Pitch was going over all the new policies that Thomas Marrow was putting into place as president and scratching his head. “Some of these probably don't have anything to do with his goal, like the health care and education stuff. But treating rape and other crimes that leave more permanent effects on the victims more seriously could. But why is he still doing the capital punishment stuff to get more bodies into prisons at higher levels if he doesn't even have the Umbran plants? Also his policies on immigration, specifically for refugees, is almost a one hundred and eighty degree turn from the last president.”

  Kathryn shrugged. “Well that's probably because generations of building set minorities and foreign entities as “the other” that is continually pushed by an oddly high number of conservatives. Giving people a common enemy to band behind is an age old tactic. Using religion, race, or class to divide people while unifying your own group against a set other. People also like having someone to blame.” Pitch sighed. “I probably shouldn't be spending so much time on this. I've got Cryptids up the ass and the future risk of Phobos hanging over my head. Marrow is a problem that can wait.”

  Kathryn sighed. “We might not be able to cover things up for much longer. We’ll have no choice but to go public. Once Cryptids go public, so do Doppelgangers and the other non-human citizens. It'll be chaos.” Pitch nodded. “But maybe with our current president being a Doppelganger…” Pitch lost his train of thought. After a moment of not talking Kathryn pitched in. “He's not just a Doppelganger though. You probably didn't notice when you met him because you're completely immune, but I think he's a Doppelganger Succubus hybrid. When I met him and shook his hand… well let's just say if it wasn't for me building up resistance over the years I'd have voted for him without a second thought.”

  Pitch blinked as the parts of the puzzle all floated in his mind. He couldn't help but feel like he was missing a piece. “So instead of using it to instill lust, he used it to get people to more willingly trust him? That would have definitely helped him become president but we still don't know what his endgame is.” Kathryn rubbed her chin and also considered everything that Marrow has done over the years. “Well he's been exploiting Cryptids for profit despite being one for most of his life. Maybe… he doesn't identify with or care about them? Or maybe he's just a heartless selfish bastard.”

  Pitch hummed. “Or maybe… It's tough love. You know, like that crappy Boomer saying. Weak men create hard times, hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men. But instead of being weak he's creating hard times to make strong men. Specifically strong Cryptid men. In that case his next move would be to go public, something he hinted at in his promise to find and reveal the cause of the disappearances despite the fact in truth he's already in the know. By making it harder to be a Doppelganger, they'd be forced to improve their abilities to pass as human beyond what they currently are.”

  Kathryn's eyes widened as she considered the implications of that possibility. “That's… not a great thought. Not only would people suffer but what exactly would those improvements mean? It's already nearly impossible to tell outside of biometric scans. And even then, unlike many Cryptids, Doppelgangers and Succubi don't bleed black.” Pitch shrugged. “It was just a theory. Actually, not even a theory, more like conjecture. Because a theory has at least some evidence to back it up.”

  Pitch’s phone then beeps to indicate it received a text and he looks at it. “Looks like it's back to work. I'll see you when I get home.” Pitch gave Kathryn a deep and passionate kiss. “If you are already home before I get back, make sure you're in the bed wearing that silky sundress I like.” Kathryn blushed hard. “B-but I'm already expecting a child. I mean I'm not far along enough to show yet, but still. We don't have to keep going at it on a regular basis.” Pitch chuckled. “No, we don't have to, but I still want to. You are my wife and I love you. If you aren't in the mood, that's fine. I'll just wait until you are.”

  Kathryn pouted slightly. “I didn't say I didn't want to…” Pitch chuckled and waved as he made his way out of the door to deal with another Cryptid threat. He met up with a team led by Anderson and Hammer who were standing next to vehicles in the warehouse district. The team must have got there just before Pitch as Anderson whistle before talking. “I don't think I've been in this part of town since the giant wasps and the living beehive buildings.” Hammer made a gagging noise. “I imagined what a living beehive would look like, not great.” Anderson pulled out a tablet and showed Hammer a picture. Hammer then went behind a dumpster to throw up. “That's somehow worse.”

  Pitch groaned. “Could we not unnecessarily traumatize our coworkers? They get enough trauma as is.” Hammer was still behind the dumpster. “Why do they have human looking faces..?” Anderson chuckled. “If you think that's bad, wait till you hear about how they are made.” Pitch snatched the tablet out of Anderson’s hand. “Focus Anderson.” Anderson frowned. “I told you before that it's okay to use my first name.” Pitch sighed. “I forgot it.” Anderson sighed. “Yeah, I suppose that's fair. It's not like you used it on a regular basis.” Anderson chuckled. “You can just call me Barry.”

  Pitch nodded. “So what's the case? Alligators in the sewer?” Anderson knitted his brow. “I don't think our drainage system is large enough for that.” Pitch sighed. “It was a joke. As if we'd get called in for something so mundane.” Anderson gestured further into the district. “The report said something about an alien blowing up a warehouse building.” Pitch's expression went from a smile to one of displeasure. “Okay man, I get the joke was bad, but you don't need to mess with me.”

