lady_llamacorn

Introducing Tamara:

The girl dropped down from the third floor balcony, her small body clad in black. Her dark brown hair was pinned behind her head, a small dagger hidden in the bun.

SaralynArati

Introducing Chatan:

Tamara was adept at moving stealthily and catlike in the darkness, blending with the shadows. Nevertheless she was startled by the flicker of motion that she perceived only an instant before a figure materialized almost directly in front of her.

lady_llamacorn

Tamara jumped back, startled.

"Don't scare me like that." She whispered, "I could have killed you."

Chatan smirked in the darkness. "Sure."

SaralynArati

"You smell," he told her softly, "good, but too much for sneaking around at night."

"No one but you has ever caught me," Tamara replied with a hint of pride and defiance in her voice.

"Not yet," Chatan whispered, "but it only takes once."

lady_llamacorn

Tamara rolled her eyes. "What are you, a sniffer dog?" She placed her delicate hand on her black leather belt, next to her gun holster. "I had a shower this morning." 

Chatan chuckled, before melting back into the shadows. "Well, are you coming?"

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai: I quietly watched, as I always did... hidden. There were two of them, a girl and a boy. I felt like laughing. It was time they felt some real evil. I quickly let loose a dart straight to them. And then I ran…

lady_llamacorn

Tamara heard the dart before it hit her. Years of elite training had prepared her for situations like this. The glass cylinder came whizzing past her as she dropped to the floor. Unfortunately, Chatan -who was more skilled in hand-to-hand combat- was the receiver of the dart. The sharp tip buried itself into his neck, the poison already beginning to enter his blood stream...

SaralynArati

Chatan swore. "Curare," he said, pulling the dart from his neck. "Smells a little like tar." He smiled wryly. Curare was a quick acting paralytic agent. Oh, his heart would keep beating, but he wouldn't be able to breathe.

"It's reversible." Tamara got to her feet as Chatan leaned against the wall. "And 'smells like tar' are stupid last words. So think again about dying on me."

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai: I jumped from this to that, never touching the floor. My bare feet sliding soundlessly on the marble. When I had reached my destination, I quickly flicked on the light switch then jumped up, where nobody, above or below could see me.

lady_llamacorn

"I wasn't planning on dying any time soon." Chatan winked, but it was slow and clumsy. Then he collapsed on the floor, his head lolling to the side.

Usually, Tamara would've stayed with Chatan, but there were more pressing matters that she had to attend to…

SaralynArati

Four minutes, Tamara told herself silently. Four minutes between a person's last breath and brain damage or death. And when she'd left him, Chatan had still been breathing feebly.

lady_llamacorn

That was all she needed.

lady_llamacorn

Introducing Wrye:

Wrye strolled through his mansion's gardens. It was a rare luxury for him to be out of his office, away from the evil schemes, death, betrayal.

What he didn't realise was that what he originally had thought would be a refreshing walk, would turn into his worst nightmare.

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai: He was breathing feebly, she was gone... that was all she needed. She quickly jumped from post to post until she reached the outer corridor. The girl had gone the other way, and Lilai jumped down onto the floor. Quickly she ran before she reached the safe. *2419* she entered. Then the safe opened. She ran grabbed one chest, tied it to her back and then ran, and jumped till she was outside the building and safely away.

SaralynArati

So, thought Chatan, slumped in a corner but his eyes still open a bit, enough to recognize the face of the infamous Spider. So, that's who she really is. Interesting...

Herogirl27

Introducing: Ariel

Ariel had seen the events with Tamara, Chatan, and the Spider unfold and after Lilai had left the area and Chatan was the only one left, she quickly and quietly went over to him. He was still breathing ever so slightly. Ariel smiled, she knew he could still be saved. As long as she could identify the poison, she could administer the proper antidote. She began by identifying his symptoms to narrow down her choices of poison. 

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai: Quickly she ran around sprinkling the money and jewels of the rich to the poor. It was still pitch black and nobody would be able to see her but they would see the money when they woke. When the chest was empty she jumped up to a rooftop and then ran along the clay tiles. She finally found a roof that joined a wall, with a a roof casting a shadow on the roof. She sighed, this would have to do and with that she fell to sleep, with nothing but the clothes on her back.

lady_llamacorn

Tamara hurtled through the deserted streets, her cat like instincts the only thing saving her from ramming into a lamppost.

