Welcome to Gaia! ::

"No reason," Johnny replied, "I'm just curious." And he really was. Brooklyn was a bit of an enigma in the Tyrant's headquarters. While rumors about him got around quickly, Johnny had rarely met anyone that had come close enough the orange haired man to really say anything other than he was scary.

Johnny found him interesting and intelligent. He was expecting a mad man to be honest but Brooklyn seemed to be altogether mentally.

So far.

"Wish that kid would hurry up," Johnny muttered, "I hate waiting."

Johnny took a sip of the coffee in front of him and scrunched his nose up.

"Erk, that's really strong," he put the cup down and ignored it for the time being. "So," he lowered his voice, "Where do you want to deal with the kid? Lure him through a gate somewhere? He would be virtually untraceable."

~

Bryan nodded. "That's fine, having the photo's verified is most important."

He looked toward the front entrance for a moment before frowning. "I'd say Lilith would have some other questions to ask you but she seems to have disappeared."

He shrugged and looked at Noah. "But i'm sure we can always call you back later on so you're free to head off now. Come on, i'll walk you out."

Bryan waited for Noah to stand up and follow him to the front entrance. He was going to check with receptionist to see if Lilith had snuck in and was preoccupied with some other task.

Which struck him as odd since she would of had to have passed Noah on the way out and no he was here. She wasn't the type to forget about something important as speaking to a witness.

~

Tala peeked around the corner of the alleyway to see what Rei was getting upset about. His eyes locked onto the pair at the cafe and he quickly retreated back into the shadows.

He let out a low whistle. "Looks like someone had the same idea as you, Rei."

The redhead smirked. "Ah well, looks like today won't be boring."

~

Taki snorted. "A lot of things are possible down here."

He grabbed Lilith's arm and started to drag her into the tunnel. She was having none of that though, digging her heels in and pulling her upper arm out of his grip, refusing to walk. He turned and pinned her with a glare.

"I don't think so," she said, "There is no way i'm going down there with the likes of you. God only knows what you have down there."

Taki raised an eyebrow. She was a lot bolder without something sharp held against her neck. Maybe he shouldn't have put his knife away.

"Oh?" he growled, "And what are you planning to do? Run away? Scream?"

"I might," she snapped back.

He folded his arms. "Go on then, try it, i dare you. No one from your world will hear you here though, and if anyone from this world does they're not going to give a s**t. I could do anything to you and no one would care."

Lilith stared at him defiantly for a moment before turning towards the wall of rock they had walked through. She wasn't a screamer anyways.

She took a tentative step toward the wall to see if her captor would follow her. He didn't and that worried her.

He wouldn't have dragged her all this way just to watch her escape.

She stepped closer and turned on her side so she could touch the wall with her shoulder.

It was solid.

"You happy now?" Taki asked, unfolding his arms and walking over to her, grabbing her by the upper arm, "You can't get through without knowing how. Just give up."

She sighed as she let him drag her towards the tunnel to god-knows-where.

"Someone will track you down from the department," she murmured, still holding onto the little bit of hope that she would get out of this eventually, "They know who you are, they'll track you down."

He snorted again."No," he said, annoyed, "They won't, because i don't technically exist up there anyway"

Her eyes widened. So Bryan wouldn't have any luck finding them on the databases just like Balcov.

She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought that over. How could they possibly not exist? There had to be a logical explanation.

Her eyes widened as she realised something. She lifted her head to stare at Taki.

"I know what you are."

Johnny scratched his chin. “I think it’s likely that the police will be suspicious anyway, whether he’s missing or just dead, since he’s connected to the events that happened yesterday. It’s too close to the event of the crime not to raise questions.”

He shrugged, not worried about it at all. “But why should we care about that? They won’t find us no matter where they look.”

The coffee cup was pushed to the middle of the table. “It would look weirder if I sculled hot coffee and then left. I’m sure the waitress wouldn’t care. She probably has horrible customers demanding free coffee from her all day for smaller incidents and hey,” he flashed the other male a grin, “I have you to look the part of a ‘normal’ customer.”

Johnny studied the boy walking away from the police station. Satisfying himself that it was their target, he slowly stood up from the table.

“Let’s go. We don’t want to be late for that appointment, now do we?”

No one would be able to be suspicious of the pair if they were listening in right then.

~

“So what are you proposing we do if Brooklyn does corner us? Sounds to me like we’ll be fighting with everything we got.”

Tala frowned at Noah as he walked up the footpath, unsuspecting of what was being planned for him. “Are you sure he’s worth it Rei? I mean I know Taki would be upset if another innocent got killed up here but I know he’d be worse if one of us, or all of us, got hurt in the process. He’s not that stupid or that much of risk taker.”

The redhead sighed, already knowing what Rei would most likely say. He wasn’t going to be moved on this subject, Tala may as well just accept it and mentally prepare for the worst.

He studied his hand as he flexed it. “I doubt both of your plans will end without a fight.”

