Magus_84
May 30, 2006, 12:47 AM
This is a fanfic I've been working on for a while. It ties in with Xaeris' stuff, and for all intents and purposes it can be assumed it's happening concurrently with his current stuff.
*As an administrative thing, from now on, italics generally mean a character is thinking, or speaking mind-to-mind with someone using telepathy. That will become important in the future.
**************
Part 1: Beginning
A flash of lightning split the humid night sky as a dim figure stumbled through the undergrowth. Each step was agony, the shattered bones in her foot sending a lance of pain shooting up her body. She’d ceased noticing the minor cuts and bruises a while back, but her foot still hurt like hell. At any other time, she’d not have been able to keep going, but the sheer surge of fear-soaked adrenaline kept her stumbling forward, slogging through puddles and pushing through branches that slapped and stung at her, desperately seeking distance from her pursuers.
Far behind her, she could still hear the faint tremors of Gourmand’s feet as he rushed after her, his massive frame making the ground shudder with each step he took. Squinting to see through the continually falling rain, she saw a break in the growth up ahead. A spark of hope raced through her as she quickened her pace, willing her battered form to move faster. The sparkling light of a sky full of stars lit her way as she raced to the clearing, only to stop short as she looked down over the massive cliff she was standing on. Through her fatigue-blurred vision, a swiftly moving river rushed past below her, swollen with rain. A jagged semicircle of rocks grinned up at her like a fanged mouth, jutting out of the water under the cliff. Her heart leapt into her throat as she gauged the distance from the cliff to the safety of the water below. There’s no way I can make that… Stopping to catch her breath, she checked the charge on the handgun she’d managed to steal. Though it was hard to tell in the darkness, the indicator seemed far below where it should be.
A soft thud from off to her left snapped her head up, all senses going on alert as her heart began to race. I hope that’s just the wildlife…. She whirled about, training her gun into the inky darkness, her hand shaking as the other arm hung limply at her side.
“Who’s there?” she shouted, her voice coming out as no more than a weak, raspy whisper. In response, a black-clad figure stood up, sweeping a curtain of dark brown hair back from his face with a snap of his head. Her shriek of alarm came out as no more than a choked cough, the gun bucking in her hand as the low buzzing sound of a photon bullet sped towards the figure. A pair of shining crystalline sabers appeared in his hands, the white blades humming with faint power as he effortlessly intercepted the bullet. Chuckling softly to himself, he began to slowly walk forward, holding the twin sabers in a negligent stance at his sides, their soft glow illuminating his form. A faint, cruel smile played across his lips, marring his otherwise handsome features.
“Hello Hikari. Arala’s not too happy about her little songbird escaping before she’d had her fun. And I’m sure the family of the guard you killed won’t be too happy. Then again, when did that ever matter to you…except when playing the moralistic fool got you what you wanted?” His voice was low and deep, with a certain oily quality to it that made one’s skin crawl.
“Killed…? But I didn’t…” Hikari whispered, shock showing on her face. The man laughed, a low chuckle laced with a sinister edge to it. “Well, Arala’s the one that telekinetically flayed him alive. But his negligence in stopping you from escaping earned him that particular pleasure. Still your fault, really.” He took another step forward, Hikari shrinking back from him, towards the cliff’s edge. Her voice trembled as she spoke again.
“I’m not going back, Marcus. I’d rather die first.” Hikari spat, her gun still trained on the man’s chest. At this, Marcus laughed again. “You really think that she’d be able to stop herself from killing you if you did go back? You’ve certainly done it this time. Though I must admit, some of it was rather entertaining to watch…” He lunged forward, grinning as Hikari stumbled back even further, a predatory smile on his face. “Look at you. Battered, broken, exhausted…do you think you could get away even if I intended to let you?”
Marcus pointed one of his sabers at her, illuminating a tattered purple uniform and bright red hair, both matted with mud and blood in various places. Her right arm hung limply at her side, a long gash streaked with an eerily glowing green toxin running from her shoulder to her elbow. He smiled again as he took in her current condition, gauging her weakness. “You weren’t exactly a looker in the first place, but now…you’ve really let yourself go. Ahahahaha!”
