Monster Hunt NYC 2

by Harmon Cooper

  Iris took a sip from her cappuccino. “Where do you think we should hunt first?”

  “What's around Clinton Hills?”

  As soon as I asked this question aloud, GoogleFace Maps took shape on my pane of vision, showing me Clinton Hills’ proximity to just about anything I could think of, from parks to coffee shops to restaurants. Focusing on any of those things created a shadow box of reviews that I could scroll through, and a list of peak times to visit.

  “What about the Naval Cemetery Park?” I asked her.

  The Brawl add-on activated with a thought, and I noticed that I had a few invitations. I ignored them to focus on the monster locator app. “There's some activity there,” I said as I saw a blue glow appear over the area, “and it would be a nice place to visit on a Sunday morning.”

  “Yeah, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard,” she said as she scanned information on GoogleFace.

  “Then it's settled, let's go there and see what we can round up.”

  “And after that, the music store?”

  “No, after that Central Park for a brawl, then the music store on our way back here. I don't want to be rushed at the music store, especially if we're paying the fee to go in.”

  “Yeah, that's for sure.” Iris took a bite of her eggs, chewed them for a moment, and nodded. “I was afraid your cooking wouldn't be so great, but as it turns out, not bad.”

  “Afraid it wouldn't be so great?”

  “You don't really seem to be the type that cooks very often. At least, I don’t remember ever seeing you cook anything.”

  “I can do wonderful things with the microwave,” I reminded her. “Anyway, are you ready? Should I invite the Huntresses?”

  “I'm surprised you haven't already,” she said with just a hint of jealousy in her voice.

  “Right, here goes.”

  As usual, Aya took over the show, yawning and stretching and muttering about how some bastards on lightning horses interrupted her beauty rest. Lady C. had a book under her arm, and after winking at me, she sat on Iris' futon and started flipping through the pages.

  “Glad to see you both,” I said, finishing my cappuccino. “We have a busy day ahead of us.”

  Aya snorted. “I am sure we do, but if you really want us to work hard today, we want new everything.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “New everything?”

  “New armor, new weapons, and okay, I guess we did get new cabins, so we don't need new cabins yet. But in the future, bigger cabins.”

  Iris, who was still working on her eggs, laughed at this suggestion. “Sounds like you two are ready to go shopping,” she said as she finished her cappuccino.

  “Yes, Alpha Two, you are correct.” The Thulean squinted through one eye at her. “Why are you not dressed yet? Where is your frumpy sweater for today?”

  Iris stood from the table. “My sweaters are frumpy?” She looked to me, and I quickly glanced away, not wanting to answer the question. “Well, Chase?”

  “They're not frumpy, they are just a bit oversized, yeah, they're oversized.”

  “That's because I get cold.”

  “In Unigaea, if a person is cold, they wear tighter clothing and more fur,” Lady C. said matter-of-factly from her position on the couch. She was in her sexy, almost non-existent battle armor that she’d worn at Sagelock’s Tournament. A pink skirt, golden dragon scale-like armor, and Wonder Woman boots.

  I’d never seen her wear her hair up before, and doing so elongated her neck, making her look almost like a different person. I realized that I was looking at her for too long when I felt something tap my shoulder. I looked over and saw that nothing was there.

  Aya's ghost limb.

  “That's right, Chase,” Aya said as she paced around Iris' apartment. “And Alpha Two, I'm not going to say that I like the place that you live in, as I do like the bar that's in the middle of Chase’s room, but your home is growing on me.”

  “Good to hear,” Iris said as she went through her closet for a new sweater.

  “The bar is nice for exercise,” Aya said as she finally gave up looking around for places to work out. She plopped down next to Lady C. and began teasing her about her book.

  As they bickered, and as Lady C.’s book lifted into the air, I turned my attention to Iris.

  She pulled off the house sweater that she was wearing, revealing a tank top that gave me a glimpse of the side of her torso. It only took her a second to get dressed, and the way she looked at me when she finished made me feel stupid for watching her do so.

