The Circle City Chronicles-THe banishing League O.A.T.

Sato quickly pointed at Persephone, "The young witch over there says that we are going to an abandoned oil refinery, or at least that is what the paper our absent commanding officer gave us says. First off we need to board that ferry over there to get to it. I think there is still someone that is missing, we two, the hunter and witch talking over there, and the young one are still waiting until they get here. I think that we should wait for another thirty minutes and then we leave. Get familiar with everyone else since you do not have a file on them. Just to warn you this is considered clean up duty for most of us here." He finished his thought and turned to walk toward the boat wanting to get this first skirmish over with.
 
"Permission granted, whatever! c'mon sato's bad humor is gonna beat this truck tot eh dock at this rate, CLIMB ON AND LETS GO!" she yelled, revving the engine of the big deisel transport and-minutes later- started off down the grassy plains towards the dock eighteen miles away.


Now, everything in circle city is less than four minutes away. the nearest grocery store, your favorite strip mall, pedicures, manicures, pet grooming, theatres, all the accomidations of a 'civilized' society, at your fingertips. not to mention the blistering speed of internet. But out here in teh grass plains, It is a whole different world. waves of grass travel across the world, an ocean of emerald year round. the winter snow never piles high enough to get over the grass that seems to almost mystically flood out of the ground.

Here in the plains, nothing stirs the silence but the howl of aa lonely ground owl or buzz of a cicada. The only sound was the roar of the engine, and what looked like only a short trip tot eh ocean in the distance was a grueling three hour haul to the socks. the dock itself came into view nearly half an hour before they got there.

Persephone drove silently. humming to a tune unintelligable. the radio in the truck was broken, and the C.B. radio showed no signs of life out there.


"Oddly peaceful out here isn't it/" The driver spoke, looking back at everyone.
 
"Peaceful my left arse cheek. I'm just waiting for the first nasty surprise to pop up and say 'BOO'. I hate the outdoors....so many nasty kinds of creatures out here. Take them out and yah, it'll be peaceful, until we find something else." Miranth's eyes darted around the windows so fast that it looked as if she were actually spinning her head all the way around. "Ugh, so, anyone else wanna introduce themselves here? Or do I have to figure it out as I go along?"
 
"Persephone's my name." she said. her name woudl stick pretty quickly. She was infamous at the academy for her soul-devouring techniques. a nasty enemy to make, but from a third person view like Miranth's, she was probably more of a misunderstood, rather crazy witch.


The truck hit a short, Harsh bump, waking up anyone who might have been sleeping.
 
Both Nero and Hiaril had been half asleep, (in and out of consciousness where one can kinda hear and follow a conversation or question but unable to realize what's going on unless directly brought out of such a state)
The jolt had indeed woken the two up, Nero who after a bit of yawning managed to half slur out a reply

"My name is Nero, and that over there is my partner, Hiaril. We make up team Leones. Also what was your name again?"

At that Hiaril made a faint smile.
"So what can you do?" Shifting slightly in her armor she asked with a tone of seriousness.
 
"Miranth, it's a pleasure to meet you both Nero and Hiaril. My specialty is capture of course, but how I do it is just a little different. I have a specialized spell that is proven to capture any spirit as well as most demons, then I can do with it whatever needs to be done, or wait for my assigned Slayer to put it out of its...my misery. Either that, or I just cause some serious pain with my other pet spell, hopefully you'll get to see them in action today." Miranth smiled cheerfully at the other witches and the slayer before turning her head to look over at Sato. "So, since I only got part of your qualification, wanna tell me the rest yet?"
 
Sato looked up from the trial that he was walking on and towards the transport. "Depends on what you would like to know. By the way what does it say about my qualifications in that little files of mine?" Sato yelled from his position next to the truck.
He very much disliked covered transport, it took too much out of smelling and feeling the open air. If he could he would have rode a horse here but the only one that he had seen thus far had been the commanding officer's.
I wounder where he ran off to, now that i am thinking of it. I also wonder why he can't be seen publicly handling this situation? He thought. His eyes moved back to looking down the trail to the boat and perking up his ears to listen to the recently acquired witch.
 
