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Skiaska very quickly stripped herself of her clothes and pulled on a pair of thick, red slacks and a thick, red, long-sleeved shirt. She laid ont he edge and turned around, soon tkaing all of the covers around her body. "I look... like a caterpiller." She sighed and basked in the warmth as she waited for a few seonds. When Skiaska's relaxation was up, she donned her black t-shirt with a small paw print on the left breast. She pulled up a pair of black jeans around her waist and hooked the two straps, cross-wise. Wringing out her hair, she put it in a high ponytail and stepped out of her room. She stood, leaning against her door.

[[i take it synce everyone is here that this is where we are soposed to post? sigh... i hate being gone and away from home sweatdrop ...]]

tyler settels down in his room for a bit. he never emagined that the strike would be so big... then again he never thought it would envolve scuba gear either...


[can someone PM me with what all happend in the last strike? plz???]]

After quite some time had passed, Will's eyes snapped open. He stared up, looking at the ceiling of the medical facility. Obviously, they were in Haven once again. Flexing his limbs, he nodded in satisfaction. Myythern and Gail had done good work. He felt like he be able to be up and about again in a matter of months, if not weeks. Glancing at a nearby clock on the wall, he saw that he'd been asleep for just over three hours. Enough time for him to be patched up, but not enough time for the other Hunters to be gone already. He remembered that he'd intended to talk to Jaffar about whatever it was that was troubling him, and he knew that he could do at least that much while injured.

Clearing his throat, he called out for someone to come to him. Gail was at his side in seconds, and he politely asked her to go get Jaffar. Within minutes, the younger Hunter was in the room with him, standing before his bedside looking anxious and concerned. Will studied him for a second before speaking. "Jaffar, when we were in the sewers you were acting like something had startled you badly. What was it? What did you see down there? I need to know, Jaffar."

Jaffar pulled up a chair as he began to talk to Will. "Well as you saw in the sewars I was deeply desturbed about something. During the mission I encountered a lunite child as I was fighting off some lunites. I was about to kill him but......I just couldn't. I may seem heartless but I could not bring myself to kill a child no matter what rase they are so I let him go. As you may have heard I was attacked shortly after that but I was still able to see the child runing out of the sewer and I saw him die. Someone shot the child right in the head as he was getting out of there. Later after we eleminated the lunites I took a quick look around and found a small closet of a sort. I opened the closet and found......." Jaffar's voice became soft and filled with sadness."I found dozens of dead lunite childeren. All seemed to have been killed by a hunter cause I highly doubt that the lunite's would kill there own young. Will.....I thought we were supposed to be the good guys to save the helpless no matter the rase. Why why would someone kill children. They were completely defenseless it just didn't feel right to me. And if you wish to throw me out of the hunter's for showing mercy then so be it but if not I want to make it clear. I will never take the life of any child."

Will was staring in horror at Jaffar when the new Hunter walked in and said how it was "just a part of war". Immediately, the look on Will's face turned from horror to anger. He spun upon what would appear to be his latest pain in the neck Hunter, and began chewing him out. "DON'T YOU EVER SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT AGAIN, SOLDIER! Yes, this is a war! Yes, we are soldiers! Yes, we kill and we kill mercilessly! But just like regular soldiers, we hold ourselves to certain rules of engagement! We DO NOT slaughter non-combatants! Tyler here was brought in as a POW, and he joined our cause and accepted me as his Alpha! Myythern was also captured by us, but now she's working for us and she saved my life! What point is there in killing somebody who doesn't want to or can't fight you anymore, especially when the chance of turning them into an ally exists?! Those were children! CHILDREN! Unarmed, defenseless, and no doubt cowering in fear as whoever did this murdered them! Note that I used the term murder, because it sure wasn't an act of war where it was a case of kill or be killed! Those children could have been captured, rehabilitated to reverse the Lunite's indoctrination and brain washing, and sent to live with one of the friendlier lycan tribes which shares our mission, like the Vampire Hunters! The Lunites are seen as dangerous and insane even by their own people, the lycans would have THANKED us for ridding the city of them! But now, if they find out that we murdered dozens of children not even in their teens in cold blood, the entire race will declare war on us and won't stop until we all pay the price for this atrocity! Can you at LEAST understand that much?!"

