[center][h2][color=lightgoldenrodyellow]Holly Farstel[/color] and [b]White Rabbit[/b][/h2][/center]
[center][i]Written by [@datadogie] and [@GingerBoi123][/i][/center]

It took a while before Holly was ready to let go of Rabbit, but she only did it when she was sure she was rid of her emotions for the moment. She never liked the idea of halting an emotional wave just for it to come back moments later and the whole cycle to start over again - she just found it frustrating. She was used to seeing gruesome and horrible things, many times having to walk past some of it as it happened right before her. It was the idea of those things happening to her that gave her the shudders.

Holly signalled the completion of her upsetedness by removing her arms from around the Rabbit. She sucked in a shaky breath through her teeth, and took a moment to stare at Rabbit. She still didn’t like him, nor did she really trust him. A side of her wanted him to go away, to leave her alone. Another part of her knew that he was, at least until she got another weapon of some sort, her only form of protection now. Holly was almost forced into having to stay with him, but she put a footnote in her head that she could ditch him at any time. She knew she wouldn’t feel any remorse over such an action.

Even so, there was a little bit of hesitation in Holly’s next set of words. She knew what [i]she[/i] wanted to do, but she didn’t know if she could do it with him tagging along. Rabbit was to conspicious for not only the alleys and sewers but for the streets, too. Holly also had no doubt in her mind that Rabbit had his own enemies, and probably plenty more had made him an enemy in return, too. She asked, in a shaky voice nonetheless. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“What now?”[/color]

Rabbit slowly stood up, turning away for a second to affix his white tie back to his neck before turning back to the young girl. You’ve really fucked it up now Rabbit… It’s not like he could just leave her like that, even though she probably wanted to never see him again. On the other hand, what else [i]could[/i] they do? The Hitman sighed and offered a hand to Holly, offering to help her up off of the floor. [b]”I dunno… Maybe we should… try starting from the right foot this time?”[/b] He nervously chuckled. [b]”I’m the White Rabbit… or just Rabbit usually…”[/b]

Whilst a part of her mind told her not to take the hand he offered to her, Holly did it anyways - she didn’t like him, but that didn’t mean she had to be [i]too[/i] rude. As selfish as it was, and as little as it was, a helping hand up benefitted her by getting her off of the ground, and so she’d accept it. She knew others that wouldn’t even do that, and to be fair to them, to strangers she would sometimes not do that, either.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“Well Rabbit, you already know my name,”[/color] Holly replies, trying to keep the venom out of her voice. She gave her clothes a little bit of a dusting off now that she was back on her feet. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“And starting anew is a fake concept. I appreciate the gesture of starting again, but nobody ever truly forgets the past.”[/color]

Ouch. That certainly was one way to put it. Rabbit’s robotic ears drooped down a little as he rubbed the back of his neck. [b]”Well… guess I tried at least…”[/b] He awkwardly chuckled as he began to check either side of the alley. [b]”I think we lost those guys.”[/b] Rabbit noted as he began to look down at his now bloodied clothes. Well, that’s certainly going to be an issue (as if his outfit wasn’t garish enough). Rabbit then looked down into his pocket, remembering that he still got the credits for that job. The man pulled out the pack, beginning to count them up before his ears perked back up. [b]”Wanna spend this?”[/b] He suggested, waving the credits.

As she saw the credits, Holly became a little bit confused with herself. At first, she wanted to say yes, to indeed agree that she wanted to spend the credits and perhaps have some fun with them - she could probably even use them to buy a cheap little pistol somewhere if it was around the regular for a kidnapping, though she had no idea how much Rabbit usually charged. Even a crappy homemade pistol would be enough to ward off most people, however; nobody liked getting shot.

But on the other hand, those credits were the very cause of everything that had happened. She would have been in no danger if those credits had not been promised to the very man in front of her. She would have pawned off her stolen phones - which still rested within her backpack - for a usual fee, and continued on her days as normal; perhaps use the credits on a hotel room for the night to have a comfortable bed to sleep in, perhaps gotten herself a decent meal.

