It was cold. So very cold...
There was neither light nor sound. Nothing other than his own body floating in an endless void of freezing darkness around him. Cyrus did not dream very often. In actuality, it was a rare occurrence for the young man altogether. So on the rare chances that such a thing did happen to him, he had no problem remembering whatever strange illusions his mind would conjure up in his sleep. However, something was wrong. This wasn't an ordinary dream. Although he couldn't exactly put his finger on it, Cyrus could tell that something about this one was...off.
Suddenly, the world shifted. Switching from pitch black to bright red in an instant.
A sharp pain in his skull immediately overtook him....
It was hard to breathe. Almost as if something was holding his lungs hostage. He couldn't move, and his joints were as stiff as iron.
Every cell in his body felt like it was on fire. Needles were piercing his entire form. And the cold could now be felt in his very bones. It was as if some overwhelming presence was forcing him to submit against his will.
"Good. You seem to be progressing well, mortal."
Cyrus has no clue where the voice was coming from. It was both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
When the young man finally dared to open his eyes, all he saw was a single red eye staring back at him. One with a burning intensity that shook him to his very core.
"Remember, mortal. Don't die." Was all the mysterious presence said before everything faded to black.
-(o)-
[August, 2022]
"Ah!" Cyrus shouted as he launched himself up from his bed. The young man's eyes quickly darted around the room, looking to see where he was before confirming that he was indeed in the safety of his own home. His breath was unsteady, and his mouth was dry. And it only took a second for him to notice the excessive amount of sweat covering his entire body.
"Fuck..." He said out loud as he ran a hand over his freckled face.
It had been a while since the young man had experienced a nightmare like that. Well over a few months, in fact. But this was the first time that he could remember one so vivid and detailed. Cyrus had no clue what to make of these bizarre dreams. None of them ever really made sense to him in the first place. And it wasn't like he could just ask someone to interpret them for him.
Deciding not to worry about it any longer than what he had to, the 'tree magic' user slowly got himself in order. He then took a moment to look out the window of his apartment to see that the sun was barely peeking over the horizon. His alarm clock said that he still had a few hours before he needed to be at the office. So, Cyrus chose to do the most logical thing that he could at the moment, which was to go right back to sleep.
Unfortunately for him, his phone started ringing. The young man was tempted to ignore it, and he fully intended to do so. That is, until he saw the name of who was calling him appear on the screen.
"Hello?" Cyrus said after pressing the green button and raising the device up to his ear.
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" An all too familiar voice said with way too much energy.
"Ayako..." The young man droned as he rubbed his eyes. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this lovely phone call at...six thirty in the morning?"
"Oh, stop it! You should be getting out of bed around this time anyway." The woman quickly admonished him.
"Actually, I have at least another hour of sleep ahead of me before I need to get ready."
Ayako simply sighed. "Lazy bum."
"Anyway...what's up?"
"Nothing serious. I'm going to be coming in late today, so don't bother looking for me until around nine o'clock."
"Is that all?"
"Well, excuse me for trying to keep my partner updated on where I'm going to be!"
"Your consideration for my feelings is appreciated...truly."
"Whatever. Anyway, I'll see you when I get there. Let me know if the Chief has anything for us to do when you get to the station."
"No problem."
"Catch you later!"
"You too."
When the call ended, Cyrus simply dropped back onto his bed and let his body relax before once again drifting off into dreamland. The young man had this weird feeling in the back of his mind that something was off. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
'Oh well, I'll just worry about it later.' That was the last thing he thought before falling back to sleep.
-(o)-
To say that Maria Ortega had a rough start to her morning would be putting it mildly. Not only did the young 'beast magic' user slip up and set her alarm clock to the wrong time, but she ended up getting ready a full hour earlier than she needed to. And to make matters even more annoying, she hadn't actually realized her mistake until after she was already halfway to the station.
'This is what I get for staying up late again.' The woman mentally admonished herself.