  “Sorry,” I said, looking back to the Huntresses.

  Iris shrugged. “Who’s ready to go?”

  Since it wasn't too far, we decided to walk to the park. Iris took her ukulele and keyboard. I was instrumentless, mostly because I’d be getting an instrument later that day. That, or the real-world money would burn a hole in my pocket, and I preferred the former.

  It was a nice autumn day outside, and as we walked, the Huntresses chatted about the various things they saw, from a couple of homeless people to a woman in tight activewear jogging and how poorly she ran.

  “She looks like a chicken with a big ass.”

  “All chickens have big asses, Lady Aya.”

  “If she were being chased by a land dragon, it would have eaten her twice by now,” Aya said.

  Lady C. nodded in agreement. “The women of this world aren't very strong, and they don't seem very fast either. Maybe they have some athletes, but they would lose every time to a Metican.”

  “Watch it, ladies,” Iris said over her shoulder with a chuckle. They let Iris walk ahead a few steps, but I could still hear them.

  “And our new Alpha, she's so little and petite. A baby dragon could pick her up and fly off,” Aya stage-whispered.

  “Are all your references dragon-based?” I asked her.

  “No, I can reference other things as well.”

  “I think Iris is cute, and I wish I were as short as her,” Lady C. said. “Who knows, maybe Chase likes short women.”

  “All right, you two…” I called back to them as a bicyclist zipped past us.

  “And all of these crazy people on bikes,” Aya said. “Are all cities in this American country filled with bicyclists who don't have manners?”

  “I don't think all cities are,” Lady C. said. “Especially in the south. I read about this in books. Not a lot of people go outside. Everything is far away, so you have to drive a vehicle to get there.”

  “And they wouldn't ride a horse?”

  “I believe they do ride horses down there, but I don't know if they eat them or not.”

  “This is why you were lucky earlier this week when you didn't have to hear them all the time,” I said, as I caught up to Iris.

  “I don’t know, their banter is a little funny. Demented, yes, but definitely funny.”

  We crossed the street and arrived at the Naval Cemetery Park. That’s one thing I liked about living in Brooklyn: you could always find an interesting historical landmark that you hadn’t heard of until you stumbled upon it.

  But I could read up on the park later. At the moment, I was focused on my Monster Locator add-on, watching as a blue aura blinked on the screen. Whatever it was, it was fast, and as we moved deeper into the park, I caught a glimpse of an enormous beast and gasped.

  “A fucking chimera?” Iris ducked instinctively. It hadn’t spotted us yet, and as we took cover, Lady C. and Aya slowly drew their blades.

  The Thulean warrior looked to me; she now held her buster sword at her side with the tip pointing behind her.

  I didn’t know how she managed such a large sword, and would have watched her for longer if Iris hadn’t tugged at my sleeve.

  “A chimera has the heads of a lion, a goat, and a snake, as well as the body of a goat and tail of a snake,” she explained hurriedly. “It’s a smorgasbord.”

  I moved my head up just a little to see its terrible lion maw and its equally powerful goat head, which had two horns
that were each at least three feet long. The chimera was focused on something in a tree, its snakehead-tipped tail bobbing left and right as it examined the foliage.

  Aya gave Lady C. the signal, and in a matter of seconds, they were fanning out, Lady C.’s hand charging with icy blue magic.

  “Bomb cyclone,” I whispered to Iris.

  “Yep, good call.”

  Aya looked to me and gestured with her chin toward the chimera.

  “What kind of song?” I asked Iris as she quietly took her ukulele out of her backpack.

  “Something pretty. Are you ready to dance?”

  I gulped. “Sure.”

  “And be careful. That thing can maul you to death.”

  “Aware,” I said as I waited for her to play.

  She tuned her instrument as quietly as she could, her ear pressed into the ukulele’s body. She gave me the thumbs up and started playing a beautiful tune, something serene and moody. The type of noodling only Iris could pull off.

