Downtown Acco

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Shops, restaurants, cafe's, tourist-like places, and the small centralized Brownietown. (Like Chinatown except with the willowy, brown-skinned, noseless/earless/huge-eyed ethnic group.) This place is usually busy except very, very, VERY late at night, and even then there are plenty of witnesses, even if they might not do anything. There's still a crime rate, but it's usually more of the pickpocketing type than drive-by shootings.

This is why it's usually the neutral meeting place between Hunted and Hunter, if ever a thing were to exist.

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Day 1

If Edom had been paying attention when he walked into the 24-hour cafe, he would have noticed the guy in the corner change into an androgynous girl, but he didn't even glance over. He just walked over to the very well-lit counter, got a coffee he wouldn't drink, and went to a couch to sit out twilight.

Tak glanced over at Edom, hunched over a bit more, and continued his research. He was noticing some very obvious patterns in the Twilight case, and Edom's entrance reminded him to check into a few things about the guy, but right now he had bigger worries. For instance, hacking into a top-secret database to check up on encrypted files that might contain video footage he was looking for... or viruses so potent they might literally melt his computer. ...basically an everyday job.

An hour or so later, Tak's jaw fell open as he stared at the computer. Then looked up at Edom. Then back at the computer. A gesture Edom didn't see. Tak had gotten a few surveillance videos of Twilight that Pierce United was keeping under wraps, which was odd enough in itself. But then he stumbled upon video from the police department. It wasn't related to anything, but it was odd enough that he opened it. Swallowing hard, Tak took a screenshot of the video: a still of the back of a guy, backlit by fire, flesh red and raw and white in places, with a huge tattoo of a winged, maned dragon flying across his back.

He sent the jpeg to Edom's email, hearing the other's phone go off with a light ring when he got it. The subject was blank, and the body simply said: 'If I could find it, watch yourself. I'm pretty sure there may be pictures of your back on the internet somewhere.' Tak used his web cam to watch Edom squint at the screen. If it were possible for the vampire to go more pale, Tak was certain he would have.

And then he looked up and saw Tak. The pixie saw Edom's eyes narrow, and... fuck. He's used this disguise before, hadn't he? Tak moved to run, there was a series of confusing motion, and then he was outside, pressed up against the alleyway wall, facing a snarling vampire. "I was just warning you! I don't have any reason to use this information against you!" Tak yelped.

Edom shoved him away further down the alley, Tak tried to calm his racing heart. "I don't want any goddamn trouble, Tak, I-" He stopped, stiffening for a moment, and Tak didn't have time to ask why before a shadow fell from nowhere and Tak felt a warmth at his back. Twilight. He was the next victim. There was a sharp pain at his neck, and he heard a light snapping. Then the attacker was falling back, Edom was snarling at Tak's neck at Twilight, and Tak thought he saw a giant of a man falter and flex his hand, like something was wrong. Edom took that moment to flee, picking up Tak, who was feeling lightheaded for some reason, but was able to make out that he still had his laptop... and could realize that if Twilight had attacked them again they'd both be dead. Then he blacked out.

Alice had caught a cab Downtown and was now exiting her favorite 24 hour cafe' holding a fresh cup of coffee. Taking a sip she could feel the tension in her head slowly dissipating as she walked down the street towards her apartment.

She took another sip and was just about to round a corner when the sound of hurried footsteps and movement out of the corner of her eye caused her to pause and peer cautiously down a dark alley. Slowly she reached for her gun.

Edom wasn't able to scent anything over the strong smell of blood that Tak was dripping everywhere. He had tried to staunch it a bit with some of his shirt that he ripped off and tried around his neck... the other guy, who must have been Twilight, had used some sort of wire to cut Tak's neck. Thankfully Edom had snapped it before it hit anything severe artery-wise but it was still bleeding. He had gotten far enough away to the point where he was finally able to feel good about setting Tak down and trying to revive him, also too wrapped up in this to hear Alice's careful movements, although he was far more on-edge than he would have liked. "Fuck, I'm gonna need to go back to the apartment," he grumbled quietly to himself. No way was he, a vampire, going to walk a bounty into a hospital when the guy was bleeding profusely from his neck. That was jail time and a headache Edom didn't need.

