Soldiers Of Fortune (For Crim)

Another night of fitful sleeping, another startled awakening to a new day, another morning shower before the sun rose over the horizon. The third night in a row, meaning something big was going to happen. Alexis Marsh was not sure how, why or worse off, when, but he knew that it was going to happen.

Sitting in the lounge of his Paris city apartment, waiting for the one night stand he had to wake up so he could let them out, he scanned the news broad casts on the flat screen tv hanging on the wall. A bombing in Madrid, a woman murdered on the streets of america somewhere in plain sight, a volcano erupting and causing air traffic to stand still, the same old stuff really.

A substandard breakfast for both him and the girl he had slept with, and he saw her out, being rather gentlemanly about the whole thing, smiling, waving her off and even leading a bit of cab fare for her to get home with. Once she was gone, he let the smile drop and he flicked the tv off, heading to his study.

He had been contacted late last night while out on the town, he was wanted for an assignment, a high profile, swift and silent kill, the sort of thing Alexis Marsh was made into. An assassin.

It wasn't always that way, but his life before this was blurred, painful and for some reason, it was always raining, no matter where he was. Maybe that's why the rain always made him a little somber, just a little brooding if he was caught in it. That life was long gone, replaced by his training, the memory of his first kill and his utmost and undying need to serve his leader, his master, whoever that may be.

Opening up his laptop, fingers racing across the keyboard for the pass code to unlock the system, Alexis flicked his dark brown hair back over his shoulder, thinking he should have tied the strands up into the small ponytail before coming into the room, skimming over the file with photos of people, locations and details of the new assignment.

Rubbing the scarring along his left shoulder, the young man sighed. He was heading back home, to London, to the rain.

The mission. There was nothing but the mission. At least, that was what she had believed back then. 
It hadn't varied much since, but Devin's priorities were definitely reordered during the time she'd spent away from the facility. 

Movement from inside the building she was currently surveying caught her off guard, the soldier quickly slipping back into the shadows on cue; avoid being seen at all costs, until the orders are issued. 
The quiet white noise of her ear piece hushed quietly before the deep tone of the Commander spoke against her eardrum. 
"Keep your head in the game soldier."
The sound was loud, but with the information provided in the target's file, Devin was quite aware he wouldn't be able to hear it. The frequency was too low. 

The soldier's attention was drawn back to the target, her position hidden outside the window givin her a clear view of his every movement.

Avoid being seen. Even until the last second. 

The target was fast, and his sight was rumoured to exceed most other's; though nothing special was mentioned in his file, it was always best to be cautious. 

Sliding the military issue pistol from it's home, Devin went on with preparing to carry out her current retrieval mission; grab the target, bring him home. 

A soft sigh passed her lips, and her eyes found the Soldier again, sitting in his study. Sometimes she was sure Rache gave her these missions just to mess with het. But how could she argue with the man who'd freed her? Who plans to free them all?

She couldn't. 

The target in London, a high rise rich man and his wife, were holding a gala ball in two weeks for some sort of charity event. That was just the cover. The pair were London's biggest arms dealers and dope smugglers and they must have crossed some sort of huge line to have Scriosta's number dialed. They obviously had no clue who they were messing with.

Shutting down the laptop, Alexis sat there for a moment, thinking about what he was going to do, not about the objective, but about the large shadow that traced over his bookcase to his right, not big enough for the neighbor's cat that liked to come and visit for breakfast snacks and a pet on the head, but something a little larger that shouldn't be four stories up. He was grateful for his enhanced eye sight.

Standing and stretching his limbs, the lanky nineteen year old made his way to his room to pack for his trip and to hopefully get armed. Going for the gun in the draw would have given away the advantage.

The shuffling of his movements caught her attention quite quickly, the clear sounds a tell-tale of his every action. He was moving from the room, Devin shifting her footing to move in front of the window, her fingers hooking on the edge of the pane. She'd spent the last few days surveying his living space, and the best points of entry. The window wasn't one of them, but in her current position it was probably the easiest.

