AN: Hey Y'all been a minute sorry for dropping two fics and bailing again I have NOT had a good year, grandma passed, dog passed, godfather's wife passed, my family friend and barber passed, and my health has been declining, additionally I've been working on an completely original project, addon the fact my house is getting renovated and that we've been preparing all year moving stuff to storage, not to mention I rushed into both fics without really planning them out to well and well…yeah.
I'm going to try and update with some kind of regularity, and I may revisit my old fics at some point if I can find the inspiration to work on them, given the circumstances of what was happening in my life while I was writing them don't think you can blame me if that's easier said than done, and if you do well…find some empathy this is a hobby not a job and I'm a real person not a story machine.
Now this fic is…a departure form what I've done in the past expect healthy doses of Horror, Action and comedy and to not have every detail handed to you on a silver platter, backstories will come as needed.
While this is Primarily a Naruto x DC Crossover that's not all that's involved, expect lots of other stuff primarily stuff from various horror media, some more obscure than others but if you can catch all the references I pepper throughout good on you.
a few other things this is a SINGLE PARING, so for the love of god don't suggest a hundred girls, please just don't suggest anyone for anything please I appreciate the enthusiasm but I have lots planned out already just be patient.
Additionally, I'd like to give huge shout outs to HaretaSora and Kfbanime87 for helping me hammer some stuff out over on Discord. They were both big helps on this one so go check them out they are both preemo authors.
and thanks to Pyrohelixdrago for beta reading! check them out too another solid author
Oh, this chapter is Part one of two, part two will be up fairly soon barring any disasters but more reviews=more encouragement
Enjoy ^^
"Hello Red Spiral Investigations, paranormal and supernatural problem solvers, how can I help you?" a cheery Japanese accented voice answered a ringing office phone.
"…no see we handle stuff like ghosts and monsters you call the police for that…yeah no we aren't superheroes for hire…hey ma'am I KNOW that but…no, no we don't handle petty theft, normal crimes or supervillainy…look lady it's not my fault you misinterpreted our business model the advertisement is VERY clear!" the owner of the voice quickly losing his cheer at what was a regular issue he had to deal with.
Standing up at his desk slamming a hand down on it in frustration before running it through his spiky black hair.
"Yeah, I know it also says other but that's OTHER supernatural or paranormal activities and phenomena…well call us back when your house IS haunted." The now fully frustrated teen shouted into the receiver before slamming the phone back into place.
The frustrated male figure, a teenage boy of Japanese descent wearing goggles on his forehead, a gray shirt, baggy work pants and a black high collar jacket with a strange high-tech backpack.
"Ugh…that's the fifth call this week about petty crime…should we change the fliers and website to have that part more in plain view? Bolder text maybe?" he asked the occupant of the neighboring desk.
"…Boss man I'm talking to you…hello…earth to Naruto?" He reiterated naming his neighbor.
"Huh? What? sorry Hiro I was…thinking…" The young man said in a not at all convincing way.
"Raven's under your desk isn't she…" The now named Hiro responded, his face and tone notably deadpan.
"…no…"
"…fucks sake can you two be professional for ONCE?" Hiro facepalmed seeing through the other boy's poor attempt at lying.
"You are not one to talk about professionalism Hiro." A voice from under the simplistic metal desk a female one with a husky almost croaky quality answered.
"I Fucking knew it! Suck your boyfriend's dick on your own time Raven!" Hiro shouted once again, fully annoyed.
Standing up and emerging form under the desk wiping her mouth with a tissue she grabbed form Hiro's desk much to the super genius's annoyance the gray skinned purple haired girl with the red gem embedded in her forehead just smirked.
Adjusting her dark blue almost purplish halter mini dress a bi t dusting off her knees she then adjusted her black mini jacket before winking at her boyfriend flipping Hiro the bird and walking to the couch in the corner of the bullpen-like PI office.
That was Rachel "Raven" Roth, half Demon daughter of Trigon, empath, sorceress and spiritualist
The young man who she had previously been having…fun with.
Had spikey blonde hair, a single bright blue eye the other covered by a simple black eyepatch, six strange whisker marks, three on each cheek. He was well built wearing a crimson leather biker/bomber jacket combo that hung down a little past his waist. It had a wild white fur collar and a black flame motif along the edges of the jacket and the ends of the sleeves. Blue jeans and black steel capped combat boots with spurs shaped like four-pointed shuriken on them. With a black muscle tank top under it a green crystal necklace hanging around his neck.
"Seriously? Naruto buddy we haven't had a case in almost a month we need money to eat…" Hiro said with a heavy sigh.
It was true they'd been having trouble getting work lately rumor had it Darkseid had invaded Metropolis…again and that guy showing up always made everything supernatural go unnaturally quiet for a hot minute.
"Relax, the others are looking for leads." The whisker cheeked blonde waved off lazily leaning back in his chair and zipping up his fly.
"…that does not fill me with confidence." The Japanese boy genius deadpanned.
The blonde raised his right hand revealing his most notable feature.
A mechanical arm.
Orange and black with claw tipped fingers.
The 17-year-old reached into his jacket's inside pocket and removed a box of cigarettes and a flip lighter with a strange nine tailed fox design on it.