Lance was walking through downtown to get to his apartment, his newly acquired money safe in his pockets, ever watchful of anyone coming at him, just being cautious of Twilight. Out of the corner of his eye he could spot Edom holding the bleeding Tak. Stopping dead on the spot, the moon elf just viewed the scene with a disturbing look. Sure people get murdered here in Acco but to slice his throat and carry him down the streets, that's going a bit far. Why couldn't he left the body in a ditch where all the others were. After a moment Lance finally spoke. "Hey! What the hell are you doing man!"

Edom snarled at the stranger, instantly with his defenses up... the only thing being he immediately got between Lance and Tak, which isn't what someone would do with an individual they hurt. "Fuck off, assclam," he growled, fangs fully extracted, eyes morphing into an ice-blue.

Lance's sudden appearance startled Alice, who had slipped into the shadows ready to defend herself. She had noticed Edom's defensive behavior towards the pixie and knew that the situation was not all that it seemed. Carefully she slipped out of her hiding space, now certain that she wasn't in imitate danger. "Is he your bounty or were you both attacked?" Her voice soft and non threatening so as not to startle him to much. She recognized the vampire as a fellow bounty hunter and she hoped he recognized her as well.

Edom whipped his head towards Alice this time, showing off his razor-sharp fangs while berating himself. If this many people could sneak up on him-just what could Twilight have done? He then looked up a bit and noticed that the sky was now pitch-black, the only light coming from the stars and the streetlamps. Twilight was over. "...attacked," he muttered, the growl still in his voice. "Gotta get him back and bandaged up or I helped him for nothing." He turned his back on the two to pick up Tak, although he made certain that whirling around to attack or defend was still an option. Edom calmed down a little more to see that the pixie still had his laptop on his arms, slightly bloody at this point. As far as he knew, this was the first person to survive an attack from Twilight, and Edom wanted to keep it that way.

Alice looked over at Tak and frowned. "He's lost a lot of blood." She commented, stating the obvious, "I have something that can help stop the blood flow until you get him to a safer place. Can I take a look at him?" She said taking a step forward.

Edom bristled, but managed to get the random defensiveness under control. "...yeah," he said, backing off from Tak so she could get to him. His fangs weren't shrinking at all, though.

Having been following Alice, her hackles raised she she stalked along the rooftops, eyes glaring as she came upon this scene. Curious, but not enough to approach, Glasica settled for twitching her tail as she watched everything unfold... and listened intently.

Alice dropped to her knees beside Tak and started to assess the situation. She had taken several anatomy and biology courses at University and had basic first aid knowledge. His neck was still bleeding badly but when gripping his wrist she felt a flutter of a pulse and breathed a relieved sigh. Sitting back on her heals she looked over at Edom, "I'm going to reach in my coat for some bandages that I keep in case of emergencies." She said, making sure he knew she wasn't reaching for a weapon or anything like that. 

She drew out the bandages and started to unroll them. They were surprisingly thin and had an odd silver sheen to them. Carefully she began to wrap Tak's neck with the strange cloth.

Edom's eyes tracked Alice's every movement, not like he didn't trust her--she didn't have the look of a person about to snatch up the part-pixie and run off, and even if she did, Edom could probably catch her. He was just too caught up in this to not be intense about it. Tak made a small sound at one point, but after the bandages were in place, blood wasn't dripping down his neck. One has to appreciate the good things.

He had waited for exactly the amount of time it took to bandage Tak and then he was standing up, going to pick up the pixie again. He hesitated, contemplating just jumping up on the rooftops and ditching the two in the alleyway. But... "Tak would be upset if he couldn't thank you when you woke up," he growled, looking at Alice and knowing he'd be going slower than he'd like. That being said, Edom started walking off anyway, leaving it up to Alice to follow or wonder aloud what the shit was going on. The elf might follow them or ask annoying questions but Edom wasn't going to give him a written invitation to do so.

