Smoothing the front of her blouse and fluffing her short brown hair, the female Cat Faunus newscaster cleared her throat as she looked to her cameraman. "Do I look alright?" She said as she raised her wireless microphone to her face. Her cameraman, sporting a bright red ball cap and blonde mustache with a goatee, gave her a silent nod and thumbs-up. With a vivacious expression, the young newscaster smiled as the camera began to roll. "GOOOOD MORNING to everyone in Vale! I'm your host Mary-Ann Delilah and today we're continuing our ongoing documentary series on the Grimm of Legend! Brought to you by the Vale News Network!" Trying her best 'creepy expression', she made 'grabby hands' with her fingers as she finished up with her deepest tone of voice. "The Cursed Few! OooooOOOooh!" Giggling, she ignored the odd looks from the detectives and police officers walking by her. Turning slightly, she motioned with an arm towards the front of the Vale Police Department. "Starting off, we're going to get an insider look from Hunter-Veteran-turned-Local-Police-Captain on a popular Grimm that's been floating around the Internet for some time, Jormundgandr! The World Eater Snake! Are the documents leaked to the public true? Or are they all some elaborate hoax? Well, we've got the scoop and are going to get answers from a first-hand personal account from the Vale Police Captain himself! Allons-y!" Pointing at the camera, she winked and grinned.
"Uh, sir?" A plainclothes detective carrying a clipboard in her hands entered the office a man with stark white hair that reached down to his shoulders. Gelled and slicked back.
"Hrm?" The man grunted in response, looking up from his computer terminal at his desk ever so slightly.
"We have a reporter with the Vale News Network here." The woman continued.
"And?" The gravelly voiced man asked.
"She and her cameraman are saying she has some interview scheduled with you?"
The man absently looked at the silver watch on his left wrist. "...And?"
"She's...causing a bit of a ruckus, sir. You might want to go see about this." The woman said as she turned to leave his office.
Gray eyes looking out the window of his office towards the front of the receptionist's desk, he saw the reporter and sighed. Placing his hand on his temple, he shook his head and stroked at his white mustache and beard. Piping hot mug of black coffee sitting on his desk, he stood and grabbed it as he left his office. Walking towards the front, other officers came to him to have him sign this form or that paperwork. Keeping him informed with various tidbits of information from a number of cases they were investigating at the time. His response a simple grunt or 'Yeah.' or 'Okay.' Coming within earshot he felt a headache immediately grip his skull as he heard the young reporter's shrill voice.
"What do you mean Captain Drummond isn't available for an interview or comment?! We scheduled an interview with him days in advance!" She slammed her palms on the desk. Mary-Ann said through gritted fangs, a vein pulsing in her forehead.
The poor sap that sat at the front desk put up his hands in an attempt to have her calm down and lower her voice. "Ma'am, he's a very busy man. You have to understand this and as I've said, you'll have to reschedule and come back at a later date. Now please leave the premises or we'll have to escort you out." The officer-at-the-desk obviously didn't know how to handle such an irate customer.
"Reschedule? We can't reschedule! You'll have to get every officer in here to force me out before I leave without my scoop! Escort my a-"Pointed fingers, shaking fists and slamming palms all ceased as Captain Drummond arrived at the front desk to see what all the commotion was. Though he was getting on in years, the Captain still had the vigor and strength equivalent to a young Hunter in their 20s. Tall and with a perpetual stone-faced expression, his arrival alone was enough to subjugate any riotous ne'er-do-well and quell even the most chaotic protest. Gray eyes staring down at the comparatively small Faunus reporter, "What's going on here?" he spoke softly in his raspy voice.
The young girl seemed to shrink at the sight of Captain Drummond and all of her 'fight' drained out of her. "W-we scheduled an interview w-with y-you...sir." Captain Drummond sighed and smoothly pivoted on the spot, turning to walk away. "Follow me." Mary-Ann looked to her Cameraman and back at the receptionist twice before barging past the front desk to follow after the intimidating police captain. To no one in particular, Captain Drummond bellowed out to his fellow subordinates. "Interview in the Interrogation Room, have two officers standing by in the Observation Room!" He took a sip of his hot coffee as he walked. "Aye, sir!" the collective of officers responded. Mary-Ann halted in her tracks and jumped with a start when the Captain spoke with such sudden volume. Turning to her Cameraman, however, she grinned and gave a thumbs up as she quickly regained her composure and chased after the swiftly moving man.
They had been sitting there for some time in silence. Captain Drummond sat on one end of the table with his mug of coffee. Mary-Ann sat on the other side, with her Cameraman standing behind her filming. Fidgeting in her chair, Mary-Ann looked around the room. It was small, with white painted walls. A visible camera blinked with a small red light on the corner of a wall, showing that they too were being filmed and monitored. A 'glass' window was to one side, which Mary-Ann could only guess was a one-way mirror into the 'Observation' room. The chairs and table were made of cold metal, and she constantly had to adjust in her seat to try and stay comfortable. All in all, it was pretty much what Mary-Ann had imagined an interrogation room to be. No frills, no misperceptions as to what it was. Not that she had ever really seen the inside of one of these rooms. She had been a good kitty all her life. She was just having an issue as to how to proceed.
Patience running thin finally, Captain Drummond leaned back in his chair and cleared his throat as he was the first to finally say something. "Well? We're here. What's this all about?" Before Mary-Ann could speak, the Captain put up a hand to stop her, "If this is about those Faunus Protests and the recent Terrorist Attacks, I've already made my address to the public and won't be saying anything more on the matter. As my officers have told you, I'm a busy man. I don't like wasting time. I hate having my time wasted." He said as he crossed his arms. His black mug of black coffee oddly had a bright red heart on it, steam still rising from the hot liquid within as Mary-Ann noticed.
"U-uh, w-well. I'm Mary-Ann Delilah with the Vale News Net-" She spoke slowly, carefully. Afraid the Captain might bite her head off.
"I know who you are, cut to the chase and answer my question." Captain Drummond cut her off again. His tolerance for her was waning.
"....Ah, we are doing this documentary series on legendary Grimm." She continued.
"Huh. Okay." He remarked.
"A-and today we're doing an episode on...J-jormungandr."
The Captain's expression grew even stonier, if it were possible. Clenching his jaw, he reached into his trouser pockets and slipped out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Go on."
"Looking at the documents that were made available to the public, your name was mentioned as one of the surviving Hunters still alive to date. We were wondering if you could give us any more information as to the validity of the documents and maybe give a few personal accounts."
Slipping out a cigarette from his pack, he flicked the lighter and ignited the end of his cancer stick. Putting it to his lips, he took a long drag and exhaled a thin stream of smoke off to the side. Frowning and immediately coughing, Mary-Ann questioned him "Uh, c-can you smoke in here, sir?"
"Nope. You can tell my supervisors they can shove it too, if they see this. I rate. They can kiss my fuckin' ass." The Captain eyed the cameraman and motioned with his cigarette hand towards it. "This isn't live or anything, is it? You can edit that out?" Mary-Ann looked at her cameraman and back at the Captain. "No, sir. It's not live. We can edit out any expletives if we need to." The Captain took another drag and exhaled another stream of acrid smoke from his lungs, "Good." At that moment, a voice crackled on the intercom to the room, "Sir, should we cut the audio and video feed?" The Captain dismissed the intercom with a wave of his hand, ignoring Mary-Ann who jumped with a start again. "No need. Keep it rolling." The voice did not respond. Mary-Ann was left looking around the room, curious as to where the voice suddenly came from.
