Chapter 1

'T'is a dark and stormy night in the streets of the New York slums. The lightning dances gracefully atop the skyscrapers lost to the lowering clouds, while rain pours down like a sparkling waterfall, catching and reflecting back the millions of lights from the city that never sleeps.'

Three young women walk through the south end of the Bronx where new housing meets old in a sharp relief of wealth and poverty. The young woman in the lead walks lightly through the gathering puddles, barely making a splash to dampen her dark sneakers or stain her light jeans. Her movements are precise and proud, her back straight with her shoulders back and her head held high though all is hidden under a leather jacket and fleece hood. She turns slightly to glare back at her companion, all blacks and reds like a big bubbly demon, "Iya… Do you seriously have to narrate our evening tonight?" Her silvery voice holds a faint Japanese accent.

The second woman laughs brightly from under her dark umbrella, her amusement matching her shimmering dark red hair that tumbles down her red wool trench coat. She wrinkles her delicate nose in amusement as she kicks up a puddle towards her less enthusiastic friend, staining the light jeans with a few spots of water, "Course I do! Makes it deadly!" Her husky voice drips with her Irish accent. "Asides, Melanie don't mind, do ya?" Her designer black boots suffer from the water and abuse as she skips through more puddles.

The last girl trails behind them both and is the only one to look like she belongs in the poorer areas of the Bronx. She walks with her shoulders hunched and a wary eye on everything. Her features are well hidden under her hoodie, but her low voice cuts through the patter of rain, "Oh shut it Camilla. Yeh know bloody well I can' stand yer ramblin'."

Camilla pouts prettily at the English girl's response, looking like a spoiled rich girl in the middle of the slums. Melanie glances around briefly then tilts her head towards the first girl, a hint of tension tightening her voice, "I'm gettin' a grim feelin' here, Asako."

Asako glances up at the street signs as they pass them, rain dripping onto her warm pale cheeks while the thin light shines off her long strawberry blonde bangs that fall across half her features, "Ee… Almost there."

Traffic is still heavy along the wet roads, despite it being close to midnight, with cars that blare bass as they head to their shady destinations. Most of the foot traffic through this area is left for the prostitutes standing under the streetlamps and their pimps that are just out of sight. Groups of gangsters throw signs and shout profanities at each other as they pass by.

They walk in silence for a few more blocks as Asako leads them to an old warehouse with stairs leading below street level on the side. Camilla skips down the steps and knocks on the door cheerfully, "Girl's night out! Open up!"

Asako releases a deep, suffering sigh but leans back against the stairwell wall, while Melanie's gaze moves around behind them to see if anyone decided to follow.

The door used to be black, but now it's covered in old posters, some torn off and then covered with others. A dim, flickering light bulb is the only light in the dark stairwell, barely showing the bad black paint job of the stairs and walls around them. The door creaks open, revealing a towering, muscular man with short cropped black hair. His tawny gold eyes stand out against his deep blue-black skin, and he glares hard at the three girls, "What the fuck you want, bitch?"

Asako scowls at the rudeness of the man, taking in his sloppy appearance of loose pants and no shirt, "We're here for a meeting."

The bouncer snarls, showing a hint of fangs, but he opens the door for them, "Down the hall, second door on the right. Better fuckin follow the rules, demon." He spits the last word at her.

Asako lowers her lashes coyly as she steps into the bar, "I always do. Until someone starts a fight." She brushes past him with an annoyed huff.

Camilla flutters her vibrant green eyes at the bouncer as she shakes off her umbrella and closes it up, "Don't mind her, she's having a cranky night." His only response is a look of disgust as he tries to flick water off his torn-up jeans.

Melanie shoves Camilla onward, "We all are ya gabbing wench! Bloody focus!"

