BLVCK WOLVES
By J.N. Marlow
Arc 1:
Part 1: Pilot
Greed:
The sky pulled at me from the ledge, and my mind followed it over.
For one breath, I was falling.
Wind roared up from the streets of LeHarla and rushed past my ears. My eyes stung. My lungs burned. Far below, the city blurred into a mess of smokestacks and brass pipes with the occasional airship passing by.
If I leaned forward even an inch more, the rest of me would follow my mind.
Funny thing about falling, peace and fear start to feel the same.
I had felt it before. Not on this rooftop, not with my boots hanging over the ledge of the massive skyscraper we were atop.
No, that felt like déjà vu from some other life. The feeling slid through me like a dream, almost close enough to touch.
And, like always, there she was.
The blue above the city became her eyes. The clouds became the curve of her lashes. I could never see all of her, just flashes and glimpses. And the voice that whispers…
Find me.
Who are you?
More importantly, why did I feel like I had failed her before?
"Yoo-hoo, Captain, we goin' in?" A hand waved through the vision.
I blinked, and the sky was only sky again.
My eyes trailed the plethora of windows below. We had made it up here to scout for something, and it seemed we had found the right spot.
I took out my comm and saw the time—1545. Fuck... cutting it close this time... But this shouldn't be too hard.
There were three of us: me, this girl, and a guy crouched a few feet above us, balancing on some railings, looking down from higher up.
We wore matching uniforms—jackets. The rest of our clothes only matched in color. They were dark and each worn differently, complementing our own unique styles: Black jackets with black fur trim on the hoods. A wolf logo on the back. Casual white shirts. And the occasional chipped black painted nails—if one would consider these proper mage attire…
I let loose a sigh, "Yeah… Also, didn't I tell you to stop calling me that? You two have been at it all day today..." I put my comm away and threw my hands in my pockets without a care.
"Then what are we waiting for? This is sooo boring, Greedy." She said as the soft breeze graced her black bangs gently off her face. Her hair was black with a longer, loose blonde strand to her side. She had a black eyepatch on her right eye, and the other flickered dark purple. Her smile was anything but bored as she studied me mischievously.
"No one told you to come." I replied, my black bangs rustling when I turned slightly to face her, and they rested back on my face to obscure my right eye. My silver dangling crosses on my lobes chimed all the while. "This was just supposed to be a job for me and Havoc."
"Why? So he could drive while you lounge?"
I was silent for a moment before I replied, "Touché..." and then faced back down the ledge. "We're going in a bit."
"No thanks!"
"What? You just asked—" turning around again.
"I change my mind! Oooo... I hear LeHarla has some nice boutiques around! Maybe I'll go check those out?"
I clicked my tongue and found Havoc. "What about you?"
He was younger, holding a calm and tired look on his face. Still crouched down atop some railings behind and above from where this girl and I stood, you could feel his eagerness to be there with the way he looked alone… Energy drink in one hand and the other just hanging off his knee, it seemed no matter how much he drank, it couldn't disperse his tiredness. Tired and fast—that's all it made him.
He had a nasty scar on the left of his face with a blind eye that occupied the center. And unlike its twin, the other was pristine with a dark green hue.
"Actually, I think I'll sit this one out too, Cap," he replied, raspy voice and all.
"Really? Come on…" I responded. My reaction to something unbeknownst to him.
"It's a Grade 4 down there, not a Grade 3 like the mission implied. You really don't need us."
"Not that," I said. "Since when did you guys start calling me Captain? Is this just a today thing? It's been a whole ass year and not once did any of you—"
"Holy Keeper, Cap... if you keep talkin' the Grade 4's gonna get away..." He sang in a disregarded tone, rotating his head back and then to the side to stare blankly into the distance.
"Fuckin' Keeper, you guys… Having me do all the work."
I didn't see them, but their silence told me they were set with their decision.
I took a look at the sky again and let out another big sigh. A tattoo of half of a wolf's face was plastered down the center of my neck—in-your-face type of visible. Purposely unfinished. Holding within it, lore of its own for another time…
"Ophelia and I will meet you at the rendezvous after you handle this." Havoc said, completely ignoring what I had just said. "Hmm... maybe I'll go check out the card shop—pick up some packs for me and Brand..."
