Margo:

"So I see the tails of the wandering primordial are true," said the giant furry creature as it put a single hand on the table- and covered half of it."

"And I see the tails of a Genderwu running around spreading knowledge of the supernatural might not be exaggerated," Scorpio said back as a raven cawed and flew into the warung, landing on a table a few feet away from us. I was about to ignore the bird when I realized it wasn't black, just a very dark shade of orange.

"Margo, leave..." the Genderwu growled.

Scorpio and I both stood up, me quickly stepping back several times. Scorpio, however, just set his chair neatly aside and straightened his coat. "So you know what an Ogdoad is?" he asked.

"I know plenty," the beast tapped its head, "And knowing is half the battle, as they say." The creature scanned the area. "However, perhaps this is a bad time for a battle?"

Scorpio also looked around as the Genderwu seemed to slide back into the appearance of Tono, moving like its body and even its hair was clay, which all slid back into place as a man rather than a massive beast.

Scorpio looked back and cocked his head. "You realize that if we set a time and place for our battle, you'll be at a disadvantage. No people to hide behind..." Scorpio stayed on his feet and started backing up as the Genderwu turned his back.

"I'm not willing to carve through my friends like a monster. If you're not either, then their presence hinders us both."

I looked around myself and noticed that more ravens had entered the warung. It looked like ten of the freaking things had shown up, and as I scanned the area, two more flew in. And no, I don't mean crows, not that it would have been comforting had they been crows, as crows don't like landing next to people in Indonesia, but ravens like doing so less since they don't live in Indonesia.

Crows are a bad omen in Indonesia, and I could only imagine ravens would be much worse. It seemed in this case that they were some kind of preferred preparation for the monster that was traveling with Scorpio.

The Genderwu in human form looked side to side at the birds but didn't turn back around. "Will you strike an unarmed man in the back?" he asked.

"You're not a man..." Scorpio said with a pregnant pause.

"The question remains..."

Scorpio raised his staff, touched his hat, and- turned around, tapping the wooden floor of the warung with his metal pole. The ravens all suddenly took to the air and flew off noisily. I sighed in relief.

Tono... I guessed this was Tono anyway and sat down at the table Scorpio and I had claimed. He waved to me and Scorpio with his hands. "Well? Seeing as we're not going to fight now, we may as well talk, it seems, no?"

Scorpio and I both joined him as he smiled at us; unfortunately, I was left to sit right next to the creature.

"Good," he said.

"You're going to ask why I'm here?" Scorpio asked.

Tono shrugged. "Why? We all know- God made you, and so you are here!" he said and laughed a deep belly laugh. Ever since I was little, he had a habit of turning questions into bad jokes. I had always seen it as a lovable personality trait, but now...

Scorpio just paused and waited for the joke to run its course. No one laughed.

Tono sighed and shook his head. "Why would I ask? Like I said, we all already know why you're here. You're a bounty hunter. The rumors about the wandering primordial are about a bounty hunter. And, of course, I've been teaching people about the supernatural, which I'm not supposed to do."

"Wait, they sent someone this ridiculously powerful to attack you for talking?" I asked.

He opened his hands in a noncommittal shrug. "I suppose."

"Who is paying, by the way?" Tono asked. 

"The Indonesian government. They have a security council for supernatural affairs, like many countries. 

I swear my face was starting to go pale. "My government is sanctioning random executions-" 

"Hold on!" Scorpio said with a raised hand, "They have their flaws, but they care about their people. This isn't random. Allowing supernatural beings and rogue shamans to run wild could render entire islands uninhabitable." Scorpio tapped his fingers on his staff for a few seconds.

"Wait, hold on. This man has been my friend since childhood, and I don't see a court or a prison. What gives you the right to kill him?"

"Ra can record what's happening and play it back for the Indonesian authorities so that the official part of all this. Aside from that, I doubt even the United States has a means of holding something like Tono here. Unfortunately, I don't get "dead or alive" contracts. I get mostly extermination contracts unless a nation is militarily VERY powerful. With all due respect, that's not Indonesia."

Scorpio turned back to just Tono and continued. "In any case, Tono, you didn't merely tell people about the supernatural. You've been teaching veil piercing. In a country of one of the three Abrahamic faiths, no less." He waved a hand at me. "C'mon, man, be fair to your country. It's not monstrous to act within your means."

"I only had the one student."

"Had?" Scorpio cocked his head to the side.

"Yes, well, that was a mistake. Safwan apparently wasn't interested in reading warnings before he summoned things." Tono looked at the table and paused, "He... he will be missed." He twisted his lips, then slapped my shoulder. "I should have told him to stay out of these affairs. I guess it's too late for him now but not for you."

"Is that your way of saying..."

"You should leave right now. Nothing good comes from knowing our world. Odds are tonight; I will "disappear." You will be better off accepting that, as much of the village will."

