Glass exploded towards Nataly. Her eyes widened as a white haired boy with a red streak of dye and flippant eyes crashed through the window, knives out. Nataly barely had time to swing her own weapon out. It caught the boy's blade and sparks flickered to life.
The boy laughed out loud, eyes lit up with fiery passion. Delighted she had blocked? Was this guy for real?
He danced back out of reach as she swung a pistol from its holster, firing two shots. The boy jumped back through the window. She had to hand it to him, he was pretty flexible.
A knife whistled past Nataly, catching her left cheek.
It stung.
Pesky wild dogs. Without anything to constrain them, they ran wild. This boy was living breathing, killing, truth of that! Order was needed. Stupid people didn't see that, turning their stupid eyes away from the stupid truth staring them in their stupid eyes. Man! When would the world wake up!
Another knife flew past. this one nestled itself in her arm. She cursed, dropping her gun.
'Focus on the mission,' she thought. 'act now, complain later.'
She rolled back into action---quite literally. She dropped into a roll as three more knives flew past, scooping her fallen gun. She dodged and made a dive for the window. When she pulled herself up, lights blinded her from inside. What the---
Pain exploded in her stomach. Nataly gasped, squinting as her vision cleared. Stupid boy had turned the lights on, but Nataly had never seen a light quite as bright. Some sort of defense mechanism? Lame.
'Lame? You would think but---'
Another knife greeted her shin, and she fell to one knee.
'---it's pretty effective.' Nataly finished her thought. She gritted her teeth, raising her arm; ready to shoot the first thing that moved. She finally got her first good view of the shed.
Typical two story building, with a door and two windows on the bottom floor. From every other shack in the country, Nataly bet her bottom dollar not a single window was upstairs. Probably more of an attic than a room. Likely to have stairs with a door at the top---trapdoor or not.
Sure enough, a gloomy staircase---looking more depressed than an honors biology student---occupied one corner of the room. Besides the stairs a desk stood with a mountain of precariously stacked books as well as a pen, reading lamp and a few coins. The lamp was plugged in, but the light was dark. An orange extension cord snaked up from the outlet, winding its way up the wall, and hanging among the wooden beams above. Long white ceiling lights attached to wooden pillars were wrapped up in cords; like presents.
Silence echoed loudly across the room. Dust settled down, laying back on the ground after being disturbed by the unusual movement.
Nataly scanned the room. He was close by...but where?
"BOO!" A face popped in through the window.
How had he---
A knife sliced her cheek again, making a perfect x with the first cut. Nataly got the feeling he was going easy on her. Could he have killed her already? Gah! Screw that!
She shoot at him a couple times, missing the first time. The second bullet took the guy on his shoulder. He didn't even flinch.
He blinked.
His smile widened.
And five knives appeared in each hand, ready to throw.
Nataly sighed. 'What a work of art.'
First time out on the field and she had to meet a psycho like him. Who knew people were that crazy---in the 'why aren't you in an asylum' sense. Geez. Someone really ought to get more police or something. If she'd learned one thing it was this:
People were wild.
******
[Kai!]
Kai did not respond.
[...]
[Initiating forced emergency shock]
[This may take a moment...]
Something was happening downstairs. Although White wasn't the brightest when it came to timing, he was smart enough not to burn their safe-houses down---well minus the first time they'd met. No one talked about that.
Roe rummaged through the trunk by the window, hastily pulling things out.
[Preparations: 15%]
Soyer edged towards the window. White wouldn't last long if more came. Now that their location was discovered, the best thing they could do was scram.
Crash!
"Roe..." Soyer leaned against the window.
"Yeah, yeah." Roe's muffled voice replied. "I'm coming. This would go a lot faster if ya gave me a hand."
Soyer sighed, pushing away from the window and helping Roe. Soyer leaned down, peering into the random junk Roe called treasure. "I value my life more than this garbage you know."
"Your life IS garbage."
Soyer scratched his head and sighed in defeat. "Yeah, can't argue with that one."
[33.3%]
Roe dug out a satin dress, a ruby necklace, two small golden rings, a handful of cash, and a loudspeaker.
"You're not actually thinking about bringing that, are you?" Soyer asked, unimpressed.
"Course not, that's yer job." He handed Soyer the speaker, who cursed as he almost dropped it. "Butcha know what's better than that---"
"Leave the boy."
"Aww come on I can---"
"Roe."
Roe stared defiantly at Soyer, but a loud crash from below finally knocked some sense into him. His hat fell off.
Roe snorted. "'Yeah whatever." Roe shoved the rest of his goods in a bag and shouldered it, snatching his fallen hat.
'About time.' Soyer sighed internally.
...they didn't have much of it left.
[50%]
The window was prayed open, and the night air rushed past the two frantic figures.
Complete opposites. How about that?
Horns honked in the distance, and a gentle breeze picked up Soyer's white hair, tossing it from side to side. He creased his eyebrows looking for a way down the building. Nothing but a small cherry tree lay beneath them. It wasn't a very high drop, but it was sure to cause some noise. Enough for whatever---or whoever---was downstairs to investigate. Man these nosy people. Couldn't keep to themselves? Someone ought to teach them something.
'Not me.' Soyer thought. 'Only thing I can teach, is how to keep your mouth shut.'