Alice blinked in surprise as she watched Edom walking away from her. Clearly his statement had been an invitation which was slightly confusing. Shaking her head she trotted up beside him, falling into step next to him. Normally she wouldn't have gone with him, but her concern for the pixie and her general curiosity of the situation was getting the best of her. "Where are you taking him."

"My place. I have blood there. And enough equipment for a transfusion." The reason why Edom would have blood on hand was obvious, if his fangs didn't give it away. He seemed to remember a few O packets, so at least that would be taken care of. "It's not too far." He had really just stopped to make sure Tak had a pulse of some sort. Edom shook his head, as if to shake off an unpleasant thought. "Wonder if Twilight was using piano wire before," he muttered. "I thought it was a knife." The adrenaline rush was getting to him. Edom had no idea he said that part out loud.

"Were you with him when the attack happened? Did you see anything." Alice questioned.

Edom glanced sidelong at her, the corners of his mouth pulling down. "We shouldn't be alive," he finally admitted. "He moved fast enough that he could've killed me. But he paused." Edom fell silent a moment. "And he smelled human."

"Human?" She breathed. Alice was human, and a relatively strong one. But despite her own skills she knew that there were limitations, so the idea that a human was easily picking off very strong magical creatures was shocking. "Well, thank goodness for both your sakes he paused." She added with a weak attempt at a smile.

Lance opened his eyes after a very long blink. He saw everything that happened and heard from the whispers that there was another Twilight attack, and that Edom had may or may not have been there. The moon elf did want to crash at his place, but seeing how it was relatively early for him and he sensed that this discovery did have the potential to earn money, or at the very least he would find the wealthy people of Acco who are interested in the tale, thus making his next heist a bit easier than scoping out the money through a long and difficult process. Still wary of either of them, just in case they were hunters, he hung back for a second, but he went against his better judgment and followed after the procession. When he got closer to the pair he overheard that Twilight could be just a human. "Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt but did I hear you say Twilight could be just a human?" Lance's disbelief could definitely be seen on his face.

"Did I mumble?" Edom snapped, glaring at Lance and wondering when he acquired an entourage. Then again, this one looked like Hunted. Maybe. He seemed very vaguely familiar, like they had met when the guy was insulting Laud the Badass. Then again, Edom was just in a bad mood, he didn't care about Lance one way or the other.. The blood of a part-pixie soaking into your shirt will do that. "...I said he smelled human. If he even was Twilight." He didn't really have any doubt about that, but he had to put it out there. "The way he moved, though... it's hard to say. Maybe I got confused. He moved a bit faster than me." As a vampire, that was hard to do for a human. Then again, Edom was totally not confused. The guy had smelled human, through and through, he'd bet his left testicle on it.

He made an abrupt left as they walked along a street and climbed up a few stairs, adjusted Tak, and fumbled with his keys to unlock his door. Well, apparently they had made it.

"Do you want me unlock the door?" Alice asked politely as she watched Edom struggle to balance Tak and find the right key.

Edom paused, wondering if he should. It probably wasn't a good idea. Then he awkwardly tossed the keys to Alice from where he had been holding them basically under Tak. "It's the one with 'H' carved in," he grumbled.

Taking the keys, Alice found the right one and unlocked the door. Turning the knob she held it open so that Edom could get through while holding Tak.

