The leader of the branch

On one job I encountered this Humanis Policlub. I went there undercover, because I was the only one on our team at that point who looked mostly human. Shrew has the ears, Nerdy is too nerdy, Morgan didn’t want to, or then she wasn't there with us, same with Jinx, and Bobby is nothing like a human. He’s a troll. So I went there.

Their thoughts seemed OK, and I stayed. I left the job to stay with the branch for a while and somehow I became their leader. It felt cool. I have to lie a bit, but mostly I don’t. I just have to pretend I hate all the metahumans, and magic. And magical animals. And everything non-human. I would take magic and magical animals out from that list and put humans there. But I’ll try to get on with what I have. I do have a plan to steer them into right direction. And if that fails, I think I try to go and get me a new pack of followers. Maybe from some animal rights -group. They seem crazy enough.

But anyway, my followers are fine. They mostly come from the streets. They need a place to stay and food to eat, so they say they hate metahumans. I believe they would say anything to get food and shelter.

Occasionally we go out on raids. We kick some metahuman ass and go back home. I try to go on those ass-kicking trips as well, but I just need to be really careful, because they are not supposed to see me heal. I just need to be very good. Well, we mostly fight with some idiots who are normal people, they are not gangers or runners. They just happen to be in a wrong place in a wrong time. I don’t mind, but they are normally too easy to beat. But it raises the spirits. My followers are not that strong. All aggressive and crazy people don’t stay in my branch. I report them and they go to other branches that do more fighting and hate-things. My department, or branch, is more like in throwers. We get people from the streets, give them food and shelter and make them fight for our cause. Well, their cause. It’s not completely my cause…

I do speeches and blame metahumans for every shitty thing my followers have experienced. I have tried to separate the ones who really have something against metahumans and the ones who just say that to get food and shelter. I want to make them run my cause, not Humanis Policlub. I just need to be very careful because some people don’t like my thinking.

I raised some questions and I had to defend my cause to the bigger leaders one day. I had some problems with one of my followers. Billy was trying to push me aside because I was away a lot when I was on my jobs. He tried to make everyone angry at me because I didn’t spend time with them. I think he was the one who spied on me.

One day Juggler came to talk with me. He visited my branch and found out that I was spied on. He found a bunch of devices that allowed the person who had planted them there to listen to me from my small office. That’s probably the reason why I had to explain my speeches about magic to the bigger leaders. I decided to buy devices that disrupted the spying-things. I also bought baseball-bats and duct tape for everybody. Good thing Juggler is so good at getting things.

Every time I went on my jobs I was a bit worried. I knew I had to get rid of Billy, but I didn’t know how. That’s when I demanded to meet one of the bigger leaders. It was interesting. I got the meeting. And then he said that he didn’t know who should go, me or Billy. He said that only time would tell. Maybe I was to be transferred. At that point he told me that they didn’t like my opinions about magical animals. I had tried to speak about their goodness, and that they weren't bad. Well, I was one so I knew what I was talking about. I wasn't about to tell anyone that though. I just explained that we should let the magical animals go because they weren't a direct threat to us. The leader didn’t agree. He said we should kill them on sight. Well, good luck with that, I thought. But I said that we shouldn't focus on magical animals now. That we should focus on getting rid of the metahumans first and after that massive mission would be over, then we should focus on the animals, because they didn’t directly do anything to sabotage our mission. The leader agreed with me.

The meeting didn’t go as I wanted it to go. I didn’t manage to get rid of Billy and I had to speak big lies. Well, I don’t mind lying. Mostly I speak the truth. I just find it hard to accept the fact that all magical animals should be killed on sight. Good thing they think I’m a human and Humanis Policlub doesn't accept magic. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep my position. They would try and kill me. Like they would succeed.

The running, parts x-y

From that job on I have quite vague memories. I have done many jobs, I have gotten shot, my ass has been kicked a bit, but I have managed to win in the end anyway. There have been dragons and vampires. One time we went to the desert to catch giant scorpions for Jinx from the Death Zone. That was a cool job. I walked around in my leopard form, fought with a fire-breathing lizard (wasn't a dragon) and stole some strange eggs. And ate one.

