“Show me the way to go home…” The prone man inside the little cell slapped his hand against the concrete floor twice in rhythm, then continued to howl, “I’m tired and I wanna go to bed!” There was a guard posted just outside the door to the little cell block, and Rheoaan Rohaan Rio Ja’aisen was going to personally make sure he had the worst shift of his career. If these Suits had the audacity to try and keep him locked up, then he was going to repay the favor in kind and make them regret ever bothering. Maybe next time they’d just let him sleep… "Had a little drink about an hour agooo, and it went right to my head!" He slapped both hands on the floor with staccato smacks in time with his, "BADUM DUM DUM!" and then he began to sing again, only faster and louder. "SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME..."

Truthfully, Rohaan felt awful, though he wasn't about to let that show while any agents were watching. Rule number one of survival was to appear stronger and scarier than the other guy, and never to show a weakness that might be exploited. In another situation, he might have favored the 'wounded animal' gambit and led them to believe he was less physically capable than he really was. But he wanted these guys nervous, and that meant making them believe they were fighting a losing battle. They were--Rohaan would find a way out eventually, he always did. But for the moment, he was content to think through his options and recover from his injuries a little.

What had started out as a simple gig retrieving some obscure tech Rohaan neither understood nor cared about for a rather desperate customer who paid handsomely, turned quickly into a very bumpy ride into a holding cell at a local law enforcement agency. His performance had been flawless, but they must have gotten some tip that he'd be there. In fact, now that he thought about it, the guy who hired him in some seedy back alley was probably an agent undercover, or was hired by one. He'd best sleep with one eye open, or before he knows it, his house will be burning down around him... In any case a team was waiting for him, and they were prepared to deal with him. More than most local agents were, anyway. They wanted him alive, because they didn't immediately start with their guns, and instead favored a quick deployment of a disruptor shield that prevented him from changing forms. They hemmed him in so he couldn't move out of its sphere of influence, though they did not count on his ability to engage in hand-to-hand combat. His guess was that he hospitalized two agents, and he definitely bit another one until he tasted blood. But there were too many of them, and one had a damn cattle prod. That, combined with the steel-toed boot of another agent, left him in bad shape. Nothing was broken (but only barely) and he could walk alright, but it was a miserable chore to move much, and whatever they dosed him with in the van left him feeling nauseous.

The door to the hall opened and the very irritated guard stepped in, marching straight back to Rohaan's cell. "Ja'aisen! If you don't shut your damn mouth, I'll come in there and kick out every last one of your teeth..."
Rohaan, who was lying casually on the floor as if his boredom tired him, turned his head so he could look at the uniformed officer directly. The guard flinched just a little. Rohaan's eyes were blue, but they were not the ordinary denim blue or even gray of most folks. They were a lapis lazuli azure, deep and yet unnaturally bright and saturated. A vibrant hue nature only gave to toxic, poisonous things. Amidst his unkempt and uneven blonde curls and his suntanned face, they seemed inhuman and out of place. Rohaan smiled slowly, flashing teeth. "Just you open that containment field, mate, and you'll get to see those buddies of yours I put in the hospital...If I don't decide to just eat you instead..."

In a moment, there was a man lying on the cell floor, and in the next, there was a black jaguar. He lunged at the guard with an animal yowl, though his paws met the containment field and held him at bay. These cells did not have doors or bars, just containment fields that stopped both physical momentum and magical projectiles. Visually, all that separated this officer from the pearly white fangs of the blue-eyed jaguar was a thin greenish-tinted membrane of light, and the officer's self preservation instincts were evidently stronger than his pride, because he jumped and took several steps back. Rohaan reverted to his natural shape and laughed darkly. It was painful and costly for him to pull a shift like that in his current state, but it was worth every last calorie and muscle ache to see the guard bolt out of the room to the safety of the hallway door.

If he was going to be stuck here for a little bit, then he was going to have some fun with it.

The Mediterranean looking woman with black hair and brown eyes looked up at one of the two security goons as he discarded her into a holding cell. She ended up bu tt first on the tile floor and the skin tight dark suit. She thought made her look like a short version of Cat Woman, minus the large curves to fill it out. Alexandria was short and cute even for not having the curves of a supermodel. She was a mix of Russian, Italian, and Porto Rican ancestry. She could trace her lineage back to the great wizards of Russia. What this all gave her was a beautiful facial structure, skin that looked like she came off the beach, a fiery temper, and the need to talk with her hands moving. What came into the cell next was her dress, a knock-off of a knock-off designer and healed shoes all of which were thrown on top of her.

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you that is no how you treat a lady,” she said with a Porto Rican accent her arms flailing as she stood up and moved at them. Another shove and she was back on her butt as the force field came up holding her in the cell.

What she was missing was her purse and her jewelry. They all contained magical foci that enhanced her ability to cast and control her magic.

As she stood up again and rubbed her butt, she saw Rheoaan Rohaan Rio Ja’aisen. He had been caught as well and was in the cell next to her. She could tell that he been playing with the guards trying to keep them of base. They had met through a fence on the south side of town. Both had been working as independent contractors. Now they worked as a team or in this case got caught as a team on some jobs.

Rohaan was everything that Alexandria was not. He was graceful, powerful, strong. She on the other hand was a recently graduated book nerd who loved magic as much as breathing. She hated weapons, but had a knife in the small of her back, though she would basically have to take the cat suit off to get to it. Not that a knife in her hands would be much of a threat against the Glock Super Magnums that the guards carried in their shoulder holsters.

She sat in on the lone plastic chair in her cell after putting the dress back on. She sat barefooted with the shoes in her hands. She wanted the guards to go into a different room so she could use a bit of magic to drop the force fields. Both of the heels of the shoes contained items that they could use. The right on had a small screw driver blade. The left had about six feet of copper wire and was weighted. The thing about force fields was they were designed to push back as hard as they were pushed. Slowly pushing a hair thin copper wire through the field would allow her to cast a spell from inside the field that would short out the field. Then Rohaan would be able to make his move.

