Jin felt as if he was being watched, and he didn't like it. Though having a nation wide underground hunt conducted on you can have one feeling a bit paranoid; this was one of those times Jin decided to act upon his gut feelings. Jin pushed himself up from the bar table and made his way through the raving crowd of dancers towards the exit, the constant beat of techno music sounding ever louder as he passed directly underneath one of the speakers. Stepping into the alleyway where the club let out, Jin was partially relieved to be out of the chaos, but felt a little exposed. No matter how annoying he found the music and the ecstasy crazed dancers to be, Jin always felt more hidden in a crowd than he did anywhere by himself. Upon hearing light footsteps behind him, Jin came find he wasn't alone just yet. He whipped around, to slightly startle a girl, a young girl with big slanted eyes, brightly colored pink lips and dark hair with neon streaks of assorted colors, pulled into two ponytails with lollypops stuck in each. Her bangs draping partially over her eyes gave them an almost mysterious look. It was the girl he had talked to earlier in the club, and a gorgeous one at that. She stood there with her hand on her hip leaning sideways.
"Just when the party starts to get good, you're leaving?" she said a soft voice. He hadn't said much to her, but she still seemed to want to pursue him. Every working brain cell in Jin's mind was telling him to turn around and walk away ignoring the girl, but he didn't. Jin gave an exasperated sigh, partly angry with himself for letting a female get his attention at all, partly at her, for demanding it so. She had not the slightest understanding of the danger he was in, but perhaps he didn't know it himself if he was allowing her to distract him.
"Yeah, I've got to be going now." Said Jin.
"Really? I'll go with you."
"I said I've got to be going, not I meaning 'we' but I meaning 'me'," He responded stepping slightly away. He then added quickly, "by myself." He certainly didn't mean to be rude, but he was a man with an agenda, and currently, the top of his to-do list read: 'stay alive'. Besides, the last two times a pretty girl came up to him, at least twelve or more other guys came with her, all claiming to be her boyfriends! Needless to say, after he finished with them he couldn't return to that club, cutting down the number of places he could go to, which is detrimental, if ones survival depends on having plenty of places to hide in. The girl put on a hurt face and twisted one of her bangs around on her finger.
"You weren't going to leave without saying good bye to me?" she said tilting her head to the side with a disgustingly cute pout.
"I don't like long good-byes." He said.
"Then why don't we get our good-byes over and done with?" She walked over to him putting her arms up around his neck, at which point Jin jumped a little restraining his reflexive urge to block the on coming 'attack'. Securing her arms around him, she pulled his head down gently to meet his lips with her own. Jin, sliding his arms around her waist, pulled the girl's body close. He couldn't remember the last time he'd kissed a girl, or even if he had at all. He actually couldn't remember much of anything thing at this point, he could only think of how good the contact felt. Neither of them was keeping track of how long they were at it, as every time they would break apart, one or the other would lean in again, starting the seemingly endless cycle of the kiss. At last the passion seemed to calm as they both just stood there, looking into each other faces holding each other.
"I still have to go." Said Jin, unwillingly breaking back into reality from the utopia they had seemed to create for each other within that one kiss. The girl gently stepped out of their embrace.
"I'll walk you to the end of this alley," she said, linking her arm with his as they began to walk, "then, three blocks up to the left and a right turn up the boulevard."
"You live around there." He asked, immediately thinking he shouldn't have.
"It's a place that I can crash at, anytime, with anybody." She replied. Jin looked down at the girl with the candy in her hair with a raised eyebrow. Attractive this girl may have been, but he was determined not to let her get to him. More than she already had that was.
"You'll walk me to the end of this alley. No further." He said sternly. She giggled leaning her head against his shoulder.
"Yeah whatever."
Just then Jin thought he had heard something. He hadn't just heard it with his ears; it was his whole body picking it up. He glanced over his shoulder; stopping him and the girl in their tracks as to sense what it was a little better. She looked up at him. 'What's wrong?' Though it wasn't spoken, her expression sounded it for her. Jin and her once again presumed walking; he was sure where the danger was now. It was everywhere. Of what he could sense, fifteen, maybe twenty, of them all about the surrounding area, and closing in on him, fast. Jin wasn't quite sure what he was up against. Until now; he had never let them come this close to him, and never had to really face off with them, but he was sure now he would have to find out just how tough both of them really were. Had he been alone, he wouldn't have to face them, he would make a quick getaway and avoid giving any more positive leads put on him. Jin mentally cursed himself for letting this girl latch onto him for so long. To his back and now his front he was closed in, as up on the main street he was sure there were even more waiting for him. But not too far ahead there was a pathway branching off of the alley, which had to be their way out. He quickened his pace dramatically, pulling the girl roughly along side him until they had turned down the smaller alleyway.
