Terror of the desert

Spoiler:

Coco was chilling out under her wide brimmed sun hat, underneath the shade of a bright yellow umbrella. Her lips gently pressed up against a cup of chocolate milk and she softly drank the silky liquid that rested in her mug. All around her the clatter of a cafe'. Plates and cups being set down and picked up, people murmuring their conversations over a nice lunch. It was loud but relaxing.  The tables were not usually equipped with such nice umbrella's but coco managed to spruce up the place a bit in her time waiting. After a nice gulp she set down her cup and lifted up the piece of paper which had been delivered at her house earlier that week. Her green eyes checked over the note, making sure she hadn't missed any details. It wasn't often that a letter of import came to her and her tiny little apartment. She knew she could afford a better home for her family... but she just like buying weapons and armor so much. She was a shopaholic, there was no doubt about that. Her soft fingers slid over the letter as she waited. The bad thing about being fashionably early was that in comparison everyone else was inexcusably late. Which is why she tended to order for herself much earlier than everyone else was prepared for. She lifted the cup back up to her lips, and took another sip from it. She peered out across the cafe and saw him. She didn't really know how she knew it was him but it just seemed so obviously. That hat and those shades, the pink shirt and khaki pants. He just seemed so utterly inconspicious that there was no way it could have been anyone other than him. He very much looked the part of a man who was trying to not look like anyone important. So coco was not in the slightest bit surprised when she saw him nod to her and take a seat. "Mr. Anderson I presume?" She lifted his hand up to him as if to say 'charmed.'

He simply shushed her and leaned forward trying to keep the noise between the two of them. "My Name is White, got it? White."

Coco coked and eyebrow and beamed at him as if she found him perfectly ridiculous. "Oh? Afraid the lunch crown might recognize you Mr. White?"

"It's more like we would like for you to keep things in this operation to remain between the participants do you understand?"

Coco nodded slowly. Her smile didn't fade any. "Operation? I wasn't aware that Private corporations were allowed to give me missions."

"we're not. But..." He took a folder out of his tan satchel and placed it on the table, with his thumb he flipped it open and allowed coco to read what the folder had to say to her. "We are allowed to request that the village take on missions, and we're allowed to request who under takes them."

"A large monster has been spotted in the desert, some summon gone wrong, and it is your job to take it out before it can do Damage to the Village!" Coco chuckled how could she not that mission was just so deliciously vague. "It looks like a lot of work, but I do like money. Not sure I like how vague that is though. What sort of monster am I dealing with here?"

 Mr. White could only hold up his hand sand shake his head. "Vague for a reason. We wont' be discussing the details for the mission until we are actually on the site. However I will say that the description might be slightly misleading. You will not so much be combating the asset more... more of a quality control sort of circumstance."

"Why me?" Coco chewed her lip happily. She'd never really been so in the dark about something before. Mystery, she was so into it. 

"We understand that you might have a certain knowledge with the beast that would allow you to understand it's nature. A kinship if you will. Familiarity. History." Blah blah blah blah vague blah blah. Coco could see that she wasn't going to get anymore detail on the mission until she was actually in the middle of it. But you know what? Taht didnt' sound too bad. She closed her eyes and imagined herself in that new suit of armor she was prepairing to design. Oh yes that was nice. Blindly she picked up her cup of chocolate and took a nice swig of it. mmmm armor. Oh boy. She was going to wear that armor so hard.

"Okay but I have just one last question for you before I decide to go on this mission. It's very important and everything I'm about to do weighs heavily on it. I'm not trying to throw you off or anything with this explaination. I just want you to know the enormity and calamity of this future question. To have full and complete knowledge of the gavitas of what I'm about to ask you. In other words I just want you to know just how imporant it is."

Mr. White leaned forward. It was safe to say that he was interested in what was about to be said. He was a curious one that white, oh so curious. He finished leaning in and cocked his own eyebrow as if to tell her that he was very interested in what she was about to say. His body was very open. "Well ask away."

Coco smiled and leaned forward herself. The two of them were not really sitting anymore and really just lunging over the table at one another. "When do we leave?" She smiled, like a cat. Then let out a giggle. "Ha ha."

"Ha ha ha." He too was smiliing like he knew something. Which of course he coulnd't have because coco was the one who knew something! "As soon as possible!"

