AN: The rotation continues. Things will start to pick up, now.

RISES IN THE EAST

[Teal]

Teal strutted into the Daymonte collection offices like a goddess, her face sparkling and her teal-blue ponytail swishing behind her. The guard behind the counter stood straighter, having recognized the boisterous woman.

"Who's got two thumbs and scratched off another couple of criminals from Daymonte's seedy underbelly?" She declared before dropping three Heads on the counter and hiking her thumbs to point at herself. "Thiiiiis giiiiirl~!"

"Well done." The guard congratulated, chuckling lightly while examining the Heads. The interaction drew the attention of other guards who knew Teal as a regular. "So what'd they do?"

Teal pointed. "The dark-haired one was trying to kidnap a woman, and the two blonds were chasing a guy with their swords drawn. The guards patched up the guy - apparently these two were threatening his life trying to rush a redstone repair. I didn't exactly wait for an explanation." She drummed her fingers on the counter. "Sooooo, they worth anything?"

"Just a second..." The guard checked the names of the Heads with his records before humming. "Actually, yes. One of the blonds is wanted for armed robbery. Twenty-five emeralds. The dark-haired one is wanted in several sexual assault charges. Thirty emeralds. Nothing on the other blond, but since he was colluding, you get a five-emerald reward for bringing him in. Sixty emeralds in all."

"Score!" Teal pumped a fist, eliciting another chuckle from the guard.

"I'll get these rung up then. It'll just be a second." He went in back with the Heads while Teal leaned on the counter and waited.

She'd been doing this for two months - year 181 just starting - and it'd become a regular thing. She'd patrol the streets at night in search of crime and beat up any criminals she ran into. If they were fighters and brought her near death, that just fired her up even more! It got her heart pumping to fight those one-on-one battles with death as the hanging stake. Never had she had that in those dull boxing or kickboxing matches. As a matter of fact, they kicked her out of boxing last week after she took things a little too far and almost beat her opponent to death. But that was just because she was having trouble adjusting between competitions and patrols. She didn't mind getting banned, even though she assured the boxing committee that it would never happen again.

While she waited, the guards approached and congratulated her for her work. Among them was one of Daymonte's Captains, Captain Vincent_Brocolo.

"Nice job, Larkspur." He nodded. "You have my thanks for helping to clean up our streets."

"Hey, just doing my part." She accepted modestly.

"You could do your part as a guard. Offer still stands." Vincent tried.

Teal wrinkled her nose. "Guard work's... not for me. I prefer freelance."

"Bounty hunting."

"Yeah, that."

"Have you thought about finding work with the Berserkers? They could use someone like you... even though they're money grubbers."

"Not really selling me on them, but yeah, I've thought about it." Teal said.

In truth, Teal didn't want to be a guard because, while part of it involved going after criminals, most of it was just standing around and keeping the peace. Patrolling and being seen, breaking up fights or else tending to crises. She just wanted to beat up jerks. Plus, she'd be stuck in one place if she signed on with the guards. Being a Bounty hunter fit her better than joining the Daymonte guards.

"I know the 'dead or alive' thing is just a suggestion," Vincent started, "but you can try to bring them in alive, can't you? Especially since you only use your fists and kicks. Half-a-Heart per hit, right?"

"...What do you mean?"

"Only that you've killed every criminal you've come across." Vincent pointed out. "You only ever bring Heads here instead of living, breathing bodies. We have a prison, you know. You don't have to kill them all the time."

"Ah, i-it's not that easy..." Teal threw out, her posture becoming more defensive and less laid back. " I-I mean they're coming right at me - and I only use my fists, so I can't afford to hold back, so..." She trailed off.

"I get it." Vincent nodded grimly. "They don't always give you a choice. They themselves take away that choice while they're lunging at you. Sometimes it can only be you or them."

"Yeah. Exactly."

That was a big fat hairy lie. While some criminals had been like that, not giving Teal a choice, others had the fight taken out of them on the first hit. They dropped their weapons or else surrendered with their hands up. The dark-haired stalker she just brought in was among those.

Didn't stop her from kicking their brains in. She showed no mercy to the criminals. Nothing could stop her when her heart started pumping. The blood pounding through her ears drowned out all else. The euphoric high was all she felt, and it peaked when she killed them. It didn't make sense to work herself up only to deny herself when the criminal gave up prematurely.