Taking and lighting up a cigarette he smirked around it.
"Sorry Toyman but you need to lighten up…we'll have something one way or another before today ends…" the blonde said after letting out a puff of smoke.
"I mean…we could always go to the tunnels under Vegas again if you want…" Raven offered not once looking up from the book she was reading.
The inventor paled and twitched at the suggestion, violently.
"NO…I never want to see another of THOSE things again…" Hiro said looking around frantically as if something would start creeping in from the cracks in the walls.
Raven just smirked.
"I'm pretty sure we got them all…" Naruto said lazily through his cigarette.
"You don't know that!... I almost peed my fucking pants when the first one came out the damn dark!" Hiro shouted wild eyed and terrified.
The blonde chuckled.
"You're the one who wanted to join in and monetize what me and Raven were doing." The blonde suggested finishing his cigarette by snuffing it out in the ashtray on his desk.
"Look I don't wanna hear condescension from the guy who was terrified of ghosts till he realized the Nth metal promethium elementics of his fucking robot arm let him hurt them, that was just last week." Hiro eye's narrowed mocked.
The blonde flipped the inventor the bird again this time with his cybernetic hand.
"But…that fucking nightmare that haunts me to this day aside we do need to eat, I know you two survive on instant ramen, hard liquor, cigarettes, herbal tea and each other's sexual fluids but me and the others need real food!" the goggle sporting teen skillfully changed the subject fear replaced by fresh annoyance.
Naruto rolled his eyes as Raven snorted.
"Also, it costs money to keep the lights on and keep what we do in the open WITHOUT social workers sniffing around a bunch of teenagers running their own business…" Hiro added eyes narrowed
"That's a you problem, most of the rest of us don't even have birth certificates." Naruto replied which was true and how they avoided most trouble.
"Yeah, which won't become a problem later." Hiro sarcastically muttered
Suddenly the door opened, and a strange assortment of figures walked in
At the forefront was a young girl no older than twelve wearing a half black half white hoodie with a white spade on the black half's breast.
And gray skinny jeans and a pair of one black one white high-top sneakers.
Directly behind her was a girl with blue skin and white hair, maybe 14 years old, wearing a purple winter coat and blue scarf along with baggy blue cargos and fingerless black winter gloves.
On her left side was a Dog, a dog with a military grade Cybernetic body a floppy eared golden furred mut with brown eyes and the body military grade cybernetics that had a red spiral mark on the right hind legs hip with 'Red Spiral Investigations' printed under it various personal touches included graffitied phrases like 'Gud Boi', 'Bandit Sick Balls' and 'Goodest Dog Around' were spread across the green sleek metal body.
Next to the dog was a girl of Hispanic descent in a dark green hoodie a leather skirt that went down to her knees, black leggings under it, a pouch on her waist, black combat boots on her feet and black fingerless gloves on her hands she had dark hair, dark circles under her eyes and most notably a Rat perched on her shoulder.
Just behind her to the right was a girl in a black leather jacket, black tank top black skirt with pale white skin black hair in pigtails and black lipstick black fingerless leather gloves on her hands drinking from a fast food soft drink cup.
Just a little behind her to the left was a boy with bright red skin, silver hair and black horns wearing a black zip up hoodie a white undershirt.
Blue jeans and black combat boots and a silver studded belt around his waist.
Next was a rather buff young man with brown hair. He was wearing a red plaid shirt with a black muscle tank top with a skull and crossbones on it, ratty gray jeans, hiking boots and a gray beanie with his long hair falling from under it.
Standing next to him, her arms behind her head was a girl with dark hair but pink bangs wearing a white band shirt ripped blue jeans and black boots and a blue zip up hoodie currently worn open and almost falling off her.
Then there were the last two members of the group and the two largest.
Wearing a black hoodie with the sleeves torn off and dark ripped cargo pants and heavy work boots.
Was a teenage looking Frankenstein's monster, green skin, stitches, neck bolts and all, towering over all but one of the others.
Equal in height to him was a humanoid great white shark wearing faded jean shorts with frayed edges and nothing else.
In order these were Ace, Maureen aka Permafrost, Bandit, Cleo Cazo aka Ratcatcher, Alice or Black Alice as she preferred, Eddie Goldstein aka Kid Devil, Edmund Percival Chang aka Grunge, Roxanne Spaulding aka Freefall, Frankie or Young Frankenstein and last was Nanue aka King Shark.
They along with Raven, Naruto Uzumaki aka Foxclaw, and Hiro Okamura aka Toyman are the members of Red Spiral Investigations.
A group of metahuman or otherwise supernaturally gifted teenagers (and one dog) and one super genius who have rather than form a team of superheroes in an already over saturated superhuman society established a group of paranormal investigators/exterminators
Who investigate and if necessary, terminate supernatural entities and phenomena.
And on very rare occasions tangle with a few select magical super villains.
From Hauntings to Cryptids they handled it all.
Something that until now was mostly dealt with on occasion by John Constantine and sometimes Zatanna and Dr. Fate when he could be bothered.
Naruto, their leader, an extra dimensional ninja from a VERY alternate earth had been on this earth for almost 4 years at this point.
