Futuristic An Agent of Maniacles

[mmarage]

The twins watched the others deal the final blows to the Queen... and couldn't help but wince as they were covered in pus-like blood of the queen. It smelled.... awful. They... definitely needed a shower, a very long and very hot shower. "Whew... we did it..." 01 breathed, hoping that the rest of the pests would be lost without their queen.

02 nodded. "Yeah... we should probably go and make sure everyone's alright..." He said, the two turned towards the remaining members. Their cheeks reddened as they realized that the two that had flown into the monster's mouth were now naked, and smoking. They turned their heads away. "Um... are you two alright there?" 02 called out, noting the smoke, they didn't know if they had been burnt, but if they had, they had some healing salve on them that should deal with it.

01 looked at the others. "Does anyone need any healing?" He called out. They felt... quite anxious. They hadn't really talked to anyone except for the researchers and scientists. They were even a little perplexed at why one of the men was laughing so hard.

 

[Darkling0096]

The bullshit-cycle touched down and the rotors turned back into wheels. Sam reached up with her remaining hand and clicked on her earpiece. "So, the company is paying for a new arm, right, Denton?"

Then she wiped goop off her face. "And a trip to the car wash." First old man brain and now Pest goo, she'd never get this out of her hair!

 

[Exzalia]

Owl hops off the vehicle gagging at being covered in so much slime. She had cried out in horror when she saw Kotsu fall into the maw and was relieved beyond words that he had made it out okay. As for his state of nature.

"Ewww Kotsu put something on!" Owl says shielding her eyes, as her hidden camera stealthily snaps a picture.

For research purposes only of course.

 

[Freikugel]

The creature exploded, sending Carmille's body flying away, it landed with violence on the ground, no different than a log or rock

Her body was a complete mess. To begin with, her black clothes were torn in several spots, both arms replaced by lumps of flesh, he chest sunk as her thorax was torn, she was missing half of one leg while the other bled profusely, her pair of wings torn into pieces leaving holes you could see through. She breathed heavily, still half conscious; she tried to move her head, but it was impossible, her neck was completely twisted, blood gushed from somewhere as one of her eyes become blind as it was tincted in red.

A human could not survive such wounds, a regular vampire neither... But Carmille's physiology was an anomaly even within vampire standards... She was alive, yet barely. Her wounds would close, it would take a large rest and enormous supply of bloods before she could even walk again.

Why did I did that.... Wondered as she looked at the crimson dark sky

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu laughed heartily until he heard Owl mention he was naked too and he looked down at his exposed parts and felt himself embarrassed, but he shook his head. Now wasn't the time for that. He jumped over to the odd twins. "You asked if anybody needs assistance, correct?" Kotsu said in a serious tone. "Come with me." Kotsu said, finding Carmille in the pile of blood and pus. "She needs help. A lot of help. She's a vampire like me, but she's been... Mangled. She needs a lot of blood, and she's gonna need a lot of rest. Do you have anything that could help her?" Kotsu asked. "Please. You have to help her. I don't know you both, but something, anything you can do, I'd appreciate more than anything." Kotsu said, getting on his knee and bowing his head past his knee in a show of respect and a desperate plea in one.

mmarage

 

[Darkling0096]

Sam chuckled and leaned back. She needed a shower, a nap, and a beer, in that order. And then Olivia was probably gonna kill her. "Anyone want a ride back to base?", she asked, "You can drive."

 

[Exzalia]

"Anyone want a ride back to base?", she asked, "You can drive."

"I might as well, I was already driving. Sam are you going to need help fixing back your arm? I could lend you a hand back at camp? Oh...god I'm sorry I wasn't trying to pun." Owl scratches the back of her head flushing slightly.

Darkling0096

 

[Darkling0096]

"Nah, this thing's beyond repair, I'll get my mechanic to build me a new one," Sam waved it off, chuckling, "Remind me to bring a gun next time."

 

[AbatedBigfoot]

Quentin was breathing hard after the monster exploded. With what he had left, he shouted and released the rest of his stored magic into the air. He dropped to one knee. His tattoo still glowing.

He stood back up and kinda chuckled to himself at the fact that him and kotsu were both naked. "Guess I burned our clothes off". I need a spring to wash myself he thought

 

[TheAdept]

The Queen lay dead; her viscera splattered all about the woods, road, and mercenaries. With no mother, the remaining Pests and Husks stood motionless, waiting for their bodies to rot away.

The mission was accomplished.

While the gunners were no more, the trucks were still available to travel back to camp. With the Pests incapacitated, the roads were relatively peaceful, though not very scenic. A few dead Pests and dismembered Husks lie right outside the camp, indicating that it had been attacked. The empty shells and fewer mercenary guards were very apparent.

Water coolers and tables with trays of cheesy egg and veggie scrambles stood under a tarp beside the main tent. There were no portable showers, unfortunately, but there were coolers with plenty of beer. Home sweet home (though it was temporary).

 

[mmarage]

The twins heard the naked man talk, and turned to face him. They both made it a point to look at his face and no lower than that. "R-Right!" They said in unison as they followed behind him. Their faces went pale as they saw the mangled body of the young woman. "A vampire...?" 01 asked, confused, before both of them just stared at the man, seeming dumbfounded by his question.

"Please get up, sir." 02 said, though they were both shaken by the sight, they knew that they had to help. "There's nothing to ask for, we're here to help in whatever capacity that we can." 01 said shortly afterward, both forcing themselves to give him reassuring smiles, despite the worry they felt. They managed to keep their voices firm as they knelt down next to the woman.

02 began to look at all of the various wounds on the woman's body, but clearly they'd have to deal with the arm wound first. 01 was already on it. He'd taken out his combat knife and was slicing a long strip of cloth from his shirt. It was covered in fluids, so it couldn't be used to clean the wound, but it could definitely be used to create a tourniquet. "Alright, miss, please stay with us, we're going to help you. Now, some of this may hurt, but just know it's necessary to stem the bleeding." 01 said. He gingerly grabbed the stump of an arm, and then began to firmly wrap the cloth around, pulling it taut and then tying it.

