Collab with Perse and Terminal

[center][b][u]Lost Haven

Chinatown

During the Bombing of the Little Sicily Bridge...[/u][/b][/center]

The man stepping out of the elevator into the hallway was dressed in nondescript jeans, with a dark shirt and jacket. His build was thick and muscled, his head was shaved completey bald, and he was wearing disposable nitrile gloves that stood out alarmingly.

Most telling, however, appeared to be the small cylindrical device that looked like an ice-pick stuck to the end of a power drill that he was casually screwing together as he calmly began walking down the hallway, his gaze already laser-focused on Jacque's door.

This guy was definitely not selling girl scout cookies.

Jacque's eyes widened as he got close enough to identify what he was holding. She cursed under her breath and looked around, trying to find something nearby to use as a weapon. She could just shoot him as soon as he opened the door but she didn't know if she'd need it to fight off those alien f*cks. That and her anger and frustration was rapidly evaporating her fear. She dashed to her bedroom, grabbed the baseball bat from beside her bed and took up a ready position on the side of the door that he would not see her immediately. There she waited with shaky but quiet breaths for him to walk through.

Her suspicions as to the tool he had been holding were confirmed when she heard the loud, grinding trill of shearing metal - it was a lockbreaker drill which he was using to core out the deadbolt. Scant seconds later the ruined, twisted lump that remained of the lock twisted on the door's frame and then fell off and onto the floor with a loud clunk.

Moments later, the man violently kicked the door in, causing the door to jostle on its hinges as it slammed directly into Jacque, standing as she was on the hinge-side of the frame.

Jacque grunted as the door slammed into her shoulder, feeling the limb zing with pain and quickly go numb. It cost her a few seconds but as soon as she could reorientate herself she stepped around the door and swung hard at the intruder. Having thankfully held back from letting out any pained noise from the impact of the door, the stranger had elected to enter the room and turn in the complete opposite direction - letting her swing take him completely by surprise, the bat catching the man right along the shoulder and glancing into his neck. If the doorframe hadn't gotten in her way, she might have been able to catch him fully in the head.

The man grunted in a low, pained voice and careened forward, both his arms spreading out for balance as he went - revealing the suppressed handgun he was holding onto, leaving no doubt whatsoever as to what this was. This was a hitman who had been sent to kill her.

Jacque immediately went in for another swing, this time coming from over her head in a power strike in an attempt to take him out before he could get back up again. The carpet would be ruined, but smashing this m*therf*cker's head in would be worth it. She was unfortunately saved the cleaning bill when the man's free hand reached out and caught against a wall-mounted cabinet, and as he steadied himself he brought his other arm around to put his gun at her - only to hit the baseball bat as she swung it. The hitman audibly swore as his arm recoiled and as the handgun was bashed straight out of his grip, pinwheeling from his grasp and across the room to slam into the opposite wall and then clatter to the ground.

The hitman recovered almost immediately and began to turn towards Jacque. [color=fff200]"Get out of my house!"[/color] she yelled, taking another swing, this time aiming for his gut. She hoped her aggressive approach would prevent him from gaining the upper hand.

That hope was dashed almost instantly when he reached out and full-out caught the bat in one hand along its length, simultaneously turning his gaze to meet hers. He made no sound save to huff heavily through his nose, giving Jaque a clear look at his enraged, crimson-hued face, and the bulging veins that were popping out along his neck. She attempted to wrest the bat from his grip for a moment, but even with both her hands on the grip she couldn't make it budge - and then, he chopped at her wrists with his free hand, which scythed through the air like a brick-shaped cleaver.

Her hands slid off the bat easily, causing her to curse and retreat. She ran to the kitchen, throwing everything she could as she went behind her at him. Then she got to the knife block and drew the largest of them, wheeling around to leave the kitchen nook - and then was sprayed with a mixed shower of drywall and wooden shrapnel as the hitman, who rather than chasing her had simply gone for his gun, started shooting at her through the partitioning wall separating the kitchen from the doorway, though thankfully being unable to see her the actual shots had missed her - if only barely, with one whizzing what must have been directly in front of her eyes before it embedded in the far kitchen wall. The gun still had a massive report despite the suppressor she had seen on it, but with all the chaos going out in the city and the alien bombing runs, chances were absolutely nobody was going to come to help even if they had heard it going off.

