-:When the Gun Fires:- A Crime Roll Play :- Open&Accepting!!

[SparklingBloodRedRoses]

"I can't escape this hell
So many times I've tried
But I'm still caged inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself..."

"....Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal
Somebody help me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
Somebody wake me from this nightmare
I can't escape this hell..."

"Gil’s been telling stories again, hasn’t he?"

_::_F.B.I._::_

“My file says I killed four people “accidently”, do you want to know how many I really killed?"

“My name is Evangeline McKenzie and I’m an authorized pain in your a**.”

"I just spent the night on an autopsy table; my back has seen better days"____________________________________.|.|.E.v.a.n.g.e.l.i.n.e. A.n.n. M.c.K.e.n.z.i.e.|.|.

.|.|.Eva."Hawk-eye".Kenzie.|.|.______________________________“In my head there are these voices, these people who don’t exist…they haunt me, they talk to me. And it’s not usually good.”

"I’m not getting paid enough for this s**t."
_::_Downa::Fifteen::Special::Agents_::_
“I swore to protect this city, to save it and I don’t care what it takes to do so. I will personally plow down anyone that gets in the way of me doing my job.”

"I don’t deal with emotions like a normal person"
“Inside, there is this bomb just waiting to go off. I’m afraid of what will happen when it does.”

“I’m not stable.”

X_X_X_X_X_X Team Lead.|.|.Field Agent.|.|.Crime Scene Investigator.|.|.Criminal Profiler.|.|.Sketch Artist X_X_X_X_X_X

In response to Victor’s hand touching her cheek she raised her own to wrap around his fingers. It took a few moments of staring at him, almost in a haze, before the full magnitude of the situation hit her – and it took everything in her to make herself stay calm. Her heart jumped into her throat, pounding harder than she ever remembered it pounding it before. She could feel his hand shaking and gently tightened her gentle grip as if to try and help steady it for him.

“You aren’t dreaming,” She insisted, eyes swooping down him to capture his state. She wasn’t a medical examiner, and she knew little about injuries and how to help them except for what she had done with wounds in the gang. None of that information, however, could be any use to them at the moment and she knew he need help badly. That lead brick continued to swell within her stomach, leaving a growing nauseous sensation as it went. “You’ll be fine,” She told him, probably half lying to herself and to him….she couldn’t make such promises and she didn’t even know if he wanted them made. Still, she found her unoccupied hand reaching for her cell phone holder. Her slender fingers fumbled over one another as they searched, and she didn’t bother looking down as she did so – he was talking anyway. His voice, though, sounded faint and the gasping he had to do for air made her worry. He was clammy and loosing a large amount of blood….if he didn’t get help….

“It’s alright,” Evangeline cooed as he tried explaining the situation, she was suddenly alarmed by how troublesome it was for him to speak, “Liam told me about the bomb….that I knew…we’ll find Damen. He can’t run forever – karma has to come and bite him in the a** some day….and in the Director’s eyes that karma is us.”

‘I don’t…know what I’m doing……I want to be put out of my misery…so I don’t have to suffer anymore…no more pain…no more tears.’ Lightly rubbing her thumb along his own Evangeline took in an icy cold breath, allowed the damp, frigid air to fill her lungs. She hated the sensation of cold, wet air more than anything but she could only imagine such a think couldn’t be helpful for his lungs at moment, with his current state. Not that she would really know or anything, when I came to this stuff, she was as blind as that bat Marx had mentioned.

Eva could sympathize with Victor’s words. Closing her eyes for a moment she managed to take her cell phone from it’s holder but placed it in her lap instead of opening it. Slowly, cautiously, she dropped her hand from Victors and leaned across him to take the gun from his hand. It took everything in her to keep from shaking even though the situation still seemed so much like a dream. None of it felt real, even though she was staring him right in the face…and although she knew he was injured and knew the magnitude of the situation a larger part kept her calm, making her forget about that. Her fingers wrapped tightly around the gun and removed his fingers turning the safety on, and placing it by her side not really caring if he’d hate her for it. Whether or not he had meant to or not, she had seen the look in his eyes, his silent begging. “Life sometimes feels like a vortex you can’t get out of,” She spoke softly after contemplating his words, “sometimes you feel like you have no control….” Even if the words she spoke made no sense to him, they did to her. Swallowing dryly she shifted, struggling to pull up the words but forcing herself all the same. “Fate and Destiny? Yeah, I’ve thought about them…I’ve often wondered, I guess, about if they can be altered. But I think, for the most part, a lot of people do that sort of thinking after the fact. Some times we think about it before something happens but usually it’s a “what if” kind of thing after the fact….” Taking in a long, deep breath she settled her free hand on her cell phone, undecided on what to do next. A large part of her wanted to press Gil’s speed dial number, but another smaller and more passionate side made her pause.

Inside her head his words spun ‘Cause I think my destiny is to die here, with my blood seeping into Jaime Lee’s grave’ and at the same time she thought of Kevin….how, even though no one knew it, he was like her Jaime Lee (with a few obvious and not so obvious differences). Wetting her lips she looked at Victor, pushing aside her drenched bangs before leaning over to clear some blood and rain from his face. A question formed a lump in her throat, the only thing she could think of asking…but she couldn’t ask, because she feared she knew the answer…so she twisted the question as much as she could into a strange statement in a matter of seconds. “You can only carve into your life what you think, making your own decisions and defining your destiny….you just have to ask yourself if you’re prepared for the action it takes to get there, and what it’s like when you’re really there.” Her fingers stayed wrapped around the cell phone, pointer finger resting on Gil’s speed dial number. A hesitation was in her finger; it lingered but could not press it. She could listen to how his words began to slur into one another and to how his mind seemed to jump from one thought to the next, still some what related subject. Could Gil even get there in time? The station was so far away…..and 9-1-1….they were closer but could they even make it on time? Could anyone be reached in the rain? “I’m going to call you some help,” She told him, opening her phone and giving him plenty of time to stop her if he truly didn’t want any as she dialed the number.

