Record snowfalls in February. Coldest day on record in Midnight City. And through it all, Doctor Jericho October hunted. He couldn't rest, he couldn't give up. The fate of not only the world, but reality itself, relied on him. After the Breach, Dr. October had discovered that seven large creatures of power had gotten through and remained at large. Six had already been sent back. Tonight he hoped to return the last one.
Dr. October pulled up the collar of his coat, pulled down the brim of his fedora, and trudged through the snow to his destination. His thoughts returned, as they often did, to the past Halloween.
After tracking down and removing six, he had accumulated enough research to create his tracking device. It was accurate to within 100 feet, which left a lot of space, especially in a city the size of Midnight City. The only good news from the tracking device was the last of the original seven Breachers operated in Midnight City. However, the bad news was if they were all together, they may have been working together. One or two he could take down with his Vortex Pistol. Three at a time, not so much.
On top of that, the Breachers attracted human minions from the scum of humanity. So there was no telling how many foes he'd be up against.
The warehouse rose in front of him out of the swirling snow. He walked with his head down due to the snow and hadn't expected it, so he almost stumbled into the wall. Dr. October looked along the wall to either side, searching for a door. When he spotted one to his left, he moved towards it. Unlocked.
Inside the warehouse, stacks of crates rose to the ceiling. In the distance, a gruff voice chanted in a tongue Dr. October knew all too well. It was the same spell he had used to open the Breach. He had found the one of the three Breachers, and it was attempting to reopen the Breach!
"Not again," Dr. October said to himself. He pulled his Vortex pistol and crept forward.
He peeked around the corner of a crate stack and saw a woman tied to the top of a table, hands and feet bound to the table legs, a Breacher standing over her. He looked like a large, muscle-bound man with the head of a badger. His elongated arms ended in furry hands holding a wicked curved dagger, poised above the woman's heart. Four human minions stood around the table, watching with anticipation. One appeared to be drooling.
The Breacher raised the knife even higher, and Dr. October recognized the part of the ritual they had reached. He raised his Vortex Pistol and fired. The spell blast hit the Breacher square in the chest. He howled as his body was sucked into the tiny vortex, dropping the knife. The four human minions' heads snapped in Dr. October's direction. Knowing his Vortex Pistol was useless against the humans, he put it back in its holster and readied a fiery binding spell.
The first minion--a teenager dressed in ripped tee shirt and jeans, his head sporting a bright pink mohawk--ran at Dr. October, hands raised like claws. The scientific sorcerer chanted the binding spell incantation, manifesting a ball of green fire, which he threw at the minion. The young man tried to dodge, but it caught him in the shoulder and spread around his body, wrapping him like a mummy in green flame. He howled in fury as he dropped to the floor.
The other three minions--two of them young women in their early twenties, and a man in his late thirties, all dressed in professional business attire--charged as a group. Dr. October cast two more spells, one from each hand, and caught the man and one of the young women. The last woman dove at his legs, knocking him down. She climbed on top of him and clawed at his face, a wordless scream full of rage assaulting his ears.
She clawed his left cheek before he kicked his legs up under her armpits and flipped her backwards onto her shoulders. Holding her down with his foot, he cast another binding spell, enveloping her in the green flames.
Stepping away from the fallen minions, he approached the table. The woman struggled to get herself free and redoubled her efforts when she saw Dr. October approach.
"Ease up, miss, I'm not here to harm you," he said.
She calmed her struggles, but still looked at him warily. She nodded.
He picked up the ceremonial knife where the Breacher had dropped it. When her eyes shot wide in fear, he said, "I'm using this merely to cut your bonds." She settled enough so he could free her hands. He then set the knife on the table beside her and backed away with his hands up in a placating gesture.
The woman ripped the gag from her mouth with one hand while snatching up the knife with her other. She immediately began to saw at the bonds at her ankles. "Who are you? Who were these guys? Were they even human?"
"I am Doctor Jericho October. The creature with the face of a badger was a Breacher, a being from another dimension. The other four were his human minions."
