Alternatives

The Others and the Hunters

When Julius arrived at The House that the Seer had been kept in, he found that she had indeed been expecting him. She greeted him at the door with her honey colored hair in Victorian style ringlets and a sparkle in her violet eyes. One of her visions had shown her how to break the lock on the basement she was stored in between the pain of her Clients and some quick work with the kitchen knifes handled the rest. Since the chill of winter had just set in, the bodies were bagged like trash and stored on the back porch to keep the smell away and she had made something called brownies for him that were warm and sweet and nice with the coffee that was waiting for him as well.

The next two, the healers, were not as prepared to entertain, but when they realized help was finally there, proved quickly that they could be harmers as well. They were more fortunate then Julius and the Seer in that they were allowed to keep their first names, as well as the knowledge that they were brothers. Ivan, with blond hair and eyes like midnight and Vlad, with black hair and frozen aqua eyes were both remarkably large in spite of their harsh treatment. After the brothers regained their strength, giving the Seer a chance to learn new recipes, the task was to become much more difficult.

The Medium had been sold to a man who was training him to be an assassin between renting him out and using him. He was needed to teach them how to fight, but since he already used that skill on his Man and gone on the run, finding him would be difficult, and since they had not gotten to him sooner, his trust would be more difficult to win. On the up side, the Healers were large enough to pass for adults, making travel easier for the group.

Months of visions and The Dead finally paid off, and trust was not the issue it was expected to be. The Medium had been both dreaming of them and painting them for years before they had met. United with all the others they could find at this time, the Medium taught them all he knew of being an assassin, and to fund a place to stay, they all tested their skills on people like The Men and The Clients, taking anything of value from the bodies afterwards.

In the course of traveling to keep from being noticed and hunting those like The Men, others like That One would turn up. The group learned quickly how to see the difference between the two kinds. More care was needed for those like That One, but soon they could be baited and terminated just as fast as any other target. They were in fact better then ordinary targets since they often had secret filled books or rare and expensive jewels, some even had elegant and special weapons.

Julius learned from the voices that these metal fans and swords were called channels and that through them the magic could be directed and amplified. The channels were a fussy thing though, in that the wielder did not choose them, the channel chose its wielder. Many of the channels they found were better for selling as a shiny wall mount then they were to him or his companions, though in time each of them found one, making That One’s kind even easier prey.

All things end in time, so it wasn’t really a surprise to anyone when The Seer told them that That One’s kind was coming for them and their lifestyle was about to change. Though it was a bit of a shock when she told them it was to provide them with a job offer and a home where they were not just kept to be hurt. She also told them that it was best to be found and accept because this would give them the army and the more advanced training they would need to hurt Albus.

So when the representative from the Rouge Hunter Department arrived at their current flat, coffee and brownies were ready and hot. Though the man, Drakeson, seemed nice enough for one of that sort, he was also clearly uneasy around them. Regardless, he still told them that since they had been doing his job so well for him already, that they may as well get certified for it and collect a proper paycheck for the effort.

The uneasy man had auburn hair in waves to his shoulders and eyes like storm clouds. He was of a medium build and height and well toned. And he seemed to be dressed entirely in black leather.

Julius, having more direct experience, and therefore more reason to be wary of that sort, felt a few answers were in order. “With all due respect am I to understand that we are to be rewarded for killing your kind instead of being punished?” he asked.

A look passed over the man’s face that suggested he had thought of hitting Julius, but instead he replied “My kind don’t take well to pedophiles, and you lot have been killing them. You are to be rewarded for preventing them from hurting any other innocent children and breaking our laws.”

“You mean there are laws against them hurting us?” Julius asked in shock. He had found so many men who were happy for a chance to hurt him that he had just thought it was the way of people.

“Sure. I thought everyone knew that. No beings permit sex with children in their laws. The punishments for breaking that law are only ever slightly less then those for murder, though for most, it’s the same punishment. Normally killing would have you in the same boat, but since you are victims of abuse I can argue that it was done for your survival. If you agree to the offer, you get room and board as well as pay for taking out criminals as long as they are on the list of ‘Dead or Alive’ and the rest get restrained and a trial for their crimes.”

An agreement was reached, and to avoid confusion, names had to be chosen. The Seer would be known as Veronica Miller. The brothers were to take the last name of Angelus. The Medium was now to be called Malcolm Allen.

The training was fast moving and intense. Since Rouge Hunters were rarely human, and even more rarely had channels, a special program had to be designed for them. They worked through it much faster then any of the trainers had predicted and were officially on the job faster then any other Hunter on record.

They were issued S-coms to call in sites and Info-Mirrors. The Info-Mirror allowed them to call up a visual display of any information listed in the Records Department or the International Knowledge Society, often shortened to Inks; witch was the vampires’ central library. Though owned by the vampires, it was the largest among any race of being and known to contain rare tomes from all known races, even some from the legendary Alexandrian library.

