"Is this the place?" A man in his 20's, wearing a black suit asked his 2 similarly dressed colleagues.
"I guess so. Man this place is a dump though" Another man said, looking around at the narrow, tightly packed streets of the slums as he loosened his black tie.
They were standing in front of a low rise, dilapidated apartment complex. Makeshift clothes lines were strung up in front of every window and occasionally ran between two or more buildings, the clothes hung up on them blocking out the sun. The paint of the walls had been long peeled off, dyeing every building in a monotonous dark shade of grey and the occasional crack in the walls revealed their failing foundations and structure.
The men winced at the putrid, rotting smell that permeated through every nook and cranny of the street, the air was so tainted that breathing normally became a hassle. This coupled with the incessant humming of hundreds upon hundreds of air conditioning units all tightly packed together was enough to put anyone on edge.
This was a place for the lowest of the low. Criminals, crooks, fugitives, outcasts and most importantly, people who just happened to get screwed over by an unfair system, gathered en masse in places like these, often leading to overcrowded apartments and horrid living conditions.
The 3 men were only there to do a quick job and haul ass. Yet that didn't make it any easier for them, people born and raised in opulence, to stand in a place like this for more than a few minutes.
"In and out right?" One of the men asked.
"We can only hope so." Another man sighed.
"A routine job boys. Taking out rogues is what we specialize in. Let's go. Now."
The men entered the building and looked around when a cold, cold shiver ran down their spines as they felt an overbearing aura piercing them to their very core along with a set of eyes boring holes through their souls, seeing every sin and vice they ever committed and partaken in, their whole beings laid bare in front of the world to see.
Yet as quickly as the presence appeared, it disappeared. The men took in a breath of fresh air as their lungs began functioning normally again.
"Can I help you?" A deep yet feminine voice came from behind the men.
'My senses didn't pick up on her!' The men thought in unison as they turned around to face the girl.
She stood at a tall, 175 centimeter while her face looked no older than 17, yet there was no trace of innocence on it. Her brows were tightly knit in a frown, while her emerald green eyes stared at the men with enough hatred to set them all ablaze.
"What are you staring at, fuckwads. Get out of my face before I smash your skulls in." The woman said, noticing their uniforms.
The three men collectively had no idea what to do. They had not expected anyone to interfere, now that there were witnesses though, there was little they could do.
"We're with the awakened investigation bureau, please, try to cooperate with us." One of the men regained his cool as he flashed his badge at the woman, the other two readying their magic to take out the witness.
"For the last time, what do you want?" The woman's scowl only got deeper.
"We're looking for a person named Montblanc. Do you happen to know if she lives in this building?." The man awkwardly smiled.
The woman's eyes remained focused as she stared down at the man talking to her, not even flinching when she heard her own name being mentioned by an investigator.
The men felt a cold sweat enveloping their bodies as they looked at the young and seemingly harmless woman in front of them.
'Is it her?' One of the men used his unique ability to communicate telepathically with his colleagues.
'She has to be, what kind of regular person has this type of aura?'
'What now?'
'Get ready to engage.'
They all began using water magic to remove the sweat from their bodies while simultaneously getting other elements ready to engage. They steeled their gazes, ready to attack at the slightest provocation.
The men only heard the sound of someone snapping their fingers before they were transported to an unfamiliar place.
They were now all sitting down on a small, worn-out leather couch while the woman sat on a large settee across from them.
"What do you want with me, you dickheads?" She asked legs and fingers crossed, her scowl still ever-present.
The three men, seemingly confused by the sudden transportation, could only stare blankly at the woman.
"I asked you a question." Her eyes were now reduced to fiery slits.
'What just happened?'
'Captain, what now?' Two of the men telepathically asked.
'Attack!'
"You witch!" One of the men screamed as he suddenly stood up and conjured a tendril of lightning that coiled around his index finger, shooting out towards the woman in front of him. The ruse was up and the men decided to take the initiative.
The woman only snapped her fingers again as their places were swapped, the tendril of lightning now hitting its own caster and reducing him to a charred corpse while she appeared between the 2 remaining men.
She conjured a small bullet of air at the tip of her finger and shot it at one of the men's temples, instantly killing him.
The last man jumped away just in time to avoid another air bullet aimed at his head and activated his own ability.
Then, everything in the room flipped upside down, and the woman, along with the corpses fell down to the ceiling.
"You're not the only one with a gift!" The man declared, unaffected by the gravitational shift.
The desperation of the situation caused both parties to become unusually aggravated. A single slip-up meant death in this world of theirs.
He brought up his arm and flicked his wrist, the room returning to its original orientation causing the woman to fall against the floor.
"You fucker!!" She screamed out in anger as she surrounded herself in air bullets ready to fire at a moment's notice.
"No you don't!" The man understood the woman's plan and focused his gravitational powers on her hands, making it so she can't snap her fingers.
Yet the air bullets fired towards her anyway. The man, thinking she just blundered away her life, smiled crudely at the sight.
Yet his perspective suddenly shifted. Confused, the man looked around only to see the woman standing in the place he stood a mere second ago, an onslaught of air bullets closing in on him.
'That's impossible, she used a gift without a cue. Or did she trick me into thinking that was her cue?' The man debated as the air bullets turned his flesh and bones into swiss cheese, not even giving him time to conjure up a defense.
The whole exchange lasted no more than 30 seconds, yet blood adorned the woman's floors and walls, and the smell of burning flesh seeped into every atom of fabric in the apartment.
"Not again." The woman groaned. "How did they find me so quickly? I gotta move out of here now. Pity, I liked the place." She said, as she stepped over the men's corpses and headed into the bathroom, making sure not to step on any of the blood lining the floor.
Arriving in front of her sink, the woman began taking off her blood-stained clothes and looked at herself in the mirror.
'Yep, stunning as always. Man I look good.' Completely ignoring the life-threatening situation she found herself in mere seconds ago, the woman playfully jumped and twirled around the mirror, observing herself.
'My hair is a mess though.' She looked at her shoulder-length jet-black hair, filled with grease, grime, and blood.
She stepped into the shower that was just wide enough to fit one person and turned on the water. She especially liked this apartment because water shortages were very rare, and if she was lucky enough, hot water would flow through the pipes.
Today was not a hot water day, unfortunately.
She hopped out of the shower and put on a pair of sweatpants and a button-up shirt that was a few sizes too big for her.
Walking back into the living room while still drying her hair with an old t-shirt, she pondered over what to do with the corpses.
She walked over to their corpses, took out the badges from the men's pockets, and looked at their pictures and details.
'Ew.'
She put the badges into her pockets, piled up the corpses, and used fire magic to set them alight until only charred bones remained. Then she set those on fire until they turned into ash.
She took one last look at the apartment before collecting most of her stuff and burning the rest.
'Fuck the bureau, man.'