Mission ID: 001
Mission title: The Night Claws

For Rose, spending time in Krane was usually relaxing. Perhaps this was due to the familiar chatter of people that broke the stillness and monotony of living alone. Upon returning, she would expect that same comfortable nostalgia to wash over her, but it didn’t hit like it usually did.

A few days ago, her grandmother had gone off on a rant, first complaining about peace and then of some stranger happenings around Krane. The rant ended in a firm request for her to take a look around. Of course she wouldn’t deny her grandmother. And now that she was in Krane, she was glad for the old woman’s insistence. Still, she wasn’t confident that she would find anything right away. May as well relax for the moment, right?

She headed into her favorite bar. It was quieter than normal but still had the same musky scent. A faint grin glistened in her eyes as she greeted a couple familiar people and made herself comfortable at a rough-looking table near the back. The heavy wood creaked as she sat down and adjusted the intricate knife belt at her waist. She loosened her patchwork cloak and crossed her booted ankles as she leaned back. Of course, she didn’t want to get too comfortable here if things were really as bad as people said.

“Mm..” She bit the bottom of her lip, mulling over her choice of drink. “Still have that cherry moonshine?”

Tag @Zayn Oranus

No one knew what was going through my mind, literally, and everyday it was a constant battle trying to contain these demons in one body. Sometimes, I would wake up and they would all start cracking jokes from left to right, stating the dumbest things that you could possibly imagine, and other days they would want me to fight and try to kill anything that moves. Gunn, the purple eye, was the one with the most wisdom always trying to calm Gen and Gazza down because based on their exchanges, Gen (the red eye) was just a newly born demon and to him it was all about conquering the world and go wild. You know ? Youth antics. Gazza was just...demonic ? He was ruthless and always had murderous intents topped by an unstoppable need to be different and to be the rebel. He was the one who, because of powerful he was, could take control of my whole face and move my mouth according to his will and make me say the most inhumane and cruel things that could scare most people away. But, as chaotic my mind could be, these 3 entities knew not to fuck with me when family was mentioned. As soon as Amala or my mom popped into my head, they would all back up because apparently my emotional connection with my family was strong enough to pin all of them down. It's been a week since I was in Krane, and today, it was all about...family.

I slept throughout the whole day since having 3 demons in my body made me rest more than usual. Gunn (the purple eye) was the one to wake me up around 7pm for no reason. I was furious at him but I couldn't do anything because the last time I tried to talk back to one of my demons, I would have an agonizing headache for hours. I woke up, took a shower then headed out towards one one of my favorite place to be: Krane Bar. Krane Bar was the first bar that opened in Krane and despite the nasty scent in the place, the ambiance was always something you would love to be part of. After an hour max, I reached the place and there was a lot of people inside. While I was stepping inside, Gazza kept saying to me:

-Why do we allow those people to be alive Zayn ? Why ? They are just pawns that we could eliminate right now...What fucking purpose do they bring to OUR, OUR, OUR existence !? ZAYN ! ZAYN ! Are you fucking listening ? You little piece of...

-Shut up ! said Gunn. Something is fishy in here. Zayn, do your best to approach the blonde at the bar.

-Oooh...Gunn wants some intimate actions tonight... whispered Gen (the red eye). Zayn, I think you should open it up by saying:"Hey, I got 3 demons, 3 times the pleasure huh..."

Ignoring both Gen and Gazza, I followed Gunn advice since as I said, he was the wise one. I approached the blonde girl and sat next to her, ordering me a Krane special of the day. Gunn was telling me that she had something that she was hiding, something dark. I looked at her and started the conversation:

-Hey. My intuition is telling me that you are not here for the drinks young lady.

And there goes Gen:"Really, young lady ? You sound like a grandpa..."

As soon as I started talking, a fight broke out in the bar and more and more drunken people were getting involved. Glasses, shoes and punches were being thrown around...Tonight was about to be a spicy night.

@Snow

Rose had already downed her moonshine. She'd try not to drink excessively in public given that her ability to hold down alcohol would certainly be noticed. It wasn't something she wanted to be known for, and besides, she made use of it from time to time.

She kept herself aware, trying to pick up tidbits of the conversations floating around the bar. Most of them were certainly of no help. She tilted her chin up, brow slightly raised at the man who had sat down next to her. Discreetly, her eyes would glance him up and down, taking in any useful information. She couldn't help a quiet laugh at his words.

"Oh really? What am I here for?" her tone was challenging, but not unfriendly and a smile momentarily graced her lips.

