“Police, Nobody move!”

Tayanita shouted, honking her horn at a group of kids who’d been loitering. Naturally, they scattered. She rolled up the window of her car, and drove on laughing, “God, they shit themselves! I hate this whole Junk Monkey craze, but you’ve gotta respect the fear its inspired.”

I was on edge, trying not to seem off, I kept her talking, “Fear?”

She went on as I worried about Gurl and the operation, “Fear. The streets are afraid of the green guy and the pigs, while the pigs are afraid of the green guy. To top it all off, pretty soon I'm going to make that smilin’ shit stain terrified.”

I snorted through my nose at that. It was going to take a little more than her stock pile of super guns to scare me. It would take a threat to my people.

We both went quiet for a bit, as she drove us down a tight road in the dark. He were still in town, but we’d long since left the city centre and heading South. Guess that’s doubly true.

“Should you really be leaving the Quarter? What if something comes up and you’re not there to deal with it?” I wanted to push her to go back, but if I failed to accomplish that and she wasn’t jailed, then I’d be leaving a whole line of clues pointing to me being the traitor, more than there already were.

I resolved to drop it after her answer now, I wasn’t going to be pushy.

“No. I’m content with what I got out of it. You made it a night to remember, Thomas usually takes a lot more damage, and it’s not like you were the first guy to try grappling him.”

I asked, “What made me different?”

Tayanita said, “You didn’t underestimate him at first. Usually, some guy gets hopped up and they feel like they can take on anybody, then this chicken shit comes in pale and teary and they stop thinking. You have a head.”

“Sounds like the drug dealer is telling me drugs are bad.”

She pounded the steering wheel a bit, smiling, “Yeah, I guess.”

She was to erratic for me to be comfortable, let alone manipulative. I looked out the window, scanning for nothing in particular. We were entering a more suburban area, there were actually kids trick or treating here.

“Look at these little fuckers,” Tayanita glared out the front, slowing for a group crossing the road.

There was an ironman, a spiderman, and three Shamrocks. And a vampire that mustn't've gotten the memo.

“You know how I said people were afraid of him? That it was something I respected? This makes it pointless. It makes him a joke. How are people supposed to respect a man when he’s dressed like a clown and people openly mock him whenever they feel like it? It’s ridiculous”

“I know.”

We slowly sped up again, making a left turn but my mind was still back around the bend. I asked her, “Did you ever do Halloween?”

She scoffed, “I lived on a ranch. Even if I wanted to prance around for some shitty little corporate holiday, I couldn’t.”

“It’s an old Irish holiday, pumpkin carving and all.”

“Of course it was. It isn’t any more.”

Silence again. It was killing me now.

Why would Gurl called me back at the Quarter? Had Tayanita seen through my plan? If so, was she taking Rori away to execute him? There was a chance that the Mountain or the Ints or some other worrying hiccup had reared in the mission.

What if the cops got to that basement and fucked around with the bombs? What if Tayanita’s guys put up too much of a fight?

Reminding myself that I wasn’t going to get an answer to these questions, I returned to the car, “Come on Tay, what’s going on?”

She looked like she wanted to say something, her mouth was open just a sliver, “You’ll see.”

My mind finally settled, but not on a comforting thought. I was coming from her toybox showing, so it wasn’t out of the question that she might be taking me to see yet another weapon of mass destruction.

Something scavenged from Egypt, and probably kept well-hidden if that was the case. Though Gurl had been keeping an eye on Tayanita, so it would have had to be something rarely visited.

Tayanita took a strange turn out on to a dirt path. I hadn’t expected her to steer the car into the small wooded area. The road ahead, well, it wasn’t a road, just a bulled over path with a couple mounds of excavated dirt acting as a dead end, dumbed after a long since finished construction project.

All I could see was the area illuminated by the car lights, and even they didn’t reach beyond the first row of trees. I’m not afraid of the dark, but I’m pretty offput when it comes to murderers driving me to a secluded area.

And then the lights went off, and she sighed.

Again, we were just... quiet. Usually she’d do something sexual, like prod at me, just to tease me, I guess.

“You ever been alone Rori?”

I chose my words carefully. “Depends what you mean. Never been on a desert island before.” She snorted at that.

I could hear her jacket rustle as she folded her arms, “When my family died, I was left utterly alone. Oh, there were people around, the Internationals stalked me like wolves, they had the balls to ask me to join. Worse still were the streets. I was hungry, cold, and attacked, but that wasn’t it. It was the fact that white fuckers walked around without a care in the world. My home had been stolen, my family ripped to shreds by monsters, and they walked by like nothing happened. It’s cold. Dark.”