X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X “I know what I’m capable of doing.” X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X

“I'm not the type of person you want to piss off.”

“Something happened down there in that cellar, I don’t know what, but something took part of that little innocent girl inside me that entered it and twisted her into something much, much darker.”

“She lives in a castle made of stone, no one comes and no one goes, she lives in a castle made of stone, there she can’t be hurt, there she can’t hurt, tied down in her straight jacket, there she’s more than she’s worth. Inside her thoughts consume her, memories both faded and vibrant haunt her, driven to the brink...manic inside, angelic outside…she lives in a castle made of stone.”

"...I can't escape myself
So many times I've lied
But there's still rage inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself..."

"She breathes in
She breathes out
She wakes up
and lays down
She can hardly speak
and so she screams...You're manic, manic"

{{If need be I can lengthen it in the morning….I started to fall asleep in the end and wanted to get it out of the way before I had to focus on a History project tomorrow. Ugh. Sorry for the lack of stuff to play off of again, Chaotic! Evangeline's shelling herself up again on me, she's worried and frightened so she's not giving me much to work on. She's giving me TONS of future "footage" but doesn't want to do anything but clench her jaw shut right now. *Sigh* And she was doing SO well too...}}

[Chaotic_Theoretician]

{{No, it's fine. I can work pretty well off this, if Victor decides to cooperate, that is. Victor, I think, is kinda frightened, too.

*laughs* I wish he had been doing pretty well!}}

[Thirteen Broken Hearts]

{{Oh drat. I have a lot to reply to now and no time to do it. I'm over at my dad's again....an hour a day and no time to write anything. I'm sorry.....I'll do my best to get something up and Dante, I have something planned for him....sigh poor old Mr. Gonzalas(sp?)....Poor old Eva...

And no way are you killing Victor.....I will find out where you live..... burning_eyes Just kidding...Hope to have some interesting posts when I get back though....}}

[SparklingBloodRedRoses]

{{Haha. Sorry Thirteen! I had a 4-day weekend and went hog-wild with catching up. razz

Ah Mr. Gonzales (however I spelled that)....I have him in my novel and when I had Eva needing a way out and you mentioned Dante....well, I figured I'd send him into the mix. He's an...interesting character....as are a lot of the people from Eva's past. I really love working with them, it gives me insight to her I didn't have before.

Can't wait to see what you do next :]

*sigh* Vvvviiccctttooorrrrrrrr.}}

[Thirteen Broken Hearts]

“All my desolate soul
In my desolate home
It's my desolate role
Yeah I'm here all alone…"

“…So I sit in my room
And I'll cry in my bed
Thinkin about all the s**t
That made me wrong in my head."

"I’m that guy at the bar that spends too many hours muttering to himself about his problems and forcing the bartender to give him more beers even when he’s already had ten."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxD.a.n.t.e||Y.o.u.n.g

< < S.t.r.i.k.e.r > > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Do you hear me little sister? I will avenge you Rina, your blood still stains their hands and they can never rinse it clean."

________________________::_Black Dragon Gang Member_::_Hitman_::________________________

"Destiny can't be changed. All roads lead to the same destination"

Dante walked down a nearly empty street, the only sound he made was a solemn hum and his footsteps. He had been pleased with the homeless man’s news. The man had been used many times as an informer for the Black Dragon Gang, after all who would suspect a homeless man of spying.

Since hearing the rumors that the two greatest traitors in the gang’s history, Evangeline McKenzie and Spike, had returned to Manhattan, Dante had asked Alhan, the bum, to keep a lookout. Alhan had finally confirmed his suspicions with appearances of both of the former members.

Dante had been so exhilarated by the news that he had literally thrust a twenty dollar bill into the homeless man’s face when usually the gang member was a penny pincher. He had parted ways with Alhan and being in such a great mood, had decided to walk instead of stealing a car. As he walked he hummed, a familiar tune, a lullaby he had once sung to his little sister Rina. Oh, how he missed his little sister. To hear her laughter when everything was dark and gray would have been a wonderful relief. But, Dante knew that he would never hear his sister’s laughter ever again. Not even when he died. His sister had been an angel in disguise and he knew that there was a place reserved for him in hell. He had brought himself to that sobering conclusion long ago and spent less time brooding on the bad things.

Nonetheless, as he walked, his humming only reaching the decibel level of a whisper, the rain pouring down his face, he reminisced of old times, good and bad. He remembered his time with his family, his family’s deaths, his initiation into the gang, his murder of Seth Drake.

Dante frowned when he realized how sore a topic he had brought up within himself. Seth Drake had been a great asset to the gang and an experienced gunman. But, whenever he started causing trouble, he had become a complicated obstacle. The man had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. His views on the gang were changed and things went downhill from there.

Where had it started though? Dante knew and so did many other gang members. It had started the night Eva had gone ballistic and told off Bernardo. Even Dante had known what was going on was wrong, everyone knew how crazy Eva really was, how easily she could snap. But, Bernardo was just one of those guys you didn’t piss off, so no one said anything against him. Seth had been with Alberto that night; god only knows what they were doing. And he had gotten there ahead of the leader and watched everything that happened. Dante remembered it as if it was yesterday, the scene still fresh in his mind. Seth had run after Eva after she had run, but Bernardo ordered Dante to stop him and that’s just what he did. In a fit of insane rage, the man had thrown Dante against the alley wall, thrusting a gun into his chest, nearly aligned with his heart. Dante had only been nineteen at the time and frightened as hell by someone as old and experienced as Seth. He tried to hide the look of fear that crossed his face, but it was impossible to be discreet with the amount of fear he felt with the cold metal nearly freezing his skin.

“Are all of you f****** crazy!” he yelled, referring to all of them but staring at Dante. “Why would you even do anything as dumb as what you just did?” Dante said nothing looking to his frozen comrades for help. All he received was a frightened jolt as Seth cocked his gun. The boy was doing his best not to whimper. “You all know Eva, you should know better, can you imagine what she could tell the cops if she’s upset enough?” he snapped.

