Two short years ago

He puffed on the cigarette that was firmly planted between his lips. His gloved fingers wrapped around his steering wheel, the sun was slowly making its way up, he couldn't be sure how long he had been driving for. All the roads and scenery had blurred. After the boarder there was no turning back. He slowed his car to a crawl and waited as the traffic slowly inched up. He couldn't be sure if they worked with Acadia or not. He had no idea, or if they'd search his car. He had documents which could put a lot of powerful men behind bars. It was his only ticket to freedom, if he kept these then they'd never chase him.

"God, this is taking longer than usual, why is there even traffic here?" He thought to himself. He put his cancer stick out and rolled his window down. When the guard approached, he noticed the unusual shaggy beard the Canadian boarder patrol had. He handed him his passport, he was cool, icey cool. He inched his hand towards the edge of his seat, he had a gun there. Then the man handed him his papers back and let him go. He accelerated his car, and left the gate letting out an easy breath. He was home, and free. He had no idea what those bastards had done to him, but they left him with a wicked head ache.

After a few stops and a nap he had made it to Empire. He Ditched the car, and burnt it careful to erase any evidence he was there. Made his way down town and checked into a hotel, using cash and an Assumed name. The next few days he spent looking for an apartment, eventually he found a one that suited him, it wasn't too big and flashy but by no means was it cheap or small. He grabbed his few belongings, and left.

A Few months later
He had all new furniture, pictures and posters. His home felt like a real home, something he hadn't had in years. There were a few places around the apartment which held hidden compartments some for his documents, others for his "defense" measures. He walked into his bedroom, and opened his closet. Originally it had been a large walk in, but he put a false back in and now used it to hold his arms. "God bless the second amendment" he spoke to no one in particular, as he opened the door, and selected a belt and holster. He slid his trusted .45 in, and grabbed his rifle. He closed the door behind him and set out for his contract.

That night he sat ontop of short office building, looking across several streets, through his scope. He watched his target file papers and work on his computer. Several times he had the opportunity to take his life but decided against it. After all, the man had hired him to watch his back. He was a fresh college graduate who happened to now be an engineer, he was onto something big, an engine that was self sustaining. he thought it would remove our dependence on oil completely. And for that he felt he was in constant danger.

His head began to hurt, and his vision blurred for a moment, then became acutely sharper. This happened every now and then, it was weird, but it would return to normal after another head ache. A blacked out SUV marked with Arcadia's shield pulled up out front, four men stepped out strapped with SMG's Before they could enter the building, he layed them out. Their life blood seeped into the cracks of the concrete. His rifle was never heard, it being silence. He packed up and moved location, his new location happened to be two floors down, but with line of sight on his target.

The rest of the night wasn't too much of a bother.

He arrived at the mans house early the next day, for a fat paycheck. He rang the doorbell and waited. A shotgun blast cleared a hole through the door and layed him out on the sidewalk. He sputtered and groaned, blood was dribbling from the corner of his mouth. The door opened and a large man stepped out, he was from acradia, he knew this because they had been friends at one point. Francis McKnight. "Sorry Buckley" he said in his southern accent. He stepped up beside him, Hal's vision was blurring. He reached upwards, and grabbed onto the mans coat. His eyes were wild with anger, and pain. He muttered two words before falling limp "Fuck you."

But something strange happened, he woke up in the trunk of his own car, his hand moved to his chest, it felt raw and it hurt but there was no scatter shot wound. He reached into his pocket and lit his lighter, he felt the car bump, his mind was confused "I shouldn't be alive... whats happening?" He thought. His pistol was in the trunk with him, it would have been okay if he hadn't miraculously survived a fatal wound. He pushed on the square which lead into the cab of the car. He peeked his head through when middle seat folded silently. He managed to crawl half way through before Francis looked into the rear view, both had a look of disbelief. He fired off three shots into the seat, all of them lethal. The car swerved and screeched, they hit a guard rail, then bounced into the other lane and of into a field where the car hit a ditch and rolled.

