Mist Bounty

Chapter 1

Jacen sat cross legged in the alleyway across from the pub, back gently pressed up against the uneven stones of the apartment building. The rough cut stone wall stabbed into him causing an increased amount of discomfort. His diminished size and mass while he stored his strength had the drawback of making him a lot more sensitive to pain. This came accompanied with the same familiar mental twinge that paired with his nights hunting prey. It rattled around causing some mild emotional discomfort, but he mostly had the episodes under control now. He sighed as he continued to store his strength into the rings on his fingers.

"Rusts" Jacen muttered under his breath, "The least they could do is hurry up with their drinks."

Sighing, Jacen adjusted his position so his back was no longer pressed up against the wall, in a vain attempt to see what was going on inside the bar his marks were in. Unfortunately the mists were out tonight obscuring his frustratingly unenhanced vision. He squinted and strained even harder, trying to see into the window and grab a glance at how close to being finished his prey was. At this point though the mists had been out for nearly an hour and the swirling, black and white wisps had grown thick enough that most normal people could barely see 5 feet in front of them. Much less through a window that was over 20 feet away. The fact that he could see the window at all was more a testament to how good Jacen's vision was than anything else.

"Harmony," Jacen whispered, "why couldn't you have given me a tineye as well?" Of course he didn't actually mean that, Jacen had been more than happy with his ability to soothe people. It afforded many advantages in his line of work, like how most people tended not to notice him while he stored his strength into his pewterminds. Whether it was a result of God's will or just a result of him becoming so skilled with his two powers, he wasn't sure anymore. Over the years he found it easier to be stealthy using his powers. While trailing a bounty, being unseen simply became second nature. He just needed brass in his system and his strength to be stored and he automatically created a wave that helped to make himself benign to others eyes until-

The door to the bar slammed open and three men spilled out, laughing with drinks in hand. One of them had a large scar running up the length of his arm starting from his wrist. It was a common wound allomancers sometimes bore after snapping and experimenting with their powers. Which wouldn't be too strange if reports of it happening to his mark, hadn't started coming in two months ago. Even stranger reports of people suddenly becoming allomancers all over the city had been popping up of late, most of them adult criminals like the man before him. Payton "Lightfoot" Krin. Jacen registered his target in his head and a smile crept over his face.

"There you are," Jacen murmured, preparing to rise. He checked his brass reserves and then his rings to see how much strength he had stored up. Luckily for him, his brass burned at an incredibly slow rate. He wasn't sure if that was because of his constant use of it but most of the time he wasn't that conscious of it. His body simply ... responded. But he only had about a minute of the necessary strength for three marks. This meant that he would have to move fast and hit hard.

"Please don't" A voice whispered in his ear. His head spun around looking frantically for whoever spoke. The sound of screams echoed through his head giving Jacen pause. He looked but he was alone in the alley. An old familiar chill ran down his spine as he felt his hands shaking. He quickly shut his eyes, shaking off the feeling and reopening them after a beat. Looking down at his hands once again they had stopped shaking and now only one thing was clear to him.

I should have brought my other metalminds, Jacen thought. But he had rationalized that in order to work on speedily catching his marks he had to be less weighed down. Rani probably would have called him stupid, he smirked at that thought.