To be fair, this wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence for her. Maria had a notoriously bad habit of not paying attention to the world around her whenever she got deep into one of her gaming sessions. So her forgetting to properly set the alarm on her phone was definitely in character for her. And now, she was paying for her mistake by only having three hours of actual sleep to last her through the day.
As the woman pulled into the parking lot, she felt a pulse of mana surge within her chest. A tell-tale sign that one of her companions was hungry for more of her mana. And of course, it just so happened to be the one that annoyed her more than the others.
"I already fed you this morning..." Maria complained to the air, only to receive another surge of mana as some sort of response. The woman then rolled her eyes before acquiescing to her companion's demands. "Fine, you can have more. But don't bother me again until after I'm done with work. And don't even think about asking me to let you out today."
Her words seemed to placate the creature's desires, although not entirely.
As much as Maria loved and cherished her companions, she would be lying if she said that they didn't get on her nerves from time to time. Most of her collection was good and perfectly well behaved...the majority of the time. But a few of them couldn't help but grate on her nerves whenever they got the chance. Especially the strongest one.
The woman understood that dragon-type cryptids needed a lot more care and attention than others, considering how powerful they were, but sometimes it felt like having to deal with a bratty teenager whenever hers decided to act up. Hopefully, the creature would get over this phase in its development soon. Otherwise, the young 'beast magic' user was in for a lot more headaches in the near future.
-(o)-
"Alright, let's get the day started!" Valerie McKenna said with a smile upon first entering the station.
Today was one of the rare days that she actually got to work earlier than what she normally did. Since Lionel was having a sleepover at his friend's house, it gave the young woman a much-needed break from having to help the little rascal get ready for daycare. So, not only was she operating on an extra hour of sleep, she even got the chance to squeeze in a much-needed early morning workout. And that left the tall blonde feeling strong and extra energized on this particular morning.
It was certainly weird being in the building so much earlier than everyone else. Only a few of the older agents were walking around and working while the majority of the overnight crew were heading out the door. In fact, the only person that she saw so far that she actually recognized was Freddy, which wasn't all that surprising on account of him usually getting here around the same time as the Chief.
Seeing as there was nothing for her to do at the moment, Valerie decided to take a moment to relax in one of the lounging areas until it was time to actually get started.
She elected to check out the results of last night's MMA special on her phone to see who won. The young woman absolutely loved the sport and was always looking for the chance to attend an event whenever one happened to be close by. The sight of skilled fighters trying to bash each other's heads in for bragging rights always got her blood pumping. And it was exactly what she needed to get in the mood for some possible cryptid hunting today.
The blonde then kicked her feet up on the small coffee table in front of her and lost herself in the highlights. A wide smile on her face as she watched some of her favorite fighters dominate their opponents in the ring.
-(o)-
The life of a DPA Chief Agent was hard but rewarding. It was the kind of job that few could do and even fewer could excel at. Luckily, Zoe Chandler just so happened to be one of those people.
Managing and organizing a little over one hundred and twenty superpowered humans took some skill. But her years of experience when it came to stuff like this certainly helped the brunette ensure that the whole operation didn't fall apart at the drop of a hat. Thankfully, she had a crew of trusted and dependable agents to keep the heat off of her. And the fact that Commissioner MacNamara publicly commended her work to both his colleagues and superiors certainly kept her motivated to do her job.
"Looks like another easy day." The woman in charge said with a slight grin as she leaned back in her large, leather chair.
Days like this were exactly the kind that Chief Chandler dreamed of. The overnight crew hadn't reported any new cryptid activity in their assigned area. Most of her field agents were away doing missions in other parts of the state. The Anti-Personnel Squad didn't have to deal with any rogue sorcerers running amok. Her son was sleeping over at one of his little friends' houses until tomorrow afternoon. And she just got word that her husband was going to be able to come home a month earlier than they planned, thanks to him making a massive breakthrough in his research.
