Like Vultures to Meat

[Fryga Eriksson]

Santa Noche
The Docks
3:29 AM​

---

Check your clip.

Seven more bullets.

What the fuck. Fryga was sure one of those bullets had gone straight into the woman's chest, and the others through the stomach. There was plenty of blood, but no body in sight amidst the stacked crates, pallets, and metalwork. There was simply no way a human could survive this long with such injuries. But what she was hunting was not human.

A blankbody, or so Ben had called them; blood-sucking demons who feared the sun. He'd told her to stay away from those. They were too strong for her to hunt on her own, but Fryga knew her limits, and throwing oneself into the fire was the best way to temper a blade. Even so, realizing three of her bullets had ostensibly done no damage did place a tinge of doubt in her mind. Doubt would do her no good, so she pushed it away as best she could, and gave chase.

The building where the hunt took place was a large warehouse by the docks. The intel had come from the local forces, when the call of an alarmed witness reported the murder of a druggy just half a mile away. Fryga had arrived first, took statements off the witness, though realized something was woefully wrong. The witness appeared to be a young woman made-up and dressed for a night out (and not one at the Docks), entirely without shock despite having witnessed a murder. The hunger with which she was eyeing Fryga up suggested she had more plans than just giving her statements, too.

Sloppy.

The witness' panic only showed when Fryga activated her Hunter's senses, and saw the corruption brewing within the immortal coil before her. No doubt the blankbody presumed her to be an experienced Hunter, and possibly not alone. A fortunate thing for Fryga.

Less fortunate was the fact Fryga couldn't discern much more about the woman. The blankbody was fast, and had bolted straight away, weaving through a maze of containers and dipping into the warehouse. Fryga had only managed to follow her by the trail of blood the blankbody had left behind. It was eerily quiet when she rounded a corner of stacked boxes. Her heartbeat was deafening.

Axioma ​

 

[Axioma]

Five Hours Earlier

The sound of mail dropping through the door was a common one for those who lived in a townhouse. What wasn't common was receiving mail this late at night. Which only meant one thing; a job. Avery sighed and ruffled his own hair, before they set down the coffee mug and slowly walked into the main hall and saw the single manila envelope lying on the floor.

He took a few more steps forward, before bending down at the knees and picking it up. He tore away the seal and pulled out a two items. The first was a large picture. It was a satellite image of a part of town, with various markings in red pen to suggest known whereabouts of this target's hunting grounds. The second was a dossier. Blank. No information? Avery huffed. Someone at the office was pissed.

"Fine," he said and went to grab his coat.

Present Time

"Psst," the sound came from the above and to the right of Fryga.

Avery was seated on a beam above the stack of crates, and must have at least been watching for a while. A single finger went up to his lips to recommend silence. Their aura had been completely hidden, a basic ability that those adept in the Enlightened Sciences can do with a bit of mental prowess. To the hunter's senses, it might seem like Avery didn't exist at all, despite being literally right there.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

"Psst."

Fryga's heart leapt at the sound, shining her flashlight at the delinquent above. Her finger was a millimeter away from pulling the trigger and boring a hole through the Awakened's heart, but she realized just in time that this was not her quarry.

"What— Who are—", she hissed, though grew silent quickly when the finger touched his lips. Instinctively she knew she was dealing with an inhuman, though couldn't place what type. She wasn't about to use her senses to find out either. That still took a lot of concentration out of her, and she needed every ounce of it to hunt down this blankbody.

It still shook her just how many monsters existed in this world. The number was low, admittedly; perhaps a handful per a hundred-thousand humans at best, but that was still far too many than she was comfortable with. It didn't help this new one was a complete blank to her passive senses, which caused an uncomfortable itch at the back of her mind, like the feeling of being watched by an unseen force.

Whoever this was vexed her. A complication in an already stressful situation. For the first time, she realized her hands were shaking, and the only way to stave off such nerves was to double down and stay determined. As such, she did her best to ignore the newcomer, and pressed on.

The blood trail weaved to the left, then behind two stacked containers, past a series of parked forklifts, and up a steel staircase. When she climbed it, the thing creaked beneath her weight, roaring its metal defiance through the warehouse, and for a moment she questioned whether she should continue at all. No, stay determined. How on earth had they climbed this soundlessly?