"Awesome" Coco held her out hand to be shaken by his home. She was ready to seal the deal.

"Then let's not waste anymore time." She gripped her hand and squeezed it tightly. "Ha ha ha!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" She gripped down on his hand forcefully like she was going to break a coconut open.

He grinned even more madly and put his hand on her shoulder and squuzed it tightly, pinching several nerves as he did so. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! It's so good to see you again sister!"

Coco placed a similar hand on him and grinned to herself. By this point everyone in the cafe was staring at them. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Give your sister a hug!" With all her might she took his body and her own and threw both of them to the ground. 

She liked this guy!

xxxx

Coco cleared her throat of any sand that might be building up in it. Two weeks of traveling through the desert really made her wish that she'd learned the water jutsu before all of this. She shrugged. For 8k they could go ahead and wax her legs and she wouldn't care. With a deep breath she kept going forward. The heat of the sun was bettering down on top of her, and her throat was so dry. She looked to poor little ra-ra on her shoulder and just wanted to cry and give him a hug. The poor guy must be feeling so dried out. She had to admit that she was a terrible person for subjugating the poor guy to hot dry weather. She petted him lightly. This poor little guy was having such a bad time. She gave him a gentle little kiss on the top of his head, and let him go to sleep. Up ahead she could see a vasty line of water. Her mouth moistioned and she wanted to drool when she saw it. Even though she knew it wouldn't do her any good. Salt water was as good as poison. She'd just have to hope that Mr. White had some water when she met up with him on the shore.

Yup there he was still looking like a frat boy. Excellent. He was cute when he was trying to be sneaky. She waved to him and yelled "Hey Anderson!" And ran over to his position to get a better look at the sour face he was giving her. He was so cute when he hated her. "So is it in the water?" She made a show of rolling up her sleeves. "Alright give me a few minutes."

"No it's not in the water." He did a bad imitation of her voice. he then motioned to a row boat that was sitting close by. Oh she assumed that he was wanting her to get in the boat and go sail away with him. How romantic. She didn't know how she was going to break it to the poor guy that she had a boyfriend already. Oh well. He was cute, and Akira was still making up for all the damage he'd caused to her life. Maybe she'd give a torrid affair a chance. What was life without a little torrid affair everyone in a while? yeah?  So she daintily stepped into the boat and allowed him to say whatever it he was wanting to say.

"Alright where are we heading?" Anderson jumped in, started up the motor and started driving them off into the big shiny blue ocean. 

"Private island a few miles off the coast. That's were our coperation is holding it's... business. We already have a luxury resort, and spa set up to accommodate you in your stay on the island. You'll be providing security consultation when we get to the island. Our own corperate secrity has done a fine job. But you ninja are good at getting around secerity so we'd like to see what you think of the facility." He some managed to say that simple question, give so much information, and somehow give her four times as many questions.

"Just what's going on on this island? Spa's, facilities, assets. Just what am I walking into?"

"I believe the deal was that I would fill you in when we get to the island. It will be much easier for me to explain to you the situation while you can see it. You'll understand everything once we get there." Secrets were so sexy.So with his apparent intentions being set on not really telling coco anything she didn't really hae much of a conversation on her way to this appratn island. There was a nice quite calm that fell over the two as teh only noise that could be heard was that of the motor running. Along the ride coco allowed or rara to get some water plashed over him so he could get more moist. Poor little guy was all dried out from his trek into the desert. He was a good boy. She gave him another kiss and looked out over the horizon. Up ahead a mountains of sorts could be seen piercing through the horizon. The sort of faded blue you get when a landmark is far away. Coco felt her stomach churn shen she saw it. That was a big island. No wonder they were paying her so much. It was going to take forever and a day to get that place ninja proofed. This spa better be good. Coco brushed off her maid outfit, and placed on her mask snuggly aginst her face. She figured she'd look so cool when she met whomever was really in charge of this place. Then she thought about how badly the mask looked when it was paired with the maid outift so she took it off, and thought that just her natural good looks would have to be good enough to greet anyone. 

"Better buckle in, the water gets a little rough when we approach the island."

