The Hunting Party

Participants : Relative Degree and AdrianTheCrowing
Posting order : Same as above, minus PersimmonAutumn
Status : Dead

Plot : Central City had its fair share of supernatural occurences, but unfortunately for it and its inhabitants, this trend did come to an end and once again, something was off and that something wasn't caused by Eggman or his goons.

Multiple cases of a haunted figure were coming from a junkyard in the outskirts of the city and while the case was intriguing, the city's police simply decided that it had better things to do than hunt legends and ghosts. Due to this, the owner of the junkyard took justice into his own paws and put fliers all around the city.

They all bore the message "Detectives or private investigators needed - report at the Central City junkyard" alongside a blurred image captured from a security camera. It showed someone in a white fox mask with sickly yellow eyes staring at the camera at an odd angle. Underneath the photo was the reward for catching the 'thing' and it was quite generous all things considered. It wasn't as big as the literal money ocean offered for the head of a certain thief, but it was still rather huge.

Multiple workers have forfeited their work ever since one of their coullegous saw the thing, but the owner wanted them to continue nevertheless. When the occurences repeated and only he was left at the junkyard to manage it, he contacted the police only to get the 'we don't do legends and ghosts' response. The owner is keen on resuming the work as soon as possible, but just how quick and effective can the detectives be? Only one way to find out...

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Note : Had to change 'The Hunt' to 'The Hunting Party' because the former was too short :/

Out of bleach, cleaning products, and in need of new, clean rags.

Her steps were light, but urgent at the same time. Her scarf swaying behind her, a fire burned in her eyes, staring straight ahead. 'Gotta get supplies. Supplies are urgent. Supplies are the blood of the veins of cleanliness.' Her hand twitched impulsively, thinking of the tiny speck of dust she had yet wiped off her window. Or what about that wrinkle on her bed sheet? Damn, she forgot about that. The wolf halted. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, debating whether or not to go back home and take care of the wrinkle first, or do it later. Instinctively, her hands wandered into her pockets, fishing around for the money she needed to get the supplies aaaand...

Nothing.

Her eye twitched. She left it in her room over her impulsive rush. Yup, she definitely needs to go back now. However, the familiar snaps and cracks of frost tickled her ears, and looking down, she found the icy gloss spreading from her feet to the street. Wow, she must've dropped the temperature at least 15 degrees from her panic. This is terrible. She can't go back to her apartment! She'll just freeze or singe everything up and make more of a mess!

Despite the wolf's inner turmoil, her face remained completely unfazed if not for the occasional furrowing of her brows. Autumn eyes shifting about here and there, they finally caught sight of a flier. Reward, it said. The number mentioned wasn't too big. Her average income was probably more than that. But, it was just enough to buy cleaning supplies to last a month or two. It was actually a long period of time, seeing how much of a neat-freak she was.

So snatching the flier off its perch, Amber headed straight towards the junkyard mentioned.

"Okay that should be enough for a while."

Trudging through the city was a hedgehog of white fur who had just finished his routine walk. Usually around a forest or wherever was filled with trees, he had decided to take a look around city so he could get familiar with it. But to be honest, he would have preferred to be within a forest, not as noisy you know? 

"Know that I'm done with that, what should be next?" He pondered in his head as he unturned the collar of his grey and red military jacket. "Maybe I could grab a quick bite to eat." He had wanted to see more of the city, but his growling stomach had indicated to him that it could wait.

And with that thought he had went ahead to find a food court nearby so that he could finally satisfy his hunger. His red eyes looked around for the nearest one and lo and behold, there was one to his right. He went up to order some food and while he waited, he had noticed something off in the distance. After he had received his food he went up to the wall nearby and saw a flyer on it. "Detectives or private investigators needed-report at central station junkyard." The hedgehog had become quite intrigued by this flyer and tore it off the wall.

"Well lets see what this issue has to offer." He had said as he took a bite of his food and made his way to the junkyard.

The junkyard was in the outskirts of the city, far from practically anything. It was a wasteland, full of junk no one wanted, old electronics and various assorted machinery. Most of it was rusty, the newer ones brought every day or so weren't. It gave out a foul, metallic odour, but it wasn't that much of a stench.

Despite walls all around the junkyard, several rusty metal beams were protruding up into the sky, with a large number of various junk laying around outside of the junkyard itself. The only place that didn't have junk in front of it was the entrance and, because of the fliers, it was opened. Truth be told, it was crude, rusty and probably would be safer in one of the various piles.

