A New Hunt

An El Cazador de la Bruja Fanfiction

Chapter 3: The Search for Lirio Begins

Author's Notes: Hello everyone. I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, but consider this chapter as proof that I haven't abandoned it. Please enjoy the chapter!

Nadie, Ellis and Guy burst into Ricardo's room to find a disturbing sight. Ricardo was on the floor with his back against the side of the bed. He had two bullet wounds on his shoulder and abdomen and he was nursing them as best as he could. The window was open and Lirio was nowhere to be found.

"Nadie, what is he doing here?" Ricardo asked through gritted teeth when he saw Guy.

"Not now Ricardo." Nadie said. "What happened here?" She asked as Ellis got to work healing Ricardo's wounds.

"I'm not saying a word with him here." Ricardo said, glaring intensely at Guy.

"What the hell is going on?" Guy asked as Ellis's hands started to glow. "Who exactly are you people?"

"Hold on!" Nadie said to Guy. "Ricardo, it's okay. What happened?"

"Two of 'em." Ricardo said. "Two men came in through the window and attacked us." He said with a grunt as his wounds closed up. "Thanks, Ellis."

"No problem." Ellis said, standing up.

"Now…" Ricardo said as he stood up as well. Suddenly, Ricardo lunged forward and grabbed Guy by the throat. "Who are you working for, and where the hell is Lirio?" He said as he pushed Guy against the wall.

"AH! I have no idea what you're talking about!" Guy coughed as Ricardo tightened his grip.

"How can I trust you?" Ricardo asked.

"Because I'm not using my other hand to kill you right now!" Guy wheezed as Ricardo looked down and saw that the hand Guy wasn't using to stop his larynx from being crushed was hovering over his magnum.

"Ricardo, back off!" Nadie exclaimed. "If he is involved, killing him won't help."

After a few more seconds, Ricardo released Guy. Guy fell to his hands and knees coughing. "Jesus, you're strong!" Guy said between coughs.

Ricardo said nothing as he turned around and clubbed Guy across the head with his fist, knocking him unconscious.

"Ricardo, what the hell?" Nadie exclaimed.

"You don't know this man." Ricardo said. "For all we know, he could have been sent to distract us to set up for this ambush."

"Ricardo, this isn't like you." Nadie said as Ricardo stripped guy of his weaponry and tossed him onto the bed. "I understand that you're worried about Lirio. I am too." Nadie said. "But rushing to conclusions isn't going to get us anywhere."

"How about we wait for him to wake up before we proceed. I want to find out what he knows." Ricardo said as he tossed Guy onto the bed. "Until then, let's search the room."

"Found something!" Ellis called as she picked a piece of paper up from the floor. The lettering on the paper had been made out of clippings from different magazines.

"Let me see that." Ricardo said as Ellis handed him the paper. Ricardo began reading the message out loud. 'Ricardo, come to the warehouse district unarmed and alone at midnight or the girl dies.' "Bastards!" Ricardo muttered as he crumpled the paper in his hand.

"Ugh, my head…" Guy murmured as he sat up slowly, holding his head. "Whoa!" He exclaimed, raising his hands as he realized that Ricardo was aiming his own revolver at him. "What the hell?"

"I'll be asking the questions for now." Ricardo said as he pulled back the hammer on the revolver. "Now, who do you work for?"

"I don't work for anyone at the moment!" Guy said. "I told you that none of you have bounties, so I have no reason to be after any of you!"

"Oh really?" Ricardo asked. "Before those goons showed up and attacked me, I made phone call to a more reliable source. Apparently someone put a price on my head just yesterday."

"What?" Nadie and Ellis both exclaimed, turning and looking at Guy.

"Hey, don't look at me like that!" Guy said. "You all want the truth? Fine." He said. "Like I said, I was following your group yesterday to find out if Nadie was available. That much was true." Guy said. "After a while though, I stopped by the bounty office to look for some work. While I was there, I managed to see someone just putting up your bounty. It wasn't a bad price, and it was just my style too so I decided I might check that possibility out as well."

"Bounties that only reward live captures don't seem much like a sniper's style." Ricardo said.

"What can I say?" Guy asked. "I'm not any ordinary sniper."

"So you were waiting for a chance to capture Ricardo?" Nadie asked, beginning to feel stupid for having trusted Guy.

"Not exactly." Guy said. "I'm just going to say right now that I'm a very poor bounty hunter, and that there is a very good reason for it."

