Monsters At The Gate (CHAPTER 1) (Patreon)

Monsters At The Gate

CHAPTER 1:

"Monsters Elimination Agency and The End Of The World, CONTRACT ACCEPTED!?"

It was never a well regarded job, or maybe it was just considered by many, a total waste of time. "Monster hunting" was a role that was performed in the Big City of KILLPOP CITY. Living in a city where paranormal or paradimensional activity was the subject of every day, little by little it became the most cursed city in the world.

Ghosts, Wraiths, poltergeist and other unexplainable events were already very common, no one has ever wondered "why?" this kind of things happen, it was just assimilated by the population, as if it was another picnic day for every sighting and supernatural event.

But if there was one phenomenon that made everyone run in terror and chaos broke out, it was the appearance of Monsters, bloodthirsty beings hungry to provoke chaos. These attacks were not very recurrent, but there was no doubt that when they occurred, many would end up dead.

It is for this reason that this agency for the storage of obscure objects and extermination of Monsters exists.

"Monster at the Gate.

Which is in charge of containing and eliminating such beings, and which is now at its worst moment. On the verge of bankruptcy.

In a small building hidden among the big city, lies the agency that once kept everything calm (well, only sometimes).

Only a single employee is working at the agency, but this employee did not belong to the "monster hunting" section that lay in the same building of the agency, her role belonged to the storage of the evil objects that were obtained by the hunters, a lot of relics covered the place, statues, jewelry, clay figures, paintings and even weapons of all kinds. This place itself was given a name, THE GALLERY, or as its sole custodian called it, "the old dust gallery".

Inside the GALLERY, only dust and evil objects were the company of the hireling, but even knowing the dark history of all the things that surrounded her, her imagination to avoid boredom was kept very active, even to play with two cursed statuettes, as if they were "action figures", no spirit or dark entity would prevent her from escaping the hours doing nothing.

"Oh no, now the curse of this ungraceful woman-shaped statue will fall on me and my whole family, Oh no, what a misfortune!"

a little childish imagination helps to make his workday (barely), somewhat more bearable.

Their game was only based on playing "action heroes" with two cursed statuettes which more than one dead person must have had in their history, now being used as action figures on a counter by the careless and lazy employee.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from the ungraceful woman statuette, Paw!

Just one more glance at the large office of obscure objects, not only were there cursed objects of all kinds, but also, many, many boxes of hamburgers, magazines, some action figures, an old television set and some bottles of whiskey and beers. A real mess occupied the large gallery.

In the end, the juice was short-lived, boredom was by far the biggest curse of all.

"It's really so boring here, when I took the job I was told I would see some very interesting things, but I'm just surrounded by old and supposedly "cursed" junk, and besides, this dump is closing today!".

The young employee tries hard not to break the delicate porcelain statuettes out of anger, which only means one thing. She will be left without an employee.

The regent of the GALLERY was quite young, just entering her 22nd year. A long reddish jacket on which there are some decorations and medals alluding to an "air force". Under this, a gray blouse which has straps, revealing a bit of skin and her pronounced bust, also revealing her lack of underwear on her torso. Her pants are jeans with some decorations with straps and some faded lines, a hole in the knee area and metal buttons on these same.

But undoubtedly the most striking feature of the slacker jacket, is his huge orange and messy hair which covers all his back up to his waist. And finally red eyes that do not take their eyes off the dusty relics, until finally something happens that she was waiting for.

One of the statuettes begins to float slowly as if it were a leaf in the wind, its gentle movement was all the redhead was waiting for.

"Finally, it happened again, damn it, I should have filmed this!".

Making sure to have a camera in hand and positioning it very well, the red-haired girl looks to capture the paranormal phenomenon.

"Alright, this is for posterity and the internet, I think I've found my next vocation once this mausoleum closes!"- carefully placing her camera on a table to make sure she's also in the picture, the GALLERY custodian poses for the terrifying moment of a floating object. But the whole moment is interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone in her pocket.

"Damn, they won't let an artist work!"- stepping out of the camera's focus, the huntress angrily answers the call, "Mom, I'm busy now, call back later."

(looking to photograph ghosts and bullshit, aren't you, I didn't think you'd take so lightly to the fact that you'd be out of a job in a few more hours, Katherine).

"oh? ah!!!, sorry miss Shade, I thought it was someone else!"- the redheaded slayer named Katherine, gets upset when she realizes that the call is not from her mother, but from someone worse, the supervisor. "hehe you know how mothers are, she still doesn't quite get my idea of hunting monsters and-".

