Gatecrash: Awakening

Fiona Fielder entered the dormant rest area via the Gate at AHU's headquarters. She wore her usual office attire: a loose gray blazer, matching shapeless skirt which went past her knees, oversized round glasses, and her mousy hair tied up in a practical bun.

Although the Tutorial had ended, the rest area was abuzz with activity. The usual process was in place to get it ready as quickly as possible to hijack the next Tutorial, with various low-level Hunters cleaning and restocking everything. They paid her little mind as they flitted around the area with carts full of materials and supplies.

She made her way up onto the stage and into the corridors. Several cleaning carts like the ones used in hotels were arrayed outside doors as staff readied the rooms for the next intake. The first one on the left, though open, was blocked off by bright yellow and black striped tape. As Fiona stepped through it, she steadied herself with a hand right under the plaque labeled "Representative".

A few Hunters wearing matching black raid jackets and latex gloves were rooting around the suite, looking for evidence. One was taking fingerprints from a wine bottle, another capturing pictures of the lifeless body in the blood-soaked armchair. A shadow passing by the light coming from the bathroom indicated a presence there as well. The Tutorial Manager, a tall graying man in a business suit, was present.

He was furiously tapping on a Saber-branded tablet. He looked up when he saw her, his brow furrowing further as he demanded, "Can I help you with something? In case you haven't noticed, we have a bit of a situation." His terse greeting brought the attention of the investigators, but they quickly returned to their tasks.

Fiona replied in a soft, understated voice, "I'm a Looter, sir. What do we know so far?" Looters were Hunters with the Legendary Skill Loot, which was always snatched up by AHU as soon as a Skillbook went on the market. It allowed the user to take a single item from a deceased Hunter's Inventory, after which it could never be used on the same target again.

The manager gave an understanding nod, his frustration tempered somewhat. He made a few rapid presses on his tablet, then said, "The forensics team is still investigating, but it looks like he was killed by a single stab wound. The culprit also seems to know a thing or two about computer systems, since she meticulously dismantled all of the servers and destroyed the storage devices."

"A single stab wound?" Fiona asked, approaching the cadaver. The assessment was accurate at a glance--there was a clear opening where his neck met his shoulder, all of the blood around the body seeming to stem from there. She'd skimmed Garrick's file on the way over. He'd had mediocre stats and a Common Class with poor defensive bonuses. And looking at his state of dress, he wasn't wearing any gear at the time of the murder.

But he had still been a Level 29 Hunter. It was certainly within reason for a top performer in the Tutorial to best him in a fight under those conditions, but to kill him in one strike? That was concerning, especially since it meant the culprit had almost certainly received the "Massive Damage" Feat in addition to "Underdog" from the deed. As Fiona pondered the situation, she noted the manager's phrasing. "You said 'she', sir?"

He looked up from the tablet he'd returned to. "I'd say it's a pretty good guess." He glanced between Garrick's crotch and Fiona. His face had twisted into a scowl. The representative's missing pants (discarded nearby on the floor) were of course obvious.

But it was only upon closer inspection that Fiona noticed the whitish substance crusting his genitals. She turned back to the manager, asking, "You don't think he could have been having anal sex with a man?"

The manager pursed his lips, clearly more displeased at the visual of that than he was at the sight of his murdered subordinate's body post-coital. He replied, "Garrick liked to save footage of female Hunters in compromising situations. He's never showed any interest in male Hunters, so I don't believe he would have... fraternized with one."

Fiona slowly blinked at the manager from behind her glasses as she suppressed her disgust. The Instances were hectic, and thanks to there being only one rule AHU enforced in them, it was not uncommon for Hunters--particularly female Hunters--to find themselves in "compromising situations", as he'd put it. Fiona recalled her own experiences, and how mortified she'd been to discover that her Tutorial Representative had been doing exactly what Garrick had. Especially since she'd found out thanks to a concerned coworker showing her the videos circulating around AHU's headquarters.

