The Majin Union Case

Part 1: The new team:

 

    The room is a cliché, its dark, the layout, the placement of the desk, the window, the blinds, the file cabinets, and even the door. It’s all taken from old detective movies she’s seen in the files. Then again this building is pretty old, the office might just be old enough not to count as a cliché. Then again the man behind the desk and the two men standing on either side of him look like they belong in some old detective movie, their faces, their garments, even their hairstyles and how they carry themselves in general all bring her back to those movies she studied. Of course she is stands out, between her five foot eleven inches height, her tight leather outfit, not to mention her mocha skin, jet black hair, and sharp features, she stands out as much in this old set up like a prop from Frankenstein would stick out in the background of a sitcom.

 

   Behind her there is another woman, she came here with her, from the same department she just came from even. This woman is shorter than her, paler than the men in front of them, like she’d never even see the sun, with hair just as black as her own, only long and straight, slightly curving off her head like some hood. While she sits, this other woman stands behind her like a soldier at attention.

 

    “Forgive me,” says the man behind the desk, “if I don’t shake your hand miss Kathryn Harris,” he holds up a file on his desk with a picture of her pinned to it, “but I read your file.”

 

    He opens it and pretends to read through it, he clearly read through it before now, he’s just putting on a show, “Lets see here, abilities…” he eyes her, “Tactile Empathic Control, able to influence the emotions of others through skin to skin contact, only requiring brief contact to influence surface emotions. And…” he nods his head, “Electro…ki…nee…sis…huh, the ability to generate and manipulate electricity, heh, and you’re pretty powerful at it, at that…” he holds his hand up, “and…there is more, you can also transform into a giant black panther creature able to run at speeds greater than 90 miles per hour and shred steel with your claws.”

 

    He throws the file down, “The rule is usually you get one power,” he gestures at the man to his right, “this man…nothing…sharp shooter,” he gestures to his left, “this man…lock picker…CIA combat training.”

 

   He looks at her and thumbs the file again, “We have others of course, a few with this and that power, guess your previous department liked to hog the powerhouses huh?”

 

   He looks at the woman standing in the back, “and you miss, your file tells us your name is Jessica Tremaine, you got super strength, some weirdness called a defense aura as you put it, and speed, not as fast as your friend here, but enough to put all my men to shame, not to mention outrun most dogs out there.”

 

   When he said “dogs” Kathryn was sure he meant their “quarries” the things this department hunts.

 

   “I am not one to mince words,” he says while crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair, “The only reason you two are here is because our team has been…lacking…diversity, not like your Alien Taskforce, us Monster Hunters are under-staffed all the time, of course the big wigs they think Aliens are more important. No doubt you think so too, big guys in outer space, freaky monsters, all that sort of shit right…not that I’d know…yeah so they get all you super-freaks…while we only have to deal with the horrors that lurk in the shadows, who look like us, talk like us, but under their skins are nothing like us, they only want to turn us into cattle and take over the world. No one really knows how far their influence goes, in fact they may the reason….”

 

    He stops himself…in his mind the words trail off showing his internal frustration to being under-budgeted and under-staffed, the thought has crossed his mind a few times that something is in the ranks keeping them dancing, but not towards them.

 

    He waves his hand, “Well, they threw us a bone…or two…but make no mistake this isn’t easy street. I don’t know what you two did to get demoted to our department, but we take our jobs very serious and what we fight is no less serious than what you know doubt had to deal with going through that magic circle thing to distant planets to protect us from what ever…oh yeah surprised huh, you can’t admit it to me right, but we all know what’s really going on with the search for alien technology…”

 

    “We don’t know what you mean sir,” says Jessica, a surprise to everyone in the room who though the woman who had the audacity to take a seat would have spoken up first, “My apologies for speaking out of turn, but we are here because the threat level has been increased in regards to these sub-terrestrial life forms. If you wish to know why we are here, its simply because our superiors believe there way be a connection between them and another looming threat which we are not at liberty to discuss. Only know that we will fight by your side as loyal sub-ordinates so long as you do not press us for information outside your jurisdiction, that is all.”

 

    “Blunt,” says the man, “I like that, and you?” he gestures to Kathryn, who just smiles and says, “Sorry, we’re you still talking? I’m here to kill things, you point me at what I need to kill, I kill it, you tell me who to save, I save them. I couldn’t care less about any of this top secret bullshit.”

 

   The man smiles, “I like that too…keep it nice and simple. Well welcome aboard, from now on you’ll answer to me, ole Iron Side Rustle. But you can just call me Sir Rust.”