The Captain continued to smoke, pausing to take a few sips of his coffee every now and then. "Well, what is it that you want to know? You told me yourself you already looked at the publicly released documents." He leaned forward, causing Mary-Ann to lean backward. "It's all right there." Mary-Ann gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. "I-...Is it all true though? S-sir." The man, approximately in his 50s simply responded, "Yup." Mary-Ann, skeptical and unbelieving, pressed the question more. "But how am I and our viewers are to believe what you say about it is true?" At this, Captain Drummond set his cigarette down on the edge of his mug, perfectly balancing it. Reaching toward one of his shoulders, he rolled his neck and gripped hard as he began to twist and turn his arm. With a few mechanical clicks, Captain Drummond unlocked his artificial arm and removed it from the socket. Tossing his false arm onto the table in front of him with a loud crash, Mary-Ann yelped and jumped out of her seat backing up into her cameraman. His coffee spilled slightly from the sudden motion, the cigarette sizzling in a small puddle of brown coffee. With his other-still-attached arm, he picked up the still smoldering cigarette and continued to smoke. "Because I'm still fucking alive." Mary-Ann looked at the mechanical arm on the table and to the Captain. Faunus ears twitching, she heard it now. The various mechanisms and gears clicking and servos whirring with each of the Captain's movements. Cameraman acting as her support, she guided herself back to her seat, silent for the moment. "That's not the only part of me that's detachable, sweetheart." The Captain dryly chuckled. "I think the doctors once told me close to 70% of my body is kept running by artificial limb replacements and organs replicated in some lab." As the Captain took another drag of his coffee-cigarette, he chuckled again. "They said it was a miracle that I'm alive. Said I only had some... .0257% of survival. Shows them what they know. Ain't technology grand?"
He unbuttoned his white-collared shirt slightly to reveal the nub where his left arm should have been. Reattaching his arm and slipping it through the long-sleeve of his shirt, he flexed his fingers before buttoning his shirt back up. "But, alright. I'll fucking bite. If only to prove to the world what we decided to release to public knowledge is true and to keep more reporters like you from coming back. You see, that was an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events. Countless lives were lost and blood was spilled for that fucking information. Yet, it was so unbelievable in its truth, that some of the public decided it to be some hoax or some scare tactic. Started coming up with their own theories as to what was the 'actual' truth. Idiots." Finished with his current cigarette, the man removed and lit another, much to Mary-Ann's disgust. By now, Mary-Ann's listening cap was on, her microphone presented toward the Captain's face.
Sighing, the Captain cracked his neck and leaned forward to speak into the microphone as clearly as he could. Staring straight into the eye of the camera the cameraman was holding, he decided to properly introduce himself. "My name is Captain Drummond of the Vale Police Department. I graduated from Beacon Academy close to 30+ years ago as one of their top Hunters. After 20+ years of service as a Hunter, I retired and became a police officer where I would spend the next 10 or so years riding my way to the top until my eventual promotion to my current position. I'm here to dispel any moronic rumors about what happened during the events of the Territorial Push and our clashings with the Grimm named 'Jormungandr: The World Eater Snake.'"
Reaching into his pocket, the Captain removed his Scroll and did a quick Oogle search for a world map. Displaying the map and turning it so that Mary-Ann and the camera could see, he pointed a sharp finger at a small island. Directly to the South of Vale, near the bottom of the map. "There, right fucking there. That's where that fucking Devil is." Mary-Ann and the cameraman leaned in to peer at the small island, leaning back after they were satisfied. Minimizing the map, he locked his Scroll and pocketed it. Rubbing his temples, he sighed wearily. Painful memories tortured his mind as he recalled them, his entire body aching in remembrance.
"Like I've said earlier, I was a young Hunter like most any other. I was strong, I was fast, I was young. Smart, but not too smart. Bold, but not foolishly so. After I graduated from Beacon, it was time for me to enter the 'real world' and partake in missions of my own. The population was growing, but the land we inhabited was shrinking. It was hard for the economy to continue prospering in such confined spaces. We had to expand, we had to grow. So, there was a massive mission that was posted. Calling for the formation of some large Expeditionary Hunter Force. There were thousands of us that signed up, possibly even hundreds of thousands. Hunters abandoned minor missions and other menial tasks to refocus all of their attention towards what we called the 'Territorial Push'. With battalions of Hunters, we figured there was no way we could fail. We were right, to a point. We were successful in expanding our territorial lines enough to alleviate the strain on our people. Well, I say 'we', but I mean the majority of the EHF. That's right, that's the stupid acronym it was given. Anyways, The main push was for expansion of the land. But, I was part of a division of Hunters that sought to cross the seas in search of resources and habitable areas. That little island I showed you earlier? That was where we ended up."
He stopped to take a hearty gulp of his coffee, another few long drags of his second cigarette. As the old man took his moment to regain memories long pushed to the back of his mind, Mary-Ann and her cameraman were silent. She took this moment to examine the Captain's features. Long white hair that reached his shoulders, gelled and slicked straight back and down. Fierce gray eyes and a neatly trimmed white mustache and full beard. His attire was similar that of the other detectives and officers in the Police Department, but the few key differences made it apparent that he was the highest ranking officer in the building. His voice was scratchy, probably not helped by his smoking habits. Although it was revealed to her that most of his body was more artificial than anything, she would've never known that he had ever sustained such injuries if he hadn't told her. Though well into his approximate 50s, there was still a fire about him that burned strongly. He seemed stressed and tired, but still retained a sort of 'old-man' strength and energy about him. Eyes trailing over his fingers, she noticed he didn't wear a wedding band or sport the tan lines of one.
Clearing his throat, Mary-Ann jumped at the sound. Captain Drummond continued, "The island was small, but any amount of land was more than we had to begin with. It was gorgeous, with plenty of exploitable terrain and resources. Clean waters, wood, stone, and the bounty of the sea surrounding it for food. There was potentially high chances of there being metallic ore beneath the ground had we ever been able to get an excavation team there. Buncha stuff there that we could use, but there was something wrong about the island. As we explored around the perimeter of the island and pushed deeper inland, we discovered that there was no local wildlife. No Grimm, no weird Faunus tribes, not even so much as a fucking mosquito. We didn't think too much of it at the time, but that should've been our biggest warning. We figured it was maybe just because of the way the island was ocean-locked that no life other than plant life thrived there. I don't fucking know, I'm not a scientist. Don't ask me for information about that kind of shit, I'm bound to get some stupid fact wrong."