With a quick, quiet tug, her balance shifting slightly with the movement, she'd dislodged the lock and was sliding the window open, just a little, in order to slip under and into the apartment. Her footsteps were almost silent, her movements cautious; it was safe to assume that he knew she was there, and that if that was the case, he would be arming himself. Hopefully her speed would be enough to avoid any... Unpleasantness.

Shifting against the wall, she opened her senses to the sounds of his movements, locating him quite easily; he wasn't near the door, leaving her ample time to position herself just beside the door frame.

Don't kill him. We need him.

Rache made things so fucking difficult sometimes.

It was a song he had learnt before his training, before the thrilling life he had now, and he was singing at the top of his lungs as he packed for his trip home. Clothes from the closet, underwear from the drawer and a knife in hand as he stopped just on the other side of the door frame, pressing his thin frame against the wall.

'I know you are there, little rat, so if you leave the same way you came in and disappear, this will end with happy ever after,' he cooed, gripping the knife tighter in his hand.

Whoever it was, they were good not to make a sound.

She would have been startled by the sudden close proximity of his voice, if she hadn't been following every sound of every movement he made, even past the loud singing. A small upward curve pushed at the corner of her lips; she hadn't heard the metallic shift of a fire arm, but she couldn't be certain he didn't have one. The alternative was a knife, and that would be simple to avoid as long as she was careful about it.

But it was his words that amused her. He was so cocky.

"Happy ever after." Devin echoed, quietly, through the wall, her fingers silently slipping over the body of her pistol. "Who'd ever want that?" Silently crouching, all she had to do was swivel around the frame and through the open doorway and take aim. She wouldn't shoot. But, with the location of his heart beat, she was certain he was standing, and that he wouldn't be expecting her to be so low to the ground.

With that thought in mind, the Soldier put her tactics into action, shifting her footing to spin herself about the door frame, her free hand retrieving a second pistol, and the already occupied hand extending up and taking aim with the tip of her pistol. Within seconds, she was down on one knee, one gun aimed at his gut, the other just under his chin, as close as she could reach.

"Though maybe I'm not the one that should be worried."

Her voice... a woman, a younger woman by the sounds of it, just on the other side of the same wall, just as cocky as he was as she echoed his words back at him before she made her move. To his eyes, her fast movements were almost normal speed, viewing the pistol in the visible hand as she rounded the corner, down low and aiming it to his stomach, his knife ready to come down into her shoulder before he was taken aback by the second pistol aimed to his chin, stopping the knife from it's decent.

Frozen for the moment, the teen swallowed thickly before huffing. "Nice moves, for a traitor. I'm not afraid to die, how about you?"

"Traitor my ass." Devin snorted. She was younger than him by about two years, by the looks of it, at the ripe age of 17; it didn't stop her from being one of the best in her rank. Her thumb traced across the edge of the safety of the gun at his chin, her eyes on the knife in his hand.

"If I were afraid to die, would I have disobeyed Scriosta?" It took a moment of debate, but the Soldier eventually moved to stand, slowly, her eyes shifting to train on his. One wrong move could be a rather fatal one, and it was a hard call whether or not to contact the Commander and say she had the situation under control.

For now she remained as she was, supposedly holding the upper hand.

Alexis knew he didn't have the speed she did, not the strength to be able to get the upper hand by knocking the guns away. Sometimes he wondered if he got the short end of the stick with his ability to twist his body around like a contortionist, able to fit into small cases and hide in vents and places not many people would think to look, or with his extra sensitive eye sight, or eagle vision as everyone joked about. Fine print on legal documents was never a problem for him.

Taking a half step back so the gun didn't jam into his chin as she stood up, the brunette pretty much spat at her as he spoke. "Don't you dare say that name again, you're not worthy of such a place anymore!" He growled, arm still raised high above the girl, glaring at her.

If he was going to die, which it looked like was going to happen, he was going to go out fighting, hopefully spilling a little blood on the way. Letting go of the knife above the girl, he aimed to knock both guns away from his body far enough to twist out of shooting range. That was the aim of it anyway.

