Shadows of the Menschilche

 

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Prologue

23,000 Years Ago

A Sagittarius Menschilche sat in a pod, the scientists around him were reading their computers and the readouts of this volunteer. They were trying one of the first Super Soldier projects, a serum that would be transferable through the mixing of blood. This was supposed to grant enhanced speed, strength, endurance and night vision to the person, while granting them regenerative qualities. The readings were good and the Menshilche remained inside the pod, however his skin started to become a little flushed, this wasn't expected, but his life readings remained normal as he remained unconscious. The scientist in charge watched this process carefully over the next couple of hours.

Suddenly the Menschilche was awoken, he had red eyes, when his eyes used to be blue. He looked around, the room wasn't any brighter to him, but he became annoyed that he was still bound. He looked at his bindings and started struggling against them, he broke them rather quickly. He was extremely hungry and one of the scientists walked over to him, "You haven't eaten since last night, let me get you something to eat." The Menschilche nodded and waited til the scientist returned and he ate the food he was brought. The scientists were pleased at the results of this super soldier project, it pretty much being a success and they would be able to defeat the Dragons who had entered their galaxy.

One of the scientists decided to use a knife to cut into the Menschilche, and the Menschilche bit down upon the neck of the scientist, puncturing into the jugular vein and he started drinking the blood, regenerating the flesh around the wound, while draining the poor scientist dry. The scientist in charge sighed, "Dammit, seriously. Well we're going to have to live with this. The Dragons are destroying us in this war." The head scientist walked out to the war room where a holographic image of Menschilche space was shown, the dragons, shown in gray were moving into their territory. The Menschilche were losing this war, and the scientist regrets that their military had fired the first shot.

One of the generals looked at him, "How was the project." The scientist sighed, "There were a few complications, they can only regenerate if they drain the blood from a victim." The general nodded, "I want thousands of these new Vampire Super Soldiers. We need to take the fight to the dragons before they overwhelm us." The scientist nodded, "I understand, sir." The scientist walked back to his lab, and saw that no one else had been drained, which was a very fortunate fact for him, "Look, we're going to have to have thousands of these new super soldiers. Project Vampire is a go." The scientists started to get to work on this as the lead scientist smiled as his work went without a hitch.

A few months later, the new super soldiers were thrown against the Dragons and had an 85% loss rate, while taking down only one dragon. The scientist was upset as he failed in creating a new super soldier project. He also noticed that the super soldiers had become very nocturnal, instead of diurnal like the rest of the Menschilche. This was an extreme disappointment in addition to the failure for them to preform as expected. The scientist sighed and pulled out a gun, he felt absolutely horrible for this and for bringing these creatures into the world. He put the barrel of the pistol into his mouth and sighed, he pulled the trigger and ended his life in very quick order.

 
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Chapter 1

One Week Prior to Present Day

An adult Menschilche looked over the dead body of a female Mus, he had seen wounds on the neck like this before. He also knew from the lack of any blood on the wounds that the body had been drained dry. He had seen too much of this as of late, he knew that the creature he was dealing with was a vampire, but he had no idea of how to track it or where to find it. He wished he was like his father, so that he could pick up the smell and track this creature. He grabbed his polearm and looked around at the police that were arriving, "Hello, Officer." The cop looked at him, "Guards in training aren't supposed to be at crime scenes, leave before I report you to your superiors."

The Menschilche nodded, and left the crime scene without a word. He was very worried about what was going on, these murders had been happening for the past week and there was no end in sight. As he walked down the street, he looked down at the ground with his hand on his chin, he was trying to figure out how to find this creature and how to stop it. His research had found little to nothing about the type of creature he was dealing with or the means to stop it. Only the identity of the creature and the type of wounds, as well as myths surrounding it. He walked into a bar and sat down, "One beer please." The bartender nodded, "I'll have to see some ID, please." The Menschilche nodded and showed his ID, the Bartender sighed, "I'm going to have to cross reference this with my database, you're a Menschilche, right?"

