Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Throughout a shadowed forest, wind hissed as the silvery moon cast a pale glow on the canopy.

A tall, muscular figure could be seen peeking through the bushes. Sweeping their gaze across the foliage, the figure stepped into a beam of moonlight.

It showed a clean-shaven, fair-skinned man - early 20s at most. His broad-shouldered form was shrouded in a dark red animal-pelt jacket, lined with fur at the interior and hood.

Moonlight caught the black logo on the jacket's shoulder: a nondescript monstrous face impaled by a sword and the letters S.H.K.D written underneath.

The man brushed some thick, auburn-red hair from his face. It was a wild, unorganized mane that fell to his lower neck. Dark, metal implants rested behind his ears, glinting in the light.

His eyes - inhuman things, almost like an owl - surveyed the area before him. Irises, large and white with no pupils and poisonous green sclera.

The man known simply as 'Rudy' furrowed his brow as he silently walked through the forest despite his size. Stopping every now and then to listen for something. Despite the pitch black darkness, he navigated the foliage as if it were broad daylight.

His eyes violently twitched when a beam of moonlight shot through the canopy right into his face, his sensitive vision making it almost painfully bright. He held up a bandaged hand to block the light from his face.

Rudy eventually found the body of a large buck, its throat savagely torn open and blood painting the grass. Veins of soft light pulsed in its antlers, even in death.

Kneeling to get a closer look - his green cargo pants and combat boots stained with dirt - the redheaded man noticed something. Although the deer was half eaten in a gruesome display of violence - roughly half an hour ago, by the look and smell of it - there was something else.

"No struggle." He voiced his thoughts in a steady voice as he turned to look around the area. "An ambush predator then. Killed it before it could react."

His inhuman eyes scrutinized the deer for a long moment before the faintest crack of a branch reached his ears. Old blood filled his nose.

Shooting to his feet, Rudy stared at the direction of the sound with a sudden laser-focus, his face set in a small scowl. Silence reined through the forest.

Toxic-green eyes darted back and forth as he turned in place, his hand creeping to the short, metal stick on his back.

A second snapped twig behind him made Rudy whirl around only to find nothing. "Oh, I do not like how quick you are..." He muttered under his breath. Whatever Rudy was dealing with, it was fast.

After a long moment of listening and a few experimental sniffs, Rudy slowly relaxed and followed where the scent was strongest.

Steadily, cautiously, Rudy went deeper into the forest.

Seemingly unaware of the eyes following him as he went, a low snarl coming from the greenery.

During his trek through the moonlit forest, Rudy thought back to the report that had brought him here: livestock mauled, locals got spooked. Palm Beach County had called, and as his Office's best tracker, he'd answered.

He'd started with the farms, searching for something to learn it's scent, but found only gouge marks on a raided barn door. Claws. Reptilian by the look of it.

The farmers hadn't seen much, vexingly. Quick, they said, striking at night and gone before they could react. He could vouch for that himself now. But all of them mentioned the same thing: large yellow eyes, glaring in the darkness.

That description matched several creatures, but none of them were found in this particular area of the state or known to blatantly steal from farmers like this. Not anymore, at least.

It was after another day of searching that he'd found it: a discarded scale, reptilian but unlike anything native to Florida. Some exotic pet, he theorized, escaped from one of Florida's many, many idiots.

He still didn't know how that one dumbass was able to keep a fucking Basilisk hidden for so long but, whatever.

He'd tracked the scent here, to this forest. Blood and something else permeated the air--artificial, like bad flavoring.

Now, moving through the woods at 4:00 in the morning, his stride slowed as he spotted fireflies, tiny lights teleporting from hot pink to blue to purple. Mating ritual? Or was it a warning? Regardless, the little insects danced intricately in the air.

Rudy took a moment to admire the display. It was rather pretty, if he was being honest.

It was at this moment that the fireflies suddenly scattered and Rudy's instincts screamed in alarm. He whipped around within an instant and punched the huge reptilian maw of his attacker hard enough to send it head-first into the dirt. It quickly scrambled to it's feet however, and put some distance between them.

"Figures I'd have to play dumb to get you to show yourself," Rudy mused, getting a good look at his target. It was covered head-to-toe in smooth, teal scales and a long, serpentine tail thrashed behind it. It lacked any hind limbs, instead walking with muscular forelimbs sporting savage claws. Jagged spikes of bone sprouted from its shoulders in uneven spires.

An arrow-shaped head and - more importantly - catlike yellow eyes. This was his monster.

"A Tatzelwurm?" Rudy identified it, his expression pensive. Not his first guess, he'd admit.

And it was huge. Rudy was pretty sure they're normally around 9ft long (pests, really) but the beast before him was at least 19ft long, probably closer to 20. And the redhead had also never heard of a Tatzelwurm with dorsal bone spikes before either.

Rudy put the thought aside when he noticed the Tatzelwurm's forearms tensing, and the metal stick was in his hand within a heartbeat.

Parts clicked and snapped into place as the small stick unfolded into a long, straight handle with a vaguely rectangular one-sided axe head placed at the end.

The axe was a rather simple thing. Four feet of metal and violence held in a one-handed, iron grip. The blade alone was nearly the size of Rudy's head.

The metal implants behind his ears unfurled, extending into a smooth, matte-black metal mask that covered his whole face. A bright 'V' shaped visor lit up where his eyes would be, glowing in the darkness of the woods. Thanks to the filters in the mask, Rudy's exhale came out as a mechanical snarl.

He easily hefted the weapon despite its size. It wouldn't be the heaviest thing he's swung around.

Rudy waited for his prey to attack, axe at the ready.

But the Tatzelwurm didn't attack, instead darting to the side. It preferred ambushes, and wasn't prepared to face off in an actual fight.

But Rudy wouldn't just let it leave so easily.

The Tatzelwurm bounded away - thirty feet in two leaps. Frighteningly fast for it's size. Rudy easily caught up however, following its' thick, artificial scent. The world became a smear of green as he barreled through the forest, vaulting over fallen trees and through branches.

He tackled it into a tree, the impact far heavier than even his large frame would suggest.

Bark and wood cracked open as the Tatzelwurm was slammed into the tree with a startled hiss, the beast only barely managing to pull its' head away from the glinting edge of the Rudy's axe burying itself in the bark.

The Tatzelwurm snarled and lunged, teeth clamping onto Rudy's right forearm with a pained growl, his mask reverberating the sound. But there was no blood or tearing of flesh, as the Tatzelwurm was somehow unable to pierce his jacket's sleeve.

It was made from something far worse than this beast, after all.

Confused, the Tatzelwurm couldn't figure out why it tasted no blood.

That confusion became panic as Rudy released his grip on his axe - leaving it embedded in the tree - and gripped the beasts' upper jaw with his left hand, his right arm still in its mouth. With a grunt, Rudy twisted, performing some sort of bastardized Judo-flip. The Tatzelwurm slammed onto its back, bone spikes snapping with a meaty thud, and it wheezed in pain, releasing his arm.

Rudy was on top of the thrashing, struggling beast in an instant, pinning its' forelimbs down with his knees. His unoccupied hands meanwhile, started beating the Tatzelwurm's face in with blindingly fast punches. With each hit, the sound of Rudy's knuckles thudding into the Tatzelwurm's skull filled the air.

Again and again he went, the assault stunning the monster and preventing any retaliation.

After about two dozen blows - his bandaged knuckles warm with blood and the creature's broken teeth dotting the ground - he stopped to reach down to his thigh and pulled out a hunting knife almost the length of his forearm.

It was right as Rudy was about to slit the Tatzelwurm's throat when he felt something wrap around his wrist with an iron grip. Confusedly turning around let him see the serpentine monster's tail constricted around his arm.

He barely had any time to curse about the fact that of course its' tail was prehensile before said tail flicked out and hurled him into - and through - a tree.

By the time Rudy got back to his feet - shaking splinters and wood dust off his back - the Tatzelwurm was already gone, bounding off into the forest.

Clicking his tongue with a scowl - unseen under his mask - he calmly went to retrieve his axe from the tree trunk it was still buried in, sheathing his knife as he did.

The man idly rolled his shoulders, huffing with irritation at the pops and cracks that answered him.

"I hate it when they're clever."

Luckily, his earlier pummeling of the beast left it bleeding, giving him a fresh sample of its blood to track. Whether by scent or sight, it didn't matter. It wasn't going to escape him.

Rudy was right, the Tatzelwurm didn't escape. It had evaded him however, 20 goddamned minutes of tracking until his eyes finally spotted the slippery bastard, near a river.

He did also notice something strange on the way. While he hadn't needed it, the blood drops from the Tatzelwurms' forcibly removed teeth did help. But they had disappeared after a time, as if they stopped bleeding. Odd, because Rudy was fairly sure Tatzelwurms couldn't regenerate.

Regardless, Rudy was perched in a tree watching his quarry drink from a river. His masks' visor glowed softly in the shade, like a glowstick. He'd give it a moment, assess what he learned.

The Tatzelwurm had indeed healed. Rudy had knocked several of its teeth out and given it a nasty black eye last time he'd seen it, but it was in much better condition now though he wouldn't called it recovered. Which annoyed him more than he thought it would.

He'd also learned his lesson--he couldn't focus on just its front half. Had to watch out for both ends.

As Rudy thought through his plan, the Tatzelwurm stilled, the river breeze shifting. It raised its head, tongue flicking in and out to taste the air.

Shit, I'm downwind. It'll catch his scent in seconds.

"Looks like the plan's a bust," Rudy whispered, unfortunately used to improvising.

He drew his axe and leapt, bringing the weapon down in a chop.

The Tatzelwurm snapped its head to meet him, hissing in angered recognition right before he slammed into it and - thanks to his own strength and a little gravity - buried the axe head a solid half-foot into its shoulder. The sound of steel biting into flesh filled the air and his nose found itself breathing in the metallic scent of fresh blood.

The serpentine creature shrieked and blood painted Rudy's front with flecks of red. It thrashed and threw itself around like an angry bull, but he held on tight by the hilt of his weapon. Whenever it tried to whip around and bite him, he ducked his head back and forth to avoid the beast's razor-sharp teeth.

The Tatzelwurm's tail lashed out again, but Rudy simply snatched it and pulled out his knife to cut off a solid foot of the tip, renewing its pained screeching.

They continued, until the Tatzelwurm apparently smartened up and threw itself back-first into a tree, sandwiching Rudy in-between it and the trunk.

Rudy cursed violently at the impact, the Tatzelwurm having repeat its' action three times before it got an actual effect.

Rudy loosened his grip, growling, and the beast sunk its teeth into his forearm. Again. It tore him off in an animalistic mirror of his earlier Judo-flip and ragdolled him about the river's edge like a chew-toy, the axe still impaled in its shoulder. Luckily, his jacket stood up to the assault unscathed.

But while his flesh may have been saved, getting thrown around by a 20ft reptile still hurt. A lot.

"AGH, MOTHERFUCK-!" Rudy snarled, trying to grab the monster's head but he was being thrown around too wildly. He could do nothing but allow himself to be slammed and swung into every object the Tatzelwurm could find, waiting for an opportunity. He was... unfortunately used to this.

Eventually, Rudy managed to grip the side of the creature's face, feeling around. He flashed it a vindictive grin as he tensed his fingers and ripped the Tatzelwurm's right eye clean out its socket with a horrific 'squelching' noise.

Oh, how it howled.

Immediately letting his arm go, the Tatzelwurm slithered away with agonized hissing. Rudy used this time to calmly get back on his feet, idly noticing the tip of the creature's tail regenerating. Not quite back to its original length, but it was getting there.

"Well, nice to know it doesn't heal too fast. Almost 2 full minutes and it's not healed?" He observed, flicking the pulped remains of the Tatzelwurm's eye off his fingers. It mixed in disgustingly with the blood on his knuckles. He was happy to know this thing wasn't regenerating at the level of say, a Hydra.

Those fuckers are so annoying to kill.

After a moment of stewing in its agony, the serpentine beast turned back to face him. Its remaining yellow eye glared at Rudy with something eerily close to hatred, but honestly? Rudy had seen far worse.

So he ignored it and drew his knife.

"Come on, then." He snarked as he charged the Tatzelwurm, his form blurring into motion.

He slid under its enraged claw swipe and hamstrung it, making it collapse like a puppet with its strings cut. As it tried to rise, he stepped on its back and yanked his axe out of its shoulder with a spurt of blood.

The Tatzelwurm's tail lashed up like a whip to seize his leg, only to grab air as he casually stepped backwards.

Rudy and the Tatzelwurm found themselves in a stare-down, the monster slowly pulling itself up as its flesh knit itself back together. The gash on its shoulder had stopped bleeding as they circled one another, though far from recovered.

Rudy noted that its eye was also healing, but it wouldn't be back anytime soon. The creature wasn't going to run either, knowing it would just be chased down again. It'd have to win here.

It was a clever bastard, he'd give it that.

The Tatzelwurm growled and he snarled right back - luminescent green visor glaring into a solitary yellow eye - before they both sprung into action.

The monster charged him furiously, its anger driving it to uncharacteristic aggression. Rudy met its charge with one of his own, slamming into the beast shoulder-first with a sickening snap. Likely the sound of its rib fracturing against his body, that had a pretty distinct noise.

With the Tatzelwurm stunned, Rudy swung his axe into its side with a wet crunch, getting a scream in response. Teal scales were dyed red by the creature's own blood, flecks of the sanguine liquid finding places on Rudy's face and painting his mask like a blank canvas.

He squared his feet and with a grunt, lifted his weapon - with the Tatzelwurm still attached - up and over his head.