The bouncer glares after them as soon as he has the door locked and he's back on his stool. The three girls ignore him as they take in the bar. Once a speakeasy in the prohibition years it's now a bar for the secretive. The smell of cheap fried foods, smoke, unwashed bodies, and alcohol with the undertone of vomit fill the air. A dark, polished wooden bar covers part of the back wall directly opposite of the door with a few largely muscled patrons that could match the bouncer in looks and attitude. The floor wraps around the right side of the bar into an open room of pool tables occupied by four women, different in all ways except the glaring eyes and leather jackets with three red claw marks on the back. The main area is full of tables for drinkers, while the walls are lined with booths that are covered more in duct tape than fabric.

The bartender nods to the girls, looking the part in his white buttoned-down shirt and black tie. Most striking is his lively blue eyes half buried in wrinkles as he takes them all in, "They're waitin'."

Melanie gives him a small nod of acknowledgement and even a hint of respect as she leads the two other girls down the dim hallway to the left of the bar, half hidden by shadows. The polished concrete ends as they pass the kitchen to their right, one lazy cook half listening to the fryer timer as he reads the horse races and mumbles on who to bet on. Camilla wrinkles her delicate nose at the heavy smell of rancid oil, "Oi, the fry up smells manky!"

Melanie arches her pierced brow, "Oh, deffo." She casts a look at her two companions, Asako as cold and unreadable as a cream-colored marble statue, and Camilla almost her opposite with her warm and lively features. She takes a slow breath and stops in front of the second door from the kitchen, then opens it, stepping in and to the side as she eyes the men in the room.

The room itself is cozy with a large table taking up most of the space. A heavily shaded light hangs from the ceiling over the table but reveals three older men in high end business suits, silk ties, and perfectly manicured hands. Behind them, four body guards rest against the shadowed back wall, each looking suspicious and slightly taken off guard by the appearance of the girls.

Asako walks in after Melanie, her storm blue eyes cold as stone as she takes her place behind the only plush leather seat on their side of the table and she tugs her hood lower to hide her features. Camilla follows with the brightest of smiles on her red lips and she gracefully drops into the seat, resting both hands on the table, one over the other, "Hello boys. I'm Camilla, lead investigator from the agency." Her strong Irish accent is barely noticeable now.

The middle of the three men, with balding dark grey hair and a deep blue suit eyes her with disgust, "This is it? Three little girls? I thought we were getting the best team money could buy." The one on the left with well-trimmed brown hair sneers, while the greying man on the right laughs coldly.

Camilla puts on her best, friendliest smile, "Oh, sweetie, we are the best. But, if you'd rather have someone more your style, which I'm guessing is old, white, and nasty, you'll have to contact the agency. We might have a few left if they haven't botched anything yet. However, Mr. Coon, it could take another few years, if at all, since the agency frowns upon the rejection of their top team." Her smile has faded to a disappointed look as she speaks.

Mr. Coon blusters as his face turns an interesting shade of red with splotches of purple, "How DARE you! You can't go looking into me like that! I never agreed to that!"

Camilla watches his outrage coolly as she leans back in the leather chair, "I never agree to meet anonymously, Mr. Coon, but you've been in the local news enough for me to know your face as the new CEO of what used to be Sacks Industries. I believe the new company name is Hudson Street Industries, much less pretentious than naming it after yourselves."

Mr. Coon snarls while his brown-haired companion sulks, and his grey-haired partner still looks disgusted, but he's the one to toss over the folder of information, "We can't wait years for your inept company to figure out how to send real investigators to us, so you might as well try. Somehow these murderous creatures were created by Sacks, it seems there was an accident buried in the reports. We need these things brought to our warehouse for proper disposal."

Camilla glowers at the other man darkly, keeping her hands on the table, "Real investigators?" She stands up as all signs of friendliness falls from her face, "That will get a ban from the agency and from any other investigative team you might try to hire. Your pride has landed you right in a pile of your own shit."

Melanie is the one that moves towards the door, reaching for the handle before the brown-haired man yelps, making her pause, "Please! These things are killing people out there!"

