Callum had changed his attire from the one he wore for breakfast into a kit more suitable for urban traversal. He didn't plan for a walk outside the borders, but his stomach says otherwise. It had been a while since he had sated the hunger of "the other being", which makes things difficult for the host body because this entity inside him only eats actual meat. And that means venturing outside the safety of the Sanctuary.
The Sanctuary doesn't recommend going outside the borders to No Man's Land, but they can't exactly stop people from going out completely, so they established an Adventurer's Group that manages the tasks that people can take when they venture out. By rewarding those who return with valuable items like food and clothing, they get to target a specific group of people to do their fetch quests for them. The desperate constantly take this request in order to let them live more comfortably in the Sanctuary.
Callum used this as a cover to go out and hunt for meat every once in a while. Although meat by itself is extremely valuable, the meat he goes for are less appetizing to the sane.
As he packs a backpack with a change of clothes, some light snacks (that he traded with some trinkets he brought back from his previous outing) and water, he caught a glance at the time now. It's still in the afternoon, and he plans to return by midnight, so he can't travel far from the border, which complicates how he plans to hunt. He shrugged it off and told "himself" about his plan.
With that, he slung the bag on his back, and set off.
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Angie's group had arrived at their assigned destination.
"This is the place?" Angie asked, directed to the handler on the other end of the line.
"Yep, you are to check from 4th Avenue to High Street for any sign of adventurers, since a group of them were declared missing and this was their declared exploration area." The handler replied. "Also, if they are dead, simply take a picture and report back."
Angie ended the call with the handler.
"How long were they missing for?" Anna asked.
"A week."
"Damn, they're dead as fuck then."
"Lets get this photo and get out then. I'll take point."
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Callum finally passed the border check. It strangely took a while, but he went through without any problems. As he crossed the bridge that connected the Sanctuary to the mainland, his senses started to sharpen and his goosebumps tell him that something is surveying the place from the skies. The clouds hide the entity that triggered Callum to be on edge right from the start, but given how it haven't reacted to his presence, he simply brushed it off as 'not his problem'. At the very least, if it does follow him, his other self would be eating good tonight.
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When he was far enough from the Sanctuary where its powers did not affect him anymore, he quickly ran towards the horizon, realizing that the thing that he sensed earlier finally detected him and started stalking him. He could sense it giving chase, but he could probably outrun it. Probably.
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Angie's group had been searching for a good while to no avail.
"Did they die in some building? That's annoying."
"I'll do it then." Samantha volunteered.
"Wait, Handler's calling."
Angie picked up the call.
"Ah. I wasn't expecting you to pick up that quickly." the handler said.
"Get to the point. We're calling off the search 'cos they're most likely dead already."
"There is a kaiju signature approaching your position. Its a flying type, so be prepared." With that, the handler ended the call.
"Fucking great."
"Hey, there's smoke in that direction. Shall we check it out?"
Samantha's mech pointed towards the smoke trail probably coming from one of the house's backyard.
"Didn't you hear, Sam? There's a fucking kaiju coming our way!" Anna interjected.
"All the more to see if there's anyone there."
"She's right, Anna. We still have a job to do."
As they moved towards the smoke, they approached a clearing and spotted 2 individuals sitting on logs.
1 of them is a golden haired boy wearing a school uniform who is casually roasting some marshmallows on the fire. The other is a silver-haired girl wearing the same uniform, except that she's in a blood-stained apron and roasting some skewer of who-knows-what. They looked surprised at the sudden appearance of the mechs.
The boy simply sighed as he stood up and stared at the mechs.
Angie is scrambling to match the people in front of her to the provided snapshots of the missing people. When she finally found out that these are not the people they are searching for, an explosion erupted from behind the students.
As debris rain down from the explosion, black tentacles emerged from the explosion and attacked the people on the ground. Samantha reacted quickly by parrying a tentacle heading towards the girl, but was retaliated by another that slapped the mech back.
"Shit, what the fuck?!" Anna shouted as she pulled out a rifle from the back of her mech and fell back. She fired at the tentacles that approached her.
Angie, caught off guard, maneuvered back to a safe distance where the tentacles suddenly retreated, and from the smoke emerged a short man in a black cloak with purple highlights. The tentacles retracted into his cloak, where he morphed his hand into a sword and slashed it at the golden-haired boy in front of them.
The slash was blocked by the boy's arm, which showed no damage whatsoever from the tentacle attack to the sword slash, as if he was wearing some sort of armor. The assailant grinned and jumped back, keeping his distance.
In fact, both the boy and girl showed no damage from the assault. They seem to know each other. Angie couldn't believe her eyes.
"First, let's deal with the insects behind you, ok?" the cloaked man said, showing an ok sign with his fingers.
"Do whatever you want." the golden-haired boy replied.
With that, a second burst of tentacles emerged and attacked the trio of mechs.
The 3 of them activated their thrusters and took flight. As they hovered in the sky and rain bullets on the assailant, Anna was snatched by something. The kaiju that the handler had warned swiped Anna's mech and is soaring higher into the clouds.
Meanwhile, the assailant directed some of his tentacles towards the golden-haired boy. Among that he also got up close towards him and slashed a few times. His opponent simply parried it all.
"Still annoying as always, Syd."
"HAH! YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED, ISAAC!"
As they clash, Angie focused on getting back Anna.
"Cover me!"
"Alright!" Samantha continued firing on the people down there, after they showed hostility towards their presence.
As the bullets ping the ground around them, as Isaac and Syd continue fighting, Isaac was struck by a bullet that hit his shoulder.
He looked back at the one who hit him, as he continued to parry Syd's onslaught of tentacles and slashes, before repelling him back to gain some distance. Once he did, he stretched out a hand towards Samantha. As she was reloading, she noticed the gesture and didn't think much of it. That is, until the palm of the hand started to change, morphing into an orifice that opened wider and wider. Suddenly, a beam of light launched out from the hand and pierced the center of the mech, which housed the cockpit. The mech hovered silently before exploding quickly after.
"That's one."