I still wasn't happy about Ivan calling me a lightweight, but I couldn't deny that I barely made it to the bed before my head swam. At least, to myself - if Ivan or Alicia asks, I've been up the entire time. So what if I arrived at around 4pm, and it's now morning? I was involved in gun maintenence and a heavy duty planning session; I make all the best plans we use by myself anyway. I was pretty sure most of that was the walking three days straight with no sleep and little food.

I swapped out one set of clothes that had gone well beyond simply seeing better days for another set. It didn't really matter they were all alike, and all a disguise. I had yet to take a bath, so I just sponged the worst crap off with some water. I'd no sooner got my shirt on then the door threatened to split from the pounding.

"Come on, pipsqueek! It's morning, time to go to work!"

"Go sit on a railroad spike! I'll be right down!"

Honestly, doesn't she have better things to do than wake everyone up?

She kept blithely pounding on the door so I timed her blows and opened it right in mid pound. She fell in of course, grumbling. Then she looked at my still wet face and did that stare thing she does sometimes.

"What?!? It's too early for this crap Al."

Then she said something I had a hard time catching; in fact, I was sure I hadn't caught it right.

"It's just not fair that a boy should be so much cuter than me."

Alright, time for a nice, polite discussion. With her backed up against the wall that way I couldn't possibly misunderstand her; my ears werepretty good normally, it was just early. And since she has the attention span of a humming bird, the gun up her nose was one hundred percent necessary.

"I'm sorry, I must have misheard you; what did you say?"

"Um, I said 'it's not fair that toys should be so cool!'"

She held out a motorized toy; some sort of robot that made noises and shot sparks when she turned it on.

"Hmm, you're right, that thing is clearly better than what we had as kids. Freaking Germans and their technical genius."

I did not miss her sigh of relief, but once again I took my gun from a nostril. Come to think of it....

"Hmm, that's the second nose in as many days you've been up, Joe. I really should clean you, you could have a nasty sort of disease."

Alicia turned green and hit the bathroom door so fast I'd have swore she broke it. I widened the grin I'd been sporting. Wake me up and insult me, will she....

"If you two are quite through, it's morning and we need to start."

I waved to Ivan and pushed past all the irate people in the inn that wanted to talk about Alicia's behaviour, taking care to hide my generator. While many people owned guns nowadays, generators were always custom made, attuned to the hunter that wore them, and the only portable device capable of tapping into the power a witch normally commanded. Of course it did it by stealing it from a witch's hat, but that was a minor detail.

And if a bunch of people wanted to beat Alicia's loud ass into the dirt for waking them up, who was I to interfere? She'd brought it on herself. The loud clops of Ivan's boots assured me he didn't much care for her antics either. at the foot of the stairs I saw a flash of a dress, and snagged the barmaid without looking at her. I was trying to hide my grin, like Silas wanted me to.

I was trying to be good; I was!

That still didn't stop the full body shudder the performed when she looked at me; I wasn't sure she could see my smile, but something set her off. Still, no reason not to try and be civil.

"Coffee, black. Sausage and waffles. Now."

I let he go and she disappeared so fast she left a cloud of dust. Well not really, but she could have. Ivan stared at me.

"Waffles?"

"Well, this close to Belgium territory they have to have Belgium waffles, right?"

His facepalm was as loud as a .22.

***

Alicia managed to join us for breakfast just in time to eat some. Not much mind you, but some. She'd even escaped the wonderful discussion the inn residents wanted to have with her. I'm not sure how she did it, but it probably involved her revealing herself as a hunter; sure it was a violation of our orders, but only fools attacked a hunter. Well fools and witches, basically the same thing really.

As long as I didn't hear her do it, I didn't really care. And for all I know, she didn't really let the cat out of the bag. Of course that didn't stop me from eating her waffles before she came down. She could stand to lose a few kilos anyway. Ivan interrupted the glare fest.

"So, how do we find the witch? Al and I have been looking for a week, but we have no leads at all."

Typical.

"Sheesh you guys suck at investigations."

"We do not, you little runt!"

"hunterwhowantsaguninhernosesayswhat?"

