Chapter 5: Hell's Loose

   The android had just reached the marketplace. Popping open the rocket's canopy, it dove out and landed directly in front of David and Ruth, pulling out twin submachine guns and opening fire. David and Ruth had about five seconds to react, and managed to do so quite admirably. In this case, however, "quite admirably" meant that they were still alive for another five seconds. Two bullets had gone into David's shoulder, and one had hit Ruth in the thigh.

   "Where did this thing come from?" David gasped as he scrambled to avoid another salvo.

   Ruth wasn't answering, being too busy dragging herself behind a nearby dumpster to do so. The android seemed a little disappointed that it hadn't killed the targets right away. After all, it should have only taken five seconds and now it looked like it would take ten, or even fifteen. If it were possible for a machine to feel annoyance, this android would have felt it. No matter. It would finish off these pesky targets.

   David meanwhile was couched behind a bunch of trash cans, furiously thinking as to what the best course of action would be. Couldn't use one of his arms, that was for sure. His shoulder burning with pain, David was functioning on instinct now. All he knew was that there was something trying to kill him, and probably Ruth too. The only other thing that his instinct told him was to destroy that android and protect Ruth and himself. It wasn't very helpful.

   Ruth was having trouble maintaining a sense of consciousness. Her leg refused to work properly, and she was just as confused as David as to the android's motivations as well as how to get out alive. Another hail of gunfire. Some ricocheted off the dumpster, others whizzing past. Ruth cursed under her breath. Why of all days did she decide to leave her weapon in the van today?

   David's thinking went along the same lines. His first thought was that it was a shame he left his gun behind. His second thought was that he may not have. His third, to check his holster, where he found his gun. This started a whole new line of thought, running along the lines of "hey idiot, you can fire back!" David waited for the android to empty another clip, then ducked out from behind his trash can to snap off a few shots. His aim being a little shaky, he missed the android's head completely, but the fact that his wild shooting knocked one of the submachine guns out of the android's hand more than made up for it.

   The android was astonished at this recent turn of events. What was his hand doing with no gun in it? More importantly, why wasn't that human/werewolf dead yet? The android didn't have much time to ponder, David took another shot that destroyed the second submachine gun. The android was now utterly flabbergasted. Both of it's guns gone? There was a separate program to run in such a case, but it had been so long since the android had to use it, it took a few moments for the program to execute. This was enough time for David to get two more shots off that took out the android's optical sensors.

   Blinded, the android switched to it's radar sensor. That way it could at least tell where the targets were. It advanced on the non-moving target, which turned out to be Ruth. Ruth stared up at the android advancing and prepared for her earthly existence to end. The android didn't even bother to move quickly, just walked over to her and reached out to grab her. Ruth tried to worm out of the way, but that only prolonged things. One of the android's hands encircled her throat. Ruth fought for air as the android lifted her up above it's head and brought the other hand around to the back of her head. Any minute now, there would be a crack, and Ruth would feel nothing else. She tensed herself against the inevitable.

   The crack never came. David had moved behind the android while it was focused on Ruth and clamped his jaws on to the back of its neck. While the android's false skin could prevent puncture, the power of David's jaws was enough to crush the neural controllers of the android. The droid spasmed and let go of Ruth, who would have landed on her feet if both of her legs worked, which they didn't. She collapsed in an unconscious heap. Spinning around to confront this new threat, the android suddenly realized that its balance sensors were among the things crushed. It too fell into a heap, though it wasn't quite dead.

   David stood over the android, panting slightly. The android went to trip the young werewolf up, but David was too alert, reflexes born of his wrestling career keeping him on his toes. He nimbly dodged out of the way, then spotted a metal pipe hanging out of the dumpster. Grabbing it with his good hand, David brought it crashing down on the android's cranium, then repeated the maneuver several more times. Finally, the android went limp and stopped twitching. David then turned his attention to his bleeding shoulder, which had in fact, bled quite a lot. Feeling sick and dizzy from the loss of blood, David managed to make a phone call to headquarters before collapsing next to Ruth's already unconscious form.

*************

   Ruth was lost. Where was her dad? Why had he left so late at night? Ruth was only six, and she hadn't been able to sleep. Wandering the dark hallways of the house, she felt alone. What if something happened to him? She had all ready lost her mother. She remembered that much from what her dad had told her. Walked out one day, and never had come back home. Since then, Ruth lived in fear that one day her father would leave her too.

