(ACT 02) Stalking 101

. . .

“Information may inform the mind, but revelation sets a heart on fire.”

—Matt Redman

. . .

“This is stupid; this is not going to work…” Sean had bemoaned for what seemed to be like the hundredth time. Harry didn't know, he didn't bother to count.

A few hours later, as soon they found a hotel to stay in for the morning on the city instead of going back to the North like the rest of their pack mates had done, Alastor had insisted searching anything about the goddess of the shadows on Sean's laptop as soon they arrived.

…Idiot's fault for bringing it.

“Can't I just go home? My wife is so going to kill me...” the older man complained again as he leaned on the back of the couch, watching the two read some sort of scholarly article about the god of the dead and his wife.

…and still no mention of Proserpina.

“You already called Lizzie and we all she's cool with it.” Harry reminded him.

“Besides, you were the one with bright ideas here…” Alastor grumbled, still not taking his eyes off of the bright screen, “...since Harry is basically useless.”

“Hey!” Harry whined, clearly offended, “You take that back, Nyx. I’m here for moral support… and we all know Moogle is my idea!”

“Guys…” Sean sighed.

“And look just how useful it is!”

Annoyed, Harry shoved him, “Like you have any ideas?!”

“Enough. You're BOTH USELESS!” Sean finally snapped, pushing the two morons away from each other before they actually started another fight to make space as he rounded the couch, “Move over!”

Harry backed up tentatively, “Uh. Need help, old man…?”

“No! I'll do this myself so I can go home!”

The two quickly scampered away from the couch and watched the older man, still grumbling to himself as he began to open a new tab, typing so slowly on the keyboard.

“...should I go order pizza?” Harry wondered.

Alastor gave Harry a tired look, annoyance wiped off of his face, “No pizza can cure this. I need a drink.”

Harry snorts, shaking his head, “Oh please, a little fruitless stalking on your crush and it’s all oh woe is me!”

The alpha wordlessly flashed him the finger.

Harry lovingly showed him the middle finger back.

It’s their love language.

Sean suddenly stopped typing to scowl thunderously at them over his shoulder, “You two are not dumping this on me just to get drunk!”

“Okay, okay no drinks! Geez, what a kill-joy,” Harry huffed, turning away to order something to eat, ignoring the way Alastor practically deflated even further on the spot like a melting puddle.

It's past six in the morning, he's tired, he's hungry, he wanted a shower, maybe a good lay with a pretty person or two before going some beauty sleep and instead of doing all those things, he's stuck with these two buzzkills because Harry is such a nice guy to say no to his friend… who is also kind of his alpha.

“Who's that?” Harry heard Alastor ask as soon he got back to the room.

“A monster mercenary; heard from the grapevine that one of their Intel is supposedly a demigod,” Sean explained, frowning a bit.

“Huh, weird...”

“I know right?”

“...I thought all demigods had been killed by the monsters ten years ago,” Harry commented as he sneaked a peek over their heads.

Boo, it’s all serious stuff.

Boring!

“The so-called 'Righteous Purge', yeah… something about prophecies and politics, they had to get the monsters of hell involved,” Sean answered with a scoff.

“That's awful,” Alastor muttered, “Those are their kids, you know?”

“Powerful kids but yeah, you get how it goes with the people upstairs, real messy stuff…” Sean sighed, almost shuddering, “Want me to get in touch with this one? See if their Intel knows something about your goddess?”

“Wouldn't hurt to try, right?”

“Wait,” Harry interjected quickly, “You know these guys are called monster mercenaries for a reason, right? Dude, these people literally hunts monsters for a living... doesn't that sort of involves our kind? How do we know they won't, I dunno, try to track and kill us on sight? This sounds like a bad idea and I’m good with those.”

“They shouldn't be so hostile on us because we're not monsters, Harry,” Alastor grumbled, looking positively peeved at the term.

“Well, no, but the humans seems to think otherwise,” Harry complained, hands on his hips, “I mean, have you even read Three little pigs? Little Red Riding Hood? What do those all had in common?”

“Dude, those are like, kid’s stories–”

“A wolf! A Big Bad Wolf!” Harry cut in, nodding, “…who also, spoiler alert: EATS THE NICE GRANDMA AND A LITTLE GIRL!”

Alastor winced, looking uncomfortable, “Okay, fine, you have a point there, but humans don't really like anything and anyone they don't understand.”

“Guys, there’s no need for a debate. We've already reached an agreement a decade ago. The hunters won't hurt us as long we don't hurt or kidnap humans,” Sean explained, watching them in amusement, “Besides, they only hunt feral rogues these days.”

Alastor cleared his throat, “So… are we good to go?”

“Yeah. We're good.” Sean began typing again, “Besides, I know this kid. A bit paranoid at times, but he’s a real good guy… I can tell.”

Still frowning, Harry came closer and watched Sean type into an open chat box to email this so-called monster mercenary. But... “Why the hell are you typing dots and dashes?” Harry demanded, brows furrowed, "What is that? Some sort of coded message?"

