"So... a question..." I realized there was one critical detail I hadn't considered. "How are we going to go about doing this? Aqua's busy doing heavenly bureaucracy shit..."
"Huh." Momo drew the same blank I did. "We didn't plan for that eventuality, did we?"
"Nah, but you've got something almost as good," Himiko said. "Let's see that contract."
I handed it over to Himiko. It wasn't a long one, taking up only a single sheet of paper. And soon she smirked and tapped the sheet. "Well, the easiest way would just be to hit this with a basic summoning spell. It's not really meant for gods, buuut, contract."
"Now?!" Wiz squeaked. "But my... everything's still here!"
I put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, most of this shop stuff? You can just leave it. We'll never be able to replicate these things, we're not sure magic will even work, so... curiosities at best. Grab stuff with emotional weight, and that's that. We'll cover the rest when we get back."
"Cover the rest..." Wiz bit her lip. "I'm... too stubborn to be a 'kept' woman, you know."
Momo laughed. "I don't think that's a problem. You're a precog, that's one quirk which will always have more demand than supply."
"One of the top end ones, at that," I added. "Once you're trained up, you could be one of the wealthiest people on the planet." The trick would be in hiding the nature of her power enough that she wasn't a target for assassination.
But, I'd trust Dad to have that covered. That was three new high end precogs, since Wiz would probably go along with Himiko and me copying her powers when needed.
"I suppose our worlds aren't so different in that respect." Wiz looked around at the trappings of her store. "Emotional weight... I'm not sure I have much of that to call my own, except..."
She collected her tea set from storage. "This was a gift, from a dear friend. It's... all I need."
And with that established, it was just a matter of magicking up the connection, and Himiko was our caster for these purposes. "Hmm... hopefully Wolbach won't be too annoyed with Aqua..."
Momo opened her mouth to say something, then laughed. "I was about to say that maybe we should move, since Vanir was going to own the place with Wiz gone and it would be covered in divine energies he hates..."
I laughed, too. "Fuck 'im."
Wiz joined the laughter. "Yeah, f-fuck 'im."
"That's the spirit!"
Soon, the magic became detectable to Nyx, and then kept getting more clear, until they vanished from my senses. "I think you made contact."
"Ah! It's you!" Aqua yelled. "I was busy!"
"Doesn't time kinda, not work the same there?" Wiz asked. "You can go as slow as you like, and nap as much as you want, and for us no time will have passed at all."
"Ah, well, that's irrelevant! The point is that I'm busy and time isn't frozen right now."
Fair enough, I guess. "Which brings us to the point- we'd like to go back to our own world, like you promised we could."
"Ah... are you sure you want to do that? You can stay where you're at, and be really really powerful... in fact, you could become the new demon king..."
I did not like that sweet-teasing inflection. "I'm quite sure none of us want to be the demon king."
"We wouldn't be real demons, anyway," Himiko added. "And back home is way better. There, when I stab people, it's a bad thing."
"How does that make it better?" Momo asked. "For you, specifically. I know why it's better for everyone else."
"It's hotter when it's taboo," she answered. "It's like... when you're at the beach and everyone's running around wearing basically nothing, who cares? But you grab one oversized shirt, and even though you're wearing way more, it's just ten times the yum."
"... It's disturbing how much sense that makes..."
"As you can see, we've made our choice." And we need some oversized shirts for the apartment. "As per our contract, the demon king's defeated and we want to go home."
"But the demon king's not dead! All he did was give his throne to that idiot prince, who then changed the title!"
"First, didn't promise we'd kill him, only promised we'd defeat him," I said. "Go ahead, check the contract yourself. Second, the demon king wasn't even a demon. Or king of demons. He was just some dude whose followers wanted to be edgy."
"Ah, let me read that stupid contract." It blinked out of Himiko's hand. Then a moment blinked right back in. "Ugh... looks like you're right, I don't have a choice."