Camilla gives a cold sneer down her nose at the three men, "That is not my problem. I don't work for free, nor do I work for sexist pigs. Clean up your own mess."

Melanie turns her head to hide the smirk crossing her lips, while Asako remains as still and foreboding as the moment she took her stance behind Camilla's chair. That coldness and Camilla's attitude slapped the three men hard, and Mr. Coon finally gives in with a resigned sigh, "Fine. It's true these things are killing people, and we need them taken care of quickly. I apologize for doubting you." The words came out like pulling teeth, but Camilla slowly sinks back down in her chair.

She reaches across the table to grab the file and flips it open. There's a lot of names and dates, chemical components and science notes, then pictures and names of people lost. Near the back are whatever pictures they can find of the beasts, most blurred or grainy, "This is all you have?"

The brown-haired one taps his pudgy fingers together, "Well, that's all we could find on them."

Camilla lets out an explosive sigh of annoyance and reaches into her bodice to pull out a card. She flicks it on the table, "Fine. We'll start once you transfer eight million into that account, and upon completion another six million."

Mr. Coon's eyes nearly pop from his head and he slams his hand on the table, "THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS! I agreed to five million! This is extortion!"

Camilla's sweet smile is back on her lips, "No, this is hush money to keep us from telling the other investigative companies about your lack of cooperation. You seriously can't expect to be a prick and not pay for it. I'll give you three days to think on it, then I'll cancel the contract, put in my reports, and move on to a more accommodating client."

She doesn't even await his response to that and with the folder in hand she gets up and saunters out of the room while Mr. Coon has a near apoplectic fit. Melanie follows her and Asako comes out last, closing the door behind her before the CEO can get enough breath to start yelling.

Asako waits until they're out the back door and into the dark alley before saying anything, "That was reckless, you provoked him unnecessarily, and you manipulated him. He may not pay now, and we can't uphold a ban."

Camilla hands Asako the file and pulls her umbrella out to keep the still falling rain from getting her wet, "I know. I pushed all the wrong buttons and hit him where it hurt the most. I had thought to play along with their ideal that women are manipulative, greedy snakes, that put me on even ground with them. They'll pay. They can't afford not to."

Asako scowls darkly from under her hood, but she turns her attention to the file, pulling out several pictures of the beasts, "Well, these are certainly interesting. I've never seen anything like them."

Melanie comes over to take a peak, narrowing her warm brown eyes, "Look at em. They're huge! Like werewolf huge!"

Camilla moves closer as well to take a good look at the few clear pictures, "Well well, quare beasties fer sure. Looks like turtles with those things on their backs."

Melanie takes one of the better photos and looks at it more closely, "Yeah, they do." She turns the photo in her hand thoughtfully, "Most of these photos are from alley and subway security cameras…" She gives it back to Asako and looks up at the sky, squinting her eyes to the rain, "It's starting to let up, I can head out now and see what I can find in the alleys at least." At the Japanese girl's nod, she leaps into the air gracefully and between one breath and the next she shifts into a giant raven, pumping her broad wings to climb out of the alley.

Asako glances over at Camilla as she put the photos away and tucks the folder into her jacket, "I'd hate to ask, but if they're really hurting people we need to get them nailed down as soon as possible. Would you check the subway?"

Camilla gives a suffering sigh, "Alright. Just make sure my soaps arrived, I have an image to maintain, ya know." She folds her umbrella up and hands it to Asako, "And I'll be expectin' dinner from ya, I don't know the good haunts and I'm not going to step on local toes."

Asako gives a faint nod, tucking the umbrella into her pocket, "I was going to ask you about that. Alright, I'll see you both at the hotel before dawn. I'll see what else I can figure from these files and maybe Tech will give us a little more to go on."

Camilla huffs quietly, "Sure, you get the easy job." She turns her back on the Asian woman and shifts down into a red and cream wolf with the deepest green eyes. She shakes her fur with annoyance at the rain and pads off down the alley and out into the night.