Holly eyed the credits for a few moments longer, before shaking her head. If Rabbit hadn’t changed his mind at the last moment, those credits would have resulted in her being locked away in a cage for a few nights and then transportation to the place that she would not have wanted to go, she knew that. It was the only reason she would have been picked out as a target when there were many other girls like her out there. It made her wonder how exactly she had been picked out as the target, and primarily, who ratted her out and if it was their fault.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“No,”[/color] Holly half-heartedly responded. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I don’t want anything to do with those credits. You can keep them, don’t throw them away or anything, that would make me feel worse. I don’t care if you spend them on me as long as I don’t know about it. Just don’t give them to me.”[/color] She rolled her shoulders a little, trying to relax herself a little bit. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I’m fine.”[/color]

Rabbit tilted his head before shrugging and slipping the credits away. [b]”Suit yourself, I guess… Offer’s there if you change your mind.”[/b] Rabbit added before leaning against the wall behind him. Well, he wasn’t going to [i]not[/i] respect her wishes after everything he put her through but damn this felt even more difficult than getting her in the first place. [b]”Sooo…. What’s your thing?”[/b] He inquired, awkwardly, only then realising that he should probably be more specific. [b]”I mean… you’re a Para, right? Only reason they’d give you to Lorne anyways.”[/b]

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“You mean you weren’t told?”[/color] Holly asks, tilting her head a little. She spoke her next thoughts aloud, [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I’m surprised they wouldn’t have told you as part of your, I don’t know, [i]tasking[/i] or whatever.”[/color] She half-expected what she said was true, and that perhaps they did tell him and it was just another attempt at conversation. She indulged in it, however, giving up at least partially on her ignorant behaviour. She needed something to take her mind off of the recent happenings, anyhow.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I can slow everything down. At least, for me. I can boost my reaction times a lot, and see things a lot slower than everyone else because my brain computes it faster. Something like that,”[/color] Holly explained, her fingers coming up to tap at her chin as she tried to think of an example. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“Oh, like your sword. It’s a high frequency one, right? I could tell because when I was looking at it when we first met, I could see it wiggling a little as it vibrated, going slowly. Was probably wiggling very quickly for you, because it’s vibrating, but I could see it as it buzzed.”[/color] She moved her hand from her chin, making it do a slow vibrating motion as a visual representation of her example. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I call it Pausing, because I kind of have to stop to use it. My reaction times are super fast when I’m Paused, but that doesn’t mean [i]I’m[/i] fast. I’m just as fast as I normally am.”[/color]

Rabbit listened intently. His now ex employers didn’t choose to disclose this information, maybe not thinking it was necessary. He glanced down at his blade when Holly recognised its function before nodding and smirking behind the helmet. [b]”That’s right. It’s pretty good too. My friend made it for me, and this too.”[/b] Rabbit explained, tapping the side of his mask. Something like this Pause would be pretty useful in a lot of the situations Rabbit ends up in, which is usually because of his own ego clouding his judgement. Rabbit then unsheathed his Ninjato, twisting it around in his hand. [b]”This one has a High Frequency mode too. Ever used a sword?”[/b] He asked, offering the handle to Holly to let her get a closer look.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“A knife, but not a sword,”[/color] Holly replies, taking the handle and lifting the sword to get a look at it. It was lighter than she expected, but still was unfamiliar in her hands. She was far more used to a knife or a gun, something that she could easily hide or conceal, than a large sword. She knew how to use both of those that she was familiar with, too, despite not having to use them a lot. The sword was, however, past her knowledge of use. Rabbit clearly knew how to use it well, but it just seemed too big for her. Plus, if anyone else came running out with a sword, they’d be shot. They couldn’t just dash straight to their target like Rabbit could.

She voiced her thoughts to Rabbit; [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“Though I think a sword is a bit large and obvious if you can’t dash at your target. Plus, people’ll [i]know[/i] you’re armed. Without dashing, the second you go for this thing or run at someone, you get shot. It’s a little useless outside of, say, a subway train or bus.”[/color] Holly tried to imagine someone using the weapon in either of those situations, and couldn’t help but think a wrong swing would probably hit a lot more people than just your target. She nodded to herself in agreement with her own assessment as she handed the handle back to Rabbit.

