Assassination Part 1 Chapter 5

The ensuing journey back to the Safe Haven continued in silence. Jaye kept his eyes fixated on the road ahead, barely registering the red lights he was running on their way back and ignoring the drivers who horned him as he hurtles past. Though he hadn't expected her to understand completely, it had still struck him as a surprise to find that Indigo was more heartless than she seemed. Her kindness extended only to those who mattered to her; though it wasn't that she was unable to empathize but rather that she chose not to. She was able to stay on track and on the job even after losing someone so dear to her, someone so integral to their lives that there was no way to ignore the gaping hole left in his wake. The job somehow distracted her from the loss, and he understood more than anyone else wanting things to do to take one's mind off the pain. But he was finding it hard for him to kill people he'd formed bonds with now, even fleeting, or superficial ones, and his previously hardened heart was now raw. Indigo remained as calculating and aloof as she'd always been, and he respected her for it, even if he wasn't able to do it himself anymore.

They finally arrived at the hotel after a long and silent ride, greeting the concierge and ascending to their floor. The boy slid his key card into the door, pausing as he heard the next door open. Indigo put her card back into her pocket, closing the door behind her without another word, and he took that as a sign that she wasn't going to be speaking to him for a while. Not like he didn't deserve it at this point.

'I need to get my shit together.' The boy muttered to himself, trying to find it in his heart to steel himself for the killing ahead, but failing miserably as all thoughts brought him back to the fox boy who'd been a part of his life for almost longer than he could remember. The gaping hole in his chest couldn't be filled, not for a long time, maybe not ever, and he groaned as he peeled his sweaty clothes off himself and dumped himself into the shower.

On the other side of the door, Indigo stood already in the shower, letting the cold water pour over her head as she stared stoically at the wall. She felt equal parts infuriated and guilty at the boy next door who was throwing everything they'd built together away. She couldn't bear to see him hurt, but the more he tried to fix his hurt the more he hurt her. It was a travesty in the worst possible way, and she sorely missed the fox boy who'd become something between a son and brother to her. The faunus boy who was now tearing them apart simply because he wasn't there anymore.

A few days later

Not much had changed since that night. The pair were still at a silent war with each other, though they managed to put that aside for any and all work-related discussions and information exchanges. After shaking down a few contacts they'd found in Kingston's scroll, and digging through some more seemingly relevant but honestly irrelevant data, they'd finally found a lead.

'Tsukuyomi. An international arms dealer who actually owns a legitimized company and business primarily stationed in Atlas.' Jaye pondered, folding his arms across his chest. 'Tied to a number of illegal organizations but none could ever be proven against her therefore how she's maintained her freedom. Even the Kingdom has a contract with her for their weapon production. Many have suspected for the longest time that she has ties to the Spiders, but now after shaking down those officers we know for certain that she does.'

'Real name Aoyama Akane. Her family already owned a massive corporation chain that branched out across everything from food to real estate.' Indigo said, crossing her arms. 'Akane huh? Fitting name for someone so steeped in blood.'

'Akane meaning red I suppose.' Jaye translated. 'Yeah, fitting indeed. Not like we're any better though.'

'I suppose not.' Indigo relented, picking her scroll off the table. 'She's typically quite reclusive, but surprisingly she goes out to visit her family once a month. Rather unexpected, but good for us. Habits are easy to track.'

'Her compound is available for work, but it's heavily guarded and would be difficult to pull off even with the two of us.' Jaye said. 'So really our best bet is hitting her transport as she goes off.'

'It's gotta be small and mobile, relatively unobtrusive to avoid attracting unwanted attention.' Indigo pondered, pulling up a few images on the screen. 'She's very private about her personal life, so she always has a couple of decoy cars going out to different locations. They always go to the same exits out of the city to avoid making the real locations too obvious, so we're going to have to somehow figure out which car she's in.'

'There are exactly five major exits to the city, and she sends out five decoy cars.' Jaye shook his head. 'We don't have time to investigate all six cars, and once they hear that one is attacked, we won't have the liberty of going to check the rest.'

'We can narrow it down to three though.' Indigo pointed out, bringing up the map. 'Though there are 5 exits to the city, only three go to airship landings. She has six cars total, with two going through each exit at separate timings to make sure she has a heads up in case the ones that went first are attacked.'

'Out of the three airship landings, it's impossible to tell which one she's going to since all three have access to routes that go to Section 3 where her parents are staying.' The boy pondered. 'It would be different if we could get a team to hit each of the six cars at once.'