At one point the otaku told me and Shrew we all had to move. Their headquarters had to be abandoned. I didn’t have enough time to take all my explosives so I left there somewhere around sixty kilos worth of commercial explosives and hit my sledgehammer on the wall so hard it stayed there. There was something to think about for the people arriving there.

The otaku didn’t like me and Shrew living there, and I had started to feel it wasn't a good place for me. Flats were quite expensive, and I think Shrew just grew on me. We started to get along; we still fight occasionally, but mostly we just get ourselves in trouble, alone or together.

We got a decent roof over our heads from Redmond Barrens. We claimed the territory, and no one questions that. We have quite a bit of magic in there, so all the bums go around us, as well as all the other trouble makers. Nowadays I have to go out and really look for trouble if I want to find some.

I have bought a transportation-thing with Shrew also. And we installed a machine gun on top of it. The transportation-thing is because Shrew needs to go on Lava Fields to do her magic. She has a cabin there, and occasionally I join her there, to guard or just walk around. She has her shamanic thing there. Apparently she needs lots of heat, or something.

Oh, and Opium left us a while after Arcology. I think she went to some jungle to be a soldier, or then something else. But she left Seattle. Maybe Arcology was too much for her. She didn’t want to be a runner in Seattle any more. I haven’t seen Rugh around either.

Nerdy’s mother was saved from the Arcology, and now, if it’s even possible, he talks more about his mother. She is apparently in a nursing home and goes to therapy. And he brings her flowers and takes her to walks. I would really like to meet this woman. It would be interesting.

The running, part 7. Ghoul-hunting. And occasional troll...

The otaku had made extra efforts on my case. I thought it was because they wanted me out, and they wanted me out fast. I had said to stay there until I had what I needed. They don’t say it out loud, but some of them are afraid of me. There’s nothing I can do or say to make them not be afraid of me. Well, they should have respect for me, but I would never hurt them. It’s not worth it. And they did try to help me with my mission. I was grateful, and I still am. They might be a bunch of kids from the streets, but they know their stuff, and they keep their promises.

On one day Shrew came to my room. She wanted me to teach her fighting with knives. She promised to get me a roast beef for my help. I didn’t want that. I prefer killing my own food. Then she promised to add me to her debt-list. I didn’t really need anything from teaching her, but she had been such a pain to me I wanted to have some kind of payback.

We moved all the furniture next to the walls from the big room in the headquarters. Then we trained for a few days. I was happy to see her improve. She wasn't as good as me or anything, but she did improve. After she seemed to be okay on her own I returned to my old routines. I stayed in my room during the day, resting, thinking, sleeping. Then, during the night, I went out hunting. I got something to eat almost every night.

One day the otaku called me to look at a map. They had found the lab. It was in another nation, in the tribe-lands somewhere. It looked like a long way off. It seemed impossible that they didn’t find out the exact location, but they said it was a very secret lab. Well, it should be. I just wonder how good contacts Luis and Stephan had to find out about it.

The otaku were thinking about a way to pay for the trip there and back. I told them to look for a place to rob and then sell the loot. They told me about a cargo that was about two million nuyens worth. It would arrive to Seattle very soon. Shrew seemed to have caught the sum and came there, interested. The otaku told us the cargo was blood honey. I had no idea what it was. But Opium, who we asked for an opinion, told us that she wouldn't go. Rugh didn’t want to do it either. They said the problem was to sell the blood honey. The otaku told that they knew how to sell it, but no one believed them.

We went through our options. The first one was to steal the blood honey. Second and third had something to with a man named Jinx. Not the one who belonged to our team. This Jinx organized fights and ran the Death Zone. I could’ve gone there and fight and win. I would get money from wins. It seemed a bit risky. I didn’t want to fight in front of an audience. The third option was to go and hunt some ghouls to fight for Jinx. The ghouls were good fighters, apparently.

I didn’t know anything about ghouls. We had seen two in the Arcology, but they ran away. Others told me that they ate human flesh. They had some sort of virus. Rugh told me their brains had dripped out through their noses. It didn’t seem likely. But I figured they weren't very intelligent.

Well, actually we had a fourth option. Someone needed soldiers in a jungle somewhere. It sounded like a great idea for me. Hired soldiers in a jungle. I was an animal from the jungle, even though I had never been in one. I have read that leopards, especially black ones, thrive in jungles.

