The crowd had gone silent as the fight between Cade and Angel began. The match went out about how Lawrence expected it, with Cade being completely out of his element against the Lost Number. The medic did end up surprising Lawrence with the flash that blinded Angel enough to go on the defensive. For a moment. Angel once again got on top and started torturing the man. Without looking away from the fight, Lawrence reached out and caught Olivia’s arm. The woman stood up and was fully intent on stopping the fight. “Don’t,” he said firmly. He jerked his head towards Samad, who was entering the box. “He’s not your problem.” He could feel Oliva’s eyes burning into the side of his head as he watched the fight. Eventually, she sat back down and folded her arms across her chest. Soon, the fight was over, and Samad and Cade were both taken back to the infirmary. Lawrence rose to his feet and made his way to the box. He’d be facing off against Maeve, how appropriate, the deaf man against the banshee. Once he was on his side of the box, he faced Maeve and bowed his head slightly. [color=#4AC948]“It’s going to be hard to top the last fight,”[/color] Lawrence said sardonically to the banshee before taking a defensive stance. Maeve sighed and then leaned against the wall, watching Cade get the shit beat out of him. Angel had a point beyond this, it was just taking Samad forever to get it. Not surprising, she supposed, considering that he was an asshole who didn’t care for anyone but himself, and not even very much of that. After it was over, and Angel carried the two broken Asylums out of The Box, she took her position across from Lawrence. [color=red]“Of course we can, after all, you’re gonna give me more of a fight than Cade gave Angel right? Out come is gonna be the same for you, certainly, but we can make it a show.”[/color] Maeve smirked, rocking lightly back and forth on her heels. She apparently didn’t consider Lawrence a threat or a challenge. [color=red]”I’ll give you the first go.”[/color] [color=#4AC948]”Very well,”[/color] Lawrence said as he moved cautiously towards Maeve, still in a defensive stance, his fingers twitching slightly. [color=#4AC948]“I am curious, though. Just how reliant are you on your hearing? Obviously, I’m standing in front of you, talking.”[/color] Warm air blew at Maeve’s neck and his voice whispered behind her. “But how would you react to silence?”[/color] After Lawrence finished speaking, an all surrounding silence filled The Box, and Lawrence stepped forward and threw a jab at Maeve. Maeve grinned at the voice behind her. [color=red]”I’ve survived over a dozen missions with the Ante Mortem. You’re gonna have to do better than that.”[/color] As her hearing disappeared she took a step back, hand raising as if in surprise. When Lawrence got close, dozens of shards of bone shot from her hand, straight at him. Not big enough to do any serious damage, unless they hit an eye, but it’d sting like all hell. She immediately ducked low afterwards, pivoting on her hands and kicking her leg out in an attempt to sweep Lawrence’s legs out from beneath him. Lawrence hissed as the bone shards stuck into him, others slicing past him and leaving small cuts. A few quick soundless words and the bones embedded in him extracted themselves and fell to the ground. The leg sweep knocked him to the ground and knocked the wind out of him. He rolled backwards and away from Maeve, attempting to keep his distance. His mouth started moving again and soon, voices barely perceptible began to whisper in her ears. Maeve’s fist crashed where Lawrence’s head had been moments before, smoothly rising to her own feet as he rolled away. [color=red]”Come now, the voices won’t work on me.”