“She should have followed orders!” Bernardo snapped from behind them. Dante groaned as Seth pressed deeper into his sternum. The boy could see his finger pulling back, slowly on the trigger Suddenly, Alberto appeared behind him, leaning over and whispering into his ear. When he was finished, he pulled away, one hand reaching for Seth’s gun. Seth let him have it and with an angry growl, turned and walked off. Dante watched him as he did so, watching as the man paused and checked Jordon’s pulse before continuing out of the alley.

It was the sound of Dante’s phone ringing that brought him from his somber reverie. With a shiver, he brought his pulled his head further into his hood and pulled out his cell. Checking the caller ID, he discovered that it was Griffin, a rookie gang member who had already lived through his initiation, but still had extra training to go through.

Dante stared at the phone for a moment. Dante was Griffin’s main coach, so to say. But today was his day off from teaching the black haired punk and he had to stop and wonder why the boy was calling. Eventually, he was forced to answer it, as he kept walking down the never ending length of sidewalk.

“Griffin, please tell me you have a good explanation for disturbing on my day away from your annoying voice?” he said, his tone devoid of all emotion.

The boy sounded overly excited just by his voice and his breathing made it seem like he had just run around the entire city. “You’ll never believe who just stopped at Mr. Gonzales station!”

Dante gave a loud, exasperated sigh. “I do not have time for your games, Griffin, just tell me!” It wasn’t true at all, Dante had all the time in the world really and Griffin knew that, but he couldn’t prolong the excitement anymore anyway. “Evangeline McKenzie!”

The gang member’s feet stopped moving, he did not move, he forgot to breathe. He just stood there, in the middle of the empty sidewalk, staring at some incomprehensible object in front of him. Taking a deep breath, the man blinked and sighed, “Are you absolutely sure Griffin?” he asked. The rookie hadn’t been around when Spike and Eva were members, but all the new members were shown photos of the two so that they knew to tell one of the others. “Of course I am,” he snapped back, slightly annoyed that his mentor didn’t believe him, “And, get this, I taped a spare phone to the bumper of her car so that you can find her again,”

“You did what!” Dante had to admire the boy’s courage, but he also wanted to chastise him for his stupidity. Instead, he touched his hand with his hand and sighed again becoming instantly serious. “Whose phone was it?” he asked. Griffin could tell that Dante was getting serious and wouldn’t appreciate his silliness now. “Tyler’s,” he replied, his voice quiet now.

Dante noted whose phone it was with slight interest. Tyler was an old buddy of Griffin’s who had been killed by the Tiger gang before he had ever been initiated officially. Griffin had clung to his friend’s belongings with such enthusiasm that he went berserk if anyone touched anything that belonged to Tyler. Dante couldn’t help, but feel somewhat proud of his protégé and it was obvious by the lack of annoyance in his tone when he spoke again.

“Thank you, Griffin, I apprec...” the boy interrupted him before he got any further with more news. “Don’t go hanging up just yet Dante, I’ve already gotten home and traced the phone’s Sim card,” he explained. The man could not stop the feelings of exhilaration that bubbled through him. To finally find one of the two “traitors” and repay them for the time he had spent paying for their treachery. There were many other old members who would give anything to find Eva and Spike. It had already been planned to take them alive, so that the gang had time to torture each of them before they killed them. They didn’t want to make it quick; they wanted the two former members to suffer. “Where is she?” he asked.

“She stopped at a the cemetery along first and third,”

Dante thanked the boy again before finally hanging up the phone. He wasn’t sure if he was happy or angry. Either way, he knew he needed a vehicle to get him to the cemetery faster, before Eva left. He found it a couple yards down the sidewalk, a somewhat old Mazda truck, not what he liked, but good enough.

He broke the window with a piece of cement that had come free of the sidewalk. One inside the truck he was able to get it started in less than two minutes and within three, he was driving towards the cemetery in the stolen truck.

The gang member was sure that he had never felt such suspense in his life. He was shaking by the time he pulled up at the cemetery and parked his car. Getting out, he was already forming a mask on his face. Dante had to make himself look like a man going to mourn. He could do that pretty easily since he had faced death many times.

Looking around without drawing attention to himself, he noticed Eva's car. It was empty. The man looked up at the gate of the cemetary and guessed that he might as well start looking there. He passed a young brunette and a brown haired, muscular man who were talking at the front gate and once he was past them, he pulled out his trademark gun, keeping it hidden in his jacket in case he met up with someone else.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Eva,” he said, though he was sure that even if she did hear him over the storm, she probably wouldn’t answer. He could already see her blood pouring across the floor of the abandoned building set aside for the gang as a training ground. It was almost unfathomable.

“I don’t want to make myself out to be a bad person, but I don’t always think I deserve to live, my family is dead, my world’s screwed up, I keep getting shot at and I’ve killed people, what would you do with your life?”

:_:_:_:_:_:_:_Tell me who I am, because I’m not really sure who I'm supposed to be anymore!_:_:_:_:_:_:_:

"I don’t have a problem coping with loss, if I lose a target, I get a new one, if I lose a weapon, I get a new one, if I lose a beer, I get a new one. No problem."

"I would give up the world just for the chance to tell her I’m sorry."

“So I stumble around
Til I stumble fall down
To this puddle of my tears
Layin here on the ground…."

“…Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And i've been going crazy
I'm stuck in here."

{{I'm so sorry for making you wait Sparkles.....I've been so tired lately....my dad apparantly had the smarts to go and get his other child so now Im stuck with six kids in one house....*sigh*....I don't know how many posts I can get together...possibly only this one, but its good enough for me...I'll do my best to get some more of my posts up as soon as I can, but I can't be sure.}}

[Thirteen Broken Hearts]

"I found myself lying in the middle of an alley, no evidence on my clothing to tell me what happened to me and why I can't remember the first twelve years of my life, but hey at least I've got my high school years, right?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxS.e.t.h||D.r.a.k.e

< < S.p.i.k.e > > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“I have two rules, I drive the car and I shoot the gun, no one else,”

"Undercover Intel Officer"

“I don’t live my life because I’m insane, I just don’t want to get bored by having to sit behind a desk everyday,”

”I tell the boys that work with me not to worry, that’s my job, to worry about the safety of my team,"

Seth Drake was pleased to notice that the Director wasn’t going to argue about his insistence to go with him. He would have argued back and as Bolton himself knew, it would have been an endless argument. The man waited calmly until he was sure the Director was ready and headed out the door.