'The Aoyamas are far less secretive about their comings and goings, so it might be more efficient to just kidnap her mother or something.'

'A fair point. But though they're less secretive about their movements, they're no less guarded.' Jaye grumbled. 'Why can't things ever be easy for once?'

'Well you are trying to escape the biggest criminal underground to have ever existed in the last two centuries while ditching the love of your life in the process.' Indigo said pointedly. 'I'd say this is an equitable amount of difficulty.'

'… Really? We're doing this right now?'

'Yep.' Indigo picked her scroll up from the table. 'I'll try getting into the cameras and records as much as I can; we might be able to spot a pattern in her flights. It's still entirely possible that she's choosing which flight path she takes based on feel and fortune, but it seems more likely that a cautious and meticulous person like her will have some sort of system.'

'She could be using a randomizer software or something to plot her paths for her, though there's only so many variations one can take.' The boy sighed. 'We're just going to have to see what we can come up with then decide what we're going to bet on.'

Several days later

After numerous trips out to information brokers and tech specialists for advice and burning a lot of credits in the process, they'd still come up with a grand total of nothing. Admittedly they were in fact getting closer to their objective, but the pace was a tad bit too slow for Jaye's liking, and he was getting not only irritable but wholly impatient from the general lack of sleep he'd been getting.

"I got it!' Indigo bounced excitedly up from her chair. Her eyes were puffy with horrid bags after staying up all night again, and her hair was the furthest thing from tidy. Jaye shot awake from his spot on the couch, rubbing the aftermath of the nap out of his eyes and getting groggily to his feet.

'What did you find?' He yawned, dragging himself over to the table where Indigo had set up her laptop. She leaned back in her chair, an extraordinarily heavy yawn escaping her lips as she stretched out her back. 'You'd better get some sleep after this, even if this is a bust.'

'Don't worry, I figured it out.' She grinned, scrolling down the data on her screen. 'These here are the recorded car plates of the six cars she uses. They haven't changed in the last several years, and the airship landings have thankfully adhered to safety protocol and archived all the data rather than simply wiping it.' She scrolled to a few sets of numbers that Jaye finally realized were actually sequences of car plate numbers stacked side by side. 'After analysing the camera footage of which car she actually exits and at which landing, then punching said data into an organizing software that I have here, I've probably figured out the pattern to her trips!'

Indigo thrust her finger at a set of data at the bottom of the page.

'She operates on a six-car cycle in a specific sequence. This was consistent over the past 7 years' worth of data, with the ones before that being inconclusive as a single car was replaced likely due to mechanical problems or some other reason. Additionally, she also follows a specific cycle for which airship landing she goes to in a repeating cycle. It's designed so that no single car visits the same airship port twice in a row with her in it, which complicates the algorithm but lets us be specific if we review the data.' She scrolled down again. 'From the last few months of data and the sequence of cars I identified, she'll be taking either car plate number AKN 571 or KNJ 338 next. But because the first car going out is always the decoy, we can just focus on the rear vehicle. And both those cars have already ferried her to all the ports once each this cycle, meaning that-.'

'-That odds are the algorithm will reset and send her back to Port 1, in this case being Kensington Landing.' Jaye finished, a grin breaking across his face. 'Indigo that's brilliant!'

'Thank you, I try.' She smiled widely. Her anger at the boy seemingly forgotten in the aftermath of the past few days, she kissed him heavily as she sagged into his chest. 'Now I'm going to pass out if you don't mind.'

'I couldn't have done this without you.' The boy said, running his hand through her hair. He carried her gently to the bedroom, laying her down on the soft, pillowy surface. 'Get some rest, I owe you big time.'

'That means you couldn't have left me without my help.' Indigo trailed off as her exhaustion finally caught up to her, giggling almost deliriously as her eyes fluttered shut. 'I don't know if I'm the idiot or you are.'

'Oh, it's definitely me.' The boy murmured, kissing her forehead gently as the sound of her gently snoring filled the bedroom. He paced quietly to the door, placing a hand on the doorframe as he glanced back at the woman on the bed. 'I'm stupider than you could ever imagine.'

The boy swung the door quietly shut behind him, letting his hand trail on the handle as he contemplated going back inside. Desire didn't manage to win out against him this time, as he told himself he had no right to be in there with her at this point. But still he was determined to see things through to the end and earn the life that he wished they all could have led if their cards hadn't fallen so far off the beaten path.