[/color] She found it odd to speak but not hear her own voice. It was a minor thing, tucked into the back of her mind as she focused on Lawrence. Again, Lawrence assumed a defensive stance and waited for Maeve to make her move. He circled around her slowly, his eyes scanning the ring and the area around it. She walked towards him, arms raised. As she did so, bone sprouted from her forearms and began to rapidly take shape, forming two Tonfas on Maeve’s arms. At the same time, thick bone covered her knee. Just wide enough to give her knees more impact, but not wide enough to impede movement. She gave her new weapons an experimental jab and move, nodding in satisfaction. Muttering a quick phrase in Irish, a light layer of bone covering her back and the back of her head, Maeve darted forward, launching a punch at Lawrence’s chest. Lawrence threw his arm across his body to slap the outside of Maeve’s arm and deflect the punch away from his chest. In his scan of the surroundings, he spotted Olivia moving from where she had been sitting towards Kiara. The beginnings of an idea started to form in his mind. As he stayed on the defensive with Maeve, we watched as Olivia took a seat next to Kiara. The whispers in Maeve’s ears faded away as was replaced with the murmurings of the crowd, and soon after, Olivia’s voice. [color=#8E8E38]“My money’s on Maeve.”[/color] Lawrence shook his head slightly, and the whispers started to return. As her arm was slapped away, Maeve stepped into the motion before jerking her elbow back towards Lawrence’s ribs. The end of the bone tonfa moved unnaturally fast towards his ribs, aided by her alchemy. As she heard the voice of Olivia, she shook her head, smiling ruefully. [color=red]“You two haven’t figured things out yet, eh?”[/color] Kiara looked over at Olivia, eyebrow raised. [color=darkgreen]“What, no faith in your partner? You may be right though. He’s letting her set the pace, and that’s dangerous with someone like Maeve. Unless he’s got a secret plan up his sleeve, he’s gonna lose.”[/color] Lawrence pivoted on his feet and the tonfa whistled past, just barely grazing his his side. A few quick steps back and he was out of Maeve’s reach for the moment. Olivia giggled. [color=#8E8E38]:Quite the opposite, actually. It’s just that we always keep our link open. Something about having an extra set of ears being helpful. I don’t know. I’m just trying to annoy him. Payback for him always fiddling with his stupid Rubik’s cube. I don’t care if he says it’s to keep his fingers from itching, whatever that means. It’s sooooo annoying.”[/color] The corner of Lawrence’s mouth twitched. [color=darkgreen]“Well, at least you’ve learned that. Some of our teammates haven’t learned to connect, and that’ll get them killed.”[/color] Olivia clapped her hands together. [color=#8E8E38]“Ah, there it is. I’m good now. Maeve may be setting the pace, but that’s how he works.”[/color] She leaned forward and muttered under her breath. [color=#8E8E38]”Everybody’s got a rhythm.”[/color] Her fingers drumming idly against the seat in a rhythm that followed along with Maeve’s movement. She winced and held a hand up to her ribs as Maeve just barely brushed past Lawrence. Kiara looked pointedly at Olivia’s tapping fingers. She knew how easy it’d be to aid either of their partners without anyone knowing. She didn’t think the two would cheat, but neither did she doubt it’d be possible. [color=darkgreen]“And everyone has a shadow. How long have you two been working together?”[/color] Maeve fell back into a stance, slightly frustrated. This wasn’t working. He’d just keep dodging until she left an opening. [color=red][i]New strategy then.[/i][/color] She took a step forward, aiming a straight punch towards Lawrence’s head. It fell several inches short, and right as it did Maeve spoke. [color=red]“[i]Dall.[/i]”[/color] A bright, blinding, ray of light burst from the tonfa, aimed directly at Lawrence’s face. Olivia tilted her head to the side. [color=#8E8E38]”Well, we’ve been Asylums for four years, but we both arrived here about fifteen years ago. I was not in a good place and he helped me figure things out after I surged.”[/color] She leaned back, pulled her knees close to her chest and hugged them. [color=#8E8E38]”I think the only reason he’s an Asylum is because he stayed to help me…:[/color] Lawrence risked a glance over Maeve’s shoulder towards the bleachers where Olivia sat and grimaced. She was close to another spiral and he didn’t have the time to stop her from descending it. He had to hope that Maeve’s partner would do something. It was as he turned back to the fight that he realized that he had messed up. Maeve’s tonfa was pointed right in his face. Then he was blinded by the sudden flash of light that erupted from the bone weapon. On the bleachers, Olivia gasped loudly and started rubbing her eyes. Whatever Maeve had