The beast was in the air for only a half-moment before Rudy slammed it into the ground with a thunderous crack. A wet coughing noise escaped the reptile's throat, alongside a spurt of blood that stained the dirt.

Rudy recognized it with a practiced eye: internal bleeding. Its ribs had likely pierced its lungs, and only its accelerated healing was keeping it alive.

He was cut short as the Tatzelwurm's tail, now fully healed, swept his legs. His axe was ripped from his opponent with a horrific squelch, and he staggered.

Before he could regain his footing, a steaming, bubbling liquid sprayed from the Tatzelwurm's maw.

It damn near took his head off. He snapped his head to the side, narrowly dodging the blast, though a few droplets painfully seared through his mask onto his face.

As he backed away, Rudy glanced at the tree behind him: its trunk was steaming, melting from the liquid. Eaten through by the bubbling mess. The tree toppled to the ground with a thud that he felt in his bones.

He snapped his head between the Tatzelwurm and the melted tree. A startled mix of confusion, anger and trepidation stirred up within him.

"Acid?! Since when could Tatzelwurm's spit fucking acid?" Rudy didn't know a huge amount about the creatures, but he was fairly certain they didn't spit corrosive acid that could eat through a full-grown tree in seconds.

Then again, he's also pretty sure he'd have heard about Tatzelwurm's bigger than bears with spires of bone protruding from its back too.

Where the hell did this thing come from?

He noticed his quarry was carefully hobbling away, wounds sluggishly healing. It was trying to escape.

Again.

Rudy growled, hefting his axe, the handle and head slightly collapsing into a shorter length for one-handed use. No more games.

His glowing eyes glared at his opponent.

You're not getting away this time.

He pulled his arm back and hurled the axe into the Tatzelwurm's shoulder, making it snap its head back to scream at him.

That gave Rudy time to snatch its tail in an vice-grip, swinging the 20ft reptile into a tree behind him and cleanly smashing through the trunk. The tree tumbled to the ground with a resounding crash.

Despite its grievous injuries, the Tatzelwurm managed to rally its strength and get to it's feet. Obviously exhausted, the beast snapped its frantic, fearful yellow eye across the area. Desperately looking for an escape route, but finding none.

It finally settled its gaze on Rudy, seemingly determined to kill him now. They both knew what was going to happen here, either he died or it died. End of story.

Exchanging glares - one a cycloptic stare of animalistic hate, the other a bright-eyed look of sheer annoyance - Man and Beast fell into a mortal skirmish.

As they threw each other around like enraged animals - literally, for one of them - Rudy cracked his elbow into the Tatzelwurm's jaw, before reaching around and ripping his axe out of it's arm.

The beast shrieked and once again used its tail to flick dirt into his face, distracting him long enough to score a swipe on his leg.

Its claws bit into his skin with a painful sting, making the man growl. Pinkish-red blood seeped from the wound and stained his cargo pants.

As a retaliatory haymaker snapped the Tatzelwurm's head back, the redheaded man capitalized and reached out, choke-slamming his opponent into the ground hard enough to break it's dorsal spikes.

The reptile spewed more acid to escape, only for Rudy's jacketed forearm to once again thwart its attack completely. The liquid splashed harmlessly off his sleeve and burned holes in the soil around them.

The Tatzelwurm managed to quickly wrap its tail around his waist and throw him away, frantically scrambling to its feet. It barely got its bearings before a rock - thrown at breakneck speeds - flew into its eye, earning another agonized scream.

Rudy didn't waste any time and immediately launched an assault on the creature. He grabbed it by the head and stabbed it right in its remaining eye with his hunting knife.

The Tatzelwurm thrashed and struggled and shrieked in pain, spewing acid like a firehose in its panicked, literally blind rage. The auburn-haired man grabbed it in a headlock and aimed its face at the ground, making a cloud of noxious steam from the caustic liquid's burning into the dirt.

The man grimaced and almost gagged, whatever chemicals made up that acid smelled horrible. Especially for someone with as good a nose as him.

Alright, enough's enough. Rudy decided, before slamming his fist into the Tatzelwurm's skull to stun it. He gripped the underside of its snout, holding the beasts' top and bottom jaws in each hand. With a snarl of annoyance, Rudy started to pull its mouth open.

He didn't stop there, pulling and pulling and pulling, until the sounds of muscle and tendon fibers snapped and popped. The animal frantically called out in response. Its crazed, terrified shrieking reminded him of the sound of tearing metal.

The Tatzelwurm's struggling returned with a vengeance, flailing its head back and forth in a frenzy. Quick as its healing was, it wouldn't survive outright decapitation. Its frantic clawing found no purchase on Rudy's seemingly impenetrable jacket, however.

The flesh holding its jaws together had begun to visibly rip now, the muscles giving way to Rudy's inhuman strength. The muscle fibers snapped apart with disgusting pops, which painted Rudy's hands red and the Tatzelwurm screamed out a final call before one last yank let the auburn-haired man tear the monster's head clean in half.

The forest was silent for a long, long moment.

Rudy unceremoniously dropped the Tatzelwurm's limp body with a thud, its tail and legs spasming their last death throes until it fell still for the last time. Blood spurted from the stump where its top jaw used to be like a macabre fountain.

He chucked the Beasts' upper jaw a ways away and sat down, using the dead Tatzelwurm as a seat while he recovered his weapons to wipe them clean with a cloth. He took the time to clean his hands too, while he was at it. His mask slid back behind his ears, showing his pale face once more, marked only with a tiny burn on his cheek.

No real injuries except an acid burn and cuts on my leg, no casualties unless you count the trees, and one dangerous Beast dead. Rudy was satisfied with tonight's events, except for one thing: the Tatzelwurm itself.

Abnormal size, accelerated healing, acid-breath, and far too intelligent for an animal.

Though Rudy supposed it was vaguely possible this was some incredibly rare, near-extinct variant of Tatzelwurm that had somehow found its way to Florida. In which case he'll have to call his lawyer because the animal rights' activists will be out for his blood when they find out he killed a member of an endangered species again.

But thankfully, Rudy was certain the monster lying under him wasn't natural. The way its bone spires struck out from its back was completely random, with no sense of symmetry or patterning like most creatures with horns or bony protrusions. A Dragon's crown of horns for example, was always symmetrical excluding things like injuries or mutations.

"Mutations..." Rudy muttered, his eyes narrowing slightly. He flicked his gaze below him to look the dead Tatzelwurm up and down. The jagged, unorganized spikes, the artificial scent and what he swears look like faint, healed-over scars. Surgical scars.

Yes, the most likely theory was that this Tatzelwurm was some manner of mutated specimen. But not naturally. It seemed almost.. designed.

Now that he thought about it, these mutations seemed a bit closer to augmentations than anything else....

' Get up #15, time for another test.'

Rudy flinched and shook his head, sheathing his weapons before pulling out a phone and punching in a number. Steadfastly ignoring the memories that invaded his mind. Not that kind of mutant. It couldn't be.

"Cleanup? Yeah, this is Beast Hunter Rudy. I've got the Beast responsible for the cattle disappearances in Palm Beach County here, dead."

There was a moment of quiet.

"Copy, track my phone to my location, I'll be waiting outside the forest with the body, bring a truck."

Another moment.

"Right, thanks."

Rudy hung up and got to his feet, stretching for a moment and pushing some stray locks of hair from his face. He then pulled out a small cloth that - with a firm flick - folded out into a large translucent bag. He gathered the Tatzelwurm's removed top jaw and sealed it inside, holding it in one hand while carefully hoisting the beast's now-cold corpse over his shoulder.

Rudy then began the long trek back to the forests' edge to meet up with the cleanup crew.

Two hours later, Rudy stepped out of the truck, leaving the countryside hills for the concrete structures of Derry, Florida. Ten stories of somewhat intimidating building loomed over him, sporting a black paint job, tinted windows, and the same crimson logo as his jacket.

The sun peeked over the horizon, dyeing the sky orange-red. He gave the cleanup crew a silent nod as they drove the Tatzelwurm's body into the underground parking lot, leading to the lab.

It would be stored there until Rudy decided what he wanted to do with it as the legal owner per the Right of Conquest Law. Not that he wanted any part of it for gear. He just wanted to know what the hell it even was, and maybe he would sell it after an autopsy.

That would come later. Right now, Rudy looked up at the name built into the face of the building:

[SUPERNATURAL HUNTER-KILLER DEPARTMENT: OFFICE 53]

Rudy blinked, adjusting from the low-light outdoors to the brightness of the Office lobby and his nose twitched at the strong scent of lavender. Wine-red carpets and black couches gave the room an almost cozy feel, and he could see a well-dressed man speaking to the receptionist: a Komodo Dragon Lizardfolk with olive-green scales.

Rudy wasn't the biggest fan of the building's red coloring, but at least it wasn't thrice-damned white. That was all he really gave a damn about.

Color preferences aside, Rudy ignored the sparse lobby patrons and made his way to an elevator placed off to the side of the room - the words STAFF ONLY printed on the door - with the staircase entrance beside it. He called it down and waited for a moment before the door opened with a soft 'ding'.

Luckily, the elevator was empty and he didn't have to suffer through another awkward silence. He was terrible with people, though not for a lack of trying.

Rudy reached down to the interface and pressed the button to the 4th floor, then leaned against the wall as the elevator began to rise.

The green-eyed man idly poked at the acid burn on his cheek, grimacing at the sting he felt. That would likely take a day or two to heal, if he was guessing right. But acid burns could be unpredictable, some only required a few days to recover from while some took entire weeks.

"Ah well, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it." He mused. At least he knew from experience that his leg injury would take less than a day, being as minor as it was.

Meanwhile the elevator dinged again, Rudy softly pushing off the wall as the door opened to reveal his workplace.

Rudy grimaced at the familiar chaos of the Main Office, idly dodging his coworkers rushing by with paperwork of all kinds to their cubicles and desks. The wine-red carpet and black pillars made for a distinctive aesthetic, though Rudy personally didn't appreciate the near-acidic lime-scented air freshener.

The floor stretched longer and further than the exterior of the building would suggest, using the spatial warping tech built into the foundations to fit dozens more people than normally able into the space.

Rudy idly dodged a rushing coworker and gave the Goblin by the cooler a wide berth. Many more of his colleagues - some wearing similar suits and ties, others in outfits just a personalized as his - milled about the place like bees at work, the combined noise making the auburn-haired man wince.

"Oh back already, eh Rudy?" A cheery voice with a thick Scottish brogue chirped beside him, accompanied by an earthy, almost smoky scent.

Turning, Rudy saw a woman towering over him at nearly eight feet tall. Dirty-blonde hair framed her playful hazel eyes, and she wore a button-up shirt and red tie over the powerful body of a Clydesdale horse.

Her near dinnerplate-sized hooves clipped and clopped on the floor as she approached.

"Eileen, good to see you." The auburn-haired man greeted his coworker, craning his head up to look her in the eye. Eileen McLeary laughed as she gave Rudy a good-natured clap on the shoulder, actually pushing him forward a bit.

"Good to see you too, Bright-Eyes! The Office gets real borin' without ya around." The Centaur woman said, getting a skeptical look in return.

"I doubt that. I'm not exactly a social butterfly, I'm self-aware enough to admit that." In fact, a lot of his old schoolmates in the S.H.K.D Academy went out of their way to avoid him. He only had two friends out of the couple hundred students there.

The blonde rolled her eyes at him. "Well I enjoy your company, so just take the compliment ya ninny."

It was as he started making his way to his desk that Eileen spoke again.

"Say, you were out in Palm Beach County, yeah? Investigatin' missing cattle or some shit?" Eileen asked, walking alongside him as he traversed the Main Office, dodging their bustling coworkers as they went.

"Yeah."

"What was happenin' then? Swamp Drake? Titanoboa? Some little bastard teenagers who thought they were funny?" The Scottish Centaur ran through her theories one after the other. She had a curious smirk on her face, her freckles shifting with her cheeks as she smiled.

"Tatzelwurm, actually. Big one that spat acid of all things." Rudy pointed at his new acid burn for emphasis as Eileen had a double-take and gave him a weird look. Yeah he felt about the same, honestly.

"A Tatzelwurm? In Southern Florida?" The blonde goggled at him. "That's.... not right. Tatzelwurm's are from the Alps, how the fuck did one get here?" Distracted, Eileen accidentally bumped into another Hunter who gave her a look. "Ah, sorry Chuck."

"Just watch where you're going, McCleary..." Rudy ignored the exchange and answered the Centaur's question.

"No clue either. I've had about 2 hours to figure it out and I'm still not fully sure what it was or how it got here. But I'm currently running under the idea that it was some kind of... mutant."

Rudy's fingers tapped on his crossed arms, this mutated Tatzelwurm was somehow both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. It itched at him incessantly.

There was something he was missing here, he just knew it.

Eileen tilted her head, squinting as she processed his words. "Mutant? Like you or somethin' else?"

"Something else." Rudy replied, before furrowing his brow. "I think..."

"And you said it spat acid? Like some kinda... mini-Basilisk or somethin?" Eileen didn't seem to hear his latter words.

"Yeah, damn near melted my face off. Healed fast too." Rudy replied, his face set in a scowl. "Knocked its teeth out and not even a half-hour later, good as new and biting me everywhere it could reach."

"Anything else out of the ordinary? Mutant animals don't exactly pop up out of nowhere."

Rudy went silent for a moment before answering. "...It was annoyingly smart. Smarter than an animal its type should be. Knew it couldn't run and tried to trip me up every chance it got."

