Rural

Between the bustling cities and the vast wilderness, there are the rural areas of this planet - countrysides and towns of varying size and sparity. It's a lovely place if you want to move away from the hectic city life and the dull wilderness.

The Traditional Welcome Party of Crogbank
After a long while of evading the patrols of the MCCP and their military goons, Drake and Daikiem begin to experience far less hazards on their journey away from the city. After a while, it looks like they are entering a more humid, bog like region, with lots of thick foliage and swamplands. A narrow dirt path lies before them into the deep undergrowth.

"" Sarcasm drips from Drake's voice as Daikeim is just about ready to smack Drake upside the head until he notices faint lights amidst the foliage.

"" Daikeim steps forward, keeping his wits with him. Drake rolls his eyes but also begins scanning the area for any activity.

They quickly pick up the faint sounds of men shouting, as well as the roaring of some manner of large creature. Once curiosity overwhelms their common sense, they cautiously get closer, soon hearing:

"O' me bloody arse! Someone grab me a harpoon! This wee bugger ain't gonna bugger off on his own!" A rather angry male's voice snarls in the distance.

A man's scream rings out among the foliage.

"...Or ye can bloody piss off and get eaten along with the freakn' harpoon ya idiot!"

The sound of waves crashing into a nearby dock is heard, with several men flying into the air, screaming in panic, only for what looks like a giant snake's head to bite the lower torso of one of the men, the beast whips them back out of sight with a rapid swish of its head.

The two see the snake, speechless. However, Daikeim looks at Drake who has an animalistic smile. ""

Daikeim looks around, mainly at the injuried men. "" He can't even finish his sentence before the mercenary is gone from his sights.

As the beast continues its rampage, a piece of broken wood, resembling a shape of a makeshift spear pricks into the side of it. ""

The beast, a massive moss and slime covered snake towering from the rather boggy lake the town surrounds, immediately notices and lets out a large shriek, as it begins to spew green tinted water at Drake's general vicinity. Meanwhile, a short but heavily built man with dark red hair and a shaggy beard barks orders at a bunch of lackies, who are desperately trying to get several large harpoons into position on ballistiae.

As the tainted water gets close, Drake's smirk widens as from his hands - large unstable orbs of embers grow and are thrown to counter the wave of water. The flames and liquid collide, canceling each other out as Drake takes this moment to leap from one tree to the next. "" He leaps towards the snake, firearm and knife in hand.

The snake hisses directly at him, and Drake gets a direct hit from its horrid breath, as though he was smelling rotten flesh and feces mixed together with a bit of rotten eggs.

The pungent smell causes Drake to flinch, missing his perfect hit. However he does quickly turn and stick his knife into the serpent, near the gills. "" Drake begins unloading his firearm into the beast, all while cursing.

Meanwhile Daikeim approaches some of the men, looking at the serpent. "I have a feeling this is either something that happens often or not at all... How can I help?"

"The flimsy-skinned varmit is only one of many of these blasted humpdiggers that spawn every bloody year." The red haired man says grouchily before looking at Drake.

"He ain't a vampire is e'? I'd haveta stuff his corpse full of garlic and put em' on a stake. Fuckn' shitty Twilight bitches."

Meanwhile the serpent, not at all pleased by the embedding of a steel knife in its flesh, wildly flails its body, slamming its head and upper body into a nearby building with full force.

Daikeim looks at the man. "...Vampire? Whatever that is, no, he isn't."

While Daikeim is chatting to the men, Drake gets thrown through a window of the building, glass embedded in his skin. "" He uses the knife to scribble arcane circles into the floor of the building, soon there is a faint glow and the sound of electricity.

Suddenly lightning arcs from the building and throughout the water, reaching the serpent and speeding upwards.

"Old' a sec'." The man then turns to the scrambling men. "Quit your pussylivered whining and SHOOT IT YA PANSIES!" He roars, and the men straighten up.

"Ahh, much better. Vampire, blood sucking maggots that look like people see, typically immortal unless ya got some way of butchering em' with magic tools. Contagious too, so you gotta get every one." He grunts.

