Five minutes from Ellisburg, New York, 2001

Turbulence, the enemy of every flight, shook the chopper as it made its way north. They'd been flying for about a half-hour, so they should be arriving soon. Everyone was doing their final rituals. Everything from another weapon's check, to prayer on a cross, to the simple meditative breathing to calm the nerves.

Thomas Calvert chose the first option. He'd checked the slide and the safety of his weapon half a dozen times already, and worked on the seventh when he looked around. They were a small group, but that was the point. You can't exactly get the drop on a freakish cape by blaring Fortunate Son.

There was him, designation 'Hound' with his rifle primed for thermal. He'd be with the captain leading the pack towards their little friend. Next to him, a larger man with the moniker 'Barrack', hefted a grenade launcher ready to serve as crowd control. Across the way, 'Flint' said a prayer over her cross, hanging inches from a dispenser of containment foam.

Next to her, 'Knox' finished loading a few incendiary shells into his shotgun. Thomas caught the man glance to his left, where the interesting additions to their squads sat. One was a larger man with dark blue armor, the design of a strongman on his chest. A blank mask hid his face, giving him the appearance of a flat-faced muscled cube. Mountain he called himself. Next to him, nervously tapping his foot, was a similarly dressed man in green but with the design of what Thomas thinks is a missal. Neuroshot.

Capes, extra help the captain had called them.

What a joke. A publicity stunt more than likely. Thomas would have to ask the captain when all this was over. As if on cue, the captain of squad three emerged from the cockpit and everyone sat up straight.

Well, almost everyone. The capes clearly weren't trained in military doctrine, took them a few more seconds.

The captain, a designation of 'Alpha', ignored them and cleared his throat.

"We're dropping in five, we'll be landing north of squads one and two."

"Command wants us up north?" Knox's asked in confusion, and Thomas agreed.

They were the ones packing the heavy hitters, everything pointed to them taking charge. Yet, Alpha shook his head.

"The search zone has widened, we need everyone on scouting."

"Not a problem," Thomas heard Flint mutter.

Barrack just chuckled.

From the cockpit, the pilot leaned over and flashed a signal.

"Boots up, we're going out," Alpha said.

Everyone rose, grabbing whatever handles they needed. Thomas braced his knees for the slam of the chopper landing.

"Everyone knows what they're here for," Alpha said, "Stay close, signal anything, and let's get this son of a bitch."

Every helmeted head nodded, and the door next to Thomas opened. He waited for the captain to lead the way before following him out, the other soldiers not too far behind.

Everyone was quick because everyone knew what they had to do. Extermination missions. Simplest missions on paper, but ever since capes came into the picture, simple wasn't something that came around very often.

The target was some cape named Rinke that was last seen in the city. Find and eliminate with extreme prejudice.

Easy.

Yet as he kept his position, Thomas gripped his rifle tighter.

Nervous tick, always had it ever since he joined the PRT. His captain would call him on it every time that he saw it, but today he didn't.

And Thomas couldn't blame him.

Once they were out of the chopper, the five PRT officers that made up squad three walked in tripod formation, surrounding their 'big guns'.

Everyone kept their heads on a swivel as they made their way through what was once a small town. The estimated population was in the neighborhood of 5 thousand. They were told to expect civilians fleeing the area, and provide cover if necessary, pretty much standard procedure in a hostile city.

Except, when they landed, there was no one.

Behind them, the chopper's engines hummed, echoing through the street. Even their steps had a familiar crack against the concrete. No one breathed, everyone tried to hear something, anything.

Nothing.

"What happened here?" asked one of the capes, a bigger guy in a dark blue set of armor.

"Rinke," the captain, 'Alpha' responded bluntly.

"But it does raise the question," another squadmate, 'Mike' said as he scanned the shattered window of a storefront.

How did a changer do all of this without anyone noticing? Thomas thought.

Alpha seemed to share the thought. The swivel of his head went double time, and Thomas found himself repeating the action. They passed another store, a jewelry store with the glass display broken beyond repair but the gems on display still on their stands, more or less.

A piece of glass crunched, and Thomas snapped his rifle to the sound. Everyone behind him did the same, the two capes jumping in the corner of his eye. Alpha flanked him, signaling his question.

'Hostile?'

'Possibly' Thomas signed back.

Alpha nodded, jerking his head to Mike. He flanked Thomas' other side, and taking point, Thomas climbed through the display, avoiding all the shards as best he could. Mike took the front door and Alpha went in behind him. The inside was a standard store, something you'd see in the corner of any small town for all the brave boys to give gifts to their highschool sweethearts.

At least, that's how it was supposed to be.

