A Futuristic Earth

Vale listened to all the reports, but noticed that one of the voices was familiar. He didn't point it out though, knowing better. Well, the channel was not that unsecure, but given waht the enemy had done so far better safe then sorry. But, in exchange the enemy really could not risk using the channel for tricks unlike a private channel as others would be around to hear it and observe as well.

But when one signal suddenly went dark, Vale looked around. He didn't hear anything, though...he was starting to develop some nasty side effects from using his hearing to this extreme for so long. But it was not anything of immediate concern, so Vale decided to press forward and go towards the location of the transmission. Of course, since she cut out before giving specific coordinates he only had to on on the freqency strength it did have and the general direction it came from, but it was better then nothing.

He also heard a report from a woman, and it sounded like it might be the one he saw earlier.

"Good to know. A signal cut out just now, heading in the general direction it came from to investigate. Keep an eye out just in case, but it looks like its pretty much over. Still...better make sure that signal going out was nothing serious".

Vale himself did not encounter any enemies on the way there, but...

What the hell?! The box is following me?!

Vale could hear that damn message box tunneling under the ground, following him while remaining out of sight.

Vale would thoroughly question that box later to learn its secrets. He then sent out another transmission burst, hoping others could tell him what was going on in that area. He extended the range a bit to be safe, so it might catch some other people on accident, but it would possibly provide him with more information anyways. And learning what was going on would help, so he continued to listen to others report in.

And then, as he did that...even though while it was basically over it was not over yet, several specific Mailmen were beginning to get contacted about some strange but extremely great paying jobs...it just required going through the most dangerous region near the city.

White was waiting for far too long, and slowly boring it became…just then someone sent some kind of transmission. Actually not one transmission, two…one coming from Mailmen that seemed to be in need of information, and second known thanks to Rai, there was some kind of job for Mailmen, job meant for specific people. At that point it seemed like she finally had to interact with more people, even though she didn’t want to.

“Rai connect me to Mailmen channel, please.” Rai did it immediately, and she took a deep breath…

“Anyone who hears this, and gets strange job with incredibly big pay for it, don’t do it…unless you have a group, though it’s still a bad idea.”

When such jobs appear just after attacks like that, it’s best to avoid them…even more if jobs are meant for specific persons. Usually it’s a way to finish job that failed, at least partially failed at first, but there are other cases as well. White expected something else to be possible, but she wasn’t sure about what it was, yet.

Hopefully no one will ask why I'm skeptical about this job...

Lucas activited his armor skin as he stood watching closely what the plant creature did prepared to defend himself should he need to, however it turned out to be an over reaction as the creature’s plant feature fade around his its face to reveal a human one. The man, now that Lucas could see it, flashed up a ID badge from which Lucas could only make out the man’s first name was Ash before he fled down the road destroying mechs along the way. Lucas was stared flabbergasted at what he just witness for a while until Arc manage to gain his attention again.

“Lucas...LUCAS you in there.”

“Huh” said Lucas “what? Oh Arc sorry I didn’t mean to zone outing just...”

“Not everyday you see a mutant with that kind of power,” said Arc finishing his though.

“Yeah.” Said Lucas deactivating his armor skin and rubbing the bridge of his nose suddenly aware of just how tired he was. “Hey Arc did you manage to get the guy’s full name off his badge?”

“Afraid not.” Said Arc’s voice.

“Do you think can find out?” Asked Lucas sitting on a chuck of rubble and digging out a ration bar “you know recreate the image in the augmented reality like you do with your avatar so we can get a look again.”

“Hmm, one moment.” Said Arc and Lucas bit into his food as he felt Arc connection go quiet a moment before coming back. “Your in luck I was able to do it.”

Lucas eye glowed a soft green as his vision changed to see a digital image on the Ash’s badge floating in front of him.

“Ash Rosenior huh” said Lucas looking at the image. “Of Black Thorn Delivery”

“Perhaps you can stop by later and see about work.” Said Arc

“Yeah perhaps,” said Lucas getting up and brush off his hands. “but first we need to secure the city.”