Coco nodded, and sat down in the boat. She wondered if he knew that ninja could actually just straight up walk on water? She pushed that thought away because she didn't want to make him feel insecure. He'd put so much effort into this whole romantic boat ride, she'd hate to have to ruin it. Plus on the water this boat was probably faster than coco. So she let him drive his cute little boat and go on with it like he was the boss around here. She closed her eyes and let the boat ride out it's rock approach to the island. Everything wasn't going terribly soothingly and coco was atually getting a little sick from all the rocking. Her inner ear was serioulsy out of wack right now.

Still they sailed on and after a about a half out Anderson was pulling the boat into a groto. The flowers around the lagoon were blooming brilliantly and the sounds of birds chirping off in the distance gave the place a very relaxed feeling. Not to mention that they were sailing through some of the clearest water coco had ever seen in her enitre life. It was like they were skimming through air. Coco let out a whislte of appreciation, and stepped off the boat when the came to the dock. There were two guards crossing their arms, and in front of them was an older woman with her blonde hair died back in some kind of up due. A bouffant it what coco believed they were called. She was dressed in a grey power suit and just looked like she had two ripe apples on ehr checks they were so dern rosey. Coco just wanted to give them a pinch. So pincahble. So pincahvle. She felter her handtrembling it wanted to pinch them, but she had to resisit. they were just too.... rosey!

Somehow she anaged to summon up a crumb of self control and set up on the dock without pinching her host. Coco bowed to the land and gave her a quirky smile. "Good to meet you ma'am." coco held out her hand to held Anderson out of the boat but he slapped her hand out of the way and helped himself up. "Mr White here was very persuasive. I suggest you give him a raise."

the woman just waved her hands and grabbed coco up in a big hug. "oooooooh Darlin' arn't you just the cutest thing since a clam. Look at yew. Goodness me. Look at that maid outfit, it's so cute I could just eat it up. Cute as a button, yes it is. My oh my goodness me, I do declare it's good to see you child! I've been having a whole mess of troubles up here on this island and I was desperate something fierce for a skilled ninja to come and teach my people a thing or two about how to get business done. Now can you get business done, or can you get business done? If you can fight half as well as you can be cute, well I just don't think we're going to have any troubles today, if ya know what I'm saying. Now you tell me. Can ya help me?"

Coco could only stand there in silence for a few seconds and hug back. She was beyond being stunned into silence. What was that accent? What was that hair? What was her dea? Coco was just what's the word ... flabbergasted she in all honesty just had no idea what to say other than. "Uuuuuh, yes." she cleared her voice and hope it would smooth away the cracks that had formed into it earlier in the conversation. "I mean, yes. Of course I can." She chuckled and disengaged from the hug. "I'm a Jounin after all. I assure you whatever secruity matters you might be having me look into I'm more than prepaired to take care of it... ma'am."

"Oooooh arn't you just a peach and a half. Now that right there is the kind of confi;dence I like to see in one of my employees. Ya'll odn't even know what you're getting into and you're still radiating that kind of confidence. Well I just could't ve more pleased, I truly couldn't . Now you tell me Ms. Coco... are ya hungry?"

"Well I don't..."

"Bragurblaaahgum." said her stomach.

"Starving actually."

"Starvin'? Well that just won't do! Can't have my first guest on higgins island dying of starvation now can I? No ma'am I can not! Now ya'll just follow us and we'll take into the park, and up to the hotel."

Coco as always cocked her eyebrow just a little bit, and tilted her head to the side like a dog. Ra-Ra followed suit. "Park?" Now things were just getting a little too weird for her. Private islands, assets, monsters, security, just what was going on in this island? Whatever it was coco hoped she'd finally get an explanation once they manged to get their butts up to the hotel, and they could fill her brain up on information as well as her stomach up on food. Then everyone would win!

Ms. Higgins as coco would coe to know her would lead coco Anderson and her two guards up a pathway through the exterior tropical canopy of the island. Everyone would kind of form up into a line as she would prattle on a million miles per hour about things that had nothing to do with anything involved here on the island, like where she'd gotten her last perm done. The only saving grace was coco being able to look at all the beautiful nature that was around her. Living in a desert kind of makes you a little starved for the sights of nature. The path seemed to be a series of concree steps formed into the side of the hills that they were traveling up. Coco was very intrested in how Ms. Higgins was able to travel so quickly up the side of the steps in those heels. She must have a lot of practice. She imagined when the lady took her shoes off her foot just looked like it was made to be walked on that way. This elicited a laugh from coco, evidently at just the right time because the woman smiled brightly and laughed with coco over whatever joke coco had apparently found hilarious. This mild form of torture went on for a good amount of time. However all good things must come to an end. This adventure came to an end at a big stone wall at the crest of the hill. It was thick. Very thick. Coco looked at it curiously. Ms. Higgins called out and some people answered her. Then her two guards went up the handles at the door. There was an unclicking sounds and the two men began to open the door up with much effort. Coco watched as the Mon of the salamander clan split in half as the door opened. Well that explained why they said something about her having a history here. They were doing something with the salamanders? To the salamanders? Whatever was going on she didn't really like the idea of it putting herself between money and the salamanders. She really liked the salamanders, but she also really like money, so it was a tough decision.