His gave a polite nod whenever the man told him to wait a second and patiently stood by the door. Spike had always been good at making himself look congruous to his environment, not matter what it was. Now he took on the persona of a man lighting and then smoking a cigarette, which was only actually a rolled up piece of paper he had taken notes on.

The man kept a close eye on Raymond and noticed the comfortable way he talked to the man in the taxi. Seth grinned with glee at being right. The director’s bodyguard for sure. He had been right that they would send someone with him. Water dripped into his eyes from the tendrils of hair that hung over his face. He shook his head and the water slung in different directions, but it couldn’t send away the chilling feeling he felt inside his bones. Like something, somewhere, was happening.

Somehow, Seth was able to fall into step with the older man and walked quietly until the Director spoke first. He chuckled at what it turned out to be. A question. Why he had chosen to come? Drake looked over at the man, his eyes surveying him analyzing how many memories, good and bad, were locked within his head. Then Seth looked away, staring straight ahead, barely noticing that half the time his vision was blurred by rain drops. “Truthfully Director…” he mused, “I’m not sure what I was doing, but I do enjoy walking in the rain though,”

The man looked back over at Raymond and grinned happily trying to lighten the mood. “Always clears my head of all the confusion,” he finished, looking away.

“To think, I almost made it a whole year without being accused of murder, I’m a C.I.A agent for Pete’s sake, I don’t even really exist,”

”When I'm undercover I remember what the real Seth told me before he died, he told me that I must always remember to keep my face down, keep my guns loaded and never trust a soul...,"

“If you're caught in an undercover situation and they find out your a cop, the best thing you can do is either run or curl up in a ball and take it, you may die, but that's the danger of the job and why the number one rule is don't EVER get caught,”

{{Oh....wow....I didn't expect this to come out so short. I'm sorry.....It's all I had.......I really dont like it.....sheesh I must be tired.}}

[SparklingBloodRedRoses]

{{ I loved Dante's post, Thirteen. biggrin It was amazing and well worth the wait biggrin . Don't worry at all, I understand the whole "being tired lately" thing. As I write this, I'm on the verge of passing out. Hahahaha.

I'll be posting as soon as I can, school has been running me until all I want to do is sleep, as I am sure you guys can sympathize with Haha....and then me, being the oh-so-wise self I am, volunteered to help with a mural project one of the Art instructors is putting together. Hahaha. I need to learn to say "no" to things like that but....they're so much fuuuunnn!

Hopefully this weekend I'll at least get one out for the Director.}}

[Chaotic_Theoretician]

{{Love the posts, Thirteen! I'm sorry I haven't gotten the chance to post as Stanley and as Victor. I've been extremely worn out - I haven't been feeling my best for the past two weeks - and I just suddenly started writing furiously since Sunday. In reality, I haven't really written anything in months, so now that I've had this creative burst of energy, I'm excavating as much as I can out of it.

The posts will be up soon, I hope. My father comes home this weekend, and I have a book report due on Monday. *sighs* I haven't even read a book to do it on. *sniffles*

Those things may be fun, Sparkles, but, sometimes, you've gotta learn to say no, alright. Eventually, you'll find yourself struggling even to have fun at those things 'cause you're so worn out! *laughs*}}

[Chaotic_Theoretician]

{{Hope to get a post out sometime this weekend, alright guys?}}

[SparklingBloodRedRoses]

"F.B.I."

"...Concentrate on what doesn't lie: the evidence..."
.|.|. Federal Bureau of Investigation .|.|.
"Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity."
"Are you children well enough finished?" ________________________________________.|.|.R.a.y.m.o.n.d.J.o.h.n.K.e.n.d.r.i.c.k.|.|.


.|.|.Ray.Kenny.John.Director.|.|.________________________________________"You coming? I don't have time to wait for your a** to get over here."

"We look at each case objectively, without presupposition, regardless of sex, creed, color, or bubblegum flavor."

"Question. You come home, see your husband lying in the driveway, what do you do?"

"I never have bad ideas."

X_X_X_X_X FBI Director X_X_X_X_X

"You find some other guy to do my job, go ahead and try. I don't see a long line of people lining up for the job. Do you?"

"It's always good to know what you don't know."

"I am generally a nice, caring, positive guy. Now shut the hell up."

§~§~§~§~§

Why he was being as pleasant as he was to Drake, Raymond was not entirely sure. In the outside world the Director of the F.B.I had been regarded as a hard man to get along with, the first to call you an a*****e, mean it and feel no remorse…in his department, he would do the same, but they respected him for it because he cared about them. He cared about his agents enough to risk his reputation…his job…his everything. Inwardly the Director swore to himself, why was Washington so set on riding his a**?

Sure, he had made a mistake or two…as had any human being. And perhaps the White House thought that, for the first 6 years of his being the Director, his department had run too smoothly. His downfall came with Manhattan, even he knew that. He hadn’t seen it coming – even though part of him had always seen it coming – until it bit everyone in the a**. The explosion at the Manhattan mall rocked the National Security and suddenly all of the hell happening in Manhattan became real to everyone again, it all made sense. The devil had to be secretly hidden in the broken down ghettos of Manhattan.

While the others wanted to respond with an attack and full force investigation, Raymond had been cautious. He watched from the sidelines and surveyed the situation, a long time ago he himself had grown up in Manhattan – back when it was less run-down, and he knew that there were people there rougher than most agencies wanted to handle. He was also curious, wanting to know what this infamous “employer” would do next – and do he did. Whatever employer the suicide bomber had spoken of had turned Manhattan upside down and let the demons loose. People were mad at his lack of retaliation - and of all visible physical action- still, though, they decided to send in the F.B.I. for the protection of the civilians.