So there were our options. No one wanted to steal the honey. No one wanted to fight in the Death Zone. No one but me wanted to go to the jungle. So the only option was to go ghoul-hunting. We went to see Jinx, but it didn’t get us much. I asked about shapeshifters. He said one shifter had fought in the arena once, and been very good. He didn’t seem to know much though. I had really wanted to know some false beliefs. I didn’t.

So we left to hunt ghouls. They were known to hang around in the Barrens. So we went there. We asked around, if anyone knew anything. At first we met this group of seven people. Rugh asked about ghouls. They were gangers, and Rugh didn’t seem to know his business. I thought I would've been better one to talk with the gangers, because he was a mage, but I didn’t say it out loud.

We went and bought two cases of beer. Rugh promised to give the other one to the gangers if they told us everything they knew. Other one was apparently for himself, because he drank couple bottles when we got out from the store. He then put the other case down in front of the gangers. When their boss didn’t know anything, Rugh shot the case with a lightning bolt. Then we kept going. I craved for a battle. We would've kicked the gangers asses easily. Opium was a good fighter. So was I. Shrew wasn't that good yet, but Rugh was. There would've been two for me, two for Opium, two for Rugh and one for Shrew. But nooo, no fight this time.

We found a bum who, after we gave him two bottles of beer, told that there was this old orc who had had to move because of some monsters. We found the orc and Rugh offered some beer to him. He wanted food. Opium gave him energy bars. He didn’t like them, so I offered to hunt some rats. He liked the idea, and off I went.

There seemed to be more rats that where the otaku lived, but these ones seemed more paranoid. I got bored of the rats running away from me all the time so I transformed. I caught one rat. When I was bringing it to the orc I noticed others taking some other food to him. Well, it didn’t bother me. I ate the rat myself. I returned to the others with my stomach full. Well, one rat didn’t fill me up, but I wasn't hungry to begin with.

The orc told us where he had been forced to leave from. He didn’t know what there was. Maybe gangers, maybe monsters. He didn’t stay around to find out. We decided to go there anyway. Maybe there were ghouls for us to find and catch.

We arrived to the place the orc had told us about. An old building. We went in. We walked slowly, downwards, floor after floor. Shrew and Rugh stayed behind to have our backs. Me and Opium went ahead of them.

After a while something attacked Rugh. I noticed something in the Astral Plane and launched towards the place with my knife ready. I didn’t pay any attention to others, I just hoped Rugh didn’t kill the enemy before I got my hands on it.

I ran with full speed, past Rugh, and slit the throat of the attacker. Rugh hit it with his staff. It was dead. It had bitten Rugh on his leg. Others were talking about healing. Shrew did know a spell. Heal spell. I told her that I knew she knew how to do magic and that she had been lying. I said that if she ever would make a spirit to poke me again I would not be so nice.

The attacker had indeed been a ghoul. But it was way beyond healing at that point. We went back home to come back the next day. We were supposed to come and catch them. I figured all ghouls were as disgusting as this one there. It smelled bad and it was ugly. I didn’t expect much from other ghouls.

We arrived the next day. Nerdy had bought a car, and we packed two large cages to it. There wasn’t room for more cages.

I had brought my sledgehammer and my knife with me. The knife was for desperate measures in desperate times. My main weapon was my sledgehammer. We would get money from intact, strong ghouls. Not injured or dead ones.

We returned to the building we had encountered the one ghoul. Nerdy drove the car to the bottom floor, to the car park. We left the car there and continued on foot.

After a short look we found out that there were no ghouls there. Shrew asked her spirit to go and see if the building really was empty. It was. Great, just great. The ghouls had just packed up and left with their dead buddy. I suggested tracking the ghouls in my other form. Others thought it was a good idea, so I got undressed and transformed.

I sniffed around. The stench of the ghouls was strong, but mostly it had faded away already. Our smells had covered most of the ghoul stench. Then I found the place where the body had been. I followed the stench outside. Others stayed and waited. My mission was to go and find the place and get back.

I didn’t get far until I saw a hungry troll. He had spotted me and was coming closer with his knife ready. I had better things to do than this and I growled at the troll, hoping he would go away. He was too hungry to care. He called me a roast. He walked slowly, like he was stalking his prey. I knew the behavior. I practiced it every night. I didn’t want to turn my back to him, he would've stabbed me in the back.