02 meanwhile was searching through his own pack. He pulled out a small roll of bandages. For now, he used it to clean his hands. He didn't want to infect the wound, if it hadn't been infected already. He grabbed his brother's knife and quickly sliced off the used, now soiled bandages, tossing them off to the side. He then pulled out a small tin, unscrewing it released a strong herbal scent to fill the air. He scooped his fingers into the salve inside. "Now, this... is probably definitely going to sting, but I need you to stay with me." He said as he reached out his hand and began to liberally slather the salve onto the open wound of the missing arm. It... did sting, at first, but it also began to numb the pain as the cream began doing its work, getting into the wound and beginning to help the blood to clot and scabs to form. It tried to help reform the flesh, but alas, the wound was just too severe for the cream to be effective.

While 02 began to apply the remaining salve to other wounds on the woman's body, which did thankfully help begin sealing them up, 01 pulled out a glass vial filled with a berry red liquid inside. He uncorked the bottle, and filled the air with the scent of berries. "Alright, now, I'm going to need you to drink this, it'll help heal both internal and external wounds. I know it's probably not going to do as much as blood would, but... at least the flavor's pleasant." He grinned nervously as he gently brought his arm under the vampire's head, helping tilt it up as he brought the vial up to her lips and slowly tilted the contents inside. It tasted much like the way it had smelled, like sweet berries. As the potion began to work its way through her system, it would begin helping with internal injuries, stemming off any internal bleeding, even some wounds that hadn't been covered by the salve were beginning to slowly knit back together.

02 had finally grabbed out his bandages once more and began to carefully wrap the stump of an arm up, making sure to completely cover the wound and allow the salve to remain touching it, its healing effects keeping the flow of blood at bay. "I... I think this is all we can do. She should be okay to transport, but she'll need to see a proper doctor and get a blood transfusion." He said as he began glancing around. "...We need something to transport her in... do you know if there's a vehicle nearby with a stretcher?" 02 asked as he looked over at Kotsu.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu pointed to the armored trucks across the new clearing from their battle. "They're still good to go. And as a matter of fact, one of those ugly creatures should have left behind an outfit or something between em all. But yeah, you're right. We should get gone back to base." Kotsu said. "Uh, you guys can drive. I've gotta take a nap, Kotsu said, picking up Carmille potato sack style and putting her into the back of the truck.

Kotsu looked around for clothes, and realized that there were none, much to his dismay. He returned to the twins, just confidently walking around naked because he just didn't think about it anymore. "Thanks for your help. I don't know much about you, but I'm hoping you join our rag tag group. You'd be one helluva addition. You gotta talk to me more when I'm not on the verge of collapsing." Kotsu walked over to Vivian's pest he killed and picked back up his sheathe and combat knife, strapping it to his bare thighs. "I'd kill one more ugly son of a bitch for a smoke right now. He said, climbing into the back of the truck, he placed Carmille on one bench and seated himself on the bench in the truck, and passed out quite quickly.

 

[Kinggunlucky]

Denton waited in his tent, listening to the sounds of cars shutting, the chattering of the tired and victorious A sense of pride swelled inside him. The mission had been fast, brutal, messy, and planned on the fly, but it had worked out. A lot of good came from the it going as well as it did. The Queen was dead, no secrets would get out, The Twins had been tested on the field, and the information...oh the sweet information. How members of the team reacted, how they talked, how they interacted with one another, the whole sha-bang. It would all be very useful .

Now, though, now came the fun part. They would want to see him, ask questions. A few anyway. There had been lies told, false promises made...well more like false senses of security put in place. He clasped his hand as he saw the tent start to open, putting on his best smile.

"Afternoon, Desk Jockey," Samantha said as she swatted the tent flap open with her mangled, detached prosthetic, covered in Queen goo with no visible cleanup effort except to only to wipe her face off. "I think we need to rediscuss my employment."

Denton stood, still smiling. "I've heard worse. You should be proud Ms. Adams. You performed quite well."

One second, the arm was in Sam's hand, the next it was flying at Denton's head. "You failed to mention we were dealing with Biollante's Lovecraftian cousin! You ordered the shooting of civilians we were supposed to 'rescue', and we had no team training!" She flopped down in one of the folding chairs. Cheap chairs easy to clean and replace, good thinking, considering this queen goo probably stained like Satan's response to bleach.

Denton fell on his back, pain exploding in his face and head. Thankfully pain was an old friend. A very terrible old friend. "Uhhh...bleeh. I...I...never said it was a rescue mission." He stared to rise. "I only said..f...find."

Sam laughed at that excuse. "So you just happen to work for the only people who take 'find the survivors' to mean 'murder everything that moves' and not 'rescue the survivors'?"

"I felt as though if I used more direct language...you would make the mission difficult." He didn't like doing this, pretending to be a snake. Oh he was a snake to be sure, but there were levels. "My way made it easier. You were disgusted yes, but you still stayed after I we talked it over. Your team will thank you."

If that was amusing or insulting, Sam stopped laughing. "If you tell your bitch to shoot someone I'm holding again, I will personally dismember you both. That wasn't cute, it was uncalled for, and I'm gonna be scraping it out of my legs for a month." She leaned forward in her chair. "So, you speak business, right? Since you apparently would rather keep people in the dark than get your hands dirty. Let's talk business."

"Morgan only acted as she was instructed. I only acted as I was instructed. It couldn't be helped. You should know a thing or two about how mechanical us people can be." Denton tried to hide his wimper of pain as he readjusted his jaw. "What kind of business is on your mind Ms. Adams?"

"I'd like to be removed as a formal employee of the company. If needless bloodshed is your cup of tea, I'd rather be an independent contract, with the same terms regarding anything I scrap together." Odds were, the contract she'd signed probably had some clause printed in .000001 font that not even god could read that prevented this, big corporations were like that, sometimes, but it was worth a shot.

"You can do that...or you can stay," Denton breathed. His mind raced with responses. Good ones came fairly fast. So he used them. "You really want to leave the fine people you worked with today? You want to leave them alone with me and Morgan? It could turn our bad for them without your continued support. You're hard to replaced. Okay, now maybe you don't care about them. What about other civilians? The people. This is only one incident. You're smart enough to know stuff like this happens fairly often. Now you know. You can stop it if you stay. Now that you know I'm willing to restructure the truth. Lastly..." Denton moved closer to her, placing his hands in his pocket. "Your body. We can fix you. Not just repair the damage done today, but make you whole again. What's did that ancient show used to say? We have the technology."

