Let me tell you a little bit about train rides, mind of mine. They are long, bumpy, and mind-numbingly boring when you can't drink. And when you can't drink and you're in pain? They are a true exercise in torture.

I mean the only thing I could really do was listen to the radio, which was playing some French folk crap, and read a book. If it isn't a witch's obituary or a report on the latest known witch's (with an idea of using those reports to make the obituary later) then I didn't want to bother wasting my time.

And the books on this train were either trashy romance novels or in-depth biology texts; neither one really lit my fire.

So here I was, cleaning my guns again (for the sixth time) while listening to Merlin giggle over a romance novel like the preteen I knew she couldn't be while Alicia snored.

On checking my generator this morning I'd found I still had a minor charge in it, which was suspect; yesterday I was pretty sure it was bone dry, and Alicia's too. Today, I had enough for a few standard shots, or maybe one large one. Granted, I wasn't in any shape to fight, but that was a pretty big thing to be wrong about; maybe I had been drugged? Slipped the good stuff at some point?

Maybe the vial filled with not water was it. If so, I needed more. For testing... yeah, testing.

Ivan hadn't let me check his generator, but I was willing to bet it had some juice too, somehow. Maybe the Witch fairy had given some up? Everyone always told me she didn't exist, but this was proof, right? Of course, she hadn't taken anyone's teeth, so I had no idea what she had taken in payment, but the energy had to come from somewhere.

So I was pondering the problem, and the other problem (the lack of alcohol on board) when the train started breaking with an ear shattering squeal – dumping Alicia on her butt right before gravity lost its hold on all of us.

The car stayed airborne for a good two seconds before slamming down. I seemed fine aside from the shooting pains, so I crawled over to check Alicia; she sat up, scowling dizzily and ignoring the blood pouring from the fresh dent in her head.

The car was on it's side; I crawled my way out of one of the now shattered windows once I was sure Ivan was alive; Merlin was moving too, towards the door that once led to the engine.

Our train hadn't just derailed; the engineer had tried to stop first. That meant that something had hit us.

I spotted her the moment I fully cleared cover, floating lower out of the sun. Marcy the malodorous, one of the four powers. She was older than Olivia but looked as young, with a fresh face bearing a tell-tale mole on her right cheek. She was above average height, thin and leggy. She also smoked, with one of those cigarette holder things that only snooty people used.

She was quite possibly the last person I wanted to see, aside from Olivia or my sister. Usually, she had an entourage too, but I didn't see any of her known allies with her. Her known powers were control of gasses and the creation of some gasses, and a larger than normal variation in her spells. Her familiar was rumored to be an actual gas, and she was rumored to be almost as strong as Olivia; something that was known to rankle her something fierce.

The first words out of her mouth made it clear this was no mere coincidence. “Well, my oh my! Sasha Norre, as I live and breathe! How have you been, Sasha? Still got that cute scar on your....”

That did not need to get out! “What do you want, Malodorous? You do realize there are easier ways to get my attention, right?”

Things like not blowing a hole in the train engine and knocking the entire thing off the tracks, for example.

She waved it off as two of her brat pack came out of the clouds.

The first was Marcy's right hand; Liar Luatta. She had an unassuming look, with dark hair and a plain face, but was anything but quiet unless you shut her up. Her special ability was that she was able to lie to anyone who didn't know who she was, along with some focus on mental spells. Her familiar was a giant mouth, spouting gibberish.

The second was Polyene. Pauline May was a shifter with a small blob for a familiar; her special trick was the ability to transform into any animal. Well, any normal animal, she couldn't mimic people or other familiars or anything, which was good because she was already powerful enough. She looked a bit like her familiar, like a mannequin with a blonde wig and painted features. I had no idea how she could pass as a normal human, or if she even tried.

They both floated there slightly behind their master, arms crossed in clearly disapproving stances. I drew myself up as best I could, and flicked my generator settings; normal wouldn't work for this confrontation.

“Well, Marksman, I heard you had a bit of trouble in Cannes, and I simply had to confirm it for myself.”

There wasn't a reason to lie, really. The slug witch would try to kill them if they met, and they would in turn kill her. Even if they didn't kill her it would start a feud among them, and they might be too busy trying to kill each other to do any damage to us. If they met amicably though, and teamed up... well that wouldn't be good at all.

Aside from all that I needed to play for time; my team wasn't very combat effective, but Merlin and his assistants were assets the Wyld Hunt needed to keep. I hadn't seen the assistants yet but Merlin was behind me; I needed to keep their attention on me. Even if they were all looking me over with predatory eyes right now.