After awhile of freeing himself he crawled out of the wreckage and wondered off a few feet and sat down. His chest hurt, because a friend who helped him escape betray him, and cause he was sure there was some buck shot left in him. He rubbed his bare chest and struggled to find a cigarette. "Figures you would have taken them off of me you, rat."

Present - Empire City

He sat at his computer waiting, for an email, one he had been waiting on for a week. His contact had an offer, he was to watch an older man, had a family lived a thirty minutes away. There would be perfect vantage points. His job was to eliminate him if he were to leak any secrets. "Blip" his email had one in the box, it was his contact. "Perfect" he said again talking to himself. He grabbed his rifle, and stalked out of the house. He jumped in his new truck and began his drive. HE'd have to wait until nightfall before he could act. Another long night.

Raven stood on the roof of the building, watching the man walk inside the hotel. He looked nervous, and his dark eyes flitted around the lobby, scanning every person in the room as if they were about to pull out guns and attack him. Her keen eyes watched him as he went up to the counter, talking with the receptionist before picking up the pink hotel phone. She knew from research; that phone called the hotel rooms, and the hotel rooms only. She was confused, why would her target be calling a room? She had been told he was alone, and he definitely had no accomplices. She had been told that he was going to the hotel to meet one of the other criminals in his business, and that guy was not staying at the hotel. She looked at her watch; the man was meant to walk in in 10 minutes. They would walk out together, and she would eliminate the target. Yet, before her eyes, her target was waiting for someone else entirely! Someone in the hotel already. She saw the elevator doors open...

She was shocked to see a woman and a small child exit. The man kissed the woman and picked up the child, but the two adults looked fearful. They gave something to the receptionist, and were obviously discussing payment of the room. Raven looked over to the roads just as the black car drove up. It was the man. He walked up to the hotel, and just before entering, looked up at her and gave her the thumbs up. Wow, this keeps getting stranger and stranger, she thought. What was meant to be a simple target kill now had the supposed criminal working for her employer and the target with a small family. She had no more time to think, however, as the two parties had met. That's when the man pulled out a gun and shot the child.



Raven waited in the alleyway, silent and thinking. She had already discussed her plan with her 'target', and he was already in hiding in the location she had placed him. She had tracked her employer well enough to know that he came down this alley to buy drugs for personal use in exactly 10 minutes from this moment. Raven had already spoken to the drug dealer and... come to some arrangements. She smiled. This was always her favourite part of the game. The look upon their faces when they are killed by their own hire...

"Dark roast with cream for Mr. Stanford!" A young man called out as he set a paper cup of coffee down at the pickup counter. He spotted a small puddle of water on said counter and grabbed a wash rag to wipe it up.
"That's an interesting accent you got there." The customer, Mr. Stanford, said as he came up to get his cup of coffee. He smiled and dropped a tip into the jar. "Where are you from?"

"Military family," The barista said with a polite smile. The lie was so well practiced that it went completely undetected. "I traveled all over when I was a kid. I picked up a few things here and there."

"Oh, that's pretty cool. Well, have a nice day."

"Thank you sir, you too."

It had taken a while to get these types of transactions down pat. Humans were such finicky creatures, with so many social ques. The fine details of a simple conversation between strangers were difficult for a complete foreigner. But Cal managed to pick up on it fairly quick. The English language itself had been just as hard.

He was pretty proud of himself. He managed to hold down a job, live what he thought was a normal life on Earth, and even made a few friends with whom he could enjoy the traditions of "Thirsty Thursday" with. Cal hummed quietly as he cleaned off the counters, then went to go wipe down tables. Yes, life was good here.

His headset rang as someone pulled up to the drive-thru. Cal quickly pressed the intercom button to take their order. "Hi! Welcome to Yo Jo Coffee, what can I get for you today?" He said in an overly pleasant tone, as his managers had trained him to, and made his way back behind the counter.

Empire was miserable. She had spent so long away from civilization that she had all but forgotten how loud it could be, inside her head and out. She felt as though she'd lost all ability to tune even the slightest bit of it out. While the headache she'd gotten on the plane was severe, it was nothing compared to the raging in her head now. The discomfort must have shown on her face.

"Something wrong, Emmy?" her mother asked as they all sat around the dinner table.