Grinning again, he began to step to the side, circling around her in an attempt to get between her and the cliff. Though her hand was trembling, she kept the gun pointed at him, inching closer to the looming edge of rock on her left side. A loud clang from off to her right made them both look up, as a massive red machine lurched into the clearing, toting a grey bazooka. Her hopes of escape rapidly sinking, Hikari snapped off two shots as Marcus’ attention turned to the arrival of his comrade. He sidestepped the first, though the second caught him in the left side of the face, making him cry out in pain.
“AUGH! You little *****! You shot me in the damned eye!” He dropped one saber, his hand flying up to the injured area as he let out another howl of pain. The new arrival lumbered forward, his massive bulk making the ground shake with every step. A rumbling synthesized voice echoed from his metallic head, the large horn looming over it all, adding a good half a meter to his height.
“Well Marcus, I see you’ve managed to mess this up too. Arala doesn’t want any mistakes.” He moved forward again, his footsteps shaking the cliff. Hikari spared him a quick glance, then went back to holding her gun on Marcus.
“Yes, you dolt. That’s why she sent me to clean up after you! Really Gourmand, how hard is it to catch an injured girl?” Marcus cast a quick Resta, soothing the long burn across his face. As the green sparkles dissipated, he picked up his other saber, settling into a more traditional guard position. His left eye, was swollen shut, but he didn’t seem worried in the least. Hikari stared back at him, her blue eyes burning with hatred. I don’t have enough ammo to finish them both off… Gripping the gun tighter, she pressed a control on the side, willing her technique ability to come back to her, fighting through the weakness.
“Arala sent you both after me? What’s the matter…she’s too good to do her own dirty work?” Hikari croaked, her vision switching back and forth between the two as she felt the gun begin to hum in her hand. Just a bit longer. Just a little bit longer. “We were promised a ‘bonus’ if we caught you. It’s a great incentive, actually.” Gourmand rumbled, hefting his bazooka.
“Additionally, we don’t really like you. That’s a bonus in and of itself.” Marcus quipped, glancing over at Gourmand. “Put that thing away, you oaf! We’re supposed to bring her back alive, not in flaming pieces.” Gourmand shrugged, recalling the NUG to its capsule. His massive fists would be more than enough to crush her, and Hikari knew it well, having seen it happen to others many times before. Steeling herself, she forced her way into a fully upright position, turning the gun to point at her chin. Her hand shook as she prepared to finish things, its trembling matching the shaking of her body. I don’t want to die here. I just may not have a choice.
“No bonus for you today, sorry.” Hikari smiled grimly, then pulled the trigger, being rewarded with a loud click. Her smile melted in a show of dismay as she stared at the gun. Now it’s armed…hopefully they fell for it. “Damn!” she croaked out, forcing herself to look disappointed.
“Looks like you’re out of options, Hikari. Give up and come with me quietly, and I may ask Arala to let me be the one to ‘interrogate’ you. I’m sure it’d be fun. For me, at least.” Marcus leered at her, stepping closer. Gourmand moved towards her as well, the vibrations from her footsteps making her unsteady. “Yes, give in. I have much better things to be doing.” Gourmand said, continuing his slow, measured walk to a point where he was triangulated between Marcus and Hikari. Maybe I can get rid of that gloating fleshbag too…
Marcus took a wide-legged stance, rocking back and forth on his heels. He could see Hikari was inching closer and closer to the ledge, and was ready to move to intercept her at the last second. He watched, gauging her movements as her left foot touched the edge. She staggered for a brief second before regaining her balance.
“This is the end, then. Goodbye.” Hikari smiled one last time, then turned and hurled the gun in her hand to a point in-between Gourmand and Marcus. Their heads turned just as it let out a high-pitched whine of energy. Marcus’s scream of rage was deafened by the resounding explosion that erupted from the overcharged handgun, a green blast of photonic energy echoing up from out of it. Hikari brought her broken right foot to the ledge, then laughed softly as she stepped out into space, letting her body go limp as the flash of energy consumed her two pursuers. The bright light shone through her closed eyelids as she felt her body moving faster and faster, accelerating towards the deadly impact of the river below.
This is it, then. The end.
