PROLOGUE

EDIT: 3/20/2012

OH MY GOSH. Sorry that this took so long. I just finished my last exams for the year and I got caught in schoolwork for the past weeks and so. There wasn't time for me to write.I'm sorry for the very long wait! I edited the prologue to make it less confusing. I think I was the only one who understood it because I was the one who wrote it. I add some things and deleted some. Enjoy it this time!

It was exhilarating, this feeling. The feeling of walking down a crowded street, smelling the mix of spices in the air coming from the various cafés and bakeries lining the streets, feeling the breeze blowing through your hair, seeing the glorious orange light of the fading sun, being able to gaze at the beautiful dark blue sky, seeing sight of the bustling city just before you, taking in the mix of old and modern architectures of buildings, hearing your shoes tap against the cobblestone streets. This is his first time experiencing anything like this. This freedom is exhilarating.

What made this moment more exhilarating was the chase. He knew. He noticed the presences of the men who were tailing him since they entered town. And from the slightly tense movements of his two companions, he knew that they have felt their pursuers too. Nothing the three of them did gave away that they knew they were being followed.

The men started spreading out the perimeter and surround the three of them so that there wouldn't be any form of escape. He smirked at their futile attempts. Their pursuers were stupid enough to think that they would be able to drive them into a corner but he very well knew that couldn't.

"They're closing in," one of the three people walking in his closely-knit group whispered the obvious. He heard it clearly through the loud chatters and traffic noises of the street.

He darted his eyes around the place from under the hat that he was wearing. He didn't like hats in general, but they conveniently covered the upper part of his face and his hair so the people couldn't clearly see his features. He was an elusive prey that way. No one had known what he truly looks like especially now. After a few seconds, his lips pulled into a smirk that exuded confidence and slight sadism. He chuckled under his breath. This was going to be fun.

The smallest of the three fiddled their fingers. "What are we going to do?" the person asked in bell-like tones. If not for the voice, she would have been easily mistaken for a petite boy given the unflattering clothes she wore – baggy shirt under a dark blue hoodie and sneakers. She lowered her head like she was trying to blend in and not to be seen. Which was probably the case. He clicked his tongue disapprovingly at her apprehensiveness. It looks like he still had to teach her to be more confident.

The one who spoke earlier laughed quietly and patted her shoulders in a gentle and reassuring way. The effect was immediate, her tense body relaxed slightly and she gave a slight, shy smile to her two companions. Giving her a kind smile from under his own hood, he spoke in that comforting tone of his. "Don't worry, we're going to pull through this like we always do. Everything's going to be okay."

The girl was about to open her mouth but suddenly stopped when she heard noticed her tall friend's shoulders become tense and later relaxed in a casual manner. She looked up to see what he was looking at only to meet unnerving eyes from under his hat. Instead of shivering though, she didn't feel anything dangerous or malevolent in that stare. Nothing directed at her anyways. She couldn't say the same for their pursuers, however.

"Don't look now, but we're going to have some company," he spoke in his smooth velvety voice that was laced with amusement. It wasn't really a hidden fact to his companions that he was already thinking of ways on how to get out of this situation with the most amount of pain for the enemy as possible.

"Run?" the shorter male suggested. It was their last resort. No way were they going to split up or face them head-on in the middle of a crowded street. They already lost two of their comrades in their little stunt in Venice last week. If not for that little mistake, then they would have been long gone by now. Unfortunately, their two companions were captured by the creepy mummies who think they're the avengers or something (1) and they still have to bust them out from their prisons.

And there was a good chance that they were going to hurt innocent by-standers or catch the attention of the authorities as well. They were already being hunted by many people, no need to get the police involved. Stay down. That's the plan.

The two nodded in consent. "Allow me to make distraction," the tall male said with a laugh and firm grips on their shoulders. Right on cue, something behind them exploded. There was a short span of silence before panicked screams and terrified pedestrians erupted into general chaos.

"Distraction? More like destruction," the shorter male grumbled under his breath. Though it was easily drowned by the loud uproar, the hat-wearing male gave an eerie smile that further put the blame on him.

They tried to stay together in the midst of the stampeding people trying to get away from the spreading fire as fast as possible. It turned out that it was a small closed café that had exploded, and the fire was quickly spreading thanks to the flammable materials that littered the shop and the tight spaces in between the buildings. Furthermore, fireballs were thrown everywhere during the initial explosion, resulting to a number of small fires here and there. It spread quickly, the fiery red tongues devouring everything in its path and leaving nothing but ashes and objects burnt beyond use or repair.