December forced a smile. "Just jet lagged I think. I couldn't sleep a wink on the plane."

Her father did his best to not sound like her long absence wounded him, but of course, she knew. "I hear if you travel frequently it doesn't affect you so badly. Maybe you should drop in more often."

"Oh, Jim, don't start," her mother chided, passing the plate of dinner rolls around the table. "We're very glad you're here honey, and we know that you couldn't afford to travel much on your stipend."

She nodded and had a bite of mashed potatoes before responding. "Sitting out in the middle of nowhere monitoring seismic equipment doesn't pay a lot, yeah. It's even harder to find someone to come out and take over though, that's the real problem. Someone has to be there. Until they found a replacement I couldn't go. I wanted to come home sooner, I promise, Dad." She didn't realize she was drinking quite so deeply from her glass of wine until she saw both of her parents staring at her.

"Rough flight?" her father asked with a bushy arched eyebrow.

She nodded and kept up the façade. "Two obnoxious toddlers behind me the whole way. You know how it is, parents that just ignore the fact their children are bothering everyone else on the planet."

She felt a strange little prickle on the back of her neck, as though she were being watched. Of course, she wasn't alone in the room, but it was more than that. Momentary glimpses like she was observing herself and the room from a distance. She just tried to shake it off. It wasn't as though it were the strangest thing that had happened so far to her now that she was in the city once more.

Years Ago

"Weston, you know I've been monitoring the progress of your affliction and I felt you should know now that in 10 years time you will lose the usage of your arms and legs... I'd could get into the gritty bits but-" Doc Watts was cut off by his young patient

"Tell me, I want to know, I need to know." Weston looked up at his doctor, but he didn't feel sadness to the news that he wouldn't walk or feel or have limbs in a decade, he felt challenged to do the impossible.

"When that decade runs out your arms and legs will be so useless that we will have to remove them, because it only starts with your limbs, then it moves inwards and the best way to keep you alive is amputation... It isn't what we want to do but it's all we can do." Watts was concerned, he saw a young man who should be devisated by this information and all he was getting back from his patient was what seemed like a combination of anger and determination.

Weston wasn't going out quietly and if he lost his life curing himself then so be it. He left the family clinic with a purpose, a mission and a fire in his eyes and it would be no time soon before he knew if he would succeed or fail.

4 Years later

"I wasn't fast enough" he would have slammed his fist on his lab desk if it would have shattered his wrist like it had a number of times before. "I'm cured, but now I'm just this frail freak in a chair!"

"Oh yeah, a freak who cured not only his own disease but a few others along the way is such a hindrance to society. I don't understand why your inability to walk and punch someone makes you useless. You have a genius mind and when you put your mind to it you have completed amazing tasks. Chair or not, you're still a genius." Weston spun around in his chair and glared at Watts as the doctor stood just within the doorway.

"I know- what- but what do I do to get out of this chair? Make a muscle serum or a super protein shake? I can't regrow muscle, I don't want this restriction, I don't want to live this kind of life, if I have such a genius mind then why can't I fix my fucking limbs!" The two were silent for a moment before Watts noticed something in Weston's eyes, something he saw 4 years ago that lead to a miracle cure. Little did he know just what was going to happen next.

Present Day

"Welcome to Yo Jo Coffee, what can I get for you today?" Said the intercom of the drive thru as Guardian tossed the first goon into the drive thru menu.

"Yeah, I'll take an iced coffee, extra shot-" Another goon jumped at him with a knife and he swiftly kicked him in the jaw with a roundhouse "of espresso and just throw some whipped cream on top... You guys want anything?" He knew the other 6 muggers wouldn't want anything unless it were on him, cheap bastards.

They gave each other a glance and he was sure they were all about to attack at once, it could have worked if they were a bit more subtle about it. Guardian made an evasive leap as the thugs attacked landing by the window of the drive thru, he wondered if they would have his coffee by the time his attackers were on their feet again.

The customer sounded very winded. Cal wondered absently what he was up to, but didn't care enough to actually go look. "That'll be five fifty," He said as he started up the espresso machine. While the espresso was brewing, he poured the iced coffee and went to fetch the can of whip cream. Cal stopped by his own cup to take a sip of his tea before going back to the machine to get the espresso shot. He poured it in and made a mountain of whip cream on top of the drink.