Mary-Ann nervously laughed, the Captain chuckling with her, coughing afterwards. Clearing his throat after his coughing fit, he patted his chest. Mary-Ann, concerned, sat up and offered him a drink. "Uh, do you want to stop here and get a drink of water or something, sir?" The Captain coughed a few more times before shaking his head, "No, I'm fine, sweet thing. I might as well get this story over with so we can all be on our way." Mary-Ann's eye twitched at being called 'sweet thing', but she returned to her seat, raptly listening to the old Captain. "After all of the Hunter teams had thoroughly explored the surroundings of the island and pushed deeper inland, we discovered there was a series of interlinking caves. Some network of caves that were all connected together, deep underground. Being as curious as we were, we decided to go ahead and push through to make as complete of a map as we could." The Captain sighed softly and shook his head slowly. "We should've just packed our bags then and there and left. Never to return"
"But, as young and stupid as we all were, and desperate to prove ourselves and to serve our countrymen, explore the cave systems we did. For the most part, it was the same deal as the rest of the island. Not a bit of life to be found anywhere. Just dirt, rock, and some shiny stuff in the walls of the cave. I guess it was metal or something. Again, I'm no geologist, so don't quote me on that shit. Much to our surprise, we all discovered that in the middle of the cave systems was a single central connection point. From which you could leave out of any other cave to return to the island proper above. At this center point, was a deep hole that lead straight down into the island..."
At this point, Captain Drummond stared at his coffee mug in front of him. Silent for a few straight minutes, taking drags from his now-third cigarette. The cigarette butts from the others set next to his mug along with their ashes. "That Gods-forsaken abyssal void..." Mary-Ann looked back to her cameraman, then back at Captain Drummond. "S-sir? Are you alright?" The female faunus leaned forward, tilting her head to see if she could read something on his expression. Looking at her as if he just woke up from dozing off, he continued his tale. "I know this is going to sound cliche but, it all happened so suddenly. We didn't know what hit us. From that hellhole it awoke, some terrible monstrosity that makes any other Grimm a whiny piss-baby by comparison. Down there, it was too dark to really see much except the lights we had with us. We had no idea how large it was, but it was fast, it was angry, and it was hungry. Like some hibernating Ursa Major that was poked too many times by some punk-ass kids, it woke up and was enraged that it was woken from its slumber. Rage-filled, save for its starved belly. Our division was hundreds strong, but within seconds it reduced us all to the double-digits. When it erupted from out of that hole, it just started eating. Some Hunters didn't have a chance, being devoured by it in the blink of an eye. Others were unfortunate enough to put up a few seconds fight, only to be promptly defeated. Crushed, torn, ripped apart, and disappearing into its body to be devoured. The Captain paused, faint memories of the fallen crying out to him within his recollections. The feeling of warm blood coating everything around him in the dense darkness. An imperceptible chill crawled its way up his spine.
"Somehow, I lived. In my cowardice, I saw the hellacious situation we were in and I was able to flee. Call it luck, call it whatever you will. But it ignored me as I ran, too busy consuming the other Hunters who were unable to run. I wasn't alone, however. A few others were able to make it out and we high-tailed it to the shoreline over the next few hours, where the boats waited for us. Never before had I run so fast for so far for so long. As soon as we hit that water and got the boats to us, we immediately contacted higher command and notified them of the situation we were in. That we were pulling out." The captain locked eye contact with Mary-Ann. "Can you believe they tried to get us to go back and fight? Normally, if it were any other Grimm or any other time and place in any other situation, we would've never run. We would've stayed and fought until the bitter end, but this...We couldn't handle it with the numbers we had fresh. How in the hell did they expect us fight with the numbers we had tired and beaten?! Hah! So, a younger me got on the hook and gave them a right-ass chewing. After a nice bitch session, they understood and authorized our withdrawal. It broke my heart to leave behind so many of my fallen friends, but we would be back for revenge."
He took another drag of his cigarette, another sip of his now-warm coffee. "Or so I had wished. Regrouping a few days later, we returned with a much larger force than we had the first time. Using the information we had, we perceived it to be nocturnal and live deep underground. We-" At this moment, Mary-Ann decided to speak up and ask a question. "Ah, sir? If the situation was so bad the first time around, why go back and waste more lives?" The Captain smirked, "Desperate times called for desperate measures, right? At the time, we were severely hurting for resources and land. We chalked up our first loss as a fluke, that it caught us off guard. Now that we knew what we were going up against, we believed we had a better shot at conquering the beast and claiming the island as ours. As you can imagine, we were wrong. Dead wrong. Making landfall during the day, our reinforced EHF division had a notion to make a direct charge at the creature. But we were wrong about it being nocturnal. Hell, we were wrong about everything. This time, just as we were prepared for it. It was prepared for us. As soon as we set foot on the island, it somehow knew we were there. It could smell us. And it was still as angry and hungry as it was before. Surrounding the entirety of island's perimeter, we hadn't even started to make camp on the shoreline when it burst from the treelines and starting rampaging, quick to get to work killing Hunters and eating them.
Mary-Ann frowned, which caused the Captain to stop. She asked, "Wait, which treeline? Where did it start its attack?"
The captain darkly chuckled. "Every treeline. Every where."
Incredulous, Mary-Ann tried to clarify. "What do you mean every treeline, everywhere? I don't think there are even Daturas that could possibly be the size of an entire island!"
The Captain leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms. Cigarette in between his lips.
Mary-Ann's mouth hung open, Captain Drummond continuing. "Somehow, whatever came out that hole in those caves, could grow and expand to reach every corner of the island. Because of this, there was no way to hide from it. No way of surrounding it and attacking its flanks. We just gave it the convenience of giving ourselves nowhere to run but to the skies or seas. Like a mass of black serpents or tendrils or tentacles, it just burst forth from wherever and overwhelmed us by its sheer size, number, and ferocity. At first we thought they were separate entities, but that was quickly disproved. It was as if a bunch of snakes with the ability to multiply and regenerate acted as one, as a hivemind. We tried everything, naval and aerial bombardments in some feeble attempt to weaken it before inserting. Attacking at night, attacking during the day. I say attacking but in reality it was more like lambs to the slaughterhouse. Nothing worked. It never gave up, it never let up. The moment we set foot on its island it was mad and wanted our blood. We had not even the slightest idea how anyone could ever hope to defeat it, let alone survive an encounter with it. We had no idea how it got there, we had no idea WHY it was there. So many questions, years of attempting to combat it, years attempting to learn and research. All for naught. Nothing but time, money, resources, and energy wasted."
Captain Drummond sighed, growing weary with this 'interview'. "I spent around 20 years as a Hunter. 10 of those 20 spent on that Island, somehow surviving every time. 5 of those 10 'fighting' it. 5 of the remaining years spent recovering after it finally got me. After I had fully healed, it was the one Grimm that caused me to retire. If such creatures out there exist in the world, what hope do we possibly have? So, I joined the Police Force. Much easier dealing with people than it is Grimm sometimes. It's only a matter of time before we're overrun and pushed to extinction. Why not try and make the best of it while we're still around?" He took one final drag of his cigarette before snuffing it out. Mary-Ann looked confused, "Wait, what? That's it?"
Captain Drummond looked irritated and annoyed, "Yes, kitty-cat, that's it. What else could you possibly want to know?