************************************************** ***********
“This is it. The beginning of our path to greatness!” The young man said, shaking his sleepy roommate awake with one hand as he waved around two shining Section ID clips with the other. A slender figure with reddish-orange hair grunted softly, turning over and presenting his back to his roommate as he pulled the blankets around himself more firmly. “Mmmphffmmph”. He replied, steadfastly attempting to ignore the loud intruder’s very existence.
Not to be deterred, the young Hunter kept shaking his roommate, still speaking loudly. “Come on, wake up! We got our high-level ID clips today, we’re full-fledged Hunters now! Come on come on come on come on come on come on! Sage, get up already. It’s noon.” he yelled, beginning to pry the cocoon of blankets away from his sleeping roommate. Failing this, he grabbed one end and pulled, yanking both the cocoon of blankets and his sleeping roommate off the bed onto the floor.
“OW! What the hell was that for?!” The sleepy-eyed young man sighed, fumbling around blindly for a pair of glasses that were no longer on the table beside him. Rather, he was now mostly underneath the table. Grinning, his roommate grabbed the glasses and pressed them into his open hand, rocking back and forth in excitement. He waited a few moments for the world to come into focus, stepping back as Jonas Sage extricated himself from the blankets and slowly stood.
He was nearly a foot shorter than his dark-haired, tanned roommate, light-blue pajamas covering a slim, pale body. He brushed orange hair away from his face, letting out a yawn that seemed to nearly split his head in two. Wobbling for a moment, he reached out a hand behind him to steady himself on his bedside table. His vision finally coming into focus, he grinned sheepishly as he saw the two clips in his roommates’ hand.
“So, you picked up the IDs, Dante?” Sage asked, blinking and looking around the room as he began to wake up. “Yeah, went and got ‘em about an hour ago. You’re lucky I waited this long for you, lazy ass.” Dante grinned, punching his roommate lightly on the shoulder. With his other hand, he presented the small, circular clip emblazoned with the yellow emblem to his friend.
“I hate mornings.” Sage replied, sleepily taking the clip. “It’s not morning! It’s noon. Way, waaay past morning, even for you.” Dante said, turning and heading towards the door, loping along like an energetic puppy. He crossed through the apartment they shared to the living room, then pushed a pile of clothing off the couch, slumped onto it and put his feet on the coffee table. “Hurry up, I want to get going soon.” He began tossing the clip up and catching it, gazing around the cluttered living room.
“Morning begins when I get up. And this is far too early.” Sage grumbled to no one in particular. A few moments later, he stumbled to the bathroom, turned on the shower and practically fell in. Thirty minutes later, his second cup of coffee in hand and freshly showered, he was a bit more inclined to face the world. He finished dressing, throwing a beige and brown robe (that Dante frequently referred to as a dress) over pants and a shirt. He fastened his boots, then attached the clip to his robe and stepped out into the living room, finding Dante already changed into a black and red jumpsuit.
He gazed disdainfully at the clutter that had accumulated over the past few days, mentally identifying it all as his roommate’s. I wish he’d clean more often than just when he has some Huney coming over. Sage thought to himself as he entered the living room, finding Dante flipping through job listings on a small PDA. Each Hunter registered with the Guild was issued one of these when they joined, offering a way to track job listings and Guild Cards even when they were away from the Guild. By linking with the BEE system, it provided a powerful resource to both Hunters and the Guild.
“Here’s a cool one. Job for the lab, cleaning out an area of Gal Da Val island. Calling all experienced hunters. That’d be us!” Dante said, turning to look at Sage with a wide grin. “Gal Da Val island…that place with the man-eating monkeys, the deadly flowers and the leeches the size of my forearm?” Sage asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, sounds exciting, doesn’t it!” Dante laughed, bounding to his feet in one smooth motion. “Adventure, fame, fortune…and legions of adoring ladies. Why shouldn’t we do it?”
“Did you not hear any of the first part? I really don’t feel like being eaten by a monkey today, thanks. And I hate leeches…” Sage trailed off, sitting down on one arm of the couch. “Aw, is the widdle Fowce scawed of the big baadd monkeys?” Dante taunted, closing the PDA and placing it in a pocket of his vest. “It’ll be like any other mission we’ve ever done. You sit back, heal me and I’ll kill everything before it ever gets to you. I don’t get why you’re complaining, even. I do all the hard work.”