Cal popped a plastic lid on the cup and shoved a straw through the hole, then went to the drive-thru to make the exchange. He was a bit startled to see a man, whom he presumed was his customer, standing outside the window looking a bit disheveled. Cal opened the glass window and set the cup on the edge.

"Excuse me sir, but you aren't allowed to walk through the drive thru," Cal leaned out a bit to see several more men darting around in the drive thru lane. Now that just wasn't safe! A couple of them were on the ground, with one man beating up a few more. Cal frowned. What on Earth was going on out there?

"Sir!" He called to the man dishing out the heavy serving of whoop ass casserole. "Excuse me sir! What's going on out there? Do I need to call the police?!" The man seemed to be under attack by some sort of thugs, but he seemed to be holding his own. Still, Cal figured he should probably offer.

But when he saw one of the thugs crawl up off the ground and make a lung at the man, he knew he had no time to find his phone and dial. Cal grunted as he lunged out of the drive thru window to grab the would-be attacker around the torso and neck. His grip pinned the thug's arms down by his side, holding him as he tried to wiggle free.
"I'm sorry sir, but this behavior is not acceptable. I'm going to have to ask you to stop before I call the proper authorities."

2 years ago

"Boris! As a Warlock of the ancient Hex bloodline, you shall forever serve me and my master when we wish it. Know that should you attempt treachery then you shall experience pains far worse than any mortal torture in all of human history!" Baal said menacingly to Boris. Boris was kneeling before the great demon and nodded his head understanding his master's words.

"I understand master and will do your bidding" he replied and his vision of the demon vanished and he found himself on his knees in an abandoned mansion where he had destroyed a rogue warlock who had sought to betray his demonic masters. He did a good job of hiding his desire to be free from his masters, but there were times when he had to convince himself to not completely give into the evil within him. He was struggling with keeping his darker self at bay, but he felt himself slowly loosing the battle.

present day

His memories on that day for whatever reason were in his mind and gazed out over the city from the top of a building. His familiar Morbid was perched on his shoulder.

"Fly my friend, find those who plague the weak and innocent so that I can send them down to hell" Boris commanded his familiar and the crow took off from his shoulder and began to fly over the buildings and streets on the look for criminal activity. Boris saw what the crow saw and after a few minutes of flight spotted prey. Boris smiled and made his way towards the alley where Morbid was circling.

Parking garage

He layed on top of a parked moving truck which was also on top of a parking garage. His rifle several feet from the edge hiding it from people below. A white blanket on top of him hid him from aerial observation. There was absolutely no one out at this time, they had all gone in for supper. He let out a deep breath, he jotted down the wind speed and range in his note pad.

He'd created nearly the perfect bullet in the sense that it was perfectly weighed and nearly flawless. Its entire essence was for this moment. If destiny was real, this bullet's would be to end this man's life. He went back to his rifle, it was aimed high and to the left. If wind conditions were sustained, he'd be able to make the perfect shot.

Peeking back through his range finder he observed the family, the only thing that wasn't going perfectly was his "bugs" kept getting interfered with. He'd only catch snippets of their conversation. So far he'd gathered the younger female was the man's daughter, and the man's name was in fact Jim. "Well Jim, I catch you leaking secrets, your nights going to get a hell of a lot shorter." he said to himself.

He reached into a chest pocket and pulled out a strip of jerky and chewed on it, listening to the garbled sounds of the bugs. If he were to take the shot it would be just shy of two miles. Even if he didn't spill the beans in the dinning area he had view of what was to be the man's bedroom according too the Intel he was given.

He slowly chambered the bolt action rifle, allowing the almost perfect bullet to slide into the chamber. He had one shot and only needed one shot, if he didn't kill him which he highly doubted at least it would scare him enough to shut his mouth until he will be able remove him in the near future.

