Scorched City

"Mm, we better go in, I guess." Kegyr said, approaching the bar.
"Stay where you are!" A voice called out, it seemed to belong to a middle aged man.
Kegyr promptly looked up at the source of the voice to see a gun pointed at his face from the roof.
"We aren't here to cause trouble." Kegyr stated.
"Doesn't matter, we need to be sure you ain't infected." The man replied.

Ace and Kanade held up their hands, the girl also pulled her wings as close to her back as she dared, it would be best id they were unaware of her heritage.

A few moments passed before a woman with green hair and a plain aqua dress walked out, she looked them all over and walked back inside.
A full minute passed before the man spoke again, "Ya'll welcome to come in."
--
"What was that?" Kegyr whispered to Ace and Kanade, hoping they'd have an answer.

"I have no idea," Ace said.
Kanade shrugged, "They were checking weather or not we were Zombies, Lower is like that."

"I guess, are zombies that infectious here?" Kegyr said aloud, though no one but them heard him.

"So do we go in now?" Ace asked, taking a step forward.

"I guess." Kegyr said, casually walking into the bar.
--
The bar seemed bigger on the inside, a lot of people were inside and it smelled of beer and smoke, along with some more...unsavory scents.

Upon entering the bar Kanade gagged, "Remind me I hate bars," the demon remarked.

"You hate bars." Kegyr replied, rather sarcastically.

This brought a chuckle to both Kanade and Ace's lips.

Kegyr eventually picked out an empty table and sat at it, it had 3 other chairs so Ace and Kanade would be able to sit down.
--
A mysterious figure lingered in the backround, they didn't approach the group. Not yet.

"so...what now?" Kanade asked, fiddling with her hands.

"We...wait?" Kegyr said, unsure what he wanted to do.

"I hate waiting," she grumped
"Kanade I have an idea," Ace said, "You see that Dart bored on the other side of the room?"
"Yeah"
"See if you can hit it from over here," he said.

The mysterious figure seemed to be getting closer.
--
"Oh?" Kegyr said, "That might be deadly, try not to hit someone"

"Oh come on like I'd do that," The girl said, standing up and drawing a Kunai.

"It's scary because you would." Kegyr said, stifling a small laugh.
--
The figure was even closer now.

"OK well maybe on purpose but not like this," She said, drawing her arm back.

"Your aim is off" A voice said, "Move it to the right a little."
--
Kegyr flinched at the newcomer, unsure of how they got there. He looked at them and saw her.

(noice!!!)
"huh?" Kanade said, although she did as the woman suggested. The kunai flew through the air, hurtling passed the heads of the Bar goers and hit the target at the other end of the room. Bull's eye.

The woman just smiled, "I've been watching all of you for some time. Do not ask how, it's quite tiring to explain" She said, "But know that I am here to help and I have been helping."
--
"How so?" Kegyr questioned, suspicious of the woman.
--
"Ever wonder why newspapers with information of monsters and certain events appear?" She continued, "I am The Author."

Ace's eyes widened, this woman was the one they were looking for? Could it really be that easy?

The Author looked at Ace and smiled, as if she knew what he was thinking.
--
"Okay...so, what now?" Kegyr said, "We were expecting it to be an effort to find you."
--
"Well...There are many things in Balen that need fixing, you just need to pick one" The Author said, she pointed to a board on the wall behind them, "I often put up requests over there, I do some of them myself. Take a look and pick one."

"wait what? who the hell are you lady?" Kanade asked having come back from retrieving her knife.

"She's The Author." Kegyr answered, "Helping us apparently."

"Uhu, and we trust her becasue?"

"We don't" Kegyr said, "We only have her at her word."
--
"I never asked you to trust me." The Author said, "Never trust what you see, there have been sightings of creatures turning into people, infiltrating safe houses and slaughtering everyone. That is why you were held up. We're lucky we have someone who cannot see illusions."

Kanade self-continuously pulled her wings in tighter. she was no monster but she wasn't too sure whether or not some of her kind had a hand in those killings.

"As I said before, there is a board with requests on it over there, pick one and return to me. I will accompany you this one time. After that I have to stay here. Certain requests have rewards, I and Lilith, the woman you saw outside, handle said rewards." The Author said.
--
"So, should we take a look?" Kegyr asked, looked at Ace and Kanade.

Kanade shrugged.

"yeah let's" Ace said

The Author led them to the board, she picked off a few and laid them out on a table, "We'll start small, the bigger jobs require large groups of people." She said.

There were 3 requests in total; 1 stated there was an infected rat infestation at an old restaurant somewhere in the Middle District. Another stated that a new area, possibly untouched, has been sighted though nobody dares go near it. The last one was a request to purge a Balafor from the Airport.

Kegyr read the last one and promptly asked; "What's a Balafor?"

"Ugly, disgraceful things, those are. They claim a territory and anything that goes in it will slowly lose their memory until they go insane. Once insane, the person will sub consciously go to the Balafor. Once they reach it's lair, the Balafor sucks the soul and blood out of the victim, leaving them shriveled and empty."

"We were just at the airport. the place did feel wrong. I'm glad we didn't stay any longer than we did." Ace said worriedly.

"Good thing you didn't." The Author said, "A hint? If you pick that one, you will need to leave the airport every so often so you don't go insane. There has been rumours of a potion that negates the insanity and memory effect but alas, finding such a thing has eluded me."

"Well I vote we do it," Kanade said, hold one arm up and smiling childishly.

"We could always attempt to look for the potion first." Kegyr said, "If the lair is too far deep, we'll neer reach it."

"I think we should do that, if not We'll get no where very fast," Ace said.
"OK so we're gonna go find a potion that may or may not even exist?" Kanade said.

"There are leads. But that's all they are." The Author replied, "One of them leads to that warehouse, the others are throughout Middle District."

"Does anyone even know where the where house is?" Ace questioned. Kanade shrugged, she hadn't really ever left the lower district.

"They say it's either in the Middle District or Upper District." The Author answered.
--
"Well, I know most of Upper District and a fair it about Middle District, we can look where I haven't." Kegyr said.