Eileen cupped her chin with a click of the tongue, "Mutations giving an animal new or better versions of its powers isn't impossible. Tatzelwurm's normally have toxic saliva, so it turning into acid breath ain't really out of this world. But getting smarter? That isn't something that happens a lot, Rudy."

Rudy hummed, glowing eyes glaring ahead at nothing in particular. A couple of his coworkers in front of him ducked away, though he didn't really care.

The two quieted down for a moment before Eileen broke the silence.

"You doin' alright with those cuts, lad?" She suddenly asked out of the blue, shifting her gaze to the cuts the Tatzelwurm left in Rudy's leg with its claws. A glint of concern rested in her hazel eyes and her stride slowed as she turned to look at him.

"I'm fine, Eileen. You know I've had worse." Was the auburn-haired man's reply. He was right, he's had much, much worse than some clawing from a 20ft reptile. The claw marks were already scabbed over.

The Centaur frowned at his tone. "I'm sure you are fine, but it'd be daft not to at least get it checked. That Tatzelwurm's claws might've been venomous for all we know." The slightest hint of annoyance came up from his coworker's insistence, but he pushed it down as quickly as it came with a flex of his hands.

She's just trying to help, Rudy. The man reminded himself.

"Eileen, I'm not gonna drop dead from some clawing. If I thought it was bad I'd have checked it by now, I'm not a child." Rudy sighed, ignoring the woman rolling her eyes at his latter words and muttering: "Definitely as stubborn as one."

"But I suppose you have a point, I'll check in at the Infirmary after I finish my report." Eileen nodded, though he could tell she wasn't quite satisfied.

God, what a mother hen.

Rudy rolled his shoulders and ignored the hazel eyes searching him. He twitched at the staring.

The two came to a stop at Rudy's desk, a rather large thing placed in the corner of the Main Office. It was L-shaped with a sleek computer, a visibly reinforced wheeled chair and some leftover paperwork that he hadn't had the time to finish yet. Sitting next to his monitor in its own space on his desk was a chibi-shaped, handmade plush doll big enough to fit comfortably in Rudy's hand.

The doll was a replica of Rudy himself, complete with his red furry jacket and axe in its hand. His green eyes were replicated with round buttons and his shaggy auburn hair was made up of dyed cotton. It took him days to get the color mixings right.

Beside the doll was a framed photo, showing a younger Rudy in a grey-and-red school uniform standing alongside two people. The redhead noticed his photo-self's small, contented smile.

The first person was a male Human with a lean build standing almost a half-head shorter than Rudy, leaning against his shoulder and dressed in the same uniform. He had a lightly tanned complexion, the type someone gets when they spend all their time outside in the sun while his bright orange hair was lazily tied back into a short wolf-tail.

His sky-blue eyes glinted mischievously and he aimed a cheeky smirk at the camera, clearly very confident in himself.

The second person - standing behind them - was an androgynous figure slightly taller than Rudy, wearing no clothes and resembling a suit of armor or humanoid machine. Her body was a deep bronze with accents of blue, with a head adorned with ram-like horns and a smooth faceplate where a mouth would be. Her eyes were a pair of deep blue lights.

The metal woman had her arms around Rudy and the other man in a hug, projecting a deep sense of care and affection even through the photo. Rudy found himself staring at the photo for a long moment as memories rushed into his mind.

Felix, Eve, I hope you two are doing okay at Canada. The auburn-haired man thought.

"Missin' the old schoolmates, Bright-Eyes?" Eileen's voice cut Rudy out of his reminiscing. He turned to the Scottish woman - somewhat irritated at her interruption - and saw her smiling at him, as if she knew something he didn't. The presumption irked him. "Ya know, there's nothing stoppin' you from using yer vacation days to go see 'em. That's what they're there for."

Rudy blinked and thought it over for a moment. Eileen had a point, he hasn't seen his old friends for almost a year and a half now. Maybe he should take a week or two off, go and see them?

The green-eyed man shook his head. "Monster activity's gone up lately, and I'm still a bit concerned with that Tatzelwurm. I'll see how things are in a month or two." As he said this, Rudy sat himself down in his wheeled office chair - the seat creaking slightly from his weight - and turned on his computer. "Now if you don't need anything else Eileen, I have a report to make."

"Gotcha Bright-Eyes, I'll leave you be." The Centaur waved with a chuckle as she trotted back to her own desk, likely to do her own paperwork.

Rudy sighed and made a new document on his computer, labeling it as 'Palm Beach County Beast Hunt Report'. This was always the most boring part of his job.

"Time to get to work."

It was when Rudy was nearly done with his report an hour later that a Hunter approached Rudy's desk as he was finishing his report. It took him a second, but he believed his name was Cal.

Brown hair, blue eyes, a plain face and a bland suit - Cal could have been anyone. But the gun holstered on his waist proved he was no mere businessman.

"Mr. Rudy?" Cal hesitantly asked, getting a hum and a flick of poisonous eyes in his direction before Rudy swung in his chair to face him.

"Did you need something?"

The Hunter pointed behind him at a well-furbished wooden door with a plaque reading CHIEF'S OFFICE on its face. "Crispy wants to see you, says it's important." The brunette man simply said. That got Rudy's full attention, like anything involving the Office Chief did.

Rudy straightened in his chair, meeting Cal's gaze. He could see the younger man was avoiding direct eye contact, which was normal. People didn't like his eyes on a good day. The mask helped, but he only had that on during fights.

"Crispin? What did he say?" Said Rudy, as he quickly saved his report to finish later. This took priority and he wasn't far from being done anyway. The first part of Cal's sentence reached him and a small scowl grew on the redhead's face, "And what did you just call him?"

The younger man flinched slightly and rubbed his arm, "S-sorry sir, it's just that I overheard some other Hunters calling him that so I... thought it was normal."

"Well it's not, he doesn't just let anyone call him that." Rudy stood up from his chair, making Cal take a slight step back. The redheaded man towered over him, almost a full head taller than the brunette. "Crispin didn't get set on fire just for every Tom, Dick and Harry in the Office to start calling him Crispy."

Rudy tried not to get too annoyed at his coworker, he really did. The guy just didn't know better. But only very specific people get to use that nickname and Cal was not one of them.

Said man looked rather put-down by the admonishment, getting a sigh from Rudy. He was out of line, but I was a bit too aggressive there. Can't just unload on the newbies like that, it's unprofessional.

"Look, you didn't mean anything by it so I won't say anything if you don't." Cal looked relieved at this.

"But a word of advice, Cal?" The relief dampened slightly at Rudy's tone.

"That name is reserved for friends and close colleagues only. So I'd watch your mouth if I were you." The tall mutant spoke as he walked past his coworker.

With his piece said, Rudy sedately made his way to the Chief's Office and opened the door, ignoring Cal's stare as he did.

Crispin's office was spartan, only decorated by several awards and a giant, mechanical-looking warhammer mounted on the back wall. Rudy could feel a cold emanating from it, like the screaming howl of a blizzard.

A large wooden desk with a computer and monitor sat in the middle, much like his own.

Of course, Rudy wasn't a humanoid American Crocodile. Unlike the man sitting before him.

With an elongated snout and razor-sharp teeth, the greyish-green scaled Lizardfolk known as Crispin 'Crispy' Ironback made for an intimidating sight, a thick tail poking out from behind his desk. A milky-white eye and vicious burn scars crept up his right side.

Crispin wore a simple button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves, showing his leathery-scaled forearms and clawed hands. His remaining eye was green-yellow with a slit pupil that watched Rudy with a predatory intensity.

To the left, Rudy could see a plushie replica of the Chief sitting on his desk, brandishing a little cotton hammer. A gift, from when Rudy first joined the Office.

Rudy and Crispin stared at each other, their mutual thoughts a mystery.

"Rudy." Crispin greeted, in a rumbling baritone.

Rudy nodded back, with straight posture and eye contact. "Chief."

"How you been, kid?" Crispin said, his tone now warmer and a small smile on his reptilian face, though someone unexperienced in Lizardfolk expressions might not have been able to identify it as such. "Heard something about a Tatzelwurm earlier today, gave you some trouble did it?"

Rudy grimaced, "Annoying little prick was too smart for its own good." He idly rubbed his eyes as he spoke. "Dead now, though."

Crispin chuckled, the sound not unlike the bellowing hiss of his animal counterpart. "Yeah, you messed it up good, if the autopsy downstairs is right. Ruthless as always, eh Rudy?"

"I guess so, but I've never really thought about it. Just... doing my job." Rudy replied with an uncaring shrug. "But, you said you had something important for me Chief?"

"Ah, right." Crispin idly tapped his claws on the polished wood of his desk. "The Office has a new Hunter and I want you to be her partner until she's acclimated to the area." The Chief said bluntly, making Rudy blink as he processed his words.

"Come again?"

That was... not what the mutant was expecting. A new assignment maybe, or a specific monster Chief wanted dead. He could deal with those just fine. Simple, easy even.

But a new Hunter? Partnered with him? Rudy's lips curled at the very thought.

Crispin seemed to catch his expression because he chuckled and held a hand up, "Now before you protest, I know you're terrible with newbies, though not for a lack of trying." Rudy had let a newbie tag along on a job with him exactly once. That same newbie has since decided to pursue a career in catering.

"Which is why I'm not partnering you up with one. She's quite experienced, just transferring from her Office in San Francisco." The Lizardfolk explained patiently, "I've seen her work and she's easily just as skilled as you, albeit in differing fields. So you don't have to worry about her carrying her weight."

Rudy's brow raised at that, curious despite himself. He finally spoke, his voice saturated in skepticism:

"Really?"

"Really." Crispin replied, voice just as dry. "Look, it'll just be until she's familiar with the area, then you can go back to your solo-assignments. Probably a week or two at most." The crocodilian man's expression then changed, his pearly white teeth showing as his snout curled up into the Lizardfolk equivalent to a smirk. It looked rather unnerving with his burn scars and blank white eye.

"And maybe - just maybe - you'll stop disliking people so much. I think you'll like her, actually."

Rudy's eye twitched, before his face shifted into a small scowl as he thought. "Fine, I'll take your word for it Crispin. I'll-" He sighed at this. "-do my best to help the new transfer. Happy?"

"Ecstatic." He could practically hear the smirk in the Chief's voice.

The auburn-haired man scratched an itch on his neck, "So when does she get here? And what's her name?" Rudy felt a bit silly for not asking her name before anything else.

Crispin smiled, looking somewhat amused. "Oh, she's already here. She can introduce herself, I think."

Rudy's nose twitched as a new scent entered the room, turning around to see a woman around his age enter the room. He looked her up and down, taking in her appearance.

She... almost looks like some kind of noir detective. Rudy remarked internally.

Raven-black hair fell down to her shoulders like a curtain, with some loose strands framing a pale face. Deep purple eyes that seemed to watch him as much as he did her, though Rudy got a sense of... amusement from her somehow. It would seem this inspection was going both ways.

She was rather svelte, average height and didn't look like she had much muscle on her. A long range fighter, then. Rudy could tell that much even through the indigo, double-breasted trench coat that covered most of her form.

She wore thin black gloves with magic circles, but Rudy couldn't tell what they were or what they did. He hunted monsters, not people. Human magic was lost on him. His best guess was focus runes or something to help with spellcasting. Felix mentioned something like that once.

Rudy idly noted her laced-up leather boots, not combat ones like his own but thinner. More casual. He assumed they were knee-height by the look of it but he couldn't tell through the coat. Well, at least she isn't going into fights with heels.

"Guten Morgen, Chief! Beautiful sunrise today, isn't it?"

"Well Heather, I've been indoors for the last 6 hours. I wouldn't know, I'm afraid." Was Crispin's amused reply.

"Ah, well that's a shame. It's quite the view, if I do say so myself." 'Heather's' voice - carrying a German accent - drew Rudy from his thoughts, noticing her turning to look him in the eyes. She didn't so much as twitch at his inhuman gaze.

She's... not unnerved by my eyes. That's new.

"And you must be Rudy!" She smiled and strutted over to him, holding out a gloved hand. "Heather Albrecht - but please, call me Heather - from Office 28 in San Francisco! I hope to be of use in whatever capacity is required."

As she came nearer, Rudy could help but notice that Heather's closer proximity made the height disparity between them all the more apparent. She barely came up to his shoulder and had to crane her head up to look at him.

Taking her hand, Rudy was surprised to feel a... numbing sensation upon contact. Like there was something in him being pulled out or removed.

He twitched ever so slightly at the feeling, caught off-guard enough that he didn't see Heather tilting her head, a near-invisible smile on her face.

Feels.... cold. Or absent.

Rudy recognized this. One can get an... impression of a Mage's power through physical contact, usually a word or feeling. He'd had a similar experience with Felix. Just touching him had the word 'Bonfire' rushing through his mind.

Entropy.

Heather Albrecht felt like Entropy. That meant dangerous magic. Very dangerous.

"Rudy, no last name. Long as you're as good as Crispin says, we won't have any problems, Heather." Rudy answered her, ignoring the strange feeling for now. Heather just smiled at him.

"I'll endeavor not to disappoint then, Rudy."

Somehow, Rudy got the feeling that this was going to be a bigger headache than he thought.

Chapter Text

After Rudy's first meeting with his.... new partner - the word still made his lips curl into a frown, even as he thought them - Crispin politely kicked him and Heather out of his office, citing paperwork that needed to be done.

Which leads to his current situation, awkwardly standing - arms crossed - outside Crispin's office beside Heather, trying to figure out what to say or do. Heather herself appeared unaware of this, though Rudy knew otherwise. Even from his limited interaction with her, Heather seemed too smart and... socially gifted to not pick up on his lack of conversational skills.