Several days later

Managing to go completely unnoticed in the group of other motorists, Jaye watched the car approach him unobtrusively through his rear-view mirror. He slowed his bike as a car cut into his lane in front of him, forcing him to slow down to stay alongside the car he'd been eyeing. They'd gone straight for the rear car, knowing the one driving about a kilometre ahead was the decoy, and inconspicuously peeked in through the tinted windows at the occupants of the car. He nearly raised an eyebrow in surprise as he realised that she was literally by herself in the car; there wasn't a guard in sight.

'There's no guards with her.' He muttered into his radio, making a gesture of irritation at the slow car in front of him and revving into the next lane to overtake it in a show of annoyance. Indigo, sitting in said car, watched him speed past her with a rude gesture, having used the inconspicuous car to allow the boy to slow alongside the fancy car transporting Tsukuyomi without raising suspicion. 'How does she have no guards?.'

'Do you think we've got the wrong one?' Indigo asked, keeping her eyes on the road to avoid looking suspicious. 'It's weird that someone as important as her is unguarded.'

'That, or she's just confident in her algorithm to throw off potential pursuers. Still there was the chance that someone would pick the right car by complete accident.' He muttered. 'I trust your skills, so I doubt you got it wrong. We're going for her.'

'You got it.' Indigo slid behind the black vehicle, watching the red-clothed woman in the back seat through the rear windshield. She squeezed the steering wheel tightly between her fingers, bracing herself for impact. 'Ready!'

Jaye slid in front of the car, speeding up to give himself some distance from the oncoming vehicles. He placed a foot on the ground, braking abruptly and swerving his bike around to face the oncoming car. He concentrated aura into his foot, forming a thick wall of ice right in its path, and listened almost amusedly for the sound of metal crumpling. The woman jerked inside the damaged motorcar, jerking again as Indigo rammed into them from the back, shattering the wall of ice and sending the two of them skidding through it. She floored her accelerator, angling her nose so that she turned the back of the car she was pushing out towards the traffic, pointing its nose directly into the wall of the bridge. A passing car horned as it shot past, and the momentum of the car took it straight into the hard cement wall, its bonnet crumpling under the impact as Indigo drove them both into an absolute wreck. Slamming her handbrake on, she effectively pinned their target vehicle to the side of the bridge, cutting off any ability of its inhabitants to escape. Jaye hopped off his bike, charging dust through his body and erecting a large wall to hide them from the view of the oncoming traffic. Blinking in surprise as the door of the driver's seat was knocked off its hinges, Jaye cautiously pulled his pistol out from behind his back.

The driver stepped out, rubbing his neck where the whiplash had likely gotten to him, eyeing the boy with contempt as he slid on a pair of gauntlets. Jaye raised an eyebrow at the man now facing him, cautious as he realised that this was not an average person. The man growled at him, eyeing the ice wall obscuring their view with something close to suspicion, and glanced behind as the red-clad woman clambered out of the wrecked car.

'Orion. Handle this will you?' Tsukuyomi hissed, glancing behind at the car that had crashed into them. Indigo stepped out slowly from her driver seat, and Tsukuyomi narrowed her eyes at the woman. 'And who are you?'

'Oh you know, just a nobody.' Indigo replied, shaking glass out of her hair. 'Sorry about this, but we need some information. And you're going to give it to us.'

'I highly doubt that.'

'We'll see.' Indigo said, drawing her firearm from behind her back. Tsukuyomi spun a fan she had clutched between her fingers, flicking it open as Indigo levelled the gun with her head.

'Well then, young lady, let us dance.' Tsukuyomi said, and Jaye focused on the man in front of him. Orion, the driver, was clearly more than just a driver, and he reasoned that she must not have had any other bodyguards since this man was likely the one bodyguard she'd deemed worthy. He fired at the man, watching him swat the bullets away with gauntleted fists.

'Should've known it wouldn't be this easy.' He grumbled, drawing his knife. Orion growled, charging the boy, and Jaye promptly engaged the man in a fistfight to the death. He ducked a huge fist, slashing his dagger across the man's thighs. His blade glancing off the powerful aura, and he grimaced as he ducked yet another fist from the man, shooting him in the chest. Still, the man seemed unaffected by the gunfire, and the boy cussed as he felt a hand seize his collar. The man slammed him into the tar below, cracking it, and Jaye blasted the man's face with ice. Kicking off the immense man's chest, he backflipped out of reach, blinking in surprise as Orion appeared before his face again. He understood why then, she only had the one bodyguard; he was a man with the strength of two, and the speed of someone half his size. He flipped out of reach, shooting the man repeatedly in the head, and thanked the stars that though it wouldn't kill him just yet, the bullets appeared to be doing something to his aura. In the background, Indigo grimaced as her bullets were deflected by the woman's fan.