Mary-Ann stuttered, "I-uh..you- ...we-"
Captain Drummond stood, throwing back his chair against the wall with a clatter. "WHAT ELSE DO YOU POSSIBLY WANT TO KNOW?!" He suddenly burst out in a rage. Mary-Ann and the cameraman backed up against the opposite wall in shaking fear at his outburst. "I SPENT A MAJORITY OF MY LIFE, WATCHING AS THAT FUCKING DEMON CUT DOWN MY FRIENDS! MY BROTHERS! MY SISTERS! AS IF THEY WERE WET PAPER! AS IF ALL THEIR YEARS OF TRAINING TO BE HUNTERS MEANT NOTHING TO THAT HELLSPAWN!" Mary-Ann shrunk, being driven to tears in fear at the Captain. The Captain's face growing a deep red as his veins bulged. "WE TRIED EVERYTHING AGAINST THAT THING! EVERY SINGLE THING IN OUR ARSENAL MEANT NOTHING AGAINST IT!" The Captain grabbed the side of the table and flipped it with tremendous strength to crash against the wall to his side. His black and red Heart coffee mug in pieces. Stomping over to the cameraman and Mary-Ann, he scooped the both of them up by their collars and lifted them up. Pressing them against the wall to their backs. Trembling with utter fear, Mary-Ann could feel his hot breath as he harshly uttered a few more words to them. "You want to know something more? That creature let me live on purpose. That first night in those fucking caves, I saw it. I saw its fucking face. Its eyes. The fucking skeletal face of some twisted mutant Deer, antlers and all. Bright red eyes more numerous than a fucking spider's dotting its fucking skull. You want to know what I saw in those eyes? What I felt?"
Mary-Ann had tears freely streaming from her eyes, she was afraid to answer him.
Captain Drummond shook her, "DO YOU?!"
She meekly cried out, "Y-yes.."
"I saw it laughing at me. When I met its eyes, I saw it laughing because it made up its mind. It decided that it would let me fucking live, that's what I felt. It knew I would be back, time and time again. So, it picked me to be one of the sole survivors to fucking torture me. To PLAY with me. As I could feel it mocking and jeering me, as if my existence was so insignificant to it. That it could snuff me out at that moment and that would be the end of it. But no, it decided to give me purpose. The purpose of messenger to the rest of the world as to what it was. In that moment, I could feel every fiber of my being shaking with an intense rage that shook me to my very core, my very soul. A hatred so strong I felt as though my body would just spontaneously combust. A hunger so yearning that my stomach sickly twisted and turned threatening to grow teeth of its own to chew its way out of my body. I felt...What it felt. The desire to stop at nothing but to consume everything in its gluttony. Those little masses of serpents? Just some of its many fingers. All part of a larger being whose sheer size would dwarf entire mountain ranges. Its body composed of those constantly multiplying snakes and tentacles, constantly regenerating and regrowing." Letting the reporter and her cameraman go, he walked into the center of the room and turned his back to them. Sighing, he picked up the tables and chairs and reset them back in their normal spot. Sucking his teeth when he saw the shattered remains of his coffee mug, he returned to his seat and shook his head. That was his favorite mug. Running a hand through his hair to make sure it was still as slicked back as ever, he wiped his hand on his trousers and bowed his head. Interlocking his fingers together in front of him.
Mary-Ann, blinked in confusion, still sniffling and sobbing. Chest heaving from utter terror at the old Captain. Somehow, she still found her dedication towards her job and turned to her cameraman, "B-brandon, a-are y-y-you s-s-till rec-cording all of th-this?" Brandon was trembling, shaking just as much as her, but he nodded silently and gave her another thumbs up. "G-g-got i-it all." He responded. The Captain looked up at their blubbering and let out an exasperated sound, he motioned towards their chairs with a hand. "I do apologize. I just...I still have nightmares about those years. It makes me...emotionally unstable sometimes. Please, have a seat. I didn't mean to terrorize you like that." Mary-Ann carefully made her way back to her chair and sat down. With a trembling hand, she presented the microphone to Captain Drummond once again.
"We tried. We tried everything."
The old man rubbed at his eyes and face.
With every indication of profound loss and resignation, he uttered out "Everything.."
"It was time to end it all. Vale had finally had enough and was finally going to pull the plug on the whole operation. It was then, as I was about to say goodbye to the fucking thing, it got me just before I set foot on the back ramp of the beach landing craft. One final time, it wanted to remind me of what it decided for me to become. It made an example out of me. Tore all four of my limbs from my body. Smacked me against the trees a couple times so hard that I broke nearly every bone in my body. Ruptured multiple organs and had massive internal bleeding. Cracked my skull, gave me a bit of brain damage too. Then to add further insult to injury it tossed my broken ass into the ocean." The Captain looked up at Mary-Ann whose face was frozen in a different flavor of sheer horror. He laughed darkly, he recognized that look in her eyes. The look that said "HOW are you still alive?". "Took a long fucking time but I recovered. Somehow. Even got to keep my devilish good looks, for my age at least. I've heard that people consider me a tough son-of-a-bitch. Can't say they're wrong. Anyways, to time to wrap this up. After all was said and done, the fucking hell beast was given a name. Jormungandr, the World Eater Snake. I laughed on my hospital bed when I found that out. A naval blockade was placed surrounding the island, well out of reach of Jormungandr. The air space was declared a no-fly-zone, above it. We didn't dare test the range of its reach, but the one thing we were sure about was that it could never leave that forsaken island. For some reason, it couldn't migrate through the ocean. Which again brought up questions as to how it got there in the first place and why did it exist, but those questions never got answered. Come the day of days, the decision was made to gather up all known information on it and release it to the other nations and to the public. After a brief media scare, things died down and after 10 or so years, apparently it's some internet hoax or craze now."
"I can assure you, it's not. Go there if you want, but the only thing you'll find there is death and destruction. It's the perfect vacation spot for those of you out there that have a death wish." He snapped his fingers. "Like that, your wish is granted. Won't ever see or hear it coming. From what I know, the island is still being cordoned off and patrolled by a small fleet of our battleships. Constantly being observed by our eyes in the skies. If you want to know anything else, read the declassified documents or go bother some other survivor if they're still around. Won't get much from the dead, however. That's all I have for you two. We're done here. Leave. " Bowing his head low, he was unresponsive or unmoving as Mary-Ann and Brandon got up and headed towards the door. Trying the knob, Mary-Ann realized it was still locked. After a second, a loud click was heard, she tried the door again and it was unlocked. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that they had been watched and monitored the entire time. Did the entire police force know Captain Drummond's story? Leaving the room with Brandon, a police escort lead her through the office spaces and back towards the front without saying a word. Turning to look around at the other officers, it was the same as when she had first come in during the day. Nothing had changed, life continued for the officers. Frowning, Mary-Ann wiped at her dried tears and decided to quickly leave with Brandon. Outside, they would wrap up the footage for the day and head home. After giving the recordings to the Vale News Network and with some heavy editing, Jormungandr: The World Eater Snake episode of The Cursed Few Documentary Series would be one of their most popular running episodes to date.
The same detective from before, with the clipboard, walked into the room. Standing at Captain Drummond's side, the old man barely looked up as an orange prescription bottle with a white cap was set in front of him. Along with the medication, she set down a replica black coffee mug with bright red heart on it filled with hot black coffee. Smirking and scoffing, the Captain opened the cap and popped two pills. Washing it down with scalding hot coffee to chase it with. "So?"