The door opened again, not long after the guard--he thought the name on the vest said Bjornson?--Bjornson had left him in a barely concealed panic, and he could hear the shuffling footsteps of people burdened with a heavy weight. A person, no doubt. He sat back against one wall, legs crossed at the ankles in front of him like he was enjoying a coffee on a sunny pier somewhere, not in a local high-security holding cell. Local high-security, that was the kicker. There were highly specialized prisons sprinkled around the world, and those would have given Rohaan concern. But not these low-ball small-timers who thought they could contain him. Somewhere in an office nearby, a captain was probably opening his bottom desk drawer to reveal a secret stash of a mid-shelf bourbon and two kitchy rocks glasses that looked like they came from a thrift store, or grandma's cabinet. He was likely pouring one for himself and his lieutenant, chuckling and congratulating himself on the successful capture of Rohaan Ja'aisen, global criminal.

But he was wrong. Dead wrong. There was a reason Rohaan had never seen death row, and there was a reason it was such an accomplishment to have him in custody. The shapeshifter was elusive, hard to track, viciously violent, and wildly unpredictable. And if anyone did manage to capture him...well...he was about to show these schmucks how terribly out of their league they really were.

The fellow prisoner spoke and he looked up. He knew that voice. Sure enough, Alexa was unceremoniously tossed inside the cell next to his. He didn't know the girl terribly well--they'd crossed paths a few times and teamed up briefly. She was an ally, though he didn't know all that much about her or where she came from, or what she was really capable of. Berlin would like her. The big man would sit her down with a hot cup of mint tea and ask after her story and her abilities with fervent earnestness, if he ever met her.

"Ah, Alexa. They got you too?" He smiled. Rohaan had a very rough, verging into 'vagabond' kind of appearance, but his smile could be charming if he didn't pour any menace into it. He was not especially tall or large for a man his age, though he was certainly quite lean and evidently lived a very active lifestyle. His hair, which he usually kept tied back in a disaster of a bun, was a straw blonde and couldn't decide if it wanted to lie in corkscrews or loose waves, or perhaps somewhere in between, though his skin tone was just a little darker than one might expect for a blonde man. He nearly exuded a 'Californian surfer' vibe with the combination, except his faint and unidentifiable accent proved he wasn't from anywhere near California, or even the States. His beard was short but always a little scraggly, like he needed to trim it but hadn't yet gotten the time. Still, his eyes were always his most striking feature.

The shifter sighed. "This team was a little more prepared than most, I'll admit. But they're still amateurs. They have absolutely no idea what they're dealing with...especially if they let you keep your shoes..." He shook his head. "Well, I'll be straight with you, I'm not firing on all cylinders here, they got me pretty good. I got beat, shocked, and dosed this evening. Hope they treated you a little better. But I could pull it together, especially if it means I could get myself an actual bed and a hot meal. Moon and stars, what I wouldn't give for a hot bowl of pho right now..." He sighed wistfully.

"Think you can get these fields down? That seems like your kind of specialty. If you can get them down, then I can deal with Bjornson at the door, over there." He hooked a thumb towards the door. "I don't know if you've done this before, but as soon as our mate out there goes down, sirens are gonna start blaring and agents are gonna start pouring in. I'll deal with them if you can get a nearby window--a large one, if possible--open by any means necessary. And then uh...you aren't afraid of heights, are you? How uh, how do you feel about flying?"

Rohaan was capable of many forms, both humanoid and animal, but his favorite was the cyradan. It was a small species of dragon that, when found in the wild, was often seen nesting on seaside cliffs. Unlike the much larger mountain dragons, cyradan were not heavily armored and their scales were smooth and snakelike, and matte black like anodized aluminum. It made them vulnerable to attack, but they were lithe and light as a result. They were a nocturnal species that hunted by stealth, speed, and maneuverability. In the sky, it seemed only a swallow could outmatch a cyradan. They were capable of breathing fire, but not in drawn out gusts of inferno like their larger cousins, and instead spat an incendiary gel that splattered and was difficult to remove. The shape suited Rohaan for its balance of power and sleek maneuverability and grace, and despite its relative size, it was the easiest form for him to hold. All shifters had a form that seemed almost natural to hold and yet was not their own; his people called it a talys, or 'true alternate'.

---

Alexa looked at Rohaan and said, "I'm going to have bruises on more than my bottom."
Her tone conveyed her disappointment with the male gender and conveyed the message, "Yeah, I know you had it worst than me."
She broke the heal off a shoe and started unwinding the thin copper wire from around it. It had taken her hours of carefully wrapping the wire to make it look right. In Alexa's mind image wasn't nothing, it was everything.
"I told them that I give up and it is like they don't understand. Where are their manors?" she asked as she pushed the wire along the floor into the force field. She slowed as the tip of the wire started to glow.
"Did they really need to take my dress off me?" she asked. She would have done the same thing.

It was a third of the reason that she wore the body suit. She stuck her tongue out as she started to twist the wire so that the wires force was perpendicular to the force field. “Tangent to the inner diameter of the parabolic cone of force,” she could hear her calculus instructor saying. The second reason she wore the body suite was for padding. Crawling through air ducts was dangerous as there were always sharp pointy edges and corners. Unlike the movies, no one finishes the inside of an air duct. The final reason was it thought it made her look sexy and dangerous. The truth was, she was more dangerous in her beat up sweatshirt and jeans with her spell books and in her circle trying something new.

As the wire slowly made it through the far edge it glowed slightly. The force field was generating and electric field in the wire. That meant she needed to be quick.
"They took my purse with my stuff," she said alluding to the gun and magical foci she used. She was smart enough to leave her identification and her cellular phone at home. She closed her eyes and started to chant. The wire glowed white hot as her magic flowed into it and out beyond the field.
"Now," she said as the force fields started to flicker at the power fluctuation in the fields. She rolled, passing through where the force field should have been pulling the wire and shoes with her. The loops of the brass buttons on her dress flared and went flying as they melted to slag. The thin knife heated as it broke through the field making her quite aware that it was there.
She waited to hear that Rohaan had made it through safely and the she could open her eyes now.