  Anderson let out a short laugh. “ I wish I was messing with you. The report described a mix between Roswell Grey and Slenderman moving around on all fours and crawling the wall of a building like a spider to get in through a window. It then crawled out the other end and the building exploded.” Pitch hummed in thought. “Are you sure the creature did it and not some yahoo trying to kill it on his own?” Anderson shrugged. “I mean I wouldn't be surprised. Honestly, it takes a lot to surprise me these days but that's besides the point.”

  The group started searching around for the creature, combing the area while looking around for signs of the creature. Everyone has their weapons up and ready for a fight. One of the Black Eagle soldiers jumped a bit and pointed his weapon in a direction after hearing a skittering noise. “I think I have movement. Three o’clock.” He called out the position relative to the direction the group was originally moving. Everyone was on high alert when another soldier called out. “I've got movement at nine o’clock.” Anderson quickly gave an order. “Tighten formation.” And everyone moved closer together pointing their weapons away from the group. “Either this thing is fast or we've got multiple targets.”

  Pitch sighed and closed his eyes, focusing his mind and trying to sense the Cryptid or Cryptids by their energy. “I'm picking up at least six signatures, all but one are the same exact frequency meaning we've got a pack. These things hunt in a way not unlike the Wendigo. That suggests moderate intelligence. The last signature doesn't seem to be moving so it's not part of the pack. It's either a separate entity or perhaps there's an anomalous artifact since it's not moving.” Anderson nodded. “It's likely they'll try to surround us if they haven't already. Don't let your guard down for a second.”

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  Pitch felt a bit weird standing with the formation. After all, he wasn't in any real danger here. He slowly moved away from the group a bit. “I'm going to see if I can bait one out.” Anderson opened his mouth to tell Pitch to be careful, then remembered that Pitch is immune to damage from most sources. “Good luck with that, we're going to keep our tight formation.” Pitch kept the group in his line of sight as he moved away, making sure that in the event this went the opposite way he was expecting he could move quickly to intercept.

  Pitch looked around as he noticed something strange. The moving Cryptids were not moving more than five hundred feet of the stationary target. He tapped at his radio. “We should move west, towards the target that isn't moving. The Cryptids are maintaining a set distance even when we aren't. The moment we moved more than five hundred feet away they stopped trying to surround us. There must be something special about the stationary target. Over.” Anderson indicated for Pitch to lead the way so he moved to be in front of the group checking back as they walked into enemy territory.

  One of the soldiers spoke up. “If they are staying in one area, why don't we just get some crop dusters loaded with holy water and carpet bomb the area?” Anderson scoffed. “That wouldn't hit any targets inside buildings and would take several passes. I remember hearing of an equivalent group in Africa trying something like that with some close seating planes.” Pitch chuckled. “This isn't the time for song references, Berry.” Anderson tilted his head, confused. “I'm not sure what you're talking about.” Pitch blinked. “Oh, I thought you were making a reference to that song by Toto.”

  Suddenly, as the group got closer to the stationary target, the moving ones started surrounding the group again. Skittering sound coming from all directions as the monsters dart through the shadows and stay mostly out of sight. Pitch stayed on guard the entire time, keeping track of the movements of the Cryptids while slowly moving forward. Then, in a blink, all of the Cryptids moved in on the group with blinding speed. Shots were fired as Pitch turned around and bolted to the group but by the time he started moving the monsters were already on top of the soldiers.

  Claws sank into the armor of a few of the soldiers as they fired electric rounds into the monsters and Pitch shifted to his true form to grab and toss the things away. “Everyone alright?” Anderson looked at the group. “We've got one serious injury and three other wounded. What about those crawling bastards?” Pitch looked over at them all getting back up. “All I did was throw them, so minimal damage. Those things sure do look freaky though. It reminds me of the art on Skinwalker Creepypasta stories. I saw creatures like this in the fear realm.” Anderson grumbled. “Yeah, so I'm thinking either Classic Wendigo or something else similar that looks extremely human-like. Either way we have to take them alive if possible, dead if necessary.”

  The soldiers swapped to tranquilizer rounds and started shooting again but the monsters were extremely agile, dodging and weaving as they approached the group. However, now that Pitch was there in his true form he could easily move to intercept any incoming Cryptids and prevent them from reaching the soldiers. He'd occasionally use a tendril to whip at and beat back a monster while trying his best not to kill them unless he had to. He grabbed a couple monsters to hold them still so the soldiers could get a solid shot in. Eventually all the monsters took hits and after a few they went down. They were then moved to containment cars, leaving only the stationary target.

  The group moved to find whatever was giving off the strong emotional energy similar to a Cryptid but wasn't moving. This took them into a warehouse where eventually they opened a door to a broom closet. Inside the broom closet, in addition to the things one would expect to find, was an anomalous distortion of air. When Pitch focused his vision on it he could see something past the ripple that wasn't the wall behind it that looked like a room. Not just any room, but the room they were in. It was like a mirror only the soldiers weren't reflected. “It's a rift to the Fear Realm.” Pitch gasped. “What the heck are we supposed to do about it?”