And together with his Half-Demon girlfriend, two pseudo little sisters, dog, and new friends they dealt with all the scary fucked up shit the justice league was too good for.
"Ah everybody came back at once…now is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Hiro asked, staring at the group of misfits blankly.
"Nanue nommed tiny man." The large shark human hybrid announced at the mostly rhetorical question
"Please tell me he means some kinda goblin and not another Midget?" Hiro asked, rubbing his eyes in frustration.
"Dunno, what do you count Doctor Psycho as?" Black Alice asked as she slipped in and took a seat at a desk decorated with various gothic trinkets and knick-knacks bought directly from a Hot-Topic.
"This is why people keep calling us to deal with villains!" Hiro shouted as the group filtered in taking seats at desks or in Nanue's case in a suspiciously deep Kiddie pool sitting where a desk should have been complete with a large inflatable phone that didn't actually work but let Nanue feel included…he was not the best conversationalist.
The youngest of the group Ace took a spot next to Raven on the couch.
"He tried to brainwash us first…Nanue bit his leg off, that's self-defense." She started, pulling her knees up to her chest.
"That's excessive!" Hiro shouted, slapping his forehead and letting out a groan of utter frustration.
"No, it was funny!" Edmund Percival Chang aka Grunge shouted from his spot at the most beat up desk plastered with various rock and heavy metal memorabilia and posters.
"For fucks sake, did any of you at least find a job or did you just go to the Mall and dick around?" Hiro asked again Noticing Naruto the one who was supposed to be in charge was now taking a Nap in his chair, an eye mask covering his eye and eyepatch and his feet up on his desk as he snored softly.
That caused Hiro's left eye to twitch.
"I ask again…did any of you find any jobs…or leads on jobs?" Hiro said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
When he got no answer he sighed, walking back to his chair and slumping into it.
"That's it we're going to starve…" throwing his hands up and slumping back into his chair.
Ignoring Hiro as everyone took a spot in the office and began going about their business.
A knock on the door, their office door was exactly the kind of door you'd expect a PI's office in an old Noir film to have with their company's logo and name on the frosted glass.
"Come in." Hiro said as he got up a look of relief on his face, that he quickly stamped down it might be another drunk hobo, it would not be the first time one followed them somewhere, and while normally that might be kinda funny, given the fact most distinctly meta-human teenagers were homeless meant that it wasn't just some mix up because of Grunge or Franky's B.O. no it was a Homeless person thinking they found a potential new homeless camp…the number they had to sadly turn away…usually with whatever they could spare was saddening.
Every last one of them but Ace had been homeless at one time or another themselves, for Ace it was like arguing If being in a concentration camp was better then being on the streets not an argument anyone in good conscience would even try to make.
The door opened and a young but haggard looking woman walked in.
She was fairly average looking white, brunette with brown eyes dressed in a cream-colored turtleneck sweater and blue jeans if any of the members of Red Spiral Investigation had been fashion savvy they'd of noticed despite the simplistic look her clothes, from the brown heeled boots to the wool turtleneck, and even her simplistic black purse were all brand name designer clothes, the kind an average person couldn't afford to wear.
"Um…is this the place…are you the monster hunters?" she asked, eyebrows raised seeing the...state of the bullpen office, especially Nanue who was giggling to himself as he spun around in the kiddie pool he'd chosen in place of a desk as Sebastian break danced on his snout to the man-shark's amusement.
"Paranormal Containment, Investigation, Relocation and Extermination Specialists." Hiro corrected finger raised.
"r-right…I…I have a job…." She stuttered quickly walking in.
Hiro's eyes lit up ignoring how the woman nervously looked around the room at the odd assortment of individuals…and took in more of the state of disarray the bullpen style office was in.
Trash haphazardly thrown around Grunges' desk, dirty clothes piled up in a far corner by what looked like a utility door, water damage surrounding Nanue's pool the general smell of weed and tobacco wafting in the air the Microwave that looked like it'd been through three world wars, a Dinosaur Orgy and multiple demonic possessions that sparked uneasily as Kid Devil used it to cook a microwavable burrito of some kind, the microwave belching smoke after it finished the re skinned half devil happily taking the burrito back to his desk ignoring the smoking and sputtering of the microwave like everyone else in the office was.
The file cabinets some filled haphazardly nearly bursting, others dinged and dented with various distinctive imprints of fists, boots, a face that looked suspiciously like Grunge's, and a…butt? and finally the multiple rats darting into deliberately placed holes in the walls cleanly cut likely with a power tool or magical power given those who inhabited the office.
"Right this way, have a seat and tell me what kind of Phenomena you're experiencing." Hiro guided her to his desk and she took a seat in the decently plush but worn chair in front of it.
As Hiro took his seat preparing to type on his high-end desktop, scratch that it was a totally custom scratch made computer closer to a supercomputer than a desktop, the only kind of machine the super genius could use without burning out eventually.
"So first give me your name." the Japanese teen asked softly being the only one on the team without superpowers, he was the best at sympathizing with their clientele because he'd felt the same exact fear more than once himself while most of what they dealt with to the others were little different then particularly belligerent pests, they had more respect and weariness of sewer rats then they did goblins, poltergeists or possessed animatronics.