"Do I look like the Six Million Dollar Man? If you seriously had the tech to grow me new legs and an arm, then why did I spend 5 years in grafting surgery and therapy?" Sam looked like she wanted to punch him, but she was right handed and right now she had no right hand. "Besides, I have no intention of leaving, just an adjustment of my employment. I'd rather not be on formal payroll if today is a regular occurrence."

"I can't make guarantees about what will be regular and what won't," he said. "So if you don't want a formal payroll that is fine. I'd say lets shake on it, but I have a strange suspicion you don't trust what I say very much, eh?"

"Well, that and I'm right-handed." Sam wiggled the stump of exposed circuitry and mechanics on her right shoulder.

"I have your contact information for when I'll need you again. You'll be taken off the company payroll officially, I'll contact you when I need you," Denton. "If you refuse I'll send for you. Do you understand my meaning?"

Loud and clear," Sam nodded, picking up her broken prosthetic from where it bounced.

***

After Kotsu brought Carmille to the medical bay for rest and major blood infusions, Kotsu made his way, still naked to Denton's tent. He pushed his way into the flaps. "You, we need to have a talk. Now."

"I see..." Denton stood and began stripping off his clothes.

Kotsu cocked him an eyebrow. "Wait, what the hell are you doing? You know what, nevermind. First off we're talking about pay because what we just went through, all of us? That ain't it chief. My ribs JUST finished healing and you should go look at Carmille in the medical bay!" Kotsu said slamming his fist off Denton's desk without breaking it, which would be easy for him given his strength, but he wanted to get the point across for Denton.

Denton finished getting off his pants and underwear, then his shirt next, followed by socks and shoes. "You barge in here naked. I figure the least I can do is make it less awkward for the both of us." The desk shook. "You'll be paid, quite well in fact. Camille is resilient, and an asset to Maniacles. We won't be letting her die. Is that all?"

"Graves for everyone. And," Kotsu stopped, staring at his exposed manhood and grabbed the closest chair nearby to cover himself. "Don't stare at me, dammit! That's hella weird!" Kotsu said, embarrassed, his cheeks getting a bit red. "Anyway! I lost my damn clothes when the Queen exploded and Quentin burned our clothes off. Which reminds me, me and Quentin need clothes too. And I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me that those people were infected." Kotsu said sternly, staring into Denton's eyes.

"I've already made the proper arrangements regarding the graves. John and Eddie's bodies are being returned to their families. You'll find changes of clothes in the gunner trucks." Denton looked Kotsu in his eyes. "As for the people. I lied about that. They weren't infected at all. They were loose ends. You won't do anything about it, though." He grinned.

Kotsu's stare grew cold, and his demeanor soured. Compared to his usual friendly and calm self toward Denton, it grew distant. "You really think I'm gonna let that shit fly? Unless you bite a bullet in the next couple of years, I'm going to out rank you one day. I don't care how long it takes. I'm coming for you. I want you to know that."

"You won't be do anything,," Denton replied. "I mean lets be honest Kotsu, what will you do? I've already told HQ what might happen when you found out the truth about what happened with the civilians. I decided to just tell you now. I respect a man with morals, but morals have a habit of making men predictable. You kill or hurt me, guess what? Maniacles comes for you, they come for Camille, they come for Aria. Hell, I think they would even make trouble for the members of our little group that aren't vampires." He spread out his hands. "I'll probably be long dead by the time you find an opening."

... You... You don't even want to be doing this, do you?" Kotsu said. "You'll be dead huh?" Kotsu chuckled. "So, you wanna fight back too. And probably have."

"I meant of old age Kotsu," Denton said. "I'll do what I must until then. Now I think you will be seeing things more my way. You care about people quite deeply. People can be beat, broken, and killed. So what you will do now...is walk out the door, I'll get dressed, and you'll keep being the good attack dog that vampire curse made you into."

Kotsu smiled widely. " 'For every person you kill, I'll save another 5.' to loosely translate Izanagi to Izanami, Captain. If you don't know shit about Persona, look it up. You're just lucky I need these resources for now. I expect to see a fucking memorial and graves. Out of my pay or not." Kotsu said, walking out the tent.

***

Owl had fallen asleep on the ride home, and then when she got to her tent had slept even more. Eventually how ever she awoke feeling refreshed and got to work.

All of what she recorded on there first mission she uploads to he hyper encrypted laptop, from the gathering of the mercenaries, to the massacre at the church, to the battle with the queen. The data is compiled and stored in hidden folders. She would not expose the Mainiacles yet, but this was a damn good start. Certainly she had enough evidence to have several international agencies launch investigations.

But no, not yet, she would not leak this data yet. Not until she had plundered all their secrets an exposed their corruption so thoroughly no investigation would be needed. She would utterly destroy them, and for that she needed more secrets.

Denton was her next target.

She arrives at his tent and taps on his mesh. "Commander Denton? It's owl I would like a word."

Denton sat at the desk, a romantic novel opened in front of him, holding an ice pack on his swollen and bruised cheek. He smiled at Owl, showing white teeth. "Didn't I say to forget those silly titles. You can just call me Denton. It's no big deal."

Owl blinks staring at him. "Wow, did Samantha actually punch you?" owl chokes bacl a laugh as she walks into his tent.

Denton shrugged, chuckling at Owl's reaction. "Kind of, I can't say it wasn't deserved. I had it coming. You did very well in keeping the team focused and everyone together. I'm impressed."

"Thankyou sir. It was a close mission too close. May I sit?"

"Go right ahead," Denton said, closing his book, turning to face her, and his free hand dropping to his side. "I'm guessing you have a few questions? Sorry by the way about that. I tried to offer all the help I could from here, but HQ didn't leave me with the best resources in the world. They'll be very impressed we all managed to get the job done, though."

Owl sits and folds her legs buiness like. "yes firstly those civilians, I still don't understand why we were ordered to kill them. I was lead to believe this was a rescue operation. Is the killing of unarmed civilians something the Mainiacles do often?"

"I said find," Denton replied. "I never said rescue. Funny how the little words choices can make us think different things, huh?" He let out a sad laugh. "Maniacles does what they feel needs to be done Owl. The Pests haven't been a problem in years. Maniacles and a few allies wiped them all out years ago. They are no longer a threat to the general public."