Today was looking like a piece of cake for Chief Agent Zoe Chandler. And the expression on her face only served to show just how glad she was to have this kind of respite from their regularly scheduled chaos. In fact, the woman was in such a good mood that she was willing to overlook the fact that most of her more experienced agents would be showing up late to work today.
Apparently, there was some sort of parade going on in the city today on account of their local college baseball team winning some tournament or whatever. And that caused pretty much everyone to have to take a detour over to the station. Normally, the woman would've found that as a good enough reason to shove her foot up the asses of those who were supposed to be more responsible than that. But she was willing to let it slide just this once.
With nothing really needing to be done until much later on, Chief Chandler chose to relax and enjoy her morning tea. Casually taking a few delicate sips while letting the warm liquid run down her throat.
Most people usually deferred to coffee at this hour, but on account of her sorcerer body being able to handle caffeine and other substances much more than normal humans, there was really no point in drinking any. Hell, she could probably down a whole gallon of the stuff and it wouldn't have any effect on her in the slightest. Besides, she much preferred the rich and refreshing flavor of her imported Japanese blend over the bitterness of coffee any day.
Unfortunately for the Chief, her nice and relaxing morning came to an abrupt end when the sound of the alarm came over the office intercom. Forcing her to nearly leap out of her chair at sudden noise.
*Code Black! Code Black! Code Black!* The automated voice repeated as several lights around the underground building began flashing.
"Aw shit!" Chief Chandler shot out of her chair and ran out of her office directly towards the radar room.
In barely a few seconds, the woman arrived at her intended destination, which was a large room near the center of the compound that contained the main radar monitor for the station. The device operated exactly the way one thought it would. It allowed the DPA to monitor and track any magical signatures around the state, whether those signatures are human or cryptid. It was a nifty piece of technology that worked thanks to special satellites up in orbit. But that was as far as her technical knowledge about the machine went.
"What do we have?!" The Chief said with urgency as she scanned the monitor with her eyes.
"A ghoul." Agent Carl Winters, a pale-skinned man in his thirties with short red hair, said without missing a beat. "It just finished forming from what I can tell."
"Fuck!" Chief Chandler said with a scowl. This was not what she wanted to hear right now.
Ghouls were some of the most dangerous cryptids in the world. They were carnivorous, humanoid creatures that gradually got stronger the longer they lived. If left unchecked, they would eventually go on a rampage and kill any living creature that they came across, whether they possessed mana or not.
The only silver lining to this situation was that the ghoul was just born. So, at worst, its strength would only be comparable to that of a B-rank cryptid. But it could very well jump up to A-rank within the next hour or two if it got its hands on something to devour.
"Where is it now?" The Chief then asked Agent Winters.
"Ten miles outside of the city." The man answered. "It's in a heavily forested area right now, but from what I can tell, it's moving towards the town that's not too far away."
That was all that the brunette woman needed to hear.
Without so much as a word, the Chief then grabbed one of the scanners off the charging terminal and ran out of the room. They needed to act quickly, otherwise they would have a small catastrophe on their hands. Unfortunately for the woman, they were dramatically understaffed at the moment, considering that most of her agents hadn't arrived yet. Which meant that she was more than likely going to have to handle this herself.
Just as Chief Chandler turned the corner onto the next hallway, Valerie suddenly appeared in front of her.
"What's going on?" The tall blonde asked with a worried expression.
"A ghoul just showed up." The older woman answered bluntly.
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
Valerie quickly fell in step with the woman and proceeded to follow her down the hallway. The blonde was certainly shocked to hear that a ghoul, of all things, showed up. Stuff like that rarely ever happened. In fact, this was her first time ever actually experiencing one appear.
"So what's the plan?"
"I'm still figuring that out."
Roughly a minute later, the two ladies found themselves walking through the doors of the records room. There, they were greeted with the sight of both Cyrus and Freddy sitting at one of the tables. Both young men were absorbed in whatever they were looking at on their phones, but they quickly got themselves in order once they noticed who had just walked in.