   Peering downstairs, Ruth saw nothing but the inky blackness of night. It was cloudy, apparently, and the beautiful full moon that was supposed to be out was obscured. This only worsened Ruth's paranoia--the only thing worse than being alone late at night was being alone in total darkness. Somehow, she managed to find her way down the staircase, just as the clouds parted and the moon illuminated the house. It also provided Ruth with a nice view of the front yard. She gasped at what she saw.

   Her dad, out talking with some hulking wolf-creature? What was going on? Her curiosity taking over, she crept to the front door for a better look of the wolf man. Her dad seemed to be good friend's with the werewolf, laughing and joking. Privately, Ruth had wondered if she could meet the wolf man, but then had realized that she was supposed to be asleep. Her curiosity got the better of her though, and so the next morning she had asked her dad about the wolf man.

   Her dad looked a bit surprised that she had spied on him, but then shrugged. He was an easygoing person, and so he didn't really worry about it. "Well, I suppose you'd have had to find out sooner or later."

   Ruth was confused. "Find out what daddy?"

   Her dad smiled. "Why, find out what you are. You're a lycanthrope, just like me and the man you saw last night."

   Ruth's eyes went wide. "Wow!" There was a pause, followed by the obvious question. "Um... daddy? What's a lycanthrope?"

   Her dad laughed. "It means that you'll be able to change into a wolf. Here, let me show you." Standing, Ruth watched as her dad changed into a werewolf. "See? Just like what you saw last night."

   Ruth had been astonished. "Wow! I'm going to be able to do that?"

   Dad laughed. "Yes Ruth, but not for a while. You're only six, and you won't be able to do this until you're eighteen."

   That had made Ruth pout a little. "Why do I have to wait so long? It's not fair!"

   Father gave daughter a hug. "Oh, don't think about it right now. You'll be eighteen before you know it."

   Ruth had looked up, eyes shining. "Really?"

   "Of course," her dad had assured her. "You won't even notice the time going by."

   The image of her dad faded away, refocusing into an older version of him with a worried look on his face. Ruth suddenly realized that she had been unconscious and now seemed to be waking up. Her dad saw her wake up and smiled.

   "Well, that was a bit rough. You've just manifested for the first time, and I'll be darned if you didn't manage to hurt yourself pretty well."

   Ruth sat up, and saw that her arms were bandaged. "How-?"

   Her father chuckled. "You went chasing after a rabbit. It would have been funny if you hadn't fallen down that creek bed. Bruised yourself up pretty good, and managed to cut your arms on some rocks too."

   Ruth laughed. "So I'm a lycanthrope now? That's wonderful!"

   Her dad grinned. "Yes, you're a full-grown lycanthrope. A few more transformations and you'll be able to control yourself when you transform."

   Those two transformations took place without further incident in the space of a week and a half. Then, one day, Ruth awoke and found herself in wolf form. She remembered it as one of the most exciting days of her life. Then her Dad introduced her to Doc, the wolf she saw out in the front yard all those years ago. She learned to control her transformations, and to defend herself from the Hunters and other perils of the werewolf world.

   That memory too faded, and Ruth became aware of her father sitting in a corner chair of a hospital room. As he looked up and saw Ruth awake, her dad's heart lifted, and he stood and walked over to embrace her.

   "Thank goodness you're all right! How do you feel?"

   Ruth winced a bit and grinned. "I've been better, but I'll live." Closing her eyes for a moment, she suddenly remembered that there had been someone else with her. "Where's David?"

   Her dad pointed out the door. "He's down the hall. Doc says that he was a bit worse off than you at first, but he's recovering nicely."

   Ruth leaned back, relieved. "Good. I owe him for saving me out there. Didn't find Aaron though." Ruth suddenly looked disappointed.

   Her dad placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, they're out looking for him now. The trail's gone a bit cold, but they'll find him eventually."

*************

   David awoke with a pain in his shoulder. Ignoring it for the moment, he concentrated more on recalling the previous night's events, unsuccessfully. His head still spun a little from the painkillers, but he felt all in all fairly steady. Then his eyes noticed the needle in his arm and he let out a whimper before fainting. A few minutes later, he reawoke, and forced himself to consider the needle sticking in his elbow seriously. For someone who had been shot twice in the shoulder, David demonstrated the uncanny ability to disregard that fact entirely. His whole mind was focused on the needle in his arm, and he started to wish that somebody would take the thing out. It looked like his wish would be granted too, for at that moment Doc strode into the room.

