The rain trickled down the windowsill and pooled at Karl’s knees, not that he noticed, his eyes and attention were entirely focused on the outside of the debilitated room. The area was being scouted out, the habits of the inhabitants noted and plans formulated to neutralise any potential threats. The targets frequented the area, and that was what counted. What was home ground will eventually become a death trap to destroy the sick monstrosities that had harmed his son.

He’d been in the middle of negotiations with an operative squad to provide aid in a BPN when the call had come through. “Operative K. Haynes, 018792312-08-867? This is Doctor Russell, Wilson Institute for Mentally Ill Children.” Karl’s sweat ran cold as he immediately grasped the significance of the location named. Dr Russell continued. “Your son Joshua was brought in nearly an hour ago in a vegetative state. Your wife Irene is in hospital, being treated for GBH and possible mental trauma. Can you immediately come over please.” Karl said he would, excused himself from the operative squad and fled the building.
At the Wilson Institute Karl is met by Dr Russell and taken to the room where Joshua lay catatonic. Dr Russell sighed quietly and cleaned his glasses. “Shivers were called when neighbours heard screaming. Your wife was found semi-conscious over your son, a bloodied knife in her hand and in a serious condition.” He turns and looks down at the barely-breathing child. “It seems your son was the target of a vicious attack by four individuals, who did something to your son. This is the fourteenth case this month, and to be honest I am terrified of whoever is doing this to children. Our ebon staff flat-out refuses to look into any child’s mind to discover what happened. Nurse Biennia said she picked up insane laughter from the mind of one child, and that was just looking at the child.” Dr Russell takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. “I’m going to ask in operative help to see what can be done for the children, but I have no idea what can be done, and for now my staff and I will do what we can, which isn’t much.” Karl is then left to watch over his son for two hours before being called to the hospital his wife was being treated at.
The hospital staff nervously guided Karl to the room guarded by men in plain business-suits. Inside sat another suit by the bed where Irene Haynes lay asleep, her skin pale and bruised. The suit looked up at Karl and nodded. “Afternoon operative. Investigations have already become to ascertain exactly what happened to your wife and son, the gentlemen outside will guard your wife while she heals, but I will need you to come with me for a briefing on what we do know.” He pauses and watches Karl closely before nodding slightly. “I’ll leave you alone with your wife for half an hour, then there is work to do.” With that the suit stood and left the room, leaving Karl to watch his wife in silence.
Forty minutes later and Karl is in a plain office, only the large screen on one wall breaking the monotony. Karl sat in one chair, while behind the desk and facing him was the gentleman from the hospital, Mr Ascots from Cloak Division. On the screen were several images of four persons and an APC. “What we know for certain is that four individuals have, over the past two months, hospitalised over ninety children aged between two months and fourteen years with several mental trauma, and murdered nearly twice as many adults, either family or guardians. Now we have managed to generate composite images of each individual and assign names. The first individual is called Tinker. As you can see Tinker is the largest of the group and most definitely the leader, it is also an extended range specialist, several operatives have been on the receiving end of it’s sniper rifle. Next is Dippy, slightly smaller but more vicious, you can see the integrated GASH fists on each hand. Third is GoGo, smaller than Dippy and a ranged combat specialist, general pistols and SMGs. We think GoGo is also the driver of the APC. Last of the group, and the smallest, is Poke. Now we think Poke is the weakest and least dangerous of the group. But do not take that for granted, it may be skilled in other areas. And finally we come to the APC. As you can see sprayed across the sides is ‘Oh No!’ and on the front are two large eyes and a grinning mouth. We think the text is actually the name of the vehicle, while the facial features are to imply some sort of personality.”
The images are replaced with an interview of an ebon operative. The ebon sat in an office very much like Karl sat in, but it lacked the large screen. “Here is the recorded testimony of Operative Haunter, who looked into the psyche of a victim.” The ebon spoke. “The mind was a kaleidoscope of images, mainly of green grass and a blue sky surrounding a low-bunker built into a hill. I kept glimpsing facing of children in the most unlikely of places, the heads of flowers and the sun itself. No image lasted more than a second, and they never come in anything that looked like chronological order. But I did see four individuals and what looked like an APC. The figures are strangely coloured. Not a one has what looks like normal coloration. The largest of the group, I get the name Tinker for some reason, is a deep blue, almost purple coloration. And this is the skin! There is a green one, it was giggling to itself as if quite insane, and I heard the word ‘Dippy’ repeated by it. The third was a bright yellow, almost luminescent; it was leaning against the APC and kept shouting out ‘GoGo, GoGo.’ The smallest of the group was a blood red and kept prodding objects and the others. I kept wanting to call it Poke, maybe from the actions. In the background I heard this deep roaring voice, though I never got any clear words, thing is every time the voice spoke the individuals went and did something. Maybe it’s another fifth individual I didn’t see who issued orders. When the voice wasn’t shouting I heard whispering laughter, I think from children.” The ebon shook his head. “That’s everything. Now can I purge these images? I want to sleep tonight without going insane.” The video stops and Mr Ascots shakes his head. “That’s everything. The description of the surroundings both suggests off-Mort and some sort of large structure that could simulate such an area including the child-faced sun.” He leans on the desk. “We want these creatures dealt with, and quickly before more children are attacked. Lab-work on the bloodied knife your wife was found clutching will hopefully help discover what race these creatures are, and maybe allow us to discover any weaknesses.” The rest of the evening is spent sorting out what little information they had. Following that Karl had a poor nights sleep and then went hunting.

