2 Creature Capture Business

The water was black in color with the night sky reflected in it. A few ripples marred the nearly perfect surface with the light breeze that blew. A ring of higher mountains circling to the south stood tall and seemed a beautiful and mysterious thing. The only acoustic was the hum of a few insects.

Then there was a whisper of a sound, like wings beating then nothing. Then again a moment later. Against the dark sky, a few stars were blotted out by a form moving there. It appeared large and seemed to swoop lower toward the water's surface.

A click sounded and then the loud release of compressed air. In mid-flight the animal was hit with a net that spread out like a spider web, hitting it and tangling it. Down it came with a wild scared sound and water shot straight up as it impacted the surface.

"Move, pull it out before it drowns!" A man shouted and others moved forward. Where a moment before none had been, people emerged from hiding. They were fast getting out into the water and pulling the large animal to shore. It struggled but was unable to do much with the netting that was covering it.

"Bring the vet forward!" Shouted the same man. "Langford, where are you!" He shouted again. The shouter was a medium-sized man who was in shape. He held an air of authority about him. His skin was a rich brown and a clean-shaven head. A thin scar ran from his ear to his jaw, the only distinguishing feature about him.

"Right here, stop shouting," Langford commented dryly. He had darker blond hair that was cut close to his head and thin-rimmed glasses on his face. The animal was thrashing and scared.

"Have the rest back away. Bring Kendra over, she'll calm this one." Langford ordered.

"Kendra!" Shouted the dark-skinned man. A woman moved forward from the small crowd that had backed up.

"Really Riley you could tone it down a bit. I could hear you back at camp. You aren't helping the situation." Kendra grumbled, moving with confidence in her stride. Her long brown hair fell just below her shoulder blades. She was putting it back at the moment and Riley's brown eyes met her ice-blue ones.

"If you would hurry up and be where you are supposed to be, there would be no need for my shouting. If not for me, none of you would get anything done." With that Riley moved back with the others. Kendra gave a shake of her head. God, he was full of himself.

"He's overdramatic and cocky," Kendra said crouching down and putting a hand on the animal. It calmed instantly moving toward her hand. She made soothing sounds and petted its long muzzle.

"That he is, but he always gets the job done." Langford sighed.

"Admiring him?" She said and the vet gave a shrug.

"Some of the things, not at all." She gave a sigh and continued keeping the animal calm. It was large and looked like a horse with enormous wings. The body was jet black and wet from the dive into the water.

"Never thought I'd see a black Pegasus," Kendra said smiling, and helped Langford remove the netting after he gave calming drugs to the animal. Though she and everyone else called Langford Derrick. Riley just liked shouting last names a lot. 

The Pegasus moved standing but stayed where it was. Kendra's hand moved along his neck and holding the smile. It responded to her and she felt a joy in connecting with the wild creature.

"Hold it there, we can't have it flying away. It'll be impossible to catch it then." Riley said and they came forward. The Pegasus didn't complain much as Kendra kept it calm. Only once did it whiny and kicked out at one of the men.

"Well don't do that," Kendra said to him and he just looked at her. She coaxed the horse-like creature to move forward with her and they walked for a good distance. They came to a large truck after a while of walking and she got it inside. They secured it for transportation. Kendra did feel a bit of sadness, but she hoped that this one would go somewhere safe.

"You never cease to amaze me. Out of our group of freaks, you are the most useful." Riley said. Kendra hopped down giving him a salute and a serious expression. Seriously could it kill him to be nice for once?

"Please general you are too kind." She said. This group wasn't known to the world, and why would they be? They went and hunted down all sorts of odd things that the world no longer believed in. That they were either trying to save or exterminate.

Things like the Pegasus would head to a new home. A place far out of the way and kept where very few would be allowed to see it. Their group was one of few that did similar things, some were against saving and were for removing threats.

"Let's move out," Riley said and went to motion for the camp to be packed up. They were leaving, they got what they had come for. Kendra just stared at the back of Riley's head. He needed an attitude adjustment.

"Don't take it personally, he's grown used to looking at other species as items." Kendra looked at Derrick. He was a nice man but he would never know what it was like to be the odd one out. Kendra did and Riley reminded her of that on the daily.

"Don't think I don't know that once my services are no longer needed I have a wonderful cage waiting for me on that island they cart all these animals too." Kendra was just an intelligent creature. So she got put to work apparently. That and her ability was one they liked having.

"Well, a house, and its multiple islands." He said with a smile. "You aren't dangerous, well for the most part." She gave a smile.

"Except for the fact that a simple touch from me can turn any man into a simpering fool? I don't even have recognizable DNA." Kendra reminded him. Derrick sighed as they got into a car.

"We'll figure out the problem and then you can be human, and can mix with the rest." Kendra gave a rush of air. She wished that she could claim she was a vampire or werewolf, or even a succubus so she could have a claim to her name. Of course, then she would be considered a dangerous species and have to be put down. At least if she didn't cooperate nicely.

Actually, she had met a few vampires and werewolves that weren't homicidal maniacs. Of course, they were stuck in working for this agency as well, and those that weren't... Well, they were good at hiding it and staying in the real world. The supernatural community was very aware of how much they had to hide from humans. Especially the ones that hunted them.

She on the other hand was termed a homunculus, and no one knew anything about them. The definition in the dictionary wasn't even close. It was the only guess that anyone had. Kendra assumed they were a kind of manufactured human. Then again you had to come from somewhere and no homunculi knew where they originated from.

There was no real memory of the past, just flashes of things. Kendra didn't even know if she had parents or not. She'd grown up with a bunch of doctors watching her. Her DNA was nonexistent and they couldn't figure out how she could be alive without it.

That was the thing about mythical creatures, they broke all the rules. She had the components for DNA, they just weren't in a logical order. You could look one day and swear she had the DNA of a human, the next it would look like the DNA of a shark. She always found that funny, of course, she'd been offered to become a vampire or werewolf. She hadn't picked either, she wasn't sure what she wanted to be. Which species that could change others she wouldn't mind being? Right now staying as she was, was best.

They'd found two others like her over the years of being in operation, and that had started over some hundred years ago. She'd seen humans becoming vampires, the process was slow and painful. She didn't want that for her and becoming a werewolf… it looked ten times worse. Your body had far more to change than with a vampire. However, you didn't have the pain of sunlight burning you.

One of the other homunculi found was now dead, he'd just snapped one day unable to take being what he was. After all, they were constantly told that they were less. That being human was far better. He'd killed himself, lit himself on fire and that was not the way she wanted to go.

She was a hard one to kill, healed very fast, and could sustain a lot of damage. However a bullet to the head would do it, or being burnt alive. She figured a good amount of blood loss would do it too. She knew that the other homunculi had decided to become a vampire. It had been easy for him, with no DNA to change it had gone fast. At least he didn't have to worry about being put down like some kind of rabid beast at the end.

"There's no solving my problem," Kendra responded finally to Derrick sadly. "Besides they need my touch, I could lose it if I change." She said and he nodded. Like a lot of mythical creatures, she drew humans to her. Especially the opposite sex, it was just her scent and allure. After all for most of them, humans were their source of food or to meet other needs. Though she wasn't sure why she would draw them, she ate normal food.

"At least we will get time off," Derrick said with a sigh and smiled at her. She gave a nod and looked out the window. Yeah, more time to sit and wait for them to call her into service. She was starting to wonder if the other called homunculi had lit himself on fire to get away from these people. Maybe she should try it. Kendra kept that depressing thought to herself.