The voice on the other end of the line. Miss Shade, suddenly cuts off Katherine's excuses who already sounds nervous and fearful.

"listen girl, come right now to the main room, Mr. Ras has arrived, this is a last minute meeting, BRING YOUR INUTILE ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!".

With a command, which sounded like a foreman to his slave, Miss Shade cuts the call short.

Putting on her face a concerned expression, but also frowning slightly, Hunter Katherine is forced to put aside her artistic moment and prepare to see her boss's face and the very possible news of the end of the monster hunting agency "Monster At The Gate" and thus the closing of THE GALLERY.

"What a useless ass, huh, damn old shadow, in a couple of hours I'm going to tell you everything I think, fuck this agency!".

BROOM!!!! (Shudder)

Kat's curses to her superior are not finished as a very strong earthquake begins to shake the building, hence the GALLERY.

"what's happening, is it an earthquake?"

Kat throws herself down to try to protect some relics and jewelry from being broken as they fall from the shaking.

"Shit, if this breaks I'll get fired without getting paid!"

As fast as it came, the shaking was gone, but kat looks in a confused way at what had just happened. "what was that?"

Before she can search any further for an answer, a large shadow appears on one of the walls of her office, and a spectral blue hand grips her jacket tightly and her as well, only to be swallowed by the huge shadow.

"WAHHHHH"- Kat screams in fright.

As if it were a portal or wormhole, the orange-haired slayer arrives at the lobby of the building, a place full of dust, and full of newspapers and many boxes. A building soon to disappear or come down over time.

"Well, that's better than the stairs"- Kat finds herself sitting on the floor while shaking her hair with a dizzy feeling.

In front of her is the person who has brought her forcibly using a strange power. A slender, curvaceous figure, undoubtedly of a dark blue spectral woman with electric blue flames for hair. Her supervisor and right hand of her boss. Miss Shade.

....

"my other idea was to drag you all the way across the building down here, but you should feel grateful that this is your last day on the job"- with crossed arms and an authoritative stance, Shade observes Kat who still looks frightened at the spectral woman's presence, "consider this your parting gift."

"oh, thank you very much, my 'useless ass' and I thank you for not dragging us down here, I'm really going to miss you Miss Shade"- with an anger which she is forced to hide, Kat thanks with a lot of sarcasm to her supervisor, who doesn't take seriously anything said by the worst employee of the agency or maybe the most useless one.

"shut your mouth!, your boss is here, behave like a lady for Mr. Ras"- without saying anything else, Shade approaches to open the door for his boss and with this showing a rather kind and laughing attitude.

"Mr. Ras, I hope you had a great trip and are well, please allow me to make you some tea or, can I also hold your coat?"- Shade approaches his boss almost in a manner of excessive admiration and respect as he accesses his building for the last meeting of his monster hunting and cursed item storage agency.

A tall man covered by a thin overcoat a scarf around his neck makes his entrance, his long hair is pulled back with a small garter so as not to cover his face and leave part of his face with unkempt short beard. Finally, a sleepy look of dark red eyes looks at his employees and also at his building to almost in ruins.

"sorry for my tardiness, I had to attend a company business meeting and we have come to a conclusion, my dears"- with a rather pleasant and also calm tone of voice, the boss informs about the future of his "Monsters At The Gate" company.

"we are bankrupt"- without making you wait any longer, boss Ras, delivers the bad news.

"Well, he had already informed us, now what will happen to us?"- Kat is quite worried even though she showed no interest in being fired or the agency closing down. But a tough option for survival does cross her mind, "I don't want to go back to my parents' house and have to take care of the family business."

"Really, and what do your parents do for a living, Miss Katherine?" asks Boss Ras.

"Antique sales, it's a job where it consists of sitting around all damn day doing nothing, dusting old lamps and furniture, IT'S A DAMN NIGHTMARE!"- Kat explodes in despair at the mere thought of having to tend to her family's old business. If she hadn't come out with some "supernatural ability", she'd be cleaning furniture right now.

"that's the same thing you do here, brat"- Shade scoffs with a frazzled expression at her employee's stupidity.

"please, Mr. Ras, give me a job in one of your other agencies or companies, can I bring your coffee, or wash your clothes, anything, I don't want to go back to my parents!!!" - Kat throws her arms around her boss's feet to beg for another job.

Ras stops to think a bit even though Kat continues to hold her feet, but in his thoughts he finds a possible solution for "a certain area" of his agency.