((oh man, that blue color is very difficult for me to read, can you use a different one in the future?))

"Do I need to track someone down and kill them?" The cavalier way in which he said this was often alarming. People said this sort of thing as hyperbole often enough, though with Rohaan, it was often hard to tell if it was a joke or a dead serious and very literal offer. He wasn't quite sure, himself. Part of him meant it, and if she asked him quite seriously to kill someone who had harmed her, he would very much consider it, though he wasn't sure he was so convinced he'd do it just yet. He didn't know Alexa terribly well, but there was something about her he could relate to, or at least, a younger part of him could. And he'd set the world on fire before he let one of his crew get hurt.

"I expect you'll want that back...tell you what. When we get out of here, stay behind me and wait until I start shifting before you follow me out. I'll create a diversion for you, and you can sneak around and get that purse of yours. Shouldn't be too far from this room. Might have to go down to the end of the hall, I think." Some things were worth retrieving. Thankfully, they hadn't noticed his gear, which did not appear to be anything more special than a pair of albeit unique wristbands. Kirra sort of jokingly referred to them as 'ArMaR bands' because 'arcane matter redistributors' was far longer. And she'd kill him if he lost them to Suits. She'd developed the tech just for him, though it had uses far beyond just catering to the needs of a shapeshifter. For Rohaan, it gathered and reordered the matter in his clothing (which also had to by synced up to the devices with special tags) and gave him the ability to not only change what sort of clothing it was, but but to change it into something entirely different, like a saddle, if needed. They were going to come in handy on this little adventure, and someday he would need to properly thank his favorite artificer for her marvelous work.

Rohaan took a deep breath to settle his stomach, which was grumbling and roiling and unsure if it wanted to empty its contents, or needed food. Maybe both, and in that order. Alexa worked her magic on the field and Rohaan pressed himself against the shield so that the moment it flickered and stuttered, he slipped through. Not without a curse or two, though. Rohaan had a few piercings that smarted horribly when they got suddenly heated by the shorted field. He shook his head as though trying to shake off the pain and rolled his shoulders. "Alright, let's do this."

Rohaan helped her up. Despite his rough appearance and his penchant for violence, he was always exceptionally gentle with Alexa. It was a big-brother sort of vibe, despite the fact that Rohaan was only a couple years older than her. He took another, steadying breath through his nostrils as if savoring the scent in the air like it was a soundtrack and this was a performance. In many ways, it was. This was his element, after all, and he enjoyed the thrill.

Where some might have cut the power to the room to get the guard's attention or lure him into the room, Rohaan simply threw open the door and threw a right-hook into Bjornson's temple. The poor idiot barely had any time to react before the fist connected and he dropped like a stone. That took care of him, but there would undoubtedly be someone watching the security cams, and they'd put down their scalding coffee and press the alarm in three...two...

Lights flashed and a wailing siren howled its mournful call. "Alright, here we go..." Rohaan laughed and jogged down the hall to the stairwell, where he'd have his face-off. "Find your things, Alexa!" he called. "I'll find you in a moment." Footsteps and barked orders began to echo through the stairwell. Rohaan changed forms--a quick, effortless transition--into a cyradan, crouched low and with tail poised as if to strike whiplike at anyone foolish enough to get in its range. Just a few more seconds... His lithe body blocked the stairway as he peered over the edge of the top level with his sights set on the landing below him. He opened his mouth, showing a neat assembly of dark, graphite colored teeth, and took in a slow, silent breath. He held the breath right up until the moment he heard an agent reaching the top of the flight of stairs just below his, and then he spat, releasing a flaming glob of viscous liquid that hit the wall with an audible splash and a burst of flame. The leading agent had no time to backtrack and his arm was caught in the splash; he retreated with a panicked howl as he slapped fruitlessly at his arm to try and extinguish the flames. That made the whole crew of agents stop dead.

Rohaan roared in challenge, and the cry was deep and resonant with a faint harmony of a shrill, piercing keen as if two voices sounded out in perfect unison. But then he changed back to his natural shape and laughed. "I am Rheoaan Rohaan Rio Ja'aisen! Did you think you could cage me? Did you think you could subdue me? Come closer, and I'll show you what you're really dealing with. Come closer...if you can make it through the fire." He changed back to a cyradan and let the low rumble of his growl shake the stairwell. The landing was a little pocket of inferno, though it had no other fuel to ignite in the concrete and cinder block stairwell. They'd have to cross through that to get to him, and they'd have to think hard about alternatives if they wanted to avoid burning. Good. Thinking would buy Alexa time.

---

Rohaan asked, "Do I need to track someone down and kill them?"
Then said, "I expect you'll want that back...tell you what. When we get out of here, stay behind me and wait until I start shifting before you follow me out. I'll create a diversion for you, and you can sneak around and get that purse of yours. Shouldn't be too far from this room. Might have to go down to the end of the hall, I think."

She kept her focus on the magic and waited to answer when they were through and he was helping her up. “Yeah, my last boy friend!!” She said. The guy was a medical student and was a bit rough when he wanted to play doctor. Even Rohaan would be able to tell she was not serious about wanting him dead, maybe scared a bit.
“I don’t think they need to die, they are doing their job.”
Alexa did not like hurting people more than was needed.
“My finger prints are all over that stuff and there is a gun in the purse,” she said in a bit of a teenage sarcastic tone. She knew breaking in one thing, stealing stuff was another, but doing with a weapon raised the stakes.

Rohaan moved with smooth grace as and his punch was at the perfect height to catch the guard. He was off to do his thing. She picked up one of those head bashing baton thingy’s and smashed all four of the cameras in the room as the lights flashed and the sirens howled its mournful call. ”Poor security guards, did not know what they had coming,” she thought as she headed for the desk and the weapon safe.