How- oh, time bullshit. I wondered how long she'd spent going over the contract before 'tossing' it back to us. Being Aqua, I doubted she had the attention span to give it more than a few minutes, but with as tired as she now sounded...
Which brought us to the difficult part. "Thank you. I'm sorry it didn't quite work out how it was planned, but the mission did get done, and you got to go home."
"Right... home..." I'm not sure Aqua wanted us to hear her utterance.
"At least now you don't have to deal with Kazuma... or Mitsurugi..." Did I feel bad for her? No, not really, she was kind of an annoying bitch. But she was our key to getting out of this shithole.
"Or horses eating your hair because you passed out in a trough?" Himiko added.
"Oww... my scalp still hurts when I think of it..."
Good start. "Oh, and we'd like to take Wiz with us."
"Now that I'm happy to say I can refuse!" Aqua declared. "And not only can you not talk me out of it, it's actually for her sake that I refuse!"
...
We all looked at Wiz. She took a breath, forced a smile. "In what way is it for my sake?"
"Ah, well, that's easy. Your body's dependent on the natural mana of that world to survive. You go anywhere without lots of mana, and you die. Sending you home with them would be like sending them to the moon! Their moon. The one that's not infested with tentacle monsters."
Fuck. "Can we have a few minutes, to..."
"Nope, you called me for this stupid ritual, and I'm not sitting around waiting for you to call me back, you're going now!"
"That's hardly fair," Momo said. "We've-"
"You didn't even give me a free griffin steak! You're lucky I'm even giving you a warning before I send you back home!"
Fuck. I hugged Wiz. "Listen, we'll try to figure something out."
"N-no, it's fine," Wiz said. "You go ahead. Maybe I'll miss out on these 'skyscrapers' you told me about, but I've still got a good life here, as a very powerful mage." She leaned in close and whispered something that I only understood thanks to my coded languages skill. It translated roughly to 'I'll find a way'.
Dammit. I almost considered asking Aqua if she'd let us reconsider leaving, but in the end I knew we wouldn't. This world... its nonsense... it'd drive us insane until we actually did become demon kings just to try to force some semblance of order on this shithole.
And I could already see that going downhill fast. I knew my history, and the 20th century was littered with examples of why it was a stupid fucking idea.
"In fact... hold on a second..." The contract vanished again, and reappeared with another blink, to Aqua laughing. "Oh, that's amazing! I never promised to send you home! I promised to help you get home! You, and nothing else! This'll teach you annoying, rules-lawyering jerks!"
Fuckfuckfuck. "Wait, can't we t-"
We were no longer in Wiz's tower. The quiet atmosphere and subtle scent of her home now replaced by the stink of air pollution, and the distant but present scent of salt water.
Also, the chill of the night air on my balls because that bitch once again dropped me in a new place without any fucking clothes. At least it was a -disturbingly- empty street. Sure, it looked like we were off in an industrial area, and it was night, but where were the night shift workers?
"I'm not sensing any other quirks," I said. "The entire city seems to be empty. Other than us three, we're alone here. But there's still pollution and working street lights, so we can't truly be alone."
"Our magic's gone, too," Momo said. "And I lost the ability to create almost anything I absorbed in the last world. All the adamantite, the railgun core, like I never held it in the first place. I do still have a few of Cremea's potions. I guess those are quirk created, so they slipped by."
"Ugh, some kind of asshole genie twist right there at the end," Himiko grumbled. "I mean, I guess we should have seen it coming, gods are always assholes in myths. But I didn't think she'd be smart enough to pull it off. She better not have dropped us in some zombie apocalypse bullshit."
A snap-sparkle of energy, and Momo tossed me some pants, and Himiko an 'oversized shirt'. "Be that as it may, she did say this was 'helping' us get home. One way or another, this is a step in the correct direction... we just have to figure out how."
Then the sound of electrical discharge and screaming drew our eyes upward. A human- humanoid figure fell off the roof of the six story building we'd found ourselves standing near. Heteromorph at a glance, with broad batlike wings, each as large as the main human body they were connected to.
