Temple of the Divine, Greenville, New Jersey:
Hatter ducks as one of the Hunter’s she was fighting, and Shade were fighting tries to hit her with his bo-staff. She punches the guy in the chest area and knock the wind out of him.

“Heads up Hatter.” Shade tosses the Hunter agent he was fighting into the one attacking Hatter.

Hatter does a roundhouse kick, knocking both men out. She picks up the bo-staff her attacker dropped and uses it on the other two men coming towards her. She smacks them hard on their heads. She hears a crash from behind her and notices Shade taking down a Hunter with a move their instructor taught them.

“You know, Rex is going to be mad he missed you using that move.” Hatter whacks the hunter she was fighting hard across the face with the bo-staff.

“Hey, all is fair in life and war.” Shade drop kicks another hunter trying to hit him.

After thirty minutes of fighting, Shade and Hatter stand back to back looking at all the Hunter’s that had attacked them. Both had been hit a few times and was tired from fighting.

“You know, these guys should have surrendered to us, instead of fighting us.” Shade looked at one guy that was laying near them. Hatter had shot the guy in the face with her needler.

“These guys came from the shallow end of the gene pool.” Hatter wipes the blood away dripping from her mouth. One of the Hunter’s had managed to punch her directly in the mouth.

Shade takes a handkerchief out of his pocket “here, use this sweetie.”

Hatter accepts it “thanks.”

She uses it to remove the blood from her chin. Hatter feels that one of her teeth had come loose, because of the punched. She tucks the
handkerchief into her coat pocket afterward. She pulls her cellphone out and sends her mother a text message, saying they were going to need a clean-up and transport crew.

A few seconds later, Hatter receives a confirmation text from another number. Hatter looks over at Shade as he searches the unconscious bodies. She spots him removing some gold coins from several of the bodies.

“What did you find?” She walks over to Shade.

“More gold coins and this.” He pulls a hi-tech looking cellphone from one of the Hunter’s.

He hands it to Hatter to look at.

Hatter accepts it and tries to bring the screen up, but nothing happens. She tries again to unlock it.

“It’s broken.” She looks towards Shade.

“Let me try something.”

“Okay.” Hatter hands the device back to Shade.

Shade looks at it but doesn’t see a finger scanner on it. He puts the device near the guy he took it off of. The screen comes to life “looks like he has a chip or something.”

“You mean as an animal has inside their bodies, so the owner can find them?”

“Exactly.” Shade tries to find where the chip is hidden.

Hatter watches as Shade searches the body. She had no idea what he was looking for.

“Watch you doing?” She kneels next to Shade.

“Looking for the chip.” He stops when he feels it.

He reaches inside Hatter’s coat and pulls one of her throwing knives out. The edge on them were extremely sharp.

“Hey, that’s my knife.” Hatter looks at Shade as he removed the knife from her jacket.

“I only need it for a little while.”

“Okay.” Hatter gives him a kiss on his cheek.

Shade just smile, as he cuts the skin where the chip was. He manages to pry the chip out of the body. When the person starts to moan, Hatter
knocks the person out.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Hatter just smiles as she watches Shade. She notices he was going through the contents of the high-tech cellphone. Some of the texts were in a language neither he or Hatter could read or knew about.

“Do you think your mom or aunt can read this?” Shade looks at Hatter.

“I don’t know. Mom and aunt Gina might be able too.”

“Let’s search the rest of the people.”

Thirty minutes later:
A black van shows up and four people dressed in black uniforms and wearing helmets get out. They walk into where Shade and Hatter still were.

“We’re here to remove the prisoners.”

Hatter looks at the person, but couldn’t see through the shield protecting their faces. She glances past the person in front of her and saw the
others that came in were zip cuffing the Hunter’s they took down.

“Did my mom send you?”

“Yes.”

Shade watches Hatter’s reaction. She was a wild card.

“Okay, they are all yours.”

The guy turns around and starts helping his friends take the unconscious Hunter’s out to the van. Shade and Hatter stay until the Hunter’s are gone, before heading back towards Anika’s house. Shade could tell Hatter was hurting some from the fight.

“When we get to your place, I’ll check your wounds.”

“I’m fine.”

“No your not.”

Hatter just glares at Shade. She didn’t like admitting that she was hurt.

“Baby, if that’s the best glare you can give me. Then I know you are hurt.” Shade places a kiss on her cheek.

0600 Hrs. Crocker’s place, Cardwell, Montana:
Ed wakes up because he had heard something outside. He grabs his rifle and heads downstairs to see what was causing the ruckus. Just as he was about to enter the dining room he hears Jack’s voice.

