5/19/54

ALEXANDER GALDUR

After being treated for the hearing damage I had gained from my meeting with Captain DuBauer, the next few days were pretty normal. With my bounty hunting placed on hold, I was mostly just forced to look after the house and visit Deimos whenever I could. By the second day, however, he was allowed to leave the care of the DME’s medical facilities. For that day, he was permitted to do whatever as long as he didn’t do anything too strenuous.

Today, though, he has officially recovered and is ready for duty, and coincidentally, it was also around the time for another meeting with Captain DuBauer. It turns out that she was Deimos’s superior as well as Elizabeth Grant’s. I only found this out when I got pulled along by him to another meeting.. Now that we were here, I looked around and realized that Max, Sarah, and Anna were also there. I also caught Trainer Masako out of the corner of my eye. What are the chances?

With a pang of fear at the memory of the Captain’s prior behavior, I tuned back into what Captain DuBauer was saying and noticed that a few other bounty hunters and mercenaries reacted similarly. This time, she wasn’t drunk, but somehow, she seemed even grumpier and in an even fouler mood.

“So, the Zoo’s smuggling spot was found here.” She then pointed at a specific point on the map that had been marked with a red circle. “We don’t know how many of them are there, nor if there will be any monsters at site. We do know that this is one of their more frequently used locations so expect large amounts of combatants.”

The spot she had referenced was an abandoned subway station. The tracks were supposed to be in disuse, but it was found that they were haphazardly repaired. The area itself was quite deep underground with limited entry points. It was also in an abandoned part of the city, somewhere that was destroyed in the fall of the Magical Society of America.

Places like that had become quite common after magic was introduced: wastelands devoid of life with dangerous levels of magic practically humming in the air.

Some DME official asked, “So how do we get in?”

“I was getting to that!” DuBauer snapped, stopped, and rubbed her temples, “So, there aren’t a lot of ways to get in, and we know that the place is under heavy lock. So, instead of coming down the expected paths of the heavily guarded stairs, we’ll head to a nearby subway and go along the tracks. From there, we’ll have any scouts or infiltration specialists work on obtaining information, alright?”

After a chorus of agreements, she then pointed at a few people in the room, two of which were Deimos and myself, “You’ll be our scouts. We’ll discuss more when we’re on site.”

Then, we were all herded into a large, garage-like space with a variety of land vehicles ready. The collective of twenty-some people were loaded onto various, inconspicuous but well-armored trucks, designed to look like civilian vehicles. Soon after, we were off.

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In a secluded part of the abandoned parts of the city, where the wind howled menacingly through destroyed buildings, a full-scale military operation was underway. Tents were raised with people jumping across the place, hurriedly preparing for the upcoming battle. Even bounty hunters like myself were being hounded to get things setup. While we worked, the Californian heat burned across the ruins, and while the sunlight didn’t affect me, the magic in the air hummed against my skin. Thankfully, no extreme measures needed to be taken to protect us from magic radiation, but it was definitely a higher concentration than I was either used to or comfortable with.

As not much was known of the situation, us scouts were basically handed a map and told to figure it out, the ideals of being laissez-faire clearly having run its course through the entirety of our society’s government. Deimos took the lead of our group like a fish to water, pointing out points on the map where a pair of scouts would search through. He had paired the two of us together, and on his mark, we dashed into the awaiting mouth of the subway.

The scent of old dust was kicked up by the rapid steps we took. Not activating any magic yet, all of our paces were still rather fast, and my persistent training allowed me to keep up with them. The insides were pitch black, but instead of conjuring a light, we all snapped down some night vision goggles. It was decided that my magic would simply draw too much attention, but it still irked me. If I was allowed to use it, I wouldn’t have to put up with these goggles; I didn’t even need them! My eyes could see through the dark and the light without a problem. Plus, they were already starting to get itchy…

Adjusting them slightly, we arrived at the tracks. We began to crowd into our pairs, keeping distance from the other scouts. The atmosphere was tense, but I couldn’t talk with Deimos to break the tension out of fear of attracting unwanted attention. In the end, I distracted myself by keeping an eye on our surroundings.

An unpleasant cocktail of stenches surrounded the place; it was so thick that you could almost taste it. It was also cold, in sharp contrast to the surface where the sun was beating down on anyone who dared step outside. The bland colors of everything made my eyes just slip over most of it, the occasional flash of something not gray, brown, or something between the two was like an oasis of vibrancy in this desert of dullness.

