Lucky's Expedition

Shadowing Bazel as had become a habit of his recently, Lucky was admiring the sight of the men he had watched over the past week or so slowly be turned into supernatural killing machines full of extra confidence having completed their first mission.

Not to mention that the sight of how his current employer's sight keeps getting drawn to the frail looking girl sitting in the wheelchair was more than amusing to him.

'This is where it's at, just watching things go by in the background. No need for me to be up front and center, those days are long gone' thought Lucky as he watched Captain Schwarz continue to thank Bazel for saving Isolda again and again despite having done so when he first got off DASF's APC.

Interrupting his fun was a feeling, almost like a whisper in the wind, that stopped him in his tracks and stole his attention for several moments.

He received various visions, smells, and even emotions that he could not explain where they came from but received them he did.

'Damn, not again. These visions are never a good thing...it always means more work for me...but if I ignore them who knows what will happen. Last time I tried to ignore them I almost ended up castrated, no thank you to that.

'So much for not being front and center, what an annoying curse...'

Having resolved himself to throw himself into some kind of extremely messy and downright annoying situation, Lucky walked up behind Bazel and tapped him on the back.

"What?" said his employer with a cold tone, which was the usual unless he was talking to a close friend or girl apparently.

"Something just came up and I will, sadly, have to part from you for a certain amount of time. It should not take too long, maybe just a day or two, but for that time you will be missing your favorite and all powerful bodyguard."

Bazel just waved him away, while also shooting a shadow that Lucky dodged without even thinking about it, and said,

"Go on then, just be careful to not get yourself killed. You are oddly useful after all."

Thanking his tsundere employer, Lucky started to walk towards his own car whilst phoning his lifetime Boss.

"Suerte(Lucky), been awhile since you have called me directly. What can I do for my strongest ally?" asked Neto from the other end.

"Well, I have another 'hunch' about some things that will go down soon. I need you to do some digging for me and find out where I need to go. Maybe make use of that new intelligence network your department has?"

To anyone normal person, asking to make use of high level resources to locate a place based off of just a 'hunch' that could not be explained may have just elicited a laugh or some kind of snide remark but Neto instead said very seriously,

"Your instincts again? Dios protege(God Protect), we already have enough going on and now this?"

From the tone of Neto's voice, it was clear that he was taking Lucky's hunch very seriously even comparing it to the current catastrophic situation that was rapidly developing.

"Fine, just give me as many details as you can," said Neto, "but make sure to put this to bed quickly. If this turns out to be as big as our time in the Sinaloa Cartel...yeah I don't even want to think about it."

Getting into his car and starting the engine, Lucky said with a chuckle,

"Ey Boss, let us not be dramatic. That was a once in a lifetime thing, for sure. How many times will something that big happen? On the scale of literally allowing us to get on the fast track of taking control of the entire Cartel's operations in our area, bah, that kinda thing does not happen too often.

"Besides, it wasn't even that hard."

"Being ambushed by three powerful drug lords and their own private armies AND the gangs under their control...that was not hard!?" exclaimed Neto from the other end in disbelief.

"Ah...okay when you put it like that, maybe it was a little tricky. Whatever, whatever, let us focus on the main point. Here is all the information that I got:"

For the rest of Lucky's aimless drive, he fed Neto all the vague information he had received from his vision. While it was still vague, it was at least better than what he would have been able to tell when he first started to receive them. Years of practice and a sharp mind, or at least that is what Lucky would tell you.

---

Having spent the entire night checking all of the possible leads Neto had given him, Lucky awoke the next morning to chase down the very last one and arrived as fast as he could.

"Of course it's always in the last place you look," muttered Lucky as he looked at the obviously ominous abandoned building in front of him.

Scrolling through the information he had received on his phone he read what this building used to be and its current status, as well as any other information that he could find on it.

"Used to be a sanitorium but was shut down due to it being discovered that those interned here were being chained in cells, even wallowing in their own feces as rats ate away at their flesh.

"Yikes, that really sets the tone here...the city has never gotten around to repurposing it, so it has sat here doing nothing for half a century. Now it is a famous homeless area..."

Looking at the pictures he was given and what he was looking at, he noticed that there was an obvious lack of the homeless population that was seen to be camped out around and in the area just a few months ago.

"Mierda, I know how exactly this is going to play out..."

Drawing his normal machete, Lucky stretched his muscles while walking up to the entrance. Kicking the decaying door wide open, he walked through the moldy halls that nature had been hard at work reclaiming.

The morning light poured in from several holes in the roof and wall, fully displaying the decay and debris that littered the entire interior, but these were far and few inbetween and so Lucky was mostly travelling by the light of the flashlight that was tied to his belt.

He walked through what he assumed used to be the lobby, past the completely rotten wood of the desks and chairs of the waiting room and into the core of the building.

Down he descended cold stone steps, reaching an area that was mostly underground.

"Oh look, the homeless population. Nice..." said Lucky sarcastically as he looked at all the withered and decayed corpses that were being neatly stored in the holding cells of the sanitorium.

The smell of decaying flesh wrapped around his nose, a familiar smell to a man such as himself but one that he would never get used to.

Intent on inspecting the corpses further, Lucky pulled open the rusty metal bars with some difficulty as the hinges were also long rusted. And then entered one of the holding cells.

The darkness of the room was instantly annihilated by the bright beam of the light source attached to his belt, with just the corners of the room still cast in shadow.

Walking in and able to get a closer look at the corpses he noticed a commonality between them all,

'A giant gaping hole on their chest, with their ribs clearly broken through, directly above the heart cavity. Was it not mentioned that a certain Sanguis faction had a habit of collecting human hearts?'

As he got closer to inspect, a small difference in elevation in the ground caused him to trip unexpectedly, right as a hand from the shadows pierced through the area where his head had just been.

Catching himself on the ground with his other foot, he regained his balance and turned 180 degrees with that same foot as he slashed the air behind him with his machete.

The still unknown enemy, however, shifted in place and easily dodged the counterattack.

'A blooded one? Or worse...Lucky, huh.'

Placing the blade in between himself and this new enemy, Lucky fixed up his footwork and watched the figure that was now revealed by his light.

A typical Sanguis man, except this one was wearing drab clothing that the homeless might wear, as well as a rather unfocused and dull look on his face.

Though Lucky was not in a position to question the fashion choices of his opponent. Instead he let his blade do the talking as he sent several deadly slashes towards his opponent.

...Who evaded them all like it was nothing, even when he was backed into a corner he somehow managed to slip under his blade.

"Hey bastard, are you toying with me? Who just dodges around like that, come on, kill me and take my heart. It's quite a good one you know, beats fast and strong."

His goading had no effect, however, but he did notice that the moves of his enemy seemed to speed up even further. Reducing Lucky's chances of ever hitting the foe from maybe to impossible.

In fact, he noticed that the veins of his opponent were all bulging and protruding from the skin and instead of the normal blue they were a deep red as they squirmed on the surface of the skin somehow.

The awkward dance continued, until finally the odd Sanguis man decided to attack.

And attack he did, with a speed that was so fast even the battle hardened Lucky only realized that the attack was happening right as the long nails of his opponent was directly in front of his eyes.