   "Hello David, it's good to see you awake. You've had quite a close call. I didn't know that you could bleed that much! Is your shoulder troubling you?"

   David barely heard what Doc said. "Needle. In my arm. That's not going to work."

   Doc looked confused. "I'm sorry, what are you saying? Something wrong with your arm?"

   David rolled his eyes. "No, there's a needle in my arm. That's not going to work. I don't want any needles in my arm. Take the needle out of my arm and then we can worry about my shoulder."

   Doc understood. "Ah, I see. You hate needles."

   "Brilliant deduction Doc, now could you please take this needle here out of my arm?" David was getting a little peeved. After all, didn't he understand that needles were bad things to have in one's skin? What was taking him so long to figure that out?

   "Certainly David. It was only something to keep you going in case you were still unconscious." Doc walked over to David's bed and withdrew the needle, then set about disposing of it. Suddenly, he remembered that David was still bleeding a bit where the needle had pierced him. "Whoops, forgot about you for a second. Sorry about that."

   David grimaced a bit, watching as Doc set about wiping off the blood trickling down his arm. "Thanks Doc. I'm a bit edgy around needles."

   "That so? I hadn't noticed." Doc managed to reply without laughing.

   David ignored Doc's response and decided to now concentrate on why his shoulder hurt so badly. "Hey Doc, what's wrong with my shoulder?"

   "You got shot twice in it. Would have thought that was obvious." Doc replied, pointing to a table in the corner. On the table was a tray, and on the tray were two shiny bullets. "We dug those out of your shoulder last night. Your shoulder is broken at the moment, but we expect that to heal in a few months. You also managed to pick up a fair amount of scratches and bruises, but those will go away fairly quickly. In a few weeks, we'll take a look at you and see if we can start rehabilitation of the shoulder."

   David nodded, the previous night's events finally coming back to him. "Oh... oh yeah.... is Ruth ok?"

   Doc nodded. "She's in much better shape than you. We only had to dig one bullet out of her, and that was in the leg. She should be fine in a few months as well."

   "What about Aaron? Any sign of him?" David shared Ruth's feeling of failure.

   Doc looked a bit frustrated. "No, we haven't been able to find him yet. All that gunpowder as well as your blood everywhere broke up the scent but we're still out there looking for him."

   David nodded. "I see. Well, if he's not found by the time I'm healed, I want to join the search effort."

   Doc didn't seem surprised. "Of course, we'll put you on the search team as soon as you heal. Though I hope that we can find him sooner."

   David nodded. "Me too. I wonder what he's doing now..."

*************

   Aaron was in fact, sleeping at the moment. That was pretty much all he had done all day. There had been a few hours where he was hungry, and so Jo had given him some food, and that had been it. Lydia had set out a schedule for his use of the facilities, and that wasn't for another half hour at least. So he slept, while Lydia was out refreshing the groups supplies and Jo sat hunched at a readout terminal of the blood analyzer. The kilted lycanthrope turned over in his sleep, and fell off of his cot with a curse.

   Jo's head snapped up from the analyzer readout. "What was that? Are you ok?"

   Aaron grumpily got up and dusted himself off. "Oh, no, I'm just fine. A little sore now, but otherwise all right."

   Jo nodded, relieved. "Good, I'd hate for anything to harm you."

   Aaron retorted a bit sarcastically. "Oh yes, can't have the guinea pig hurt now can we?"

   "Of course not. We need you to stay healthy." Jo was finding it harder and harder to rationalize kidnapping the werewolf. It had been easier when she had thought of them as less than intelligent. Unfortunately, Aaron had proven to be not only intelligent, but also witty and a good conversationalist. It was hard not to think of him as a normal human being, Jo realized. "Besides, what kind of a hostess would I be if I let my guests be injured?"

   Aaron snorted and rubbed his back where he had struck the floor. "Hmm... I'm a bit of an unwilling guest if you're a hostess, aren't I?"

   "Maybe so, but it had to be done." Jo was trying to convince herself that was the case. Her conscience was being pesky lately.

   Aaron stretched out, then absently rubbed his stomach. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have anything to eat, would you?"

   Jo shook her head. "Nope, we're out of supplies. That's why Lydia's out right now."

