Faith Lehane strolled through the street, flickering streetlamps illuminating the bored expression on her features. But underneath the cool façade, there was a slight panic as her brown eyes flicked from side to side. He couldn't have followed me here –right?

For all she knew, Kakistos was still hunting her after what she did to his eye.

The quiet was broken by a series of shouts and fighting sounds, and Faith, true to her personality, stalked purposefully in the direction of the fights.

She drew a stake quietly out of her jacket, and though she maintained a casual manner, anyone who was on the street could have seen how tightly she was gripping the small piece of wood.

Faith flattened herself against the wall of a nearby building and peered cautiously around it, her brown curls hanging around her face.

There were no streetlamps in that alley, so Faith could barely make out the shapes of several men –or so she assumed, but they were more likely demons.

They seemed to all be attacking one man, and as Faith deliberated whether to help or not she heard another crack and one more of the attackers fell limp to the ground.

Faith turned sharply as her danger sense fired, just in time to dodge the large sword aimed straight for her head.

Three oddly-dressed maybe-people in strange kind of armor with a red emblem of a cat (?) on their backs immediately started attacking Faith.

"Kill the human!" one of them ordered.

"Oh. Fun," Faith said dryly, kicking the one that'd spoken in the stomach, sending her flying back easily fifty feet before slamming into a brick wall. She didn't get up again. "So, I'm gonna go with demon, but that's just an assumption. So excuse me if I'm being racist or whatever."

"And oh yeah, guess what?" the brunette Slayer added cheerfully, ducking under the punch of one with wolf ears before catching his companion in a headlock. "You're not human. And you know what that means?"
With a crack, she snapped her second attacker's neck, dropping the body to the ground and lifting her chin to grin at the wolf-eared man.

"I get to kill you," Faith the Vampire Slayer said, twisting his own sword out of his grasp to stab it harshly through the wolfman's sternum. He let out a little groan before slumping to the ground. The sword clattered next to the body.

"Well, that's that then," Faith said with a sigh, tossing her head and turning to go, only to bump into someone –or something –else as she did so.

Mercury Black tilted his head curiously. "Let me guess," he drawled. "You're new here."

The dark-haired beauty grinned, undressing the assassin with her eyes. "So what if I am?" she asked. "Gonna buy me a drink?"

"Something strong," Faith ordered. She jerked her head towards the tall, gray-haired man standing next to her. "He's paying."

"So, what were those things?" Faith asked, downing her drink. "Demons? Vampires? Lunatics?"

Mercury snorted. "People. In the loosest sense of the word, that is. I guess you haven't heard of the White Fang?"
"Sorry, no. Cult or something?"

"Something like that. Anyway, they work for one of my associates. Usually."
"Usually? They piss the wrong person off?"
"Yeah," Mercury said. "Me."

Faith looked him over again. "You don't look so bad," she drawled. "I bet I could take you."
Mercury snorted. "You think?"
"Yeah." Faith downed another shot. "Why don't we go outside? See what happens?"
Mercury put his glass down. "No way," he said, slurring slightly. "Don't want to mess up your pretty face."
"Yeah? I'm tougher than I look, I promise."

The shot echoed throughout the darkened street, competing against the sound of the rainstorm, as Faith flattened herself to the ground, narrowly avoiding the bullet.

"Thought we said no weapons," she said as she stood, nodding towards the small pile where her stakes and Mercury's boots and gauntlets lay.
Mercury knelt, rolling up his pant leg to reveal gleaming metal. Despite herself, Faith stepped closer. "Metal legs," she said. "So you're what, like, a cyborg?"
"Sure," he said with a grin, standing again. They stayed like that for a minute, her hair dripping wet from the rain, the smirk never leaving his face.
"You know," Faith mused. "I didn't really get a good look at those legs of yours." She smirked. "The problem, I think," she continued. "Is that your pants are kind of in the way."
"I'll try to fix that," Mercury said.

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Emerald sighed, rubbing her aching head. She knew what she was in for when she joined Cinder, but the splitting headaches still sucked.

"Mercury? You in there?" she called. Receiving no answer, Emerald sighed and opened the door, only to step back hurriedly, crimson eyes wide.

"For the love of Dust, Mercury, put a sign up!" Emerald shouted.

The naked dark-haired beauty currently straddling Emerald's partner grinned and gave a little wave. "Hey," she said. "I'm Faith."
"Emerald," Emerald said politely, before whirling on the assassin. "Mercury, what were you thinking?!"

"I didn't need a sign," Mercury said calmly. "The door was locked."
"I disabled your lock months ago, idiot!"

"Oh. You did?"
"You can pick locks?" Faith asked, smiling. "That's pretty cool, E. Teach me one day?"
"Oh. Uh, sure," Emerald said, with a slight blush. Then she remembered herself. "I mean –Mercury, Cinder needs you! She sent me to get you. She's briefing us."
"Can I come?" Faith asked, standing up with no shame whatsoever. Mercury sat up. "Sure. That's okay with you, right Em?"
Emerald rolled her eyes. "Sure, fine. Bring her to the meeting. I'm sure Cinder won't care at all."

"Who's this Cinder? Love to meet her," Faith said, pulling her maroon tank top back over her head.
"No you wouldn't," Mercury and Emerald said simultaneously.

"Really?" Faith drawled, intrigued. "E, hand me my thong, won't you?"

Emerald awkwardly tossed the black piece of fabric towards Faith, who caught it one-handedly.

"So, I really would like to meet this Cinder you keep talking about," Faith said as she pulled on her jeans. "I mean, I kind of doubt you guys would understand, but I'm in the position where I might need a couple of new friends. Powerful friends."

Faith suddenly spun around and kicked Mercury in the head, and the mercenary dropped like a stone. Emerald instinctively backed up as the Slayer's gaze found hers. "Unfortunately," Faith continued, walking forward slowly. "I seem to be better at making enemies."

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Cinder Fall paced the warehouse, her glass heels clinking against the floor.

"Something wrong, sweetheart?" Roman Torchwick asked.
"Call me that again and I promise you won't live to see sunrise," Cinder snapped, her eyes glowing.

Roman and Neo exchanged glances. Neo shrugged and smirked, but luckily the ice-cream girl was out of Cinder's peripheral vision.

"Where are those two?" Cinder muttered to herself, just as the door opened.

"Mercury, Emerald, it's about t-" Cinder cut off as she found herself staring into a face she'd never seen before.

"Hey," the dark-haired girl said, leaning against the doorframe. "I guess you're Cinder, then?" she looked the crime matriarch up and down before smiling. "Nice shoes."