Asako watches them both disappear into the darkness before she follows, losing herself in the sparse crowds as she makes her way back to Manhattan.

As she does every morning before sunrise, Asako steps out onto her carved stone balcony with a mug of tea in her hands to keep warm. It's a perfect time to clear her head after a long, tiring night. She wears a thick silk under-kimono dyed a rich cream color to fend off the damp chill from the rains of the past week, even though it's still early autumn. The light breeze curls along her thirty-second story balcony, making the shaped topiaries in their carved stone pots shiver and it tugs lightly on her loose, strawberry blonde hair that falls almost to her knees.

From the balcony, Asako can look over Central Park and peer through the taller sky-scrapers to see the ocean. The predawn light slowly brightens the Eastern sky and reflects off the multitude of glass buildings, making the city begin to glow. Below her, the fog is thick in the streets and makes the towers look like steel and glass fingers rising from the dark swirling waters. Breaking the illusion are the sounds of traffic far below her despite the early hour.

The sun breaks free of the ocean and the day begins with a rat-sized red bat fluttering weakly to the balcony. Asako holds out her warmed hand, offering the creature a place to land. It floats with indecision for only a moment, then lands heavily on the offered hand, soaking up the woman's warmth into its small body. Asako draws the animal to her chest and steps lightly inside the glass doors, "Cutting it close, aren't you Camilla?" She takes the creature straight to the white marble bathroom attached to Camilla's room. Two packs of blood rest in an ice bucket on the sink counter along with various hair supplies and make up, and the jacuzzi bathtub holds a host of various scented soaps and oils for washing and pampering.

The bat flutters out of her hand and towards the sink, slowly changing into the ageless Irish woman wearing grey jeans and a white blouse, "Aye." She already starts the water for a hot shower, letting it warm up, "Let me wash and eat, then I'll tell ya what I found."

Asako nods to her friend and closes the door as she leaves. She takes a moment to refill her tea before walking back out onto the balcony to await Melanie.

Almost an hour later, Camilla lounges on one of the white leather couches in the reception room, wearing her thick white bathrobe, her legs tucked under her and to the side. The fire in the large fireplace burns brightly, adding a warmth and cheerfulness to the white marble and wood floored room. Tucked away next to the sliding glass doors is a room service cart with several covered dishes, and many more used dishes stacked up on the bottom half.

Silently, a raven the size of an eagle rides the faltering air currents up to the balcony, shifting its spread tail and primaries to keep it stable until it reaches the balcony. With the subtle draw of the wings, it slides off the current and once over the balcony, it shifts into a young woman with thick black hair candy striped with blue. The upper half is drawn into two buns with cascades of hair from the top. Blue and black bangs fall to her dark brows, the left pierced with three barbells, while the cascades of hair brush along her ears, each pierced with five rings. Freckles dust her pale, slightly olive, skin, but are pale in comparison to the Egyptian black eye tattoos that curl under each warm brown eye, reminiscent of Horus and Ra. In her left nostril is another piercing, with one more just above her lip on the right side. Her full lips are a deep shade of purple and her eyes are smoky black, the only makeup she wears. Around her neck bounces an ancient bronze Ankh with tiny carvings all over it, held by a black leather strap.

The woman lands lightly on bare feet and she shivers as goose bumps crawl up her skin. She wears faded old jeans and a worn black hoodie, though the chill wind seems to cut right through it, "Bloody hell I'm beginnin' to think I'm back in England with this weather."

Asako smirks softly, "I'm beginning to think that too." She waves the woman inside, "Camilla's back and showered. We've been waiting for you, Miss Melanie."

Melanie snarls at the name, "Not a miss, I'm a beast." She flexes as she walks into the reception room and stops at the cart to grab several plates of dinner, "And fuck all I am thankful you keep this cart stocked." She takes her dinner to the couch and settles by Camilla, devouring the gourmet burger and fries with single-minded focus.

