CITRON: Cryptid Intervention and Response Unit

An Introduction

I'm sure everyone's heard of werewolves and vampires. They're two of the most popular supernatural entities out there. There're hundreds of stories that feature the two of them, most oftentimes depicting them as violent creatures who prey on the innocent. Others portray them in a more sympathetic light, being friendly or mostly harmless yet unable to anything about their nature.

Some of them even showing them bitter enemies who stopped at nothing to see the other side eradicated. Everyone's also heard of fairies and mermaids and yetis and the Loch Ness Monster. But they're just that: stories written by some very creative minds hoping to make their ideas known, publish a bestseller and strike it rich, maybe even strike a deal with some major movie studio. They're all fabrications.

Except they're not.

They're real. All of them are. They're the things that go bump in the night, the creatures that lurk in the shadows, shying away from the ever watchful yet ignorant eye of humanity. Monsters, demons, cryptids, call them what you will. They've walked the earth for millennia, even before the dawn of humanity.

Early humans cowered in fear of them, pleading for their lives as they erected vast monuments to deliver them from salvation. As time passed, however, their numbers dwindled and ours rose. These creatures became mythologised, becoming the stuff of legend as humanity forgot about its past, wondering how it could be so stupid and illogical.

And so, as mankind's knowledge of the world and technological advancement increased these very creatures that humanity once feared were forgotten, these days nothing more than campfire stories to keep horny teens awake at night, or bedtime stories that would have a happy ending and some generic moral that would keep young children entertained for days.

Today, you've heard of all these so-called monster sightings that get laughed off, the eyewitness seen as the town lunatic or merely some guy seeking attention. The world knows that monsters are simple myths.

In truth, that's because we make it that way.

Enter the Cryptid Intervention and Response Unit (CITRON), a secretive organisation funded by the world's major governments, with operatives pulled from the best the world has to offer. Founded in the late nineteenth-century, the organisation is devoted to the sole goal of protecting humanity from these monsters.

Operatives pledge allegiance to no country or flag, but to humanity as a whole. Given essentially unlimited funding and state of the art technology with operatives from the world's best militaries, we intend to fulfill that objective, no matter the risk. We hunt monsters to protect the innocent. By that, I mean both human and cryptid.

You see, not all of them are hellbent on wiping humanity from the face of the earth. Many intelligent cryptids have friends and family, just like any one of us. Some are legitimately helpful to our cause, dedicated to stopping those who give them a bad name, those who tarnish their reputation.

Take Sasquatches, for example. Contrary to popular belief, they are, in fact, a peaceful and docile people who wouldn't even dream of hurting humanity. Or the werewolves, most of which live in tightly-knit packs and try to live a peaceful coexistence with mankind. It's why we're allied with them. There are even some others like dragons who honestly prefer to mind their own business, staying out of human contact.

But when we get word of a cryptid or a group of them that do pose a threat to mankind, then the gloves come off. We mobilise and eliminate the threat with no impunity. We do not stop unless the threat is absolutely neutralised. That way, we can be sure that the threat, no matter how big or small, will never pose a threat to humanity ever again.

After all, quite a number of these threats can pose a risk to all of humanity, and we've put down multiple extinction events before.

Why, you may ask? It is because we must. Mankind must not go back to hiding in the shadows and cowering in fear. While our exploits will be erased and our deeds forgotten, we will be dying in the dark so that humanity will live in the light. We will give our lives for the good of many.

Welcome to CITRON, recruits. Get used to it.

- EXALT, Director of CITRON