“Like that time you tried out your ‘Super Cool Berserker Attack’ on that group of Dimenians, and I had to haul you out of there? Or the time you tried to see if you could shock a Garanz before it could move? Or the time you tried arm-wrestling with that Hucast on a bet, and ended up with a broken arm and five pissed off droids after you? Or that time…” Sage said, glaring at his roommate.
“Ok, ok. So maybe I don’t always do all the work. But hey, at least I keep your life interesting, right? What’d you do without me?” Dante grinned again, stretching.
“Be sane, most likely. But the pay’s good on this, at least if you’re referring to that ‘Phantasmal World’ thing. Who comes up with this stuff, anyway?” He hit a few more keys on his PDA before locking the keypad and placing it in a pocket of his robe, then joined his roommate as Dante headed out the door. “Relax, it’ll be fun. Guild first, or bank first?”
“Bank. And…whenever you say something’s going to be ‘fun’, it always ends badly.” Sage replied, locking their door with a few key presses as Dante rushed along happily in front of him.
An hour later, the two were standing in front of a teleporter in the lab. They’d signed up at the Guild, flashed their ID clips at the bored-looking guard with a scanner, then been ushered back to a meeting with an obviously harried woman named Natasha. She gave them their orders, then waved them off with a distracted look on her face. As they entered the warp field, Dante nudged Sage. “Hey, she was kinda hot. If you ignore the hairstyle. Think I have a chance?”
“No, not really. She looks a bit out of your league. She’s actually wearing real pants.” Sage replied, chuckling.
“Hey, screw you. At least I date Newmen who are old enough to make their own decisions.” Dante shot back.
“It’s not my fault she looked so young. Newmen age weirdly. A lot of times it’s hard to tell…”
As the two continued arguing, a guard spoke to them, his voice rising slightly. “Hunters, if you please…have this argument on your mission, and not in the middle of the lab.”
The two entered the teleporter with the look of scolded children, remaining silent as they were warped to Gal Da Val.
*As an administrative thing, from now on, italics generally mean a character is thinking, or speaking mind-to-mind with someone using telepathy. That will become important in the future.
**************
Part 1: Beginning
A flash of lightning split the humid night sky as a dim figure stumbled through the undergrowth. Each step was agony, the shattered bones in her foot sending a lance of pain shooting up her body. She’d ceased noticing the minor cuts and bruises a while back, but her foot still hurt like hell. At any other time, she’d not have been able to keep going, but the sheer surge of fear-soaked adrenaline kept her stumbling forward, slogging through puddles and pushing through branches that slapped and stung at her, desperately seeking distance from her pursuers.
Far behind her, she could still hear the faint tremors of Gourmand’s feet as he rushed after her, his massive frame making the ground shudder with each step he took. Squinting to see through the continually falling rain, she saw a break in the growth up ahead. A spark of hope raced through her as she quickened her pace, willing her battered form to move faster. The sparkling light of a sky full of stars lit her way as she raced to the clearing, only to stop short as she looked down over the massive cliff she was standing on. Through her fatigue-blurred vision, a swiftly moving river rushed past below her, swollen with rain. A jagged semicircle of rocks grinned up at her like a fanged mouth, jutting out of the water under the cliff. Her heart leapt into her throat as she gauged the distance from the cliff to the safety of the water below. There’s no way I can make that… Stopping to catch her breath, she checked the charge on the handgun she’d managed to steal. Though it was hard to tell in the darkness, the indicator seemed far below where it should be.
A soft thud from off to her left snapped her head up, all senses going on alert as her heart began to race. I hope that’s just the wildlife…. She whirled about, training her gun into the inky darkness, her hand shaking as the other arm hung limply at her side.
