A Witch needs her Cat

I don't own Black Cat or any of its characters.

The train slightly shook as it rushed over the tracks towards its destination. Salem Drake, a young sweeper, sat with her chin resting on the palm of her hand as she gazed out the window, watching as the thick green of the forests rushed by the train. Her thoughts, not focusing on anything in particular, ran through her mind as she absent-mindedly pulled out an aged piece of paper from her hoodie's pocket. Her ocean blue orbs took a glance at the bounty paper. Brendon Stratford was her target. He was a murderer who had been wreaking havoc on a small and utterly defenceless town. The reward for his capture was 900 grand; a price that Salem just could not pass up. She scanned the face of her bounty one last time. His face seemed to be forever twisted into a dreadful scowl while his jet black pupils had a spark of evil and cruelty in them. His short auburn hair was a greasy mess in the picture that was on the bounty poster. His most distinctive features would have to be the multiple scars that cluttered his face, forming a few X shapes here and there. Just as Salem had stuffed the poster back into her pocket, the train began to slow down until it came to a full halt.

"We have arrived at our destination." Spoke a muffled voice in the speaker on the roof of the train.

Salem shot a short yet curious glance out the window hoping to get a good look at the town before grabbing hold of her backpack and swinging it over her shoulder. She waited patiently, allowing the other passengers to pass by (note that there was only two other passengers exiting the train) until she was the only one left. Salem scotched out of her seat and stepped off of the locomotive. Her blue eyes calmly shot in all directions as she inspected the town. It was quite small and underdeveloped, bearing very little vegetation since most of the forests ended a little ways down the road. Most of the town was dusted with pale, dry sand, giving it a very disserted look. There were very little houses, stores and restaurants. She could only manage to spot one small bar near the entrance of the town. As Salem looked around, she could spot very few people leaving there homes and being out and about. It wasn't much of a surprise however. She had heard from Annette that the town was very small and under-populated. Salem ran her hand through her short, pristine hair as she let out a short breath.

"Well this place looks pretty boring." Salem commented to herself.

The sweeper simply let out yet another sigh before walking towards the entrance to the bar. She gave the door a light push, hearing the ring of a bell as she stepped inside. The bar was fairly small just like the town. There were only four other people inside: two drunks, a lone man and the bartender. All eyes turned towards her as she casually walked over and took a seat on one of the barstools. The bartender, who was currently drying glasses with a rag, raised a fine brow as he gave the young sweeper a speculating look. His judgmental eyes continued to look her up and down until they had caught sight of the twin knives strapped on her thighs. His suspicion of her only deepened once he had seen her weapons.

"Can I...help you?" The bartender asked as he set down the glass that he had been over-excessively shining.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you could tell me anything about this guy." Salem replied before smacking the bounty poster onto the countertop. The man's eyes widened slightly upon realizing that she was actually a sweeper.

"You're a...sweeper?" The bartender question, disbelievingly.

"Yeah, isn't it obvious?" Salem asked, trying her hardest not to seem offended.

"Well...my apologies miss. It's just that...well I wasn't expecting a little girl to be a sweeper. Isn't the minimum age 15 years?" He asked, unaware of the nerve of anger that he had triggered in the young sweeper.

"What do you mean "little girl"?! I'm 18 years old, damn it!" Salem hissed glaring straight into the man's soul as if trying to burn him alive with her look. The man simply shrugged off the situation before returning to that request she had made earlier.

"So, you want to know more about your bounty, hm?" The white-haired sweeper nodded in response. The bartender began inspecting the picture of Brendon Stratford very intently while stroking his neatly trimmed beard. After inspecting the picture for a few more seconds, the bartender finally spoke.

"Yup, this guy is defiantly the scumbag that's been terrorizing this town. He's a ruthless murderer who only seems to strike at night. It's because of that fact that everyone in the whole town won't even so much as leave their windows open once the sun sets. There's been about three murders that we know of." He explained while the sweeper sat silently, absorbing every bit of information the bartender had to offer. Once she was sure that he had finished, Salem made a comment herself.

"I see...so he's a night crawler then."

"A night what?" He asked.