The staircase led into a pair of offices above the main entrance, overlooking the warehouse. Another exit to the offices was at the other side. Fryga looked around to see if she could find her new... ally? She wasn't sure what they were, and so mentally prepared for betrayal. When (and if) she found Axioma's form, a quick gesture with her gun and flashlight suggested she wanted them to take the other exit, an equally creaky set of staircases leading into the adjacent office. A pincer movement. Sun Tzu would be proud. Horrified too when he be confronted with the existence of vampires. Those were musings for another day, however.

Knowing the blankbody was soon to be trapped, she kicked open the door with a firm boot to the handle, a loud clang erupting through the warehouse as it crashed into the wall. Slowly she shone the light through the office, until it illuminated her cornered prey, at the opposite end of the office. There were at least three large desks and several filing cabinets between them, a good twenty meters of breathing room. She liked that just fine. A cornered animal was most dangerous, after all, and all she had was a 1911.

"Let's talk this out," she said, sternly. The fact she'd already shot the woman three times made that particular suggestion somewhat less interesting, no doubt. Not like it had mattered much. The vampire woman had indeed been wounded, panting in pain yet showing it hadn't substantially weakened her. Fucking freak.

"Talk me through what happened. This doesn't have to end in death." No answer came, but that was fine. So long as the woman didn't move, Fryga had options. For now, she wanted to see whether Axioma was an ally, an enemy, or just a witness, and awaited their arrival, or lack thereof.

 

[Axioma]

A hunter on the prowl--an amusing circumstance Avery found themselves in. Technically, there was nothing in his orders that prevented him from seeking help. Given the hunter's more supernatural inclinations, he could probably get away with more than a few parlor tricks without risking the wrath of the all-powerful Paradox.

I'm game, they thought to themselves and made their way around to the opposite exit. Trapping a vampire wasn't exactly like cornering prey, however. Their physical prowess easily exceeded both their own and that of their temporary ally. Still, this wasn't Avery's first time with a bloodsucker and if all went well, it probably wouldn't be his last either.

"Knock knock," Avery said aloud after he stepped through the door and closed it behind him. Hopefully the announcement would provide one or both of them an opportunity to get the jump on their vampire friend. Assuming they hadn't already disappeared, or managed to conquer their flight-or-fight instincts.

A reality deviant with a clear mind made a more dangerous enemy than most.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three shots, four left. The first hit the chest straight-on, adding another grievous wound. The vampire had reacted quickly, causing the next bullet to hit its shoulder, and the third to be buried in the wall. Although Axioma was closer, the bloodsucker must've sensed their abnormality somehow, or it simply decided Fryga would make an easier target. They were right, either way. With inhuman speed, and unfazed by the bullets in their body, the vampire leapt across the room towards Fryga.

Bang! Bang!

Two more shoots, one hitting the leg and the other going wide. It wasn't enough to kill the fiend, and a swipe that felt like a swing of a sledgehammer had Fryga thrown across the room. Her legs caught unto a desk, as she flipped over it and landed hard on the floor. No doubt, a rib or three was broken, but she wasn't dead yet. Not even close.

The desk she'd flipped over provided a fortunate obstacle in the way, allowing Fryga to get back on her feet and stumble across the room, waving her gun Axioma's way. Whatever words she wished to yell at her partner-in-justice were caught in her throat, the blow of the vampire having robbed her of air. Two more bullets, Fryga. Make them count... but I need a clear shot first.

 

[Axioma]

Guns. Bullets. Sparks and lead.

You can't really see it, but it's a marvel to observe. Like clockwork, all those pieces coming together with the single pull of a trigger. The only flawed piece of course being the finger that pulls it. Still, as far as flaws go, Fryga did prove to be rather determined but she was clearly out of her league. First time, perhaps? They thought.

No more time for thinking. Avery may not have been off the vampire's radar, but he was certainly not the primary target as the creature focused its vicious attacks on the hunter instead. Clearly survival instincts had taken over, and rightfully so. What a stupid girl... getting herself trapped like this.