"I've got him!" Momo jumped, her legs already wrapped in support gear 'bunny boots' to let her meet the figure about halfway and help arrest his fall.
They collided, and Momo's speed barely made a difference in helping the victim.
"Heavy!" Momo shouted. Then her back shimmered as a whole new construct appeared- jets lit up, fighting the momentum with good old controlled explosive fuel.
Momo hit the ground, still holding the wounded ma- woman. Now that they were on the ground, it was obvious the figure was female, but an easy mistake to make. She was much taller than most men, digitigrade legs, blue-grey skin.
Momo grunted at the effort of holding her. "She... is a lot heavier than she looks. Has to be at least two hundred kilos. Even at a touch, I know she's much tougher than a normal human.
"And the damage?"
"Not sure," Momo answered as she set the woman down. "Some injuries consistent with blunt force, and electrical scorch marks hot enough to burn her clothes. Most people would have died, but I think she'll be fine.
"UNHAND HER!!!"
Fuck. Another blue-skinned figure- this one almost certainly a man from his figure, dived down at Momo, claws at the ready.
With Momo busy with first aid, that left me and Himiko to-
Another winged man, this one with a sword, dived off the building.
- deal with one opponent each.
I jumped between him and Momo, and slammed my hands against the attacker's outstretched, clawed, palms. I couldn't stop him, but I could slow him. My feet dug into asphalt, and then the road shattered and my feet were shoved into the concrete underlayer.
Holy fuck, he's strong! No, it wasn't only that he was strong- he was, of course, but I'd fought stronger men. The problem was that I was weak. I'd gotten so accustomed to levels and stat bonuses from meals over the last year that I'd forgotten what it was like to be human. And now I had to learn while fighting.
At least he seemed as shocked as I was.
I grinned. "Not used to fighting something strong enough to fight back, are you?"
"Out of my way!" He roared, and swung his hand at me.
Hand, not claws. He could have used those massive talons, but instead he struck in a way that, should it hit, would be blunt force alone. There was just one teensy little problem for him.
He was not going to hit. In terms of raw strength, he had me down pat. But his agility was laughable in comparison. I pushed his arm up, twisted under, spun him, and booted him to the side into the street.
Look, he was striking to disable, not kill. I would respect that. "Listen, buddy. We're not here to fight, but if you're going to start this, I'll finish it."
Himiko, meanwhile, fought the other one. Also a tank of a man, but he looked... old. Hair almost white, a scar on his face. "Sorry, grandpa, you'll never touch me with that oversized knife."
"Bold talk, lass, but yer keepin' us from one o' our own. Never get between a gargoyle and family."
My opponent rolled to his feet and lept- not at me, but Momo again. I kicked off the damaged asphalt and intercepted.
This time, he was ready for me, lashing out with his tail. It was faster than the rest of his limbs, but still nothing to anyone with our training. I grabbed, I gripped, and I pulled.
He roared in as much frustration as pain, and twisted around toward me. Just what I needed to add his momentum to my own and slam into him. The one vehicle on the street becoming an innocent bystander.
No car alarm?
I bounced away, back into a boxer's stance. "None of that. We can talk, or we can fight, but next time you turn your back on me, I'm breaking bones."
"Very well..." He growled as he stood to full height. "Are you another of Xanatos' weapons?"
"What, the guy whose name is on the building? I can answer honestly that I have nothing to do with him, or whatever your issues seem to be. But I'm not letting you take away an injured patient even if you claim to be family."
He rushed me, though more cautious this time. He now understood I was faster than him, and he'd need other advantages to take me down.
Pity he had them- the added reach he had by being a couple feet taller than me was bad enough, but he slashed out with his wings, first, forcing me to sacrifice footing to evade those and then getting in with his bare hands to try to smash me.
Still no claws.
I stepped in, turned, slammed my shoulder into his solar plexus.
