The train horn sounded as they left another station and she knew now that it wouldn't be much longer until she reached her destination. Somewhere that she would be able to start a new life and leave everything behind. She had long black boots that came up knee high and complemented her hip hugging black denim jeans. They were a tight fit but she hoped that it would draw attention away from her facial features, in case they had noticed she was gone and had decided to come for her. She made herself comfortable in the corner of her seat against the window and undid the top button of her black jacket, enough to let the girls breathe a little, and enough to distract any would be followers even more. She looked down at her hands that were wrapped in tape.

How had it gotten to this point? Why had she let it go so far? Her only options now were to keep running, or go back and face what she had coming to her. The problem was, both options frightened her. She brushed her long black hair out of her face for a moment, the light dancing off of her blue eyes as she peered down at her scroll. She plugged in her headphones and leaned against the window of the bullet train. She hated dressing like this, incognito. She had little other options if she was going to stay hidden though. She squirmed slightly and gave out a helpless groan. So damn restricting! She was broken out of her haphazard attempt to find just the right position by a man who looked to be in his late 20's, staring down at her from the main aisle.

"I'm sorry miss, but I was struck by your beauty and wondered if I might be permitted to sit beside you," he stated. His baby blue eyes and short messy orange hair caught her off guard and she wondered what he really intended. Nobody talked like that. Not anyone that she had ever met. He smiled, awaiting a response and she felt herself drawn in even more. She brushed her hair out of her face again and he raised an eyebrow. "Your eyes are more beautiful than I could have imagined." She offered a fake smile, not completely trusting him and nodded.

"You may sit next to me," She told him. He nodded back in approval and sat beside her on her right, holding a stack of books in his hands and sliding over more towards the middle rather than staying on his side.

"My name's Forrest. What's yours?" She looked at him, her face free from expression.

"Ilia. Ilia Cherny." He set his stack of books on the floor and removed something from his pocket, pressing it hard against her side. Her eyes glanced down to see a small pistol being shoved against her stomach.

"As you might have guessed by now 'Ilia', I'm with the Vacuo Military, and you are going to be getting off with me at the next stop. We're then gonna take a nice ride back to Vacuo, and you can tell the authorities all about what you did." She started to chuckle, her face dark as a wryly smile crept across her face. She stared at the floor in front of her, her laughter growing louder. "What's so funny?" She slowly lifted her right hand and unwrapped the tape, holding the end in her teeth.

"Tell me Forest, if that is your real name…" She gave a yank and the tape unraveled completely. She quickly reached up and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him close. "Did they tell you what I did?" His hand gripping the gun shook slightly and he swallowed hard, shaking his head.

"That's classified. Field agents in Vacuo aren't allowed to be given such information." She smiled and tossed her head to the left, clearing the hair from her face again. She let go of his neck and grabbed the tape from her mouth, pulling her hair into a long ponytail and tying it off.

"I guess you have me then. I have no choice but to return with you," She told him. She stood and walked past him into the aisle. She unwrapped her left hand out of his line of sight and he followed after her. "I think we can probably just arrange for the train to be stopped now, don't you think? Seeing as I'm a wanted fugitive and all, and in a few minutes we'll be in the Kingdom of Vale, which is outside of your jurisdiction." She stopped short of the first car and turned into the bathroom. "I don't suppose you'd allow me to use the restroom real quick, would you?" He shrugged.

"Whatever." She entered into the bathroom and closed the door, holding the tape tight in her hands. She opened the window slowly.

"I just have one question," she told him as she slowly unlocked the door.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Did you really expect that flirting nonsense to work on me?" She threw the door open and threw her hands over him, strangling him with the tape. He struggled, but the bathroom was raised slightly higher than the rest of the train and she had enough height. She noted three men that stood quickly, wearing street clothes to blend in, and she quickly threw her left arm around his neck, lowering her right arm. A blade slid out from the sleeve, under her hand, and extended out 2 feet past her hand. She slammed the blade into Forest's back and held him tight as the other men watched. He grunted out in pain.

