Monster Hunt NYC: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Harmon Cooper

“Shhh…” Aya pressed her finger to my lips. “You are our Alpha, you know.”

  “But that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, we fought a teenage female Alpha today in Central Park. Alphas can be anyone. I’m sure she wasn’t cuddling up to her Hunters.”

  “Just don’t tell her and enjoy the attention for once. By the looks of how you live, you don’t get much lady attention,” Aya said, sitting on my other side.

  “Are they here?” Iris asked as she stepped out of the bathroom. Her face was smooth and shiny, her glasses still off.

  Thank god for that; with her glasses on, she might have detected the Huntresses’ digital trail.

  “Um, yeah,” I said awkwardly. “They are sleeping over there on the floor. Goodnight, ladies.”

  Lady C. giggled. “Good, let’s keep this our secret.”

  It was weird. After a taking a quick shower and brushing my teeth, I returned to my bed to find Iris on the right, Aya in the middle, and Lady C. on the left, a romance novel (of all fucking things) in her hands.

  It was only a full-size bed, so there wasn’t technically room for four people, but two of the people didn’t count as people, and I knew I’d be in for a pretty strange visual once this all went down.

  Boy was I.

  I lay down next to Lady C., who quickly scooted up next to me, and Aya resettled between Iris and me. Because of our proximity, a portion of Aya’s body was actually merged with Iris’, which kept throwing me off.

  Iris was already yawning and half asleep, so I turned to Lady C. to find her looking directly at me, her head sharing my pillow.

  “Jesus Christ,” I started to mumble.

  “I read his books too,” Lady C. said. “I love reading epic fantasy.”

  I knew if I responded to her that Iris would hear me, so I just nodded and pretended to yawn.

  “I think I need to move closer to you,” Aya said behind me. “It is cold here. Is that better?”

  Is she spooning me?

  I cleared my throat.

  “Is everything okay, Chase?” Iris asked, her voice droopy and sleep laden.

  “Yeah, it’s fine.”

  “This is interesting, right?” Lady C. asked, her eyes bright and some of her hair pressed in her face.

  I nodded.

  “Can I move closer?”

  I wanted to ask how, as in, how can you get any closer than you already are? Instead, I nodded. Her hand fell onto my hip and she thrust her body closer to mine.

  Lady C. bit her lip and moved just a few inches closer to my face. Our noses practically touched now; we were eye to eye and even though it was dark in my room, I could make out every portion of her face.

  I started to shake my head no as she moved closer, her lips pressing into mine.

  Of course, my body screamed yes, and I couldn’t deny that she was now unbuttoning her pajama top, her breasts spilling out.

  So I closed my eyes; I let her touch me for a while, let her kiss me, and I simply enjoyed it. I didn’t want to disturb Iris by moving around, and I knew Aya would give us both a lot of shit if she knew what was going on.

  Eventually, Lady C. grew tired and her roaming hands, and hell, my very careful roaming hands, eased up a bit. She turned and pressed her ass into my groin, moving it up and down as she got comfortable.

  Like anyone in this position, I reminded myself this wasn’t real, that I was having a digital hallucination, nothing more, and that nothing good would come of a relationship between us.

  But there wasn’t much I could do aside from relax and enjoy, so that’s what I did.

  Chapter Seventeen: Hunting a Giant

  “Sleep well?” Iris asked after I woke up.

  Lady C. was still pressed into me, my arm over her side. I removed my arm lightly to see Aya sitting up on the other side of me, observing us carefully.

  “Pretty close,” she said with a wicked grin.

  “Goddammit, Aya.”

  “What?” Iris asked.

  “Nothing, um, never mind. Sleep? I slept fucking great!”

  I reached for my glasses.

  Iris sat with her back against the wall, directly across from the bed. I needed to put a seat over there, but the only seat I had was one that was on rolling wheels, and Alex had borrowed it, though come to think of it, I didn't know why he needed that seat in the first place because he mostly slept in the living room.

  But that was a mystery for another day.