My vision went white from pain. I was pretty sure my shoulder didn't break, but it felt like I'd body slammed a building. He stumbled back as well, gasping from the blow, so not a complete failure on my part.
But it did not speak good things for our relative durability that hitting one of the most vulnerable parts of his body with one of the tougher parts of mine came away with me hurting more.
Then a flash of light came down from above. The asphalt sizzled in several spots as blasts rained down at us.
Laser fire?
The 'gargoyles' dived behind the damaged vehicle, and flipped it on its side.
Our backup didn't seem to be firing at me, however. But they did fire at Momo. Or more likely her patient.
Fortunately, she had enough of a warning to bring a metal shield up, covering her from the gunmen, while Himiko and I ran for the alcove of the entrance of the building. Just because they hadn't started shooting us, didn't mean they wouldn't.
Momo signaled to me, then rolled a ball my direction. The ball itself, not important. What mattered was the pair of ear buds inside. One for me, one for Himiko.
"I can break their pin. The patient woke up, she says that the big gargoyle's name is Goliath, and he's her father. Claims the people that attacked them are called hunters, and she has no idea why they attacked her. Something about them being thieves stealing chemicals."
Fuck. "We'll undoubtedly get a different story from the hunters, so here's how we play this..."
=====
A/N- Aqua's kind of a bitch. And Goliath has anger issues. In any case, this chapter marks the beginning of Book 3 in this adventure. And don't worry, Wiz will show up again. But not right now... she can one-shot the gods of this setting.Last
"Close your eyes and don't breathe the smoke!" Momo's patient shouted.
We followed suit, because we knew what was coming. The 'gargoyles' seemed willing to follow the instructions of one of their own.
And Momo tossed the bomb out into the street. Moments later, a cloud of mirror dust was vented into the surrounding air. Particulate silver was safe enough in terms of environmental concerns, but you really didn't want to breathe too much of that shit in. It was sharp enough to make your eyes and lungs bleed.
And as the name implied, it rendered laser weapons all but worthless by refracting energy in all directions. During the day, the sun hitting the cloud would make it near impossible to see through as well, but paradoxically not nearly so effective at night.
Himiko and I, under the cover of dust and the street lamp, ran for the edge of the building. With our senses, we could know when we reached the corner by the change in the echoes.
Momo and 'her' gargoyle had goggles and breathing masks.
"Come on, follow me," said gargoyle had run to her comrades. And now was undoubtedly guiding them out of the cloud to somewhere safe.
The brilliant flash of light and screams from above... yeah, they tried to shoot into the dust cloud, with predictable eye-searing results. Which is when Momo fled after said gargoyles.
I... trusted them in so much as they were clearly a very family-oriented group. That... tended to come with xenophobic traits. However, they struck to incapacitate, not kill, against us.
Maybe for fear that we'd hurt the girl if they hurt us too bad, but... that suggested they'd feel gratitude, even perhaps a debt of honor, toward Momo for saving one of their own and helping them escape. At worst, they'd send her away with a warning.
If not, Momo was far more dangerous than them.
Meanwhile, the apparent hunters had also avoided targeting us. Their goal was the gargoyles, for whatever reason. Which meant we were probably safe to approach them if we did so in a nonthreatening manner.
Once we were around the corner and could breathe, Himiko and I needed only exchange a glance and for her to point up. I knelt and put my hands in position for her to step onto them, and I tossed her up.
Without our class-based stat boosts, it was no longer possible for her to pull that maneuver on me, but the reverse... she cleared the roof by several feet, and landed with the grace and silence of a cat.
Okay, I'm still stronger than I was before Garaki's attack that started this mess. A year and a half or so ago, Himiko would have had to grab the edge and pull herself the rest of the way up...
"- it doesn't matter, it wasn't the demon. She was younger, her coloring was different..."
Momo's tech was damn good, with Himiko's earpiece able to pick up with clarity enough for me to make out. Though from this point, all I could discern from the voice was 'male', and 'deep' male at that.