"Hey, what's going on here- aieeeeee!" she screamed as the tatter of gun shots could be heard passing them by, some of them hitting and shattering the brick edge of the apartment adjacent to them. Jin didn't even get the chance to tell her to run, before both of them were fleeing down the pathway, as fast as two legs could take one. The path ended in what seemed to be a courtyard like clearing, an unkempt pool of stagnant water in the center, with a surrounding brown and yellow mush of compost that was presumed to once be flowers and grass. There wasn't time to choose a 'lucky' door from the number of boarded up exits leading into the surrounding building structures. The rattling of the machine guns was catching up with them. With quick thinking, Jin darted to the side, pulling the poor girl along for the ride. He then stashed her in a door cove, motioning for her to stay there with a pointed finger. Jin backed out into the middle of the clearing just as the men with machine guns, dressed in army apparel, piled in congregating around him. 'Alright genius, how are you going to get yourself out of this one?' thought Jin. What he needed now was a miracle. Seemingly out of no where, a large, concrete stone dropped out of the sky landing into the shallow pool of stale water sending up a surprisingly large splash. Jin had heard of miracles before, but in the form of a brick? Across the courtyard, he could see a man with unmistakable Tae kwon do moves and even more unique- a bright red head of hair. Hwoarang grabbed one of the troops by the arm, kicking him sharply in the head breaking his neck. He then used the body to swing into two other attacking troops knocking them both onto the ground.
Jin took this as a time to attack. As he leaped upon a distracted gunman knocking the consciousness out of him with one single blow to the back of the neck, Jin took this time to calculate some odds. Eight army gunmen present, two of which Hwoarang just disabled and one of which he himself just taken out. That only left five; five with machine-guns that was. The troops seeing that they were being counter attacked, started spraying up the place. Fleeing to escape the bullets, Hwoarang ran to the nearest dumpster, rolling behind it. Jin took what cover her could get under the small courtyard pool platform. He felt a searing pain in his upper right arm as he landed upon it. He rolled onto his back to get his weight off of his pained arm. Even through the darkness he could clearly see a crimson stain of blood, growing thicker through the sleeve of his shirt. But that proved to be a lesser problem, for at the moment, as Jin peaked his head up above his cover, he could see the girl, looking pitifully up at a troop that had discovered her hiding place. He pointed his gun at her, causing her to cower a bit, then ordered her to get up. She seemed to put up no fight as the troop reached for her and she took hold of his arm pulling herself off the ground. That is, until she had jabbed a knife that looked to be a good five inches long, diagonally in a nicely calculated spot between his helmet and the body jacket he was wearing.
"Where was she hiding that thing?" Jin wondered. The troop's dying actions were to grasp desperately at the knife handle, now protruding from his neck, then to fall listlessly to the ground. Seemingly forgetting about the prized tekken fighters, the remaining troops rushed over to where the girl was. Two of them restrained her while one of the troops walked up to the girl. The troop looked over to see that Jin was watching and then proceeded to prop up his gun aiming it dead in the middle of the girl's forehead while the other two held her there.
"You want her? Come and get her." Said the troop aloud, a clicking sound echoed throughout the yard as he cocked the gun.
Jin breathed heavily as he felt a glowing rage inside of him. How dare this coward use her against him? With a vicious snarl, he leaped up, virtually flying across the courtyard, landing heavily by the troops clustered around the girl. Quick as lightning he, punched, cracked, jabbed, and dropped the soldiers surrounding her. The last one, the one who had pointed the gun at the girl, Jin menacingly stalked towards. The troop didn't even see the move that had knocked the gun clear out of his own hands; Jin had been quicker than a flash of lightning. The pitiful troop back away the transformed fighter, shaking, as he looked strait into the eyes of the devil himself. The troop turned around to run but found himself running smack into the demon boy.
'How did he…' the troop choked.
Jin only growled as he grabbed the troop by the neck and stabbed his bare hand into his chest. He ripped from his body a beating bleeding heart. He then tossed it aside and the twitching body of the troop upon the ground. Jin looked down at the girl who had fallen to the ground. She looked up at Jin, twitching uncontrollably, seeming more scared in the face of him than she had in the face of the machine gun. He stepped towards her but she scrambled up from the ground, crying out in fear, dashing away desperately down the alleyway which had originally lead them there.
Hwoarang stepped from behind the dumpster dusting himself off, ever more carefully around a wound on his thigh.
"Mishima bastards," He grumbled, "Can you believe one of those bullets actually went through two layers of steel and skimmed me? What are they making dumpsters out of these days, aluminum foil?" Hwoarang looked up to see if his commentary had been received, but Jin was staring off vacantly in the direction of the alleyway.
"Damn, looks like your catch for the night up and ran off. Serves you right, a guy with a price on his head don't have no business pickin' up chicks anyway."
"I don't pick them, they pick me." Said Jin.
"Well, what do you expect being a 'pretty boy' like yourself?" Jin glanced irately towards Hwoarang.
"What do you want anyway?" he said.
"Relax man, I'm not one of the a million traps and conspiracies Hehachi has probably tried to put upon you. You think I really want to be looking you up, puttin' myself in the line of high-powered assault riffles? Don't even flatter yourself! I was talked into this!" said Hwoarang.
"Then why are you here?" said Jin.
Hwoarang sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"To talk you into coming with me to the temple I guess."