The Menschilche nodded without hesitation, "Go ahead." The bartender took the ID into a room and after a couple of moments, he came out and handed it back as the manager walked over to him, "Sorry Sven, bar policy." Sven nodded, "Not yet old enough to legally drink?" The manager laughed, "Nah, forty-two is the legal drinking age for a Menschilche and you're forty-seven. Just we need to check ID of all people trying to drink." Sven nodded as the bartender poured him a beer, Sven started to sip it a bit, "Tell me, have you seen a creature that looks like a human?" The bartender shook his head, "I haven't seen one, is it related to the string of murders of men and women with the two puncture wounds in their jugular veins?" Sven nodded, "Yes, and the proper medical term is carotid artery." The Bartender sighed, "Same thing."

The manager shook his head, "I've not seen anything like that, but you might be able to get information from one of the patrons here. By the way, guards drink free, within reason of course." Sven nodded slightly and took his beer over to a table where a female Mus was sitting, "Excuse me, may I ask you a couple of questions?" The Mus looked up at him, "Go ahead." Sven sighed, he didn't think it was going to be that easy, "Have you any information about the string of murders that has been going on in this city?" The Mus shook her head, "Nothing that the news hasn't shown." Sven nodded, "Thank you for your time, ma'am." Sven looked around and saw a man sitting in a corner, with his hat down. He walked over to the man, "Excuse me, may I..." Sven noticed that the man wasn't breathing, so he used his polearm to poke the male Mus.

The Mus fell over dead, but as Sven went to go check his neck, he noticed the wounding on the neck was the same as the female, but this body was still slightly warm, meaning the killer hadn't gotten far away. Sven placed his beer on the table and ran into the kitchen and then out the back door. He didn't care how many rules of the establishment he had broken, he was going to catch the son of a bitch who had been murdering people in his hometown. He ran as fast as he could, following every alley way that he could, until eventually he ran upon an abandoned house. He walked carefully towards it, his polearm at the ready. He noticed that the window was broken, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to end up walking into a trap.

He decided to use the same window that was broken to enter, so as to make as little noise as possible. He silently walked through the halls of the house, taking up positions on each corner and looking into each room carefully. He felt like he was being followed, but every time he turned, he couldn't see anything. When he found nothing on the first floor, he decided to check the second floor. He repeated the same thing he did with the first floor and found nothing. Except his feeling of unease grew even more. He felt extremely uncomfortable and couldn't shake the feeling that he had just walked into a trap. He started to make his way down the stairs, when he started to get a gut feeling that he should just escape.

Upon reaching the first floor, he tried to silently get to the window and climb out. Unfortunately something grabbed him in a hold and bit into his neck. Sven expected to be completely drained of blood and wind up dead like the rest of the victims, but the Vampire stopped, "Your blood smells like a human's. Well then." Sven felt something wet touch his wounds, and an incredible pain shot through his body. However, though he felt stronger, he was also losing consciousness due to the pain. The last thing Sven heard before he finally passed out was, "You're a Vampire just like me and soon you will have your first taste of the blood of these creatures! Enjoy your new life as a creature of the night!"

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Chapter 2

Present Day

Yoshiro stood in front of his house with a cup of coffee in hand, he had noticed the police outside of his neighborhood and decided that he was going to take a look. Apparently some of his old guard had the same idea, as they followed suit. When he arrived, he noticed that the highest ranking police officer there was oddly a Lieutenant, Yoshiro found that to be a bit curious, but he paid it no mind. He looked at the officers on duty, "Let me through." The Lieutenant looked at him, "You might be the friend of our queen, but you have no authorization to be here at this crime scene!" Yoshiro arched a brow, "I'm a royal guard, and the last I checked, Lieutenant, that means I outrank you. So either you let me in on this investigation, or I have you thrown in the castle's dungeon for a bit."