  I stood slowly, and began wagging my hips to the music.

  Something about what she played reminded me of Hawaiian music, so I lifted my arms and waved my hands in the air like a hula dancer.

  The chimera snorted and growled as all its heads turned to face me.

  It dropped forward and began stalking me, oblivious to the fact that Aya and Lady C. were already in position.

  “Keep playing,” I said out of the corner of my mouth to Iris.

  She nodded and took this to mean that I wanted her to play with more force, which she did, her wrist moving up and down as she cranked up the volume.

  I kept dancing like a hula girl, ignoring the fact that I could now see Aya staring at me, a comical grin on her face. I refused to acknowledge her – I didn’t want to give away her position, and besides, I was too busy trying to entertain a beast three times my size, a Greek monster that could shred me to pieces in a matter of moments.

  Lady C. hit the chimera with her Bomb Cyclone spell.

  I dove to the right to avoid the tumbling beast; Iris stumbled and fell, catching herself with one hand.

  “Shit,” I whispered, looking to her. “You okay?”

  She nodded and quickly placed her instrument back in its case as the monstrosity doubled back around.

  “This is intense!” she said as she moved over to my side.

  “It really is,” I said as I naturally moved into a position to protect her, not that it would have done any good.

  Lady C. and Aya had fully engaged the chimera. Aya used her ghost limbs to flip around the creature, narrowly avoiding the snake-headed tail. For her part, Lady C. had cast fire on her right sword, waiting for the flame to spread up the blade.

  Once it was ready, she pulled her arm back and cast a fireball at the terrible creature. The fireball ignited the chimera’s flesh, causing the creature to screech with pain, saliva spraying out of its mouth as it whipped left and right to avoid more damage.

  Ready to move in for the kill, Lady C. performed an aerial to make room for Aya, who brought her sword through the shoulder of the mahoosive monster.

  The chimera reared up onto its back legs, tossing Aya into the foliage of a tree, where she barely managed to use her ghost limbs to right herself on the way down.

  Lady C. came in with both blades flaming.

  “Yes!” I shouted, clapping my hands.

  We were lucky that there was no one else in the park this morning, which allowed Iris and me to get into it a little more than normal, which we wanted to anyway – which anyone would have wanted to if they saw the battle that we were observing.

  Epic was an understatement.

  The dynamics of the fight were startling, and there was little that I could do to help the Huntresses overcome the Greek monster.

  Not that I wasn't trying.

  I was clapping my hands, jumping up and down, running in a circle with the hopes that I would get its attention long enough that it would attack me, and not them.

  But it didn't work, and I was at a loss for what we should do.

  “Maybe we should…” Iris shook her head. “I don't know, I wish we had a rope or something.”

  I jumped for cover as the chimera kicked up dirt, sending rocks and roots flying in our direction.

  All of it was fake, I knew it, but that didn’t stop me from reacting to the mayhem.

  I had faith in Aya and Lady C., and as I watched the Thulean run forward, slide, and use her ghost limbs to propel herself over the creature, I knew we’d soon have a fresh catch.

  A crackle of lightning cut the chimera off its feet, just as Aya landed on its back, the tip of her buster sword pointed at the back of its head.

  She glanced up at me, and I went in for the catch.

  Energy charged up my arm and back down again as the web formed between my fingers.

  I brought my hand back, and zipped the net of light over to the mythcrea, Aya bailing just in time.

  I thrust both arms forward, letting out a wild cry as the web of light encased the chimera.

  The creature was ours, the first catch of the day had been made, and while Aya looked a little worse for wear, we were all in pretty good shape.

  “Okay, let's see what else we can find in this area,” Iris said, breathing heavily as she looked at me excitedly.

  “Definitely.”

  “What a filthy monster,” Aya said as she wiped her bloodied blade on the grass. “I hope you two sell that thing immediately.”

  “We have other plans for it,” I told her with a grin.