Edom went into his apartment, not apologizing for the mess or closing the door behind him. It was a typical bachelor's pad, but it didn't smell, at the very least. Mostly because there wasn't food in there. Edom went to the bed and put Tak down on it, ignoring the blood getting on his sheets because they were black for a reason, and finally pried the laptop out of the part-pixies arms. He then walked to the fridge and took out a bag of type O blood, hoping that the pixie was positive in his type, and shoved it in the microwave, knowing exactly how to get it to body temperature. As he waited for it to warm, and as he rummaged for a tube and needle to stick into Tak, he whipped out his phone again, getting Jane's voicemail this time. "So you said you wanted to catch Twilight, and your friend kinda sucks at taking messages, so I'd just like you to know I have an almost-victim of our bounty in my apartment and Twilight might be coming over at any time to finish the job. So come on over. And hurry." He glanced over at Alice. "...we might be splitting it three-ways. Or four. I dunno." The phone clicked shut and soon he was working to hook up all the transfusion stuff. And fussing. He was very much on edge.

Alice sat on the bed next Tak and reached for his neck, gently pulling the blood soaked bandage away. She thought it would better to change the bandage before they did the blood transfusion. Looking up over at Edom she could see that he was strung pretty tight. "Do you want me to do the transfusion? I learned how to do them when I was at University." She asked with a concerned tone.

Edom started to ignore her but his hands were shaking, so he just attached the thing to the tube, hooked it up to the bag, and just handed it over to her. He couldn't do it. "Fuck, maybe you shouldn't be here. I can't guarantee your safety."

Taking the bag from Edom, she set it down for a second and reached for a bandage on the bed. Tying it around Tak's upper arms, she felt around in the crook of his elbow until she found a vein, "I'll be fine." She said to the vampire distractedly as she grasped the needle and slipped it easily into the pixie's flesh. She released the pressure tourniquet and took a seat on the bed again, holding the bag. Slowly but surely the blood began to flow it's way into Tak's arm.

Now I really AM a stalker. Glasica thought to herself, scrunching up her nose at the thought. Why was she following these... humanoids. Ah yes, because something had happened with them, and with this person known as Twilight that was invading upon her territory. Glaring at the three from across the way through the window, the sphinx didn't move an inch except for the tip of her tail, flicking every which way.

Tak let out a light breath and turned his head when half of the bag had been drained into him, no longer looking so pale. Edom spared him a glance before flipping open the pixie's computer. "Twilight doesn't seem to have a pattern," he muttered, trying to figure out the bastard's password. The hint was 'pomegranate seeds,' what the fuck? "He's killed minor bounties, major ones, ones for murders and... now Tak. His bounty isn't even fully legal, just put out by a few casinos. He hasn't done anything illegal, so why the hell...?" He rubbed his hair. "It doesn't make any sense. Like he has no message to be telling the world. But all this, it's like he does."

Alice was holding the blood bag in one hand while her other held Tak's wrist so she could keep track of his pulse. "Maybe we're over thinking this. Perhaps there really is no pattern and he's just some sicko serial killer that gets his kicks from killing criminals." She offered gently, not wanted to aggravate the already keyed up vampire.

Edom grunted. Oh yeah, very articulate. "What the hell to 'pomegranate seeds' mean to you?" he asked. Maybe if he could get onto Tak's computer, there'd be an answer.

Shifting slightly on the bed Alice bit her lip in thought, trying to remember why pomegranate seeds sounded familiar. Suddenly she remembered something interesting about the strange fruit, "Maybe it has something to do with the Greek myth about Persephone, the Goddess that was kidnapped by Hades. Try Persephone." She said tilting her head to look over at him.

"..." Well, worth a shot. Edom took a stab at the spelling, vaguely remembering the name from mythology, and apparently he did it correctly because the computer started loading up. "Man. He's a nerd." The computer was good technology, because it started up in a few seconds and Edom started going through files. There were folders stuff full of crap, but there were quite a few with just interesting information. Internet memes, there was that still of him from the video that showed his back tattoo, and a few files of scientific gibberish. "Hey, Tak, I'm going through your shit," Edom said in a loud voice. He didn't get a reply from the pixie. "Fff. I figured he'd wake up at that; bastard was territorial. Maybe he could tell me what these studies are of."