And then, the fight started...
She slid from her chair to face the onslaught of flying objects with some form of readiness. This wasn't exactly the kind of action she had hoped to find tonight and she wasn't at all drunk enough to gleefully join in.

"Hey!" she yelled into the fury of fists and who she supposed could be the initiators of the fight. Alright, her yell had essentially gone unnoticed.
Or.. maybe not.
She easily dodged the bottle flying toward her, holding out a hand to slow it down before it could hit the wall behind her. It hit the floor with a small thump, muted and unnoticed by the rest of the chaos in the room.

@Zayn Oranus

I took the Special of the day from the bartender and took a slow sip of it before slightly grimacing because of the hard taste of that specific liquor. There was an insane amount of noise in the bar but my focus was still anchored to the lady in front of me, and as much as I wanted to tell the whole bar to go to hell, it was where we were. Glasses were flying around, punches and kicks were following and a quick glimpse around the bar would show you why Gazza had a point, to a certain extent. These people were just stupid, acting recklessly and every second that passes was just feeding their stupidity which, of course, made Gazza even more mad. Gazza (the face demon) was radical and unwavering in his mannerism and ideology. To him, dictatorship and ruthlessness were two indispensable elements to peace and order. From time to time, he was right.

The young lady had an amused face at my question and followed by asking me what she was here for, which I had no clue of. I was just listening to Gunn and 99.9% of the time, his wisdom did lead us into the right path even if it meant risking our lives. I took another sip of my drink and said:

-Frankly, I don't know but whatever it is, it's not good. I would also recommend stepping out of this place so we can talk about it.

-Zayn ! Watch out ! screamed Gunn inside of my head, giving me the most painful headache that lasted a millisecond.

A 20 centimeters-tall glass flew right past my head and landed in the back of the bar, breaking 3 bottles in an instant. The bartender, shocked, jumped and while trying to catch his balance dropped his left hand at the base of the shelf, dropping even more bottles. I turned around and there was another one going straight towards the girl, and surprisingly she slowed the bottle mid-air...

-Did you see that ? Woohoo, she's cool... yelled Gen, which obviously was the red eye, the demon full of his own youthful energy.

I didn't know if the girl was going to follow me but I got up and I was heading towards the exit when a tall and muscular bearded man stepped in front of me in a way that you would think he was the level 100 boss that I needed to beat to get the fuck out this place. I started smiling.

-Zayn...Let ME ! Let ME take care of this ONE ! PLEASE ! begged Gazza, missing the fun of showing his powers, which I'm usually a little bit scared of because Gazza never knew how to be minimal. He loved the glamour of his abilities and showing them to the world was a way to assert his dominance as an ancient demon. So, internally, Gazza took control...

The tall and muscular guy swung his left fist towards my chin, which I dodged by moving my head in the same direction, just slightly faster than his punch. While his arm was in motion, I quickly tapped the base of his elbow, which automatically got dislocated. Fast enough, he came with the right hook which I dodged by slightly bending backwards. I wasn't planning on fucking up both of his arms, I just wanted him to sit down and let me walk pass the goddamn door. For now, that was me, Gazza was just waiting to do something about the whole situation, and I could only hope that it wouldn't be bloody. The big bad guy decided to come in closer and attempt a forehead smash and since he was way taller than me I was surely going to the hospital if it hit me.

-Come here, inferior creature...whispered Gazza inside of my head, creating a sadistic look on my face, which I never knew how to turn off.

1 second before our forehead met, the man stopped, frozen in place, unable to even move a finger like he just saw a...demon ? He just saw the face of Gazza for a slight second on my face, and yes, that was the power of Gazza: fear. Just, pure fear. The big bad guy was still breathing but all notion of movement was deleted from his brain and he just stood there in the exact same position. I was just looking at him and with a smile on my face, I turned around to look at the girl with a normal face.

-Come outside. This place stinks.

Gazza was gone but was still laughing inside of me, happy about the demonstration of one of his abilities. I moved past the big man and stepped outside. The night was young and it was a full moon, the air was fresh, even more refreshing considering where I was 10 seconds ago.

Honestly, she had expected the man's words to be some kind of pick-up line. An eighty percent chance, at least. His response certainly gave her a second pause, quickly leading to the realization that she didn't want to end up losing him, her only possible lead. It's really the only reason she shut her mouth, holding back the urge to make this whole fight come to an end (something she was sure she could do one way or another).

Her boots crunched and dodged the trash littering the.. everywhere. The stranger was on his way out, so she was as well.

