Alistair grabbed his companion’s arm, digging his heels deep into the ground and holding his stance. Vail tried to keep pushing forward, tugging on her friend’s arm with all the force she could muster but Alistair refused to move. Rooted down the man protested, doing just about all he could to stop her from doing anything rash. Their eyes met as Vail turned to complain, her face filled with fury, her eyes ablaze, and her mind clouded with thoughts of revenge. He understood it completely, just as confused and irritated with the turn of events as Vail was, but now was not the time to fight especially with another alchemist.

“What’re you doing?” she asked, pulling at her partner’s arm again.

“Stopping you from doing something irrational, as per usual,” he replied.

“But they-”

“I don’t care what they did,” replied Alistair. “But I care why they did it.”

Vail struggled to see much of a difference. Kiara and Maeve had damn near attacked them, entrapping the Broken Pendulum with vines of raw shadow and then fleeing the scene. Vail had torn herself out rather quickly, snapping the strands with her bare, alchemy infused hands, but she had had to help Alistair claw his own way out. For one reason or another they had tried to trap them there, whether to make them easier targets or to slow them down Vail was not sure. Only Maeve had left though, with Kiara perfectly happy to sit and watch them struggle on their way out.

When they confronted her she had been incredibly vague, only saying that Maeve wanted a head start on something. It was all Alistair had been able to get out of her before Vail had stormed out of the building, cracking her knuckles and donning her iconic battle gauntlets, Eddie and Henry. As much as Alistair would have liked to inquire further, stopping his companion from destroying half the block was probably more important. Alistair stroked his chin thoughtfully, releasing his grip from Vail as she calmed down. If Maeve had wanted a head start then that would mean that she was trying to reach something that the Broken Pendulum would also be interested. But what?

“What’s wrong?” Alistair would ask his companion, breaking from his own trail of thought. Vail stared blankly off into the distance and failed to answer his question. He asked again but, other than the slightest twitch of her nose, she did nothing, focused entirely on a single spot in the sky. Then her eyes darted from one side of the skyline to the other.

“Capere Averm,” she uttered.

Alistair saw it too, a large glowing orb that shot overhead like a rocket or a shooting star, flying at a hundred miles an hour and off towards the edge of Las Vegas. They were both surprised they had not noticed the presence of the beacon sooner, the soft scent of alchemy lingering across the entire city and the gentle glow of energy kissing their flesh. For a moment Alistair had been worried that the Bean Sidhes were going to be their antagonists for the evening but, in truth, it seemed as if their motives were entirely harmless. Capere Averm was a charming little game that the Broken Pendulum had played dozens of times before and they respected a little healthy competition. The goal was to make your way towards a large glowing orb that one player would toss and the first to make it there would be the winner.

The pair glanced at each other, grins across their faces. They grabbed each other by the hand, running down the streets together like a pair of mad-men, giggling as they did so. They were a little mad of course, something they had long known, but they took almost any chance they had to prove it. They skipped, hopped, and jumped in the direction of the glowing orb, eager to find out where it had landed. On more than one occasion in her typically brutish manner did Vail knock over a harmless passer-by, Alistair struggling to apologise as he was forced to keep up with his companion. Regardless the pair galloped onwards, spurred forwards by a bizarre mix of curiosity, confusion and their own lust for adventure.

Unsurprisingly the route that Vail chose to get there was littered with obstacles as if only to make the trip more fun, turning down a thin and winding alleyway that forced them to move single-file. Vail moved like a machine though, letting go of Alistair’s hand to effortlessly scale a chain fence that blocked their path in what looked like a single bound, barrelling out of the other side of the alley as if she were on fire. She tackled a man to the ground to do so, softening her landing and bolting off into the distance again. He cursed and she laughed, leaving Alistair to his own devices. Alistair clambered over the fence with far less grace to help the pedestrian back onto his feet and catch up with his friend.

Alistair apologised again.

Vail continued running, ignoring the fact her companion had vanished from sight completely. She broke out into another street as quickly as she did this one. Sliding over a car bonnet that drove in her way and running for a few minutes she felt like the fastest girl in the world. Her speed was spectacular as it always had been, enhanced by her alchemical skills that allowed her to exceed normal human limits and barely break a sweat. She felt as if she could run forever and it would have taken a miracle to get her to stop.

It was the sight of Alistair in front of her that finally did it though. Vail almost tackled him by mistake, bringing herself to a slow halt before him. She gave him a quick glance up and down, a little confused. Alistair had been far behind her a moment ago. How had he caught up so quickly, Vail wondered?

