First Reserve (Hobbs)

[Dante Stark]

Danticus hauled the duffle bag from his car. The sun was still up but he had things to prepare before the sun went down, he was planning to nap a regular lycan that had been stalking around the farmers land and he'd tracked it down to one of the many barns it transformed in, He was ready for all situations he'd brought some weapons, some blood to lure it when the night came and some road flares so he could keep his eyes open and attract it..
He'd also brought some silver daggers just in case he needed to decapitate it.

"Rodger, this is Casanova. I'm in position at the farm-lands maybe you should keep a back-up hunter on call in case things go south on this hunt.. I'll go set up some traps and I'll ring you in the next hour." Danticus spoke into his phone and then slipped it into his jacket pocket.

Danticus began setting up various rope traps in the tree line smearing some blood over a uncooked chicken to lure the creature once night fell.. He was a smart hunter and he knew the in's and outs of tracking Lycans that's why he had spent so much time out here.. He was planning to make the Hunting Clan more official than it had been and he wanted to blow of some steam and instead of going out and getting laid he figured he'd save some person's life by stopping the vicious dogs that attacked the people.

Danticus finished setting his traps and pulled out his phone; "Alright, i think I'm going to be dealing with more than one wolf tonight... you should probably deploy one of the other hunters call around.. Stark out. " Dante slid the phone back in his jacket pocket and unzipped the duffle bag pulling out a shotgun.. He sat on the bonnet of his car watching the skies making sure. That he'd be ready when the moon came out and the wolves came to play.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

The low light caught the suncatcher dangling in her window and sprinkled droplets of coloured light across her desk. Hobbs looked up, realised it was getting dark, and flicked on the desk lamp so that she could shed some light on the leg she was just finishing up. The foot was still stiff, but now the ankle rotated on a ball joint according to her nerve signals. Or it was meant to, at least. She was just tightening up the last bolt when the call came in. Hobbs' hand flashed out, flipped open her phone, and jammed it between her ear and her shoulder.

"What d'you want?" she snapped into the phone. A pause. "Me? You sure about that? I'm sure someone else would be able to get out there faster." She put the screwdriver down and rolled the ankle around on its joint.
"Look, I don't give a shit, I'm busy doin-" but Hobbs was cut short when the phone line went dead. She took the phone from her ear and glared at it for a second.
"Well, fuck you too."

She pushed the chair away from the desk, taking the leg with her. She stood up, pulled up the leg of her cargo shorts and stuck the socket onto the end of her own leg, pressing her weight into it until she heard the ratchet pin click shut against the top of the knee. And after a few moments of testing the joint action, she pulled on her Docs, shrugged on her leather jacket and grabbed her weapons on her way out of the door.
Within minutes she had stormed down to the garage, hotwired some random person's motorcycle (she suspected it may have been Moore's), and set off, leaving a brief IOU one motorcycle note stuck to the wall.

Hobbs didn't often get called out to hunt; usually there were older, more qualified, more capable, more experienced Hunters around. Nobody else must have been available, because they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with her. Not because she was bad at what she did, but because she made it plain to everyone in the base that hunting wasn't her first priority.

It was a fair drive to the farmland outskirts, but it didn't take her long to get there when she maxed out the throttle along empty roads. And it was almost dark when she finally pulled up alongside the car, cut the engine, and kicked out the prop stand.
"Well, here's the backup," she said flatly. "Sorry to disappoint."

[Dante Stark]

Danticus been sitting there for awhile paying attention to his surroundings. He'd stepped off the car and gone to piss in the woods. By the time he'd settled himself back down on the car, he'd heard the rumbling of a motorcycle in the distance.. Finally back up had arrived.. He'd asked for fresh blood for this week's hunting trip. He wanted to assess the ability of all the hunters and today he was getting one of the ones he'd been hearing about.

Finally she'd stopped and addressed herself to him.
"You don't disappoint, not at-all i wanted fresh blood... And I'm assuming your the freshest they could conjure up.. I'm Lieutenant Casanova.. Or Stark whichever you'd prefer to use for our time together. I'm not really fussed.. There's extra equipment in the duffle-bag should you require it..

We're just waiting for the show to happen and when it does the fireworks I'd set up will be going off." Whenever Danticus was hunting Lycans he set up timed fireworks to blur out the noise of their transformation screams. it was always nice to see fireworks so he figured bring some along for the rookie... although secretly he loved fireworks.

