Klick-clak went the rickety wooden wheels as they rolled down the uneven path, overlapping the idle hum of the APC’s engine. Some genius in the R&D team had opted to disguise the vehicle as a massive carriage for this operation, as though the sight of a motor vehicle would cause the peasants of this world to riot in terror. It was a good disguise too; lacquered red panels gilded gold covered every inch of heavy armor and oversized wheels rolled beside reluctant tires. A seat had been affixed to the front of the APC so a faux-driver could hold the point and a team of eight extremely unhappy horses had been given the task of pulling it along.

It had been a quiet trip so far but Satori was beginning to have doubts…

Not in the hunt, Satori loved a challenge and today promised to be quite the hurdle, but in forming an alliance with non-Shin-Ra agents. A dark god was plaguing these lands this world needed saving before his fell touch consumed the entire world and it had been Satori herself who had proposed an alliance between those disjointed heroes who had arrived, but that didn’t mean she liked it, she just didn’t want to be greedy especially when they weren’t the first ones on the scene. Even a hunter followed a code of honor, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Satori was a tall girl in her late teens with a lean predatory body and skin as pale as the moon itself. She was riding shotgun in front of the carriage with her knee-length coat tucked underneath her bottom, it was a gentle shade of white-pink that stood out against the dreary background that had been hemmed in black and dyed crimson along the inside, sleeves currently folded up at the elbow. Beneath that she wore simple functional black clothing including a pair of teethed boots and a pair of clawed gauntlets. She was far from unarmored but in a more traditional manner than one might expect for a military commander with a large blade hanging off of her left hip, a modestly sized warhammer strapped to her back, and an ornate handgun on her left. Over that coat she wore a white furred cloak as though she needed to protect herself from the cold and her black hair had been tucked in a wide-brimmed hat colored the same soft pink as her coat.

Shin-Ra Industries had opted to send their two most occult-savvy agents to deal with the dark god gone wild. Satori herself was something more than human as evidenced by the eerie glow in her gaze and the chattering shadows that crowded around her. Her pretty face frozen in mid-puberty for all of eternity. A glamorous monster with enough vanity to more than make up for Nergal, the newly hired dark knight who was even now preparing himself with a dark ritual in the back of the APC, and likely causing undue distress to the other occupants. The driver wore a dapper black suit but beneath that was a hollow suit of metal moving with a mind of name, once code-named Katana the mountainous black automaton was an empty headed bodyguard assigned to protect those with Shinra blood pumping through their veins, but not particularly inclined towards self-preservation.

Before them stood the Plague Forest. Well the locals weren’t exactly the most creative people but one couldn’t fault their honesty. An endless stretch of dead forest that eventually led to a vicious mountain range where their quarry supposedly lay in wait. With a twist she called back into the faux-carriage, “Well gentlemen, if any of you are having doubts I suggest you voice them now. From here there’s no turning back.”