Lucas activited the remote call program he installed in his bike, calling it to his location. It took a few moments for it to arrive and when it did he heard several people talking over each other on comm channels. Lucas placed his hand on the receiver and used his nano bots to connected to it.

“Arc filter them.” He said

“One moment,” said Arc a moment later the signals separated “here you go.”

Lucas flipped through the signals listening to them until he came across one that peck his interest. The channel had at least four people on it. The first voice sounded like a child asking how everyone’s zone were. The second voice was of an older woman going by Horus who indicated her area was clear before a terrifying sound cut her out.

“Arc tell me that wasn’t what I think was.” Said Lucas

“Afraid so” said Arc “perhaps we should stay away from that area”

“Hmm we’ll see.”

A third voice cut in, that of a woman saying that government boots were on the where she was. The first voice came back telling everyone who was listen he was investigating Horus postion. Lucas was about call in when a forth voice of another woman came on warning all mailman to be cautious about a job.

“Sound advice,” said Lucas before patching in to the channel “This is Lucas Maze my area is clean, and government agents are coming heading over to investigate a signal lost.”

“Lucas,” said Arc as Lucas tuned out of the channel and started up his bike. “This signal lost we are going to investigate wouldn’t happen the same area where an EMP would be right?”

“No comment.” Said Lucas before setting off.

Ash had just started walking when a communication came across his goggles' built in communication system. The message was sent to all mailmen and warning them not to take any new high paying jobs. He then heard another message from a Lucas Maze saying that the area he was in was clear.

"Well if everyone is checking in on here, this is Ash Rosanoir and the south west corner of the town square is still being patrolled by warbots and there were a few guards out there too. I had to find alternate means of escape and the guards are probably listening in on this channel so giving away your positions is probably not the best idea." Ash replied before he received another message for a job with a high payout.

"Figures, best paying job I've been offered in three months and it's just a fake." He said as he looked at the box of power cells.

"And these things. Well, since I don't have a client now ...and I'm not getting paid for the delivery, I guess I'll keep these for my trouble." He muttered to himself as he continued to head toward Black Thorn Headquarters. The city had gone eerily quiet now that a lot of the people had evacuated. It was a sound that always gave Ash the shivers.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Kent remained calm as he was flooded with the people running out of the city. He simply walked through the crowd in the opposite direction as them. Kent's holographic HUD activated and he received the same messages that everyone else did. He didn't respond as Ash had made a good point about giving away locations.

Things started to fall into place in his head. The job he was on right now was most likely a distraction for something else. The reasoning behind it did seem to be a little weak and the pay was ridiculously high. He scanned the city, assessing the damages and to what buildings. He saw that a majority of the damage had been concentrated on the government buildings in the center of the town square. He scanned for warbots and found a concentration of them in the south west corner of the square.

"They must be protecting something or someone." He muttered as he jumped to the fire escape of a nearby building and climbed to the roof to get a better view. He scanned the building closest to the warbots and saw nothing inside that looked suspicious.

"Unless that's meant to be a distraction too." He quickly turned back to the farthest area from the town square looking for any signs of strange activity. Then he saw it, a single warbot that wasn't patrolling but seemed to be guarding a building. The building was out of the way from any of the evacuation routes. He tried to scan it and couldn't see through the walls using any light wavelengths. They seemed to be lined with dampening panels. What ever was in that building was the source of all this trouble.

Kent used his HUD to get onto the mailmen channel and secure it with temporary firewall that would block out anyone from tapping into it or cut off anyone who already had, but it was only for this one message.

"To any mailmen listening to this, I found the source of all of this. There's a building in the North East corner of the city that's unscannable and being guarded by a single warbot. I'm almost certain that the explosion was just a distraction for something else and it's going down in that building. No one should go there alone, I've sent my co-ordinance embedded in the message and anyone looking to figure out what's going down in that building can meet me here in the next five minutes or I'm going in on my own." He informed everyone. Now he had to wait.