  Anderson rifled through his gear for a moment before pulling out what looked like a small Bluetooth speaker. He turned it on and it started emitting an ultrasound frequency that couldn't be heard by humans but Pitch could feel it in its true form. When Anderson brought the device closer to the rift it distorted further and eventually vanished. “It's not fully gone, we have to keep this thing here for a while and possibly even replace it. This is basically a smaller version of the tech they used to keep The Triangle in check but that also uses bursts of light in frequencies outside the normal human visible spectrum.”

  Pitch’s body slumped. “This feels like putting a bandage on a bullet wound. This doesn't treat the problem, just a symptom. It's obvious the barriers between worlds are wearing thin or something and we're going to see more of these rifts and more Cryptids from the Fear Realm seeping through.” Anderson nodded. “Yeah, but there's not much we can do about the root of this problem yet. We can't fight Phobos if he's held up in the Fear Realm. Even if we could, we are not exactly equipped to handle him yet. We just have to keep buying time until we are ready.” Pitch sighed. “I just want things to be nice and peaceful so I can relax.”

  Anderson sighed and nodded. “I have to run some of my men for medical treatment since the first aid I did was only enough to keep them alive till we could extract them. So we'll be separating into two groups. You'll take the Cryptids to the lab, I'll take the injured to be treated.” Pitch shifted to his human form. “You can count on me.” The vehicles split into groups with the injured going one way and the captured monsters going the other. The captured Cryptids were brought into a door of NexGen and moved to the lab. The radio went off reporting sightings at the edge of town of some sort of giant serpent.

  Pitch sighed. “Well it looks like we're getting deployed right away again. We'll hit the HQ on the way there and grab a few people to replace the ones we lost and someone with rank to lead you guys. Arnold should be free since he wasn't deployed with us before.” The soldiers salute and head back into the car while Pitch and Kathryn look at them with knitted eyebrows. “It almost feels like they are treating you like a sub-commander on par with Anderson or Hammer. It's quite the departure from when they were scared to death of you before even knowing what you looked like behind the mask.”

  Pitch nodded. “Yeah, it feels weird, but I'll allow it. Anyway, I've got more work to do, I'll see you at home.” He gave Kathryn a kiss on the cheek. “Don't forget what I said about the sundress. Make sure to wear the underwear that goes with it as well.” With a smile and a wave Pitch went off leaving Kathryn flustered and red in the face. Pitch quickly made his way to Black Eagle headquarters to grab a new containment vehicle and men led by Hammer before heading out to the location. Based on the coordinates of the sightings, the monster was somewhere in the forest near Blue Cheese Farms.

  The two vehicles moved fast through the streets, lights and sirens blaring as they weaved through traffic. Once in the outskirts, traffic became less of an obstacle allowing them to go full speed down the roads. Once they reached the closest point to the location they could by car the two groups of five hopped out and started walking into the woods as a single unit. Hammer hummed lightly as the group moved forward. “You know, it's kinda weird that you can and grabbed me to command the squadron. You've been here longer than I have.”

  Pitch waved dismissively. “I'm just a consultant, I don't even have a rank within the Black Eagle. You may be relatively new, but you're a sub-commander. You're one spot under Ishwada. I have no authority to actually give orders, just like how people in the organization have no authority to give me orders.” Hammer chuckled. “Most people who work in this location would argue otherwise. As far as they are concerned, you outrank both myself and Anderson. Ishwada trusts you more than anyone else in the entire region, and that's saying something because he's in charge of all the Black Eagle soldiers in the state of Wisconsin.”

  Pitch let out a low hum as he looked at the patches of melted snow. “I can't believe it's already April again. The years sure do go by. I've been a monster for nearly a decade now.” Hammer nodded. “Yeah, that's crazy. But we should focus on finding the giant snake Cryptid.” Pitch nodded and turned his focus forward, looking for signs of giant snake movement. When Pitch noticed broken branches and marks like something was being dragged awkwardly, he knew he was in the right trail.

  After following trails for a while, Pitch heard the soul of a snapping twig and stopped dead in his tracks, indicating for the group to do the same. They looked around for the Cryptid only for some small animal to bolt out of a bush. Hammer was about to let out a sigh of relief when he noticed Pitch was still on guard. Hammer whispered lightly. “Pitch hasn't eased up, so neither should you. He can sense Cryptids after all.” Everyone kept their weapons up but that didn't keep the group from being ambushed as something came in like a blur and attacked one of the soldiers.

  The person dropped to the ground screaming and shooting with large gashes in their body as everyone started shooting at the culprit. Pitch focused his attention to see that although the monster was definitely a serpent in parts, but it had an extremely human looking torso. Its head and lower body were of a snake, resembling a cobra to an extent with the neck frill while having the torso of a human female but with scales and deadly looking claws. “A hybrid?” Pitch asked out loud. “Be extra careful and try not to kill it.”