And send in a team he did, it was his original map of Downa Fifteen and Eva’s deceased partner, Kevin Jones, had been part of it. Operation Ironclad. It was just as the name suggested, no one but the government knew about it and all the kinks seemed to haven been rung out. Nothing could go wrong. The operation had been run by Jones, and had appeared to go really well – he even pulled Evangeline in on it without her realizing it. However, the operation was tugged out from under Raymond's feet without warning, every one of the original six agents he had enlisted were hunted down and killed, lured into unthinkable death traps or – in Evangeline’s case – went mad. Washington and the F.B.I. put a close on the operation and the White House opened its own investigation – on the Director of the F.B.I., it wouldn’t be the first or the last of the investigations on his department or on himself. Katheryn had defended him, just as she had when the White house had wanted him out of office after his first term, and she defended him the last time, just before the Downa Fifteen had been assembled. She had nearly lost her job for defending him so boldly, he wouldn’t allow it again. There were only so many times she could go against Washington without them ruining her life as well.

Silently, the Director pulled his hands from his jacket pockets and raised them to the collar of his worn out leather jacket. As he lifted the collar he couldn’t help but smirk to himself, not just because he was being reminded of how much the jacket looked like that of MacGyver’s, but because he could feel Seth’s gaze on him. Out of the corner of his eye Raymond looked at the kid, the young man being enough years his junior to be considered such to his age, while Seth wondered what memories laid locked in the older man’s brain, the Director did the same to him. He’d never met Drake before, although he had considered him when building the Downa Fifteen, nor had he met – or formally spoken too – many members of Eva’s ex gang. There was Eva herself, of course, and he had spoken to another Seth…or at least, he thought he had, some time back when Evangeline had landed herself in a jail cell. Spike, however, he had never met before and knew very little about other than that of what his case file read. “That’s the problem being in our line of work, or from here in general,” The Director added the last part with some extra thought as he started through the sheet of rain at the blurry horizon, “there’s too much confusion.” He couldn’t help but return Seth’s grin, feeling thankful to the agent for his attempt at lightening the mood.

A cold chill struck the Director and he couldn’t help but falter in his never wavering pace. His first thought was to Isabelle and then to Liam….where were they? Why hadn’t he heard from them? Were they alright? Another thought, not at all far in the distance of his mind, struck him…where were Evangeline and Victor? Swallowing thickly the Director slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone to check the caller I.D. – no one. “There aren’t many people who enjoy walks in the rain, I will admit to you, but I am indeed thankful for your company…..I’ll do anything to get away from being caged like an animal in a zoo.” Chewing the inside of his cheek angrily he shut the cell phone again and slipped it into his pocket – he wouldn’t even attempt texting….he wasn’t even sure he could. “Something isn’t right,” He whispered finally, more to himself than to Drake but not caring all the same, “someone should have called. I should know something by now – someone should know something by now. I have an excessively bad feeling about this whole situation…and none of it currently deals with Bolton or I.”

He remembered the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach clearly and it took no time for him to recognize where it came from. He had had the same sensation the day that Abby had been killed. It took the bomb squad and other F.B.I agents what seemed like forever to arrive on scene, even his partner Nicole. He had know idea what had been going on inside the store for the past several hours but he knew that it hadn’t blown up yet. One civilian had been let outside to inform him that there was a bomb, and that his daughter was being held hostage – the F.B.I was to be called and ransom to be demanded. He had fulfilled one of the two requests.

Nicole had been in a frenzy when she found him, panicking about how he was taking the whole ordeal, which wasn’t well. She told him to go home, to tell Katheryn what was going on but he refused. “I can’t, Nicki, not now….I can’t face Katheryn until I know that she’s alright.”

“Raymond, you have to go, you’ve been here all night – you’re no used to us like this.” Nicole had pressed, grabbing him by the shoulders like she always did when trying to get a point across to him. “Go home, talk to Katheryn….you have nothing to worry about…this is routine, we’ll get Abby out.”

“Damn it, Nicole, nothing with these bastards is routine and you know it! Don’t give me that s**t, my daughter is in there with twenty-five other civilians. All they want is to get to go home and see their families and all he cares about is the damn money. He doesn’t care about their lives, Nicki, he doesn’t care. The moment we move in he’ll blow them to smithereens!” When she didn’t respond, but just stood there, staring up at him solemnly he knew he had struck the truth. They were hostage negotiators, they had dealt these types of situations all the time and they could nearly smell how they were going to turn out. “This isn’t good, Nick, and I know that, and I know you know that. Please, damnit, just let me stay here and feel like I’m doing something good.”

“Right, right…of course, John….”

“You gotta tell me she’s going to be alright, Nick.”

“….she’s going to be alright, Raymond.”

“You have to mean it.”

Nicole had looked up at him through her raven hair, ice-blue eyes pained. Her lips parted and she took in an uneven breath, “Don’t make me-” She paused and swallowed, “She’s going to be alright.”

She hadn’t been, obviously. They had managed to hack into the stores security cameras and microphone system via some crazy technological advancement he had never heard of before. Although he wanted to go in with the SWAT team Nicole wouldn’t let him, she had given him a list of reasons ending with his plausible promotion and Katheryn.

Raymond had tried to negotiate with the guy, but the guy didn’t budge….in fact, it provoked him and it didn’t take the then agent long to realize that the whole situation was a set up. The guy, whoever he was, was targeting Kendrick indirectly….he wanted to be advanced upon, he wanted the SWAT team to come in. That’s when panic rushed through him. Raymond had torn the head set from his head and dashed towards the team – screaming at them to stop – but it did nothing. A chorus of screams were cut short by a deafening bang and silence, filled only with the sound of billowing smoke from roaring flames, and the weight of the dead, filled the agents left standing. Everyone inside the store was killed, including the suicide bomber and Abby – who had been being held by gun point. The blast also killed every agent in the SWAT team, including hostage negotiator Nicole Morrice – his partner.