The men finally get their harpoons lined up, and the harpoons sink into the snake's body and pull it into the water, combined with the electricity, there is much howling and screeching, until finally the creature's carcass sinks into the river bottom.

"Uggh, filthy leviathans. Such a pain in the ass. Well, it's dead now. Well bois, welcome to Crogbank. Just in time for the coincidental traditional welcoming party." He spits into the water in the direction of the sunken leviathan.

He wheels his head back toward Daikeim. "So who are ye punts? I've not seen likes of you here before, clearly Myths at the least, either that or kids gone goth lately."

Drake hops off of the leviathan's head and next to Daikeim, wiping blood off of him. "."

"For the sake of simplicity, we're not human. Take that as you will, and I'm Daikeim." Daikeim offers a handshake.

"The name's Drake Ryunexo, mercenary for hire." He looks over at the harpoon, smirking. "For stuff like that, you're gonna need bigger weapons."

The man eyes Drake and the almost gel like blood stuck to him. "...Boys, get it." Without a word, a pair of men run off, and come back with buckets of water, and without warning, splash Drake from head to toe, the gel bursts and releases a green fog with a hiss, leaving behind a pungent odor.

"Acid blood, tame than most, but cha don't want it lingerin'. You can thank me later. Name's Boyd. I run things here, and I don't take kindly to funny buisness. I like harpooning things that annoy me. Why, we harpooned a sissy whiner who thought a grand a month was too little for his tastes. Think dat leviathan had its way with him." He gestures to a distant tree with a skeleton stuck to it via a large harpoon.

He rolls his shoulder, poping it. "Anyways, despite the damage, we're not a month off schedule cause of ya, so I'm gonna see that you all get what you deserve. Come with me, aye?" Boyd starts shuffling off into the mostly wooden, elevated town.

"Sounds like a plan, thank you... And Drake thanks you as well." Daikeim looks at the soaked mercenary, Drake just sighs and the water begins to steam and evaporate off of him. He looks at Boyd and nods, the two begin following behind him.

As they walk, various people start emerging, some obviously builders, others clearly have shady things going on, but nothing breaks out into any sort of violence, though occasional bickering can be heard.

"I take it you kids are hidin' if you have taken to wanderin' these parts. Got the MCCP bastards in a tizzy or somethin'?"

"Yup. Certainly bastards alright, 'specially that Jonas one..." Drake growls, storing his knife and firearm in his HSC. "Hunted us to the city we were in and we had no other choice."

"Yeah, sorry if we bring any unwanted attention." Responds Daikeim, his hand scratching the back of his head.

"MCCP are dumbasses. Well funded, complete, dumbasses." Boyd retorts. "They couldn't find their own butthole to scratch even if it were killin' em."

He heads into a medium sized building on the shore and heads toward a door in the right hand side of the corner of the first room, opening it reveals a staircase which he slowly heads down. They follow him until he reaches a door downstairs leading into what looks to be a small office of sorts, with a heavily locked door immediately behind his desk. He sits down in his chair and gestures the two to sit in the seats on the other side in front of him.

"So, what's your preferred payment? You like shiny new toys or are you more interested in cold cash?"

"I think the one most used is... Credits, right?" Drake asks, his HSC shapeshifting into a screen of sorts.

"Mmm. Remember when we actually used currency, not digital crap. The feeling of real money in your fingers... ...anyway, you got your credit card or whatever? Can't pay you credits unless you got it."

The mercenary rolls his eyes and he taps the screen a few times, until what looks like a transaction interface fades into view. The man can't read anything, but he notices some glyphs that resemble zeroes. The HSC then morphs a small area of the UI to a slot, with a numberpad of sorts next to it. "Luckily, the currency seems universal... Just put your card in the gap and punch in the amount." Drake instructs.

"Sweet Uranus' butttocks, what is that? I've never seen the like. I reckon not even the MCCP farts have stuff like this. I know many clients who'd kill to have something like that." He inserts his card and punches something in, quickly taking it back out once he's done. When Drake reads the payout, it's close to at least a thousand credits.

