The Manhunter's Son (PILOT)

CHAPTER 6: The Suspect

Seamus had paid us handsomely, for both our work and more than enough compensation for what Dad called an "almost" fatal accident and that I was able to get to a doctor in time.

He didn't mention the doctor was inside me and I could use my physician to impale Seamus, a little payback for what he got me into.

Seamus had another job for us, this time it wasn't an assassination, more of a collection of information. I pretended to be asleep, yet eavesdropped on the conversation. This also gave Raikhen time to heal me further while I lay dormant.

'A man of fair resides in the rural suburbs of Carrots-Yolk.'

'You mean "Karasjok?", Seamus?' Dad asked.

'Yes, that's the one. However he is gathering more notes and things of importance, perhaps trades and deals, in Barley-Wog.'

'Barlevåg.'

'Right. That. Anyway, I am paying you not only to lend an ear to his words but to also take such notes in hand and trade coin with me.' Seamus speaks his usual, riddle-like ways.

In short, he wants us to go to Barlevåg to eavesdrop and steal some information for him. This is suspicious; Seamus could easily have the authority by law to approach this man personally, not only is there a law that states richer or higher-up men have the authority to ask about potential secret trade offs for safety reasons such as smuggling or trafficking of their own goods, but also by law not to interfere if it is legal items and owned by one of the two parties; having assassins do it for him gives way to suspicions and doubts in my mind.

'You doubt him. He's hiding many thing from your father, he speaks the truth, but not the whole truth.' Raikhen says to me.

'I gathered that much, thank you Raikhen. How could you tell though?'

'I sense when people are lying via the vibrations in their voice; it spikes in certain phonemes that are usually lain flat. When someone hides something, it quivers.'

'Interesting.' I reply. 'How did you know?'

'Call it a species thing, Voidern can pick it up in each other's speech too. Like how human hair stands on end when you hear or sense something wrong or are filled with fear or awe, that's the closest I can compare it to.'

'Cool ability to have, useful too.'

'Can you think any louder? I'm trying to listen.' Raikhen mentally shushes me. I'm now taking orders from a voice in my head that's a literal, living organism.

'Seamus, I must ask, how do you propose we collect when you could intervene?'Dad asks Seamus outright.

'I like your Dad.' Raikhen says to me.

'Ah, I would be of authority, but this man has connections to hateful people of mine, I wouldn't dare want him or me to be hurt. Mainly me.'

'Selfish bitch.' Raikhen snaps.

'You point out fair, Seamus. Consider it done.' Dad shakes Seamus' hand and continues to talk about life as he walks him out the door.

'So Raikhen, how goes the healing? I feel almost healed, you've done very well.'

'I'm... what would this be? Five-sixths done.'

'So ninety-nine percent done out of one-hundred? You mean very nearly done.'

'Yes, that.' I feel that same pulse in the back of my head as I did last night. He's learning new things and phrases every day, it's almost like training a house pet.

'Okay son, he's gone.' I hear Dad say as he comes back inside without a riddle-talking Aristocrat. I open my eyes as he sits down on the bed and lifts the blankets to look at my bare torso. The redness and tenderness has gone completely, all that is left is liquid-like webbing underneath my skin moving around slowly and slightly.

'Looking good. How're you feeling?'

'Feel fine. So, when do we leave?'

'As soon as possible. Get dressed, eat something but take your time, there's no rush to this at all. I know the place we're going to in Barlevåg, one that I stayed at while we were on that "rogue bear" mission.' he says to me, getting up. 'Now that you're of age, you can stay there too.'

'Sounds good.' I say as I swivel out of bed and start to put my black pants over my legs. 'Is it a bar? I never knew why I couldn't go there...' I say my mind out loud as I think the last part.

'No, it's a different kind of place that offers services they normally wouldn't in a bar.' he says, rubbing his thigh. I knew exactly what he was meaning by that gesture, and it had been a very long time since we had some self care. I get dressed into my Manhunter's uniform, my face-cloth hanging loosely around my neck. I put a fingerless glove on my left hand, pausing as I'm about to put my right one on. There lays the black and blue Rococo metallic webbing on my forearm, hands and fingers.

I toss the glove to the side.

After eating a cooked meal of pancakes and bacon, we leave with duffel-bags hanging from our shoulders two hours later to a private helicopter that Dad had already arranged with Seamus. It's about a four-hour flight by helicopter directly with this special-forces model, it gives me enough time to have a conversation with Raikhen. I don't practice anything to do with weaponry, of course, but I find out I can't, in fact, communicate with Dad's Voidern. But everything I see, hear, think or touch Raikhen does too, because it turns out his entity-like fibers and DNA are woven in with mine.

Also being born from energy, they don't have a gender nor the desire to procreate like organisms on Earth; if I do sleep with someone tonight it'll be... more or less of an eye opening experience for Raikhen.

But I have more important questions for him other than just sex.

'Raikhen, the person who caused my death, they weren't of this world, just like you. Do you know of anything like this?' I let my mind rewind to my encounter with that mystical assassin, who I killed before I was impaled.

'I do know of similar actions, yes.' Raikhen thinks back to me, watching her supernatural abilities and quick movements. 'Look's like... ah, you'll forget the name as soon as I say it, but what they do is infest the body and mind, killing the human themselves and using their corpse as a puppet, taking over every last cell. But they feel everything just like a human does, but they can't normalise the matter strength. They're either frail as a blade of grass or strong like steel.'

'So that explains why her arm ripped right off...'

'Exactly. A rookie mistake.' Raikhen sighs. 'They should at least study the mass first before mimicking it.'

'Is that what you've done with me?' I'm curious now.

'Of course; as soon as I entered your body I studied your biological makeup and recreated that, patching and mimicking your organs down to the density and functionality before actually functioning as them and then continuing on fusing you back together.'

'Amazing.' I'm awed by what he tells me.

'Thank you, I am rather amazing~' Raikhen croons. 'Now I felt sexual tension beforehand and it reminded me to ask you: how do you humans replicate?'

'For fuck's sake, you bring that up now of all times...' if it's even possible to mentally have my head fall into my hands, I did it.