"Antique sales, can you talk to your parents and ask them if they want to take over a large gallery of antique objects, but unlike that they are all cursed, that way your job will be the same, Miss Katherine, it will be as if you never changed jobs, hehe"- Ras leans with a smile towards Kat who only proceeds to sink her face into the old wood of the floor, only to cry at her own bad luck.

Shade, who doesn't take his attention away from what's going on even as he prepares Tea, had thought about THE GALLERY as well. "but Mr. Ras, don't you think it would be better if the objects were taken care of by Miss Pandora, after all she got them".

Boss Ras had already considered the alternative of returning the objects to the person who had obtained them in his hunts.

"It is true that my dear older sister Pandora, I spend a lot of time obtaining them all, but we both no longer maintain a good business relationship, I doubt that she wishes to receive back her GALLERY or job offer as a hunter, or a birthday card"- Ras disguises a slight nervousness when talking about his older sister, a feeling that reveals a small fear, but quickly changes the focus back and proceeds to continue with the real topic of conversation, the future of the agency hunting monsters and dark objects.

I come to an end.

"so, how much am I getting paid for this last day?"- Kat doesn't let go of Ras' foot yet, which causes her supervisor Shade, to explode with anger at the closeness and flippancy in dealing with her boss.

"you ungrateful brat, move!!!"- Shade tries to remove Kat's grip on her boss's feet, pulling her by her big orange mane.

"Ouch, YOU CRAZY OLD SHADOW!"- Kat screams in pain as she complains about the way Shade tries to separate her from her boss, but doesn't get much success.

Without paying much attention to the argument and fight of his right hand and last employee, Ras watches his building out of the corner of his eye, with a certain sense of sorrow.

"it really is a shame, I had invested a great deal of capital in this agency to keep 'monster hunting' within my favorite businesses, as an entrepreneurial man it is hard to see that one of your projects must come to an end."

After finally removing Kat from Ras' feet. Shade ends up tossing the red-haired woman around like a beach ball.

"don't get depressed Mr. Ras, you still have several other businesses, I'm just going through a bad time, you'll get over it, I know it"- Shade approaches with a cup of tea to lift the spirits of his boss who already looks a little discouraged.

"It's true, my dear Shade. To be honest, I didn't think these times of peace would be so detrimental to the business. when my employees started quitting due to the lack of hunting, I already feared the worst"- Ras gives a cold look in analysis, the times of peace and the absence of monsters ended up ironically destroying the extermination agency he opened. "officially Killpop has entered the times of peace, how sad".

Rising from the rubble where Shade had thrown her, Kat also draws her own conclusions, hearing the reasons for the agency's closure.

"most likely, Noruh, Rip, Violet and Eddie are the ones responsible for us being bankrupt, they always wipe out all the monsters!!!, and they also never bring even a measly damn ring!!!, THEY LEFT ME WITHOUT A JOB!"- Kat screams in indignation as she names two of her former co-workers.

"OR MAYBE THEY DID YOUR JOB!"- Shade looks accusingly at Kat, "or did you think I didn't know that you always ended up hiding when the monsters showed up, you're supposed to be a mage, aren't you?".

Kat is left without an answer or refuses to give one when Shade reveals how deficient her job as a hunter is.

"yes, but I'M NOT A MONSTER HUNTER, I'M JUST A CARETAKER OF CURSED OBJECTS, I JUST STORE OBJECTS, THAT'S MY JOB!!!"- Kat excuses herself over Shade's accusations, knowing full well that she is just an employee who stores and obtains cursed objects, hunting is not her job, despite possessing certain superhuman abilities.

While both women draw conclusions and argue, Ras tidies up the dusty office and sits down in the old receptionist's area, who had also already quit.

"come on let's not fight, Miss Katherine was also doing a good job at, let's see..."- Ras closes his eyes to think of the times his employee Kat did her job, but no memory or proof of it comes up. "I can't think of any now."

Kat falls to the floor defeated by the arguments and also realizing how useless she was as in her job.

While the terrible news that "Monsters at The Gate" will close its doors. Again a strong tremor shakes the old foundations.

BROOM!!!! (Tremor)

"AAAHHH!!!, AGAIN!!!, HIDE EVERYONE!!!"- Kat screams in fear as she tries to hide under an old table, but, on the other hand, Ras and Shade remain calm as the quake occurs.

"Mr. Ras..."

"so it is my dear Shade, it has already begun"- Ras folds his arms as he watches his old building move from side to side.