White heard another message, coming from mailmen, talking about the possible source of all of it. Something that caught her attention, and annoyed little.

“Rai why didn’t you…” She started.

“Too vague information gathered, possible trap or already abandoned, also there was a firewall that almost thrown us out of mailmen channel when the message was sent out. Possibly another reason to suspect trap or someone from mailmen trying desperately to hide this message.” Rai’s reply made sense, they could leave machines in form of distraction, message she won't comment.

I still want to check that…

She slowly moved from that damn spot, tired of waiting…it seemed like there was an error in earlier calculations.

Let’s just make it a quick travel from here to there…

“I’ll shut you down again Rai…” She said and shut him down without waiting for reply.

"I see, I'll be there in few minutes, please do wait till then." - Came to her mind, but it would be weird for person that isn't a mailman reply to this message, staying silent and going there also. Either choice would be bad, but she wanted to go there...

*Few minutes later*
She finally could see building that was mentioned in message, and she could see someone. Who was that silver haired person,is what made her wonder...
She waved to him or her from a distance, whoever that person was, she would soon learn.

OOC - Silver haired means Kent.

Kent had hardly been waiting a minute before he saw a white haired woman who seemed to be around the same age as him. She was on a nearby rooftop but she didn't say a word, she only waved. This was good, less noise meant it was harder to be identified as a target. There was another noise, the sound of something bursting through the ground and growing at a crazy fast rate. Soon there was a person climbing up a large vine. It was Ash, not that Kent would have known him. Ash went up next to Kent.

"You the one who sent the message?" He asked, having already spotted the White haired woman on the next building.

"Yes, but unless those goggles of yours can penetrate dampening plating, scanning that building will be impossible."

Ash's goggles were good, but there wasn't any kind of scan that could get through dampening plating.

"And why would someone have walls plated with dampening panels unless they were trying to hide something? Something really valuable given all the work they put into that distraction. It's clear they were moving something or some one, but the real question is were they moving into or out of the city?"

"And there's the question of who or what was being moved."

Ash scanned the building himself, not trying to see inside, but rather searching to see if there were tunnels or sewer lines that could have been used to move between locations. There were no escapes leading into the sewers like in the government building earlier and there were no secret tunnels.

"There's no tunnels going in or out of the building, it's a safe. Whatever was moved, was moved into the building while everyone was distracted by the bombing."

He looked over to the white haired woman once more and motioned for her to join them on the same rooftop.

"We need to work out a plan." Ash whispered.

"We should wait for others first." Kent replied. He knew that there would be far more than just the one warbot to deal with in the building.

Luckily for her, whoever that person she waved to was, waved back.
But...
Noticing that someone she was waiting for earlier joined silver haired person annoyed her a little, reminded again of error she was. She thought of bringing Rai on, but postponed it for later.

When silver haired one gave a sign to join she had to either jump to another roof or continue using something she didn’t want to use.

Jumping it is then…

Rooftop was close, so jump wasn’t hard, and fact that she traveled a lot made crossing gap even easier.

Once gap was crossed, she slowly walked towards the two.

“Hello there you two, silver is the one who sent message I presume?” When close enough she whispered , looking at Kent.

It seemed clear that no one else was coming, or they were taking their time.

"Yeah, I'm the one. Name's Kent. It looks like it's gonna be just the three of us going in there." He sighed hoping he was wrong or that others were planning on joining them at the building.

"So what's the plan?" Ash asked in a hushed voice.

"Well it looks like there's a vent in the roof, it might be our only way in, but without knowing what's inside the best I can tell you is to be prepared for anything."

Ash nodded before conjuring a plant creature to distract the warbot while he and Kent jumped across and waited for the lady to get across too.

Vent as a way in, not the best plan but always something in White’s opinion.

Though why roof jumping is so needed, it’s annoying – she thought as she jumped over to Kent, and the one bonded with nature, she really should’ve just checked database, but then it would be boring for her.