  I stood up, stretched my arms over my head, and yawned. Iris unpeeled her banana and started eating it, her eyes moving left and right as she read something on GoogleFace.

  “What are you reading about?” I asked her.

  “About these exclusive tournaments, like the one that’s being put on by Sagelock. I've actually been able to uncover a little information about him, and this tournament. It really is a unique opportunity, so I take back whatever I said about trading that transferable token for entry. It was a good move.”

  “Thanks.”'

  “You should be thanking Lady C. for the good time she gave you last night,” Aya said as she stood from the bed. In the blink of an eye, her armor had returned to her body.

  Lady C. cleared her throat. “Nothing happened last night.”

  “Why do you keep looking back at the bed?” Iris asked.

  “Um ...”

  “I thought you said they were sleeping on the floor.”

  I saw then that Iris wore her glasses, which she always wore, and that she could see their digital imprints.

  “It's not what it looks like,” I said hurriedly. “I think they crawled up in the night, and I'm not happy about it,” I said loud enough for both of them to hear me.

  “You sure seemed happy about it last night,” Lady C. mumbled under her breath.

  “Ha, I knew something happened between you two!” Aya said.

  “Watch it, Thulean.”

  Aya laughed long and hard. “That would be an interesting fight.”

  “A fight you would lose,” came Lady C.’s reply.

  “Okay, everyone,” I clapped my hands together. “Iris, to answer your question, they are sneaky, and they snuck into the bed after I’d fallen asleep.”

  “Liar,” Lady C. said.

  “And you two,” I turned to them. “I think it’s time to go back to the Dojo for just a moment, so I can wake up and figure out what we need to do today.”

  “So, that's all I am to you?” Lady C. asked.

  “Let's deal with this later.” I said as I shut down the Monster Hunt app.

  They were going to be pissed at me, I was already ready for that, but the amount of distraction they caused just being around and arguing wasn't worth it.

  A loud, authoritative knock startled me.

  “Who do you think it could be?” I said as I moved to the living room.

  “No idea, but they sound serious.”

  I turned back to my bedroom and said, “I'll check through the peephole.”

  Alex was gone, of course, and his burrito was still out, also of course. I moved up to the peephole and gasped when I saw a police officer standing on the other side.

  Fuck, I thought, immediately thinking of Thad.

  And this thought turned out to be right.

  The police officer, a humandroid, scanned me as he handed me a paper citation. He looked like any other man, with dark skin and a fresh haircut. The only reason I knew he was a humandroid was because of his eyes, which had dilated upon greeting me. If they hadn’t done that, he would have been indistinguishable from a human.

  “What’s this exactly?” I asked, knowing full well what it was.

  “You have been recorded assaulting Thad Johnson-Logan, and while you have not yet been proven guilty, video evidence, taken from six different cameras, will be used against you in a court of law. By contesting this citation, you are setting a day in court where the evidence shown here…”

  Moving images appeared on my viewing pane and I gulped.

  “
Because charges have not been pressed, you may pay the citation instead, which will eliminate your court date.”

  “But then I’ll be pleading guilty, correct?”

  “The State of New York does not recognize paying video citations as an act of pleading guilty. If charges are pressed, the video evidence will still be used against you, and your fine will be applied to the costs for either a) a court appointed attorney or b) the fine resulting from the judge’s decision. Failure to pay the citation can result in the loss of your UBI.”

  “I’ll get it paid,” I grunted as I took the citation from him. The act of taking the citation also put a reminder on my iNet desktop, letting me know the fine was due next Friday.

  “Thank you, Mr. Knowles. I hope you have a nice day.”

  The humandroid police officer stepped away and my eyes dropped to the citation.

  “Great,” I mumbled once I saw it was for a thousand dollars. This on top of the money I owed Iris had me itching to get out and get using the Monster Hunt app.

  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  My first Brawl was set to take place at Bushwick Inlet Park. It was a fairly large park, and I had to take the bus to get there. I wasn’t ready to release the Huntresses yet, so I spent the ride trying to line up some more Brawls in the park.

