Proel

The trek to Proel's base was a muddy one, and wasn't exactly the most pleasant of experiences. Alant and Tigal argued the entire time about almost anything they discussed. Human Hunter kept silent.

"C'mon now Tigal, you don't seriously think that these leaves are genetically engineered to spy on us all, they're plants and that's it!" Alant held a green leaf within his fingertips, observing it as he continued onwards.

Tigal walked with his arms crossed, and glared at his surroundings. "How else could this guy have found us? There's just no other possible way. Our swamp forest clearly must have been tampered with. It's my guess that cameras were placed around here.. and the only place they could be is right in front of our faces. The leaves themselves."

Following this statement, the muscular Tigal unsheathed his massive curved sword, and sliced a grouping of trees while screaming.

"Tigal c'mon man calm down!" Alant urgently yelled.

"Grr! No! If these stupid leaves weren't here spying on us this guy wouldn't be here!"

"I already told you they aren't spies! He's a friend of Aurora's and found the letter we sent him! That's all now-.. AHH!"

Tigal screamed at the top of his lungs once more, slashing a second grouping of trees to the ground. He took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Alright.. that'll be enough for now. But mark my words.. leaves, I'll be back here to kick the crap outta you later."

Human Hunter and Halt both looked at each other in unison.

Alant let out a sigh of relief. "Phew.. okay, now next time you do that, take Faed or someone else. I can't handle seeing you use your weapon to destroy such works of art. Trees are beautiful you know, even the ones in this swamp."

"It'd be no use. All she does is cackle in my ear."

"Well hey, she's still interesting to talk to, and probably won't try to stop you from.. uhh.. ya know."

Tigal grumbled.

After a while longer, Alant backed up a bit to speak with Human Hunter. "Hey uhh, sorry about that little incident up there. Tigal can get a teensy bit paranoid at times. But I love him for it, it's one of his quirks after all. It's part of what makes him.. him!"

"It's fine." Human Hunter responded, "Being overly cautious is better than not being cautious enough."

Alant smiled gleefully. "Hahah, that's right! I'm glad you get it! Well, anyway, we'll be arriving soon. If you're this understanding of our other members, you'll fit right in!" Patting Human Hunter upon the back, Alant continued forward.

The group arrived at Proel's base soon after, just as Alant had said. Once entering however, the scale of the place ended up being far grander than Human Hunter could have imagined.

It started off looking fairly normal. A few metal doors within the side of a wall made entirely of dirt. Inside there were many tables and chairs, with a bar on the side. Very simple. But in the back, lied an elevator, which is exactly where Human Hunter was taken.

"Yeahh up here's not too much to write home about, but it's nice!" Alant said.

Tigal continued for him. "Just try not to piss your pants when you see downstairs.. it could.. spread disease.." he shuttered at the thought. "And if that happens I'll punch you in your stupid masked face understand!?"

"I don't think you'll need to." Human Hunter claimed.

"Hmph. You better hope not." Tigal slapped the down button on the elevator. "Whatever.. it's like Alant said, if you don't pass the tests, Setianal is gonna kill you. And there's not a chance in hell that you'll get through those things hah!"

Alant leaned over and whispered to Human Hunter. "Sentianal's our boss by the way, if you didn't notice from our other convos. He's a pretty scary guy to newcomers so, as Tigal would say, don't piss your pants! Heh heh."

Human Hunter looked to his left, directly at Alant. "I doubt that will happen. Using the bathroom isn't an issue for me. Also, after everything that's gone down, there's almost nothing that could shock me."

It was at that moment that the elevator became transparent, displaying the grand scale of the room they were preparing to enter from above. It was ginormous, and boasted many training facilities for specific skills, large meeting halls for when Proel came together to discuss issues, camera systems to monitor the entire base, and research stations, among many other things.

"Though I'll admit." Human Hunter continued, "This is pretty impressive.."

"Hahah I know right!" Alant happily agreed.

