Raleigh's Raiders were less....military than I expected. Given the theme and vibe that I'd had described to me I was expecting to be dealing with uber serious soldier of fortune types, but everyone was actually really laid back. Red mohawk guy, whose name was Chester, was the leader and one of their G tankers. He sat us all down and got us drinks, and within a minute or two he was talking to Cark like an old friend.

The other G ranker, Olivia, was a tiny blonde girl with a tight ponytail and a severe expression. She seemed less trusting than Chester, but not overtly hostile, and the others were mostly friendly too. They made a point to introduce everyone one at a time so we would feel comfortable with our hosts. First, since there were less of them (only one) they introduced the women. The only other female member of the team, Constance, was a tall thin woman with short black hair and an easy grin.

They didn't mention her ability, but she gave me a cheerful hello before moving on to introduce the others. The other three men were Thomas, Edward, and Caleb respectively. Thomas was a tall dark skinned man with a serious expression, Edward was a tanned man with an easy grin, and Caleb mostly avoided any contact, keeping his pale blue eyes on the fire and his blonde hair mostly blocking our view of him.

Cark caught up with them, asking questions and making polite chitchat for a while, but finally had enough of the pleasantries and decided to get down to brass tacks. "So, Chester, we actually did come to talk like I said. Specifically to talk about something you might be looking for. We heard on the grapevine the you might be in the market for a Heartbeat Monarch. We happen to have one in our possession, if you would be interested in getting your hands on it."

Despite being a mainly combat oriented Ascendant, I realized I'd underestimated Cark. Personally I'd probably have asked about the mushroom first, and that would have started this off on the wrong tone. In retrospect it was a simple but sensible idea to bring up what they would get out of things beforehand, given our superior forces and numbers. While my impulsive and excitable response would have screwed this negotiation up, the bounty hunter clearly knew how to handle people.

Obviously, once they heard their target mentioned, they seemed interested, but Olivia also immediately became suspicious and started to look agitated. That was a totally understandable reaction, given that the 'grapevine' had given us information no one but them was supposed to have. Us knowing the contents of their list meant we either had some kind of source for the list from the Academy, which shouldn't be possible, or we'd figured it out since they got here, whether with an inside man or some kind of spying or prediction ability.

We, of course, knew it was the latter, but we couldn't tell them that without giving away secrets we absolutely did not plan to mention to anyone else. Olivia, the suspicious one, seemed to naturally transition into the leader role as she questioned us. "Really? What exactly would you want for something like that? Because it seems stupid to just give it away." Obviously she rightly suspected we had knowledge of not just her list but what they had on them at the moment. The main issue was that we didn't actually have full understanding of either.

Callie took over at this point, being the leader she was the most qualified to negotiate. "That depends, what do you have to offer. We have a decent idea of what you might be able to trade, but we don't know how you feel about any of the materials we're looking for. Able and willing aren't the same thing. Why don't you give us a rundown on whatever you don't need for your list and we can go from there." She kept her smile bland and cheerful, a perfect poker face.

Olivia narrowed her eyes. She obviously knew Callie was looking for more information, but since she ALSO knew we had something they needed she kind of had to play along. They needed the Heartbeat Monarch and had zero chance of taking it by force. While it was a solid reputation boost for us to negotiate, THEY had no choice but to do so. Who knew if there was even a second Heartbeat Monarch in the whole testing area? Honestly I was leaning toward not. She frowned for a bit before sighing and starting to list off a few things she would be willing to trade.

I personally didn't have any skills at negotiation, though Benny did step in to help with his haggling skill. While the leadership talked though, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Nothing solid enough to really tip me off that something was going on, but some instinct of mine told me I should check it out. I stood up, nodding to the others to stay seated as I moved to the edge of the clearing their fire was in. To my surprise Chester stood up and followed me, stepping up behind me quietly, and making sure I knew he was there.

Once we got a bit of distance he leaned in, lowering his voice. "What happened? You were sitting there like nothing was wrong and then you got all antsy." His voice was serious, and I was actually really impressed. He not only noticed my discomfort but went out of his way to check what was going on. The guy was a pretty solid leader from what I could see. Even my own people hadn't bothered to check what I was doing. Granted they also knew that I had the skills to escape from almost anything and the power to push back whatever attacked me long enough to call for backup.