Asako closes and locks the door, then pulls the heavy curtains across. She waits for Melanie to tackle her first plate before she speaks up, "Seems like you both had an eventful evening to be back so late."

Melanie shakes her head, setting the empty plate on the white and pale gold coffee table and settling the second plate on her lap, "Not really, just takin' out a few robbers and such to pass the time. I was hopin' to see if they came out later or I could catch them going off to bed, but nothin'."

Asako leans back by the fireplace, soaking up the warmth from the pale bricks, "You think maybe they're shifters? That would make things more difficult."

Melanie shrugs her shoulders slightly as she digs into her fried fish with gusto, but Camilla shakes her head, her damp curls bouncing along her shoulders, "They don't sound like shifters. From the bits and pieces that I've gotten from the subways, these guys are vigilantes of some sort. Apparently, they saved a bunch of people in the subway itself, and some suspect that the vigilantes took out a huge gang that had been plaguing the city. There's hints the gang is coming back, but nothing concrete. Shifters usually won't save humans like that."

Asako frowns slightly, "True, but they also aren't normal. I heard back from our tech people finally. Yes, they are huge. The tallest is pushing about six foot eight or so, and they're all muscular. From what I gathered in the photos they use Japanese weapons. In the report there's not much on the creatures themselves. It seems there was an accidental spill on a busy street and the victims were never found. They suspect these turtles are the victims, and there may have been some human bystanders but there's nothing more on them. There was a huge cover up explaining that a few people got splashed, but the chemicals were harmless, and everyone came out fine. The chemicals spilt were mutagenic, similar to the stuff we've found in World Pharm and their subsidiaries."

Camilla yawns hugely, showing her long fangs in the dim, warm light, "So are we buying the accident part? Or the people are alive and well part?"

Melanie glances at her vampiric partner, mumbling between bites of a personal pizza, "Neither. I wouldn't trust anything these companies throw out for PR. But right now, I'm beat. I'm going to finish this off, take a shower, and pass out."

Asako purses her lips in thought, then gives a small nod, "Alright, good work. Go get some rest and we'll hit the clubs tonight. You've earned a day off and some fun. After that we'll work on our real mission. Tech also mentioned that there's a large shipment coming in the next few weeks."

Camilla gets up and heads straight to her room for sleep while Melanie scowls, "Vague much? How do we find the shipment details and keep an eye out for those turtle things?"

Asako thinks about it, giving Melanie time to finish her third dinner before she speaks up, "I was thinking I'll handle tracking down the shipment and you two keep on trying to find those things. If it comes down to it, we can switch gears and start the real work without finding them."

Melanie grumbles as she gets up and puts her plate on the cart, "What happens if they find us?"

Asako shrugs, "We deal with it. If they're hostile, we'll take them out. If not, we'll warn them off."

Melanie grumbles as she tugs her hoodie off, revealing more tattoos. A tribal band of blues and greens swirl around her right arm, and a tribal raven of black rests on her left, just below the shoulder, "Right. Just like old times, eh?"

Asako's lips break into a faint smile, "Hai, Melanie-chaaaan."

Melanie groans as she stabs a finger threateningly at Asako, "Never. NO. I will follow you all over screaming 'Nevermore' at you until you go as insane as Poe."

The girls fall into the bright laughter of the young until Melanie wipes away the moisture in her eyes and gives a wave before she heads off to take a hot shower and get some sleep. Asako sighs deeply, still smiling at the lingering joke, then it fades as her thoughts turn back to work. She steps into the kitchen to refill her tea. It's cold to begin with, but within a few moments the cup is steaming in her hands. She settles in the breakfast nook that overlooks the balcony, and Central Park with the perfectly colorful sunrise behind it, and she picks up the files to look over them again, wanting to make sure she pulled every hint she could from them.