Chapter One

C E B U C I T Y ,

2 O 2 O

"WILLIAM, Hold up. Hey! Can you just fucking stop and listen to me for a minute?!" I called out loud while grabbing his arm to take his attention.

He stopped and turns to me "Okay, What now? Gavin, do you want to help me in this or not?" He asked as if the time of death is chasing him.

"We both know that it's not just Vengeful Spirit who possessed that child's body." I sighed loudly as I looked at the House we were going to. "And we also know that thing is dangerous. Are you sure you're going this? We haven't... we haven't do anything like this before"

"That child needs our help"

"Shit, Willian. That's not a child anymore, that thing is a demon. He possessed eleven other children at the same time. What can you do to get rid of that thing? Pray? Please, God, we don't even know if they exist?"

"What do you want then? Let that— demon took all of those children's bodies? Their soul?" He asked while staring into my eyes waiting for an answer "Gavin, it's our job to kill every supernatural creature, it's our job—"

"Yes, it's our job," I said with a fake laugh "It's our job to kill them, if we can, we don't have to sacrifice our lives just to save those we want to save"

"Okay" He took a deep breath, he looks at the house then looked back at me. "I won't force you to come with me. If you want, just wait for me here."

"Fuck, that's not my point!"

A P A R T M E N T ,

2 O 3 4

G A V I N

I WAKE UP TO THE SOUND OF THE CLOCK RINGING NEXT TO MY BED. I tried to stretch my hand on the table to find and turn off the alarm clock without getting up when my hands gave up I open my left eyes to find to fucking clock but when I opened it the sunlight hit my eye so I shut it closed again tightly in pain. "Fuck!"

I got up from the bed while scratching my head, then I turned off the clock on the table. I sat on the bed and rubbed my palm on my face.

Eight Thirty? Time seems to pass me more often, I'm not aware of it. The speed of evening becomes to morning is so damn fast. Fuck, I'm just starting to dream and then the noise of the clock starts shouting. Did CyberLab do another shit to skip Time? Huh, maybe they did, I mean they can fuckin' do everything. Except for our work. Weirdos.

"Meow .." My eyes went down when I felt the cat touched my feet, she rubbed his head down his body to the tail. "Meow .." I went down to bed then took his cat food and put it on her plate. Asking for food, I know what this cat wants based on her moves.

I got up from the bed and went to the table to get the Darts Arrow that was attached to the wall of the room. I shot the arrows one by one on the Dartboards where there was a picture of a face attached to the bullseye. "Single ..... Triple .... Come on .... Single. Fuck!" When will I be able to hit the face of the person in the photo?

I took my towel from the closet, yawning, and decided to hit a bath. I was about to go to the bathroom when I heard my cellphone ringing. I grab my cellphone from the table and sat on the sofa. Pressing the answer button, Hale's face floated on the screen.

"What?"

"Gavin. Get your ass up here at the office, now. I have a Case I need to discuss with you."

"I just woke up" I moaned

"I don't care. Come here. I'm paying you so you have no right to yell whenever I call you to come here. It's your job, so come here"

"Alright, Alright. Bitch, just make sure I have something to eat there in your cave when I arrive" I said as I put down the cellphone. "Ugh! Same old fucking day"

H U N T E R S O F F I C E ,

9 : 3 O A M

When I entered Hale's Office, my eyes quickly lay on Annie, sitting on the sofa while reading a magazine. I took off my leather with a hood then put it on the hanger and went to the chair in front of Hale's table with a bowl full of Bread. They waited for me, they could start a meeting without me.

"How many hours do you have to fix yourself before you leave? What time do you think is it?! There's no traffic anymore!" Hale shouted "The cars are floating now Gavin! Where the hell did you come from that it took you hours to get here?" He aggressively mouths at me while I'm scratching my ear.

"God, you're so damn noisy in the morning. I spent thirty minutes in the bathroom taking a bath and what other routines do I have to do there that maybe you know what because you're a man, and spent ten minutes searching what clothes to wear because I want to be representative in front of my Boss, and I have to walk here for ten minutes. In a total of 50 minutes" I explained then take a bite on the bread I got on the table "I didn't ride, I'm poor I don't have a Communication ID pass"

"And where did the remaining ten munites go, Mister Gavin." said Annie. She gets up on the sofa and went to the chair in front of me. When she sat down, I watched her crossed her legs slowly and scanned me in a flirtatious way from head to toe. I know what you're doing.

"Dunno, I think fed Mhadali? Right, I fed Mhadali. Again. Like fucking two times every morning cause she's so moody" I replied

"Mhadali?"

"Her cat," Hale replied. I just nodded and pointed him because my mouth was full of Bread to answer "To the Case, Annie, and Gavin. This is your Job now." Hale placed his screen tablet on the table and then clicked a button on it, which caused various pictures from the tablet to appear on the air floating like an invisible screen.

"Ballet Drive"

I snorted "Balete Drive" putting down the cup of coffee I looked up at the photo floating, it's a place where Ballet Drive is. "Look, there's a big Ballet Tree there Hale, which is very famous for being inhabited by multiple creatures. It's not new anymore"

Hale shook his head "Not this one. Look at this"

He clicked on a small photo on the side and it zoomed in automatically so we could see it wider. Photograph of a white car upside down right on the Ballet Tree. He slid the picture sideways and it moved to the next photo of a man who seemed to have a broken chest, a hole, as if his heart had been taken, his ribs are widened apart. Fucking brutal and bloody disgusting.