"What's going on, Chief?" Freddy asked.
"I need everything you have on ghouls, right now. Time is of the essence."
The 'dark magic' user's eyes widened for a brief moment before realizing what was going on and quickly disappearing behind his desk to get the requested information.
As she waited for her records keeper to give her what she needed, Chief Chandler mulled over how exactly she was going to handle this situation. The best case scenario right now was for her to try and run to her armory as quickly as possible, grab what she needed, and then make a beeline straight to where the ghoul was located. But getting to where she stored all of her weapons would take at least twenty minutes. While the trip to where the newly-emerged cryptid was located would be about thirty minutes. Which was way too much time to let a threat like this wander around unchecked.
'Of course, something like this would happen when I don't have any of my best guns with me.' The brunette woman thought to herself. Since she pretty much never had to deal with cryptids on her own these days, she kept all of her weapons locked up in storage near her house. And right now, she only had a couple of her pistols to work with. All of which were too small a caliber to effectively deal with something like a ghoul.
"So...what's going on?" Cyrus asked the two women standing in front of him, wondering if this had something to do with the announcement that went over the intercom a few minutes ago.
"A ghoul just popped up on the scanner." Valerie answered for her aunt, who was still deep in thought.
"I've never heard of one of those before." The 'tree magic' user replied. "What is it?"
The blonde was confused as to how the guy had never heard of a ghoul before, but she quickly remembered that he was a first-generation sorcerer. So he probably wasn't up to speed about the more rare types of cryptids out there.
"They're basically humanoid cryptids that get more powerful over time. On top of that, they also get stronger the more they eat. And they have a taste for regular humans and animals just as much as they do for sorcerers and cryptids."
"Really?" Cyrus failed to hide his excitement after hearing about something like that. He had no idea that cryptids like that existed. Especially ones that had a human-like appearance. Now he wanted to see what one looked like up close.
"Yeah, they're a total pain in the ass."
"And they get more dangerous with every passing hour." The Chief finally spoke up.
Just then, Freddy reappeared with a tablet in his hand containing all of the information that he had on ghouls downloaded onto the device. The 'dark magic' user wasted no time in handing it off to the woman in charge, and everyone watched as the Chief scanned over the contents of the tablet while also checking over the scanner that she had in her other hand. After about thirty seconds, Chief Chandler sighed before dragging her hand over her face.
'We don't have much time before that thing reaches the nearest populated area. I can definitely kill it myself, but we need to contain it to stop it from hurting anyone before I can get to it.'
Suddenly, an idea popped into the woman's head. One that was both ill-advised and more than a bit dangerous. But, considering that they were extremely short-handed at the moment, it was the best option that she had.
"Alright, here's the plan." The woman looked at the three junior agents with a stern expression. "Since we're working against the clock here, I'm going to need your help dealing with this."
"What?" Cyrus, Freddy, and Valerie all said with confused expressions on their faces.
"You three are going to help me take down this ghoul before it starts going on a killing spree."
"And how are we going to do that?" Valerie asked, genuinely curious about what the brunette was talking about.
"I'll explain in a minute, just wait right here."
And just like that, Chief Chandler swiftly exited the records room, leaving the young trio even more confused than they were a second ago.
'Who else is here?' The Chief wondered as she looked around for anyone who might've arrived at the office early. Poking her head in and out of every room in hopes of finding another agent that could help her. Luckily, her prayers were answered when she spotted a certain raven-haired woman coming out of the bathroom a few yards down the hallway.
"Ortega!" The brunette shouted, immediately catching the attention of the 'beast magic' user.
"Yes?" Maria asked after turning around
"An urgent matter just came up, and I need your help dealing with it. Come with me."
"Uh...yes ma'am." Although the young 'beast magic' user was confused, it wasn't like she could just refuse an order from her boss. So with a slight shrug, the raven-haired teen simply did as she was told.
