The Hunt

A few days ago I was sent to hunt down something. They didn't tell me what it was or why I was hunting it, only that it's very important I find it, and that it would probably be hanging out its last known location. I have suspicions that it has to do with The Long Game. That it's part of the Next Phase which they've finally located. Nonetheless I set out, following the lead that it was somewhere in Italy. This piqued my curiosity as that is generally outside my jurisdiction, meaning that it was very important that I specifically hunt it. Also, Italy is swarming with Timberwolves.

I started out early and got several buses, taxis and trains for the rest of the day. Finally arriving Rome, late at night. Too tired to continue further I got a hotel and rested until morning. I wasn't fortunate in my selection of hotel. Rising the next day I realised too late that this particular Hotel had been chosen as a hub of sorts for several Timberwolves in town for a meeting. I'd wondered if it was a Timberwolf I was supposed to kill, but I'd have to hunt down every last one in Rome to ensure I got the target. Hardly a feat I'm capable of accomplishing.  

I cursed Master Nowhere for his vagueness, and managed to sneak past the Timberwolves in the lobby. Well, not so much sneak as walk casually, convinced there were no Apostles and hence none of them would be able to tell who I was and that I was a Sine Corda. Out on the streets I determined to head to the more specific last known location of the thing. Address in hand I grabbed a taxi, learning that the last known sighting was quite a bit outside of Rome. But the Nevermore Accord are anything but low on cash, and I had all the money needed to convince the driver to take me there.

After a while of driving, the car stopped just outside a dump. Needless to say, my curiosity was only further piqued. Leaving the taxi, I headed into the landfill. The smell is just as bad as you'd imagine, and the rats! I couldn't count how many rats I saw in that place. I was more interested in finding the target. Was it still here?

Yes, yes it was. I spotted a man, shambling its way through the garbage, clad in tattered brown wrappings. He was very tall and well built. How apt that last phrase was. He looked towards me, peering through the wrappings covering its face with a glowing eye for a moment before sprinting away from me at a speed no human could be capable of. I set after him, gun in hand. I fired, it struck him at the base of the neck. A loud ping resounded and the man continued unaffected by the bullet. I couldn't catch up with it, I couldn't kill it, not from here. Maybe I could outsmart it.

Racing out of pursuit of the monster, I ran around junk pile after junk pile and managed to cut it off, colliding with it as I leapt out from behind another pile. Caught by surprise it took the Thing a while to get me off of it, but not before I managed to shoot it in the face and knock the wrappings from its head. It struck me and I fell off of it. It was on its feet in an instant, glaring at me with one bloodied socket which I'd shot, and one eye, surrounded and augmented by a mechanical shell, stray strands of hair barely covering its head, its jaw mostly in bloody strips covering a metal replacement. It raced towards me, lashing out with a robotic arm and sent me flying into a pile of rubbish, my whole head aching from where it hit. Seeming more interested in escape, it wasted no time and ran off at that inhuman speed. By the time I recovered the thing was too far away to pursue. 

It wasn't a failure, though. I had managed to get some James Bond-esque GPS device on him to track his movements. Which I'm now doing from my hotel room in a Timberwolf infested hotel in a Timberwolf infested city, in a Timberwolf infested country...

...hunting a Towerborn.

-Shady