Between the dropped knife, and the other's sharp, twisting movements, Devin didn't know which to avoid first. No matter how fast she was, she couldn't do two things at once. Shifting her foot away from the falling blade left her guns open, the Target's movements knocking them aside and managing to twist himself out of range; probably a good idea she hadn't called the mission in.

"Fuck you!" The Soldier snarled, readjusting herself and quickly taking up her aim again with her stronger gun, the other unarmed and at her side. Though he was further away, his movements less restricted than before, she was still confident she could take him out.

But she wasn't allowed to. Her frown deepened at the realisation; even wounding him greatly was a bad idea. It'd only come back on her in the long run. Tightening her grip on her pistol, she lowered the weapon, glaring at the other darkly. "I'm sick of dealing with you drug-fucked morons." She muttered under her breath, snapping the safety back on with the slightest movement of her thumb and tossing her pistols aside.

"Let's make this fair." Devin suggested, smirking slightly and lifting her chin, facing him properly now. "Hand to hand." Of course, with his blind obedience to the Scriosta, it was likely that he would play dirty. But that could be easily dealt with.

He was half the bedroom length away by the time he faced her and the gun pointed at him once more, flicking hair back over his shoulder, so badly wishing he had tied it up when he had thought of it before hand. Her darkened scowl meant that he had hit a nerve with his outburst, and it amused the teen.

It also amused him to know that he wasn't wanted dead, as the girl offered a hand to hand combat round, lowering the weapons before flicking the safety on and tossing them to the other side of the room. He raised his fists up into s ready stance.

"Drug fucked? Tch, I wouldn't bag out the ones who made you as great as you are today. Any less and you'd be dead and your body tossed out the window you came in through," He scoffed, waiting for her to make the first move.

Mimicking his stance almost identically, Devin tilted her head, eyeing him. "I hope you fight as good as you talk." She commented flatly, her stance shifting slightly before she was in front of him, her movements quick and calculated. If she could take him down in hand to hand combat, then the rest would be easy.

In the second it had taken her to be in front of him, her movements a decent amount faster than his, she'd pulled her fist back and was ready to release it much like a slingshot, the amount of drawback a hint at the power that would be behind the hit if it were to impact.

Standard training hand to hand combat was always fairly easy to understand, punch followed by a kick or sweep, and mostly relied on the power or the speed to be able to turn the tide of the fight against another assassin. Problem for Alexis was that he didn't know what other ability aside from speed this girl had been given, so when he saw her arm reach back for a solid blow, the arm he raised to block it was expected to be injured.

When it was just a solid thump on his forearm and brushed to the side, his expectations of strength diminished, bringing his foot down to try and sweep the legs out from under her. Then his arm really did start to hurt, remembering that speed could easily turn into strength with the right attack.

He had to take her out and fast, so he started looking for a weakness. Anything simple that he could attack.

The loss of her balance, therefore her control over the situation, was remedied with a slight modification of her attack plan, throwing her arm out to catch herself, she easily caught her weight and swung her leg up, aiming to cop him in the side of the face. The sharp crack that came from her body weight impacting on her unstable elbow gave her slight pause, but her motion wasn't effected.

The sharp sound of her earpiece fracturing on the follow through impact against the ground erupted against Devin's eardrum, her hand coming up and instantly flicking the broken piece from her ear, hissing slightly at the overly loud noise. She'd feel that in the morning; last time, she had a migraine for days.

Grunting slightly, the girl rolled onto her back, her side, then lifted herself from the ground, hopping back a few steps, her balance impaired with the now constant ringing in her ear.

This just got a shit tonne more interesting. Fucking earpieces.

The kick to the broad side of his cheek sent him spinning slightly to the rough carpeted floor of his bedroom, already feeling the blood rushing to form what was going to be a nasty bruise on the left side of his face, rubbing it as he rolled to the side to avoid any further follow up attack.