"What?!?"

Too easy.

"Oh gross, not again!"

The force of her run almost pulled my Colt from my hands; she was managing some respectable speed there. I ignored the sounds coming from the womens' bathroom. The retching especially took quite a bit of ignoring.

"Hmm, I think I know how to find the witch."

Ivan shook his head as his ready smile slipped.

"Let me guess; announce that we are here and challenge the witch to come out?"

"Yeah! Just like that time in Abved! It worked great with that head exploder witch."

"You mean the town that was leveled when we fought in it? Come on Sasha, we need to make money here, not pay for damage till we're grey! Put a little more effort into planning, eh?"

"Hey, we're in the black, aren't we? Especially after that job in the ruins of Paris. That payout was so much money we could swim in it; good times."

"We are barely in the black. After Paris came Dussledorf. Then Morocco. Then Belize. Then...."

Sheesh, how long was he going to hold a grudge?

"Hey hey hey! Some of those were profitable."

"Some of those could have been enough for me to retire, if we'd had a plan."

I waved that thought away.

"Pshaw! You wouldn't retire, you enjoy it as much as I do. But, I'll see what I can do. For now I guess we just walk around and keep our eyes open."

Maybe that would give me time to come up with a plan; after all, it's not like I knew what the witch was after. without knowing what her objective was there was precious little we could do but look around for egomanical women with hats on. More than one witch had been found in this tried and true method... usually after a few innocent women were singled out first.

For some reason, hats weren't the fashion accessory they used to be among young women.

Ivan wasn't convinced. Alicia nodded agreement as she sat back down, face scrubbed red.

"Alicia and I have been doing that for weeks, and we haven't seen anyone suspicious."

"That's because you haven't had me looking with you; you know how good I am at spotting scum."

It was true too, through a mix of observational skills and luck, I was one of the best for spotting a witch. Hell, twice I even spotted witches before they had fully emerged.

Emergence was the event that made a witch; somehow, in some way, some women just spontaneously started to form a hat. Those were uniformly from 12 to 22 in age. No emergence past age 22 has ever been recorded. Early witches were just like normal folks to start, according to those records that survived. The only difference was they had some sort of hat, and could do miraculous things. But of course that wasn't all.

The earliest witches started hearing voices. Worse yet, they started listening. Things turned ugly, and cities, regions, entire countries fell to the relentless onslaught. Every woman who turned witch turned murderous; it was only a matter of time. Some hung on for days, fewer held on for weeks. My mother held on for 3 months. She abandoned us before she killed us, a decision I could somewhat respect. My younger sister didnt even hold out 3 hours, killing my father and burying me under the rubble of the family home.

I would one day catch up to her and return the favor.

At any rate, once the hat formed their aging either stopped or slowed down, and they gained the services of what they called a servitor or familiar. We called it a demon of course, and it protected the witch, and tutored her in the use of her powers. The stronger the witch, the stronger her servitor - they were unmistakeably linked to her powers somehow. My personal theory was one most hunters shared; that the familiar was the source of the voices, leading the witch down the garden path of evil. I had seen some truly epicly weird familiars in my time; giant robots, wisps of smoke, a ball of electricity... then they got REALLY weird.

"Are you even listening anymore?" Alicia asked me.

"Huh? No. Why, did you say something important?"

"I swear... Ivan, make him listen will you?"

I turned expectantly to Ivan.

"I said, just following your nose isn't a good plan either."

I shook my head.

"You two need to relax! I got it covered."

They tensed instead, almost like they didnt trust me. I'm taking a bit of fence, now. Here I am, having led these two into more hunts and scrapes then I care to remember, and they are acting like I can't be trusted! Rat-bastards.

"Seriously, I've been thinking it over, and we don't need to do anything."

The light from the windows dimmed as a cloud passed over the sun. Ivan shivered, and Alicia looked lost. It was a good look for her, it made her beard stop bristling.

"What do you mean?" Well at least Ivan was on the ball.

"Well it's simple... ahh, guess it'll have to wait; our reinforcements have arrived."

"Wait, what? We called in reinforcements?"