Oh, but it looked like they would have to fight a giant first. Rose stopped, watching carefully as the mysterious man dealt with it. She didn't want to step in; you could learn something about a person in such a situation. At first, he seemed to be fighting well, but then the giant's head came hammering toward him. Maybe she should have stepped in sooner, but now it was too late to do much. Rose cringed, but the inevitable didn't seem to happen.

Her brow wrinkled in confusion and she took up walking closer again, eyes flickering their gaze between the frozen man and this other. Pace picking up, she was soon into the fresh air and took a deep breath.

After a glance back into the bar and a few more steps away, she spoke up, “What was that?” She stepped up closer to him, not exactly wanting to draw the attention of anyone standing outside. Luckily, it was much quieter outside as everyone was either in the bar fighting or was leaving as well.

@Zayn Oranus

Chaos, I profoundly hated that in all its forms. But, as much as I was my own person, I couldn’t neglect the fact that I had 3 other entities residing inside of me. Gen was the chaos’s lover, probably because he was young and stupid. Anything that had to do with chaos, disorder and unnecessary noises was Gen’s wet dream. I knew why and the last time I tried to remind him that he was a little immature and reckless newly born demon, I slept with one of the most insane migraine that you can think of. Still, I liked Gen, he was the coolest one and the one that was always like “Fuck it, let’s just do it Zayn”. And sometimes in life, that’s all you need, to just act blindly, even for a second.

I stepped outside and the girl followed me a few seconds after. I was looking at the sky when I heard her voice asking me what was that inside the bar, and no doubt, she was referring to me locking up the big bad guy in place without even touching him. Well, it would take Gazza to come out and explain it to her because the terms that I was going to use wouldn't fully describe what the fuck I just did. Anyways, I was going to try...

-Huh...That was Gazza, one of my demons. He can basically make your brain forget every other emotion, feeling, and just replace your whole nervous system with fear for a few seconds.

I took a pause and looked around before asking her with a smirk on my face:

-And what was that ? You slowed down a flying object mid-air...

While we were talking, people were getting out the bar, some of them with half of their clothes ripped off, others missing a tooth and the rest of them were just loud and couldn't stop laughing and bragging about the punches that they landed, you know...Futility. I was looking at the moon, patiently waiting for the girl to tell me how she pulled that off.

Demons? What was she getting herself into? Still, he seemed more level-headed than the whole crowd they just walked out of. And it would be nice to have a strong ally.

“Okay,” she answered, satisfied enough with the answer (for now) and the question that followed. It wasn't like this was a guy she wanted to straight on interrogate right now. She could only assume it was the truth, or a good lie. Time would tell.

“I stopped it so quickly because it was half full.”
The blonde woman paused then, glancing back toward the bar. “No demons. Just a little trick.”
She turned back to catch the man's eye and give a sly grin.
“I guess I should thank you for dragging me out of the bar with you. I was this close to joining in,” gesturing a short length with her fingers. She was kind of joking, almost. It would have been fun to slowly flood the room with water, but she did like the bar owner.

“But what you said to me in there... Maybe I am looking for something.” She peered at him closely, still a little skeptical. “Though... I don't know how you know that.”

She came right next to me and we started talking, but throughout this whole time I was eager to get to the point of the conversation that mattered to me the most which was the reason why she came to this bar tonight. I was for sure enjoying the little exchanges that we were having but Genn was telling me that there were way more important matters right now and I shouldn't lose my focus. After I gave her a brief description of one of Gazza's main abilities, she said "Okay" which was kind of disappointing but I wasn't excepting her to jump in place in excitement after hearting the terms "demon" and "fear". Those weren't happy terms, not at all.

She looked back towards the bar and described her stopping a glass mid-air as a "little trick". I was confused about what a trick was and I ended up questioning my own sanity or my knowledge of my own language: "Huh...Then, what is considered a trick ?" That was me inside of myself trying to find any meaning that could relate to what she just pulled off inside the bar but I couldn't. I gave up. She also mentioned to me that she was close to joining the fight and that I helped her out of it by dragging her out of the bar. Well...I was pretty sure that she would've been able to K.O the whole bar if she was pulling more of these "little tricks" on a greater scale.

-Nah, no need to thank me. Usually this bar is a quiet place, I don't know what was the reason for all that just happened tonight.

I looked at her for a second then turned my eyes towards the moon when she mentioned not knowing how I knew that she wasn't here for the drinks and the ambiance.

-Hum...It was just a little trick, looking at her with a smirk on my face.

I took a pause then added:

-Whatever you are after, looking for or investigating, I want to be part of it. Why ? Because I have a weird feeling about Krane. Just a feeling.

