Wisp turned on the television, switching to the news channel, watching the anchors talk about casualty reports estimated to be the direct result of the Dust Storm in its initial hours. Now that the storm was truly in full swing, first responders were beginning to discover bodies outside, answering an increasing number of 911 calls from people stranded outside. Reports began to flood the network of strange monsters consisting entirely of the dust making up the storm, solidified. They were rare to see at all, but when one showed up, they often left a massacre in their wake before they could be stopped.
On screen, a short, pale man with gray hair and mouse ears glowing like an LED stepped onto the platform, plugging his USB tail into the side of the big screen. The board lit up with a myriad of graphics, pie charts and high bars, numbers and stats for deaths and missing persons.
“Hello everybody, this is Pewter speaking, with the first report of the day regarding the current weather event that has befallen our city. Over here on the left, you can see the incidents of Void Hound attacks, as they have been named, increasing steadily after the first three hours of the storm…”
A sudden thunderclap interrupted his relaxing TV time, lighting up the penthouse for a brief fraction of a second. Up here, in the penthouse, he still had a full view of the city. Despite the stout hotel size, this specific room was elevated on a giant support structure above the skyline, granting him a 360 degree view of the one bustling metropolis. Being so high up, the glass was already heavily reinforced so it wouldn’t shatter from a stiff breeze, as was so common up high, and there were no metallic curtains to slide over the windows and obstruct his view.
The buildings were so small, surrounding interspersed towering skyscrapers, reaching high above the ground. Rain fell now, in a heavy torrent, carpeting the town in low lighting conditions. The dust was forced to settle for now, swept away by the water, but even now he could still hear Pewter Mowse jabbering away on the television screen, commenting on projections for injuries and deaths for the following day as well as suggested protective measures against the enemy.
Down on the streets, darkened by the heavy storm clouds and barely lit by street lamps, squads of soldiers creeped along paved pathways, guns held at the ready. With rifle rounds created exclusively for penetrating power, the watchmen kept their barrels pointed in every direction, covering every angle and listening acutely for even the most minute change in sound, despite the deluge of raindrops pitter pattering upon the concrete.
The mission had been simple: track down and eliminate a small pack of hounds that had broken through the North Gate during the storm’s opening. Eight had entered, and four were still missing. The other four had already been dealt with. Still, letting several of the evil mutts have free reign over the populace due to their failure would be terrible. No other gate had been breached, so the remaining four were the only ones left right now.
Slipping into a nearby alleyway, the eight patrollers filed into the dark, musty space, scanning their corners in an attempt to avoid ambush. One of them, not paying attention to his feet, nearly tripped over some random forgotten object on the ground, unable to see clearly in the dark downpour.
“Shit. Who dropped their pistol here? I almost tripped over the fuckin thing.”
“Not me. I didn’t bring a pistol during this deployment.”
“We’re not allowed pistols. Just a combat knife for backup, remember?”
The man picked up the mysterious pistol with no owner, inspecting it carefully. No noticeable markings, just a weapon lacking any discernible features. Beside the lost firearm, a pile of little obsidian-black bits…
“You guys seeing this? I think it's teeth.”
“Hold up, lemme check… it matches the reference sheet I’ve got here. Void Hound teeth. Enough for two of them.”
“I thought they turned into dust and blew away after you killed ‘em?”
“Their teeth are the only thing real about them. Black as the night, they fetch a pretty price. The last dust storm was two decades ago, so a Void Hound necklace can go for millions. Harder than diamonds, they say. No one ever tells you about the teeth on television or the internet, though. Carefully kept secret by the elite. I only know about it because I’m the one they sent out to grab them.”
“So we’re here not to protect citizens, but to make money for the higher ups?”
“Yup. Drilled it into my head before they sent me out. On the record, you have to refer to the teeth as ‘bonus spoils’.”
“What the hell killed these two guys and left the teeth? If they’re strong enough to take them down, they gotta be rich and knowledgeable.”
“Maybe Aric killed them. You know what they say…”
The mission leader gestured to the intimidating hotel just a stone’s throw away, locked down in silent slumber. The only indication it was still running was the tall pillar on top of the hotel, leading to a beacon of light shining from the windows at the very top.
“I heard Aric hasn’t come back in years though. I’ve never seen him.”
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“I saw him once. Dunno if the rumors were true, but they got one thing right: he dresses weird as hell. Sharply dressed, like he’s attending a dinner party. When I met him he was buying the plot of land the Toothland Hotel is sitting on right now. Handed me a roll of $100 bills for ‘keeping the peace’. I was just patrolling the street that day. Sweet tip if you ask me.”
“Every city’s got ‘that guy’ I suppose.”
The squad leader scooped up the jet-black teeth, depositing it in a pouch to deliver to his boss later.
“Good that you found it. That’s two down already. I think we might be able to get out of this just fine. Now move towards the hotel, remember to check your left…”
And as they moved forwards, morale high from their discovery, they did not see the two beasts perched on the rooftop until it was much too late. One was instantly eliminated, crushed underfoot while guarding the rear. The remaining seven swiveled around a split second later, fingers on the trigger, greeting with the sight of a Void Hound and the bloodstain it just created on the stone floor.
“FIRE!”
At the commander’s behest, they unloaded their weapons directly into its face. The mutt quickly swept forward, blowing away the first and second soldiers before succumbing to the onslaught of lead, backpedaling as the bullets pierced its skull and tore through its insides. Then the commander, leading the front, was turned into sliced ham, as the other hound revealed itself. It did not even give time for the men to react, barreling into them at high speed.