They were dead the moment they crossed her path.

Why should it matter? They were criminals and deserved no mercy. They operated outside the rules of the Kingdom they resided in. In all the games she played, you had to obey the rules. Everyone playing by the same rules made things fair. If you started breaking them, the game was no fun. And beating up criminals was fun.

The Captain and guards didn't need to know she took pleasure in killing. They didn't need to know any of it. She'd just go on killing criminals for them and feeling that sweet, sweet rush. It was intoxicating. It was liberating.

It was life.

"I'm telling you guys, don't knock it till you try it."

"Vigilantism, Teal? That's your latest hobby?"

Teal was sitting at lunch with Keara and Tomas, trying to describe to them the sensation she'd fallen in love with. The topic had come up when Teal volunteered to treat then all, and the other two wondered where she'd been getting the emeralds from.

"It's the same feeling you get when skydiving but cranked up to eleven." Teal tried to explain. "Your heart races, blood's coursing through your veins. You see this guy coming at you with a sword and you know in your heart he wants to kill you-"

"This sounds all kinds of terrifying." Keara commented.

"-But it's not! It's no different from skydiving." Teal insisted. "The ground's coming at you with the intent to kill. You know you're dead when it hits, but you have the power to save yourself, and can choose the optimal time to 'pull the cord'. It's the delay that gets you. The knowledge that you're maybe a hair away from death, but you go on living anyway. You live by your own strength. You're stronger. You kill, and you live. It makes you appreciate life all the more!"

"And if you don't pull the cord? What then?" Tomas implies before shaking his head. "No matter what crazy stunts we get into, there are always safety measures in place."

"Those are boring!"

"They're put in place so you survive." He asserted.

"I don't want to survive. I wanna live!"

"This isn't living?" He gestured to themselves and the restaurant. "The three of us, sitting here, eating and talking. Not a death-defying stunt between us. This not enough for you?"

Teal pouted and turned away.

"We can't be alive just to seek death." Keara said wisely. "Sports and stunts are one thing, but what you're doing is just looking for trouble. One of these days you might just run into someone stronger than you, and then we'll be reading about your death in the morning newsbooks."

"Look, that's not gonna happen with me. I'm training double-time to make sure of it. I'm no idiot." Teal promised. "I just... I feel good doing it. Stimulated. In a way I never felt with just the stunts. And I'm doing a service! I'm getting paid! Did you know having a job and making money is awesome?" She showed off the emeralds in her palm. Her income usually came from scrounging for items to trade to Testificates, but the Bounty Hunter work paid a lot better. She actually had money to spend on things, which felt amazing. "I just... I feel like this is what I should have been doing my whole life. I get out of bed every morning praying for a new adventure, and throwing hands with criminals and putting them down is the answer. I feel fulfilled. And it isn't unhealthy."

Keara and Tomas looked contemplative, having heard all of what Teal divulged. She spoke with an earnest passion that was hard to ignore. Gone was her usual joking, teasing tone. She felt serious about this.

"...We're sorry, Teal." Keara broke the silence first. "We shouldn't have judged your tastes. Everybody... everybody has something to get them through the day." She shrugged a shoulder. "We're worried about your safety, but... if doing that makes you feel fulfilled, who are we to tell you not to."

"Thanks you guys." Teal smiled warmly. "And... and forget I invited you. Just because it's my thing doesn't mean I have to make it your thing."

"Thank you." Tomas nodded, respecting his friend's hobby. His eyes then lit up, an idea forming. "Hey, what say we hit the recreation center for some rock-climbing. I for one am over that whole Nitebane fiasco."

"Me too. And that sounds great." Keara agreed. "What about you, Teal? Up for some extreme rock-climbing? We can make a competition out of it."

Teal put on a forced smile. "You bet! Sounds like a... good time." Her enthusiasm was fake.

In truth, rock-climbing sounded as interesting as doing her taxes now. Even with her friends and with the prospect of a competition. She felt like it was more a chore than anything - something she had to do with her friends because they were her friends. She would have preferred going on patrol for some criminals to bloody her knuckles with, but that was obviously out. It wasn't her friends' thing (despite them shooting it down without even giving it a try first).

So she'd climb some rocks and hang out. The whole time, however, she'd be thinking about after, when she could really let her hair down and party.