"I'd kill for a vacation to some tropical place, somewhere with beautiful women and endless booze." He thought bitterly. As his head began to throb a little. When ever he got headaches his sight dulled, back to what he assumed what it used too be. It had become so acute that he could see things hundreds of yards away with near perfect celerity. Not to mention he couldn't seem to die. He'd taken four bullets a month a go and lived to tell the tale. If its bad enough it usually knocks him out for several hours before he wakes up. "This old man isn't going to spill any secrets, I otta just take off and go home. Maybe make some Tacos or something." he was thinking out loud now. Something he would never have done if he was working with the military again, or even arcadia.

...I catch you leaking secrets...

"So, what made you decide to run off and do that anyway?"

December had been asked the same question by her father more than once, and she just didn't have an answer that had satisfied him, apparently. She couldn't tell him the truth. "Oh, you know, I needed to get out in the middle of nowhere so I wouldn't hear other people's thoughts in my head anymore. No biggie." Yeah, that just didn't work.

She sighed, still not able to come up with a better lie. "I just needed to get away," she shrugged. "Empire is... a mess. It was when I left, and it's worse now. Night after night after night on the news, it's all crime and depressing stories. I just needed somewhere I didn't have to hear that anymore. Or anything at all, for a while."

"Well you could have stayed on the continent at least, you know. You didn't have to go half way around the world."

"Jim." Her mother's tone was sharp. The two of them had had this argument before, apparently. Her father seemed to be sure that something awful had happened. Her mother blamed him for refusing to move because he was waiting on a promotion that never came...

...kill... ...beautiful women... ...booze...

She lifted a hand, rubbing at her forehead. The room was becoming almost as unbearable as the rest of the city. The uncomfortable feeling was only growing, and she didn't think it had anything to do with her parents, either. Something about... a moving truck?

...tacos...

"Maybe I should stop coming home. All you guys do is argue when I'm here."

That caused both of her parents to stop talking, but it only made their inner thoughts rage harder, and that was worse. She picked up her wine glass and drained the rest. She didn't even feel hungry anymore.

And suddenly special guest vigilante: Yo Jo Barista! He was pinning down the one loose mugger while the rest were still trying to untangle each other. Disarmed and disoriented they were a most perfect target and Guardian charged at them, bringing swift justice that came in fist shaped packages. One of his kicks actually launched one of the thugs into a nearby parking garage causing one of the car alarms on the lower levels to go off. When his swift beating came to an end the muggers didn't have any fight left in them, not even the goon the Barista had pinned looked like he wanted to resist after seeing his pals get pummeled. Guardian turned to face the coffee house employee and his catch.

"The police have been alerted and they should be on their way here as we speak" He walks up to the drive thru window, exchanges a $10 bill for his coffee and then approaches the downed goon "I've also sent the police pictures of you trying to attack those girls as well, you should have known better than to try something like that in my city. And If I ever find any of you punks trying some shit like that again..." he sips his coffee, staring at the criminal from under his hood "I'll cut off your balls and kill you" It was then the sirens started to become audible "Well, I better run so remember that, Guardian saved the day." He quickly turned and bolted toward the parking garage before leaping into the air.

As he sailed through the air he realized he just didn't have enough power in that jump as the wall of the parking garage was rising up to meet him. He reached out and grabbed a hold of the top of the wall and used his legs as stoppers to keep his body from smashing into the building. The collision didn't cause him any pain but he didn't want to stay on that wall for very long and hopped over to the other side. May not have made it all of the way to the top but I still managed to crash into the wall of the top floor.

Cal watched as the strange man took off. Humans were so strange. He only had to hang around for a couple more minutes before the police showed up to arrest the hooligans. They spoke to Cal about what he saw, and asked to take a look at the security camera footage. Cal did his best to keep up with customers while the police played 20 questions with him.

He was relieved when he saw his co-worker Tina walk in through the door. "Is my shift over already?" He asked with a smile. "I was having so much fun." Cal was fluent in human sarcasm. He took off his apron and hung it up, making himself one last cup of iced peach tea and counting out his tips before he left.