"Well, Beacon Academy recently assigned missions to their Freshman Hunters."
Captain Drummond took another sip of his coffee, "And? How are they doing?"
"We're receiving some incoming calls about them.
The Captain smirked and shook his head, "So it's like that, huh? Alright, let's get back to work." The Captain stood, walking out of the interrogation room with the female detective. As they left, a janitor came in prepared to clean and tidy the room. In the observation room, the two officers left quietly without a word. The day resuming as per normal for them all.
A few minutes later...
"Uh, sir?" A plainclothes detective carrying a clipboard in her hands entered the office a man with stark white hair that reached down to his shoulders. Gelled and slicked back.
"Hrm?" The man grunted in response, looking up from his computer terminal at his desk ever so slightly.
"We have a reporter with the Vale News Network here." The woman continued.
"And?" The gravelly voiced man asked.
"She and her cameraman are saying she has some interview scheduled with you?"
The man absently looked at the silver watch on his left wrist. "...And?"
"She's...causing a bit of a ruckus, sir. You might want to go see about this." The woman said as she turned to leave his office.
Gray eyes looking out the window of his office towards the front of the receptionist's desk, he saw the reporter and sighed. Placing his hand on his temple, he shook his head and stroked at his white mustache and beard. Piping hot mug of black coffee sitting on his desk, he stood and grabbed it as he left his office. Walking towards the front, other officers came to him to have him sign this form or that paperwork. Keeping him informed with various tidbits of information from a number of cases they were investigating at the time. His response a simple grunt or 'Yeah.' or 'Okay.' Coming within earshot he felt a headache immediately grip his skull as he heard the young reporter's shrill voice.
"What do you mean Captain Drummond isn't available for an interview or comment?! We scheduled an interview with him days in advance!" She slammed her palms on the desk. Mary-Ann said through gritted fangs, a vein pulsing in her forehead.
The poor sap that sat at the front desk put up his hands in an attempt to have her calm down and lower her voice. "Ma'am, he's a very busy man. You have to understand this and as I've said, you'll have to reschedule and come back at a later date. Now please leave the premises or we'll have to escort you out." The officer-at-the-desk obviously didn't know how to handle such an irate customer.
"Reschedule? We can't reschedule! You'll have to get every officer in here to force me out before I leave without my scoop! Escort my a-"Pointed fingers, shaking fists and slamming palms all ceased as Captain Drummond arrived at the front desk to see what all the commotion was. Though he was getting on in years, the Captain still had the vigor and strength equivalent to a young Hunter in their 20s. Tall and with a perpetual stone-faced expression, his arrival alone was enough to subjugate any riotous ne'er-do-well and quell even the most chaotic protest. Gray eyes staring down at the comparatively small Faunus reporter, "What's going on here?" he spoke softly in his raspy voice.
The young girl seemed to shrink at the sight of Captain Drummond and all of her 'fight' drained out of her. "W-we scheduled an interview w-with y-you...sir." Captain Drummond sighed and smoothly pivoted on the spot, turning to walk away. "Follow me." Mary-Ann looked to her Cameraman and back at the receptionist twice before barging past the front desk to follow after the intimidating police captain. To no one in particular, Captain Drummond bellowed out to his fellow subordinates. "Interview in the Interrogation Room, have two officers standing by in the Observation Room!" He took a sip of his hot coffee as he walked. "Aye, sir!" the collective of officers responded. Mary-Ann halted in her tracks and jumped with a start when the Captain spoke with such sudden volume. Turning to her Cameraman, however, she grinned and gave a thumbs up as she quickly regained her composure and chased after the swiftly moving man.
In the Interrogation Room
They had been sitting there for some time in silence. Captain Drummond sat on one end of the table with his mug of coffee. Mary-Ann sat on the other side, with her Cameraman standing behind her filming. Fidgeting in her chair, Mary-Ann looked around the room. It was small, with white painted walls. A visible camera blinked with a small red light on the corner of a wall, showing that they too were being filmed and monitored. A 'glass' window was to one side, which Mary-Ann could only guess was a one-way mirror into the 'Observation' room. The chairs and table were made of cold metal, and she constantly had to adjust in her seat to try and stay comfortable. All in all, it was pretty much what Mary-Ann had imagined an interrogation room to be. No frills, no misperceptions as to what it was. Not that she had ever really seen the inside of one of these rooms. She had been a good kitty all her life. She was just having an issue as to how to proceed.
Patience running thin finally, Captain Drummond leaned back in his chair and cleared his throat as he was the first to finally say something. "Well? We're here. What's this all about?" Before Mary-Ann could speak, the Captain put up a hand to stop her, "If this is about those Faunus Protests and the recent Terrorist Attacks, I've already made my address to the public and won't be saying anything more on the matter. As my officers have told you, I'm a busy man. I don't like wasting time. I hate having my time wasted." He said as he crossed his arms. His black mug of black coffee oddly had a bright red heart on it, steam still rising from the hot liquid within as Mary-Ann noticed.
"U-uh, w-well. I'm Mary-Ann Delilah with the Vale News Net-" She spoke slowly, carefully. Afraid the Captain might bite her head off.
"I know who you are, cut to the chase and answer my question." Captain Drummond cut her off again. His tolerance for her was waning.
"....Ah, we are doing this documentary series on legendary Grimm." She continued.
"Huh. Okay." He remarked.
"A-and today we're doing an episode on...J-jormungandr."
The Captain's expression grew even stonier, if it were possible. Clenching his jaw, he reached into his trouser pockets and slipped out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Go on."
"Looking at the documents that were made available to the public, your name was mentioned as one of the surviving Hunters still alive to date. We were wondering if you could give us any more information as to the validity of the documents and maybe give a few personal accounts."
Slipping out a cigarette from his pack, he flicked the lighter and ignited the end of his cancer stick. Putting it to his lips, he took a long drag and exhaled a thin stream of smoke off to the side. Frowning and immediately coughing, Mary-Ann questioned him "Uh, c-can you smoke in here, sir?"
"Nope. You can tell my supervisors they can shove it too, if they see this. I rate. They can kiss my fuckin' ass." The Captain eyed the cameraman and motioned with his cigarette hand towards it. "This isn't live or anything, is it? You can edit that out?" Mary-Ann looked at her cameraman and back at the Captain. "No, sir. It's not live. We can edit out any expletives if we need to." The Captain took another drag and exhaled another stream of acrid smoke from his lungs, "Good." At that moment, a voice crackled on the intercom to the room, "Sir, should we cut the audio and video feed?" The Captain dismissed the intercom with a wave of his hand, ignoring Mary-Ann who jumped with a start again. "No need. Keep it rolling." The voice did not respond. Mary-Ann was left looking around the room, curious as to where the voice suddenly came from.