Miranth opened the file. "Well, it's mostly just a small record of the honors you recieved in training. There is very little about your field work except the obvious note 'on active duty' it doesnt say why you were picked for this assignment, and what other assignments you've been on. If this is your first squad on your own, or just how many witches you've actually gone through. They gave me the bare bones of this before stuffing me in a car and sending me out here to meet you myself. Also, you mentioned we have a commanding officer? Anyone know who this person is, and why he's absent?"
 
Sato looked up at her, "I have just finished my first year with the company. In that time I have done many mission and I do not know why they are not in the file, unless they were all off the books which I have to say to that I do not know why they were off the books. I have just had two witches leave my squad becasue I had to take this job, they were reassigned. None of us here could tell you why we were chosen for this mission. I think only the commander knows why and if you ask him he will most likely give you some vague answer that does not tell you anything; trust me I aksed. The commanding office, now that we are talking about him, is named Blithe and that is all I can tell you other than the fact that he cannot be seen doing this mission for some reason or another. You will know him if we see him again."

I hope that answers her questions. But why are none of my past mission, and general iformation not in my file. The only one that has seemed to know was the commander. This is getting rather interesting in the least. He pulled his head away from the transport again making his way to the ferry stuck in deep thought.
 
"Hmm, I don't know why it's not in this file, but of course this isnt your official file, this is probabaly just a quickie copy they made to get me out the door. And you said our commanding officer is Blithe, Zorin Blithe? Yeah, today must've been his good day, otherwise he wouldn't have said anything at all, and probably would've just smashed your face in for questioning his authority by asking. Either that, or he just likes you. But I know really well who he is, dont need to see him to know him. He and I go way back, prolly cuz he was just around alot when I was being passed around the staff at the Corporation. Good guy, scary as hell on a bad day, but he does his job and he does it right, a hundred percent of the time."
 
Sato chuckled a bit at Miranth's comment about Blithe liking him. "He did tell me that he liked me. Mostly for my paperwork and success rate."
Sato stepped on the boat immediately feeling the motion of the water. He acclimated himself to the movement quickly and leaned against the side and waited.
 
Miranth walked onto the wobbling boat behind Sato with ease.
"So you do the paperwork, and you have a good success rate. Tell me then, how good is your current success rate. And that may be all the compliment you'll ever get to him giving you a compliment. And with his status within the Amaranth Corporation, just be grateful that he's even taken the time to speak with any of us." Miranth smiled at Sato "So, yeah, he does like you. If only because he doesnt have to clean up your mess."
 
"I have never officially failed a mission but several of the missions have been completed sloppily. By my average each mission has had about a ninety-three percent success rating plus or minus a few percent, giving me an overall success rate of ninety to ninety-seven percent. Like i have said before i have a one hundred mission completion rate. I suspect that everyone here actually has high success rates as well, some would say unusually high. That may be a connecting factor to why we were all chosen for this mission." Sato said looking directly at Miranth and then looking around at everybody at the end of his analysis.
"If I may ask what is everybody's success rate?"
 
"Well," Miranth looks up at Sato "You're my first assignment."
 
Persephone stepped out of the vehicle as it came to a stop and found a note tied tot eh dock. there was NOBODY here... at all. just a small yacht-like boat and the not saying slayer CID had already left because fo the approaching storm. sure enough, there was a bleak grey sky tot eh north.

"Great.. i hate rain..." Persephone sighed. "Hey everyone,That slayer thats supposed to be here left without us tot eh oil rig. hop on the boat, There shoudl be more info in files belowdeck, lets find em before we take off." she said. somewhere it eh shadows of the buildings here... somethgin stirred, staring at them.