   "Ah. So I'll just sit here and listen to my stomach growl then." Aaron said, and lay back down on his cot, deciding to go to sleep. After all, if he couldn't eat, he might as well just go back to bed. Suddenly, a disturbing thought struck him. "Hey, uh... Jo was it?"

   Jo nodded. "Yeah. What is it?"

   "Well, you said you were a Hunter, right? The other one is too?" Aaron's instinct was trying to tell him something, but he needed it confirmed.

   "Well, yeah, Lydia is a Hunter too." Jo said, feeling a bit confused, though a knot was forming in her stomach, telling her that she hadn't thought of something.

   "Well, wouldn't that mean that you've pretty much gone against every doctrine the Hunters have? I mean, keeping me alive and all, plus the fact that I know you haven't exactly been checking in with them. Aren't they going to get mighty angry when they find out what you've been doing?"

   Jo suddenly realized what she had forgotten to think of. The standard procedure for handling Hunters who suddenly left was to terminate them before they did anything incriminating. Trying to muster a confidant tone, she replied, "Well, yes. But if everything goes according to plan, they never will know. There's no way for the Hunters to know where we went, and when we disappeared, the last thing we sent them was from outside the city. They won't even know to look in Minneapolis."

   Aaron shook his head despairingly. "If everything goes to plan? When was the last time everything went according to plan? You'd better tell Lydia to think about defensive tactics around here, or it will all come down around your head and take me with it. I'm not exactly planning on being shot by some Hunter anytime soon."

   Jo felt a little ill. She resolved to talk to Lydia as soon as she returned. The werewolf had a good point. She wasn't too keen on being killed either.

*************

   Overseer returned from his walk, feeling refreshed. He had run into a former guard of his. Using the escape of his prize experiment as an excuse, the guard had been messily terminated. That sort of thing always put Overseer in a good mood. The sorcerer's good mood lasted all the way to his desk, where a report informed him that his assassin had failed. This was the second time. Overseer was not pleased. He resolved to do the job himself next time. Androids were just too expensive these days to keep throwing them away.

   Just then, Overseer's phone rang. Picking it up, he was astonished to hear a female voice on the other end of the line.

   "Remember me?" The voice inquired. The malice contained in those two words was enough to cause Overseer to jerk his head back from the receiver for a moment.

   "Sorry, can't say I do." The sorcerer replied, his voice lowered now, with an equally malicious tone.

   "Really?" The voice chuckled darkly. "I'm only the person who's childhood you stole. And now that I've escaped, I'm coming for you. Look out the window."

   Overseer got up and peered out the window. "What's there to see out the window?"

   The voice on the other side laughed madly. "I don't believe you fell for that! You're such a loser!" With that, the call was disconnected.

   Overseer made a call to one of his many spies and contacts. "Find out who just called here, and find out where they're calling from. Do it by the end of the night or I'll have your family murdered in an unpleasant manner." Sometimes, you had to show a little tough love to the troops in order to get them to move.

*************

   The project hung up the receiver of the pay phone she had used. She was standing outside a bar in a less than clandestine neighborhood near the outskirts of what once was New York City, but was now nothing more than a bombed out shell of a city like Minneapolis (The only cities that weren't bombed out hulks of their former selves in the United States were Green Bay, San Francisco, Cleveland (because nobody would dare destroy the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Phoenix, and Cincinnati (because it was worthless all ready)). Why she had decided to come to New York was a mystery to the girl, but some part of her that remembered life outside of the containment cell had drawn her here.

   Trusting her inner instinct to guide her to whatever it was she was looking for, the girl walked into New York's remains. Her subconscious memory eventually led her to the remains of an old apartment building. Stepping through the doorway, the young sorceress/lycanthrope made her way up the ruined stairs and into a third floor apartment. Stepping into what seemed to have been the living room, the girl found the remains of two adults. She couldn't tell much else, the bodies were nothing but skeletons now. A partially burned photograph stood on a shelf near the door. The girl took one look at it, shrieked, and passed out.

   A torrent of memories was suddenly released from the young girls subconscious. Her name had been Kate, hadn't it? Those people, they were her parents, she remembered how happy they had been. Yes, perhaps a bit over indulgent to their young child, but Kate had been the happy couples' first child. Her ninth birthday, she remembered, was the last one she had celebrated with them. The next day, while her parents were away, that nice man had come to the door. Asked if he could come in and wait for Kate's parent's, claiming to be a family friend. Kate had opened the door, turned to lead the man in and then.... she had been in the cell. The doctor injected something into her, then she couldn't remember anything else from then. Not until the new face had greeted her one day.

