New Earth: Collateral Damage

What needed to be done would be, of that she was certain. It had only been twelve hours since the passing of Jaymez Carez, and already there were several parties investigating just what had happened. What bothered her, is that not a one of them was the police. There were no detectives, no tape, no investigation... Like nothing had happened at all there in the alley. It couldn't have been a lack of knowledge by the police force simply because they had cameras everywhere. It was nearly impossible to break the law in Southern Horizon because of their eyes and ears, and this should have been no different. Yet here it was, a murder scene, still littered with traces of her deceased mate, her love, her heart...

Nalasin stood in the alley in the exact spot where Jaymez had died, though now the narrow passage between buildings on the upper east side seemed much less ominous. Whatever had happened scared off anybody who might have hung around to pick at the remains of the murdered man. The thought nearly took the strength out of her legs and brought tears to her eyes but she couldn't start crying. Not until all was said and done, or she might never stop. So for now she took strength in the presence of her assistant and close friend while they both searched the alley for any sort of clues.

"Smells like demon, but we already knew that." Naomi was quite a different sort. She had once been human, popular, rich... spoiled by life. That fact was what allowed her to be too naïve to know better than to mess with demons and their games. She was lured in to a game of sorts and when the loser lost, so did she, having her body changed on such a level that she had nearly lost her mind to the feral 'coon with which she'd been spliced. Whatever she'd done to keep some symbalance of humanity, it made her hard. Cold. It was only a miracle that she decided to be one of the good guys at all, but she knew how to track a four day old wind across a desert.

Nalasin knelt down, a gloved fingertip brought to wipe at the side of a trash can where she thought she spotted some sort of engine oil, perhaps demon's blood, but the way it flaked off disproved her suspicions. Demon's blood didn't flake because it didn't dry. Much like the evil of their actions, it just sat around until someone came by and cleaned it up. "We just need to find out where he went afterward. I don't even know if you can do that, but I don't have anyone else I can ask."

"If you'd let me finish." Naomi responded in her usual short method, but only because she was focused. She'd picked up the scent, and it was vaguely familiar. The smells of the magics used by the dark beings were very distinct once one knew what to smell for. "I don't think he teleported. A lot of shadow manipulation. On a huge scale, here especially." She lifted a hand, waving it through the air slowly with whiplike movements, tracing the path the darkness had taken when it lashed out at Jaymez the night before.

"Huge huh..." They had exhausted all other paths, including trying to track down the one who had posted the bounty. All other trails, including this one it seemed, was going nowhere other than to find out gruesome detail after vicious rumor about what had happened. She knew what happened. Her husband was dead. "Who could have been behind it? You don't think the triad had anything to do with it do you? This doesn't seem like their style, even though we didn't exactly have the best relationship with them. There would've been witnesses, a trail to let us know that they had done it."

"Incubus. Extremely old. That's going to make it a bit easier to find out who. They're territorial, and even in a city this size there's only a few roaming around."

"Are you sure?"

"More-so than anything. There's no mistaking the scent of one of them."

"I mean about the number. This is Southern Horizon we're talking about. You know.. only a couple billion inhabitants."

"This is an ancient demon we're talking about. They see themselves as a proud sort who don't share much of anything, let alone a rich hunting ground like this. They're not vampires, Nala."

"I'm just making sure. The only one I know of in my entire network is impossible to get to through normal means. If I'm going after him, I want to be sure the sacrifice is worth it to get the right one."

Naomi sighed, hanging her head. "If you'd pump your damn brakes and let the police do a proper investigation, we could give you more info."

"I am, that's why you're here." Nalasin nearly growled as she stood, opening her arms in a gesture to look around them. "Where's your agents, Naomi? Where's the detectives and all those fancy gadgets the tax payers are supplying the funds for?"

"They're gathering data on it now, I told you. If there was a physical presence every time someone was killed in this city we would need a hundred times the resources we have now. But nobody gets away."