Dante looked at his watch. It was almost time they had twenty minutes to spare; "Okay, what can i call you. Can you shoot straight. are you able to slice a head of should you be required. and apart from that any questions you have cause you'd better ask them right now.. Otherwise you'll be stuck with them." Danticus gripped his shotgun closer.. Nearly time... Nearly game time... So close... Dante shook his head and looked onwards and back at Hobbs.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

So this was the Lieutenant. She herself had been a Lieutenant before, back in the army. She'd already had the misfortune of meeting the Commander, and she was hoping that his second wasn't as fond of sitting in dark corners on his own. But so far, she had more respect for the Lieutenant than she did for the Commander himself. At least the Lieutenant didn't come off as an idiot. So far he seemed concise and to-the-point, and Hobbs valued that in comrades. She preferred to cut to the chase.

It was nice to hear someone say that she wasn't a disappointment. Usually when she was assigned as backup they took one look at her and thought, What? Hobbs was as capable as the next hunter, in some cases probably more. There were a lot of military recruits roaming around the base, but none she knew of had ever actually seen war. Funnily enough, Hobbs had; and yet the scar she bore from it was exactly what made others doubt her ability.

He was questioning of her ability, which was normal with anyone who'd only been a hunter for four months and was known almost exclusively as 'the cripple'. Yes, she could shoot, but whether she could cut a head off was another matter. Not because she didn't want to, it was just that she doubted the strength of her cutting arm. It may take a few strikes to hack through the spinal cord. Whatever Hobbs was, soft and weak-stomached wasn't it.

"You can call me Hobbs, everyone does. And don't you worry about my ability," she said, stepping off the bike and striding towards him on mismatched legs. "Yeah, I have questions. One - why'd you set up fireworks? Are you expecting to celebrate? Two - what's the plan? And three - what're we expecting to find tonight? Just so I can be prepared." She, too, was as brief as he had been.

[Dante Stark]

Dante looked towards Hobbs and gave off a warming smile. "Well, nice to meet you Hobbs. First thing the plan is we'll try capture the wolfs and keep them till they transform back then we'll decide what to do from there. Neutralization is necessary if things get to heavy. and the fireworks... Well i don't like the hear blood curdling screams. " Danticus smiled as he pulled out a little trigger. Screaming could be heard in the distance and Dante pushed the button as the fireworks shot into the sky illuminating it with bright colours and filling the area with noise.

"Show-time... And for the record.. I bet your good at what you do, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. " Dante stood up from the car and slung his shotgun over his shoulder beckoning for Hobbs to follow him into the tree line to wait for the show to start.. The Fireworks went on for around ten minutes as Dante walked and assumed a good position behind one of the trees.
He could hear the sounds of roaring coming from not too far.

They'd both have to watch each other's backs as things like this usually got dangerous pretty fast - And Danticus didn't want to lose another hunter. The First Lycan appeared to have been ensnared by the trap Danticus had laid, that left them to deal with the other two when they eventually showed their ugly faces to the pair. Dante breathed slowly as he kept his eyes open and brought his gun back around. He was ready. And he hoped she was also ready otherwise shit was going to go south fast.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Fireworks to smother the transformation screams. Nice trick, she hadn't tried that one yet. Privacy and a light show. "Nice planning, L.T." Hobbs said, pulling the sniper rifle from her back. "And I know I'm good at what I do," Hobbs said with a lopsided smile as she put one eye to the sniper scope and took aim. "But what I do isn't taking out Lycans. Not usually."

She strode into the fringe of trees after him, and hunkered down, taking cover. She set up her sniper rifle there in the trees, laid out flat on her stomach. She rummaged around in her pocket and took out a handful of loose bullets. She sorted through them for a second, picking out the silver-tipped rounds and loading them into the weapon. Then pocketing the UV rounds again, she loaded her Glock with a silver round magazine and nestled it in the grass right in front of her, in easy reach. Then she put one of her silver nitrate bombs by her handgun, ready to use. Lastly, she pulled out her thermal glasses, shook out the arms and slid them on.

Her own personal plan was simple, chuck the silver nitrate in first, covering a larger area and ensuring a greater chance of slowing the beast down. Then in the cloud of gas, her thermal imaging sunglasses would allow her to pick off the Werewolf with a headshot. Bing bang boom, simple.