When none came, and a hiss was heard, Alexis's eyes picked up the small device sliding across the floor, an earpiece which must have been damaged. No use trying to pick it up and listen to whoever was on the other end. Instead, he slowly got to his feet.

"You look like you're in a lot of pain," He snarked, sniffing proudly at the other. "Being a traitor has made you so weak, it's almost sad to look at."

Steadying herself against the wall, her hand pressed against the side of her head, she stared at the other with a smug look. "I wonder how much ridicule you'll get for being beat by an unbalanced girl."

Devin snorted, swaying rather violently and shifting her stance to keep herself standing. Those fucking earpieces were never any good to people with hearing enhancements. Ever. Rache never learned though. Moron. Calming herself slightly, letting her hand slip to her side away from her ear, the scarlet of her blood seeming to just leak down the side of her neck from her ruptured eardrum, the Soldier collected herself.

Standing as best she could, eyeing the red swelling on the side of his face, she gave him a slight smirk. "I can't figure out what's worse. The fact that it was a shit piece of technology that did this, or the fact that your only real weapon seems to be your fucking tongue." Pushing away from the wall, she took an unsteady step forward. "So let's just shut the fuck up and finish this."

With the earpiece out of commission, she hoped the Commander would take the hint and that the rest of her team would be converging on the area as she spoke. At least then if she was killed they'd still have a chance of bringing the bastard in.

Hearing. By the swaying and the blood running down the side of her head, the second ability was her super human hearing. A broken earpiece meant that whoever was listening had back up, and him dallying here was getting harder and harder to escape. But this girl wasn't going to let him pass any time soon. He'd have to kill her.

Spinning around to grab the remote to his iPod docking station from off his bed side table, he switched it on and cranked the volume up as loud as he could before tossing it away, using the loud music to aid his approach, ducking in behind her and wrapping a thin arm around her neck, the other holding one of her arms behind her back.

Leaning in to the assassin's functioning ear, he smirked. "I'm very good with my tounge," He muttered, applying pressure with his arm to her throat.

Shit.
Shit shit shit.

It almost felt like her skull was going to split. How could anyone have ever thought that super sensitive hearing would be a good idea!? The room was starting to blur around her with the mixture of pain and interference with her hearing, the pressure on her throat soon adding to the complications. A choking sound gurgled from the back of her throat, her free hand gripping at his forearm.

Well, she knew her cockiness would end her sooner or later.

As the whole room went black, the last thing she saw was movement just outside the doorway out of the room.

Several heavily armed Soldiers swarmed the room within seconds, the front door of the apartment kicked in and half swinging from it's hinges. The large calibur weapons were aimed at him, no means of escaping alive visibly possible, unless he was as good with his tongue as he said.

"Resistance is futile." One of the male soldiers said in a rather deep, serious tone. This only amused the others, though their steady aim didn't faulter.
"You're such a dickhead." One commented. They were so casual with what they did, and with the presumably dead Soldier in the Target's grip. It seemed, much like in Scriosta, they were all expendable.

The loud music wasn't helping his own head throbbing from the kick to the face, watching the girl in his arms slowly loose the fight, slumping her wieght into his hold as his bedroom door was kicked off it's hinges for no god damn reason what so ever, heavily armed Soldiers storming in and taking aim, Alexis dropping the limp form ungraciously to the floor.

"You're not fucking Robocop, retard," He snapped at the big mouthed one hidden behind the riot gear, shaking his head before raising his hands and taking a step back towards the windows. If he wasn't going to be shot dead here and now, he was certainly not going to be captured by a bunch of idiots like these guys. He just hoped they weren't super human also.

"I'm not going with you," He added, taking another step back. Four stories up, if he landed right, he'd snap his neck or spine, then be no good to anyone.

A tap on the window told him other wise, and the following sliding upward of the glass had a rather large looking man stepping into the room and sitting on the sill.