Furthermore, some of their enemies were caught up in the blast. Some were trying to put out the fire in their expensive suits while some were trying to get pass the wall of fire that separated the two sides of the sidewalk. Even though with the number of flammable materials around, the fire was bigger than normal, and it seemed that it was burning on the pavement without anything being consumed. If people noticed this, many would have pointed out that nothing about this pillar of fire was normal, but people were too caught up in trying to survive. They remained oblivious that there was nothing normal about this fire at all.

By now, thick smoke was spreading through the air and starting to suffocate some people. The heat was starting to get intense as the fire spread quickly, the fiery-red tongues licking up the sides of buildings and setting anything it touches ablaze. The hooded boy, seeing a small alleyway, tugged at his two companions' arms and started dragging them towards the small space. The smoke blocked their vision and their airways but through the hot haze, he could sense some fresh and cool wind blowing through.

The boy didn't know for sure, but he trusted his instincts to the letter. "Over here! This leads to an adjacent street!" he shouted so that he could be heard. Smoke filled his lungs and a coughing fit ensued. He cursed his stupidity as his mind got hazy from the lack of oxygen.

Shaking away the dizzying feeling, he continued to pick his way around the various trash cans and debris strewn across the small space. After what seemed to be a long time of running, he finally saw light through the smoky darkness and inhaled the fresh air deeply. He heard coughs behind as his two companions emerged from the dark alley he just exited.

"It looks like we lost them," the girl wheezed through her coughs. The taller male frowned as he watched her.

"Are you okay, my dear—" BANG!

Their eyes widened as the people in the street turned their attention away from the blazing skyline and to the sound that echoed through the night. The two exchanged glances before turning towards their third companion only to have their body freeze at the sight.

There was blood seeping at the white jacket's right sleeve. From under the propped hood, they could see the teen's pained grimace and pale complexion. It was enough to send the other two moving into action.

The tall male made a strange motion with his hands like it was twirling something like one would do to a baton. Then something did appear. The air thickened around the hand before forming a shape and solidifying like magic. In no time, the man was wielding a weapon that looked like a staff with a flame-shaped design on top. A thin metal circle was situated at the bottom of it where pointed metal decorations the shape of diamonds, only that the bottom part was elongated a few inches, hung on it. The bottom of the staff was pointed and sharp. The girl also pulled out a weapon similar to his and moved closer to her injured friend, taking on a protective stance.

Men wearing black suits suddenly came, pouring out of alleys, from cars, from the rooftops, basically from every direction. There was only a matter of seconds before they were surrounded. The pedestrians had already started fleeing the scene because there was only one word to describe those tall, burly men wearing expensive suits donning battles scars and dangerous weapons. Mafiosi.

"We've got you surrounded. Give up and we'll promise to treat you more gently this time," the man on the front said as he broke away from the group, aiming a gun at the chest of the oldest escapee. From the way he held the gun and the way he looked undisturbed at the thought of killing a teenager and his condescending attitude, there was no doubt that he was the leader.

The one he held at gunpoint sneered, "Yeah right. Go to hell with your rotting Mafia," he said in such a sickly sweet tone that it raised goosed bumps from everyone in the vicinity. It was the kind of tone that promised lots of pain and agony if crossed, only that the threat was sugar-coated.

The leader raised an eyebrow, refusing to be intimidated by someone who was so much younger than him. "Do you think that you could stand a chance with so many of us here?" he asked sarcastically while waving his hands carelessly. His prey didn't seem to be fazed though, and he frowned mentally at that. He was wondering how to capture them alive and with all of his limbs intact. Those weapons the two were wielding looked pretty sharp after all, and from the way they held it, they knew how to use it. Also he hasn't seen anyone wielding such unconventional weapons. His only consolation in this whole fiasco was that one of them was injured and weaponless.

His quarry laughed at them mockingly and haughtily, taunting every man in the vicinity and snapping him back to attention. The teen tossed away the hat he was wearing and exposing his strange-colored hair and eyes for everyone to see. He twirled his weapon gracefully before slamming it forcefully on the ground. "We'll see about that."

