"What…what just happened?" asked Touya.
"He just flew out," said Quedell. "I don't know what happened apart from that?"
He turned to look at Kyler and Ly but they both appeared to be as clueless as he was. He then moved closer and finally peered into the alleyway to see a very graceful yet violent fight with a lithe figure in lead weaving his way through the men and sending them tumbling to the floor. He watched as Xander kicked and grappled better than most professional fighters he had seen and soon had waylaid his attackers in a show of his might. As he turned around Touya blinked twice to make sure he was taking the sight in properly. The hood and bandanna that Xander wore had fallen off in the tussle and underneath it Touya saw platinum blonde hair cut neatly and combed to the side. The eyes however were the most magnetic part to him. He had seen it prior but with the rest of the face it made for a whole different level of view. As he stood there Xander turned and noticed him, there was a small look of surprise that he caught and his breathe got caught in his throat. He re-centered himself and shook his head, he appeared to be having all sorts of crazy thoughts these days. He took a step back as Xander came up to him, something very uncharacteristic of him.
***
She was annoyed to death at what she had deal with, first she was attacked out on the street. She took care of that effortlessly and then the man that was her lead, lead her into an ambush, something she had expected but there was always room to hope and now she had no lead and several people she hoped weren't dead (she hadn't held back at all) to take care of and the icing on the cake was the annoying guy that came to her gang house to regain his hotel, he was now standing in front of her with an open mouth just staring at her. She was wondering what he was staring when she felt a cold breeze blow back her hair and she realized her hood and bandanna had fallen off. She closed her eyes concealing her panic and rage and managed to let out a small smile after which she saw the man cough and clear his throat and look at her carefully. She had been so careful, so very careful and she really didn't want to be found out now, especially by this man of all the people. She glanced around for her bandanna and found it clutched in the hands of one of her attackers. She gritted her teeth ran back and ripped it out of his hands and as he groaned she kicked him in the groin.
"Was that necessary?" asked a voice from behind her as she tied the bandanna to her face and she jumped.
Whipping her head around quickly she aimed a punch right at the target of the voice which was caught. She looked to see the annoying man again, she hadn't even heard him move.
"What are you doing?" she asked in her deep voice.
"Watching," said Touya giving that same carefree smile that annoyed her in the first place.
"I have to ask though," he said. "What were you doing, you had to have known that this was a trap."
"Maybe…maybe it wasn't," she said pulling her arm back.
"Come on," he said and nodded to the guy laying on the street. "He's bald and if there's one thing you learn from movies, bald guys are always untrustworthy."
Her face twitched as she looked to see if he was being serious. He had just slapped down the entire population of bald people with an open hand and he chose to yawn after it.
"You do realize that not everyone bald is untrustworthy," said Katya clenching her fist and wishing deeply she could plant it upside his noggin.
"Hmmm, yes but everyone untrustworthy could be bald," he said not missing a beat.
"For the love of god, put a sock in it Touya," said Ly appearing behind him.
She looked towards the saner man who had suddenly become her light as Touya quickly shut up after pouting at Ly.
"Why are you guys here?" asked Katya as she spotted the rest of the people that had followed him.
"We never did introduce ourselves did we," said Ly skipping right over her question with a smile, pointing to himself then the robot like short man. "My name is Ly Binh Quan, call me Ly, most people do and this here is Kyler."
Kyler gave a nod to acknowledge his name but then she saw an absolutely titanic man, standing head and shoulders above both Touya and Ly with wild face and a predatory gaze. She had seen looks like those on the long list of people she fought but this man gave her a more overbearing feeling.
"My name is Quedell Amehlo," he growled out with a feral grin and held out his hand.
She raised an eyebrow and he laughed, the voice that came out was akin to thunder as she winced at the loudness.
"Uh…pleasure," she said shaking his hand. "Ka…Xander."
She almost let slip her real name, she adjusted her hood to hide her nervousness and then cleared her throat.
"I got all your names but that still doesn't explain what all you are doing here?"
"Oh…we followed you to see what was going on," Touya chirped in. "It seemed fun."