"Thing is, you don't seem wildly evil like a lot of the things I've faced," Scorpio said, not waiting for me to decide whether to leave or not.

"People need to know about this stuff..." I said I wasn't sure where I was going with that.

"Careful what you share, or someone like this might come knocking at your door." He said, waving at Scorpio.

"Just for sharing?" I asked. "People need to know... at least how to defend themselves..."

"Treading on dangerous ground," Scorpio said, his voice deepening.

"Just the knowledge itself."

"Depends," Scorpio said.

"Depends on the country. In many countries, it's fine to know of the supernatural," Tono said. "But knowing how to control it is rarely permitted."

"I said how to fight it, not how to control it," I insisted.

"There are creatures that give nuclear weapons a run for their money," Scorpio said, and on that one, I paused. "If their power was misused, whole countries could be brought to heel. "We try to keep these monsters under control, but every time, some idiot learns too much. Eventually, they try to summon something, thinking they'll be able to negotiate with it or even control it."

"I don't want to be a shaman..." I noted.

"You've seen the power I have. I have a contract with a spirit," Scorpio said.

"Did you get it through veil piercing?"

"No, but many people believe I could have," he sat back. "Or through a certain brand of it, let's say. Let me tell you what Tono apparently failed to tell his apprentice. A certain form of witchcraft, or what we call piercing the veil, "piercing" for short, doesn't work as written on the tin. You can get the attention of some big things, that's for sure, but that doesn't mean you can control them. Nearly every book on piercing has some formula for supposedly controlling spirits. Rumor has it, one or two of them work."

"But people keep doing them wrong or using stuff that doesn't work, that's the problem?" I asked.

Tono looked down while Scorpio laughed. "You stupid?" Scorpio asked. "You've seen what Ra can do- or a sample of it. Imagine if someone less than savory were able to control him for real, not just work with him. I'm essentially fighting nuclear proliferation."

I bit my lip. "Okay... so on a scale of a thrown rock to a nuclear weapon, where is a palasik?"

Tono stood up, walking slowly away and towards his grill. "A palasik?" he asked back. "Something like a Sherman tank."

I clapped once, a little happy at that. Tono jumped at the noise. "And I'm guessing you would rate my friend here a nuclear bomb, so- sounds like we have nothing to worry about-"

"Actually, there are things bigger than Ra." Scorpio opted. "My buddy only makes me like a um... F-35... what do you think, Tono? I'm leaning towards an F-22, but I don't know..." He grinned at Tono, who only kept his eyes on his grill and kept moving slowly.

"What... Tono, you act like you're depressed about something." I swallowed. "I notice you haven't attacked me, and I notice you even seem to be treating this um- lawman of sorts with respect. Assuming you didn't like... kill the real Tono, and I'm talking to the creature that replaced my friend..."

"No," Tono said. "No. I am the Tono who you met as a child. I have replaced no one." He sighed.

"Are you afraid I will drive you out of town?" I asked.

"He's probably upset I'm going to kill him," Scorpio said with a shrug.

"Hold on," I said, holding up my hands. "Tono doesn't seem that bad, even if he is a shapeshifter."

"He taught someone to summon spirits. We're lucky the guy got his head torn off by a palasik instead of calling something even bigger." Scorpio said. "The law is the law."

"Does he get a trial?"

"Does he deny doing it?" Scorpio asked back.

"No, I did it... can I serve one last meal to my old friend?" Tono said.

Scorpio shrugged. "Not a problem, go ahead."

"Wait, wait," I said. "No. No, you can't just kill him. He's not fighting you!" I stood up and slammed my fists on the table. "Scorpio... if you kill a man who isn't fighting you, then you're nothing but a monster yourself."

Scorpio just shrugged. "You don't have to make anything for me, Tono," he said, almost absent-mindedly.

Finally, I couldn't take it. Tono might have been a monster of some kind; maybe he had broken the law, but he wasn't fighting anyone, he wasn't attacking anyone- I had to do something! I slapped Scorpio across the face.

The bounty hunter just turned his face and sighed.

I raised my hand to hit him again when another raven suddenly flew into the warung and landed on the back of my chair.

"Careful little boy..." Scorpio said. "I'm tolerating you now."

"Why?"

"Why do you care?" the bounty hunter asked back.

"Tono is a friend of mine! I've known him since I was a little boy!"

"You knew a lie."

"He had his reasons for the deception, I'm sure- so fine him, but why kill him?"

"That is the price for what he did. I don't make the rules; I just carry them out," Scorpio said. "When you see what he's unleashed, you'll understand."

"You cold-hearted... you think you have the right?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"I'm an executioner, not a simple lawman. This is my job. If I let off every man who doesn't attack me like a raving madman, then the death penalty placed on the proliferation of piercing will lose its bite." Scorpio stood up and slammed his pole into the floor of the warung. He glared at me as I tightened my fists. I seethed at him as he just looked at me. "Your friend wants his final good act to be serving an old friend. Order your food." He walked to the edge of the warung and just looked out over the village, ignoring me.