Just beside the entrance was a small building with a sign above the door that said 'Staff & Management'. The doors weren't open as wide as the entrance, but it was probably unlocked for the sake of detectives reporting to the owner of the place.

Despite the fact that both of them were at different parts of the town, both the wolf and the hedgehog arrived at roughtly the same time.

Wait. Wait.

Oh God what was she thinking?

A junkyard. A junkyard of all places for investigation. A large frown began tugging at the corners of her lips, but no one could see because her scarf covered it. However, her eyes also began to narrow in disgust, accompanied with the flattening of her dark persimmon ears. Amber Wolfe stared distastefully at the site of investigation before her. No, no. Just roll with it. Once it's over, she'll have enough cleaning supplies to make it seem as if this never happened. Alright.

Taking a deep breath, she began to step towards the entrance, eyes glued to a building that said 'staff and management'. Just as she grabbed the disgustingly rusty excuse for a doorknob, Amber began to hear footsteps approach. She turned around just in time to see a certain white hedgehog. He looked... Familiar. But she just can't put her finger on it.

"Oh geez of all the places."

The hedgehog had arrived at the junkyard holding the flyer he had taken from the wall and the sight was very underwhelming. He had took another look at the flyer in his hand and focused on the picture it had shown. "Man..Whatever this creature is, it has really low standards." He thought to himself as he looked around the junkyard. Oh well, guess you have to roll with what you got right?

Upon looking around, the hedgehog had came across a building with sign that said "staff and management". As soon as he began to walk towards the building he then noticed a wolf right at the entrance not too far from him. "She must be here for the investigation too." He thought in his head.

The interior of the building consisted of a single, tiled hallway with two doors on each side. It was much more clean than the junkyard outside, but still had various things that just didn't belong there. The barely functional lights had layer upon layer of dust on them and were probably older than the building itself. To add insult to injury, they also flickered every now and then. 

Another piece of 'nostalgia' was the old security camera, visible in one of the corners. It was crude, large and was probably kept in place by either very big nails or some really strong glue. With its dirty, dirty lens, it provided whoever was in charge of security with very low quality footage of both the wolf and hedgehog. Why it existed in the first place was a mystery.

Lastly, a short, avian figure was seen trying to open a door on the right side of the hallway when the two of them waltzed in. The figure didn't notice when Amber entered, but quickly turned around after the hedgehog walked in. The figure was a short, aged vulture donning a dark blue boilersuit. He eyed the two of them with squint-eyed suspicion, as if judging them. After a few seconds, his suspicion changed to glee and joy, as he had remembered something.

"You're the detectives, aren't you?" he let out, smiling. "Haha, didn't expect you so soon! I haven't even been to the bank to get the money!"

To Amber's standards, the inside was just as bad as the junkyard outside. Look at all the dust and disorganization! So crude and lacking in style, ugh she had to bite into her lip to keep herself from wiping a dirty window. She tried not to inhale very deeply, afraid that the floating dust particles would fish a cough out of her. And that'd be rude. Right? So she focused on this vulture instead. 

Her ears twitched with every word the old geezer spoke, but she never responded with anything more than a nod. Hands in her pockets, she waited idly for any kind of hints or leads on this investigation. She just needed the money. Bad.

The hedgehog had looked around the building that they both walked into and was examining what this place had to offer. "Not bad."  he had thought to himself. As he kept observing his surroundings, his eye glanced over to the wolf and could already tell that she was already disgusted with the interior, he could understand her frustrations. But that did't bring down his inner joy that he had, I mean it's not everyday that you get to solve a mystery right? It was only a moment later that he saw what looked to be an avian figure walk up towards the two.

The hedgehog then focused his attention to the avian figure as he greeted the two detectives. He replied in a respectful manner, "Hello. We've discovered this request from the many flyers around the city. So what are the details of this issue?" He asked the avian figure as he held up the flyer in front of him.

The vulture proceeded to open the door to his office and head inside. When he got back, he was holding a file. He opened it and showed them that it contained higher-quality images of the 'thing'.

"Sadly, this is the best I've been able to get out of the cameras," he let out, showing them the same photo as the one in the flier, but in much higher quality. "I'm not a doctor or something, but there's just something about those eyes. Looks like some sort of disease." The vulture then proceeded to show them blurred photos of the being going into various abandoned shacks and exiting them.

"These are photos made by one of the night guards," he explained. "I'm not sure why it went there, but I think you should investigate those first. Just a few years back, someone used to live there."

Amber's eyes remained glued to the photos, but her ears absorbed the information given to them. A theory began weaving in her mind as she picked up one of the photos, eyes flicking towards the vulture with interest. "Which shack?" Occasionally, being a selective mute was a pain. She just hoped the elderly mobian understood what she meant. "What happened?"