"So you killed her." He commented rather nonchalantly, glancing at the limp body in the middle of the room. "And you think you're just going to leave?" The other's hadn't made much of a move, one stepping forward and crouching to double-check that Devin was actually dead. There was a slight pulse, not much promise, but they'd take her back in any case. If she survived, she'd probably have a thing or two to say to the dickweed target of theirs.

The overly large bloke at the windowsill lifted the tip of his gun to rest against the center of Alexis' shoulder blades, threatening to cause more damage rather than mere death.

"'snot like you have much of a choice." He stated flatly. "We ain't gona let you die, lest it be on our heads, and we ain't gona let you go. So might aswell just come quietly."

"Well fuck," Alexis mumbled to himself as he heard the tapping at the window behind him, the big man also in riot gear opening up the window and stepping inside, pressing the cold tip of his assault rifle into his spine.

"Yeah, I was planning on it," He answered, looking over his shoulder at the asshole behind him, hands still raised in the air. "After all, I've got places to be and people to kill. I guess killing her was just a bonus, huh?"

Shaking his head, he could see that there was no option left except to give them one last fight before he was hauled off to fuck knows where, lowering his hands to his sides. Question was, who was he going to get to first before he was tackled and knocked out? The smart ass behind him was the best option, or the guy examining the body on the floor. A swift kick to his head would be amusing.

Brushing his hair back over his shoulder, a half step back and he lined up the kick to the kneeling soldier a few steps away.

These soldier's weren't fucking around; they weren't stupid, they weren't slow. Nor were they normal. They were all of the rebel cause, having been through the ranks of Scriosta before, much like Alexis, being hunted down by Rache and pulled into the world of the free-minded.

As soon as his hands sank down to his sides, and the shuffle of his foot caught the attention of the man behind him, the bulky soldier that had occupied the sill had brought the butt of his gun down across the back of Alexis' head, with one hard, sharp blow that was intended to knock him out.

At least this would make things easier. What, with the cocky dick head thinking he had the ability to even think about injuring a member of such a well organised team.

The teen didn't remember landing on the ground, or rolling over as he now viewed the roof spinning out of control, trying to get a fixed picture to focus. Fucking bastards, the lot of them, was what he tried to curse, random swear words falling from his lips as he reached up to lightly touch his head before the hand dropped to the floor.

Fuck, it hurt, and the more he tried to focus, the more he slipped further into unconsciousness, which he didn't want, not now, not when he had to stay awake and at least get some sense of where he was being taken.

But it wasn't going to happen, letting go of a final 'fuck you' to whoever was close enough to hear him, he blacked out, dropping to the floor completely.

A serious demeanour fell over the room as the teenager dropped to the ground, his mumblings entertaining them slightly. 

One soldier took the liberty of calling the mission in, while another took pleasure in binding the kids arms behind his back and hauling him up, limp as he was. The larger bloke that had occupied the window slung Alexis over his shoulder without so much as a grunt and the team moved out, Devin slung over the shoulder of one of the least dangerous looking of the soldiers. 

When the target awoke, he would find himself tied rather tightly to a chair, blank white walls surrounding him and soldiers sanctioned either side of the door, heavily armed. It wasn't particularly a favourite past time of Rache, to treat his future comrades like they were scum, but with the particularly wrestless ones, torture was the only real way to break the blind obedience drilled into them. 

He could feel the rain soaking through the week worn clothes as he roamed the streets, trying to work out which way would be the safest route to take back to the underground tunnel that used to be a major street once upon a time, looking up at the dark clouded sky and cursing. Maybe life would take a turn and help him out a little? He could only hope.


Alexis's fingers twitched as he started to stir, clenching his hands into fists against the sudden onslaught of pain from the blow to the back of his head. He'd find out who did that and return the favour ten fold. Right now, he was keeping his eyes firmly shut for fear of blacking out before he had a chance to address the situation.

He was tied to a metal chair, arms tied together and then hooked around the bottom support beam, ankles lashed to the two front chair legs. Apart from that, until he could open his eyes, that was all he could gather. Oh, that and it was cold, but that could have been aided by the lack of warm clothes and the concussion he had.