"Of course not, but the Gloom apparently ordered them for us. you know how it is with the mental types."

Of course I couldn't tell them what I already knew, at least not yet. Being on a hundred battlefields where witches were involved, I had a flair for this sort of thing. Screaming of my sixth sense aside, this worked out perfectly. Dustin walked in a moment later, immaculately dressed and coiffed, surprising the rest of my little team. Honestly, it was rather angering to have him come in looking like that.

"We have something to discuss."

I leaned back in my chair and popped some gum. I loved gum. The current gum I had was mint, my personal favorite.

"And what's that?"

He took a vaguely incriminating look around then whispered just loud enough for all of us to hear.

"I've found the witch, but I'll need help to take her down."

Looks like Ivan was starting to catch on, judging by that look of calculating surprise. Alicia was still in the dark though. Good, it's almost impossible for her to keep her fool mouth shut.

"Sounds good, sooner we get out of this hole, the sooner we can get back to real civilization. Lead on."

I tapped the 'wait' signal on the table in front of Ivan as I stood up to leave. Alicia didn't notice. There was dense, there was super dense, Then there was Alicia. We all got up, and followed Dustin as he methodically walked outside and took a right. I spotted the rest of his team with ease, spread out amongst the thin morning crowd. Of course they all looked flawless; suited just like Dustin was and without a speck of dirt on them.

Kind of silly, really.

He led us all the way through the district and to the corresponding southern gate. The guards were in their little house, propped up against the wall and fast asleep. Or so it seemed. There were only a few dark stains around them... obviously a result of poor housekeeping. Of course while I caught Ivan loosening up his throwing knives in their sheaths, Alicia just continued to stomp happily away.

There was only one citizen that seemed to take notice of us as we went through the gate - a lady of the evening by her looks. A young one, dressed in a faded and patched but still fine modest red dress that reached her ankles. Small black heels kept her feet from the mud of the road. The dress had cream colored insets at the bodice with few stains, and she carried a small dingy white purse with pearls sewn into designs I did not recognize on it. Her haughty air was detectable from 500 paces, as if she were royalty. She was also up rather early for a lady of the evening.

Then we were through the gate and I didn't bother turning around.

"You know, you made our lives much simpler this morning. We were just discussing how to find you."

Now Alicia gets it, her whips out and cracking. Ivan has his knives in his hands as well and both are looking for targets. The laughter seems disembodied and the gate shuts, trapping us on the outside of the city.

Trapping the witch out here with us.

For a moment I am a bit slack jawed. Of all the arrogant, egotistical.... But that only lasts a moment. Dusty starts things off immediately, pulling his stupid naginata our from behind his coat and taking a swipe at where I was a tenth of a second ago. He caught a hint of my cloak but I could tell his heart really wasn't in it.

After all he didn't scream about wanting to mount my head on his wall or drink wine from my skull once.

His first attack swung wide as I helped it along, pistols now out. It was obvious his movements were being directed, at least in the most general sense. He still attacked with some skill, but he was a puppet being told where to swing. Very disappointing, this would be over in no time at all. I set up a few opportunities to draw the game out, and he did not fail to 'take advantage'. The witch had some idea what to do herself; it meant she was older than the average.

After all, a witch with weeks of experience behind her was far more dangerous than one that just got her hat; and statistics showed that one active past 6 months could get away almost indefinately. Though some argued it could be power as opposed to experience; after all, the more powerful witches lived longer. This one wasn't as powerful as it first seemed... I'd already worked out where she was watching the fight from the gaps in vision she had. She was foolishly right next to the gate, which meant it was finally time to stop screwing around.

I started the maneuver meant to get me in between my dance partner and the invisible witch, and drew. The right Colt was emptied on Dustin, and the left was emptied into that curious spot where the wall was distorting in as broad a pattern as I could make it. Hey, it's ok, Dustin was eating weighted bean bag rounds. And if he couldn't take that, well, he didn't deserve to be a hunter. Or breathe.