Most desk locks were fairly simple and the magical technique she just used a bit of force to press and turn the tumbler. The desk lock clunked to the unlocked position. Her purse was in the bottom right drawer. In the top center drawer was a “badge of shame” and a ring of keys. It would probably help them get out and a key to a lock box and paper clips. She grabbed the badge and the key. The top right drawer had a shoulder holster that was wrapped around the gun. It was black and went with her outfit under the dress. The gun was high tech. She had heard about mage killers before. High tech weapons that would blow apart spells and worse blow apart a mage.

She heard Rohaan shouting his name, which meant things were getting interesting as she grabbed a bright red stick of lipstick from the purse, the other was a softer rose that she liked. She drew a circle around the release handle of the lock mechanism. Blowing a lock off of a safe meant the rods would lock in place. But blowing the handle into the room with a directed blast would let her probe the inside with magic. She could align the tumblers quickly and probably get the door open.

She moved around the side of the safe, stuck her fingers in her ears opened her mouth, bent over, and then chanted the spell. From the way she acted you would have expected a C4 blast or a fuel air bomb. But she learned on one job where they blew a safe with big explosives, better to always be safe. The pop was more like a big fire cracker. If moved the handle about an eighth of an inch. She could have done the same thing by pulling on the handle and leaning back. With a little effort and by sticking her tongue out, she forced her magic into the inside of the safe. The weapon safe was a three tumbler safe, you wanted to get into the quickly in an emergency. What she learned was she could have just turned the handle and door would have unlocked.

Inside were a couple banded stacks of bills and weapons. She grabbed the cash.

She walked over to the security guard that was starting to wake up. She rolled him over popped his cuffs from their holster and cuffed him. She grabbed to keys from his set. There were only three different normal handcuff keys used by security. She hooked them to her purse with the others she had collected. She lifted the guard’s gun and slid it out into the detention room, hoping it would slide into the force field.

“Honey, the explosive charges are set. Was I suppose to only use on block of the C4, because I used all five?” She shouted down to him. It was her signal that she was ready to go, she just didn't know if she needed to go to him or if he was coming to here. When the plan went wrong, everything goes wrong. She headed down the hall towards him to find a young security guard with his hand on his gun ready to draw. She raised her hands and said, "Tom, If you want to go on a date, meet me at the Flaming Rose Bistro Saturday night around 7pm?" She read his badge for the name. The kid was cute having that young fit military look. She would would have a friend of hers watch from the apartments across the street. She would say back a block or two and then when corp security and the police figured she wasn't coming and they sent him home, she would see if Rohaan would follow him. She would bring pizza and beer. He would get a nice meal on the company and then they would see where things went. Rohaan may need to work his apartment over before she went in. She could tell he wasn't sure what to do. He hesitated to pull his weapons, even smaller boobs can do that to a guy. She was armed but trying to keep the purse so it hid the gun.

She smiled a playful smile at him. Alexa had a history of picking the wrong guy. She knew that Rohaan wasn't going to let her go threw with it. But can't a girl dream a bit?

---

((much better, thank you!))

The agents spent what felt like a long time behind the cover of the corner, just out of reach of the flames on the landing. There were a lot of hushed, muttering voices conferring, trying to decide how to handle this. They weren't prepared for this. They'd done all their planning to get Ja'aisen and they thought that they had an idea of how to keep him. They'd been briefed on what to expect but...evidently the information they received was lacking in detail or was severely outdated. One agent had a mirror in his vest pocket and he slowly, carefully extended it around the brick wall that seemed all that was between them and the demon Ja'aisen. The moment he caught a glimpse of the slinking black creature crouched at the top of the stairs, tail swishing dangerously like a cat's, he yanked his hand back with a gasped exclamation of, "Oh shit...oh damn..."
"Out of my way," a gruff man muttered, and there was the sound of jostling. "Ja'aisen? I'm captain Valdez. I run this operation. I'm authorized to bargain with you, if you're willing."
Rohaan shifted back to his natural shape and laughed. "Oh are you now? Okay mate, try me. What could you possibly have that I want?"
The captain cleared his throat. "The woman. She's your partner, isn't she?"
"Sort of, yeah. Hurry it up, I'm already bored of this conversation..."
"I'll let her walk if you stand down." He figured she would be easier to track and contain than this monster he was speaking to, and if it would save lives of his crew, he'd take the chance.
Rohaan outright snorted. "Oh I see, she gets to walk and I go back in a box? Quietly? Nah, I don't think so. Besides, what makes you think she needs any help from you getting out of here?"

As if on cue, Alexa shouted from down the hall something about C4, and Rohaan grinned. "I've got a counter offer, Valdez. I walk. She walks. Nobody comes after us. I go down to Sergio's Pizzeria and get me some damn pepperoni, and none of your crew has to die today. Or you can try to bring me down and mark my words, every last one of you will burn."
That was a credible threat, coming from him. Valdez had heard the stories, though admittedly he hadn't believed half of them until now. His job would be on the line if he didn't do everything he could to keep this criminal contained, but if he made the first move, there was every chance he'd have to write letters home to husbands, wives and children expressing his condolences for their losses...

Valdez chanced a look around the corner; the heat of the pool of flames on the landing made it difficult to advance further. He'd hoped to get a glance at his foe, to size him up and weigh his options a little better, but it didn't matter. The shapeshifter was gone.

Rohaan had bought time for Alexa and successfully reminded these idiots how foolish they'd been (maybe next time they'd leave him alone) and didn't actually need to engage any further. He almost felt bad for how unprepared they were. Almost. Rohaan chose the form of a dog and bolted swiftly through the hall to where Alexa had gone. A young rookie had his weapon sort of half drawn, fearful of her and yet not ready to fully consider her an immediate threat. Dog-Rohaan's blue eyes met hers momentarily, and then locked on his target as he slowly and silently padded forward until he was right behind the poor sap. Rohaan shifted forms again, back to his natural shape, and blew a little puff of air into the man's ear. Tom jumped and fumbled with his gun as he turned, but Rohaan's calloused fist was waiting for him, and down he went, just like Bjornson.

