“Wait, so you all are the cause of the crazy stuff I heard about a few months back, like people fighting Leviathan in Area Nine, the Auction House being attacked, the Minotaur vanishing, that was you guys?” Satyr asked incredulously as their group sat at a table in front of an abandoned building in Area seven.

“Yeah Leviathan was after Typhon, the Auction House got attacked because some guy named Lukas Vann wanted Echidna to kill me, and Minotaur is actually a part of our group man.” Aaron responded in ease as he took a calm drink of his glass of coke and rum.

Satyr was already aware of Aaron knowing the recipe by the way, which is why the joke made no appearance here.

“Man, you guys got into so much… wait, Echidna? Lady Boss tried to kill you?” Satyr asked as Aaron held in his laugh at Echidna’s constipated look at Satyr’s words.

Satyr had gotten into communication with the Hydra Triplets. And as expected, they had an effect on each other in the sense that all four were trouble makers to some extent.

Of course, there was no greater trouble maker than Aaron.

“Well yeah she tried to kill me, Typhon tried to kill me, Manticore and Medusa actually kidnapped me, Empusa tried to kill me from high blood pressure in a single place and I had a race with Cyclops that involved nearly getting attacked by the Hydra Triplets back when they were one mindless human eating monster.” Aaron said in as plain a manner as possible, achieving maximum effect to result in Satyr coughing up his food.

No one was greater than Aaron when it came to messing with people, no one. Occasionally, he had to remind everyone though…

Apparently the rest of the Key was trying to create a list of one hundred and eight skills Aaron might possess… Aaron actually saw the list once, and annoying people was for some reason skill thirty seven.

Well, at least Lock-picking was first, and some of those skills they only assumed he had… not that they were wrong, but how were they to know he was good at skiing, be it on water or snow?

“Man, you’re joking right? I mean, it’s not like everyone in the Key was against you from the beginning right… right?” Satyr first asked in a joking manner, but seeing Aaron’s blank face, he had to ask once more in a serious manner.

“You are the first person to join our group without any altercation against us first. Really, that was the most peaceful recruitment we’ve ever done.” Satyr thought that said something when a few people died while they were busy recruiting him… though Aaron just meant danger in combat.

At this point, the danger Leraje posed to them was very little considering his lack of proper combat skill… really, his bow and arrows were awesome, thankfully Empusa got those, but he sucked for leading on where he would shoot.

No matter how fast something is fired, if you know where it’s going to land you could just get out of the way beforehand you know?

“So wait, everyone? Okay, you mentioned most of the group but… Sphinx, Cerberus, Minotaur?” Satyr recalled that the Key only possessed ten ‘Chained’ if one counted the Hydra Triplets as one Chained, and Aaron was a Lord now, though Satyr didn’t quite get what that meant.

“Sphinx and Cerberus tried to kill me because of Lukas Vann making a deal with them, this happened during the Auction House Incident, and as for Mino, he tried to kill Typhon for trespassing but I blew up a part of his maze and helped Typhon figure out how to beat him.” Satyr just stared at his new ‘boss’ and sighed, making the rest of the group chuckle at his look.

“Now you know how we feel. Welcome to the Key.” Empusa joked from the side as Satyr resisted the urge to sigh as he continued to eat his meal.

Of course, they were eating outside, yet no one dared get near this group of Chained and their pink jeep, in fact the whole road seemed near deserted if it weren’t for seeing maybe one or two people running from one side to the other in the distance occasionally.

“Typhon, what the heck are those people doing?” Aaron asked as Typhon narrowed his eyes, focusing his hearing, or so Satyr was told, and Typhon just shrugged.

“Nothing beyond what normally happens in this place; they’re just scared we might do something… well, mostly me.” Typhon had heard quite a few members of a gang called the ‘Red Knives’ or something… ah, no wonder.

They were the gang chasing Aaron on his first day in Tartarus, which led to him falling into the Cradle and meeting Typhon.

