Leon Pride: A World of Demons

Chapter 5 - Archway

 Leon half jumped out half fell out of the ridiculously large delivery truck that he'd been trapped in for over six hours and gave his body a well deserved stretch. As he did he heard several of his joints crack and let out a groan when they did before he started shaking his limbs out to get the blood flowing. He bent over to touch his toes before he shook his head feeling very much like a dog when his hair whipped him in the face. Letting out a large yawn and turning around to survey the area Leon didn't see much things that were different about St. Louis or Archway as it was now called because of that giant arch since the last time he was there, although he couldn't see much since the truck stopped right in the middle of a very military looking camp.

 He had to squint to look around because his eyes were twice as sensitive to light as a human's were, so he flipped open his black sunglasses and hit the side of the truck he'd just climbed out of. "Hey Nick, we're here." He called out hearing the groaning of his adopted brother waking up in the back of the truck's cab. "Looks like Vega's men set up camp I'm going to go see if they have any food, you get the stuff."

There was grunt from the truck which Leon took as an okay so he started walking toward the large white dome of a tent in front of him. The gravel crunched beneath his feet as he walked but what was odd was the fact that he even heard it. He'd worked cases like this for Vega before and every time he'd done it there was always a pretty large welcoming party to greet him and Nick but there was no such thing present now and they'd even been dropped off right in the middle of camp. Something was off he knew as he opened up the flap of the tent to peer inside only to find the tent completely deserted. Stepping out from the tent he turned his attention on the camp as a whole trying to pick out anything that might be out of place but as far as he could tell everything was as it should've been minus the people that should've been here.

 Leon looked to the truck and found Nick along with the driver of the delivery truck stepping out, each with a bag over their shoulders. Nick's short brown hair was a little messy but then again he'd just woken up after a six hour nap and Leon could only guess that the driver was equally as tired as they were after that ride. Leon had only fallen asleep for a half hour and that was right when they left DC, and all the while the driver hadn't really spoken to him or made any attempt to learn his purpose here. He was wearing an all white jumpsuit that all Vega employees wore with a grey helmet that kept the upper half of his face hidden. Leon's thought of him was that since he didn't make any attempts at a conversation that he was either just that boring, or he was one of Vega's androids.

Neither of them really made sense to Leon because before he left his meeting with the old man he said that one of his own security guards would be accompanying him on this particular assignment. So either the guy was already here and left with the rest of the soldiers here, or it had to be the driver because there was no way anyone would even attempt to train Nick being only a middle D-class demon he didn't have any real potential for a soldier. Plus there was the fact that Nick was his little brother so that automatically excluded him on the list of possible suspects as the driver moved to the back of the truck and began the loud process of unloading whatever supplies the Vega soldiers had requested.

Nick let out a yawn that he covered with his hand before he spoke. "So where is everyone?" He asked looking around at the barren camp. "Thought we were supposed to be met by the meathead in charge?"

"We were." Leon said nodding at Nick's bag. "Call the old man and ask him if his guy got here before us."

Nick unzipped his bag and started rummaging through his various gadgets for his PET which he was constantly losing. Nick wouldn't make a good soldier even if you tried to train him for the length of a human's lifespan, but what he was good at was tinkering. He made so many useful little gizmos that Leon was sure that he could give Vega a run for their money if Nick ever wanted to start up his own company which he said himself wouldn't happen. The good money is in the mercenary work he said once after he'd met old man Vega himself and was offered a job in the R&D department. In fact some of the more recent things that Vega had begun producing came from Nick's designs of homemade things that he and Leon used on their jobs. Truth be told Leon wanted Nick to get his IQ tested because half of what he did astounded even him at times.