The damage was old, at least a day, but something had torn through this place. What once was two rows of display tables were left splintered, the center of one snapped and matted with flaking blood. The other one was on its side, two of its legs ripped off. Thomas' light shined on one in the corner, the edge shattered and caked with the familiar crimson. Next to him, Mike kicked a torn set of jeans and a slashed shirt, but nobody. Thermal came up with nothing, but lesser Changers were capable of disguising their body heat when in hiding. Course, that could only happen if Rinke knew that they were coming for him.

The implications of that thought made him grip his rifle even harder.

His light followed a trail of red that went to the back, where a bathroom waited. The three men didn't need to share a look, Alpha already put himself in position with his rifle, Mike already stood ready with his shotgun.

That left Thomas with the honors.

He took a deep breath, fighting the feeling of his heart threatening to burst out of his chest. He put himself flush against the wall, one hand on his weapon, the other on the nob. Alpha held up his hand, and Thomas waited.

The thump in his chest slammed harder and harder.

Alpha waited for a second, then clenched his fist, and Thomas threw the door open.

He jumped to the side, out of the line of fire with his weapon at the ready. His fingers started to squeeze on the trigger, needing only the sound of his squadmates' weapons to tell him exactly what he needed.

Thomas blinked, but there was nothing there. Just a men's bathroom, barely big enough for a pot, urinal, and a sink and still feel like there was some room to walk around. The only thing of note was the splash of blood that painted the wall red.

Thomas stepped forward, standing in the doorway, weapon checking the corners.

Again, nothing.

Thomas let out a breath of relief, just his imagination. He turned around seeing his squadmates relax for the first time since they came down. Outside the shop, Barrack lowered the grenade launcher that was meant to cover their escape. The larger man gave Thomas a quick sign.

'Status'

Thomas signed back 'Clear'.

Barrack nodded, and shifted back to the rear as the three of them got back to their respective positions. The capes didn't stop tensing, shooting glances into the shop. Alpha snapped once, getting their attention, and signaling forward. They got the message, and once again the group set off.

Thomas put his Hound moniker to good use, scanning where he could with thermal. Like every other time, nothing, except for the stray bird that entered the field even so much as made the scanner jump.

Not even a warm body left behind by Rinke.

It didn't help that none of the other squads had radioed in anything either. Three teams, a total of twenty ground troops, and none of them could so much as see a change capable of ripping apart a town of five thousand without making a sound? Made Thomas wonder if Rinke was even still in town.

Or, if his changer abilities kept him hidden from everything they had.

He tried his best to ignore that particular thought, choosing to focus on his screen. Again, a blank screen of muted greys and dull blues. His shaky hand signaled 'clear' for those behind him. Alpha moved up to his three o'clock.

'Still clear?'

'Affirmative'.

He nodded and reached for his radio. Like the thousand times that it was beaten into them in basic, the team surrounded Alpha, a physical wall of bodies, ordinance, and cape bullshit to let the man mutter the codes without fear.

"This is Alpha of squad three, north quadrant is clear."

The crackle of the radio echoed through the small street. Thomas kept his eyes on the broken shops around them. Every window is scanned, every shadow examined. It was like basic, all the worst parts of basic bundled up into a hellish nightmare the drill sergeants could only dream of replicating.

A crack from the radio is enough to get Thomas' trigger finger to twitch, not to mention the flicker on his display. He blinked, where the hell did that come from? In the back of his head he was aware of Alpha receiving orders, but Thomas focused his scanner to the east, following the heat source.

Barely two feet tall and scuttering around, looking for purchase on anything on the other street. That's not the movements of something that's taken a city off the grid. That's a scared little kid, running from something.

"Captain," Thomas whispered.

Alpha was on his shoulder in an instant. He didn't ask what was wrong, Thomas only needed to show him the thermal. It only took him a second to come to the same conclusion as Thomas. One motion with his hand told Thomas to take point.

He caught a few glances his way, at least, he figured those capes were staring at him. Pushing them aside, he maneuvered around the corner of the street, keeping close to the wall for as much cover as the single spot provided. He walked carefully, tiptoeing around fallen trash and shattered bottles, one hand on the monitor, the other for the street before him.

On the screen, the signature stopped, head whipping around like it heard something. It ducked into a store, and Thomas could hear the slam of a door in the distance. The sound was the perfect marker, better than Thomas could've asked for.

And if Rinke was close by, it would be better than anything he could've asked for.

Thomas picked up the pace, turning the corner and getting a good glimpse of a decimated furniture store, the front door still swinging on its hinges. Taking a deep breath, Thomas checked the thermal one more time. The kid was deep into the store, hiding behind what he thinks is some kind of closet.

Just like any kid that doesn't know where to hide.