Cal shoved the crinkled up dollars in his pocket as he started down the street. He lived a few blocks away, but he didn't have a car. Sometimes he walked, just because it was nice out. And sometime he cheated a little bit. Cal wandered into the parking deck across the street and found a corner that seemed to lack people or security cameras. He crouched down and shifted, his human form turning into the small shape of a sparrow. The tiny brown bird flitted up onto the rail of the deck, glanced around, and then took off.

Top of a parking garage

His fingers adjusted the optics on the scope a click as the wind changed. He adjusted his rifle slightly, jotting down some more notes. He looked back through his spotting scope. His stomach rumbled watching the family eat and drink. A familiar thought entered his head. He pictured a warm beach, a chair, the ocean and a tall drink in his hand. "Two more jobs, and I can use some of my savings to take a month off." He said internally. The apartment was tastefully decorated.

He felt a slight buzz at his hip, reaching down he looked at his cell. A new email was waiting to be read. He thought for a moment wether or not too read. Was it really the time? He gave a mental shrug and looked anyways.

-------

To: Mr. B
-------
From: C
--------
Subject: Job
-------

Change of plans, if you read this, Target has changed. Kill the family. Send a message.

Mr. C

-------

He blinked several times and looked back through his spotting scope. And sighed, he had strict rules, no women no children. And before him was two women, and an older man. He was frustrated, recently they had been asking a lot of him. Bending his rules one by one. Usually he wouldn't mind they were simple rules like, no day jobs, or no politicians. He didn't mind bending those rules, but these were his core values they were asking him to sabotage. Adjusting his calculations, and shifting his rifle he'd now have a clear shot on the older woman. He paused his inner struggle very real. "Send... a message."

...Kill the family...

December pressed her fingers firm to her temples. Between every thought from the surrounding apartments, her parents,' her own, and... whatever it was she was getting her head was getting too crowded. But it was this... extra that she was picking up on that bothered her. Fuzzy like a radio station that wouldn't tune in and you couldn't quite make out the song on it.

"I can't do this. Something isn't right. Please, just listen to me, both of you." She stood up, jostling the table as she did and sloshing some of the wine from the other two glasses on the tablecloth. "Go into the living room and turn out the lights. Stay there until I get back and don't move."

"Emmy, what are you talking about?"

"Please just listen to me!" She had already shut out the lights herself. She was pushing them both toward the living room, away from the windows. "Stay here."

She left her jacket behind on her way out the door. The elevator was forgotten and she raced down the stairwell, flight after flight passing in a staccato tapping of boot heels on concrete. She burst out the side exit onto the sidewalk and started running. She didn't even know where she was going. Just that she had to find a parking garage.

Send... a message.

From no where the girl leapt up and ran, the older couple tried to escape into what he assumed was the living room, he adjusted his rifle and fired the shot. It had all become clear on how to send the message. From the range he shot at and the sound suppressor it would be nearly impossible to detect from anywhere further than a few hundred yards. The recoil of the rifle was nothing he wasn't used too.

The bullet passed through the space between the apartment and his rifle, in a matter of moments. It pierced the window and exploded the wine bottle showering the trailing parent with the wine. It buried through the wall and planted its self into the elevator frame.

He watched through his scope as the lights went out in the apartment and it all went quiet. He hopped that his message was received. He sat up and exposed himself, folding the blanket to carry it with him. He left the empty shell in the rifle so he didn't have too find it later. "Damn fine shooting if I say so myself." he chuckled softly. He sat for a moment all the tension melting, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a slightly crumpled pack of cigarettes, pulling the last one out he lit up. Sucking down the smoke greedily he gave a sigh of relief.

His contact would be angry, but the message was still delivered. And he could sleep soundly. He'd killed women and children before, he saw their faces every night. Men, he didn't mind he supposed or at least he'd gotten used to them. He rarely saw their faces anymore.

The blocks went by in a blur. No doubt any one who saw her probably thought she was committing a crime judging by the speed she was moving at. She wasn't exactly dressed for an evening jog. She didn't care. It kept coming in flashes, momentary glimpses of the side of her parents' apartment building through a strange frame.

Her feet were killing her by the time she had closed the distance between her and her destination. She wasn't used to moving that fast, for one, not since she'd done track in high school, and those boots were not meant for running. Once she had spotted the parking garage looming in the distance she had known it was where she needed to go.