“Yeah, a bit. Met a new witch that can eat other witches and gain their powers. You should totally go there and nose around. Cave on the coast, North of the city; maybe you'll be able to track her down and get eaten.”

she smirked. “Oh please. Your mother can't take me on, you really think some new blood is going to manage?”

That's right, stroke your own ego; better yet, how about I help that along?

“You, take Olivia? Don't make me laugh. She just hasn't gotten around to killing you yet.”

She did not like that at all. “Ah, poor Sasha. I had heard that you met your dear mother in Russia; no doubt it was a touching family reunion.”

She knew. How could she even know? Had she been watching somehow, or pieced it together after? No it had to be after; she wouldn't haven been able to pass up taking a shot at Olivia while I had her distracted.

If she knew, did others? Were more of them lining up even now, in order to take advantage of my teams weakness?

“Why are you here, Malodorous?”

“Well I heard about the touching reunion, as I said, and how your distraught mother left an entire hunter team alive. A very effective hunter team, with several kills to their credit, and I thought to myself, that had to be an oversight. So here I am.”

In other words, she heard that Olivia had left me alive and since she couldn't attack Olivia directly, she decided to see if killing me would hurt her. Only after finding out where I was, of course, rather quickly. I knew there were spies in Cannes! It was probably that chief frog.

“Right.” I eased my hands downward. “Still probably not too late to catch slug girl you know, if you hurry.”

Malodorous grinned, showing needle teeth. “Oh, don't worry, she's my next stop. After all, this won't take long.”

Well, fuck her too. I pulled and moved, my leg protesting. Fire and bolts of light melted the car where I'd been; some made it inside but if anyone got hit, it was there fault. There had been plenty of warning.

My return fire did not miss. The Liar took it dead center, a shield flickering as the impact drove her back, while Polyene took the other in the face and fell out of the sky, smoking. Malodorous spared half a glance for her before she wound up another shot of her own with a dismissive sniff. Fog leaked out of her, eating my next two shots.

I ducked behind the train by sliding off it, something my ankle did not appreciate. I came to rest beside Ivan, who had crawled out of the bottom service hatch/secret escape hatch. He greeted me jovially.

“Well, it's been a good run, eh Sasha? Will she make drinking cups of our skulls, you think? I've heard she does that.”

I took the time to reload; she wasn't just going to peek on me. “You worry too much, old man. We aren't beat yet. Haven't you noticed your genny charge?”

If mine had juice, I was willing to bet his did too. I'd have won, too, judging by the look on his face.

“How...?”

“Don't know, and it might not be enough, but mine will click empty before she nails us.”

“And here I thought you were just in mourning, earlier!”

Ivan grinned as he sent two knives at malodorous; she ducked back and I levered up.

She came blazing over the top next, as I knew she would, and ate two to the face. Or her fog did at least. While I ate one to the leg. The same leg that was already pissed at me. Luckily with a generator charge, my clothes were armored enough so that my leg didn't actually walk away from me or something.

My generator was at less than five percent. Again.

More knives flew, these sank into the fog and exploded. Malodorous ducked back again.

“So, not entirely defenseless. Good, I'd hate for this to be too easy.”

The train car started lifting, tearing itself free from the other cars with a pretty annoying screech.

From one side, Polyene was sort of glide slithering over, a smoking hole still in her head. From the other side, the Liar was coming into view feet first.

And Merlin was on the ground under the car, Alicia laid out next to him. He also had her whip and generator in hand.

“That will be quite enough of that, thank you.” he stated boldly as the car cleared and daylight hit him.

Was he for real? The witches stopped, probably thinking the same thing.

Malodorous sent a stream of something that looked like fog but probably wasn't at him – and it broke up before it hit. Then he cracked the whip, and the sound lashed out in a glowing wave. A glowing physical wave that knocked Malodorous on her ass.

Polyene was going to the rescue when I shot her again. She tumbled a good twenty feet and looked at the smoking hole where her heart should be. It didn't seem to slow her down any as she stood back up, though.

Ivan had the same idea with the Liar, but all he could really do was pin her down; her shield was a bit more effective, and it seemed his knives weren't suited for much. He pulled one of his smoke pellets.

Hm, so far he was using things that didn't require much power. Perhaps he was being too conservative, given what we were facing. Alicia's whip managed to score, going through the fog surrounding Malodorous as if it wasn't there and latching onto her arm. She looked at it curiously for a second before the pain and anger hit.

“You dare!”