Always better to get to know people face to face, they say…

“So we jump inside, and hope that there is no shredder like thingies inside? I mean that usually such places are protected in many ways, if you know what I mean…”

Inside vent could be a small self-defense mechanism, that is an alarm or worse – modified shredding tool, last time she saw someone jump into vent with it just so they can get something out...escalated to bloodbath.

“Umm, like really you don’t want to jump into shredder booby trap, it’s quite painful, but quick.”

"She has a good point." Ash said to Kent about Kali's warning.

"I'd rather not get turned into mulch."

"Yeah, I figured that might be an issue. I can take care of that." Kent grinned slyly as he released a small cloud of nanobots from his hand and it traveled down the vent. They mapped out the vent system including the shredder traps that Kali had warned about before returning to his body.

"Yup, there's a few traps in there. You might want to cover your mouths for a few minutes." He warned before using the data on the composition of the traps to create a toxic gas that would corrode the shredders without destroying the duct work. He let out a belch of the corrosive gas into the vent and it was sucked in by the fan at the other end. A few minutes later he heard the sound of the shredders falling apart and crumbling in the vent.

"We should be good to go now, but we still might want give it a minute to see if anyone else is gonna show up and help."

Kali’s eyebrows went up as nanobots flew from Kent’s hand into the vent. Few moments later she heard Kent saying they should be fine now, and that it may be a good idea to wait for a little longer…see if anyone else comes.

“Well, that was quick, waiting could be a good idea, though somewhat boring…” Arms crossed, she wanted to yawn.

"So we could at least talk, about anything really..."

(So there is a Discord for those who do not know: https://discord.gg/bMXM7g)

(As for why I have not posted yet, that was because I had replied to Lloyds post and was waiting for a reply. But since things have become like this...I would like to discuss with everyone how to continue this for all characters remaining)

(My starting thought is to skip to everyone receiving new jobs in response to what happened, the ones I previously mentioned in a post of mine, and taking the dangerous route through the valley to a nearby city. Please reply as soon as possible. Sorry for taking so long to get to this point also)

Vale was currently in a bit of a mixed, complicated mood. Of course, that was only natural after what had happened.

The first thing he heard from his father was some stupid (comedic), half hearted (actually sincere), extremely irritable (he apologized a lot), nonsensical (very advanced and kinda thoughtful), and totally unreasonable (actually, that is pretty much true) situation that was followed by an actual job.

In terms of what he had imagined all the possibilities, this didn't come close to any of them.

"Isn't this just extremely unreasonable?!"

"Well, its a job, and it does pay really well".

"What reward could possibly be..."

After Vale started to question the pay for the job, he was shown an invoice with a number that nearly made his eyes fall out of his head.

"Are you serious?!"

"Yep".

"Wh...wh...what is with this outrageous number?!"

"And we get half of it as an advance. Well, we are not particularly greedy, but given the situation and how much this anonymous client payed...do your best, Vale-chi".

After that, with a reward and level of importance that basically made him have to accept the job no matter what, Vale took some of those funds to quickly get some new gear he had been eyeing in the market, and then began to head towards the gate while cursing in French, with a bit of German mixed in. At the time of the last world war, the superpowers had been the countries that apparently had the languages of English, French, German, Japanese, and Egyptian. Although, that was what Vale remembered. It seemed like everyone told a different story.

It was not like anyone could use maps to understand where they used to be. Several of the bombs had a terraforming affect on regions, and between that and other disasters both natural and war caused, old maps were essentially useless.

"That damned old man...giving me a job instead of an honest conversation?! Or an explanation?! And what the hell was with that last part of the conversation, about my eyes and face reminding him of mom! I do not look like a girl, was that just him irking me or reminiscing?!"

Vale continued mumbling to himself, switching between every language he knew, as he arrived at the north gate. It was supposed to be a solo job, but it was not uncommon for people to gather up to try and deal with the valley together. Vale had crossed it several times solo himself, although he was not particularly happy any of those times as it was certainly a deadly place.

But something about the way his father left the message made him think he might not be the only one who was going along with this little plan of his, whether they knew it, or more likely, didn't.

