Chapter 1

The people, the costumes, he looked just like everyone else here, no one would know he wasn't in a costume unless they touched his skin. He had come to the convention to meet up with someone he knew, his informant was supposed to be bringing him information on the witch outbreak lately in the northern hemisphere. His info broker Michael said this would be the best place because he wouldn't need to worry about feeling out of place, well looing like he did anyways, you see Gage is a Homunculus, he wasn't born that way though. The military used their alchemists to create a formula that would enhance the natural abilities of their soldiers, these select few were referred to as the Hounds of Hell, there is five of them in total each having their own specification that separates them from the others, he is codenamed Cerberus or The Guardian, he was given increased physical abilities and his skin cells had mutated to a substance so thick the side effect of the drug was that his skin now looked like it was a form of jet-black stone, but as a result nothing cold physically harm him. Well, except for their poison mists, he could walk through bolt after bolt of magic from a witch and nothing would phase him, but if he dared touch that deadly mist only a few of the witches know his sin melts like butter in a microwave.

After walking around aimlessly for about an hour he heard someone call his name, "Gage" he heard that familiar voice call his name, he turned around to look down at his informant, "You know I remember when you used to say my name full of pleasure and lust," he retorted with a smirk on his face. " She punched him in the arm as she began to furiously blush, " Shut up jerk, you said you would stop talking about that in public!" The woman name was Elise, she had been Gage's romantic partner for years before he was sent on a mission to assassinate her under her former alias of Lizette. Gage couldn't bring himself to do it so he struck deal with the commanding officer, he put Elise under the protection of the Hounds, under the pretense that she would be the info broker for the team since all romantic relations with gage had to be cut off she lived in her own apartment down the hall from Gage. As they continued to walk around Gage took notice to the individuals who had gathered for the convention a lot of the costumes looked, a little to sexy he thought for all the nerds that had gathered here, he saw one girl dressed as an elf of some sorts with the shortest skirt he had ever seen on any woman who wasn't a stripper. A couple of people stopped them to ask who his costume was, and again Elise saved him by talking about some character from an Anime she watches.

They had finally left the building and were walking down the main street towards Gage's car, and he stopped. He smelled something in the air, it was her, The Watcher, she had apparently returned from her last mission early and was perched over by Gage's car, "Alicia, how are you doing?" She didn't respond she only stood there with a look upon her face unlike any he had ever seen before, it was then he noticed her eyes. Alicia's normal green eyes had been clouded over and now were grey as the darkest storm clouds. He walked up to her to see if he could tell what was wrong when he then noticed, She had stopped breathing, in fact every motion in her body had stopped cold. Blood flowing, heart pumping, lungs inhaling. It had all stopped. He smelled something else on the wind, it smelled like, Witch. He quickly started searching for the seal that had been placed on her body to induce the coma she was in, he found nothing. But Elise did, "Gage, look at her left eye!" As Gage peered into her left eye he then saw it, The seal of petrification, "how could this happen, she has the all seeing eye, she cant be affected by visual magic?" Gage was dumbfounded s to how it happened he couldn't think of any way it could've happened. At that moment Elise noticed a letter on the hood of his car, "Gage," She said worriedly "come read this!"