Owl frowns and is visibly agitated by his words."Good answer accept you completely ignored my question. Why, did we kill those civs? Were they infected?"

"Did I?" He asked. "Pay attention. Maniacles will do what Maniacles does. The Queen is dead and because she is dead there won't be any repeat incidents of what went on today. Take pride in that fact."

She sits back, puzzled. "Are you talking to me in riddles sir? Or is just a round about way of saying have faith in the Mainiacles?"

Denton blinked. "No, I'm not saying that. The only thing you should ever really have faith in is yourself. At the end of the day we're all just cogs in a machine. I just more fun in this so called machine then the other cogs. What will you be? A cog that has fun or one that just goes through the motions." He leaned back. "Or maybe you want to dismantle it, huh? Change the machine."

"It's a nice thought but history has shown me the futility of revolutions." Denton wasn't giving her a straight answer, this was getting no where. She stands. "I can deal with unsavory orders Denton, but I would advice you are careful around Kotsu and Samantha, they are better people than both of us. And will not abide injustice at your hands."

She extends a hand. "Thank you for your time."

Denton stared at her hand. "Tempting. I wonder what you would see. I'm curious myself." His free hand came back up, revealing a gun. He set it on the table. "Owl, I'll tell you this only once. Not as a favor, not as an order. A warning. Don't ever touch me without my permission. Mages, by and large, are still human. It wouldn't take much. A bullet through your head would do the trick. Feel free to continue on with the others, though."

Owl stares at the gun blinking in shock, then she regains her composure. He knew? How much did he know? Did he simply know how her abilities worked? Or did he know what her goal was as well. She calms her racing heart and her frayed nerves, he wasn't killing her, he could so he valued her. Or perhaps had not yet fully realized how dangerous she was, how much damage she could do. How much did he know? How long?

"How did you know?" She asks calmly.

"I'm a mage too," he said. "I don't have your incredible insight, no. I do however have a good eye and go ears. My magecraft allows me to have hidden eyes anywhere I wish. I'm not completely sure on the nature of what you were doing, but touch came up quite often. Don't worry, though. We'll keep it between us."

"Interesting so basically, your spying on us? In our tents? In the shower?" Owl fakes a humorous grin.

"Ew, really? You think I'm that bad." Denton snorted. "I'm cool. I don't spy for sexual pleasure. I mean you're pretty, but I'm sort of married-ish."

Owl smirks then shrugs. "Well I must say I'm disappointed I can't touch you. But I suppose it would be unwise to pry too deep just to satisfy my curiosity. So as long as you give me a nice fat paycheck, I'll just have to live with it."

 

[mmarage]

The twins listened to Kotsu and then their eyes widened as he suddenly picked up Carmille like a bag of potatoes. That... was exactly what they were hoping to avoid when they said get a stretcher. But... their panic only increased more as Kotsu said that they would be the ones driving. They looked at each other as Kotsu left to go find clothes and put Carmille into the truck. "What do we do? I don't know how to drive! Do you?" 01 asked his brother, clearly freaking out.

02 quickly shook his head. "N-No, not a clue! I don't think that he knew how to drive either!" He whispered urgently. He wracked his brains for any memories of driving, but nothing came to him. By the look on his brother's face, nothing was coming to him. "Well we can't exactly wait here for someone else to do it! She's in critical condition!" He finally said, just as Kotsu walked back up to the two.

01 nodded at his words. "Oh, well... Mr. Denton had us assigned to this group as additional support. I'm sure with our successful test on the field we'll continue to be assisting you all." He said. The two got up and followed after Kotsu, their faces slightly red as they avoided looking at the naked vampire. They had a lot of questions for him... but knew that he needed his rest as well. I'm sure all of them did. Even with their short incursion in the battlefield, the twins' bodies felt worn and tired.

The two got into the truck and looked at the pedals, steering wheel, and the stick shift as nearly completely foreign objects. "Umm... I think that we... twist this thing here..." 01 mumbled as he twisted the key in the ignition, letting out a sigh of relief as the truck roared to life. "A-Alright, so far so good... umm... then... I think we do something with the stick thing here!" He said as he began studying it. His brother looked clearly worried as they began fumbling with it. However, they couldn't figure out how to actually get it to move, it seemed stuck. He began to experiment with the pedals as he tried to move the stick. Eventually he figured out the one on the far left seemed to unlock it.

Soon enough, they figured out how to put it in reverse. "Okay, okay, we can do this. Now... um... which one of these is the gas...?" He mumbled as he began to slowly press down on the pedals. He let out a squeak of surprise as the truck lurched backwards and immediately hit another pedal causing them to jolt forward as they stopped.

"B-Be careful! Y-You could launch them out of their seats!" 02 scolded, seeming to be on the edge of his seat. Their only saving grace was that the only other people on the road would be heading towards their base camp. It was almost the perfect way to learn how to drive... if only they had someone that actually knew how to drive. "Just um... l-light taps with the break!" He said.

01 nodded and soon enough he slowly backed up onto the road, and after several messy attempts to actually right themselves with the road, he struggled to figure out which one put it in drive. He had no clue what all of the numbers on the stick meant. Eventually he put it at '1' since that seemed to make the most sense and squeaked as they finally began driving down the road, but he did quickly become confused when he realized that he was only going a certain speed and the rest of the trucks were beginning to move a lot faster than they were. "Ah... w-what am I doing wrong...?" He asked, clearly confused.

02 looked between him and the rest of the trucks moving in front of them. "Um... maybe... ummm... you have to put it up to '2' now...?" He asked, feeling just as confused as his brother, and still felt like at any moment this could all go wrong.

01 began to switch over to the next number up... and ended up stalling the truck. "...Oh dang it..." He mumbled as the truck stopped. "Did... did I break it...?" He asked, seeming hopeless for a moment, before managing to start the truck up once again. He ended up causing it to stall at least four more times before he finally got the hang of it and began to drive after the other trucks which had now gotten several miles ahead of them.

After they'd stalling the truck several more times throughout the trip, a messy parking job, and a near collision with another truck, they eventually made it back to base camp and rushed off to go get some help for Carmille. The twins swore to one another they would never drive ever again.