She checked the digital watch on her hand, two minutes. Tamara could almost see Wrye, begging for forgiveness before she plunged the knife into his heart.

She arrived outside the extravagant mansion with a minute to go. Weye was right where she needed him, her motion sensors had alerted her when he had ventured into the garden. He was still there. She drew her knife...

SaralynArati

Chatan woke to find a strange woman giving him mouth to mouth. When she saw that he had regained consciousness, she smiled and said, "You stopped breathing before the eserine I used as an antidote took effect, so it was necessary to do it for you for a while."

He recognized her now: the Angel of Canal Street District. What was her name again? Ariel? Fitting. "Did you see Lil... um, lil Spider?" he asked, concerned for her if she knew Spider's real identity

lady_llamacorn

"No, just the back of her head." Ariel lied, stroking his hair lightly. Chatan wriggled away, suddenly embarrassed by his lack of alacrity.

"I-" He stumbled on his words, his tongue still slightly numb from the paralysis poison. "I need to find my... friend." He wasn't sure what Tamara was to him, an ally? A friend? Something more?

OpalBaratheon

Introducing: Kat

The rain was cold, which wasn't odd, but It was odd that I didn't care. I found out that when i would lay down on wet grass, it's relaxing. so I was walking over to the park, I couldn't sleep. but tonight, the streets felt alive. I was worried, what If somebody hurt me?

lady_llamacorn

Chatan raced through the streets, following the faint perfume Tamara had left behind. He stopped when he heard the wail. It wasn't Tamara's -thank god- but a masculine scream. Chatan cursed under his breath and drew his sword. He leapt over the tall hedge separating the ghastly mansion from the road. He landed with a dull thud, rolling into a crouch. Lit only by the full moon, Chatan could see Tamara. She was standing before a man, his greasy black hair thick with blood. He wasn't dead, but I knew if I let this continue, he would be soon enough...

SaralynArati

Chatan didn't particularly have a problem with killing, not when it was justified. He didn't even mind, much, when Tamara periodically took work as an assassin. She did, after all, have scruples about her targets. But this was different. Personal. Too close to Tamara's heart for her to be objective, and therefore dangerous for her.

The sound of his landing and hiss of drawing his sword alerted Tamara to another presence. Worried that it might be one of Wrye's goons, she risked a glance...

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilia: She had barely lain down, ready to sleep when she heard them. Footsteps. Exceedingly light footsteps, but still footsteps. She went to the edge of the roof and leaned over and then grabbed onto the wall underneath and went quietly, slowly to where the noise came from. She could only see a boy, the very boy she'd shot with a dart earlier on and then she saw somebody else, actually two people. A girl and boy. One almost dead, one not.

lady_llamacorn

Tamara glanced away from her target instinctively, if it was Wrye's backup, she needed to know. When she saw Chatan, she froze for a second too long. This was all it took for Wrye to get out of her grasp. He whipped out a small revolver, training the gun on Tamara. Then he fired…

SaralynArati

Unfortunately, for Wrye that it, his aim was somewhat compromised by the sword he found suddenly protruding from his upper arm. Chatan was a big man, 6'5", and while he wasn't built like a bear, he wasn't whip thin either, and was fully capable of throwing a sword like a dagger if it didn't have to go too far. Wrye shrieked again like a banshee, covering Tamara's quiet gasp of pain, but her widened eyes told both Chatan, and the Spider silently watching, that she'd been wounded.

OpalBaratheon

I heard so much commotion, I wanted to call out hello, but what if I was hurt, or worse...Killed? I crouched down, too far from home, The best I could do would be to crouch down and wait for the rain to wear off, then I'd run home

lady_llamacorn

Chatan couldn't tell if it was fatal, he was afraid to find out. Ignorance is bliss.

Tamara began to hyperventilate, he delicate fingers clutching her stomach. Blood seeped from her diaphragm.

"Calm down." Chatan said, crouching next to her. He had completely forgotten about Wrye, everything around him was blocked out, all he could do was focus on Tamara.

Luckily, Wrye wasn't moving anytime soon, his leg had been impaled with a sword, and he knew that pulling it out would be agony.

