“I thought you like guys that are fat,” I told her.
“No, I like guys that are muscular, not fat.”
As I ate, Aya focused on waking her counterpart up.
She was eventually able to get her up by tickling her with a feather, which she had pulled out of her inventory list and which, watching from afar, had a slight sexual undertone to it.
I didn't know what it was about feathers that had a sexual undertone. Maybe it was because they were light, and in a way, fleeting, but it did seem that way, and more importantly, it worked.
We were out the door a few minutes later, and this time, I brought my Fender mini bass with me, ready to shred.
It was a nice day out, a warm day compared to the previous two days, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We headed to the nearest station, where we would catch the L train to Broadway Junction. From there we would catch the A train, and hop to another train before we arrived at Long Beach.
It was a hunch.
“Where are we going?” Aya said as we entered the first station.
“We're going to the beach, actually, it's a surprise, um, so we're not going to the beach.”
“You are a horrible liar,” Lady C. said, laughing.
“I know, I know. Look, if you two want to go on the train, that's fine, otherwise I can just call you both to me once I arrive. It's going to take me over an hour to get there.”
They exchanged glances. “Can't we just take a taxi?” Lady C. asked.
“I suppose we could, but it would be a little pricey.”
“We are going to make you a lot of money today,” Aya reminded me. “We think we deserve a taxi. Besides, taxis are much more interesting than this stupid train.”
“Fine, fine,” I said, “we will take an UberLyft.”
Just saying the word spawned several options on my viewing pane. There was a shared ride, but I didn't want to sit in the car with the Huntresses and other passengers, so I chose a solo ride, which was going to cost me a good hundred and fifty dollars, but that could be recouped if we did some good catching.
The vehicle landed a few minutes later, and the three of us got into the back seat. “So, this is how we're doing it now?” I asked Aya.
“Why do I always have to sit in the front?” she asked as the taxi lifted into the air.
“She wants to be closer to you,” Lady C. said with a smile on her face. “I don't blame her.”
“You two realize this is going to take at least an hour, right?”
“That’s why I brought a book!”
The History of Mortem and Chrono Magic appeared in Lady C.’s lap.
“And you?” I asked Aya.
“I’m going to look at the city and comment on things I don’t like.”
“What about the things you do like?” I asked her, a grin forming on my face.
“I probably won’t mention those things. What about you? Are you going to do something for the next hour?”
I glanced from Lady C. on my left, who was leafing through her ancient tome, to Aya on my right, who was staring at me with a funny look on her face.
“I think I’ll have plenty of entertainment just talking to the two of you.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
We arrived at the coast, our aeros descending from its skylane and dropping down to a parking spot on the road that ran adjacent to the beach.
The boardwalk was pretty much empty, just a few people, and all the vendors with their hot dog stands and ice cream shops were closed up.
I activated my Monster Locator, and we headed down the boardwalk, past the restroom.
The beach was beautiful at the moment, the sun reflecting off the waves as they lashed at the shore, and the seagulls in the air squawking and occasionally dipping into the water.
It was noticeably windier near the shore, and I could smell the ocean now, feel the sand cracking beneath my Vans as I continued closer to the waterline.
I heard our next catch before I saw it.
A sad melody floated in the air. At first, I assumed it was one of the few beachgoers, but seeing Aya brandish her buster sword, and Lady C. do the same, flourishing both her weapons as she got into a stalking position, told me otherwise.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“I don't know yet.” Aya turned left, moving away from the waterline. “Lady Cassandra, I will engage it first, and you will be my backup.”
Lady C. simply nodded, taking a few steps back so I could go ahead.
We could see up and down the beach, and we clearly saw that there was nothing there, which only made the melody we heard that much stranger. It was the voice of a man, a low, garbled voice that was almost jazzy.
The Huntresses kept searching, and as they did, I went for my own weapon. I adjusted the shoulder strap just a little bit and turned my mini bass on. While the two Hunters were trying to figure out the source of the sound, I simply closed my eyes, tuning into the voice I heard.
My hand naturally went to the neck of the guitar, finding the first note.
Options appeared on my pane of vision, my iNet screen, and I mentally tweaked the sound that was coming out of my instrument. I wanted something a little bit twangy, something that felt more like a fretless bass than the futuristic instrument I held in my hands.
I listened to the singing a little bit more, nodding my head as I found the groove, my fingers playing along to the singing man’s sad song.
“Chase!”
But I ignored Aya, still focusing on the music and finding that perfect space. Damn did playing music feel like something else entirely, like dipping your wand into the future and opening a galaxy of our shared noise, our history of listening to escape, listening for joy, listening for...
“Keep playing, man,” a voice said to me.
Inspired by the command, I started up again, this time really getting into it, even throwing in a few chords to keep it vibrant.
“Chase!” Lady C. yelled.
But I ignored them both, so focused was I on the sound.
I heard a noise zip past my skull, a swing, definitely one of Aya’s throwing knives.