She laid there in the grass behind the trees, looking sideways at Stark, keeping an eye on his movements. When he gave the order, she'd attack. When he moved, she'd move. When he attacked, she'd cover him. Sure, she was cooped up in the lab most days a week, but she was no rookie when it came to fire fights.

[Dante Stark]

Dante heard the fireworks cease and he knew it was time. As he breathed quietly he gestured towards Hobbs to keep a basic look out until the first Lycan had been ensnared by their trap. Dante breathed as he shifted between the tree lines, he could hear them howling to each other.. This wasn't going to end well he and Hobbs would likely have to kill these things.. But in a way Danticus didn't mind somewhat if they did rid the world of a few more Lycans..

The first trap activated and the Lycan had been coughing leaving Hobbs and Dante two to deal with so they would split up and deal with their potential wolf separately... Dante tried to calm himself having remembered a situation not too long ago involving Lycans and he was fairly certain to not make the same mistake as previous.

Dante stepped out from his tree line as he signalled to Hobbs the location of her Lycan, he was believing in her knowing that she could handle tasks on her own and she had her own strengths. Dante wasn't one to judge a person unless something really sucked about them. He followed his wolf Closely trying not so fast to kill it more a less slow it down.. He'd wanted to tranquilise it and see if the human behind the wolf was as innocent as Vaughn made them out to be but even he didn't have the call on who was to be killed. Danticus sighed as he was trailing his wolf closely.. It'd caught on to his scent and began to come at him when he closed his eyes and fired his gun.. The shot echoed through the woodland.. The Wolf had managed to claw off some of Dante's shirt and draw some blood from his chest but nothing too serious.

Dante staggered back the wolf was whimpering... Dante looked at it with a face full of guilt.. Why did he choose this job.. It wasn't something that people should have felt proud of.. But as he raised his gun he didn't feel human in the very next moment as he took aim and killed it.. He looked back at the corpse and knew they'd have to get rid of the evidence.. Lucky he brought some shovels..

Dante slung his shotgun over his shoulders and grabbed a hold of the Lycans foot and proceeded to drag it back to their vehicles. The Lycan caught in the trap could be heard growling and hollering and he'd not heard Hobbs.. Unfortunately for Danticus the wolf had escaped his trap and had been spying on him in the woods.. Dante looked in horror as the wolf began to run towards him leaving him no time to unslung his gun.. He'd hoped for hell Hobbs was nearby.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Hobbs could hear the howls. No matter how long you were in the business, no matter how many lycans you had already killed, that howl, that eerie, bone-chilling sound was enough to set your skin on fire. No matter how many times Hobbs heard it, she would never get used to it. It was the sound of nightmares.
Just not her nightmares.

She lay on her front, glancing to and fro between Stark and the view before them. Watching... waiting. The waiting was always worst.

The first trap was set off. Hobbs lowered her face to the sniper scope, but kept an eye on Stark, waiting to react. Stark, however, broke cover from the trees and gestured to her where to aim. Hobbs swivelled the sniper rifle on the pivot, staring through the trees. He had betrayed their location, and any lycan with a shred of humanity still in them would be smart enough to figure out that there were more where he came from. As Stark engaged one werewolf in battle, another lumbered about for a second, then made a beeline straight for her. Hobbs looked up from her rifle, had half a second to swear in Chinese and scrambled to her feet, taking her Glock and explosive with her.

She pulled the pin on the bomb, drawing the lycan further into the trees. She backed away and chucked the silver nitrate bomb after her. One second passed. Then another. Then the thing exploded right beneath the lycan that followed her, and a cloud of silver dust billowed up into the air.
The lycan began to choke, and all mercy was withheld as Hobbs kept walking back, firing rapidly at the Lycan. She ran out of silver-tipped rounds, ejected the magazine, and inserted one of her new silver fluoride magazines. Silver solution swirled inside the vials inside each bullet, liquid pain that would run through the werewolf's veins, burning as it went. She continued to fire, moving back as she went, the lycan moving after her but slowing considerably by now. The werewolf, paralysed by agony, tortured by the silver that peppered its flesh and seared through its circulation, collapsed to its knees. Hobbs holstered the gun and sprinted back through the trees, scooping up her sniper rifle in both hands.