No, she was obviously just not bringing it up, out of politeness, Rudy couldn't tell. Instead, Heather busied herself by watching the ebb and flow of Office 53 at work, purple eyes sweeping from one side of the room to the next as the raven-haired woman observed her new coworkers.

Actually, that... gives me an idea. Rudy thought. He might not like it, but he told Crispin he'd help Heather, so that's what he'd do.

"Hey." Heather turned to face him, an expectant look on her face.

"Do you... want a tour? Of the Office, I mean?" Rudy said as he shifted his weight, almost hesitantly. Not out of nervousness, but a general lack of experience initiating conversations. "You're gonna be working here now, after all."

Heather's curious expression gave way to a smile, "Why Rudy, I thought you'd never ask!" She said teasingly, with naught but a dry look from the tall man.

"By all means, tour away!" She waved a hand in the vague direction of the various people milling about the Main Office. The arcane circles on her gloves creased with the movement.

Rudy's mind idly noted the way her German accent distorted her speech, with a slight "curving" to certain words and thicker pronunciations on specific letters. Likely intentional on her part, Heather didn't strike him as the type to not learn how to speak a language the way it was intended to be spoken.

"... Right." Rudy said, starting to walk away before he turned his head to look at Heather, silently asking her to follow.

As the German woman complied, Rudy led her through the labyrinthian cubicles and moving workers to his desk. He noted that she navigated the Main Office as easily as he did, which made sense. The San Francisco Office is likely bigger and even harder to traverse than his own.

When they arrived Rudy gestured to the table beside him, "This is my desk. Since we're gonna be partners for a while, I figure they'll put yours near or next to it. If you need anything, you know where to find me." He gave her a hard look at this, eyes boring into her.

"Don't come to me with stupid questions or requests."

A soft chuckle answered him.

"I'll keep that in mind then." Heather said pleasantly, before something seemingly caught her eye.

She stepped closer to his desk and Rudy followed her gaze to the plushie replica of himself, innocently sitting beside his monitor. Ah shit.

"Oh? What might this be, if you don't mind me asking?" Heather smiled at the doll, looking but thankfully not touching. She tilted her head to get a better angle, strands of raven hair falling around her face. "Because unless my eyes deceive me, that looks like a plush-doll version of you, Rudy. Gift from a fan, perhaps?" She directed a teasing smirk at him with a sideways glance, getting a small scowl in return.

"I'm a Beast Hunter, I don't have fans. And no, I.... made it myself." Rudy paused as he said this, expecting mockery or ridicule at any moment. Not like he gave a Wyvern's toxic shit what others thought of him, but it was the principle of the thing. He barely tolerated it from Eileen, he was not going to take it from a woman he's just met.

"Really now?" Heather grinned at him. "Then I must say, the craftsmanship is excellent. Its little jacket looks almost like the real thing!"

"I.... what?" Rudy started, but whatever scathing reply he had prepped died in his throat at her words.

"I mean sure, it's a tad vain in my opinion to make a plush-doll of yourself but I can't deny the skill and effort put into it." The raven-haired woman continued, apparently not noticing the strange look being thrown her way.

"It was... the first one I made, few years ago. Took about three weeks to get it right." The mutant slowly answered, searching Heather for any sign of mockery or deception. He found none.

"Truly? It would seem you have a gift, Rudy. Albeit a... niche one." Heather let out a soft laugh, though not a mocking one. Simply amused.

Rudy was quiet for a long moment, studying her with a silent intensity. Heather stood unfazed by his poisonous stare.

"...Thanks." The redhead finally said, turning away from his desk. "Why don't I show you around?"

"Oh, of course! Got a little sidetracked, eh?"

And with that, Rudy quietly guided Heather through the myriad rooms, floors and facilities of Office 53. Unknown to him though, Heather's purple eyes also flicked over to the photo of Rudy, Felix and Eve for a moment. The woman hummed under her breath.

"So when do I get my Heather-plushie?"

"I only make plushies of friends."

"So we're not friends, Rudy? I'm hurt."

"I literally met you ten minutes ago."

The first room outside the Main Office Rudy showed was the Infirmary, for a few reasons. First, Heather needed to know where to go when she or someone else got inevitably injured. Second, Rudy needed to go there anyway for a check-up on his leg, if only because Eileen would nag him for it later.

The first thing Heather asked after said check-up - he was fine, as he thought - was a question he'd heard from every new recruit in the Office:

"Why is everything either blue or grey? As far as I'm aware, most Offices have white medical facilities. Office 28 did at least. Easier to clean and all that."

Heather's observation was spot-on, as the normal sterile white of most medical rooms was replaced with a darker grey highlighted by blue. Normally it'd be red, matching the S.H.K.D's colors, but having red walls in a room where people bled a lot was a problem for obvious reasons.

Rudy winced ever-so-slightly, "That's.... kind of my fault."

The trench coat-clad woman raised a brow at this, "Come again?"

"I... don't do well with white rooms. At all. Don't react well if I wake up in one, so Crispin had to change the Infirmary."

"As nice as it is for Chief Crispin to do that for you, isn't it a bit... strange to change something as important as the Infirmary for the comfort of a single Hunter?" Heather's question was logical, and Rudy honestly agreed with her, he didn't think his comfort was worth changing an entire wing of the Office. There was one problem, however.

"It's for the medic's safety, not mine. I tend to.... get violent if I wake up in a place that-" The mutant paused for a moment, "-triggers me. Especially if I had been knocked out in a fight prior." The incident during his Academy days was enough incentive to not put him in white rooms anymore.

"Great job #15, that was textbook execution. You're improving!"

The acrid stench of bleach filled his nose before he violently pushed the memories back, gritting his teeth. Not here, not in front of her.

Luckily, his new partner didn't appear to notice his brief lapse. He hoped.

Heather tilted her head in thought, giving Rudy a once-over. "Right... I suppose that backs up the rumors I've heard about you. 'Office 53's Most Brutal Tracker' they call you. You must be quite the fighter, Rudy."

Though her words were genuine, the bright-eyed man could see the gears turning in the woman's head. She was obviously taking any information she could get about him. Not maliciously, just getting to know her new partner.

Not like he blamed her, he was doing the same thing.

"Fighting's about the only thing I'm good at, Heather."

"Except toy-making, of course." Was her chipper reply.

Rudy actually huffed out something that approximated a chuckle, a smirk on his pale face. "Yeah, that too I suppose."

Now with an ever-so-slightly less awkward air around them, the two moved on to the next part of the Office.

The rest of Rudy's less-than-enthusiastic tour went on smoothly without as many.... revelations as the Infirmary.

Rudy showed Heather the Cafeteria whose food he didn't enjoy, the Break Room that he barely uses, the gym that Eileen says he uses "almost obsessively" - he doesn't know what she's talking about - and all of the other rooms and facilities the Office featured.

Heather for her part didn't look particularly interested in them, but Rudy supposed that made sense. These were all things she had at her old Office, just in different places. Nothing here is strictly 'new' to Heather. He was just showing her where to find them.

If anything, the purple-eyed woman was far more interested in conversing with Rudy, something he didn't claim to understand.

Eventually though, the two Hunters found themselves at the Lobby, the one Rudy had entered through several hours prior.

As they stood together in the red-carpeted room, Rudy found himself taking note of Heather's scent, like he did with every new person. It was... soft, and didn't invade his nose or demand attention like other's scents. For example, Eileen's earthy musk was almost overpowering, but in a friendly, pleasant way. Much like the woman herself.

Heather carried the smell of worn, well-used paper with a hint of ink. Books, probably old ones by the specific scent.

Guess she likes to spend her time reading. Rudy thought. Not surprising, she obviously used magic of some kind judging by the feeling of 'Entropy' he got when he shook hands with her.

Magic types collected grimoires and books like crows grabbing shiny things, often just for the fun of it. Although the specific school or discipline of sorcery Heather practiced eluded him so far. He'll have to ask at some point.

"I've got to say, I rather enjoy the floral arrangements you have down here." Heather's voice drew Rudy from his thoughts. He turned to see the woman admiring a wiry, white-flowered plant potted near the corner of the Lobby. It was tall, nearly reaching her chest in height.

"I mean, these white ones here are beautiful, though their name escapes me." She continued, tapping her foot on the floor as she wracked her mind to identify the plant before her. Heather idly adjusted her gloves as she thought.

"Oh, those are the Peace Lilies." Rudy casually said as he walked over to stand beside her. The sudden crisp snap of Heather's fingers made him twitch slightly, sensitive ears and close proximity turning an otherwise normal sound almost painful.

"That's the one! Peace Lilies! Wunderbar!" The raven-haired woman grinned, before she blinked and looked at Rudy. "Wait, you know them by memory?"

Rudy just shrugged, "I've worked here for about 2 years now. It'd be weird if I didn't know what they were." The mutant explained. "Plus, Eileen sometimes brings them up. She takes care of them."

"Ah, I know Eileen, she helped me find Chief Crispin's Office. Wonderful woman!" Heather nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, she's alright."

The German woman chuckled, "Just alright, is she?"

Rudy's reply was cut off by a rumbling from his gut, one that sounded like an angry, snarling animal. Both Hunters were silent for a long moment, as Rudy's stomach had evidently decided now was the perfect time to remind him that his last meal was before he went to hunt the Tatzelwurm. Which was several hours ago.

"Hungry?" Heather said with an amused smirk. Rudy rolled his eyes and started making his way to the door.

"I'm gonna get breakfast, you coming or what? I know a place." He asked, looking over his shoulder at her. "I can even give you a tour of Derry or something while we go."

"Sure, I'm honestly feeling a bit peckish myself."

As they swung open the door and left Office 53, Rudy growled at the bright, early-morning sun. Covering his eyes with his arm, he reached into his jacket with his free hand and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Sunlight didn't warrant his mask.

"Got sensitive eyesight." He explained at Heather's questioning face, putting on the shades as he did.

"Ah, that would explain the eyes. Bit of a night-owl then, Rudy?" Heather said, clapping her gloved hands together. It created a louder, crisper sound than the man expected. The magic circles on her gloves glowed a deep, sinister purple.

"Öffnen."

Then, the raven-haired woman pulled her hands away to reveal strands of pure black. Not darkness, and not shadows either. Just threads and tendrils of sheer, pitch-black nothingness. An absence of light given form. Numb, unfeeling Entropy.

For a split-second, a single moment, Rudy swore he could hear shrill, unearthly shrieking emanating from every direction and every surface. As if space itself was crying out in pain at Heather's action.

But just as quickly as it came, both the black strands and the shrieking disappeared with an almost... glitching effect. Leaving in Heather's hands a roughly 4ft parasol. A beautiful, well-crafted parasol, soft ebony fabric with intricate, purple-colored floral patterns sown into its canopy.

Heather casually unfolded her parasol and held it against her shoulder, before she noticed the look Rudy was giving her. "What, my skin isn't suited for sunny days. I grew up in a very cold part of Germany!"

Rudy took a moment to collect himself - waiting for the chill to leave his spine - leveling a thoughtful look at his new partner through his sunglasses. "You're a Witch."

To think that a practitioner of "forbidden" sorceries was working with him now. Though, it'd be closer to "unpopular" or "stigmatized" than strictly forbidden.

Well, at least I know what magic she uses now.

Heather... sighed, a light exhale through her nose. "Yes, I am a Witch. I don't suppose you'll have any issues with that? I'm aware of our... less than stellar reputation." The slightest hint of apprehension was visible in her purple eyes.

"Though I assure you that I'm not some child-eating crone living in a gingerbread house."

'Less than stellar' was underselling it. The Salem Witch Trials happened for a reason.

The green-eyed man looked at Heather for a long moment, instinct telling him not to trust this person in the slightest. But even if he didn't trust Heather, he trusted Crispin and his judgement. If the Chief felt safe letting a Witch into his Office, Rudy had no place to argue.

The redheaded grunted before shaking his head, "Nah, you don't seem the type anyway. Like I said, long as you carry your weight we'll have no problems."

With his piece said, the Mutant continued on his way. And, with a smile on her face, the Witch followed.

"What was that anyway?"

"Oh, just a little Black Witchcraft. Nothing serious."

For the next ten or so minutes, Rudy led Heather through the pathways and streets of Derry. The redheaded man idly pointed out minor landmarks as they went and a patrolling police officer waved to him out with a smile, which was greeted with a nod.

But quickly enough, they arrived at their destination. A fairly large, homely-looking diner. [THe BuRGEr BUnKeR] was spelled above the door in big, misshapen letters.

Rudy swung open the front doors to reveal a den of civilized madness, the thick smell of food grease and sauces hitting him almost like a physical object. Behind him, Heather blinked as she took the sight in.

Running all over the place like ants - handing out dishes and taking orders - were small, green-skinned people with large, pointy ears and toothy grins. Though the size varied, none of them could've been any taller than 4ft.

"A diner run by... Goblins? That's certainly new." Heather remarked with an amused smile as they took an empty table, one sat right beside a window overlooking the street. This early in the morning, there were only a few other patrons present.

"The Clan in San Francisco mostly lived in the sewers. Helped keep the plumbing clean and they got the whole tunnel complex to themselves. Pretty good deal, in all honesty." She continued, propping up her folded parasol beside her.

Rudy grunted in acknowledgement as he put away his sunglasses, before realizing he should probably reply back. "Well, the Bunker was founded a few years ago by their Clan Head, wanted to start a food business. Turns out, Goblins are pretty good cooks. They're apparently neat freaks, too."