The Captain continued to smoke, pausing to take a few sips of his coffee every now and then. "Well, what is it that you want to know? You told me yourself you already looked at the publicly released documents." He leaned forward, causing Mary-Ann to lean backward. "It's all right there." Mary-Ann gulped, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. "I-...Is it all true though? S-sir." The man, approximately in his 50s simply responded, "Yup." Mary-Ann, skeptical and unbelieving, pressed the question more. "But how am I and our viewers are to believe what you say about it is true?" At this, Captain Drummond set his cigarette down on the edge of his mug, perfectly balancing it. Reaching toward one of his shoulders, he rolled his neck and gripped hard as he began to twist and turn his arm. With a few mechanical clicks, Captain Drummond unlocked his artificial arm and removed it from the socket. Tossing his false arm onto the table in front of him with a loud crash, Mary-Ann yelped and jumped out of her seat backing up into her cameraman. His coffee spilled slightly from the sudden motion, the cigarette sizzling in a small puddle of brown coffee. With his other-still-attached arm, he picked up the still smoldering cigarette and continued to smoke. "Because I'm still fucking alive." Mary-Ann looked at the mechanical arm on the table and to the Captain. Faunus ears twitching, she heard it now. The various mechanisms and gears clicking and servos whirring with each of the Captain's movements. Cameraman acting as her support, she guided herself back to her seat, silent for the moment. "That's not the only part of me that's detachable, sweetheart." The Captain dryly chuckled. "I think the doctors once told me close to 70% of my body is kept running by artificial limb replacements and organs replicated in some lab." As the Captain took another drag of his coffee-cigarette, he chuckled again. "They said it was a miracle that I'm alive. Said I only had some... .0257% of survival. Shows them what they know. Ain't technology grand?"
He unbuttoned his white-collared shirt slightly to reveal the nub where his left arm should have been. Reattaching his arm and slipping it through the long-sleeve of his shirt, he flexed his fingers before buttoning his shirt back up. "But, alright. I'll fucking bite. If only to prove to the world what we decided to release to public knowledge is true and to keep more reporters like you from coming back. You see, that was an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events. Countless lives were lost and blood was spilled for that fucking information. Yet, it was so unbelievable in its truth, that some of the public decided it to be some hoax or some scare tactic. Started coming up with their own theories as to what was the 'actual' truth. Idiots." Finished with his current cigarette, the man removed and lit another, much to Mary-Ann's disgust. By now, Mary-Ann's listening cap was on, her microphone presented toward the Captain's face.
Sighing, the Captain cracked his neck and leaned forward to speak into the microphone as clearly as he could. Staring straight into the eye of the camera the cameraman was holding, he decided to properly introduce himself. "My name is Captain Drummond of the Vale Police Department. I graduated from Beacon Academy close to 30+ years ago as one of their top Hunters. After 20+ years of service as a Hunter, I retired and became a police officer where I would spend the next 10 or so years riding my way to the top until my eventual promotion to my current position. I'm here to dispel any moronic rumors about what happened during the events of the Territorial Push and our clashings with the Grimm named 'Jormungandr: The World Eater Snake.'"
Reaching into his pocket, the Captain removed his Scroll and did a quick Oogle search for a world map. Displaying the map and turning it so that Mary-Ann and the camera could see, he pointed a sharp finger at a small island. Directly to the South of Vale, near the bottom of the map. "There, right fucking there. That's where that fucking Devil is." Mary-Ann and the cameraman leaned in to peer at the small island, leaning back after they were satisfied. Minimizing the map, he locked his Scroll and pocketed it. Rubbing his temples, he sighed wearily. Painful memories tortured his mind as he recalled them, his entire body aching in remembrance.
One cannot reside within memory for long...
"Like I've said earlier, I was a young Hunter like most any other. I was strong, I was fast, I was young. Smart, but not too smart. Bold, but not foolishly so. After I graduated from Beacon, it was time for me to enter the 'real world' and partake in missions of my own. The population was growing, but the land we inhabited was shrinking. It was hard for the economy to continue prospering in such confined spaces. We had to expand, we had to grow. So, there was a massive mission that was posted. Calling for the formation of some large Expeditionary Hunter Force. There were thousands of us that signed up, possibly even hundreds of thousands. Hunters abandoned minor missions and other menial tasks to refocus all of their attention towards what we called the 'Territorial Push'. With battalions of Hunters, we figured there was no way we could fail. We were right, to a point. We were successful in expanding our territorial lines enough to alleviate the strain on our people. Well, I say 'we', but I mean the majority of the EHF. That's right, that's the stupid acronym it was given. Anyways, The main push was for expansion of the land. But, I was part of a division of Hunters that sought to cross the seas in search of resources and habitable areas. That little island I showed you earlier? That was where we ended up."
He stopped to take a hearty gulp of his coffee, another few long drags of his second cigarette. As the old man took his moment to regain memories long pushed to the back of his mind, Mary-Ann and her cameraman were silent. She took this moment to examine the Captain's features. Long white hair that reached his shoulders, gelled and slicked straight back and down. Fierce gray eyes and a neatly trimmed white mustache and full beard. His attire was similar that of the other detectives and officers in the Police Department, but the few key differences made it apparent that he was the highest ranking officer in the building. His voice was scratchy, probably not helped by his smoking habits. Although it was revealed to her that most of his body was more artificial than anything, she would've never known that he had ever sustained such injuries if he hadn't told her. Though well into his approximate 50s, there was still a fire about him that burned strongly. He seemed stressed and tired, but still retained a sort of 'old-man' strength and energy about him. Eyes trailing over his fingers, she noticed he didn't wear a wedding band or sport the tan lines of one.
Clearing his throat, Mary-Ann jumped at the sound. Captain Drummond continued, "The island was small, but any amount of land was more than we had to begin with. It was gorgeous, with plenty of exploitable terrain and resources. Clean waters, wood, stone, and the bounty of the sea surrounding it for food. There was potentially high chances of there being metallic ore beneath the ground had we ever been able to get an excavation team there. Buncha stuff there that we could use, but there was something wrong about the island. As we explored around the perimeter of the island and pushed deeper inland, we discovered that there was no local wildlife. No Grimm, no weird Faunus tribes, not even so much as a fucking mosquito. We didn't think too much of it at the time, but that should've been our biggest warning. We figured it was maybe just because of the way the island was ocean-locked that no life other than plant life thrived there. I don't fucking know, I'm not a scientist. Don't ask me for information about that kind of shit, I'm bound to get some stupid fact wrong."
Mary-Ann nervously laughed, the Captain chuckling with her, coughing afterwards. Clearing his throat after his coughing fit, he patted his chest. Mary-Ann, concerned, sat up and offered him a drink. "Uh, do you want to stop here and get a drink of water or something, sir?" The Captain coughed a few more times before shaking his head, "No, I'm fine, sweet thing. I might as well get this story over with so we can all be on our way." Mary-Ann's eye twitched at being called 'sweet thing', but she returned to her seat, raptly listening to the old Captain. "After all of the Hunter teams had thoroughly explored the surroundings of the island and pushed deeper inland, we discovered there was a series of interlinking caves. Some network of caves that were all connected together, deep underground. Being as curious as we were, we decided to go ahead and push through to make as complete of a map as we could." The Captain sighed softly and shook his head slowly. "We should've just packed our bags then and there and left. Never to return"
"But, as young and stupid as we all were, and desperate to prove ourselves and to serve our countrymen, explore the cave systems we did. For the most part, it was the same deal as the rest of the island. Not a bit of life to be found anywhere. Just dirt, rock, and some shiny stuff in the walls of the cave. I guess it was metal or something. Again, I'm no geologist, so don't quote me on that shit. Much to our surprise, we all discovered that in the middle of the cave systems was a single central connection point. From which you could leave out of any other cave to return to the island proper above. At this center point, was a deep hole that lead straight down into the island..."
