Not the hero you need

[Asher Rose]

Ash flicked away the stub of his cigarette as he neared the crime scene, noting the crowd gathered at the fringe of the woods. Mostly concerned parents, he was willing to bet. The incident did happen within proximity to the local elementary and high schools, which were located closer to the edge of town. Why somebody chose to build them there was anybody's guess; probably some poor planning on the city's part. Or maybe they wanted to expand outward, into the woods, later on. Fuck if he knew.

What he did know, however, was that there was trouble afoot. It started with the glimpse of a hunter. The familiar face melted into the crowd by the time Ash took a good, hard, second look. What was his name? Jem? Ash knew that he ran with a crowd of other hunters; they formed a so-called group. Being law enforcement—and part supernatural—he was able to track some of these guys but realistically there wasn't much he could bust them for without hard evidence.

Ash was working on that, though—getting evidence. Enough to convict.

He pulled his squad car up to the fringe of the woods and hopped out, glancing around for signs of Minh. There was heavy police presence around, so he could at least rest assured that the hunters wouldn't come out guns a-blazing. Ash's brows lifted as he caught sight of a ranger patrol car too. He heard something about human casualties, but nothing about animals. Hard to tell what kind of mess was left out here, though, without seeing it for himself.

Ash loitered by his car as he scanned the crowd, and finally spotted Minh standing near the front. He trotted up, laying a hand on Minh's shoulder. "Hey man." His expression was serious, brows creased in a slight frown. "Let's go." With Ash's credentials, he could get them past the police barrier. Of course, that didn't stop people from sneaking in through the woods on the other side, but Ash wasn't worried about gawkers so much as he was worried about the shitstorm happening beyond the cordon.

"Saw a couple of hunters," he muttered close to Minh's ear. "Be careful when we head into the trees. C'mon."

[Minh Aitken]

"Hey."

Minh didn't jump when Asher arrived but he did tense briefly. In a place like this, after something like what just happened, he was extra wary. Every sound, everybody who came near alerted his burgeoning sense of danger. Something big was happening in sleepy little Hazleton. Nobody had to be a genius. Suffering and fear filled the air. Secrets were everywhere. Asher had better leads and stronger resources. Minh didn't know what he had to give to it but he had to give something. He couldn't just pay Asher a visit and then leave all this mess behind him. Not now that he'd stepped into it.

Minh nodded to let Asher know he'd heard him. Yes. Hunters were around. What did they have to do with this? Had they blamed it on the wolves somehow? Clever. But how? Did they get their hands on a feral wolf? Minh frowned. He said nothing until they were further in the forest and hopefully away from prying ears. Still, he kept his voice low and stayed close to Asher--just in case.

"Frame job?" he asked.

[Asher Rose]

"Can't tell yet," Ash muttered back as he picked his way through the damp loam and dirt, inhaling deeply of the wet smell of rot and decay. Reminded him of home; of the woodlands that he was brought up in, isolated from civilization. It was to be closer to God, they always said, and to be away from the sinful rest of the population. Ash knew now that it was to avoid capture, so that they could carry on their depraved ways.

As they broke through the trees and into the clearing, he uttered a low curse. There were the bodies, laying in unnatural poses in death. Throats torn out. Stomachs torn out. Ash's quick glance swept over the scene as a junior officer hastened up to ask him for credentials. He flashed his detective's badge and the cop stepped aside to let him pass.

"Wolves," Ash said quietly to Minh, half-turning to look at him and gauge his reaction. "It's gotta be wolves, right?" A slight commotion stirred up to the small group of officers to his left, that he ignored briefly. Somebody had a K9 unit sniffing around, too; he watched the dog criss-crossing the scene, trying to scent the criminal responsible for the gruesome murders, but Ash knew that it was no use. Dogs couldn't follow the scent of wolves after they changed back and these woods often had hikers tramping around, muddling the scents.

[Minh Aitken]

It was possible--and would be quite clever--that the hunters got their hands on some feral wolves, let them loose, and then let it look like this. Then again... something about the whole scene bothered him. The situation wasn't atypical; it was just that when had feral wolves taken to being so close to the school...? Minh made a small sound in his throat. How long? Were there missing children? Reports? Minh longed to ask but he held his tongue while Asher managed to get them past the yellow caution tape strewn everywhere the eye could see.

His stomach turned as they found the bodies. In fact, he actually stopped walking, his legs threatening to buckle on him. He was a shifter, too. He didn't kill his kind, though. Hunters. Was it hunters, though? Sorrow gripped his heart and he took in a soft, shuddering breath before he crossed his arms.

"Definitely looks that way..."

Hard to deny it. Those were teeth marks. Claw marks. Nothing he saw looked as if it had been created by something as clean as a knife or even a gunshot. Minh looked away after a long moment. Now was the time. Swallowing hard, Minh directed his eyes to Asher.

"Any missing kids recently? Before this, I mean."