"And the whole Clan helps run this place?" The Witch look around, seeing the veritable tidal wave of Goblins that flushed from the kitchen, each carrying a tray containing frankly delicious looking food. Burgers, fries, milkshakes. All the 'diner classics'.

"Yup, all those waiters and waitresses are siblings. All 34 of them, if my count's up-to-date. Plus 22 aunts and uncles manning the kitchen." Goblin birth-rates were often described as 'absurd' and the owners of the Burger Bunker were no exception.

Their conversation was cut short by a waitress approaching them, her head barely peeking over the table to look at them. A pair of bright orange eyes framed by a round face greeted them. She appeared to be roughly in her late-20s, by Goblin standards.

"Mornin' Rudy! You gettin' the usual?" The waitress asked, a shark-toothed grin on her face.

"Hey Dani, yeah the usual will do." Rudy made something approaching a smile at her. She was utterly tiny compared to him, like a child next to a firefighter.

'Dani' quickly scribbled something down on her notepad, "Right, so Double Baconator with a side of Large Fries and a mango smoothie, got it!" The Goblin's large ears twitched as she noticed Heather sitting across from him.

"Oh, sorry about that miss! Who might you be?"

Heather waved her off with a chuckle, "Oh it's no trouble, really. Heather Albrecht, pleasure to meet you. Dani was it?"

"Yup, that's me! So miss Heather, how can I serve you?"

"I'll have the..." The German woman was quiet for a moment as she checked the menu, "... the Mini Hawaiian Pizza sounds good right about now. Ah, and a lemonade, please."

"Comin' right up!" Dani nodded as she scratched Heather's order down, before a... bashful expression appeared on her face. "Hey Rudy, I don't wanna be nosy but.... is this a date?"

With that single word, the Burger Bunker erupted into chaos. Dani's brothers and sisters evidently heard her.

"Wait, Rudy's got a DATE?! I call bullshit!"

"Damn, I didn't think the day would come, but at least he's got good taste. Look at her!"

"Shut up Ralph, that's rude."

"Oh damnit, he's not single anymore?"

Dani winced at the withering look Rudy gave her, meanwhile Heather was trying not to laugh after the shock wore off. Rudy sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "No Dani, this isn't a date. Heather's a new coworker and Crispin asked me to show her around."

"Oh okay, that makes more sense." Dani nodded with a laugh, before turning to the still-ongoing chaos, "False alarm guys, she's just a new coworker!"

Just as quickly as it came, the Goblinoid uproar settled back to normal.

"Ah, that explains it. Get back to work, everyone!"

"Yeah yeah, that's what they all say...."

"Wait, so he IS single?"

As Dani went back to the kitchen to put in their orders, Heather finally broke and starting chuckling, ignoring the thoroughly unimpressed stare Rudy was giving. This continued for a bit longer before Heather regained her composure.

"Sorry, sorry. I just... they seem quite lively, don't they?"

Rudy rolled his eyes, but nodded ever-so-slightly. "Sorry about them, they can get... rowdy."

"No, no, it's quite alright. I much prefer overly friendly people to the opposite."

Rudy wasn't sure he agreed with that or not, there was a certain... simplicity to dealing with someone who hates you, especially if the feeling's mutual. No manners, no propriety, no bullshit. Just, 'I hate you and you hate me, let's get this over with'.

But he supposed he had a different perspective, at least compared to Heather. From what he could gather with context clues like her speech patterns and personality, she likely grew up rich or something along those lines. The overtly friendly, informal Goblins were probably a change of pace for her.

"So, what brings you to Derry, Heather?" Rudy decided to probe, leaning back in his leather seat. She might not be an outright threat, but he'd be stupid to fully trust a Witch without knowing who she even is first.

Said Witch blinked at him, "What brought this on?"

"Isn't it normal to want to get to know your new partner?"

Heather nodded, conceding his point. "True enough. Give me a moment." She then spent a few seconds with her face scrunched up in thought, probably collecting her thoughts. "Well for the most part, I'm here because as you probably know, monster activity has gone up around Derry lately."

"Yeah, I noticed. Had to exorcise a vengeful ghost from a golf course down the street last week with a coworkers' help." Rudy said, quickly tapping his fingers on the table, "Apparently it got kicked out of its home in the Everglades Wyld and set up shop there."

It was a pain in the ass too, because Derry didn't normally get Spiritual problems. He had to get one of Office 53's few magic-users to tag along to even hurt the damn thing.

Heather snapped her fingers with a grin, "And that's where I come in: the Everglades Wyld. The fact that it's been 'acting up' lately is very concerning, so I have been transferred here to help get a read on the situation. As I understand it, Office 53 is somewhat lacking in skilled Spellcasters, yes?"

"Yeah, we're mostly Beast Hunters, not Ghost-Breakers. Magic ain't much of a priority down here. Too much effort and too complicated when you can just grab a gun."

The Everglades Wyld. God, what the hell was going on there? Wyld's were weird and unpredictable at the best of times and the one just outside Derry was acting up. That was bad fucking news. Rudy's old friend Felix had described it best to him back in the Academy:

"Imagine a forest will ya? Just a normal, mundane forest with trees, rivers and all the stuff a forest needs. In most cases, the most magical thing in there is the... Wyvern calling it home or some shit. Real low-key stuff."

"Now a Wyld? That's a place where the Magic in the air is so damn thick, it permeates and warps the very land within it. Now to continue the forest analogy, a Wyld would be a forest where every plant, animal and body of water is both a wizard and very much wants you dead."

"That Wyvern? Twice as big and spews lighting bolts. The trees? It walks around and picks a new place to root every week. The river? Goes up waterfalls despite gravity's best wishes and randomly changes size. An entire, living ecosystem jacked up on Magic that makes everything in it way more dangerous."

To date, that explanation was still the most intelligent thing Rudy had ever heard Felix say.

"Right, so that's why I'm here. Both to lend assistance with the surge in monster activity and figure out what's causing the Wyld to start.... fidgeting, for lack of a better word." Heather finished, waving a hand casually.

The redheaded man hummed in thought, "That's why you're here, but... who are you, Heather Albrecht?"

The German woman's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, peering into him like purple daggers with a bleak intensity. Rudy met her stare with one of his own, poisonous sclera and bright white irises contracting as he focused his inhuman gaze on her. Just like before, the Witch didn't so much as blink, staring him down before she started to chuckle.

"You... are by far one of the blunter people I've met, Rudy. But, I appreciate the honesty, so I'll answer it with my own." At this, she sat up straighter and bowed her head slightly.

"Heather Albrecht, born and raised in Germany, the Black Forest in particular. Grew up in the old family estate, not too far from a river. I'd fish there before I moved out, helped calm the nerves." At this, the raven-haired woman chuckled, a glint of nostalgia visible in her eyes, "Those salmon were weirdly clever."

Heather paused and tapped her fingers on her cheek, "Let's see, I like Bavarian pretzels, I enjoy collecting magical books and grimoires-"

Fucken knew it.

"-comes with the job, I suppose. And I have a... passing interest in musical instruments. I can play piano, but honestly I much prefer the electric guitar."

Heather stopped for a moment as her expression soured, as if she'd seen something unpleasant. "I detest romance movies. They're too neat, too fake. People..... people aren't like that." She clicked her tongue before clearing her throat.

"That's... probably more than you wanted though, so enough about me - why don't you tell me about yourself, Rudy? I'd... also like to get to know my new partner."

The mutant grunted, shrugging his shoulders. "What is there to say? I'm Rudy, I've lived in Derry for about 2 years now and I hunt monsters, Beasts in particular. Lot easier to kill an animal compared to a ghost or Vampire and tracking's what I'm good at. Fighting too."

"My hobby is making... plush-dolls, as you saw. But I suppose I like going on nature walks, and exercising helps me relax. I hate hospitals." Rudy said, arms crossed as he leaned back in his seat. Heather shot him a thoughtful look before realization dawned on her face.

"Ah, right. Not many buildings whiter than a hospital, are there?"

Rudy's lips pressed into a thin line.

"No, not really."

It was right as Heather was about to speak again that a tray holding a small pizza and a glass of lemonade slid onto the table, a larger tray containing a huge burger, bowl of fries and a big plastic cup with a straw coming right after.

"Double Baconator with Large Fries and mango smoothie and a Mini Hawaiian pizza with a lemonade! Enjoy your meal you two!" Dani beamed at them before leaving to attend a family that just sat down.

Rudy and Heather nodded to her and thanked her for the meal before eating.

"That's a.... rather large burger you have there, Rudy." Heather observed with a wry smirk as she took a slice of her mini-pizza. And it was indeed a behemoth of a burger, nearly the size of her head and with a copious amount of meat, vegetables and sauce in it. The only thing holding the monstrous meal together was a toothpick thick enough to use as a shiv.

The idea that someone could eat that greasy abomination made her twitch. God only knew what that thing would do to her figure.

Rudy answered after taking a solid bite out of the side, easily chewing and swallowing the massive chunk of food like it was nothing. "Burned a lot of calories fighting a monster earlier today, need to get them back if I want to keep my metabolism up. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly a normal Human."

The raven-haired woman huffed out a laugh, "Really now? I'd have never guessed, your towering stature and inhuman eyes seemed perfectly normal to me. Why, I think the fellow running the DMV back home had some peculiar-looking optics."

They both chuckled at that, continuing to eat in silence until Heather cleared her throat. Rudy flicked his eyes up to meet hers.

"I've been refraining from asking this out of politeness, but it's been eating at me since we met and you seem like the type to prefer blunt honesty, so I'll just ask: What on Earth is your jacket made from? Because I can practically smell the magic wafting off of the thing."

Rudy froze for a moment, slowly chewing some fries as he stared Heather down, mulling over her question for nearly a minute. After downing his food, he leaned forward and braced his arms on the table before he answered:

"You sure you're not just smelling yourself?" He smirked at her. Her eye twitched before she could stop herself.

"Funny. But let’s not insult both our intelligences. That jacket isn’t tech, and it’s not synthetic either - it's an animal pelt. Magical, old. So... what is it?"

A huff was Rudy's reply as he tapped his finger on the table, "It's a Nemean Lion pelt, got it by Right of Conquest."

Heather stopped, her eyes blank until his words registered. Whatever she'd been expecting, it obviously wasn't that. "....You're kidding."

"Do I look like the kidding type, Heather?"

"You killed a Nemean Lion? When - how?!" Her voice was tight with incredulousness, and her purple eyes locked onto Rudy's jacket with a newfound intensity. Taking note of how the fabric is completely, utterly unstained. As if it were brand new and only made yesterday.

"Internship in Greece a few years ago. Ran into it by accident, nearly died since I just couldn't hurt the bastard. Ended up drowning it in a nearby lake." The green-eyed man shrugged, taking a sip of his smoothie. "Even if your skin's impervious, it doesn't mean you don't need air."

"Right...." Heather murmured as she cupped her chin in thought, "I'm assuming you had to use one of its claws to extract the hide?"

"Yeah, the only thing that can pierce a Nemean Lion is itself. Since I wasn't an actual Greek citizen and they're pretty stingy about letting parts of their monsters out of the country, I was only allowed to keep enough to have the jacket made. Right of Conquest be damned."

The raven-haired woman was silent, obviously digesting this new information. After a long moment - Rudy taking the time to continue eating - she spoke:

"Well.... at least I know I have a strong partner watching my back." Heather said, chuckling lightly.

"Wish I could say the same."

"Ah, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until our first assignment together to see what I can really do, Rudy. Black Witchcraft tends to..... unnerve those who see it. Something I'm sure you can verify."

Rudy merely grunted and ate the last of his fries.

The two Hunters sat in somewhat comfortable silence, Heather occasionally piping up to ask a question or comment on something she saw, until both of them had finished their meals.

"You really aren't a normal Human. No mortal man could eat such a thing in it's entirety." Heather's lips curled at the eaten-clean platter with only the shiv-toothpick left, the empty bowl of fries and the crushed plastic cup that was once a smoothie.

"Like I said, I've got a weird metabolism." Rudy replied, handing some money to a Goblin waiter. "Keep the change, Bruce."

As they left the Burger Bunker, Heather idly snapped her fingers. The tiny amounts of sauce and residue that had gathered on the Witches' gloves literally dissolved into thin air, leaving behind pristine fabric in their place.

"Convenient." Rudy remarked.

"Oh, like you wouldn't believe. Saves me so much on laundry."

Rudy was about to reply, before his head snapped to the side. Staring at something in the distance. Heather was right about to ask before an ear-splitting BANG rang out.

Rudy and Heather could see a plume of smoke a few blocks away from them, terrified screams loud enough that even Heather could hear it.

Rudy sighed explosively before it turned into an angry growl, "And this was supposed to be my fucking day off..."

"No rest for the wicked, eh Rudy? Seems you'll get to see me in action sooner than we thought." Heather was already jogging towards the smoke, parasol in hand.

"..... Suppose we'll have to at least make sure no one's dead yet." Rudy grabbed his axe and unfolded it with a series of clicks and snaps. His mask unfurled over his face, annoyed grumbling reverberated into metallic growling.

"That's the spirit, mein Freund!"

And with that, the Mutant and the Witch charged off to battle.

Chapter Text

As she and Rudy ran down the streets of Derry, following the plume of smoke and the screaming, Heather Albrecht wondered what kind of horrid little beasty they were going to find. She always was a bit too curious for her own good, sometimes. But she'd learned life was more fun that way.