The gates opened up and coco saw that there was two other men on that side of the gate pulling it open. It was a real team effort to get that door open. Coco couldn't even imagine what it was suppose to be keeping out. Or in. When she made it through the gate she saw the rest of the island open up before her. It seemed to be like it was some sort of Giant bowl. This island. And inside it looked there was a sort of... zoo set up? Wild life preserve? She didn't really know what to call it, but there were big lumbering animals that had large sections of the islands sectioned off for them. She was kind of breathless when she saw it. She'd never seen animals like those. So... cool!

"What do ya think sugar?" Ms Higgins asked as the doors behind them were slowly being shut in.

"I didn't realize the island was so big. This is an impressive installation. But can I ask. What are those things. They're huge, i..." She didn't know what to say something about them looked familiar.

"They're salamander's darlin'! Though you might find that we don't keep your everyday salamanders here on my island. Tell ya what! Let's go mozzy down to the hotel and we'll see what we see along the way how about that?" Well now coco couldn't even deny that she was intrested. What sort of salamanders did they have in here? If they were experimenting or torturing her buddies well she was just going to have to brutally murder everyone involved in this facility . The mission said that there was a mission adn from coco's pooint of view there very well could be one. However let's just see what we're playing with here. Under their armed escart coco and everyone else walked down into the bowl of the island. the air of hot and humid jungle hit coco like a sledge hammer. The humidity must have been one hundred perfect down here. The were led down a similar set of stairs as the way they'd arrived. Coco noticed on their time traveling that the entire bowl of the island was surrounded by a similiar thik wall. Coco found this curious. Anderson had used the word ninja proof either. Anyone who was anyone knew that walls were anything butt ninja proof. One of the earliest moves that a ninja learned was how to climb up walls. She'd nmave to put this in the report that she was already writing in her head.

Once they got down in the bowl of the island is here cooc got a really good look wat what was really going on on the island. This is when Ms. Higgins introduced coco to the salamanders. No ordinary salamanders. These were different larger larger even than Kasunda, who was the largest salamander coco had ever met. Well of course she'd met manasa's brother but he was kind of diffrent. He was closer to a dinosaur than anything esle. Actually he was closer to these things really. They were huge primitive looking things, many meters tall and long. They were hulking masses of muscle, and more than that. They all had spikes, and blades, plates, armor, various nasty looking means of defene that were foreing to cooc when she looked at thim. She couldnt' quite place where these salamanders were suppose to be from. They were diffrent. More diffrent than anything coco had ever seen before. "Where did you get these big guys? Are they native to the island?"

Ms. Higgins laughed ans shook her head. "Oh no darlin these guys are really native to anywhere in the world. They're special. A breed all their own. I'll be doin' all the explaining to you when we get to the hotel, and saw. Oh you're just going to love it shugar plum. It is classy with a capital C, I made sure of that. We even drop little chocolates on your pillow right before ya'll get there. They're soo good. I maybe have had a few too many myself." She giggled and placed her hands on her nonexistent pooch. Well there you have it. Coco went along with getting the idea that this was possibly a research facility for salamanders. These guys didn't seem like the intelligent kind that coco made friends with. They were kind of like cattle which coco could get behind, she supposed. If they weren't smart then she didn't see anything wrong with them keeping them in the preserves. That's right that's the kind of person coco was. She didn't think that all life was equal. If you could talk, and express ideas and emotion you're fine. Except for Ai, F those guys. No way in heck was she ever letting her guard down around one of those guys. They would make her in to a battery the first chance they got.