Ash was back at the Black Thorn head quarters and had just stashed the box of prototype power cells in a locked chest that required his retinal scan in order to open it. He went back into the kitchen area where he was alerted to the incoming job notice. He was called into the manager's office, something that was usually reserved for the highest paying jobs.

"Well, I don't know what you did out there today, but someone seemed to like it. You were just offered the job that could set you up for life." The large framed manager said with a chuckle as he handed him the job information.

"Upon the delivery of the enclosed thumb drive, the delivery person, Ash Rosanoir, will be compensated with...." Ash couldn't even bring himself to say the number out loud. "Half of it to be paid in advance as down payment for services." Ash gasped. "Are you kidding me? If I check my ID it'll say I have all these credits?!"

"Check for yourself."

Ash pressed his ID to the panel on the manager's and the credit balance showed the insanely high amount.

"And that number will double when the job is done, so I expect you not to mess this up."


Ash went out and bought some more armor as his other stuff was starting to get worn out. He also got a few things to boost his medical and alchemy kits and lots of stuff to keep him hydrated as he went through the deadly valley to the north of the city. He made one last stop to get his goggles upgraded with a better HUD and more light filtering modes to help him through the desert. As he got to the North Gate of the city, he noticed the blue haired boy he had seen earlier in the day before the bomb went off. He remembered something that had been said about a lot of packages being sent out at the same time. Was he the one who had sent it? It was possible, but right now he had a job to do and he wasn't thrilled about having to go through that valley just to deliver a thumb drive with who knows what on it. However, going through the valley with other people would increase the odds of survival.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kent was trying to sleep off the events of the day. He had taken a beating in that house, but he made it out alive. He was staying at one of the local inns when he heard a knock on the door.

"Go away!" He shouted, but there was no response, no follow-up knock, nothing.

"Wait, did that actually work for the first time in history?" He asked with a sarcastic tone. He pulled himself off the bed and checked the door. On the floor in front of the door was a box with "Cake" written on it in poor handwriting. A second later he got a message over a secure comm-link.

"Hello Mr. Shimmer. I trust you have received the 'cake' we would like you to deliver." An obviously altered voice spoke to him.

"I'm not a delivery boy." Kent replied dryly.

"No you aren't, but you do have the skills we require for this mission. The location you're to deliver it to has been uploaded to your HUD and the first half of your payment has been loaded to your ID. The second half to be paid upon delivery."

Kent checked his balance and the price seemed too good to pass up. "Fine. I'll do it."

"Good the others should be gathering at the North Gate right about now." The voice said before cutting off communication.

"Others? What others?" He asked the dead comm link.

He grabbed his stuff and made his way to the North Gate of the city where two of the people had already gathered.

It’s been a while since last events…events that impacted her job a lot. First problems with someone stalking her, then clients disappearing.

And…

Now she’s stuck with a couple of dead clients that wanted something, something that will never reach them. Troublesome part is…a corpse of another client, client that was supposed to meet her in a brothel lied like a stone near sofa.

“Interesting, no one in this brothel seems to know that a corpse is lying here for…” She kneeled near dead man, who was her client once.

“Three hours? No one entered this room? What a joke…”

“Nice try, trying to look innocent that is…” Someone said, someone she did not expect.
In a corner of her eye, a shadowy figure was notable.

Someone with guts big enough to sneak upon her.

“You got guts, that I tell you…”

“Thank you, I won’t ask why you killed him, and later made it look like you didn’t…” Voice belonged to a man, possibly in middle age when considering posture that she caught glimpse of earlier.

She stayed silent, it’s been a while since someone noticed her trick. Trick used to cover one thing that lied beyond this damned place.

Every time particular someone wanted…it, he or she had to die or give up, simple as that.

“I also won’t comment what you’re trying to hide…” Now these words made her wince, whoever that shadowy figure was, he knew too much. Also there was something off about his voice, a crackling sound that appeared after each two words or three.

“Fine, what is it that you want? And before you prolong this unnecessarily, it is obvious you want something, for we are talking.”