"You saved me arse a good couple months of extra damage control, repairing this place ain't easy. Plus those buggers are an annual problem, extra work dealt with early. You'll find I do my best to pay well according to the deed."

"The HSC - Otherwise known as a Holographic Storage Cube, it was some prototype tech I was able to get my hands on during one of my earlier missions." His eyes and smile lights up when he sees the payment. "Hey, I'll usually be free to deal with any other issues if you got enough." Drake says in a slight teasing tongue.

"Can I ask why you're out here though, it seems a bit hazardous..." Questions Daikeim.

"I'm running a trade, one which most governments aren't too keen on. Arms, drugs, whatever floats, goes in the boat. Swamps make a good hidey hole, and most folk don't like getting their boots dirty. Leviathans are a seasonal pain in my rumpus, but you can't have everything you want in a dream location can ye. People who are tired of puttn' up with the shitpots of society come here to make a livin', though it's with no guarantee, it sure beats being browbeaten by all the rules and shit."

Boyd leans back in his chair. "If yer that bored, I gots some requests from the townsfolk, they put in the bounty, I get a percent, and whoever does the job gets the majority commission. If you afraid of getting ya hands dirty though, I'd find somewhere else ta ask, cause not everyone here is going to ask you to pull weeds, if ya get me drift."

"Lay 'em on me." Drake requests, the screen on his HSC now shifting to what looks like a ledger of previous bounties and jobs.

Innocent or Guilty?
Boyd taps his desk, whose glass cover turns on, revealing a board of jobs. Currently most are mundane, but one manages to catch his eye.

"I think my girl is a myth, want proof and if so, need the bitch chopped up and tossed in the bog. Won't have any freaking half breed kids on my watch. 750 credit reward."

The HSC examines the jobs and transfers it to itself, once more in Drake's native language. "Huh... Well, morbid but a job is a job. Boyd, know what the woman looks like?"

Boyd taps the bounty, and a separate screen comes up. "You gotta phone? If not, I can give you the man's address. She lives with him, from what I understand. Either way, he'll give you more details."

Drake smiles. "I'll tell you now, this cube basically handles communication, storage, utility... Think of it as an all-in-one device, but yeah for now an address will be fine."

Boyd then gives him the phone number of the man.

The number gets logged onto the HSC and compresses back into a small cube, Drake stands and begins to call the number. Quietly waving towards the two as he leaves the room.

It doesn't take long for an obviously irritable man to pick up. "Hello? Who is this?" They bark, Drake gets the feeling that the guy isn't one for being held up.

"Name's Drake, got hold of your offer. Speak up." He retorts.

"Is that right? Well, come on over, I'll walk you through things. Outside, though. Don't want to have eavesdropers." The man tells Drake his address and soon hangs up.

The HSC closes and hides away in Drake's jacket, he rolls his eyes slightly. "" Soon, the man notices the white haired alien casually stroll over to him.

The man seems to be in his twenties but certainly at home in the swamp. He has worn blue jeans and a brown shirt, a straw hat shades his head from the hot sun where it does poke through the foliage. He has a red stubble and shaggy hair. He eyes Drake with dark brown eyes for a moment.

"Name's Harvey. I have a bit of a situation, you see. I've been hearing strange noises in my girlfriend's room lately. Stuff like scratchn. Thought it was mice. Then I heard banging one night, knocked on the door to reprimand her cause I was trying to sleep, and I heard a dark, animal growl. Naturally, I got damn freaked out, so I grabbed my shotgun. Only thing I find when I get in there is my girl cowering under the bed, looking at me like I'm some sorta ghost.

What kinda girlfriend gives you that kinda look unless something's up? Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate no stupid myth, but ya know what I don't like like? Filthy freakn' liars. If she's lyin to me about who she is, and she's a Myth, well, you know what I want."