"Seriously? I am eating." I fuckin' lost my appetite so I shoved the bowl of bread on the table and shook my pants. "Bitch .."

"Hale, don't you think the creatures who live in Balete Tree didn't do that?" Annie asked while looking at the pictures floating on the screen.

"Isn't it that obvious..." I mumbled, but they hear it so their eyes turned swiftly to my face waiting for my opinion "Well like you said they live in that Tree, if they did that the hell why would they destroy their home? Right?" I explain raising my eyebrows then smiling with my teeth out.

It's not like they paid attention to my opinion, most of the time they didn't trust what I said or plan cause they called me this 'suicidal hunter' who didn't care if I live or died on the hunting case. But for the record, all my plans are the ones that have a great ending than theirs.

"That's what I'm saying. You two have to go to Quezon City to investigate this incident. And ask this woman what happened ..." Hale showed a square screen of glass with a picture of a woman on it in a school uniform. "... She was with the victim when they had an accident last week. It's his girlfriend."

"Alright," I stood up and took the picture. I went to the door to my jacket, then looked back at Annie while wearing it. "Here's the Plan so listen carefully. You go to the Balete Tree and I'll look for the schoolgirl. Are we Good?"

"But no—" She was about to say something but I cut her by opening the door and walking away.

"Good Talk. See you, Addio!" I said goodbye to them with my middle finger.

A R M O R  R O O M

Walking inside the Armor Room to get some things I needed for the hunt —cause this room have a lot of supplies of things we need for hunting creatures like guns, swords, shoot guns, and anything, sometimes when you're lucky you get to use first the new class model of a gun but usually, we just need guns and Salted Shotguns in this type of case.

I see an unfamiliar face on the table side talking to Paul, I know every single human here at Institute and that man is not from here. He's wearing some kind of white jacket and he had this growing thing in his chest, it's shaped triangle upside down, and it's growing green. Like those superhero movies, they watched back then, what's his fucking name again? The one with the steel suit... Iron, yah, Iron Man! He has that thing like in Iron Man's chest, but it's a triangle.

I walk to Luke then leaned on the counter.

"Hunting night?"

I nodded. "Quezon City, Balete Drive"

"What do you need?"

"HS2000 and Glock 19. Send those GPS and Salted Shotgun to Annie, she's with me" Luke just nodded and started looking for the things I needed.

"Here, One magazine each. And save it, we're running out of magazine supplies because of you. So don't shot it to nothing this time"

I shook my head laughing then took the magazines then put them inside my leather, then I also took both guns and then put them on both sides on the back of my pants.

"Call me when you're out of it."

"Who is that by the way? Newb?" I asked pointing at the man I had seen earlier. He turned around and I noticed that there something written on the back of his jacket, it said ANDROID. "Fucking, Android?"

"Yes, New Android Slash Hunter it seems." They really enjoyed making robots and make a variety of Android. Might want to replace every Human living here in the world with Androids.

Years Ago, the Government has declared the existence of Androids for jobs that people cannot do or that are dangerous to humans. The population has been depleted when the Pandemic hit back in 2020, people need to rest and be safe. So they made a Robot-like-People. I remember when they showed the first version of Android, it was made of skeletal steel, but their body can easily damage cause there's nothing to protect their machine inside, so they upgraded and made it look like a human. Now Androids are all around the world, in war, building roads and houses, and many more. It is programmed in their memory data what to do, it's like they're helper machines.

During the period of Android had lived on the same planet with people, there is one question that runs through my mind that I want to ask the CyberLab: If they can make such an Android, why can't they do something that can get rid of creatures and supernatural things?

"They might replace us sooner or later"

"They can try, but I'll blow their heads off first before they got my seat here at Institute" Yah, they really can try but that won't be easy for them. This Institute is home of the army, we fight till we die.

When then Paul left, leaving the Android guy alone, I applauded loudly while smiling "Congratulations on being the first tin can to become an official hunter in the entire world!" I shouted as he looked at me.

"Hi .... Gavin."

"Oh ... Oh .." He fucking knew my name. I approached him and then look at him from head to toe. "What kind of Animatronics Android are you? I haven't seen anything like you before" It doesn't look like Android, the sound of his voice is so clear like a real human, it's scary to think what else this Android can upgrade. "What's your Model?"

"Actroid-DB30" Actroid? "I'm programmed to help the Hunters exterminate the evil elements here on Earth" Help the Hunters? Does that mean this thing he can do what I ordered him?

"Get me some coffee." I ordered, but he didn't answer "Hello! I'm talking to you. Broken already?" I said simultaneously waving in his face

"I'm just taking an order from Professor Hale right now." He replied, that heated my head. I bit my lips then looked him in the eye, in fury.

"Hey, Do me a favor .." I put my hand on his shoulder then tapped his metalhead. After I fake a smile, I punched his stomach hard. I felt his steel insides, but the way the skin blocking it makes it feel like they have a real stomach, and it's fucking weird and disgusting.

He felt on the floor holding the part where I punched him. He can feel pain. I knelt on one of my knees to level on him and find my mouth to his ear "... stay out of my way, and you might live" I tapped his forehead then stood up to get out of the room.

Ugh! Fucking Android.