was right before the founding of the Hunters Guild and we were broke. The mission was to investigate an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Sycle. Needless to say, the mission was a big fake. When we got there we faced heavy resistance, way to well armed to be some patrol of the local syndicate. That was the easy part of the job.
"We continued on with our investigation and found a door beneath some of the crates. When it was opened I got a terrible feeling and warned everyone to turn on their barriers. Only Den, Ky, and I did. We descended what seemed to be six stories into the ground. There was one door the whole time and that happened to be at the bottom. Seeing that our job involved investigation, we went in.
"We found lots of blood in there. All over the walls, tables, equipment, and even the door we came through. There was also a man tied to a table that was stood upright in the center of the room. He tried to warn us... warn us to leave. We tried to rescue him... we never saw it coming. When I finally came to I found Ky and woke him up. We started to look around the room for the others. After a few minutes we found them. Only Den and Jai were alive. The rest were either dismembered or half eaten. When we saw this we all tried to escape.
" The real horror was what we saw when we made it to the surface. There was a seventeen foot tall monstrosity that had apparently decided to come home for dinner. We began to run but it was faster and got hold of Jai. Tore him in half right in front of us. We were cornered, with little hope so I had to use the Sparta Cannon technique. It killed the monster but also decimated the area. Nothing was left for miles in that direction.
"We finally reported back to our client and found out that we were missing for over a month and a half. He more than compensated us for the ordeal. So... want another drink," finished Falz.
"Oh my god... do you... do you think that will happen again," Naomi asked timidly.
"I don't know, but I can only hope that it doesn't. Now go home and get some rest.
-(end chapter 1)-