Demonic children CH3_EN

The moment the driver stopped the engine, Aj jumped to his feet. He went to pull a digital console from a sorting box near the front seats and turned it on. He studied and typed on the touch screen for a few seconds.
"If we had an hour before us, I would let you handle all the equipment, but we're in a hurry!"

Charme shot him a dark look.

Aj took one of the small bags of equipment marked with a blue dot and threw it on his shoulder. Then he got out and pulled Charme after him. They left the vehicle and the driver behind and set out into the streets.

At this off-peak hour, there were very few civilians to see them running through the streets and be surprised at their strange and identical outfits, and scarves in this beautiful summer day.

Charme tried to recall his lessons on how to address civilians and the excuses to give if they asked questions, but it was hard to focus with the prospect of seeing Hunters in action at last.

Aj navigated them and finally slowed. He checked the monitor once more and pointed to a residential building in front of them.
"Here"
"It wouldn't have taken me an hour" mumbled Charme."I know how to read a map."

The young Hunter chose to ignore him. He took the bag off his shoulder and fished inside as they walked towards the building door. He retrieved a magnetic card, with the help of which and a code written on the back, the door was unlocked.
The boys climbed the stairs of the six floors of the building and accessed the roof at last, with the help of the card once again.
Aj pointed to one extremity of the roof, and they approached the edge with caution.
"We're lucky. Just on time."

He gave the GPS monitor to Charme to hold while he emptied the content of the bag: two pairs of binoculars, a radio -that he turned on and set to receiving only- and water.

Charme compared what he had under his eyes to the screen of the device. The buildings around were shown in grey, themselves -their monitor- was a blue dot, and four red dots signaled the presence of Hunters about to intervene, disposed on each side of a dead-end alley. Three Hunters to the front, and one behind it. From their position on the roof, they were well oriented to observe the scene, even if a little far away.

"Isolated place" muttered the black haired boy for himself.

He grabbed one of the binoculars pair to locate the different actors of the scene, as radio calls rose from the receiving radio. He could not identify directly the men on the field, or have a good look at their weapons to give him clues, but he recognized the codes from the coordination calls and associated a face with some of the voices.

"Wow!" he whispered, impressed and excited. "These are our best Hunters all together!"
"Yep. At least it should make a nice show... It will make up for not participating. They will start soon. Mind the wind, so they don't spot the scarf...or your hair."

Charme kicked him, but couldn't refrain from smiling, impatient. He pointed the binoculars' objective back to the target-alley, and adjusted his green scarf so the wind would not catch it. All he could see were two individuals who seemed to be standing watch.
Moves in pairs.

Aj was smirking as well.
"Ready? Remind me the golden rule in observation missions?"
"Not to interfere" replied Charme right away.
"And if we see one of the demons escaping that the Hunters haven't noticed?"
"We tell them!"
"Wrong!" exclaimed the Hunter. "We let it go. Zero communications."
"But... That's not possible!" stammered the dark haired boy, unsure and shocked. "It goes against the Hunters' principles! It must be killed!"
"You're so cute when you start." cooed Aj as he ruffled Charme's already untidy hair. "No. It is more useful to know if our strategies are faulty than to kill only one more demon. But this problem won't arise today."

New radio calls crackled between the two teenagers. The last ones before the attack. Aj met Charme's eye before taking up his own binoculars.

Charme did not think the pair of demons looked that much threatening.
"Why four Hunters?" he whispered. "Why our best? Is it supposed to be a difficult group?"
"One team found them, so the preys are theirs, simple as that." answered Aj with a shrug. "And the other one is there as backup."
"Are the demons inside?" asked Charme, attempting to find the outline of a door in the dark alley. "It is hard to see..."
"It is hot. They probably forced the door to a basement, looking for coolness. Think for a minute! Now, open your eyes and pay attention, you will have to write a report on their work."

A signal. And the show started.

One of the sentinels took an arrow in the throat. By the time the second one understood, it had a javelin through the body.

Two of the Hunters rushed into the alley, drawing knives out of their jacket. One remained in position in front of the only exit, and the fourth one was not visible, but based on the GPS info, he waited beyond the end wall to intercept any flight attempt on that side.

The men finished the two dying demons with their blades as they passed them, but it seemed one of them had managed to give the alert: more demons were coming out into the light when the Hunters entered in the supposed basement.
The Hunters forced some of the individuals to back out of sight of the observers and disappeared inside. Rats scurried towards both ends of the alley.

Charme pressed his binoculars to his eyes a lot harder than needed.
"Come one! Come on!"

A small flying demon escaped from the basement. It rose quickly toward the sky. Higher and higher still...

Small ones with wings were a specific type of demons. Sickly little devils, not very intelligent and clumsy on the ground, they could cause a lot of damage once airborne. They had very sharp canines and an incredible strength in their small arms, and could drop heavy objects on the Hunters.

