Zombie: Hey guys! I have returned!
Johnny: Oh lord…
Zombie: -waves katana- Don't make me hurt you
Johnny: o.o oh how wonderful to see you Zombie!
Zombie: better
Hannah waltzed along the darkened streets of the city, humming a low melody to herself. Her green eyed companion followed about five paces behind. Her hands stuffed into the pockets of the jeans.
"What's in the bag, Ghostie?" Hannah asked as she swung herself around on a lamp post.
"Weapons" Ghost said, "Just in case they tried to make us stay". "You look pretty strange in those clothes…but you seem pretty comfortable in them" She nodded at the unlikely attire on the smaller girl.
"Meh," Hannah said carelessly, "They're quite comfortable, and they smell nice" She grinned at her friend. "Besides, you aren't making much effort to get out of those clothes either" Hannah snickered softly to herself.
Ghost shrugged, watching the other girl spin and twirl with an invisible partner. That girl was a few sandwiches short of a picnic, actually, Hannah probably only had the basket, just air on the inside.
It was just starting to rain when they arrived back at the apartment, making soft pattering noises and leaving distorting streams down the windowpanes. Hannah ran straight through the room and into one of the rooms on the other side. Ghost just stopped inside the door frame.
"Something isn't right…" She thought out loud. Her meadow green eyes sweeping across the room and back again. Not finding anything out of place or wrong, she tentatively stepped into the room and placed the bag down on the table, she opened it quickly and pulled out a long thin blade, all the while casting a wary eye around her. She walked over to the door through which Hannah had disappeared through. Poking her head around the door frame she called out quietly. "Han?"
"Looking for this, half blood?" A harsh sounding voice said behind her. She spun around on her heel to see a face she had hoped not to see again for a very long time.
A tall man stood in the doorway to the apartment, cold blue eyes stared at Ghost through black rimmed glasses from under floppy strawberry blonde bangs.
For a slender looking man, he was incredibly strong. Dressed in a formal manner, smart black trousers, white shirt, top few buttons undone. Looking every inch the respectable man…too bad he was dead…and evil…this was proved by the unconscious dark haired girl hanging limply from his grasp. Hannah.
Ghost glared at the intruder, "What do you want, Toshi!" She spat angrily, all the while knowing exactly what the older man wanted.
The blonde man tipped his head to one side, a smirk playing over his lips, "Don't get excited, little Ghost, I'm only here for my money, I trust you have it?" He looked at her expectantly. "That is unless you want to come back with me?"
The glower fell from Ghost's face like an anvil. "…How'd you find us, Toshi?"
Toshi tipped his head back and supplied a short sharp laugh. "Did you honestly think you two could run from me? I've been tracking you two ever since the day you left my home"
Ghost's eyes widened as Toshi continued to speak, "I know everything that you've been up to these past few months, and I must say I'm disappointed in you, that fight should have been child's play for you!"
Ghost turned her head to side, not bringing herself to look into those cold blue eyes, she didn't speak.
"After all I taught you," He said slowly, "I'd have thought you could handle one street kid"
Finally finding her voice, she turned to look back into the man's face. "It's not for you to be disappointed in me" she said softly, "When we left, any responsibility you had over us was gone. We're not coming back"
The blonde man let out a deep sigh, sounding almost sad. "Ok, well it was worth a shot, now my money?"
"Ah…" Ghost turned away again, twiddling her thumbs. "We…kinda don't have it"
The smirk dropped from Toshi's face, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that?"
Taking a deep breath, "We don't have it" She braced herself for the oncoming rant.
And on it came. Toshi lifted his other hand and rubbed his temple tediously. "I took you into my home, I raised you both! I lent you money…and you left me" He looked tired, and for a moment, it seemed to Ghost as though he actually looked older, just for a moment. But his features steeled themselves into an angry mask and his hands shook with pent up rage.
"And now, months later" His head hung forwards, his hair shadowing his eyes, "All I ask of you is to pay me what you owe me! Just one small thing!" His head snapped upright. His pupils had shrunk to tiny black dots.
Letting out a yell of anger, he flung his arms outwards. The small dark haired girl slid off his arm and slammed into the wall opposite, crumpling to the floor in a lifeless heap.
Toshi came running towards her, arms stretched out and his teeth gritted in his fury. Ghost didn't move, she couldn't, she seemed frozen to the spot. The feeling came rushing back into her body as her back hit the wall, hard.