Lance, after what seemed like a very long blink, followed the footsteps of the group and found that it lead to what seemed like Edom's apartment. From what Lance knew of humanoids whenever they had their teeth bared and snapped back at questions, probably best not to directly interfere with what they are doing. The moon elf silently walked up to the door, ready to unlock it with his lock pick. At first he thought himself crazy to be following a few guys that seemed dangerous, but it appeared that the pixie was the only known victim of Twilight that has survived, at least the initial attack. Knowing more about the so called man would greatly improve Lance's survival, so he decided to open the door a crack, hoping the people inside wouldn't notice and eavesdrop on what they were saying. He picked up the conversation at "Persephone, the Goddess..." The moon elf waited at the right of the door, in case danger came he could turn invisible if needed.

Edom frowned, then pulled out his phone. It was Jane. He picked up the phone, flipping it open as he stared at the contents of Tak's computer. "Hey, you get my message?" he asked in a growl.

Cocking his head slightly, Edom listened to Jane, frowning. "Well, we're both picking up tagalongs. At least I didn't get mine at a strip joint--at my place. You remember Tak? Rainbow-haired kid with the stupid bounty on him... yeah, Twilight attacked him. I was there. And guess what? We're both relatively alive. I want to keep it that way. Put on your panties and get the fuck over here."

Put on your panties and get the fuck over here, who the hell is that guy talking to, wondered Lance, still outside of the barely opened door. The moon elf was still crouching near the door of Edom's place, and even though he didn't know if someone was coming, he was definitely preparing himself for a visitor or two.

Alice remained silent while Edom was on the phone. The blood bag that she was holding was finally empty and she carefully removed the needle from his arm and wrapped a bandage around where they transfusion and taken place. Tak had regained some of his color, and although she knew he was need stitches and possibly another transfusion she thought that he was going to recover. Picking up the bag, she stood and walked over to the kitchen where she had seen a trashcan to dispose of it.

...the bitch hung up on him. Edom flipped his phone closed, mostly unperturbed. He was just hoping that meant Jane was on her way. Edom looked at the bandages; they weren't bleeding through, which was a good thing. If the cuts weren't healing, which Edom hoped they would soon using Tak's slight pixie heritage, he might feed the other his own blood. Vampire blood was usually good for speeding up healing; not usually enough to fight a vampire over it. But Tak looked better. "Thanks," he muttered to Alice, hearing the sounds of her moving in the kitchen, but still looking at Tak.

Then he frowned. "You knew a lot about treatment. How much sciencey stuff do you have under your belt?"

"I was in medical school before I moved here." She said throwing the bag into the trash can. Turning, she was about to say something when she saw movement through the crack in the door. Someone was outside listening to them. Tensing instantly, she looked at Edom with wide eyes and gestured subtly towards the door, trying to discreetly show him that someone was out there.

Edom's gaze shot to Alice when she failed to continue, then followed her motions to the door. Narrowing his eyes, his nostrils flared as he silently took in a deep breath. Smelled... kinda... elf-ish. He rose to his feet almost totally silently, wondering if whoever it was could see them. Basically wondering how fast he had to move.

Lance tensed up as well, clearly noticing the lack of communication so suddenly. The moon elf didn't know what to do next, should he tail off so as not to be discovered but then again if he did that he wouldn't overhear any information concerning Twilight. At any second, he was preparing to use his innate powers of invisibility, even though it wore off after a few minutes or if he moved from his spot. He decided to risk it, information could save his life if he ever came face to face with the killer.

Realizing that their silence was suspicious, Alice started talking again, "But yes, I was in medical school. My last year, in fact. But circumstances changed and I was forced to come here to this place." As she spoke she stepped about into the kitchen so that she could no longer be seen through the door and quietly pulled an impressive looking colt .45 from a holster at her waist. She watched Edom move towards the door silently and held her gun in a relaxed but ready grip just in case.

"Oh, okay." Edom's fingers clenched and unclenched, getting ready. "There's some scientific shit on the computer for you to--"

Then he was at the door, swinging it open and grabbing. Kinda blindly, just reaching out and grabbing. It was a normally effective way to freak someone out into non-action. And grab them by the hair.

