They both dropped to the ground in an instance, Otto left there as an easy target. Luckily, Sid seemed to realise this and kicked the chair from under Otto, sending him crashing painfully onto the floor with the other two as a second bullet speeded through the glass and into the floor in front of him.
"How the hell did they find you?" shouted Diabolous.
"I don't know – I swear no one followed me," replied Sid. The three lay there for a moment, Otto biting back tears as the sharp wooden chair dug painfully into his limbs and his head continued to sting.
"They've stopped shooting," Sid said, "they'll try to get in here to finish us off, we need to make an ambush."
"How the hell do we do that when they already know we're here?"
The taller man stopped still for a moment, eyes darting around the room as gears shifted in his head.
"Stay here," he said eventually, "close the door behind me," he carefully shuffled out the door, and Otto heard quiet movement outside the kitchen.
"Please untie me," pleaded Otto, "I won't try to run, I just want to be able to protect myself."
Diabolous reached up to pick a large knife from the kitchen counter, and Otto thought he was about to get cut free but then Diabolous shrugged, "sorry, got to protect myself."
"What about me?" Otto hissed.
The front door opened and closed, the creak was unavoidable but there were no footsteps to follow. Otto strained his ears for a clue to as the intruder's location, but they were either not moving at all, or silent.
If only the kitchen door was open slightly more, he just needed a slightly better angle and Otto was sure he would be able to see the intruder. He was beginning to lose feeling in the arm that his weight rested on.
The intruder came into view, stalking around the living room. They wore a tight black outfit and face concealing mask, an assault rifle raised to their shoulder and what appeared to be the hilts of swords strapped to her back. Otto's heart stopped as his soon to be killer's head snapped around to look at him and Diabolous, whose kitchen knife simply looked comical by this point.
"You know," began Diabolous nervously, "I don't even know the guy you want, so if you just want to kill him and leave, that's fine by us, right Otto?"
Otto nodded enthusiastically.
The masked figure tilted their head, then said something muffled by their headgear.
"Excuse me?" said Diabolous, "didn't quite catch that."
The assassin lowered the rifle and then dropped it to the floor, before pulling the black mask that hid their face. Otto's eyes widened in surprise as the young women dropped the mask. She could only have been a couple of years older than Otto, with short black hair and a pretty face. Her icey blue eyes didn't portray a hint of emotion as she repeated her question.
"Where is he?" she asked with a thick Russian accent.
Diabolous answered again, "he's probably just up the stairs, bastard's probably trying to climb out the window, leaving me in it, of course."
This seemed to satisfy the girl's interests, or perhaps it was the plate aimed at her head that distracted her. She dodged it easily, but Diabolous took the opportunity to lunge at her with his full weight, kitchen knife aimed for her eyes. A swift kick to his ribs left him gasping for breath, knife dropped and forgotten, just as Sid wrapped his forearm around the assassin's neck.
Otto shuffled and wriggled around to get a better look as the girl delivered another kick to Diabolous' face and delivered a sharp elbow to Sid's ribs. He held tight but she forced all her weight into him while Diabolous still struggled to regain his bearings. The assassin finally threw Sid off, who took the opportunity to grab one of the swords from the scabbards on the assassin's back.
When he had gotten a firm stance he appeared to suddenly realise that he had no idea what to do with a sword. He swung clumsily but quickly, the girl raised her arm to protect herself and the sword sunk a centimetre into the black armour on her forearm. She tried to reach for her second sword while Sid attempted to yank the first out of the armour, but instead he pushed the sword forward, the tip sliced into the assassin's cheek leaving a deep gash. Her free hand went to her face, just as Sid ripped the sword free and Diabolous came behind her with a vase, and planted a square hit at the back of her head.
The assassin crumpled to the floor, out cold.
The two men gasped for a moment, before Sid wheeled round angrily at the other.
"You bitch!"
"What?"
"'I don't even know the guy'? You were selling me out," Sid cried angrily.
"Oh come on, Sid, you'd have done the same for me."
"Well, maybe," huffed Sid, "but it's the principle of the thing."
A few minutes later and Otto was upright again, but now he had a friend to keep him company. Or at least, the girl who had just been trying to kill him was tied down to another chair, and they sat back to back with their chairs also tied together.
Presently Sid was attempting to reason with the girl who'd been trying to murder the 3 of them a little while earlier.
"Listen, I'm not opposed to helping you find this 'Nero' guy, but I'd really appreciate it if you stopped trying to kill people that don't need to be killed," he said as he wiped the blood from the girls face. He got no reply.
"Are you going to at least tell me your name?"
"Raven," she said flatly.
"That's an odd name," Sid said with fake cheer, "do you have a surname?"
"Raven."
"Raven Raven, what a lovely name."
Otto couldn't even see the girl and he could still feel the glare.
"Alright then," continued Sid, "you don't like jokes. Can't blame you, it was hardly highbrow humour." His voice hardened, "look, I'll find your Nathaniel Nero, and when I do, you can do whatever you want with him. But then you leave me alone. If I think for even a second that you're going to betray me, I'll kill you." His tone became friendly again, "anyway, I think we've had enough adventure for a while, and I'm quite tired, so I'm going to have a nap, then we can get to work."
With that, Sid placed a gag in Raven's mouth, and left Otto alone with her in the kitchen.