Coralost Compound, many weeks later...

“Lady Fae, we’ve a call from the Wolverine Hunters Guild on line two. Master Briggs isn’t here; would you mind taking it?”

I blinked a bit at the hand-off. That would normally go right to Briggs? He must have valued them a lot. Sama wasn’t here, either... I guess that left me on top? “Certainly, Nancy. Any idea why they are calling?”

“No, ma’am, although they seemed excited.”

I hmphed, curious about this now. My phone buzzed a second later, and I tapped it. “This is Fae. Who am I speaking with?”

“Oh, it’s the Lady Fae! Didn’t I get lucky and pull the short straw!” chortled the voice of an older man on the other end. “Miss Fae, this is Oscar Schwartz, I’m an Elder with the Wolverine Hunters Guild here in Bunyantown.”

“Elder Schwartz! I remember your very timely help with the matter of the Chicago snatch teams several years ago. How may I be of service to you?” I replied calmly.

He seemed to get something stuck in his throat for a moment. “Sorry, got a bit of a cough for some reason,” said the embarrassed voice on the other end, and I just smiled. “Well, I suppose you could be of service, but this wasn’t really for you, if you don’t mind me saying. I was looking for that brute of a boss of yours, and maybe those lads you brought back from Texas that time.”

My eyebrows climbed. They were all natives of Michigan, sure enough. “I will be happy to contact them on your behalf, Elder. What am I going to speak to them about?”

“Gabon. We’ve been contacted by the government there. They want us to hunt King Magogo, who seems to have gone crazy and is tearing up the landscape.”

A King Beast was defying the Emperors? He’d have to have gone crazy... or something was done to him.

Hunting a King of one of the Badger Tribes was like hunting half-Emperors or Emperors. The Wolverines and Badgers were just legendary for their tenacity. It was why the Wolverine Hunters were so acclaimed, actually daring to hunt the things!

“Do you need additional muscle for the hunt, Elder?” I asked, interested. I didn’t know much about the Guild, which was a very esteemed organization among Hunters.

“Aye, that wouldn’t hurt, what with everyone killing so much on the shorelines right now. But we also thought that the lads might actually want to earn the title honestly. Don’t think they’ve ever had the opportunity, and they’ve been a mite busy, judging by the news. Adding some local boys would be good for the Guild here, you know?”

Well, huh. “Elder Schwartz, I feel gravely certain that no son of Michigan worth the name would dare turn down the opportunity to gain that title. I shall have them contact you at their first opportunity!”

“Thanks a bunch, Miss Fae! Looking forwards to hearing from ‘em!”

“You’re quite welcome, Elder. Take care of yourself now.”

“Yes, ma’am, doing my best!”

-Briggs, boys, I just got a call from the Wolverine Hunters. They were wondering if you might not want to participate in a Honey Badger King hunt,- I /sent out.

The responses were immediate and enthusiastic. They were all from Michigan, born and raised on the heroism of the Wolverine Hunters who had finally cleared the state of hostile creatures and made it safe for human habitation. Having the chance to be counted among their numbers was not something any of them would pass up, even Briggs!

I had all their enthusiastic agreements within seconds, and nodded slowly. -I’ll call the Elder back and we can all gather up and head over to Gabon from here.- Doubtless saving the older Wolverine Hunters some travel fare and arrangements, so I’d best be quick. -I want you all to keep something in the back of your heads, however.-

-Dammit!- Briggs instantly /cursed for all of them. -There’s a catch?-

-Yes. The True Emperors decreed a moratorium on assaults on Human lands. There is no way, absolutely none, that a mere King would defy them, especially so flamboyantly. It’s just asking to be extinguished.

-Badgers are irascible and fearless, sure, but that’s just straight-up suicide.-

-Fuck me,- the Mick /piped up. -Something’s making it act up?- he /swore with everyone else.

-Yes. My guess would be the Curia or the Synod, trying to throw doubt on the word of the Beast Emperors. It might even be a trap to draw one out to be attacked.-

-Or to pull Wolverine Hunters over to be killed. If they are really sneaky, maybe even lure in some powerful non-Wolverine Hunter Michigan boys who might jump at the chance to join their heroes, too...- Briggs /mused icily.

-Masterminding,- /muttered Red into the grim silence from the KIA men. -Didn’t see any of that in action, did we?- There was more quiet realization that someone might now be making a play on THEM.

-Do I hear the dulcet lullabies of someone clever scheming against my people?- Sama’s singsong /voice entered the conversation.

-King Magogo, a Honey Badger King, has gone off the rails in Gabon. They’ve recruited the Wolverine Hunters to go in and kill it, who have invited Briggs and KIA along for the ride.-

We could all feel razors spinning as she considered that. -This is not serendipity,- she /judged after a moment, and everyone groaned. -Clearing my schedule. Briggs, contact the Guild directly and let them know this is not a clean hunt, there’s nasty Sage-level politics involved somewhere. Also let them know we’ll handle the transport there, and to gather at the Compound in six hours.-

-That’ll put us in Gabon most of a day before they can possibly expect the team to arrive,- Briggs /agreed. -We’ve no intelligence assets in Gabon, which is not a good sign.-

-They’ve only one Sage in the entire country, and he’s generally considered to be a snake. Never did an Aural Rede on him, however,- Sama /informed us.