"But what about the... who were those people?" Another male, less confident, maybe younger.
"They managed to hold their own in physical combat with gargoyles," a woman said. "We can only manage that with power armor, and we've been training our whole lives. They were practically naked and the woman only had knives. The man had nothing..."
"He's mine," Himiko announced her presence. "But I'm willing to ~share~ if I get to play, too."
I'm sure they spun to face her. Meanwhile, I was moving to a likely corner for parkour, but waiting on their reactions before I acted. We weren't looking to fight, only to get some answers.
"Who are you?!" The more confident man, presumably the leader, demanded.
"The girl who was winning a knife fight with a gargoyle, before you started shooting. Now, we can do this the nice way, or the ~fun~ way. But I should warn you, I'm ~much~ better at killing humans."
"That accent... Japanese, if I'm not mistaken," the woman said in Japanese. "Though... it also sounds a little different than I'm accustomed to."
"Your Japanese is pretty good," Himiko said. "Good thing, too. I'm not so good with English."
"Your combat abilities, however, are very impressive, are you from some sort of ninja clan? And what are you doing here? If you're on a mission, you didn't bring much equipment."
"Has any ninja ever answered that question with a 'yes'?" Himiko asked.
The woman chuckled. "I suppose you have a point."
"As to the second question... if I told you we're here because we pissed off the goddess of alcoholism and pettiness, would you believe me?"
"We've had encounters with supernatural beings before, some claimed to be gods," the woman answered. "If anything, I'd say the description doesn't narrow it down enough."
With them seeming to have a rapport forming, I took the time to line up a good jump- off the ground to the street lamp, flip on that until I'm on the bar, another jump onto a large window alcove, and then up to the roof.
Where all three of them now had their guns trained on me. They were all tall, well-built, obviously athletes and probably a bit older than us. Hard to be sure, as they wore some sort of modified tactical armor and had facemasks which obscured most of their features.
The woman, for some reason, opted to wear an outfit which left her midriff and blonde hair exposed. Which was likely part of the reason Himiko led with a little flirting.
"What took you?" Himiko teased. "You're usually faster than that."
"Must be tired after fighting an eight foot tall literal walking statue," I answered in English. "I see you've been making friends."
"You appear to be an American," the man I took to be the leader said.
Now that I wasn't listening through the earpiece, his accent struck me as... British Isles, easy, Scottish most likely. But it was... different, than the Scottish I was accustomed to, almost like someone deliberately exaggerating his accent. That older looking gargoyle also seemed to have a heavy Scottish accent.
Easy explanation: we were in Scotland.
"Born and raised. Though I've spent more time abroad then home these last few years." I cleared my throat, switched to Japanese. "Himiko chose to come with me. My name is Alexander Howard, though my Irish ancestry dates back to before the Revolution."
"We should probably get going," the leader said. Ignoring the invitation to share his name with us, not that I expected otherwise. "Our hunt of the demon is far from over."
"Yeah, what's the story with that?" Himiko took a step back, closer to me. That this had the side effect of stretching her tattered shirt in some skin-revealing ways was just coincidence, said nobody who knew Himiko.
"You're thinking it's related?" I asked.
She tilted her head back to look at me. "Let's see, goddess whose whole thing is hunting the so-called demon king gets pissed off and drops us here? Like five minutes later, we stumble across demon hunters. That sound like a coincidence to you?"
I sighed. "No, that sounds like something she'd do." Then looked over to the hunters. "Looks like we're allies, if you'll have us. You already know we can fight."
"Yes, that would be helpful, wouldn't it?" The other man said. "We've been fighting alone in no small part because who else could help us? The training it takes to do this job... but their strength is incredible."
"No, we can't trust outsiders, for more than just matters of training," the leader said.
"Perhaps not," the woman agreed. "You say this 'goddess' might want you to hunt 'a demon', but in truth... the creature we hunt is a gargoyle. Whatever else they may be, they are living things, not spirits."