   This doctor had let her out of her cell. With friendly words, he had calmed her fears, and told her about what she had become. Five years, he said, had gone by since she had been brought to the compound. Kate was now fourteen. For the next five years, the doctor had sometimes awakened her from what seemed like eternal sleep to teach her more about the world outside, which the young girl had very little knowledge of. She had become a daughter to the doctor, who only had one son that he occasionally talked about.

   Then, two weeks after she turned nineteen, her adopted father came into the room looking excited, yet worried at the same time. He had spoken quickly. "Come young one, you're getting out of here."

   Kate hadn't known what to say. "I'm free to go? How did you get permission to do this?"

   The doctor shook his head. "I didn't. I'm helping you escape. Now come on, the security system will come online in a few more minutes."

   Dashing out of the doors, the doctor had given her a slip of paper. On that slip was the address of his home, and if she ever needed his help, he said to drop by. Kate had left, killing a few guards with blasts of energy she summoned from her fingertips--an ability she never knew she had. Not realizing the training that she should have had in order to use her powers safely, she had let go with massive bursts of flame and electricity. Her body unused to such power, she had become mentally unbalanced, and hatched a plan to destroy the one responsible for her long captivity. The plan was now working along, though the other sorcerer/lycanthrope hadn't found his powers yet.

   Kate woke up on the floor, and sat there for a long time, holding the photo and weeping silently. Her parents, it seemed, had not survived the war. Overseer would pay for this tragedy as well.

*************

Lydia was still locating supplies. She knew she had to be covert about it, after all, it wouldn't do for her to run into another Hunter. With any luck their last message would lead the Hunters to believe they had been killed. The message had in effect stated that the two of them had found a lycanthrope community and were going in to investigate. The lack of subsequent messages would surely be enough to convince the Hunters of her and Jo's untimely demise. As long as nobody saw them, things would be all right. Jo and Lydia had both been careful not to be seen by anyone once the message had been transmitted. That had been the day before the marketplace incident. Lydia was finally starting to relax about the whole thing, having thus far kept out of sight.

As she made her way through the crowded farmer's market (both her and Jo insisted on fresh produce to eat, not the stuff found in supermarkets) Lydia caught sight of a newspaper headline from the a few days before. "Wolf-man attacks at electronics marketplace" it declared, complete with a full color photo taken of the werewolf holding up a short gunman by the ankle and snarling. This was not what caught Lydia's eye. What caught her eye was the fact that the photo's shot of the crowd plainly showed Jo and her faces. With a curse, Lydia hurriedly paid for her food and dashed for the van, tearing off down the road to the hidden laboratory that she and Jo had set up.

*************

Back at the Hunter's headquarters, the very same newspaper lay strewn on the leader's desk. The burly man leaned back into his chair, puffing on a cigar. He was a well built man, but he had to have been in his fifties. An experienced Hunter, he had been elected leader some twenty years ago. One of his protégées, it seemed, had deserted. The leader was not happy about this. In fact, he was disappointed. He had hoped that Lydia would be the next leader after he was gone. Too bad. Rules were rules, after all. He made a phone call.

The Hunter who picked up the phone was a powerfully built man in his 30s named Michael, but known as Big Mike. He was a Hunter, but his other job was to take care of deserters. In the ten years he had been in charge of this unpleasant aspect of the Hunter organization, no deserter had ever survived. It wasn't that Big Mike liked killing those who he had worked with, but it had to be done. He just happened to be good at it. Hanging up the phone, he got in a small car and headed for Minneapolis. He'd arrive in a two days, tops. Give him another day or so to track them down, and that would be it.

*************

   David felt much better the next morning. Sleeping all day yesterday had been one of his better ideas. His shoulder was still in a cast, and would be for a while, but at this point, David was just appreciating being alive. The closeness of his escape had gotten through to him when he overheard Doc talking to an orderly about an artery in is shoulder barely being missed. This had shaken David up quite a bit, but it had also made him more determined to find out who sent the android, and if it was related to the first android. On top of that, he also was determined to heal as quickly as possible and get back on the search for Aaron. It looked like he would have to spend another two days in bed, which wasn't something David was too happy about, but Doc had assured him that he would begin rehabilitation as soon as he could.

