07-23-2016, 12:30 PM
Every time Cain thought he had a handle on the situation, he was proven wrong. Nox used some new kind of magic (another one?) to cut through his wall. It seemed to attack the web of magic sustaining the wall rather than the air itself. The redhead tucked that thought away for further investigation – a type of magic that targeted other magic, maybe? Regardless, Cain flushed as Nox rushed past him. He felt a bit like a little kid who’d stepped into his big brother’s fight, who ended up getting pushed away with a pat on the head.
The feeling intensified as he watched Nox frisk the stranger down, clinically pulling out what looked to be his wallet, ignoring the fact that Dane was pointing a gun in his direction. It struck Cain just how out of his depth he was when Nox told Dane not to leave any evidence. Dane was going to kill the stranger. He couldn’t find it in himself to care about the guy, even though Nox was sort of breaking his promise not to let Dane kill anyone. The man had shot at them, after all, and the monster he was dragging around suggested that he wasn’t exactly a great guy or anything.
Even though the redhead didn’t care about their captive – certainly not enough to speak up and risk his own neck – the whole scenario was absurd. Nox and Dane weren’t like him. They weren’t just lost in the Underground. They didn’t accidentally stumble across some crazy creatures and defend themselves. They were purposefully, intentionally hunting the monsters. They were literally monster hunters. And it appeared there was another sect of monster hunters, who were unfriendly enough that they would shoot first and ask questions later. Somehow Cain had managed to land himself into a Godfather-like gang war except with literal magical monster hunters.
Before he’d somehow ended up with magical abilities himself, Cain had been a no one. He was a day laborer who knew how to work a forklift and could do decently well in a fistfight. These guys… they were real killers. Nox pulled him around the corner, and Cain watched numbly as the man struggled with his jumper to get to his wound. The redhead cringed as Nox cauterized it shut. He’d seen some pretty nasty things before. With modern technology, factory incidents were rare, but they still happened, and so Cain had been witness to some bloody, messy accidents. Living on the streets exposed you to the nastiness of life as well. Still, there was something different about a man intentionally cauterizing his own gunshot wound. It reinforced the fact that these people weren’t innocent.
Cain’s life in the last hour had taken a turn for the weird. There were monsters living in the tunnels with him. There were people out there who could – and would – crush him with the power of their mind. And, perhaps strangest of them all, was the fact that he could be one of them. Not only could he, but he had to. The problem with blissful ignorance was that once it was gone, it was gone for good. Cain wasn’t an ostrich; he couldn’t just stick his head into the sand and ignore the monsters and magic. There were things out there, inhuman creatures, that would kill him. There were inhuman humans who would do the same, and they would all do so regardless of what he felt about it. He couldn’t afford to hide beneath the covers and hope nobody got hurt.
Strangely enough, his mental pep talk appeared to be working. Cain felt his pulse slowing down, and his breathing even out. There’d been times in his life when he’d had to man up and do things that he didn’t want to. He could remember the first time that he’d walked away from a fight, or the first time he’d eaten some truly disgusting trashcan food because he was hungry and it was that or starve. This was just another one of those moments. Cain was no longer adjacent to the world of monsters and magic; he was a part of it, and it was time he started acting like it. And a good place to start would be by figuring out just what the hell he’d gotten himself into.
“Who was that man and why did he attack you?”
The feeling intensified as he watched Nox frisk the stranger down, clinically pulling out what looked to be his wallet, ignoring the fact that Dane was pointing a gun in his direction. It struck Cain just how out of his depth he was when Nox told Dane not to leave any evidence. Dane was going to kill the stranger. He couldn’t find it in himself to care about the guy, even though Nox was sort of breaking his promise not to let Dane kill anyone. The man had shot at them, after all, and the monster he was dragging around suggested that he wasn’t exactly a great guy or anything.
Even though the redhead didn’t care about their captive – certainly not enough to speak up and risk his own neck – the whole scenario was absurd. Nox and Dane weren’t like him. They weren’t just lost in the Underground. They didn’t accidentally stumble across some crazy creatures and defend themselves. They were purposefully, intentionally hunting the monsters. They were literally monster hunters. And it appeared there was another sect of monster hunters, who were unfriendly enough that they would shoot first and ask questions later. Somehow Cain had managed to land himself into a Godfather-like gang war except with literal magical monster hunters.
Before he’d somehow ended up with magical abilities himself, Cain had been a no one. He was a day laborer who knew how to work a forklift and could do decently well in a fistfight. These guys… they were real killers. Nox pulled him around the corner, and Cain watched numbly as the man struggled with his jumper to get to his wound. The redhead cringed as Nox cauterized it shut. He’d seen some pretty nasty things before. With modern technology, factory incidents were rare, but they still happened, and so Cain had been witness to some bloody, messy accidents. Living on the streets exposed you to the nastiness of life as well. Still, there was something different about a man intentionally cauterizing his own gunshot wound. It reinforced the fact that these people weren’t innocent.
Cain’s life in the last hour had taken a turn for the weird. There were monsters living in the tunnels with him. There were people out there who could – and would – crush him with the power of their mind. And, perhaps strangest of them all, was the fact that he could be one of them. Not only could he, but he had to. The problem with blissful ignorance was that once it was gone, it was gone for good. Cain wasn’t an ostrich; he couldn’t just stick his head into the sand and ignore the monsters and magic. There were things out there, inhuman creatures, that would kill him. There were inhuman humans who would do the same, and they would all do so regardless of what he felt about it. He couldn’t afford to hide beneath the covers and hope nobody got hurt.
Strangely enough, his mental pep talk appeared to be working. Cain felt his pulse slowing down, and his breathing even out. There’d been times in his life when he’d had to man up and do things that he didn’t want to. He could remember the first time that he’d walked away from a fight, or the first time he’d eaten some truly disgusting trashcan food because he was hungry and it was that or starve. This was just another one of those moments. Cain was no longer adjacent to the world of monsters and magic; he was a part of it, and it was time he started acting like it. And a good place to start would be by figuring out just what the hell he’d gotten himself into.
“Who was that man and why did he attack you?”