The blonde man's hand was wrapped around her throat, pinning her to the wall, her feet dangling a foot above the ground. Her hands flew up and wrapped around the wrist just below her chin, trying to pull herself upwards just enough to breathe.
He leaned forwards and hissed in her ear, "And you can't even get that right!" His grip tightened and a rasping sound scraped its way out of Ghost's crushed wind pipe.
A slight groan behind him made Toshi turn his head. Hannah was waking up; the skin around her right eye was a nasty green and purple colour, forcing her eye half closed, and a painful looking gash running above her eyebrow, sending streaks of dark red down her face to drip off the end of her nose and chin.
"Ah, awake, that's good!" Toshi smirked again, "Listen closely Hannah" he said clearly, knowing the small girl couldn't see him. "Ghost and I are going on a small trip" Hannah swung her head around towards the source of the voice, her undamaged eye widened as it caught sight of the intruder.
"Remember Hannah, have my money ready for me" Toshi smiled at the girl on the floor, the smile dissolved into a smirk as his face swung around to face Ghost again. "The longer I'm kept waiting, the longer this trip will be"
Ghost tried to speak, but the only sound to crawl out of her throat was rasping, croaking noises that were more sounds then words. She felt a sudden rush of air into her lungs, for Toshi pulled his hand back. Only to slam it in towards her again, Ghost's head snapped back, knocking harshly against the wall behind her. The world before her eyes went black in an instant.
Toshi shifted the limp form of the white and green haired girl onto one shoulder and strode purposefully towards the door. The girl on the floor made a move to get up, trying to drag herself in front of the doorway.
A sinister chuckle rippled from Toshi's mouth, "Don't strain yourself, little Hannah, I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself"
He stopped next to the wriggling girl, and she continued to struggle towards the door, he crouched down next to her. Looking at her, feeling pride fill up inside of him as his eyes swept over his handiwork. The oozing gash, swelling eye, her left arm bent at an unnatural angle, clearly broken.
Smiling, he shook his head and let out a sigh, "Look at you, Hannah, what have you gotten yourself into this time? Does it hurt?" He reached out a hand towards her, watching her shy away from it, a whimper coming from her shaking form. "Well of course it does," Toshi answered his own question, "That human blood in you makes you weak, breakable even"
"Why are you doing this?" Hannah whispered in a small voice, still trying to drag her aching body away from the man.
"Me?" Toshi let out a short sharp barking laugh, "You make me sound like I am at fault! You and Ghost are the ones to blame for this mess!" He pulled himself up to his full height, "Get me my money Hannah, and I can promise you, neither you or Ghost will be hurt by me again!"
He swept out of the door, leaving it wide open, and strode off down the corridor, out of Hannah's sight.
After a few moments, Hannah moved, using the door handle she managed to pull herself upright into a sitting position, the broken arm cradled to her chest. She leant her head back against the wall, fat salty tears rolling down her cheeks and mingling with the drying blood.
She let out a shuddering sigh, "Why? Why'd you take Ghost? Papa…"
"Guys!" A loud female voice rang out through the old warehouse, "Troubles a-brewing!"
A yawning Daichi stumbled his way into the room, "Dizzi, why can't you just say things normally?"
"Because she watches too many old movies" Kenny supplied. The bespectacled boy was already typing away furiously on the keyboard of the laptop.
"Oh, pfft! And you don't?" Came the snarky come back.
"Stop distracting me, Dizzi!" Kenny's exasperated voice sighed, "Let me get a fix on the position"
Kai, Tala, Johnny and Rei were assembled in room, waiting for Kenny to finish his analysis, Rei had sent Daichi back through to the other room, he was too young for missions yet. All of them stood silently in the room.
"Ok…got it!" Kenny cried, turning his head towards, "There's a disturbance at Farley's Bank on the High Street, it's a single vampire, the police are already heading to the scene"
"Got it!" Tala disappeared down the manhole into the sewers, closely followed by Rei and Johnny, Kai was half way through the gap.
"Oh and Kai?"
He stopped and turned towards the smaller boy, who pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Please try not to make a scene"
A very Kai-like smirk slid onto the slate haired boy's face. "No worries, Chief!" And he disappeared down the hole, the metal grate scraping across the floor and fell into place as Kai's hands pulled it down as he went down.
"I'm sorry miss! But you aren't old enough to take out a loan!" The exasperated bank employee was swiftly losing his patience with the young girl in front of him.