Then a few days later they exited the Cradle and Typhon killed quite a few of their people during his first use of his chains… he was pretty sure he snapped someone’s neck by accident during that fight.

“That makes sense; you terrify anyone who knows about you.” That wasn’t exactly false, as Typhon was quite violent in his early days out of the Cradle, killing anyone that messed with him and Aaron, even if Aaron kept asking him to not kill someone.

Eventually, Typhon started doing as Aaron asked in regards to killing people, but Typhon was the only one who knew that he was mostly getting used to regulating his strength against normal humans without killing them…

Typhon was a proud person, and it would near physically pain him to admit that he couldn’t control his own strength.

“I’m glad everyone’s scared, it means I have less to do.” Typhon chuckled even as he moved over to a nearby chair to just relax in for a while, not even caring when Empusa began running her fingers through his hair.

Aaron wondered how Typhon could remain oblivious to how Empusa treated him, but then again, Empusa was being slightly subtle with someone who seemed only capable of reading hostile intent easily. Everything else had to be told to Typhon, though he was learning.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re lazy, we get it… I’m wondering if we should go check out this Zeta Generator, but I guess we shouldn’t.” Aaron stated aloud even as Typhon twitched for a moment, knowing where the Zeta Generator of Area seven was.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Manticore asked as he sipped his tea, ignoring that everyone seemed to stop what they were doing to listen to his voice.

“I’m not entirely sure about those things, but no doubt they have extreme security measures in place. If we trip any alarms or something, we might bring down the full might of Tartarus on us.” Aaron looked strangely serious, and seeing everyone else drop the joking attitude, Satyr needed to ask about this.

“Um, I’m not following. I know that the people in charge got two guys like our boss here, but were they really that dangerous?” There was an exchange of meaningful glances between the people sitting around the table before Typhon spoke out.

“Not truly in my opinion… but they do have quite a few dangerous things about them.” Typhon organized the thoughts he had, taking a sip of some of his own alcoholic beverage of choice.

He couldn’t get drunk, and Aaron barely could, but they at least showed some solidarity in what they did… Cyclops, despite his own distaste of alcohol, did not begrudge the two their vices knowing that it was their choice and not his.

“Firstly, the technology, Tartarus can’t seem to decide whether to be high-tech or low-tech, but they at the very least have high tech combat equipment, any of their weapons would be capable of killing us as long as we got hit.” Satyr paled at that, as the advancements in technology seemed to have made even the Chained mere mortals, despite their ability to seemingly age at really slow rates.

“Then there’s the Warden, that guy that can’t seem to have enough presence to be memorable. He’s a normal human, and from what we understand, even his skills in a fight are average of someone with basic training.” This was a really confusing point for anyone that ran into that guy, but he really was plain…

“That’s an advantage for him though, as that guy seems to have no presence to speak of… I’d think he was a Chained specializing in stealth if it weren’t for the fact that he clearly isn’t one.” Aaron added in, and their group agreed, the Warden usually, in the few engagements they had against him since the capturing of Aaron, acted in his giant robot with his ‘Hellhounds’ at his side…

But there was one case where he almost killed Medusa of all people, and this was without his usual tricks, only having a very modern hand gun.

He failed obviously, though Medusa had a scar on her stomach from where she was shot, not that it was shown often obviously.

Everyone ignored Aaron asking Medusa to see it later and further ignored her agreement. They clearly hadn’t slept together, but that was just because they weren’t rushing things.

“He’s an excellent assassin, though he doesn’t usually act in that manner. Just know that he’s irritating.” Satyr felt that what was just described was more than just ‘irritating’ but kept quiet to listen to the rest of the information.

“After the Warden are their Lords. I explained them before, but Lords are both Biological and Cybernetic in nature, and possess two abilities each.” Satyr nodded, having heard this bit before.

“One of those abilities is unique, but the second is the same for all of us, it allows Lords to mind-control certain Chained to an extent… a horrible ability.” Satyr was understandably worried about Aaron having such a power, even if Aaron seemed alright…

Other than him being weird and scary at times, but other than that, Aaron was alright.

