Hunter Session 01

For Marta Calderón, Will Duane, and Melba Starling, the day in October that changed their lives forever began no differently than any other. The details of their old lives as residents of Minneapolis aren't all that important. What matter is that evening, they were all in the same place - Saigow's Restaurant - at the same time. Marta, a Mexican foreign exchange student at an exclusive private high school, was spending time with her roommate Sally and some other classmates. Will, a plumber and electrician, had decided to go out to dinner after his refrigerator broke down and spoiled all the food in his house. Melba, a convenience store clerk on probation for gang activities that were now behind her, was invited to share a meal with her older brother Kai. They may have taken notice of each other inside the restaurant, but at first they didn't think anything of it. All of them also noticed a very attractive man and woman in their mid-20s sitting at another table.

After what seemed like a very long wait, the owner of the restaurant, a little old man named Mr. Saigow, came forward and announced that the patrons that night were very privileged indeed to be present for the grand opening of the brand-new buffet at his family's restaurant. Saigow asked if any of the customers wanted to have their picture taken to commemorate the opening, and a number of people (including Sally) got up and got in line. But when Saigow's "sons" removed the covers from pans that were supposed to be full of Chinese food, they were empty. Sally looked up, confused - and, moving in a blur, Saigow grabbed her, slit her throat, and drained the blood into the empty pan. Chaos broke loose as the servers began grabbing other customers and doing the same. A number of customers tried to rush for the door, only to find it bolted shut and blocked by Saigow's "nephew" Haji.

As Marta, Melba, and Will cowered in their respective booths, they had a strange experience. Hiding under the table, Marta heard a voice say, "WHY DO THEY DO THIS? CAN I CHANGE IT?" Melba heard the words, "EMBODY CAUTION AND CARING." And Will heard simply, "THEY HAVE BEEN JUDGED." Each of these three people responded to the message in their own ways. Marta got out from under the table, walked up to Haji nonchalantly, and started trying to talk him into letting the customers go. Of course he wouldn't even consider it, although he did seem somewhat cowed when the cross necklace Marta was wearing began to emit a brilliant white light. Melba shouted for the customers clustered around the door to get out of the way, then pulled a gun and began shooting at Haji to get him to back down. With Kai's help, it actually seemed that she'd managed to kill him. Meanwhile, Will started trying to pull Saigow's other sons off of the other customers and trying to encourage others to join in.

The "battle" didn't go on for very long, however, before there was another blur of motion in the area of where the attractive people had been sitting and Marta, Melba, and Will all quickly fell unconscious. They woke up later on in strange places, seemingly none the worse for the wear and (in some cases) doubting the encounter had been anything more than a dream. Everyone went to their homes and went to bed, uncertain of what the morning would bring.

As fate would have it, the morning brought a front-page news report on the previous night's events at Saigow’s restaurant. Almost 15 people, including Sally and two of Saigow's sons, were reported dead. However, the news report didn't mention Saigow as the guilty party. Instead, the front page had pictures of Kai, Marta, Melba, and Will under the headline "Fugitive Suspects Sought In Uptown Massacre." No one knew how to respond. Fortunately, they were rescued from their indecision from the man and woman they'd seen at the restaurant the night before, who helped them pack up their belongings and escape before anyone became aware of their location.

The man and woman introduced themselves as Chet and Saria. They took the new hunters to an apartment building in Uptown Minneapolis where they lived, which they said was very secure. They told the new hunters they stay there until they managed to get their names cleared and could return to their old lives. Chet and Saria claimed to be more experienced hunters, and their rather extensive knowledge about the imbued (which they shared with the group) seemed to support that idea. With the use of second sight, they showed up in the same way that hunters did, although Chet had a green crystal around his neck and Saria had a blue one. Unable to think much harder about what they'd seen, the hunters settled in, got to know each other, and tried to come to terms with everything that had happened to them in the past 24 hours.

Next: Hunter Session 02