I turned to meet the troll eye to eye. I bent my back, I made my fur stand up, and I pulled out my claws. I hissed and growled. I tried to scare him away; I didn’t feel like fighting him. I hoped that he’d leave, go where he had come from. He didn’t.

Finally I got bored. He was coming closer all the time, so I attacked. He threw his knife at me. It hurt a bit. I scratched him. Then he beat me unconscious. It hurt a bit more.

I woke up rather quickly. I noticed I was carried. The troll had put me on his shoulder. I was happy he hadn't slit my throat. Or maybe he had. I didn’t know. I decided to wait for a perfect moment to kill him.

I thought I had my opportunity when the troll dropped me on the floor. I kept my eyes closed, planning on attacking when he’d turn his back on me. He didn’t. I waited and waited. Then it was too late to wait. He pushed his knife through my stomach. Apparently he tried to gut me. I didn’t want to play dead anymore so I grabbed him with all my claws at once. He seemed puzzled, told me to hold still. I didn’t, I jumped back a bit and then attacked again. This time I won. He fell on the ground, dead. I stood there for a while. I was a bit shaken. Someone had tried to cook me for lunch!

Others arrived. Opium looked very serious when she said that I was supposed to hunt ghouls, not trolls. I growled at her, took a few steps to her direction. Opium dropped her gun to its strap and showed me her claws. The claws came out from her fingertips. I decided to go back to my original search. I found the tracks again and started following them. I noticed Shrew following me. I ran as fast as I could for a while to leave her far behind and continued following the tracks calmly.

I reached a big building. It was an ypermarket, according to the sign. Apparently the h had dropped down ages ago. I sat next to the door and started licking the blood off of me. I wanted to be clean before transforming. I had time, the others were far behind me.

I had had time to clean myself almost completely when the others got there. They had left the car where I had the incident with the troll and had walked from there. Rugh was carrying my stuff. We went inside and I transformed. I asked for my clothes. Rugh seemed reluctant to give them to me. I asked for my sledgehammer, and got it. I told I could be naked no problem, but Rugh had to be too, to see how cold it was. Opium forbid Rugh from taking his clothes off. Finally Rugh gave me my clothes, but kept them so high in the air I had to stand on my toes to grab them. Nice if he had a nice time…

Others stepped around me to guard me while I dressed up. As I was putting my pants on someone shot Rugh with a machine gun. I yelped, grabbed my clothes and jumped outside. I jumped around on one foot to get my pants on. I dressed as fast as I could. I was a bit too jumpy.

I decided to go back in. It was dark, but I saw auras. I noticed Rugh and sneaked after him. He was glowing brightly in the Astral Plane because of a spell he had casted. I saw some small aura following Rugh. I followed both of them. I was almost certain the smaller aura was Shrew. I decided to keep my distance though. Rugh seemed to reach back to the other aura and pointed forward. I was finally sure it was Shrew. She tried to throw something somewhere. Opium was in that general direction. Rugh yelled something about a grenade and made a fireball that hit the back-wall.

 We moved next to the wall. Shrew sneaked on the other side of the shelf, I followed Rugh in between the shelf and the wall. We arrived at the door. Rugh secured it. Then he kept going. I stayed, just in case someone came. I was ready to hit with my sledgehammer as hard as I could.

Disappointingly no one tried to come through the door. I heard gunshots and explosions from the other side of the door. I decided to sneak to the room through another door. I snuck to the door and waited for a while. I was hoping someone would come. Soon I heard someone left from the other side of the door. Apparently that someone had been waiting there, having same thoughts with me. I opened the door carefully and snuck to the room. From there I continued along the hallway. I noticed the front door closing slowly. I started to sneak to it. When I noticed a grenade floating in mid-air on its way to me I forgot my carefulness. I jumped out through the door. I saw two auras further away. They were quickly moving away from me. Apparently these were the ghouls. I followed.

I ran after the ghouls to a house. They went in. I stayed and waited. Opium arrived there first. I pointed the door the ghouls had gone in. I told I had seen two. Opium ran to the other side of the house, apparently to watch the other door. Shrew, Nerdy, Random and Rugh came to me almost at the same time. The grenade came there as well. Apparently Rugh was holding it with his spell.