Himiko groaned. "No, that sounds exactly like something she'd do..."
"Yeah, the 'demon king' we fought for her was also mortal," I agreed. "So, is there a reason you call it a 'demon', then?"
"Because it killed our father!" The non-leader man said.
"It's more than that, though that would be reason enough," the leader said. "She's been a scourge, responsible for thousands of deaths. Which is why our family has devoted themselves to hunting her for generations."
"Generations?" I asked. "How long do gargoyles live?"
"Most? Perhaps a hundred and fifty years," the woman said. "This one has found some sorcery to keep herself alive for at least a thousand. Our theory is she uses human sacrifices to extend her life. It would explain her generations of carnage, which have grown more frequent and bloody with time. The magic might be reaching the limits of its power to extend her existence."
Himiko whistled. "Well, that's more like the first demon king we fought, huh?"
"First?" The leader asked. "How many demon kings have you fought, exactly?"
"As of right now, just the two," I said. "First was... well, he had 'sorcery' of a sort that let him steal the strength of others to add to his own. It took a devoted force of all our strongest warriors to stop him. Himiko and I were barely a factor.
"The second, almost the opposite. He had a sorcery that allowed him to strengthen others, which he used to build an army to do his bidding. Once you found a way around his forces and brought the fight directly to him... he wasn't particularly impressive."
"Yeah, most of his own guys could have killed him," Himiko added. "Though, without his power-boosting magic, most of them would have been a lot weaker, too."
"C'mon," the other guy, the one I was starting to think of as 'the younger brother' of the trio, again supported us. "They're strong, they have experience, and I for one welcome the possibility of supernatural help in this battle. If only because nothing else has worked so far."
"It's okay if you don't trust us," Himiko said. "We wouldn't likely trust us either, if the roles were reversed. But if this demon-gargoyle of yours has had a thousand years to accumulate power, you really will need all the help you can get, and our own magic's a good start.
"But first..." Himiko removed her earpiece. "You're probably worried taking us along means we'll be tracked."
Fuck. Now that the cat was out of the bag, I did the same. I trusted Himiko to know what she was doing, and she was probably right that they knew we had bugs on us.
The woman sighed. "Yes, our equipment was showing that you had some sort of broadcasting technology with you."
"Yeah, it's just a communication system for us," Himiko said.
"Which is still a tracking device," I added.
Himiko turned to look at me over her shoulder. Again displaying her curves and playing the role of ditz to make herself seem 'safe'. "It is? Really?"
"Well, sure, it's still using radio waves, which are just light humans can't see," I said. "A little effort to triangulate, and you can follow any radio transmitter."
"See, this is why I keep saying you should do college, and I should do cute and breedable housewife."
"Except if we did that, then you'd also go around the neighborhood doing all the other housewives, and maybe bringing them back for me."
"Some people call that a bonus."
I sighed and looked at our now uncomfortable conversation partners. "Sorry, her spirit animal is pretty much a cat. Lazy, violent, has a habit of bringing gifts home with her. But now that you have our communicators, we won't be able to give away your location.
While we talked, we'd also been listening in on Momo's conversation with the gargoyles. Just as she'd been listening in on ours.
-----
"What strange sorcery was that, lass?" The older, deeper-accented gargoyle asked. "You stopped their weapons, to say nothing of healing Angela. You must be quite powerful."
"It's better not to go into detail," Momo answered. "But that was technology, not magic, designed specifically to take advantage of the weaknesses of laser weaponry."
"Ah, machine magic," the old man said. "I'm sure Lexington would have many questions for you, if you change your mind about withholding information."
"I doubt I will, that won't be a problem will it?"
"No, not after you saved Angela's life," the other male said. "I... apologize for my behavior, we weren't trying to hurt you or your friends, only push them aside so we could check on her injuries before the hunters got to her again. And we couldn't know that you weren't with them. My name is Goliath, this is Hudson, and you've already met Angela."