  I made my first Brawl invitation and put it out there, which was quickly picked up by an anonymous user.

  The Brawl add-on was ingenious in the fact that it allowed for users to fight people matched to their stats, yet didn’t actually show much more details aside from a GoogleFace-esque circular picture of the person.

  Most pictures were anonymous, and only a few actually showed the person’s face. Mine was a picture of the legendary Geddy Lee. It was a super throwback, but hey, Tom Sawyer still jammed even way over a hundred years later.

  I had Brawls set for 9:30, for 10:15, and for 11:00.

  After that, I planned to meet Iris, hopefully eat something, and then work to capture some mythcrea in Central Park. I had one day to get some fundage and get enough tokens to reach the next level.

  I brought up my stats:

  Joe Camel and Sun Wukong were worth seven tokens, and I’d already held eleven, which meant I needed to capture and keep seven tokens’ worth to maintain a Level Three status.

  I also wanted more mythcrea to sell, to increase my Proxima funds with the hopes of making the Dojo better and now paying back Iris and Johnny Law.

  I just hoped Thad didn’t press charges.

  The bus stopped on Kent and North 10th, and after I got off, I activated the Monster Hunt App.

  “We thought you’d never bring us back,” Aya said in a mocking voice. “Pretty cruel just to send us away like that.”

  Lady C. laughed. I turned to her, looked away, and looked back once I realize she was not acting strangely at all.

  That’s a relief, I thought as we entered the park.

  “How was Iris?” asked Lady C., as if nothing had happened between us. “Did she go to school?”

  “She did, and she’ll join us later for a hunt. In the meantime, we have some brawls to participate in.”

  Bushwick Inlet Park was pretty empty at the moment. At night, it was a hotspot for pickup soccer tournaments, usually hosted by various ethnic organizations that lived in and around Brooklyn. But at the moment, there were two people in the park.

  One was a man kicking a soccer ball into a net and the other was an older guy, standing with his hands behind his back and wearing a pair of camo cargo pants.

  He must have been at least sixty, which would mean he was born in the 2030s.

  The man nodded, I nodded, and it was on.

  I had to win this match, which was why, just before we started, I went ahead and wagered all of my Proxima Dollars on my victory.

  A stupid move, really, but I needed the cash and I had confidence in my Huntresses.

  Besides, it wasn’t like I’d be taking money from the other Alpha; no, all Brawl bets were run through the app, and they ended when you ran out of funds. There was a pool out there somewhere, well, somewhere digital, that had millions of PDs ready to be paid out.

  “We have to win this one,” I reminded Aya and Lady C.

  “Is there any other option?” Lady C. asked.

  We’d already agreed to the terms: two Hunters, one mythcrea.

  My opponent Alpha grinned as his two Hunters pixelated into existence.

  One was a tall muscled woman, almost like a female bodybuilder, who wore a golden bikini that doubled as armor. The other was a male in wizard robes with an hourglass around his neck. He was some type of chronomancer, at least I assumed he was, and his eyes were obscured by his thick hood.

  While the Alpha was at Level Four, the female Huntress was at Level Seven and the chronomancer at Level Nine. But I wasn’t focused on this. I was focused on the incredible creature that had appeared between them.

  [Grendel, Level 12]

  The monster stood on hooves. He had long, sharp talons and his skin looked as if it had been partially boiled off. His brows furrowed, and snot dripping from his mouth onto his thick lips, as the terrifying creature roared at Aya and Lady C.

  “I will cut your skin from your body and use it to make a purse,” Aya said as she brandished her sword.

  My own mythcrea options appeared and I selected Sun Wukong.

  He materialized in all his illustrious, kingly glory, wearing flowing yellow robes. The white paint on his face had been reapplied, and he had streaked his burnt red hair with some of the paint.

  He turned to me and grinned, his smile stretching from cheek to cheek.

  “Nice to see you too,” I told him, momentarily caught off guard by his calmness. I remembered instantly where I was and what was at stake. “Aya, take the muscled woman; Lady C., the mage; Sun Wukong, Grendel.”