 

Part 2:

The Case:

 

     The estate is massive; a mansion by any other name might as well be a small town with how much land this place takes up. The owner is a man in his mid thirties, a man who has virtually everything a man could want, and has the curly short hair and goatee look to go with it, that looks to be a look he stole from a character in a famous movie. This night he indulges in his fortune, a party, but of course under the surface it’s also an excuse for many corporate executives and politicians to meet. The occasion is stated to be a celebration of a new branch office opening overseas.

 

   The man of the hour can be found sitting on a love seat with a gorgeous bosom blond on each arm, talking to several foreign diplomats and their “escorts” sitting on a couch near him. This furniture is out of place, sitting to the side, in what could have been a very large closet compared to the main hall everyone else is gathered in.

 

   At such a lavish event, with so many guests, from so many places, and their guests, it wouldn’t be hard for someone with connections to get in and mix amongst them. This fact is what has allowed Sir Rust, in a very unbecoming business suit, along with Jessica and Kathryn, with Jessica in a business suit and Kathryn in a dress slit up the side so as not to inhibit her in the event a chase is needed. Naturally through there  few whispers as Sir Rust scopes out the edges of the hall keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, and Jessica and Kathryn walk about together; these whispers of course being from the ones who saw them enter pondering if the two girls are really the couple and the man their body guard or escort, or some more exotic combinations; thus are the whisperings of the rich and depraved.

 

    Of course some man wandering the edges of the hall might be more distracting, seeing as unlike anyone else he isn’t mingling, and even to Sir Rust’s surprise the two women are making no attempt to make themselves stand out any less as they are actually dancing together, and quite seductively at that, with the stern behavior of Jessica that Sir Rust has come to see over the last few weeks of getting the two acclimated to their new department he would never have dreamed these two would allow themselves to make such a scene. However the reason is clear, the host of the party, the wealthy man they believe to be the target of their true reason for being here, has turned his attention to the two women, who while they dance close have also been edging their way over to him, and even shooting him a few “come hither” glances.

 

   As easily as their department was able to get them into this party, they know just as easily other forces could infiltrate this gathering of the rich and influential. They had gotten word that a group called the Majin Union may attempt to either abduct, replace, murder, or take control of the overly wealthy benefactor of this event. However there has also been word that other groups of unknown intent may have agents at this event as well.

 

     As Jessica and Kathryn move close to, their bodies intertwining in a seductive dance, their thighs briefly brush against one another, their arms sliding across the top of each others buttocks, and with a smile and eyes that could melt the frozen swan on the buffet their lips barely miss contacting each other as they complete one last swirl before the music changes. Now they walk, arms on each others waists over to where the benefactor is sitting. The girls with him shoot the two new girls, these interlopers, with dagger stares of pure hate, of course only lasting an instant least their faces appear ugly to the rich men they wish to get in bed with (in more ways than one).

 

    “My, my,” says the man with a smile as he reaches over a vase to clasp Kathryn’s hand and even kiss her fingers, “You two are quite the lovely sight to see, I dare say you’ve over shadowed the floral displays my men as they were, painstakingly spent hours arranging.”

 

    Sir Rust practically rolls his eyes from across the room, both at the continued pick up lines that only a handsome wealthy man could get away with saying to any woman, and at the bold move his two new agents have made. They were supposed to keep a close eye on this guy with out his knowing, but not THAT close. Jessica and Kathryn sit, telling tales of their false identities as a business woman and her…associate. Which the man has taken to be believe Kathryn is her (special) secretary. No doubt the man’s mind is filled with a great many lewd fantasies as they talk, both in part no doubt to just the sight of these two beauties, and Kathryn’s touch. A fact Sir Rust was quick too note, no doubt enhancing the man’s mood to make him so enamored with these two that the escorts he brought with him are forced to surrender and try and seduce some other rich handsome and young studs at the party.

 

    ******

 

    Hours pass, the party starts to wind down. The guests are leaving, and the man of the hour is pretty much drunk, both on alcohol and from Kathryn’s touch, which she has had several hand slide teases to enforce her empathic manipulation; which has been used mostly to distract him into such a stupor as not to notice Sir Rust and they are the only ones left as she takes him to his room, of course his state of mind and body not preventing him from

trying to make clumsy moves on her.

 

    “Excuse me miss,” comes a man’s voice from behind them.

 

    She turns to see a thin pale man in a black tuxedo with two giant Chinese men behind him, and by giant, they are giant, these two identical to each other men are at least seven feet tall and weigh over 700 pounds, and yet it looks to be as much muscle as fat.

 

    “But, I’m afraid will have to take your lover off your hands this evening, we need to…sober him…and talk some buisiness with him.” The man’s smile could curdle milk.

 

    Kathryn looks at the man in her arm, now passed out and looks at the three men with a curious expression, “I highly doubt it, he’s piss drunk and passed out, he’ll be lucky if he can even stand tomarrow.”

