Hey all! Sorry this update took me so long but school took control of my life again and time got away from me. So leave me a little review and let me know what you think of this chapter! There will be more coming your way, I promise!

Chapter Seven

The following evening, her anxiety got the better of her. She had done her best to carry on as if it were any other day; cooking, cleaning, sorting laundry…anything that might help to take her mind off of the constant worrying and waiting that had invaded her body and refused to be replaced by any other emotion or preoccupation. She knew that there was absolutely nothing she could do until midnight on Friday when the shipment came into port, and even then there was no way for her to be completely sure that the chemicals were what the Purple Dragons had been hired to take. Maybe it was the Greek artifacts that they were after. The black market was sure to be filled with people who would pay to have such priceless pieces of history in their possession, even if they were intended for someone else entirely. But her gut told her that it wasn't the artifacts that they were after and she had to stick with her gut feeling before she lost her mind entirely from thinking about it.

But by the time the sun began to set over the city, Destiny had had enough. Throwing down clothing that she had been holding in her hands, the brunette stormed out of her bedroom and down the hallway, leaving her apartment behind with a firm slam of the door before she exited the building entirely and began to walk down the street. Her arms folded themselves tightly over her chest as she walked, as if to better contain her frustration so that she might not lash out the way she wanted to.

There were too many people around – too many witnesses.

She continued to grind her teeth together in frustration as her footsteps carried her into Central Park, a sometimes dangerous place for anyone to be when the night fell and the creeps of the city decided to come out and play. Yet her mind was so preoccupied with her jittery nerves about the coming Friday night that she didn't take any real notice of where she was standing or who might be around her. Deeper and deeper she went into the green, taking herself further away from the busy streets and the crowds of people who moved back and forth on the sidewalk.

Damn, she thought, her pace picking up just a little more into a light jog as she moved along the pathway. There was that feeling again. For the last several weeks she had been feeling like she was being watched from the shadows, as if someone were lurking there without the intention of showing their face. At first she had thought that it was just the man in the trench coat who had been stalking her nightly activities, but now that she had met Leo she knew he was not the one she could sense. No, there was another presence in the park that night, one who had figured out how to remain hidden from her eyes. Even with all of the powers that she knew herself to possess she couldn't get a proper read on their location…which meant that she couldn't slam up them telekinetically against a tree and demand to know why they were following her either.

A soft sigh passed her lips as her footsteps finally came to a halt and her shoulder came into contact with the trunk of a nearby tree. She knew that she needed to be patient – there was too much at stake to risk losing her self-control now. After years of searching for answers and craving revenge for the wrongs that had been done to her, Destiny was finally closing in on who was responsible for everything negative that had happened in her life. At last, everything would make sense.

"Help! Somebody please!"

Her eyes flashed upward as the distressed cry rang out in the silence of the park, the voice of a young woman who was clearly in trouble. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere ahead of her, closer to the water fountain that she knew sat close to the heart of the park itself. Dealing with her invisible stalker would have to wait. There was trouble that required her attention.

Teeth grit together in frustration as she realized that she had failed to bring a domino mask with her, something she generally carried in her pocket for emergencies such as this. But in her haste to get out of the building and distract herself from her frustrations, she had overlooked the one rule she had always made to herself when leaving the apartment. But there was no time for her to worry about it now, not when the sound of someone in need had reached her ears and demanded her attention. The woman had sounded horribly frightened when she had called out, something that quickly gripped Destiny by the heart as she drew nearer and nearer to the screams that continued to penetrate the air around her. And as she drew into the place where the different paths of the park met up, Destiny's heart gave a rather violent thud in her chest.

Purple Dragons.

The woman cowered near the edge of the water fountain that decorated the center of the area, trying to keep a distance between herself and the looming form of the seven or eight Purple Dragons who hungrily stalked closer to her. She could hear them chuckle as the woman continued to scream, shouting out in the hopes that someone might hear and come to her rescue before these men laid a hand on her. Closer and closer they crept while their leader stood chuckling in the back, his beefy arms folded over his chest as he looked on in amusement.