"I'm Susanne Miller…" she said softly. Hiro nodded and began typing.
"Alright what kind of Phenomena have you been experiencing? Any and all information is important to crafting the ideal service package for you." Hiro said giving his best customer service voice he ignored Alice snorting at her desk at it.
"Right, well…it all started a little over a month ago…my grandma passed away…and she left me her old house…I moved in not long after…and at first things were fine… but…recently…weird stuff has been happening, I feel like I'm being watched whenever I'm outside, or near a window, I hear voices when I'm gardening or cleaning up outside…" She began.
Raven eyebrow raised, walked up and lightly kicked Hiro's chair causing him to roll away.
"Hey-" the super genius shut up wisely at the stern looks he gave him and raised his hands yielding to Raven's expertise
"What kind of voices?" She asked frowning distinct voices in isolated areas when no one else was around could be something very deadly, and while the being watched could be anything from a mundane stalker to just paranoia, lots of predatory, and powerful supernatural beings would observe their target for any number of reasons.
"Um…well, that's the thing they're random, weird some are people I know but usually it's voices I don't recognize muttering and whispering…." A little surprised at the sudden shift in who was handling taking her information.
Raven frowned, Hiro grumbling took out a tablet and began taking notes as Raven lead Susanna over to her own desk which was marked with various strange arcane and occult objects along with an old all in one desktop computer spray painted black, that Raven used purely to browse various occult and supernatural related forums, chat rooms and image boards.
"Do they say anything you can make out? Any noises that sound like interference on a radio or phone?" she needed to either rule out or confirm a few of the more dangerous things this could be as fast as possible, some may realize what's going on and attack immediately and risk to the potential clients life aside, they didn't exactly have anywhere else to go if their office got wrecked.
"No noises like that…a few words every now and then, usually when I know the voice but it's mostly like whispers…" Susanna said clearly distressed at remembering, Raven didn't need her empathy to know that, so subtly she began emanating a magical aura of calm to ease her.
"Alright, how close are the voices?" Raven herself was a little relieved that alone ruled out a large number of entities there was still one or two big potential threats it could be, but not an immediate one.
"It varies…but it's never like right in my ear…it's like it's across the yard…so I thought I was just crazy…or hearing things but… until last night I heard it outside my bedroom window on the third floor…I…I saw two glowing yellow eyes and a humanoid silhouette sitting in the tree, when I woke up in the morning I thought it was just sleep paralysis or a nightmare…." Despite the calming aura Susanne was nearly crying.
"But?" Raven asked softly infusing more calming magic into her voice.
"But there were six long gouges going down from the bottom of my window frame…and claw marks all over the tree, and all over the house like something was trying to find a way in…I saw your flyers and I didn't know what else to do." She choked back a sob.
"…you're lucky, there is a short list of supernatural entities that behave like this…and leave marking like these…most would have attacked long before now depending on what it is" Raven said trying to offer a silver lining to the distraught woman as comfort, but it didn't seem to work too well.
Because despite Raven's aura the blunt statement raised Susanna's anxiety as raven handed the woman back her phone after flipping through the presented images.
"if it weren't for the voice mimicry I'd say you were being visited by the Rake…but the mimicry and the fact it couldn't get in rule that out entirely, that cuts our options down from three to two, now this is important have you seen any animals around the property or following you?" Raven asked if she had then they'd need pretty much all hands-on deck.
"No…in fact now that you mention it there aren't any animals around but flies, I hear birds now and then but it's weird…I never noticed just how often they go totally silent…" Susanna was frowning.
That was a good sign but wasn't entirely definitive, so Raven needed to ask another question to be sure.
"...that doesn't completely rule out my first thought, alright this will decide it, any people, strangers approaching you, following you?" the gray skinned beauty asked, frowning a bit.
"no." Susanne calmed again said evenly
"Mail man or delivery driver linger a bit too long? staring at you or your house? Anyone at all doing that?" she had to be absolutely sure.
"Not that I can remember no…" Susanna said after a minute furrowing her brow thinking.
"Anyone you know or domestic animals you're around have a sudden change in behavior or diet, even so much as just trying to contact you more than usual?" Raven asked.
"No, not at all." Susanne frowned, not sure why this girl was asking these questions that seemingly had nothing to do with what she'd been experiencing.
"Well that rules out that… I only have one more question…just to be sure at any point did those voices mention something about being…hungry?" The second Raven said the last word, Susanne froze.
her eyes widened slowly at Raven's question.
"yes…usually the only parts of the gibberish I can understand have something to do with being hungry…usually when the voice would get loud…and close but the bulk of it was still incoherent gibberish so I was never sure…" Susanne said excusing why she hadn't thought to mention that fact before Ravne didn't care typing away at her keyboard she frowned as she scrolled through a digitized case file a bit surprised at the similarities given the creature it now had to be…and the fact the girl in front of her was still alive at all.
Lots of cursing and groaning followed this with Nanue and Bandit both whimpering.
"Okay we're going to need your address." Raven stated firmly.
Susanne blinked but quickly gave the requested information.
"Hiro?" Raven asked a bit firmly.
"Already looking." He said sitting at his computer with a frown on his face.
