Another back. This time, back to Central, and the front desk where Sarah was waiting.

"Welcome back, Sasha."

I tried to hide my surprise at being singled out first. I wasn't in charge of the team any more, after all. "Thank you, Sarah."

Then she looked to me, which was awkward. "Ivan has our report."

"Oh, of course."

I took a seat on an empty lobby bench and waited for it. I didn't have to wait long.

"Sasha, my office." Gloom said from the base of the stairs.

He didn't wait to escort me, but he didn't really need to. I didn't even dare to take my time; not now.

I didn't bother to knock, and he didn't bother to start how I expected. "We got some good intel off that guy you sent ahead. That was a good call."

Confusing. "I wasn't alone in that, we all made that guy. What intel did you get?"

he gave me a look for a second, then continued. "He worked for none other than killer Cat, and has for some time. He managed or started several sympathizer cells across three different countries, each feeding her information on where our operations were, and even intel on witches too. She's been keeping tabs on everyone for years, and no one knew."

"And the cell?"

"Not one of his, ironically enough. Of all the ways to get caught. He was going to work on one there, but contacted the wrong kid and things spiraled out of control, according to him."

I could believe that. Run with crazies and sooner or later you find one you can't control. "When's the execution?"

Traitors to their race got hanged by the neck until dead, and their wasn't a more clear case for the punishment in my memory.

"Not for some time yet. We still need to know what he knows. It might not be much, but we need it. He met with Cat directly, at least once."

That was... surprising. Why would Cat meet with that guy in person? He was smitten, sure, a true chaser, but why risk the word getting out? Everyone had assumed Cat was dead or in hiding, not active. If the Hunt had gotten word she was starting spy cells before....

Could impressing an already loyal follower be worth the risk of exposure? What did she care of exposure, really? Why was I assuming she did care? Maybe she just hadn't bothered before. The rumors of a witch on the side of the Hunt however, could have drawn her out.

But if so, how had she heard those rumors so quickly? She would have needed to start almost before I woke up in a dress that day.

Something about that felt wrong to me; it was just too fast.

Gloom moved a little, drawing my eyes. "Good, you're seeing it too. The possibility of a mole in the Hunt exists, and the timing couldn't be worse for us."

Damn politics.

"So what's the plan?" Gloom always had a plan.

"No plan, other than find out what he knows and why." Except when he didn't.

"Well, whatever. That's your show. What do you need me to do?"

Gloom looked up, his eyes like shards of glass. "Maintain a low profile."

Oh, so that's where this was going. "I..."

"What happened at Mulino?"

"Was that the name of the place?" Great, that was great; let's just get all of the most stupid things I could say out of the way first.

Glooms frown deepened, and shadows started to dance along the walls. "What. Happened."

"The engineer brought to our attention an old man, flagging us down. Ivan told him to stop, so he did."

I wasn't actually sure any of us told the engineer to stop, but no sense getting him in trouble, and I wasn't there for the entire time so it could have happened.

"Once we were stopped the old guy gibbered French at us and pointed, and we noticed the smoke. Ivan and Alicia went back to get their generators, and I went ahead with Gray."

Gloom opened his mouth, but stopped when I held up a hand. "Let me finish before you start telling me how stupid I am, please."

Would wonders never cease.

"Anyway, so we went on ahead. When we got there, I saw the town basically in flames, and the witch in the open, roasting people and having a grand old time. So of course, I got close enough and took my shot, which somehow she just shrugged off. Then she fired something at me, some purple beam, and knocked me around a bit. We traded blows for a time, and she said words to the effect of: 'she was right, if I did this she said the hunt would appear and it has.' and she also accused me of being a traitor."

Gloom wanted to talk, I could tell, but he stayed silent.

"We traded more blows for a minute, I shot her familiar some, and Gray suggested he could end the stalemate I was facing. So he gathered up all his ships or whatever you want to call them, and fired. The witch fired too at the same time. Between the witch and Gray and me we pretty much destroyed the town. But the people?"

I didn't say it, I could tell Gloom knew; those people that had died were as good as dead anyway.

"You should have waited for your team, Sasha." Gloom whispered, almost too quiet for me to hear.

