Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 08:37:00 -0500 Reply-To: connor.macleod@BBS.COWLAND.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike B Subject: Hunter 1/1 "Hunter" James Castle runs down a bust sidewalk pushing people out of the way. He turns and throws open the doors to a antique shop. As soon as he enters the store he senses another immortal. A man of medium height, build and brown hair sits behind a desk. He calmly looks up from the papers in front of him and says, "Hello James." "Hi Michael." "What do you want?" Michael asks. "Someone was following me." "Was it a immortal?" "No, if it was I wouldn't be here. It was a mortal," James responds. "A watcher?" "Maybe, but the seemed to be more chasing me than following me." "Sounds like a hunter." "A what?" asks James in confusion. "A watcher, or mortal that knows of immortals, that decides that no immortals should survive. Its a new splinter group of the watchers, but I have heard of similar groups in the past, " Michael explains. "So these hunters try to behead us? Just because they think we're some kind of threat to humanity?" asks James. "Yes." Suddenly the door flies open and a short, muscular man steps in. He stares at both James and Michael. They both stare back at him. He turns and bolts back out the door. James runs after him, but finds him to have vanished as soon as he hit the street. He goes back into the store. "He's gone, " James grumbles angerly. "I have a feeling we'll run into him again, " Michael says. "Will you stay here until this is delt with?" "No, I have stuff to do, but thanks fot the offer, " James answers. "OK, at least tell me where you're staying?" "Ok." The two of them sit around and talk for a while, but before James leaves he give Michael the address for the abandent apartment building he is living in. Later that evening, Sam a homeless man that lives with James, stubles into Michael's antique store and colapses on the ground. Michael comes racing out of the storage room to see what the noise was. "SAM!" Michael screams as he notices Sam on the floor. He runs over to Sam to check and make sure he is alive. 'Thankfully he is still alive, ' Cain thinks to himself. He picks sam up and carries him upstairs to a bed room. He lays Sam on the bed. After checking him over quickly and seeing no injuries, other than some bruises on the back of his neck and his chest, he gets a glass of water from the bathroom. He sits the glass on the coffee table next to the bed. Cain grabs a chair, sits down and waits for his friend to revive. Sam suddenly sits bolt up right about twenty minutes later. Michael gentle pushes him back down and gives him a drink of water. "Can you tell me what happened?" asks Michael. "Yeah, some guy cam into the building looking for Jim. When he found Jim he shot him in the head. I charged him when he did that, but he easily beat the crap out of me. He handcuffed Jim and dragged him out of the building. All I could think of to do was come here looking for you, " Sam explains. "I should've done something more." Cain puts his hand on Sam's shoulder in a reassuring manner and says, "You did the best you could." He stand up, walks out of the room and comes back, a couple minutes later, with a piece of paper. "I'm gonna go talk to someone and I need you to stay here in case this guy calls. If he does call looking for me I need you to call me at this number, " Cain says as he hands the piece of paper to Sam. "Will you do this for me?" "I'll do this for you, " answers Sam begining to feel useful. Michael asks Sam for a description of the guy and it matches the one of the man who burst into the store earlier. He leaves, goes downstairs, and grabs his trench coat off a coat rack. After checking to make sure his Katana is inside the coat and that his keys are in the pocket, he leaves, turning off the light and locking the door for the store. He gets into his car, a oldsmobile, omega and starts the enginge. He starts the car up and drives for a few minutes. He gets out of the car and goes into a small coffee shop, named Amanda's Coffee Palace. The place is pretty much empty, except for ten young people sitting at two tables pulled together and the owner and currently only employee, a pretty woman named Amanda, who stands over by the group, talking to them. Michael walks over to the counter. "Amands, can I talk to you for a moment?" Michael calls out. "Be right there, " She calls back. After a couple minutes of waiting, Amanda, walks over to the counter. "Hi, Cain, " She gretts him by shaking his hand, "What can I do for you?" "Whats with the group of people over there, " Michael asks pointing to the group at the two tables. "Oh, they're a bunch of BBSers that come