The Search is Over

Abraxus had returned from his hunt for Cedrick, empty handed again. He punches in and takes his sword out and his coat off. He seemed tired and Harlan couldn't blame him. He spent most of his free time looking for this mass murder, Cedrick Darkside. Harlan could understand Why, because she needed to be brought to justice, but this was becoming unhealthy for his friend.

Abraxus walks over to Harlan "Any news on anything strange going on?" he asks "Or are we all quiet on the home front?" he asks as he sits, after getting himself some coffee.

Harlan shakes his head "Nope. All's quiet, for a change." he says "However, we still need to get everyone together and discuss our lack of a healer." he says "Without one our team will continue to be at a disadvantage." he points out.

Abraxus nods "I know and I know you want it to be Christine Winters, but as Shadow pointed out, she's too much a danger to everyone around her with that violent temper." he explains "Look, I'll talk with the Council tomorrow and see if I can get a healer who's willing to relocate to our Cell." he mumbles as he stands "I'm going to hit the sack. See ya tomorrow..." he mumbles as he heads upstairs.

Tomorrow was going to be a treat. But his team deserved a healer and not just someone who could heal their physical wounds, but their psychological ones as well. They couldn't just take anyone who could heal, but a skilled healer was something invaluable and somewhat rare for a Hunter Cell just starting. Still, he would find one.

"I miss anything?"

Camlo came down the stairs, dressed casually. She didn't stay or live there but she did occasionally stay for a time at the hide out.

* *

Natomi was wandering, in more ways then one these days. She wasn't quite sure which direction she wanted to go, or what to do with her life and freedom now. All she knew that she felt better when she was helping people so she had to figure out avenues with that. And in order to find what her path lead, she needed to go her own way from her friends so after saying goodbye to Angel and Aron she went her own way.

That had been a year ago.

Since then, Natomi had went to place to place. During her travels, she had met at least one new friend in Hibari Faran. Apparently, from what she had learned she was from off world. Natomi had never met anyone who was until now, though she did know about other realms and such, not really counting another planet however.

They didn't have any particular plans for the day, though Natomi wanted to explore a bit and Hibari opted to come with her having nothing better to do.

"I don't think.." Natomi didn't get to finish her sentence when a young girl bumped into her wearing some sort of amulet. To her surprise, it effected her a bit but mostly because she had been caught off guard. The little girl was frightened and panicked and didn't wait for long before trying to get up. Natomi was wondering why they were scared, or why they were in a secluded place with no adults in the first place.

Natomi didn't know what was going on, neither did Hibari but something was obviously wrong with this picture. Natomi crouched down, trying to calm her down. "Slow down. What's wrong little one?"

The little girl just frantically shook her head. "N-no time, need to go!"

"You'll be safe with us. We'll keep you safe." Hibari assured her gently.

"This doesn't concern either of you. Stand aside."

Before the little girl could open her mouth, a voice interrupted. Natomi noted about several men. She didn't know what to make of them, but her training was quickly kicking in. They were heavily armed and with their clothing, if she had to guess, fighters or maybe hunters of some kind? She wasn't sure. Just her gut told her they were dangerous.

And looking at the man's trench coat, I can kind of see the tip of a large sword hidden from view. The man must have a lot of strength, above a normal humans at any rate judging by the weight and composition of the sword.

I don't want a fight to break out, but I have to be careful if I don't know what any of them can do yet.

"I think it does." Hibari said cooly. "A child usually doesn't run this frightened with no direction randomly just because."

This made the man with the large sword frowned. "If you need a reason; that seemingly harmless child is a dragon. More accurately, the type she is more often then not doesn't have the best reputation. We're dragon hunters, we're just doing our job before they become old enough to actually be a threat."

Natomi frowned. "If she didn't do anything, it doesn't give you anymore right to decide things like that. I don't care who you are or think you are."

This got a sigh out of the unknown man. He motioned for the others with him to stay back for now. "So idealistic and naive, if only you truly knew. But I somewhat expected this. If you can't be reasonably persuaded.." The sword that had been hidden from view came out, it was pretty massive. When it hit the ground, spider web cracks formed through out just on contact. "..Then I'll just have to push you out the way."

Abraxus was dressed and heading out to see the Hunter's Council to see if it was possible to get his cell a healer. He thinks he hears something of a scuffle. There were some men, a something in the guise of a little girl, a Ralphlim and a Farian. Abraxus frowns *I don't have time for this nonsense.* he thinks as he pulls out his phone, making a quick call to the police, then to the closest Hunter Cell to back them up. He would stay here until the other Hunters arrive, which would be before the police.

The unknown was relatively confident he could fight them, from what they had felt at any rate. But they were under a short and tight schedule as is, not to mention they were suppose to draw as least attention as possible or the people they worked for not being pleased would be a understatement.