'Such marksmanship. Surely you can't be an ordinary assassin.' Tsukuyomi pondered, twirling her weapon/wind-creating accessory between her fingers. Indigo, approached her slowly, knife in hand, and the red-clad woman brandished her fan at the assassin. Indigo engaged her immediately, irritation growing as the woman deflected her attacks with the small item. It was clear that she had some skill, though not as much as Indigo did, and she grimaced as for once not having her weapons was limiting her combat capacity more than she'd liked. Still, thanks to her Semblance, the woman was unable to dish out any damage to her either, but Indigo could feel her eyes grow weaker by the second as her time limit ran down.

Jaye slammed into the car with a grunt, firing several shots into the man's wrist to force him to let go. He ducked another hand, slamming his foot into the side of Orion's knee. The massive man staggered, swinging with a big back hand that sent the boy flying once more. He did a rollout to break his fall, shooting to his feet and turning to shoot the man in the face again. Orion quite literally snatched the bullet out of mid-air with his teeth, and Jaye made a face of long suffering at the hulking man.

'You have got to be kidding me.' He said, miffed, putting away his gun. He finally removed the portable storage device from his jacket, attaching it to his waist and activating it with a bright blue glow. With an electronic whine, hard-light weapons were crafted on his body, and the boy drew the projection of his blades off his back. Orion paused as he watched the boy, eyes narrowing as Jaye spun the blades in his hands.

'Now that's more familiar.' The man grunted, and Jaye raised an eyebrow at him, almost surprised that he could speak, and Orion raised his fists once more. 'I was wondering who you were that was giving me such a hard time killing you, but now it makes sense.'

'Does it?' Jaye said nonchalantly, spinning his holographic blades in his hands. He had to admit; the high-tech projections were something else. They looked and felt exactly like his weapons, easily familiar in his hands, just featureless and crafted instead from a thin blue sheen of energy. 'I assume you now recognise who I am then. Feel like giving up? I don't really feel like fighting today honestly; so if you'd be willing to just step aside and let us have a word with your boss… well that'd be swell.'

'Unfortunately, it would be a slight to my honour, Niflheim.' The man said, breathing slowly out as he prepared himself for the fight ahead. 'I will protect her with my life; not even you can threaten me into betraying that.'

'Bummer. Guess we do this the hard way.' Jaye sighed, lowering himself to charge. 'Hope you're ready for this.'

Advertisement break

'Hey this is the first I heard of all this.' Kamina said, and Jaye snorted.

'Yeah of course, you were dead.'

'Yeah I was.'

'What were you doing anyway?'

'Around that time?' The fox boy screwed up his face in concentration. 'Probably watching a movie or something. I needed something to do between busting slave camps.'

'I am literally describing the hell I went through because of you; you realise that right?'

'Hey, it was your choice. You literally didn't have to do any of that because I wasn't really dead.'

'And how the hell was I supposed to know that?'

'You should've known. In your heart of hearts, you should've known.' Kamina sniffed. 'Oh woe is me; my best friend never truly knew me.'

'Asshat.'

'Ice-brain.'

'Furball.'

'Bitchstick.'

'Can we get back to the story please?' Weiss interrupted. 'It was just getting good. I want to know how you found this Spider guy.'

'Oh did he do whatever a spider can? Like spin a web, any size?' Kamina teleported away as Jaye punched him, reappearing outside the window wiggling his ears at them. Jaye flipped him off from his spot on the bed.

'I'm not even going to humour that with a reply. Anyways, yes, Tsukuyomi was how we found him. Well she was the one who pointed us to someone who could find him for us. But that only told us where he was; it didn't give us any way to him.'

Back to reminiscing

Orion grunted in pain as the projected weapons raked across his skin. Now with a better offensive option in his hands, Jaye had pushed the massive man back onto the defensive as he assaulted him with the glowing weapons and his semblance. In the back, Tsukuyomi had started to relent under Indigo's assault, as the assassin's greater endurance showed its head. Slowing considerably, the red-clad woman was taking hits now as Indigo got past her guard. She stumbled heavily, earning a concerned shout from her bodyguard, and Jaye seized the momentary distraction to rake his swords across the man's chest. Orion yelled in pain, staggering backwards into the wrecked cars behind them, and he promptly ripped off a door to use as a shield. Jaye gave the man an incredulous look.