~

“Have a nice day!” the receptionist called out to Noah as he left before turning to Bryan, “Can I help you with something?”

Bryan raised a hand in a gesture of farewell as he leaned on the receptionist’s counter.

“Lilith hasn’t come past here has she, Amy?” he turned to the receptionist.

Amy thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly. “No, sorry I haven’t seen her come by.”

Bryan’s eyebrows furrowed in thought.

Amy frowned at the expression, understanding something was wrong. “But I have had to go and find files and other things for people,” she babbled, “So I may not have seen her walk past. Maybe she’s out the back distracted by something?”

Bryan nodded and walked back into the office. He highly doubted Lilith was ‘distracted’ by something.

There wasn’t anything shiny in this building for starters.

He checked the whole office, earning a few stares from other staff for just wandering around. She wasn’t to any of the other detectives about cases. The bins next to the printers and paper shredder were already cleared so she wasn’t still doing that duty. Her desk was still empty and so was the kitchen.

Bryan frowned and walked back towards the front. It was possible that some event outside was holding her up. Although she would have called for back up already. He walked through the front doors and turned, heading for the dumpster out the back.

Amy frowned as she watched Bryan’s back disappear out the door. This wasn’t looking good.

Bryan looked around the parking lot as he walked. There was no sign of anyone. He watched the ground in front of him, scouting for clues that could tell him where Lilith got off to.

He came to an abrupt stop as he spotted a garbage bag. The rubbish obviously didn’t get to the dumpster. He looked around more slowly now, taking in every detail of his surroundings.

A flash caught his eye. It was coming from ground near a car close to him.

He stepped closer, examining the object.

It was a gun. Wedged under the car’s tyre. The sun was in the right position to shine off the metal.

It was also the model that Lilith used.

Bryan pulled his cell phone out from his pant’s pocket and dialled a number.

He listened to Amy’s cheerful greeting while still looking at the gun. “Amy, it’s Bryan. Can you get someone to bring the police tape out the back to the dumpster? I’ll be waiting for them here. And call the chief, tell him we have a situation.”

~

Taki froze. Knew what he was?

Once again he had a meltdown internally at those words.

What did she mean knew what he was? Had he grown a tail or something without realizing it? Maybe his temper had gotten the better of him again and he partially transformed out of frustration? He really needed to work on this whole managing his emotions thing otherwise he was going to stub his toe one day in the overworld and transform from the anger. Not that it looked like he was getting to be in the over world that much with his being on the most wanted list. He really should have stayed in bed. What was he going to do if she really knew what he was?

A calm voice in the back of his head told him it didn’t really matter if she knew. It wasn’t like she could do anything about it or escape and expose them all. He was just overreacting out of habit.

He glanced at her. “Oh?”

She stared back. “There’s only one thing you could be. There are no records of you in the country and you’re hiding from society in a cave. You’re illegal immigrants.”

Taki blinked. That was all? That was what she had come up with? Illegal immigrants? He mentally sighed in relief before being amused by the fact.

Sure it made sense when you looked at it but it was far from the truth.

He chuckled and turned away, continuing to walk towards their hideout.

“Sorry, try again,” he said, “You're amusing me.”

Lilith was stunned. There really was no other explanation that she could come up with. The illegal immigrants idea had made perfect sense. She thought about walking through the wall for a moment, realising that nothing would probably make sense down here.

She hung her head, watching the ground as she followed along.

They came out of the mouth of the tunnel and into the outskirts of one of the underworld’s towns. Lilith looked up and her eyes widened in surprise.

There was a complete city down here. Just like the city she had been dragged from. It was just darker.

Taki lead her down one of the side streets. He wanted to avoid as many people as possible on his way back to the base.

Ads they got closer to the rebel’s building, Taki noticed a group of underworlders gathered on the side of the street. What were they hanging around here for? He had no time to deal with them though so he quickened his pace and pulled Lilith closer to him.

Sure, he may have been the one to kidnap her and hold a weapon against her neck but there were worse things that could be done to her down here. He wasn’t going to let another innocent overworlder get hurt if he could help it.

The men looked up at Taki for a moment before turning their gaze onto Lilith. One of them smirked and took a step forward.

Taki narrowed his eyes and growled.

Lilith avoided eye contact with the other men. For the first time that day she felt safer with her captor as opposed to being by herself. Those men just oozed creepy. She was so frightened by their looks that she completely missed how animalistic the noise coming from Taki was. It almost sounded like a real big cat or dog.

Where on earth was she?

Taki opened the door to the Rebel’s base and shoved Lilith inside, giving the group one last glare before going inside and closing the door. If they tried anything closer to the base he would deal with them then. Now, it was better to just ignore them.

He pulled Lilith into his office and directed her to a sofa under one of the windows.

She sat down and glared at him.

“Where’s the key for the handcuffs?” he asked.

She stared defiantly for a moment, contemplating whether she should cooperate or not. In the end she decided she would rather see if he was going to take them off or not rather than never find out at all.