Avery began a brisk walk past desks and chairs through the office, and grabbed a stapler with his left hand. The muscles in his arm tightened as new layers of tendons and muscle reinforced over what was already there. Like a baseball player, he brought his arm back and chucked the object like a major league fastball, and struck the vampire in the back of her neck, and caused them to stumble into a desk.

Then he broke into a sprint. If Fryga wasn't able to make her next act count, he would have no choice but to finish the vampire before they could retaliate.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

An inhuman desire to survive surged through Fryga, leaving no room for sanity. Instead of fleeing, the mad Hunter charged at the stunned leech, blinding them with her flashlight, and leveling her gun pointblank at the vampire's skull. Two shots were fired quickly, splattering blood, bits of skull, and a fricassee of grey matter across the office.

While this ought to kill any normal human, the vampire still somehow managed to land a kick into Fryga's groin, sending her falling backwards and sliding towards the wall. Fortunately for the two of them, the vampire was reduced to involuntary spasms afterwards, clinging to life like an overturned beetle.

With great difficulty, Fryga rose to stand, clutching the side of her chest, barely able to stand up but for the wall that supported her. She had been chastised many times for her stupid recklessness, but never had she gotten this close to death. The realization struck her as powerfully as the vampire had, bringing tears to her eyes which were wiped away as quick as they came. Without Axioma's belated intervention, her Hunter's career would've ended here.

"Fuck...", was all that came out of the Hunter's mouth, a half-sob, half-swear directed entirely at herself. "Thanks... I guess." In the back of her mind she knew her 'partner' had done the bare minimum to save her, and would've let her die all the same had their whims directed them the other way. Freaks like these truly have no humanity left, she heard her mentor's words echo in her mind. He was more radicalized than her, and she began to see why.

"It's—... It's still not fucking dead, the thing. Christ. Unholy motherfucker. What sort of hell did these things crawl out of." With her sanity slowly restoring, she assessed her state. A cut along her head, likely from her adventurous topple over the splintered desk; internal damage around her ribs and stomach. Something she couldn't do much about right now.

"I need bigger guns for this," she said, mostly to herself, lifting herself up from the wall and stumbling away from the spasming vampire.

 

[Axioma]

The muscles in Avery's body began to tighten and reinforce, becoming denser as they collect more mass. As he closed the distance between he and his prey, he grabbed hold of an office chair and swung it powerfully into the convulsing vampire and knocked them into the ground, all but destroying the chair in the process. The creature tried to scramble back towards its feet, but the collective damage caused by Fryga and proved too much to heal so instantaneously it would seem.

Claw-like extensions grew around Avery's fingers as he reached down to grab the vampire by the throat. The claws effortlessly pierced the creature's throat, and blood poured from the open wounds. Knelt over the vampire, and keeping her pinned to the ground with his knees, Avery continued to squeeze and crush its throat. Her body continued to convulse and she rasped in a failed attempt to scream. The vampire's body began to tear apart beneath Avery until all that was left was a pulpy, visceral mess where she once struggled to escape his grasp. She had managed to cut into the skin along his forearms, but those injuries already began to heal.

Avery panted loudly and his chest began to heave while he caught his breath. The claws disappeared as quickly as they arrived, and his muscle mass visibly went back to the volume he came in with. His gaze turned over towards Fryga.

"What are you, an amateur?" He grunted.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

"We're not all cursed with inhumanity," Fryga spat angrily, unable to control her emotions for a moment. When she saw the vampire was well and truly dead—as far as she could tell—she took a minute to relax. Breathing exercises—in and out, in and out—and the methodical steps of checking the state of her gun brought her back to a sense of peace and tranquility; as much as that could be gained in a dark world like this.

"I thought I'd wounded the thing more than I had; killing a downed animal, as it were. A wrong assessment," she admitted, her ego touched more than a little bit at Axioma's comment. "I'll not make the same mistake twice."

"But a better question: why are you hunting a leech? I don't know what you are, but you're clearly not human. I thought you freaks left each other alone to your best ability, but you're out here going on a hunt, same as I."

 

[Axioma]

Avery laughed at rubbed the back of his head. He walked through the visceral remains of his mark and took a seat in the nearest chair.

"I'm as human as you are," he said. "What's different is how we choose to be human... Though I suppose it's not exactly a choice, is it?" Avery asked rhetorically. "As for why I'm hunting the 'leech' as you call it..."