There wasn't just one specific type of salamander that Higgin's kep on the island. There seemed to be a hole 32 flavours worth of salamanders here. All of them she'd never seen before. It was strange little set up that higgins had going on here, but coco was facisnated by it all the same. Coco was going to grab one of these guys as a summon by the end of this deal or she didn't know why she bothered calling herself the salamander princess. Now the only question left for her to answer was going to be which one of thse ugly little cuties she was going to want to summon. Hard to choose hard to choose, she was going to have to give this one some serious thought.  They traveled past a few resorts for salamanders, also known as nature preserves. There was a hotel in the middle of the big lotus kind of lay out to the island. There was a central circles and then six petals which had different species of salamanders were hanging around in. Yippy! 

Talk about swanky. The whole place was very modern. Glass stair steps and everything. very nice, very nice. Coco looked around with a bit of interest glowing in her eyes. Wood and glass. She was obviously not up to writing this section of the story right now, because she was super distracted but she was going to just push on through the pain, and sleepiness and try to relay this story in her report. Let's go!

Talk about swanky. The whole place was very modern. Glass stair steps and everything. very nice, very nice. Coco looked around with a bit of interest glowing in her eyes. Wood and glass.  The building was several stairs tall and a cylinder in it's general shape with a single massive staircase in the middle of the lobby curling upwards to the next level, and the next, and the next, and the next, and the next, and finally the next one after that. There may have been more or less who knows? Coco wasn't about to climb up those stairs and take a gander, just to answer her question. She wasn't about to take a goose either, neither a goose nor a gander. Anyway the lobby and all the logistics of the hotel were handle at a circular desk that surrounded the staircase, a wooden desk and right behind that there was a glass wall that went to the staircases silo. Then there was the rest of the loby which was an entire doughnut of the place surrounded by glass and filled with couches, chairs, and other nice little places to sit, relax, and have  cup of coffee while you waited to do whatever in the world was going on in this crazy place. "Niiiiiice." Coco cooed, as she looked around and threw her luggage down on a nearby couch. "This place isn't half bad Ms. Higgins. You get a lot of money from the salamander business?"

"Well we're hoping we will." Anderson announced walking over to the lobby logistics area and started fiddling with a panel on the floor. before Coco's eyes the floor beneath the staircase started to unscrew and open up under revealing a lower section of the building tat was actually burried underground. "Sha'll we go down Ms. Wei?" Coco smiled and took his ahnd eventhough he didn't even offer it.

"Well all you had to do was ask Anderson." She laughed at his blush and allowed him to lead her down with the guards following behind them, and ms. higgins coming in behind her. Coco felt liked they were walking down the staircase for a few minutes before it all evened out. Coco coughed a web out of her mouth, and looked around. Another glass door and they were in an underground laboritory.! There were test tubes, microscopes, scientiests in white lab coats, You know science stuff. There were charts comparing mundane salamanders to the impressive ones that they had inhabiting on this island. It was an intresting place to be. Coco thought everything she'd ever seen in her life was intresting so that wasn't saying much. However even with the over load of intrest she seemed to show with this world, you should know that this place was one of the more worthy to bear that descriptor. "Wow." She mad her impression audible to everyone. "So this is the big secret you're keeping. A lab. Very impressive."

"Not just the lab sugar." Ms. Higgins walked over to a window where some scientists were working on a rock looking thing. A thing which looked like a rock. More of a rock looking like a thing than a thing looking like a rok. Don't you get those two things confused. Coco knew that she did. "Do you know what that is lamb."

"A rock." No.

"No no no no no no no. That's no rock my dear. That is a fossil. A salamander fossil. From just about a million years ago."

"Cool what are they doing with it?"

"We're collecting the Dna from the fossils and using it to clone the salamanders and bring them into the modern age. Dinosaurs. We're recreating dinosaurs."

Coco just about pooped her pants when she heard that crazy talk. What? Dinsaurs. Millions of years old. Alive today. In real life. Well butter my biscuits and call them... scones. That was certainly the last thing she'd expected to see coming from this island. Honestly she was expecting an insane demon cult more than anything else. This was much better and probably a lot harder to kill. "So now that your secrets have been revealed to me." coco moved herself deeper into the lab looking at the various stages of reanimating ancient salamanders. "What's my job here exactly? From what I saw you gusy seem to have this under control. Just what is it that you want me to be security for. You guys even have a secret labaratory. That's awesome."