"what do you mean, what is really happening?"- Kat asks as she covers her head trying not to let anything fall on it.

"it's the end of the world"- Shade replies with a cold tone to Kat's question.

"THE END OF WHAT!?"- Kat panics more, "IT'S NOT FAIR!!!, I STILL HAVE NOT ACHIEVED ANYTHING IN MY LIFE!!!, I STILL HAVE NOT BECOME A MILLIONAIRE!!!, I DON'T HAVE A MANSION!!!, JEWELS!!!, A GOOD MAN!!!, AM I GOING TO DIE A VIRGIN HERE?!?!?"- Kat begins to cry disconsolately at the tragic news of the end of the world.

But as soon as the quake hit, she was gone anyway.

"Huh, it's gone"- Kat stops crying as she looks around.

Both her boss and her right hand man remain calm in the chaotic situation which makes Kat start to get annoyed at such a calm attitude.

"Hey, what's the matter with you guys, is the world going to end, or are you just pulling my leg?" protests Kat.

With a guilty smile, her boss Ras reaches into his coat to remove a large envelope.

"None of that my dear Katherine, this end of the world is our best job to take no doubt or maybe our last, look"- Ras shows his two female employees a huge contract guideline, "TADA, this is what will save our business, my darlings!".

Both women look at the monster hunting contract with great surprise.

"Mr. Ras, so this means that-"- Shade doesn't finish her comment as her boss interrupts.

"That's right my dear Shade, this is the last job in our company. Let me apologize for a few moments ago, as I was very unsure whether to take this contract or not"- Ras hands both girls the "hunting contract" information. "But from the looks of it with these tremors and that huge circle in the sky, I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a try."

"Huge circle in the sky?"-both employees say in unison.

Kat moves quickly to leave the building to observe what is happening outside, just to check her boss's words.

Outside the agency, chaos had already broken out, people were running for their lives, without any explanation with the strange circle in the sky, a dark manifestation, a black hole that was slowly coming more and more in contact with the city of KILLPOP. Everyone was running and shouting words of total panic.

"What the hell is going on?"- with an expression of fear and amazement Kat, observes the big lights which appear inside the hole, with a more than terrifying sensation running through her body.

Following that revelation, again a tremor shakes the ground.

"Ras begins to cough to adjust the tone of his voice and begin to explain the basis of the contract, in the midst of the strong earthquake.

BROOM!!!! (Tremor)

"a small group of monsters have begun to emerge from the strange hole in the sky, the origin of this event is still unknown, but an extermination is required immediately"- the indications of the contract despite being quite vague, are enough to start a hunt, without really caring much about the motives, in the end, it's a business.

"WAAHHH!!!"- Kat didn't seem to listen to her boss' indications as her only concern is to try to hide and protect herself for the impending catastrophe.

"and well, that's it, no description other than some locations where monster activity has been seen"- Ras stands up in the middle of the quake and with a great cheer makes it known that "Monster At The Gate" is back.

"oh my, you see Mr. Ras, I told you that you didn't have to worry about anything, Lady Luck always smiles on you!", with a huge cheer, the spectral woman Shade comes up to congratulate her boss Ras.

"Shade dear, we must now start the preparations to start this job, please bring all our staff here!"- Ras and Shade observe the huge hall room completely empty, except for Kat, who is hidden in a corner.

An expression of surprise from Ras, and one of disappointment from Shade lets itself be seen.

"Is this a joke?"- says Shade with disappointment.

"I told you, we lost the entire staff! AND I'M NOT A HUNTER!"- Kat approaches her bosses with annoyance to inform them what happened to the entire hunting staff. "Noruh, he went back to his swamp. Rip, I think he's back to his gambling at the casinos in Vegas. As for Eddie, Violet. I haven't really been able to get any information on where they are."

After a brief summary of the agency's former hunters and their possible locations. Ras shows a certain look of concern on his face, bringing his hand to his chin as if for extra help in thinking of solutions.

"I think they would have been nicer to personally communicate their departures to me"- Ras laments about the abandonment of his employees and how he was not communicated about it.

"THE MOCOSA HERE ALWAYS SAYS EVERYTHING AT THE LAST MINUTE!"- Shade prepares to give a reprimand to Kat who also prepares to fight.

"it's not my job, you STUPID SHADOW EXHIBITIONIST!"- Kat begins to release a strange reddish aura which grows and turns into fire.

Kat is a Mage who specializes in fire and all its variants.

