Time: Midnight
Location: South Beaches, Lost Haven

“Please. Please. I-I-I had no idea we went into your territory.” He was a member of the Yakuza, a low tier drug pusher begging on his knees with a heavy cinderblock on his lap, hands tied behind his back with rope. “Just let me live, do anything but let me live.”

They were situated on the beach, the waves lapping up the shore, completely deserted at this time of night. He began to snivel, attempting to suck the mucus back inside his nose.

With her back turned to him, The Alchemyst rested her staff on the back of her neck hanging her arms off the ends of it. Her hair was long over her shoulders, wavey and unkempt. Her bangs choppily different lengths. Two apprentices stood at the shore watching and waiting, dressed similarily. Her brow was furrowed and green eyes hard, lips chapped. A splash of freckles across her nose. She wore a dark gray hoodie, a pair of jeans, and a graphic t-shirt with the formula for gunpowder. In her back pocket was a gun. A pair of worn through boots on her feet. On her belt was a gasmask.

Hands scarred with burn marks, callosed. Rolling her staff in her hands she quickly brought the butt of her staff around in a vicious swing cracking it off the side of his head. Teeth grit she snarled, “Bullshit!”

He cried out hunching forward, blood from his broken nose splattering across the cinderblock.

“You knew exactly what you were doing when you waltzed into my territory. You came in towing that shitty crack.” She pointed the crystal end of her staff at him, “Fuck! I don’t even know why I draw these lines in the first place, you shittheads keep crossing them. You’d think after beating you within an inch of your life would be enough of a reminder!” She shouted at him.

She bent back up at her waist, taking a deep breath. She brought his chin up with her staff to see if he was still conscious. He blinked blearily at her, out of sync. “Listen, I ain’t interested in your gang wars. I said no and you fucks tried to force me into it. I thought I made that clear with a bad batch of LSD, taking over a few of your drug dens and chasing you out of your holes. I fenced for you a couple times then you think we’re friends?”

He didn’t reply.

“I do what I want, I draw these lines so you stay on the other side of them. Everything on this side is mine. People, businesses, gigs, everything. Now-” She gestured to one of her apprentices who for their credit, hurried over seeing quite obviously how angry she was. The teenager dug a small ziploc bag out of her pocket handing it over to The Alchemyst. She held it up for him to see, it was full of the cocaine they pulled off of him when she dragged him to the beach.

“This is where I’m going to start sending a very clear message to Yakuza to leave me be.” She shook the bag with a wicked curl of her lip. “I went to the trouble of purifying this but added my own twist, I’m safely assuming you don’t know a thing about chemistry so I won’t bother with the details. Just know that as pearly and pure as this looks right now, in the hands of even a hack alchemist they can still pull it’s base ingredient from it.”

He looked confused, as she expected him to be.

“Hydrochloride.” She said tossing the ziplock bag in her hand then balancing her staff in the crook of her arm she brought out a sharpie. “This particular chemical has a slew of uses, shows up everywhere. In its current form it simply helps pure cocaine to dissolve in water, then it can be cut with different chemicals to get it ready to sell on the street.” She tore the lid of the sharpie off with her teeth, writing a formula.

Holding it in her hands, she weighed it thoughtfully. “You’re going to overdose on the cocaine first, then I’m going to change it to hydrochloric acid. You’ll feel the burn through your lungs and your face. It’ll be incredibly painful but you’ll also be torn between that and the insane high.”

His eyes grew wide, “Pluh-please! No! I’m sorry! I- God!” He began to cry again.

The apprentices seemed agitated watching their master at work. The Alchemyst tossed a look over her shoulder, “You don’t have to watch. I hope the pair of you understand the lengths I go to secure my territory.” She turned back then without a second thought she tilted his head back and dumped the full bag of contents into his mouth and nose.

He gasped, coughing but she held his head there forcibly shutting his jaw, breathing haggardly through his broken nose. She gently placed the plastic bag with the formula on his face waiting a few moments for the drug to take effect. Placing her hand over his face she glared down at the man.

“Stop!” A shout accompanied by a sweep of gritty sand forced her to back away, it quickly became a sheen of glass at her feet.

The Alchemyst glared then rolled her eyes at the interruption, “Of fucking course.”

Charles Croll strode toward them, his hood up his staff in his hands. The reason for the glass and last minute heroics. “Step away from that man, Charlie. Let me take him to the hospital.”

“Why, are you going to make me?” Like a whip she put her hand back on the man’s face and transmuted the cocaine. His screams ripped through him as the acid began eating away at his face.

“Whoops. Why do you care anyway, Charles? He was a drug dealer.” She said flippantly. “Too late, anyway so you can fuck off now.”

Charles bristled at his cousin, “Goddamnit! I thought you’d be at one of your labs. Whatever he was, nobody deserves to die like that.” He stomped his staff into the sand.

“Maybe this time the Yakuza will get the message.” She retorted. “You’re slacking on the gangs and focusing too much on me to keep them in check. What with this heroics nonsense. So this is essentially your fault.”

Charles stomped forward, not engaging in her wordplay, “I’m not giving up on you! You can still come back.” He patted his chest, his expression was strained with pain. “We want you back. Aunt Jules, Gramps, everyone wants you back home. I’ve forgiven you and they can forgive you too.”

The Alchemyst scoffed, “Go back home to New York, Charles. You fucked up thinking you could be my equal. You threw away your life for nothing.” She waved him off, dismissing him. “You’re wasting your time.”

He dashed forward clashing with her immediately, they stood locked. Arms shaking in strain to beat the other, “Fine! I’ll beat the regret into you, Charlie even if I have to do this for a thousand more nights! I’ll keep fighting you and I’ll keep trying to pull you back!”

They fought, equally matched in skill and strength. Using alchemy to get a one up on the other, while countering every swing of the staff. Charles was angry, fuelled with resentment but with determination. He’d drag his cousin back home kicking and screaming if he had to.

“You’ll keep being disappointed.”