 

[GamerCarrot]

By the time Vivian had dealt with the pest that was attacking her, with the help of some others she had looked up only to see the queen had been dealt with. Pushing her hair out of her face and nudging the fallen pest she grabbed her gun that had fallen into the dirt and was now covered in dust, wiping it off she placed it back in its holster and wiped the dirt off of herself. She felt a little bad that she couldn't help defeat the queen but then again she was busy handling a pest that could've killed her or infected her if she wasn't careful. She moved her hand over her neck to see if she was accidentally cut whilst being attacked but thankfully she couldn't feel or see anything on her body. Since the battle was now over she sat down near a tent and decided to relax in the mean time, playing with her gun to make sure it was still in working order since it was covered in dirt earlier.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

Aria​

While the humans got all those cheesy eggs and beers, Aria stared down at the vampires' share of food. A box filled with medical blood packs and another smaller box. She ignored the packs and only picked up the smaller box. Inside it were several fat wriggling leeches stuffed next to each other. Looks like the cafetaria lady finally got used to Aria's habit of not drinking human blood.

She was thinking that maybe she should share some of her snacks with the other vampires. They looked pretty beaten up after the mission, especially Carmille. She passed Danton's tent along the way and found Kotsu just walked out of it, still naked.

"Kotsu," Aria grabbed one of her leech and showed it to Kotsu. She intended to share one of it but Kotsu's nakedness distracted her to one particular place that she rarely see.

"Mine is bigger." She was comparing Kotsu's sceptre to the leech.

KotaKotsu

 

[Darkling0096]

"There's gotta be a river around here somewhere," Sam muttered as she plucked a bottle from the cooler, then realized she didn't exactly know how to pop the cap with one hand. "Shit." Well, in movies, people opened bottles by tapping then against the table ledge. Line it up, bring it down... it shattered.

Looking around to see if anyone saw, Sam hurried into a tent to clean out her legs.

 

[Exzalia]

Samantha was in her tent on her bed scraping goo out of her machine leg when she hears a knock at the door.

"Who is it?"

"You're chauffeur ." Owl says with a chuckle. "have a minute?"

"Come in."

Owl enters Samantha's tent and walks over to her. "Hey, we made a pretty good team back there, how are you holding up?"

Sam wiggled the mechanical stump of her right arm. "Right handed and if my mechanic finds out I let goo get under the bio-muscle plates and the mechanics rusted, she'll kill me." She shuddered. "I'll never understand how someone with no military background can overpower a soldier so easily."

"You're mechanic is here? In this camp?" owl ask politely studying the design of Sams bio metal.

Sam chuckled, "No, she's probably in LA right now. She works for a big lab, she does good work but she swears she'll never make augments, not that I'm complaining."

"Interesting I'm some what a mechanic my self." Owl pauses, she remembers Denton saying he had eyes everywhere he could be listening to them.

"I didn't come here just to make small talk there is something important I have to share with you but I fear the walls may have ears, could you give me your hand?"

Sam looked confused as she set the screwdriver down and put her leg back on. "Uh, okay?" she put her hand out.

Samantha fell, or at least she felt like she was falling. The room had went dark and a blue magic had plunged her. When she lands she's back at the little church, but this time the little family that was slain was alive standing outside speaking with each other amiably.

"Don't panic."

Sam spins, it's Owl her curly hair was loose and free and she was garbed in a glowing yellow summer dress. "We're in my memory, I've altered it a bit to make it less, depressing. It's like telepathy accept instead of just hearing a voice you are seeing ones mind."

"Like a Vulcan mind-meld...", Sam marveled, "Is that why I can feel my feet?" Mechanical limbs had no nerves, that was a problem of all prosthetics. You never knew something was wrong until the damage becomes visible or affected performance.

"Yes." owls says happily. "And more." She snaps her fingers and suddenly, Samantha had wings, wings she could feel.

Owl snaps again creating her own wings. "Fly with me and listen well." she says rising into the air.

The two float away like butterflies. Owl give Samantha a few moments to enjoy the sensation before she begins to speak of darker things.

"Samantha, I am a spy sent to infiltrate the Mainiacles, my organization has reason to believe they are up to no good and I have evidence that they're intention are not pure. Look down there." Owl points to the civilians at the church, briefly she allows the memory to take it's true form, Morgan appears gun in hand, shooting them dead were they stood their screams ringing out to no avial.

"they were not infected, I know I could see into them there was no reason to kill them, and Denton refuses to exsplain to me why he ordered their murder. And I have seen the memories of our second in command Morgan. It involved a man, and a spell designed to destroy everything. I'm still trying ti figure out exactly what they are planning, they can't be trusted."

She turns to Samantha. "But I need allies I saw your extreme reaction to the civilians deaths. You feel as i do, that it was wrong?"

Now it was Sam's turn to tell a story. 'When I was a soldier, civilian casualties were a last resort. You only shot a civilian if you had absolutely no choice or they were a threat. Most of the time it was on accident, misidentifying who the enemy was, or they ran into the crossfire, were out of our peripheral and the tank tread crushed them. You just don't shoot civilians if you can help it." Samantha sighed heavily. "All I ever wanted was to serve my country, and look where it lead me; building random shit for a bunch of murderers."

"I'll tell you what I told Kotsu, you want to help people? become a doctor. Or...you can help me." owl stops them midair, they were hovering over Owls home village, the kids were playing outside just like when she was with Kotsu

"Everything that happened I recorded, I'm building a binder of evidence against the Mainiacles that once completed will likely shut them down for good. But fear Denton is on to me and the evidence I have collected maybe destroyed. I need a fail safe so I'm asking, would you be willing to keep a back up file on you? I could down load it into your arm once it's repaired, no one would know."

"My spinal graft would be better for that," Sam replied, "Short of pulling Predator and ripping my spine out, they wouldn't be able to access it." She didn't have the tools to do any better. Her drones had too many places with backups, and an arm was easy to destroy, as demonstrated when Quentin burned the circuitry so badly it just snapped off. "We could probably sync my drones for the same purpose. They're always streaming to my headset unless their batteries are dead.'

Owl claps her hands and beams. "So you'll help!? " The sky seems to lighten at owls change in mood.