“In the pocket of my jacket on this side,” she nodded with her head, directing him.

He fished around in her pocket, pulling out the key and moving towards the hands on her back. There was no point tying her up. She couldn’t escape the underworld without him and it really was safer inside.

He took the handcuffs off, releasing her hands.

“There. I’m sure that is bet-“

He was cut off when Lilith’s fist connected with his jaw, throwing his head to the ********!” he clutched his throbbing jaw. The woman was hiding some strength in those arms of hers. Maybe freeing her hands wasn’t a good idea.

Taki felt his pupils contracting into slits as his anger rose. He shook his head to clear his mind and stop his transformation before it really started.

He turned to glare at Lilith, his eyes normal again. She was rubbing right hand as she glared back.

Well at least he wasn’t the only one hurting.

“That makes me feel a little bit better,” she said bluntly.

Taki glared for a moment more before heading to his desk, ignoring her. He picked up the report on the top of the pile and leaned against the front of his desk as he read it.

His eyes widened at the words inside. It was about Noah. He assumed that was where the other three were now since no one had appeared and greeted him yet.

Lilith watched Taki as he read the paper in his hands. He looked like he was concentrating hard on it so she made the mistake for the second time that day that he wasn’t paying attention to her.

She stood up and started to head for the door. Maybe she could escape and get away from this place and back to the station.

“Where do you think you are going?”

She froze and turned toward him. He was watching her with a blank expression. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off.

“If you’re thinking about running away then you should stop now. You can’t get through the wall without me showing you how so you’re stuck down here.”

She had thought about that but she was going to try and figure it out herself.

“That is if you get the gateway. I don’t know if you noticed that lot outside but they certainly noticed you. Your not in your world anymore, there are no laws down here. You would most likely be beaten, raped murdered or all three. And trust me, you have no defences down here.”

He shrugged and went back to the report. “But if you think you can handle all that than be my guest and try.”

Lilith hesitated. He could have been saying that to just scare her but then she thought of the guys outside and the aura they projected. She also remembered Taki having the same attitude when he told her to walk through the wall again.

He was right then so he was most likely right now.

She sighed, walking back to the sofa and slumping into it. She leaned her forehead against the window and closed her eyes, once again trying not to cry. She was stuck. Well and truly stuck with no way out and no idea what would happen next.

Taki mirrored her sigh. I hope you three know what you’re doing. You had better stay safe.

((ok no more of Bryan, Taki and Lilith for a while now sweatdrop ))

((lol, this is going to look disjointed))

Johnny quirked an eyebrow at Brooklyn as he followed him. The other was blurting out theories that Johnny was only half understanding, but he trusted the other one to be right.

To be honest, Johnny was glad that they were finally on the move. He was intrigued about Brooklyn's legendary powers. While a little odd, Brooklyn wasn't living up to anything Johnny was expecting of him. He only hoped that would be true for the other's so called horrifying powers.

It may have been a little bizarre, but he wanted to see what Brooklyn was capable of. Any one else would rather have eaten glass than do that.

Tala sighed. Rei got worked up over a lot of things. What was one more person dieing in the grand scheme of things? It wasn't like it was a whole city, and there would always be overworlder deaths in the future. Rei couldn't save all of them even if he tried.

The most likely outcome of today was not going to be good.

Tala quickly followed after Kai up the fire escape. "That's a possibility, but i don't think you'd be able to live with yourself if you let him die by himself," he told Kai.

He didn't feel the need to expend energy unnecessarily to get to the top. If he was right, he knew he was going to need all the energy he could get soon.

Sure, he could turn back now but he'd feel extremely guilty if anything happened to the other two.

He raced over the rooftops after Kai, pulling up next to the bluenette and looking over the edge of the building. His eye's scanned over the scene, stopping to focus on the two tyrant's at end of the street.

"Great," he muttered.

Johnny stepped up behind Brooklyn and smirked. He took in the brave act Noah was putting on, knowing it was futile, and the rather weak looking Rei. If he was getting beat up by an overworlder than what good was he? This should be simple. Get rid of the witness and take out a Rebel on the way. Johnny was happy to stand back and let Brooklyn handle this. He seemed like the type to relish destruction.

"Hmm," he said, "Doesn't look like he will be much of a threat. Seems almost a shame to destroy something so pretty."

Tala growled under his breath. “Damnit.”

Frustration at away at him on the inside, making his control over the beast within waver. He used that to his advantage, calling out some of the power and jumping over the edge of the building, his leg muscles growing and strengthening and his canine’s elongating as he fell. He landed on the pavement with a crack, straightening up and facing the other two Tyrants with an icy glare.

Tala wasn’t one to stand around and watch once something was happening. He’d rather jump head first into the scene and go from there. The way things were going there wouldn’t be time to think once things got heated up.

~

Aiden was leaning up against a wall a few metres ahead of Issac, arms folded and eyes closed. He had been waiting for the other to get out of the meeting with Balcov for a while now, not content with wandering around the Tyrant’s base without some order to follow.