Her next attack was a green gas belched loudly from her throat. Like the other, it broke up before it hit; Merlin waved a hand in front of his face lazily. “Phew! You must eat a lot of onions.”

Wow, Malodorous looked murderous - and that thought amused me, for some reason. But her look changed in an instant to calculating. “Who are you, and why are you working for the hunt?”

Merlin smiled - a light smile that made me cold – and replied. “Oh you have me all wrong, I'm not a witch. I'm just a concerned citizen.”

I threw split pistols, aiming one her way while the other stayed on Polyene. Emptying the clips on both kept them hopping, and kept both from thinking too hard about just what Merlin was. At least, if the train car tossed at me like a fastball was any indication.

Luckily enough it missed us all. Unluckily I got pegged by a random piece of something falling out of it.

The wonderful scent of hard liquor bloomed around me as I blearily looked for what hit me. I found it; two broken bottles of vodka, the good stuff, lying next to each other and broken the exact same way. Something was wrong with that idea, but I didn't know what it was. There was also two Alicia's, two Ivan's, and another of each witch.

It had to be multiplication magic. Damn witches and their screwy powers.

The two Merlins looked back to me and asked. “Are you alright?”

I couldn't decide which one of them to answer, so I picked one by eenie meanie miney moe. “Yeah I'm fine. Been better, but everything is still attached.”

The Polyene's spoke up from my left; when had they gotten so close? Had they taken advantage of my miney moe? Probably, they were scum after all. “Here, let me fix that.”

They both turned their arms into large sickle hands or something and took their shot, but I managed to dodge them both. And my guns were empty, so I drew the Eagle. I probably had one shot with that though and didn't want to waste it.

“Sasha!” Wow, Merlin actually sounded like he cared, there. Alicia's whip came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around both Polyene's throat. That actually caused them some issue as the whip discharged.

The Merlins on the other hand, stood fast in the face of the twin Malodorous attack, some weak fire snake thing that looked to be made of ash, protecting the Alicia's. Olivia would have been livid just from seeing such a weak fire attack. It was dispersed like the ones before it, but not before it lit both Merlin's left arms on fire.

A second attack, of battering force, knocked both Merlins to the ground. And then both Malodorous's (Malodori?) stopped, and started talking, giving us time to recover. (At least some of us; two Polyenes were pretty annoying.)

“I'll ask again, and only once more; who are you, and why are you working for the hunt?”

“The answer won't change even if you ask again. Malodorous.”

Merlin sent a bolt of something downrange at the enemy just as I got managed to maneuver the Polyene's into the shot. The Eagle barked and broke my wrist, but at this range even if my aim was off I couldn't miss. Both Polyenes vanished in the flash, splattering everywhere. The Malodori managed to block both shots, but I could tell how close it had been. She picked herself up, spitting dirt, and I couldn't resist.

“Rumors of my weakness have been greatly exaggerated.”

“So I see.' she replied. 'Come on Liar, Poly; we're leaving.”

I switched to the other wrist, but my generator was empty. Completely bone dry, showing zero percent. Probably just as well, since my other wrist probably wasn't up to firing the Eagle anyway. It didn't matter since Malodorous had left; she was Cannes problem now.

“Well doc, I'm not sure that counts as a successful bodyguarding mission or not; this is one hell of a mess. I'm not cleaning that up, by the way.” 'That' was the train. I'd already had my community service for the year. Also, we hadn't actually caught a witch; even Polyene was gone, somehow, and she hadn't left a hat behind.

The Merlins smiled. “Don't worry about it; I'll call it in and someone will be along. For now, let's get you and your team to the next town. I'd call it a success, by the way, and will say as much to The Gloom.”

Well, that was a relief, kind of. Much less relieving was the fact that I couldn't seem to get up, and the Merlins currently blocking out the sun had multiplied to four.

“Alicia okay?”

“Yes, she's fine. I'm more worried about you. Stan! Phil! Get out here!”

Stan and Phil huh? So those were the names of his assistants. I had more pressing concerns, but it was nice to know.

“So, you can do magic.”

Merlins nodded and held up a hand. “The process I'd like to use on you, I used on myself first. It was less effective than it should be with you. How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Twelve.' Each Merlin was holding up three fingers, and there were four of them. 'So what did you do, exactly?” I hadn't ever seen magic like that.

The Merlins all grinned. “It's simple; I have one trick. I can steal the magic behind a witch's spells, store some of it for a time, and use it for a variety of effects. Things like unraveling spells cast my way or channeling power into a generator or even hunter weapons directly are not beyond me. For all of that though, I am weak. I cannot take on a witch alone and hope to live.”