Lance, surprisingly, was caught by surprise. Even before he had even begin to turn invisible, he felt a hand land firmly on his bald scalp and grab hold of it. "Hey!" he shouted out at the suddenness of the grab.

"Hey yourself. I know you." This was Edom definitely Not Happy. The boy's eyes were ice blue again and fangs were out. He might have been expecting hair to grab, but the skull was good enough. He'd require a bit more than one hand to crush the thing, but it was sufficient for just holding on. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" ...okay, hanging outside in the current situation? Bad. So Edom pulled Lance into the apartment, yes by the head, and slammed the door behind him.

Lance, using all of his upper body strength, was grabbing on to Edom's arm, trying to force his grip away. Being a survivor on the streets made the moon elf rise up in anger at being held against his will. Looking back into Edom's eyes with similar anger, the moon elf slowly and deliberately replied. "Just finding out any information you guys had on Twilight, now will you get your fucking hand off of me!"

A moment later, the door opens and Jane steps into the apartment, followed by Carmen. She pauses at the doorway, noting the number of people in Edom's tiny home. "Having a party without me?" She glances over at the rainbow-haired guy, who she vaguely recognizes, and raises her eyebrows at his current state. "A party with Twilight, eh?"

Alice had her gun trained on Lance, and flinched ever so slightly in surprise when the two women stepped into the room. "To say the least." Alice said in response to Jane's comment. "Um...I'm assuming you're the vampire's friend that he was talking to on the phone?" She asked realizing that despite having been with him for the last half an hour at least, she hadn't learned Edom's name.

"That would be me," Jane confirms. "I suppose Edom should have been the gentleman he never is and introduce us, but..." she glances significantly at Alice's raised gun, "... it looks as though none of us are remembering our manners right now."

"You're damn right about manners," Lance said while looking at Edom. Then out of the corner of his eye he could see who it was, ans for an instant he smiled at her until he remembered his predicament.

"Yeah, cuz I usually say 'please' and 'thank you' when I'm about to shoot someone in the face," Edom growled. "And when I break noses, I go so far as to squeeze in a 'pardon me.'" His fist clenched. Lance might want to think twice, maybe even three times before snapping at the vampire. He looked up at the latest newcomer. "Okay, seriously. Everybody get inside before we paint a neon sign over my door going 'suspicious activity here!'" No, he hadn't released Lance's head. He doesn't take kindly to eavesdropping when he's worked up. Apparently.

"Lol, n00bs," Tak muttered, eyes still closed. Edom's shoulders sagged a little in relief. Tak may or may not be awake but he wasn't death rattling, so Edom figured he'd be fine.

"Jane," Edom said, pointing at the girl in question, doing his little introduction of the people he actually knew, which constituted about half. He seemed to be nicer about it, though. "Edom. Tak. Fuck if I know who the rest of you are. We'll print out little nametags and I'll get the cookies out of the oven so there'll be room for the elf in there. Inside."

Alice lowered her gun and then put it away, "I'm Alice," She said, almost apologetically to Jane before heading over to the bed to check on Tak.

While Edom was pointing, Lance used this time to grab hold of the vampire's remaining arm and jerk it away to not be held against his will. Still with his guard up, Lance moved to a non aggressive posture and said, "Lance, and if you didn't grab my head like a bowling ball I would have told you why I was eavesdropping". Before going on, the moon elf turned over to Jane for a second and thought, Damn she's fine, before turning back to Edom. "Let's just say I have a book overdue from the library and I don't want the thing jumping down on me and slicing my head off. More information, the longer life is" While looking at Edom to see what he would do next, Lance was calculating his chances of survival of jumping out the nearest window onto the street if things didn't go down well.

"And if I'm starving, I steal. Doesn't mean you can't get a hand cut off." Edom folded his arms, glaring at Lance but no longer about to twist off the top of his head and use his skull as a cereal bowl. "Information doesn't come free. You either got something for us, or you get out." Edom eyed Carmen. She looked very vaguely familiar, like he had thought she was important at some point but he might have been drunk at the time. But the same applied to her, and it was his apartment. Alice had proved her usefulness.