“From what we know, they have two-” Typhon’s words were cut off by Aaron raising his hand and showing four fingers, stopping Typhon cold.

“Four. They have four Lords.” This was news to everyone, Satyr noticed because everyone seemed to be hearing this information for the first time as Typhon frowned.

“You could have mentioned that before you know?” Typhon said as Aaron shrugged, trying to take another sip of his drink before realizing he had no more and instead just sighed.

“It wasn’t necessary, though in hindsight I realize I should have said something. But yes, we have one Lord on our side, namely me, and the enemy side has four… though they will only send two for us.” Aaron stated with utter confidence.

“Solomon and Lu Bu are their ‘field operatives’ in a way. The third Lord isn’t mentally well so we wouldn’t be seeing him unless things go very wrong for Tartarus. His ability is scary, so let’s just hope he isn’t brought in.” Aaron didn’t mention more, figuring that the necessary information would be shared later as he suddenly got quiet.

“…The fourth Lord they have will never attack us unless it’s necessary. She’s too proud to crush worms in her view.” Aaron clenching the glass hard enough to crack it was a warning.

No one brought up this fourth Lord or questioned about her, knowing that it wasn’t a conversation topic Aaron was comfortable with, for whatever reasons.

“…Ahem, right. Okay, so they possess four Lords, but we run into two of them, Solomon and Lu Bu. Lu Bu can fight any one of us equally, and one can’t fight him with the same tricks twice… he’s dangerous.” That was understatement when one considered that Lu Bu’s skill was comparable to Sphinx, and that he was yet stronger.

Sphinx was weak for a Chained, and only due to his martial arts techniques was he capable of fighting, but Lu Bu did not have Sphinx’s weakness.

“And as for Solomon, she isn’t a fighter, but she can be scary if left alone once she appears, as she can build practically anything. Think MacGyver on steroids, as long as she is given the time to analyse a problem she can build something to fix it.” Typhon added after learning of her ability from Aaron.

They weren’t sure on hers, as on the rare occasions the Key got into fights with them she usually approached towards the end of the fight with some contraption which caused the Key members to run away or change their strategy.

“Well, okay… so Tartarus is surprisingly dangerous for people that seem to leave the normal people in here alone so often.” Satyr added with little real meaning behind his words…

It left a lull in the conversation. A lull long enough for Typhon to twitch.

“Everyone move!” Typhon’s warning was enough to get everyone to jump away from the table as something landed on it.

“Well, sorry to crash your party, I’m just here for a little something-something.” That slightly old fashioned southern drawl was but one hint at who it was.

Having a gun aimed at his face, as well as the cowboy hat on his head cemented who his opponent was as Typhon glared at one of the few people he respected in Tartarus.

“Jaeger… so, finally out of hiding.” Typhon growled as Jaeger chuckled, looking around to take in their group, everyone but Typhon was at least four metres away from the table by now as the eyes of the Hunter landed on Aaron.

“Oh, Aaron… you’re alive… I’m actually kind of glad for that. Though you aren’t human anymore, are you?” Jaeger asked as Satyr was being silenced by Medusa… well duh, Jaeger was a sort of bogeyman for Chained.

“Hey, I’m still me, even if they want to call me Odysseus.” Aaron said as Jaeger looked to Aaron with an odd glint in his eyes.

“Oh, so that’s your name as a Chained… listen, I’ve got a kind of request, care to hear me out?” Jaeger asked as Aaron frowned, only for their conversation to be interrupted by Typhon’s low growl.

“Hey, are you ignoring me?” Jaeger looked back to Typhon, an uncharacteristic smirk on the face of the Hunter.

“No, I just figured that I could leave you for last… we’re going to be busy soon after all… I want a rematch.” Jaeger said easily as Typhon flexed his wrists, the black colouration of his Nano-tech flowing up his arms and legs to make his Sleeves as Aaron called them.

“What, am I not good enough to go all ‘Jaguar’ on?” Typhon was unaware of the differences between the whole Jaguar/Panther thing, and he wasn’t sure he’d find out.