"Did you think that would kill me?" He asked struggling.. She retracted the blade and placed her right hand on the side of his face.

"You're no good to me dead." He grunted in pain as she disappeared and the men glanced around in confusion for a moment, not sure where she had gone.

"Where'd she go?!" One of them demanded. Forest turned to the bathroom and looked in, noting that the window was open.

"She must have gone out the window!" He shouted. He pointed to the man nearest to him. "Tell the conductor to stop this train and get these civilians out!" The agent nodded and took off as Forest surveyed the train. "Seven men with myself included. And they brought heavy artillery."

"What was that?" asked one of the agents. Forest gave a disheveled grin and lifted his gun. That was her semblance. She could inhabit bodies for a short period of time.

"This is gonna hurt both of you more than it will me," he said and placed a bullet in both of their foreheads without blinking. The body fell to the floor and Ilia stood above it, cracking her neck. "Damn, that didn't last nearly long enough." Panic broke out and someone pulled the emergency break, throwing Ilia into the seats in front of her without warning. She caught herself before she could hit the seats and the doors slid open violently, people pouring out past her and into the countryside. They weren't close enough to Vale yet.

She pulled her hair back out of a ponytail and rushed out with the mass, hoping they could conceal her long enough to distance herself from the last four men and their Hercules. The Atlas military had decided to name their military units after things from medieval times. Vacuo had gone the route of naming their toys after lore. Hades was loaded with Fire Dust. Zeus was loaded with Lightning Dust. Hercules was Gravity, and believed to be the most dangerous.

Ilia continued running with the group until they slowly began to scatter in different directions, discussing what had happened and calling loved ones, taking pictures and videos with their scrolls. She stepped away from them and slowly continued along the tracks towards Vale, hoping that she could get far enough away that she could run the rest of the way and be free. All she needed to do was to get to Vale and lay low.

"There she is!" Someone yelled behind her and she took off sprinting along the railroad tracks. There were no trees or woods nearby to conceal her and the fastest way for her to enter Vale was to follow the tracks. She made it half a mile without them gaining any ground when she spotted it. The Hercules, waiting in the middle of the tracks for her.

"I think it's time that you came with us," he told her. The armor was far less grandiose than that of an Atlas Paladin. Instead it was a hydraulic exosuit that's worn by a soldier and powered by a specific dust type. She stopped short of him, leaving 75 or more feet between them. She reached up, unzipping her jacket and throwing it to the ground, revealing her black tank top beneath it and two SMGs attached to the bottom of her arms like tonfas. The blade that she had used before was attached to the side and could be extended by a flick of either wrist, seeing as each gun had a blade.

"I appreciate the offer, but I have to decline," she called out to the soldier.

"You can't win here. We have at least four men and one Hercules." He called back as they came closed. The Hercules remained still, watching her. She couldn't entirely make it out, but she knew he wore a crooked grin under the suit's mask. She knew if she reached for what was left of her dust now, the Hercules would tip them off. "Our employer has also informed us that he wants you brought back unharmed, but that we're to execute you if need be." She shook her head. So that was his game? But it didn't make sense that he'd be so reckless. Surely he would have told them it wouldn't be that easy. She slowly raised her hands above her head.

"I suppose the first agent underestimated me, but the rest of you can't be that stupid also, right?" She asked.

"Drop the weapons!" He called out. She looked back over her shoulder as the men reached her.

"Funny thing. They're a little hard to reach and unfasten on my own. If two of you wouldn't mind helping while the other two make sure I don't try anything funny?" She asked. She fumbled with the straps near her elbows but gave up. Two men stood next to her, ready to remove the weapons and the other two stood behind her, watching. "Like what you see? I'll have you all know that I'm only 17."

"No one was thinking…" She slid to her right, her elbow slamming into the man's jaw and she rolled past his body, placing him between her and the other three guards. She grabbed him from behind and used him as a meat shield, right gun firmly against his temple.

"The rest of you were that stupid!" She exclaimed.