   Ruth woke up with a start, panting slightly. Her near-death encounter with the android seemed to have given her nightmares. Doc entered the room, and while checking her status, had mentioned that she could use a wheelchair and move about the compound if she wished. Ruth wasn't too keen on staying in her hospital room all day, so she jumped at the chance. Actually, she tried to jump at the chance, but her leg wasn't interested in supporting her. Ruth wound up in her wheelchair, roaming the halls. She stopped by the computer lab to talk to the techs about the success of the new chip, then decided to go visit David.

   She found David sitting up in his bed playing with the bed controls. As he jerked upright and back down again, his legs occasionally raising and lowering too, he managed a wave with his good arm.

   "Hello Ruth. Glad to see you're out and about so early. They want me to stay in bed for another day." He made a melancholy face. "So I'm stuck here. Did you find out if the chip worked or not? I never found out, or if I did, I wasn't lucid enough to understand anyhow."

   Ruth laughed. "Well, they say the chip performed admirably. The files are gone, so we're safe on that score. Now the only problem is finding Aaron, and Doc says they're still working on that too."

   David nodded. "Hmm, I hope they find him soon. As soon as I get out of here I'm joining the search if it's still going on. Can't stand leaving him in the lurch like that. Plus, I still owe him for those extra hand-to-hand lessons."

   "Is that so? I didn't know he had shown you any maneuvers." Ruth observed.

   "Oh yeah, he was around the first day of training." David explained.

   "Well, he's always been a really helpful guy to everyone here. Doc doesn't know what to do with him gone." Ruth said, previous fears as to Aaron's fate returning.

   David stopped fiddling with the bed and sat up. "He'll be fine Ruth. He's a pretty capable fighter. I'm sure that whatever Aaron's up to, it's something to do with him escaping wherever he is right now."

*************

   Actually, at that moment, Aaron was directing the setting up of a defense perimeter in the lab. With Lydia's news, the two had gone back to the electronics marketplace to get security equipment. On their return, Aaron had offered to help set up defenses. Unwilling to trust a lycanthrope, but left with no real other choice, Lydia grudgingly accepted his help. The only condition was that Aaron would be under the gun at all times, and Lydia would be ready to shoot at the moment he did something aggressive.

   Of course, at the moment, Aaron was not worried about being aggressive. He was more concerned with soldering two wires together that would complete the motion detector net. A series of motion detectors lay hidden throughout the house, and all that was left was to connect the last one. The problem was, Jo had dropped the last sensor, and so now Aaron had to put it back together. He sat cross-legged on the floor, a soldering iron in one hand, the sensor in the other. After a few moment's of soldering, the tech looked up and grinned.

   "Got the little bugger back together. Now you can complete the net." He offered it to Jo, who was standing to the side, interested in the tech's work.

   In fact, she had been bombarding Aaron with questions about what he was doing the whole morning. Aaron didn't mind, it always pleased him to explain one of the finer points of his work to others. Jo, on the other hand, was only too willing to inquire as to his activities, always on the look out for new things to learn. That had been why her grandfather had been so fond of her. Jo had nearly gotten all of her scientific knowledge from the kindly old man. Snapping out of her nostalgic thoughts, she looked at the soldered sensor.

   "Great! Now we'll have a bit of protection should the Hunters come after us!" Jo seemed rather pleased by this, briefly forgetting that Hunters were trained to avoid motion detectors.

   Lydia hadn't forgotten this fact, and was all ready thinking of the next step needed to further protect the lab (and themselves).   "Hmm... is there anything else we could have these motion detectors do for us?"

   Aaron thought for a moment. "Well, there is, but we'd need a computer..."

   Jo pointed to a desk in the corner. "You mean like that one over there?"

   Aaron, who hadn't spotted the computer before, nodded and walked over to it. "That'll do. Now, the next thing we need are some wires... and something that generates electricity."

   Jo pointed to the generator and to the wires that lay next to it, leftovers from the cell construction. "Would those work, do you think?"

   Aaron looked at the leftover wires and began chuckling to himself. "Aye... those will work just fine."