But one of her favorite abilities is a rather strange one even in her area. The creation of fire "familiars". In this case, Centipede.

"FAMILIARS OF THE PIT!"- Kat shouts as she unleashes her fire magic.

From the same aura of fire at Kat's feet, two Centipedes emerge, their bodies are completely red and with a large mane which covers the area where their neck should be and on their heads two huge antlers on each side.

"officially i'm already out of a job!!!, that means you are no longer my superior!!! take what you deserve!!!" - Kat shouts with joy since she can finally get even with her boss after all the bad treatment she has received from her, but a detail in all the fury of fire makes a big difference.

"Uh?"

Kat watches in surprise and also with great embarrassment as her centipedes ended up burned by her own flames and also these had started to burn part of her shoes.

"DAMN IT BURNS ME!!!"- Kat runs in terror trying to put out the flames that she herself caused.

Indeed, Kat is a lousy magician with zero skill and talent.

Shade looks on with great embarrassment and also disappointment as she watches Kat harm herself with her own skills. "I'm really glad your only job was to keep the GALLERY clean, brat".

After a futile and very pitiful attempt to bring out her fire abilities, Kat finally manages to save herself from being burned alive.

"really!?, I had achieved it last week!, I really hadn't burned out, and even manages to make my Scientists almost completely materialize!"- Kat cries from helplessness when she sees how much of a failure she is, "NO!NO!NO! I AM TRULY A GREAT FIRE MAGICIAN!!! IT'S EVEN ON MY RESUME!!!! MOM AND DAD ARE EVEN MORE ASHAMED OF ME!!!!”.

"i'm sure you will be able to achieve great things soon my dear Katherine, you just have to be patient," Ras puts his hand on Kat's head and begins to caress her in a comforting way which somehow calms Kat and her whining, "but now we're going to business, we have to get our workers back together and time is running against us."

Kat and Shade watch intently as Ras stands on his locker room table, in a way to show initiative and also security.

"to combat the threat that probably involves not only our beloved Killpop, but also the world, eh to reunite again those who have protected her during this time, that's today's mission! ”

With great emotion the last employees applaud the initiative and decision of their boss. but the cheerful atmosphere changes when a powerful explosion occurs just outside the monster hunting agency.

"WAAAHHHH!!!"- as always, Kat is the first one to scream and hide, but now her reaction is to go and see what caused that huge explosion which threatened to almost blow the agency building to pieces.

To his surprise and everyone present, the huge impact has been near the building and even on the outskirts, since it was not a bomb or anything like that. everything would seem to be normal, if not for a huge burst of lightning which falls and electrocutes everything on the ground, thereby creating a kind of "electric sea", which had begun to leave several human remains and corpses everywhere.

"HAHAHA!!!"- a great electrified laughter is heard from the sky, more specifically over a cloud. "They feel the power and fall to pieces!, the death of the sky and the storm, is what I bring!”.

A woman with completely red skin and some black lines is the one who commands over a cloud and is also responsible for such electrical destruction.

Her appearance is not only an exotic skin color, black fabrics show most of a voluptuous but defined body with muscles. His white, short and unruly hair bristles from the huge electric shocks, but without a doubt the most threatening thing, was not, neither his lightning bolts, nor the huge spiked mallet that he carried on his shoulders. Her black eyes with yellow pupils, reflected power and terror to those who had the misfortune to look at the beautiful and dangerous master of the storm. Goddess of thunder.

"very well! how many will I kill today?"- with a devilish smile, the storm monster prepares to fire his next attack. But someone avoids it.

A small fireball the size of a golf ball, somehow manages to give the psychopathic exhibitionist thunder woman.

"eh?"- with a bored and unimportant look, he observes the origin of the "attack", only to see a woman with orange hair.

"I hit him!?I meant to say!, and there's more where that one came from!"- Kat tries to hide the surprise for having hit her target with strange luck, then to sound more threatening.

Kat had tried to hide inside the agency, but Shade was the one who threw her outside in order to buy some time and also find out what was going on, the truth was simple.

Kat was a useless magician, but she could use it to buy time.

Without giving time for a response from the red thunder woman, Kat begins to generate large fireballs in her hands, intending to start a fight with the monster that has emerged from the hole in the sky.

"oh very well, a mage, it's been a while that I didn't kill one" - the red thunder woman, starts licking her lips in an almost lewd way from the excitement of the battle."

Instead, Kat only has one thought on her mind.

(WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING!?I'M GOING TO DIE!!!).

Chapter 1 Ends.