She pointed to the shacks, and then the ghost. She traced a line from the ghost to the shack, to gesture 'connection'. What was the connection between the ghost and the shacks? Was the ghost the previous inhabitant. Worried the vulture wouldn't understand, she looked to Adrian to perhaps be able to further elaborate.

Adrian carefully observed the photos that were displayed in front of them and had the same concern. The connection between the shacks and this eerie looking creature seemed a bit odd. Why exactly would a ghost be interested in some abandoned shacks? "Hmmm...This all seems strange. Whatever this is must have some sort of attachment to it."


"Maybe it's bound by some sort of ties to the shacks. Maybe there is something there that is drawing it's attention towards it. Then again, I may be making really far-fetched assumptions here." He said as he tried to connect the dots. He then looked towards the vulture. "That's the only thing I can come up with so far."

The vulture thought for a while and then gave his own opinion on the matter. "The previous 'owners' were homeless. The staff, me included, were on very good terms with them, but we knew they couldn't stay." The vulture proceeded to walk over to them and open the door to the junkyard.

"Does this look like a home to you?" he asked aloud. "They objected when the police came to take them away to a hostel, but... anything's better than this." The vulture sighed and turned to them.

"The last thing I can tell you is that the... 'thing' is only active during the night," he lectured them. "Or at least, according to the cameras. That's, unfortunately, all the clues that I managed to find. Sorry." Suddenly, a short electrical surge was heard and all the electrical appliances stopped working. What followed was the sound of metal screeching, which became louder and louder before stopping completely.

Oddly enough, the vulture did not seem surprised or even whocked by this occurence. He was old and probably seen his fair share of oddities, but still, was this a common thing?

Oh God, the metal screeching. It made her forget everything she was thinking. Instead, she clutched her ears, whimpering softly in pain. "What... Was that...?" She managed out, slowly releasing her aching hearing organs.

The wolf looked around, wondering what made the lights go out. Well, they were pretty old. That might just be the case.

Adrian had looked up as the lights went out because of the power surge and then immediately afterwards, followed by the metal screeching, the hedgehog has covered one of his ears to block out the loud noise. He had looked over to the vulture. "Does this happen often?" He asked him.

The vulture did not seem to mind the sound at all. Perhaps he was just too old to care. "Started happening around two weeks ago," he explained and approached a door on the far right side of the hallway. "It's no big deal starting the generator back up, but if I were you, I wouldn't want that thing to go off during the night." He proceeded to open the door and press a switch.

"Night guards had problems with the lights outside and now that they're gone, scared of that 'thing', you'll be on your own if you plan on investigating during the night as well." The vulture then went through the door. After a few moments worth of walking down into the practically-unlit basement and replacing some burnt wiring the lights went back on.

The vulture then reentered the hallway from the very same door. He coughed a bit, hid his flashlight in his boiletsuit and dusted off his claws.

Slowly, Amber lowered her hands from her ears, watching as the vulture left them to themselves. Just as the door shut, she half expected the temperature to drop all on its own. Well, she could've done that herself- wait. An unusual change of temperature was common for an entity's presence. But what would happen if she kept the temperature from changing? Glancing at her wrist where a special thermometer lie, just to ensure she won't burn or freeze herself, Amber made a note to watch for any spikes.

All the while, she went back to the pictures. They were taken by CCTV, so the time description was shown right in each frame. She began making a timeline; which shack was visited first, and which was last. That way she had a rough idea for a pattern, or, maybe even a clue.

Adrian looked over to the vulture as the he went through the door. He then began to think about thinking about the information that was given to them, as he took a moment to try to connect and them all together. Pacing back and forward, the hedgehog had struggled to fit all of the information together. "What does it all mean?" He murmured silently. "The shacks, the previous owners, why did they refuse to leave for someplace better? What was it about those shacks that made those owners so adamant about not wanting to leave? And on top of that, this creature thats lurking around is also connected to those said shacks somehow. If that's the case, then does this creature have some sort of correlation with it's previous inhabitants as well?" Adrian had these thoughts rolling around as he tried to find some sort of correspondence between all of them.

As the hedgehog tried to connect the dots, another question surfaced in his head. A rather obvious question to be exact. "Now how are we gonna catch this said creature?" As he thought about the question, he had glanced over and noticed Amber focusing on the pictures that were revealed by the vulture."Did you come up with anything?" Adrian asked her.