Again her face twitched as she clenched her fist. 'Fun'…'fun', that wasn't the word she'd use. She had gotten into two fights, nearly had her identity revealed, twice and all this occurred in the span of ten minutes, the stress she was feeling currently was only second to the rage building up in her. She huffed and pushed past them to the bald man that laying on the ground. Truthfully she could have probably got the information she wanted from one of the other unfortunates she knocked out but her single minded aggression wanted this information out of the bald a** that screwed with her. She walked up to him and kicked him in the stomach which slowly stirred life back into him.
"Wha…was goin' on?" he asked as he groaned.
"I'm in the process of breaking your damn spine," she hissed as she grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him up.
Suddenly his eyes regained life as his face contorted horribly, well more horribly because of his broken nose. It was honestly a sight to behold with blood and mucus streaming together. He stared right into those cold blue eyes and gulped.
"I told you lead me to my friend," she said, slowly tightening her grip on his shirt. "You lead me to yours."
She cocked her hand back and landed one on his gut making him choke and cough as he accidentally swallowed blood and mucus.
"She's quite vicious isn't she?" said a voice from behind her causing her to tense but then she remembered it was just the annoying guy and his annoying friends.
She pulled back and punched him again.
"You really know how to test my patience," said Katya gnashing her teeth, a sound the bald man found quite disconcerting and at this moment terrifying. "I'll ask you one final time, where is Kriti, if you lead me to another group of your friends I will tie you up and throw you into a river then I'll watch as you enjoy your sweet time drowning."
He gulped as this threat was a little more close to him and a lot more realistic. In amongst the rumors he had heard of Xander the Maw, there were reports that he had thrown a man into a lake with his hands and feet bound and then the Prowlers (Xander's gang) and Xander proceeded to laugh as he struggled stay afloat and finally drown. This tale had spread and proliferated and with it many details were added on turning Xander, the leader of prowlers into 'Xander the Maw'. Her hand on his shirt clenched tightening it around his neck and he started wheezing.
"I…I'll te-ll yo-u!" he croaked out and the grip loosened tightly, he had half a mind to try something but then saw those eyes and he felt like someone had poured a bucket of ice cold water over him.
He shivered as he tried to make himself sit up but with strength Katya pushed him down again.
"You were going to tell me something," she hissed out.
"She's in the building," he said wheezing. "The people you took out where just standing guard outside."
"If this is a lie…" she snarled but he hurriedly shook his head.
"It…it's no-t I-I promise," he wheezed out again.
She punched him in the back of the head and his forehead hit the concrete knocking him out again. Suddenly she felt a presence behind and her and struck back only to find her hand grabbed again by the same man.
"Really now," said Touya.
"Stop sneaking up behind me," she hissed out and grabbed his hand and flipped back intending to land a kick on his head.
She missed and landed back on her feet and twisted her arm free and she saw that now his expression didn't seem so lazy but rather he seemed amused.
"D'you want me to take care of this, mate," said the giant of a man behind him with dreadlocks for hair, Quedell was his name as she recalled and she flinched back as he came forward letting loose a momentum akin to a juggernaut.
Touya held out his hand to stop the man.
"No, as I said, I just came to watch," he said eyeing her carefully, once again she nervously adjusted her hood and bandanna.
"What do you want?" she asked sighing. "Why do you keep following me?"
"Until I get you to lift your seal and finish up our contract, I can hardly let you go can I now," he said moving past Quedell and coming up to her but this time she stood her ground to her utmost joy and stared right back up into his grinning face whilst furling up her fist.
"I'll do that," she said slowly, then she nodded towards the building. "As soon as I get my friend out of there."
She then proceeded to walk past Touya when she suddenly paused and flicked a jab out towards his face quite suddenly, something he caught yet again and this time she eyed him carefully without any prejudice. She knew Touya was skilled and the man she was assuming was African (she didn't have a better guess) was obviously powerful, she had never felt powerless before in her life until she had met this hulking monster, she didn't know about the other two but the quiet and expressionless man unnerved her. The only one that seemed somewhat friendly was Ly. As she walked past them, Ly suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Why do you act like this?" he asked with a smile that never quite reached his eyes.
She shot back, shocked at the question all of a sudden as the worst of thoughts came to her mind.