Episode 13
Hope
After returning from the battle against Cameron and the corrupt guardians in the woods of Canada, the group (minus the slain Darla, Marta, and Will) tried to return to something resembling their normal lives. Arie dealt with his grief over the death of his roommate and best friend by getting really, really drunk. Charlotte checked herself into a hospital and soon recovered from her (substantial) injuries. Paladin, who had been beaten within an inch of his life by the giant Darla and Marta crab, was reluctant to return to his own apartment and the memories of Darla it contained. He asked Melba if he could stay in her apartment while he recovered, and she agreed. Many cutesy and sexual-tension-filled moments ensued. Melba then began to deal with the nastier details of the events in Canada: letting Hakim know what had happened, informing Marta’s aunt of her death, packing up Will’s tools and half-finished gadgets and storing them in Arie’s apartment, and going through Marta’s substantial notes on the guardians and the information she’d taken out of the compound.
The day that Charlotte got out of the hospital, she returned home to a strange message on her answering machine: an unfamiliar voice saying, “Anglers always understand the message even if they don’t understand the messengers.” That night, she was awakened by the phone ringing. On the other end, the same person who’d left the message said, “I have information for you.” He identified himself as “Patron4” and said there was another hunter somewhere in the Twin Cities who was in a lot of danger, and that she might want to check it out. Apparently, this hunter could be found somewhere in Dinkytown the next night. Charlotte asked how she could recognize him, and Patron4 said only, “You’ll know him when you see him.” Then he hung up.
In the morning, Charlotte immediately went to the apartment building to let the rest of the group know about the phone call, since they were the only other hunters she knew and she didn’t want to go looking for this endangered hunter alone. Although no one felt particularly ready to go back on the hunt just yet, they all agreed that this was a situation that definitely merited their attention. Arie, Charlotte, Chet, Jonas, Melba, and Saria made plans to go to Dinkytown that night and check things out.
At about this same time, Randy (yes, that’s his full, legal name) had just returned to Minneapolis after spending two years in San Diego and was feeling pretty good. He’d reunited with Charlie, his vampire best friend, and the two of them were wandering the streets of the city. (With Randy, it was always quite literally wandering, since he had a terrible sense for both direction and time.) So of course he had no idea where he was when he noticed an Asian man and woman standing by their car in an alleyway, apparently struggling with something. Always the good Samaritans, Randy and Charlie approached them and asked if they needed help. The woman explained that their car had a flat tire, and that since they didn’t have a jack they were trying to lift it up onto some cinderblocks so they could change the tire. She added that they’d certainly appreciate any help, so Randy and Charlie stepped up and started trying to lift the car.
Meanwhile, the others had made their way to Dinkytown at sundown and were cruising the streets slowly, looking for anything interesting or suspicious. Eventually, they drove by the alley and saw two Asians, a “skinny, long-haired, artsy-looking guy,” and a fourth person in a bright orange parka and red phat pants trying to lift a car onto cinderblocks. Melba, who’d turned on her second sight, noted that all four of them registered as not human. Wondering if this could be what Patron4 had referred to, the group pulled over. Everyone hung back but Charlotte and Melba, who approached the alley and asked the Asian woman if they needed help. She said, “No, we’re fine” and seemed kind of angry at them for asking. Still, Charlotte and Melba hung around the alley in case something happened, with the woman getting more frustrated with them each minute they stayed.
As the four people finally got the car positioned on the cinderblocks, several things happened at once. The Asian man, who up until this point hadn’t been doing much, suddenly lifted one of the cinderblocks and threw it at Charlie, hitting him in the head. Before anyone had a chance to react, the woman did something with her hands and suddenly the entire alleyway was enclosed in inky blackness. Melba grabbed Charlotte’s hand and activated a ward, but Charlotte soon got frustrated with not being able to do anything and started groping around for the two guys. Eventually, she ran into Randy somewhere in the darkness (he had Charlie with him, who was perfectly fine—apparently vampires are resilient that way), got him into the radius of Melba’s ward, and convinced them to follow her to the waiting cars
While Charlotte got Randy and Charlie into one of the cars, Melba looked back to see the Asians’ car (now fully functional) emerging from the quickly dissipating black cloud. It was coming straight for her, but she managed to dodge out of the way and only get clipped by the side of the front bumper. However, when the car hit Melba, it also hit her ward—which shot the man through the back window of the car and left him bleeding in the middle of the street. The woman turned the car around and started heading back, probably for her partner as well as for Melba. Either way, she didn’t wait to find out. She climbed into Arie’s car and told him to drive (though she wouldn’t let him fire his Uzi out the window to strafe the two attackers, since there were entirely too many people around). With that, everyone headed back to the apartment building.
At the building, the group simultaneously learned two things: first, that Charlie was a vampire, and second, that the defenses of the apartment building (set up by Paladin, of course) were even more extensive than anyone had originally thought. Not only did Charlie find it impossible to remember the location of the building, once he entered the elevator he couldn’t get out, and Paladin had to unlock it with a key. According to Paladin, the building restricted the entry of all supernatural creatures in this way—and the consequences would be much worse than simply being locked in if they ever took the stairs. A few members of the group (Arie in particular) were a little apprehensive at having a vampire in the building, but Randy insisted that it was perfectly safe and the group decided to take his word for it.
In Chet and Saria’s apartment, Charlie spaced out and stared
at a painting on the wall (Arie had a great time making fun of him for it later
on) while Randy explained his situation.
He was a Redeemer, and vampires were sort of his specialty (when it came
to helping them as well as killing them, as demonstrated by the miniature crossbow
he carried in his pants). Though he
didn’t personally know the people who had attacked him, he had a feeling that
they were vampires and minions of his enemy, Haji (a revelation which thoroughly
shocked the rest of the group). Haji
despised Charlie’s “weakness” and wanted to have him killed, but Randy had
saved him from Haji’s people in the course of getting imbued and the two had
been friends ever since. Because he was
protecting Charlie, Haji came to hate Randy as well. The attack told Randy that Haji knew he was back in town, and
that it would probably be a good idea for him to find a place to hide out. Almost immediately, the group volunteered
the apartment building, and Arie invited Randy to live in his apartment. With that, the group dispersed for the
night, still profoundly shaken by what had happened in Canada but also beginning
to see more hope for the future in the form of the night’s successful rescue
operation.