[Asher Rose]

"None that I know of," Ash replied distractedly, again as his attention was diverted to the group of cops nearby. It looked like they were getting ready to head out, but Ash knew for a fact that the crime scene hadn't been properly processed yet. Hell, they were just starting to cart the bodies away--there was plenty of evidence to sift through before they could call it a day.

"Hold on a minute." Absently he patted Minh on the arm, noting almost sub-consciously his unease at the grisly sight. Ash walked over to the cops in time to hear the crackle over their radios--something happening in the neighborhoods, the suburbs. Siege. Civilian hostages. Barricade. Armed and dangerous.

Swiftly, he wheeled back around. "Something's gone down in the suburbs," he muttered to Minh, grasping hold of his arm. "I gotta head over there, they've got hostages. They're gonna need everybody they can get." Ash frowned slightly. Minh might want to come along but he wasn't trained--not properly, the way Ash had been. It would be dangerous, facing down armed thugs.

"Maybe you should head over to my place and lay low for now."

[Minh Aitken]

"Hm?"

Minh looked up from where he'd been studying one of the bodies. He could see that Ash was listening to something so he stood stock still and listened, too. Straining to hear what was going on under the static, he heard something about dangerous toward the end. The rest was merely gibberish until Ash came back with his explanation. Tensing, Minh shook his head and then pulled his arm from Ash's grasp.

"No. I'm going with you. I don't have to be trained to be another set of eyes for you."

Going to Ash's place while whatever was going down unfurled without him? Minh knew it was bad if Ash was trying to shield him from the issue but he was a big boy. An adult, and he was fully capable of holding his own, even if he wasn't some trained professional. He thought he could provide assistance, at the very least!

[Asher Rose]

"There's armed gunmen holding civilians hostage. You don't want to be in the crossfire, Minh," Ash said gravely, letting go of his friend's arm. His hand, though, curled into a loose fist at his side--he could be every bit as stubborn as Minh. Maybe even more.

Even as a kid, he had to have things his way, and damn the consequences. If he didn't feel like doing chores, he skipped out. His old man tanned his hide for it--and he still bore the scars of countless beatings--but the punishment didn't deter him. If anything, it just made him more rebellious. And when his eye snagged on the boy in the shack next to theirs...

Ash always got his way.

"Go home," he said firmly, staring Minh in the eye.

[Minh Aitken]

"Why am I here, Ash?"

Minh didn't want to go home. He'd come all this way to do... what, exactly? Why did he meet Ash in the woods? To see the aftermath of some horror show and then do nothing? Minh wasn't a man of words alone. He tended to act on whatever came at him. That was what he was taught to do, that was what his religion told him to do: to take action. That's what he got out of it.

He didn't want to be protected--he wanted to protect. Why did that require a badge? Especially around here? Minh hadn't even been here long and he could see that this was a place where protocol was just a word.

[Asher Rose]

"Officially? You're here to visit me and fuck strippers," Ash said testily, half of his mind already gone by then--on the situation in the suburbs. He didn't have time--or the patience--to stand here arguing with Minh. Innocent civilians were dying right now. People were being held hostage, and an entire goddamn part of town was under siege!

"Either you go home on your own or I handcuff you and have one of the deputies take you there in a squad car, Minh, it's your call." Not much of a choice, Ash knew, but when he invited Minh down here, his original intention was to have a second set of eyes working for him on the streets. Minh could pose as a tourist, gaining access to places that Ash--as a detective--couldn't. Minh could also sift through the information that Ash already had, and formulate conclusions of his own; two minds were better than one, after all.

But that was on their own time. Ash thought they could proceed after a more leisurely fashion. He didn't plan on some psychos taking over half the goddamn town!

[Minh Aitken]

Minh slightly narrowed his eyes. Ash knew full well that he wasn't here to fuck strippers and he didn't appreciate the way he said it, either. No doubt about it, Ash was the most stubborn man he'd ever met and that didn't necessarily mean a good thing. Minh could feel his jaw tensing and he had to consciously relax his muscles, reminding himself that it wasn't worth getting angry over this. He just disliked this treatment from a friend, although he supposed friend wasn't quite the word for what they were. More like man and tool.

"Fine." Minh turned away from Ash, heading down toward the trail he'd come up without another word. He should have forced Ash into backing up his words, to see if he even had as much power as he pretended to have. But he was too annoyed by how the encounter had gone to give Ash anything else to use. He already felt like he'd given him too much to use against him. Bastard, he thought before he could stop himself. A moment later, he was sending a prayer of forgiveness and trying not to make any eye contact with any of the others on the scene. Best to just get out and figure out his next move later.

[Cain Plunkett]

Cain fiddled with the old flip phone idly as he reached into a bag of jerky with his free hand, snagging a short piece to nibble on. He glanced up to sweep up and down the street. No Izzy; no big brother in sight. Plenty of wolves, though, heading into the area that the vampires had taken over. Already, cop cars lined the next street over, as policemen scrambled to come up with a fighting plan--that was what Cain assumed they'd do, anyway.