"As long as I can avoid detection," Sam replied, "I won't rat, but if I'm caught I have to destroy my copy."

"Of-of course. Oh I'm so relieved. Thank you." Owl gives her a hug, and the memory fades.

They were back in the tent, Owl wakes up first and realizes to her horror that she was hugging Samantha in real life. She releases her hold and stands up trying to act dignified. "Ahem, sorry, I got carried away. Um, if that's all I guess I'll be seeing you?"

Sam smiled. Owl could be adorable when she was embarrassed. "Probably best to meet in lala land most of the time, that way they can't listen in."

"Your just saying that cause you want wings again." Owl says teasingly. "But sure, Lala land it is."

 

[AbatedBigfoot]

When they arrived back at the camp, Q's ass cheeks melted into the seat leaving a perfect implant of his bodacious booty. He hopped off the truck and gathered himself some veggies, walked away from everyone else and sat on his knees and began to munch. "I really need to find some clothes" he said as he sat down. He managed to start a fire out of nothing because that's how magic works. "this will keep me warm until I do".

 

[Freikugel]

A few hours after the Queen was slayed and the mercenaries returned....

A large truck arrived at an abandoned church, it delivered a large black case.
A few minutes later inside the church, or more likely inside the true building behind the facade, a mix of a laboratory and a surgeon facility.
Several men wearing hermetic white suits surrounded the black case.

"Why a church?.... I thought Vampires were unnafected by religious symbology" Inquired one of the man
"Oh, you must be new.... Yeah, you're correct, religious symbology has no effect on a vampire, however... their mind do. Centuries ago, that was the concept or more likely the misconception, yet people believed on it fiercely, and that belief stood even after being turned into vampires. While not a physical impediment, it works as a psychological one for these vampires who strongly believe on it. They feel uncomfortable, and that's enough to underperform, which they subsequently blames to the presence of a religious factor. This specimen in particular has certain disaffinity which would made it act slightly less effective if it were to .... attack us"

The new man nodded, taking assertion of what his superior stated.

"Allright let's open the case" Ordered. A couple of white man opened the case side by side revealing a short figure wrapped in white sheets.
The man who seemed to be the boss in this operation, started a recorder machine.

"Ok let's call this... Reconstructing the specimen NV-0445, field name Carmille, day 1. Remove the sheet please"
Wearing the appropiate surgery equipment, they removed the sheets revealing Carmille's destroyed body. A dialogue of the surgeons led by their boss followed

"Gosh, the damage was real serious. All this done by a Queen?"
"Not only the Queen, a few of the infected ones also inflicted a large amount of damage, this proves the specimen ineffective in combat against strongest samples of the pest. In short a failed test."

"Let's see, what caused the failure"

"On first place, Carmille arrived the battlefield with only a 70% of her blood; as you already know, the blood is essential to maintain its vital function, movement, actions and deploying heavy close combat arsenal. This was a miscalculation, letting the creature with restricted freedom made it careless, because of this, the specimen carried roughly 74.6 lts of blood instead of the expected 113.4 lts, this limited her options heavily. On second place, she was reckless, Carmille acted without measuring her actions, deploying large amounts of blood into miscalculated an uneffective attacks and also putting herself into danger. On third place, her will made her.... wild and unpredictable, she opposed the operative's command and entered into conflict with some of her comrades"

"The question is, how do we overcome these barriers?"

"Let's begin by analyzing her body's structure, the specimen's true form is that of a rudimentary nervous sytem composed by a brain and a spinal cord, it functions by molding large amounts of blood into the several tissues that composes her body structure, more likely the one she is familiarized with in her own mind. It esentially don't need bones or flesh as the blood supplies these structures by changing its hardness and density, however the first thing the brain creates are both a small heart and a single small lung, this to allow the pump of blood and carry enough oxygen for it to feed the tissues, the same oxygen she uses to morph the structure of the cells. In simple terms, while alive she is functionless without blood, and while carrying a very low supply of blood, her body focuses only on keeping the heart and lungs functioning properly. The solution is simple, we have to increase and optimize the amount of blood her body can carry."

"What about her reckless action. Maybe we should decrease her pain tolerance, that way she won't risk her body"

"That would made her ineficient at combat, for a tool deployed to eliminate the pest, losing a limb should be a tolerable pain. She could continue fighting even after being damaged. I propose we keep her high pain tolerance"

"Last part, her negative behaviour?"

"It was triggered by the command imprinted on her mind; - can't bring harm to anyone related to Maniacles, shall this be detrimental for the mission -. Her will.... rejects this command, this made her rebel at their superiors yet found herself unnable to attack them. Also, because of this command is that she approached the skills of the other vampire, Kotsu, to help exterminate the Queen."

"Other vampires seems to bring inestability to her mind. Shall we rewrite her configuration"

The senior closed his eyes and sighed.

"The specimen is not human to begin with, is not as easy as editing a human brain, by decomposing and reconfiguring her cell brains we may turn her uneffective as a weapon. That option is denied. Working with her body is already a challenge and our superiors at Maniacles demand an effective weapon against the pest, they're not happy with the failure"

"How long will it take to repair her body?"

"Roughly a week, however if we want to upgrade the specimen, it will take us several months"
....
"All right, with all matters discussed, let's begin with the intervention, decompose the specimen's structure and remove the brain and spinal cord"

Several tubes were connected to the case injecting a fluid which begun to dissolve Carmille's body, the flesh convulsed violent.... As if it were to be in an acute, sharp, undescriptable pain...
The process took several days, weeks... and months

 

[Kinggunlucky]

Three Months Later

Monday

New York

Denton Fisher sat up from his bed, eyes wide and moving in every direction, adjusting to the darkness of his bedroom. Fast and uneasy breaths escaping him. The man’s chest burned, throat hurt, and going back to sleep became a distant and unreachable goal. Ah well, not the first time a few bad dreams had woken him up. He moved his tongue around his mouth, tasting the dryness of sleep. Cold sweat sweat covered Denton, he could feel it, working it's way down his neck, back, off his brow.

He shivered.

Nightmares were part of the life. They attacked without pity or remorse, bombarding him with the faces and sounds of the death.