At this point, Captain Drummond stared at his coffee mug in front of him. Silent for a few straight minutes, taking drags from his now-third cigarette. The cigarette butts from the others set next to his mug along with their ashes. "That Gods-forsaken abyssal void..." Mary-Ann looked back to her cameraman, then back at Captain Drummond. "S-sir? Are you alright?" The female faunus leaned forward, tilting her head to see if she could read something on his expression. Looking at her as if he just woke up from dozing off, he continued his tale. "I know this is going to sound cliche but, it all happened so suddenly. We didn't know what hit us. From that hellhole it awoke, some terrible monstrosity that makes any other Grimm a whiny piss-baby by comparison. Down there, it was too dark to really see much except the lights we had with us. We had no idea how large it was, but it was fast, it was angry, and it was hungry. Like some hibernating Ursa Major that was poked too many times by some punk-ass kids, it woke up and was enraged that it was woken from its slumber. Rage-filled, save for its starved belly. Our division was hundreds strong, but within seconds it reduced us all to the double-digits. When it erupted from out of that hole, it just started eating. Some Hunters didn't have a chance, being devoured by it in the blink of an eye. Others were unfortunate enough to put up a few seconds fight, only to be promptly defeated. Crushed, torn, ripped apart, and disappearing into its body to be devoured. The Captain paused, faint memories of the fallen crying out to him within his recollections. The feeling of warm blood coating everything around him in the dense darkness. An imperceptible chill crawled its way up his spine.
"Somehow, I lived. In my cowardice, I saw the hellacious situation we were in and I was able to flee. Call it luck, call it whatever you will. But it ignored me as I ran, too busy consuming the other Hunters who were unable to run. I wasn't alone, however. A few others were able to make it out and we high-tailed it to the shoreline over the next few hours, where the boats waited for us. Never before had I run so fast for so far for so long. As soon as we hit that water and got the boats to us, we immediately contacted higher command and notified them of the situation we were in. That we were pulling out." The captain locked eye contact with Mary-Ann. "Can you believe they tried to get us to go back and fight? Normally, if it were any other Grimm or any other time and place in any other situation, we would've never run. We would've stayed and fought until the bitter end, but this...We couldn't handle it with the numbers we had fresh. How in the hell did they expect us fight with the numbers we had tired and beaten?! Hah! So, a younger me got on the hook and gave them a right-ass chewing. After a nice bitch session, they understood and authorized our withdrawal. It broke my heart to leave behind so many of my fallen friends, but we would be back for revenge."
He took another drag of his cigarette, another sip of his now-warm coffee. "Or so I had wished. Regrouping a few days later, we returned with a much larger force than we had the first time. Using the information we had, we perceived it to be nocturnal and live deep underground. We-" At this moment, Mary-Ann decided to speak up and ask a question. "Ah, sir? If the situation was so bad the first time around, why go back and waste more lives?" The Captain smirked, "Desperate times called for desperate measures, right? At the time, we were severely hurting for resources and land. We chalked up our first loss as a fluke, that it caught us off guard. Now that we knew what we were going up against, we believed we had a better shot at conquering the beast and claiming the island as ours. As you can imagine, we were wrong. Dead wrong. Making landfall during the day, our reinforced EHF division had a notion to make a direct charge at the creature. But we were wrong about it being nocturnal. Hell, we were wrong about everything. This time, just as we were prepared for it. It was prepared for us. As soon as we set foot on the island, it somehow knew we were there. It could smell us. And it was still as angry and hungry as it was before. Surrounding the entirety of island's perimeter, we hadn't even started to make camp on the shoreline when it burst from the treelines and starting rampaging, quick to get to work killing Hunters and eating them.
Mary-Ann frowned, which caused the Captain to stop. She asked, "Wait, which treeline? Where did it start its attack?"
The captain darkly chuckled. "Every treeline. Every where."
Incredulous, Mary-Ann tried to clarify. "What do you mean every treeline, everywhere? I don't think there are even Daturas that could possibly be the size of an entire island!"
The Captain leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms. Cigarette in between his lips.
Mary-Ann's mouth hung open, Captain Drummond continuing. "Somehow, whatever came out that hole in those caves, could grow and expand to reach every corner of the island. Because of this, there was no way to hide from it. No way of surrounding it and attacking its flanks. We just gave it the convenience of giving ourselves nowhere to run but to the skies or seas. Like a mass of black serpents or tendrils or tentacles, it just burst forth from wherever and overwhelmed us by its sheer size, number, and ferocity. At first we thought they were separate entities, but that was quickly disproved. It was as if a bunch of snakes with the ability to multiply and regenerate acted as one, as a hivemind. We tried everything, naval and aerial bombardments in some feeble attempt to weaken it before inserting. Attacking at night, attacking during the day. I say attacking but in reality it was more like lambs to the slaughterhouse. Nothing worked. It never gave up, it never let up. The moment we set foot on its island it was mad and wanted our blood. We had not even the slightest idea how anyone could ever hope to defeat it, let alone survive an encounter with it. We had no idea how it got there, we had no idea WHY it was there. So many questions, years of attempting to combat it, years attempting to learn and research. All for naught. Nothing but time, money, resources, and energy wasted."
Captain Drummond sighed, growing weary with this 'interview'. "I spent around 20 years as a Hunter. 10 of those 20 spent on that Island, somehow surviving every time. 5 of those 10 'fighting' it. 5 of the remaining years spent recovering after it finally got me. After I had fully healed, it was the one Grimm that caused me to retire. If such creatures out there exist in the world, what hope do we possibly have? So, I joined the Police Force. Much easier dealing with people than it is Grimm sometimes. It's only a matter of time before we're overrun and pushed to extinction. Why not try and make the best of it while we're still around?" He took one final drag of his cigarette before snuffing it out. Mary-Ann looked confused, "Wait, what? That's it?"
Captain Drummond looked irritated and annoyed, "Yes, kitty-cat, that's it. What else could you possibly want to know?