  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

  I noticed there was some activity in the last place I’d have expected.

  “Isn't that a shopping complex?” I asked Iris after I told her the location, which was not too far from her apartment.

  “I would love to go shopping,” Lady C. said. “I bet shopping in New York is fun!”

  “We need to do more killing, I mean capturing, so we can get some nice clothing in EverLife,” Aya said, and stopped me with her ghost limb. I turned to her, and with her eyes she reminded me that she was expecting new clothing.

  “I’ve got it, I’ve got it. Don’t worry.”

  “I’m sure you do, Alpha.”

  “Damn,” I said under my breath to Iris, “I need to give these two some type of stipend.”

  Iris laughed. “It’s like being a parent.”

  “Do you want me to call you daddy?” Lady C. asked.

  Aya scoffed at the Metican warrior’s question. “He would be a terrible father.”

  “To answer your original question,” Iris said, clearing her throat. “Yes, that is a shopping area. I believe there’s a WalMacy's too.”

  “Please tell me we aren’t hunting in a WalMacy's,” I said, just imagining how crazy that would be.

  Iris nodded. “It's too early to say that, but that may be the case, so we’ll need to be extra careful not to draw attention to ourselves.”

  Should be easy enough, I thought as we continued our walk.

  It was going to be a beautiful day, and I liked the fact that we were outside enjoying it, rather than being stuck inside in a cramped apartment. That was one nice thing about the Monster Hunt app, it allowed for plenty of outside exploration.

  Couldn't beat that.

  The four of us walked until we saw the WalMacy's logo. I usually didn't shop at the place, it just had this weird vibe, but if it had a mythcrea inside, then I was down to go in.

  “So this is how Americans shop,” Lady C. said as soon as we entered the building. “Everything is available here, so you don't have to go anywhere else. Clever.”

  “I don't know,” Aya told her. “I personally like having to go to different places and visit various artisans to get the items I need.”

  “Come on, this is convenient.”

  “But at what cost?”

  The Metican warrior stopped. “Lady Aya, I believe you may be a lost cause. I'm not one hundred percent convinced of this, but I'm getting closer b
y the day.”

  I looked at Iris, and laughed as she slowly crossed her eyes and made a funny face at me.

  We continued down a couple of the aisles and eventually reached the sporting goods section. This was where the activity was the hottest, but there was no one here aside from a few people shopping, which made me wonder for a moment if the monster locator app was somehow faulty.

  But as I looked up the aisle, I started noticing that there was something different about the space, something glimmering around its edges.

  I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I had this weird sense that I wasn't looking at the actual sporting goods aisle – I was looking at an exact replica of it.

  Some of the items were shaped differently, like the basketball that was shaped like a football, and the golf clubs at the end that had pink putters.

  “Something is off,” I told Iris. Seeing me bristle, Aya and Lady C. drew their swords.

  “Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing?” I asked them.

  “I think?” Lady C. said.

  “I guess that's a bad way to phrase it. I mean, does this aisle look off to you in any way. Let me ask you, Iris, you've seen this type of sporting goods section before. Is there something off here?”

  “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

  We walked down the aisle cautiously, and once we reached its end, we turned and went back the other way.

  Nothing.

  So we walked down it again, and just as we were about to reach the end, Iris cried out and stumbled into a couple of parked bicycles.

  Aya drew her blade, and cut into the air over Iris’ head. I heard the scream of a man, and my pane of vision flashed as the sporting goods aisle returned to its normal form.

  “Is that a monkey?” I asked as I saw a small man jump from one side of the aisle to the other.

  “It’s a Satori,” I told Iris as I helped her to her feet. We glanced around; no one had seen her crash into the bicycles. “You okay?”

  She had a scrape on her elbow, but it didn't look too bad.

  “I’m fine.”

  Still, I was worried about her. “Are you all right?” I asked her as the two Huntresses took off after the monkey man. “Because this is definitely a place where we could get some antiseptic.”