"Yeah I should have, but you know me." I wasn't really capable of standing around twiddling my thumbs while people died to a witch less than a mile from me.

"So... Gray. With all his little ships, how strong is he?"

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. "Strong enough. With his full fleet, Gray can probably remove any town you want gone in seconds, and any city in minutes."

There would be no secrets between us. Not any of that kind, anyway.

Gloom slumped back in his chair and the shadows stopped dancing. "I see. As strong as your mother?"

I thought about it. I was possibly stronger. "Maybe."

Another moment of silence; Gloom could probably tell what I was thinking. "Let's not find out, okay? No going after Olivia for now. Killer Cat is more than bad enough."

But Olivia was easier than...!

"When the time comes, I'm going to need your help with Cat."

What? "But you're the Gloom! Witches all around the world run from you!"

Gloom shook his head. "Cat doesn't. the only one who could make her back down was the first marksman. She laughed at me, when we last met."

My mentor. "What did she do different?"

Gloom looked back, away from the past, and deadpanned. "She shot her, of course. She used the gun."

The gun was a rifle. A remade Winchester 30-06. It had vanished after she had died, or I'd be using it. With it, she had been unbeatable. I'd always been better at close quarters, anyway.

"The point is, we need you, Sasha. So try not to get yourself killed by angry mobs before then; alright? keep your head, and try not to do anything rash. I don't want to be forced into... unpleasant steps."

Gloom being reasonable? Gloom explaining things, while staring directly into my eyes, without anger? My heart skipping a beat for no reason whatsoever?

Weird. "Got to ask then; would you have done anything differently?"

He didn't answer. "Go ahead and get some rest. You'll need it."

With a shrug I headed back out.

Good news, I didn't need to check my generator back in. Or ask for my share in a hat. Even checking my guns in would be useless, if I ever bothered to do that anyway. Without the need to file paperwork, I could go right to my room and sleep a week!

Silver linings.I didn't have many, but there were a few.

Gray had beaten me back to my room; the little jerk. I didn't see him there, taking the heat from Gloom. Instead he was standing on my chair, using my pencil and paper to write stuff on my desk.

Whatever; I flopped on my bed, arms spread. What had that been, back in gloom's office? Did I have health problems now? I was too young for health problems. Gray would know.

"Gray, do I have any health problems?"

"No, you are perfectly healthy. There were some genetic anomalies which could lead to dementia later on in your life, but those have been purged in your transformation."

Some might argue differently. "Good to know."

"Why do you ask?" Gray asked.

"No reason. I just had a random thought. Those happen, sometimes."

"How rare are they?"

Now what was that supposed to mean? "Was that a crack at my intelligence?"

"Not at all." It was more of a 'crack' at your creativity."

Well, that's better... wait, no it isn't. "I'll have you know I'm plenty creative."

"No you aren't. Your only response to a situation is to shoot it."

Was that all? "Why mess with what works? You're going to second guess me too, now?"

Gray turned, his face serious. "No Sasha, this isn't about the town. But you need to start using different tactics, or the next time you meet a witch like that one could be your last. Then who will save humanity?"

Saving humanity was too much. The Gloom could do it, I'd just focus on killing witches.

"What are you writing?"

"The commands to engage your cloaking device."

Wait, I had a cloaking device? Did I need cloaks? Those only seemed to get in the way of my draw; even capes were better.

"Is that some sort of portable cabinet or something?" Gray was always trying to get me to dress stupid, so it was no surprise.

It was a surprise to Gray though: "What? No! It makes you invisible. It's basically a spell to make you invisible, so you won't be seen and can sneak up on people. With luck you can use it to actually take prisoners or save lives, rather than just shoot everyone."

"Right, well good luck with that."

Gray huffed at me. "You can be quiet when you want to be. I've seen your memories."

"Most of my targets have extra senses."

"You do too, now. If you put a little effort in, you can figure out what the limits of those senses are, and how to bypass them. The cloaking device is just the first step in that."

I rolled over, away from him. "Sounds too much like work. Wake me when you're done... or for the next war."

"Fine," Gray huffed. "I'll do all the work."

"Sounds good."

......