“Good Morning, Ed.”

Ed turns around with the rifle in his hand and was looking at Jack as he stood near a wall. Ed noticed that Jack was wearing a set of full-body forming fitting black body armor with the head of a wolf painted on the chest plate. He also had on a gun belt and there was a rifle stock
sticking up from behind Jack.

“How did you get in here?” Ed figures that the rifle he was carrying wasn’t going to penetrate the armor Jack was wearing. The only place he could shoot Jack was the head.

“Really easy. You didn’t think that the security system you have, would stop me from getting in, did you? Plus, you didn’t think those Afghan
Hounds patrolling your property are any match for my wolves. Maybe, normal wolves might not stand a chance against your Afghan hounds, but my wolves aren’t normal.” Jack breed his wolves to be bigger, stronger and faster than normal wolves.

“I know you are making a mistake, being here. You’re trespassing and I can kill you where you stand.” Ed lifts the rifle in his hands to shoot Jack’s head.

“Go ahead and do it, Ed.” Jack had one of his handguns already out and pointed at him.

Ed saw the big ass handgun pointed at him. He didn’t know what caliber it was, but he saw the opening at the end of the gun.

“Tell me one thing, Ed. Why did you send a bunch of genetically engineered soldiers to try and kill me and my family?”

“Because there is no way you or your family are normal people. Also, your family has interfered with too many of the Hunter’s operations.” Ed
really didn’t like Jack. He either undercut or took companies he and the organization have wanted or needed.

“Well, I have no idea what you are complaining about, but you crossed the line recently with trying to kill me and my family.” Jack was ready to fire his gun at Ed.

“We’ll see about that.” Ed tosses his gun at Jack and heads towards his home office. He slams the door behind him.

Jack had moved when Ed tossed the rifle he had in his hands. He saw Ed's head towards his private office. Jack holsters his handgun and walks over towards the door. He taps on it and the surrounding wall. The wall and the door were reinforced, like his own.

The explosives he brought with him weren’t powerful enough to blow through the wall or door. He would need a thermal lance to cut through
them.

“Are you hiding from me now, Ed?”

Ed saw Jack on the other side of his office door. He walks over towards the hidden safe in his office and enters a code. When the safe door opens, there was money, jewelry, and several other things. Also, inside were two syringes filled with some blood-red liquid inside them. Ed takes them out and stabs them into his neck, as he presses down on the plunger.

When he is done injecting the reddish liquid into his body. He walks over towards the door and opens it. Just as the door opens enough for a fist to go through, he punches Jack directly in his chest. He doesn’t let up, as he punches Jack again.

Jack was searching around the door that Ed went through when it opens and he is punched hard in his chest. He had tried to move quickly, but Ed’s fist came from out of nowhere. As he was falling backward, from the first punch. He is hit again in the chest as he feels pain in his chest. The chest plate of the armor was pressing hard against his chest as he stumbles backward.

Ed kept up the attack, keeping Jack off balanced. His fist kept landing in the center of Jacks' body armor, deforming its shape. He kept compressing the chest piece against Jacks chest.

Jack looks at Ed as he comes out of his office. Jack couldn’t believe how Ed looked. The veins on Ed’s neck were bulging and his eyes were blood red. He also had a monstrous look on his face, like he was jacked up on some sort of drug.

Ed jumps towards Jack as he swings his fist, hitting Jack again in the chest. He tries hitting Jacks' head but is blocked. He feels his arm grabbed by Jack but manages to break his hold. He manages to backhand jack, sending him flying backward.

Jack tries blocking Ed’s hits to his chest and head. He managed to grab Ed’s arm and was going to put it in an armbar, but Ed managed to break his hold. The next thing Jack knew, he was flying back towards the wall behind him. Ed’s other hand came out of nowhere and connected with his mouth.

Jack could taste his blood in his mouth. He moves just in time, as Ed’s fist hit right where he had been standing. He couldn’t believe how strong and fast Ed was. He has known the man for years and he has never been as fast or strong as he was now.

Ed attacks Jack again and the two of them go at it. Both men trade blows with each other. Jack uses his quickness and experience from fighting all sorts of people, to block and take down Ed. Jack manages to put Ed into a headlock and breaks his neck.

Jack looks down at Ed’s lifeless body and wonders what the hell he took, to make him so strong and aggressive. He could feel the pain from some of the blows he took from Ed. He was getting too old for all this mess.

Jack heads into Ed’s home office and starts going through his things.