"Alright Susanne normally we'd offer a free consultation to check what we're dealing with and if things are really supernatural, you'd be surprised how many stalkers end up using a robot or some other piece of super tech out of nowhere to Scooby Doo their victims…but what you just described is activity unique to Wendigo."
"That's That Native American thing…the monster cannibals become right!? they're real?" she asked, looking horrified.
"Lady, almost every monster, goblin or boogey man you've ever heard of is real and so many more you've never heard of." Grunge said as he haphazardly wrenched open his desk and began searching for something.
"Relax this isn't an all-hands-on deck yet…" Naruto cut in as he walked over lighting a cigarette and taking a drag.
"Odds are it's a young one, hasn't been turned for more than a few years at worst, it's struggling with its telepathic vocal mimicry still picking up 'interference' you could say psychic echoes of people you interact with also it's struggling with wording hasn't gotten used to the hunger yet so it's still having psychotic episodes after scanning someone."
"it's also still trying to fight the urges to feed subconsciously that's why you're not a half-eaten corpse." Naruto finished and as soon as he uttered that last sentence a hand, made of solid black magical energy, slapped him upside the head while another took his cigarette and crushed it into ash.
Susanne jumped at this display of supernatural ability, but no one seemed to notice either giggling at the interaction or like Hiro focused on something else entirely.
"No smoking inside, and for the hundredth time learn tact." Raven deadpanned; her boyfriend just grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head.
"He isn't wrong though, so here's what we'll do: Bandit, Myself, The Tactless Idiot and Franky will go and deal with this as soon as Hiro has a contract printed and you sign it." Raven said, returning her attention to their client to be.
"C-contract?" she asked nervously, staring at Kid Devil.
"Oi!" The half demon shouted in annoyance. This was far from the first time this had happened and after the eleventh or twelfth time it was just offensive.
"Relax, it's a normal contract, most of it is us covering our bases liability wise, the rest ensures you are held liable to pay for services rendered." Raven explained as Black Alice walked to the printer after Hiro made a show of pushing a button and over to Raven's desk after stapling three pages together.
She handed it to Susanna who took it timidly.
"Take your time right now Hiro is tracking down who our wendigo used to be." Raven said soothingly as the young woman went over the contract she was handed.
"Actually, just finished, our guy is Thomas Clarke went hiking with a group of six others not far from Susanna's home. The trail is only about 45 minutes away…" Hiro started as he pressed a button projecting a holographic power point.
"Problem was they went during winter, told no one and had no route planned, no prizes for guessing how that turned out." Hiro said sarcastically as he scrolled through slides of information he'd quickly yet efficiently put together.
"When the police found them only two were still alive, one was Thomas who'd survived by eating the dead bodies of his fellows…problem started when the rescue team noticed one of them had their head caved in with a rock, they continued when they found one Mary-Anne Perkins hiding not far talking about how Thomas had gone crazy after to survive they ate the body of Samantha Cummings who'd succumbed to exposure and hypothermia." Hiro explained with a frown.
"Before the police and rangers could react Tommy-boy took off into the woods preemptively enough to confirm guilt apparently, there was a massive manhunt but they never found hide nor hair of him…happened five years ago." Hiro finished.
"The shock of being found snapped him out of the delusions brought on by the possession, he panicked and likely has been holding himself at bay…" Alice said, frowning.
"Well he hasn't been doing a good job…ten missing hikers in the last two years alone, forty over the whole time he'd of been active, add on three missing rangers, and five others from search parties who disappeared…" Hiro picked back up.
"Thing is they all fully vanished, no blood or trail for the dogs to follow….usual cover up shit trail was closed but there's another trail about an hour away…in the opposite direction… the two trials intersect way up north…last year and this January we had ten more hikers go missing the last four were found in such a state the ME concluded they had to of been mauled by a Moose and then the corpses then had to of been eaten by a bear…" he shuddered at the images he pulled up.
"But get this the last four were all in January after number six went missing they closed the other trail… but some thrill seekers broke into either trail over the course of January… after the fourth parks department started upping patrols… but this is where it gets interesting, they did so using Star Labs new search and rescue droids….which they switched to after two more rangers went missing and one was found in similar shape…"
"Doing some digging I found the fire towers have reported strange phenomena exactly like what you described to Raven Susanne… they doubled the number of drones around it seems…and started having regular reports back from eh drones of 'hostile wildlife' and 'diseased wildlife' seems like the cheapskates at the parks department choose not to opt into the platinum package so no visual link or recording…" Hiro said frowning
"That explains things then, although with those casualties I'm surprised he isn't fully into a state of psychosis yet." Raven muttered
"It's surprising, until you consider that rangers and droids were until recently reporting 'abnormal' carcasses…throughout the whole five years…deer, wolves, bear, coyotes, moose, and anything else you'd expect to find in the forest."
"I cooked up an algorithm to scan the net and surprise, surprise you have ten times the number of hikers, rangers and search party members who report similar phenomena to Susanne, and more than a few that claim to have seen a 'deer with fucked up legs' as one person put it, also said that it looked 'sick and mangy' and was 'clearly injured covered in blood' pretty sure that confirms what we're dealing with even if it wasn't already obvious." Hiro explained, doing air quotes around his reciting of one of the witnesses' statements.