She strode back towards the lycan through the silver dust cloud, thundering towards the beast with fire in her eyes. There was no guilt there, not a shred of pity etched into the lines in her face. Just pure steel without mercy, without hesitation. She put the barrel of the sniper rifle to the lycan's head and pulled the trigger. At point-blank range, the rifle's power was unbelievable. Gobbets of brain matter and chunks of skull exploded across the ground before her, slapping the tree trunks where they glistened wetly, and the Lycan collapsed into a furry, bloodied heap at her feet.
No mercy. If she had but hesitated, she would be dead.

She was sorry it had to be this way, she really was. But there was no other way. Hobbs sighed, slung the sniper rifle across her back, and stepped over one of the lycan's sprawled limbs as she strode through the trees towards the sunlight. In the distance, she could see the second-in-command trying to heave the massive lycan across the ground towards the vehicles. And then she saw another thing, a shadow that rippled through the trees, a silhouette blotting out the sun. Hobbs broke into a run, fast as she could manage.
"Stark!" she yelled. It was the only warning she knew to shout.
She burst out of the trees, Glock in hand, safety off. The wolf sprinting towards them, twenty feet away. Closing in to ten feet. Now five. Hobbs stared it in the face and shot it in the eye.

The bang of the gun echoed through the woods. Silence fell. A beat. And the beast crumpled to the floor, bleeding from the eye socket.
And Hobbs let out a deep shuddering breath she hadn't been aware of holding.

[Dante Stark]

Dante ducked and sighed in great relief as he heard Hobbs call out to him and fill the creature with hot lead.. In turn he was glad she had actually saved his life, in a sense he was really grateful towards her and she'd proven herself as a Hunter to him, Dante looked at his chest as the blood had been seeping through the torn parts of his shirt as he walked towards Hobbs dragging his kill. He didn't speak to her until he dropped the beast near his car before turning towards Hobbs and smiling softly at her.

"Hobbs, i thank you greatly for saving my life.. Despite everything I've heard from Vaughn and the other hunters.. I really respect you more than those people and that counts for something you proved that i want to have you around on most of my hunts since i disagree with some of those polices we've done our work so now let's begin the cleanup.. " Dante sighed as he opened his boot and pulled out two jerry cans filled with petrol. He passed one to her and began to pour the liquid over the body of one of the Lycans and he fumbled around in his jacket pulling out his Zippo lighter and ignited a piece of news paper tossing it on the corpse.

"We should go out for celebratory drinks or something... I dunno or go look for more things to kill" Dante rubbed his chest as he turned to Hobbs holding his lighter out to her.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Hobbs stood there, frozen, for a second, with her gun still raised and the barrel quivering slightly. She had come this close, this close, to seeing yet another comrade get ripped apart before her eyes. She didn't want to have to start a tally. Their names, faces, and dying moments were already burned into her memory.

She lowered the gun slowly, puffing out a couple of nervous bouts of laughter. Adrenaline was a hell of a drug. Hobbs could see why it became a thing for the more active hunters, why the thrill of the chase was so hard an addiction to kick. She let her hands fall limply at her sides as she turned to face Dante, her eyes haunted by that terrible moment of shock. Seriously, this close.

He thanked her, but Hobbs barely heard it. She had holstered her gun and lit up a cigarette in record-breading time; three seconds flat. That had been too risky. Dangerous and reckless.
"What d'you mean, 'despite' everything you've heard? What did the chief say?" she asked him, taking the petrol can he offered her as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Logan damn well knew she was good at what she did, but she didn't put trash talk past the other hunters. Moore had said there were rumours going around about her.

She declined his fancy Zippo. She had a cheap disposable plastic Bic lighter in her jacket pocket, but she wouldn't even need that. She trudged back into the woods, poured a healthy amount of oil across the lycan corpse and once she was sure that the blaze wouldn't set the surrounding trees on fire, she flicked her burned down cigarette onto it. It lit up in a bloom of flames, a ripple effect that consumed the corpse in moments. Hobbs turned her back on the lycan and re-emerged by the car. She stuck the petrol can in the car boot and shut it with a sharp slam.

"Drinks. Definitely drinks. I'm not up for doing this shit twice in one night."
She turned to face him, and her eyes fell upon the blotch of blood across his chest. She reached into her leather jacket pocket, pulled out a silver hip flask full of vodka, and tossed it to him. "Clean yourself up, you're a mess."