Lance shifted his feet slightly, on no account did he ever tell anyone, that he didn't know well, what his set of skills were, and the moon elf had no idea as if this group was hunter or hunted. After a moment he responded to the vampire. "Well, hypothetically speaking, if a party was created to take Twilight down, I have no information but I have certain skills that I've acquired all my life...skills, for instance, that let me enter into a place to take the occasional overdue book, so to speak." Lance looked into the eyes of Edom, trying to read his reactions to what he just said.

Edom was not having any of this 'so to speak' nonsense. "Is that code? Or metaphor? Does the overdue book stand for anything? Wait, are you saying you're a professional thief? Okay, we might be able to work with that." Subtle like a ninja. Edom had no idea if there would be any 'overdue books,' as it were, but it meant this guy Lance was on their side. Which meant he was less likely to run to offer Twilight information. His apartment was feeling pretty frickin' crowded.

"We need bait," Jane says, jumping in as an attempt to calm Edom the fuck down. "It's not like Twilight is a regular at The Rusty Nail or 4play, so we need something to lure him to us before we can make any kind of capture attempt. This Lance guy is clearly a Hunted. So is Tak, and so is the one I brought," she indicates Carmen. "And Twilight goes after Hunted, right? So if we've got three to bait him with he should be stopping by here in time for at least a few keg stands and body shots before he tries to kill us all."

Having sat back on the bed next to Tak, Alice listened and watched as the others talked. She remembered bumping into Lance at the bar the night before and she was sure that she had seen Jane around. The person with Jane however, was making her nervous. Although trusting by nature, the look of the woman and red made Alice uneasy. Turning to look at Tak, she checked his pulse again and was very pleased to note that it was steady.

"There's where we have a problem, Jane, is it?" Lance started to speak when Jane said something about bait. "It's not in my nature to run away from a fight, I'm sure all of us have been in countless fights, and seeing how we are all still breathing means we haven't lost yet. But the idea of waiting in a dark alley for a known mass killer to come slice my head off, isn't really my idea of a fun night."

"And we only need one person to act as bait. Lance can leave so he can roam until Twilight goes after him later and it won't be our problem. Tak is our best bait, if he could actually sit up, since I doubt Twilight wants to let him to be alive for longer." Edom had a point-they might not actually need Lance. Or random addition girl. But he did also point out that since he was Hunted, Twilight was coming after him eventually if they didn't catch him.

A hoarse voice came from the direction of the bed. "Twilight is gonna camp 'til he pwns us all." Tak was talking, though he wasn't opening his eyes, and it sounded like it hurt to talk. "Sitting with his sniper rifle, picking us off one by one. Or maybe he's Heavy." No, he didn't make sense. "We should be the blue team. Protection in numbers."

Jane looks skeptically at Tak. "Yeah, he'll make great bait... assuming we're all okay with him, you know, dying in the process." She looks back to the group, primarily addressing Edom and Lance, since the two have the most to say about this ruse. "He stands a much better chance of surviving if the other Hunted stay with him. And if you guys managed to get away from Twilight when the attack was unexpected, just imagine how much better we can do if we're anticipating, it." She turns her gaze meaningfully to Lance. "Unless you're too much of a pussy." While she couldn't be more explicit with her insult, her tone is still unbearably sexy.

"I hate to mention this, but I'm a little concerned about trust issues. I mean, aside from Jane and Edom, none of us really know each other. Who's to say the person acting as bait isn't going to turn tail and leave the rest of us in a dangerous position?" Alice asked, trying not to sound to pessimistic even though that's how she was feeling. While she waited for an answer she turned to Tak, "Do you think you are up for having some water? You've lost a lot of blood and are probably dehydrated." She asked softly.