Fiona collected herself and gave a firm nod. "I see." She placed the back of her hand against the cold body's forehead, concentrating as she activated her Skill. She searched through Garrick's Inventory, finding a trash heap befitting the sort of loser who got stuck in a dead-end job whose only perk was the opportunity to take advantage of vulnerable women. She selected his phone, pulling it into her own Inventory.

She put on gloves, then produced the phone and turned it on. To facilitate her role, she was registered to a secret list of what Saber called "Power Users", allowing her to access any Saber device as if she was the owner. The System functionality like transferring items to and from Garrick's Inventory had been lost with his death, but she could still browse the device's files and access HunterNet.

For whatever reason, he'd kept the videos Fiona was looking for in a hidden folder deep in his system's file tree, but they were easy enough to find. And judging by the dates of the most recent additions to his collection, he'd backed this Tutorial's "material" up to his phone a few hours before getting murdered. He even had them sorted into subfolders named after the victims of his voyeurism. What a diligent degenerate.

After unhiding the folder, she took her own phone from her Inventory and placed its back against Garrick's, initiating the file transfer. Protocol dictated that she should hand the phone over to the forensics team once she had what she needed, but she knew what use they'd find for videos like this. She glanced at the Tutorial Manager. He was back to tapping away at his tablet. Fiona wiped the folder from Garrick's phone. Then she removed the security from the phone, took a bag and tag from the investigator photographing the scene, processed the device, and handed it off to him.

Fiona took a look around the suite after that. The place hadn't exactly been ransacked, but it was obvious the culprit had gone through looking for anything useful after doing the deed. All of the drawers and closets were open, with clear signs of being rifled through. She also checked the server room, which had indeed been completely dismantled. The workstation and the servers were in pieces on the floor, and a trip to the bathroom revealed the fate of the drives within. One of the investigators was scooping the pieces out of the tub and placing them into garbage bags. Fiona did not envy whoever was tasked with the work of trying to find anything recoverable on them.

She chatted with the investigators about their findings, which they found a welcome distraction from their drudgery (especially the one in the bathroom). But they were interrupted by a scream piercing through the corridors. The manager rushed out of the room with Fiona hot on his heels. Their trip brought them to one of the private rooms the new Hunters had used, this one labeled "Forrest E."

Inside, one of the cleaners was pressed up against the wall with her hands over her mouth, staring at the dead body in the bed. The manager snarled, "Son of a fucking bitch," before running back to get one of the investigators, his feet thundering against the gray carpet.

Fiona calmed down the cleaner, then told her to move on to the next room. Once the woman had left, Fiona took a look at the scene. The dead Hunter was a naked man lying facedown on his bed who appeared to have been killed by a single stab wound in the back. Fiona couldn't disrupt the scene by flipping him over, though she had a good idea of what she'd find evidence of if she did.

She looked through his Inventory. It was clear he was a top performer from the excellent items he had on him. But not noticing anything particularly valuable or noteworthy, she grabbed his phone. She examined it while the investigator and manager took charge of the crime scene.

At first glance, there did not appear to be anything particularly significant about the contents. Checking his HunterNet activity, he'd been working in a team with three other Hunters to clear the Instances, and he seemed arrogant and crass. But after seeing a direct message about "teaching that bitch a lesson", Fiona checked his camera roll.

Dozens of pictures and plenty of videos of a black-haired woman being assaulted. Fiona muted the phone before opening one. It featured the victim held in a full nelson by a man whose head was out of frame, his powerful arms forcing her up and down his thick shaft.

There was a heat between Fiona's legs, her eyes locked on the woman's pussy being gouged out again and again by the unruly cock. Fiona rubbed her thighs together, blushing furiously. She quickly closed the video before copying the phone's camera roll to hers. She once again wiped the explicit material from it before unlocking it and handing it off to the investigator.

Fighting the temptation to unbutton her blouse to let some air under her collar, Fiona followed a hunch and went to find the rooms of the other Hunters that Forrest had been working with. The first one's occupant was lying in a pool of blood on the floor, his pants around his ankles. The next one was fully clothed but just as dead. The third was naked as he stared unseeing up at the ceiling. Fiona was impressed at the brutal efficiency--the culprit must have killed them all on the final night of the Tutorial.