One of the other men came to him. They had seen Abraxus a bit away with the cell phone. "Might have to call it in. There's a snitch."

They seemed to consider it, then nodded, putting the sword away. "We'll have to take a rain check on this." Without another word he turned his back and walked away as if nothing happened. The others did too, and soon all of them vanished to different places, almost like they were ghost in the wind.

Only when they were out of sight did Natomi relax, turning to the little girl. "Seems like the bad guys are gone for now. Are you okay?" She asked gently.

The little girl just shook her head, rubbing her red eyes with her sleeve due to crying.

Abraxus watches the men scatter like roaches, he snaps a quick picture of the two women and the girl, then calls the police off. The other Hunters will be showing up and it wasn't his place to tell them otherwise. Again, he would wait until the women went on their marry way or the other Hunter Cell got here. Then he would continue on his way to the Hunter's Council, to see about their healer.

Hibari came to her friend, holding her cell. It had a picture. "I took a quick snap shot of some of the men before they scattered. They didn't wear any symbols that might count as to what organization they belong to but it might help later." She said as she put it away.

The Farian merely nodded, but focused on the girl. "I'm not sure what happened, but my name is Natomi Mugen, and this is my friend, Hibari Faran. Could you tell us your name?" She was trying to get the girl to ease a bit and relax. If they tried to move her now, she'd obviously panick as she was jumpy as is anyway.

"..Ameya." She looked between them but sort of avoided eye contact.

* *

"Seems like I just missed something."

It was Torin who came behind Abraxus. "Tail end of it, looks like."

Abraxus shakes his head "No. There was a situation that was about to happen, but it defused it's self." he says as he looks to Torin "Incidentally, it's good that you're here. That way if both of us are at the Hunter's Council, we can better convince them to assign us a healer." he explains.

Five people come jogging up. Abraxus knew them. They were a good Hunter Cell, strong and just, so it was said. The leader nods to Abraxus "Those the women?" he asks.

Abraxus nods "Yeah. One's a Ralphlim and the other's Farian. The little girl I have no idea." he says "But it's probably best to leave them be, since the threat is now gone." he states "Maybe tail them to see if they show up?" he asks.

The other Hunter nods "My thoughts exactly." he says, nodding to one of his crew, then to Abraxus "We'll, take it from here." he says.

Abraxus nods, then motions for Torin to follow him "Come on. The sooner we argue our case, the sooner we get a healer. and the sooner we can start getting some work done." he points out. He had a feeling the Hunter's Council wasn't going to be very forthcoming.

Torin watched the other Hunters, then turned to Abraxus. "We'll, okay I could give a shot. That kind of thing isn't my strong point though. But what's a Farian and Ralphlim?"

* *

While Natomi was trying to ease Ameya a bit to come along with them, Hibari was keeping a eye out for anything out of the ordinary. One thing she had noticed, and concluded that those others had left because of that man(Abraxus) that had been off to the side. It was the only thing that made sense, and the other man had said something about one of them being a 'snitch.'

"I'll be right back." Hibari told her friend, seeing the other hunters as she went over. She just wanted to talk to them briefly and see what their intentions were. "Can I help you?"

When Hibari walks over and asks the Hunters a question, the leader looks at her "No, why? Do you need help with something?" he asks "Listen, we're not bothering you, so don't bother us." he says in a gruff tone as he goes back to talking with his guys while looking over a map. He was intending to throw suspicion off them having anything to do with the women.

* *

"They're from off world. Like aliens, taking on the form and mis-identity of demons and angels." he explains as he leads Torin to the Hunter Council's safe house, which looked like an old church. He pulls out a knife, cuts his hand and places it on the wall. The bricks pull back, revealing a door way. An older woman walks out "Greetings children of the Dark." she says "How may I help you this night?" she asks.

Abraxus nods "I'm Abraxus and this is Torin. We're the leaders of the Hunter Cell AT-427 and we're here about a request to the council for a healer." he explains.

The woman moves aside "Of course. They are expecting you." she says, allowing the two inside.

Abraxus wanders in as the doorway closes behind the two "This way." he says to Torin. Inside, the place looked quiet impressive. It was divided into sections, like the food court, a hospital, living quarters "This is where Hunter Cell's come when they have no safe house of their own." he explains "This is the headquarters of the Hunter Cells in our local area." he says as he wanders upstairs.

He arrives at a door with two guards on the outside "Abraxus and Torin here to see the council." he says, they get on their headsets and nod to the two Hunters "Let me do most of the talking in here. If we play our cards right, we can get a first class healer." he says to Torin in a low tone.

Hibari frowned a bit to that but left it alone and went back to where Natomi and Ameya were.

"What happened?" Natomi asked her.