"Damn that's bad camouflaging while stalking means there's a human conscious present…." Naruto muttered that complicated things for them legally.
"Um…before my grandma died one of the nurses found a bleached deer skull near the north fence…but no one's seen deer on or even CLOSE the property in about five years…." Susanne offered a bit nervously.
"Well, that's a bad sign for a whole different reason." Chloe said as Sebastian who was once again perched on her shoulder whimpered darting into her hood.
"w-w-why?" Susanne asked her anxiety rushing back like the red sea closing in on a bunch of Egyptians.
"When there's still a human mind present often as a method of dissociating and camouflaging while the wendigo psychosis sets in fully, early-stage wendigo, to hide their growing physical mutations and malformations, and to disassociate from the acts they commit they cover themselves in pelts, wear a large animal skull and try and act like an animal…as they mentally deteriorate they stop and often leave the objects they used to cover themselves where they fall." Raven explained evenly as she did Susanne paled realizing how long this thing had been around her home and that her grandmother could have been its prey if the cancer hadn't gotten her first.
"That's a sign that their resistance and desire to hold onto their humanity is waning…and waning fast, and their mental faculties not related to hunting and eating are breaking down faster and nearing total breakdown." She finished explaining Susanne looked far more anxious. She opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds staring at the image on Raven's monitor, Naruto had turned the monitor to show her it was a gaunt, emaciated human-like…thing, because it, despite its shape, was NOT a person.
Its skin was stained red with the mouth, and hands being caked in blood it was perched in a tree branch, its two long arms and legs were more prevalent in its crouching position, its knees going up past its head.
its right arm which was above its head stretched out the length of its body three times over the fingers each as long as her forearms with the exception of the thumb which was only as long as her hand from palm heel to fingertip.
The index, middle and ring fingers were each tipped with a blade like talon, because claw didn't fit what she was looking at, the talons were dug into the tree so she couldn't tell how long they were but from what she could see it was already two long.
The other hand was less lengthy, rather it was blockier like it was meant to bludgeon…or tenderize, calcified polyps cover the knuckles in no clear pattern leading to disgusting clusters. The same three fingers as the other hand were tipped with much shorter and curved not to mention serrated claws, like a meat tenderizer with meat hooks attached almost.
The face…god the face, she felt nauseous looking at it, the lips and cheeks were gone, muscle caked in blood both long dried and wet, fresh, enough of both types that it took her a second to SEE that the skin was gone, the teeth weren't fangs, it would have been better if they were…instead they were human like…but bigger not cartoonishly no just enough to be unsettling, they were also jagged, chipped and pitch black in color both from decay and stains the gums were dark red and inflamed, infected cuts oozing puss ran along them haphazardly in no clear pattern.
The nose was what she noticed next; it had been worn down; she didn't know how else to describe it.
It looked like it had been cut off almost, leaving just enough to do a poor job mimicking a flat pig-like nose, if it weren't for how gray and calcified the cartilage on display was and the obvious wear to it as if it were sanded down.
Bits of tattered skin hung from it randomly frayed and rotting, the sight made her flinch in pain
The eyes…the eyes yellow and sunken in the skin around them like dark bruises as if it had never slept in its entire life and that life had been long, there were no eyebrows…no lashes…it didn't even have eyelids for Christ's sake…just almost glowing yellowed jaundiced eyes red bleeding veins prominent throughout them the more blood stained jaundiced skin marked it's brow wat looked like cuts and scrapes dotted it giving it an uneven texture, the top of its head was totally bald bar a few faint wisps of hair
Looking at its face made her sick for obvious reasons, so she looked down. That was a mistake, she nearly threw up almost immediately after changing her focus to it.
The torso was devoid of hair. She could count the ribs despite the bloated gut not like someone who overate, no it was like someone who was starved, and their gut had ballooned with gas form their body defiantly digesting itself in protest to the lack of nutrients.
Wrinkled pendulous breasts denoted this as a female but that was it because nay defining sex characteristics in the groin were gone, sloughed off leaving an unidentifiable rotting mess she turned and vomited.
Raven responded to Naruto's act of turning the monitor by glaring at him and smacking him with another magic construct over the head this time the hand wielded a baseball bat Naruto's head tilted forward whereas he hadn't budged last time, despite this he only grumbled.
Raven sighed and vanished the mess with her magic.
"Sorry about that…" Raven said with a sigh
"N-no…I just…didn't expect it to look…" Susanne struggled to find the words she could think of one extreme enough to describe what she'd seen and that was just a photo.
"Like that? Monsters are rarely as pretty as Hollywood makes them, that was a picture we took on a previous job… " Naruto explained.
"Oh god just imaging something like that staring at me through my window…" the young woman whimpered as she fought the visceral urge from the bottom of her gut to heave again.
"that's an elder wendigo, they eat with all the strength a human body can muster with the voracity of a dog…fucks up their faces and stains their skin with blood." Alice offered as she read a magazine whose black cover had the image of a suicide girl in a suggestive pose on the front.