It was three months later when criminals started drying up on Teal's recreational patrols.

It was bound to happen at some point. Rumors circulated in the underworld that criminals - big time or small time - were being taken out by some nocturnal, blue-haired brawler. Eventually, criminals stopped going out at night. In more humorous words, the monsters of Daymonte were checking under their beds for Teal. Crimes still happened, but mostly during the day, when criminals were sure a guard was the worst thing that could catch them. Alive.

While the guards and citizens celebrated the drop in crime, Teal was displeased and irritable over the dry spell. She used to be able to hunt four or five criminals a week at minimum. Now she was lucky to get one or two, and she usually had to instigate it herself. She picked fights with drunks, throwing taunts until they threw the first punch. Then they were fair game. She'd also lure in predators with her bubbly attitude and teasing tongue. She'd taken to talking with a flirty lilt more often to entice people into groping or feeling her up. Then she'd beat the holy hell out of them. In both cases, the fights had been pathetic, barely stirring anything inside of her.

Was she a battle maniac? Probably. She never understood the term before, wondering why anyone would seek out battle, but now she saw the thrill of it. Maybe all her death-defying excursions were just a hint of her true self. She was drunk on the feeling of beating someone with her bare fists. It was better if it was close - if her opponent was equal in strength and ability, and one mistake could mean all the difference between life and death.

She wasn't getting that anymore, and it angered her. She was angrier than she'd ever been in her whole life.

Her frustration boiled over after a particularly long stretch without killing a criminal, and it resulted in her nearly killing her opponent in the kickboxing ring. Her second incident in a year. After that, she was banned from participating in any sports at the recreation center. It was just another turd packed into the mound of shit she thought the situation to be. She was so addicted to killing, she let it consume her life.

Desperate and suffering from withdrawal, Teal switched to daytime patrols on a warpath, doing whatever she could to make people out as criminals so she could kill them. Even committing a minor misdemeanor in her presence was enough to warrant the death penalty.

After three days of doing this, in clear daylight where the people of Daymonte could see the ugliness of her actions, the Captain stepped in.

"LARKSPUR! Drop him this instant!"

Teal glanced over at Captain Vincent with an annoyed expression, a Crafter caught in a chokehold by her fishnet clad arms.

"He's a criminal." She asserted firmly before tightening the chokehold.

"He threw a piece of paper and missed a trashcan!"

"He's a litterbug!" Teal snapped. "Also, he's got a creepy moustache - guy's gotta be guilty of something."

The moustached man in question feebly patted Teal's arms as he was choked, his face turning blue.

"I said DROP HIM!" Vincent surged forward and pried Teal's arms apart. It was too late, however, as the Crafter burst into gear and dropped to the ground, dead. While Vincent was horrified, Teal whirled on the Captain.

"I'm trying to perform a service here! I'm cleaning the streets and helping Daymonte!"

"Don't pretend this is helping the Kingdom." Vincent jabbed her with a finger, his voice low and dangerous. "You're doing this for you. Because you get a kick out of it. You're killing anyone that you can under the guise of civil service. There's nothing civil about this!"

"You all seemed to be fine with it when I was hauling in bad guys." Teal challenged, shoving the Captain hard. "I'm not doing anything wrong!"

"If you truly believe that, then we have a real problem on our hands." Vincent grabbed Teal's arm and attempted to pin it behind her back. "I'm taking you in Teal. You need to be psychologically evaluated-"

Teal twirled, contorting her body so her pinned arm was over her head. Then she drew back so she was facing Vincent, her arm still in his grip and her expression wild.

"Let go of me."

"Come quietly, Teal."

"I'm warning you, Captain."

He drew his sword. "You want to make this violent?"

Teal grinned ferally. "Don't threaten me with a good time~"

Vincent tried to say something else only for Teal's leg to kick high and crack against his chin.

"I get a kick out of it alright~!"

Vincent held his face before darting forward, closing the distance. He dodged Teal's fist and slashed his sword across her body, from her face to her shin. She fell back with a cry and Vincent set off some red fireworks calling for backup.

"Give it up, Larkspur. What you're doing isn't good."

She kicked up to her feet and rubbed her face, a drunken smile on her face.