“Who’s there?” she shouted, her voice coming out as no more than a weak, raspy whisper. In response, a black-clad figure stood up, sweeping a curtain of dark brown hair back from his face with a snap of his head. Her shriek of alarm came out as no more than a choked cough, the gun bucking in her hand as the low buzzing sound of a photon bullet sped towards the figure. A pair of shining crystalline sabers appeared in his hands, the white blades humming with faint power as he effortlessly intercepted the bullet. Chuckling softly to himself, he began to slowly walk forward, holding the twin sabers in a negligent stance at his sides, their soft glow illuminating his form. A faint, cruel smile played across his lips, marring his otherwise handsome features.
“Hello Hikari. Arala’s not too happy about her little songbird escaping before she’d had her fun. And I’m sure the family of the guard you killed won’t be too happy. Then again, when did that ever matter to you…except when playing the moralistic fool got you what you wanted?” His voice was low and deep, with a certain oily quality to it that made one’s skin crawl.
“Killed…? But I didn’t…” Hikari whispered, shock showing on her face. The man laughed, a low chuckle laced with a sinister edge to it. “Well, Arala’s the one that telekinetically flayed him alive. But his negligence in stopping you from escaping earned him that particular pleasure. Still your fault, really.” He took another step forward, Hikari shrinking back from him, towards the cliff’s edge. Her voice trembled as she spoke again.
“I’m not going back, Marcus. I’d rather die first.” Hikari spat, her gun still trained on the man’s chest. At this, Marcus laughed again. “You really think that she’d be able to stop herself from killing you if you did go back? You’ve certainly done it this time. Though I must admit, some of it was rather entertaining to watch…” He lunged forward, grinning as Hikari stumbled back even further, a predatory smile on his face. “Look at you. Battered, broken, exhausted…do you think you could get away even if I intended to let you?”
Marcus pointed one of his sabers at her, illuminating a tattered purple uniform and bright red hair, both matted with mud and blood in various places. Her right arm hung limply at her side, a long gash streaked with an eerily glowing green toxin running from her shoulder to her elbow. He smiled again as he took in her current condition, gauging her weakness. “You weren’t exactly a looker in the first place, but now…you’ve really let yourself go. Ahahahaha!”
Grinning again, he began to step to the side, circling around her in an attempt to get between her and the cliff. Though her hand was trembling, she kept the gun pointed at him, inching closer to the looming edge of rock on her left side. A loud clang from off to her right made them both look up, as a massive red machine lurched into the clearing, toting a grey bazooka. Her hopes of escape rapidly sinking, Hikari snapped off two shots as Marcus’ attention turned to the arrival of his comrade. He sidestepped the first, though the second caught him in the left side of the face, making him cry out in pain.
“AUGH! You little *****! You shot me in the damned eye!” He dropped one saber, his hand flying up to the injured area as he let out another howl of pain. The new arrival lumbered forward, his massive bulk making the ground shake with every step. A rumbling synthesized voice echoed from his metallic head, the large horn looming over it all, adding a good half a meter to his height.
“Well Marcus, I see you’ve managed to mess this up too. Arala doesn’t want any mistakes.” He moved forward again, his footsteps shaking the cliff. Hikari spared him a quick glance, then went back to holding her gun on Marcus.
“Yes, you dolt. That’s why she sent me to clean up after you! Really Gourmand, how hard is it to catch an injured girl?” Marcus cast a quick Resta, soothing the long burn across his face. As the green sparkles dissipated, he picked up his other saber, settling into a more traditional guard position. His left eye, was swollen shut, but he didn’t seem worried in the least. Hikari stared back at him, her blue eyes burning with hatred. I don’t have enough ammo to finish them both off… Gripping the gun tighter, she pressed a control on the side, willing her technique ability to come back to her, fighting through the weakness.
“Arala sent you both after me? What’s the matter…she’s too good to do her own dirty work?” Hikari croaked, her vision switching back and forth between the two as she felt the gun begin to hum in her hand. Just a bit longer. Just a little bit longer. “We were promised a ‘bonus’ if we caught you. It’s a great incentive, actually.” Gourmand rumbled, hefting his bazooka.