"Yeah," the female, Angela, agreed. "It isn't often that we find humans we can trust."
I found that statement interesting. Were they a different species, or were they some heteromorphic variant? Either way, irrelevant.
"Speaking of, what happened back there?" Momo asked. "Those men were well equipped and seemed to be using tactics specifically designed against your kind. I'm pretty sure standard projectile weapons wouldn't do much to your skin."
"In truth, we do not know," Goliath answered. "They claim to be hunters, and were prepared for us, but we'd never met them before."
"They did call me 'demon'," Angela added.
"Aye, but that means nothing," Hudson said. "It seems every time humans attack us, they have some new insult to fling. It has no deeper meaning than that."
"Isn't even a geographically correct term," Momo said. "From your accents, you are from the British Isles, somewhere. While 'demon' derives from 'daemon', of Greek origins. Though your names are much more modern, so..."
"Bah, names," Hudson said. "A human invention that we only adopted for your convenience, again nothing to read too much into."
"Interesting. So the hunters attacked you for no apparent reason."
"Well, at first we thought they were thieves," Angela said. "There was a theft the other day, at that same location, which we were investigating."
"What of?"
"We do not know," Goliath said. "The issue is less the theft, and more who was stolen from- a businessman by the name of Xanatos, who has proven to be duplicitous and manipulative, with dangerous schemes involving both us, and powerful mystic artifacts."
"Ah, so you suspect this theft is more about the owner than the goods?"
"Aye, wouldn't be the first time," Hudson agreed.
"That might even be the trap!" Angela declared. "A way to lure some of us here, where Xanatos could have hired these hunters to ambush us!"
"It would fit his pattern, paying others to do his dirty work," Goliath agreed. "Which means we have to worry about the others- they were sent to the other location we thought likely to be attacked by the thieves!"
"I can come with!" Momo offered. "I mean, we were sent here by a goddess, who claimed this somehow would help us get home. So until we have some concrete clues, it seems like a really good idea for us to stick together."
"What about your own friends, lass?" Hudson asked. "Surely you need to make it back to them, before they start to worry."
"Oh, they don't worry about me," Momo said. "I'm the strongest of the three of us, so I'm the one who has to worry about them. And you fought them, how much do you think they need to worry about in this city?"
"That is true. The one I fought was a capable warrior, and the sorcery you possess made him stronger even than most gargoyles."
"Yeah, that was really impressive stuff!" Angela moved closer to Momo as she spoke, from the way her voice increased in fidelity. "We can dig through stone with our claws, no human's ever come close to our strength. What's your secret?"
"Again, it's best I not reveal our secrets," Momo said. "I'm sure you understand. You seem trustworthy enough, but then, I'm sure you've met people who seemed trustworthy, too."
"More than I care to acknowledge," Goliath admitted. "Very well, we won't press further, and we have to rush to check on our comrades. If you wish to come with, I'm sure Angela could carry you. If she's feeling strong enough."
"I'm fine, that healing magic is incredible, but thanks for worrying about me."
"There's no need," Momo said. "Machine sorcery, remember? The only reason I won't get there before you is because I don't know where we're going."
"Hmm... we shall see about that."
Needless to say, Momo's support gear beat biological strength. Even if gargoyle biology was far superior to ordinary humans.
=====
A/N- The conversation Momo was having was more or less simultaneous with the one Himiko and Alex were having. However, all attempts made to run them at the same time proved to be a confused mess. So after much failing that was costing me time, I separated them.
My apologies for not being a better writer who could make it work.
But they were simultaneous. And our illustrious heroes were using their superhuman reaction and perception abilities to pay attention to both.
In any case, some people say the Hunters had a really stupid motivation- "A thousand years ago, Demona scratched your ancestor's face and sparked the longest feud in history."
I think that the face-mauling was far from their main motivation. Demona has a trail of bodies to rival Dracula and more than once tried to kill our entire species. Every five minutes, she finds some exciting new reason to belong dead.