DISCLAIMER: Go back to the prologue
NOTE: Um, sorry. This is the first chapter; the last one with the flashback was the prologue. I'm new to fanfics and screwed it up.
Special thanks go to Filing Sloth for Beta-Reading and helping me organize myself with this.
INVERSE HUNTERS CHAPTER ONE
It was your usual day at the good old Wolfpack Pub, the place was its usual mess with the Dark Elves lying on the floor plastered out of their gourds and the Lesser Mazoku in 3 person singing songs of human dismemberment in off-key tones and stopping for the occasional belching and vomiting.
Makoneen, Priest of Dolphin and at-the-moment Bar Operator had to admit that the good old spot was more packed than usual. His own Master had given him this assignment as a way of keeping busy for the next month or so. Why, he had not bothered asking.
It was, of course, not his place.
It was probably better he was chosen than Sherra or any of the Mazoku Generals, who probably would've run the place like a boot camp or used those who didn't pay as practice for their swords. Makoneen didn't mind as much if the patrons used their tabs, him being somewhat more tolerant and not especially caring. The higher Mazoku could order full houses of Orihalcon orbs (Stored with 100% Human Negativity) for all he cared. He just wished the month would go by faster or something more worthy of his attention would come up and Lady Dolphin would pull him out of here.
What happened next was something straight out of a cliché fairytale; what with the mysterious, tall, dark stranger entering and silencing everyone.
At least, that's how it usually went in these tales, but seeing as how most were the less observant lower beings (and everyone else was too stoned on the special Tortured Dragon surprise) the dramatic entrance was ignored.
The figure opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, his smirk lessening somewhat. Makoneen noticed him and stared, he only hoped the person in question wouldn't mind the mess too much. After all, it was his home island this pub was located on.
Xellos walked calmly towards the bar, making sure he stepped over the occasional dark emotion-drunk Mazoku, and making sure he stepped on the nether regions of the dark elves and other dark magic beasts. He sat down on a stool and turned to face Makoneen directly, stopping his face a mere inch away from his.
"So, how's business? I see we've had more than our usual share of customers and they seem satisfied. Bringing in the dough as the humans would say? I do hope you haven't had to resort to the private wine cellars, you know how much the Mistress would dislike that." He said, his standard smirk coming back. He opened his eyes and took notice of Makoneen's slight uneasiness.
Heh, he still had it.
"Go on, speak. This place may be Wolfpack Island Pub, but it's still neutral at this point in time. What with the upheaval between the lords going on…" This caught Makoneen's attention.
"Upheaval? I figured there was something up when Lady Dolphin sent me here and had the old General Stingray go elsewhere to get the reserves ready. I figured we were going to war. Be a friend and let your old bud Makoneen in on what's happening…"
"First I'll place my order. An Ultra sized orb of Despair, Madness, Loathing and sensations of death. Coat it with sprinkles of Megalomania."
"Eh? That's a bit much, even for you."
Xellos' smile lessened and he opened one bloodshot eye. "Humor me, I just got back from having his torso blown open by Gaav and then attended a human wedding loaded with friends, family and lovesick girls."
"Blech, thank L-Sama for unrequited crushes and infidelity." Makoneen shuddered as he got out Xellos' order. The Beast Priest took the orb and began absorbing the array of stored emotional energies.
Makoneen put down the empty orb he had been polishing and laid an elbow on the counter. "So anyways, what's this up with the Lords? Must be something personal between them or otherwise they wouldn't send us away or give us menial tasks. I'm assuming Zelas' wanted it kept a secret, and everyone here knows how good you are at figuring those out."
Xellos' paused his absorption and pondered whether or not to speak of what he knew.
Why not? I'm about due for my 100 year act of semi-generosity
"Well, it wasn't too hard to figure out if you had seen what I saw and knew what I knew. I assume you know about our dearly departed Phibrizzo?"
Makoneen shrugged "More or less got spanked by big old mama, why?"
"Well, his and Gaav's ruination have left a sort of vacuum in the Mazoku power structure. Our Masters have been forced to try their hands at politics and are vying for Hellmaster's vacated post."
If Makoneen had been drinking he would've done a spit take. "Politics?! Are you really a fruitcake?!"
"Sore wa Himitsu desu! Anyways, it's actually devolved into the traditional Mazoku way of dealing with this sort of thing."
"Mortal Combat then. Fight until only one stands."
"Yes. Normally I'd get into trouble over blabbing this sort of thing, but the outcome is so obvious it doesn't matter. The New Triumvirate will be meeting soon at the Northern Fortress instead of the Desert of Destruction."
"Oh, you are siding with Dynast? That's rather bizarre."
Xellos shrugged "I'm feeling pessimistic and realistic these days. Hopefully I'll be back to my good old Genki self once I'm finished this orb. Anyways, even with Dynast most likely to be the new supreme boss I'm still looking for Zelas' best interests by finding a way to bolster our own forces. Any help?"