"What we're dealing with doesn't even have those body proportions yet most likely…it should only take a single evening to deal with it…which brings up the question how do you want it dealt with, obviously with a Wendigo we have to put it down that's federal law." Naruto began as he sat at his desk kicking his feet up on it pulling out his flask which bore a stylized image reminiscent of the boss toad of Myoboku himself standing on a mountain peak in front of a torii gate stabbing his tanto into the head of a serpentine dragon.
The blonde took a swig of the contents before stowing it again and continuing.
"But we offer a number of disposal packages for carcasses, first is standard disposal we'll get rid of the body and make it look like there never was one to begin with, next we have trophy options now with wendigo it's a bit of a legal gray area we can't offer you a full taxidermy corpse, but we can mount the head, arms or from mid torso up as a complete package." Naruto explained as Hiro projected images of what Naruto described, both hopeful the young woman would buy the last, and most expensive package.
"Standard package is included in the price of extermination but-" Naruto began again preparing to talk up the gold package.
"Standard is fine!" Susanne said looking horrified at the concept she quickly signed dated and initialed the contract flinging it at Hiro who gave an affronted Hey.
"Is…is there any chance I can just…stay here while you deal with it…I don't want to be NEAR whatever it is." She turned to Raven practically begging, realizing that she was likely the sanest person in the room in spite of her strange skin color.
"If you want to sign another clause that says you take our word on the estimation of-" Hiro started
"I don't care HOW much money it costs or what I have to sign just get rid of that fucking thing!" She shouted, panicked at the idea of living near a monster like that for another second, she didn't care if it put her in debt for the rest of her life, anything was better than whatever would happen if that thing got a hold of her.
"Alrighty then Nanue, Bandit go wait in the car Daddy needs to stock up." Naruto said as he headed towards the back-room door with a grin on his whiskered face.
"We fucking talked about this man! don't call yourself Daddy!" Eddie shouted disgusted, his devilish visage cringing visibly.
"Yeah, just because Raven calls you that doesn't mean we have too" Grunge added far too sternly for the words he'd just uttered.
As Naruto vanished into the backroom without responding everyone turned to Grunge but Raven who was making a show of giving tea to their client as if to say, if she hadn't been there, Grunge would be in immediate agony.
"If you wanted to kill yourself man there are easier ways…." Hiro said dumbfounded.
"You realize she's going to dismember you and put you back together wrong again for that, and I'm not saving you, you won't learn if I do." Roxanne said, shaking her head almost like a mother whose child had done something foolish for the hundredth time.
Nanue and Bandit however were already out the door the Shark Man was eagerly clapping his hands as Bandit excitedly wagged his tail both excited for the car ride.
Raven sighed.
"Alright I need to go and make sure they don't rip one of the doors off the hinges…again, oh and when I get back Alice please remind me to find that spell that reverses the flow of a person's digestive tract for three days will you?" Raven said with a very uncharacteristic sweetness to her tone and saccharine smile both came off incredibly forced and unnatural doing their job of deeply terrifying most of those listening.
"Sure, thing boss lady." The girl in question still reading her magazine, this month's issue of '$Uicide-Girlz Monthly', uncaring now that she knew she wouldn't need to work today.
"Oh, and don't traumatize the client…" Raven added as an afterthought before she left following Nanue and Bandit.
Grunge whimpered uncomfortably as his brain finally caught up with the consequences of his actions or in this case words.
Meanwhile Naruto was whistling a jaunty tune in the 'Back-offices" as they affectionately called the strange liminal space attached to their place of work, unlike other similar anomalies it didn't stretch on infinitely, nor was anything living in it, but it was still fairly unsettling.
A too long office building hallway, plastered with off beige stucco walls every exactly five feet was an office door just like the one at the entrance to their bullpen office.
Naruto walked down the hall to one of the doors that didn't fit the motif at all, instead it was a solid metal door riddled with slash marks, burns and bullet holes.
But incredibly intact.
Behind the door was an armory and not a normal one either the room was filled with clearly occult weapons, high tech firearms, racks of grenades, and others full of ninja tools, sealing tags and bottles full of strange often glowing liquids, others stones with runic patterns notably different from Fuinjutsu markings.
Naruto walked past the racks of ink marked, bandaged blunt or bladed weapons, seven branched swords, and clearly magic staves and wands to a distinctive locker clearly stolen from some sort of public school bound in prayer rope, onmyoji sealing tags covered it and chains further bound it held in place by a high-tech padlock.
The locker itself was also locked with another padlock…that looked as if it had been carved from bone a fanged visage in the place of any kind of numeric locking system or keyhole.
"If I take you out, will you fucking behave this time?" Naruto asked as he went to the shelf full of distinctive bullet clips and gleaming Nth Metal bullets each marked with etched words that read 'All are equal in death' a soft blue glow coming from the base of each bullet.
The locker rattled in response and Naruto scowled, turning he kicked the locker three times this rendered it still and silent.
"Fine then not gonna need you for this anyway, hell I don't need you for ANY job EVER so you can stay collecting dust for all I care." The blonde spat his good mood gone.
"Why you keep that disgusting thing around still baffles me brat." A dark voice spoke from the back of his mind, further souring his mood.
"Oh, gee I was just wondering the same exact thing about you furball…" Naruto replied sarcastically
"Because you need me if you want to save your little bird…we made a deal, remember?"