"We don't have time for this." Ricardo said. "Who put up the bounty? You said you saw them."

"I didn't have a conversation with the guy." Guy said. "I'd probably recognize him if I saw him, but I didn't get a name or anything."

"What about the two guys that ambushed me just now. Do you know them?" He asked as he tossed the crumpled up paper to Guy.

"Wow. People actually write ransom notes like this?" Guy asked when he saw the lettering. "I thought that was only in the movies."

"Anything useful you can tell us about that note?" Ricardo asked.

"I'm afraid not." Guy said. "I work alone when I'm on a bounty. Those two people who attacked you must have been working on their own."

"There's something I still don't get." Nadie said. "Ricardo was on the floor. Why take Lirio when you were right there?" Nadie asked.

"I suppose the girl would be easier to carry." Guy said. "Beyond that, I can't really think of anything."

"I can." Ricardo said as he lowered the magnum and handed it to Nadie. "There's something personal behind this bounty." He said as he picked up his own weapons and left the room alone.

"Ricardo, wait!" Nadie called as she and Ellis chased after him.

"My gun!" Guy called after her. "Damn." He groaned as he pushed himself off the bed, grabbed his rifle, and gave chase as well.

Flashback

In a small town, a brown Acura Legend pulled into a gas station.

"You hungry?" Ricardo asked as he turned to the back seat of his car.

"Piss off." Juan Miguello scoffed as he averted his eyes to the floor.

"Keep up that attitude and I might tie you to the roof for the rest of the trip." Ricardo said. "Fine, but don't say I didn't offer." He said as he stepped out of the car, making sure to lock the doors, as well as the power windows.

"I can stand this any longer!" Juan yelled. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"Like I said, the pay is better with you alive." Ricardo said. "I've gotta pay for the gas before I pump it here. Don't cause any trouble." He said as he closed the driver's side door and entered the gas station.

No sooner was Ricardo inside than Juan began trying to undo his bindings. He started chewing at the ropes around his wrists desperately, looking up every so often to make sure Ricardo wasn't coming back yet. Finally, he managed to loosen the ropes enough to free himself. "Yes!" He cried as he tried unlocking and opening his door. "What the hell?" Juan grunted as he struggled feebly against the childproof lock.

"Thanks partner." Ricardo said, giving the cashier a friendly wave as he walked out of the gas station. "Oh no…" He muttered when he realized that Juan was nowhere to be seen and the front driver's side door was wide open. Ricardo looked in every direction for any sign of his bounty and found nothing. Finally, he sighed and began filling his car with gas.

"This is great!" Juan thought to himself as he crouched in his hiding place behind the gas station. "This idiot is giving up just like that! If this is the worst that I have to worry about from bounty hunters, that bitch will never see me again!" He thought with a smirk as he heard Ricardo's car start back up.

"What a loser!" He said as a heavy hand came down on his shoulder.

"That's odd." Ricardo said as Juan's face turned white. "Usually escapees don't stay so close to their captors."

"How did you-"

"I knew you'd give yourself away once I started the car." Ricardo said. "Now come on, buddy. I'll get you set up with some new ropes.

End flashback

"And just what are you doing following us now?" Nadie asked as Guy caught up to the rest of them as they were leaving the bounty office.

"You've still got my pistol." Guy said, catching his breath.

"You think I'll trust you now?" Nadie asked.

"Give it back to him, Nadie." Ricardo said. "He's no threat to us."

"Ricardo?" Nadie protested.

"It's okay. I know his type. Bounty hunters that refuse to kill unless necessary." Ricardo said. "I don't think he would have anything to do with what's going on now."

"But how did-"

"He probably looked up my file while you we're in there." Guy said, motioning to the office.

"Twenty bounties turned in during your career. Only one turned in dead. Most turned in uninjured." Ricardo said.

"You don't think I always load this rifle with regular cartridges, do you?" Guy asked as he tossed Nadie a small plastic box.

Nadie popped open the box and saw that it was filled with tranquilizer rounds. "Darts?" She asked.

"That's right. I peg someone with a couple of these, and they aren't going anywhere." Guy said.

"A magnum seems a bit heavy for a non-lethal hunter though." Nadie said.

"If you'll hand me my magnum, I'll show you what I keep it for." Guy said.

"Go ahead Nadie. Give it to him." Ricardo said.

"Alright." Nadie said as she handed Guy his magnum.

"Thanks." Guy said as he raised the revolver and checked the chambers. "See you on the other side." He said with a smile as he pulled back the hammer and raised it to his own head.