He had felt in the pit of his stomach that something bad was going to happen when Nicole had told him that she was going to join the SWAT team in their advance. It was the same feeling he had now. “Something bad is going to happen, or attempt to…if it hasn’t already.” The Director spoke again, “It’s a gut feeling. I only wish I knew where.” Looking out of the corner of his eye Raymond looked at Seth, “Do you ever get those gut feelings?” Swallowing again the elder man turned his eyes out ahead of them towards the horizon. Doing his best to sound less morbid, he added with a jab of his finger, “I remember when that bridge up ahead was first built; it connected the East and West Side much better than the old rickety thing they used to have. The sun used to come over those sky scrapers and shine between the rungs, its rays just seemed to shatter throughout Manhattan. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen – for a city that is. Proof that, no matter how terrifying something appears, beauty and surreality can be found in it….The sun hasn’t quite shone like that through those bars since this madness occurs.” Glancing back at Seth for a brief second he continued. “I once had a discussion with Evangeline about that, where shockingly enough we both agreed on the fact that we wondered if, should the black veil looming over Manhattan be lifted…the light would shine the same way again through the rungs. I mean, after all, no skyscraper has been added.” Softly the man shrugged, hands nested in his pocket, tightly holding his cell phone. “Who knows.”

“These agents are like my family – half of them my children the other half my siblings. I swear to God, you screw with one of them, you screw with me. You screw with me, I'll kill you. So you better think twice.”

“Do you think you’re some funny punk or something, kid? I’m not some back woods cop you can mess with and get away with it. You lie to me and I’ll kick your a**. So let’s start this interrogation again, shall we?”

{{So, yeah, I know….it’s been awhile. My bad. I’ve been trying to come up with a plan for NaNo…and then I have these two crazy History and Art project. Gah. Just ew. Anyway, I’m back…and I missed you all….I’m not quite sure what the heck the Director was getting at in the last paragraph, it just kind of came to me and he demanded I wrote it…O.O I think I might wait for Vic’s post before I spit something out for Eva…I just don’t have enough running through my head for her at the moment. I can’t wait to write her post, regardless.  }}

[Thirteen Broken Hearts]

"I found myself lying in the middle of an alley, no evidence on my clothing to tell me what happened to me and why I can't remember the first twelve years of my life, but hey at least I've got my high school years, right?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxS.e.t.h||D.r.a.k.e

< < S.p.i.k.e > > xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“I have two rules, I drive the car and I shoot the gun, no one else,”

"Undercover Intel Officer"

“I don’t live my life because I’m insane, I just don’t want to get bored by having to sit behind a desk everyday,”

”I tell the boys that work with me not to worry, that’s my job, to worry about the safety of my team,"

Seth said nothing, allowing the Director to continue talking. He realized how worried and uptight everyone had been. He could barely remember the look in Vic’s eyes when he had left, but there had been something wrong with it all. He sighed lifting his eyes up to the sky as the man fell silent.

Memories…memories…memories. So many that plagued a man’s mind and yet for Spike, there were so many that he was missing that he almost wished he had back. Twelve years of his life was gone and there was nothing, nothing, but cold medicine to explain it all.

Blinking away the water, warmth rushed across the man’s face. For a moment confusion played out in his mind until he realized what had happened. He had been crying, only for a second. Thinking about the friends he remembered, one different, the other dead. The ones that he might have had. The life he could have had. His parents…Had he really been abandoned or had something else happened to him?

“Yeah, I get those feelings,” Spike replied forlornly, remembering how he had felt when Kendrick had been talking with the taxi driver. “More often nowadays,”

The man was pulled away from his thoughts when he noticed the Director’s fingers moving. Following the man’s gaze he listened quietly. He felt a sense of sorror fall over him as the other man talked. The veil that the Director spoke of, would it ever fall away from the city? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kendrick was clenching his hands tightly to the cell phone. He looked away.

“They’ll be alright, sir,” he said softly, “If your team is anything, even only a bit, like Eva, I promise you that they can make it thro…,”

The man stopped in mid sentence, his feet freezing where he stood. He did not move as he watched a red, beat up truck drive past them. Spike was glad to notice that the driver, a slightly built man with dark brown hair and even darker eyes, did not see them. The truck turned a corner and was gone out of sight, but it did not make Seth an better. He shivered, his entired body shuddering in fright. Fear like he had never felt in his entire life, even in when he had been caught undercover.

The man who had just passed him was Dante. The hitman for the Black Dragon gang and if Seth had any common sense, he was sure that Dragons only came out of their caves for a hunt.

“To think, I almost made it a whole year without being accused of murder, I’m a C.I.A agent for Pete’s sake, I don’t even really exist,”

”When I'm undercover I remember what the real Seth told me before he died, he told me that I must always remember to keep my face down, keep my guns loaded and never trust a soul...,"

“If you're caught in an undercover situation and they find out your a cop, the best thing you can do is either run or curl up in a ball and take it, you may die, but that's the danger of the job and why the number one rule is don't EVER get caught,”

{{Yahoo!!!! I get to be the first to post after the excitement (sarcasm) of NaNo. Sorry its a little crappy, still exhausted, having problems at home and school.}}

[SparklingBloodRedRoses]

"F.B.I."

"...Concentrate on what doesn't lie: the evidence..."
.|.|. Federal Bureau of Investigation .|.|.
"Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity."
"Are you children well enough finished?" ________________________________________.|.|.R.a.y.m.o.n.d.J.o.h.n.K.e.n.d.r.i.c.k.|.|.


.|.|.Ray.Kenny.John.Director.|.|.________________________________________"You coming? I don't have time to wait for your a** to get over here."

"We look at each case objectively, without presupposition, regardless of sex, creed, color, or bubblegum flavor."

"Question. You come home, see your husband lying in the driveway, what do you do?"

"I never have bad ideas."

X_X_X_X_X FBI Director X_X_X_X_X

"You find some other guy to do my job, go ahead and try. I don't see a long line of people lining up for the job. Do you?"

"It's always good to know what you don't know."

"I am generally a nice, caring, positive guy. Now shut the hell up."