It couldn't be anything magical, she'd have sensed the buildup of energy before the explosion even happened. No thrumming in her ears, no electric taste of thaumaturgy on the air, nothing. Whatever did that, it wasn't sorcerous in nature. Maybe it was just a car crash? Though she wonders what was in those cars to make such a large fireball.

"Do you have any ideas on what we're dealing with, Rudy?" Heather’s breath came short and sharp as her boots pounded the pavement. She wasn’t out of shape by any stretch - she'd be stupid to be, considering her job - but compared to Rudy’s effortless loping stride, she felt like a wind-up toy chasing a predator.

He wasn’t even breathing hard under that mask of his. How peculiar.

Very efficient running form on him. Reminds me of those soldiers I met in Munich a few years ago...

Rudy sniffed the air, she guessed that those tiny vents on his mask let him smell through it. "Gas explosion, must've been a fuel truck. Something else too, smells.... artificial." His voice came out as a metallic snarl of words - like an engine that learned how to feel rage - though his tone was recognizably pensive.

Heather blinked; artificial? What does that mean? Like a Golem or Construct? An inanimate Golem would be more likely, an actual sapient Construct is a rare sight to behold.

Which is why Heather's quite curious about the Construct she saw in the photo on Rudy's desk, the bronze one. She'll have to ask at some point, maybe at lunch.

"Well, whatever it is, I'm not picking up any magic from it."

Pedestrians and civilians scrambled past them as they approached a corner, some pushing each other around to get away. Honestly, some people can be so rude during an emergency. Mortal danger is no reason to lose your manners.

A man nearly slammed into her shoulder as he fled, cursing under his breath. A woman behind her tripped and spilled her bag's contents all over the pavement - she's pretty sure she can hear crying children and just about everyone was screaming. Delightful.

"Everyone, please clear the area and find shelter, we'll have this handled in no time!" Heather gave them her best smile as she and Rudy passed, hoping to sound reassuring. None of the people gave any sign of hearing her, but many did duck into alley-ways and stores.

She tried to suppress the twitch at being ignored, fingers tightening around her parasol. It's not you Heather, they're just scared and confused. They wouldn't be listening to anyone right now.

Rounding the corner, Heather's nose scrunched at the pungent stench of gasoline and burning rubber. "Oh, there's the gas smell, goodness that's strong. Good nose, Rudy."

That was yet another thing to add to her "Weird Things About Rudy" list, like his very much not-humanly structured eyes, his monstrous appetite and now he apparently tracks things by scent. What a fascinating man.

A grunt was all she received in return. Ah, he was one of those "few words as possible while working" types, was he? Honestly, she should've expected that. Any conversation that wasn't job-related seemed physically painful for him. Like he had no idea how to talk about normal things.

Like Santiago from back at Office 28. I swear, I never heard that woman say anything more than a single sentence at a time.

A grey-black curtain of smoke was blinding half the street in its choking form, though Heather could've sworn she saw something.. big moving for a moment. Very big. The hairs on the back of her neck shot up, despite herself.

Just to be sure, Heather sent out an invisible pulse of energy, waiting for any notable sources of magic to ping back. Nothing, other than Rudy's jacket beside her.

Well isn't this a mystery? Whatever are we going to find here?

A bone-rattling, inhuman roar rang out from down the street before - with a sound of screaming metal - a small car came tumbling out the smoke, carelessly tossed like an unwanted toy. Right towards an elderly man who'd fallen over in the chaos.

The arcane words were right on Heather's tongue before a red blur darted past her with a soft gust of wind and skidded to a stop in front of the old man. Rudy embedded his axe into the road blade-first, scowling at the oncoming car rolling at him.

The bright-eyed man squared his feet and - with a mechanical growl of effort - parried the tumbling car away, bracing his sleeved forearm as he almost backhanded the vehicle over his head. The sound was like a wrecking ball hitting a steel wall, abrupt and nasty to hear as Rudy deflected the car. Looking closely, Heather could see his feet skidding back from the action, his boots digging into the pavement as he held his ground.

Sparks flew from where the metal hit his jacket, but the Nemean Lion pelt lived up to its origins and held up without so much as a scratch.

Heather blinked at the sight, once again quietly impressed by her new partner. That was much stronger than anything she's seen a Human do. Lizardfolk maybe, but a Human? No wonder he needs to eat so much. That can't have been energy-efficient.

A smirk grew on her face, Well, I suppose I'll have to match his tempo here, won't I?

Rudy shook his arm out, rolling his shoulders as if to check for anything broken. The car harmlessly rolled to a stop behind him. "Ow."

Heather walked over and helped the old man to his feet, lightly pushing him to the corner, "Please find somewhere to hide, sir. We have this handled."

The old man nodded, turning to Rudy as he left with a strange combination of awe and slight fear. "Thank you, young man."

A grunt and a lazy wave of the hand was the only indication Rudy heard him, the masked man reaching down to retrieve his axe. "You heard her. Get outta here."

Something groaned down the street - low, rasping and agonized - while a huge, monstrous shape just barely peeking through the smoke. Rudy huffed as he marched towards the figure, weapon held in a white-knuckled grip. He was evidently not happy his day off got interrupted.

Heather moved to match his cadence with her folded parasol in hand, having to almost jog to match the mutant's stride. "Not the post-breakfast workout you were expecting?" She said, half expecting another grunt in response.

"Nope." Rudy replied instead, his masked face tilting to look at her. Which made Heather realize that she'll probably have to read him by body language with it on. "What can you do? In a fight, I mean."

All business, isn't he? The Witch almost chuckled as they passed through the smoke. "Rather simple, all things considered. Combat curses, hexes and the like. I try not to make my attack options too complex, muddies up the whole thing. It's the application that matters."

Simple curses were faster, cleaner. Easier to use on the spot or in a fight, rather than waiting for a glyph or ritual to finish charging. In the right battle, sure, they could be devastating. But this wasn't it.

"You said Black Witchcraft, right? I hear that's good at breaking shit."

"Oh, I can definitely vouch for that, Rudy." She said as they finally cleared the smoke, idly noticing the burning wreck of a gasoline truck that was halfway through a building. But the thing in the middle of the street was what got her attention.

Another wheezing, ear-splitting howl greeted Heather and Rudy as they bared witness to their monster. Heather internally corrected her earlier guess, there was nothing 'little' about this beastie.

"Oh mein Gott, what the hell is THAT?" Heather flinched and wrinkled her nose in disgust at the thing before her while Rudy twitched before narrowing his glowing green eyes, his lips opening into a growl.

The... creature standing about a dozen meters away from them was huge, easily bigger than a grizzly bear. Heather guessed it was probably 4-6 meters tall and a solid 3 meters across its broad torso.

Leathery-brown skin stretched and pulled as the malformed abomination turned to look at them. Top-heavy, like some kind of giant ape with massive arms, bulging hideously with muscle. One arm was visibly larger than the other, and its' chest was criss-crossed with horrific scars.

Those.... aren't normal arms. Heather realized as she scrutinized it. More akin to masses of thick, fleshy tendrils wrapped up into vaguely arm-shaped structures.

The creature's face - a hauntingly human-looking thing, set into a rictus scowl of pure rage and pain - snarled at them as its lower jaw split in two, almost like mandibles. Jagged, uneven yellow teeth were exposed to the open air as it screamed.

A lion's mane of tendrils extended from its scalp, writhing with every movement like they had minds of their own.

The whole creature reeked of chemical disinfectant, rotting flesh and blood, Heather could smell it even from a distance.

Heather could only imagine how Rudy felt, with his nose - and personally, she had no earthly idea what she was looking at. This... thing didn't match any monsters native to Germany, none in San Francisco and she did a refresher on Florida's ecosystems and such before she transferred. Didn't match any of those either. This was something new, very new.

A small smile grew on her face.

How intriguing. I do love a good mystery.

Rudy glared at the monster with an extremely angry stance, likely scowling under that mask as if the very existence of this thing personally offended him. To be fair, Heather wasn't exactly thrilled to be looking at it either.

But it's odd, how he defaulted to anger and not horror or disgust at such a sight. That means he's... seen something like this before, hasn't he? The Witch concluded. And he doesn't like it at all.

Heather was incredibly curious, but now wasn't the time for that. Currently, she and Rudy had a.... whatever this was, to deal with.

"This thing dies, right now." Snarled Rudy. His tone was low and his heckles were raised like an aggravated wolf, ready to explode into violence at any moment. Though she couldn't see his face, he was probably glaring furiously.

"Yes, I suppose it's best we put this... poor thing out of its misery." The raven-haired woman returned with a smile sharper than a knife, idly watching their surroundings to make sure no civilians had gotten close. Fighting with an audience was always a pain.

The only people she saw were the ones splattered all over the pavement, probably a good dozen if she was counting right. Humans, Lizardfolk and even some Goblins. She forced herself to not count the limbs, focusing on the monster instead.

She hoped none of them were relatives of Dani.

We can't do anything for them, only make sure no one else dies. Heather exchanged a look with Rudy, who flicked his visor over to her. A silent understanding passed between them. No more civvies die today.

The monster seemed to have finally locked onto them, howling in maddened aggression as it charged. Its legs - thick, meaty but short for its body - carried it in a heaving, ungainly stride. It quickly dropped to all-fours though, galloping towards the two Hunters like a furious gorilla with a speed that belied its size. Its 'arms' slamming against the pavement sounded out through the street like war-drums. Now that it was closer, Heather could see off-white, bony spikes lining its' tendrils.

Rudy immediately charged the massive creature, sliding under its swipe and dragging his axe-blade across its flank, spilling a few liters of ichor pretending to be blood onto the road. The monster howled but continued its charge towards Heather, right 'arm' opening like a flower into an onslaught of spiked tendrils.

"Heather?" Rudy called out from behind it, sounding just the slightest bit concerned. Oh you do care, what a darling.

The Witch merely smirked as the monster got closer, before hefting her parasol in a gloved hand - sigils glowing purple - and giving it the smallest, dainty flick.

"Demontieren."

The air screamed and dark, tar-like blood sprayed like a firehose as a handful of the monster's tendrils were suddenly sliced off its 'arm'. Cleanly amputated as if cut by an unseen blade, the tendrils flopped to the ground with a series of wet thuds. The blood would've drenched Heather had it not dissolved into miniscule flakes mid-air before it reached her.

The flesh where the monster was cut seemed to rot and pale, like an aged corpse.

The creature roared in pain and tried to crush Heather with its other 'arm' but the trench coat-clad woman merely sidestepped the blow - pavement cracking with the impact - and leapt back. A soundless wail rang out as a mass of black appeared under her feet, acting as a foothold for Heather to effectively 'double-jump' away from the monster with a smug grin.

The creature tried to pursue but-

"Schäkel."

-its own shadow lit up with purple sigils and exploded upwards into jagged, obsidian-like claws that held it down like a net. It thrashed and struggled violently, blood-ichor still pouring from its wounds. Though despite its injuries, the loss of blood didn't seem to be actually having any effect....

Heather quickly jogged over to Rudy, who was looking at her with a mix of obvious appraisal and dare she call it respect? Perish the thought.

"Fuck was that?"

"Laceration curse. Quick, clean, not particularly flashy but it works. By the way, whatever this thing is, it's surprisingly.... soft. Literally, I mean. It's strong but it can't seem to take much punishment. Was expecting more, to be frank."

"Yeah, noticed that too when I cut it. Shouldn't be too much trouble then." The mutant decided before his tone changed.

"Try not to mangle it too badly. I want to.... check something." Rudy's voice was low as he stared at the monster, watching it slowly escape her umbral bindings. His fingers twitched every time a thread of nothingness snapped or the monster screamed.

"I'll be as clean as my craft allows, but I can't make any promises I'm afraid." Heather flicked her eyes back to the tendril-covered abomination as it finally broke free of her spell, howling with rage. "Shall we?"

Rudy said nothing, but he took in a deep breath and set himself into a rough stance with his axe at the ready. His normally pale complexion flushed into a healthier pink tone where his mask didn't cover. He reached back and pulled the furred hood of his jacket over his head, shadowing his masked face.

He turned his gaze over to her for a moment, "Try to keep up."

He was off right after that, sprinting towards the monster far faster than anyone his size should be. Heather laughed and hung back, deciding to give her mutant partner some ranged backup. She was far more fragile than him, after all.

The monster moved to slam its 'arm' onto Rudy, before a shrieking Demontieren to its shoulder made it flinch. The redheaded man batted aside the weakened mass of tendrils with his forearm, his sleeve protecting him from the spikes. With his other arm, Rudy buried his axe into the monster's scarred chest.

It barely had any time to scream before Rudy placed a hand on the hilt of his weapon, pressing it down to carve through the front flank of his opponent from shoulder to hip. Dark tar-blood splattered from the wound, painting Rudy's hands and jacket black. He must spend a fortune on laundry if this is how he fights, maybe I could do him a solid and clean that off after this is over?

Rudy continued dueling the abomination about the street, ducking between or outright deflecting its flailing limbs with his jacket or axe. He didn't rely fully on his Nemean Lion jacket, Heather noticed. He wasn't afraid to use it, but he rarely actually tanked a blow. Merely.... guided it away, using the impervious material to protect his more vulnerable flesh beneath.

"Schäkel." Another trapping of shadows constrained the monster, allowing Heather's partner to embed his axe into its leg. A pained roar filled the air.

Suddenly, Heather's spell buckled and then shattered, the monster's restraints breaking under its' hideous strength. It would seem this beast had gotten serious. Oh dear, that's not ideal.