"Well?" Plague asked, crossing her legs ostentatiously as she leaned back in her chair. "you have such great chairs in your office, Gloom."

"She didn't do things right, but she did things right for her. I can't find a fault." Gloom replied, leaning back in his own chair.

"So I did right?" Alicia asked, arms crossed as she stood very straight.

"Yes, there was no need to blow her collar. She's not out of control; at least this time."

"Good," Alicia said, holding up the little button. "I don't like this thing, you know."

"I know, but Ivan's too obvious. He might not even push the button."

"Oh, he'd push it, no problems." Alicia disagreed, stowing the button back into her belt.

"If you want, I can take it and shadow you guys again," Plague offered.

"Nah, that's fine. I got it; no one else is going to blow the little pipsqueak's head off but me."

Plague shrugged. "If you want."

"Either way, let's just ease off a bit," Gloom stated, head lolling back. "Tell Ivan the team has a few days Alicia, alright?"

"Alright," Alicia agreed, and all but bounced out the door.

Plague waited for her steps to ease before turning back to Gloom. "There are plenty of assignments . Why do you want them close? Worried?"

Gloom shook. "No, just a gut feeling."

Plague flipped one of her vials, catching it. "Well if it's one thing us Hunters should do, it's trust our gut. Many don't do it nearly often enough."

"Right, well there is still the matter of the interrogation to deal with. Do you want to assist?"

"Sure, I thought you'd never ask."

......

Ivan slid in behind as Alicia reached the bottom of the stairs. "Well?"

"No badness today."

"Good. The little one is safely in bed."

Alicia's jaw hit the floor. "At three in the afternoon? Was booze involved?"

"Nope. She just went upstairs and conked out."

"Weird, is her endurance going?"

Ivan shrugged, snagging a glass of water from the lobby desk. "I think it's just all finally catching up to her. Maybe being able to wipe out a city in a few seconds has some down sides."

"Probably it does," Alicia admitted before her faint grin slid off her face. "i think there's more going on here."

Ivan nodded absently. "I'm sure of it. I'd love to get ahold of the little freak and pump it for information, but no one has seen it since the... experiment. Or no one who admits it anyway. I think there is a hole somewhere we don't know about."

"There would almost have to be, since we never saw him before." Alicia mused. "Oh well, a dish best served cold and all that."

"Well, then I know what time it is."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yep! Time to get drunk without the midget fouling it up."

"I can work with that." Alicia admitted with a grin.

......

There was noise. Lots of noise. I wasn't even hung over, and people were waking me up. Was there a fight going on or something? A duel? I was going to stomp some people into the ground.

I rolled out of bed into a crouch; Gray had my pistols in hand, grips held out to me. "I believe this is no ordinary violence among your kind."

Another loud crack and a deep rumble, and the building shook. Someone was playing pretty rough out there. "You might be right."

But then what was going on? There was no way....

An explosion, very close, and I hit the staircase before I knew I was moving.

Another explosion, and I was showered with dust as the ceiling above me cracked. Who would be stupid enough to....?

The ceiling shattered and I spun through a dodge to avoid the pieces. "Gray."

"Already assembling them."

Good.

The lobby was empty, and this close the sounds of battle were obvious. The explosions and screaming all painted a grim picture; but who would be insane enough?

I made my way through the doors, and the answer was made clear; there, crouched on the wall like a gargoyle in a dress, was a witch.

I didn't recognize her; she had short curly brown hair topped by a beret, her clothes were some sort of tan dress that looked almost like a uniform, and she was almost as large as Alicia. she was better built than Alicia - her biceps were as large as my head. beside her, propped up on the wall, was a truly large club that looked to be made of stone.

I knew she was a witch because I could feel the power she had; I could tell she felt the same.

She grinned. "About time! I've been knocking forever! Do all hunter witches sleep so soundly?"

Well there was only one of me, so... "Yes. And you are?"

She slapped her forehead dramatically and rose up. And up. And up some more. "Right, how silly of me. I'm Shale, and you are Sasha Norre. Pleased to meet you."

An explosion to my right was close enough for the wind created to ruffle my clothes and force me to taste my hair. "Wish I could say the same. Why didn't you just walk in? The lobby is open. Care to tell me where our friends are?"