Julius found very quickly that in spite of the skill they had, protocol or those who would not volunteer to stick to it kept them from actually doing field work. As humans, they were considered to frail to work without a vampire as a partner, but the vampires seemed to want to avoid being in the same coffee hutch with them, let alone going on a mission with them. It seemed word had spread as to how many died by their hands before the ever were sure of what they were killing, and now they were properly trained, or were they?

He got to wondering if the illusion of frailty had got them a gentler training course then the rest of the department, leaving his coworkers afraid for his survival rather then theirs. No matter, Drakeson had brought them in to work, so Drakeson would see to it that the education was put to work. Surely he would be glad to have a partner that he knew could handle a case without even knowing it was one.

“Look kid-“Drakeson started.

“At 17, I feel the term kid to be a bit inappropriate since I am an adult by your laws.” Julius interjected with no small amount of irritation.

“Ok, sorry, Julius even if I take you out, the Site Recorders and the Corpse Collectors are scared shitless of you. You’re freakishly powerful and you keep talking to yourself. They think you’ll snap in the field and kill them too.” he sighed and looked sadly at the youth. Maybe he made a mistake by pushing for employment for the group of them.

Julius jus rolled his eyes and continued like he was talking to a slow witted child “I’m not talking to myself. I’m talking to The Dead. Since we hunt killers, I thought that would be an advantage.”

“See, when you say shit like that it just makes it look true. Nobody can talk to the dead. The closest we get is a Clairvoyant and by the way, you scare them too. Nobody wants to work with a mentally damaged Hunter.” Now the boy was starting to get on his nerves. ‘I should have sent him to the psyche ward instead of the department.’ he thought to himself

Julius just continued like he was talking with the not too bright “So you mean to tell me that while a Clairvoyant can see things nobody else can and give accurate information from this, I can see things nobody else can and give accurate information from this as well but I’m” he sneered “‘mentally damaged’?”

Drakeson sighed in frustration. “We can see what they seen when they put it in a Pensive. How exactly do YOU prove in court that you really heard something and didn’t just make it up?” Drakeson said with the confidence of one whom though he won the argument.

“Have you considered that a Pensive may let you see them too?” The large green eyes took on the look of a cat that had just been rudely removed from a sunny window.

And the color just kind of faded from the hunters face. The prospect of watching conversations with the deceased was just unnerving “Oh. Ok, but if you really can talk to the dead, that’s likely to creep out the rest of the Hunter Department even more. I don’t know what I can do for you if the S.R. and C.C. won’t get near you and the Clairvoyant is too scared of you to focus.”

“Bribe them. Or threaten them. Or blackmail them. There must be people you can force to get over it and let me do my job. I feel like I’m getting a paycheck for looking cute and you may recall that the last time that happened lead me to accidentally killing several people.”

‘The boy sure is cut throat. If he ever got into the field he’d be a hell of an asset.’ Drakeson thought to himself “Point taken. I’ll work on it.”

“Fantastic. Now, since we’ll be working together soon, how about telling me your first name since you always use mine?”

The senior hunter flushed. He had gotten quite used to people around him just knowing how odd his parents were. “That is my first name. Mom said it was because I flapped around so much before I was born that she thought I was part duck. They really shouldn’t let women name babies till they come down off the pain meds.”

“Too long. I’ll just call you Drake. Jules is ok with me if you like.” With that Julius left for more coffee.

Over the next week, Drakeson found that nobody who was actively in the department would get near the humans, and had an epiphany. Looking through the records of retired staff, he found a Clairvoyant. The man himself had left because he also creeps out his coworkers (it seemed his sense of humor was too morbid even for Hunters), and now that he had a chance to get out into the field, he just may come back. The drawback was that he was blind as a bat.

When Drakeson got to the listed residence, he lucked out by finding his Clairvoyant, Mr. Crow, was also living with two brothers, one of witch had been a human in the C.C., and the other had worked in S.R., both having left because they felt the department didn’t like them along with Mr. Crow. Over tea he found out why that may have been.

The older brother, Edgar, didn’t talk, but seemed to make up for it with wild gestures that convey his point and an expressive face. The younger, Gideon, seemed to have a natural radar field as he prepared the tea without looking at anything and an eye patch on his face’s right side, witch was covered in extensive scaring from what looked like claw marks, and the same disturbing sort of calm that came from Veronica at times.

After explaining his situation, the three agreed to return to R.H.D. to help him. Since the lack of actual work in their fields was the reason for retirement to begin with, it was easy to get an agreement. Drakeson retuned to H.Q. to tell Julius the good news.