Finally, after the most boring of train rides and a fair amount of hiking, I was back in central. It felt good to be back. The only dampener to my spirits was I still had one idiot free from her village, and following me. I couldn't even send her off on any side excursions; the boss wanted to see all of us. At least this was more of a business meeting or check in.

After all, he hadn't sent an armed escort, like last time. I was almost insulted.

Or I would be if the thought of Gloom being mad at me was more scary than all of the 20, combined. With a few extra random
witches thrown in. Like maybe the one that exploded heads. But no escort, and no official summons... just us back in central to show that we were still alive and witch influence free. I strode in towards the lobby desk like I owned the place (cause I do, unless you ask Gloom, then I deny it!) and may have invaded Sarah's personal space a little bit. Her long suffering sigh was obviously meant for the gorilla thing behind me, and not my brilliant self.

"Morning, Sarah!"

She ran a dainty hand through her golden hair and straightened her uniform (a blue one piece dress that somehow looked
better on her than anyone else).

"It's after 3, Sasha."

"...your point?"

She sighed again and gave me a smile.

"Nothing, no point. Welcome back Sasha, Ivan, Alicia. How did Germany go?"

"Disappointing, actually. The witch focused on idiots which allowed us to get the drop on her; no real fight this time."

Yes of course those idiots were behind me, escorting my witch. I wanted them to hear that, and they did. Of course they did not quite agree with my assessment.

"You little shit! No fight!?! I almost killed your weak ass!"

"Who are you calling little, pipsqueek? I'm taller than you are! And you couldn't kill a germ with bleach!"

I fired back without even looking at him; my attention was on the witch. Through the mental fog and drool I thought I could detect a vague sense of chagrin, for lack of a better word. I crossed the distance to her and waited for her eyes to lazily focus on me, signaling the retrieval unit on duty. This one was led by Francis, and so was half competent; they were already crossing the distance.

"Last gamble didn't work out; tough break."

Fright flickered into being now, she knew what that meant. Her whisper was expected.

"Please just kill me now."

"Sorry, no can do. If I were to try that now I'd be stopped. You made that choice a month ago."

As she was pulled away I nodded to Francis but caught Sarah frowning out of the corner of my eye. Frowning at me?

"What?"

"Nothing Sasha. So, how do I enter this? Two teams, class A capture?"

Witch hunting was separated into classes to make it easier to categorize, and to give bureaucrats jobs. Though if they all
looked like Sarah I wouldn't mind it so much. There was class C (brand new witch, like the one I hunted down before that was
no real threat to a hunter). Class B, which were mainly the target of the reds (new hunters, or recruits, the lowest rung of
combat arm.) and class A, the targets of the blacks (my own arm, experienced and deadly assassins of the supernatural, usually
with years of experience.)

Then of course there were the S's. Class S threats should only be handled by the whites, our bosses. Witch hunters so experienced they were actually greying, and whose nick names were all they were referred to by anymore. Like my boss, the gloom.

But in this case, a class A capture meant one class A witch, hunted, and captured as opposed to killed; more pay involved in a capture, because sometimes the witches would try to free their own, if only to have the captured witch owe their benefactor a
favor. That was the gamble the witch had lost; not even a class S would try to free a witch once they were in central; it was
suicide.

"Hah! As if. One team, class A capture; one team, useless as... well as useless as a useless thing!"

He and his team didn't do anything but get caught, so they shouldn't get any money for it. And we definately shouldn't have to
split with them. This ain't a charity!

The room darkened. From down the mount we heard clearly:

"Two teams, class A, Sasha's team, two class C's."

I tried to hold in the scowl. The Gloom had spoken. Though I did wonder how he knew about that second class C in the Crimea...
he always seemed to know, and that was pretty off-putting. I had to find out how some day. And beat him. Definitely beat him.
Oh well, at least the two class C's should make up for it. I wouldn't even object that I killed both solo; I didn't have a death wish, contrary to popular rumor.

But one day, oh yes, one day....

Fingers were snapped in front of my face.

"You alright boss? You got that gleam in your eye. I'd hate to have to squeegee you off the Gloom's walls again."