"But you don't understand!" The dark haired girl slammed her hand down onto the desk in front of her, "I need this money!"
"I don't care how much you need it, Miss! You are too young to take out a bank loan, please sit down and calm down or leave this store!" The man, aged in his mid 30s, snapped angrily.
The girl's eyes flashed dangerously, "Don't tell me to calm down! You can't tell me what to do!" She leaned across the desk and grabbed a fistful of the man's shirt with her fight hand and lifted. The man visibly paled as the grip tighten the collar around his neck, restricting his intake of air, he let out a strangled squeaky gasp.
The girl's hair shadowed her eyes and she yanked him forwards until he was little more than an inch away from her. "Don't you dare tell me what to do…" She said darkly.
The man, whose name was apparently Jimmy according to the name tag on his shirt, squeaked indignantly, "Violence is unnecessary, Miss…"
"Give me what I want, and you'll leave this place with your life!" Hannah hissed into the man's face, her teeth lengthening at an alarming rate and protruding over her bottom lip. The traces of recent tears had left angry red courses down her cheeks, and her left arm hung limply at her side.
"I can't!" The man pulled at her wrist desperately, trying to release the vice like grip. "I'll lose my job!"
"What's more important?" Hannah snarled up in his face, "Your job or your life?"
"Hannah!"
She whipped her head around to the source of the voice, to see the red haired boy she's met earlier, Johnny. "What do you want!" She snapped at him angrily.
"What are you doing!" The boy in question strode forwards, "Let go of him now!" His hand hovered over the stun weapon on his hip.
Hannah spoke more to herself than the employee called Jimmy or the red haired boy behind her. "Why is everyone trying to tell me what to do!"
Seeing she was distracted, Johnny reached out and wrapped his hand around the arm hanging by her side and pulled on it, hoping to pull the girl away from the terrified man.
Hannah's eyes widened in pain, and she dropped the man. She let out a screeching wail and whirled around to smack Johnny. But before her fist landed she was knocked to the ground by a blur of red and white.
Hissing as her head snapped back against the ground, she pushed desperately at the body pinning hers to the ground.
"Calm down, Girl!" A familiar voice shouted at her, and her eyes snapped open, the pupils of her eyes spreading back to normal size and her breathing slowed down. It was as though the assault of voices raining down on her had brought her back to her former self. The rage in her heart was fading fast.
The sudden rush back to reality brought on a fresh torrent of tears and they streamed down the stricken girl's face and sobs wracked her body.
She felt a hand on her head, and everything swam back into focus, she looked upwards to stare into the golden eyes of the Chinese boy. "Rei…"
The graceful teen smiled down at her, "Welcome back"
"Do you have a healing touch or something, Rei?" Another familiar voice sounded to her left, she tipped her head to see the red haired teen she'd shot the day before, "Tala?"
Rei chuckled at Tala's question, "I wish!"
"Yeah, now what the hell is wrong with you!" The blue eyed teen looked down at her questioningly.
Taking a deep breath, "Papa took Ghost away…" She shuddered and pulled the limp left arm closer to her body, "He said…said if I don't give him back the money we owe him, I'll never see her again…" She closed her eyes as though the darkness made the problem disappear.
She felt a gentle hand brush against the tender skin around her eye, and her eyes opened again to look at him.
"Did he do this to you?" She just nodded.
"We'll help you…"
"We promise" A new voice resounded in the girl's head, she twisted her neck around to see Kai stood in the doorway, "No one deserves to be killed for money"
"Thank you Kai" Hannah sighed gratefully.
"So what's this guy's name?" Johnny asked loudly from his seat on the floor next to the unconscious bank employee, who had passed out as soon as Hannah's hand had left his throat.
"Toshi…Toshi Myung"
Tala looked upwards, "Now there's a familiar name"
Confusion flitted briefly across Hannah's face, "We'll explain later, just let me fix up that arm for you" Rei said softly. Hannah nodded and sank backwards into Tala's chest, fatigue finally taking its toll on her tired body.
Ghost woke up slowly. Groaning quietly, she lifted a hand and rubbed the back of her head ruefully. "Where am…" She began, "Toshi…" she growled, remembering the events of the day.
Zombie: -gasp- ZOMG!
Johnny: That's gotta be the longest one yet...
Zombie: -dies-
Johnny: Well...that was unexpected...read and reveiw people!