“Geez, relax Midget, it’s me…” She turned to see an old friend pulling hood down, and mask off. At that point his voice crackling from time to time made sense, a small detail she partially missed at first.

“You…don’t scare me like that! Anyway, what do you want?”

“Oh, you know I love scaring you, it’s always fun to see you panic and…” He stopped, noticing she’s not amused.

“Alright, alright…just a simple delivery to my normal family outside.” That made her chuckle.

“Simple? Normal? They are not normal…”

“Oh, shut it will ya? Listen you scratch my back, I scratch yours, simple as that.”

“Fine, take care of it…” She pointed at the corpse.

“While I take care of your delivery, group?”

“Yes, gathering in front of north gate, being new mailmen will be useful, and you get to observe some of the individuals you were interested in, isn’t that great”

“You peek into my things far too much Ratie.” She got up, kneeling for so long was tiring, and now she had to reach north gate.

“Yes, yes, yes I know, but you like me, don’t you?”

She sighed.

Why does it have to be so complicated…

Vale was still at the gate, and was checking his gear one last time, both his old gear and new, as he prepared for the trip. He even took off his boots, and wiped the sand out of them before he put them back on. As much fun as it could be to feel the sand inbetween his toes, he needed to focus for this job.

Vale noticed the sounds of others approaching, and turned to face them. It looked like there were at least a few who would also be taking this route, as dangerous and suicidal as it was. He had brought spares of all his normal gear just for this mission. Since they would be going to a dangerous area, it only made sense. However...

"Well, if that is everyone we should get going. I want to make as much distance as possible before nightfall. Since traveling at night will be pretty much impossible, and who knows...we might even lose progress during the night".

Vale said those words, as he looked to his Holo-Tool while it was on Watch Mode and checked the time in a worried fashion.

There were four people, including her, it would be better to have some more…considering half usually dies.

“Poor amount of people for where we go…”

Last time she went there with about thirty people, six of them returned. She could look at the good sides of the people that are gathered here, mailmen they are…not some weak willed bounty hunters like the last time.

“I mean that thirty wouldn’t be enough, but if we had about eight skilled, and armed individuals…this trip would feel like a trip through an old park…with hordes of monsters we need to fend off.”

Ash and Kent nodded in agreement with Vale's suggestion to get going as soon as possible. Both of them were well supplied for the journey, but the look on Ash's face was clearly one of worry. It seemed he was the only one who had yet to venture into this region and he wasn't entirely sure what lay before him. He wasn't sure if he could trust the others or not, but he knew that a group was far safer than going alone in this area. He set his goggles to monitor for non-human lifeforms in the desert while Kent had set his internal scanners to do the same. The last thing anyone wanted was to be surprised by something jumping out of the sand to get them. The trip was not going to be easy, they could feel it.

Vale looked around at the others, and then shrugged.

"Actually, although there are some ways where it does help, sometimes traveling with a large group would only cause more deaths. Besides, we need speed, and more people means a slower pace. Well, with that...we better get going..."

And so after Vale put his boots back on, the group would set off into the valley...

Arriving at the entrance of the valley would be easy, and so Vale and those with him managed to get there without much issue. The issue however was that the sun was already approaching the horizon. As he saw this, Vale took off his headphones even though there was no combat.

"Okay, we need to find a good cave to hole up in before the sun sets. I can check with Echo-location, but it can only be effective for up to a certain range. If anyone can spot a cave that looks like it is rarely used, as in not used by some sort of beast, we can make camp inside for the night and hope for the best. We definently do not want to be outside at night".

Vale said this as he began to "look" around, though it was mostly listening as he occasionally clicked his tongue. But that was not out of frustration, he was trying to produce move waves to improve his Echo-location ability.

White chuckled, Vale may have misunderstood what she meant by bigger group. Nonetheless they had to focus on more important things, so telling him that was meant for later.

“I know a cave or two, though no guarantee it’s completely safe. It’s been more than a month since I last went through here…” From what she remembered both were nearby, one could be inhabited again.

