Interlude

Night had fallen on the city of beasts. He hated having to be here, but he was tasked with a critical mission. To find the AL.I.C.E model that had left the city and investigate what had led to this. He stood on top of a roof. The streets would be too obvious. Sparse as they were, some of the monsters were out at night, and he had to be careful to complete his mission. The officials had been busy arguing over the best way to prevent the next monster from getting in; they ended up letting the AL.I.C.E model escape. And so, it was left to him. A model made for roles that required a natural killer to investigate.

He hated this town. The creatures were ugly and deformed. He only wanted to finish the investigation, grab the girl, and complete his mission. The girl would be easy to find. Unbeknownst to her, she had been planted with a tracker for her whole life. All he had to do was track how the beast came into the city.

His only lead was a missing book from the ancient library of the first city. He followed the tracks that appeared to take the missing book and followed them this far. To an average model, this would be difficult; standard eye enhancements would not be sufficient. Fortunately for him, he had implants, which improved this task. Once he locked in a set of tracks, they would appear as a path of glowing footprints leading him to his target. This is what he followed. Leaping from the building he stood on, he quickly made it to the next building and then the next after that—moving about 60 meters in two short bounds. He stopped and slid behind a chimney. A creature walking by had stopped to look in his direction, most likely having seen the movement out of the corner of its eye. The creature posed no threat to him, but he could not let himself be seen just yet.

When the beast decided it was nothing, it moved on. The man looked to the ground again. The tracks turned to go down an alleyway. He followed them through the weaving alleyways to a small thing on the edge of the city. It could be called an abode; the fact that a light was on indicated one of the creatures was in it. The tracks went into the doorway. He walked up to the door and kicked it in. A scream filled the inside of the house, and a small monster seemed to roll off the couch and land onto the floor.

Piles of trash blocked the way. The man swatted them aside as he walked by. Effortlessly moving his arm and causing things to fly like they had been shot out of a cannon. The small creature ran across the room and began digging through a pile. It reminded the man of the extinct animal called a rat. He walked up to the rat-like creature that turned around and pointed a large gun at him. The man swatted the gun away. It flew across the room, and the rat monster was screaming, looking at its hand. The force of the gun flying off probably twisted and broke a finger or two where he held the trigger. The man picked the creature up and slammed it against the wall, careful not to apply enough force to knock it out.

"Book," was all he said to the creature. It disgusted him that it could even understand what he said. The ratty creature only whimpered and pointed behind the man. He turned and saw the book he was looking for. It was clear the ratty monster knew precisely why he was there. He turned back to the whimpering creature. With a fluid motion, he spun around and threw it onto the ground.

"Stop, stop!" the creature pleaded while trying to push itself off the ground. It seemed to be crawling to another spot in the room. Another weapon? The man walked over to the creature and stepped on its leg. It yelled incomprehensible, clear words of mercy. The man leaned over to look closely at the rat monster's face.

"Tell me everything."