It was almost too fast for the eye to see; in perfectly synchronized movement, the three attacked. They leaped forward and the Mafiosi were taken in surprise, even the leader only stared before he suddenly keeled backwards, having received a blow in the gut by the weapon-wielding male. Gunshots rang through the air as his own men fired their own attacks, but not one hit their intended targets. The three teenagers dodged every bullet and blow, and dealt one for each, succeeding in taking down some enemies. Their performance on the battlefield was more than what they anticipated. The leader was torn between pride and frustration. Pride because his famiglia was the one to create such killing machines and frustration because those machines were set on killing them. Painfully, it seems.

He stood up and saw that half of his men had already fallen to these mere kids. He watched as he saw the oldest of them hacking away without a care, sending a large amount of blood and internal organs flying everywhere with his every graceful move. This one didn't seem to care if he killed his enemies but the leader noticed that his two companions were more careful. The girl merely stabbed her opponents, sending them unconscious on the pavement or utterly incapacitated. The other boy sent his enemies flying away with every punch, kick and hit he delivered.

The leader then smiled as he noticed this particular boy favoring his one arm over the other, and that he was slowing down in his movements. If he wasn't able to take all three of them, then he would at least take this one. He neared the scene as he loaded the tranquilizer bullet, a special bullet made by his family, into his gun.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath as he felt pain shoot up from his injured arm and throughout his whole body. Giving another roundhouse kick, he sent the (fortunately) last two men a few feet away from him and causing them to kiss the pavement. When he was sure that there were no more enemies near him, he rested his hands on his knees and breathed in deeply.

He looked up to see how his friends were doing. He saw that his older brother figure was almost done, and around him were very bloody piles of bodies. He didn't let his eyes stray downwards to see the mutilated corpses. It seems that his brother was venting out his frustrations and hatred very violently upon them. His eyes then caught sight of his sister figure and saw she was doing well on her own, but was becoming more exhausted. She was not born with the best of health, and had a body more frail than his own. He was becoming increasingly worried as he saw more men surging towards her, thinking that she was easy prey because she was a girl. Standing up straighter, he went on his way to help.

Only to be knocked to the ground by a sudden weight, particularly on his injured arm.

He bit the insides of his cheeks to prevent the pained curse he was about to scream. He rolled away to gain some distance between him and his attacker, all the while berating himself for letting the enemy sneak up on him. When the world stopped spinning, he gave his best glare to his enemy who turned out to be the big boss. The man gave him a sneer as he walked to him closer. "Not so fast now, aren't you?"

The boy shot up on his feet as the bigger man went in for another blow. They engaged on a one-on-one fight with nothing but their bare hands. He tried to dodge and use the other's strength against him but his movements were becoming too slow. Normally, he wouldn't have any problems taking on men bigger than him but he was tired, injured, and utterly spent right now. The adrenaline pumping through his veins was not enough to give strong blows, or any decent moves to counter. He took more damage than he could give.

The man was kind enough to say this aloud. "Heh. You're not even worth fighting. You should just give up before you could get more hurt," he said with an unpleasant smile that said otherwise. He immediately caught on the double meaning and cursed. The man chose him because he knew he was injured, and was the easiest prey of the three. How could he not realized that!

Taking advantage of the boy's momentary lack of concentration, the man took out something from inside his suit and took out a gun. He aimed and fired, smirking. The boy wasn't fast enough to dodge the incoming projectile and merely gazed at the... something now lodged on his arm. He couldn't comprehend anything through the sudden haze that invaded his mind.

His eyes widened in realization. Realization that it was a tranquilizer dart that was embedded on his arm's flesh. Realized that he was going to lose. Realized that he was going to be taken away.

Questions ran through his darkening minds. Where were his friends? Were they okay? Do they realize that he was going to be taken away? Probably not. They were busy fighting.

Would they be captured, just like him?

He hoped not. Better him than them. He wished that they wouldn't do anything rash when they found out he was gone.

Will he see them again?

...

I'm sorry I've let you guys down. Take care you two.

And he succumbed to the endless darkness of his mind.

A/N: And done! Main reason last chapter must be confusing is that I didn't go over it, so that explains some mistakes I saw. Second is that I didn't put in names. I was trying not to give away much. But I think just writing this gave away many things. Especially now. Seriously, you could guess who all those three were. Hey! I might reward someone with a oneshot or something if they could guess (not sure though). I hope to see you all in Chapter One!

Heh. Try to guess who those people are. It's not really hard.