Welcome to Gaia! ::

They needed to up their quota. It was required, both by the upper echelons and in order to save their planet. In order to do so Mara had been out hunting every chance she got, typically with a family member since she was still very ‘wet behind the ears’ as it was. To make matters worse for her, she still hadn’t figured out how to correct her twisted magic and hesitated to use it at all now. That wasn’t good since it was her only real ‘skill’ outside of punching someone. And her hand to hand combat wasn’t exactly what one would say as great. It was passable at best.

Hence why she was standing there with a familiar figure. “So are we just going to ambush them or try to pull off a ‘meet-cute’ moment?” Mara asked Beni, her eyes remained locked on the couple in the distance. They were enjoying the spring evening in the park, with the trees in bloom who could blame them. It was a shame really, they should have known better. It was never, really a good idea to be out and about at twilight and beyond in this city. Too many things could happen.

“Ok, that works for me.” Mara nodded and followed after her cousin, slipping through the night as quietly as possible. It was much harder than it looked since she was in heels and the ground was squishy but she was getting it done. Her mind was already trying to work through a secondary back-up plan. Something to do when their prey realized they weren’t alone.

Sadly all she could think of was the basic idea of ‘damsel in distress’. Basically come stumbling out of the dark, crying out for assistance, and getting as close as she could before collapsing. She would be drawing all the attention while Beni came up behind them. He was able to teleport so it would make things so much easier. But she was rather loath to suggest this plan. It was just so very… inelegant. She also didn’t like the idea of playing the damsel. She was no damn damsel that needed rescuing.

They couldn’t have been more than a few yards from the couple, who were now making out on their bench, when something gave them away. The pair stopped sucking face and glanced around wearily. Like two mice sensing cats were around. Frozen and on high alert. Searching for whatever set off their danger sensor.

Mara looked down at her outfit and then raised a brow at her cousin. As if any sane woman would be out walking their dog in this getup. But she didn’t really get a chance to do more than just make a face at the ‘distract the civilian’s’ plan before Beni started to move once more.

With a sigh the corrupt pulled her cell phone out and moved back onto the path. She unlocked the phone and put it to her ear before starting to ‘yell’ into it. “No! I TOLD YOU…. Don’t you take that tone with me!” She started to scold that imaginary caller as she moved down the path towards the lovers. “This costume party was YOUR IDEA! Not mine! And you ditch me?” Mara was going for a few points: one her outfit was a costume, two she was annoyed and maybe a little teary, and three she was loud enough that anyone nearby knew all about her ‘lover’s quarrel’. She watched out of the corner of her eye the civilian’s noting her approach, the woman seemed to be more interested then the guy.

“Who is it? Is it Stacy? Or that blonde I saw you with last week? I know you're cheating! You have to be! Why else would you drive me all the way out here and leave? I don’t even have enough for a ******** Uber you a*****e!” She strained her voice a bit, trying to pull on the heartstrings of the woman, since she seemed much more invested in Mara’s little tale. Come on…. Focus on me, she mentally directed, doing her best to keep her little tale going even as she sneakily kept an eye on them, and the figure slinking up behind them. She wasn’t quite a damsel in distress but she was definitely going for the same kind of drama!

When Beni moved, he moved fast. Mara had been expecting him to move soon, she had been slowly drifting towards the seated couple just as Beni had been, she had just been louder about her movements. Pacing and shifting restlessly, always moving as she ‘scolded’ her imaginary boyfriend for fake dumping her in this part of the city without any way to return to their place. A place she had threatened a few times now to never return to. She was actually getting into her little tale. Weaving in lines about how he was always flirting with the women at his job, how his mother always hated her, how their finances couldn’t take the hit if she got a taxi or the like. All the while moving closer. Ever closer. Until she spotted the nod from the blonde, and s**t moved rapidly.

Before the woman could react to her date being grabbed, she too was restrained. Mara’s hand clamping over her mouth even as she murmured calming words. Nothing specific, just things like ‘it's ok’, ‘everything will be fine’, and other platitudes as she rapidly worked on draining her. The woman’s struggles became noticeably weaker and weaker until she sagged in Mara’s arms. She drew a bit more energy from her before looking over at Beni and noting he was dealing with a passed out individual as well. Good. They had both gotten their objective done.

“Here, scooch him over.” She practically man-handled the woman onto the bench, and leaned her against her date. The two looked surprisingly peaceful for being accosted and drained of energy. After a moment of contemplation Mara pulled out the woman’s phone and after miming silence to Beni, triggered the emergency button that all smartphones had. As the muffled voice of the 911 dispatcher came through, Mara dropped the phone, and pulled Beni away, without saying a word. Well aware that they would send someone out to check the call, just in case.

It wasn’t until they were quite some distance away that she gave her cousin the stink eye. “No one hears about my theatrics, you hear me? No one.” She didn’t want it getting back to the family in any way, shape or form. Mara added, grumbling “And next time you get to be the bait.”

The sounds of distant sirens had her shaking her head at Beni, “Nope. They should be fine.” With that she started to walk off into the darkness, her mind already on their next spot. “Good, I don’t think I could pull that off a second time.” They had a limited amount of time to gather as much as they could. She would do what she had to, regardless… she would just prefer not to if possible. Like by browbeating her cousin into doing it.