"Feels pretty good to me~"

She charged forward, looking like she was going to tackle. But when Vincent blocked with his sword, she feinted and strafed to the left, her leg going high and glancing off his helmet as he sprawled. He spun to his feet, slashing as he went, but Teal backflipped in a high arc over the swing before landing softly behind the Captain. She lunged forward and grappled him, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt.

"Gotta thank my judo instructor for this~!"

She stepped closer, crossing her legs as she'd been taught, then, using her back foot as a pivot, she wrapped her other leg around Vincent's before yanking it back, taking out his leg from under him and allowing her to drop him with her on top.

A sharp pain raked her back and made her scream. Vincent had scraped his sword against her, and the pain made her lash out to do as much damage as possible. She mounted him and delivered a couple of haymakers to his face. Then she grabbed his head and started slamming it into the stone ground over and over and over.

The euphoric rush coursing through her over a worthy opponent was quickly cut short when she realized the head she was slamming into the ground was no longer attached to anything. She brought the Head to eye level before letting it slip from her weak grip and join the rest of Captain Vincent's spilled gear.

She killed a Captain.

"Shiiiiiiiiiii-"

"The firework came from over here! This way!"

Teal shot to her feet and bolted away from the crime scene as the sounds of reinforcements could be heard behind her. She prayed her identifiable blue hair wasn't seen - it had a swirl of highlights for darn sake! - as she vaulted off the side of the nearest stone bridge and plummeted to a lower level.

She landed on a slime trampoline pad and bounced ungracefully in her mad scramble to find cover. She rounded a corner and slid behind some trash chests in an alley before taking the time to catch her panting breath.

Okay. She thought to herself. That was a little more excitement than I was going for.

She placed two hands on the trash chest and rested her forehead on it, her eyes sliding shut as she felt her pounding heartbeat. She killed a Captain. She killed a Captain.

That was a big no-no. Criminals were one thing, but if you fucked with the leader of the guards, you better expect the whole barracks of them to come down on you in force.

And they'd know since the Head was all the evidence they needed. If the guards recognized her while she was fleeing the scene, she'd have to leave Daymonte. She didn't mean for it to get out of hand like that. It just got away from her. She lost sense of everything and just let the euphoric high whisk her away. Nothing else seemed to matter... until it was over and everything hit her at once.

She heard some distant fireworks go off and saw some guards pass her alley moving towards it. The guards were gathering everyone to the crime scene most likely. She had to get home and establish an alibi. They'd crucify her if they knew what she did.

She waited a bit after the fireworks before slipping back onto the street and acting nonchalant. She slipped into a crowd and walked straight home, her heart thundering inside her chest all the while.

Way more excitement than she'd been hoping for.

[Elsewhere]

"Abyssmal, sir?"

"Yeah?" A bored voice drawled from a desk buried in paperwork.

"You said to inform you about any developments in Daymonte's Captains."

"What? Has Veronica got a girl before me?" Abyssmal asked seriously.

"Er... no, sir. This actually has zero to do with Captain Veloc - Veronica."

"Oh." He blinked (or winked) his one eye, quickly losing interest. "Well, make it fast. I got a lot of paperwork to do." He proceeded to gather all the paperwork into a pillow shape to comfortably rest his head on. "Yeah, that's some good paperworking."

"Okay, well..." the cultist rubbed his head awkwardly. "Captain Vincent_Brocolo of Daymonte was killed a day ago."

"You don't say." Abyssmal yawned.

"The guards don't have a suspect, but I thought you should know." The cultist averted his eyes. "In case you wanted to recruit some potential allies...?"

Abyssmal blinked.

"Which is part of your responsibilities as Executive...?"

Abyssmal blinked.

"Which is something Ember will hassle you about if you lay there like a sloth all day...?"

"Damn. Yeah. I can check it out, then." He sounded dispassionate about it, but Abyssmal quickly leaned off his desk and got up from his seat, his neck popping. "Daymonte. Recruiting. Fun fun fun."

He slogged out of his cluttered office and proceeded to the Portal Hub of his own making. As he passed under the lights, they illuminated his shaggy, jet-black hair, his right, blood red eye, and his white eye patch with a red 'X' painted on that covered his left eye.

Eastern Executive of the Endward Cult, and former leader of the Birds of Prey: The Night-Raven, Abyssmal.

Everyone's favorite golden boy, Abyssmal!