"It's an expression. A term used by some sweepers referring to a murderer who only attacks at night." Salem explained, matter-of-factly.

"Ah, I see—"He was interrupted by Salem as she pushed for more information.

"So do you know where he hides out during the day? Every night crawler has to have a hiding spot for when they're not active." The bartender lightly shook his head, unable to provide an answer for her question. The sweeper grabbed the bounty poster, stuffing it in her pocket once again. Salem's expression however, remained casual as she responded.

"I see...well thanks anyways." Just as Salem had gotten up to leave, the bartender spoke once more.

"Hold on. Alright, these are just rumors but...I heard that Brendon Stratford might be hiding out in the old abandoned church up the street a little ways. But like I said, it's just a rumor." Salem gave a cheeky grin in return as she turned on her heel.

"That's all I needed to hear." Was her response before she left the bar, hands in her pockets.

Salem exited the bar onto the main, sandy street of town. She shot a glance up at the sky as many shades of red, orange and pink began to coat the sky like a painting. She adjusted the straps on her backpack before heading down the street towards the old-looking church in the distance.

"Hmm...it would have been a lot better if I could catch this guy off guard during the day...but I guess it all has to do with timing." The sweeper thought aloud.

As she neared the church, the sky began to get darker and darker until the sky had become almost covered in a black, star-filled sky. She stopped to examine the church once she had reached it. There was thick green moss growing on every angle, the aged stones that built up the church looked as if they would crumble at any given minute and any stained glass that might have once stood firm, was in pieces on the ground. Overall, the place was very gloomy and eerie; a perfect hideout for a creepy criminal.

"Yeesh...guess this guy has the whole criminal hideout thing down. It just looks so inviting." Salem spoke sarcastically while looking the church up and down. For some reason, Salem was getting a very bad feeling about the place almost as if she really shouldn't go inside because something bad might happen. No...more like something terrible. Unfortunately, she couldn't just walk away because she was getting a bad feeling. That criminal was terrorizing that town and had murdered three innocent people just because he enjoyed it, just because he liked to see the blood of the innocent dripping through his fingers.

"Of course...I too did that once... but I haven't killed anyone for three years now..." Salem thought to herself as her eyes slowly moved towards the ground. Her face twisted into a grimace as a painful memory of her days as a mercenary reappeared in her mind.

"No...never again. I...I promised Madison." Salem vigorously shook her head as if it were a method of getting rid of bad thoughts. She brought her attention back to the matter at hand, looking back up at the church before walking towards the door that looked to be broken in two. She hopped over the ruined wood, landing steadily onto her feet. Salem took a look around, taking in all of her surroundings. Any remnants of furniture were all rotted or destroyed. The church was filled with darkness, the only light source being the silver light of the now clearly visible moon. The moonlight shone through all of the cracks and holes that existed in the old building. After a bit of examination, Salem's eyes met with a long staircase leading upwards. The stairs were just as rotted as the rest of the church and could defiantly have gone for a bit of restoration. The sweeper walked towards the stairs, giving them a sceptical look.

"Well these look safe." She commented, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Before Salem could move any further towards the staircase, a bone-chilling scream of fright echoed down the stairwell and throughout the rest of the church. Without thinking first, Salem dropped her backpack to the ground and dashed up the rickety stairs, ignoring all of the creaks coming from beneath her feet. Halfway up the stair case, Salem pulled both her knives from their holsters, readying herself for a battle. Just as she had managed to reach the top part of the church, there was a loud rattling gunfire, almost resembling that of a hissing cat. Her ocean eyes widened at the horrific sight before her. There was a man clad in black holding a unique gun while another fell to the floor, crimson blood surrounding his head. There was no mistake that the black-clad man had shot Salem's bounty, Brendon Stratford, straight in the head. And what was even more disturbing was that he had not even blinked while doing so. His cold expression remained the same even after the deed was done. Out of rage and adrenalin, Salem came up behind the black-clad man, holding one of her knives to her throat while the other's tip pointed at the back of his neck.

"You...killed my bounty." She stated with look of pure anger. "Who are you? No normal citizen goes around killing people...even if they do deserve to die." Salem spoke calm yet venomous way. She waited patiently for a response which she did not receive. Instead, the man slowly turned his head in order to look at her. The light of the moon seemed to reflect perfectly off of his golden eyes. Salem however, kept a stern look on her face as she stared straight into his eyes.