"Well the lobby didn't look that inviting to me," So she knew about the countermeasures, or at least suspected. "So I settled on knocking, since we didn't see you. As for friends, our friends? don't you mean mine?"

"Mine are probably fighting yours." Was she that stupid? Well, i already knew the answer to that one.

"Good point. Well, some are that way, and some are that way," she pointed left and right; then at herself. "But before you get ahead of yourself, you get to play with me."

"Well, I play rough. I tend to break my toys."

Shale grinned. "I know, it's why I volunteered to find you; so do I."

Right. I drew and struck first, but the wall Shale was standing on came up to block me. Of course, she did things with stone, so of course she could block the worst of it.

"Volunteered to who? Who are you working for?"

I dodged shards of stone suddenly intent in ripping through my more tender parts; great, so she could animate shrapnel I created. "Wouldn't you like to know? Beat me and find out."

The second shot drove her off the wall, and the third shot slapped stone into her face. She took it in stride, and I ate some stone chips to my own face. I didn't feel it, much.

Shale got up, none the worse for wear; what was it with these witches lately? I went years without seeing witches this tough, other than a few. Now I was seeing one every other day. Did they have a witch store or something, where they just picked them up in bulk?

"I'm ready Sasha."

"Let me try first Gray, no sense going straight to you." There were still people alive near, I knew. My visor was showing them to me; when had that gotten on my head? I didn't have it when I hit the door, did I?

Whatever, it was here now and showing life signs; faint signals but obviously human ones, going by the shape. If Gray cut loose here, it would not be pretty.

But there was more than one way to handle stone walls. I had two guns after all, and one shot put a hole in stone no matter how I shot it.

So when she raised her next wall, I drew my other gun and put two beams in the air, one right after the other. The first tagged her just through the stone, and the second put her down.

"Ow. Darn, you really hurt, girl! Well I was only told to wake you up, not fight you, so.. see ya!"

She melded into the ground and took off like a gopher; I could just make out the bulge in the road as she took off.

"Hey, get back here! Gray, track her."

"Understood," Gray said.

Somehow, the witch managed to make herself heard from underground. "You'll never catch me, runt!"

Runt? RUNT?!? A shot ahead of her made her change course with a yelp. How had she even seen to dodge that? "When I catch you, your fate will be a warning to all other witches on the cost of pissing me off."

"Sure thing, runt!"

She wasn't particularly fast, so keeping up was easy. Each time I thought I had a shot though, the stone of the road rose up to take the beam; even double shots didn't get to her. Normal shots anyway; Gloom's words about keeping things small and using my head were front and center in my mind.

Actually coming up with an idea for how to deal with a human mole was something I was drawing a blank on. Really it was fine - she thought she was leading me into a trap, but she was leading me where I wanted to go.

Where I wanted to go turned out to be the next building over; it was a four story about a half a mile from Central's large dome. An state office of some kind, bland and filled with bureaucrats. She went inside and a flood of people ran out, screaming. Curious, really. Following her in I detected no bodies and no life signs fading out; she hadn't even wounded people as she passed.

Very unusual behavior in a witch. Even I had to fight the temptation to maul the paper pushers. Or maybe it was just my hatred of paper pushers.

The human mole went up the stairs. sliding up dirt somehow. Yeah, enough of this; I wasn't slipping in that gravel anymore and the skies were my terrain. With a thought I lifted off and floated up the stairs. Rocketed up, as Gray insisted on thinking of it. I didn't get whatever he meant.

Concrete also counted as stone it seemed, but a few low power blasts ahead of me managed to clear the worst of it; I was gaining and the mole didn't seem to like that much.

The forest of concrete spikes was an unwelcome surprise, but it didn't slow me down much and none of them drew blood.

The mole did manage to get to the roof before me however, and I burst through just in time to see her swan dive off the top. She caught a rope grappled to the side and started sliding along it - when I shot the grapple, she swooped with a wild scream and slammed into the next building over.

There were people on the next building over, clearly battling. Flashes of light lit up moving clouds of darkness, and the wind carried green gas into both. I couldn't see who Gloom and Plague were fighting, but whoever it was had to still be alive, so they must be strong. The mole could tip that balance. It wasn't likely, but it could happen.