“Why did you have to go and do that?” the man's voice asked.
It was at this point that I opened my eyes to find a towering shadow made of ink leaning over my shoulder, nodding as it looked from me to the instrument to the Huntresses.
“Keep playing,” he told me, Aya’s throwing knife sticking out of his form. “No time to hunt when there's music to be played.”
“Chase, be careful!” Lady C. cried out, a wave of energy spreading around her as she prepared an attack.
But there was something about this man made of ink that I liked, something I felt that I could jive with. Maybe it was a musician thing, but I told Lady C. to stand down and I continued playing, waiting for the ink man to start singing.
The man sluiced around me, bobbing his head up and down as he found the groove. He found the pocket, and soon he was crooning alongside me.
We jammed for another few minutes, the man made of ink snapping his fingers as he sang a sad, sultry melody.
Once we finished, I looked up to him and made it really simple.
“Hey, I've got a Dojo, it's part of EverLife, and I'm part of an Alpha Duo. The other Alpha is a female, a singer and a musician, and I bet she'd love to jam with you. Do you want to join up with us?”
“EverLife, huh?” His form quaked. “I guess it beats sitting at this beach waiting for something to wash in.”
“You got a name?” I asked him as the net made of light twisted up my arm.
“Call me Dalton,” he said, a toothy smile on his face.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I pulled up his stats as soon as he was gone.
“An ink shadow,” I whispered as Aya came over to me, her sword still drawn.
“Don’t you know how incredibly dangerous those things are?” she asked me.
“Dangerous? We were just jamming on the beach.”
“I don't trust him.”
“What’s not to trust?” I asked.
“For a moment, he had a sharp blade near the top of your head, Chase,” Lady C. said.
“Really?” I gulped.
“Yeah, which was why we were yelling at you. But I guess you were right, he didn't turn out to be that difficult a catch in the end.”
“I think that we bonded over music,” I finally told them both. “It happens. Maybe he wanted to kill me at first, but after he heard me playing my song, he had second thoughts.”
“We’ll see,” Aya said as she turned back to the beach.
“Besides, he’s worth seven tokens. That’s a ton. I’d like to see him fight, though. It’s always good to know what the potential Fighting Party is capable of.”
Aya didn't say anything; instead, she walked to the water, focusing on the sand.
I got the sense that she had been worried about me and didn’t know how to show it. Not like Lady C., who was at my side with her arm wrapped around mine, and her head leaning against my shoulder.
“You have to be careful,” Aya said, finally.
“I was being careful. Look, I trust both of you, and you two need to trust me. I don’t have much to offer the group, but I can play music, and it just seemed right. Didn’t you see what just happened? He joined us without a fight. Now, I know that won't happen for every fight, but if it's a possibility, I want to try it out.”
The Monster Locator app flashed, indicating that there was something near.
“We've got more hunting to do,” I told the two of them as I packed up my bass. Too bad I didn’t have an inventory list that I could just send it to.
We continued along the water's edge in silence. A breeze cut through, and the seagulls rose into the air, squawking as something large and black moved through the water.
The bunyip flopped onto the beach, sulking as it stepped onto dry land, a fish in its mouth.
Its back was partially covered in what looked like feathers, a dusty gray color, and its shoulders and the sides of its body had sharp ridges of skin, almost like spikes. The bunyip’s face was deformed; the shape of its head was like a calf's.
I heard the schwing of Lady C.’s two blades as she drew them. Aya too had her hands on her buster sword, sizing the creature up as it tore into the flesh of a large fish.
“Easy does it,” I told them both, my right hand clenched tightly around my bass case.
I got the feeling that playing music wouldn't do anything to the creature, mostly due to the fact that it didn't appear to have ears.
Nope, this one would have to be hunted the good old-fashioned way.
As an opening act, Aya let loose three throwing knives, two of which were meant just to scare the creature, only one connecting with the top of its back, flesh flying into the air as the knife passed through.
The bunyip cried out in agony, locked eyes with Aya, and took off toward her, its wet body flapping against the sand.
Aya brought her sword back in what looked to be a finishing move.
The Thulean swung her sword with both hands, just at the creature leapt, the skin on its chest morphing forward to deflect her attack.
“Shit!” I cried, as the bunyip landed on her, and she just barely managed to push it off.
As Aya used her ghost limbs to flip away, Lady C. came at the bunyip with swords aflame. Her blades whirling, fire licking at their tips, the Metican pivoted to her right foot and swung wide, bringing the blades into the bunyip’s side.
Rather than advance, the creature took off toward the shoreline, moving much faster than the two Huntresses. The bunyip kept its back to the two as it began digging, sending huge clumps of dirt in the air that became projectile weapons as they came down on the two Huntresses.
With a grunt, Aya used her ghost limbs to propel herself over the wall of loose mud and sand the creature had created. She came down on the other side of the bunyip and spun, her blade connecting with the top of its head.
“Don’t kill it!” I cried out, now running toward the action.