done to blind Lawrence, it affected Olivia as well. [color=#8E8E38]”Stupid open link”[/color] She grumbled as she tried to rub the afterimage out of her eyes. Lawrence mentally cursed as the light blinded him. He massaged his eyes furiously to try to stop the afterimage. The gasp he heard from Olivia was perfect, though. He had been trying to figure out a way to introduce the next element into the fight. Right after Olivia’s gasp, a familiar, obnoxious voice spoke up, but only in Maeve’s ear as if it were still part of what Olivia was hearing. “Your partner sure did a number on me. Don’t you [i]dare[/i] move or say a word or the pretty one here gets a knife between the ribs. Too bad you aren’t fighting in the box, or else I woulda been able to stick that damn siren. You’ll do, though. What are the chances of another Asylum surviving a partner’s death, hmmm?” Kiara looked over at Oliva, concerned. [color=darkgreen]“I’m sure there’s more to it than that. You’re both remarkably well connected and working together. You support each other. There are teams who have been working together four times as long as you, and still refuse to connect and work together. They stumble through things, loathing each other. Trust me Olivia, he needs you as much as you need him.”[/color] She leaned in conspiratorially. [color=darkgreen]“And if you ask me, you got the better end of the deal. Do you know how often Maeve’s thoughts run, ah, [i]risque?[/i] A lot! I don’t need to have her sudden daydreams when I’m on a mission.”[/color] [color=darkgreen]“A tip? Close your link just a little. You’ll still be able to sense him and hear his thoughts, but things that affect him shouldn’t hit you too hard. If you play with it, you might be able to leave him with that hearing he likes so much.”[/color] Maeve frowned, about to protest, when the voice slid through her ear. It was that bastard from before they all gathered on the mission in Venice, the one who bragged about killing kids. She visibly stiffened, and instead of capitalizing on Lawrence’s blindness her head whipped to Kiara. [color=red][i]Kiara! Does that fucker have you!?[/i][/color] [color=darkgreen][i]What? Who are you talking about Maeve. I’m just chatting with Lawrence’s partner. She’s a really sweet girl.[/i][/color] [color=red][i]Ohhh. That clever son of a bitch.[/i][/color] [color=darkgreen][i]I’m sure his mother isn’t a dog.[/i][/color] [color=red][i]You’re not funny.[/i][/color] [color=darkgreen][i]I disagree![/i][/color] Maeve looked back at Lawrence and shook her head. He almost had her, if he hadn’t forgot to account for their own link. It was [color=red] “That was clever, I’ll give you that.”[/color] She suddenly rushed in, faking a punch to his head again and sweeping her leg low. Lawrence continued a stream of curses in his mind as he had to use the distraction to work on clearing up his vision. Which it mostly had, the lower half of his vision was yet to return. He smirked as he read Maeve’s lips. Had he not been against an Asylum, it would have definitely given him an advantage. He ducked out of the way of what he thought to be a punch, and once again was caught by her leg. With his legs swept out from underneath him again within moments, he fell to the ground and hit hard. The moment he hit the ground, something in Lawrence’s mind snapped, and a void filled the place where Olivia’s presence should have been. He his mouth stopped moving, and shroud of silence and the whispers in Maeve’s ears stopped. Olivia grinned at Kiara, [color=#8E8E38]”Yeah, I’ve seen her flirting firsthand. If she’s like that all the time, I don’t envy you. Though, I’m not sure if you could handle all the counting”[/color] She looked over to The Box just as Maeve was running towards Lawrence. [color=#8E8E38]”I don’t usually work with the link that much. It’s usually all him, though it is open more than it was before I approached you. It’s weird, I’m not sure…”[/color] Olivia frowned and folded her arms. [color=#8E8E38]”Oh, smart. I don’t like being used like that, but-”[/color] Olivia stopped talking, and stood up, the look on her face slowly shifting to horror. She slowly held a hand up to her head. Gone. It was gone. Her link to Lawrence was gone. She dropped to a crouched position, covered her head, and let out a scream.