"I'll go find something nice for Star!"—scrolling on her comm—"Oh? That's a cute dress... Mmm... She's not really the dress-type-of-girl though," Ophelia sighed. "More for me!"
Now I understood why they were both calling me 'Cap... Captain' today. They were just using this mission as an excuse to dick around LeHarla...
My tired eyes kept looking upward, waiting for it to turn into those eyes once again. But they didn't.
"Do what you want," I said, maybe too passively.
Man… Why did I get chosen for this Acting Captain role… I don't even have any magic. This had to be another one of Asura's lame jokes. Regardless, Havoc was right. This is an easy job. Even for me.
I finally made up my mind as I raised a foot and spun to face them. "Alright, well… see ya!" I said, hopping backwards off with a hand waving and the other still in my pocket. My flat, cheerful smile was the last thing they saw before I began to plunge down this towering construct.
"Bye-bye, Greedy!" was the last thing I heard Ophelia say.
***
On the ground, a swing from a monstrous arm shattered a wall and window of a random store. People screamed and fled as the creature who swung it roared. Its arms were muscular with three large talons for fingers. The head had three slits for a mouth, baring endless rows of teeth as it opened, along with bristling red fur with tentacles resembling four tails—like some rare gorilla-mixed-creature.
A woman turned the corner from an intersecting street and saw it after hearing its deathly cries from around the block. She couldn't tell where its shrieks were coming from and had thought she was running away from it. But instead, she found herself in wreckage with the beast, only a short distance away from her.
It was looking elsewhere until it felt her presence, turning toward her entirely.
She trembled as fear paralyzed her; the creature stalking slowly.
Then it ramped up with vehement speed.
It felt like time slowed through her eyes as all she could do was wait... wait to be killed in a matter of seconds.
***
Greed:
I closed my eyes during the fall and had a peaceful expression on my face. I must have been some kind of psychopath with the way I loved falling from staggering heights.
I had chosen this skyscraper for a reason… to contemplate.
Contemplate my life so far. How I had gotten to this point, the people I met along the way—friends who were like brothers, my crew, and where I now was. But for some reason I could never remember past the point when I had first woken up in this world. Weak. Starving. And confused. That's when Asura—or rather they found me. That's where my journey began.
But who had I been before all that? Did I have a mother—a father? Siblings? Were they alive? Had I somehow transmigrated to another world—a world of magic where I had none? Was this some lame trope just like all those other stories that people for some reason gave all their power stones to? And not an actual, real story?
What am I even saying...
Havoc's webtoon addiction seemed to be rubbing off on me…
Regardless, I knew there was something missing. Even after all this time, I still wondered who exactly I was.
All I knew was that I had this unknown power that was anything but magic and a sin for a name that came with it.
I adjusted my body to let my head lead—speed accelerating after each story that I flew past. I got increasingly closer to the ground and repositioned myself, surfing on the air, fist ready for impact.
For an instant, my right arm and fist were coated with black. And not just any black. A black like the Keeper had purposely left cut out of life—like empty space. Like something missing but present at the same time. Black like a void. Black like vantablack.
The air pressure condensed and I continued to gain incredible speed. The windows shattered one after the other on the way down and, for a moment, I felt like a goddamn meteor.
I was smiling.
Yeah, I was a fucking psychopath.
***
The monster drew dreadfully closer, closing the distance in seconds while the world slowly came to a halt. The woman saw it all through her dilated eyes.
I'm gonna die… I'm gonna die… she thought as she blinked for but a second and heard a loud impact.
A mix of debris, shards of flesh, and a wave of purple liquid blasted in all directions from where the creature just was—just a few feet away from her.
She opened her eyes, only to be drowned with its insides all at once. Its slop hit her like a slap to the face.
It was then that she saw a male crouched in the middle of where that monster had once been. And there seemed to be a crater beneath him, like he had caused it.
He rose slowly and faced upward. She did the same; witnessing more chunks of monster meat and drops of purple blood showering them both.
They were both silent for a few short seconds until it all finally stopped, and the sounds of gush landed all around them.
He looked at her at last, dreary-eyed, and with both of them disgustingly purple. "You okay, miss?" he asked way too casually.
Then and only then, with her emotions and clarity of thought finally catching up, she gazed upon him with shuddering eyes and screamed hysterically.