Rohaan shook his hand a little with a small grimace, then tilted his head at Alexa. "You...you thought he was cute, didn't you?" He clucked his tongue in disappointment as he shook his head. He studied Tom. "Eh, you can do better. You ready? I'm dying for some pizza." He said this as if he were leaving a party, not fleeing a jailbreak. This was just how things were, and it no longer surprised him.

---

There was a visible cringe as Tom turn then the two meaty thinks the first of impact with a body and the second with the floor. She put out a lip in a bit of a pout then she quickly bent down and lifted Tom's wallet and Id badge. She slid the drivers license out got the address and kissed it leaving a bright rose lip prints on the license, placing it on him. She then stood and held her hand out for him to take it and the badge. "Front door or roof?" she whispered holding up the key ring with the Magitech weapon and holster. When Rohaan took her hand, she brought up a veil making them invisible to all but the military grade camera's that the mage snipers used. She used her hand to take them slowly down the hall guards were coming up in a tactical line. From a distance there were shouts, "Keep low, they have the rifles but they can't escape." She added Rohaan's roar and the guards lost some of their discipline and headed for the office where they came through. She let out a little puff now that ear rings were back on and the red lipstick circles drawn on the inside of the ammo box let a pressure wave go off that started cooking process. Rounds started going off in the detention room and wizzed through the air. A few of them hit the force fields that had come back up causing the lights to dim. Yep, the only thing they needed to worry about was the follower. There were always one of two followers waiting to see if the criminals snuck past and to provide additional support when they pressed their attack.

Captain Valdez was the follower. Alexa squeezed Rohaan's hand and bit her lip. The squeeze was to stand still, the lip was self explanatory but he had a ring on. Sweat was running down her back and under her boobs as she concentrated on the veil and slowed her breathing. He moved past when one of the rounds hit a control box causing an explosion and setting off the sprinklers and fire alarms.
As they approached the door, one young guard was there with one of the rifles. She squeezed Rohaan's hand to keep him from hurting the kid then moved forward to read his badge. When she had the name, she made it sound like he had a call from Valdez to call for parametics and lead the fire fighters to them and that they had them pinned down.

The guard went running past mere centimeters from her and went running. She double squeezed Rohaan's hand to let him know he could use the badge to unlock the door and get them out on the roof. She let him go first so she could keep the illusion that the door was closed. When she stepped forward the illusion fell. Those watching the camera's would see them heading to the roof. It was now all up to Rohaan to get them away.

"Money says he moves across the country if you ever show up at his place," Rohaan laughed, shaking his head. Tom would be fine. A concussion would be the worst of his injuries, unlike the unfortunate souls who went down trying to capture him. Rohaan did not go down easily, and their many stitches and broken bones would attest to that. Good, that was less work he'd have to do building his reputation. Rohaan wielded the rumors about him like a sword, and cultivated them like rare plants. Like Alexa, he knew better than most that appearances were everything, and if he made people believe he would destroy them, then perhaps he wouldn't even have to.

Rohaan didn't exactly delight in bloodshed--he wasn't a psychopath. But he wasn't shy about it either, and he would not hesitate to put his own freedom and survival over someone else's. Especially when they embodied the very system that made him a criminal to begin with. Pity, after all, was only for those who deserved it.

"The roof, of course! We'll blow this joint in style." Rohaan took her hand, and his skin tingled a little as her magic flooded over him, cloaking his body and warping the sounds around them. It was a devious trick, one Berlin would be jealous of. Rohaan loved it. The chaos sewn by her addition of his roar was a delightful treat, too, as he got to see which of these agents had steel in their bones, and which ones valued their lives too much to stay. The pair moved swiftly and softly through the hallways of the building up until they were met with the rear guard. It was everything Rohaan could do to keep from striking fist, as was his way, but Alexa's veil held true, and before long, they were out on the roof breathing free night air.

"Nicely done in there. Now then, take this. You'll need it." Rohaan took off his worn leather jacket and handed it over to her. "It gets cold up there, and you'll need something to block the wind. There's not a lot of air up there, either, so if you start to feel faint, pound your fist twice and I'll go a bit lower. And whatever you do, don't let go." Rohaan squatted down so she could wrap her arms around his neck and cling to his back, and once she was secure, his shape shifted quickly and abruptly underneath her. Once more, he was a cyradan, though this time his ArMaR had manifested a basic harness she could hold onto. His velvety black wings spread, he crouched, and then launched upward with enough force to press Alexa into the smooth ridge of his scaled spine. His wings pumped, surprisingly silent for their relative size, and the dragon and rider ascended into the night sky, becoming merely a patch of deeper shadow. His body was utterly fluid as he moved, as flexible and controlled as a snake.

It was cold up at the height he finally leveled off at. He hadn't yet passed the clouds, but what wisps there were that night lay not far above him. It was an effort to carry a human on his back like this, but on a still night like this one, Rohaan could travel fast regardless. He did not have to go far, though. He wanted to get far enough away that any immediate pursuit would give up and resort to more wide-reaching search tactics, but not far enough that any of their estimates of distance traveled would be correct. He touched down on the roof of a dark building without any lights on; So dark and quiet was his form that no one saw him and raised an alarm. Good.