I couldn't actually tell him. I didn't know myself. But I'd seen...something. I just shrugged in frustration. "I don't know honestly. I caught some movement or something out of the corner of my eye. I don't see anything actually over here but I could swear something moved, so I figured I'd check it out. Probably just a rabbit or something, no need to follow me, I'll be back after I do a quick sweep out in the trees." I was a bit restless anyway, negotiating wasn't my strong point. I was better at punching problems than talking through them.

Which made me wonder exactly when that became the case. Because before I got my abilities I hadn't been a particularly violent person. Sure having super strength now made it easy to just kick ass, but it was almost always my first choice now. Granted I was Ascending, becoming more than I was, but in some ways I was also becoming less. The more I threw myself into this, the further I got from the person I'd been before.

The issue was that I didn't know how much of the old me I even WANTED to keep. I hadn't exactly been anything special before. Changing and growing was a good thing, as long as I didn't lose myself. I felt like taking the time to focus more on the present and enjoying what I could do was a good step toward a happy medium. I had my friends to help too. If I ever forgot who I was I could always ask Benny. He'd known me longer than anyone and would be happy to expound at length about my flaws before I became an Ascendant.

I shook off those thoughts as I focused on Chester again, who seemed to be giving me time to have my introspection before saying anything, which I appreciated. Once I cleared my throat in embarrassment he just chuckled. "It's fine, I'll come with you just in case. Never a good idea to travel alone at night. The forest can be a pretty terrible place." I could tell from his tone that he wasn't sure I'd seen a rabbit either. This wasn't entirely for my benefit, he was worried there might be something out there too.

That more than anything convinced me to let him come with me. "Sounds good. But lets try to move quietly. Don't want to tip off any animals that might be out there. If we don't need to start a fight we should avoid it." He gave me a solemn nod and the two of us headed out towards where I heard the noise. I was focused on stealth, so my footsteps didn't make much sound, but to my surprise Chester was pretty damn quiet too. I wasn't sure if he had the stealth Skill or if he was just well trained but it was nice to know he wouldn't be dragging me down if we got into trouble.

When we got out into the woods I slowed and started searching around. I could use Seek Hidden, but I didn't even know what I was looking for. Just 'any traces of any entity or object that might be moving' wouldn't work. I needed SOMETHING to cut down the possibilities. Like down in the tunnels when I was looking for traces of the people responsible for the rat king, I'd focused on the idea of an organization, and honestly partially my guess that it was the heartrippers.

I searched the general area where I'd seen the movement for any signs of what had been here. Person, animal, inanimate object. Something had moved, and while it might not be anything important there should be a trace of it even if it was just a bunny or something. I leaned down, studying the ground thoroughly. I really wished I had the tracking Skill like Callie, but I had to work with what was available, so I just leveraged my Perception and paid attention to what was around in the spot I was focused on.

I saw...forest. Leaves, dirt, grass. I didn't really know what the hell I was supposed to be looking for. In the movies the main character would spot a broken stick and deduce that the enemy had stepped on it exactly five minutes ago, and judging by the severity of the break they were exactly six feet and one hundred eighty pounds and one of their legs was longer than the other. Despite my heightened Perception I didn't have any sort of actual basis in reading signs like this.

I didn't want to admit that and look like an idiot, but it was looking I was going to have to, when I spotted another movement out of the corner of my eye off to one side. I stood up, making sure to stay in stealth, and headed in the direction I'd seen the flash, pretending I'd found something that showed me where to go. We made our way over slowly, taking our time and trying to be as silent as possible. When we got to where I'd seen the movement I leaned down to move some bushes.

The bright gold eyes on the other side did not seem friendly as they glared at me. Huge razor sharp teeth dripped saliva from a mouth that smelled like rotting meat and blood as I stared up into the face of the biggest fucking wolf I had ever seen. Granted I grew up in a city so the list wasn't long, but still, this was a big fucking wolf. I did NOT stumble wildly back scrambling to get away from the massive animal, because I am a hero and wolves don't scare me. My perfectly calm and collected retreat put me out of the treeline, and exposed enough of it that I could see the shapes of several other wolves emerging. Wolves with thin green humanoids on their backs. Goblins. G ranked goblins. A bunch of them. Fuck.