Charme feared the demon would fly over the top of the buildings and disappear out of sight.
"Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!" he whispered, clenching his teeth.

A knife stopped the demon in flight. It came down flapping with its valid wing. The Hunter that covered the entrance turned away from it to engage another escapee on foot.

This new demon seemed to hesitate when it saw the man standing there, and the sentinels' bodies. It gathered the javelin from its compatriot's torso and attacked the Hunter, holding it like a spear.

Beside him, Charme could hear Aj laughing.
"What does she think she's doing with that?"

She? The distance did not allow the younger boy to judge of the demons' gender... Maybe Aj had more powerful binoculars?
He tightened his grip on his own, and activated by accident a zooming wheel. Oh.
He felt stupid, and hoped with all his heart that Aj had not noticed.

The demoness launched a few awkward attacks. The Hunter did not move, and simply deflected the blade with his hand when it came too close to him. In the end he grabbed the javelin's body and disarmed her. The demoness backed away. The Hunter stepped forward.
She did something with her arm, but collapsed the next moment, one knife planted in her throat, and surprisingly, another weapon sticking out of her back.

The other Hunters came back into the light behind her, now a good deal redder that the last they saw of them.

"Heeey! That was HIS prey!" objected Charme, to no one in particular. "He had the situation under control! He didn't need you!"

Aj looked serious this time.
"It's always more complicated when they try to use magic. The priority it to kill them before."

In the alley, the Hunters gathered around the last demon still alive: the wounded winged one. He had gone to take shelter in a corner, probably hoping to be forgotten.

As the killer moved closer to finish the job with a new throwing knife in his hand, the flying demon jumped high despite its injured wing and flung itself at its aggressor's face. The Hunter raised his fists for protection, and the thing turned its attack to one of them for the span of a second, before the blade ended its life. The lifeless body fell back to the ground.

All of the Hunters froze.

"Was he bitten?" asked Charme anxiously? "Aj, did you see if he got bitten?!"

The young Hunter was pressing his binoculars to his eyes, worried too.
"I don't know, the demon tried, I think. But did it make it..?"

The radio was painfully silent and the men did not seem to move.
"We should know soon."

Charme and Aj were trying to understand what the men were doing. They saw them quickly gathering around their colleague and talking, probably. No agitation. No hurried retreat. After a while, they went around the corpses, leaving their colleague in peace.

"No. False alarm." declared Aj. "He's fine."

Charme sighed silently.
"You see, this is why it's always better to kill them from the distance." mumbled the Hunter. "Because on the first chance they get, they try to bring us down with them."

When the experimented Hunters were done checking if the demons were indeed dead, they collected any object suspected to be magic and their own projectiles, for those who had used some, and then they were on their way out.

"That's all?" asked the young one. "No civilian prisoners? No partisans?"
"You read a little too much. There are rarely any. Come on, let's move out."

A team of blue scarves would come to deal with the bodies, Charme knew. The boys got down from the building roof and navigated the streets the other way until they found the van and their driver. They would have the opportunity to talk to the others once back at the monastery. Better not stay out in large matching groups.

The blue scarf welcomed them with a wide smile.
"So, how was the show?"
"Could have been better" Aj responded, climbing aboard. "The main action was indoors, we couldn't see all of it."

Charme took place in the van just after his elder.
"But it was nice anyways! Really fast! The monsters didn't even get the time to see them coming!"
"Really, you liked it? That's great! Keeping the young troops motivated is the most important!"

The dark-haired boy grinned and commented happily what had happened in the alley for the entire return trip.

***

When the teenagers got out of the vehicle and closed the sliding door, Aj said:
"Oh, by the way, I hope you remember about the report."
"I remember." the boy replied. "I will write it tomorrow?"

The other corrected him.
"No, no, no, fluffy! You're going to do it this evening! The high-members want the reports under 24h."

Charme lost his smile instantly.
That was not possible... The superiors had to know that he could not...right?
"WHAT?? But-! My exam-! I have to study for it and no time to do anything else!"
"Aw, too bad for you, but reports have priority." Aj sneered before he went through the door and disappeared in the monastery yard..

Charme remained on the spot, struck.
"Hey, little guy!" called the driver in his back, and the boy slowly turned his head. "Don't listen to him. It's 48h, not 24."
"Uh?"
"48h. To turn in the reports."
"But why did he say-?"
"Go figure." said the driver, shrugging. "Maybe he doesn't like you, or it's some stupid integration prank. But it's not right to put you under so much stress for nothing."
"Err.. Thank you, sir. I'll kill him!"
"You're welcome. But I'd recommend you take a few notes right now on the exact events while they're still fresh in your memory. Just the ideas. Leave the pretty sentences for after your exam."

And he got back into his vehicle, leaving Charme in front of the large door.