Naomi Hunter - Downtown Latro - Monster Hunter Secret Headquarters
Interactions: Sabrina Braveheart
Blasting through the stereo of a
1991 Nissan R32 Skyline 4-Door sedan was Mariya Takeuchi's
Plastic love at near full volume. Usually when this car was on the street it meant a Monsters inevitable demise, more often than not via decapitation. Occasionally, you could find it in the parking lot of your local mall or Vietnamese restaurant. Today one could find it in the Latro downtown parking structure, just a couple blocks down from the local monster hunter secret headquarters. She walked briskly through the downtown sidewalks, her presence parting civilians like they were the red sea.
As if her signature japanese schoolgirl outfit wasn't enough to identify her, the Katanas, sniper rifle and magnum revolvers were a dead giveaway. In only a years time she developed a respectable reputation among the people of Latro, who always felt a lot safer when she was around. Even Monsters themselves felt at ease when she was around, seeing as Naomi wasn't one to discriminate and would quickly knock someone upside the head if they were to harass an innocent civilian, Monster or not. Such an incident occurred daily in Latro, a sword to the neck being the perfect remedy to ensure a discriminator think twice next time they feel like harassing another.
One didn't maintain a 4.0 GPA attending an Ivy-league school with a habit of being late to anything. Naomi considered the hunter conferences to be very informative in regards to the latest Monster occurrences in the area and the means in which to handle them. She also wasn't fond of not staying in the loop all things monster hunting related, such as any up and coming Hunters in the city that may interfere with business, any newfound weakness or tactics to apprehend or dispose of specific types of monsters.
They would usually end the conference by displaying a list of the cities most wanted monsters and the reward for their bounty along with their last known area of activity. Although capturing a monster alive resulted in a higher reward, Naomi found that humans weren't the best at containing most monsters and would rather bring their head in than see one back on the street, although there were many occasions she would go through the trouble of apprehending one alive, usually by special request from a family member.
The conferences were split between two groups: Civilians and Monster Hunters. For some reason or another Hunters had a habit of showing up late, whereas concerned people of the public were practically shoving one another to reach the microphone and voice their concerns, mainly the hunting of family members turned monster. Naomi entered behind two Hunters who seemed to be partners and garnered little to no attention from the group of civvies, where as Naomi's presence brought some cheering, light applause, heavy murmuring and even several people pleading for an autograph, which she was always happy to oblige thanks to the barriers setup which if not for those would lead to someone getting knocked upside the head.
Seeing as there weren't even a handful of Hunters in attendance yet, it was easy to notice instantly the young blonde hunter sitting by herself. However, what really begged Naomi's attention was her weapon of choice; a javelin that brought a reminiscent feeling of her days in high school track. She had never considered the idea of utilizing one as a hunting weapon, the concept intrigued her and she approached
"That's cool," she stated blankly
"Pretty clever, are those quills poisonous by any chance?" The idea of hurling one of those into a Monster's chest was pleasing, not necessarily in a sadistic way, more so as a means of doing business.
Alex Mercer - Latro Slums
Interactions: Acadia Finch
The Latro Slums was an area Alex had become all too familiar with. He had lost count of the many criminals, human and mutant alike, he had apprehended there, both as a street cop and detective. The Slums were located inbetween Downtown and the southern city limits, the northern city limits being Latro's High Estates area where you could find lavish apartments and neighborhoods. The eastern and western held suburbs on each side respectably, with downtown located in the center of the city and the ghetto slums just a little ways south. Besides Downtown, the Slums were the only other section of the city with a designated police department, which had formed not long after the cost of living in the area deteriorated and businesses were in decline, most of which had shut down and become the resting grounds for squatters and homeless, mutant and human alike, you really couldn't tell the difference, especially in this area.
Having finally caught up on his paperwork, Alex was ready to take on a new case, the file sitting on his desk since the morning. He made sure to have his paperwork turned in by lunch so he could start looking through the case file. He had heard rumors of the families presence in the city a while back and felt a jump in his chest upon opening the folder; a Monster having escaped containment, claiming to have been held captive in the Latro Slums. Normally a case like this would never reach the vice department, however what brought the folder Alex's way was a brand scar on the Monsters neck that suggested underground monster fights. They had received intel from departments in other cities suggesting the Koles family presence had spread to Latro, Alex figured it was only a matter of time since he had first heard of their operations via word of mouth as a street cop. Now two years later it was evident they were now in his jurisdiction. The idea only excited the young and eager detective, with that it seemed he would be having lunch on the road.
Latro was an enormous city, with the highest general population in the nation. The idea of canvasing its maze-like Slums alone was a bit discomforting, but the man couldn't even admit that to himself, he was so stubborn. Even so, the Slums had one of the highest concentrations of people in the city next to Downtown. Alex's partner was bed-ridden, in critical condition after their last case busting a gambling ring located in the back of a bar which left his partner full of poison quills by the hands of the ring leader and at risk of possibly amputating his arm. Thankfully there were no casualties so far and the criminals were brought to justice.
Even so, there was always more work to do and Alex began to look back on all of his cases in the past few months, wondering if any of them had a connection to the Koles operations. He was positive they were in the area, he had seen photos of monsters bearing the same insignia in other cities. So far there was no direct link between the monster fights and the Koles family, however there wasn't any other criminal organization they could think of responsible, the criminals apprehended always took the highest precautions to dispose of any evidence upon law enforcement infiltration and most if not all the time had suicidal procedures in place to prevent heavy interrogation, such as a false tooth filled with poison or some other brutal measure by any means, even if that entails a bullet to the brain.