Maybe not, but he'd be one hell of a support for a team – if there were more of him. At least now I knew how our generators had a charge. But he was right about that; five percent of a charge a day (Or was it two days, now?) wasn't enough to do much; with just that, a team would have to sit idle for too long, and Merlin's time would probably be better spent doing sciency things.

But if he could repeat the effect he had, give it to more hunters? We could win the war inside of a year, probably. At the very least we'd stop losing.

Merlin was puttering over me, muttering about my wrist. “Merlin.”

“Hm?”

“This thing of yours, I'm in.”

His eyebrows rose and a smile so wide it seemed to go around the back broke out on his face, but still he asked. “Are you sure? It isn't really the sort of thing one should decide when concussed.”

I met his gaze... all of them. “I'm sure.”

He shrugged. “Alright, but I'll have to get you healed first, or it might affect the procedure. You've been pretty ill-used already, and you need to recover to ensure survival.”

That could take weeks, even with my recovery being augmented.

Stan and Phil showed up, bearing a stretcher while Merlin fiddled with a generator – Alicia's. It had a charge still I guess. I could tell the way Ivan was looking at his own genny as he walked up that he was clicking empty. Merlin hooked Alicia's generator into my jacket then held out a pill.

“For the pain.”

Ivan stopped the hand before Merlin could deliver the pill. “Should you be handing him one of those, with a head injury?”

Merlin nodded. “Normally, no. But I deem it necessary. The generator will ensure he recovers, and the pill will keep him from aggravating his injuries.”

Ivan knew me, and let go. Merlin grabbed my head and held it steady while he stuck the pill in my face. I had no choice but to force it down, and I just knew it wasn't even the good stuff.

Sure enough everything just sort of broke apart and faded away, leaving me drifting; the last thing I could focus on was Ivan picking up my guns.

…...

I woke briefly a few times, the sensation of floating in the air – of being carried – strong. Then again to the noise of a town; there was too much for it to be a village or hamlet. Then again as a train started up. Each time, Merlin would be there and I'd feel a pinch in my arm, and everything would fall away again. Finally when I woke, I was able to stop him from sticking the needle in; The train had stopped, and we were in Central. Ivan was beside Merlin, and Alicia was awake and grumpy looking on her own cot. It made her beard bristle.

They carried us side by side, though I probably could have walked. Maybe. Kind of. Almost. I used the time to write up my report, since I hadn't done it yet and whoever was at the front desk (maybe Sarah!) would want it.

Thanks to the jostling ride, my penmanship looked better than ever.

I shoved it in a folder as we went up the steps. It was complete enough, and clerical types loved folders for everything. Well, not the monastic kind of cleric, but the office worker kind.

And what do you know, it was Sarah behind the desk again. “Sarah! Good morning!”

She looked up and blinked, slowly. “Good morning, Sasha. You're looking... Well, you've looked better.”

I threw my folder at her desk. It landed perfectly of course because I was just that good. “Yeah, Marcy the Malodorous dumped a train on my head. Nothing I couldn't handle, of course. That's my report of it.”

Alicia said something she thought was funny: “Sasha is just like a roach; witches can't stomp him.”

Sarah opened the folder and looked at the half a page in silence; why would she look so sad? The fight hadn't been that bad! Certainly not enough for the look of quiet despair stealing across her lovely face. What could cause such dawning horror?

She slammed the folder closed, panting, as Ivan delivered his own report (five pages, collated and stapled together, with no folder, almost like he wanted to make us look bad) and turned to him.

“Thank you, Ivan, I'm sure your report will be a great help.”

He just waved at her. Merlin gestured with a grin. “Well now, let's get you to both to medical, shall we?”

I waved with my good hand. “Bye Sarah!”

She smiled back. “Goodbye, Sasha.”

We split up; Alicia and I went to medical, with Ivan trailing. Merlin stayed behind, asking Sarah some questions I couldn't hear. I almost yelled for silence, but that would just make Merlin stop talking too. Perhaps not a bad plan, there....

I almost yelled for an entirely different reason when we hit the waiting room. Irene was working!

Irene “Icky” Green, a young doctor with degrees in holistic medicine, sporting a lab coat that was more brown than white. She had been on leave the last time we had rolled through – or suspension – and I hadn't seen her. She was still the same tall, thin, dark-haired and pasty face girl I remembered though, with a hatchet face and thin lips set over a wide mouth. She also looked like she had rolled around in mud more than I had, recently.