Another shot and she had no rope to climb up, but of course the building was concrete so it didn't actually matter.

Not to be outdone I had Gray pick me up; if she could climb faster than Gray could climb, she deserved the shot at Gloom. The streets were full - not of screaming civilians, but of hunters fighting witches in some sort of full-on battle. The hunters were outnumbered from what I saw.

"Gray."

"Right." Two of the fleet peeled off to even the odds as I raced the annoyance to the main fight.

Turns out the mole couldn't climb fast enough.

Turns out the one Gloom was fighting was none other than Killer Cat.

The mole, rather than take a shot, flowed into Cat as she cut loose with another light show. she just melted into the thing that looked like a little girl. What?

Cat turned to look right at me, through the darkness Gloom was currently trying to strangle her with. "Ah good, you're awake. That makes this much easier."

A slight gesture, just a tensing of a muscle, and we were both somewhere else; a forest, that didn't look like any forest I'd ever seen before - mainly because the leaves were all dark green or bright yellow, and it was clearly summer here. Wherever here was.

There was a castle in the distance' white stone gleaming in the very orange sun. But closer and more important was Cat herself, seated on a tree branch at the top of the hill, her mole friend sliding out of her like some kind of fleshy sweat.

"Hello and good morning, Sasha. We can talk freely here."

"Gloom? Plague?"

"Both fine, dealing with another me. They shouldn't die. They may not even get hurt, but it's hard to judge these things anymore," she pointed to my pistols. "You won't need those; you can holster them."

I did. Even Cat couldn't stop me from drawing if I wanted to; I was sure of that. Cat could make other hers, apparently; this was good to know, if she wasn't yanking my chain.

"So where is my man?" Cat asked, casually.

"Your man?" Oh this might be bad.

"The one you took into custody."

Yep, it was bad. "Truthfully i don't know. I'd imagine one of the holding cells, but I didn't personally bring your spy in, just find him, so I can't be sure."

Just what was it this guy had on Killer Cat that got this kind of response? Even for her, attacking Central was crazy, and doing it alone....

Cat sighed. "Dead, then. I had hoped to get here in time. And yes, I know what you were doing; congratulations; beating one of mine, especially that one, is not an easy feat. So much raw potential, so much devastating firepower."

She faded out of the tree and put an arm around me, right at my back. "I have to admit I see a young me in you, Sasha. Care to join forces? We could take on the world together, you and I."

She managed to get a hand on my arm as I was drawing. "Is that a no then? I'm not your enemy, Sasha. In fact I never was. I'm not even the enemy of humanity everyone makes me out to be."

"Prove it."

Cat made a show of thinking about it. "Hard to do; will the simple fact that neither you nor your friends are dead yet do?"

I had to admit she had a point. "Fair enough. Just how many witches are in your employ, if you don't mind me asking?"

As powerful as she was, she didn't stand a chance alone; one of the other witches would have bumped her off by now.

"You answered my question, so it's only fair I answer yours," She told me with a grin. "Not a single witch is in my employ or partnered with me. You'd be the first in... well, many years. Let's just leave it at that. You see, when I say 'mine' I don't mean the witch... I mean the demon a witch used to be allies with. You call them familiars, now I believe. I collect them, you see."

I was no sailor, but I knew a sinking feeling when I felt it. She'd been at this game for years... either taking familiars from live or dead witches. She was kind of like the French witch, only she probably had hundreds.

"Can you... see Gray? Take Gray?"

Cat paused. "Is that his name? I can certainly see him, but I wouldn't dream of taking him, Sasha. I like you, and witches who lose their demon are never the same afterward; you know this better than most."

That was a yes then.

"Sasha...."

"Relax Gray, no harm in asking." I said that, but the part that wanted Gray gone was surprisingly small. He was there always, my best buddy, one I could trust like no other. To have him suddenly vanish would be painful.

I turned back to Cat. Her wide grin pissed me off. "So what's your plan? Not saying I'll join you, but I'll hear you out."

Her grin widened, and her answer surprised me. "My plan is the same as yours, I'm betting. I'm planning to save humanity."