Aaron also did not know this, which was a surprise… they’d find out much later that the only real differences were where they were found, with Panthers being African and Asian, and Jaguar’s being found in the America’s… go-figure.

“Oh I would if I could… I’m not exactly good with that yet.” Typhon growled out, making Satyr confused as Medusa wondered how to explain the odd dynamic between the two.

Jaeger, despite his threatening nature, didn’t seem to really try and kill Typhon, at least not beyond their first fight. And Typhon never tried to permanently remove Jaeger either.

They fought, and they very nearly murder each other each time, but they didn’t actually go for the kill when it was available. They were like stereotypical rivals in some bad cartoon.

Though even those kinds of rivals wouldn’t do what these two did to each other in fights.

“Ah… that’s a shame… I really wanted to beat you at your best, guess this will have to do.” Jaeger said with a sigh, his face suddenly losing the smirk with his face losing all emotion.

This, this was the normal look of the Hunter, the look that made quite a few Chained who had just heard of him think him terrifying, with how calm he looked as he killed beings capable of killing him with a single stray hit.

A dance on death’s border, and he does it all without even showing his emotions.

And then there was a blur of motion as Typhon attempted to attack Jaeger with an uppercut, blocked by Jaeger stepping back far enough for the table to tip over to his direction.

Typhon decided that not being able to see Jaeger was worse than the advantage of him not being seen either, and used a Chain to hit the table out of the way.

He didn’t expect to see that damn shotgun of Jaeger’s in hand as Jaeger was moving forward.

With a boom, Typhon was sent back in a flip as he barely landed on his feet, the pellets of the shotgun only being stopped by the Nano-tech armour he moved over that section for a moment as the pellets dropped to the floor.

Jaeger said nothing, having expected Typhon to be capable of blocking such an attack… the pellets of the shotgun did not have enough piercing power to break Typhon’s skin in any meaningful fashion, but it had the blunt force to send him arse-over-tea-kettle as the phrase was.

Typhon took a moment to regain his balance as he stepped forward, weary of Jaeger’s weaponry as Jaeger removed a shorter blade than his previous one.

Aaron, watching the battle, considered the choice and approved. Long swords are ‘standard’ but they aren’t always good.

In a small space for example, a long sword would be more likely to hit a wall or the ceiling and be removed from your grip, getting you killed.

Short Swords weren’t as good in media, but realistically they were a bit more acceptable for every situation.

Typhon almost scoffed at the appearance of the sword, but instead focused, not forgetting that he once looked down on Jaeger and almost died for his arrogance.

He was awarded for his focus when Jaeger pulled out a… handle? Jaeger pulled what looked like a handle from his sleeve in his off hand, and while Typhon would normally ignore it…

He decided to block the thing, just in case, as he raised his left hand, copying a bit from Aaron as he created a shield to block that as his right hand came up to punch the Hunter into unconsciousness.

Typhon soon found himself with a bleeding left arm to his surprise, staring at the blade going through his arm in shock as Jaeger twisted the blade slightly before wrenching it out.

That pain was enough to remind Typhon that he was in fact in a fight, as he jumped back, wincing as he held his arm, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to so much as close his fist for at least a few hours…

Near-regeneration levels of healing for the win.

“Ah… I forgot you have hyper-dense muscles… hurting you with a sword would be much more difficult I guess.” Jaeger said, and his voice just freaked out those who knew him with how calm it was.

Typhon was busy staring at that ‘handle’ though, knowing that it was the cause of his new injury…

“A stun baton?” Typhon heard Aaron question aloud as Jaeger shook it a bit, allowing Typhon to hear a faint buzzing noise coming from the strange metallic weapon.

“Switches off electronics it comes into contact with… only for a few seconds though.” Typhon grinned even as he ignored the pain in his arm to get into a basic stance.

His arm was messed up, but that was fine… even if his body wouldn’t move under his power, he had his Nano-tech… a dangerous thing to do, but even if he himself was incapable of moving, very little could stop his Nano-bots from moving as he envisioned them moving.