"Right, so before I ask what I'd need from you. A few things like is there anything you can relate the growl to, if said growl matches with any wildlife around here, how come it's only happening lately and not a while before... That sorta stuff, oh, and I'm not judging - But I find it odd how you two don't share a room, is there a reason behind that?" Drake notes to himself, his red eyes looking past the customer and to the house.

"She's shy, she says. I'm not going to force her past her comfort zone. Men don't treat their girls right? They disgust me. It's pigheaded to make girls do things they don't wanna do. That's what I tell myself. Does it suck for me? Yeah, got the rest of my life to reap the end result though." He sighs.

"It was like a cat. But... ...off. It... how do I describe it? It's like a human, with human lungs, but the voice of a feral mountain lion. But thing is, we don't got any big things out here. We got wild dogs, sure, but definately no cats. It creeped me out. Like, whatever it was, knew I was there, and it wanted ta kill me. Real bad. As for why it's happening now? I don't have any clue. I've seen large cat like tracks for about a week before the noises, but I didn't think too much about it til now. Thought I was crazy. Oh, I do have this."

Harvey pulls out his phone and shows Drake a picture of very long, vicious looking claw marks on the inside of the girlfriend's room's door.

"You see that? If whatever was in there clawed me or you, it would go all the way to the bone."

He pays close attention to the marks, then looks at Harvey. "So, a simple 'is she a Myth or not' thing... Shouldn't be that hard, is she in the house?"

"Nah, had her go out back for a bit. Thought you might want to look about."

"Smart thinking, I won't take long..." He brushes past Harvey and enters the house, while he doesn't take note of much right off the bat. Drake makes his way to the girlfriend's room, opening the door to examine what's inside.

The room at first glance seems tidy and in order, with the bedding aside from where the girlfriend slipped out of bed in the morning tidy, there are two windows, a few dressers, and a small closet. She seems to have a few jewelry boxes.

Nonchalantly Drake holds up his HSC and it turns into a screen once more. "Certainly takes pride in her cleanliness." He approaches the closet and opens its doors.

In the closet he finds a number of outfits, some books, and various other possessions. Tucked away in the corner behind a box of shoes is a small trashcan.

He closely examines the books, the pockets of the outfits, opens the boxes of shoes to see what's inside. Finally he takes out the trashcan and places it down, his eyes occasionally glancing at it while looking at the rest of the closets contents.

The books themselves are varied in topics but not legible to him, the pockets seem empty, but he only finds anything once he inspects the trashcan. Inside are what appear to be torn clothes, as though torn by claws. They appeared to be hidden under wads of paper.

"If ithis was something done by a beast, then why would she hide it from him?" Drake mumbles to himself, his hands sifting through the paper to get hold of some of the shredded clothes. His attention quickly turns to the windows. "If it's an animal, it would've come through here..."

Sure enough, he finds traces of claw marks and black fur on the windowsill closest to her bed. The same window has a draft, and he can tell that something powerful has bent the bottom up so it can push it open. He notices that black fur is on the floor as well.

After looking at the fur and more of the claw marks, Drake calls out to Harvery. "Hey! See if there's any claw marks or paw prints outside of her window!"

"Oh aye, plenty headn' off into the woods!" He hears from the front.

"In which direction are they heading! Towards or away from the house!"

"Both! Tracks coming from the woods, and then back into the woods!"

Drake begins thinking quietly, he tidies up the room and exits. Heading downstairs to meet with Harvey, his expression is slightly confused but confident. "So, right now I need to ask if the incidents happen in a pattern or are they random?"

"Hmm... ...hang on... it never happens during the new moon, when it's darkest. Only when there is moonlight. ...Sonovabitch... we could be dealing with a werecreature. ...What's your findings so far?"

"Nothing much, expected as much when I entered: Claw marks, torn clothes hidden under some paper, black fur and a demolished window... Is there anything that repels a werecreature, anything odourless to us but to them would be good to get our hands on."

"That really depends on the critter. Plus, the best deterrents are usually moonsilver or powerful magic. Usually to kill them. If it's not feral, you could trap it. Regardless... ...what's your thoughts on a plan to find out for sure what's going on?"