Then, just as I was in the middle of a pathetic game of single-player eye spy, the darkness began retracting from the harsh fluorescent light ahead. I quietly spoke into the radio we were all given, setting it to the appropriate signal.

“Light ahead. We’re coming up on them.”

Affirmations from a single person from each pair came, and if there was tension before, it was nothing to the oppressive silence that surrounded us now. Our sprints slowed off into careful sneaking. I noted that some began using their magic to maneuver around, one person even crawling up the wall and onto the ceiling.

The light began to get brighter, and eventually, we came upon them. All the people here looked as filthy as the animals they were with. Trying to get past the horrific smell, my eyes scanned over the people here. While there were ten-ish people, there were six medium to large animals going about their business. Deimos slowly started sneaking ahead and I found myself following. He conjured some illusionary cover to supplement the near cover-less area.

Despite not being able to see us, one canine monster suddenly faced us. I watched its nose flare, and suddenly, its eyes began to glow with a faint golden light. Suddenly, one of our adjacent scout pairs moved into action. Someone began blowing out a nearly invisible mist while the second person summoned a small pinprick of flame. The monster crept closer, its actions ignored by person and beast alike, but it suddenly let out a high-pitched whine and covered its nose. The glow blinked from its eyes as it continued to keen at the smell of whatever gas the people were expelling.

Other creatures growled at the annoying noise which quickly shut the monster up. Then, the person released their flame in a tiny bolt; a light at the other side of the room suddenly burst in a cloud of sparks and smoke. I knew it was my time to act and upped the brightness of malfunctioning light. With most of the room distracted, we all swiftly moved past. One unfortunate guard caught a glimpse of us, but with deadly precision, a blade of energy was lodged into the person’s neck. Barely a gargle made it out before someone pulled them away and Deimos summoned an illusionary copy to take their place.

From there, Deimos and I stayed behind so he could maintain the illusion, and the entire time I kept my eyes trained on the spot the corpse was. Eventually, he made the copy excuse himself to hinder any rising suspicions of why he would be missing. Once the illusion was far enough away, it dissipated in a cloud of teal mist. Deimos and I set out to scout our section of the subway, the North-Western areas, and I tried my best to suppress the feelings of tension and nausea that were building within from the almost casual murder I had just witnessed.

We snuck through the halls with the occasional close-call from people suddenly turning corners and animals smelling us through the mold and mildew. On our way, I took note of how frequent restaurants were becoming and how they started dominating the area. This also meant an uptick in the number of roaming animals. Deimos and I were side-by-side when a growl started ringing from behind us. I dove to the right, and when I looked back, I saw that Deimos had taken to the left.

Then, I saw a glint of light from a pane of glass that once held pastries, and I saw that it was the same canine monster from earlier. In the dark, its glowing gold eyes were particularly bright. It was, however, dimmed somewhat by its head being ducked down, sniffing the ground.

Shit, it must’ve followed our scent. The thing’s magic was probably some kind of divination magic. The growl suddenly got louder, and its head snapped to my position. It began stepping closer, the soft pad of its paws barely audible, and my breath hitched at the realization I was going to have to fight. If we fought now, that would mean alerting those close enough to hear.

I looked around frantically. There must’ve been something I could do! Then, my eyes caught on Deimos’s own. He looked serious as he clutched the ground in a white-knuckle grip. As the monster turned to look at me, his eyes flashed with teal. I was frozen in place, eyes locked onto the monster’s as it stared me right in the eye. Then, a burst of gold surrounded its eyes as it twisted to face Deimos.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

… What? Why had it ignored me? Damnit, now’s not the time to wonder! A much louder growl ripped through the air, and hoping it was loud enough to drown out my footsteps, I lunged at the monster’s back and grabbed its snout while it stared Deimos down. With one hand, I kept a hold over its mouth as it tried to bark in surprise, and with the other, I raked the long, yellow spikes from my weapons across its neck.

I also pulsed out a wave of magic to send electricity cracking through the beast. In a burst of light, its eyes rolled back in its head and foam leaked from its snarling lips. As the first wisps of smoke began coming from the beast, I released my hold, letting the body—unconscious or dead, I wasn’t sure—fall to the ground.