"Eh, this is a neutral spot no matter what, so I might as well keep you up to speed on rumors and such. I am a barkeep after all…there's a fellow named Valgaav at large. Gaav's main follower, got all his power once old Yellow jacket bought it. Heard some random bizarre things about his origins; He's a bit of a loon even by Mazoku standards."
Xellos' interest was peaked. "Valgaav" seemed like he had potential as one of Zelas' personal warriors.
"Any idea where he's holed up? Any information at all about him?"
"Well, he's outside the Barrier kingdoms, but that's all I know. Dynast and Lady Dolphin have tried their hands at getting him too so he must be quite the catch. He may even rival you." The barkeep shrugged as he got back to polishing his orbs.
Xellos sucked up the last of his order and made his way for the door. "Well, you've been a big informational help. Just keep the place clean and don't drain the wine cellars if you know what's good for you."
Makoneen shrugged him off and then stiffened. He scowled and readied an offensive spell. "HOLD IT! You didn't trade for that orb!"
"Put it on my tab."
You haven't paid your tab for 500 years Xeloss. You know the drill; pay up with magical relics…" He held out one hand with the spell, the other hand with palm open for payment.
Xellos sighed and turned around, drawing an object out of his cloak. "All right, all right. Don't go blowing your spout. Take this reefer; it contains a valuable human cast spell." He said as he tossed the small brooch like item to Makoneen.
The Barkeep put down his spell and took a good look at the reefer with interest. "Really? Is it a dangerous spell?"
Xellos turned around and walked out the door. "It's not dangerous at all…"
Makoneen smiled as he prepared to look and see what the reefer contained.
Xellos also smiled as he walked into the distance and felt the heat from the Dragon Slave as it went off.
"…Not to me anyways…"
Xellos pondered his options as he made his way off of Wolfpack Island and towards the Mainland.
With Gaav out of the picture, this means this Valgaav character is supposedly the new head of this Rebellion and is going to keep himself hidden from view if he has any brains at all. Last I heard, Gaav's Priest and General are both still quite alive and are therefore this new fellow's Lieutenants. If anyone knows anything about Valgaav and his plans, it's them. And from what I know Raltark and Rashart are still the same near-sighted blowhards they always were, which is rather advantageous for me.
Xellos entered the Astral plane to get a decent "sniff" of where the duo would be hiding, as they always worked in tangent and weren't really into "hiding".
Hmmm, rather odd, but the remains of Sairagg it is then.
"I tell you Raltark, if that bucket-headed weirdo-language talking freak mouths off orders to us like that again and keeps us doing these dumb lower-Mazoku class jobs I'll get myself the nearest can opener and…"
Raltark, a medium-sized yellow-cloaked figure with short neatly trimmed red hair, turned to his rather less intellectual companion and raised an eyebrow above his blue eye: "Do what?"
"Well…..I'll think of something! Just because Valgaav entrusted him with this job doesn't mean he can talk to us about doing our jobs right and 'demanding' we report in and out at set times like we're grunts! We were created by Gaav himself, who created him?! Valgaav said nothing of where he came from, just for us to do what he or that Grim Reaper knock-off say while he's off somewhere or the other building some magic construct!"
Rashart, a tall muscular figure in dark yellow armor with long wild red hair and a powerful looking sword on his belt, mumbled to himself as he and Raltark touched down near the ruins. The two could be even thought of as brothers by appearances alone, and in a way they were.
Raltark smirked and turned to his General Counterpart "Don't worry; this is only a temporary situation. We'll soon once again be getting the respect we always had once-"
His sentence was completed for him, though not by Rashart as usual.
"-Valgaav returns?" Xellos said as he teleported in.
Rashart, being the more aggressive of the two stepped forward and drew the Chaos Blade Gaav had given him. "What is the meaning of this intrusion Beast Priest? Come to do battle?"
"My my, all these centuries and still as predictable as ever, I've already answered why I'm here so I won't bother with a trademark Xellos quote." The Priest rather casually stated as he slowly began charging Demonic energies through his form.
Raltark scowled "If you think you'll get any information on Valgaav out of us without a fight then you're sadly mistaken. And besides, even at your best you can only match us…"
Xellos opened an eye "Quite true, us Priestly types are usually the more perceptive and more intelligent aren't we? Of course you two are equal to me as long as you are together." He vanished in a cloud of smoke, throwing the two into confusion as they tried their best to detect him.
Raltark suddenly felt someone behind him, as well as a rather painful shock of black energies burning into his back. He was propelled forward with the whispered words still going through his mind: "As long as…"
He turned and glared at the trickster as he prepared an offensive spell. "You demand information from us to betray our new leader? All you will receive from us is death!"