"Nobody but this one, right? Nevermind, I know who's responsible for this and it's starting to make a little more sense." The lack of police involvement, the sudden appearance of the great opportunity it the job had presented, the fact that Jaymez was all but singled out to do this... It all pointed to a higher power. She knew just the power who could pull it off, and they just so happened to employ an incubus in their elite squad. But going after Nightbringer Industries was... suicide.

The biggest company in a city that spanned half of a planet. They were in to everything from weapons manufacturing to military contracts, pharmacuticals, public works, they were the lifeblood of Southern Horizon, if not the entire planet. Anybody who had a job worked for them in one way or another, and now she was going to have to arrange to have a private chat with one of its generals.

"Ravenous al'Shan is an Incubus." Nala finally spoke, tugging her jacket around her a little tighter and turning to walk down the alley.

"Ra... A-are you fucking serious?!" Naomi rushed after her, grabbing her arm and forcing her to stop before moving to stand in front of her. Her hands moved to the cheetah girl's shoulders, looking into her eyes with true concern for her friend. She'd obviously snapped. "You think that Jaymez was so notorious that Nightbringer's elite hunting squad was brought in to take him out? Listen to yourself, jesus!"

Nala's eyes remained on the ground in front of her, even as she came to a halt and was held firmly in place. She didn't say anything at first. She knew what it sounded like, and she didn't want to explain her reasoning because it was insane to anyone outside the situation. "You're a good friend, Naomi." She spoke slowly, frowning but lifting her gold eyes to look into her friend's own neon blue orbs. "I'm going to take care of myself, and do this the right way, but I have good cause to believe so. Have I ever done anything without good reason since we met?" she asked, though it sounded more like she was pleading.

"You're fucking insane, Nala. This shit's driven you over the edge, I'm not going to let you throw your whole life away." Naomi growled, giving the woman a small shove before tensing her hands to fists. "I swear if I have to beat you into a coma to save your life I'll do it!"

Nalasin's balance was entirely too good to be shoved over but she took two steps back, the last of which sent her lurching forward in a blur of movement. Her jacket was tossed off and thrown at the other woman only to be knocked aside a moment too late leaving her open. Nala's arm shot forward and just as soon as the fight had begun it was finished, her fingers tensing and claws digging at the furred flesh to either side of Naomi's windpipe. "I'm not insane... and you're not going to fight with me. We, are going to go get some answers."

The speed at which her friend moved took her off guard. She'd heard rumors, and knew that yes, Nalasin was part cheetah, ha ha, but she figured it was just a joke amongst friends. A sort of terror she hadn't felt in a long time filled her eyes as she all but stopped breathing, hands relaxing as they'd come to try and tear that arm away from her throat, but not been able to move it so much as an inch, the clenched muscles beneath that spotted fur of her friend like steel beneath leather.

"Let me go!" She knew, now, such a demand was only followed by action because they'd get nowhere fighting in this alley, but as she was released she glared at her friend. "We do this by the book. You might be willing to throw your life away but I'm not. I have a career. I have a house, a mortgage, a car payment... If you're serious about this than let's go. I'm sure between the two of us we've racked up enough good girl points to get an appointment with the general."

"I'll drive." Nalasin responded, bending to grab her jacket and toss it over her shoulder, held with an index finger while she strolled casually back toward the street and her car. "Next stop... Nightbringer Industries headquarters..."

(To be continued)

---

No worries, folks.. this is all just building toward epic greatness. Now that I got some time I'm going to try and upload a new chapter every other day until school starts up again in January, then we'll see how easy it is to still try and keep this updated. I want to tell the story, 'cuz the death of Jaymez Carez is going to lead up to the downfall of Nightbringer Industries. As far as surprises.. don't worry, there's quite a few twists and turns in the path yet. Also, for those of you who want pics of muh chars... well... I can't do much for ya. All I got for them is others' art that's close, and without a way to contact the artists I can't really just freely hand 'em out and say they're mine. But if I get some permissions I'll post some links at the end of each chapter to images of those involved.