   Lydia looked at the werewolf suspiciously. What in the world was he up to?   Aaron started to run cables from the computer to the generator's central control panel. Next, he took the tangle of extra wire and began to apply it to the steel door that led into the apartment. Moving two motion sensors outside, Aaron laid them on either side of the doorway, hiding them as best as he could. Returning inside with a satisfied look on his face, the kilted technician then sat down at the computer console.

   "Now... let's see what I can do with this puppy.." Aaron began to talk to the computer in an odd tone, occasionally muttering things like "that's right, you're mine now!" and "NO! You foolish hunk of circuitry!" Lydia and Jo watched with bemused expressions as Aaron continued to madly type at the keyboard, until a few hours later he leaned back with a satisfied look.

   Jo peered at the screen questioningly. "What did you just do?"

   "Wrote a simple program, using the commands that I found on the internet. I just hacked into that generator's simple little computer. Now, if those sensors outside are tripped and the system is active, it will tell the generator to re-route power from my cell through those wires on the door. That will electrify the door, and we'll be able to laugh while they fry." Aaron stated.

   "But what if they just shoot the door off?" Jo inquired.

   "Then that's when your friend over there shows us how good of a Hunter she used to be." Aaron said matter of factly. "Though if I had my way, I wouldn't be sitting in my cage when they come."

   Lydia stared at the werewolf. "Oh please. Like you'd do anything but head for the nearest exit anyhow."

   "Whoa there. I may not like you all that much, but the last thing I'll do is stand around while people get killed. You don't trust me? Fine, but I'll be out of that cage if anyone enters here, electrified wires or no." Aaron was angry at Lydia. After all, hadn't he just spent hours setting up defenses with them? And he still wasn't trusted. How idiotic of them, to defend with two instead of the three they had because he was a lycanthrope. He didn't want to die as much as they did, end of story.

   Jo, for her part, was a bit uneasy. She thought that Aaron seemed trustworthy enough, after all, he'd been the one to set up the defenses, but Lydia still did not trust him. How strange. Still, Jo didn't like to get into arguments with Lydia over this sort of thing, so she decided to trust her friend's instincts. Maybe there was something about the lycanthrope she was missing.

*************

Big Mike was nearer to his objective. The only problem was, he was a bit lost. He couldn't bring himself to ask for directions, so he elected to follow a car that looked like it was headed for the highway. Lucky for him, that was indeed where the car was going. Grumbling about outdated maps and lousy directions, Big Mike continued to Minneapolis.

*************

   That evening, David finally got sick of sitting in bed. Disregarding the orders of Doc and the rest of the medical staff, David unhooked his arm from the brace holding it to the bed and got up. His head swimming a bit, he steadied himself against the wall, then thought that it would do no harm to make his way to the dining hall to grab something to eat. The first obstruction to the dining hall came in the very simple form of the doorway. With his arm up as it was, he was too wide. This resulted in a bump and a curse before he shuffled sideways out into the hall.

   The next real task was maneuvering with no support. He tried leaning on the wall, but it was a bit rough and scraped his good shoulder. Not wishing for any further discomfort to his upper body than was all ready provided by two gunshot wounds, David instead held his good arm up like the braced arm and attempted to balance that way. It didn't work that well, but well enough for David to make his way into the dining hall. He was surprised to find Ruth there, drinking a glass of juice.

   She turned to greet David with a puzzled expression. "Weren't you supposed to stay in bed all day?"

   David shrugged, realized the gesture hurt, and resolved not to do it anymore. "Well, technically yes, but I'm hungry and don't feel like waiting for someone to come along and get me something. So I took matters into my own hands."

   Ruth nodded. "I see. Well, there's just one problem. The kitchen closed an hour ago."

   "No problem! I'll go see what there is to find in the back that's already made!" David pushed his way into the swinging doors, disappearing from sight. Moments later, David returned with a cold pizza he pilfered from the refrigerator. "The Hunt was good!" He exclaimed with a grin.

   Sitting down at a table, David began slowly making his way through a slice. Leaning back in his chair contentedly, he failed to realize that he was leaning a bit too far. The chair tipped, and David fell back, putting his good arm down instinctively to soften the fall. This turned out to be unnecessary, as David actually hit the ground rather lightly. It was almost as if he had floated down instead of falling. Looking up to see if Ruth had noticed something odd (she hadn't, being absorbed in some book or another called "So You're a Half-Human Half-Wolf Thingy: Living with Lycanthropy" and only laughed a bit when she heard David curse and fall), David rose to his feet. Sitting back down in a chair, he resumed his pizza consumption.