After taking care of their phones, Fiona reported all of this to the manager, who called for another forensics team to help get everything together on schedule. Fiona considered sticking around, but she found herself distracted at the memory of the woman. Not just because she was almost certainly the culprit... There was something compelling about her.

Fiona went back through the Gate at the entrance hall, at first mingling with the parade of Hunters carrying refuse out and new supplies in. But as she walked down the expansive concrete floor toward the far wall, blinking under floodlights, the crowd thinned out until she was alone. When she'd heard that a Tutorial Representative had been killed, she'd been expecting the evidence to point to a cocky newbie who'd wanted more than the Tutorial could offer. But what Fiona had seen was the result of something much more cold and calculating.

Fiona entered the elevator that had taken her to basement level 3, where the Gate to the rest area was located. The elevator had buttons for floors L to 22, but for the secretive basement levels, there was only a keypad. She punched in a code, and the elevator lurched as it descended further to basement level 5. This brought her to the office of the American Hunters Union's most clandestine organization: the Hunters of Hunters.

Despite the power wielded by the department, the facilities were fairly ordinary: a cluster of cubicles surrounded by doors to offices with windows looking into the central area. At the far wall was a conference room with floor to ceiling windows and a well-stocked break room which had any amenities the workers could ask for. There was no reception, since no one came down here unless they worked here. Fiona passed by some of the cubicles, ignoring the juniors inside. She entered her office and closed the blinds.

Fiona hung her blazer from the hook on her door. Without its folds, her considerable bust was much more apparent, even under the unflattering blouse and constricted by a minimizer bra. She removed the non-prescription glasses that deflected attention from her captivating emerald green eyes. Next came the clip holding her bun, which she shook loose into sleek waves cascading down past her shoulder blades. She wasn't fond of the outfit she went around the rest of AHU's headquarters in, but she knew from experience that, dressed normally, she was the sort of woman who attracted attention. And attention was the last thing a Hunter of Hunters wanted.

Fiona unlocked her computer, finding the file she'd started before she'd headed to the rest area still open. The only information entered so far was "Date of Awakening" and "Classification". Any newly-awakened Hunter capable of killing a Tutorial Representative despite the level difference was immediately put in Class II, the second-highest. It was standard procedure to nip such exceptional rogue Hunters in the bud as aggressively as possible to prevent them from growing even more powerful as they gained levels. Hence why Fiona had been assigned the task.

Fiona began by checking the files she'd copied to her phone, opening Garrick's collection. She started with the largest folder, labeled "Callisto". This was an immediate success, earning her the beauty's name. Next, she cross-referenced that with the list of this Tutorial's participants. The Potency Measuring Device recorded more than just Potency, appraising every Hunter who touched it. This gave AHU not only all of their stats, but also their names. And fortunately, the device was stored separately from the server room and kept a local copy of its readings.

There was only one Callisto in this batch, last name Calder. She had impressive starting stats, certainly good enough to be a top performer in the Tutorial. She'd even had the highest Potency. That went some way to explaining how she'd managed to kill five people, including another top performer and the Tutorial Representative. Fiona filled out the name.

Then she started two different searches, one for a HunterNet account and the other a general web crawl. The first turned up an immediate result of a very devoted reader of HunterNet who followed the section for Boston, Massachusetts. Many of her bookmarks were posts about build theory and the workings of the System. It seemed the culprit was one of the many ordinary people who dreamed of awakening, and one of the lucky few who did.

The webcrawl returned some other social media profiles, including one on a professional networking site of an engineer in Boston. Fiona checked that one first. It featured Callisto smiling pleasantly and looking sharp in an emerald green blouse which complemented her eyes. Her blue eyes. Had she gotten a Skill or Feat in the Tutorial that had changed her eye color? Fiona started another search, this one of her department's database of System items and abilities which changed physical characteristics.