"Nothing." Hibari said shaking her head. "Forget about it for now, but keep a eye out. We need to figure out what to do with the little one."

"I know. I talked her into coming with us for now." Natomi stood up from crouching down by Ameya. "We'll figure things out, okay? But for now we'll keep you safe." She slowly extended a hand. Ameya just looked at it at first, then hesitantly took it.

* *

Torin was looking around the place when Abraxus said his last piece, making him shrug. "I was planning to in the first place. Like I said, this is more your area then mine."

The doors to the council chambers open and Abraxus goes walking in. The only one in the council chambers was Daemon. He nods to Abraxus and Torin "Welcome." he says.

Abraxus frowns "Where's the rest of the council?" he asks "I thought we would be discussing the matter of getting us a healer." he says.

Daemon nods "We were. But the council has reached a decision." he says as he holds up a file and pulls out a note, sliding it over to Abraxus "Do you know what this is?" he asks.

Abraxus reads it over quickly "Yeah. It's a report I filed about a year ago concerning a possible new member to our cell." he says "A Christine Winters..." he sets the file down "The proposal for her to join was ultimately turned down because of a possibly dangerous personality flaw." he explains "Why is this relevant?" he asks.

Daemon nods "And rightly so. We can't have a possibly loose cannon wandering around, disrupting Hunter business..." he pulls out another piece of paper "When you filed your report, you didn't give what race miss Winters was." he states.

Abraxus nods "I didn't feel it was relevant." he says "What does it matter what she is if she's dangerous?" he asks.

Daemon nods "Until now, it didn't matter." he says "But as we've come to discover, she's one of those Mystics we've been hearing, but know nothing about." he says. Abraxus didn't like where this was going "And with the sudden announcement of the Mystic Embassy, right here in Tokyo, the council has decided that Christine Winters, will be your new healer." he states.

Abraxus looked pissed "Now hold on, you can't be serious." he says "She's too great of a danger. I'm sure you seen my report on what was printed about what she did." he protests "If she's on my team, what's to stop her from getting out of control again?" he asks.

Daemon sighs "The decision is already made." he says "If Christine Winters is still interested in joining your Hunter Cell, she is to be allowed to sign on as your healer." he states "This will give the Hunter's Council a chance to learn more about the Mystics when we've ever been able to." he points out "And if she Does get out of hand, the council has authorized you, Harlan and Camlo to use your alternate forms to subdue her." he says in a low tone "But Only if she gets out of hand." he says in the same low tone.

Abraxus still didn't look pleased, especially about the news of his team being asked to use their transformations, should things get out of hand, but nods slowly.

Daemon looks over to Torin "Well, son. You've hardly said a word since you got here." he points out "This being your cell as well and you've worked with Christine before, tell me your thoughts on this." he says.

Torin blinked for a long moment.

"No."

He couldn't believe how dumb the council was being. "Do you guys realize what you're doing? Not just about people who get hurt, but its not fair to Christine either as she is now. She's still a friend. What do you think is going to happen when she loses control? Even if we do subdue her, people are going to get hurt. Christine has enough power to blow up city blocks. And after she's subdued and comes to, she's going to be thrown in jail or something."

Torin shook his head. "I'm not keen on using anyone as a guiena pig. If anything, Christine needs a bit of help before she hurts herself or others. That said, if you guys are that badly hard up on finding more about Mystics can do, give me and Abraxus at least a week. If we can't find a Mystic to join us by then..then guess we'll have no choice. It doesn't make it any less recklesss though."

Daemon nods "Fair enough. But remember, no one's Forcing her to join your Cell." he points out "A member of your team sought her out to see about having her join, because you need a healer and he was confident in her ability to control her temper enough to ask." he points out "From what I've seen in your reports, you both trust the word of mister Murray but you imply, just now, that he has poor judge in character." he says.

Abraxus nods "Don't misunderstand me, we do trust his word, because he puts a lot of research into something before he moves on it. However, he acts on emotions." he says "Shadow, on the other hand, also does research but uses intelligence when making a move." he explains "And Shadows research points to Christine being a threat." he states.

Daemon nods "Alright. If you both feel strongly against this then we won't force the issue. But you Should know that if miss Winters is interested, she's welcome to join. You can even tell her we would like to know what all her race can do." he says "If she Isn't interested in joining, then the matter's dropped and we'll throw your name on a list and see if any healers would like to join." he says, simply.

Abraxus nods "And what would happen if she joined and lost her cool and hurt people?" he asks "Would she be treated like any other nonhuman who caused harm to humans and thrown in prison until she can be annulled?" he asks in a low tone.