Lance didn't want to say to Jane that he wasn't there when Twilight attacked so he can't say he survived one, but he definitely didn't want to turn down a compliment. The moon elf hated the idea of being bait, it went against his very nature of surviving, but when Jane egged his on with her unbearable sexy voice he decided that his odds of surviving Twilight were better off with this lot. Not thinking of anything to come back at Jane's insult, after a second he resorted to simply saying, "Well...fuck me," and added a sheepish grin. Turning back to Edom and everyone else that was listening, he questioned about the plan. "So, Edward...I mean Edom, what's the suicidal plan you got for us?"

"Well, Douche. I mean Lance. It's not my suicidal plan." He pointed to Jane. "She was the one who said she had something. I don't even know if it includes any bait." He figured that even if it was the same thing he would have come up with, it'd be ten times better in Lance's eyes. Which was fine by him; Edom wasn't doing anything for the Hunted's approval.

"I would like some water, it would give a +5 bonus to my HP," Tak muttered, trying to focus on Alice. The boy was high off of blood loss.

Carmen watched the long exchange with both interest and disbelief. "Amatuers," she shook her to give emphasis to her words. "Are you really planning on surprising this Twilight with no additional information?" her voice purred incredulously. She stepped further into the room, moving off the wall she was leaning against. "Chances are Twilight is planning to be attacked by survivors; since there are a few, and doubtless he has pages of information on all of his victims. Possibly all the hunted in this city. And you think you can just ambush him?" Carmen looked around the room, thinking that what the barely conscious Tak said had made the most sense.

"I'm the only one in this room who's seen Twilight face-to-face," Edom pointed out, attention on Carmen now. "I have some information on him. As far as I know, that's the most information we're going to get on the guy. Our other options besides having him come to us is going to him. Or dying. That's a good option." Edom looked a bit tired, hooking his thumbs into his pockets as he leaned against a wall. "Not that I'm against advice from a professional. At this point, though, stranger, it's about survival."

Jane rolls her eyes. "I suppose this is the part where I save the day." She pulls out the envelope from her purse, reaches inside and takes out its contents. It was all what she had seen in the strip club. The same profile photo of that teenage boy. Folded papers were also in the envelope, waiting to be open and read. They were about 'Project McGruff' and had the official Pierce United heading. If skimmed, it appeared to be human experimentation with genetic hybridization... but was very technical. Another report was included, titled a genetic test, and a sequence of nucleotides under a section labeled 'X-23' was circled, with a handwritten note to the side: "Emery-Dreifuss." And on the back was still the word 'Twilight.'

Carmen came to stand directly behind Jane's shoulder, skimming over the papers. She cocked her head and gave Jane an appraising smile. "This might be the key to understanding Twilight." Carmen looked up from the papers. "We have our heading. We need to find out as much about Twilight and the content of these papers as possible. You all have talents and obvious networks of intel, now its time to put them to use." Carmen Smiled, "What do any of you know about Pierce United?"

Lance looked to Carmen and replied, "We have our heading? Interesting way to put it I guess, but anyway, it does look like Pierce United has something to do with it. But other than the fact that it's big business, I have no idea what it is about."

"That business is everywhere," Edom said, pushing off from the wall and heading to the fridge to grab a bag of blood to heat up. He was getting hungry, and didn't want to be caught starving at any point in the future. "Their logo is on everything from vending machines to oil rigs... though they try to keep the focus away from the really horrible shit like chopping down rainforests. They own half the city, but it's all legit, or so the squadron of lawyers says. I don't know why they would get involved with Twilight..." With a flick of his wrist, he cut the corner of the bag off and started discretely drinking the contents. "If anybody has a chance of getting into their personal business it's the half-conscious rainbow-head on the bed."

"They use a firewall of +18 prevention," Tak mumbled, eyes unfocused, but he was still somewhat coherent. "Which all but the strongest Hadouken could not vanquish. ...and they don't keep the real secret stuff in a network. It's probably on a remote computer, deep in the dungeon."

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_{perfect bounty}