I was glad there wasn't anyone around us, because that would have been a pretty strange thing for a random dude to just scream on the beach.
The bunyip, a portion of its head now flesh-colored, stumbled from left to right, trying to steel itself to continue fighting. It was wheezing now, overexerted, and it was even worse once Lady C. blasted it with chain lightning, sending the creature to the ground, where it flopped several times before its tongue fell out of its mouth.
“Now, Chase!” Lady C. called out.
A wave of energy spreading up my arm, I pulled my hand back and cast a net toward the beast, which engulfed it immediately.
I skidded to a halt, out of breath myself. It was hard to run in the sand, and I could feel the sand in my Vans.
“Remember,” I told them both, “we're not trying to kill him. If we kill them, we can't catch them.”
“It covered us in mud and sand,” Aya said, a disgusted look on her face.
“Oh, come on, it's not that bad.” I started dusting some of the sand off her shoulder, and she loosened up.
She moved a bit closer to me, in the way that a cat moves when it wants to be petted. I took this to mean that I should dust off more sand.
“We really could use some squires,” Lady C. said. “If we had some squires, this would be a lot more fun. We could have them do everything for us, rather than have you do everything.”
“Real funny,” I told her.
“Are you going to dust me off next?”
“Sure, if you’d like.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
The vodyanoy was giving Lady C. and Aya a run for their money.
As soon as it had come out of the water, our new catch took off on its little frog legs. It was an ugly little fucker, with a greenish beard, red eyes, long hair, and a body covered in algae and muck.
It also carried a fairly large log which it currently used to surfboard along the beach, kicking up a fine haze of sand.
The vodyanoy stopped sand-surfing away and turned to Lady C. and Aya. Its long hair lifted off its back as it cast its two webbed hands before it.
Lady C. was the first to scream.
Her hands came to her throat and she fell to her knees, trying desperately to cough something up. I turned my attention to her immediately, skidding to a halt and stumbling forward, nearly face-planting in the sand and losing my bass.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I pulled her into my arms.
She continued to make choking noises, and I panicked, not knowing if I should try to perform CPR or do something else.
I eventually settled on something else, realizing that CPR on a digital entity would make a great social commentary documentary, but that’s about it.
As Aya avoided the vodyanoy’s attacks, I focused on the creature and checked its stats.
“It's a psychological attack,” I told Lady C. “Drowning Fear. You aren't really drowning, I repeat, you aren't really drowning!”
After a massive front-flip courtesy of her ghost limbs, Aya landed in front of the frog creature, buster sword at her side. The frogman pulled his log back and swung it at Aya, who responded by cutting his shitty weapon in half.
She returned fire by throwing knives which cut into the vodyanoy’s shoulders.
The frogman cried out, its tongue spilling out of its mouth.
She's going to kill it, I thought as I prepared to capture the mythcrea. Light spreading up my arm, I pulled my hand back and swung it toward them.
The creature was gone in a flash, literally seconds away from Aya beheading it.
We now had a mythcrea to sell.
“Filthy creature,” Aya said, lowering her sword, her chest heaving up and down as she sucked in air. “What do we do now?”
“I don't really know,” I told her. “More hunting?”
I helped Lady C. to her feet.
“After all that?” she asked. “
Look at how nice today is, Chase. Wouldn't you prefer to lay on the beach with us and get a tan?”
“Get a tan?” I looked back at Aya.
“Don't look at me like that, I can’t tan.”
“That's not what I was insinuating. I just figured you weren't the type that would want to lie on the beach and relax for a while,” I told her, awkwardly scratching the back of my head.
Iris' face flashed on my pane of vision. As soon as I took the call, a 3D image of her appeared, an image cobbled together by all the cameras in her vicinity.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” Lady C. said to me, not quite realizing I was talking to someone. I pointed at my eyes and she got the idea.
“What's up?” Iris asked me, a curl of her blonde hair falling into her face. She swept it away, and smiled.
I stepped away from the two Huntresses to get a little privacy. “Well, we caught three so far. We're at the beach, by the way.”
“To sell?”
“We’ll definitely get rid of a couple, one looks like it could be pretty interesting, though. It's called an Ink Shadow, and I think he's a musician.”
“I'll have to look that up. And double bonus points if it's a musician.”
“Also, I did some research on the Steeple last night, so I’ll need to catch you up on that as well.”
“That's actually what I was calling about,” said Iris as Lady C. and Aya began laying out a giant blanket that Aya had pulled from her inventory list. “I figured we could both log into EverLife this afternoon and go check out the Steeple, you know, get a first-hand account.”
“That's not a bad idea. And I'll tell you what an even better idea would be: having a nice dinner afterwards. Some wine, maybe some jazz.”
Iris' eyes softened. “In EverLife or in New York?”
“Here, in the real world.”
“Yeah, that would be nice.”
Silence stretched between us for a moment, which was eventually interrupted by Aya, who was waving her hands at me.
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