No characters (both humans and non-humans) are below the age of consent.
Also, this is one of the more story-focused chapters.
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Zara was sure that something was wrong since she was in the park at the usual time, yet she was still alone. The partner for this week should be around somewhere unless today's course was canceled, she thought.
She checked her messages on her phone to be sure she didn't miss any memo about the course being canceled for that day when a loud, ear-piercing shriek slashed through the air which was later followed by more.
Three naked women were running toward her and yelling like animals. All three of them looked identical. Their hair was purple colored, styled into a punkish spikey shape. Their hazel eyes looked a little bit glossy as if they were drunk or something. As they got closer, Zara noticed that even their pubes were purple and shaved into a butterfly shape. Their boobs were bouncy C-cups with a little slope to them.
Zara acted on instinct and kicked the closer one, who ran at her like an animal, into the face. The other two, ignoring their fallen friend, jumped at her from the sides, trying to grab her but Zara swiftly turned her hands into wolf-heads and grabbed the wrists of the hostile twins, squeezing with inhuman strength.
"Now calm down and tell me..." Zara couldn't finish the sentence as she noticed that the arms of the two girls she was holding fell off.
"What the...?" she gasped. Someone had to react because the girls themselves were unresponsive as if they were brain dead.
As Zara examined the stumps she noticed something. There was no sign of blood or bones or anything. They ended in a pink nub as if there were no arms there at all, or as if the girls were made of something else other than human body parts.
"Not bad," she heard someone clapping behind her.
It was a girl. She looked mostly similar to the naked triplets, but she wore clothes.
"Who the hell are you? Do you know these freaks?" Zara glared at her.
"Hey hey. Hold your horses," the girl replied with a smile, "These are the duplicates I made with my Legion Lutin powers. It was just a little test to see how strong you are."
"These are...your clones?"
"Yeah, but they are not as durable as a real human. As you can see, they don't even have normal human anatomy beneath their skin. They are just mindless soulless puppets that can age to death quicker than a mayfly," the girl pointed at the one that Zara kicked in the face. It was already dead and its body began to decompose into dust. It was like watching a video on fast forward.
"Interesting power, not gonna lie," Zara examined the pile of dust.
"Jacintha Dove," the girl introduced herself with a grin that showed her sharp canines.
She looked pretty unique, to say the least, because Jacintha's body was a canvas of body modifications. Aside from the spiky purple hair and the sharpened teeth that gave her a vampiric look, she had a bunch of other things. She had snake bite piercings on her lips, and a surgically split tongue, and she had both eyeballs tattooed into the same purple as her hair. Because of the short leather pants, Zara could see that she had corset piercings on the behind of both of her calves and a bigger one on her back that started right below her neck and peeked out from below her shirt. The three sets of corset piercings were decorated with black ribbons, matching the rest of her clothes. She also had one subdermal implant on the back of each hand in the shape of a skull. Above these, she had full-sleeve tattoos depicting black roses across her arms. In a nutshell: she didn't look like the type of girl a mother would want her son to bring home.
"Zara Cromwell," she shook her hand, "I see you got a nice collection. I bet they were painful."
"Of course they were. That's what makes them special," Jacintha stuck out her split tongue.
"By the way. Can you make these disappear?" Zara pointed at the remaining clones, "They freak me out."
"They can decompose naturally so we just only have to wait. Although I can do this as well," Jacintha shrugged and placed one hand on the shoulder of the closest copy. Its body began rippling as if it turned into liquid and then the whole body was sucked into Jacintha's hand.
"What are you doing, pupils?" Aritimi appeared behind them, "You keep attacking people with your clones, Jacintha?"
"It's just training for my powers. Plus my clones, by themselves, are not dangerous enough to seriously hurt someone," she shrugged.
"Just be careful when you use your powers. Hester had a seizure last week and lost control over her power for a moment," Aritimi scolded her pupil.
"Seizure?" Zara raised an eyebrow then she remembered what Aritimi said about staying silent about the real nature of the incident to avoid panic, "Ah, yeah, I remember now."
"Enough, talk," Aritimi opened a portal for them, "We going to visit the Crisis Response Team today."
"Hmm, if I remember well, they are some kind of military force of the HSA, right?" Zara asked.
"Yes, a unit like this is a rapid-response team that deals with large-scale monster attacks on human settlements. Most big cities have their own teams," Aritimi explained as she entered the portal.
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The place they arrived at looked like a classic American ranch from a Western movie. The only thing that ruined the picture was the high voltage, monsterproof, electric fence around the property.
"Oh, this place looks more like what I imagined for the Agriculture Protection Unit," Jacintha remarked.
"Yep, they really like this style. They always said they were born into the wrong century," Aritimi chuckled.
Suddenly, a weird mechanic sound pierced the air as if heavy machines were turned on and began to move at full speed.
It didn't take long to meet the sources of the sounds as the mechanic horses galloped out from a stable. Each one had a woman riding on them.
They came at high speed at the trio but stopped with deadly precision right beside Aritimi, then the duo jumped off of their mechanic steeds.
"Timi!" the women said in unison. It was quite obvious that they were identical twins.
"Long time no see, girls," Aritimi gave them a tight hug, "I could only meet your daughters yesterday when I brought my other pupils. Not like I have issues with them, it's just hard to recognize who is who."
Then she turned back to the girls.
"Pupils, they are together the bosses of the Crisis Response Team, Dallas and Dakota Winchester," Aritimi introduced the twins.
Dallas and Dakota looked incredible even for someone in their mid-fifties. They didn't look as young as Aritimi but one could only assume they were in their forties at worst. Beneath their cowboy hats, their golden blonde hair was styled into braided pigtails. They had tanned skin as if they spent their entire life under the sun. Their features were rugged but beautiful, with strong jawlines and high cheekbones. At first sight, with their cowgirl aesthetics, which was combined with their blonde hair and blue eyes, they looked like cowgirl-styled Barbie dolls rather than a monster hunter duo. But as they stood there, it was hard to ignore the strong aura and powerful presence they had in person.
"Nice horses," Jacintha patted the side of a metal steed, "But a car or a bike wouldn't be quicker than a robot horse?"