There was a pause between those and his next words. Avery leaned back as far as the chair would allow, and began to slouch. They looked Fryga up and down, and the beast within had thoughts of their own. Questions, suggestions, a comment or two. A conversation for the Dreaming. He then looked down to the ruined remains of the vampire, and frowned a little.

"I don't think it really matters why I did what I did. Just as I'm sure you don't want to go into your reasoning," he answered. "And before you give me a pep talk about how evil or unnatural or whatever adjective you have for them... I sincerely doubt you hunted this particular mark out of righteousness." He went on, "I'm of the impression this is your first."

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

"Of course I hunt righteously," Fryga answered brusquely, as if offended by Axioma's assumptions, one thought away from devolving into arguments that might have her come across as self-convincing. "I've no doubt that what I do is right. But don't make any assumptions; I don't kill every freak I see."

The Hunter had no time to sit idle in a chair. With her emotions (mostly) in check, she went about her business, checking the vampire's remains for identities, clues as to their comrades, anything that might point her at more of these leeches. At the same time she scribbled a peculiar mark on her notebook, tore out the note, and slipped it into a pocket.

"This wasn't my first," Fryga continued while working on the corpse. "First time working alone, though. Might be my last too. I'm almost envious of your talents; it'd certainly make the job a lot fucking easier. There's only so much firepower I can bring before I've got unwitting anti-terrorists at my doorstep, and I'd rather avoid being branded a traitor."

"Anyway," she stood up again, writing a few things down in her notebook, glancing sideways at Axioma. Her expression was back to its impassive self. "I'm sorry for the crass comments earlier. Heat of the battle and all, I'm sure you understand. Frankly, I don't have much better words to use than freak, without switching to a lexicon better befitting a medieval crusader. Though, styling myself the next Jeanne d'Arc would make for a stylish alter-ego. Maybe you could be my Gilles de Rais, eh?" The morbid reference put a cheeky grin on her lips, but she wiped it off quick enough. Can't have too much fun while on the job, after all. "I'm Fryga. Do you have a name too? I can't say I know a lot of your kind."

 

[Axioma]

Avery might've gave the appearance of someone a little too cavalier for having just battled a vampire and still recovering from some damage, but the truth was they didn't have much choice but to sit. Anymore effort, exertion, or use of power would take minutes, hours, or perhaps days off their life. He felt the organs firing off like little motors, doing whatever they could to keep the body alive and the biomechanics functioning as an ordinary person. Yet he was anything but ordinary, and the stench of death would not go amiss by anyone with a keen nose.

"I've been called worse things," he remarked when she apologized and slouched further. "Romantic as a saint may be, you know she was poorly educated and ended up executed?" Of course that's how all those tales go. Every divine hero has a tragic end, it would seem, especially if they're French.

"Fryga?" He chuckled a little. "Is that what your parents picked?" Americans, he thought to himself. They really loved bending naming conventions in this day and age. "You can call me Avery," he answered, "which is less exciting I know but..."

Avery's expression changed as if he just remembered something. "We should go. The cleanup crew will be arriving in a few minutes, and they're not particularly fond of witnesses... Though you're not exactly an innocent bystander, I'm not sure the semantics will matter. Shall we walk and talk?"

He slid upright in the seat before taking a stand, his body nearly stumbled forward before the muscles remembered to move. It seemed the flow of blood needed correction after his brief display of power.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

"And she was only nineteen years old." There was a curious hum that came from her, surprised by the fact she knew such useless trivia. French history wasn't exactly the most interesting of topics to her. "I suppose that's the crux of history. To appear in the annals you needn't be smart, wise, or beautiful—just inspiring."

"And dead, too, I suppose." To emphasize her words, she gave the lifeless corpse of the vampire a nudge with her boot, and made sure it was directly in the sunlight; or the would-be light rather, when dawn inevitably arrived.

"Let's," she finally answered him, giving her body a stretch, which she quickly came to regret by virtue of a bruised or broken rib. It wasn't fatal, and walking went just fine, so she pushed the thought of fixing it into the back of her mind for now.