'Did you seriously just rip a car door off its hinges?' He said, miffed, and slashed through the door easily as the massive man swung it at him. 'You've got to be kidding me.'

'Damn it.' Orion gasped, eating a counterattack from the boy who was overpowering him with sheer skill. Finally falling to his knees, he grimaced as the point of the projected sword was placed on his neck. Jaye raised an eyebrow at the man, and Orion growled at him. Raising his blades, he drew them down, hard and fast, across the man's neck. His aura fortification vanished with a hiss, Orion keeled over onto his hands, just barely holding himself up as the boy paced warily around him.

'All that and you're still conscious.' Jaye shook his head. 'No wonder she thought she didn't need any other guards than you.'

'I won't let you touch her.' Orion gasped. 'Not as long as I live.'

'Sorry but, she's already beaten.' Jaye gave the man a pitying look, who managed to swivel his head to see his boss laid out across the ground next to the purple-clad woman. Indigo sheathed her knife, keeping her handgun levelled with the woman's head as Tsukuyomi tried her best to recover. Orion released a defeated sigh, hearing the sound of a gun cocking before him. Jaye pressed the barrel to the man's forehead, and Orion gave him a tortured chuckle. 'Honestly, you're a great bodyguard mate. You probably could've protected her for the rest of your life; I doubt anyone else could have beaten you. It's just too bad that we need information from her, and we can't afford to let her live after we get it.'

'Spare me your pity.' The man scoffed, clearly intent on not begging for his life. Jaye had to admit; he respected that. 'If you're going to kill me, then get it over with.'

'Sorry mate; I hope you find peace wherever you end up.' The boy smiled grimly, pulling the trigger. The gunshot reverberated through the bridge, and the massive man slumped over onto the ground. Across the bridge, Tsukuyomi heaved a heavy sigh as she watched the motionless man, blood pouring steadily out of his punctured forehead, eyes trailing up to the boy who had ended his life. She grimaced as he paced over, eyeing the two with undisguised contempt.

'So then, I suppose this is it for me.' She sighed heavily, leaning back against the wrecked car behind her. She glanced at the oil dripping out in a puddle beside her hand; a gesture that did not go unnoticed by the two assassins. Still they allowed her to believe they hadn't noticed; if anything it might persuade her to give out more information if she believed she still had a chance to take them with her. 'So what do I owe the displeasure of a visit from the most feared assassin of the Faction?'

'I suppose everyone knows who I am then.'

'Of course. Who else could possible kill Orion?' Tsukuyomi scoffed at the boy. 'A young prodigy like no other; the most fearsome of all the assassins to have ever walked the face of Remnant. I thought you'd be taller.'

'You just said that to irritate me, didn't you?'

'No, seriously. I thought you'd be taller. And older too, but well, who am I to judge.'

'Uh-huh, and are you going somewhere with this, or can I ask my questions now?' Jaye snorted, squatting next to the woman with his pistol. 'I'll keep this simple; where is the Spider?'

'Right now? I couldn't tell you. But I can tell you who can.' She replied, a wry smile plastered across her face. Jaye grumbled noisily.

'Fine then, who?'

'A man by the name of Arthur Watts. A supposedly long-dead genius software programmer from the heart of Atlas. Though I believe you've had dealings with him before, am I right?'

'And why would Arthur Watts know where he is?'

'Well it's simple really. The Spider doesn't want to be found; so only a very select few people know where he is at any point in time. But an information network is useless without the Spider pulling the strings, so there must be a way for the Spider to continue to pull those strings while staying out of the spotlight.' Tsukuyomi smirked at the pair. 'And who better to design a system like that than the genius who wrote the code that controls the great military city?'

'Alright then. We'll have a chat with Watts.' Jaye narrowed his eyes at the woman. 'But right before you answered me you said, "right now". So that means sometimes, you do know where he is. How do you know.'

'The Spider has a few lieutenants that know where he is when he is in the specific Kingdom he places their awareness over. One in every Kingdom. But of course for true elusiveness, the leaders that know where he is are scrambled in the simplest yet most devastating way. I oversee Vale; does that answer your question?'

