With my extra 14 bodies, I sweep through the concrete streets much faster than I ever could before. It's also easier to catch people unawares and evade them, due to both [Stealth] and my heightened [Stats], and as I'm wandering around, making sure to stay away from any of the stronger monsters/organizations, I come across a group of climbers.

I used to try and leap/climb to them whenever I came across them in the past, but they were always too high up and I could never catch any. Some even mocked me as I attempted to climb up, failing due to lack of hand/footholds. Not this time.

One of the climbers is struggling to keep up with its friends, up in the canopy of webs, floating streets, and random redundant air conditioning units. It has been falling behind for the better part of a minute now, its smaller limbs trying(and failing) to maintain momentum. As he slows down, he notices me following down below, meeting my gaze and recoiling from it. He calls out to the group, and they stop, realizing that the new guy has fallen behind.

I decide to put my new strength to the test, crouching down into a frog-like position, before exploding off of the ground. I angle my jump so that I land on the wall beside the straggler, because if I had tried to go directly up I would have gotten tangled up in the absolute mess of wires spanning between the several story tall buildings, forming a weird sort of interconnected pseudo structure that threads through the whole city like some kind of drunken spiders web.

There's a brief pause as my legs absorb the shock of impacting the wall at such speed, and I take a moment to admire the intricacy of the clothing they wear. It's designed to blend in with the wire canopy, the blackish grey colors the exact same shade. Normal peoples eyes would have difficulty picking them out of the web of wires, but my eyes can see more light than just the normal color spectrum, so finding them is as easy as luring children into a game of hide and seek.

I leap forward off the wall, snatching his neck in my jaws, the forces involved giving him a concussion. Among other things. I sprint away, blood leaking into my mouth and staining their once spotless clothes red. The lifeless eyes of whomever I just killed stare back at the others as they cry out and try to follow me, but are utterly unable to keep up with their normal humanoid (I see a cat person in there somewhere) bodies and no built up momentum.

I weave through the streets, dripping blood all over the place. I stop in a relatively inconspicuous, unused street and quickly devour the body, leaving nothing behind but scattered bloodstains and a few very mad climbers.

The realization strikes me, and the implications ripple throughout my minds.

A wide, predatory grin stretches itself across my bloodstained face as the implications ripple outwards through my minds, stopping a few [Clones] as climbers pass by overhead. We all smile, our eyes contorting into half-moons and our smiles revealing several rows of various kinds of teeth.

The hunt is on.

****Ken****

My hand grasps a lone wire, and I swing across the gap, my arm straining against both my momentum and gravity. I let go, and for a brief instant, I'm airborne, flying through the canopy, wind whipping across my shielded face. Then my feet meet more wires, and I use the springiness to continue bounding towards my destination.

The rest of my squad moves with me, keeping an eye out. We have a new recruit today, and it's our job to show them how it's done. Got to set a good example. The familiar streets rush by below us as we traverse the canopy, occasionally passing other squads and flying over crowded streets.

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"Wait up!" I stop, using the flexibility of the wires to slow down and turn around. The new recruit had fallen behind, unable to keep up with us more experienced wire monkeys. Before any of us can react, something impacts the wall next to him, denting it slightly, and tearing through his unfortunate neck.

"NO!" I charge, giving chase to the thing holding his dead body in its mouth. It's too fast, and I lost all my built up momentum when I stopped. I can't keep up with it. May might have been able too, but he was in a different squad today.

"What the fuck was that?" I demanded, turning towards Mold, the tracker assigned to our group.

"Why didn't you alert anyone about that thing?"

"It didn't exist until it attacked, I swear! I didn't hear it till it jumped, and It had no scent! Whatever it is, it's new. Don't blame me for not detecting it, why didn't you notice him falling behind?!"

"Why didn't you?!" He opened his mouth to argue back, but quickly shut it seeing the look in everyone else's eyes, His cat-like ears pulling back in fear. I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a sigh.

"Look, I'll radio in and alert the rest of the gang to the new threat, we'll continue our patrol, they'll either hunt it down or think of counter measures, and everything will be fine. Got it?"

I get a few nods and mumbled yes's in response.

Pulling out the little radio out of my chest pocket, I turn it on and twist the knob to the bases channel. After a minute of tense waiting and garbled static, words start to come through.

"-of there! Flee! What do you mean you can't?!"

"My foots stuck! I can't get it out! Oh fuck, it's coming for me! HELP ME-"

*Click*

"..."

"Well, fuck."

"This is squad 25, reporting in." I speak into the radio, keeping my voice level.

"*Deep breath* Hey Ken, what is it?"

"We had a new recruit today, but something managed to evade Mold's senses and it got him. It was small, but incredibly fast. We couldn't catch it, and it ran off with his body."

There was silence for a few seconds, during which I could see the other members of my squad worrying about the snippet of conversation they overheard. Something attacked one of the other squads, around the same time ours got attacked. It might be a coincidence, but that's the stuff of bedtime stories and books.

"...I see. Can you describe it?" His voice is slightly distorted over the radio, the recent updates unable to completely eliminate it.

"It was small, like a child. From what I could tell, it had black hair and pale white skin, with dirty, almost nonexistent clothes." The sound of pen on paper continued for a second, then stopped.

"I see. Continue on your patrol, but be extra carefu-"

*Click* "-AAAH! MY ARM! M-" *Click*

"... Extra careful, you hear me?" I think I hear a hint of fear in his voice, but it's probably just my own fear playing tricks on me.

"Loud and clear." *Click* I put the little thing back into it's pocket and scan over the disgruntled faces.

"You heard him. Let's get moving."

I bounce forward, propelled by the incredible springiness of the wires, and make my way back to our usual path. After a moment's hesitation, my squad follows suit. The rest of the patrol is uneventful, our thoughts occupied by what happened to Kim and what we heard over the radio. We reach the base, a 15 story tall building we built (and therefore own) to specifically act as a hub for our "Operations".

We approach the second story entrance, give the code to the guard, and make our way in. Inside, there's an absolute mess of chaos and shouting, people running to and fro with a couple having panic attacks.

Mold snaps out of it first, and guides us over to where we normally report in. It's empty, so we stand there and wait. After about five minutes of incredibly stressful waiting (we can still hear the chaos) the organizer shows up.

"Hey, sorry for being late, we kinda have an emergency going on. A new type of monster is rapidly killing our squads, and we need to do something about it. I need you to go with a group of 30 other people and hunt down at least one of the things." My shock must have transferred to my face, because he smiled sympathetically.

"Entrance #5, floor 2. Don't look so down. An awakened's coming with you." Molds ears perk up, and some expressions lift. Maybe with an awakened on our side, we'll be able to catch one of the things.

I just hope the awakened is strong enough to handle it.