An arm reached, towards me I thought, but instead it flicked the interior lights on. Tayanita pulled the hand back and started pulling at her jacket. Black and beige flesh revealed. She pointed at the tattooed rays on her flesh, blocky and bold. “That’s why I got the sun.”

She smiled, reclining into her seat, “They’d have to skin me to take this from me. It’s my birthright. It’s my legacy.” I winced a little.

Don’t. I told myself. Not now. The world doesn’t need empty sympathy.

“I went north. Canada was a shit show back then. Apparently it’s cooled down. I had to go through skin-changers to get to the nearest Mountain outpost, and somehow word got to the boss. He set me up with a cushy spot here, in reserve. He was testing me, and I think I've failed,” she smiled, “I had men in Egypt, loyal men and they still are. They’re just not here. I was so close to getting my...”

I knew the word was faction, army, hunters, something along those lines, and yet there was a pain that stopped her from saying it.

“Rori, you cried like a bitch when those people died, remember?”

I shared her painful smile at that, “How could I forget?”

“Would you cry if the same thing happened again? You go out looking for a party and get a calamity. How would you react?”

I hated myself for it, but I answered honestly, “A lot’s happened. People I know have died, and I’ve grown to realise that worse tragedies happen outta view. It’s just frustrating.”

“You can play your macho act all you want, but-”

I tried one last time to keep up appearances, though her behaviour was making that hard to do, “I am a man. I told ye before, I was drunk that night, emotional. I’d sooner punch a wall than bitch and moan. No offence but... why are telling me all this shit?”

“We fuck around,” she admitted, “So just this once I thought... we could be serious. For an hour.”

“Oh yeah, that’s why you were screaming out the window at those shit heads.”

That got her to frown, “Serious starting now. Or are you so fragile that you need to hide under curses and taunts?” Honestly, it sounded like she was projecting, but maybe that’s who she saw in Rori... Herself.

“What do you want to talk about,” I said without thinking. I needed to find a way out of here, not dig myself a deeper grave.

Tayanita popped the door open, “Don’t know. The future I guess.”

As soon as she got out of the car and her eyes were off me, I went for my phone, expecting to get a text from Gurl, ever watching and waiting. It came through.

‘I have a gap in my memory. I was sitting on my bed, surveying the area, when all of a sudden, I blacked out and I was calling you.’

I texted back as quick as I could, “Send cops to me, then I’ll suit up and” I had to send the message unfinished, Tayanita was saying something.

I exited the car, following.

“- but I think there’s more to this. There could be more. You’ve kept yourself walled away, and I mean about your personal shit and this third world. I’ve been round the block, trust me when I say the world won’t be kind enough to just let you be. It moves, it evolves.”

She marched up a dark mound, a sound like gravel crunching came from beneath her feet as she trudged up it. I followed still. I could have told the truth, just said that I didn’t want to take our little... whatever this was, any further. A part of me said that would be too suspicious.

If I sat and listened to her now, then she’d never suspect that I've stung her operation. Unless she was more paranoid than I thought, which was always a possibility.

“What the hell are we doing Tay?”

“Sitting.”

She fell to the ground first, nothing but a black smear. I felt the ground before joining her, weeds sprouted up like stiff little fingers.

“I’m going to go it on my own now. I’m leaving the Mountain.” That made me feel sick for some reason. I had asked her as Shamrock to quit her job, just as I'd asked Clover, and everybody else. “This is going to sound corny as shit, but I've been thinking over the last few months... I’ve got enough power to do what I wanna do. Who’d stop me from going back west and reclaiming my land? Bastard might even get me some leverage, and in return I would still hunt monsters for him. Just for a better price, and with my own equipment.”

I wasn’t all for it, “I doubt they'd pay you to quit.”

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I’m out of the job either way. Ireland’s closing up shop.”

This was news. From the Jack’s I was sure.

“The hell’re you talking about?” She grabbed me violently, “I’m fucking gettin' to it!”

She released her grasp, “Did I ever tell you about Canada? Countries crawling with Ints and werewolves for fuck’s sake. For something like twenty, thirty years, they fought over every frozen inch of that shit hole. Know why? The Mountain was content with letting them have everything west of Montreal, but then the ‘Werewolf queen’ appeared, united the shape-changers, and started getting out of hand. Loose cannons, even ones made of glass, scare the shit out of them. So Bastard sends a couple trusted Units over to fight The Ints send men too, but men who’re wet behind the ears, who don’t know when not to pick a fight. After the first few skirmishes both sides start to get smarter, ‘cause they’re losing true strength. They realise this fight isn’t worth it unless they actually get something out of it. So the fighting’s become less open. It was, and still, is a symbolic war.”