Rabbit considered her argument, which was true if you tried to fight people head on, but that is something that he tried to avoid as much as possible. Sure, Vector Dashing made that a hell of a lot easier but if he didn’t see the shot coming then it wouldn’t matter much. He took the Ninjato carefully and sheathed it back into its scabbard. [b]”That’s why I try not to get spotted in the first place.”[/b] Rabbit retorted. [b]”And I like the reach it gives me…”[/b] He added with a shrug. For someone so young, she had a pretty smart head about combat and stuff like that. [b]”You got a good judgement about those kind of things, though I guess judgement comes pretty easy with your ability, huh?”[/b]

Holly shrugs her shoulders. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“Well, when Paused, I’ve noticed I become a little smarter, I look at things a bit more, I calculate my routes and my chances of actually completing a route without failing or being interrupted. I guess even though I’m not as smart as I am when Paused, some of that knowledge I get from being Paused stays.”[/color] She raised her eyebrows suddenly. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“Then again, in calling myself smart, I think I’m kind of an idiot.”[/color]

She slips her backpack off of her shoulders, placing it on the ground. The four phone boxes that she had taken before were removed from her backpack, and she opened one up, moving a bit of packaging out of the way so that she could get the phone out. Holly was moving with a little bit of urgency, as she realised that she had made a mistake. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I forgot to remove the EID chip in these before I stole them. They’ll probably be tracking these as stolen since I just ran straight out the front doors and didn’t get rid of the chips afterward.”[/color]

Rabbit chuckled at what Holly said about herself before noting what she said about the chips. This kind of thing was nothing new for Rabbit. He stole plenty of phones back when he was a kid, but usually they were pickpocketed rather than straight out of a store. Rabbit crouched down and took one of the other phones, unpackaging it fairly quickly and taking out the phone. [b]”Well, we better get a move on.”[/b] He commented as he began to look for any crevices to pull the back casing off.

By the time Rabbit was looking for a way to pull the casing off of his phone, Holly was already in her phone. She removed the battery, and then the phone’s motherboard, flipping it over so that she could get to the other side of it there was a tiny little pin that she was looking for that stuck up slightly, and after scrutinising the motherboard a little, she looked around for a tension wrench that she usually used to pry the thing gently out of the motherboard.

It took her a moment to realise that she hadn’t actually taken out any of her tools and they were still in her pockets. With a disassembled phone in her hands, she couldn’t put down any of the exposed parts without possibly damaging them. It wasn’t something that she wasn’t used to, however; she could pry the EID chip out with her nail, it was just a little more finicky. In a couple of moments, she had the pin out, and put it on the ground - she’d step on it once they were all in a nice pile to break. She began assembling the phone again, putting together the pieces she had taken apart, and then got to work on the next phone.

Rabbit glanced over, noticing what Holly had done and tried to imitate it as best as possible. Although he managed to get to the motherboard too, the piece started becoming more finicky for himself and his larger hand. He almost got the chip out before the phone began to slip out of his hand. Luckily he managed to catch it before anything touched the floor but it was close, the motherboard itself only a millimetre away from being ruined. He nervously chuckled as he finally managed to get the chip out and place it beside the first one and began to put it back together. [b]”Man, I never was good with this tech shit.”[/b] He muttered idly as he slipped the phone away into Holly’s backpack.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I don’t think I am either,”[/color] Holly replies, placing the third chip next to the other two, slipping the third phone into her bag and then starting quick work on the last phone. Speaking as she worked, she says, [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“I just know enough to get the job done. I pay someone to show me how to do it right, that guy gets some cash, I get myself a source of sustainable income. I sort of know how these things work, like what lots of the parts of the motherboard do, but you won’t find me in a plant manufacturing them.”[/color]

She slips the final phone into her bag, placing the final chip next to the rest. Climbing onto her feet, she slams the heel of her shoe down on the chips, crushing them all, and then twisting her foot so that she crushed them even more. Holly looks back up at Rabbit with an almost innocent shrug. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“It’s how I survive. Stuff I don’t know, I can be taught, and a lot better than any school or university. Not that I’ve been to a university, or spent a lot of time in school.”[/color]

Holly begins walking, and after a moment of hesitation, waves for him to walk with her. She had no idea where she was actually going, but didn’t want to stay in the last spot that the chips were active. [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]“In case you end up staying around me longer, if you ever want to know when I am clueless, have no plan or don’t know what to do, I’ll just be walking. Or pacing.”[/color]