When she was there she took the elevator just so she had a few moments to catch her breath. At the top she could smell cigarette smoke and she knew she was in the right place. But... now what? She hadn't thought this through very well. Oh well. That was what improvising was for. She hopped onto the back of a low car, into the bed of a pickup, onto the roof, and then up to the top of the box truck. Sure enough, she saw exactly what she had expected.

The smoking man looked shocked for a moment, and she used it to kick him square in the stomach, hoping to send him tumbling off of the other side of the truck.

The sparrow chirped as it flitted upwards towards the sky. As the small bird darted by the levels of the parking deck, the sound of a gunfire broke through the air. The sparrow stopped to hover in one spot, looking around frantically. Somebody was shooting; shooting was never good. The bird's beady black eyes landed on a man on top of a moving truck. He had what looked like a long range weapon. A sniper?

Kail was hard wired to put his nose into other people's business. This looked like a situation that desperately needed mediating. This became even more apparent when a woman appeared on the scene and began to assault the man. She didn't appear to have a weapon. She was going to get herself hurt!

The sparrow darted down towards the top level of the deck, landing behind a bulky delivery van. Kail shifted back into his true form for a moment, his heart racing with adrenaline as he tried to figure out a way to fix this. Call 911? The human police would take too long to get here; the situation was escalating quickly. He had to intervene.

Kail took a deep breath and shifted into a human form; a different one. This one appeared to be a very large, muscular human that he'd had a scuffle with a few months ago. Kail stood up and poked his head around the van. With another deep breath, he began to jog towards the scene.

"Hey! Hey, knock it off! What's going on here?!" His voice was deep and commanding, well fitted to the body he was in. Kail just hoped it wouldn't get him shot.

Indeed he was knocked from the moving truck. He managed to roll out of the fall and quickly recover into a crouch, he upholstered his revolver and took a few steps back. It felt like his he maybe had a cracked rib. Another voice appeared on the other side of the truck. He couldn't leave, all his gear could potentially be traced back to him. "Listen here, you don't want to do this. Both of you just leave and forget you saw me. People forget thousands of things everyday, let this be one of them."

He began to side step until he was in view of both the people, a large muscle bound man, and the girl from the apartment. He was blown away that she'd found him, or that she had come right too him. "How the hell did you find me? You were just at the apartment." He gave her a quizzical look. He had not known it was her at first and this almost took the wind from his sails. Had this been a setup? "Who are you working for?" He asked them both. He trained the revolver on each of them.

Guardian found himself once again by the garage he had been at earlier this morning, the scene didn't look too much different but clearly his damages would not be repaired in one day. Guardian had to focus now, he almost let the criminal he was tailing get away from him. He had found this guy a couple of times breaking into city maintenance lots. What confused him about this was he was always doing something to the city snow plows, but this would only be a real worry if it were winter and summer had just begun. So unless he had something else in mind this guy was playing the long game till December.

Now Guardian could easily take him, but if he has a den or a safe house Guardian wanted the criminal to take him right to it. The trespasser entered the garage and made a straight line toward the elevator. One inside he hit a combination of floor button and disappeared behind the closing doors.

Now that was very odd, how would a guy like that be able to get such a secret hideaway. Was he a secret billionaire who like to prank the city or was this apart of a much bigger scheme? Still hiding out site from the door, Guardian tried to make heads or tails of what he was dealing with.

The revolver, and the arrival of some other strange individual certainly threw kinks into the plan. Well, not that there had been a plan to begin with. It was one of those situations where she would just have to wing it. That was what people did when this happened, right?

A few moments later his attention shifted, eyes glancing toward the other while his thoughts were racing through what to do. She lunged in, blocking his extended arm with one of her own and throwing a punch into his face with the other. "Who are you?!" she demanded. "What do you want?!"

She tried to throw a knee into his stomach, ever conscious of where his revolver was trained. Getting shot would throw a damper on things, she was certain of that. Her blood was pumping so hard she almost couldn't hear the thoughts around her over the pounding in her head.

"Why are you trying to kill my family?!"