Amaru sprinted down the stairs with Ms.Markos— currently going by Furia, at a near stumbling pace. Which was insane considering their enhanced agility.
"What were those things??" Amaru yelled to her as she ran in front of him.
"Fomori— people mutated by banes in service of the Wyrm. Kind of like the bloodworm." Ms. Markos replied.
"Are they stronger than the bloodworm?" Amaru asked.
"No. Not usually."
"Then let me help." Amaru spoke over the sound of bullets flying, wolves snarling and demonic forces grunting.
"You have helped."
Suddenly she took a left from the staircase and burst through a steel door, taking them into another open floor only this one was filled with cubicles.
Wires and computer systems were covered in magical webs while tv screens oozed black rot and crates of wyrm tainted ale vibrated like living acid.
"Ahhh so this is why the elevator doesn't show this floor…" Ms. Markos snarled.
"I haven't done anything but listen to snobs brag about their business ventures." Amaru said.
"Really? Because I heard you got us into Bradford Industries through a lucrative phone tap." Ms. Markos shut her eyes and held up her hands. She wore thick spiked gauntlets that began to gleam as her hands became coated in fire.
"The Flames of Hestia…" Amaru wasn't sure how he knew the name of the gift but her gnosis swirled as she began throwing balls of the white and aquamarine fire all around the office space.
It ate away at the tech and wyrm focused rot like an acid on steroids.
The fire spread with an unnatural intensity.
The wyrm taint writhed and raged with echoing screams from another plain of existence. The Weaver spider-spirits skittered and popped in the flames. It was fast— violent, and over in a minute.
Amaru stood in the semi-silence with wide eyes. He turned to Ms. Markos in the new peace, "Nice— Woah!"
Ms. Markos snarled and coughed black smoke through her lupine-mempo mask. Her skin had faint burn marks that were healing slow and the veins around her eyes were darkening.
"A-are you ok?"
"It's been a long week. I need to be cleansed by the pack— I've been around too much Wyrm taint, it's rubbing off on me. I'll make it, but we've gotta move, pup." Ms. Markos huffed.
Amaru couldn't imagine a wyrm tainted Garou. If a bloodworm was a wyrmtainted vampire, he couldn't imagine what the Garou would become.
Before his thoughts could spin and spiral down that path, a wolfish yelp echoed through the collapsing building from above.
Ms. Markos sharpened ears twitched inside her hood. They did so again when a window shattered and another yelp followed.
Amaru was on the move before he could think. All that mattered was he could hear.
He could hear a Garou falling from the top floor. Straight down onto a stone-hard street piling up with cops— likely bought and paid for by Pentex.
He ran like a juggernaut, blasting through carpet walled cubicles and routers connected to giant monitor screens left in ash. As he ran, he transformed, taking one stage at a time.
Going from a man, to a beastial human to a crinos formed Garou ready for war.
He snarled as he burst through the wall of the high rise and entered cold night air.
Gnosis flowed. The fur along his back thickened into feathers forming around the muscle and bone-birth of hawk wings.
He spun, turning around to catch the thrown Garou before opening his wings and flying for the nearest roofto—
A loud metallic pop rang out from below.
Amaru flinched as a white-hot pain bit into his shoulder and sent him flying at an angle.
"Snipers!" The Garou yelled.
The weight of the other Garou didn't help in calming his reckless descent. He was thinking more about the fact that he was hit. By a sniper bullet. The burn was spreading beyond his shoulder. It didn't help that the one he was holding was shaking and twitching on and off.
A slim skyscraper of glass and steel stood in their spinning path. With Amaru's Wolven agility, he partially spun out of the way, using his feet to push off the sides to create more distance with a pained growl.
"Nice reflexes, rookie! But let's hit the landing strip before it's too late…." The Garou said before fumbling with his gauntlets as Amaru held him.
Unlike Ms. Markos, his armor was modern. More swat-like with flat black guards and Velcro holds. He flipped open the top-half of his gauntlet and a touchscreen lit to life with touch keys and a control center.
As they flew, whizzing past buildings and railways, the Garou typed away as weaver-spirits in the form of holographic spiders spawned, shooting webs that connected to a distant crane.
"Land there!"
"Trying…." Amaru snarled as his wings began to fade. He reached, dashing over a railway as his wings disappeared.
His outstretched hand gripped one of the criss-crossing beams of the crane while his other held the Garou.
He used the momentum to throw the Garou up onto the tophalf before flipping himself on after him.
The two landed on top.
A Garou in crinos form, shedding hawk feathers and gnosis exhaust. And another in passively futuristic vigilante-samurai gear.
He stood up, balancing on the beam casually as the winds blew. He looked Amaru up and down before turning to look back at the collapsed and burning high rise in the distance.
"How's that for a first hunt?"
"I don't usually play wide receiver…" Amaru huffed.
"What?"
"Nevermind. Why did the sniper shot hurt? I thought we could withstand bullets." Amaru said.
"Not silver. It's a weakness."
"Dammit."
"Oh it gets worse." The Garou packmember said with a clawed finger held up, "I used my gift Blackout and had an electricity spirit wipe out all tech for three mile radius. Whoever shot you was right under us. With the police. Meaning the police had someone with enhanced senses with them."
"What— like a vampire?" Amaru asked.
"That's what we'll have to figure out."
Suddenly howls shook the skies.
"After we get out of here. The hunt was successful. Thanks again for the save, my names Twitch by the way."