 

    “All the more reason to let us have him,” says the man as his two cohorts start to walk towards her, “After all, we are his body guards, and…”

 

   *thump*

 

   They stop surprised as she dumps him on the floor, “Don’t bull shit me,” she says, “I can tell just by looking at your auras that not one of you is even human. I’m not one for all the lies and subtlties and all that shit, so how’s about we cut to the chase and just kill you idiots okay?”

 

    The man snarls, “What the fuck? I don’t know who you are, or who you work for, but you have no idea of the powers your messing with.”

 

   The two large men’s faces contort to almost cat like expressions with savage teeth, their fingers turn long and come to points.

 

   Instead of being surprised or even alarmed by this as they would have expected Kathryn simple smiles, aims her palm at them and says, “Thunder Shocker.”

 

   A blast of electricity flies from her palms and fries both the men, their giant frames crashing to the floor.

 

   “and now you,” says Kathryn.

 

    Before she can do anything however, from the corner of her eye she sees the man she is supposed to be protecting slip halfway into the shadow along the corner of the wall and his sleeping body dragged across the floor of the hallway over the man. From the shadow raises a man with red glowing eyes, his hand however holding the rich man a large claw, a cross between a lizard, a cat, a bug, and maybe also black wood as far as can be deduced from its hideous black appearance. These claws are poised around the man’s neck.

 

   Before another move can be made Jessica and Sir Rust come up the stairs behind them.

 

    “Freeze!” demands Sir Rust as he points his rather fancy looking gun at them. Jessica has her own weapon but it looks like something out of a science fiction movie, silver, sleek, with a blue dome on its back as a power source.

 

   “I don’t think so,” says the tuxedo man as he strokes the rich man’s face, turning into his likeness as he does so.”

 

    “A Shape Shifter,” says Sir Rust, and seeing the two men on the floor says, “and those must have been Changelings. So the Majin Union really was after Anthony Stroker.”

 

    “Yes indeed,” says the man in the Tuxedo, “and unless you want to see him slain by my Shadow Stalker friend here you’ll lower your weapons and let us pass. After all one rich inventor is hardly worth an incident over.”

 

    “Pretty confident for someone whose surrounded,” says Kathryn with her palm aimed at him.

 

    “Electrokinesis,” says the Shape Shifter, “Hit me, and you hit him, not an easy power to aim given the innate nature of conductivity am I right? You know we’ll take good care of him, after all if I killed him I’d hardly be able to duplicate him again. I promise to let him go after we’ve done our buisiness with him.”

 

   “Which is?” asks Sir Rust.

 

   *blood gush stab!*

 

   The Shape Shifter turns, surprised by the sudden torrent of blood on his face, he turns to see the Shadow Stalker’s head has been run through by Kathryn’s arm. Her fingernails are now like claws.  She grabs the Anthony Stroker by the shirt as she flings the Shadow Stalker’s corpse off her arm as though she were simply flinging off some muck. With out another word, and before the shape shifter can react, she punches him in the face sending him flying into the wall, breaking the drywall in the process. The unconscious Shape Shifter returns to his original form, the man who had been standing there before.

 

   “You can interrogate this idiot in a cell,” says Kathryn, “I need to go wash demon blood off my arm.”

 

   “Hold on!” yells Sir Rust as she passes, “That was reckless, you could have gotten the man we’re supposed to be protecting killed.”

 

   Kathryn marches up to him, “This was the plan, just because you were too busy walking around like some Secret Service guy too busy to tell is not our fault.”

 

   “Our?” mouths Sir Rust looking at Jessica, who just shrugs.

 

   “Yeah, our,” says Kathryn poking a finger at Sir Rust, “Its an old tactic, I set myself up as bait, helpless gold digging girl dragging the rich idiot to a bedroom, the enemy comes after us, tries to trick me, I confuse them, Jessica comes up behind them, and when they lest expect it, we smash them between us.”

 

   She smiles and shrugs, “Of course this time, the shape shifting enemy was just some low class freak show and now some amorphous slime like last time.”

 

   Jessica smiles briefly; and in this instance Sir Rust knows they’ve done jobs like this before with aliens.

 

   “No excuse,” says Sir Rust, “This is the Paranormal Control Agency, not some area 51 air force or what ever deal, you need to keep me in the loop of any plan you might have, and we need to work with minimal damage to the world.”

 

   He points at the wall, “We usually just mind erase the victim around here and clean up the bodies, but now we have to fix that wall for instance, not to mention the scorch marks your electric bit left on the walls, and…weren’t there three bodies plus the shape shifter?”

 

   They look down and see that the demon has vanished.

 

   “Tough little bastard.” says Kathryn.