As I was talking, Genn knocked the back of my brain, greatly improving my vision while also giving me a slight headache. I saw that a ninja jumping between branches and running through houses coming towards us. I didn't really know anything about Krane's political state but everyone heard about the Night Claws and it was, indubitably, one of them coming to police the place and see what was going on in the bar tonight. Gazza, as ancient as he was, alerted me that these guys weren't to be fooled with and of them was powerful and skilled enough to wipe off other clans. Yes, they were extremely dangerous.

I was waiting for the girl to give me more information about what she was here for. She didn't know anything about a member of the Night Claws sprinting towards us, but she could see my purple eye illuminating every 5 seconds. That was Genn giving me updates and a clear visual on how far the Night Claw ninja was from us.

When he echoed back her earlier response, she smirked back at him, only a little amused.
"Alright, maybe we can help each other. But remember, Mister, you're the one who approached me back there. All mysterious and without answers."
She glanced around again, still trying to keep on top of the situation just in case this wasn't what it looked like. No one seemed to be paying attention to them and they weren't exactly drawing anyone's gaze by talking casually outside.

"I don't know how complicated this 'feeling' is that you're having, but do you know about any strange travel to the mountains?" She spoke a touch quieter than normal, her tone curious and less playful now.
"Or, have you noticed anyone go missing? My grandmother said it had something to do with the Night Claws and the Alliance, but then, that's grandmother... She's always hated the Alliance. And she'd blame a burnt piece of toast on them if she could.”

As Rose spoke, the ninja moved closer, swift and steady on his feet..

She paused. Didn't he seem distracted by something? And what was going on with his eye? Perhaps, she thought, it was the demon inside of him taking control.
“Hey.. Something wrong?” she asked cautiously.

Yet unknown to Rose, the first of the Night Claw police had arrived. He stood near the front of the bar in a sleek, clean outfit. Even from a distance, he had an air of self-importance around him, the kind that could unsettle you at first glance.

Gunn has always been the smart one, wise and unflinching when it came to situations that required a maximum of care or anything dealing with humanitarian causes and helping the people. Gazza, the face demon, was the complete opposite and I could literally hear them argue about their values over and over. Gen never took part in their debates, he was too young and reckless to even think about doing so. Sometimes, it felt good to listen to the youngest one because he would just want to do what needed to be done, no bullshit, no second thought. And as the Night Claw member was approaching, I was thinking about letting Gen handle the situation. Gunn was just too...wise.

She asked me if I knew about any strange travel to the mountains and that it had something to do with the Night Claws and the Alliance, she also mentioned missing people. I wasn’t aware of anything of that nature but as I said, Gunn was enough to make me feel like I should get involved for the greater good.

-I don’t know anything. But, I do know that the way that the Night Claws came to power all over Krane is fishy, no resistance, no spilled blood, just complete submission from all other clans. We will get to the bottom of it, or die trying...

As I was speaking, the Night Claw member arrived at the bar, standing near it, just looking around.

-There goes one of them...

I said that while turning around in his direction in order to get his attention, and since the girl and I were the only ones standing around, he walked right towards us.

-What happened here tonight ? asked the NC member.

I looked at the girl then looked back at the terrifying individual in front of us.

-No manners ? Good afternoon ? Good night ? Something ?

Gazza loved that approach, so did Gen. Gunn kept on telling me that this guy wasn’t to be played with. I didn’t care, at least for now, I wanted answers. The girl and I wanted answers.

So he didn't know anything- Wait, in all that commotion, she had entirely forgotten to make any kind of real introduction. Rose cringed at this a little. She was starting to think it would be better if they could have a quiet place to talk and plan. However, his next words turned her gaze back toward the bar.

Trying to act casual, she turned slowly and non-threateningly to face the NC cop.
And then, the act was up, apparently, as her stranger-companion spoke his mind. Rose's lips pressed in a line. “Well, I guess I'd better say something,” she thought to herself and quickly started, only to be interrupted immediately by the Night Claw member.

“Your attitude incriminates you,” he scoffed and smirked. “Clearly, it's not a good night. I can only suppose you had a part in all of this, seeing as how you show no concern.” He shook his head. “A person's property was damaged.” He grimaced as he took in a breath through his nose. “And you both reek of alcohol.”

This was Rose's first real encounter with a Night Claw member, and already she had lost her patience. If only she could make use of this moment... He looked somewhat important, though she supposed he would no matter what his actual rank. She wasn't against forcing information out of someone, or killing, if it came down to it. Still, to do so without planning was risky. On the other hand, who did she have left to lose?

“Ask the bar owner. They know me and they know it wasn't me,” she answered flatly. If this guy cared about the truth, that should do it...