Daemon shakes his head "No. We would take her off active duty and try to get her help controlling her temper." he says "You both probably don't know this, but we don't just lock nonhuman away and throw away the key or annul them." he points out "We actually try to help those who want it. Those who simply made a mistake and lost control, of either their powers or tempers." he explains "Despite what most nonhuman say about us, we're not the bad guys." he says "Have I addressed your concerns in a satisfactory manner?" he asks "If not, I have no problems answering more questions." he assure.

Torin simply shrugged a bit. "I don't got anything more to say for now." He still wasn't exactly for it though, nor did he know where Christine lived but Harlan did at any rate.

Abraxus nods "If that's the council's decision, then I'll carry it out to the best of my abilities." he mumbles, then motions to Torin "Come on." he says. He wasn't looking forward to breaking the news to the others back at the safehouse. Harlan would be pleased, but he Knew Shadow wouldn't be. He would deal with Shadow. He needed to talk to Harlan and Camlo about what Daemon told him. After they leave the council safehouse, Abraxus looks to Torin "I see nothing but bad things with this arrangement." he says.

Torin nodded a bit. "But he Did say since we were both against it, that they wouldn't push the issue." Torin pointed out. "I still say instead of just throwing in the towel, try to kill two birds with one stone. We could, attempt to see about getting another Mystic on our team, if the council wants to know. It's not like they said right away. In a way, being a half-breed makes Christine more dangerous because on top her normal Mystic powers, she seems to absorb kinetic energy. So even if the other Mystic had a problem, it would be much easier to keep them in check."

Torin continued. "Plus, Christine never came so we can guess she isn't interested and its been a whole year and hasn't made any attempt after that. So, what they don't know won't hurt them. I'm not saying just to randomly pick up someone off the street, but you get what I mean."

Abraxus nods "I agree. If we feel like she's a threat, then we shouldn't ask her to join." he says in a low tone "We shouldn't even let her know that she's been offered this job." he mumbles "Infact, we should just forget she even exsists until she comes into our circle." he states "And based on how badly Shadow said she loses her temper, it might be soon that we're asked to deal with her." he points out.

Torin frowned. "I hope not. Besides, its been a year since anything. I've known Christine for a bit, she honestly wasn't that bad back when we were traveling together. ..If anything, the temper thing got worse when her mind got tampereed with. Which guess makes sense, since the mind is a delicate thing to begin with." He mumbled.

"Anyway, let's not worry about it for now." Torin said, hands in his pockets. "So how do you want to handle the healer thing? Go with my idea or just wait until the council tosses someone our way hopefully? But since Sonic left, that leaves room for one more. If we find anyone."

Abraxus thinks "I have some friends, I can call them and see if they can lone us a healer or someone with healing abilities." he says "We can have Harlan go to Christine and tell her she's in if she wants to be, but like you said, it's been a year and still nothing." he agrees "So I don't think it's likely she'll join up." he says "As for Sonic bugging out, who did you have in mind?" he asks.

Torin shrugged. "We'll he had things to take care of so can't fault him for it. That said, I really have no clue. I was more just pointing out in general with him gone it opens up one more slot. If we find anyone that is. If being the keyword here."

Abraxus thought to argue the point that Sonic agreed to join up with their Hunter Cell, knowing that personal agendas are second to being a Hunter. But he let it go "I'll take care of Sonic's replacement and we'll have to trust the council to get us a healer who isn't crazy." he says as he stops at their safehouse, punches in his security number "Well, let's get this over with." he mumbles.

Torin just nodded and proceeded to follow back inside, not really having further comment as far as things went. For now.

As Torin and Abraxus come walking in, Harlan walks over "So, how did the talk with the Hunter's Council go?" he asks "Are we going to get a healer?" he asks.

Abraxus shrugs "I really couldn't tell you for sure if we have one or not." he says "They didn't exactly appoint us one, yet." he says "But I'm sure if we wait a bit longer, they'll deliver us one." he states "They said they'll put a call out for a healer for us. So we'll have to wait this one out." he explains,

Torin just nodded a bit to that. "That said, did I miss anything while I was gone? I've been out for a minute doing other things so I may have missed somethings." He doubted it though, but who knows.

Harlan accepted Abraxus' explanation for the moment. Then looks over to Torin and shakes his head "Not too much. We had a call from another Hunter Cell, saying they've started following the women and will report back what they find." he says, reading a small piece of paper "That was almost an hour ago. Other then that, all's clear." he says.

There was a sudden and sharp knocking on the door to their safehouse. Abraxus sighs *Who the Hell would be up at This hour....aside from us that is.* he thinks as he goes over to the door, switches on a monitor and lets out an exasperated groan. Then jerks his thumb towards the door as he walks off "It's for you, Harlan." he says.

Harlan walks over to the door, confused as he punches in his code, opens the door and standing there, was Christine Winters! She holds up a hand "Hello there." she says, sounding tired.