 

    ******

 

   A small clean up crew has been called in, going over the whole mansion, the Shape Shifter is being carded off as are the two electrocuted Changelings in body bags.

 

   “Good work,” says a tall pale woman with long jet black hair, and wearing

a matching black secret agent suit.

 

    Sir Rust stands, “No problem ma’am, our new agents are a little reckless but they did get the job done.”

 

   The Woman looks over at them, Kathryn notices that she slightly sniffs the air, what would could mistake for a slight case of hay fever she can tell is something more.

 

    “I’d like to speak to you in private,” says the woman leading them away from the others, out back, and near the edge of garden.

 

    “We won’t be disturbed here,” she says.

 

   She sees Jessica’s hand is closer to her odd gun’s invisible holster, which kept it out of sight through out the entire party, yet this woman’s eyes can see it.

 

    “Don’t worry,” she says, “I’m not here to threaten you, or give away to Rust back there that neither of you are even human. The Paranormal Control Agency has issues with that sort of thing amongst its ranks, which makes how open…” she eyes them, “yet distinctly lacking in detail your files are, all the more fascinating.”

 

    She smiles and stands back, an eerie blue glow over comes her, her cloths stretch as her body changes. She now has the head of a fox like canine covered in black fur, and from what must have been a secret flap in her pants a very long bushy tail has appeared. Her shoes have curled up into rings on her ankles as her feet are not paws, and her hands have become claws.

 

    “This is my true form,” she says, “and,” she looks at Jessica, “While I have never smelled anything like you before, I can tell you’re clearly not human.”

 

   She looks at Kathryn and puts her hand on her hip, “You on the other hand have my suspicion, I have smelled something like you before.”

 

    “Really,” says Kathryn crossing her arms looking this canine creature with human tits up and down, “I doubt it…what ever you are…personally I think you look like a Kik, but your proportions are too human.”

 

   “A…Kik,” says the woman, “Well you certainly know about them alright, you see we have one in our ranks, you however smell so much like Bast-Tet and Sehkmenta that it’s a little suspicious.”

 

    “Bast-tet…and Sehkmenta?” asks Kathryn.

 

   “You know of them then?” says the woman with a canine smile.

 

   “Not really,” says Kathryn with a shrug and a grin, “I know the names from mythology, but I don’t know anyone personally by those names.”

 

    Kathryn strips off her dress revealing her luscious naked body to the world.

 

   “What are you doing?” asks the woman, who sees that Jessica is stepping back a little ways.

 

   “Well,” says Kathryn my dress doesn’t change shape like that outfit of yours and…”

 

    Her body glows with an electric glow, but its not like morphing shape, more like a mirage fading and being replaced by another form. Where Kathryn stood now stands a black panther humanoid with the same hair she had in human form. Her hands are like those of the other woman, human like but with claws, and her feet too stand on the toes, except she only has four toes.

 

  “I see,” says the woman, “You are a Lit then?”

 

   “No,” says Kathryn coldly, “I am a Kuhrai.”

 

   “I…” says the woman, “recognize that word…”

 

   She narrows her eyes, “Oh, yes that’s right. Yasha, our resident Kik, said that’s what Bast-tet and Sehkmenta are…but you said you don’t know them.”

 

   “Does every human know every other human,” says Kathryn, “I’d think not. Now…”

 

   She changes back into her human form and puts her dress back on, “If your done with this interrogation we need to get back to the office and fill out our reports.”

 

   The woman smiles and changes back to her human form as well, “Very well,” she says, “Then this is some alien thing…but mark my words, if you do anything to validate my suspicious you will find yourself in a box in a prison in the middle of no-where never to see the sun again…aliens.”

 

   As Kathryn and Jessica walk away, Jessica turns to Kathryn and taps an unseen device on her own temple and projects a thought to Kathryn, “So that was Shadow Vixen, my superiors in the Ju-el military gave me a file on her, she’s a Raikin, a human hybrid pawn of the Rai, a race from a cluster of small flat worlds in the Other World sub-universe known as the Makai Cluster.”

 

   Kathryn smiles and whispers, “Yeah mine gave me the same file, just threw me off she’d be so brazen as to put her cards out on the table like that, but it seems two of my race are here playing monster…I’m going to have to report that.”

 

   Jessica looks back, Shadow Vixen had already walked off, out of hearing range from them, and whispers, “You Kuhrai, so direct aren’t you, not that it’d hurt you for them to hear you, but my superiors are going to want to know that too, if the Kuhrai are already up to something here.”

 

   “Trust me,” says Kathryn, “if we we’re I wouldn’t be here, It’s probably just a couple of freelancers messing with these primitives. All the more reason to report them of course.”

 

    Jessica’s expression turns back to that of a silent cold fighter as they come into the line of sight of the others in the Paranormal Protection Agency.