"Hey sato.. what do success rates mean when all it equals is how the company looks at you? someoen with a fifty percent rate is still an investment to Amaranth and gets paid just as much as the next schmuck." she said, walkgin over to him, hands on her hips. " I aint seen a single day of active duty with a slayer that i didn't wish i got a little moremoney in my pocket at days end." she said, looking around at everyone.

"But i tell you what." she giggle,d smilgin at sato. "Spirits do taste yummy... and this is a search and destroy mission... capture is only an option, and you can bet if i dont get aid well, I'm gonan tkae my fill of spirits." she licked her lips. Her bad reputation proceeded her. she had eaten the souls of four PEOPLE at amaranth during her training.
 
"Okay, I'm going to go below deck, look at the files, but I gotta say one thing first." Miranth turns to Persephone.
"You are one seriously F**ED up witch, and I'm gonna warn you now, try anything, and its your own soul you'll end up tasting."
 
Sato chuckled lightly at the witches, "Persephone, if you want more pay I am willing to give a third of what I have in savings and fifty percent of what i make on this mission. Granted that you do not eat anyone here and you leave three fourths of the souls we battle alone so we can use them. How does this sound? And on the note of success rate, the better your success rate the better chances of promotion and better pay. I am striving for such things especially since I have met Zorin; I need to find that one person and i have to catch up with our commanding officer. If they happen to be the same person even better and then I will battle Zorin to see who is better at that time. I do not know what it is about him that makes me want to, but I do." He looked at Persphone for a bit, "Sorry that was a bit to much of a look into my ideals and character." He smiled at her and turned to walk below deck to look at the files as well.
 
"Dont even bother Persephone." Hiaril said with a stern voice and an icy glare.
"We WILL recover All the spirits, so dont even think about it, as me and Nero will not hesitate to knock you out and tie you up while the rest of us complete this mission." With those last words she stepped onto the boat.

"Wait something's not right..." Nero said,
"If there was only one boat, how could the other slayer have gone on without us?" He said this more to Hiaril who was still next to him.

"Obviously there were two boats then." Hiaril replied with a slightly confused look in her eyes.

"No, Since when would Amaranth give two boats for one whole team." Nero replied, "So either something happened to the other slayer, or he's still around here somewhere." Nero finished, quickly turning around and surveying the area.
 
Miranth paused heading below deck at Nero's words. 'So either something happened to the other slayer, or he's still around here somewhere.' She turned around and looked over at the rest of the group.

"You know, youre right about that. Amaranth wouldnt give us two boats, and they're the only ones that use this area." Miranth looked around the area as well and listened to the sounds. All she could hear was the quiet lapping of the water. "Listen, do you all hear that, nothing, nothing but the water. There should be more sounds than this, even with the abundance of spirits in the area. In fact, that should mean there are more creatures and life here, but all there is is the sound of the water. I dont like this either. I agree with you Nero, somethng isnt right."
 
The waters were still and the place was seemingly abandoned. but a place so well kept shouldn't be abandoned right? Persephone paused right before she got into the boat and looked around.

There was a crate with a bite mark in it twenty feet away, and the building to the left had a huge smash in the garage door. Persephone gasped and looked around. No doubt everyone was noticing all the same kinds of things. this was supposed to be a port for fishing, and also the nearest port to the oil rig nearly Seven miles offshore.

"oh god...your ri-" there was no time to finish her sentence, the resounding burst of water flooding up in a spout forty feet out in the water came. as soon as Sato had touched the boat, the Demon had known there was food to be had. the giant looming creatures head had a amphibious dragon look to it, three rows of wicked teeth and fangs on top and bottom jaws. liek all demons, its eyes where a cracked rainbow of colors with a single white dot int he middle, staring at them as it flared its nostrils. a single octopus-like tentacles wipped up on either side of the head and it let out a massive roar that deafened all in its wake.

the game... was afoot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back