Will forced himself to calm down, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing. A single tear crawled down his cheek as he spoke in a soft voice. "How long can a person stare into the abyss before they begin to reflect it? How long can they fight evil before they become evil themselves? We go out every night and we kill. We face things that would drive others into madness. The only thing we have to keep ourselves from slipping into insanity is the knowledge that we are fighting for a righteous and noble cause, that we're the good guys. We are protectors of the innocent first and foremost, and killers only because killing is nescessary to protect others. But if we start acting like the bad guys, how long until we become no better than what we hunt? How can we justify killing things like the Lunites if we're as bad or even worse than they are? If you go down that road, how long until you kill a human like a suspected rapist or murder because they 'deserved it'? How long until you go after drug dealers, then drug users? Will you then start killing alcoholics, gangsters, or the homeless because they only serve to infect our society? How long until you finally just start killing whoever or whatever offends you, or simply kill for the sake of killing? We need to keep ourselves true to a higher standard, or we're all lost."

He opened his eyes and looked again at Jaffar. "Jaffar, I'm proud of you, kid. When you first came to us, you had a chip on your shoulder a mile wide and you hated everything supernatural, even your fellow Hunters who were non-human. But you've become tolerant, and you've developed not only a strong moral sense of ethics but also compassion and mercy. Yet at the same time, you know when to be kind and when not to be. That's exactly the kind of Hunter I need the most out here. Your offer to resign is firmly denied. I won't kick you out for doing exactly what I would have done in your place, or for feeling the same way I do. Now give me a moment to think."

He quickly descended into deep thought, reviewing all the facts of the battle. Will would never be accused of being a genius, but he did have an analytical mind with a wonderous capacity for tactics and problem solving. Jaffar was right that it was next to impossible for the Lunites to have killed their own children. If they'd decided that the children were expendable then they would have strapped explosives to them or given them weapons before sending them to fight against the Hunters. Just killing them was pointless, and totally unlike the Lunites who would fight to the death but never committed suicide unless it garunteed the deaths of their enemies. So it couldn't have been the Lunites, it had to be one of his people. But which one? All of the Hunters had been in the main chamber. He'd kept track of all of them during the fighting. All except for Bridget. She'd reportedly gone into the tunnels, the same tunnels in which Jaffar had found the dead chuildren, and had been unaccounted for at least ten minutes. More than enough time for a trained Hunter to kill any guards who got in her way and slaughter a group of frightened kids. She'd returned by the time Jaffar described seeing the fleeing child get shot from behind, so that served as further confirmation that she probably did it. Finally, she hadn't been with the Hunters long enough to have gained the moral sense to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable targets. Most new Hunters were angry and headstrong, desiring to destroy any and all supernatural creatures they could find. The evidence was clear, Bridget was the killer.

With a heavy heart, Will turned to Jaffar and the other Hunter. "Go find Bridget and escort her here. I need to talk with her. NOW."

Hearing Will's orders Jaffar saluted him and replied."Yes sir." Jaffar walked out of the room and began to search for Bridget.

Skiaska blinked as she heard a low, sad song coming form her room. She opened it quickly and grabbed her cell phone off her desk. Flipping it open, she blinked. "INTRUDER" was spelled in large letters across the screen and she smirked. "Riona... What have I said about hacking into my phone?" She put it to her ear after pressing talk.

"Hey." She smiled as she listened. "Yeah, I'm fine... I'm sorry... What? What about Sethe...? Um, Riona? I don't think you can exactly meet him, I- What? No! It's just..." Skiaska paused. "I'm living in a hunter base." She winced and her ears folded back at the angry exclamation that rang out of the phone. She sighed and continued to talk. "I'll see if I can arrange something with 'el Leader. But... Not right away. I'll meet you at a half-way point in a bit, k? The park? See you there."

Skiaska hung up the phone and sighed. Maybe she could disappear for an hour? She tacked a note on her bed and slipped on some low, combat boots. "Don't go killin' without me." She made sure no one was around before slipping out.