I looked down my nose at Ivan, which was hard to do since he was a full head taller than me; I almost fell over trying it, but managed.

"Perfectly fine my good man, now that the hard part is over, let's go get some drinks."

And maybe find some entertainment we wouldn't have to pay for. Like maybe Dustin, my fists, and a dark alley. Once again the voice from on high interrupted.

"Sasha. Don't forget to check your generator."

Right, right. When in central we were required to check in our generators and get them inspected to make sure they weren't going to die when out in the field. That and hunters with generators getting rowdy tended to be a minor issue. I had a habit of 'forgetting'. The Gloom wasn't going to let that pass this time, I supposed.

Could he really still hold a grudge over that club?!? I mean sure it was his favorite, but it had obviously lagged far behind in keeping up with the city's fire codes! I was not to blame for that, I had been absolved! ...Well, mostly absolved. It's not like anyone died or anything.

Oh well, I knew when I wasn't wanted. It meant we had to go into the dungeon. Our lab away from lab. Or something. I hated the place really... it was where all the crazies hung out. The large bank vault door with the bio-metric lock was kind fo a dead giveaway. My hand an eye both scanned, I waited impatiently while my team and the other team that should not be named lest their naming cause them to appear also scanned in; the vault would not open until everyone near it was scanned.

The process took five minutes, 39 seconds... which might as well have been an hour. But at least the pop out grenade launchers weren't activated, which meant we were all still employed. The corridor beyond was pitch black and sloped downward; The torches were out today. I entered without fear. Or visible fear anyway. Never let our science staff see you sweat... they will take a sample, then demand blood.

No one was brave enough to find out what they asked for if you gave them blood.

But that was the price of being humanity's savior; trudging through the pitch black corridors where the mad science was conducted. Everyone sort of tightened up their formation; Alice was almost on my back, and strangely enough Dustin wasn't that far either, for all the studied aloofness he showed.

That was just silly. You couldn't show fear; they smelled it. They were like sharks or dogs that way.

Unfortunately they were awake and paying attention, too. Including the chief whack-job, one Emil Saums. A man in his mid 40's that was perhaps more stitched together than Frankenstien's monster, and yet, had only the slightest of scars from it. He also had sharp, filed teeth and a laid back demeanor that somehow put me on edge... and frankly terrified everyone else.

There was also the scandalous rumor that he was my father, something about us acting alike. Pure bull. But I didn't need to respond to those rumors, because somehow anyone who spoke them ended up sick. The last case was a case of explosive diarrhea, 3 years ago. It had lasted over 2 weeks. Not too many spoke up after that, and nothing was ever proven.

No it wasn't me; I'd have just shot them and forgotten it. It wasn't in my nature to hold a grudge.

In any case, he was hunched over the bin, picking out generators to process; that was the other reason people didn't like him, he was the one who checked (or fondled) our sources of power. Who knows what kind of things he did to them. From the looks of things he was running out; only 3 generators were in the bin for servicing. I didn't recognize any of them.

Other people disliked that he was a noted expert on the field of witch biology and of how their powers worked. He led the experiments on witches after all. And the rumor mill had those experiments ranging from the innocous... to ones that would be considered war crimes in other ages. I didn't believe those rumors (or more to the point, didn't care) but I still thought his nickname of 'monster' was fitting.

"Yo monster, more work for you."

He looked up and winced as I dropped my generator in the bin, taking note of the glow as it rattled around inside. Hey, the things were built for combat, I doubted a small 2 feet drop was going to make one go nuclear.

"You should be more careful, Sasha. So, how many was it this time?"

"Just two c's and a captured A."

Even I was unsettled by the gleam in his eye, but only slightly.

"A captured A?"

"Yep, a mind-bender. A real piece of work; Knock yourself out."

He grabbed me and clasped my hands in gratitude. His own hands were cold and clammy.

"Oh thank you Sasha, thank you!"

I managed to free myself and wiped my hands on my coat. One could never tell where his had been.

"You're welcome. Just play nice, eh?"

I told him that every time. I'm not even sure why; the witches weren't human. They certainly didn't play nice with us. And Monster gave his patented solemn response.