Drake ponders for a moment, then looking down at the prints heading to the forest then to the house. "I'll lay down two traps, one in her room and one where ever those prints end, if the beast gets caught in one then I'll wait until day with it to see if it transforms back. If it is your girlfriend, then I'll deal with her." While he answer seems confident, he gives Harvey a certain... Look. "Listen, if this IS your partner, are you positive you want me to end her?"

"I don't see how you would catch a person. We're not like animals, surely she'd feel something off? Why not just stake out her room? And to answer your question, I can't trust someone who can't trust me. Let alone a liar. If she didn't lie, I got nothing to worry about. I just need to know."

Drake nods. "Yeah, I understand. And because of two reasons, one: I don't exactly feel comfortable peeking in on someone's girlfriend, second of all. If it isn't her, then it's something from the woods, I'd rather stake that area out than the room... What are the chances of the same thing happening tonight?"

"If it's a werebeast, unquestionably. It's a full moon. Whatever you gotta do, get it done. It's almost supper."

And with that, Drake nods once more and enters the house. "Time to set up..." With a moment or two going by, Drake has his spellbook out and is using a translucent marker to inscribe a few arcane circles within the girlfriends room. Soon after, he leaves the house and heads for the woods, spellbook folded up underneath his arm.

By the time he finishes his work, Drake gets called by Harvey. "Supper is ready! If you aren't here by the time we clean up, you go hungry!"

The only response Harvey gets is a raised eyebrow and a quick line. "Maybe save whatever meat, I'll be back soon." As Drake begins to wander into the woods, following the tracks, the sun slowly sets. Orange rays of light pierce past the trees, he looks down into his book - flipping through the pages until he's satisfied with here he wants to set up. With heating up his fingers to scorching levels, his arcane circles begin to take shape around the woods, hidden out of sight.

The mercenary occasionally looks back at the way he came, using the tracks as a direction point. But he mostly begins to sit against a tree, waiting...

As things slowly begin to grow dark, Drake hears many different sounds, the noises of all of the resident wildlife, including a very low buzzing, insectoid in nature, the sharpness of which is unquestionably maddening.

"I swear I'm going to burn down this forest..." Drake growls, his expression can be simply described as pissed. While waiting for the beast, he takes stones and chucks them at any insects making the maddening buzz.

Thankfully as night comes, the insects settle down, though several swarming insects take to infuriatingly swarming his face, making high pitched buzzing noises that make him flinch when they fly almost into his ear.

After a moment, his eye twitches and he lets out a puff of flames, instantly cooking them as he get close. "Where is that fucking Myth."

Just as he is about to lose his patience, he can detect one of the traps has been sprung in the forest.

His head turns immediately towards the direction of the trap, as he rushes towards it. He notices that the trap went without issue, the arcane circle lighting up underneath, forming a transparent cube around whatever its captured.

Inside the trap is a large rabbit, dead. He is about to get angry, he realizes a few things: the rabbit has a large series of bite marks on its chest, in the shape of feline teeth, a nearby tree has a snapped tree limb with claws raking the side, and finally, perhaps the most distressing: there are fresh tracks exactly like the ones from earlier, only immediately fresh. This is verified when a loud feline roar in the direction of the house is heard, followed by glass shattering and a female's scream of terror.

"There we go..." Drake's eyes light up and a smirk grows on his face as he sets off towards the house, his firearm in hand. He approaches the house and sees the opening in the window, the same one the beast made beforehand, Drake jumps upwards through the opening. Instantly taking aim at whatever is in there.

Inside, pinned to the bed, is a red haired woman whose clothes are being torn off by the vicious claws of the huge male feline humanoid on top of her and very much making an effort to prevent her from struggling. When Drake bursts into the room, the werecat bites into her shoulder, causing her to howl in anguish, before beginning to bolt out the other window, not before getting shot in the eye, which causes it to stumble on its way out and land awkwardly, before beginning to sprint for cover, interrupted by Harvey, who shouts countless expletives at the creature in rage.