"You can choose not to do this..."

"I can," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "And then there will be a price on my head, and my kids might just lose their father." He turned his head and glared, then stomped his foot once, the entire warung shaking as he did. "Now sit down and order your food. You and he can have a final meal together." Scorpio turned around and looked out over the village again. "I'm watching for the Palasik. Enjoy your food."

What could I do? It's not like Scorpio was the only executioner in history. It's not like I even disagreed with the death penalty in spirit, but could I let a man be killed who wasn't fighting back?

I wanted to do something... something. It's not as if I loved my odds against Scropio, nor did I fancy making the man my enemy, even if I could fight him.

Scorpio just stood there as I ordered my food. As Tono slowly prepared his last meal— the last time he could serve a friend —Scorpio did nothing. He just watched my village.

Finally, Scorpio spoke up. "There are a lot of children out..." he said. He stuck a piece of gum in his mouth. Was he this casual about taking a life!?

"Yeah- they're playing. It's what children do," I said in a cranky tone. If this guy was expecting me to be nice...

"They could go inside..."

"You don't want to expose them to what you're gonna do?" I asked. "Maybe you should have thought of that. You wanna do something messed up, then-"

"I said," he spoke forcefully over me. "They should go inside."

Tono looked up from his work on our food and looked over at the man.

"I'm not helping you," I said.

"I'm saving your village, you ungrateful..." Scorpio looked back at me and paused. "Look... just tell everyone to get their children inside. That's all I want you to do." He looked back into the village.

"Do it yourself."

"Stop being a petulant brat."

I stood up and slammed my hands on the table. "You're an insensitive jerk. Why would I do anything you say-"

"Because it's coming!" As he spoke, thunder echoed in the background, and he turned to look at me again.

I froze. "Well... well that was timing..."

"It wasn't timing..." Thunder struck again. "Something big is coming. The natural world is responding to the presence of concentrated evil."

Rain fell out of the sky as thunderstruck yet again. The people in my village froze, the children and adults looking around in confusion as a storm started to descend on them rapidly.

"Now get up, go to your people, and tell them to get the children inside."

Tono turned off the grill, "I suppose I'll do this later," he said.

"Wise," Scorpio said.

I looked down. My mother, my father, my whole family... if this man and Tono were right, then something horrible was on the way. I looked around and saw birds taking flight and stray cats rushing for cover.

I gritted my teeth as I heard the many stray cats the village kept for pest control begin to hiss and growl. Children paused their games, and the adults looked around. Everything was normal for a storm, really, except for the cats. Cats don't growl at rain.

I closed my eyes and raised my hand to Tono. "We're not helping you unless you agree to negotiate Tono's fate."

Scorpio turned quickly and glared at me. "You have no idea what you're doing, boy!" he said with a growl of his own.

"I'll tend to the villagers," Tono offered.

"No! You'll stay here. You've done enough. You brought this monster down on them in the first place." Scorpio said quickly to Tono. "Now, Margo, these are your people, so they'll listen to you. If that creature arrives and there are children in the street, there could be a massacre. MOVE!"

"I won't abandon an old friend- we will discuss his fate!" I yelled, not caring that, no doubt, people were starting to hear me and Scorpio arguing, and many of them were becoming curious. I was not sacrificing lives for this man's system. That wasn't the kind of system I believed in.

I had a negotiating chip, so I would use it.

"Don't you care about the people who live here?"

"Yes- but I care about all of them." As if on cue, thunderstruck again. "I want a talk, that's all..."

"Are you really going to risk..."

"The point is, you won't..." I said, staring at him.

"I could take Tono as my prize and leave if you keep arguing with me..." Scorpio yelled as the rain started pouring harder, and the yowling grew louder.

Scorpio turned and cupped his hands over his mouth. "GET THE CHILDREN INSIDE!" He yelled out in a deep, authoritative voice. I could see several mothers start to move toward their children as the cacophony of eerie sounds grew. Still, it wasn't enough. We weren't superstitious, we were Muslim. They were spooked, sure, but my people weren't going just to do what a random stranger told them.

"Well?"

I could see Scorpio's calm demeanor start to crack.

"You're not leaving, I can sense that..."

Scorpio gritted his teeth. "Ffffffff... fine! Fine, you win. We'll talk later. Now move!"

I jumped up and ran to the edge of the Warun, yelling, "Get the children inside, move! Something bad is coming!"

Finally, I saw as mothers started gathering their little ones.

"Double time- move!" Scorpio almost screamed.

I waved my hands in the air as I felt fur move past my legs. I looked down as I saw several stray cats rushing past my legs, heedless of my presence.

My heart started rapidly beating. Stray cats hate being touched by humans, but these seemed so scared of something else that even their fear of humans had been eclipsed. I turned around and saw three more cats rushing through the warung. One of them, a blue short haired cat- dropped dead in its tracks.