   Ruth watched him for a moment before asking "Could I have a bit of pizza? I'm feeling hungry myself."

   David shrugged. "Help yourself.   No way I can finish this by myself."

*************

   Aaron woke the next day to find that Lydia and Jo were both out for some reason. Not being one to bother with, or even to question such turns of events, he decided that if he was going to escape, he might as well do it now. The first thing to worry about was the electrified cage. Fortunately, Aaron had managed to swipe a plastic pole while he was setting up the defenses for Jo and Lydia. Using the pole, the kilted lycanthrope was able to bend the mesh enough to create a hole he could slip through as long as he was careful enough. Sadly, he wasn't and spent a happy fifteen minutes laying unconscious on the floor of his cell, after managing to disentangle himself from the wires by some act of God.

   It was then that Lydia and Jo showed up. Lydia took one look at the unconscious werewolf and turned to Jo, a look of "I told you so" on her face.   "See? I told you he'd try to escape the first chance he got!"

   Jo was shocked. Somehow, she had wanted to believe that Aaron really had been willing to help and would be willing stay. She always tried to see the best in people, and Aaron's willingness to help out had led her to believe that he would stay even if he weren't caged. After all, he had seemed willing enough to go through all of her tests so far. Lydia seemed to be right. The werewolf could not be trusted. They would have to be more careful with him.

   Aaron woke up from his merry trip to unconsciousness to find that the wires were bent back, and Lydia had his tube next to her. She also seemed to have a gun pointed at him. His disappointment at not escaping being replaced by the realization that he was now going to have an even harder time escaping, his shoulders sagged. Nuts.

*************

   Kate, for her part, had finally left the apartment, after first covering her mother and father's bodies with a sheet so they had some semblance of burial. She'd come back for them later. Now, it was time to think of other things. The past was the past, she had come to that realization now. There was only the task at hand to worry about now. Unfortunately, while Kate had the phone number for Overseer's office, she had no address. The phone number was not the actual number for the office, it just went through a bunch of routers that she couldn't trace. She had to go back to where she had been kept, she knew that now. It was the only way she had any hope of tracking him down.

   The only problem was, she couldn't bring herself to do it. To go knowingly into a place that was responsible for the destruction of her childhood, and (she assumed) the problems she had with a lack of sanity, was about as wise as diving off a cliff to see if she could fly. Mentally, she promised herself she would never try that again. No matter that she actually could manage to fly for periods of time, it was still stupid of her to try in the first place. With a sigh, Kate resigned herself to the inevitable. She'd have to go back to Minnesota. She wasn't too happy about it, but she could teleport, so getting back in no time wasn't a real problem.

   She had just began to dematerialize when all of a sudden, she found she couldn't. Confused, Kate tried again. No luck, she only got halfway through and was suddenly yanked back. Some previously unknown sense was alerting her to possible danger. It was as if she could tell that another magic user was responsible for her trouble. Kate whirled around, and was shocked to see an old man in a cloak, hand upraised, with an annoyed look on his face.

   "Who the hell are you? Where did you come from?" Kate demanded, frightened at this new development.

   "Who I am is not important. What is more important is who the hell you are. More importantly, what are you doing using magic in the open like that?" The old man sounded angry. It had been over two hundred years since something like this had happened. Being a sorcerer just no longer carried that dangerous mystique. Now it seemed like any idiot was able to wander around and use magical powers.

   Kate was shocked. "Well... I'm the result of a series of genetic experiments performed upon me at a young age by a sorcerer named Overseer." Somehow, this explanation didn't seem so silly when she considered who she was telling it to.

   The old man nodded understandingly. "Oh. Him. Figures, the idiot. You wouldn't happen to know where he is right now, would you?"

   Kate shook her head. "That's what I was going to find out, until you so rudely interrupted me. So if you don't mind..."

   "Now just hold on a second. We've got some questions for you missie." The old man said.

   "Why the heck would you need to question me?" Kate protested, "I'm not doing anything wrong yet!"

   "Oh no? And I suppose that using your powers publicly is perfectly acceptable? Or do you not know all of the regulations you've broken in the past week?" The man shot back.

   "Regulations? What the heck are you babbling on about?" Kate demanded.

   "Oh, nevermind. Just come with me." A wave of his hand, and both he and Kate disappeared from sight.

*************