The Lieutenant grumbled as Yoshiro walked towards the body and knelt beside it, he was picking up the scents of the victim and her killer, but wasn't able to separate the two, "Lieutenant, relax. If we continue bickering, we're going to let this guy stay loose for longer and more people are going to die." He continued sniffing the air, trying to get a better idea of the scent of the killer, but unfortunately he wasn't able to separate the two scents. Standing up, he looked at the officers, "Do you have anything from this crime scene that didn't belong to the victim?" One of the officers nodded and held up a piece of cloth in a bag, "I found this in the victim's hand clutched tightly." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Can I smell it?"

The officer looked at him, "Excuse me, sir?" Yoshiro tapped his nose, "You must be fresh from the academy, I'm a Kitsune and my friend over there? She's a Lupine. If the two of us smell it and pick up the killer's scent, we can track down the killer." The officer nodded, "Alright then, but don't try any funny stuff." He handed the bag to Yoshiro who opened it and sniffed the contents of the bag, the scent was familiar, but there was something wrong, this didn't smell like anyone he knew from Verbana. He walked over to the female Lupine, "Erna, what do you make of this." He handed it to her and she sniffed the contents of the bag. Her tail started lashing as she looked up at him, "Yoshiro, we're not dealing with multiple killers... this is the same exact scent as the person who killed one of my friends."

Yoshiro nodded, "The killer's not from this planet, his scent doesn't..." Something clicked in his mind as the scent started to become familiar, he couldn't exactly place it, but he was outraged, "Lieutenant. I'm going to need to ask for the cooperation of the police force." The Lieutenant sighed, "Now you're asking too much." Yoshiro walked over to him and handed the Mus the bag, "Listen here, this is one person. One fucking person has been making you and your entire police force look like blithering idiots! According to Seija, her guess is that since the attacks stopped in Kani territory and they moved to Mus territory, this is the same assailant. If one person can do this, imagine what they could do if only you and your current cops come waltzing in!"

The Lieutenant frowned, "We're going to handle this on our own, Yoshiro. If you don't like it, then you'll have to take it up with my superior." Yoshiro pointed at the radio on his belt, "Call him up now." The Lieutenant sighed, "If it will make you happy." He took the radio off his belt and turned it on, "Chief, Yoshiro here wants to ask for the cooperation of the police force in the capturing of this murderer." The Chief's voice spoke up, "He's a Royal Guard, Lieutenant, you're going to have to do as he says." The Lieutenant sighed, "Dammit!" Yoshiro smirked and looked at the old guard that was with him, "Let's gear up." He turned towards the Lieutenant, "Give us forty-five minutes and we'll be ready to track this son of a bitch down." The Lieutenant grumbled as Yoshiro walked back to his house.

Upon entering the house, Lilah appeared from one of the shadows, "You're going to try to track down this murderer, aren't you?" Yoshiro nodded, "Of course." Lilah sighed, "Yoshiro, he's a human vampire." Yoshiro nodded, not really shocked that Lilah would know something like this, it being her job as his personal bodyguard and his personal spy, "You're coming with me, Lilah." Lilah nodded, "Of course, Yoshiro. You know Rogelio is going to come whether you like it or not." Yoshiro nodded as they reached the armory and he started to put on his armor, "I'd expect nothing less from him, though he really ought to start taking it easier, he's going to be over the hill in the next couple of weeks."

Lilah chuckled as an adult female Menschilche walked into the Armory, "Dad, are you going after the murderer?" Yoshiro nodded, "Galina, I want you to stay here with Elbereth. I have a feeling this son of a bitch is behind Sven's disappearance and possible death." Galina shook her head, "I still feel Sven's life force. He's alive, Father." Yoshiro nodded, "That's at least some good news. Still doesn't change my goal." Yoshiro started arm himself, he chose to take his shield, his long sword and a single pistol, "Find this bastard, and I'll at least find a clue as to where Sven happens to be. Don't worry, I'll find him." Galina nodded, "Stay safe, Father." Yoshiro walked over to her and gave her a hug, "I promise I'll return." Galina nodded as Yoshiro let go and walked out of the house with Lilah.

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