When the shots had started going off Jacque threw herself to the floor, dropping her bag as she hit tile. The silver communicator rattled across the floor and slid directly in front of her. She crawled forward and slammed her hand on the big red button in the center.

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Muerte was weaving expertly between cars, wrecks, and various other obstacles as he headed towards Jacque's apartment. He was aware of Cadence's petite form pressed against him, and probable would have enjoyed it much more if he wasn't so worried. At Cadence's questions he glanced down at her and said over the wind, [color=39b54a]"In order; my best friend, my ex-girlfriend, and my ex-girlfriend's apartment. She didn't make the rendevous we set up when the attack began so we're stopping by to check on her. Best case scenario she's just being stubborn."[/color] He hoped that was the case, but something in his gut felt otherwise.

[color=8dc73f]"Oooh,"[/color] Louisa said more to herself than anything else as she tried to create an image of this supposed ex-girlfriend but all she really just ended up was a sketchy version of a skull with a bow her mind. Shaking the image out of her head, Louisa looked back at the road. Even if she couldn't really imagine this mystery woman there was one thing she was sure of that was her new found companion seemed to care about them quite a lot.

Suddenly there was a rapid beeping sound coming from Muerte's pocket. He expertly dug it out, keeping one hand on the bike and looked at what looked like a key fob with four lights on it. One of the lights was flashing rapidly. [color=39b54a]"Sh*t"[/color] he said putting it back into his pocket. He revved the bike and they started going even faster through the streets, now only narrowly evading the obstacles before them. [color=39b54a]"We've got trouble..."[/color]

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Jacque didn't wait to see if the light had turned on. She scrambled as quickly and quietly as she could to the hallway where she made a bolt for her bedroom. The hitman took a number of shots at her as she dived out from the kitchen, but was distracted by the cluttered mess of objects Jacque had thrown across the floor to deter his approach and missed as she raced by. She slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it before ducking to the floor expecting more shots to be fired through the walls. She finally drew her gun and pointed it at the door trying to keep her hands steady.

There was no immediate ensuing gunfire from the hitman, though she could clearly hear him storming down the hallway - and a split instant later, the lock on the door began to rattle as the high-pitched, keening whine of the hitman's lockbuster drill began ripping through it.

She fired a single shot at the door aimed where she thought he'd be positioned at around head-height. Best case scenario, it might take him out, if not then it might at least slow him down. Unfortunately he must have been kneeling in order to drill through the lock - she saw nobody through the hole she had just blasted through her own door.

She then heard another tremendous bang as the hitman fired his handgun through the door, and abruptly she felt herself falling straight down to the ground as something smacked her in the gut, completely blowing away her balance. She was so dazed from the impact, it took her nearly three seconds of processing the dull, throbbing ringing in her ears to realize she had just been shot in the gut.

The hitman had returned to drilling through the lock, which was now warbling precariously on the doorframe. Although she remembered how it had cored out the apartment's deadbolt in seconds, for some reason both it and everything else seemed to be moving at a snail's pace all of a sudden, and the lock seemed like it was taking ages to break apart.

Jacque looked down at the hole in her stomach and the growing red splotch appearing in the fabric of her shirt. She grunted out another curse and did her best to prop herself up. She pressed one hand to her wound and tried to apply pressure. She looked around, mind and body moving sluggishly from the pain. She found her gun and pulled it up onto her lap. Now her only chance was to wait until the door opened and hope that she could fire off before he could. This was just...f*cking...peachie...

The door swung open, and Jacque fired several desperate shots through the open air until she had run through her magazine and a resounding, hollow [i]click[/i] rung in her ears. The wavering shadow of the hitman appeared in the door, looming over her dispassionately as he leveled his own handgun at her, taking aim to finish her off.

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Muerte skirted around the apartment building and down the alley way where he stopped next to a fire escape. He dismounted and propped the bike quickly. [color=39b54a]"Look it might be best if you wait here, I'll-"[/color] He stopped as gun shots rang out above them. [color=39b54a]"Jacque!"[/color] he yelled out starting to climb the metal railing with the speed of an orangutan.

Jacque looked up at the man standing over her defiantly, then she heard a familiar voice call her name. She smiled blearily. [color=fff200]"You're dead motherf*cker."[/color]

A whirlwind of emotions, sound and movement crashed over her, leaving Cadence staring as the black clad man climbed up the steel structure as if his life depended on it.  She didn't really have a solid grasp on what was going on or how she even felt about it but what she did know was that she wasn't going just stay there on the preverbial bench and watch the whole situation play out. Her new playmate had run off to save someone he obviously cared about and so she wobbly stood off the motorbike and catched her balance. Sluggishly she willed her exhausted body up the fire escape and towards the sounds of the altercation.