If he did wander he would start getting idea that he couldn’t afford to have at the moment. Especially since most of them involved things outside of the headquarters, not within easy reach.

He looked up as he heard footsteps approaching, peering through his platinum bangs at the only person he would follow in this place. Balcov was not on his most liked list that was for sure.

He continued to lean against the wall, blinking is amber eyes a couple of times, waiting for Issac to make the first move.

((ooh, half transformation? *is like having different levels of transformation* Rei is awesome btw. I’m going to assume they still have their bitbeast’s powers?))

Tala whipped his head around to stare at Rei. “What?” he exclaimed, “What do you mean take Kai and the boy and run? I can’t leave you here with him.”

He turned his head to scowl at Brooklyn. Leaving Rei here alone with that beast would be like he had handed his friend a death sentence. Sure, they’d probably all die if they stayed here but he really didn’t want to leave Rei to face that alone.

“Besides, Kai would never stand for it. If we’re leaving, you are coming with us,” he said defiantly before moving towards Kai and the boy. Kai didn’t look like he was in any shape to protest the order and Noah didn’t look like he was in any shape to understand just what the hell was going on. Tala felt sorry for the kid, this was probably a huge shock to the system, but he also slightly resented him. He was the whole reason that they were in this mess. To save this unknown boy’s arse.

He could just hear Rei in his head. ‘It wasn’t the boy’s fault, it was ours for being silly enough to stand up to Balcov and Voltaire on our own’.

He supposed also getting the boy and all three of them killed kind of defeated the purpose of a rescue mission.

He crouched down next to Kai and Noah, preparing to make a run for it anyways. Rei could be very persuasive in that form of his when he wanted to be.

“Ok kid,” he started addressing Noah, “Look at me. You’re going to have to forget everything you’ve ever known about the three of us and just trust me, ok? We’re trying to save your life here. You’ll have time to be stunned later, now I just want you to do as I say completely.”

He looked down the street and thought about what he should do. His first option was going to attract a lot of attention in the overworld, but maybe if he kept to the back roads, he wouldn’t be seen by that many people…

He looked back at Noah. “When I’m ready, and you’ll know when that is, your going to have to help Kai on to my back got it? And then you’ll have to cling to me, and Kai, like your life depended on it, which it kind of does. Understand me, kid?”

He looked down at Kai. “I hope you’re conscious enough to hear me as well Kai. Or at least hold onto my fur.”

Johnny grinned at Brooklyn’s request. “Excellent. And I half thought that you might be the only one who had any fun today.”

He turned his attention to Tala hunched over the other two and jumped into action. Literally.

He pushed off from the ground, releasing a bit of energy from the beast contained within him so he sailed over Brooklyn and Rei, somersaulting and landing behind them and Tala, blocking the path. His forearms and lower legs glowing and changing, revealing large, menacing claws from lizard-like hands and feet. His eyes slitted and his mouth was filled with pointed teeth.

“Don’t think you’re going anywhere Ivanov, not while I’m around,” he hissed, revealing a slitted tongue.

Tala scowled at him over his shoulder. “That’s what you think.” He placed his hand on the ground and concentrated on the Tyrant, sending out a layer of ice across the ground that crawled up Johnny’s legs and held him in place.

Johnny smirked and tried to take a step but was unable to move. Johnny snorted, completely undeterred by the attack. A little bit of ice wasn’t enough to stop him. He focused his power on his legs, heat starting to radiate out of them, melting the ice and freeing his legs.

Who did Tala think he was? Johnny could control fire, his ice would do nothing to him.

“Hah, nice try,” Johnny taunted. He took another step before ice froze him in his place yet again. It was uncomfortable for Johnny to heat up his limbs for any length of time, so there was always a space in time where Tala could freeze his legs again. Tala had put more energy into it this time so the ice was thicker and needed more time to melt. Johnny looked like he was standing in the middle of a huge cube of ice.

Johnny scowled at the other redhead. Tala just smirked and gave him a ‘oh, sorry, you expected me to give up?’ look.

While Johnny was preoccupied thawing himself out Tala busied himself with the escape plan.

“Ready?” he asked Noah without waiting for an answer. He let the beast inside him have complete control, his body started to glow until it was blinding. His body morphed and grew until Tala’s human outline was indistinguishable. The glowing slowly dimmed to reveal a large white wolf in Tala’s place. He was much larger than any real wolf, about the same as a horse. While Rei had only half-transformed himself, Tala had let his other side take over completely, deciding it would make for a quicker escape with two other people to look out for. He crouched down low to the ground, looking at Noah and nodding his head, hoping the boy would understand ‘get on’ and forget the fact that human’s didn’t normally turn into large beasts.

Oh God, he hoped this kid wasn’t someone who froze on the spot at crucial moments.

He watched Johnny while he waited for Noah to act.

Johnny gave an angry hiss under his breath, reaching for his gun and taking aim at Tala.