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai: I saw the man fall to the ground and I don't know why but I jumped up, back to the roof. I quickly grabbed the chest from before and I ran. I had done a mission here before and I knew where it was. Finally, I reached it. The 'deactivate' button. I put the chest on top of the big red button to hold it down, and then I ran. As I never had before. I ran for my life. The place was coming down!

SaralynArati

Tenderly cradling Tamara in his arms, Chatan half-walked, half-ran for the garden wall. "Wrye is still alive?" Tamara asked through gritted teeth.

"Does it matter?" Chatan held her firmly as she began to struggle and bleed more copiously. "If he survives, you can always kill him later," he soothed her, "but only if you yourself live."

"I can walk," Tamara murmured unconvincingly. "Where are you taking me?"

"To see an angel," he replied.

lady_llamacorn

Ariel had made herself scarce after healing the man. No need to become a target for whoever -or whatever- had poisoned him.

She walked back into her apartment, it was small, but warm and cosy. Ariel walked into her living room, and froze.

The man she had healed not half an hour ago was sitting on her couch, nursing an unconscious girl.

He looked up and locked eyes with me. Then he whispered two words. "Help her."

OpalBaratheon

"What’s happening?" I quietly whisper when I remembered that I saw someone cradling a girl as he ran.

lady_llamacorn

Ariel -breaking out of her stupor- rushed over to the girl, carrying her over to the kitchen table. She was so small her legs didn't even hang off the end.

I didn't bother asking how or why they were in my house, I had shifted into my professional zone, and I was ready to do whatever it took to save this girl.

kiwi-gigi2030

Ariel: It might take hours for all I know but I would do whatever it took to save her. I felt her pulse, it was dropping too quickly. There was only one thing that could help her now... Thimast. The potion that could save or kill a life.

lady_llamacorn

Ariel ran to her pantry, kneeling down on the floor and lifting up the loose floorboard under the back shelf. She pulled out a rough wooden box, prising it open with her long nails and selecting an ingredient. Ariel rushed back into the dining room and began pounding the mineral rocks she had selected against the table. She scraped up the dust and sprinkled it into Tamara's mouth. Tamara coughed, flapping around like a fish out of water. She opened her eyes...

SaralynArati

"Hold her down," Ariel ordered Chatan. "Sometimes this compound can cause hallucinations."

Kalium ingredient, Chatan frowned. Therefore, easier said than done, even though Tamara was so slight a girl. But necessary was necessary, and he would do it.

"Pay no attention to whatever she might say," Chatan and Ariel said at virtually the same time, although for different reasons.

Ariel smiled. Patients who broke and entered might not be entirely desirable, but at least this one had a sense of humor.

kiwi-gigi2030

But for once the patient stayed quiet. She didn't utter a word. She did try to escape and would never stop coughing.

Waterelf

Introducing Kieva:

"Ariel, what on earth is going on in - oh sweet mother of pineapples!" Kieva knelt down next to her sister who was helping a strange man hold down a tiny girl who looked quite sickly. "What happened?" Kieva asked feeling the tiny girl’s head for a temperature - like her sister, Kieva was good with medicine healing.

SaralynArati

In the garden, under a giant willow where he had dragged himself, Wrye watched helplessly while his mansion came falling down, practically around his ears. But not quite. Not close enough to do more than bruise his battered body a little more, maybe break a couple of bones; he had his doubts about that left foot.

What had been built once, however, could be rebuilt. First he had things to attend to. Heal. And kill the girl who had claimed, possibly correctly, to be his daughter.

lady_llamacorn

Tamara woke to a pounding headache, her ears were ringing.

The only thing she could make out was Chatan, looming over her, a worried expression on his face. "She's awake." He called out to someone, relief evident in his voice.

kiwi-gigi2030

Kieva turned around, "Good" she said. Ariel would usually be up here helping her but she had fallen asleep on the couch. It had been a tiring few days for Ariel and Kieva, that was for sure. She grabbed a cloth and handed it to the man. "Here. Mop up her brow, she's still got a bit of a temperature", but questions kept pondering and bothering Kieva's mind. What were they doing here? What had happened to them??

lady_llamacorn

"I'll be fine." Tamara said shakily, sliding her legs off the table and dropping onto the floor. She still felt incredibly weak, and when she looked down at her shirt, she could see the blood stains. 

"Not so fast." Kieva said, steeping in her path.

Tamara looked for another exit, but couldn't find one. "I'm fine." She said.