“Yup…”

“Wait, is that Morse?” Alastor asked, squinting at Sean's message.

-. . . -.. / .. -. - . .-.. .-.-.- / .- ... .- .--.

“You know Morse?”

Alastor nodded, looking distracted as he took in the message, brows furrowing, “Yeah. My twin and I used to talk Morse when we were kids… you know, just for the heck of it.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Those weird tapping sounds, it was really annoying,” Sean commented, with a fond roll of his eyes as he huffs out a laugh, “Especially when one of them gets it wrong. Seriously.”

Harry hummed. The twins’ dad (their old alpha) was nice enough to try to teach him and some of the other kids too, back when he was still around, but Harry has never bothered to listen, let alone actually the type to learn the code, “So… what did it says?”

“Need Intel. ASAP,” Alastor gave Sean a dry look, “You know you guys don’t have to be so dramatic. You can just type that, right?”

“Yeah, how bad can it be?”

“I just told you this one’s paranoid. He won’t answer my message if I don’t follow his rules,” Sean rolled his eyes, pushing their faces away from the screen, “Pay attention and listen to what I'm saying.”

Harry shrugged. As long Alastor got what he needs to find out, he's good. It's just... a bit odd to know that a werewolf, especially Sean (whom Harry thought as boring and too straight-laced sometimes) being acquaintances with a human, especially one that actually hunts and kills monsters for a living.

Their kind usually stays as a close-knitted group within their pack or on some occasions, they mingle with those from the other packs–

Not even a minute after Sean struck ‘send’, his phone suddenly blared to life with its shrill ringtone, the cheesy love song Sean and Lizzie had danced to on their wedding… making Harry and Alastor wince at the memory. It was way too sappy for their tastes.

Meanwhile, as though already suspecting it, Sean looked down at his phone, calmly. A small smile crept to his face. “That was quick.” Harry commented.

“Well damn, the kid sure never sleeps…” Sean muttered with a chuckle, showing them the caller's name with a triumphant grin.

“Three Vs?” Harry wondered, raising an eyebrow.

“What a weird name,” Alastor muttered.

“Those are initials, dumbass-”

Suddenly, Alastor tried to snatch the phone—but Sean quickly stood up, glaring down at him, “What the hell, Sean?!” Alastor snapped, angrily stomping his foot like a little kid about to throw a tantrum, “Fucking answer it already!”

“Al… you're turning into a real creepy bitch,” Harry snickered, plopping down on the arm rest as he watched. Oh, this is gonna be good.

“You're not helping!” Sean grumbled to his direction, valiantly batting away Alastor's sneaky attempts at taking the phone away from him with one arm, “Wait. Just… let me answer, you idiot. It’s still my phone–!”

“…What do you want?”

The two of them instantly froze.

And Harry feigned a cough at the sudden silence, not wanting to actually burst out laughing at Alastor and Sean's panicked faces. Hm, on second thought, maybe he should take a picture...

“White? Hello?”

Heheheheheh, blackmail worthy material~

“Y–yeah, hi,” Sean finally cleared his throat, turning away from Alastor who scowled behind his back, “I need to contact your Intel. So... do you mind?”

“Yes, I do mind.”

“But I–”

“You know how this goes, Beta. Tell me what Intel you need first and I'll try my best to relay it for you,” was the no-nonsense reply.

Sean glanced at them, his face clearly saying what do I do?

...which Alastor answered with a resolute shake of his head while Harry answered at the same time with a bright grin, giving him a thumbs up.

And that earned him an elbow digging to his gut.

Harry wheezed.

“…White?”

Sean sighed at them, “Still here. Sorry kid, but not this time. My alpha is the one asking for the Intel, and he really, really needed to talk to your–”

“So… we're done here.”

“WAIT, NO! DON'T HANG UP!” Alastor suddenly screeched, causing Harry to fall off of the arm rest with an undignified shriek.

“…Who's that?”

Sean face-palmed while Alastor more or less pulled the phone away from his hand: “M-My name is Alastor Nyx. I'm–” he paused, hesitating; “...I am the Alpha of the Northern Pack.”

“Is that so?”

For a moment, there was nothing but static and silence on the other line... Alastor gulped, obviously worried that the other had hanged up on them, “Uh, hello?”

“What do you want?”

“I, uh, I need to know something about a... a god. I heard from Sean your friend's a demigod, a-and I need to talk to him. Please… this is important!”

“I'm sorry but did you just say a god? You... fuck...!”

There was a sudden pause, followed by some rustling that vaguely sounds like a bunch of cutlery falling down the floor and a bit of cursing from the other line.

They looked at each other, confused.

“You know what, I don't want any part in that…” ‘VVV’ muttered lowly, his disdain clearly apparent, “I'll give them a call as soon as possible. Oh, and tell your beta I’m blocking him for real.”

“I can hear you, you know…” Sean muttered, looking a bit peeved.

“Good.”

With that, VVV hung up.