He looked over to the other side of the bed. A sense of relief spread through him, taking away the nerves, and allowing him to breath freely. His girls. Isabelle lay in the the center, her small frame curled into a ball, her long midnight colored hair covering, some of it caught in her closed lips. Denton gently moved the hair out of her hair face. And boy what a great face it was. He could stare it for hours and not get bored. She looked so much like her mother. The nose, the eyes, Kid was tuckered out. Denton couldn't blame her. He'd tangled with vampires, goblins, ghosts, giant bugs, mages, all manner of creature really, but in terms of energy none could match a three year old girl. He smiled. Morgan's, who was asleep beside Isabelle, had her arm draped across the little girl.

Denton kissed them both, rose out of bed, cracked his back, and went into the kitchen. The clock read 4:00 AM. Good. It meant there was time, time to get everything in order.

Working at Maniacles and living among the supernatural means you're going to be partial to a lot of skills that the general public isn't. Denton could do it all, or damn close, manipulation, interrogation, exorcism, stealth, bride monsters. The list went on and on. What they didn't teach was how to make a damn good breakfast. He'd taught himself that one.

He liked the classics. So eggs, bacon, and french toast it was.

Morgan came sauntering down the hallway an hour later, Isabelle padding behind.

"Morning." Denton placed a gentle kiss on Morgan's cheek.

She groaned waving him off, but smiling.

Denton scooped Isabelle up. He set her on the counter. She wiped her tired eyes.

"Hungry kiddo"

Isabelle,put on a fairly intense and cute thinking face for a moment and nodded. She pointed behind her father, tiny finger locked on the french toast. "I want toast," she said.

"You want toast?" Denton smiled.

She returned it. "Yeah."

"You got it."

"Sleep well babe?" Denton asked Morgan as he started fixing the meal into small portions for Isabelle.

"Pretty good," Morgan said. "You had trouble again?"

"No trouble," he replied. "It's not trouble if it doesn't effect me. Also, early to rise. It lets me do stuff like this. It's the little things ya know? Isabelle will remember Daddy cooking breakfast, right Isabelle?"

"Bwekfast." She nodded.

Tuesday

Deserted towns, vampire nests, cult compounds. Morgan had seen them all. Felt their creepiness, their overwhelming sorrow, and dread. How the places general vibe would have you constantly checking behind you. Nonetheless, The grocery store managed to top them all. The constant activity going every which way, how what she was looking for either always seemed to be out or moved to a different part of the store.

Morgan had been shopping now for thirty minutes, cart halfway full. Isabelle was in the child seat, fiddling with a piece of play-doh. She dropped it. Morgan picked it up and handed it back to her. They continued on their way.

She grabbed the usual stuff. Lobster, steak, and what not. Money wasn't really a problem. Not anymore. They did well. So why not eat well?

"Oh Morgan. Morgan is that you?"

Morgan turned around to see who called, her magical energy on the ready. It never hurt to be ready to defend yourself. She'd made enemies. The woman who had called her was their neighbor. One of them. Andrea Sinclair. Blonde curled hair, bright blue eyes, implants you could see from space, and a pair of lips which her and Denton frequently described as duck like. Morgan kept her magical energy raised.

"How you doing, hon?" Andrea asked.

"Pretty good," she replied. "Yourself?"

"I'm great! I just got back from my Pilates class."

"Platies." Isabelle dropped her play-doh.

"Oh yeah?" Morgan asked as she reached down pick it up.

"Oh yes. You gotta stay limber. Besides the most handsome Spaniard is teaching the name. His name is Esteban. I think he has a crush on me."

"Ah," Morgan replied.

Get to the point bitch, she thought. Crush? Seriously? You're like forty. And married.

Andrea got uncomfortably close. Isabelle shifted, already large eyes going wide, and dropped her play-doh. Morgan picked up again and gave it to her daughter, wishing very badly for this woman to take a hike.

"I'm thinking of maybe paying for private lessons."

Morgan stared at her. "I thought you like didn't like the Spanish?'

"I don't like Mexicans. The bad hombres at least. They make good maids, though." She gave Morgan a winning smile. She conversed for about two minutes longer. Morgan tuned most of it out, never much one for the joyous world of suburban gossip. Andrea started walking away.

Morgan, who never let her magical energy go, latched onto Andrea gently. Tapping into blood. Andrea was then 'pushed' by an invisible force into a display of Marmalade and jelly jars. CRASH, POW, SHATTER. Oops, Morgan thought. Damn she hadn't meant to hit Andrea that hard. The mage slowly pushed her cart up the nearest aisle, whistling.

"Yikes...I don't think Pilates is gonna fix that," Morgan said.

Isabelle dropped her play-doh.

Sunday

Denton stared at himself in the mirror, priming, adjusting his bow tie. They were the best type of neck wear for these sorts of occasions. Not that he found attending church to be the most important of social gatherings. Probably the least. A man should never pass on the chance to dress well, though. You'll note the coolest people in fiction tend to dress in suits on consistent basis. He heard the creaks of footsteps behind him and turned. It was Morgan wearing a floral sundress.

"You're ready?" She asked.

"I think so. Where's Isabelle?" Denton asked.

"She's with my mom in the car. This is stupid. We're not even religious."

Denton shrugged, walking close to Morgan, putting an arm around her waist. 'You're mother is, though. It makes her happy when we make the effort. Also, there are other children there. It's good for Isabelle to socialize."

Morgan nodded, pouting. "I don't want her socialize. You know what the problem is with other children?"

"What?'

"They grow up to be assholes," she said.

"True, we did," he replied.

Morgan laughed. "Come on, you're a good guy."

Denton frowned. Wrong. False. He didn't try to fight it. It was just a fact. He had done to much, hurt to many people to be considered anywhere close to a man of upstanding character. He was a man without honor. And that was alright. "No," he said. "We aren't good Morgan. We haven't ever been good, but we're trying."

She grasped his hand. "We are. For her."

"For her," he agreed. "I want her to know she doesn't have to be like us. She can be good. Be anything she wants."

Later that Sunday

Denton sat in his study, Isabelle on his lap. A picture book opened in front of them. They were reading 'There's a Monster At the End of the Book', well, Denton was reading it. Isabelle liked touching Grover's nose on each page, then giggling everytime Denton did his terrible Grover impression.