“I thought I’d lost you,” said Alistair, an eyebrow raised.

“I [B]thought[/B] I’d lost you.” Vail replied, a little disappointment in her voice. It was clearly a tease, a grin still sprawled out across her face.

“Once again your haste has been your downfall, darling.”

“This isn’t going to be another one of your speeches is it?”

“Not unless you want it to be.”

“Shouldn’t we keep moving?” asked Vail, ignoring his last comment. Her eyes were fixated on the skies, looking to see if she could spot the beacon. It was out of sight.

“Of course,” Allistair replied.

“Then why aren’t we both chasing after that beacon?”

“You’re chasing it wrong.”

“How can I be chasing it wrong?” Vail’s expression was quizzical. This was how they had always chased after the beacon in Capere Averm.

“You’re running after it.”

“And what other option is there?”

Alistair smiled his usual smile, an expression Vail had learned to both love and hate. He stepped to the side, motioning towards the car behind him. The door to the back seats was open and a man with a fluffy white beard sat in the front of the car watching the two of them as they bickered. He looked equally confused but Vail and Alistair were far from the strangest couple he had seen on his nights out. “Cab?” suggested Alistair, climbing into the back of the vehicle.

[CENTER][B]xXx[/B][/CENTER]

Spurred on by the very generous tips from Alistair and the series of increasingly gruesome threats by Vail the cab driver made record time towards the directions that the Broken Pendulum had given him, incredibly vague instructions that boiled down to “go somewhere in that direction”. They swiftly made their way out of the busier parts of Las Vegas and closer and closer to the outskirts, Alistair wrestling Vail off of the steering wheel at least once along the course of their trip. The car stopped abruptly along a road about one hundred feet away the glistening sphere following Vail’s orders, allowing the Broken Pendulum to spill out of the vehicle and onto the dusty ground.

Just as she left the cab, Vail kicked the side of the car with enough force to dent it. “Go on! Scram!” she yelled and with a yelp from the driver the car spun its wheels and scurried off into the distance. Allistair groaned, asking Vail to calm down for once. She barely listened. 

The two, now alone, looked up at the light for a moment, inspecting it, but soon realised that it served no purpose more complex than itself. It was the same beacon by the look of it, beckoning all alchemists in the city towards it. It was simple alchemy but, as both member of the Broken Pendulum could agree on, always an intriguing one. It was also bound to attract other alchemists to it, including the Bean Sidhes. Alistair spotted a figure standing beneath the light, a young girl by the look of it, although the cascading light of the beacon made it difficult to tell more about her from this distance. Alistair waved although he saw no response.

On the other hand, Vail tightly fastened her gauntlets for a second time, flexing her hands to ensure that Henry and Eddie were in working order. When she confirmed they were she rested one hand on her hip and the other was bent and at shoulder height, her fist clenched. Alistair tipped his hat down and pressed his umbrella into the ground, the tip between his feet and both hands resting on the shaft’s handle. With the beacon overhead it cast them in an almost angelic light. Vail thought that it made them both look mighty dramatic and, appreciating the thespian display, both alchemists smiled at their poses.

“What now, Ali?”

“We play with our new friend.”

“Friends,” added Vail.

The air was filled with the sounds of wailing, a sharp sound that stung the ears of the Broken Pendulum alchemists. They glanced up to the skies, seeing a figure screaming past, high up in the skies. [I]Some alchemists have no sense of subtlety[I], Alistair thought, secretly enjoying the show. The alchemist stopped about fifty feet away from the girl beneath the beacon, his body flickering with alchemical energy as he fired something towards the girl.

“Friends it seems, dear Va-”

Alistair stopped speaking when he realised that Vail was no longer beside him. The raven haired woman had left his side, running as far as she could towards the beacon and the girl. Her feet bounded against the floor, her body bouncing with every step as if the gravity of her movements had been weakened. Each step took her ten feet forwards, moving at an incredible rate towards the girl beneath the beacon. Alistair couldn’t help but feel like Vail was going to get herself killed.

In response, Alistair flicked his wrist, his fingers moving quickly and with great precision against the side of his leg. Energy sparked between his fingertips, trickling down the side of his body and accumulating along the base of his shoes. He too moved, travelling quickly towards Vail and eventually catching up with her. His feet never touched the ground, instead his shoes seemed to glide across the ground as if skating across it.

“This is probably a bad idea,” Alistair called out to Vail. He half expected to have his jaw broken the moment he tried to speak to the girl under the beacon.

“I know! Isn’t it great!”