Mary-Ann stuttered, "I-uh..you- ...we-"
Captain Drummond stood, throwing back his chair against the wall with a clatter. "WHAT ELSE DO YOU POSSIBLY WANT TO KNOW?!" He suddenly burst out in a rage. Mary-Ann and the cameraman backed up against the opposite wall in shaking fear at his outburst. "I SPENT A MAJORITY OF MY LIFE, WATCHING AS THAT FUCKING DEMON CUT DOWN MY FRIENDS! MY BROTHERS! MY SISTERS! AS IF THEY WERE WET PAPER! AS IF ALL THEIR YEARS OF TRAINING TO BE HUNTERS MEANT NOTHING TO THAT HELLSPAWN!" Mary-Ann shrunk, being driven to tears in fear at the Captain. The Captain's face growing a deep red as his veins bulged. "WE TRIED EVERYTHING AGAINST THAT THING! EVERY SINGLE THING IN OUR ARSENAL MEANT NOTHING AGAINST IT!" The Captain grabbed the side of the table and flipped it with tremendous strength to crash against the wall to his side. His black and red Heart coffee mug in pieces. Stomping over to the cameraman and Mary-Ann, he scooped the both of them up by their collars and lifted them up. Pressing them against the wall to their backs. Trembling with utter fear, Mary-Ann could feel his hot breath as he harshly uttered a few more words to them. "You want to know something more? That creature let me live on purpose. That first night in those fucking caves, I saw it. I saw its fucking face. Its eyes. The fucking skeletal face of some twisted mutant Deer, antlers and all. Bright red eyes more numerous than a fucking spider's dotting its fucking skull. You want to know what I saw in those eyes? What I felt?"
Mary-Ann had tears freely streaming from her eyes, she was afraid to answer him.
Captain Drummond shook her, "DO YOU?!"
She meekly cried out, "Y-yes.."
"I saw it laughing at me. When I met its eyes, I saw it laughing because it made up its mind. It decided that it would let me fucking live, that's what I felt. It knew I would be back, time and time again. So, it picked me to be one of the sole survivors to fucking torture me. To PLAY with me. As I could feel it mocking and jeering me, as if my existence was so insignificant to it. That it could snuff me out at that moment and that would be the end of it. But no, it decided to give me purpose. The purpose of messenger to the rest of the world as to what it was. In that moment, I could feel every fiber of my being shaking with an intense rage that shook me to my very core, my very soul. A hatred so strong I felt as though my body would just spontaneously combust. A hunger so yearning that my stomach sickly twisted and turned threatening to grow teeth of its own to chew its way out of my body. I felt...What it felt. The desire to stop at nothing but to consume everything in its gluttony. Those little masses of serpents? Just some of its many fingers. All part of a larger being whose sheer size would dwarf entire mountain ranges. Its body composed of those constantly multiplying snakes and tentacles, constantly regenerating and regrowing." Letting the reporter and her cameraman go, he walked into the center of the room and turned his back to them. Sighing, he picked up the tables and chairs and reset them back in their normal spot. Sucking his teeth when he saw the shattered remains of his coffee mug, he returned to his seat and shook his head. That was his favorite mug. Running a hand through his hair to make sure it was still as slicked back as ever, he wiped his hand on his trousers and bowed his head. Interlocking his fingers together in front of him.
Mary-Ann, blinked in confusion, still sniffling and sobbing. Chest heaving from utter terror at the old Captain. Somehow, she still found her dedication towards her job and turned to her cameraman, "B-brandon, a-are y-y-you s-s-till rec-cording all of th-this?" Brandon was trembling, shaking just as much as her, but he nodded silently and gave her another thumbs up. "G-g-got i-it all." He responded. The Captain looked up at their blubbering and let out an exasperated sound, he motioned towards their chairs with a hand. "I do apologize. I just...I still have nightmares about those years. It makes me...emotionally unstable sometimes. Please, have a seat. I didn't mean to terrorize you like that." Mary-Ann carefully made her way back to her chair and sat down. With a trembling hand, she presented the microphone to Captain Drummond once again.
"We tried. We tried everything."
The old man rubbed at his eyes and face.
With every indication of profound loss and resignation, he uttered out "Everything.."
"It was time to end it all. Vale had finally had enough and was finally going to pull the plug on the whole operation. It was then, as I was about to say goodbye to the fucking thing, it got me just before I set foot on the back ramp of the beach landing craft. One final time, it wanted to remind me of what it decided for me to become. It made an example out of me. Tore all four of my limbs from my body. Smacked me against the trees a couple times so hard that I broke nearly every bone in my body. Ruptured multiple organs and had massive internal bleeding. Cracked my skull, gave me a bit of brain damage too. Then to add further insult to injury it tossed my broken ass into the ocean." The Captain looked up at Mary-Ann whose face was frozen in a different flavor of sheer horror. He laughed darkly, he recognized that look in her eyes. The look that said "HOW are you still alive?". "Took a long fucking time but I recovered. Somehow. Even got to keep my devilish good looks, for my age at least. I've heard that people consider me a tough son-of-a-bitch. Can't say they're wrong. Anyways, to time to wrap this up. After all was said and done, the fucking hell beast was given a name. Jormungandr, the World Eater Snake. I laughed on my hospital bed when I found that out. A naval blockade was placed surrounding the island, well out of reach of Jormungandr. The air space was declared a no-fly-zone, above it. We didn't dare test the range of its reach, but the one thing we were sure about was that it could never leave that forsaken island. For some reason, it couldn't migrate through the ocean. Which again brought up questions as to how it got there in the first place and why did it exist, but those questions never got answered. Come the day of days, the decision was made to gather up all known information on it and release it to the other nations and to the public. After a brief media scare, things died down and after 10 or so years, apparently it's some internet hoax or craze now."
"I can assure you, it's not. Go there if you want, but the only thing you'll find there is death and destruction. It's the perfect vacation spot for those of you out there that have a death wish." He snapped his fingers. "Like that, your wish is granted. Won't ever see or hear it coming. From what I know, the island is still being cordoned off and patrolled by a small fleet of our battleships. Constantly being observed by our eyes in the skies. If you want to know anything else, read the declassified documents or go bother some other survivor if they're still around. Won't get much from the dead, however. That's all I have for you two. We're done here. Leave. " Bowing his head low, he was unresponsive or unmoving as Mary-Ann and Brandon got up and headed towards the door. Trying the knob, Mary-Ann realized it was still locked. After a second, a loud click was heard, she tried the door again and it was unlocked. Looking over her shoulder, she realized that they had been watched and monitored the entire time. Did the entire police force know Captain Drummond's story? Leaving the room with Brandon, a police escort lead her through the office spaces and back towards the front without saying a word. Turning to look around at the other officers, it was the same as when she had first come in during the day. Nothing had changed, life continued for the officers. Frowning, Mary-Ann wiped at her dried tears and decided to quickly leave with Brandon. Outside, they would wrap up the footage for the day and head home. After giving the recordings to the Vale News Network and with some heavy editing, Jormungandr: The World Eater Snake episode of The Cursed Few Documentary Series would be one of their most popular running episodes to date.
Back in the interrogation room...
The same detective from before, with the clipboard, walked into the room. Standing at Captain Drummond's side, the old man barely looked up as an orange prescription bottle with a white cap was set in front of him. Along with the medication, she set down a replica black coffee mug with bright red heart on it filled with hot black coffee. Smirking and scoffing, the Captain opened the cap and popped two pills. Washing it down with scalding hot coffee to chase it with. "So?"
"Well, Beacon Academy recently assigned missions to their Freshman Hunters."
Captain Drummond took another sip of his coffee, "And? How are they doing?"
"We're receiving some incoming calls about them.
The Captain smirked and shook his head, "So it's like that, huh? Alright, let's get back to work." The Captain stood, walking out of the interrogation room with the female detective. As they left, a janitor came in prepared to clean and tidy the room. In the observation room, the two officers left quietly without a word. The day resuming as per normal for them all.
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