Rohaan let Alexa slide off, then shifted back to his natural shape. "I'd say that went pretty well, I think. Wish I couldda seen the look on Valdez' face when he realized we were gone, and so was his career." Rohaan barked a laugh. Serves the man right for meddling in his affairs. "But I was serious about that pizza. Or anything, honestly, I'm just starving. Takes a lot of calories to keep a shifter on his feet. Wanna come? I've got a place I'm staying at nearby, you could crash there for the night if you wanted. It's not a nice place--it's an old tweaker house, except I scared all the tweakers away. Kinda dirty in there but it does have a couple couches. Unless you've got a nicer place nearby." It was hard to imagine a highly successful thief like Rohaan Ja'aisen living in a dingy trap house instead of bouncing between five star hotels, but that was more often than not the way he lived. Most hotel staff got very uncomfortable about having a shifter in their midst, no matter what he said his identity was. Occasionally he could get people to look the other way with a bit of cash, but most panicked and shooed him away. But Rohaan had an eye for the kinds of establishments and people that would take a bribe.

---

Money was Tom would be moving across the country sooner than that. When they review the video, it would look like he let his guard down and let her get the best of him. Using what people do naturally was the best magic and young single men are easy. Riding on his back was the another reason that Alexa wore the leather body suit. Her dress popped and snapped in the and her shoe less feet, took the brunt of it.

She was shivering hard and gave him a disapproving look then said, "Cold. Yes, foo-oo-d." Valdez was probably going to be okay, she thought. They had caught Rohaan after all and detained him. He had a family to care for. Rohaan's flying high and at the speed he flew meant the air was cold. If she would have cast magic to keep herself warm, they would have left a trail that a "magtech" scanner would have been able to follow. She did not want that. Now she was cold enough that she couldn't concentrate enough. The sweat she had inside the leather suit was cold on her skin making parts of her body ache.

Alexa she had set wards on her place that would not come down till tomorrow at sunset. She was suppose to be camping, of all things, with a girlfriend. She had pictures with a girlfriend when they had gone. Alexa had begged that she post them tomorrow as she said she was having trouble with her stalking corporate security boyfriend and he thought she was cheating on him. It was mostly true, except for the part about the boyfriend. Her girlfriend agreed having had a stalker too from work. She would go with him as much for safety as for warmth at his moment.

Being barefooted, she was not going to go far. Worse it looked like she was going to be taking the walk of shame in the morning. She did not like drug houses, but Rohaan was right. No one liked them and that made them safer places. "Your place is fine," she stuttered. Rohaan knew that this wasn't her style. She had a ritzy studio apartment up town near the club district. She had won the money for that in Vegas, she had been banned from the Casinos there. She had lost more than she won, but she walked away with enough money to pay the rent for years to come. Her Corporate Accountant Dad had setup trust to keep her from spending everything she had on magical research. Her being a mage was still a family secret. Every time she used magic around her mother, she started to cry. So she acted like a normal collage girl at her parents house. Talking about boys, clubbing, drinking, and work. None of it was true, there was rarely a boy, she hared alcohol or anything that altered ones thinking, and well, why would she work a normal job when she could basically take what she wanted.

"When I warm up," she said, paused for a moment, then continued, "I'll make sure the bugs leave your place alone." She grabbed his arm for support and walked with him letting him leed. Her wind tattered and frayed dress, her hair a mess, and being barefooted made her look like a college student turned street hooker because of a drug problem. At this moment, she did not care. She just wanted to get under a warm blanket and to get out of the cold wet body suit. Off was easy, but it took almost 35 minutes to just get it up and over her hips.

A few blocks away, the Cathedral bells chimed for Mass to start. Alexa pulled out the Rosary she wore and kissed it and started praying. Maybe Rohaan would let her go light a couple candles and pray there later. The church had not changed its position on shape shifters and mages. According to Doctrine, they were still considered have received their powers from Satan himself. When her powers manifested, the priest had banned her from the Sacraments and from most of the life of the church. Now being a thief, did not help matters. The Church had thrown her under the bus, but she had not done that to them. It was one of the few things that reminded her that she was still a normal and is why she had a hard time with killing people.

The walking helped get some warmth back in her legs and body. Her feet were warming but still felt like they would be cold for a week.

---

((I like that idea! Rohaan is not the sort to have had much of a home base so it will be fun for him to have one. And anyway, we can still travel around as we please, too. I like the idea of him being the enforcer, but also part of the weird underbelly ecosystem in the neighborhood.))

"Oh, what, my place ain't good enough for you?" Rohaan teased, elbowing her in the arm a bit as he chuckled. "You're too fancy for the likes of me. You and your nice grand hotels. Well, I'm just a humble street rat, but this place is ah...well...alright so it's not grand. Used to be, maybe, but not anymore. I will say, I do keep it mostly clean. And you don't even have to worry about the bugs, I ate most of them." He said this with a beaming grin, though he did not openly clarify that this was a joke. It was, but it entertained him to keep people guessing about what exactly his limits were. And it wasn't like it was a completely crazy thing to say, or at least not for him. Rohaan had eaten a multitude of things in animal forms that he would never dare touch in his own shape. Usually out of desperation when he was younger. Before Berlin found him. And one of the persistent rumors that circulated about him was that he had a penchant for eating people. Rohaan never confirmed nor denied the claims. Let them guess.

Rohaan let her keep his leather jacket on as they shimmied down the fire escape ladders and blended into the streets like they had never taken flight as dragon and rider, and like they had been walking mundanely for miles. The area wasn't exactly upscale, and it was the sort of neighborhood a girl wouldn't go into after dark. Or even some men. But if anyone had evil intentions that night, one look at Rohaan was all the warning they needed to steer clear. Even when he was not shifting, or when it was too dark to see his inhuman eyes, he just had the look of a man who knew how to handle himself. They were unbothered as they made their way to a well-lit pizza shop with a few quiet patrons seated at overly shellacked wooden tables and a teenage boy behind the counter. As they entered, he took an unconscious step back.
"Jazvir! He's back!" The lad called over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off Rohaan.
"Oh is he!" Came an indignant woman's voice. A short Indian woman with a ponytail and black glasses stomped out from the back, pointing an accusatory finger at Rohaan. "You!"
"Jaz...good to see you..." He flashed one of his trademark grins.
"Last time you were here, you wrecked my place! And you didn't pay a dime for the damages!" She put that finger right under his nose, practically leaning on her tiptoes to try and gain a little more height.
"Damages...? Oh c'mon, it wasn't--"
"The broken window."
"Erm...well yeah, but--"
"The aluminum chair you flattened--"
"That wasn't--"
"Don't tell me you forgot about the hole you burnt into the drywall!"
Rohaan grimaced. "I didn't...alright so I wrecked the place. But I'll make it up to you, I've just been busy."
"Uhuh. I'll bet you will. You don't even have money in your pocket, do you?"
"Not exactly. Sort of just came out of a...tight situation, Jazvir. You've got some not-quite-mediocre Suits, here in this town. And they did a number on me, let me tell you."