"Of course Sasha."

He then looked at everyone else.

"Well? Place them in, and get out. There's science to be done!"

There was a chorus of clatters as everyone else placed their generators into the bin then left without a word.... and quite a bit of haste. I sauntered, myself. Maybe a bit on the quick side, but everyone else was too busy fleeing to notice.

"Hey Doc?"

"Yes?"

He had already gone straight to my genny, forgoing the others.

"Have it ready by tomorrow?"

"Sure thing. Keep it up Sasha, you always do such wonderful work...."

The vault door closed behind me, cutting off anything else he might have to say. Whew.

Ivan draped himself around me, steering me towards the door.

"Alright, time to celebrate!"

I should probably be practicing forms, but what the hell. A little drink or three never hurt anyone.

From the outside central looked like a giant modern pyramid, gleaming reddish gold in the sun from the electrum runes chased across it's burnished steel surface. It was as close to impregnable as could be fashioned with modern understanding, from both mundane and magical weaponry. Some of the security was even automated, like the unmanned aerial drones that did fly bys, scanning with radar and targeting threats with missiles and machine guns.

While the city had been attacked more than once, it had only been attacked by witches twice in it's 200 plus year history. Both times the attacks had been foiled with great loss of life to the attackers. While the last one had hurt us hunters too, it had all but destroyed the strongest witches in the world at the time and was responsible for our current stalemate and cold (ish) war. They simply lacked the resources and manpower... or womanpower, to launch effective counterattacks. And our picking their new blood off one by one was only hurting them more.

The bars of course, started the street over; in the direction we were headed, they continued for a solid block. Our favorite of course, was the first one; the leaky toilet, a wonderfully horrid dive of sin and inequity. Sawdust on the rotting wooden floor, torches instead of good quality lamps or lights, and a large one eyed bartender weighing in at 150 kilos, and not all of it fat. You couldn't find better ambiance anywhere else!

Throwing some random guy who was sitting at my favorite table (in the back, with a good view of the only doors in) to the floor, I raised a hand to the waitress, one Emilia Watts. She was a pretty little redheaded thing that of course wouldn't give me the time of day, unless she was patting me on the head. True to form, she sidled over and did so.

"Hey there little Sasha, what can I get you?"

Must...not...maim....

Ivan stopped the knife in my hand casually, and Emilia didn't even blink.

"A beer of course. Just bring a couple pitchers."

"Coming right up!"

She sidled off and I sheathed the knife. At least she didn't completely ignore me, like she did Dustin. I could tell that annoyed him no end. He had always fancied himself a bit of a ladies' man. I don't remember ever seeing him with a female who wasn't slapping him though... or trying to kill him.

Luckily enough booze cured all ills. Soon we were all having a great time, Dustin's team (names? Who cares?) were regaling us with their exploits in the Bavarian hinterlands, which apparently involved a lot of fleas and ticks, and some witch that liked to use dolls. I was then begged/harassed to tell the tale of the class C I had chased, which took almost no time at all really. I mean it was only a three day chase and subsequent execution, nothing much to tell.

"You're way too dedicated, Sasha." Said generic female team member/moron number one on Dustin's team.

"Why thank you, miss...."

She sighed.

"Sylvie, Sasha, Sylvie Bonner. How do you always forget my name? And that wasn't exactly a compliment."

"Meh, you can't expect me to remember the name of every hot chick hunter Dustin decides to use as cannon fodder."

She blushed, then paled. It was a curious reaction. Beside her, Dustin sprayed his drink all over Ivan.

"That's not...!"

"Oh come on Dusty, how many are we up to? Three? Four now? It's got to be at least that many."

He flushed angrily.

"Just shut up and drink your beer, before I end you."

"Any time any place any way, buddy. I'll cut another few inches off you so there can be no doubt who is tallest!"

"Tomorrow, no generators, no weapons, in the arena."

Ivan face-palmed and Alicia muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "I knew it".

"Sure thing buddy. Better call medical and get your normal room reserved for you. But for now, drink time! Em, another round for everyone!"

There were cheers.

(tbc)