Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 11:00 pm EST

Jacob was sitting on the ground putting on a kevlar vest when Bethany approached him. “You ready?” she asked.

“Just about. What was your specialization again?”

“Brawler with a sub in Healing.”

“When you punch someone, do they explode?”

“No! What kind of fucking question is that?!?”

“Huh,” Jacob shrugged, “I guess you’re gonna have a hard time dealing with these fuckers then.”

“What do you mean?”

Jacob raised his head and looked Bethany in the eyes. “They’re the type of creature to take their enemy with them. This means that they never stop fighting. It’s quite annoying actually.”

“Well, you’re a gunslinger, right? How are you gonna fight them.”

Jacob reached his hand into an invisible space and pulled out a Benelli Supersport. “One of my favorites,” Jacob said, “Loaded in 12 gauge, ready to blast somebody parts off.”

“You seem awfully excited to kill people,” Bethany said.

“Well of course. All we need to bring in is the queen because the workers and soldiers don't have free will; the queen has it instead.”

“But they still are people.”

Jacob stood up and got in Bethany’s face, looking her straight in her eyes. “Not to me.”

Jacob stared down at the hole in the ground, thinking to himself. “Here it is,” he said.

“So this is the entrance?” Bethany asked.

“Yeah, we go right down here and make our way to the queen. These hives are also very close-quarters, that’s why I opted for a shotgun.” Jacob turned towards Bethany and gave a wide smile just before he jumped in the hole.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Bethany yelled when she followed Jacob.

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Jacob slid down the hole, laughing all the way down. “I haven’t been on a ride like this one in years!” Jacob yelled to Bethany.

“How are you enjoying this?!?”

“You get used to it!” Jacob slid for another 10 seconds before he hit the ground, landing on his feet. He turned around to Bethany crash-landing on the ground. “God it’s so fucking dark down here.”

“That’s why I brought the flashlights,” Jacob said, “Now, to the queen.”

Bethany followed Jacob closely, listening to the pitter-patter of what sounded like footsteps. “This is some shit out of a horror movie.”

“Haha, that’s what I said the first time I went in one of these.” Jacob held his shotgun close as he started to creep around a corner. Once he did, a humanoid creature jumped towards Jacob. Jacob lifted up his gun and blew some lead into the monster, killing it instantly.

“Well, looks like they were waiting,” Jacob said, crouching down to the creature. “It’s a soldier, not a very powerful one though.”

“How can you tell?”

“Blood Bugs run on a type of celestial ranking system. The more pairs of wings, the higher on the ranking system they are. This one only has one pair.”

“Are there ones with no pairs?”

“Yeah, those are the workers. They look more like leeches than anything else. They also can’t transform.”

“How many wings does the queen have?”

Jacob looked towards Bethany with a straight face. “I don’t know.”

“Wait, what? Haven’t you been down one of these things before?”

Jacob stood up and continued to walk, leaving Bethany confused.

The duo kept walking through the maze of halls and rooms, turning the corner to more blood bugs getting killed by Jacob. That was until they found a door. A door with a symbol on it. It was something Jacob had never seen before, and it confused him.

“What’s that symbol?” Bethany asked.

“Hmm, I’ve never seen it before. It could be some sort of important room.” Jacob ran his finger across the door, observing the mark. He closed his eyes, allowing them to see the waves in the air. Behind the door, Jacob saw sound waves in their usual green color. Although they were faint, Jacob could still sense the waves.

“There are 5 of them behind this door.”

“How do you know?” Bethany asked.

“I just do,” Jacob said with a smile. He kicked the door down and ran inside. To Bethany’s disbelief, there were exactly 5 blood bugs inside the room. She watched as Jacob slid into the room and took two of them out. The other three reacted just in time and hid behind some of the furniture in the room. “Over here!” Jacob yelled, kicking over a table and hiding behind it. Bethany slid next to Jacob, just in time for the suppressing fire that ensued. “What do we do now!?!” Bethany asked.

“We wait.” Jacob sat behind the table, silently waiting for the moment. Then it came. The blood bug ran out of whatever they were using allowing Jacob to peek his head over the table. Jacob lifted up his shotgun and aimed it at the three blood bugs. Whits three loud gunshots, Jacob had effectively taken out the remaining ones. “Whew, That was easy.”

“Can we go now?” Bethany asked.

“We still gotta find the queen ya know.” Jacob outstretched his arm, helping Bethany off the ground.

“Where do you think the queen is now?” Bethany asked.

“I don’t know, but we will find her eventually.”

“I hope so, I really want to get out of here.”

“Ha, sounds like a plan.” Jacob lifted up his shotgun and began to load it with shells.

“How can you put four in at a time?” Bethany asked.

“Practice. Once you do something like this for an extraordinary amount of time, you get good at it.”

“Sometimes it's not very useful, as my healing magic.”

Jacob smiled, “Healing magic is not something to be ashamed of, it’s very useful.”

“Not when people almost never get hurt.”

Jacob sighed. “Think of it this way. Imagine you bite your tongue right?”

“Right.”

“It’s just proof that you can still fuck up, even with years of practice. Someone will get hurt eventually and will be blessed to have a healer like you around.”

Bethany nodded and scratched the back of her head. “I get it.”

“Now, enough moping around, let’s find this queen.”