“Oh hey, if it isn't the current bearer of the frequent visitor's card. Hey, Sasha, how are you doing?” she didn't wait to hear it from me, instead starting in with her poking, prodding, and moving me around.

“Oh, you know me, can't stay away.”

She took out a light and shined it in my eyes. “Head injury this time, huh? Well, it doesn't look too bad.”

How did she guess? No one had told her yet. “Yeah, got smacked in the head with a train car. Same old same old.”

She stopped, looking at Alicia's generator, which was still hooked up to my jacket. It had been altered a bit to ensure it worked for me, and cunning observer that she was, she picked up on it. “Well, that isn't yours.”

“Nah, it's Alicia's. Merlin messed with it some to help me heal.”

“Really? Looks like it saved your life. How is Alicia?”

I looked for her. She wasn't here; she'd been moved somewhere else, to another room? “Well, she was fine five minutes ago, if not well enough to whine about me using her generator.”

Come to think of it, how had Merlin reworked the generator? They were supposed to be tamper proof in the field. I doubted even Emil could tinker with one outside his lab.

“How bad is he?” Merlin asked.

Irene responded as like I expected. “Well, Sasha is notoriously tough, even without a generator involved. With one? Maybe a week. Of course, the charge on Alicia's generator is about non-existent, so that might mean a few more days. But all in all, the worst is behind him, and nothing looks life threatening.”

It was true, my head was my hardest part. But even healed, our future was bleak. We would have to try and take a witch without any generator juice. I was out, Ivan was out, and Alicia was going to be out. Even a weak witch would probably kill us, and we couldn't rely on Merlin to feed us power like he had; he was essentially a living passive generator but needed something to work with... and I had no doubt he was clicking empty too.

So a week to get better, and then maybe a month to live. Especially with the Malodorous looking for me – unless Merlin did his thing. Oh well, I ain't no chicken.

“We're still on, Merlin. Will the recovery time be a problem?”

He looked down and smiled sunnily at me. “No, not at all. In fact, it's not an issue at all; I can start the procedure now, as long as I know you're stable.”

Irene butted in. “He's stable. But what procedure are you talking about? I know you're a doctor, but...”

“Oh, just a highly experimental procedure designed to create the next generation hunter.”

Irene opened her mouth again, and I closed it. “Mind your own business, Irene. Genny's empty, and nothing saved. You know what that means.”

She looked away. “Fine, but as your doctor, I want in.”

Merlin bowed. “Of course. Shall we go?”

Irene looked surprised. “Right now?”

Merlin unhooked Alicia's generator. “Sure, no time like the present. Id have preferred to do this in my own lab, but here is fine. To the dungeon we go!”

He wheeled me off himself, a spring in his step, while I tried to stay awake without the generator's help. I failed.

…...

I woke up strapped to a table; I could hear yelling, and it was making my head pound.

“Shut up, Gloom! Damn!”

Then my mind caught up to my mouth, and I realized how screwed I was. The Gloom leaned over me, a look I couldn't read on his face. I should be able to read it, really, since faces were like books. Then it occurred to me that I might be a little loopy.

“Sasha, are you alright?” Concern, that as the look! Well, at least he wasn't going to pull my head off or something.

“M'fine, m'fine. The doc do his thing?” I could see Emil and Merlin both beside each other in the corner, and both wringing their hands in sync, oddly enough. Ivan was watching them, and Irene had her arms crossed on my other side.

“No, he hasn't. I stopped him. You're safe.”

Safe? Was he kidding me? Who was ever safe, now? “Don't. I said yes.”

“Sasha, you have a head injury.”

Merlin uncoiled his hands and produced a piece of paper. I could kind of tell from here that it had my signature, but I don't remember signing anything. “I have written permission and a waiver, Gloom, all legal. You just heard his verbal permission. You can't stop us anymore; you know what will happen.”

“Yeah, fuck that; try me.” He turned back to me as Merlin walked up. “You sure about this, Sasha?”

His hands were dug into the bed so tightly they were white. “M'sure. You know what happens.”

He shook his head. “If it's about that, I can help! I have a full generator....”

I cut him off, my blood hot. “No! Don't want yours, don't want others – our problem, I'll fix it.”

He stared into my eyes a long time; I didn't blink. Then with a shrug, he backed off. “Alright, Sasha. Just don't die on me, okay?”

I snorted. “You should know better; I'm tougher than I look. Took a train to the head, just last week....”

“That was only five days ago Sasha. See you on the flip side.”

He walked out, heading up, and the scientists closed in.