7n.) Rick

Rick woke to the taste of vomit and the smell of rotting, wet garbage. His boots and pant legs felt wet with.... felt wet. The insect had really made a terrifying experience.

He groaned, and tried to stand up, rewarding himself with a resounding thunk on his head. He yelped, throwing himself against a wall, hands clutching his head. The garbage rocked. Now lacking the weight of a DaCre, and having been made very thin at the bottom, it was a matter of a few seconds to knock it over.

Then, he started to roll down hill.

He'd been on a steep street, and screamed as his vomit, various wet garbage, and... other assorted very personal liquids sloshed around him, splashing everywhere. He tried to climb out, pushing his legs down, and was rewarded by a sound metal pole smacking into his ankle. He bounced quite often, and he felt the dumpster change direction at some points, finding a more encouraging incline.

After what seemed like an eternity, he hit a wall. The liquids settled. He groaned again, and attempted to climb out, this time without any metal retribution. He staggered back, pulling his riot shield with him, and blinked. This was an unfamiliar part of town. He didn't recognize anything around here.

He adjusted his helmet, which had been half-pulled from his head, and pulled down the visor. There was a very strange signal nearby, unlike the DaCre he'd been seeing. He started to follow it, possibly not thinking straight from the strange circumstances, or the mild concussion.

It wasn't a different signal that Rick was following; rather, it was a different rank. It was after a bit of wandering, that he had stumbled upon the B-ranked insect: now in the shape of an adult human, though not in appearance: his eyes were now compound, its body still hairy and in the general feel of a 'bug', with the exception of a steel beetle's shell covering his back, similar armour going down the back of the arms and hands, creating claws.

"To be hunted..." said the insect, standing before a portal. "Can you imagine such a prejudiced existance? Denied the ability to even live?"

It seemed the B-rank form made him more prophetic...

Rick looked at the bug, more than a little dazed.

"Er... not particularly," he admitted, realizing for the first time that he'd left his gun behind in the dumpster. He wasn't particularly inclined to go fish it out, but he felt more vulnerable. Of course, the fear was blanketed by the stupor of the mildly concussed, but it was still there.

"Yet you carry out the job of a mere executioner of the misunderstood... how sad..." the insect said, looking over at Rick. "If you want to understand, the answers are right beyond that portal... I fear those reinforcements that have been called are only going to meet a more forceful resistance..."

"You can either defy me, run and be caught by me... or realise your error... and prove that you are willing to fight for the weak, rather than for your wallet..."

Rick was not by nature an assertive or brave man. Courageous deeds of headstrong heroism were not his cup of tea. He did the job that was in front of him, and tried to avoid getting beat up too badly.

Defying or running away from this DaCre would almost certainly lead to getting beat up in a permanent way, especially without a weapon. Therefore, he chose the option available that left him with both his kidneys.

"Er... My error, yes... Of course, it all seems to clear to me now." he said, striding boldly toward the portal; or at least how he thought boldly striding went. It actually looked more like someone who had just ridden a horse for a while trying to walk and show off his boots at the same time.

The insect nodded, waiting for Rick to pass through so that the insect could pass with his insane objective completed.

Rick stepped into the portal in this manner, not caring much about his destination so long as it got him away from murderous DaCre.

He would be in for a nasty surprise.