"That's not what I meant." Kieva explained. "Now you need to explain yourself."

kiwi-gigi2030

Lilai struggled against the rock that had fallen on her leg. She couldn't really remember what had happened the evening before but she knew that all that mattered now was freeing her leg and somehow, someway getting away.

SaralynArati

Tamara shrugged and discovered that it took way too much effort to do so. "Ask him," she said. "Coming here wasn't my idea."

"All Chatan will say," Kieva countered dryly, "is that our home security is pathetic." Although, to be fair, she added, "He's offered to help us with that as partial payment for saving your life."

lady_llamacorn

"Do you even have a lock on your door?" Tamara asked Kieva. 

Kieva glanced sheepishly at the door. "It broke a couple of days ago."

Tamara snorted, this was why healers never lasted as long as warriors did. They were too trusting. "So I could just buy you a new lock and my debt would be paid?"

Ariel waltzed into the room, her hair a mane around her make-up smothered face. "I believe my sister said partial."

SaralynArati

"A lifedebt Tamara? Repaid with a standard issue lock?" Chatan didn't have to chide. The words alone were enough.

Tamara swore under her breath. He just had to go and use that term, didn't he? Okay, okay, he was right, and she owed them the truth, at least. But how much could she offer the healers without putting all 4 of them in jeopardy?

lady_llamacorn

"I found out... some things." Tamara mumbled, looking down at her hands. Chatan sat beside her, the healers perched on the couch opposite.

"Go on."

Tamara sighed, okay, here it goes. "Some things, about my parents." She sighed. "I grew up believing my parents had been murdered. I was set on avenging them. I found someone who- who taught me how to kill. I tracked down the last person who had seen them, all the clues added up. I killed an innocent. My parents aren't dead."

SaralynArati

Kat woke late, sprawled across her bed still in the clothes she'd worn the night before, chilly and wet. That's right, she'd gone out to lie in the damp grass. And then something had triggered one of her visions. A scream, she thought. She remembered being afraid to move, afraid for her life, and then... what she'd SEEN... and then the inevitable blank space that came afterwards. Thankfully she'd managed to get home safely.

Waterelf

"Dead? What do you mean dead? Wait, no, let me rephrase that. You say your parents are dead and now you’re telling us they are not dead? I'm confused." Kieva said hoping that Tamara's parents were not going to be zombies. "All I'm saying is that I thought they were dead, but then someone told me they weren't." Tamara told her, "I- I just wish I knew where they were." Ariel sat beside Tamara, "we'll help you find you parents." Ariel said. "Umm... Guys, you might want to see this." Kieva said.

lady_llamacorn

Tamara twisted around on the sofa to face Ariel, who had gone into the kitchen to make coffee. Her face was frozen in horror. Tamara and Chatan dashed into the kitchen at the same time.

But when they saw what had been left in the kitchen, they both went still.

On the kitchen bench lay a head, the face was unrecognisable, deep slices covering the face in crusted blood. There was a note in the mouth.

~Tamara, your parents don't want you, stay away or you'll be next.~

SaralynArati

Chatan softly began to chant the Sioux prayer for the dead. Before doing that, however, "Stay together; clearly it's not safe here," he told the three women.

"I can help secure the house," Tamara said. Then she swayed a little unsteadily, as she recognized the birth mark of the man who had told her where to find the supposed murderer of the couple she had believed to be her parents.

kiwi-gigi2030

"Are you okay?" Ariel asked Tamara as she swayed and almost fell over. "Yes. Of course I am. It's uh... It's just I know him."

lady_llamacorn

"What?" Chatan asks.

Tamara clutched her stomach, the stitches were beginning to split, she could feel it. "He was one of my best friends in the orphanage."

"Oh."

Tamara collapsed on the floor, her breathing was laboured. Chatan acted immediately, she was having a flashback, it had happened before, multiple times. He scooped her up in his arms and held her tight. She was whispering, muttering almost incoherent manner. But Chatan did catch one word. "Reid."

SaralynArati

In a different part of town, Kat was in hysterics also. Her vision hadn't told her exactly where she would find Reid's body, so she had spent some time searching for his last known location. She was too late, but she'd had to try to warn him; they'd been such good friends before Kat was adopted. There was no doubt that it was him. Despite all the blood, the lower half of the birth mark on the back of his neck was still identifiable.