The second shack appeared to be visited first, with the first and third visited after two and four hours, respectively. On each of the photos it appeared to be carrying something small, but the low quality combined with the fact that the photos were captured by old cameras during the night made it very hard it see what exactly it was.

The vulture already told them it was only active during the night and probably well-hidden the day, but now, Amber had a pattern. As evidenced by the timer on the photos, it was active after midnight and well into the early morning of 4 AM.

The vulture listened to what Adrian though of this and decided to let him on a few details. "I highly doubt it has anything to do with the previous owners," he explained. "They left years ago, why would this thing manifest itself right here and right now? It's not even the anniversery of when they moved out."

"Why they refused to leave and why the thing lurks around the shacks?" he asked aloud. "I honestly have no idea." He never really found out why the junkyard dwellers liked the place so much. There's probably just some stupid feeling that made them grow attached to their home even if it was the absolute worst.

By then, the wolf had a hand up to her muzzle, indicating the whirring of the wheels inside her head. She thought and thought and thought. Then took notes, indifferently grabbing a piece of scrap paper and pencil. On it, she labelled the timeline as 'FINDINGS' with a rather neat and cursive handwriting. She glanced back at the vulture, and then Adrian, and finally the thermometer on her wrist. Then, her eyes settled on the notes, writing some more for a step-by-step plan.

"Unsettled business." She mumbled in the midst of her work. She picked up one picture and nodded her head st the ghost. "Searching." Her autumn eyes gazed intently at the apparition. "For... Something." she pressed the word 'something' and furrowed her brows. She honestly had no clue what correlation it had to the shacks. Or what the family had with it. But she would find out. "Want it gone?" Her question was simple. Blunt. But her eyes remained fixated on the ghost. It may sound cruel, but to Amber, well, she was just asking for a job description.

Adrian had looked back towards the vulture to listen to more of the details he had let him in on more details. Now realizing when he they had actually left, he had found himself a step backwards. But he will keep this thought on hold for now and focus on catching this thing.

He then went over towards where Amber was to examine at the photos that were on display, quickly studying the apparition. When she had mentioned that it was apparently 'searching' for something, he observed the pictures more until he had noticed that it was holding something. Though it was difficult to tell what it was, as the quality of the pictures weren't that high.

The vulture scratched his beak for a couple of seconds before giving the definitive answer. "Well, since it hasn't harmed anyone," he started. "I only think it'll be fair to not cause any harm to it as well. Once you capture it, I want you to interrogate it. It's optional, but I want answers and am willing to pay both of you double the reward."

Perhaps double the reward would convince them to bring it back in one piece for questioning, but what if their 'do-no-harm' approach gave it an oppurnity to strike first? Although it only scared a single employee and caused the rest to tip turn and run, what if that was only the beginning, the first phase of attack? After all, if neither Adrian or Amber had come to help him, the owner would have stayed completely alone for the night shift.

Whether or not the vulture's requirements were wise or even safe remains to be seen...

Amber raised an eyebrow at the vulture's request. Capture and interrogate the ghost? Did he think this was a series from the 1970s where the protagonists bore ghost capturing vacuums? Though the mention of a doubled reward money did intrigue her, there was no way she could capture it. She didn't have the equipment. Thus, she held up her hand, as if to pause the vulture and get his attention. "Figure out its problems." She points at the ghost in the picture. "Solve it. Solves your problems." She points to the vulture. "Win-win."

Adrian had listened to the vulture's request to not harm the ghost. His eyes even widened a bit after his proposal to double the reward. He shared the same views as the vulture did, pertaining to not harming anything that doesn't harm you, but the hedgehog knew better. He knew very well that they could not afford to take any chances with this case, or any case for that matter. After listening to Amber's answer to his request, he decided to give his answer as well.

"Well...I'll keep your request in mind, but I will not be merciful if it tries to attack us. If it tries anything, I won't hold back." Adrian stated as he looked towards the vulture.

The vulture looked at Amber in confusion. 'Solve its problems' ? What was he, a detective? Of course not! That's why he put up fliers all around the city. He was a engineer and the owner of the place - solving things like these was far beyond him. Nevertheless, he didn't say anything to her and just pierced her with his gaze.

His eyes then shifted to Adrian, who, to his surprise, was on his side. "Fair enough," he let out. "I'll be keeping an eye on the cameras and if I you give me something to contact you with, I'll tell you if I see anything out of the ordinary." He was a bit angry with how rude Amber was, but ignored her for the time being. After all, she wasn't the only detective who took the case and paying only one of them meant that he would save money. That is, if Amber decided to disregard his requirements or abandon the case.