The Hunt Velocidrake

Gage stands in the dirty bar, smoke and the stagnant smell of mold in the air reeks havoc on the nose as he moves over to the pin board in the back of the bar. Even as he got closer he felt his stomach drop, the board was almost bare save for three red cards thumb tacked to the board. Gage has only ever taken the time to read a red slip once, the one time he did the majority of the bar stopped and looked at him as he touched it as if he had just pulled Excalibur from its stone. Looking back awkwardly at the bar even the bartender was looking at him and shaking his head slowly telling him to put it back. Gage took one look at the cards info plate and found that the contract was on a Vastolorde Hollow that managed to eat its way back to a Gillians size.

'Lan Shon Ling' or the Old Mountian Dragon, a beast that supposedly grew up to over 70 meters in length from mask tip to end of the tail. Flipping through the three red cards Gage reads that the Lan Shon Ling mission is still up and that the other two are for some silver Hollow that has been wrecking the fields in south Japan and the last one being a mission to take down two Devil Hollow that have made a home out in the Sahara Desert. This was a long way to drive, the trip taking almost an hour to get from his place in Karakura Town all the way to here, the bus and two trains being used to get within four blocks of here. Normally Gage would have taken one of the bikes in the shop but everything that he had in needed some work or was waiting on some parts to come in the mail to get up and running.

"Well Yeah, no one else looks like they want the run and I need the cash," Gage felt a little awkward revealing his need for money to the barkeep but for some reason he couldn't shake the feeling that he was the one that really decided whether or not someone was allowed to take a mission. This barkeep was always here, a couple of younger waitresses helping every now and then to keep the place running in busy times but beside that it was really a one man show. The older man even managed to run a small kitchen putting out a small selection of food during the day.

"Yeah, I don't know about that," The barkeep holds out his hand expectantly for the card. Gage looks at his nervously, he really needed this job, the reward not getting split up with another hunter would mean that he would be able to pay off this months bills with a little left over. Sadly he hands it over, if he isn't able to find another hunter for this run then the bar keep might not be giving it back.

"Well its really against policy to not let hunters go out if they choose to do it solo. That's not my call to make but I do have to make sure you know what your getting into. This is a Velocidrake, the alpha hollow of its own pack that travels in packs of at least ten. This particular hunt is to kill it but your rank is barely enough to get accepted solo. I would really prefer that you wait for a team, I have seen your work and you have a lot of promise. I would hate to see you lose all that just because of desperation."

"Thanks, I will take care of it." Gage pulls the bag off the counter, the sudden jerk of its weight catching him off guard. It was a lot heavier than it looks, him hefting it up and onto his shoulders, cliping all the straps together until it was snug to his back hopping once to make sure it fit. "Its heavier than it looks." grabbing the pommel of the weapon again he presses the first button, pulling the handle free of the bag as more mechanics internally unfold, reset and bolt together into the shape of a long sword. In length this blade was about a foot and a half shorter than the one he had just seen, it width being about an inch and a half thinner too.

Turning and heading to the back door that leads to the roof Gage hits the button again, putting the weapon back into the bag and letting its automated mechanism deal with it from there. Gage has seen a lot of interesting things, this one not ranking on his top ten list, but some how it was still managing to surprise him with the organic and lifelike similarities of the electronics in comparison to human maneuverability. This was not an item of advanced science but it was most defiantly an item of serious complexity that took a great deal of Engineering to design, much less build into a reality.

Gage Opens the door at the top of the stairs, a single black helicopter with no emblems marking its flight identification numbers so that if the vehicle did have to break any laws it would have no identifying features for anyone to call in on with. It's engine, roaring already with the blades rotating at a healthy clip, spewed a torrent of exhaust heat waves out of a side mounted vent on the tail. Standing by the open sliding door a man in full black mecenary gear, machinegun and all, waves him over as he is slightly ducked down tapping his head telling Gage to watch the blades overhead. Walking over Gage hustles, dipping down a bit as he instictivly feels the blades over head whipping by faster than he can see.

Climbing into his seat Gage unclips his bag and drops it into the seat beside himself, the Mercenary sentinel climbing in after him and taking the seat across from him. Both of them buckle in, the pilot lifting off even before they are finished with the belts and tighten themseves down. Looking out the doorway Gage watches as the cityscape below him quickly fades into a small almost lego sized matropolis, buildings so small that the windows are almost indistinguishable. As soon as the appropriate height is reached they are off, the whole Helo leaning forward so far that it starts to dip out of the sky, everyone in the ride lurching slightly from the change in direction.

Up to the north a thin path leads to a small mountain, ending in a clearing the size of a parkinglot. To the north east a break in the trees leads down the terrain, Gage switching to a topographical map, following a dried up ravine that ends in a small pond. To the west of his location the terrain goes down and levels out at the shore line of the coast. That path leads to another clearing where the Polarity Hunters camp is, a retrofited concrete bunker being used as a small temporary hotel. That was his first stop, the bunker having a supply box and some general mission information stored on a computer.