Rudy cursed and leapt back, but his opponent followed him with startling speed, grabbing his leg in a spiked tendril. Then, with a furious whip of its 'arm'-

"Oh FUCK-"

-Rudy was hurled into a nearby Five & Below at breakneck speeds, shattering the front window with his body, making glass explode all over the street. Heather could hear the ungodly crashing inside the store at his impact.

That kind of force would reduce any normal person to a stain on the ground, Heather herself included. But she got the feeling Rudy would be up and fighting soon, obviously superhuman as he was.

However, that still left the issue of herself. Alone in the street with the grizzly-sized tendril beast.

The monster snapped its head to look at her, mandibles parting into a disgusting snarl. Within but a few seconds, it had already crossed half the distance between them with a roar.

"Scheiße!" Knowing she wouldn't outrun it, Heather quickly carved a simple rune into the pavement with her parasol. When the beast finally reached her, the raven-haired woman tapped her parasol against the rune, making it light up purple. "Schild!"

A pane of purple-black energy sprang up from the rune with an unseen wail, the creature slamming into it like an oncoming truck. A loud THUD sounded out and the monster staggered as it collided face-first with the barrier, flinching in pain.

It backed away from Heather, snarling in confusion as the flesh where it had touched the energy began to pale and rot. Not by a lot, but enough to give even this malformed thing pause.

Nothing like some induced necrosis for a deterrent. But that barrier won't hold forever, Black Witchcraft doesn't exactly do rush-job protections like this. Heather remarked internally.

Her hastily-made shield-rune was at best a stopgap, it wouldn't get rid of the actual threat and it'll come down any second now. Carving runes in pavement of all things, what was she, some kind of caveman? Mein Gott, it was just like that incident last year with the Poltergeist.

The creature screamed again and started pounding on the shield, slamming its tendril-arms against her barrier again and again and again. Ignoring how its flesh shriveled and decayed with every impact. It was determined to get to her.

THUD.

THUD.

THUD.

Tiny droplets ran down the back of Heather's neck, her nerves getting the better of her. Her gloved fingers twitched around her parasol as her barrier flickered for the tiniest instant. A smile grew on her face, looking just a bit manic.

"Oh, I've never liked how much I enjoy mortal danger. It's terrible for my blood pressure." The Witch muttered under her breath, legs tensing for the perfect moment.

The abomination roared - its breath reeking of disinfectant and death - and slammed its arms onto her barrier one last time before it buckled and shattered. An ear-splitting screech echoed through the street as her defense fell.

Heather immediately threw herself onto her back - the tendrils missing her by a hairs' breadth - scrambled to her feet and sprinted away. The heavy thumping behind her told the German woman that her opponent was giving chase.

Her breaths came out short but steady as she ran, indigo coat flaring out with her stride. She leapt to the side to avoid some grabbing tendrils and 'double-jumped' off of a platform of darkness again to further the distance. She was now on the creature's left side, the one with the smaller, sliced-up and rotted 'arm'.

As it turned to swing its right mass of tendrils at her in a backhand-like attack - the action taking a solid 3 seconds due to its size - Heather used the time to carve a quick arcane circle into the pavement below her with her parasol, before clutching a hand to where her heart would be.

The purple sigils on her gloves glowed even brighter as a keening, unearthly scream made itself known. Her eyes twitched and her already light complexion visibly paled.

"Zweiter Schatten!"

Heathers' shadow lengthened and the shade cast by her body darkened. Spider web-like cracks formed in the pavement beside her, yawning holes to a light-less abyss.

With a sound not unlike cracking bone and tearing flesh, a pair of ink-black tendrils erupted from the ground beside Heather. They were a black beyond black, so impossibly dark it actively absorbed any light that touched it, making them appear almost 2-dimensional.

The tendrils surged towards the hideous creature before her, tips narrowed into lethally sharp stakes. They buried themselves in its swinging 'arm' with a pained howl, before the tips shifted and changed into brutal hooks. With an unnatural, warbling undulation the monster was thrown down the street away from Heather while the hooks ripped its leathery flesh out in disgusting chunks.

Heather's tendrils pulled back to rest behind her, ready to rip anything that got close to pieces. Her shadow meanwhile started moving on its own, not quite alive but swaying or following her movements as if from a different angle. Ever so slightly out of sync, like a lagging recording.

The raven-haired woman sighed, her breath hitching the slightest amount as her purple eyes brightened. Using higher-level spells like this is dreadfully tiring. I'll need to take a nap when this is over, get my energies in order.

Regardless, Heather stood tall, ready to face the monster before her as is her duty. Her opponent seemed to have gotten its bearings, tendril 'arms' sliced, ripped and rotted to the bone. But even through the hideous injuries, it failed to fall. Bloodshot eyes locked onto her as the beast growled, nearly frothing at the mouth with feral rage.

Before either of them could act however, a red blur darted from the Five & Below at breakneck speeds towards the monster, boots thudding into the street. It had barely tilted its head to look before a flash of steel race across the creature's belly, slicing its gut clean open in a deluge of oily blood.

The red blur - Rudy, Heather realized - arrested his movement with a stomp that cracked the road, whipping around and slugging the monster clean in its' split-jaw with a crack. A handful of jagged, yellowed teeth flew from its' gums. Rudy swiftly backed up from the monster to stand a few feet beside her.

Now closer and still, Heather could get a better look at her partner. He seemed mostly fine - jacket dusty and bloody but predictably unscathed, a couple small tears in his cargo pants and - looking into his hood - a few nasty scratches on his mask. Well, I suppose that's what the mask is for, making sure his face doesn't get torn off.

His close proximity idly reminded Heather that Rudy was a very large man, easily a solid foot-and-a-half taller than her and almost certainly twice her weight.

He's got to be what, 6'10 and built like a linebacker? Something tells me he doesn't just have good genes. There's.... something else, with him.

Height concerns aside, Rudy watched their stunned and likely concussed opponent for a moment longer - visor alight like a glowstick - before his gaze swung to her. The redheaded man looked Heather up and down - looking for injuries, not ogling. Though she could understand the temptation, she was something of a dreamboat if she wanted to be vain. Solid 6/10.

"Like what you see?" She said with a smirk and a demure pose with her parasol as Rudy flicked his eyes over to her paler complexion, the curling tendrils beside her and out-of-sync shadow.

"You're not dead or dying, so yeah I'd say I like what I'm seeing, though your heartbeat is a little quicker than normal." Was Rudy's dry retort before he twitched violently and nearly wretched, taking a step back from her in alarm. "What the fuck is that smell?"

Heather tilted her head, genuinely confused. She wasn't smelling anything. Though she didn't have super-senses either. It took her a little longer than she would've liked to realize what was going on. Oh, das habe ich ganz vergessen.

"Oh! Right, yes um-" Heather paused for a moment and tapped her boots on the ground, trying to find the right words, "That's my fault, sorry. My magic is a bit.... messy, when it comes to the physical senses."

Rudy gave her a withering glare under his mask. "Messy how?"

"Well, you've obviously noticed that my spells tend to shriek like banshees and make things darker than should be possible." Heather gestured to her shadow behind her, a shade of black that shouldn't exist.

"Yeah. So they affect other senses too, then?"

"Precisely, I don't really notice it but I've been told my spells smell positively disgusting to other people. I looked into it and apparently Black Witchcraft smells like nothing. So much nothing that your brain does a loop and makes you think your smelling something horrendous."

Rudy snorted, sounding strange through his masks' filter, "Fucking magic. Can never just be simple, can it?"

He paused for a moment, "I'm assuming you can't get rid of it, considering it's still a problem?"

"Afraid not. My magics are based almost entirely around being horrible and unpleasant. My curses sometimes give people splitting headaches, as well. It's called Witchcraft for a reason, Rudy." Heather watched her partner mull over her words for a moment. His head tilted - if she had to describe it, she'd call it 'thoughtful'. What could he be thoughtful about?

He'd likely give her a cautious stare or keep his distance, maybe even avoid close proximity unless necessary. The typical - and understandable - reaction to what her magic was really like, after underestimating how viscerally unsettling she is to be around when she's fighting.

She felt bad, his sense of smell was likely making this even worse than it'd normally be-

"Right, so I'll just have to suck it up then. Wouldn't be the worst thing I've smelled, at any rate." He grunted.

Wie bitte?

Heather blinked at the man. She then narrowed her eyes slightly, searching Rudy for any signs of deceit. None, save for his agitated stance but that was obviously just his sensitive nose making its' displeasure known.

He..... wasn't lying. No cautious glares, no asking her to 'tone it down', nothing? Even her old coworkers took weeks to get comfortable around her when her magic became known.

"They'll be here any minute now. They're just busy-"

She banished the half-formed memory with nary a twitch save for her fingers tightening around her parasol and a tension in her eyes. Now wasn't the time to be...... reminiscing.

"...... That's good to hear." Heather said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

Rudy's only sign that he noticed anything was a tiny cocking of his head, but he thankfully ignored Heather's..... reaction to focus back on the creature. Perhaps in return for Heather not bringing up his little episode in the Infirmary? There was obviously something bothering Rudy, more than just bad memories. And whatever this thing was, it was related to it.

Heather lightly shook her head to focus. That could come later, right now this beastie needed to be put down. Speaking of, the monster had since recovered from its' concussion and had started barreling towards them on all-fours, a furious roar on its' lips. Oh right, we're fighting a monster.

The two hunters' reacted instantly, Rudy charging forward with no warning to meet the monster head-on while Heather did another 'double-jump' to the side and made some distance.

Right before Rudy and the creature collided, Heather sliced the back of its' knees open with a Demontieren to stagger it. As the thing stumbled and slowed, Rudy only sped up and slammed into the beast shoulder-first, hard enough to send the huge abomination onto its' back with a meaty thud. Heather immediately took the chance to hold it down with a Schäkel. It likely wouldn't hold for too long, but it was better than nothing.

Now with his opponent under him, Rudy hefted his axe and started going to town on the tendril-beasts' torso. Hacking and hacking like a lumberjack chopping wood. Only the wood in this context was disgusting leathery flesh and bulging muscle. With every savage swing of his weapon, Rudy only got more and more covered in the monsters' black, oily blood.

After enough hacks, some of the monstrosities' 'arm-tendrils' managed to dislodge themselves from Heathers' restraints. Rudy reacted instantly, lopping off two tendrils with one swing before grabbing the third and just tearing it clean off with a single vicious yank. Heather quickly noticed something though:

"Rudy!"

The green-eyed man turned to see her, only for the abomination to tear itself out of her restraints and grab him by the throat with its' 'arm'. Despite this, he still struggled valiantly and even ripped one of the bone spikes out of a tendril, unfortunately to no avail. Heather was halfway through a Demontieren when it bellowed and threw a rock at her with a stray tendril.

Her own shadow tentacles intercepted it - slicing it in half mid-air - but it gave the beast enough time to rear up and slam Rudy into the roof of a nearby abandoned car. Metal and plastic caved in on itself with a horrid screeching noise as the car nearly folded in half, Rudy responding with a loud bark of pain. His axe clattered to the ground but Heather could still see him stirring, pulling himself up.

The tendril-beast left Rudy there and turned to her.

Scheiße! Ach, zum Teufel damit, es intakt zu halten!

Heather turned to the charging monstrosity, her face set in a scowl. It stubbornly ignored her shadow impaling it through the shoulder and torso to reach her, because of course it did. Unfortunately for Heather, her reflexes weren't quite as inhumanly good as Rudy's, so while she managed to dodge the attack, one of its' bone-spikes grazed her side as it passed. An angry line of red opened on her coat, exposing the damaged skin beneath.

"Agh!" She hissed out - Damn it, I'm going to have to sew that up later! - saving her dive with her shadow which had morphed into a platform to catch her. Said platform quickly threw her to the side to escape the monsters' follow-up attack, Heather managing to land into a safe roll instead of a painful tumble.

The Witch was on her feet within a moment, slashing her parasol to the side like the swipe of a sword. "Demontieren!"

One of the new gouging cuts along its' torso - courtesy of Rudy - opened even further in a spray of viscous tar, the wound deep enough to show the slightest glimpse of a rib. Good, that made her plan a lot easier.

As the beast reared back from the attack, a metallic blur flew into its' face with a hideous crashing noise. A motorcycle, thrown with inhuman force.

Rudy sprinted forward at breakneck speeds and leapt up to bury his axe into the creature's neck, carving through the leathery flesh with ease.

"Rudy! Keep it still, I'm going to try something!" Heather said, already carving runes into the pavement below her with her parasol. Not the rush-job sigils from before, this was a far more intricate arcane circle. One that spoke of hate, misery and painful death. She didn't pick which runes created what effect, unfortunately.

The only indication Rudy gave that he heard her was a metallic growl as he kicked out the abominations' leg from under it, slashing the other open with his axe. No matter how much they ripped its' flesh open, it didn't seem to actually do anything. The fake blood was coagulating too quickly for it to bleed out. How irritatingly resilient.

The trench coat-clad woman wrote out the circle as quickly as possible, flicking her eyes up to watch the fight occasionally.

Rudy parried and dodged and weaved, sneaking in hacks and slashes with his axe when he could. His mask - scarred with scratches from his earlier tumble - made him seem dispassionate, mechanical. Like he was a soulless, faceless killer pretending to be a man.

Heather knew better though, the way he looked at this thing - the way he spoke of it? She heard nothing but rage. She might not have the full picture but this creature - wherever it came from, whatever it even is - was important to Rudy. Personal.

He recognized it. Maybe not this monster specifically, but something about it was obviously familiar to him. The question here, was what.

A pained growl made Heather file the thought away for later, as she looked up to see Rudy sever another handful of tendrils only to be backhanded through a nearby wall, brick and concrete crumbling at his impact. He didn't get up.