Quietly as he could, Thomas pushed the door open, the metal mercifully silent as he stepped in. Splintered desks, broken lamps matted with blood, and the cold remains of… what he thinks was the store owners dog covered the front desk. A collection of desks and shelves were piled up on top of one another, a makeshift barrier, literally drawing a line between the storefront and the back. In the corner, there was a hold that looked big enough to crawl through. The hole itself gave him pause though. It looked as if something just punched its way through the three feet of piled wood to get through to the otherside.

It wasn't recent, but whatever got to the other side really wanted to get there. He threw his attention back to the thermal. The kid was on the other end of this thing.

A quick look to Alpha told Thomas all what was needed. He looked in and tried to get as much of an angle that he could through his scope. On the monitor, the kid moved, getting closer to the hole.

"Hey, are you all-"

Whatever Thomas was going to say died as he saw some…. some thing at the other end.

It wasn't a kid. It's head too bulky to be a normal kid, with eyes like inflated fish, with greasy black skin that rippled with seemingly unworkable muscles.

And when it opened it's mouth, a row of crystal teeth smiled back at him.

"CONTAC-!"

The crack of gunfire behind him, cutting off the rest of the word. Someone screamed, something tore, and the little thing on the other end of the wall charged.

Thomas threw himself back, landing on his ass, just in time to see another one of those things leap over the barricade and land on Alpha. Outside, a grenade went off. One in front of him kept charging. Thomas raised his rifle, but the thing chomped down with those teeth. He wrestled for control, but it ripped it out of his hands. Thomas let it go, letting it's own strength move it back far enough so he can kick it as hard as he can.

The monster charged again, leaping, fangs bared to rip out his throat. He put his arms in front of him, grabbing the thing by the throat, but it wasn't deterred. It kept pushing, bitting closer and closer to his face, the claws on its hands and feet tearing through his armor to find purchase and inch forward. Thomas pushed, screaming his heart out, but nothing. One claw got through the armor on his arm. Flesh gave way easier than the armor, and pain flared in his eyes. He cracked his head against the thing in a headbutt. It reelled back, and Thomas used the small moment to get a hand around his combat knife.

With a roar he plunged the blade into the thing, once, twice, until the weight of it pressing against his chest ebbed. It fell limp over him, and he threw it to the side. Shaking fingers clasped his sidearm, and he turned to the street and… oh god.

Barrack, or what was left of him, was being ripped apart as three of those things started a tug of war. Flint tried to get them off him, and one of the monster threw a spike that went straight through her helmet. She collapsed on the ground, close enough to Knox that when one monster, a guttural fiend bigger than he was, took an incendiary round to the chest, they all went up in flames.

It burned, and the chunks of bubbling flesh that fell off wreathed and shifted. Limbs came from the slog, before faces and teeth joined them.

A scream snapped his head around, as Alpha stood there, one arm hanging uselessly at his side as he unloaded his sidearm into the head of one of them.

"RETREAT!" he screamed, but he and Thomas were already moving.

The two men sprinted for all they were worth. Thomas dropped his sidearm, fumbling, reaching for a grenade on his belt. A grunt and a click of the pin was all he did. He didn't waste time turning around and throwing it. He just dropped it, the explosion nothing to the roar of his breath in his ears and his heart thundering in his chest.

In the distance, the thunder of chopper fire.

Without thinking he turned to it. It could get him out of here. It could kill these things.

They weren't invincible, nothing in this world was.

So why… why could he still hear the clattering of the claws on the ground behind him? No. don't look back. Don't stop. If he slowed down, he'd die. If he stopped looking out for anything, he'd die!

He couldn't, he wouldn't.

Oh god where were the capes!?

He couldn't fight these things. He couldn't do anything like this! This wasn't extermination, this was hell!

A thunderstorm of gunfire erupted. He turned, and in the distance, squad two's chopper was lighting up the world like the hand of god.

Only for dozens, no, hundreds of these monsters to pile on top of one another. The chopper tried to pull back, but it was too late as a tidal wave of monsters smashed through the cockpit of the chopper. Machinery screamed, rotors crashed against the ground, and the sound of a crumbling building landing on squelching and broken flesh right before the blast of an exploding chopper filed the air.

For a moment, Thomas couldn't breathe.

That wasn't… that wasn't possible.

T-the landing zone, there was still the chopper he came in on. It would be there, it would get him out of this. Thomas turned around, and ran, around corners, through alleys. He stumbled over a fallen trash can, cracking his shoulder, but it felt like nothing.

He had to keep moving.

Had to get out of here!

Thomas turned the corner, and he laughed, tears streaming down his face. The chopper was there, laying down suppressing fire against anything that got close. Missles shot out, lighting up dozens of them at a time, but the chopper was taking off.