"Thank you, again. I think it's clear enough I couldn't kill that thing by myself. I'm not even sure what you did exactly to kill the thing. It looked like you were mutating your arm, or something. You'd make a good villain in some Marvel movie, I'm sure. One of the weaker ones though, so don't get your hopes up. Something for Black Widow to kill, or whatever the hell that guy with the bow is called. Let's call him Hunter, because he'd be about as useless as me at killing vampires, I'm sure." A chuckle escaped her, perhaps a little too talkative considering she was talking to a freak. Post-battle highs, perhaps.

A thought did strike her for a moment: do supernaturals even watch TV? She imagined a vampire watching Castlevania, frantically writing down notes on how to be a better bloodsucker. It'd make Fryga's job a lot more fun if they were half as entertaining as Dracula's kith and kin.

Either way, of late she'd met more of these mystical humans. What were they even called? She'd learned of blankbodies, werewolves, shifting things, but of these faux-humans capable of feats which could only be described as magic she had heard oh-so little of. Having read plenty of fantasy novels and comics, the terms mage, warlock, wizard, and witch came to mind, but also mutants and... well... superheroes, for the lack of a better analogy, even if the hero part she imagined not to be fitting. She'd read enough 80s era superhero comics to know what they were capable of too, however. Either way, she decided to entertain this Avery long enough to learn a thing or two, as she had with doctor Chen.

"I think you owe me at least a few details of what you are. I took all the blows after all, and you came out scot-free."

 

[Axioma]

The sign of an injury was obvious to Avery as the sound of birds signing to remind you that you've stayed up too late. He couldn't help but glance immediately to the point of failure just below Fryga's chest wall. A shame, he thought to himself, for those weren't easy injuries to deal with. Can't exactly cast a rib, after all.

First though there was the small demand made, and some finer points of semantics to clarify. And so they walked and talked while making their way down the stairs, and out the other side of the warehouse.

"Hawkeye... but I suppose Hunter is close enough." He revealed his amateur Marvel knowledge. Disney was intent on making billions of dollars, so how could he have not seen at least one Avengers film? "I'm afraid to disappoint you, but I am in fact human, Fryga. I'm sure it isn't beyond your comprehension to accept that our species is capable of feats far greater than our common man suggests." He elaborated, "I suppose I'll at least indulge you a little, though honestly I'm not allowed to say much."

The back alley was cold and the air humid, it made for an uncomfortable environment but after the little exercise they both had, it probably was a welcomed change of pace. "I am a Scientist, and it just happens that my understanding of Science allows me to achieve a number of feats that the majority of humans would consider to be supernatural. As in your case I'm sure. I am unlike that vampire we hunted... My physiology or mind has not been altered by some force I cannot necessarily choose or control. In the same way that a medieval farmer would probably find an MRI scan to be witchcraft.... Well I guess that's it. I'm basically Dr. Strange."

"Fuck," Avery said under his breath. "It really comes to Marvel references?" He asked rhetorically.

 

[Fryga Eriksson]

"It makes you wonder who's really working at that studio," Fryga mused idly, taking a good, deep breath of fresh air. The moon had a terrible way of revealing all the evil in this world with its reflected light, and seeing it up in the sky filled her with both dread and hope, unsure which side the astral body was on. Today, it felt like it was on hers. Only barely so, however.

"I'll admit to erring on the side of considering you human as well. You ah—... doctor Stranges?—have a way of escaping our Hunter's sight. We see leeches clear as day, and wolves we can smell before that, even shifters have an aura about them which is unmistakable, if ambiguous. But your lot—... Okay, what are your kind even called? I'm not going to call you every variant of Benedict Cumberbatch, hilarious though it might be."

Fryga looked over her shoulders. In the distance she saw the flashing blue and red lights of the police force. It wouldn't be too long until they found the vampire's body—or what remained of it. But they weren't Hunters. More than likely their minds weren't adjusted yet to seeing such supernatural horrors, and would attempt to reason their way around it. It'd buy them another few hours, she imagined.

"Anyway, by the fact you can't tell me why you hunted that leech tells me either of two things: you belong to some secret organization, or you've got some wicked ulterior motives I shouldn't know about. By the fact you're so keen on calling yourself human, I'm going to guess it's the former. I don't suppose they accept Hunters, do they? I wouldn't mind working together with your kind; it'd certainly make my job a lot easier."