Some hunters were at the scene too, hanging back, pretending to be civilians. Some didn't, though; some were readying weapons in plain sight of the cops. Cain chewed on another piece of jerky pensively. His brows lowered into a dark frown as he caught sight of a group of vampires peeking out from behind the pile of cars that they'd used to form a barrier. It was a literal pile of twisted metal. Apparently they'd gotten somebody with unnatural strength to form it, and behind it, Cain heard sporadic screaming and other, even more frightening sounds.

He set the phone down and pulled the jerky into his lap. He was sitting outside the corner store now, on a weathered, half-rusted metal bench. The store owner had been eyeing him weirdly earlier, since he'd loitered long enough in there, forcing him to endure the discomfort of being watched or wandering outside. Cain hated being watched. He hated the creepy, crawly feeling of having someone's eyes on him. If it were up to him, the only person who would ever lay eyes on him again would be his brother.

"Hurry, Izzy," he muttered to the wind, as another squad car pulled up. A familiar face stepped out. Cain's expression grew stormy as he leaned forward to get a closer look at Asher, who was being greeted by somebody and pointed to what looked like a SWAT team armored van. He soon disappeared into it, and Cain curled his fingers around the armrest of the bench as the sound of a faint explosion blew through the barricade, followed by the long, concerted howl of wolves.

[Minh Aitken]

Minh was less than pleased with how things had gone down between himself and Asher but he hardly had a leg to stand on. He made his way back down the trail, pointedly ignoring Asher as he did whatever it was he was doing. With his jaw still set and his muscles still tensed, he walked into a nearby store. It sat on the corner and had a decidedly ancient look to it, as if it had been sitting there on that corner since the dawn of Hazleton.

The shelves went on forever, forming super long aisles that could trap a man if he wasn't careful. Minh didn't like it, so he quickly made his way back out, without anything in hand. There was nothing he wanted, and besides, the people who worked there seemed to be on edge and staring holes through everybody who dared enter their store. Good luck getting anybody to come back with attitudes like that.

Minh passed a kid sitting alone on the bench outside, sparing him only a glance. It was weird that somebody so young was so near the scene of a grisly crime.

[Cain Plunkett]

Get him away from the store.

Cain could do that. He briefly lifted his head as the man passed him by, sparing him only a brief, cursory glance before walking on. Lots of people did that when Cain was alone; he seemed to blend right in with the background. That didn't bother him, though. He didn't like attention anyway. 

Quickly standing, he shoved the bag of jerky into the worn messenger bag swinging by his hip and hastened after the man. When Cain reached him, he lightly brushed a hand against the side of his arm. "E-excuse me." His voice was barely louder than the babble of voices from all the curious onlookers neaby. Cain avoided the man's gaze, focusing on a point just by his shoulder.

"Have you seen my brother?"

It was an old act—looking for his brother, pretending to be lost.

[Minh Aitken]

Maybe he should have tailed that bastard Asher and figured out what he was really up to. Why didn't he? He touched the small copy of the bible in his back pocket for reassurance. He did the right thing. A faithful and forthright man wouldn't go snooping, especially when it was clear that Asher didn't want him to know something. Maybe he was hiding it for his own good. Minh doubted it, though he hated himself for doubting it. It was just that Asher wasn't particularly trustworthy. One would wonder why they were friends at all but it happened before Minh became devout and despite what he was told, he had a hard time letting go of the past, whether it was poisonous to his faith or not.

These were the things he was thinking about as he moved on past the child and he was so absorbed in them that he forgot to remain vigilant. Inside, his heart actually jolted from surprise and perhaps slightly out of fear when he was touched suddenly by a stranger. He at once began to think of all the trouble in Hazleton but those thoughts instantly cleared when he found himself looking at the lonely boy from earlier.

"...your brother?"

Minh looked around, slightly bewildered. Having never met this boy or his brother, how could he say if he'd ever laid eyes on him or not?

"I'm not sure. What does he look like?"

[Cain Plunkett]

Cain thought that he must have startled the stranger, when he touched his arm. There was just the briefest of tenses, and a little jerk of the arm. Luckily, the man didn't reflexively swing out at him--some people did that, because Cain was quite stealthy in his approach. When the man looked around, Cain looked at him; then, when his gaze swung back, Cain looked away again.

He felt it. Inside. Something clawing, reaching out to the man. This was the one. It was God's sign, His way of letting Cain know that this man needed to be saved.

"He's tall... and he has brown hair..." And he was just coming onto the scene, from what Cain could see. He ignored Isaiah--didn't even make eye-contact--as he latched on to the stranger's sleeve briefly. "He said he was gonna be back in five minutes but it's been an hour already. Last I saw him, he was going that way." Cain pointed down the street, towards an area that wasn't swarming with people and police cars.