I looked down at the twitching body, heart still drumming in my chest. Holy shit that was close. Really, really close! If it had caught me…

Bringing me back from a near panic attack, Deimos pulled me by the arm. I looked down and noticed that, for a moment, my arm was see-through, something Deimos must’ve done to hide me from the monster. He said as quietly as he could, “Alexander, we must go. We don’t know if anyone—anything—might’ve heard us.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he repeated our encounter on the radio. We had already scouted everything needed, so really, we would’ve had to head back either way. Now, we just had to do it a little faster.

Because we were only a group of two, sneaking out was much easier. Deimos was able to turn us both invisible, at the cost of his magic being rapidly drained away, and we snuck away from the gathering of Zoo members. When we emerged from the subway and back into the DME camp, there were already a few of the scouts waiting around. We joined them until the rest of the scouts came back, and we reported our findings to Captain DuBauer.

“Hm, so there were twenty-eight Zoo members seen with at least eleven monsters.” Without pause, she spun on her heel and loudly snapped her fingers. She walked back to the large central tent that we had met at.

“From what we’ve seen, there are at least thirty-nine hostiles, and in the North-East part of the subway, there seems to be a communications hub setup. We will get there, one way or another, and we need to get there fast. Scouts! We’ll divert their attention so you can secure the objective. After, send in some troops and we’ll flank them. We’ll supply you with some additional forces, so you’re not all killed, alright?”

Without waiting for a response, she barreled through the rest of the battle plan with the main force. Nerves buzzed along my back; I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this type of mass combat yet. Hell, this kind of fight… I could die! I was now suddenly facing not just my own mortality but also the lives of my peers. We all had to rely on one another to keep from dying, and I was scared. Not only that, but the man who had seen us scouts was still fresh in my mind. Not only could I die. I could kill.

My vision blurred, but a hand suddenly found itself on my shoulder. Then another, and another. Looking back, I saw that Deimos, Anna, and Max had all seen my panic, and they were there for me. My eyes dampened, but I reeled my emotions back in place and steeled myself. I was going to survive this, and I was going to make sure my friends lived as well.

I mostly tuned out all the instructions not directed at me, a feeling of nervousness turned into energy now flowing through my veins. I went up to my small group in the few minutes in-between planning and the eventual battle.

“Thanks, I-I needed that. Thank you.”

“Of course, Lucas! That’s what we’re here for.” Anna replied, a warm smirk across her face.

Deimos smirked and said nothing, and Max echoed a similar sentiment to Anna.

I was damn lucky to somehow have made friends like them.

Deimos and I were dragged back into our scout group, now having been added to with additional forces, and Max and Anna were both pulled into their own little squads. Anna obviously was paired with the rest of the medically-trained personnel while Max wound up being placed with Sarah and Elizabeth. He looked pretty tense, especially with Elizabeth giving him the stink eye. At least Sarah was there to try and play peacemaker; she seemed pretty level headed despite everything.

The scout squad was sent down that same tunnel, and my nose was assaulted with those awful smells. I felt solace in seeing others' faces contorting a lot more than mine. Nice to know I could endure the stench a little better than others.

Eventually, we did arrive back at the entrance of the subway, but we were faced with a pair of guards and their animal buddies waiting for us. They startled at our arrival and immediately stammered something into their radios. Our squad burst into action. Right now, we numbered about ten people, and that left us with at least two people per enemy.

Deimos and I charged at one of the monsters, a groundhog on steroids by the looks of it, and started our assault. Deimos brought three illusionary copies of himself to life, and he began raining down blows with his batons, each attack disguised beneath his copies. The groundhog dislocated its jaw like a snake and had it tear through each of the Deimoses. He dodged out of the way, and I pounced on the monster’s open defenses. My attacks each flashed with a burst of light and lightning, but suddenly an idea flashed in my mind. I called out, yelling over the din of battle, “FLASH BANG!”

Hoping that my yell gave my allies enough of a warning, I pulled my magic forth from my hand, and in a wide cone that encompassed the station, a blinding burst of white consumed everything. As quickly as it appeared, it was gone, all but a single Zoo member was left not groaning and clutching their eyes. The animals were quickly dispatched and the people were restrained and watched over as we ran uncontested through the subway. We arrived at the communications hub—it was like something you’d see from a movie with monitors and radio discs and other electronics all carelessly strapped together.