"Normal citizens don't go around wielding knives either." He responded. His voice was calm but had a certain distant and coldness to it, one of which sent chills slithering down Salem's spine. Her look hardened once he spoke. She was not up to taking crap from a murderer whom she had just met.

"Sorry...but murder is a crime...so I'm going to have to turn you in." Salem said with a little bit too much enjoyment laced in her voice as an uncontrollable smirk played onto her features. It wasn't exactly a crime to be sadistic; it was just the way she lived. What could she say? She loved a good fight, that is if this man was willing to fight for his escape or if he was just going to simply give up. Judging by his performance of "taking care" of her bounty, Salem doubted that it would be the latter. Just as she had presumed, the man jumped into the air, slipping away from her so fast that her eyes had almost missed his movement. He wasted no time, shooting a bullet straight towards her. The speed of the bullet had caught her off guard as her block was a rather slow one which allowed the bullet to penetrate the skin on her shoulder. Thankfully her pathetic block had managed to send the bullet off of its course towards her heart and land in her upper shoulder, not striking anything important but she still winced from the painful contact.. To make up for her slow reaction, Salem went for a head on strike just as the man had landed on the ground. She slashed her right knife while her left went for a stab to the shoulder. Both of her attacks were in vain as he swiftly jumped backwards while shooting another bullet. This bullet, Salem had managed to deflect with her left knife while throwing her right knife at him out of pure adrenaline. The attack managed to catch him slightly off guard by grazing the skin on his right arm. The only down side to that attack was that she was left with only one knife to defend and attack with. The man shot another bullet before running towards her after she had managed to deflect it. Salem took the opportunity to slash him, hoping to get him down the torso. He blocked her knife with his gun, causing the two to be very close as they each struggled to send each other's weapon out of their hand. In the few moments that they were close to each other, Salem had managed to get a glimpse of the roman numeral on his chest. XIII. The sweeper's eyes widened as she realized who she was actually battling.

"Thirteen?! Then that means...!" She breathed, unable to finish her sentence as the assassin managed to overpower her and send her knife flying out of her hand.

Struck defenceless, Salem had no time to react as the Black Cat himself shot a bullet straight through her chest. The burning pain of the metal tearing through anything in its way made her grimace as she struggled to keep her balance. Salem's back roughly fell to the cold wall as she clutched her shoulder, grunting with pain. She slowly slid down, leaving a trail of dark crimson on the wall until her butt met the floor. Once she had gained the strength to look at her attacker once more, he had already vanished from the scene. Just like that, Salem had been shot down by the top assassin from Chronos, the one that everyone feared...Black Cat.

Salem put a halt on her thoughts, realizing that if she waited any longer than she would simply bleed to death. Salem slowly looked down at her bleeding wound. The first bullet that she was shot with was not very deep inside her flesh and was not bleeding too much. Her other wound on the other hand was bleeding severely, seeping through her grey hoodie and between her fingers. That bullet would have gone straight through her heart if not for her moving to the right slightly at the very last second. She had a nick for dodging quickly but Black Cat was truly amazing if he could manage to wound her like that. It seemed as though he really did live up to his reputation. Salem slowly turned her head towards the abandoned knife that Black Cat had hit out of her hand. Using her unharmed arm, she reached over and wrapped her slender fingers around it. She stared at the weapon as if the whole mess was its fault before hesitantly bringing the blade towards her chest and cutting open part of her sweater, exposing her wounded shoulder. Salem bit down on her lip as she dug the blade into the wound, carfully moving it around, letting out a few stifled grunts of agony. The knife made the burning pain even worse despite how carfully she dug out the bullet. Finally after what felt like hours, she had finally managed to salvage the bullet and let it fall to the ground. After the bullet was out she began to pant, desperately trying to refill her dry lungs with oxygen. The sweeper sent a vengeful glare towards the bullet that now lay on the floor, drenched in her blood.