I was wondering where she was going with this.

“A wealthy, developed country. One that is unclaimed in the eyes of either group, yet still has a threatening native power, one that’s growing unchecked. Not worth the time or money needed for a two-front battle. Remind you of anywhere? That’s why they’re pulling out, letting the Ints take this one.”

I might have been able to leave but I just dug myself deeper into the trench that was this relationship, this conversation, “Isn’t Britain your capitol? Why would they give them such a close position?”

She snorted tilting back, “Don’t pretend you understand war, Rori. The green man is better allied with the Ints, he saved their city after all. If he’s forced to choose between two evils, he would side with them. The Mountain will fight a pointless war... but not a losing one. Their plan is to let the Ints invade, and make an enemy of old Junk Monkey. I suppose any man’ll fit the shoes.”

“‘Any man?’”

I say her dark silhouette turn and face me, her face expressionless, “Well, it was the Storm in the North’s role before. Now it’s his. It’s nature, social Darwinism.”

My elbows spasmed into my sides at the thought, goosebumps prickled all over my body.

I’m nothing like him, I might hold his territory, but it’s pretty obvious that what I'm doing is not the same as what he did. He was ruthless, an monster. In fact, Tayanita was more like him than me, she would kill people for being born as Units or for getting powers.

“I’m leaving the Mountain, and I'm leaving Ireland, this life, behind. I have decided.”

I couldn’t read her face, “After what those twins told you? You’ve decided what to do with your life in an hour?”

I could hear the bitterness in her voice, “Believe me, if I could stay I would. If I could set up my own organisation I would. Fuckin’ Bastard... I’m only here to hold appearances, a scarecrow to make the monkey and the cities think there’s someone else living here. I’m a tool, and I've been nothing but a tool, a knife or an arrow whichever suits. That ends. I’m going home and I'm going to rebuild my Akecheta tribe, the right way.”

Then Tayanita came closer to me, “Stay here, and you find work, maybe a way to save yourself from this shit hole you call home... Or you choose to go against them. You choose to fight control. Everyone may tell you there is a right way of living, do this, get that, climb, impose your mastery over men- What they don’t want you to realise is that it is never too late to run. You have legs, Rori. Use them. Come with me.”

I flet a hand grab for me with an unsettling softness. She grabbed my hand, her fingers kneeding into my palm.

I can’t begin to describe the pain I felt then. The consequence of lies, again. She would kill me if she knew who I was, yet a few tweaks to my personality, a few omissions, and she was pleading with me. Haven’t I learned this lesson before? Hasn’t the universe made it abundantly clear to me that there is the truth and then there is nothing?

“I’d... I’d be leaving everything.”

Another hand cupped my wrist, “You’re a strong man. Hard, quick to anger yet disciplined, with a good centre. I’d give you a life, freedom.”

I can’t stop lying.

“Where would we go,” I remembered saying, to which she replied with a whisper. Her voice brushed at my ear, and I did not flinch or hear.

Her hands left mine; they moved to the trunk of my body, pushing up at my shirt. There was something very different to it now. She brought herself back for a moment, pulling off her coat and top at the same time. All I could see was a mass being removed from her figure, leaving her as a thin line.

“Take off your clothes.”

My hands hovered. I shouldn’t do this. I knew where she was going. I have to follow along. The police are on their way, they’ll be at the Quarter soon, then they’ll send someone over here. There’ll be enough time for me to do what I have to do, and get out of here. Then, I’ll deal with the disturbance, then the ints, then the Mountain, then Russia, and everyone else.

I’ll see Clover in no time. I just have to do what needs to be done.

My eyes were adjusting slightly, I could see where the trees met the sky. The night was overcast, no stars, just a barely noticeable grey against black. The moon was somewhere up there, beaming down.

I removed my top for the second time that night. This was no different from fighting in the ring. It wasn’t something I wanted to do, but it fit the image, it was what Tayanita needed to be kept happy.

She sat on top of me, admitting, “I haven’t done this before. It sounds prudish, but I’ve never met a man good enough for me. I’ll take you.”

I suddenly realised that I was breathing heavily, that my arms were too tense to move.

“By the smell of you, this is your first time too. Guess neither of us are as tough as we seem.”