A wall of ice shot up in front of the wolf and the other two, cracking as a bullet hit it. Tala was going to pay for this outpouring of energy later he could just feel it. He looked at Noah again, hoping his animal eyes were showing some kind of pleading to hurry in them.

Johnny struggled to get out of the ice. He was standing in a pool of water but he couldn’t melt the ice fast enough to jump out of his enclosure, the water freezing back into ice. He bent down, firing up his fists and jamming them into the ice, melting it with a hiss. He would be out of this ice trap soon enough.
~

Aiden pushed off from the wall and followed the other man.

“Nothing of particular importance,” He answered back in a low whisper, taking the folded not from Issac, “But there is unrest in some of the supporters of Voltaire. With his death, they feel very… insecure with how this place is run.”

He smirked to himself.

“I think they fear for their own lives and are losing trust in their leader’s ability to run this place. You could use this to your advantage, tweak facts to suit yourself. Once the seed of doubt is there,” his eyes glittered as he spoke silkily, “it’s only too easy to manipulate them.”

He looked down at the folded not in his for a moment, before slipping it in to his pocket. He would read it later. A sinister grin spread over his face. “Mmm, more fun. I’ll get on it right away, unless you have more pressing matters for me?”

((I’m assuming they meant the legendary salamander for Johnny’s bitbeast and not the real one. That is quite small. And not very menacing *Looks up* see i can crack 1k too xD))

Tala waited patiently as the other two settled on his back. He mentally winced when Kai asked him if they had Rei with them. He wasn’t ready to break the bad news to Kai that Rei was most likely sacrificing himself for the greater good. Luckily for him, Kai had passed out before any kind of answer had been given.

The wolf glanced back at Rei and Brooklyn for a moment, watching as the two stared each other down.

He shook his head and turned back, slowly rising to his feet. Now was not the time to angst. He had more pressing things to worry about.

Johnny’s hands slipped through the ice easily, creating a large enough hole for him to jump out of the ice. The energy he was using to melt the ice was taxing on his body but he knew that the rebel would be in the same state as him, if he could just trap Tala somehow for long enough and make him continue to fight back, the wolf would be unable to stay conscious and collapse.

The redhead sprang away from the ice, landing on unfrozen ground. He walked towards the ice barrier Tala had built, preparing to melt it to the ground.

“Don’t think you can get away from me that easily,” He hissed.

Tala snarled in response. Come and get me Johnny.

The ice wall shattered sending hundreds of shards flying in Johnny’s direction, forcing the Tyrant to raise his arms in defence. Tala used the opportunity to spring away, running away from the scene behind him without a second look.

Johnny hissed in frustration, before chasing after the wolf. He let a little more of the beast inside of him out, growing a tail. It was excellent for balance when he was chasing someone and these streets were deserted enough that very few people would see him. In all likelihood, they wouldn’t believe what they saw anyways.

Tala raced through the streets, mind brainstorming as he went. He had to find someway to lose Johnny. They would have more chance of escaping if their pursuer didn’t know which portal they went through. He looked around his surroundings, also trying to find a way that would be less in view of the general public, these deserted streets would end soon.

The rooves of the buildings beside him caught his eye. They were all flat. If he could find a way up then he’d be able to make his escape without any interference from any other innocent overworlders.

Yes! He grinned as he spotted a balcony up ahead, making a leap for it. He landed with a thud, startling the owner inside. Tala didn’t waste anytime, immediately jumping off the balcony and sailing through the air to land on the roof of the opposite building. He briefly checked that his two passengers were still holding on before sprinting across the rooves.

The man inside the apartment, walked out onto his balcony, coffee-mug in hand, blinking after the large wolf that had just disappeared. He didn’t have much time to think before Johnny jumped onto the balcony almost landing on the overworlder. The redhead paid no attention to the man and jumped onto the same roof as Tala, proceeding to follow.

The man blinked again before looking down into his mug for a moment. He then tipped the remaining contents over the balcony and walked back inside, shaking his head. It was time for him to see a shrink, or buy a different brand of coffee.

Tala mentally calculated the direction he needed to go in order to get back to the Underworld. He remembered Taki telling them in a situation like this to head for an unused portal, away from their rebel headquarters. Tala understood what he meant, knowing that it would be harder for any Tyrant’s to track them back to the bases the further away the portal was. The wolf cursed mentally, realising he was going in the wrong direction to get to the closest, and best, portal. He skidded to a stop before changing directions, jumping to a roof beside him.

Johnny smirked when Tala changed direction. He took the opportunity to send a fireball towards Tala. It grazed the wolf’s rump as he was mid-air. Tala gave a yelp of surprise and landed awkwardly on the other rooftop. The tyrant was able to catch-up to his prey with the distraction and landed opposite.

“I told you, you wouldn’t be able to get away from me,” he said with a smirk.

Tala straightened himself out before turning to Johnny, his upper lip turned up in a snarl. Johnny hissed back, raising his arms in a fighting stance and letting flames engulf his claws.