It was already ten feet off the ground, a rope ladder suspended from the side. Alpha was already there, trying to climb with only one good arm. Thomas closed the last of the distance, but Alpha hadn't even gotten up far enough to give Thomas purchase. There wasn't any behind him, but the wave was getting closer.

Alpha hadn't moved.

The concrete behind them screamed with the slashing of claws.

Alpha hadn't moved.

The chopper didn't fire any missiles. It didn't have any left. Rejuvenated, the swarm started to come from the front.

And Alpha hadn't moved!

Thomas' hand reached out, unclasping the captains side arm. The officer didn't even turn before Thomas put three in his head, and Thomas was already climbing up the rungs before his body hit the ground.

Closer and closer to the door. One more reach, he was going to make it!

He got a hand on the edge, and right next to him, a spike slammed into the side of the chopper.

No.

The engines whirled.

No no no.

Thomas felt the entire thing shake.

This can't be happening!

And it started to go down.

Thomas let go.

He landed hard, barely managing to bend his knees to brace himself. It was the only thing that let him keep running as infernal heat and sound smashed against his back. The force of it flung him forward, cracking his visor.

He couldn't feel his legs, he could barely feel his arms, and he couldn't hear a thing. But still, he moved his arms and brought himself up.

Because he had to move. If he just kept running, he'd make it out of this. Out of the city, they'd ignore him, they'd let him go.

He stumbled forward, landing badly on his arm, but it didn't keep him down. He kept moving, forward, towards the edge of the town, where there was nothing. No lights, no fires, no monsters.

Just salvation from the clicks and the slashes that echoed out behind him.

He ran, Thomas didn't know how far, only that it was away. He turned, the sound was there, but nothing but fire was behind him. It would keep them back, it had to keep them-

His vision swam as he fell down, helmeted head cracking against the ground.

He could barely feel his legs, but this time, when he tried, they refused to move more than inches at a time. Still, he clawed the ground, moving towards the edge of some fucking piece of shit building in this hellhole. He got around, and propped himself on the edge.

A new sound came to Thomas in that moment. His chest heaved, and his throat burned.

Oh, he was laughing.

At what, he didn't know, and he didn't care.

It didn't matter.

So he closed his eyes, and waited for the scratch, the click, the inhuman roar.

He heard it all, and above all else, there was a bell.

It echoed through the night air, cutting through the sound of the roars and the distant gunfire. The cracking stopped, and Thomas' eyes snapped open as another sound made itself known.

The click of a firing pin being put into place, and the song of steel running out of a sheath. In an instant, the blast from what sounded like a fifty cal shook the air around him. An inhuman scream rang through the night, only to be silenced a second later.

A few more screams joined the first, and they were silenced just as quickly. Thomas didn't know what it was. All he knew was that he was on his feet. He stumbled along the wall, and prayed to god himself for what he was about to see.

Around the corner, was a sight that he couldn't believe. Seven of the monsters, small, but utterly destroyed. Mutilated remains of them. Some in pieces, others cut open.

Did.. did a cape do this? Thomas didn't know any cape that could, none that were around New York. Yet as he continued to walk forward, the corpses continued. Some were large, bigger than a professional bodybuilder. Others, bloated things that were little more than slabs of meat. The sound of carnage continued at the edge of his hearing.

Barely a block away, but the screams.

They sounded terrified.

Which was good, right? Anything that scared those things, it would keep him safe, right?

Thomas didn't know, he only moved because wherever there was fallen monsters was a spot where things weren't. A scream echoed through the street, and a blur came crashing out the wall of a store to land at Thomas' feet.

A big one, big as him, it's head unrecognizable.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" a new voice screamed.

Another shot, a human scream. Thomas walked through the new hole, his boots stepping through another corpse. As he passed through, he heard something new.

A feeble, small sound that slowly faded away.

A… a whimper?

"Cleaning up the mess."

Thomas tried to swallow, but nothing went down. He just kept walking down the street, ignoring the heat from the fire and the smoldering remains of these things.

"BUT I AM A GO-!"

The sound was close, close enough that Thomas could hear the crack of something coming down to silence the scream. He rushed forward, to the edge of the street and another crack, like a starting gun. Thomas turned around just in time to see something walk away from the a man in a jester outfit.

It's too dark, his flashlight had long since broken with the thermal. But he did see the outlines of a long coat, and a hat.

Then he blinked, and it was gone.

Thomas fell to his knees, out of breath and totally in the dark. Next to him, the corpse stared back at him with a look of complete fear.

Was this Rinke? It couldn't be.

But it had to be.

Thomas looked around, taking in the sight of a dozen more bodies littered about.

What the hell did this?

(X)

The first official chapter. Set things up and really shows how this fic is going. if you're expecting a Taylor soloing bloodborne, then you best leave because this is not the story for that.

I will be putting more chapters here soon, it takes a bit to get out.