The walk from where he was dropped off to the just the halfway point is long, a trail winding its way down a hill side, some parts of the path narrow enough that just walking on it unlodged some of the rocks and let them tumble down the hill gatering speed and knocking more rocks loose. Checking his watch Gage looks around him, if this really is the halfway point and he still has another four miles to go then its going to be dark by the time that he get to the site. And that it was, the sun having set nearly thirty minuets before he was able to find the clearing where the campsite was, tall torches lighting up the front entrance. Off to the side about fourty feet from the bunker the shore to a lake has a dock lead out into the water far enough to sit and fish if you take too long to get home in a day which is exactly what Gage has in mind right now.

Snagging the rod Gage looks it over, putting the three sectioned pole together and lining it up so that the small eyelets for the fishing line are match up in a row. Pulling out a handful of reel line and wrapping it up in the reel. Grabbing the small bait box and a setting it all aside he digs through the trunk until he finds a small metal tin with several metal hooks, barbed at the tip, some with multiple hooks set so that it look reminecent of a grappling hook or an anchor. Putting the bait box under one arm and pulling a torch from the wall he heads out, happy to be back in the feild and ready to call it a night. Tommorow was going to be a rough day, he would have to walk the whole way back to the clearings and then he was going to have to find and track down that Drome.

If it is as hard as the keep was making out to seem like then he was going to have his work cut out for him. Taking a seat at the edge of the dock he puts the torch down, trying for a few seconds to balance it on its end before giving up. Tapping the board next to him he sends out a small spark of electricity and opens a small hole in the wood just big enough to drop the torch in and hold itself upright like a cup holder. Opening the box he digs through it pulling out small shelves until he finds some fake worms. Slipping the length of it onto the hook he ties it to the line and sets himself up, kicking his shoes off and setting it beside himself. He was not a BIG fisher but he has been out fishing before so he had a general idea of how to clean the fish after he finally gets it brought in.

Hollow Notes: Velocidrake

Hollow Powers: Below Average
Weapon Skill: LOCKED
Hand-to-Hand: Above Average
Reiatsu Control: Below Average
Soul Resilence: Below Average
Stepping: Average [LOCKED]
Hollow Techniques: Beginner
Cero and Bala: LOCKED

Hollow Powers 1: The velocidrake is not a solo hunter, it is the alpha, using its size and speed to lead its pack into the fray. As such it is able to call on the other members of its pack to come and fight reguardless of their level of self preservation. These Micro Hollow are all concidered two ranks weaker than the Velocidrake and their highest mastery is their stepping at below average, everything else being locked at beginner.

Hollow Powers 2: As the alpha hunter the Velocidrake is a paragon of its race, larger and faster than the others of its breed. With its large size this hollow gets a x2 speed passivly

Recoverable Harvests / Material Level
Drake Claw / Advanced
Drake Hide / Advanced
Drake Head / Advanced
Drake Bones / Advanced

Note: All drake parts are rare enough that they can be traded into 'Polarity' for other items of equal rarity or less.

Dawn wakes Gage, his night being uneasy and fitful at first but as soon as his dream passed from being about the portal and the world behind it he was able to get a decent nights sleep. Rising in the morning Gage gears up, opening his bag and pulling out some of his own personal things that he has made. A set of armor for his left arm that goes from the wrist all the way up to his neck, protecting his left side so that if he for somereason needs to he can block a little bit before his body takes too much damage. Mounted to the wrist a metal impact plate, silvered and polished, houses a small gun that pops out and fires off a single shot of tracking paint.

On his hands he puts on some gloves, the whole of the hand appearing to be reinforced with metal where his bones would be so that he can strike hard surfaces without breaking his knuckles. At the base of the gove a set of Capacitors mounted inside a wrist band stand as the fuel source, capable of temorarily paralysing what ever it strikes as long as its size is not too unreasonable. Last Gage puts on the bag itself, it multi panneled shell making for an excellent form of protection on his back. Grabbing the handle from the base of the bag he hits the second button, the sound of whirring pistons and gears signaling that the weapon was being assembled. Pulling the handle almost compleatly free Gage is suprised when he can feel the bag shrinking on his back almost becoming compleatly mounted to the handle. It was a giant hammer with a two and a half foot handle, all the weight of the bag being set into the striking head.

From where he was Gage had a pretty decent view of the landscape. Square in the middle of the the feild he was sitting on top of his bag, the clearing being abou the size of a football feild in the trees. All around him standing as tall as skyscrapers are massive redwoods, four to five man around on average, some of the larger ones being up to eight men around. Back where Gage was from there were trees but none of them were more than thirty or fourty feet tall, paling in comparison to the trees out here which some were at least five stroies tall and bigger around than a car.

It was too clean, no taint from human kind building all over the landscape leaving its concrete footprint all over the place. Packing back up he heads onwards, deeper and farther into the forest following a small deer path towards the base of the mountian. Like that he travels, dirt clinging to his boots and mud clinging to the base of his pants. By the time he gets to the base of the mountian he has spotted two deer, a fox's tail vanishing into the brush, a boar vanishing after it spots him and some claw marks on the trunk of a tree that shows that either some kind of bear was here or some other kind of large clawed beast. If the Velocidrake was here it not likely that it made the marks, velociraptors not leaving claw marks on trees to show their territory.