Tala eyed the claws warily as they started to circle each other. A growl rumbled through his body. On any other day he would have started to attack Johnny, but today he was more worried about getting his passengers to safety to try anything.

Johnny saw the hesitation and smiled, immediately launching into an attack, claws raised. Tala jumped back quickly, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid Johnny’s swipe. Scorching hot claws connected with the wolf’s cheek, slicing through flesh and burning the surrounding skin at the same time, tearing a yelp from Tala.

The redhead started to walk slowly towards the wolf, knowing that Tala had no escape and wasn’t willing to do any fancy fighting.

Tala backed up slowly as the tyrant came closer, a trickly of blood dripping of his chin. He was panting, a lot of energy had already been used up with the running and creation of ice, and the pain from his wound wasn’t making things any better. He way have been able to take more than the average human but he had his limits.

He took another step back, almost falling as his back foot connected with thin air, his foot scratching against the edge of the building as it fought for purchase. He whipped his head around to look at the edge of the building.

He was trapped, and Johnny knew it.

“You’re stuck now, you have no where else to go,” Johnny said, “Why don’t you just hand the boy over to me? Would make things a lot easier.”

Tala let out another snarl, trying to think of a plan.

He suddenly gave Johnny a wolfy grin. Johnny raised an eyebrow at the sudden expression.

Johnny was wrong. Tala could always jump.

Bye Johnny. Tala said through thoughts to the Tyrant, making the other frown in confusion.

Tala pushed himself off the side of the building, backwards, sending ice out from his body to wrap around Noah and Kai, keeping them in place as he fell through the air. The ice would be uncomfortable for a brief time, but it was better than falling off Tala’s back and to their death.

They landed with a thud. Tala glanced behind him to check on Noah and Kai while letting the ice fall away from them. Satisfied with their condition, he turned to head for a portal.

Johnny let out a snarl as he saw Tala jump over the edge. He ran over and looked down, seeing the wolf facing away from him and Noah’s back in full view.

He smirked, another idea forming in his head. His mission was to kill Noah, and right now he was in a great position to strike at the overworlder’s back.

He jumped with a hiss, claws raised, ready to impale through Noah’s back and into his heart.

Tala whipped his head around, seeing Johnny fall and made a split second decision. He moved his weight onto his front legs and kicked out with his hind legs, connecting with Johnny’s chest and throwing him against the wall of the building.

Johnny hit with a loud crack, breaking the brick around him, before crumpling to the ground, unconscious.

Tala snorted in defiance, before heading for the nearest portal.

~

Aiden glanced over at Issac. “Of course, have I ever let you down?”

He chose that moment to veer down a side corridor, leaving Issac on his own. The platinum haired youth had people skills similar to Johnny’s. They could both sway the thoughts of whomever they were talking to suit what was needed. Johnny was charismatic; he could talk to large crowds and influence them with words, with propaganda. Aiden preferred to work in secret, twisting any facts he could find. If there was something that his subject knew that Aiden could use to his advantage, he would find it without fail. Manipulating people was amusing and gave him a sense of control.

Aiden would use anything he could find if it meant getting back at Balcov and what he had done to his family. Issac also wanted to be rid of Balcov. They were similar in that respect and Aiden found himself loyal to both Issac’s cause and the man himself.

For now, he was willing to follow Issac’s directions in preparation for their final attack on Balcov.

Aiden smirked as he disappeared into the darkness.

~

Lilith sighed.

Taki looked up from his work and stared at her. “Something wrong?”

“I’m a little bored,” she answered.

He shrugged. “Sorry, can’t help you with that.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. She had moved from where she had been sitting near the window and was now sitting on the opposite side of Taki’s desk, leaning on her arms. Taki had moved to sit behind the desk, busying himself with reports from sources around the city. She watched him flip threw papers, trying to keep her mind off the world outside the window.

She had quickly found out that her captor hadn’t been bluffing when he said it was dangerous outside. A loud commotion from outside had interrupted her dozing earlier and she had been horrified at the amount of violence that was being used. Taki has wandered over at one point and told her that she probably didn’t want to watch it. She had argued with him that someone should put a stop to it but he just shook his head telling her that he really couldn’t do anything. That was the norm in this world and it would be over soon.

Most likely when someone died.

Lilith had moved to a chair by the desk then. She saw dead people most days but actually seeing someone being killed still made her queasy.

Taki had continued to watch the scene outside with a troubled look on his face until it had quietened down and he returned to his desk. He didn’t like what was happening but he really couldn’t do anything at the moment. Not by himself at least. Maybe if he had Tala or Kai to back him up but they weren’t here.

Lilith picked up a discarded pen and started fiddling with it.

Taki watched her, bored with his reports.

“You don’t seem very unhappy for someone who was practically abducted,” he stated suddenly.

Lilith looked up, surprised that he was attempting conversation. She had figured him for someone who didn’t like talking much since they had been in silence for the majority of the day.