The door opened, Morgan walked in, expression grim, and phone in her hand. "It's HQ."

Denton frowned, holding out his hand. Morgan picked up Isabelle and the book. Both left the room.

"Hello?" Denton said.

"Agent Fisher," a man on the other end drawled. "How you doing, son?"

"Director Ward!" He smiled. You have to fake it to make. "What's up? We haven't heard from you in awhile."

"It's been busy here at HQ. A lot of hands on deck for the fighting we have been doing with Mr. Taylor."

"Is this about the Pest mission again?" Denton asked. "I can assure you the people we used performed above and beyond their call of duty. They saw it through to the end. I know my report said some were rather difficult, but there's no reason to think they - "

"It's not about that Agent Fisher. Not at all. In fact Maniacles has a contract. We want to deploy you and your unit. We'll also be making The Twins a permanent fixture in the team."

Interesting, Denton, thought. He wouldn't say no of course, couldn't say no. A new job. "More Pest control?"

Ward snorted. "Hardly son. We're being hired to handle a little problem for a man with a lot of sway You'll all be going to Passions Viineyard ."

Passion' Vineyard was a small Island in Massachusetts. Known mostly for wine, beautiful scenery, and being a hell of a tourist trap. Denton propped up his elbows, mind racing. "Who are we working for on this one?"

Ward sighed. "The island's mayor of course. Dionysus."

 

[KotaKotsu]

Aria​

While the humans got all those cheesy eggs and beers, Aria stared down at the vampires' share of food. A box filled with medical blood packs and another smaller box. She ignored the packs and only picked up the smaller box. Inside it were several fat wriggling leeches stuffed next to each other. Looks like the cafetaria lady finally got used to Aria's habit of not drinking human blood.

She was thinking that maybe she should share some of her snacks with the other vampires. They looked pretty beaten up after the mission, especially Carmille. She passed Danton's tent along the way and found Kotsu just walked out of it, still naked.

"Kotsu," Aria grabbed one of her leech and showed it to Kotsu. She intended to share one of it but Kotsu's nakedness distracted her to one particular place that she rarely see.

"Mine is bigger." She was comparing Kotsu's sceptre to the leech.

KotaKotsu

Kotsu shrugged. "They're actually about the same size and this is while it's soft- HEY WAIT A SECOND, WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP LOOKING?!" Kotsu covered himself blushing hard. "Fucking dammit, I need clothes." Kotsu took the leech, and chewed on it with gusto, enjoying the refreshing taste of the blood flow down his throat, reinvigorating him. "Thank you. Actually, come with me, Aria." Kotsu said, walking toward his tent.

As Kotsu entered his tent, he seen a fresh pair of clothes and combat armor ready for him, "Sweet baby Jesus this smells amazing." Kotsu said, putting on his clothes and armor, re-equipping his combat knife to his thigh against the armor. "Finally..." Kotsu said, sighing in relief.

When the months passed, Kotsu had been exercising, sparring with his friends in order to try and see what worked with which ally. He would exercise his body beyond his limits, sometimes straining his body by forcing himself to take hard hits from Carmille or even being hit by his own whips to build up resilience. At this time, he was sitting in the medic bay, tending to some soldiers who had been torn up by Pests and casualties alike. Kotsu was colder, more distant. And seemed to only light up when his crew was around, but would constantly give Morgan a death stare as well as Denton. When he got the call to come into the office, he came in without so much as a hello. "What the fuck do you want?" Kotsu said getting to the point. He was less polite lately, he showed his despise for the Maniacles. But Denton had him by the grapes only in regards to finding what gave him this curse. After that, his hands were washed.

 

[Darkling0096]

Samantha spent her off days working at an auto shop. Maniacles paid well enough that she could have sat on her ass for a few months between jobs doing nothing, but Sam didn't have the patience or ability to sleep that much. So she repaired vehicles. She rolled out from under the old Chevy she was restoring to hear her boss shout that she had a call.

"Yeah, Jack, I got it." Sam wiped some grease off her face and stood up. Jack was a fat old man, and more than a little touchy. He sometimes made comments on how helpless Sam would be without her cybernetics, which usually resulted in a painful reminder that a fist made of polymer can deliver just as painful a knuckle sandwich. He handed Sam the phone, staring a bit too long before she raised a wrench as if to hit him with it, which sent him running.

"Samantha Adams, who is this?" Sam groaned as she heard Denton's voice on the line. "Hey, boss. No, I'm not busy, just my day job. Massachusetts? That's two days away, if I don't sleep! Yeah, yeah, I know, I signed a contract. I'll be there in three days. Well, I'm not putting my bike through airport security! Fine! Two days. You're buying my caffeine tablets. I don't like the tast of coffee." She hung up and groaned. "God, he's annoying. Jack!"

A couple hours later, after showering packing a change of clothes and some toiletries, if another queen exploded she was not sitting in it for two days like that again, onto her bike and leaving a note for Olivia in the apartment, she was tearing down the highway towards the opposite end of the country.
----------------------------
Pulling up to the vinyeyard, exhausted but serviceable, she took off her helmet and popped another caffeine tablet.

 

[KotaKotsu]

Kotsu arrived at the vineyard, two suitcases in one hand each, a lit cigarette in his mouth, a fedora, sunglasses, and a black trenchcoat over his combat armor, he seen Sam from a distance and made his way over.
Just had to say grapes...
"Hey. Haven't seen you in a while." Kotsu said without the cigarette falling from his mouth, placing the bags down at his side to flick the ash and take a more casual stance.

 

[GamerCarrot]

After the battle had long passed Vivian returned to her apartment complex and continued to train for the last three months, getting better at hand to hand combat and even becoming more proficient in a handgun. The attack from the queen made Vivian think that she needed to be a lot stronger than she previously was, that little near death experience with the pest that pinned her down taught her a lot.

Vivian was at a gym, punching and kicking a punching bag with the help of an instructor when she got a call. Sighing she picked up her phone and answered "Vivian Willborn, who may I ask is calling?" She said as she took a sip of water out of her bottle, the voice told her she was placed on another mission one that took place in a vineyard. "Okay... I'll be there." She said as she hung up the phone. Since she didn't need to hurry in order to get there she went back to her training until she was done before heading to the airport in order to catch a flight to her next destination.