They tried their best to survive. The sound of gunfire was deafening, echoing off the brick walls for several agonizing seconds accompanied by yelling and the flashing lights of the rifles’ muzzles. Then sudden silence. The rain continued to fall, unperturbed by the happenings of the tiny little creatures far below, and a bag of teeth lay abandoned on the wet concrete, beside a lost pistol and eight scuffed military-issue rifles. A broken combat knife lay broken among the trash bags in the darkness, the penthouse far above them no longer lit...
Wisp stood pensively in the elevator, letting it take him down the spire his room rested upon. The numbers counted down, frequently making a ringing sound as he descended. Absent-mindedly, he checked his phone, then his text messages.
Delivered two days ago.
No answer since that day. Something was wrong here. Perhaps their cell phone was broken, or some kind of localized jamming as result of the storm? No way to know for sure, since dust storms were quite rare and not much data could be gathered often due to the risks of going outside at these times.
Ding ding ding rang the bell, doors opening to deposit its cargo. Nervous, Wisp shuffled across the carpeted floor, hesitating with his hand on the doorknob to the room. Deep breath, remain calm and collected. Opening the door revealed a darkened conference room, a long oblong table surrounded by high tech chairs, equipped for maximum comfort. Everyone was healed from their wounds, no scars or signs of battle on anyone. All sat in different positions, with Snake at the head of the table.
Vola reclined, annoyed at having to respond. Dave fiddled with a strange mechanical capsule, unfolding and changing its colors. Acid leaned forward on the desk, fingers interlocked to support her head, goggles obscured by a white glint. Mei drew into herself, watching her hands crackle with unknown energy. Rico flexed his forearm, practicing hardening it at a moment's notice. Dime was distracted petting Den’s hard metallic surface, while Unze put himself through a battery of voice exercises for perfect resonance and maximum volume.
A single spotlight lit up the chair at the far end of the table as Wisp went to sit at the closer end to the door. Snake swiveled around dramatically, slamming both palms down on the aged wooden desk.
“I know you’re wondering why I called you all here today.”
Vola’s propeller hat spun a few times and he sighed, snapping his fingers.
“It’s about the fight yesterday, isn’t it? I wasn’t even there for that.”
“I’m here to discuss what we’re going to do now! If they broke in once, they can break in again. We can’t afford to be lax with security.”
Rico grinned, turning into a rock solid death bringer. The chair struggled to support the sudden change in weight.
“I could definitely take down one by myself. Vola could take another, maybe two. I think we’ll be ok on that front.”
“What if there are more and they come in much greater droves? We only saw two, but there might be others about to storm the hotel.”
Dave raised his hand, capsule assembling into an armband.
“I can set up patrols and static defenses to hold them off. I don’t have the materials to make many things though, unless you can do a supply run during the storm.”
“Then I’ll depend on you for that. Vola and Rico I’ll place on standby. I’ll wire up an alarm or something to notify you when things go wrong and I need your help.”
“What should we do to prevent something like this from happening again?” said Unze, intent on contributing. Dime just flicked a coin onto the table in solidarity, prompting Mei to look up from where she sat and give everyone her two cents.
“...I can be on the patrol list. Too. I think. I don’t know how, but I kind of could kill them really easily with my power.”
Acid raised a hand to Mei to get her to stop.
“You haven’t trained with it enough though. Ideally you should have more proficiency in wielding it before actually fighting a dangerous battle.”
“I can fend for myself! I’m literally the top in this relationship!”
Vola shook his head, conceding the point to Acid.
“She’s right. I didn’t learn how to hex people in a day. All powers can take weeks, months, maybe years to learn. You have to put in hard work to learn your ability, like the rest of us.”
Unze disagreed, standing up from his seat in the middle of the table.
“I didn’t have to spend that long figuring out how to use my voice. It’ll become second nature for her. Besides, what’s important is defending ourselves NOW, not months in the future.”
Thus the argument flared, choosing to side with either Acid or Mei on the topic of risk management and the relative safety of fighting on home ground. Snake leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes under her glasses. This was not how she envisioned everything going when she called the meeting.
Wisp turned on the big screen TV in the room, depicting Pewter reporting on a breaking news story: a Void Hound, all by itself, was rampaging in their sector of the city, attacking some residential district and giving the local enforcement a run for their money. All eyes instinctively turned to the glowing screen. With everyone momentarily distracted, he could now get a word in edgewise…
“I get you guys all have some very important opinions about this, but I think you’re all missing something very important. Snake?”
“Yes, you may have the floor. What’s… what’s more important than the defense of the hotel you need to talk about?”
He narrowed his eyes at her in apathetic disappointment, rubbing his forehead in his hands trying to ignore the headache he was about to have.
“Did you all forget about KYKI? They haven’t come home or texted me anything. The last time I saw or talked to them was right before they said they were going to walk home by themselves. I’d say that’s pretty IMPORTANT.”
Everyone else turned their eyes away, slightly guilty. No one wanted to say the obvious thing.
“Now that we’re all on the same page: how are we going to find them?”
Far from the conference room darkness lurked, ready to claim more lives, a robot army prepared for imminent assault, and one person, despite all the misfortune surrounding these past few days, grinned in anticipation of what was to come.