“I can take anything. Anything,” I spoke with someone else’s voice, I looked to the shadow looming over me, like I was in a dream, like I was staring through a telescope at some distant threat.

I grabbed at the dirt. She grabbed at something else.

“Stop,” I gasped, “Stop, stop... Stop.”

Tayanita backed off, “What? What did I do?”

I just told her to “Stop” again.

Tay played a teasing lull, “Come on, nobody’s here babe. What are you afraid of?”

She went back for it and I managed to crawl out from under her, “I won’t. I’m not doing that.”

“Rori,” anger was building in her throat, though for her it could have easily been embarrassment, “I’m the one opening up to you for fuck’s sake. I'm offering you something better than this- this-”

I wasn’t listening, I grabbed my shirt, and pulled myself to my knees. Gurl was right, this was a mistake, a dumb experiment.

“RORI!” Tayanita shouted at me as I pull up my shorts. I stopped, breathing for a second.

What now hero? What’s the fucking plan?

I ran my hands through my hair- it wasn’t my hair. My hair’s long and messy and choppy, the thing on my head was- it was a disguise. I pulled a hand down to my naked face.

I’m such a fucking moron. Why do I have to lie and sneak around? Why couldn’t I have told Clover the truth and just visited her? Why didn’t I just beat the shit out of all those fuckers in that shitty bar? Why don’t I just take control of this crappy island, properly?

Tayanita was shouting, and I trudged away, trying to escape her and the ringing.

Why couldn’t I have just saved them, Clover’s friends and Adonis?

Why did I have to kill that man?

Now I know it was the same reason I had to be a hero.

I’m afraid.

I opened my eyes, teeth chattering numbly.

Tayanita’s car was in front of me, it’s light glaring in the dark... but there was another. If I hadn’t adjusted to the dark way over on that hill, I might not have noticed the faint red glow just off in the tree line.

“Rori,” Tayanita repeated, urgency in her voice.

If she said anything more, it was blocked out by the ring. When I was in Korea, I could hear crickets from the balcony. I could never tell where exactly they were calling from, but it was just there, a part of me said, not far at all.

The ringing was somewhere in my ears, but it was also in the trees.

The red light was getting brighter, it was casting shadows across the earth now, long black arrows pointing out at me from the tree line.

My phone buzzed along with the hum.

Before I could answer it, I was somewhere else.

My body ached all over, far worse than the few punches Thomas got in. Something smashed into my face like a freight train and I was flying through the air.

As I crashed to the ground and turned to see what just hit me, and again, I was somewhere else entirely, now pinned to the ground, something glowing splattering my into the earth, my vision to blurred to make out anything more than that.

I hadn’t a clue what was going on, but none the less I punched up. The thing took it solidly. I wasn’t repressing any power.

I blocked a couple more slams from the thing’s arms before I was somewhere else again.

I guess I was running, because I went tripping over myself into a tumble. I whipped my head around to find the thing, and again I blanked out.

I was laying in the middle of a bonfire, every inch of my body aching. My SP2 was in effect, so I wasn't burned by the red flame roaring around me. I grabbed blind and dizzy, my hands finding metal. I pulled myself out from the fire my body crunching onto the gravel, even this two foot drop felt like hell in my current state.

I threw an arm about weakly, fighting off whatever shadow had done this to me. But it never came. An animal urge told me to keep fighting and clawing against whatever it was, it was silenced by the pain.

I croaked over, taking the foetal position.

My head was worse than ever, and I was having trouble closing my lips. I wiped a knuckle across my face, and it simply slipped over. I was bleeding profusely. I felt the rest of my body over, my top long gone. When I reached my gut, my insides screwed up, and I felt a warmth in the back of my throat.

Creaking my neck out, I looked at my stomach. I’m being literal. I looked at my gut. A hole. Oozing with every breathe.

I winced at the sight, there’s nothing more I can say about it.

I cried with a groan.

My words were nothing more than a drear exhale. “Wha’ the... Fuck...”

I strained up, edging to my feet slowly. I stood up like a clumsy toddler, one foot sorer than the other. I grabbed out for the metal, more clearly the crushed and scorched remains of Tayanita’s car.

Without question, I broke off the roof post. Though it was scorching hot, I was able to negate it from heating my hand. I slowly looked around for Tayanita, not seeing her.

I’d have snickered at the irony if I wasn’t screwed, I'd been looking for an excuse to get away from here, and one came out of the forest.

I did my best to prepare myself, sucking in air. I pinched my stomach together tight, and stuck the hot metal in. There was a hiss as it melted my flesh, before I threw it away and decreased the temperature of the burn.