"Nobody is coming," he sneered at the woman who continued to cry out. "Nobody is going to save you."

"If you're smart, you'll walk away from her now."

Hun turned sharply in her direction as the laughter died, eyes narrowed and a snarl of disgust appearing on his lips as he looked at the smaller form of the girl who dared to address him so directly. His eyes locked on her small frame for only a moment before the corner of his lip curled upward in a smirk of amusement, the rumble of laughter beginning to sound in his massive chest. Clearly he was not nearly as concerned with her presence as he had initially been when she had spoken, because he now regarded her with a look that was reminiscent of the way that he had once looked upon the Hunter…

Oh boy, was he in for a surprise if he didn't back down.

"I'm not going to tell you again."

The laughter slowly died down as he turned himself fully to face her, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. "You're in the wrong place, little girl," he sneered down with a vicious grin.

In response, Destiny lifted a brow and squared her stance up so that she faced her larger opponent head on. "Maybe I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."

Her persistence in the matter was clearly beginning to wear on his patience, as the smile fell away from his face and the sneer returned to his pudgy features. The ones who loomed closest to the woman were now turning their heads away to glance back at the scene that lay behind them, curious to know how their leader was going to handle this new situation. And with that momentary distraction the poor woman who had nearly been victimized bolted to her feet and shot down the nearest path that would take her away from the would-be attackers and closer to people who might come to her aid if she screamed loudly enough. A few of the Purple Dragons shifted a little when they heard her scurry away, but Hun shook his head, throwing out an arm to stop any further movement from the men who might have pursued her.

"Let her go," he rumbled, eyes fixed on his new target. "That one bores me."

With all eyes now on her, Destiny cast her glance from side to side to watch as they slowly began to circle her, trapping her within the middle of their larger frames. None of them would dare to attack until Hun gave the order. She would have only a few moments now to plan how she was going to get herself out of this mess now that the other woman had been able to break free, but thus far she was having no thought of how to get away without a fight breaking out. Even with the considerable powers that she had on her side there were still about nine or ten of them to combat. The odds were certainly not in her favour right now.

The Purple Dragons seemed to sense this as well, as they loomed a little closer and tightened ranks around her with hungry glares in their eye and wicked smiles upon their lips. Their intentions were more than clear, which made her skin want to crawl in disgust. But she stood her ground and looked around almost casually, refusing to let her hesitation show in her face lest they see it as a moment of weakness and use it against her before she was ready to defend herself. The clock was slowly winding down to when she would be forced to act, and she could only hope that she was able to react before they got the jump on her.

Chuckling to him, Hun crossed his massive arms over his chest and looked down upon her with a triumphant smirk that already told of the victory he saw in his future. "You should have left when you had the chance," he scolded in a mocking tone, clearly amused with this new situation. "Now I'm afraid you're going to wish you hadn't been walking around by yourself."

Despite herself, Destiny raised a brow in his direction. "Do I look worried?"

"No, but you should be."

As if on cue one of the men who stood around her leapt forward with the intention of grabbing onto her arm, but he missed entirely when Destiny pivoted on her foot and stepped out of his reach, flying into a fellow Dragon on the opposite side of the circle with a loud crunch. From behind she could hear a second man make the attempt to immobilize her and again repeated the action to the left, tripping him up so that he landed face first on the pavement beneath her feet. With a coy smile toward their leader, the young woman placed both hands on her waist and shifted her weight until it sat entirely on the one side of her body, giving her a much more feminine look than before.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that the best you can do?"

The fury in his eyes was unmistakable. Taunting him was perhaps not the best move that she could have made but it was buying Destiny the time that she needed to formulate a plan. She had no weapons, no real way of defending herself without exposing her powers to all of the men who currently stood around her. Her original intention of going for a walk to clear her head had turned into the greatest debacle she had encountered since taking up the mask of the vigilante because it her life was now at greater risk than ever before. Exposing powers meant exposing her face, and exposing her face meant that anyone who might have a vendetta against the Hunter would have a much easier time tracking her down. Were it only herself she needed to worry about than perhaps it might not have been such a huge consideration, but there was also Leo and his brother to think about. She didn't want to think of what people might do with the information that there were life sized turtles walking around New York City.