Jazvir studied him, leaning back on one heel and folding her arms across her chest. "Well you do look a mess. And who's this?" The fiery woman gestured to Alexa, and though her face was screwed up in a scowl, her eyes were warm.
"A colleague," Rohaan said, careful not to say too much out loud in front of the other patrons. There was little need, as there was a rule in Jazvir's place: what happened there, stayed there.
Jazvir rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Rio Ja'aisen, you are the worst! Go on, sit. I'll get your usual, you vagrant." To Alexa, she said, "Keep this one in line, would you, hon?" With that, she disappeared into the kitchen. Notably, she used the last and shortest of Rohaan's three given names, though she seemed to know exactly who and what he was.

Rohaan smiled apologetically at Alexa as he plunked down heavily in an aluminum chair. "Jaz is great. I'm gonna get her something real nice when I get a minute...Last time I was here, I got cornered by some head hunter who did not want to wait for me to finish my pizza. Asshole. You know how that goes." He shrugged nonchalantly, like it was the headhunter's fault that the place had been roughed up, not his.

Jazvir brought out two boxed pizzas and plunked them down on the table unceremoniously. "There. Thanks for not setting the place on fire this time."
"I try."
"You owe me, Rio. Don't forget it."
"I won't, Jazvir. I never do." Rohaan gathered the boxes and he and Alexa headed out. Just the smell of the food reminded him how horribly hungry he really was, and also how upset his stomach was from whatever they'd dosed him with to keep him down during transport. And thirsty. He really needed some water, and maybe something stiffer later.

The tenement where Rohaan had set up his current home wasn't far from the restaurant. It was definitely run down, and though it had once been something nice, it was now in desperate need of new paint, new flooring, and a few new panels of drywall. The front door was chained shut, but one of the windows had been long since smashed in, and the shifter casually climbed through it to get inside. The lower floor was strewn with a bunch of trash and a few filthy mattresses, but Rohaan's spot was a few floors up. He'd cleared out a large room and dragged up two couches that were tattered but not diseased looking, and in one corner of the room was a mattress on the floor. It was most definitely clean, though it lacked a set of properly fitting sheets. A large backpack sat next to it, and beside that was a plastic bin that seemed to serve as his small pantry. The lights did not work, so he turned on a portable lantern that he'd hung from the ceiling, set the pizza boxes on the chipped coffee table, and sank into the couch.

Rohaan was ravenously hungry, and didn't even speak for a while as he chewed with the fervor and intensity of a half-starved animal, though several slices in he slowed down to a more human pace. With that need met, his mind and his body reminded him of the other things he'd neglected, like the bruises and swollen ribs he'd gotten from his capture, or the dragging, hollow feeling the sedation drugs had left him with. He leaned back until his head rested on the back of the couch and sighed, though it came out as almost a groan. "You can take the bed if you want, might be warmer. Don't let this dump fool you, the blankets are clean, I promise." Rohaan drifted from place to place often, so he never invested much money or energy into having many things, though there were a few items he was uncompromisingly lavish about. His clothing was one such item. He had few sets, but what he had was of good quality, especially his boots. Blankets and a decent pillow were another.

---

Walking helped get the blood flowing in her feet, being bare foot in the city wasn’t bad and she stayed away from the gravel and the broken glass as best she could. To the world she looked like another girl being “rescued” from the streets. She didn’t care at this point. They did not know her and she did not know them.

The restaurant was a bright spot in the neighborhood. The Indian woman gave her a look that made her feel welcomed and uncomfortable. She knew she looked like a fresh street walker to these people or a druggie. Jazvir didn’t even mention her bare feet.

After they ordered food, Alexa excused herself to head to the rest room, it was by the kitchen. In about 15 minutes she returned dressed in a rose colored sari with Sandler like slippers. She sat down with a smile. Now she looked like a lady that was in the wrong neighborhood. She giggled as she ate and spoke Hindi with Jazvir when she poked her head out to check on things. “Her daughter thinks your hot,” she said. The girl was maybe twelve, but she remembered her twelve year-old crush.

She had given Jazvir part of the money they stole to pay for the damages and for the clothes. See had to learn some Hindi, Mandarin, and Russian for her degree. It was a history degree which basically meant, she could woof at a library. It was also the cover for people wanting to learn more magic. She had done well enough with the languages.

The clothes were not a perfect fit. But Jazvir had wrapped it well enough that she was well covered. Her cat suit was in a bag near the till.

Alexa learned that Mr. Tough guy had played a big part in this place. He had given Jazvir the money to setup shop, the cook and the cashier had been rival gang members out to kill each other now they were best friends. It was not what she had expected. Alexa handed the cashier a fifty and grabbed her bag as they headed out.

The Rohaan’s place been a grand hotel at one time. She could see potential in this place. Climbing through a window was, not what she expected. She could smell the lingering effects of squatters who had stayed there. She noticed some of the architecture that of the building in the Early 1900’s. When they got to his room, she pulled out a piece of chalk and drew a sigel on the back of the door. It was a basic ward to make things ignore this place. Yes, he was big and tough, but bedbugs don’t care about big and tough.
She wold draw another Rune and cast a spell to drive the 10 billion bugs out of the building. She doubted he ate bugs often.