  “With pleasure,” Sun Wukong said as he flipped into action. He was fast as hell, easily reaching the killer beast before Aya and Lady C. could reach their targets.

  Grendel swung at the Monkey King and…

  Sun Wukong froze, his unbreakable body hardening. The creature swung again and again, trying its damndest to break through Sun’s barrier. It even tried to lift him, and it should have been able to lift him, yet this too failed.

  The Alpha yelled at the monster, oblivious to the fact that we were in public. He kept screaming, and to the guy playing soccer alone, he must have looked like a whacko.

  The chronomancer raised his wand at Lady C. and nothing happened. The Metican warrior looked around for a moment only to be struck in the back by a delayed attack.

  She was tossed sideways into a trashcan.

  Determination on her face, she gritted her teeth as she raced towards the mage gripping both swords tightly, only to be struck again.

  Come on, Lady C., I thought as she was struck again by a delayed strike. Where’s your head at?

  I whisper-yelled for Lady C. to cast Bomb Cyclone, and as soon as I did, a mist of white enveloped the mage, leaving him prone.

  One thing I’d learned by this point is that you didn’t want to be prone with Lady C. around.

  She advanced on the mage, leapt into the whirlwind of snow and ice, and finished him off.

  As all this was taking place, Aya bounced around the muscled woman. She reminded me more and more of a cat playing with her prey as she let the herculean female get within inches of striking her before pulling away.

  The fight was going in our favor, and as Grendel continued to pummel Sun Wukong to no avail, Lady C. joined Aya.

  They’d grown a little better at working together, although Aya was much more independent than her counterpart. Case in point: they could have easily finished off the muscled woman working together; instead, Lady C. kept waiting for Aya to push her into a trap or vice versa.

  If this had been a tournament, I would have gotten involved in some way. Hell, if it had been a normal catch, I would have tried to do something.

  But here, in the park
with Manhattan across the East River, I didn’t want to make a scene by shouting commands at my make-believe friends.

  Intuiting my urge to take command, Lady C. made eye contact with me and moved to Grendel.

  The other Alpha shouted a warning to his fighting mythcrea, but the beast was either too stupid, or too engaged to see Lady C. stalking him, waiting for her chance to finish it.

  Meanwhile, Sun Wukong was his same frozen self, a smile on his face as Grendel’s attacks bounced off him.

  The muscled woman finally got a hit in on Aya, sending the Thulean spinning sideways.

  Aya righted herself with her ghost limbs, spat blood, bared her bloody teeth, and brought her buster sword up. She’d suddenly gone from coy to killer, and I had to laugh when I saw her advance on the muscled woman, who tried to do the brute force thing of punching and stomping uncontrollably.

  You’re in trouble now.

  I felt elated.

  I knew the battle was ours, that I had doubled my Proxima dollars with my bet, and that things would be looking up soon.

  Lady C. hit her mark, her two blades pressing out of Grendel’s chest.

  The monstrosity cried out as she twisted her blades, bringing it to its knees.

  Its big clawed feet left trails in the soil as it fell, and as it looked up to Sun Wukong with its dark eyes, the Monkey King stepped out of his unbreakable pose.

  He struck the beast on the head with his staff, turned to me, and offered a wide monkey grin.

  “Aye!” I saw a flash of blade as Aya finished the muscled woman off.

  The woman’s head flew right, hit the ground, and rolled over to her Alpha. He glanced down, glared, looked up at me, and nodded, the glare still on his face.

  “I’ll call you back in a moment,” I told the Huntresses. They disappeared in a flash and I walked over to the Alpha, who still glared at me.

  “Great fight,” I told him. I was out of breath, even though I hadn’t actually done any fighting myself.

  I put my hand out and he took it.

  “You’ve got yourself one hell of a pair of Huntresses there,” he finally said. “If they worked together more, they would have finished mine off five minutes ago.”

  “Yeah, they are…” I chose my words carefully. “They’re a bit hard to manage.”