"Dr. October, huh?" she said. He was able to get a look at her without the fear masking her features. She was older than he first thought, maybe early to mid-forties, with auburn hair just going gray at the temples. Her hazel eyes didn't miss much as she looked him over. "I've heard of you. I'm Dorothy Morgan, Witch Hunter. Call me Dot."
"You hunt witches?"
"No, I am a witch and I hunt guys like that... 'Breacher.'"
"So you are a hunter witch?"
Dot stopped cutting the bond on her right ankle, having already released her left one. "Okay, I'm a hunter witch." She resumed freeing herself and hopped down from the table. She tossed the knife back onto the table.
"How did you end up here?" he asked.
"I work here, driving a fork truck." She took a red bandanna from her hip pocket and wiped off her face. "How'd you find them?"
"I have a tracking device that can lead me to within a hundred feet of them."
"You'll never stop us!" cried the teen with the mohawk. "The Astrokraken is coming!"
Dot turned disbelieving eyes to Dr. October. "'Astrokraken'? Is he serious?"
"Very much so," he responded. To the young man he said, "I have removed all the Breachers from this city. Your master was the last."
The four bound people started to giggle. It grew in intensity, becoming raucous laughter bordering on hysterics. "You know nothing, Jericho October!" the young man screamed. "Others are coming! Cazguro the Dominator is coming! He will usher in the Astrokraken, and we will all be submitted to eternal oblivion!"
His laughter increased in intensity, and the minions burst into flames.
"What did you do to them?" Dot asked as she watched the bodies burn. The laughs morphed into screams.
"This was not me," Dr. October said. "My spells only bind them. This is the work of the Breachers."
The four bodies became, quiet with only the crackle of the now quickly dying flames the only sound in the warehouse. When the flames disappeared, nothing was left of the human minions except four black marks on the concrete floor.
"Why do you call them Breachers?" Dot asked.
Dr. October told her the story of how he opened a doorway into the dimension of the Astrokraken the past Halloween. He told her of how he did it, how he realized his mistake too late, and how he now atoned for that mistake.
"I knew I felt something happen," Dot said. "Like there was a sudden evil loose on the world. My ex-husband dismissed it, saying 'It's Halloween, Dorothy,'" dropping her voice to a deeper tone. "'You're supposed to feel scared tonight,' and then he laughed it off."
She paused in thought a moment, then looked up at Dr. October. "I'll help."
"You cannot," Dr. October said. "This is my doing, I must set it right."
"You cannot be in more than one place at a time. I will help you. I am not without abilities."
She turned towards the table that had almost been her sacrificial altar, raised her hands and chanted something under her breath. Blue witchfire shot from both hands striking the table and causing it to collapse in on itself, much like the Vortex Pistol had done to the Breacher. She turned to Dr. October with a smug grin.
"But can you do that under pressure?" he asked.
"I can. These yahoos caught me at work while I was listening to my headphones. I'll not make that mistake again."
Dr. October thought for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. You will do as I say, when I say it. Your life, and the fate of the world, reside on this promise."
Dot held up her right hand, three fingers raised and together. "Scout's honor, Dr. O."
The scientific sorcerer grunted an acknowledgement then looked to the spot where the teenager had died. "What did he mean by 'others are coming' I wonder. Surely there are no more Breachers in Midnight City."
Before Dot could reply, a beeping sound came from Dr. October's inside coat pocket. He frowned and pulled out his Breacher tracking device. "What? No..." he said.
"That your tracker?" Dot asked. Dr. October nodded. "What's the noise then?"
"Four more Breachers just popped up in Midnight City."
"Okay, we can take them down, no worries."
"It's not just that there are more, look at the pattern," he said as he showed her the screen.
Dot looked at the screen and wrinkled her eyebrows. "What gives? Are those four the same distance apart? Like equally?"
"They are, and if you add our position for the fifth point, it completes a perfect pentagram. The center of which is the ruins of the abandoned amusement park."
"So?"
"If even one of these other four can complete the ritual, it will open the Breach again and bring forth something even worse. Maybe even the Astrokraken itself.”