-(o)-
Barely a minute later, Chief Chandler was back in the records room staring down the group of four she had hastily put together. All of whom were looking back at her with a series of confused, unsure, and expectant faces, not that she could really blame them.
'Okay, this isn't exactly a terrible group.' The Chief thought to herself as she continued sizing up the quartet of young sorcerers. In all honesty, it was probably the best that she was going to be able to put together on such short notice.
Valerie was the most experienced of the group when it came to cryptid hunting. On top of that, she was strong, quick on her feet, and had good instincts. Plus, she had more than enough magical power to go toe-to-toe with something like a ghoul for an extended period of time.
Freddy had the second most experience out of the four, along with probably being the most knowledgeable about cryptids and their movement patterns. He didn't have a lot of magical power, but he made up for that with good judgment and reliability whenever he was asked to go help out with hunts.
Cyrus, one of her new rookies, was a good support-type based on everything she's heard from Ayako. He was also smart, quick-witted, and worked well with others. On top of that, his special magical attribute might be exactly what they needed to keep this ghoul from getting stronger.
Maria, her second rookie, was a talented 'beast magic' user who didn't have all that much experience compared to the others in her team. However, with her current arsenal of companions, she'd be a big help in containing and distracting the ghoul long enough to keep it occupied.
Yeah...this was probably as good as Chief Chandler was going to get for the time being. At least until the rest of her people showed up. Although this certainly was not her ideal choice for a makeshift team, it wasn't the worst either. She would've much preferred just sending her Deputy Chief out to deal with something like this. However, Mubele was still on his top-secret mission until God knows when. And as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers.
Well, there wasn't much that she could do about it now. Time was of the essence, and pondering over what-ifs was only going to waste even more of it. So all she could realistically do right now was to send them out there and hope for the best.
"Alright, pay attention!" The brunette began to speak. "A ghoul just appeared ten miles outside of the city. And is heading towards a residential area that's decently populated. I need the four of you to go to the location on the scanner, find the ghoul, and keep it in one place for as long as possible. Your job is to keep it occupied long enough for me to head to my armory and grab a weapon strong enough for me to kill it. We don't have enough time for me to give you all the details, so just ask Price about what you need to know on the way there."
"Seems simple enough." Valerie nodded with her arms folded across her chest. Although she was calm and cool on the outside, the tall blonde was absolutely elated on the inside.
Getting a chance to take down a ghoul wasn't something that came up very often. And it was something that more experienced agents would typically handle whenever it came up. However, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Sure, her job may have technically been to stop its movements, but she was certain that her aunt wouldn't be mad at her for taking the thing out before she got there. And the thought of getting this kind of accomplishment under her belt was way too enticing for her not to at least give it a go.
"Contain and occupy, got it." Cyrus said aloud, albeit a bit nervously. The freckle-faced teen certainly wasn't expecting something like this to happen today. Sure, he wanted the chance to see what this ghoul was like, but he wasn't too keen on getting an up-close and personal look.
'I've heard of these things before. They're supposed to be really strong.' Maria thought to herself as she glanced over at the rest of the group. She had only ever interacted with the other three in passing, if you could even call it that. And now, she was being sent out on an emergency job with a bunch of people she didn't even know. She didn't really have a right to complain, though. Lord knows she certainly could use the experience. And besides, this needed to get done.
"Is it just going to be us?" Freddy asked as he took the scanner from the Chief.
"I'll give a call to Stillwater and the others to head straight to your location as soon as possible. Until then, it's just you guys."
"Understood."
"Valerie's in charge until I get there." Chief Chandler then said. "And remember, don't do anything stupid. The ghoul's only a B-rank right now, but that could change at the drop of a hat. Don't engage it if you don't have to. And for the love of God, try not to get yourselves hurt."
"Yes, ma'am!" The four teens said in unison.
With nothing else needing to be said, the Chief tossed her car keys to Valerie and told them to go before leaving to secure her equipment. Leaving the group to gather their necessary supplies before heading out to where their new target was located.