Anderson and higgins both looked to each other, and exchanged a look between the two of them. Uh oh. Smash cut to: Coco, guards, adnerson, and higgins approaching what looked to bbe a like a nature pen like the rest but this one was smaller and surround on all sides by a large concrete wall with barp wire at the top. Coco cocked an eyebrow shen she saw this little guy. Now what could be going on in here she wondered. As they walked Ms. Higgins explained a few things to her. "Of course we did our research when we brought these things back, but you can't accounct for everything. You see what want to make this place into a park. A place where kids from all over the nations can come and enjoy thise strange and impressive sights. Can you imagine th look on a young child's face when he sees a real live dinosaur infront of him, just like in his books. It's going to be truly life altering. But we can't just have herbivores of course. People will always be more impressed by the predators, so that's why we created... him." Oh coco did not like that inflection that she used on the name. That sort of inflection was never good news for coco. 

Two more guards saulted them, and allowed the party into the facility. They opened up some big metal doors and let the crew walk on in. They had to climb some stairs before they got to an overestimation dec that was nearly at the top of the walls. It had no open air parts to it, and it was completely covered up by concrete the parts that were not covered by very thick looking glass. Coco coked an eyebrow. Not like any zoo she'd ever seen before in her life. "No windows on the bottom floor?"

"He'll just break them."

"What is he?" Coco couldn't help but be interested. Something that would take this much security must be pretty awesome. All Higgins had to do is point through the glass and coco saw her answer. They'd done it. They'd crated a Harou. Somehow. No it wasn't Harou. It was bigger than him. Way bigger. Stronger looking, more dangerous. Deadly spikes covered his plate armor. He was massive muscled and, completely deadly looking. His exta long looking body curled the length of it around his pen which seemed to be set up to look like a tropical zone, only it was obviously too small. "Dear God, where did you get something like that?" No one answerd and coco felt like she was suppose to just fill in the blanks on her own. "Now I see why you needed me." She tapped her lips for a few moments and thought. "How do you feed it there isnt' one door to this place."

Anderson answered the question for her. "We knock him out with gas and then lower food in for him via a crane."

Coco turned to him. "You knock him out?"

"Yes he would... attack the cranes if we didn't."

Agressive. "Why do you keep him in such a small pen?  His aggresive behavior is probably because he doesn't have enough space to roam."

"We originally gave him a larger pen, one large enough for him to have a good lay of the land. We filled it was several other species to create sort of a living enviorment. It was quite large actually."

"What happened?"

"He killed every other species in the pin, and then when he was done he jumped the fences that surrounded the compound and ran loose on the island for three days. We had to abandon the island and come back better prepared. We're just lucky we take the ability to swim out of their genetic code, otherwise the world wouldn't' be too happy with us if he got loose."

"What do you mean."

"The instincts to swim, we take it out of them. Replace it with a form of hydrophobia. "

"Whoever heard of an amphibian who couldn't swim?" Coco tapped her chin at the massive creature. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. Had she not know that it was come genetic freak who murdered without care she might have felt worse for it. But for the moment she felt like she needed to know what her connection to this guy was.

"We keep him in a small pin now so he can't build up enough momentum to jump. Anyway the reason we hired you is because we understand you're able to summon one of his ancestors. So we were hoping that perhaps you would be able to help us design a cage from him which is able to contain him while also allowing him to live comfortably  inside of it."

Coco shook her head. She didn't know why but she didn't think that was possible. There was something about this guy that made her think that he just wasn't the type of person who was ever going to live a peaceful life. She hardly thougth that Harou was able to live one most of the time she was around him. She could only imagine what a more aggresive version of him must be feeling like. "Feed him." Coco announced after a few moments of hesitation. 

"What?"

"I want to see how he eats."

"very well." Anderson got on the comms and told the guys who must be in charge of gassing the thing to do so.

The pin filled up with a purple gas, and as it did the salamander stood to it's full gigantic heigh and thought it wasn't tall enough to come face to face with coco did a pretty good job. It looked at her for a few moments before it closed it's eyes sleepily and laid itself down. "Can it see though the glass?" She wondered out loud.

"He shouldn't it's mirrored."

Higgins is the one who spoke up this time. "He can see our heat."