To make this sound a bit simpler, he treated his body as a puppet using the Nano-bots as the strings. Normally this wasn’t necessary, but in the case of an injury, it helped.

If Aaron knew about this method, he would accuse Typhon of once more becoming closer to a walking copyright issue, knowing Typhon was effectively copying a the ability of an archer in white from a certain Japanese animation about a detergent strawberry.

“That’s scary… isn’t that the ultimate weapon against Cybernetic Chained?” Typhon wasn’t far off the mark, though the output and length of the pulse was a bit disappointing.

It wasn’t powerful enough to permanently fry electronics for instance, as evidenced by the trace amounts of black sand near Jaeger’s feet suddenly moving towards Typhon.

“Probably… I made it for use against you specifically though. Now I just need to finish my weapon against Leviathan and I’ll be happy.” Jaeger said, sheathing his sword and instead removing one of his many pistols.

“You’ve got a messed up view on what makes you happy.” Typhon stated, easily calling the kettle black without a hint of realizing that he himself was happy with his strength.

“That I do… now let me beat you.” Empusa didn’t look happy with the situation from the side as Jaeger said these words, but she wouldn’t step in, knowing Typhon would just get mad…

Testosterone fuelled men… fighting proves everything huh?

Typhon stepped forward and their fight began anew, and it was quite amazing from Satyr’s viewpoint.

Typhon, unfortunately, was clearly losing. Oh if he hit Jaeger the fight would be over, one clean hit and Jaeger would definitely have a few broken bones… but that was if Typhon hit.

Typhon was fast and powerful too, but Jaeger didn’t move after Typhon, Jaeger moved before his opponent through recognition of Typhon’s next move, a skill borne of having to learn what his opponent would do lest the Hunter die.

It was amazing to watch though, as Typhon attacked, Jaeger very sparingly fought back by using his new EMP-baton to block any Nano-tech fuelled attacks, and his pistol was only kept in his hand, waiting for the moment it would be used.

And then it ended all of a sudden as Jaeger finally grasped the timing of Typhon’s attacks, and with a flourish he ducked under Typhon’s right straight, whacking the elbow with the EMP-baton thus loosening the Nano-bots on that part of the Sleeve.

This only lasted a moment, but that moment was enough for Jaeger to plant his pistol there and pull the trigger, making Jaeger drop his arm with a grunt of annoyance at the pain.

Typhon found it irritating that he had to thank the Cradle for shooting him with turrets for the past few years… it made him used to getting shot.

Now wasn’t that a sad thought?

It didn’t prepare him for the next bit as Jaeger easily dropped the gun in his right hand, doing a quick toss with his left to leave his anti-Cybernetic Chained weapon in his dominant hand.

From there, Jaeger just attacked any bit of black robotic tech he could see on Typhon, making Typhon wince…

Aaron realized only at this point what that EMP-baton was doing to Typhon, beyond the obvious. The Nano-tech was connected to Typhon and his brain-waves… Aaron wasn’t sure how long Typhon was connected to it, but it had to have been a while…

And Jaeger was destroying that connection. It wasn’t a permanent disconnection but it was enough to be messing with Typhon’s senses.

And it was while Typhon was stumbling around in pain from his sudden head ache that Jaeger grabbed Typhon’s injured arm, turned and flipped the smaller opponent onto the floor.

In that moment, Jaeger twisted the arm to end up behind Typhon’s back, kneeling on the arm and holding a gun to the back of Typhon’s head, and there was a sudden silence.

Typhon lost.

“So, the score is now two to one, in my favour. Oh, and don’t think you’d get away without injury, even you wouldn’t be able to stop this from damaging your spine.” Jaeger’s aim was just a bit lower than the back of Typhon’s skull, meaning his words were true as Typhon growled.

“Damn it… I won’t lose…” Jaeger chuckled as he stood, knowing that despite his words, Typhon knew who just won.