“Additionally, we don’t really like you. That’s a bonus in and of itself.” Marcus quipped, glancing over at Gourmand. “Put that thing away, you oaf! We’re supposed to bring her back alive, not in flaming pieces.” Gourmand shrugged, recalling the NUG to its capsule. His massive fists would be more than enough to crush her, and Hikari knew it well, having seen it happen to others many times before. Steeling herself, she forced her way into a fully upright position, turning the gun to point at her chin. Her hand shook as she prepared to finish things, its trembling matching the shaking of her body. I don’t want to die here. I just may not have a choice.
“No bonus for you today, sorry.” Hikari smiled grimly, then pulled the trigger, being rewarded with a loud click. Her smile melted in a show of dismay as she stared at the gun. Now it’s armed…hopefully they fell for it. “Damn!” she croaked out, forcing herself to look disappointed.
“Looks like you’re out of options, Hikari. Give up and come with me quietly, and I may ask Arala to let me be the one to ‘interrogate’ you. I’m sure it’d be fun. For me, at least.” Marcus leered at her, stepping closer. Gourmand moved towards her as well, the vibrations from her footsteps making her unsteady. “Yes, give in. I have much better things to be doing.” Gourmand said, continuing his slow, measured walk to a point where he was triangulated between Marcus and Hikari. Maybe I can get rid of that gloating fleshbag too…
Marcus took a wide-legged stance, rocking back and forth on his heels. He could see Hikari was inching closer and closer to the ledge, and was ready to move to intercept her at the last second. He watched, gauging her movements as her left foot touched the edge. She staggered for a brief second before regaining her balance.
“This is the end, then. Goodbye.” Hikari smiled one last time, then turned and hurled the gun in her hand to a point in-between Gourmand and Marcus. Their heads turned just as it let out a high-pitched whine of energy. Marcus’s scream of rage was deafened by the resounding explosion that erupted from the overcharged handgun, a green blast of photonic energy echoing up from out of it. Hikari brought her broken right foot to the ledge, then laughed softly as she stepped out into space, letting her body go limp as the flash of energy consumed her two pursuers. The bright light shone through her closed eyelids as she felt her body moving faster and faster, accelerating towards the deadly impact of the river below.
This is it, then. The end.
************************************************** ***********
“This is it. The beginning of our path to greatness!” The young man said, shaking his sleepy roommate awake with one hand as he waved around two shining Section ID clips with the other. A slender figure with reddish-orange hair grunted softly, turning over and presenting his back to his roommate as he pulled the blankets around himself more firmly. “Mmmphffmmph”. He replied, steadfastly attempting to ignore the loud intruder’s very existence.
Not to be deterred, the young Hunter kept shaking his roommate, still speaking loudly. “Come on, wake up! We got our high-level ID clips today, we’re full-fledged Hunters now! Come on come on come on come on come on come on! Sage, get up already. It’s noon.” he yelled, beginning to pry the cocoon of blankets away from his sleeping roommate. Failing this, he grabbed one end and pulled, yanking both the cocoon of blankets and his sleeping roommate off the bed onto the floor.
“OW! What the hell was that for?!” The sleepy-eyed young man sighed, fumbling around blindly for a pair of glasses that were no longer on the table beside him. Rather, he was now mostly underneath the table. Grinning, his roommate grabbed the glasses and pressed them into his open hand, rocking back and forth in excitement. He waited a few moments for the world to come into focus, stepping back as Jonas Sage extricated himself from the blankets and slowly stood.
He was nearly a foot shorter than his dark-haired, tanned roommate, light-blue pajamas covering a slim, pale body. He brushed orange hair away from his face, letting out a yawn that seemed to nearly split his head in two. Wobbling for a moment, he reached out a hand behind him to steady himself on his bedside table. His vision finally coming into focus, he grinned sheepishly as he saw the two clips in his roommates’ hand.
“So, you picked up the IDs, Dante?” Sage asked, blinking and looking around the room as he began to wake up. “Yeah, went and got ‘em about an hour ago. You’re lucky I waited this long for you, lazy ass.” Dante grinned, punching his roommate lightly on the shoulder. With his other hand, he presented the small, circular clip emblazoned with the yellow emblem to his friend.