Her levitating drone like sphere friend Rai could be helpful with checking caves out.
“Shall I send my friend Rai to check if they’re available? Caves I mean.”

Kent and Ash both scanned the area, Kent with his enhanced optic sensors and Ash with his advanced goggles, to see if they could find any caves based on their scans.

"Well I found one." Kent said as he pointed off in the direction of a more rocky cliff face at the edge of the valley.

"But, you're not gonna like it. Thermal imagining shows that there's something in it, something big."

Ash turned to look at the cliff face Kent pointed at and scanned it himself to see if he could identify what was inside. He saw the warm red and orange glow inside the cave, taking up almost all the space inside of it, but he couldn't identify the shape of the creature.

"It looks almost like some kind of huge lizard, but lizards are cold blooded, they wouldn't give off a heat signature. And it's at least a hundred fifty meters up too. This is going to be a challenge." Ash said sounding almost excited by the prospect.

"I guess it's either that or we can wait and see what the drone can find. I'd rather not have to fight anything if I can avoid it. I'd rather save my energy for later when I'm sure it will be needed." Kent said dryly.

As Vale heard the reports and such, it did not look very promising. He had also "heard" a few caves, but he didn't like what he heard inside them either. Rather, as expected of a dangerous valley, there were also predators that waited inside the caves at these times to ambush people. Of course, they were also likely weaker compared to the predators they might encounter if they stayed inside.

"I see. I guess it depends on the drone, but that sounds like the best option. There is a cave right over there, but...well, I can hear a lot of sounds inside. And crunching. And when I say a lot, I mean...their numbers are probably over one hundred? That is what it sounds like anyways".

He then turned his gaze, and ears, over to the cave with the large heat signature.

"I wonder...I heard it mentioned in a man once who had found an old book long ago, but could it be...a dragon? All I remember is that it was some big lizard that breathed fire, but apparently there were people who were able to slay creatures like those. I never actually saw the book though, let alone one in person..."

Vale unconsciously then stepped towards the cave. Even if he was on the job, the idea of seeing such a creature, not knowing that Dragons were actually in fantasy and not real, and should have wings, enticed him just a bit.

Well of course, unless the drone found anything, it was not like they had any better options at the moment.

It usually took about ten minutes to search, and scan caves for Rai. The only problem was, one of the caves was already taken by that big thing again, one of the few things she’d love to avoid.

“I know it can be a fascinating creature, but don’t go near there. We’re only safe because it’s not hungry, or we are not in its territory yet.” She said the moment she noticed Vale walking towards the cave.

“Oh, please do avoid using any sort of loud weapons, usually gets angry when its sleeping, and shots are fired...” What worried her, was that Vale may still go there out of curiosity, something she understood very well, for once she did it as well.
Luckily Rai came back, with some good news.

“Nearby caves scanned, ninety percent filled with heat signatures, one cave safe enough to enter.”
She smiled weakly.

“Well that’s new, usually all happen to have some kind of creature inside.”

Partially good news, for drone added…

“Safest cave recently used by mutated form of wolf.”

Her smile disappeared, one thought crossed her mind - I should stop causing things.

Kent and Ash looked at the cave that was pointed out.

"Well, mutated wolf sounds better than a giant lizard." Kent sighed.

"Yeah let's go for it." Ash agreed.

The two of them walked off toward the cave. They were in a hurry so they didn't bother waiting for the other two. The cave wasn't too far away and they got there pretty quickly. However as they got there Kent noticed the sand starting to shift in a large patch near the mouth of the cave.

"Shit, it's a fire worm." Ash pointed out. They traveled under ground and hunted based on vibrations and heat sensing. He knew the other two wouldn't be able to get to the cave if that thing surfaced. He created a plant creature and then slashed it with his plasma sword to set it on fire. He controlled it to have it run away to distract the worm.

"Quick get over here while it's distracted!" Kent called out to them. Seconds later the worm surfaced and ate the plant creature. Then it fell over dead.

"I may have used a poisonous Plant creature." Ash grinned.