Hunter Session 21

Previous: Hunter Session 20

The day the group would deliver their decision to Lisa and her group, another important event took place: the arrival of the guardian babies, who the group had adopted thanks to Randy's parents' money and influence. Paladin had renovated two apartments into a makeshift nursery, and the babies settled into their new home quickly. Charlotte and Melba took on the responsibility of naming the babies when it became clear that Arie and Randy would never make any serious suggestions; from that day forward, they were known as Darla, Levi, Marta, Nathan, Travis, and William Hayzie. The group drew up a schedule that ensured someone would be taking care of the babies at all times of the day (a schedule that included Charlie, over Arie's substantial protests), and quickly learned that caring for six infants was much harder work than any of them had anticipated. So, shortly after the babies arrived, Melba decided to go to the library to find some books on baby care. Unfortunately, she was in such a rush to get the books that she didn't look closely at their contents. The rest of the group cracked up when Melba returned to the apartment building with an armful of books about "Caring For Kids" - baby goats, that is. Humiliated, she quickly returned to get the right books and read them, but the others weren't about to let her forget it. All complications aside, the group was certain they'd made the right decision in deciding to raise the guardian babies, though they weren't sure how long the current arrangement could persist.

Melba briefly distracted the others from her hilarious mistake by telling them that she'd secured Charles' help in taking on the werewolf in the alley. Not to be outdone, Arie called Shirley (the guardian in north Minneapolis), who didn't even remember him at first. He did this mostly to explain that she needed to back off from any dealings she might be having with vampires in order to appease Saigow (which she agreed to do quite willingly), but with the fringe benefit of being able to ask her for her help when they confronted the werewolf. A number of her hunters were still wounded and out of commission, but she herself would be more than willing to help in the battle, along with anyone else she could spare.

That night, Arie, Charlotte, and Randy went to the bus again to tell Lisa that they'd decided she was right and Samantha was wrong, and that she could deal with the werewolf in the alley in whatever way she saw fit. Not surprisingly, to Lisa this meant killing him. The group offered their help and the help of some of their fellow hunters in the battle, and then almost casually mentioned that they'd managed to get another werewolf to help them. Lisa was immediately suspicious of Charles's motives, and even suggested using this opportunity to kill both werewolves just to be absolutely sure they were punishing the murderer, but when she saw that the others trusted him she grudgingly agreed that his help would probably be needed. With that, the group set to planning their attack, which would take place the next night in the alley where the werewolf was known to live.

After the meeting, Charlotte left the others and walked through the city alone, looking for Charlie. Earlier on, she'd planned to meet him the next night to see a gallery show including some of his paintings, and now she had to explain that she was going to be fighting a werewolf that night instead. Charlie accepted the news but was also understandably worried about Charlotte's safety. ("Hit it hard, hit it fast, and make sure it doesn't get up anymore. And make sure you stand in the back, okay?") In response to Charlie's concern, Charlotte simply stared at him awkwardly for a minute, then leaned forward and kissed him. He was surprised, but admitted he'd been hoping it would happen, too ("It's been a long time since anyone looked at me that way.").

The next day was occupied by preparation and planning. At nightfall, a rather large group of hunters (Arie, Charlotte, Chet, Jonas, Melba, Randy, Paladin, Saria, and Twitcher; Lisa and the group from the bus; Dana and Samantha; and Shirley and a few hunters she'd brought along) met Charles near the alleyway to execute their plan and the offending werewolf along with it. The alley was T-shaped, so the plan was to wait for the werewolf to enter the alley, then divide the group into three and place one subgroup at each end of the T. Then, Charles would enter and initiate the battle, wearing the other werewolf down so the hunters could finish him off. There would be at least one person with the ability to use Ward on each end (this fell to Lisa, Melba, and Jonas) to trap the werewolves inside while they fought. Hopefully the battle would have a quick and decisive end, after which they would dump the werewolf's body in the river and leave. The group found hiding places nearby and waited for the werewolf to show up.

They didn't have to wait very long. After less than an hour, the hunters were astonished to see a sort of portal opening up in the wall of one of the buildings and the werewolf stepping out. Melba gave Charles the go-ahead, and he charged in, brandishing a large silver knife that the group could have sworn had just been a tattoo on his arm a few minutes earlier and belting out an impressive howl that sounded like the call of a whippoorwill. (Summarizer's note: yeah, we fucked this judgment up.) The hunters began to assume their positions. The other werewolf sensed Charles's approach, and both of them assumed huge wolf-man forms as they lunged for each other. It was an impressive and terrifying sight, and apparently it was too much for a number of the hunters, who fled the alley in terror. (Ironically, this group included Arie, who had been more eager than anyone else to finally get to do some fighting and killing.) The battle between the werewolves was short and brutal, and soon Charles was reduced to a bloody heap on the ground. Too late, the hunters realized that things were not going well as the werewolf noticed their presence and turned his attention to them.

The werewolf charged toward the end of the alley being Warded by Jonas, and breached the barrier with alarming ease as he began attacking the hunters there in a blind rage. Though she had followed Charlie's advice and was standing in the back, Charlotte took the worst of it; clawed across the chest, she got slammed against the wall of the building and could no longer fight. Realizing that his friends were in trouble, Arie returned to the fray. He pulled out his M-80 and charged toward the werewolf, screaming at the werewolf and trying to draw its attention with that noise and a hail of bullets. The rest of the group rallied around him and began firing as well. (Charlotte was expecting Twitcher to do something amazing at this point, but he just spent the entire fight belly-crawling up and down the alley. When she asked him why he hadn't shot at the werewolf, he replied, "I don't know how to shoot a gun!") Soon, the werewolf appeared to be dead - and Charles, miraculously, was getting up, though he was babbling incoherently and frightening just about everyone around him. Drawing his knife again, he cut off the dead werewolf's head and announced that he was going to take it back to his "family," who would undoubtedly reward him for his actions. With that, he left, and the rest of the group tended to their wounds and dumped the body (which now resembled the large dog the group had seen before) in the river as planned. Charlotte first sawed one of its paws off for further research. Relieved that their mission had been accomplished with no one dead and very few wounded, the hunters went their separate ways to rest and recover. Though some members of the group were still not certain that Lisa's judgment had been sound, what no one could deny was that the network had been amazingly successful in getting hunters together to resolve problems and face a common enemy as one.

Next: Hunter Session 22