Alex had already been canvasing the sums for three hours, even breaking up a fight and apprehending a drunk, strung out Monster in the meantime. The dude looked like something out of a science fiction novel, with a giant cyclops eye in the center of his face. He didn't have a mouth, but you could hear the thing speaking to you in your head, at least you could if he were able to manage a coherent sentence, he was so zonked out all you could make from the noise in your head were slurs and nonsensical jargon. He sat handcuffed in the backseat and eventually passed out, thankfully his species couldn't snore.
With that, Alex was on foot, asking every food vendor, drug dealer and nobody on the street if they could recognize the image the sketch artist had produced based on what the escaped monster fighter described to them. The man was supposed to be the one who initially kidnapped the monster. Apparently he would also feed him and the other captive fighters, as well as transport them in handcuffs from their cells to the arena where crowds of humans and monsters who reeked of cigarettes and alcohol gawked and shouted at them, waving cash and beers about here and there.
The detective made his way down an alleyway, it was evident he worked for law enforcement, in fact he wouldn't be surprised if many of the people in the Slums recognized him, which made him all the more uneasy being without a partner. He made a note not to dress in his suit the next time he was alone in the area and almost felt like he had made a rookie mistake. As he walked down the alleyway, most of the homeless began to scatter, not wanting to get involved with the law enforcement. This lead Alex to believe he had definitely been spotted and was being watched. Anyone in the Slums caught talking to a cop could expect a knife to the back in their sleep. Despite his impressive record of arrests and cases solved, Alex was still a young cop and made mistakes from time to time, he wasn't perfect.
Already feeling tremendously uneasy, Alex thought it somewhat suspicious that one of the homeless vagrants hadn't scattered and stay sitting atop boxes with their head leaning against the wall. He couldn't help but assume the vagrant was on drugs seeing as he was right on the mark 99% of the time in regards to vagrants sitting in the alleyways of the Slums. He double-checked his six and un-clipped his gun from the holster.
"Excuse me," he called from just a short ways down the alleyway
"I'd like to ask you some questions."
Jack "the Ripper" Harlow, a.k.a. Red - Latro City Limits
Interactions: Sun Flare
The night was long, most of them were, ever since Red's mentor had his life stripped away by father time itself. He was glad to see Sam go naturally, as opposed to being torn apart at the hands of an abomination. If not for Sam's generous nature, a real selfless man he was, Naomi would have never possessed the abilities she does today. She deserved to hear the news of his passing, not to mention Jack needed a new partner. Without Samuel backing him up, he no longer had that secure feeling, that safety net that was the difference between life and death on numerous occasions.
He had ventured on solo hunts in the past, but never anything so foolishly out of his league, such as chasing one of the countries most renowned Monsters through its own hunting grounds, a sure way to find a barrage of poisonous quills to the chest. Thankfully, Jack was equipped with the same high-end armor that possessed the latest technology. It was reminiscent to ancient samurai armor in concept but with many added variations, such as a muscle suit that granted him three times his own strength as well as various types of coating that made him resistant to most elements, hot or cold. It wasn't easy piercing the outer surface of the armor plates surrounding his body; a combination of ceramic and kevlar fiber with a high tensile strength-to-weight ratio that made for easy movement.
Nonetheless, Red could hear Sam's voice in the back of his head, calling him foolish for thinking he could spend the rest of his monster hunting career solo. He would need a helping hand. Having developed a reputation of her own, Red knew he would find Naomi at this years Monster Hunter conference in Latro City. It wouldn't hurt to have someone that's got his back, despite her insane obsession over him.
When it came to traveling across state-lines, Red always preferred doing so on foot so as to eradicate any stragglers in the woods or on the interstate. There were numerous, heavily guarded Hunter lodges scattered across open areas between cities allowing Hunters like Red to rest and recuperate, even offering vendors who would gladly pay for any skins, heads or monster carcasses in one's possession.
By now Red was nearly upon the Latro city limits. He had been on the move since the sun began to rise and decided to rest on a tree branch a good distance from the ground, shrouded in various branches and leaves surrounding him. He was flipping through the rough draft of his own DIY guide
"1000 ways to slice 1000 types of monsters into pieces, or stop their breathing by Jack Harlow" which he intended to publish as soon as it was complete. He was currently on the 747th way to slice the 747th type of monster into pieces when he could hear somebodies voice down below.
"Don't tell me, you're hungry again aren't you?" The voice sounded human but you could never be absolutely sure, that was an absolute fact and one Red derived from both experience and story.
"We might just have hit our 748th chapter." He thought to himself as he stood up straight atop the tree branch, flexing and stretching his muscles as quietly as he could.
"Hold on for a little longer, we are almost there."
Red leaped forward, descending at an angle so as to roll forward upon hitting the ground, unsheathing his sword as he did so, his black leather duster floating gently to the ground, thus revealing Reds armor and a carbine rifle dangling from its strap off his chest. In about two seconds Red descended from the tree landing just behind the mysterious cat whisperer before him, his sword pressed into the back of its neck.
"Hands up," he ordered in a monotone voice
"Are you Human? Your life depends on the fact."