“Well,” she started, “You don’t seem like a normal kidnapper. You’re not particularly scary. In fact, I feel pretty comfortable in here.”

“Oh?”

She put down the pen and folded her hands. “Well, you haven’t tied me up anywhere, I seem to be able to do whatever I feel like, you’re not assaulting me, or demanding that I do things. If you were trying to scare me into obeying you, you would have forced me to watch what was happening outside and threaten me with it, but it seems you did the exact opposite and tried to protect me from it.”

She shook her head. “I feel safer in here, thank you very much. Even if you are the oddest kidnapper I’ve ever seen.”

Taki snorted. “Well, maybe I’m a nice guy who just overreacted when you appeared.”

Lilith laughed. “Speaking of, why did you take me? It’s not like you can hold me for ransom or anything.” Who would he send the ransom note to anyways? Bryan?

“Like I said, I overreacted,” Taki answered before going back to his reports, “I had a secret to keep. You surprised me, that’s all. I have no idea who you are, honestly.”

“My name’s Lilith,” she said, “I’m the detective who’s trying to catch you.”

Taki looked up when she said her name, disregarding the other information she had given him.

“What?” Lilith blinked, “What’s that look for?”

He shook his head. “Nothing, you’re name sounds familiar. Probably met someone else with it.”

“Really? That’s odd. I’ve never met anyone else with it,” she said, “Well, not yet anyways.

The silence stretched between the two for a while. Lilith sighed again, before getting up and walking around the room. She walked around on Taki’s right side, away from the window.

Taki tried to ignore her but it didn’t work. He turned his head so he could face her.

“What are you doing?”

She frowned at him. “Walking around, my legs have gone to sleep.”

“Can’t you do it on that side?” he nodded to the opposite side of the room.

“No,” she shook her head, “I’m trying to avoid that window. Why do you want me over there?”

“You know you really don’t have a say in the matter,” Taki said, “considering you’re the captive here. I want you over that side so I can see you properly.”

Lilith snorted, walking over to the desk and leaning over it.

“Well, you wouldn’t have that problem if you moved this,” She flicked the fringe covering his right eye completely, “out of the way.”

He scowled. “That’s not the reason I can’t-”

He was interrupted as the front door crashed open. Lilith whipped her head around to face the noise. Taki shot up from his chair and quickly made his way towards the door leading out to the foyer.

“What was that?” Lilith said, following him.

Tala had kicked open the front door, dragging Kai through it.

“Lie him down, not on his back,” he told Noah who was holding the other side of Kai. Tala fought with the haze threatening to take over his mind. It was always the way after a transformation. As soon as he changed back, he would have a few second of normal thought before the after-effects of the transformation completely took over him. He wouldn’t remember later, but he was sure he could act pretty embarrassing before he eventually passed out. Especially if the way Taki acted after a transformation was anything to go by.

“Kai!” Taki exclaimed as he walked out of the office and towards the three. The sight of all those knives sticking out of the bluenette was not pleasing.

“Noah!” Lilith quickly walked over to the boy, confused, “What are you doing here?”

Tala could feel his knees giving way and started to fall. Taki saw the fall coming and caught the redhead before him hitting the ground.

“Tala, are you ok?” He asked, looking down at the other.

“Pffffff,” Tala let out, still conscious, “Of course I’m fine. Hey, when did you get so tall anyways? You’re like, towering over me.”

Taki rolled his eyes. Tala had obviously transformed before, so he was going to be useless to get information out of at the moment.

“And I could have sworn that I brought the pin cushion over there to the rebel base but I must have got lost cos I don’t remember any females being around here when I left. Did you go to a brothel Taki? That’s very unusual for you y’know.”

Taki sighed. “No, Tala, you did come home.”

He laid Tala’s head down gently on the ground before moving to kneel beside Kai. The redhead had enough energy to lift his head up and look around.

“Oh. So you brought someone over here?” He laughed, “He he, didn’t know you had it in you Taki.” Tala then burst into a fit of giggles.

Taki ignored the redhead, instead looking over Kai’s wounds and the knives stick out of him. He was used to Tala doing this.

Lilith, on the other hand, wasn’t. She whipped her head around to look at Tala, perplexed.

“What did he just call me? Is he drunk or something?” She watched the redhead warily, not sure what to make of him.

“That’s a good way to describe it,” Taki said, taking off his jacket and bunching it up, “Just ignore him.”

He looked down at Kai with a pained expression. “I’m sorry Kai,” he said, “this is going to hurt.”

He wrapped a hand around one of the knife handles and pulled, immediately cover the wound with his jacket, aiding the blood to clot.

Lilith’s eyes widened completely when Taki pulled the knife out.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed, “You can’t pull them out! You might damage something internally! He needs professionally medical attention, not you.”

Taki scowled at her. “He’ll be fine. He has faster healing capabilities than normal humans so it’ll be able to fix itself shortly. Besides, there’s no where we could take him to get help.”