Tigal grumbled. "Told you. Now before we step out of this elevator, I advise you not to infect the air here with any sort of virus or contaminated gas. Especially not one that increases the speed in which our base decomposes."

In a confused manner, Alant looked at him. "You are way too paranoid Tigal is that even possible?!"

"Probably. I wouldn't put it past this bastard."

Immediately after exiting the elevator, the group met up with a man sitting on a bench, with a book. He was dressed in a small tight robe. One that wasn't glued to his body, but wasn't completely loose either. He wore glasses, and had long, silky silver hair.

"Ah, friends, you have returned?" he said. "Splendid. I am glad to see you each have come back in good health. Now, if I may ask, leave me be. You see, I am attempting to read this book. I'd prefer not to do it with an audience."

"Ah yeah I understand Lock." Alant acceptingly said, "But could you maybe give our guest a quick hello?"

"No!!" he clapped back, "I am currently busy! Please accept that and run along!"

Tigal grabbed the book, and crushed it with his bare hands. "Sorry Lock, but that book could contain a phrase that's secretly used to unleash a powerful dragon. I can't have you reading it, at least not in here." Grumbling yet again, Tigal walked away. He traveled straight towards the room where Setianal was located, not wanting to stand near Human Hunter any longer.

Lock's eyes widened as he was consumed with rage. "That imbecile! Who in their right mind would come up with such a preposterous theory!?" Tossing his glasses aside, Lock stomped after Tigal. He glanced back for a moment to speak to Alant and Human Hunter. "Alant.. I applaud you for finding a potential recruit. Let's hope he isn't a failure much like the others. And newcomer.. do not let us down. I assure you, if you do, it will most certainly result in your death." Lock picked his glasses up off the floor, and dusted them off before departing.

"And that's Lock!" Alant said, smiling under his bandana. "So you've met me, Tigal, and Lock. Only two more to go before we're off to see the big one, Setianal."

"Alright." Is all Human Hunter could think of saying. He wasn't exactly the type of person to engage in much small talk.

Entering the camera monitoring room, both Human Hunter and Alant approached a woman who was gazing across the screens. She was dressed in a blue coat that reached down to her knees, and wore sunglasses. The sleeves of her coat were far too long, going past her arms, hiding her hands. Her hair, which fell to her chin, was colored purple.

"Silva!" Alant grabbed her attention, "Sorry if I interrupted anything, but I wanted you to meet our newest recruit! Or-.. who we're hoping becomes so at least. His name's.. uhh.."

Silva stood up, and turned towards the two boys. "How rude. You've come all this way and don't even know the poor boys name. Well I'm not like that." Reaching her coat sleeve out towards Human Hunter, she smiled, removing her sunglasses with the other hand. "What shall I call you?" Silva's gorgeous eyes made Human Hunter stagger a bit.

"I-It's Human Hunter."

"Ah, so we share the same goal. Eradicating the human race and giving this world back to nature. Haha. That's what this place is all about you know. It's what Setianal formed us for, to take earth back!"

"Wait, you're a Human Hunter too??" Alant looked a little stunned.

He may not have showed it, but Human Hunter was surprised himself. "Yeah. It's what I call myself. I.. wasn't aware that there were others. But now that I think about it, that's Aurora's goal too, so it would only make sense that he was attempting to contact you."

"Hm. Guess so!" Alant said. "Well this is ironic, who woulda guessed that I'd stumble across a fellow Human Hunter just roaming around our swamp! I mean, you were looking for us, but still!" He awkwardly scratched the hair underneath his hood.

Human Hunter had something else to say. "So everyone here is a.. Human Hunter? Why haven't I heard of you before?" The next part, he only wondered in his head. "And why wouldn't Aurora tell me about this..?

Silva stepped in. "That's correct darling, everybody here shares the same mindset. Even you it seems like. We all understand that our race doesn't have the right to mercilessly overtake every last patch of land, slaughter animals, and overuse resources. It's absurd. So it's our mission to-.."

Interrupting, Human Hunter finished Silva's sentence. "To kill them all. Every last one. Make them pay for how much they've screwed up this planet."