-His Elements will probably give us a good idea of who he’ll deal with,- Burt /spoke up. -He should be in the Sage database, right?-

-We’ll have some intelligence ready before we embark,- Sama /promised. -Fae, you’ll be going along, right?-

-Of course. The Emperors are going to want to know what is going on, too. And if Humans are behind this, Humans better fix it, or a country or two is going to be wiped off the map.-

There were murmurs at that, realizing this was now some damn serious business.

-I’ll get everyone picked up,- I /promised them all. -Make your arrangements, gentlemen!-

I was sure Sama and Tremble were already winging across the continents to Gabon, and she would be starting her investigation immediately... probably in the very office of the Sage who ran the country. Ojibwae, the Black Thorned Sage, if I recalled correctly from a casual prior perusal of the Sage List. Had a veritable forest of nasty Plants he could call on, with his trademark Steel Blackthorn Acajou particularly feared.

Well, we’d see who he was dealing with...

---------

Emelia and Oscar Schwartz were the Archmages who held up the Wolverine Hunters, the others present being some very experienced Mages and half-Archmages who hadn’t yet made the jump. Kenneth Bierlien and Chester Polanski were also coming along, also very experienced, but mostly there to guide the new group of Hunters and show them the ropes.

They brought with them a dozen other Mages, as well as a scattering of hardened Adepts for support duties, all of them veterans of Badger or Wolverine Hunts in the past.

Still, all of the Wolverine Hunters took one look at the KIA boys and lost the chip on their shoulders. The KIA boys all had hard, tempered Auras that absolutely reeked of ruthless killing, of thousands of hours spent in littoral zones covered in gore and blood and dealing out death without mercy.

Hard men knew hard men, and even the much-lauded Wolverine Hunters knew they were not dealing with softies... and all eight of them were Archmages, to boot!

AND they ALL deferred to Commander Briggs, who loomed over absolutely everyone, and even the elder Wolverine Hunters were instinctively respectful to him.

Michigan was getting a reputation for breeding absolutely dangerous mid-tier mages of all Elements, and having the Earthhouse here certainly didn’t hurt matters. The Michigan Marines and the Redshore Marines had national reputations now, sending out company after company to help defend the shorelines far from home, freeing up room here for families with kids to settle in and follow in their footsteps as they did so.

The scar-faced, stooped Elder Oscar looked over the eight of them with approval, approaching the Mick to stick out his hand. “Good to see some Bunyantown boys done good!” the old man piped up, shaking the Mick’s hand firmly, and giving each of the others their own handshake. The other Wolverine Hunters quickly followed suit, introducing themselves all around.

I noted the KIA boys didn’t need to introduce themselves. Everyone knew who they were.

“I hear you are all Five-Star Hunters,” Oscar mentioned, looking over the eight of them keenly.

The Mick raised his hand. “Six Stars here, Elder.” Mr. Schwartz blinked in amazement. “And, no skin off the Hunter’s Guild, but I take my orders from him.” He pointed at Briggs, who stood there as ominous as always, unmoved. “He might not be a mage, but as Hunters go, nobody beats him. He’d be a Seven-Star if they could wrap their brains around the idea of a non-mage being that good.”

Oscar Schwartz just looked up at the huge figure of Briggs, whose pale violet eyes gleamed knowingly at his expression. The Elder just wagged a finger up at Briggs. “Don’t be getting lippy now, just because your men talk you up! This is going to be a mean and ugly hunt, if any of the twenty-two I’ve been on are any indication whatsoever! What’s the biggest, nastiest thing you’ve killed?”

Briggs lifted his eyebrows. “Duke-level Tiger Shark,” he replied. “Oh, and a Blacktip King, too.”

All of the Wolverine Hunters blinked in disbelief. “You serious, lad?” the scrawny Chester Polanski asked, his eyes intense. “How the Hell did you manage that?”

“The Tiger Shark, from the inside. Me and Sama got ourselves swallowed and hacked apart its insides where it couldn’t bite at us. The Blacktip, it was stupid enough to come flying ashore with its Horde. We took it down out of the sky, and while it was trying to slither around on the land, we hacked it apart. Took out the spine first, and while it was slobbering and writhing and snapping at nothing, opened it up, went inside, and chopped out its heart.”

All of the KIA boys were nodding along, since they’d watched him do it.

“That’s one mean way of taking out a King Shark,” one of the Wolverine Mages murmured, and the others bobbed their heads in agreement.

“We couldn’t do much to it until Master Briggs opened it up, the thing’s hide was just too damn thick and strong,” the Mick added in. “If a King Badger is like that, this is gonna suck.”

“That’s not a bad comparison, then,” Elder Schwartz said. “Of course, you took out the Blacktip on land, by the sound of it, and the Tiger from inside, so you actually didn’t get to experience the full strength of its hide, right?” he pointed out grimly.

“Point!” Swampy noted, and they all nodded.