But it looked like time had run out.

With a snap of his fingers Hun had the entire company of Purple Dragons launching their own personal assault on the intruder who had ruined their previous fun. To try and avoid any sort of physical contact with them Destiny crouched as low as she could managed and pushed off hard from the ground, soaring above their heads until she landed safely on the other side of their circle.

One leg instantly stretched out to sweep one of the men off balance and bring him down to her level, but the quick movements she had earlier displayed now held no surprise for her attackers and a few of them were able to turn around without getting too tangled in their friends. The first one to lay a hand on her was quickly met with the heel of her palm against his nose, which sent him backwards as he howled in pain and cupped his hands around his face to try and stop the flow of blood that appeared almost instantly.

One down.

Destiny pushed herself to her feet and ran across the pavement, leading the men in a chase that would end at the very edge of the water fountain where they had cornered the other woman earlier. With a sharp twist of her foot she brought her heel against the jaw one the closest Dragon and let him fall straight into another until three had been knocked over completely. Another jump and she was leap frogging over the head of yet another who launched himself forward. The splash behind her was evidence enough of his rather embarrassing defeat. Her right hand balled into a fist and thrust out to connect with one man's sternum and her left knee rose to connect with another's stomach. For the moment, it looked like she might actually win.

But as she withdrew her fist she felt the sudden pressure of a hand wrap itself around her wrist and hold her tight. Hun had somehow managed to sneak around her, taking hold of her in his beefy hand for only a moment before he reached back and threw her across the clearing of the park. It was only when her back made contact with a tree that Destiny felt herself come to a stop, now dazed from the impact and unable to fight back when two of his men finally gathered their wits and held her tightly between the two of them, forcing her to her feet. In a matter of seconds she knew it would be over. She'd have no choice but to force her body to focus long enough to push them all off of her and hope that she could escape in her disorientated state.

Then her secret would be out.

"You don't look so well."

Her head flew off to the side as Hun struck her face with the back of his hand, causing the girl to grit her teeth against the groan that threatened to sound in her moment of pain. But damn did it sting, and now her neck hurt too from the whiplash effect that she had experienced as well. Then came the feeling of his fist plunging itself into her stomach, and Destiny couldn't keep back the cry that started in her throat as she once again hit the trunk of the tree with her spine. She crumpled to the ground, coughing and wheezing as she struggled to take the air into her lungs. Everything was fuzzy, so much so that she dared not use her powers in case they flew completely off target and injured someone else who happened to be nearby in the process.

And then she felt his cold fingers close around her throat as he dragged her to a standing position, ignoring the struggle that she tried to put up as she kicked her legs to try and come back into contact with the ground. Her hands instantly flew to upward to try and pry his sausage-like fingers away from the tender skin of her throat. And when she tried to pull him away, the pressure only grew until she was once more gasping for the air that failed to make it into her lungs.

"Now you're going to regret that you meddled in this tonight," he hissed at her, bringing his face closer to her own as he pinned her roughly against the tree once more.

There was no response from the girl, she didn't have the energy or the air to say anything witty in her defense. But the answer came from somewhere above as a roar reached her ears and scattered the leaves from within the tree. In his surprise Hun released his hold on Destiny's throat until she once again lay sprawled on the ground, heaving to try and regain some sense of balance that might tell her what had happened to make Hun let her go so quickly. And while her eyes could not see what was happening, her ears could hear the thumps of a fight and the occasional clash of metal against metal.

She didn't know how long the fight lasted, but soon there were voices calling out in retreat and footsteps that began to fade into the distance. All at once the silence began to settle around her until there was only one sound to echo in the distance that moved toward her with more speed and stealth than any of the Purple Dragons could possess. They gathered her slowly into their arms until she was cradled against their chest, holding her a little tighter when she tried to struggle in protest.

"It's okay kid, I got ya."

And then everything went dark.