Shrew called her ally spirit to search the house. It went in through the door. At the same time several bullets came through the door. Someone had tried to shoot the spirit. It came out quickly as well. Shrew talked to it for a moment and then Rugh made his grenade float inside. It exploded, and that was our cue. We went in.

We stayed downstairs for a while. Rugh was injured, so Random gave him first aid. Shrew told her ally spirit to go and search the house again, and count the ghouls. Rugh shone in the Astral Plane. He was watching from both worlds. The ghouls were easy to spot from the Astral Plane, just like me. I wouldn't be able to hide from them very well, but they weren't able to hide from me either. I was starting to get very bored.

Finally Shrew told us the locations of all the ghouls. She also told us how many there were. The ghouls had tried to shoot the spirit, even though it wasn't in its physical form. I thought the ghouls were quite stupid, despite the fact they were able to use machine guns.

We made a quick plan and decided to move quickly. Rugh told one of his elementals to go upstairs. When we heard sounds of fighting it was our turn to run up. I followed Rugh.

There was two ghouls and one elemental there. They were fighting. The other ghoul ran away. We beat the other one unconscious. Then the elemental threw the unconscious ghoul down the stairs. The elemental then disappeared, from both Planes, and we kept going. Random stayed behind to give first aid to the ghoul, after he had tied the ghoul up.

We arrived to the door the other ghoul had run to. Rugh went into position, next to the door. I opened it standing next to the wall. The moment I pushed the handle, someone shot the door. The door around the handle was full of holes. Good thing I was next to the wall. Rugh shot some cover fire inside and seemed to start running inside. I followed the example and passed him easily. I was shot once. There was two ghouls, and the other one ran away after he saw me. I went after him. I caught him, hit him in the head with my sledgehammer and he fell down unconscious. I turned back and saw Rugh struggling with one ghoul. I went back and started swinging with my sledgehammer. One ghoul was trying to help him friend, apparently, and ran towards me. I hit him. He fell down unconscious. After that we hit the only ghoul awake so long he surrendered.

Rugh tied the ghouls’ hands and legs together. I crouched next to him. Rugh told me to look after him so that he wouldn’t escape. I tried to talk to him, asking if he knew how to speak English, did he think, did he feel. I didn’t understand all he said, but he told I was an animal and spat in my face. I spat back. I poked him a while and noticed he had his sense of touch left. I figured the ghouls were creatures who had feelings, they thought, they were intelligent, sentient beings. I started to feel remorse. I felt bad. I thought I should’ve done some more digging to find out about these things before going out hunting. It was too late now.

We packed the ghouls to the car, two at a time. With the last ones we left the place. I felt like I had made a huge mistake. I didn’t want to do things like that. I hoped they would be treated with respect. Like how they had treated the shapeshifter. After winning he had gotten his money. And had a chance to leave. I knew it wasn’t happening. People were cruel animals.

When we got to the Death Zone I talked to Jinx. I asked about the fate of the ghouls. He told me that if they won their fights, they would wait in their cages for the next ones. I asked if he had any conscience left. I asked how he could sleep at night. He didn’t seem to care. I told him what I thought about all of this, and he offered to give me the ghoul that was injured the most. He told I could take care of him. What the heck would I do with an injured ghoul? I would try and take care of him until he was well enough to go away, but that was not likely to happen. I noticed how they reacted to me. They were afraid of me. They thought I was some kind of monster, a beast. And I also thought what was done was done. I couldn’t undo things. If I could, I would.

It wasn’t right, to catch sentient beings to fight for their lives for amusement. I didn’t care if they were not sentient, if they were just animals, or people. I didn’t find any compassion in my heart for people. But ghouls, they were different. They were suffering already. There was no good reason to make them suffer more.

After I got back to the otaku headquarters, home, I asked them to get me all the information they could about ghouls. I got a paper containing everything people knew about them. It made me feel even worse. I couldn’t sleep that night, and I didn’t even want to go hunting.

I got over it eventually. But I still feel bad when I think about it. I would never do that again. I don’t care about animals, people, or creatures that have no ability to think, but I don’t really know what I think about Death Zone. It’s entertainment. I hunt for entertainment, and fight. But I want to do it on my terms. I don’t want an audience to look at me when I fight. It feels wrong.