Before too long a large crane arm came down over the roof of the pin carrying a cow in a harness. He must hae been a big eater. Coco was ready to wait for the thing to wake up and find it's meal waiting for it, but that never happened. Comming out of the purplse haze was the beasts tail. It curled itself around the crane arm. the arm whined, whirred, and screamed, and after a breif battle gave out and slumped down to the ground. An oppritunity whih the beast did not waste. IT jumped ontop of the crane arm as it leaned up aginst hte wall and thien with a mgihty pushe jumped over the top of the pin and in an instant was gone. Leaving everyone in the pin with utterly shocked expressions on their face. 

Higgins and Anderson both exchanged all manners of desperate confused, and scared comments. They had no idea what had just happened but they were both under the serious impression that it was going to end very badly for the both of them. They turned towards Coco to ask for her advice but she was already fully kitted out with her wide array of weapons and was heading towards the door. "Ms. Wei, please don't kill the asset. We sunk a lot of money into it. If you could just get it back without harming it that would be best."

Coco shook her head. "No way. That thing has been pretending to be susceptible to gas this while time just waiting for this moment. It's way to smart to be trapped in a pin. It's going to learn, and it's going to adapt every time. Something so big so powerful and so smart, we can't take the risk."

"But ms. Wei."

"When a lamb run away from a Shepard the Shepard breaks the lambs leg and then carries it over his shoulder until the lamb heals. If the lamb runs away again. Coco drew her sword and looked at it. "He kills it." And with that she was off, after the monster. She didn't know what she would face when she saw him, but it was sure to be the fight of her life.  

The beast had jumped it's cage run through the park and when it was over jump into a pin filled with another breed of salamanders. Of which it was currently trying to put back on the extinct list. Coco foolishly jumped into the pin with him and shouted out to get his attention. He turned around immediately and got the feeling that he was waiting for her. Not just for the last few minutes, but for his entire life. It was not a good feeling to have. "What's Your name?" She asked feeling like she had enough room to take this one gamble.

"I have no name." The beast answered back, and coco smiled none too suprised at all.

"Do they know that you can talk?" Coco smiled. "No name."

"No one but you is worthy of me talking to."

"And why is that?"

"I recognize another Apex when i see one. I've been waiting for you all this time, alpha. You are the one who is in charge of the salamander clan now arn't you?"

"I wouldn't say I'm in charge, I'm of a..."

"But you are in charge, are you not." His body, his head, his teeth were all facing her, and getting closer.

"Yes." Coco felt like it was the right answer. Every fiber of her body wanted to start backing up and get away from this thing but she held firm, she was an alpha after all.

"So was I long ago. Or am, he whom I was created from. I do not know. This world is not the one I left behind before I slept. I died, and then I woke up here. Alive again, but a prisoner under these people. I am no prisoner, but with no clan what am I to do? Still I felt you out there. Myself in another form. The new Apex, and I thought. Maybe she's worthy of that name after all..." He paused and licked his teeth. "Or maybe not." Distubingly fast, and terrifyingly graceful he launcehd fowrard intent on swallowing Coco whole. 

Coco had other plans. She never really like the idea of being a snack for something that should have died out when it was it's time. She grabbed a hold of her sword and Dark energy began filling it up. The darkness cur across it fusing with the blade and sharpening it. Even with that armor of his, this word should have no problem getting through that armor. She held it by her side, and smiled at him. "I know you think you can eat be before I'll be able to strike at you, and you're right. However I should warn you. I'm not a swords woman." She paushed and flicked the blade forward and tapped it with her finger. "I'm an archer... goodbye, and sleep well." The blade ignited the air around it as it shot forward at an incredible speed beyond anything the beast must have witness in it's time in the wide. The black blade shot through it's mouth and went right through the entirety of it's body before coming out on the other end. Coco could see the insides of his body catch fire as the super-heated air went through him. "Gg." She giggled and covered her mouth as the feeling of burnign flesh got caught in her nose. The no named beast landed just feet in front of her, and coco walked past him to go and get her sword. She patted her plated back as she went on by him. She didn't like the life he lived, but she respected that he at least was strong enough to die as himself. "I'll do your title Justice, No Name Sama."

(7060)
3375 Mastering Permeable Yuumei
3000 Dark Release Chakra Blade
390 Mastering Screech Owl
295 towards Shade Clone
Mission Rewards