“I hate mornings.” Sage replied, sleepily taking the clip. “It’s not morning! It’s noon. Way, waaay past morning, even for you.” Dante said, turning and heading towards the door, loping along like an energetic puppy. He crossed through the apartment they shared to the living room, then pushed a pile of clothing off the couch, slumped onto it and put his feet on the coffee table. “Hurry up, I want to get going soon.” He began tossing the clip up and catching it, gazing around the cluttered living room.
“Morning begins when I get up. And this is far too early.” Sage grumbled to no one in particular. A few moments later, he stumbled to the bathroom, turned on the shower and practically fell in. Thirty minutes later, his second cup of coffee in hand and freshly showered, he was a bit more inclined to face the world. He finished dressing, throwing a beige and brown robe (that Dante frequently referred to as a dress) over pants and a shirt. He fastened his boots, then attached the clip to his robe and stepped out into the living room, finding Dante already changed into a black and red jumpsuit.
He gazed disdainfully at the clutter that had accumulated over the past few days, mentally identifying it all as his roommate’s. I wish he’d clean more often than just when he has some Huney coming over. Sage thought to himself as he entered the living room, finding Dante flipping through job listings on a small PDA. Each Hunter registered with the Guild was issued one of these when they joined, offering a way to track job listings and Guild Cards even when they were away from the Guild. By linking with the BEE system, it provided a powerful resource to both Hunters and the Guild.
“Here’s a cool one. Job for the lab, cleaning out an area of Gal Da Val island. Calling all experienced hunters. That’d be us!” Dante said, turning to look at Sage with a wide grin. “Gal Da Val island…that place with the man-eating monkeys, the deadly flowers and the leeches the size of my forearm?” Sage asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah, sounds exciting, doesn’t it!” Dante laughed, bounding to his feet in one smooth motion. “Adventure, fame, fortune…and legions of adoring ladies. Why shouldn’t we do it?”
“Did you not hear any of the first part? I really don’t feel like being eaten by a monkey today, thanks. And I hate leeches…” Sage trailed off, sitting down on one arm of the couch. “Aw, is the widdle Fowce scawed of the big baadd monkeys?” Dante taunted, closing the PDA and placing it in a pocket of his vest. “It’ll be like any other mission we’ve ever done. You sit back, heal me and I’ll kill everything before it ever gets to you. I don’t get why you’re complaining, even. I do all the hard work.”
“Like that time you tried out your ‘Super Cool Berserker Attack’ on that group of Dimenians, and I had to haul you out of there? Or the time you tried to see if you could shock a Garanz before it could move? Or the time you tried arm-wrestling with that Hucast on a bet, and ended up with a broken arm and five pissed off droids after you? Or that time…” Sage said, glaring at his roommate.
“Ok, ok. So maybe I don’t always do all the work. But hey, at least I keep your life interesting, right? What’d you do without me?” Dante grinned again, stretching.
“Be sane, most likely. But the pay’s good on this, at least if you’re referring to that ‘Phantasmal World’ thing. Who comes up with this stuff, anyway?” He hit a few more keys on his PDA before locking the keypad and placing it in a pocket of his robe, then joined his roommate as Dante headed out the door. “Relax, it’ll be fun. Guild first, or bank first?”
“Bank. And…whenever you say something’s going to be ‘fun’, it always ends badly.” Sage replied, locking their door with a few key presses as Dante rushed along happily in front of him.
An hour later, the two were standing in front of a teleporter in the lab. They’d signed up at the Guild, flashed their ID clips at the bored-looking guard with a scanner, then been ushered back to a meeting with an obviously harried woman named Natasha. She gave them their orders, then waved them off with a distracted look on her face. As they entered the warp field, Dante nudged Sage. “Hey, she was kinda hot. If you ignore the hairstyle. Think I have a chance?”
“No, not really. She looks a bit out of your league. She’s actually wearing real pants.” Sage replied, chuckling.
“Hey, screw you. At least I date Newmen who are old enough to make their own decisions.” Dante shot back.
“It’s not my fault she looked so young. Newmen age weirdly. A lot of times it’s hard to tell…”
As the two continued arguing, a guard spoke to them, his voice rising slightly. “Hunters, if you please…have this argument on your mission, and not in the middle of the lab.”
The two entered the teleporter with the look of scolded children, remaining silent as they were warped to Gal Da Val.