I had learned at that point that people were cruel, nasty beings. They wanted to make other beings suffer, and thought they were superior to everything else. Not all people, but some. Enough to make me hate people. Of course, my team consisted of people, but it was a bit different. We didn’t do things for our entertainment, we did it for money. Maybe Jinx is also doing it for the money. I don’t know. But I thought he’s a contact that might prove useful later on.

The running, part 6. Hunting the bird-killers

The otaku headquarters was a decent place to sleep. It was some abandoned town house in the suburbs. It was a good area, so I could only go out to hunt during the night-time. It didn’t bother me. Streets were a feast. After Arcology everything was.

The otaku left me be. They seemed a bit nervous around me though. At least some of them. I went and asked about the process every other day. Because I didn’t know much about the arrangements Luis did when we arrived to Seattle, it seemed a bit difficult to find out where the lab was situated exactly.

I gave a detailed description about the people in the lab. I also gave them information about the place I saw through the bars of my cage. It wasn't much, but the otaku tried really hard.

I was never bored in the headquarters, if I needed something to do. I was up to date with all the recent news. The ones from TV, ones from the internet and the ones from the streets. Ronin had disappeared a few days after Arcology. He was the human. Dodger took off to look for an AI. Didn't we just destroy one? Oh, and some people were looking for us in the shadows. Some person got the honor for killing Deus. It was all over the news. There was nothing about us there. Well, who cares?

At one point Juggler called me. I think he thought he was funny when he made me an awesome offer. Well, in his opinion of course. He offered me some gun and a snorkel for a hundred. Like really? I asked if I looked like someone who went swimming. I didn’t buy it.

Later on, when I was buying a new armor, Juggler offered me the snorkel again. I still didn’t want or need it. I don’t think he’s all there. Or then he has some twisted sense of humor. In any case, he still is a very good fixer. He gets me explosives.

After a few weeks of calmness and nice living, when I was calmly minding my own business in my room, a small spirit appeared. I think it was one of those watcher spirits Jinx used to make. It poked me. Then it did it again. And again. Then I got annoyed. I transformed. It scratched me under my chin. I smashed it with my claws. It disappeared. Then I went out from my room. The door was a bit tricky, but I got it open anyway.

The otaku who were there seemed puzzled when I walked out in my real form. I was annoyed and I growled at them. I looked around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I transformed to human and started asking questions about magic. They said there wasn't any mages around, but there was indeed one shaman. They had offered a roof over Shrew’s head as well. She had arrived in that day. Shrew! I should’ve guessed it! I transformed back to leopard and walked to the door I was pointed to.

I opened the door with my teeth and pushed it open. Something fell down. Apparently Shrew had tried to keep me away with a pile of computers. The otaku were horrified. One of them came behind me and whined about broken computers. He had been with us in the Arcology. He climbed over me to look at the computers. I made my claws come out and walked towards Shrew. I was ready to attack. She seemed puzzled. Asked what I was doing there. I transformed and asked about the watcher spirit. I asked why she had made one tease me. She claimed she didn’t know how to make them. She didn’t know in the Arcology either. It would've been important to know in the Arcology. I didn’t believe her. She had amnesia, yea right. Maybe she had gotten her memory back, or had always remembered how to do magic. It couldn't be a coincidence that a watcher annoyed me the same day Shrew arrived!

I didn’t feel like attacking her. I told I would teach her some manners if it ever happened again. Then I returned to my room. I wanted to beat the shit out of someone. I got to do that when the night came. I went out to hunt again. Sometimes I do that in my leopard form, sometimes in my human form. The risks are bigger in the leopard form, but the feeling is better.

If before Shrew came I rarely came out from my room during the day, after her arrival I did it even less. I settled for waiting for the otaku to come to ask some questions from me. I didn’t like Shrew back then. She knew how to push my buttons. She teased me just because she could, not understanding the power I had within me. If we ever got to a fight, it would be easy to predict who would live. Well, that’s what I thought back then. Now I’m not that sure. She knows powerful spells, but I heal. I don’t think I want to find out who walks from our fight alive.

I used to hate her calmness. She never seemed to be startled about my transformations. Only once, when she saw my true self the first time. I don’t think she slept at all that night. Maybe she holds a grudge. Or maybe she doesn't think I would beat the shit out of her. Well, I could. I just didn’t want to, because otherwise others wouldn't want to take me to the jobs anymore.

