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.
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