Episode 12
Farewell
The group returned to the Twin Cities in the middle of the night, understandably worried sick about their missing friends. The tracking device in Marta’s backpack led them to the U of M library. But when they entered, they found only her abandoned backpack sitting forlornly in the study cubicle. The rest of the group was exhausted and shell-shocked, but Melba knew what to do. Telling the rest of the group to wait, she rushed to the upstairs computer lab to find Professor Hakim.
Hakim was in the lab, as always, and more than a little surprised to see Melba. She explained the situation to him, including the nature of her group (a fact he was shocked to learn—he’d thought they were all fellow mages, not “psychopaths”), and begged for his help. He agreed, at the price of a favor later on. A little bit of flashy computer work revealed that Darla and Marta had apparently been taken to something called a “Progenitor compound” that could be found in the wilderness of northern Maine. He offered to take the group there, and they eagerly accepted the offer.
The group wasn’t expecting the instant transportation that Hakim gave them. Immediately, they found themselves hiding behind a pile of crates in a warehouse of sorts. There was a promising-looking door on the other side of the warehouse floor, but it was being guarded by several humans and some huge, deformed genetic monstrosities. Arie dispatched or incapacitated most of them with a well-placed grenade, and the group entered the compound (which seemed to be a virtual duplicate of the one in Bemidji, only populated). After subduing some security guards who were more than a little intimidated by Arie’s M-60 and Will’s battle chainsaw, they made it to the elevators and, acting on a tip from Hakim, made their way to subterranean level 41 in search of Marta and Darla.
Level 41 was similar to the training area the group had seen in the compound in Bemidji, only with slightly different terrain and a number of deer wandering through the space. On the opposite side of the room, the group found Marta’s net launcher but no other sign of their missing comrades. On the way back to the elevator, Will sensed danger and noticed that the deer had suddenly grown very sharp teeth and were moving to surround the group. So he doused them with napalm, thus neutralizing yet another threat in an overly flashy manner. This time, his actions brought the attention of a large number of scientists—and Cameron and Talc in human form. Some members of the group badly wanted to fight, but Melba realized they were terribly outnumbered and convinced them to retreat to the elevator (then talked them out of throwing high explosives into the room for fear of damaging their way out). Ascending to a higher level somewhere in the 20s to regroup, the group opened the elevator doors and was confronted with a huge and none-too-friendly-looking beast with horns, claws, and sharp teeth. The group took that as their cue to get out of the compound entirely and return later with backup, since whatever was going on there was clearly too big for them to deal with alone. After they retreated safely to a nearby town, Hakim brought them back to the Twin Cities and agreed to return them to Marta and Darla’s location after they got backup—if Melba would do him another favor.
With that, the group began making phone calls. Melba got in touch with Charlotte, who gladly volunteered the help of both herself and Jonas. Will called Shirley, who said she’d be willing to come, along with two of her fellow hunters, Oscar and Cassius. The night before they left, everyone assembled at Charlotte’s house in St. Paul so that the original group could explain the situation to the newcomers and plan their approach. After putting together what seemed like a reasonable plan—focus on getting Marta and Darla back, and deal with anything else as it came up—everyone got some sleep, then assembled at the U of M the next morning, where Hakim sent them to a remote area of Canada to confront Cameron’s forces for what they hoped would be the last time
The group found themselves in a forest. Disoriented, they soon became separated. Arie, Charlotte, Jonas, Melba, Paladin, and Will managed to stay together, but everyone else vanished, and in the distance sounds of a battle could be heard. Soon, the group came across a clearing where they could see Cameron and Jana sitting on a rock, consulting about something. Since as far as they could tell they were still unnoticed, Arie took the opportunity to draw his sniper rifle and get a good solid shot off on Cameron. Of course, this gave away their position. Both guardians assumed their battle forms (Jana’s looked like a humanoid figure made entirely of blood) and the group soon found itself engaged in hand-to-hand combat once again.
At first, things were going relatively well for the group, with both Charlotte and Jonas doing significant amounts of damage to Cameron. But when Will boldly attacked him, Cameron grabbed him with one claw, crushing his chest and throwing him to the bottom of a hill. He didn’t get up. Taking advantage of the confusion, Cameron began to flee into the woods. But Arie leveled his sniper rifle again and shot him through the heart, killing the corrupt guardian. But no one had any time for self- congratulation as Jana slithered down the hill and slid into Will’s body, apparently possessing him. Charlotte nearly killed her with a blow from her sword and would have finished her off, but Melba stopped her, thinking she could get some information from the captive guardian. When it became apparent that Jana wouldn’t be telling her anything, and that it would be too dangerous to let her live, she let Jonas shoot her.
The group soon established that Will was certainly dead, but had no time to mourn before they saw something approaching on the horizon. Arie looked at it through the scope of his rifle and saw that it was a gigantic bull dragging a small, scrawny black man behind it. Unsure whether it was a good guardian or a corrupt one, Arie read its mind and established that it meant him no harm. The guardian then assumed its human form and identified itself as Cassius. The man with it was Blak, and he was nearly dead. According to Cassius, he, Shirley, and Oscar were not hunters but guardians, and with the help of Chet and Saria they had killed Talc, his sons, Wendy, and Sarn. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with Blak and had come to the hunters asking their advice. Melba asked him to bring them to the rest of the group, and he agreed.
Once everyone reconvened, Melba woke up Blak and started interrogating him about Marta and Darla’s whereabouts. He said that Cameron had been experimenting on them, and that they didn’t want to see it. But Melba insisted, and Blak finally directed the group to a cave a little farther into the woods (Cameron had apparently been heading there when he fled). Arie, Charlotte, Melba, and Paladin entered the cave nervously, prepared for an ugly scene. Instead, they found next to nothing: two hospital beds, bandages, bloody surgical instruments, and Marta and Darla’s clothes neatly folded. Otherwise, the cave was empty. They were just about to leave and look for their comrades elsewhere when something huge emerged from a corner, knocking Charlotte to the ground and injuring her quite severely.
The “something” turned out to be a giant, fleshy crab that began attacking the group. Arie tried his best to fight it off. Melba kept erecting wards, unsure of what else to do. Paladin tried to fight it and was hurt even worse than Charlotte in the process. Finally, Charlotte killed it. It was only then that Melba noticed something very disturbing: the cross necklace that Marta had worn every day was lodged between the plates of armor on the crab’s abdomen. Curious, Charlotte cut it open and found a large amount of red fur—a color consistent with Darla’s fur in her fox form. Cameron had somehow made Marta and Darla into the crab, and now they were dead thanks to the good intentions of their own friends.
Drained almost beyond grief, the group knew of nothing else to do than bury their dead. Not wanting the messy questioning that bringing back a corpse would surely entail, they elected to leave Will in the cave with Marta and Darla (burying his wrench, his flamethrower, and his chainsaw along with him). Arie collapsed the entrance with dynamite, and Melba left the hunter code symbol for “farewell” there as a sort of memorial. Although they were still unsure what to do with Blak, they decided to do what Marta would have done and release him back to his life, provided that he promised never to cause any trouble for hunters or humans again (because if he did, they’d be sure to kill him). Then the group began the long trek back to the Twin Cities. They had accomplished their goal of protecting Chet and Saria and solving (at least in part) the mystery of the guardians, but at a great price. For the first time since their imbuement, they were free to do as they pleased—and, for the first time, fully uncertain as to what the future might bring.