here on a regular basis, " She answers smiling. "Can we talk in the backroom?" "Sure." The two of them head into the backroom. "OK, whats so important?" Amanda asks with a slight tone of irataion in her voice. "Well, James Castle, was kidnapped and I belive it was his watcher or at least a watcher, " Michael explains. Any sign of iratation vanishes from her voice as she asks, "Do you have a description?" "Yes, I do," Michael says and gives her the description Sam gave him. "Damn, " She mutters, "that sounds like Thomas Hunter." "What are some places he owns that he might have taken James to?" "Let me check, " Amanda says as she sits before a computer and boots it up. Once the computer finishes booting up, she loads up a communication program, and calls up the watcher's main computer. Once connected, she types in her name and password. After selecting 'DATA ON A WATCHER', she enters the name 'THOMAS HUNTER' and waits for the computer to find the information. "This could take a couple minutes, " She explains to Michael. Suddenly the words 'UNKNOWN WATCHER' appear on the screen. "Damn, he must've deleted all the data on himself, or he had someone do it for him, " Amanda mutters as she has the watcher's computer drop down to the operating system. Once in the system she begins searching for any trace of the data on Thomas Hunter. Michael's cellular phone suddenly rings. "Hello, " He says answering the phone. "Hello, Cain, " says the voice on the phone. "Is this Thomas Hunter?" Michael growls. "Why yes it is. I didn't expect you to figure it out this soon. I will have to remember not to underestimate you again, " Thomas says with an obvious smile in his voice. "Tell me where are you?" Michael asks growing iratated. Hunter gives Michael the address for where to meet him and hangs up. Michael puts his phone away. "Keep searching for the data anyways, " Michael says as leaves the backroom. "Yeah, of course, " Amanda mumbles to herself as she begins to really dig into searching. Outside, Michael gets into his car and starts it up. He takes out his cell phone and call his home number. The phone just rings. After ten rings he gives up and puts the phone away. "Damn!" He yells. 'Sam must've gotten the address too and went looking for Hunter. I have got to get ther first, before he gets himself killed.' He heads off towards the warehouse. Cain pulls up outside the warehouse. He notices Sam looking at the warehouse from an alley. Sam looks at him and Michael motions for Sam to come to over to him. Sam quietly moves over to him. "What are you doing here?" Cain asks. "I was gonna try and save Jim, " Sam answers. "You'll get yourself killed if you try and save him. Sit in the car and wait for me, " Michael says, with concern in his voice. "OK." Sam gets into the car and Michael carefully walks around the warehouse looking for a good way into it. Unfortunately the only entrance is the front door. He slides open the large metal door. He dives in and two bullets fly over him. He looks around and sees James, hanging by his feet about four feet off the ground. Next tom him stand Thomas with a gun in one hand and a sword strapped to his waist. Cain gets up, dives at Hunter, and knocks him to the ground. The two of them roll around on the ground wrestling for the gun. When it suddenly goes off, twice. Michael stands up and stares at Thomas clutching his chest. Michael lowers James to the ground and unties him. All the two of them can do is stare at Thomas as the life drains from him. Hunter pulls out a small remote control and pushes a button. Off in the distance small explosions can be heard as bottles of kerosine explode. James and Michael look at each other and run out of the building. When Sam sees them coming he gets out of the car and runs up to James to hug him. Suddenly the building explodes sending the three of them flying through the air. They land on a bunch of garbage which absorbs most of the impact. They get up, get into the car and head off to Amanda's Coffee Palace. They go in and explain to Amanda what happened so she can tell the other watchers. Michael also asks if she got any of the data he had her searching for and she tells him no and she'll never find it. James and Sam head back to the abandent apartment building they live in. Cain head back to the antique store. Later that evening, after Amanda made the calls she needed, she morns the death of her fellow watcher. Even if he went bad. She grabs a bottle of vodka and begins to drink it until she is bleary eyed and passes out. ... "Some would think this a good time to take my head." -- MacLeod ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR] =========================================================================