The German woman cursed and not in a way that hurt the monster.

She quickly finished up her sigil - having to leave out some words to get it done in time - and pressed her hand to the runes. They brightened with an unholy light, wailing and howling like banshees from everywhere at once and nowhere at all.

Heather slammed the butt of her parasol onto the sigil, which echoed out throughout the street as an eerie crack. Despite the fact that it was a bright Florida morning, the street seemed to darken as if the sun was setting, shadows lengthening like talons.

The parasol darkened and faded into a colorless nothing, blacker than the dead of night. Oily black markings lit up on Heather's skin, branching like veins and contrasting to her pale skin. They crept around her eyes like claws around a defenseless doe's neck.

"Verfluchte Klaue, die mit dem Tod zuschlägt!"

Cursed Claw that Strikes with Death.

Her parasol - so dark it looked like a 2D object drawn into existence - warped, lengthened into a long javelin-like shape with a barbed, vicious blade on the end. She quickly got to her feet, preparing to throw.

The monster was bearing down on Heather, sprinting with a roar on its' split lips. The German woman reared her arm back - javelin in a reverse-grip - and took a deep breath. "Here's hoping I don't miss." She muttered under her breath, frowning with concentration.

With that, The Witch of the Black Forest exhaled, twisted her hips and hurled the javelin from her hand with a cry of effort. The black lance of nothingness raced through the air with an unearthly howl, screaming as it soared towards its' target like a chorus of singing specters. The exposed ribs where her laceration curse had struck, right where its' heart should be.

With a disgusting, meaty thunk, Heather's spell speared into the monster's chest, making it stumble. It seems she'd hit something important. Good.

The tendril-beast stopped in its' tracks, bowing its' head to look at the impossibly black weapon impaling its' heart. It stared for only a moment before seizing up, as if in pain. The creature keeled over, barely holding itself up on its' legs as it gagged and wretched and wheezed. Its' oily black blood started gushing from the monster's mouth as it puked from internal bleeding, its' chest bulging like something was trying to escape.

Then, as veins of pure black started appearing all over its' body like wriggling worms and it began convulsing, the creature screamed. Screamed and wailed in agony as its' body was torn apart from the inside with hideous cracks and squelches. Its' gurgling cries of pain were a bit too...... human, for Heather's taste.

The creature thrashed and threw itself around as if to somehow dislodge the curse from its' body. A futile attempt, Heather knew. Once the Claw was in its' target, the barbed and serrated shadows would spread through the body in seconds, ripping them apart from the inside out. After all, it's technically dark inside a body, ja?

The monster gave one last roar before the tendrils exploded from its' body in a twirling, cyclonic mass of slicing shadow and death. It fell to the cold ground not as a single corpse but as a pile of rotted, emaciated chunks of torn flesh. What remained of the beast's head landed beside Heather with a wet thump, at least before she kicked it away with a sneer.

"Well, that's that." Heather said as a flash of black flew into her waiting hand, coalescing back into her normal, floral-patterned parasol. She then stumbled before catching herself, her skin even more pale than before. Looking down, the woman could see her gloved hand shaking ever-so-slightly and the cut on her side throbbed with pain to remind her of its' presence.

"Ah, right. Well, that shouldn't be too bad. Just need to take a breather, recover my energy. Right Rudy?" Heather called out, expecting another gruff reply or grunt. But instead, she was met with silence.

"Rudy?" The slightest hint of concern she'd deny having entered her voice.

Heather turned to where Rudy got sent through a wall, only to see that he still hadn't got up. Strange, he walked off getting thrown into that Five & Below just fine.

Jogging over to him, the Witch could see him laying still on his back with a layering of smashed brick over his body. His mask was still on, preventing her from seeing his eyes to check for a concussion. Not that she'd likely be able to understand any signs from them, Rudy's eyes were completely different from any race she's met.

Reaching down to his neck, Heather pressed a finger to the side of his windpipe. He had a pulse, thankfully but.....

"What the hell?" The trench coat-clad woman muttered with a furrowed brow, checking again to be sure.

Rudy's heartbeat was.... stuttering? Honestly, if he didn't seem otherwise completely fine, Heather would think he had arrythmia with the way his pulse felt. Almost like it was.... stacking onto itself, or doubled. Heather perked up.

Doubled.... that can't be right, can it?

A growl below her cut off Heather's musings, as Rudy picked himself up from the rubble, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. "That fucken hurt." The masked man reached down to recover his lost axe, the weapon folding back into its' smaller travel form. "Is it dead?"

Heather took a moment to reply as she got to her feet, still thinking about his pulse. "I- yes, it's dead. Had to bust out a bigger spell, though. Are... you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks for checking though." Was all the redheaded man said, his mask retracting back into the implants behind his ears with soft whirrs and clicks. Rudy walked over to the pile of chunks that used to be the monster, arms crossed. He violently twitched as the stench hit him, disgusting in a way that was hard to describe.

A small scowl was on his face as Heather came to stand beside him.

"I asked you not to mangle it." Inhuman green eyes stared at her in what she recognized as mild irritation. "That's pretty mangled. Nasty shit, honestly."

"Yes well, I did say I made no promises. Forgive me if I prioritized our safety over an investigation." Heather's tone was the tiniest bit defensive, despite herself. Of course she still gets remarks of how 'nasty' or 'gross' her magic was, as if she didn't know that already.

"Nah, you made the right call. Just a bit annoyed, can't get info for shit out of this."

The two Hunters stood in somewhat awkward silence as the sound of sirens approached the street.

"Do you have two hearts?" Heather blurted out, her curiosity getting the better of her. Almost immediately after, she blushed slightly at the look Rudy gave her, "Sorry, sorry. I just noticed that your pulse was weird so..."

The green-eyed man glared at her for a moment before rolling his eyes, "Yes, I have a secondary heart. It kicks in for fights and yes, I'm aware of how it makes me look like I have arrythmia. Felix gave me shit for it constantly, the asshole."

"Huh..... would it be rude if I asked why you have a second heart?"

Rudy twitched and gave her a glare, a real glare. "Yes."

"Right, I'll keep that in mind then." Though Heather did put that little tidbit in her mental list of things about Rudy. Incredible physical prowess, inhuman biology, extreme aversion to specifically white rooms..... oh, this better not be what I think this is.

And she was going to assume 'Felix' was that ginger fellow from the photo on Rudy's desk, the one next to the Construct.

"Goodness, what a start to the day." Heather chuckled, before turning to her partner. "Hold still, will you?"

Rudy suspiciously complied and with a crisp snap of her fingers, the nearly several liters of tar-like blood covering him and his clothes flaked off and dissolved. "Huh. Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I figured you probably spend enough on laundry as it is, so consider this a favor."

"A favor from a Witch? That isn't concerning at all."

He meant it as a joke and Heather knew that, but she really wished people would stop making remarks like that....

"Thanks though, seriously. You carried your weight. Honestly, you did more than me here."

"... Danke."

As police vehicles entered the street with wailing sirens and flashing lights, Heather idly thought that maybe she'd actually enjoy Derry. Though she got the feeling that things might be getting..... loud soon.

Screams. Unfiltered, bloodcurdling screams of utter agony rang out in a stark white room, floor tiles stained red with blood. Oppressively bright lights beamed down like the angry glare of the sun.

At a metal operating table, a petite woman hummed a tune to herself. Her blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail - making room for long, rounded ears - and her bright blue eyes sparkled with passion as she worked.

The woman was covered head-to-toe in short, sandy fur that was dotted with black spots and she sported an elongated feline snout. A long, thin tail poked out from her white lab coat, gently swaying to the beat of her humming.

Currently, the feline woman was elbow-deep in a man's guts, digging through his innards like a child in a sandpit. No painkillers obviously, she was gauging the pain response to see how this particular subject would respond to.... further testing.

A door smoothly opened behind the woman, before a tall bulky silhouette walked into the room.

"Oh? They're done already?" The cat-woman said, pulling her bloodstained hands from her subject's bowels and turning to look at her visitor.

"Yeah." A gravely male voice answered, "The Witch got it, used some kinda death curse. #15 performed well, but he was obviously restraining himself. Used a fucking axe of all things, the cheeky little bastard."

"Yes well, I suppose he's hit something of a rebellious streak, hasn't he?" The woman remarked with an easy-going smile, going back to her work as the screams renewed. They were ignored. "Did you get the combat data you needed?"

"Yeah, between this and the Tatzelwurm, he should be easy to deal with. The Witch might be a problem, but she won't be if we get #15 alone."

"Great to hear! Why don't you get your men ready, I'll be down in a minute."

"Got it."

As the man left, the feline woman smiled to herself as she rooted around in the subject's organs. "Looks like little #15's gonna be home again, soon. Oh, I should clean up the place. It gets dreadfully dirty around here."

The man screamed one last time before finally expiring, dead at the hands of an uncaring, merciless butcher that didn't even look at his face....

Chapter Text

When discussing the practice of monster hunting - or any profession relating to the myriad non-Sapient beings of our world - one can never speak of the subject for long without mention of a very important organization: the Supernatural Hunter-Killer Department, or SHKD for short.

Despite its' official founding in 1920, only two years after the end of the First World War, the concept of an organized group of monster hunters existed long before the SHKD formed. Ample evidence suggests that unified groups of monster hunters existed as far back as the 14th Century in medieval Europe and Asia. Stories of traveling Witch-hunters in France or Japanese Exorcists to name a few can be found in a multitude of places.

Now despite that, the SHKD was the first globally-operating and recognized organization dedicated to monster hunting and monster hunting only. It was founded by a small group of men and women who had devoted their lives to killing Beasts, Ectoplasms and Aberrants of all kinds, the legendary 'First Hunters'. After the war ended, they had invited every country they could reach to a summit, where they laid their case:

In return for resources, funding and aid from every nation present, they and those under their banner would hunt the monsters of the world without care for politics or other such restrictions. Whether it be rampaging Dragons or insidious Vampires, the newly-formed Supernatural Hunter-Killer Department would hunt them all the same in the name of the safety of Sapients everywhere. This is exemplified in one of the few recorded quotes from the group's apparent leader, a woman only referred to as 'Arty':

"We care not for your borders, or your national rivalries, or your biases. Such things are meaningless in the face of the monsters we fight. All we ask of you is support and the opportunity to someday rid this world of the threats to our people - ALL our people. One murderous devil at a time. We are the Sword that Saves. We are the Shield that Slays. We are the thing that every godless abomination whimpers of in its' dying breaths. And those that come after us will be as well."

Since then, the SHKD has blossomed into a world-spanning organization with Offices in just about every country on Earth. When a recruit enrolls in an SHKD Academy - typically at age 16-17 - they will spend 4 years or more being trained to fight all monsters known to the SHKD. The curriculum includes weapons training, instructors and tutors for any magically-inclined students, courses on how to survive in a Wyld and more.

Upon graduation, a fully-fledged Hunter will then be assigned to an Office. An Office is a base of operations for any SHKD Hunters within its' area, functioning as a sort of hybrid between a police precinct and an exterminator's office. The size of an Office's area of jurisdiction can vary depending on where it is and the size of the area. Sometimes a single Office manages an entire state since it's small and other times a state needs multiple Offices due to being very large.

An Office usually houses a few dozen to up to 50 or 70 members, which consist of administrative staff who handle paperwork and documentations, basic Hunters who do the lower-level cases and are usually first-responders to a job, Senior Hunters who are reserved for more dangerous cases and typically hunt alone or in small teams.

At the top of this totem pole is the Office Chief, who has authority and responsibility for every Hunter under them. 

As a side-effect of how the SHKD works, the Chief is also commonly the most skilled, experienced or otherwise dangerous Hunter in the whole Office. Not all the time, but enough that it is usually expected.

Now despite the organization's rather violent name and logo - a generically monstrous face being impaled with a sword - the SHKD doesn't actually default to lethal force when dealing with certain monsters. You see, some monsters are little more than magical animals and as such aren't truly malicious in the way a Vampire would be. They're simply being what they are. So in the event of a Beast causing trouble but not enough to get a kill order, it will be captured and released in an area far away from any people.

Similar exceptions are also made in the cases of ghosts who used to be Sapients, lingering spirits with unfinished business in the world of the living. If the ghost proves to be willing or able to negotiate, they will be peacefully exorcised or helped to pass on.

And of course, one cannot talk about the SHKD without mentioning the Right of Conquest law. A special privilege unique to the Hunters of the SHKD, the Right of Conquest states that upon the death of a monster, the Hunter who killed it - or the one who contributed most to the monsters' death, if the Hunters are in a group - now legally owns that monster's corpse and can do whatever they please with it.

Most Hunters typically make equipment, armor or weapons from their kills then sell what's left. Like a Dragon-scale cloak or a blade crafted with the pincer of a giant crab. The possibilities are practically endless.

The SHKD - by its' very design - is apolitical and has no real sway towards any one nation. Hunters are beholden to the laws of whatever country they're in - obviously - but otherwise the SHKD doesn't concern itself with inner or international politics. But in the event said politics concern a monster, like a Lich attempting a hostile takeover of a small country, the SHKD then immediately becomes the leading authority of the situation. No matter where they are, the Hunters are in charge in such a situation. If negotiations are in order, it is an SHKD representative who does the talking.

The Supernatural Hunter-Killer Department has a long and sordid history that'd be impossible to go through all at once here, but hopefully this short rundown is a good introduction to the men and women who keep us safe from the monsters outside our cities.

- Excerpt from 'A History on the Supernatural Hunter-Killer Department', by Geralt Riviam.