Alant put his arm around Human Hunter. "Haha, hey, you've got it down pat! Finished that sentence right for her!"

Silva crossed her arms in approval. "Hah, indeed he does. Well then, I'm starting to think this guy might have a legitimate chance at getting through Setianal's infamous tests."

"Maybe, I mean it's the first time we've had someone come through here who's literally named himself Human Hunter. Speaking of which, what's your real name? It'd be kinda weird just calling you that since it could refer to anyone here."

A drawn out silence followed this question, as Human Hunter hesitated to reveal this information to who were inherently strangers. "Nothing." he finally said. "Just call me Human Hunter. That's it."

Alant looked at Silva, and then spoke. "Alright then, if you say so. But sooner or later we'll have to at least give ya a nickname."

"Fine." Human Hunter responded. He left the room, and yelled back. "Let's just meet the last Proel member so that I can speak to your leader."

"Go on ahead, darling." Silva seemed to be understanding about this. "He must have a pretty big reason for keeping his real name a secret. No need to bug him about it any further."

Alant glanced down, thinking of what could have happened. "You got it..!" he finally said, faking his normally cheerful voice.

When Alant left the room, he noticed that Human Hunter had already been confronted by the final member of Proel, Faed.

She was a pink haired girl, with green eyes, and was a little shorter than the others. She wore a blue bandana sort of cover around her mouth, though it appeared completely different than Alant's red one. The rest of her clothing consisted of tight, detailed, blue (with a few spots of green) armored plating that covered her chest, and lower body (above her thighs and below her waist). Other than armored boots of the same design, that was it. Quite revealing for something that was meant for protection.

Slightly freaking out, Alant jogged over. "F-Faed..! Ahaha.. I see that you've met our newest recruit already! Call him.. Human Hunter! Yes that's really his name!" He awkwardly smiled, pointing to Human Hunter with both of his hands.

"WHAT?!" Faed belted out, "That's the most amazing and adorable name I've ever heard! I get it because you're a Human Hunter, so you kept it short and simple by naming yourself Human Hunter! Oh my you're so clever, actually I'm not sure if I've ever met someone as clever as you other than Lock of course. Well-.. actually..."

Faed went on and on, talking Human Hunter's ears off while holding his hand between hers.

Pulling his hand away, Human Hunter walked past her. "Alright, now that I've met the entire crew, can I speak with Setianal. I'd really like to know what these tests consist of."

Faed slowly teared up, and started to bawl.

"Err-.. yeah for sure I'll take ya there in a sec!" Alant told Human Hunter. "Just wait there for a minute." He tended to Faed, wiping her eyes and nose with a spare tissue he had in his armor.

"Hey there." He has lowered himself so that he was at eye level with Faed. "Human Hunter's just really anxious to be here, and wants to meet Setianal as soon as possible. He wasn't trying to be mean or anything, I promise!" Alant closed his eyes gleefully, and Faed hugged him, still sniffling a bit.

"Well if you s-say so.. hehe." She turned around towards Human Hunter. "When you're done talking to Setianal, I'm going to show you my collection of-.." Alant quickly covered her mouth.

"Heheh.. we can show him that a little later on, when he's used to us! Anyway, Human Hunter, I think we can go now. See ya Faed!" he let go of her mouth, and waved.

"Byeee!" Faed waved back. "But I really am going to show Human Hunter my human heart collection when he finally does get used to us! He has three days! Hehe!"

"Err-.." Alant cringed, hoping Human Hunter wouldn't react. Luckily.. he didn't.

Walking towards the back, a large, ominous door towered almost to the ceiling.

"Welp, this is it. It's only fitting that our big scary leader sits behind a ginormous flashy door like this am I right?? Haha." Placing a hand upon the door, Alant pushed it open. "Anyway, after you." He said, gesturing towards the almost pitch black room that awaited Human Hunter.

Without a second thought, Human Hunter walked through with Halt, who had frolicked over to the door immediately after they had exited the elevator. He was about to meet someone who would change.. everything.