Naruto frowned at that…
"Yeah, I fucking remember… I keep you hidden from that freak show who wants to eat you, you help me kill that gaping red asshole…" the blond said, pulling out a pistol from the far too deep depths of his jacket, a pistol that despite being in a holster could only be called a Hand cannon.
Even superman would feel the recoil trying to fire the monster of a handgun Naruto removed the gun from the rather simple dark leather holster the only mark on it being an Uzumaki spiral emblazoned on the outward facing side.
The gun was huge it resembled a modern pistol made of burnished silvery metal, Nth metal to be exact, the barrel as long almost equal in length to Naruto's forearm, the grip was instead of a standard pistol grip bound like a katana, with red silken Ito wrapping over black sharkskin the mekugi were metal rather than wood each carved into a small Uzumaki spiral, the decorative charm the Menuki was in the image of a raven no prizes for guessing the why to that.
The gun itself was based in design at least, off the LexCorp 'Liberty' part of their 'Constitutional arms' series of firearms made for general-consumers AND military alike. Of course, that was where the similarities ended to an actual LexCorp gun though.
The gun at the end of the barrel housing had the Kanji for 'Promise' 約束 branded into it immaculately at the opposite end was the familiar phrase "In Death All Are Equal" etched smoothly into the metal. The gun itself had quite the story, every piece of it and even how it was made, and the enchantments woven into it connected him with his team, he'd dubbed it "Nindō".
Representing his promises to all of them, given he often fought things he couldn't just freely punch in the face for one reason or another Nindō gave him an avenue to fight…and a way to make sure things that wouldn't die died the how of that was just as long a story as the how the gun was even made in the first place.
Ejecting the magazine, he checked it and the chamber before flicking the safety and holstering it in the now affixed to his side holster.
He checked his ninja pouch doing a quick count before grabbing several Nth Metal shuriken's which bore the same etched phrase as the bullets, and Nindō a few similarly etched Kunai, some Toyman specially made flash bombs, and a spool of nth Metal ninja wire.
Then he grabbed three round flasks filled with what was clearly some kind of oil, he stopped by the rack of strange and obviously mystical tools and weapons and grabbed a red three sectioned staff putting it into a specially made place just for it in his jacket.
Yū-un, Playful cloud a type of weapon called a 'Cursed Tool' one of many he and Raven Collected in their two years of traveling.
And one of the two he was comfortable using.
"Better safe than sorry…" the blond muttered as he left the room and passed several more distinctive doors that were distinctly out of place.
He paused as a half deep purple and half orange door with a red Uzumaki spiral in its center surrounded by a silhouette of a raven flew open and a strange Book flew out of it too fast to see the door slammed shut behind it as well.
"She always forgets." Naruto chuckled as the book flew out the hard entrance to the liminal space back into normal reality.
Resuming his whistling as he walked by the others ruffling Ace's hair as he passed her, she made a chagrined face but the faint smile on her face she thought he didn't notice reminded him how much she enjoyed little things like that.
He resisted the urge to snort at the face their client he'd forgotten her name was making after seeing a Book open two doors while flying fast enough that you couldn't tell what it looked like while still being able to tell it was a book.
Waiving over his shoulder he continued his short trek to the parking lot just in time to see raven catch the strange book.
No longer moving one could easily see the cover was stitched brown leather with a simple latch binding…that latched onto an actual moving expressive and notably alive eyeball.
She quickly, after seeing him, opened the passenger side car door and got in.
His car, an Orange and Black Painted, mystically, and technologically modified 1970 Cyclone Spoiler, he'd gotten way back when he and Raven First met.
Snapping his fingers, the driver's side door flung itself open and he hopped in, the door shutting again on its own behind him. He smirked at the flat look Raven gave him.
"So, I take it, THAT didn't feel like cooperating?" Raven asked, eyebrow cocked inquisitively.
"Not in the least, but we don't need it for this….honestly don't need it for anything." Naruto said as he started the car.
"It makes things easier though…particularly with clean up…" She countered as they left the parking lot.
Naruto scoffed.
"We got Nanue here, don't we?" the blonde said, getting the childlike humanoid shark to cheer.
"You can't just let him eat whatever he wants, Naruto, he'll get sick!" Raven chastised her boyfriend.
"Pfft this is a five-year-old wendigo. If its nose has even started wearing down, I'll be surprised, it'll be fine. He's eaten worse and gone back for seconds." Naruto said with his usual grin Raven sighed and shook her head.
"If he throws it up, YOU'RE cleaning it up." Raven sternly said, eyes narrowed.
"Yes dear." The blond jokingly said in response getting a playful Sigh and smirk from the violet haired beauty beside him.
AN: That's a wrap Space Cowboys, hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to "The Art of Hunting Monsters, Part II" should be around in a week or two depending on my life and health
All the members of Red Spiral Investigations sans Naruto are DC comics native in case any of you are curious.
Left a lot of hints and crumbs some easier to catch then others, some foreshadowing, some less important and more than a few impossible to figure out…probably expect a lot more of those and if your observant you might figure things out before I ever reveal them lol
I took my time and planned the overarching story out this time in detail, so I hope you all enjoy it!
Until Next Time Y'all ^^