One day it wasn't one of the otaku knocking on my door. It was Shrew. She had a job. She needed someone to kill someone. I was definitely going. I grabbed my knife and my shotgun. I tried to pack some explosives, but Shrew said no. Finally I agreed to leave them.

We took the metro to some park. Rugh was waiting there. He was standing next to a bench. On the bench there was a bird. Well, in the Astral Plane there was a bird. In the physical world there was a human female. I was a bit startled. I told Shrew about the bird. She seemed puzzled. The bird looked at me with her guard up. I told her I didn’t eat birds. She said something about me not being edible. Well, this was an awesome start. I told the bird about the prey in the city, rats and dogs. The bird said the dogs were too skinny. Well, yes they were, but there weren't any rabbits either!

The bird was called Sencha. She didn’t speak very good English. Worse than me. But she told that she wanted to hunt down six poachers. The poachers hunted normal eagles, and had killed her mate. I was a bit puzzled. This bird had a normal eagle as a partner? Or had had one? Well, it was none of my business. Maybe this Sencha here had figured she was just an animal, and had the ability to transform. I think I’m intelligent leopard, and I don’t know if I could mate with normal leopards. I haven’t even seen any leopards after the time I was in the zoo. It would be interesting to meet some of my own species. Well, at least the normal leopards.

Sencha had promised to give us a piece of jewelry she had made. It didn’t seem like much, but there was killing involved so I stayed with them. I was always going if there was some killing.

We looked for a house Sencha told us to have tracked the poachers to. It took us a while to find it. It was a spa named Blue Lagoon. It was a good area, so I suggested she would leave her revenge to the night-time. She agreed, and we decided to go and eat something.

Sencha suggested we’d go and hunt. She wanted to hunt for a deer. I explained her that we didn’t have deer in the city. I told her we only had rats and dogs. I didn’t want to eat cats, they were nearly my species. Rugh suggested we ate an animal called kebab. It was already killed and cooked. Well, I’m not sure there is an animal called kebab. I wouldn’t eat cooked meat anyway. Sencha thought it was easier than hunting. I mumbled something about daring to call herself an animal of the forest for agreeing to eat cooked meals. She corrected me by saying she was from the mountains. I didn’t care. I didn’t like readily-killed meals. Where’s the thrill of the hunt and the taste of the fresh blood there? Nowhere, that’s where!

In the diner Sencha found herself a place to sit so that she would see the window and me at all times. Others ate with good appetites, I refused to eat the shit they called food. I drank some water. I waited for a moment to go on the streets to look for food.

After dinner Nerdy tried to find some information about the spa and the people we were looking for. He did that by staying there for a few days. He was talking about some seaweed-treatments and clay masks. Rugh was laughing about the treatments. I thought they sounded weird.

When Nerdy was spending his second day at the spa, he saw the people we were looking for. I had bought a good knife from Rughs fixer. A real knife. Not something you gut fish with, but a real knife with a long and sharp blade. I threw my old one to the trash. Sencha had a knife too, but hers was just like the one I had thrown out. It was like a toy.

After Nerdy returned from the spa we were ready to break in. He was supposed to do something about the alarm-system. Open doors and such, disable alarms if we triggered them. The usual stuff. The rest of us went to the spa.

The door opened easily. Nerdy had given us a card to open it with. There was no one on the hallways. We sneaked to the room of our targets. Well, they had three rooms, and we started with the first room. There were two of the guys. Shrew shot the first one, who woke up when we snuck in. She then shot the second one, only wounding him. Rugh grabbed the wounded one and I slit his throat. Then we kept going to the next room. Shrew shot both of the guys in their beds. The third room proved to be the most difficult one. The other guy woke up as we entered, and the second one when Shrew fired her gun. The other one was dead quickly, but the remaining one jumped over the bed to take cover. He pulled his gun. Rugh jumped after him and we heard gunshots. I jumped after Rugh, ready to slit throats if necessary. It wasn’t. Shrew killed the last guy quickly. Then we left. We ran into a guard which we killed.

Mission completed. I had hoped a bit more action. I didn’t even get to fight properly. Poachers are such idiots. If they were going to poach, they should know how to be on their guard and be concerned about their lives. Maybe they are just some idiots trying to make money on defenseless animals. Well, we taught them.