Muerte vaulted over the railing seconds later, grabbing onto the gun and crunching it in the center to render it useless. The other hand caught the man by the throat and raised him up several inches. The hitman choked in equal parts surprise and strangulation as Muerte lifted him off the floor, but he then responded to the surprise attack by yanking the lockbuster drill from his belt and attempting to drive it into Muerte's gut, the pick-bit seething violently as he depressed the trigger.

Muerte grunted slightly as the drill broke skin but absorbed most of the momentum, he then threw the man into the opposite wall. Drywall and insulation exploded everwhere as the not-so-unfortunate soul was sent through it. 


Cadence appeared in the window sill, her neon green hair now making her exhausted body even more paler than it usually did. She held on to to the window's frame as she tried to take in the scene and catch her breath.

Her exhausted mind pulled together her fuzzy thoughts, this man was obviously had to be the bad guy and then this girl must be the one Mr.Muerte wanted to protect. She looked really badly hurt. Stepping through the window frame, Louisa took a big breath and started to try to pull any last energy she had as she turned and looked at the woman who was trying to hold her blood in.

[color=8dc73f]"Heal her wounds and pain

no longer being such a drain.

Let her body be like new

and ... and .. let her pull through." [/color]

A neon green light moved from Cadence's drained body towards Jacque's wound but Cadence herself had already had other thoughts. Looking back at the form of the man that had just gone through crashing through the walls, she glared, not even really caring for a moment to see if he was even still alive.

[color=8dc73f]"You need to treat women nicer

now you should deal with a viper." [/color]


Neon green energy ran from her hands and a metre in front of her a 6 foot long Gaboon viper materilized. The snake slithered forwards towards the figure of the man, getting within arms length before it hissed revealing it's long fangs.

Cadence now having finished what she had come here for and being completely wasted from all her spells, she went and leaned against a wall in Jacque's kitchen. From the side of her eye she could see the viper striking forward, none of that really didn't matter now though.  It didn't matter how loud and crazy things were around her,  she had nothing left to give and to her it seemed as if  the danger was being taken care of.  Sliding down the wall, Louisa let herself sit on the cluttered floor. Sitting there, her eye lids starting to get heavy as she looked back at Jacque. Her body feeling heavy she mumbled her thoughts out loud, [color=8dc73f]"You're much prettier than I imagined...."[/color] 

Her eyelids started to close as she let her conciousness slip and she fell into the embrace of darkness. With the welcoming grasp of sleep, she also took her snake friend as it dissappeared as fast as it had appeared.

Muerte watched as the snake lunged at the assassin and as his body tensed before going limp. He found himself slightly disappointed at the fact that he couldn't get any information out of him now...or any revenge for that matter. His attention was then seized by the sight of Cadence staggering away. He saw her slide down the wall and was by her side in moments. After checking her pulse he sighed in relief and gently went to pick her up.

Jacque, who was still figuring out what all the green light was and how it had fixed her wounds, channeled her confusion into something she could understand. [color=fff200]"So who's the broad? New girlfriend?"[/color] she said acidly as she got up, [color=fff200]"I'm fine by the way."[/color]

Alejandro rolled his eyes under his mask. [color=39b54a]"How about you tell me why it took you so long to call first?"[/color] He stood up and walked over to Jacque with Cadence in his arms. [color=39b54a]"Or we can just pass on the ex-lover's spat and get to Jesus's"[/color]

She flipped him off before going into the kitchen to grab her bag where she had dropped it. After making sure everything was still inside she came back to the room and lit up another cigarette. [color=fff200]"So, how's this going to work? Cause I ain't riding with her in my lap."[/color] [color=39b54a]"I think we'll be ok,"[/color] he said with a slight chuckle as he stepped out onto the fire escape. It was Jacque's turn to roll her eyes as she followed him out. She started and took a step back but said nothing as she spotted the alien panther beast.

Soon they were on the move again; Jacque riding the bike while Alejandro held Cadence in place on the beast. It was fortunate that it seemed to be somewhat sentient and had allowed him to climb aboard. They headed toward the edge of town, having to dodge the occasional alien squad every now and again, but making it to the house without incident or witnesses.