A quality more people should possess.
[77.8%]
Roe placed his bag on the edge of the window, he placed his hands on the edge, about to lift himself up. Something beeped in the room.
Roe stopped. "Did you hear that?" He asked, glancing back into the room.
Soyer paused.
Beep.
"There!" Roe slipped back into the room, and froze. "A phone?"
Beep.
Barely audible, almost impossible to make out. It was a mechanical beep, like some electronic device. Faintly, it beeped again.
This time, Roe found its location:
The closet.
[89%]
Downstairs was silent. Whatever shenanigans had been going on, it was drawing to a close. They needed to leave, before more unwanted attention showed up. For all they knew the house was already surrounded. Getting thrown in jail wasn't exactly on Soyer's bucket list---although it might have been on White's.
A huge creek sounded as Roe opened the closet door. The boy fell out, landing with a thud on the floor.
'Poor guy.' Soyer thought. He hadn't the heart to help the boy, but pity was another thing.
The beeping was louder, and Roe went through Kai's pockets. He fished out a flat case-like container, a navy blue textured box with engraved letters VPP. It looked expensive.
[95%]
"What the.." Roe examined the box. "You know what this is?"
Soyer's eye twitched. "To Perdition with that! Glory knows what it is!" He said as loud as he dared. "Through it in your bag! We don't have all day!"
As if in agreement, a loud "BOO!" was heard. Two gunshots were the last shove Roe and Soyer needed; the two were out the window faster than Freshies run to a lunch line.
[99.9%]
[100% Completion!]
[Requisitioning shock in 10...9...]
*****
Nataly slumped against the wall, exhausted. Her guns lay discarded on the floor somewhere. She'd dropped them when the ammunition had run out, stupid things. The boy's knives on the other hand...how many did he carry? He seemed to have a never ending supply of them. If someone had told her knives could win against a gun, she'd have called them stupid. But after what she'd just experienced, Nataly had to admit this guy had skills---she'd still have found another reason to call said person stupid, it was, after all, her favorite word.
Pain stole her mind off of stupid people, and for the first time in a while, she found she couldn't say a word---her wounds made sure of that.
The boy had stopped attacking her. Nataly didn't know if he thought her dead, or if he'd lost interest in her. He was sitting a few feet away, his head cocked, with an odd blank expression on his face. Realistically, he looked bored. But who could be bored at a time like this?
"Why'd you stop?" The boy spoke, not looking at Nataly.
She coughed. 'Talking to an enemy? Is he stupid? I'm not gonna reply.'
The boy's eyes found hers. "You should keep attacking." He motioned to her pistols, a couple meters away. "I'll let you get your weapon." He stared at her, wide eyed.
Nataly stared right back. Was he serious? She almost laughed from hysteria.
Giving her another chance to beat him? More like getting another chance to beat her.
Didn't matter anyways, the ammunition was long spent, shells littered the floor, reminders of every miss she'd made. Her aim sure needed improving, something the boy sitting in front of her had already mastered. He really was a bad match-up for her.
"Please.." the boy begged. He'd picked up her gun, and was offering it to her, a wild look in his eyes. "I want..to fight you again...rabbit."
Nataly's eyebrows shot up. Rabbit? Rabbit! RABBIT!!!
She leaped to her feet and flicked her short emergency dagger from its place in her boot. WHO HAD HE JUST CALLED A RABBIT!?
Nataly's blade came down quicker than either of them expected, aimed directly for the boy's neck.
A glimmer of metal flashed across the room, and a chirpy attitude and even chirpier face filled Nataly's vision. Familiar dusty blonde hair, closed happy eyes. The nuclear bomb of charisma spilled over the man's sharp features and calm aura. Everything about the guy bothered Nataly. Who could keep up such a strong, happy front for so long? It seemed fake, forced somehow. No one else appeared to notice. Perhaps knowing Quinn's history explained her feelings.
"Nataly Harper!" Quinn smiled over his smile. "What did I say about killing the criminals? Hm??"
Nataly lowered her blade. "Not like it'd have touched him anyway."
"Thanks so much for your work on this case!" Quinn ignored the comment. "The rest of us will take care of Foxy here---"
"It's White."
Quinn turned to see the boy staring at the floor, eyes still wide.
"Sorry?" Quinn said.
"It's White." White said. "Not Foxy."
Quinn nodded. "I'll take care of mister White here."
Quinn shouted, and people in black suits soon flooded the room, surrounding the red haired boy, who didn't seem to mind.
Quinn motioned up above. "Go check the upstairs, Harper. Go through anything suspicious and keep an eye open for stragglers. Don't think there's a window but you never know. This is an older model after all."
Nataly did the formal salute, hating the respect she had to show him and headed up the stairs.
She stubbed her toe on the way up, and choked on the dust freely supplied. Nataly grappled with the door for a minute, finally kicking it open with a few curses.
Stupid door.
When she reached through the door she heard shuffling and froze.
'Movement?' Nataly thought. 'Who's up here? Are there more of them?'
Cautious, she peered through the dark and spotted a shadow outlined by light gently shining down from an opened window. Nataly pulled out her knife, and crept forwards.
She stepped into the light...
...and found he was staring straight at her.
"ACK! You're HOT!" The boy yelped.