“Well then, Aaron, care to have that conversation now?” Jaeger looked over to Aaron, who was looking to Jaeger with confusion.

“Sure… yeah, let’s do that.”

Ten minutes later, Jaeger walked away with a frown on his face as Typhon sulked a bit in a corner, trying to drown away his sorrows with alcohol only for it to not work, as usual…

Being nigh-immune to poison had its downsides.

“Aaron… why would you antagonize him like that?” Empusa asked, thinking back to the discussion Aaron and Jaeger just had.

“It’s a necessary evil Empusa, it’s a necessary evil… come on, you all get to the car, I want to talk to Typhon for a bit.” Aaron stated as they left for their pink jeep, ready to move as soon as their leaders came along.

“So… you lost… again. And this time it wasn’t arrogance.” Aaron stated as Typhon slammed his fist into the wall beside him.

The fact that cracks appeared all over signified the strength hidden in his smaller frame.

“I know- I know that I lost… I don’t want to accept it though.” Aaron rolled his eyes at Typhon’s melodramatic attitude as he kicked Typhon’s leg.

“Hey, no one said you have to accept it. Failure is a lesson, learn from it. And besides, have you forgotten that we’re a team? All you have to do is listen to my advice and carry it out.” Typhon glared at Aaron for that.

“I don’t think getting your help to win is what I want.” Typhon said as Aaron tossed his arm over the shoulder of the shorter Typhon, dragging the King of Monsters to their jeep.

“You shouldn’t worry about it, Jaeger gets help too. Just think of it this way, you’re too stupid to see what’s wrong, so I have to tell you.” By the time they got into the jeep Aaron was clenching his ribs in pain while Typhon sat calmly in the back.

Empusa ended up being the driver by the way.

While Aaron and his group were doing this, Jaeger stood elsewhere in a house with Viktor in front of him.

“Is… is this true?” Viktor asked his friend as Jaeger glared at the floor in front of him with anger in his eyes.

Jaeger had returned from his ‘spar’ with Typhon angry, angry enough that he had thrown a chair broken and soon after glass or two, leaving Viktor worried.

“I don’t know, but Aaron is one of those scary people who get more out of telling the truth than lying… which makes it even worse.” Jaeger sighed and closed his eyes in thought, leaving Viktor worried once more.

If what he just heard was true… if what Aaron Hassan told Jaeger was true, then things were changing, perhaps for the worse… Viktor didn’t quite know what to make of the information, but apparently Jaeger was already decided.

“It’s so sad that I’m going to have to seriously try and kill them from now on.” Jaeger said, opening his eyes which held a cold anger within their depths, leaving Viktor with a sigh.

No matter what he felt about the information, it was not important. Jaeger was the affected party, not him… Viktor’s job was just to support Jaeger, and keep him alive between fights.

Huh, if one thought about it, he was a glorified boxing coach… if boxing involved guns and dangerous superhuman beings.

“Understood… also, as you asked, we’ve been looking out for rumours of strange deaths involving blood, and we believe Leviathan should be around Area two… should we go?” Viktor asked, though it was just for the sake of it as Jaeger scoffed, standing easily.

“Of course… let’s go hunting… I recently got myself an elephant gun after all, it needs testing.” Jaeger would normally smile upon saying something like that…

Now, now he just clenched his fists in anger and moved with purpose, leaving Viktor to follow behind him as they reached their car, a member of the Eyes acting as their driver.

“You sure it works?” Viktor asked as Jaeger nodded, cracking his fingers as a way to keep himself busy as the car began to move.

“Of course it works, I wouldn’t bring a defective weapon into a fight ever… though it’s going to take quite a bit of maintenance, as I was unused to its construction.” Viktor understood his worry, as he had gone through similar phases with his shotgun and his musket rifle.

Viktor kept talking, trying to distract Jaeger, but five minutes in he gave up, recognizing that Jaeger was not really paying attention to him… no, he was looking beyond Viktor, looking to his prey, just as a Hunter should.

The Hunter had returned… but he was not the same… and he might not be so ever again.