I was rewarded by blood splattering the wall (before my shots travelled on and it blew out, they dont make walls like they used to) twice. The witch faded back into view. That was always the problem - witches had protections, simply by being witches. They were tougher, faster and usually stronger. And that was usually before you added the spells they could cast to augment all that. This one however, wasn't much physically. She was saved death so far simply because my rounds went right through her like she was paper.

Luckily enough I'd hit and blown chunks out of both shoulders, and she was rapidly slipping into shock. Alicia was bloody but had managed to subdue Sylvie, a petite thing who really shouldn't be in this business at all but still managed to survive - she used knives too. Ivan had taken on Dutch, a hammer user supposedly from Norway with a suspect accent. Like Dustin they wore fine suits and took great pride in their polished manners. Both were the worse for wear and looking around in confusion. Dustin wasn't though, he was laid out, blood pouring from his nose and mouth.

Perhaps the point blank shot to the face was a tad excessive?

Nah, I needed to make sure he snapped out of it. As I started towards the cause of so much suffering I could see the gratifying fear blossom on her face. She tried to struggle to her feet, but her arms weren't working. I didn't see her familiar anywhere. I squatted down beside her while she tried to push herself away with her legs.

"What's your name?"

She turned back again at the sound of my voice, eyes covering half her face and a veritable river of tears down both cheeks. She worked faster, and I kept up with her. She'd likely bleed out in a matter of minutes, those exit wounds did not look pretty. Still no evidence of a familiar... maybe it had been standing next to her, and I shot it too?

She stopped at the wall, and scooted herself to it. She looked back and up at me, and I smiled. A slight ghost of a smile flitted over her freshly marred but still cute face.

"Cathy."

I signaled Ivan again, out of the witches sight. This was usually where things went dicey.

"Well Cathy, I'm Sasha. You have a choice to make. You can surrender your hat to me, and get treated for your wounds. We will care for you as best we can. Or I can end it for you quickly, and take your hat afterwards."

For some reason witches even reacted to us taking their hats for use after they died... another mystery unsolved. After all, who cares about some item, no matter how powerful, that you owned after you're dead? The effects of a witch surrendering their hats though, that was well known. For some reason the moment a witch's hat left her person, that is, was no longer in contact with skin or within a few feet (depending on some unknown factor) said witch became a half responsive vegetable, with the IQ of a turnip. If a witch's hat was destroyed even that was optimistic. The moment the hat was destroyed, the witch went
into a coma and eventually died.

And of course, we destroyed them slowly in order to power our generators, which gave our weapons the unique abilities they had along with the firepower to actually kill a witch. Before the portable beauties came along, humanity was completely helpless. In some way however, they used the witch's own power. So either way, Cathy's hat would burn, and she would die. Her choice was in how.

Her eyes rolled wildly, like a frightened colt's, but her face betrayed her hope.

"It's in my purse, but I can't...."

"Alright Cathy, I've got it."

I took her bloody purse from around her shoulder as gently as I could; inside was some sort of beret, in a jaunty shade of blue. I made a show of reaching around and opening my genny's top hatch, and stuffing the thing inside. the spark in her eyes went out immediately, showing the standard side effect of a witch being cut off from her hat. Sure, she could be faking, but all my considerable experience said no.

"Alicia, get over here."

She had the best first aid kit of all of us, and Ivan was still watching for any surprises. Though with the hat stowed in a generator, the idea that the familiar was waiting to hit us was laughable - no familiar would willingly let a hat go into a genny. I stopped worrying when Cathy just sat there, drooling, while Alicia patched her up. A few winces from her, but for the most part she simply wasn't home.

I felt kind of sorry for her... she picked the wrong team to control. Perhaps she didn't know Ivan and Alicia were here, or dismissed them as part of a less than successful hunter team because we don't dress the part? Wouldn't be the first to make that mistake. In fact, that mistake might be one we encourage. If not for the lack of surprise involved, I might tell future generations of hunters to encourage it too. But if I do it now, it might hurt the ploy, because word would of course get out somehow.

Oh well, it didn't matter. Cathy would be escorted back to Central, where she would be experimented on. And when she eventually died, she would be dissected, all in the name of science and greater understanding of our enemy.

(tbc)