§~§~§~§~§

”If my team is anything, even only a bit like Eva…” The Director smirked softly to himself, and his head jostled with an unheard chuckle. If your team is anything, even only a bit like Eva…In his memory he had various images of the twenty-four-year-old all ranging from a sweet – but rather distant and bitter – seven-year-old girl, to sixteen-year-old adolescent angry at the world – and with a good amount of right, all the way to a murderous killer. In all of them, though, there was the ability to survive (aside from a mild – and rare – miniscule amount of kindness). And the agents could all handle themselves that was true, even if some were more forceful than others. Eva was more apt to kill an opponent on spot than Liam, but he could use his good judgment to figure out friend from foe. But all of them could fight and give criminals a run for their money. He knew Riggs definitely had. They weren’t stupid or ignorant, they were bright and clever….they could get themselves out of any tight situation – or they had so far…that was why he had hired them. He shouldn’t be worried about them, fretting over them like an over-protective father, but he couldn’t help it. He had always cared too much.

Glancing down at Spike the elder man picked up on the fact that the younger of the two had allowed his sentence to die in the air. Releasing the death grip on his cell phone the Director allowed it to slide softly back into his pocket where it was secure. “What is it?” Raymond questioned. Out of the corner of his eye, turning his head towards the ex-gang member only slightly, he watched as Spike’s whole demeanor changed and he stopped walking as if lead bricks held him in place. Although most people would not be able to see it, or would not take the time to understand it, Raymond saw fear behind the young man’s eyes. He had seen it enough in Evangeline’s perfectly composed facial expressions to be able to pick it out of any one else’s.

After living in Manhattan for a good portion of his life there was only one thing that the Director could think that the other man would fear and it would be the Black Dragons (and with good right). It was the connection that Evangeline and Spike had to one another, and they had both been “traitors” in the eyes of the gang communities, Raymond remembered that from the files and stories. Eva rarely talked about what happened, even when she had moved to D.C., but it was obvious that it haunted her. Raymond knew that there were causalities involved, some caused by her and others – others that happened mistakenly in a cross fire and when she ran. Specifics he didn’t know. Spike, on the other hand, he didn’t know well, he knew what his files said and that was all. The DFBI hadn’t taken much time to associate with a lot of agents in the C.I.A. other than Craddock.

Slowly the Director shifted in his position, hands in pockets, to look out across at the old beat up truck passing by. The man was unfamiliar to him – although the Director had only ever met one of Evangeline’s gang members. It had been when Evangeline was sixteen…there had been another gang fight and she had decided to take the heat for the “family”…a sign of loyalty and devotion she seemed to use too often. Another boy, older than she by the looks of him, had stayed with her. His name had been Seth, if the Director remembered it right, and he had watched the older federal agent with lethal eyes when he had sat down to talk to Evangeline. Truth be told it had been the last visit he had with Evangeline before she left Manhattan and the first since she had been eight – although he had spoken to her on the phone once or twice – and it hadn’t gone all that well. She had seemed lost, in more ways than one, and it was first time he had truly noticed how much the system failed people. Seth was quick to watch him leave. Evangeline had mentioned Spike, though, as she talked to the Director. Their conversations had mostly been short, constrained and heated, but when he brought up Dylan or Marcie…or she spoke of Spike, there was softness. She cared about them and he guessed she must have cared about this Seth as well. It had been years since then, however, and he doubted that he could have even recognized that boy now – as he most likely would have changed over the years. “Who is that?” He questioned as if commenting on the weather, but there was more than just curiosity hinted in his tone.

He had been uneasy about sending Evangeline with the team to Manhattan….it was a bad place. It held bad memories. It held the gang. The gang wanted revenge. But he never imagined both Spike and Evangeline would end up in Manhattan, he never expected her to run into the gang if she played her cards right or kept under firm cover. However, he had also never really thought about the consequences if the gang ran into them – or vice versa – and now thinking about it, it wouldn’t be good. The gang would no doubt torture any traitors, and try and find out the locales of any others in the process. If he knew Evangeline at all, she’d rather die than talk (especially if it cost others lives), and although he didn’t know Spike well, he wondered what he would do. “Should you head back?” A vibration tickled his hip and the Director, a bit shocked, reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. It took him a moment or two to figure out the texting message receiving system but he found it in quicker time than he had expected. The sender was Evangeline, and although the message spoke nothing about Isabelle, Liam or Victor it did speak of something else. Her writing was quick and fragmented as the message read: ‘Spike: Watch your back. B. Dragons are on the hunt. ’ Of course she had known that Seth would be where ever the DCIA was, and Riggs was taking the DFBI there too. Still, he didn’t know how she could know the information about the Dragons and truly wasn’t sure he wanted to. Instead he side stepped in front of the younger man, turned around on his heel to face him and reached for his hands. Taking hold of one of them, he placed the cell phone LCD face up in his hand. “You might want to read it. Or you might not; depending on your thought process.”

“These agents are like my family – half of them my children the other half my siblings. I swear to God, you screw with one of them, you screw with me. You screw with me, I'll kill you. So you better think twice.”

“Do you think you’re some funny punk or something, kid? I’m not some back woods cop you can mess with and get away with it. You lie to me and I’ll kick your a**. So let’s start this interrogation again, shall we?”

{{Congrats on being the first post since NaNo, Thirteen!!! Hahaha, I sat there contemplating some nights whether or not I wanted to write up a post as Katheryn or not…but my w/c failed enough on its own. razz It didn’t need her help. How did you manage with NaNo? Did it treat you well – at all?

It's alright. I've been laid up in bed all weekend and swamped with make up work myself.}}

[Chaotic_Theoretician]

"Nothing is impossible. You're f**king up my chi."

Stanley Jobson - 10101010101010100001010101011001010001011101111010100010100001110101010101110100010100110101001100101000100100100010001

•_______________•_______________•_______________• Professional Hacker

Stanley pivoted around to face the voice that had seemingly come out of nowhere. Wiping the rainwater off his face, he peered through the slanting rain, his gaze resting upon a beautiful face. He studied the woman before him for a few moments, taking in her features, trying to discern who it was beneath the stony-hard mask that the woman seemed to have put up between herself and the world. He could faintly see hurt and pain in her eyes, along with a fierce determination that didn't exactly sit well in his stomach. He inhaled sharply, bringing himself back down to earth.