Alexa handed Rohaan the gun, but she ejected the clip on the ground. At least the safety was on, she thought. He could sell that mage killer gun for some money, more if she would have grabbed the ammo. She also pulled a thumb drive from her waist and waved in front of him. She had grabbed the data they went in for, not the way they planned. She smiled knowing they would get paid!

---

Just at the start of dusk, Alexandra sat up and scribed a circle and pentagram in chalk on a board. With a fairly elaborate chant she conjured up a little being about the size of a softball. The light danced off its skin and colors of red, orange and purple. “Get my staff and my jump bag.” She said.
“Payment?” It asked. She looked around. “Pizza,” she replied and it vanished.

The impish being was not demonic though it looked like a little demon. It was a manifestation of a helper spirit that she created. Since it was hers it could cross into her apartment and get things. Before sunrise, it reappeared looking like it had been attacked. It had her staff and her bag which contained her purse, phone, laptop, and three days worth of clothes if she didn’t do anything dance.

The creature looked at her as she passed over two slices of pizza to it. “Men in your apartment, searching it.” It said.

Alexa rolled and called to Rohaan still resting peacefully or trying to allow her to have some privacy, “Someone is searching my apartment!” Her tone was serious. Someone had gotten through her wards without her knowing.

Rohaan let his eyes drift closed as he inventoried his bumps, bruises, and scrapes. The escape had been easy enough, though his knuckles were bruised from punching out two men. It was his capture that really did the damage though. Rohaan always went down fighting, and not going quietly always came with its consequences. "I didn't know you spoke other languages," he said, his tone soft and tired. "Is English your first language? It's not mine," he dropped casually, though Alexa had never heard him speak anything other than English. He did have a faint remnant of an unidentified accent, though.

Alexa handed him something and he sort of blindly took it, only belatedly opening his eyes to see what it was. As soon as he identified the gun, he held it between his pinched fingers like it was a piece of rotting garbage, or a dangerous snake. "Ugh," he grunted, his distaste obvious. "Might have to find a good place to melt this down tomorrow. A thing this sinister doesn't deserve to exist in this world." For being a man of violence, he had surprisingly strong feelings towards guns in general, but especially specialized ones like this pistol. Rohaan had been shot once, and the evidence was an ugly, shiny scar that marred the plane of his left thigh. He was lucky it didn't hit anything more vital than some muscles, though on especially cold days, he occasionally had a bit of a stiff gait. He thought they were merciless weapons that gave undeserving people undeserved power. He might be living in an empty husk of a building, but he wouldn't put that in someone's hands for any money. Rohaan tossed it beside his shoes on the floor and melted back into the couch. At least Alexa had gotten what they'd come there for, though he was still convinced the whole thing was a setup anyway. If it was, they'd sell that tech to whoever was the biggest threat to the law and watch the fools who set them up burn. That was Rohaan's plan anyway.

It wasn't long before sleep took him. He never even got the chance to lay down, he just fell asleep where he sat semi-upright on the couch, head lolled back against the back cushions. His dreams were hazy and surreal, though not particularly memorable except that they were a bit disorienting. It was even more disorienting to be ripped from them back into the waking world by Alexa's call of his name. "Hnngh?" He sat up, though he swayed a little. There were evidently men searching her apartment. Some distant part of him had some knowledge of the protections Alexa put over the places she lived, and marveled at the fact they'd made it in. "Wait, what? Ugh, that sounds like a you problem," he said, though he was already rubbing his face and trying to bring himself to be awake enough to put on his boots. "Do you know who?" He was so, so tired and was now slightly less warm since he was no longer melded with the couch cushions and all he wanted was to go back to bed but he offered, "you want me to go check it out? Don't think they'd notice a bird in the window."

Alexa smiled at his hatred of the gun. “It is a mage killer,” she finally said.

To the language question, “Most trained mages learn a few languages. It helps with the swearing around young children.” She said with a chuckle. Languages were one of the things she was good at. Reading and research was another. You know the things that pay well. Thank you Google.

“I want to keep the I’m out of town cover,” she smile hating this. Her current boyfriend. “Yeah, it would be good to know who and how,” she continued.

She doubted Tom and his friends would have found her that quick. That meant the cops or a different group was either trying to hire them or the thumb drive was more important to someone other than their employer. They could make two copies. She had her laptop.

She took two cups out of her bad, a bottle of water and instant coffee. She put bags of coffee in the cup poured in the water and started it boiling with a little spell. She walked over and picked up the gun and slid it back into the holster. She half expected him to give her crap for not grabbing the ammo. It had 5 rounds in the clip. Unlike Rohaan who could spit fire, grow claws, and bash skulls, she did not have those abilities. Also combat casting wasn’t her strong suite. So she would mind the gun that could to stop a fellow mage.

“Coffee first, if it is my family, don’t kill them,” she said. He helper disappeared as the sun rose having ate the rest of her cold pizza.

---

Alex made them breakfast, sort of. Granola bars and hot, hot coffee and fresh fruit is what she had. Her phone beeped a message, which she read then gave it to Rohaan on paper. It was the address of where the drop was to take place. He did not give her his apartment address. He knew her apartment from previous jobs they had done together. With her luck the bastards had taken her stuff and burned the place down by now or worse.

She plugged a phone charger into the wall to find there was no electricity. There was water, which was good. Someone, probably Rohaan had opened the valve in the street to let that flow. Sewage, she did not think about. It went down, that was all she wanted to know. Basements were not her thing. She did not like places where you could get trapped.

She looked at him and asked, "Anywhere I should stay away from?" She wasn't one to sit around without a lab to work in. So, she would take her staff with her to explore the place. She wasn't planning to find out how many subbasements this place had with out Rohaan. They tended to have a few levels below ground that were attached to service tunnels to move coal and items. Some times the subways now used the tunnels now, other times they were just forgotten. But it would allow them a different way in and out, if there was light.

---