"Don't shoot him!" One of them demanded. She shrugged. She quickly grabbed the other side of his head and held it in place and with a flex of her wrist the blade slammed into his head and they opened fire, shredding his body. She ran forward into the three, tossing the body at the man on her right, and shooting the one on her far left as she quickly batted the gun from the man beside him, running her blade through his neck. She back flipped to the last agent, trying with her right elbow and then her left to hit him, but he batted her elbows away and attempted to open fire. She dove forward and the first body exploded, dissolving instantly. The explosion itself threw the man off of his feet and burned him as he landed yards away from Ilia.

"How did you do that?" He asked her. She smirked as she found her feet and walked to him.

"During the chaos of elbowing your man in the face, I managed to remove a hand full of fire Dust from my side pouch here," She told him gesturing towards it. "Hard to make out against the black jeans. When I threw him at you I slammed it against his body and knew that it would only take a moment or two for the lack of stability in the Dust to react accordingly." She knelt beside him and ran her blade through his neck.

"I won't be that easy," said a voice from behind her. She turned to face the Hercules and his fist slammed into her chest, purple sparks scattering as he made contact and she slammed into the ground, sliding away. She looked up to see him sprinting right for her, the sparks of Dust particles scattering away as he pushed the suit to move faster. She fired several shots that ricochet with little to no effect off of the armor. He reached her and she batted his fist away this time with her blades. He reached back around quickly, throwing her into the air and nailing her with a gravity shot, sending her high into the sky.

I can't let you tell anyone what you know. You will never leave this place. She didn't want to go back. She sooner die than let them take her back. She came back as her body was nearing the end of its flight and landed on her feet, stabilizing herself. She quickly loaded dust into her guns and dove out of the way of a gravity shot, knowing that the chances of her plan working weren't 100%, but it was the best she could do for now. He ran at her again and she opened fire, barraging him with ice rounds that cooled and slowed the hydraulics. She continued firing as she bridged the gap, both of them slowly closing it as he tried to resist completely stopping. She reached him and knew she only had one chance. She pried open his helmet using her blade and kissed him hard and long on the lips, shocking him, but it was enough facial contact to let her in and she took over his body. She broke free of the ice and sprinted for the border of Vale, she could see the fence and the sign along a heavy tree line, where Vale's woods began. She was almost free to start over.

"Stop!" Came a shout, and a firm fist to the gut threw her from the soldier's body, killing him and destroying the suit in the process. Another Hercules. She wasn't all that surprised as she was well aware of the fact that Vacuo Agents were never allowed to be aware of every unit in the field. She wasn't going to be stopped, not when freedom was so close. She sprinted for him, taking him off guard. She reached him before he was able to react and nailed him several times in the gut, ducking under a sweep of his left arm, and continuing her barrage. She used what was left of her ice dust to slow him and took off for the fence, running as fast as her legs would take her before the gravity shot slammed into her as she had hoped. She slammed through the treetops before landing on the other side, quickly finding her feet and rushing through the woods. She had made it.

"Sorry! It looks like you'll have to leave it to the authorities in Vale now!" She called back to him smiling. She was free and they would never get her to go back.

Yes?

"Mr. Temnota? I wasn't expecting to talk to you personally sir! My apologizes! I expected someone else was going to call and relay the message to you."

And what might that message be?

"She escaped sir. An hour ago. We did everything that we could to stop her. The last two Hercules even tried to kill her. She made it to Vale." Silence filled the phone.

So you failed?

"Yes… Yes sir." A gunshot rang out and Strakh was sure that the sniper had killed the soldier. Strakh Temnota hung up the phone as his assistant shook his head from across the room.

"What now Strakh? The girl is stronger than we originally believed." The assistant asked.

"I'm sure that He already knows, but let's keep this to ourselves if He doesn't already."

There we have it! Two down, two to go! Join us next week for our next character trailer - Titus!

I apologize in advance for any weird spelling mistakes and the lack of artist recognition here, I'm at Daisho con this weekend and I'm uploading from my phone. Until next week, stay classy!