"Night?" he repeated, taking note of the exhausted expression that had been etched into her face. "Stanley Jobson." His hand outstretched, he hoped that she would take it as a gesture of non-hostility. Continuing to eye the woman in an attempt to assess her, Stanley was overcome with a sense of foreboding, as if bad vibes were emanating from the woman and from behind him, from somewhere deeper into the cemetary. He did his best to shrug off the feelings.

"So, what can I do for you, Night?" he asked, feeling the need to talk in order to dispel the ominous, oppresive feelings in his chest.

For a moment, he thought he heard singing, just barely audible above the rain - a thin, wavering voice, one that teetered on the edge of life and death, of happiness and sorrow. Brow knitting together, he glanced over his shoulder, the back of his neck prickling. "Do you feel that?" he asked, turning back to Night. "That - that feeling of death?"

Stanley was pretty damn sure that the feeling of death - or something close to it - was what he was sensing. It wouldn't be the first time he had experienced the tense feeling that stretched across the air when someone was dying or had died. He moistened his lips, his mouth cotton-dry, and tried to focus on Night, hoping that he was just imagining things again.

HACKING his Way tHrOuGh Life • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

- 101010100001001101000101101011101010101010100010100001110110110101010100000101001011110110001010101001011100010101101010101001010000 -

"Mess with me and I'll send this little sucker into your database."



"Personally, I don't think that'll be pretty. Before you know it, you won't have anything left of your computer."

[Chaotic_Theoretician]

"I'm not a normal person."



____::_______DOWNA FIFTEEN :: AGENT 6_______::____

"I don't...deserve...the things a normal person deserves. I'm not...capable for it, not capable of understanding how to handle it...I'm incapable of being the person I could've turned out to be..."



"I'm not the person that I seem. I'm not really the person people think I am...I'm not the person the CIA thinks I am; I'm not the person the Downa 15 thinks I am. At least, people don't know me on the inside, they don't know the person on the inside...and because the person on the inside is locked up, the person on the outside is not the same one...not the same one..."

|.|CIA|.|

"You don't know me. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know the deeds I've done. Nobody knows...Nobody is going to find out."

_____________________Victor Craddock_____________________
——————Crime Investigator :: Case Examiner :: Specialties — Medical Examination/Case Examination Deductions——————

Victor didn't stop Eva from dialing 911 into her cell phone. For once, he considered holding on just a little longer, just by the slim chance that maybe he could survive. He was getting colder and colder, and his vision was blurring, though he wasn't sure if it was the rain or the life slipping away from him. One hand resting atop Jamie Lee's grave, one hand clasped in Eva's, he felt torn in two different ways, and, yet, knitted together into one. He took a deep, rattling breath, and coughed as rainwater entered his nostrils, tickled his throat, and burned his lungs. He gasped for air momentarily, feeling so weak, so helpless. All he could think of was Damen's hideously coniving face sneering at him, threatening to blow Isabelle to smithereens. He felt drawn back and forth between unconsciousness and reality by Evangeline's voice. He attempted to squeeze her hand comfortingly, but he found that his strength was leaving him quicker than he expected.

His blood continued to seep into the ground, enriching the soil.

"Eva," he whispered hoarsely, hoping to draw her attention. "I want you - I want you to - to help me." Victor looked up at her with mournful eyes. "Save me." Again, images of Kendrick, Jamie Lee, Bolton, liam, Night, Riggs - they all flashed through his mind in an instant, and he recalled his own words to Isabelle. 'In the future, don't kill yourself without thinking about how deeply everybody else is going to take it and how much they are going to miss you.' Everyone would miss him, especially Eva, he knew. They would all mourn him, he realized. His gaze traveled to the hand that rested on Jamie Lee's headstone. He spent a long moment staring at it.

"Save me," he repeated, his voice desperate. "At least try."

And he lifted his hand off Jamie Lee's headstone. Reaching over, he grasped the hand that Eva was holding his with and gave her a reassuring squeeze, surprised that he had been able to do so. Victor looked up at her with - this time - a pleading gaze, his breath rattling in his throat. "When you finish the call," he told her, "start yelling for help. Do it - trust me." His hand, however, tightened on hers into an almost desperate clutch. "Just don't leave me."

I just want to see all their faces again, he thought to himself. If that's the last thing I do, I want to see them one more time. I want to hear Riggs's attempts at sentimentality; I want to have one last handshake from Bolton and Kendrick. I want to hear Isabelle's suicidal threats and Liam trying to calm her. I want another kiss from Eva. Victor peered up into the sky, eyes slitted against the rain, and he realized something.

I want to live.

Victor had never been religious, but, now, he felt like it was something worth trying. His voiced a silent plea. God, if you can hear me, please keep me alive. Please.

"I didn't believe in relationships, friendships - anything. I hardly talk to my partner. It's been five years now since that incident. I haven't had a friend since...and I think it's affecting me."

_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_GOT A CASE?_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_X_

"Give me any case, Director, and I'll solve it within a week, no matter how large and elusive. Give me a case that is extremely hard, and I assure you that I'll solve it before the PD and the Government get ahold of it."



"Yet I still wanted to do the job. I wanted to save people, to beat the bad guys. And I'm still here, aren't I? Even with the lead from a bullet still stuck in my left rib from another incident, I'm still here."



"I murdered somebody, a long time ago...and I'm not sure it was even for the right reason."

[Thirteen Broken Hearts]

{{Aww man...now I'm going to burst into tears. Well, Im sorry about not posting any, school has been harsh and so have other things. I've been taking really long breaks from the computer in the hopes that I could get some rest....not working out real well, but thats life.

Either way, I do plan to post....unfortunatly I won't have time to get anything typed until after Christmas, so....good luck and be back soon.}}