A new addition to our group came forth, “Me and Randol will guard this. You all go.”

A man, presumably Randol, took the guy’s side. There was no room for debate as the rest of the room ran out in a stampede, rushing to provide backup to the meager forces fighting for our safety. My mind clicked back to my friends, and a pit of worry opened wide. No, there’s only one thing I can do, and that’s to get there a little faster.

I sped up and came to be the head of the herd, and under the background of falling feet, we erupted into the main lobby of the metro. On our way there, cries of fighting and the clashing of magic rang loudly. That was only the echoes of it all, and coming to the source, it was overwhelming. An arena of devastation opened ahead. In the tight confines of the metro, the pathways meant for commuters intensified the battle as people scrambled for the upper hand. Despite our superior abilities, the Zoo outnumbered us, and within these tight confines, the fighting was a mess of flashing magic, clashing weapons, and booming guns.

Somehow, to my surprise, I saw Max. Under the cover of his teammates, he formed rune after rune to stop the approach of a monster and a person. Glimmering ink walls rose to his defense, but I could see him being overwhelmed. He won’t hold out for much longer. I have to help.

Springing forth, away from my encroaching allies, I took to the battlefield. It was like flying, the air pierced by my burst of speed, and I slid past the obstacles of enemies blocking my way. Almost immediately, I lost where everything was, the world consumed in war. A flash in the corner of my eye made me roll out of the way. A burning sensation flicked across me, and I could see parts of my armor bubbling.

I was forced to move again when a kick came screaming by my head, and I fortunately came out uninjured. I crossed my arms to point a hand at each opponent and blinded them in an instant. My foot crashed down on their shoulders, and I leapt above the battle, head brushing the roof above me. Where was he? Ah, there!

Arms shot out and I slung across the roof, light propelling me forwards and against the laws of gravity. Huh, new use of magic, unlocked.

Landing in front of Max, I rolled into my boxing stance and took on the human opponent. He tried attacking me with a spear of blood that pierced from his palm, but I weaved around it. Letting muscle memory apply pressure on him, I suddenly flashed down and between his legs. I came around with a jab and straight to his head. As he turned around, I watched carefully, and gave him a hook that came the way he was turning.

His head snapped to the side, and he collapsed to the ground. Two more people jumped at me at the same time, but two pillars of ink launched them back the way they came. Turning around, I saw a defeated monster, and Max with two nasty scratches across his eyebrow. Still, though, he smiled and my own lips curled upwards. I flash banged them and stuck out my hand to Max. The wet feeling of ink came across it, and when he was done, I closed my fist hard.

A beam of light burned across the face of one, and Max engaged the other. Deimos came from behind and took them both out with his batons, the cringe-inducing crunch of his weapons against their jaws ringing out loudly. Under the screaming of battle, we fought hard. I rushed in recklessly usually, the feeling of desperation harnessed into energy. Deimos, though, was always there to cover me, and Max kept supporting us as we fought.

Over time, my carefully manicured boxing devolved into something a lot more savage and loose, but it worked for me. Every careless blow was punished, but I pushed harder. A trickle of warm blood turning cold ran past my eye and forced it shut, but that just meant I needed to even the playing field with my enemies by blinding them. With the rush of adrenaline and the roaring of battle playing out, my sense of time dissipated, but when I came back, the subway was much, much quieter.

Silence reigned king when the battle had come to its end, but it could’ve also been ear damage from the screaming of fighting. Max scuttled into the center of my vision, and he asked, “Hey, uh, Lucas, a-are you okay?”

He was asking that despite looking dead-tired himself, but all I could do was nod instead of asking him the same. Deimos came from the left and I turned to look at him. He just put his hand on my shoulder, and I smiled. Then, something suddenly became… off.

A shout of warning came from behind me, and Deimos’ eyes shot open. His comforting hand gripped down and pulled me to him. Head swinging on a swivel, I turned and saw a strange spider-like monster explode open, its back ripping apart in a swarm of tiny arachnids. They flooded over everything around them, and Deimos had just barely gotten me away from the splash-zone. But, not everyone was so fortunate.

To my right, a familiar voice cried out and my blood was suddenly frozen over. When the wave of monsters crashed into Max, his legs were swept out from under him and he collapsed into the ocean of monsters.

“HELP!”