Karl glanced at his watch then returned his eyes to the scene below; the targets should be coming through in less than a minute, riding the APC. Indeed forty seconds later the APC ‘Oh No!’ roared down the street and came to a crushing halt by the same apartment block as before, and the targets themselves got out, Tinker first followed by Dippy and GoGo. Poke was missing. A cold sweat sprang into being on Karl’s head, this change was not promising, and the only thing it could mean was that he’d been found out somehow. A faint indiscernible noise was all the warning he had as Poke crashed through the door and attempted to smash him against the wall he was against. Karl did freeze though and had dropped fully the moment he’d heard the noise and even as the door shattered and pushed off into a full body spin, which put him against one of the other walls, where he had precious seconds needed to arm and come up swinging. Except Poke was already there and it’s arms were coming down to pin Karl against the floor. A scream of rage and despair ripped past Karl’s lips as he strained against the smallest of the monstrosities, but to no avail. He could only lie there pinned as Poke gave him a close look and squeezed his arms and torso, testing his strength. Then it’s grip shifted and Karl could feel it starting to pull on his right arm, muscles screamed as they were pulled out of shape, ligaments popping and the bones grinding until with a wet tear Karl’s arm was taken off at the shoulder. Karl screamed in agony, the pain was immense, and only just notice poke raise a finger to it’s lips in pantomime for silence and winked before leaving the room, pausing at the door to bring Karl’s own right arm up in mock salute, then leaving as Karl blacked out.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Karl became aware of a steady beeping, the kind long familiar from the shows his wife liked watching and from his own post-surgery recoveries as an operative. Opening his eyes he stared up at the familiar clean white ceiling with diffused lighting, a glance to the left revealed the machinery monitoring his conditions, and to the right… a whole arm, bereft of hair and the faint scar gained early on as an operative, the gift of a particularly vicious carnivorous pig, also there was a chair with the same gentleman as had briefed him at the start of this problem. Mr Ascots glanced up from the book he’d been reading and noticed Karl’s steady look. “Your conscious. Good. LAD got to you three minutes after your heart stopped from blood loss and shock. They have also managed to replace the arm without any undue difficulty. The cost has been covered by Cloak, until this is over you are effectively one of ours.” The book was closed with a quiet snap, and it was only then that Karl noticed that it was the same book as he had previously and had kept his observations in. Mr Ascots nodded. “Your observations have proven useful and the group has been tracked down again. Even as I speak operative squads Storm’s Fury and Urban Renewal have commenced a heavy assault on their base, hopefully trapping and killing the targets. Once their termination has been confirmed you’ll receive compensation for your time and hopefully your family will recover.” He stood to leave. “Rest well Operative Haynes, you have helped bring a group of monstrosities to justice. You have the thanks of Mr Slayer for your diligence.” He taken only two steps when his mobile trilled. “Ascots. Uhuh. Shit. Okay debrief the survivors. He did, did he? Okay I’ll deal with Ashley myself; I don’t want him kicking up a stink. Okay half an hour.” Pushing a button Mr ascots slipped the phone back into his office and turned to Karl. “Your going on an accelerated healing program. The assault failed and the targets have escaped. I need you to track them down again.” With that he turned back towards the door and left. Karl let his head roll back until he was staring at the ceiling again and began to think, plot and plan. The hunt was on again.

Karl stood in an office dominated by a three-dimensional model of Mort city, it wasn't entirely accurate according to Ascots, but it was close enough for his purposes. Here and there a pulsing red light indicated a confirmed sighting of the quarry, whilst a vast nebulea of orange and yellow lights indicated degrees of unconfirmed sightings, although clusters of yellows and oranges were scattered all over the city, the destinct lack of any reds in any of the clusters conclusively denied the presence of the quarry in indicated areas. karl let his attention return to the vast glowing thread that twisted through Mort, from Suburbia and the glancing touches in Central to the meandering path through DownTown and Lower DownTown. Lower the level the less sightings, confirmed or otherwise, there were. Eventually Karl points to an area with just two oranges and four yellows, barely touching the thread of lights. "I'm going here."
Ascots raised an eyebrow, and cocked his head slightly. "The reports from that location are about six weeks old, not the oldest, and by definition not the newest. There also aren't any reds. Analysts ruled it out pretty much from the beginning." Karl smiled. "Exactly." And without another word Karl left to get equipped and begin the next stage of the hunt. Ascots though remained behind and continued to study the model for several more minutes, and then turned to a shadow. "Is he right?"
A voice, dryer then a desert crypt and quieter then the desert breeze, rasped. "Possibly. His last encounter has left it's mark on him. Of everyone sent against them he now has the best of chances of finally defeating them, but he may also go the way of the others. Watch him closely." The shadow then, inesplicably, becomes emptier and Ascots finally allows a shudder to twist through his body. "Bloody Nec's." He mutters and leaves the room.

NOTE: This is a work in Progress.