Numbered and Factions

Chapter 4

We meet up with Kit and Storm, also on their way to Cerbi's office. Why we gave the hellhound shifter an office beats me. He does less paperwork than Cari and Lele but he's still one of our top leaders, so I guess it works out.

"So you think they've found anything of interest this time?" Kit yawns, walking on my right with Storm.

Kit aint the tallest person around but she's not short in any way, long blondish gold hair, always tied in a spiked up ponytail, piercing green eyes, number 96. She's reserved and can be quick to get emotion over head when in a situation, that's how Storm balances her out. A taller frame, built like a box in the nicest way, brown hair with a bleached section over the left side of his face, sharp features, soft amber eyes, number 976. He's way more reserved and quiet compared to Kit, looming like a ghost in the back of the room, he prefers action over word and rationality over emotion.

"Hopefully, I've been hoping they'd at least shut one distribution chain down." Cari sighs, following us with a stride.

It doesn't take long to reach the office, we catch a familiar green and blue tail slipping in as we round the corner. The office itself is sparsely decorated, looking like a sad teacher's office. There's a couple book shelves adorned with books from when this building was still a college, a few photos of family on the upper shelves, one of the faces is scratched out in a family photo, his dad maybe? Not our place to ask questions. His desk sits in the back, Piper and Harmoninea stand off to the side smiling at us as we enter, Anbu stands on the other side with Lele, seemingly having a silent signed conversation, at the desk itself sits Cerbi. Tall, muscular, gray hair, wolfish ears, some of the scariest yellow eyes when he's angry, one of the weirdest fashion senses around, long gray foxtail with a snow white tip, clawed hands, fanged teeth, our hellhound shifter.

Cerbi motions for someone to close the door, Rabi fulfills the request. With a simple hand motion from Anbu, we're all seated, except for Cari who can't exactly sit all that well. I cross my legs, using my tail as a sort of cushion, it's fluffy enough for that. Spark takes the seat next to me, looking over with a slight smile. Cerbi stands, his tail seems to wrap his chair pushing it in as he moves out of the way.

"You all know why you're here right?" Cerbi states, his voice is a bit gravely and cold.

"There's some sort of lead?" I pipe up, looking at the man

"Smart as always," Harmoninea smiles, her ears flick back.

"We stopped another ring of shit up in Uptown, so we'll have less Turned coming in. And Cari, we took care of your request, Alei had her way with him. So only god knows what happened to him." Piper speaks like she didn't just sick a man eating dragon on someone.

"Unfortunately we still are dry on anything relating to Crystalline and Kiyume" Harmoninea looks at Anbu as they scratch at their wrist. There's a collective silence from the others as those two names are said.

"We're working our way up the chains, I can say that.. We found a name that may give us something. Glitch appears to have a higher position as the name kept showing up more and more as we investigated the Uptown ring." Piper looks calm as she talks, making eye contact with all of us at one point or another. Storm raises his hand, Piper nods at him to speak.

"What else did you find up there? I know that me and Kit were there once on a recon mission and found mentions of The Red Eye Killer visiting there just before we showed up,"

"Great question, all we found was a note stating you two coming in and him leaving, nothing on where he went.."

Storm snarls and sighs, Kit only nudges him. The room falls silent, Lele leaves after signing something to Anbu. There's some odd glances back and forth, Piper sighs and speaks once more,

"We're making a second trip to Uptown. Any volunteers."

Quite a few hands are raised, me, Spark, Kit, Storm, Rabi, Cerbi, and Anbu. The ones who aren't volunteering are dismissed, they leave quietly.

"Alright, glad you all signed up for this. Especially you Cerbi," Piper winks, Cerbi responds with an off handed snarl.

"Now, what we're going to do is show up, snoop around, maybe get in a fight or two, get some leads hopefully, and make our way up Crystalline's chain." Harmoninea explains, laying out some of the directives in a magenta hazed figure set. Anbu seems interested, looking over Cerbi's shoulder as the unicorn talks.

"When are we leaving and how long will we be gone?" Kit asks,

"We'll leave in 3 days time, we'll be gone for a week at the shortest. Cerbi should be able to carry us there." Harmoninea assures, her wings puff out. Cerbi huffs, nodding to the unicorn.

"If you two were already there why didn't you go further?" Spark states, his ears flick back.

"We didn't have time, Spark. We were going to stay but something was...off. It was messing with both of us so we came back for reinforcements" Piper sighs, she brushes her tail feathers down. Spark sits back, his ears still showing annoyance.

"Any other questions?" Harmoninea leans on the wall as she asks, her wings spread some.

There isn't any hands raised or questions poised. Piper smiles and rests her hands on the desk.

"We'll meet in the cafeteria 3 days from now after the lunch rush. Pack only essentials you can carry, I'll handle first aid and food" Harmoninea yawns.

"You all are dismissed," Piper waves her hand.