"That damn assassin. This would have been a hell of a lot easier if he hadn't shown up. I could have turned this criminal in and been eating away all of my reward by treating myself to a fancy dinner...but instead I'm here digging bullets out of my shoulder!" She thought to herself as she proceeded to dig the other bullet out which was considerably easier and a lot more bearable.

Once she had managed to remove both bullets, Salem reached into her pocket and pulled out a small roll of bandages that she kept on her at all times in case of emergency. The young sweeper began wrapping up her shoulder as fast as she could so not to allow anymore blood to seep from her wounds. She made sure to wrap them as tightly as she could without going over her limit for comfort. Unfortunately, Salem had lost a bit more blood than she had expected. Just as she finished wrapping up her wound, her head began to spin while her surroundings became a blobby mess of blurs. Before she could do anything else, the white-haired girl had blacked out.

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Once he had managed to make his escape from the top of the church, Train stopped for a moment of rest. He glanced at the arm that the sweeper had managed to graze. In fact, it wasn't much of a graze anymore, by then it could be classified as cut or slash. It was even deep enough to allow blood to trickle down his sleeve and drip onto the stone floor. It had been quite a while since Train had fought anyone who could manage to actually hit him in such a way. That girl was quite fast...and skilled. Though Train still wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to be. If you had a weapon then that would usually mean that you were a criminal or an assassin but that girl had spoken of "turning him in". She had also mentioned something about him killing her "bounty". Could she of been some sort of bounty hunter? Just as Train was about to leave, he stumbled upon a small black backpack that had been abandoned on the floor. He guessed that it had probably belonged to that girl he just met. The backpack had a small black cat keychain and a compass connected to the top strap of the bag. Normally Train took no interest in things such as that but for some reason there was something urging him to search the bag. After a few more moments of consideration, Train grabbed hold of the bag and unzipped it. He began rummaging through the contents, occasionally pulling an item out in order to have a better look at it.

The items he had found consisted of a deck of tarot cards, hair gel, a black sweatshirt, a first aid kit, a sketch pad and a few other female products that Train was greatly displeased in touching. All in all the items in the bag held no interest to him. That is until he found a small picture at the bottom of the bag. The corners were folded over while the small rectangular photograph was covered in many folds and wrinkles but the image still stood strong. The photo was of the same girl he had encountered only she looked different in the picture. She wore a baggy red tank top with a pair of large denim shorts on. Her hair was still in the same spiked style as it was when he met her only her black bangs were green in the picture. She stood next to a smiling elderly woman who was a great deal shorter than her with a hunched back. The old woman had her long grey hair tied tightly into a bun while her clothing consisted of a long skirt, slippers and a knitted sweater. The girl had her hand resting on the old woman's shoulder while she too smiled but her smile was different from the old woman's. Her smile was very subtle, almost as if it weren't even there. Her smile had a sort of unique beauty and warmness to it while at the same time, it was carefree and calm. It was defiantly not a smile that just any girl could pull off. Her smile was like no other, it was able to show that that girl was sincere but it also gave off the kind of vibe that she was trying to heal herself and leave the past behind. It was amazing how much you could learn from her smile alone. Something about her, though he was not sure what, just made Train feel drawn to her. He just couldn't manage to peel his eyes away from the picture, feeling as though he could simply stare at it all day.

Train finally managed to tear his eyes away as he flipped the picture over, reading the date it was taken. The picture had been taken a year ago but there was something else written on the back as well in neat cursive writing. It read:

"Please return soon, missy. Love Madison and Grandma Luci"

It said "missy". Train doubted that that was the girl's name but for now, it would do.

"Missy..." Train repeated, absentmindedly. Train shut his mouth as realization struck him. He was staring at a picture of a girl he had just pretty much killed. There was no use in dwelling over the matter any longer. After all, he had wasted enough time already by staring at the silly thing. Train's intent was to drop the picture and forget that the whole thing ever happened but for some reason, his body disobeyed him by shoving the picture into his inner coat pocket. He truly was unsure as to why he was planning on keeping the picture. It was such a stupid and useless thing to carry around...and yet...he still held onto it even after leaving the town and the girl's body behind.

Author's note: Well that is the first chapter of my story please tell me what you think, reviews are greatly appreciated!

~FlammingAxel