Jaye narrowed his eyes at the woman. 'No wonder it was so hard to track down anyone. The information centralists, the ones like you, were never trackable at any point. It's so obvious now; you were never in the Kingdom to begin with! You're stationed in Mistral; we assumed you managed Mistral. But you're in charge of Vale, meaning-.'

'The one in charge of Mistral is in another Kingdom.' Indigo finished, shaking her head. 'All this time we've done our damnest to track down the Spider's management, and yet we never could because nothing in the clues we dug up ever pointed to anything concrete in the Kingdom. We never found anyone of importance, only middlemen and lower rankers, because you were never in Vale to begin with.'

'So you're the one who knows where the Spider is when he's in Vale, but after he leaves Vale you don't know where he goes. You only track him for as long as he's in the borders of the Kingdom.' Jaye shook his head. 'That's a risky system; what if he went missing during transit?'

'We simply trusted him to find his way to the surface once more.' The woman shook her head. 'The man is unkillable; we're sure of that. So you are destined to fail mister Ryder.'

'Yeah sure whatever. Where would he be while he's in Vale?' Indigo asked, irritated. 'He can't possibly be in a different place each time he arrives.'

'Often times he is.' Tsukuyomi scoffed, eyes going again to the puddle of gasoline building behind her. The pair again pretended not to notice, and she quietly slid her hand behind her back. 'In other kingdoms he has a single location of rule, but not Vale; not right in the heart of your beloved Faction's high table.' She laughed at the boy's raised eyebrow. 'Yes boy, that's right. We know all about your Elders, and we know who they are too. It's simply the Spider's wish that they remain thinking they are untouchable; for the longest time, you've never even known we were here.'

'Where in Vale.' Jaye rolled his eyes. 'It's a big-ass Kingdom; I don't really have the patience to screen every street corner for him.'

'Where you'd least expect it.'

'I swear woman I will shoot you in the face.'

'Check the abandoned buildings in Vale. There aren't very many of them; you'll find your quarry soon enough.' She said. 'If he isn't in any of the other kingdoms that is.'

'Cool. Thanks.' Jaye scoffed, getting to his feet. The woman continued watching them quietly, and the boy sighed heavily to himself. 'Question; do you smoke?'

'Pardon?'

'Do you smoke? I'm guessing you don't.' The boy said, folding his arms. 'If you did, you'd have a lighter, and then I wouldn't have to wait here with my thumbs up my ass to see if you're going to ignite that oil patch or not.'

The woman's eyes widened as she realised her plan was out of the bag, and immediately raised her metal lined fan to strike the edge of the car door in hope of creating a spark. With a cry she found herself encased up to the neck with ice, the fan still clutched between her fingers encased in the solidified water. She struggled in vain against her freezing prison, staring with murderous intent at the boy who had formed an ice attack beneath her in preparation since they'd started talking. Jaye sighed heavily.

'You know, as admirable as that was, it wouldn't have worked anyway.' The boy shook his head. 'Your car door has paint on it, meaning it wouldn't quite generate sparks as much as you'd like. And even if you did get that patch to light, it would've taken several seconds to get through to the engine for any kind of explosion to happen. Which probably wouldn't.' He flashed a splash of water over the oil, freezing it and the effectively covering the oil with a lid of ice. She glared at him, and he cocked his gun. 'Even a gunshot here is quite unlikely to set that patch on fire, but you're right. Why take the risk?'

'You will never succeed!' Tsukuyomi growled, struggling harder against her bonds as the boy raised his gun to her head. 'The Spider will feast on your corpse!'

'Now that's just unsettling.' Jaye whined, pulling the trigger. The woman slumped forward against the ice, blood pouring out of the bullet hole that had passed through her forehead and out the back, leaking the viscous red liquid out onto the ground below. Jaye lowered his gun with a slow breath, flicking the safety on and slipping it into the holster behind his back. Indigo slowly glanced around the area, noting the motorists that had piled around the area in an attempt to bear witness to the scene, but were largely thwarted by the ice wall erected before their eyes. Jaye jogged over to his bike, kicking its engine to life, and swinging the woman behind him. Indigo wrapped her arms around the boy, and he revved the engine noisily. Yanking the front of his bike up into a wheelie, he drove directly into the metal rails dividing the opposing traffic of the highway, the rear tire catching the edge of the rail and shooting them up and over the divider. He swerved as they landed, narrowly missing a civilian car and earning himself an angry bout of the horn, before taking off at full speed back up the highway they'd came.

End