"Guy, no!" Nadie yelled as Ellis gasped in surprise. Ricardo simply watched with a straight face.

"Goodbye." Guy said as he pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang and Guy fell to the ground.

"Guy!" Nadie yelled.

"What?" Guy asked as he stood back up and brushed himself off.

"Huh?" Nadie asked. "But you-"

"Relax, Nadie." Ricardo said. "He loads that thing with blanks."

"I like to scare my marks into coming along peacefully." Guy said as he holstered his magnum. "Plus, this way I don't have to worry as much if I get disarmed."

"But back at the hotel-"

"Back at the hotel the big guy there didn't know they were blanks." Guy said. "That's happened before, and it got me my seventh bounty. He thought he had the advantage and shot me with my own gun. Boy was he surprised when I got back up and knocked him out." Guy laughed.

"I thought you said you were a very poor bounty hunter though." Nadie said.

"Well, I don't usually go after higher priced marks." Guy said. "Usually the valuable ones are also the most reluctant to come along peacefully. Money's no good if I don't live to spend it."

"But you have killed before." Ricardo said.

"Of course. I've killed during my time with the Marine Corps, and I had no choice but to kill one of my marks." Guy said. "But enough about me. Did you find out anything helpful?"

"Why do you care?" Nadie asked.

"I care because I don't want Ricardo's bounty." Guy said. "If I did, I would have just tranquilized you from one of those buildings back there and taken the big guy away while you were all napping. I'm concerned about the little girl too."

"Why are you so concerned about Lirio?" Ricardo asked. "I appreciate your help, but what do you stand to gain from helping us?"

"Why do I need to gain anything?" Guy asked. "You get your girl back, and I do my good deed for the day. Everybody wins, right?"

"I don't trust him." Ellis said, standing behind Nadie.

"Look, I don't know what you have against me." Guy said with a sigh. "Tell you what. I'll stick around for a bit and try to make myself useful. If I cause any problems, I'll gladly leave you all to your own affairs. Sound like a deal?"

"I don't know." Nadie said.

"We have more to gain with him than without him." Ricardo said. "You've got good eyes, right?"

"I've got two of them." Guy said. "So I can tag along?"

"Sure. Why not?" Ricardo said.

"Alright. So where should we start looking?" Guy asked.

"The note said something about the warehouse district." Nadie said. "Maybe we should start there."

"That makes sense." Ricardo said. "But they're probably expecting us there."

"But they don't have much reason to be anywhere else, so we seem to be pretty much stuck." Guy said.

"I guess our decision's been made then." Ricardo said. "Let's go to the warehouse district. Once we're there, we'll split up and take a look around." "I've already got a good idea of who is behind all of this." Ricardo thought.

"It's about noon right now, so according to the note we have about twelve hours to find that girl." Guy said. "Let's hurry. It'll take us at least two hours to get to the warehouse district on foot. This way." He said as he turned and walked away, allowing the rest of the group to follow him.

"The tracker is working." A tall man with glasses said as he watched a small red dot move across the screen of his laptop.

"Good." Juan Miguello said. "Make sure Ricardo gets here alive. If he brings anyone else, you can do what you want with them."

"I'm sure my brother will be pleased to hear that." The taller man said. "Now, about our money."

"You let me worry about that." Juan said. "Once Ricardo is mine, his bounty is yours." He said as he lit a cigarette. "Until then, make sure you keep that brother of yours on his leash. I don't want any more foul ups. Got it?"

"Of course. Again, we apologize for not taking the girl more discreetly." The tall man said.

"As long as I get Ricardo tonight, I'm not very concerned with the rest." Juan said. "But just in case, you should keep an eye on Ricardo. I don't doubt that he'll come earlier than expected."

"You've got it." The tall man said as he closed his laptop and left the warehouse.

"Ricardo, if it weren't for you I wouldn't be here today." Juan thought. "Rather, I'd be in the states living the good life right now." He thought, looking at the door he had locked Lirio behind. "Who'd have thought that you'd have a soft spot for children?"

On the other side of the door, Lirio was calmly looking around for any sign of an escape route. The windows were far too high for her to reach, and all she had with her was a pocketful of change and her boomerang. After a while, she sat still and waited for her knight to come to her rescue.

Author's Notes: Okay. Now that this has gone up, it's time to put up the new chapter of Lucky Temptations, my major Lucky Star fanfic. The chapter is ready and waiting, so I'll get to that now. See you all next time!