"Your bounty is updated! Kill the shit out of that fucker, now!" He fires his shotgun, which while missing, causes it to keep it from running away in time for Drake to pursue it.

"I'm getting her to the hospital to treat that bastard's damned bite! Meet me there when you're done!" Without another word, he grabs his now passed out girlfriend and runs toward the town, causing the werecat to snarl angrily.

"GOT IT!" Drake turns towards the werecat and fires a few shots at it, as it makes its getaway - The mercenary begins to give chase, still emptying his firearms clip. "JUST KEEL OVER ALREADY!"

As it runs, two shots hit it in the shoulder, which causes it to wheel around, eyes now glowing red in rage, and it lets out a fierce feline roar and with incredible speed, begins to charge, dirt flying into the air as its paws hit the ground with force, before jumping to tackle him, its claws extended, prepared to maul once it gets him.

Instead of evading, Drake lets out a dark growl and sneers. Pushing himself off of the windowsill, he jumps towards the werecat and locks up with it. Trading slashes and blows.

The creature's large, deadly claws cause serious damage as they impact, the creature rakes down from his shoulders to around his elbow, also biting at his face.

Drake opens his mouth and a torrent of flames collide with the werecat the firearm in his hand is replaced with a knife and he thrusts into the beast's ribcage. As the two fall to the ground, Drake manages to get above and stomp down as they both land, using the creature as a landing pad of sorts.

The werecat's blood trickles to the ground, but it still determinedly attempts to maul him, its bloodloss only partially slowing it down.

"Heh... Come on fucker, you're not the worst I've faced." Drake gives off another growl as his own blood drips to the floor, his ember eyes seemingly glowing as he circles the beast - Ready for any attack.

It lunges forward to tear into his legs.

As it dives towards Drake, he sidesteps and slides underneath it, yanking out the knife before kicking the creature over.

It begins rolling over to try to get back on its feet.

Taking this moment, Drake throws the knife into the werecat's eye before beginning to scorch it with flames. "JUST TURN TO FUCKING ASH ALREADY!"

The werecat initally struggles but begins to stumble weaker and weaker.

Just to make sure that he's secured his skill, the mercenary steps close to the werecat and raises his foot. Aiming for the throat and with one audible crunch, Drake stamps down onto the neck.

Remembering what Harvey said, cuts its head off, and then runs to the hospital. By the time that he gets there, when he arrives, from the hallway heading into the medical emergency ward, he can hear loud female screams that turns feline at the end of each scream, and each scream becomes more and more feline after the other. Harvey is quietly lean against a wall, looking haunted.

"You got him then," He says, facial expression blank but his voice carries the full weight of his horror and grief.

"The doctors don't have a cure for moon disease, not from werecats. Judging from what they could gather, he was a feral. She won't be herself when the moon rises, at least until the next new moon. If she doesn't stay feral, we have a chance, but if she got the thirst for the blood of people..." His voice trails off.

"I need you to promise me that if I lose her, I want you to end her suffering. I... I don't have the heart to do that to her. Even if she wouldn't be there to feel it... ... I can't."

Upon hearing the news, Drake gives an acknowledging nod but looks at Harvery in a more deadpan expression. "Yeah, I could do that. But I'll expect a bonus." He looks at the werecat head that he's holding in his hand then down the hallway, listening in on the screams. "I have a feeling she'll be fine, when all else matters - I will be around town for a few days so you can at least get to me when I'm not busy.

But, I would recommend fortifying her room and swap out your firearm for something that puts them to sleep just in case... And besides, nothing wrong with being a bit feral." Drake flashes him a grin, Harvey can see a sharp looking fang.

"After what you did tonight a bonus is more than acceptable. Fact is I have some aged wines that I have meant to have a go at. You're welcome to come and relax once she is stable." He says unphased.

Drake's response is another nod. "" He opens up his HSC and stretches it large enough that it encases the werecat's head, he then taps on the side of the cube and it shrinks - the head now nowhere to be found. "That sounds great, I'll let you know when I'm free."