"Oh, I do so hope you won't consider me unoriginal if I say that's a gift I plan to give to you…" Xellos replied as he dash-teleported on top of the fallen Chaos-Dragon Priest and shoved his staff through the fellow's wrist, leaving a black-blooded hole and dissipating the spell, to say nothing of causing Raltark extreme pain.
"It IS a good idea for you two to stay together to maximize your powers, but you still have conflicting minds and aren't a proper team, you're no match for a fully prepared me." Xellos smiled to the agonized Priest. He still had that smile on when the Chaos Blade of Rashart cut into his back and left him on the ground next to Raltark.
Rashart grinned, "I'm REALLY going to enjoy this…" He swung his blade towards Xellos.
Xellos casually blocked it with one hand and stared directly into Rashart's shocked face. "Not as much as I will enjoy THIS!" he said as he flung the blade out of the General's hands and into a stone block. He got up, smacked Rashart a few times with a demonically charged staff and soon had him in an identical position to his "twin".
"Now, while this fellow is your new boss, he didn't create you personally and I'm sure you'd be somewhat willing to fill me in on his whereabouts if I promised to have you both rein ducted to Lord Ruby-Eye's armies rather than just make a mess of this surrounding area. Although the latter WOULD be much more satisfying."
Rashart was about to give Xellos his answer when a new voice, with a strange accent to it, as well as the clanging of metallic armored footsteps made themselves known. "Dreadfully sorry brother, well not really, but I and my two Droogies here have some important things to chat about and I must say we haven't the time for 20 Questions…"
Xellos looked up at the intruder just in time to see a purple-black armored fist smash itself into his face. He stumbled backwards, stunned at the might of the blow and wondering how this new fellow, whose appearance didn't look Gaavish in origin at all, managed to appear here without giving off a detectable magic aura even though he obviously had power.
"Hmph, you're fast and strong. Though I can't say much for you vocabulary; I'm assuming you're the 'Bucket-head' these two were speaking of when I arrived?" Xellos said as he rubbed his injured face and got a good look at the new fellow. He had a purple helmet that covered his whole head and had a T-shape on the front where he could see out but hardly anyone could see in. A long ponytail of silvery-white hair flowed out of the hole in the back of the helmet down to his waist, brushing against the black-purple armor that covered him like flesh. His Right shoulder had a strange face carved in, it looked like a draconic creatures' sleeping face.
'Bucket-head' looked down at the fallen duo and Xellos noticed a single red eye flash in the darkness of his helmet. "Eh, these two don't appreciate the true beauty of my attire. Was nice of old horn-head to give me authority here, utter bliss it's been. Now you can't either leave or I give you a taste of the old thrashing. Pity you aren't a lady Priest though, it's been a while since I had the old 'in-out in-out' with anybody after a thrashing but since you're tougher than others I'll just use you for a battery."
Xellos didn't take kindly to that comment, though he didn't quite understand the meaning as he fired at the black-purple armored figure and was frankly surprised when it all but bounced off and he began moving forward.
"You Lower-World types are all the same thinking you're the baddest there is." He slammed a fist into Xellos' face, and Xellos felt himself somehow weaker after every physical blow made contact with his body. "Lemme tell you, us of the Overworld got over this silly attitude you all have here and evolved" Another blow and weaker still, "You belong in a museum where you can be stared at in horror for what you are, a Mazoku Neanderthal. You and the rest. Horn-Head and these schmucks have the hope of something better and I'm not going to let you mess it all up!" Two more blows, and an upper cut left Xellos stumbling back. But the final blow came when the sleeping caring on the Overworlder's shoulder opened up and a dark straight wide beam of Demonic power shot out of it, smashing straight into Xellos and leaving him in the center of a smoldering crater.
'Bucket-head' walked over to Rashart and Raltark and awakened them both with swift kicks.
Rashart rubbed his head and looked up, glaring "Xerxes…? What did you do that for?!"
A red eye flashed behind the helmet "For being brainless fools and letting this effeminate grinner rip ya up. On your feet both of you, bring him with you. I need a recharge and unless you want siphoning marks on you I need the Beast Boy. We can talk about the information you got on our prey back at the lair." Xerxes, warrior of the Overworld, ordered and walked off as the two wounded Mazoku carried Xellos away after him.
"So, I'm assuming you two got at least the basic information I need on our target? Just to remind you two, she's a red-head who wear magenta and has Demon Blood Talismans. That's all I really know but it should stick out enough for you to get a decent viddy of her and her own Droogies."
Raltark spoke up, "Yeah, she's heading down to some town to eat some cuisine made out of some Dragon she caught some time back."
"Name?"
"Inverse, Lina Inverse, Gaav wanted her dead before to interfere with Hellmaster but now all Valgaav wants is revenge."
"Welly-welly-well, I guess that makes us four…Inverse Hunters…this'll be fun."