It sealed well, though I couldn’t be certain how my insides were doing, at least nothing was coming out anymore... Thank god I’m such a cockroach.

I limped around without any real aim.

I remembered my bag, the ear piece was in there, last, I thought. I turned back around to Tayanita’s car. Oh, yeah...

With that out of the picture, I thought about running over to Gurl’s house, luckily, she called me.

A burner phone lay ringing a couple metres from the wreck. The thing was in the same condition as me, the case cracked but still working.

I answered and said nothing.

“Listen, it’s in the forest, Tayanita slunk off. It’s scared of fire, I think. Get the fuck out of there, it’s doing shit, leaving gaps in our memories, it’s wh-” she stopped suddenly- “Sham? Where’s the monster?”

I repeated, “Wha’ the fuck...” I looked over to the forest. “Gurl, you said it was in the forest, can you find it again?”

She was very clearly freaking out, “You fucking lost it? How the hell- it’s a seven foot tall winged monster!”

Maybe it was just that the thing had given me the beating of a life time, maybe it was because it hadn’t left me many memories to go off of, but I was dazed. “Find it Gurl. If it’s a monster and I might have nullified my scent to make it go away,” I raised an arm, sniffing, “Or maybe it really is afraid of fire.”

“Fuck,” she garbled through the phone before an electronic screech, “We’re fucked!”

I made way for the forest, squinting to try and find the same red light. “Geez... calm down, it’s not a big deal this used to happen to me all the time.”

That was sort of true. I’d been in this sort of condition before, but never in a couple flashes. As always, I was thinking this wasn’t a harder problem to solve than the rest, it was just different, I’d need to make a plan. I had time for it, Gurl would have told me if lives were in danger earlier. This wasn’t the same as Valentines or Babel.

I pulled my lip, checking my face was still attached.

“You’re ribs are broken, your lungs are fucked, you still have a hole in your stomach, and the rest of your organs are a mess! Holy shit-”

I cut her off, “Don’t look at me, look for him,” I hobbled on, before changing my mind, “Actually, where’s the ear piece? This phone makes my head hurt.”

“It’s in your fucking pocket shit heel. I should have gone to the Mountain, egyptian ghosts are better than- than-”

“Gimme something to work with,” I slipped the ear piece in.

Gurl’s voice came through all right, I was more concerned with her trying to communicate whatever features this thing had. The monsters I'd faced could be likened to some animals, but it would be an over simplification to call the Pooka a fox, or that giant blob a pig head.

“I found him, he’s- I found him, he’s... Found him-” At first I thought the audio was bugging out.

“Gurl.”

“Found him, he’s over... Got him, he’s- I found it, ba-”

She was stuck in a loop. Looking at this thing was doing something to her.

“Gurl!”

“I found him, he’s- God, he’s eating his own vomit-”

“Gurl, don’t look for it,” I was both pleading and commanding, eventually I got her out of it.

“What? Make up your damn mind,” I interupted, “If you saw it, what would you do next Gurl?”

She stammered, “I’d- I’d zoom out, get an idea of the area, look back at you to see the distance-”

I ordered, “Just don’t take your eyes of that thing, don’t even blink, just block everything else out.”

She pieced two and two together, “It’s been looping me. How do you know looking at it isn’t the problem? Are you seriously going to risk my life-”

I told her to “Shut the fuck up for a second.” I put a hand to my head. “You lose the memory of seeing it- or at least, sometimes you do... I need your help to figure this out quickly, before I get into another fist fight with the flying monkey, whatever it is.”

She was quiet for a second, saying with finality, “Got him.”

“Good,” I hovelled over towards the dark forest, my shadow stretching long where it met the foot of a pine tree.

“Uhm,” she was struggling to put it into words. I told, her, it’s alright if you can’t perfectly describe it, just give me the rundown, you can do this.”

“No, I know what it is,” she said with confidence, “It’s just- I'm not sure you’ll get what I'm talking about.”

I rolled my eyes, “I read comics religously, I'll get just about any reference. Besides, it’s nearly my monster hunting anniversary, I think I'll get it.”

There was an empty buzz from her side. “It’s tall, insect wings that wrap around it’s body. It has gorilla arms, and legs, and a ton of insect arms, and- and tendrils I guess. It’s got an insect head and it’s vaguely humanoid.”

I tried to think of what it was, scrunching up my face.

“It, uh, has giant glowing red eyes.”

I stood

That did it for me.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, realising what it was, “That’s Mothman.”