He lifted up his jacket to show her. Kai’s wound had already started to close up.

“The skin probably healed around the knife on the way here making it more painful when I pulled it out. Probably the only downside to this whole thing. If I pull them out one at a time and make sure the blood clots first, he also won’t bleed to death, ok? Just calm down. I know what I’m doing.”

He turned back to Kai and pulled out another knife, covering the wound with his jacket immediately after. Kai was still going to be pretty sore after this, but he would heal without any complications.

Lilith blinked. “What do you mean ‘than normal humans’? He looks human to me.”

“You know,” Tala interrupted, “You’re really pretty. Too bad I don’t swing that way though.”

Lilith looked back at Tala. “Uh, th-thank you? I think?”

“Tala,” Taki said calmly, still focused on Kai, “Go to sleep.”

Tala managed to raise his arm in a mock salute. “Yes Sir, Right away Sir,” he said before falling unconscious.

Lilith blinked again. Not quite believing what she was seeing. Maybe she was still dreaming after all. Drunken redheads, guys with knifes sticking out of them, inhuman healing powers….

“He’s extremely compliant in that state,” Taki explained before turning to look at Noah, one hand still covering Kai’s wound, “You, kid, Noah is it? What happened here? And where’s Rei? The guy with the long black hair?”


((i do believe 3k words and 8 pages is getting carried away.))

The redhead’s hand suddenly clamped onto the guard’s on his shoulder. His eyes snapped open and he pinned the other man with a glare.

“Why are you touching me?” he spat out.

Johnny was never in a good mood after he transformed or immediately after he woke up from one. It was just one of the quirks of transformation. The normally personable crowd pleaser was extremely irritable. The dull thud of a headache behind his eyes wasn’t helping.

Add to that the fact that Johnny had failed at his mission and lost their target to the rebels. They may have captured a rebel themselves but the failure was holding on tightly to Johnny’s mind.

And he was pissed.

He glance around the room quickly. A snarl was let out when he couldn’t find what he was looking for.

“Where’s Brooklyn?”

~

Taki’s hand froze in mid air. He was about to grab for the last knife in Kai’s back before one name stopped him.

He stared at Noah, startled. “Brooklyn?”

He shook his head before continuing with Kai’s medical attention, speaking as he went.

“You were saved because that’s what Rei would have wanted. You didn’t deserve to die so he wanted to make sure you were saved.”

A lip quirked as he looked down at the man’s battered back below him. “And this guy would have done anything Rei had said.”

Lilith’s eyebrows shot up as Noah broke down. Not knowing what else to do, she pulled him against her chest and stroked his hair. Her mother had always calmed her down this way when she was upset long ago. Just being held, without any words, did wonders sometimes.

Taki pulled the fabric away from the last wound in Kai’s back, satisfied it had healed enough that he wouldn’t bleed to death. He sat back on his heels and shook his head again.

“Brooklyn,” he breathed, “You actually ran into Brooklyn. s**t.”

Lilith’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s so bad about that?”

Taki glanced up at her. “He’s,” he started, “very… dangerous. I’m surprised anyone came back alive.”

Lilith’s eyes widened. What did these people do down here? Was it some sort of gang wars.

“So, do you think this Rei person is alive?” she echoed Noah’s question.

Taki shook his head. “I hope.”

Johnny pulled himself away harshly from Brooklyn's grasp.

"Thanks," He spat out, "But i don't need to be told what to do by the likes of you."

He started heading towards the transport that had arrived for them.

"You are no my superior," he said, "You're just a tool. Something Balcov uses to his advantage."

He reached the car, opening the door and climbing in before slamming the door behind him. He probably wouldn't have said any of that if he had been his normal self, but he wasn't altogether at the moment. Curse Brooklyn and his ability to be unaffected by his abilities. Curse Brooklyn and his cocky attitude. Of course he was going to explain it, did he really think that Johnny didn't know that? The 'babysitter' always reported back to Balcov, not Brooklyn.

If Johnny wasn't in a bad mood he wouldn't have thought that perhaps Balcov was scared of Brooklyn.

If he had been in a better mood, he would have been thinking that Brooklyn was probably going to kill him right about now.

Oh well, that was life. Johnny was a little sick of performing to a crowd to make them follow Balcov. He would rather have a real conversation with someone for once rather than sucking up to superiors or the public in general. He was getting bored with his duties. He wanted some fun.

Maybe he was just alone.

~

"It's ok," Lilith soothed the boy, "It's not your fault, ok?"

Taki grimaced at Kai, internally debating whether he felt like breaking the news to the bluenette just yet. Kai would have to find out eventually and prolonging that moment wasn't going to help anyone.

He wasn't ready for Kai's reaction just yet though.

"I'll go get you that drink," he finally said before getting up and heading towards the kitchen. He would tell Kai when he came back, yes, that was the plan.

Lilith quirked an eyebrow at Taki has he walked away. Coward.

She glanced over at Kai and watched him.