Fiona returned her attention to the professional profile, examining the picture. It was definitely the same woman, although her eyes were a sapphire blue here. The picture was well-done, professionally lit with her expression conveying just the right amount of quiet confidence alongside her impressive job title and degree. Perhaps the woman had a background in modelling? She would certainly have seen a lot of success with a body like that.

Fiona saved the image and placed it in the growing file, along with a note about the change in eye color. She sent another copy to her phone before moving on to the rest of the profile. Callisto had graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Power Generation from an extremely prestigious school, then gone on to work for Crystal Solutions, a major company that dealt with Energy Crystal utilization. This woman really was obsessed with Hunters.

Fiona copied the relevant information into the file, disappointed not to find a resumé, which would probably have contact information and perhaps even her address. Even so, Fiona used her corporate card to book a flight from DC to Boston that would be departing in two-and-a-half hours. Thanks to pre-check, she had plenty of time to finish up in the office and get to the airport and through security. It was pricey thanks to the short notice, but the Hunters of Hunters more or less had a blank check. With that done, she returned to the search about the red eyes.

There were a surprising number of items, Feats, and Skills that changed eye color to red. The most promising was the version of the Uncommon Skill Gloamsight with the Dark subtype. It was generally provided by Classes, but since Callisto couldn't have had a Class before completing the Tutorial, it wouldn't have come from any of those. Maybe she'd just picked up a Skillbook of Gloamsight? It was impossible to say for sure without access to the Tutorial footage.

There were some things that gave Gloamsight with the Dark subtype, most impossible to obtain in the Tutorial. One in particular caught Fiona's eye: a Legendary consumable called "Elixir of the Vampire". She checked it, noting the other change it had on the Hunter's appearance: lips the same shade as the eyes, as if permanently painted.

Fiona scrolled through the images she'd copied from Forrest's phone, finding one taken from his perspective lying on the ground with Callisto's head between his legs. No smearing from her crimson lips even as they were wrapped around a cock. Fiona added the effects of the elixir to the file.

It occurred to her that the picture would be more useful if its eyes and lips were the right color. She didn't have the skillset for that, but she knew a junior who did. She sent a message to him through the department's internal messaging system telling him to come to her office.

Within a minute, there was a knock on the door. Fiona opened it to reveal a gangly young man with messy blonde hair, brown eyes, and cheeks riddled with acne scars. He was a bit taller than her, and his too-big hoodie and baggy jeans made him look scrawny.

Fiona motioned for him to take a seat in a spare chair against the far wall facing her desk. He was only nineteen years old, and the slight widening of his eyes and the shaking of his leg as he was stared down by a senior twice his age stirred a rapacious instinct in her. She discreetly locked the door as she closed it behind him.

She got into her desk chair and spun it around, their knees almost touching as she faced him. She gave a smile, although from the way he stiffened at it, he'd taken it more as a baring of teeth. She spoke soothingly, "You're good with computers, right Blaine?"

He nodded, expression softening somewhat as the reason for the summons was becoming clear. His voice was almost falsetto as he replied, "Yes ma--" He stopped, his pockmarked cheeks reddening. Then he continued in his normal pitch, "Yes ma'am."

Fiona's smile deepened. She turned to her computer, first pulling up the professional headshot of Callisto. As she opened her recent downloads, she said, "This woman just killed five people in the last Tutorial, including the representative. The color of her eyes and lips changed thanks to an ability she received--would you be able to edit this picture accordingly?"

Blaine nodded again, more of the tension leaving him. "Yes, ma'am, that won't be a... problem..." he trailed off as he saw the image Fiona was pulling up, immediately going rigid again once he realized what he was looking at. It was one of the ones Forrest had taken, featuring the nude Callisto on her hands and knees with her head down and ass up. The shot had been taken just as the man behind her had viciously thrust into her, and it captured the shockwave traveling across her sumptuous ass. A hand (presumably Forrest's) was on her chin, forcing her to look up at the camera. Her eyes had taken on a dull, glazed look, though the vivid red was still apparent in them. Her matching lips were pressed together under the pressure of the hand.