Acid Hearts {Mission RP}

The day had just begun, sun started shining into thee city, Quin stood upon a building that overlooked half of the city. "No sign of the target." he said into the mic of his headset. His partner was a siren, so she couldn't speak, he made a slight modification so that she could click a button as confirmation that she heard him. They received intelligence that Armondo may be in the city of Perstail, a thriving city that also has a bit of a problem with two rival mobs fighting over territory.

Early in the night Quin arrived at the city with Vymera. Taking to a building that was a good view to give support, this was Quindaro's specialty, this time around he was armed with a CheyTac Intervention, loaded with .407 AP ammunition. In his side holster he kept a .45 1911 with a few mags alongside the holster. He stood looking over the city with his binocular goggles scanning the streets.

Her first mission.

So many cities came and go, the same blurred faces wearing the same stoic expressions, as if these people had a purpose. It woke upon first light, and it got busy very quickly. The peaceful silence, which came and went, throughout the night, disappeared, shattered like a very thin piece of glass. What took its place was the horror crowd and noise of what should have been robots doing the same task over and over again. Clattering of newly polished shoes against the pavement and the constant horns of cars trying to get to places quickly.

Vymera couldn’t understand any of these.

Her earpiece buzzed, a male voice on the other end telling her that the target wasn’t within his sights. She hated this device. The unique beauty of each voice, that every living soul possess, distorted and corrupted into static-like slurs that she strongly distasted. She wanted to drop the earpiece and leave it on the roof of one of the skyscrapers. Vymera leaned over the edge, the cars no bigger than a beetle below her, all acting like ants travelling in a straight line. She looked around the buildings in front of her sector, the windows for the target of interest. The building that Vymera stood on overlooks what appeared to be a central courtyard, a large opening with a fountain in the middle, and trees surrounding the corners. All structures surrounding this courtyard were well known to be luxurious and reserved for upper class men. Vymera could see nearly all the aristocrats within those buildings.

But none of them housed the target.

She sat there and waited. Maybe he would come in later. Vymera was told to press the button on a device strapped to her waist whenever she found him. As if for security measure, her earpiece didn’t have a mic attached. Vymera knew this was an assassination. So collateral need to be kept at minimum. As if that was possible for her voice…

Perhaps it would have been better if she were to blend in with the crowd and go inside those buildings, but her wings would bring a lot of attention. And so she waited for further orders.

Looking around he sighed aloud, his microphone was turned off so he could think aloud without bothering his squadmate.

Pulling his goggles up, he studied the small map he had printed in his journal, a dot indicated where the target was supposed to be. "He could've changed plans...." he mumbled rubbing his chin as he glanced over to the picture he had been given, so he may identify the target.

Glancing at his watch he sees that they're three minutes out until the target's supposed to come through the district, where from, he had a few ideas but nothing solid. The intel was very leaky when it came to the amount of details missing. "I somehow feel, this guy isn't going to be as easy to kill... at least as easy as I thought..."

Pulling his goggles down again, he looked over to his partner. He didn't really know much about her, he just knew that she couldn't actually speak or she would blow everybody she talked to away.
"1 minute until our target is supposed to show... I'll be here as over watch in case something happens to go wrong with intercepting him, you've got this right?" he asked after turning his mic on, expecting to hear a couple of beeps either saying yay or nay.

She let out a sigh, but quickly cupped her hand to her mouth. No one was even near her. A quick reflex she had gotten used to every time she heard her own voice subconsciously. It was a little sad to admit, but Liana’s constant boredom could be understandable. Note like the two were related at all to begin with.

At least things were going as planned. Quin was only here to provide her supporting fire, probably from this same roof. And he expected Vymera to play the main role. She just continued watching the courtyard, tapping her fingers against the edge of the roof. A new song came into her head, hatching, waking and begging to come out. Yet it pained her to have to silence it. She continued to tap her fingers on both hands, pausing and tapping two fingers in the same time as she sung in her mind. It was almost routine of her…even though it just appeared.

Vymera hardly know any sign language with her hands as well. Her only way of communicating to Quin was her flute. That didn’t even matter. Once they were inside, all she could do was press the button on the device numerous of times. Like some Morse code. Her communications were heavily limited. What if she needed to warn Quin about a change of plans? It would be very tedious if she had to code it to Quin…if they know any Morse codes at all. If anything goes wrong once they separate, she would be on her own, within Armondo’s grasp.

She whimpered a little, biting her finger. If she were left alone there...

Blood. Nothing but blood. Her stomach curled at what she had to do in self-defence, yet her heart beat against her chest rather excitedly. Why? She didn’t want this. She didn’t want it to come to that. But then, it would be okay, right? Just a bit of blood, the warm sensation it spread throughout her body as well as her skin. Yeah. Everything would be fine.

She stiffened when Quin spoke, and she realised how wide her eyes had gone, how wide her grin was. Vymera settled herself and focus, taking a breath as she listened. One minute until he comes. She saw the picture. Intervene when target was in sight. Vymera already knew what to do. Remembering the sign for her acknowledgement, she reached her hand for the device and clicked it three times. As she did so, she climbed and stepped on the edge, spreading her bandaged wings and giving it a few beats to exercise them. She wasn’t too worried about people seeing her, not that she had a lot of freedom to come out anyways.

Vymera wanted to think of ways to prolong her time away from the castle—away from her room. Once this finished, she would be locked back in there for an indefinite amount of time. The very thought formed a pit that sunk in her stomach. But where else could she go? It was the only place where she would be with her ‘sister’. Her only family left.

He watched Vymera for a few moment's, seeing her wings being spread and flapped a few times, "This'll be interesting..." he thought, a smile was spread across his face. He then turned his attention toward the street again, hoping he'd pop up around a corner somewhere.

This was far from his first operation, he's had dozens of similar missions usually, the only thing about this is... he had no idea if this guy had backup or if he was flying solo. If he was smart he'd have a couple bodyguards, or an armored car...

The seconds ticked down, the briefing he listened to finished with the mysterious woman saying that he was a creature of habit and would come from one of the black cars and go into a back alley to get to his destination. 10 seconds until he was supposed to make his appearance.

He started searching over to the black cars near any alleyways waiting to see if he could spot Armondo. "Tch... let's hope he's not as dubious as one target who was hiding within a bunker..." he mumbled as he got to his stomach and brought the rifle over the side of the building. Only a few seconds later, he spots him getting out of one of the cars. "That's him!" he said over the mic, sighting him 3 alleyway's down, "Near the Bar alleyway!!"

Her first mission...her first sense of nervousness...

A hand to her chest did little to settle how excited her heart was. If only she knew why her heart beats so quickly. Was it that it feared failure? Or was it eager for the challenge? She would never know. Her target wasnt even that strong to begin with. It was having a lower profile that would somewhat annoy her a little.

The earpiece returned with static and she listened with intent. It was merely about Quin having dealt with a target inside a bunker. Vymera looked at the distant buildings, the rooftops mainly as she tried to search for Quin.

Then she nearly jumped when he yelled at her through the earpiece. Armondo was here! Vymera turned to where Quin spotted him. There. Behind that black car. He was heading for the alleyway.

Vymera clicked her device 3 times again and leapt off. As she free fell towards the ground, she pulled up a few seconds later and turned towards the bar. So Armondo was heading there? Or perhaps there was going to be some operations going on in the shadows.

Assassination mission. Kill without triggering any alarms. At least towards herself and Armondo.

Vymera landed on the roof of the bar and held onto the pommel of one of her blades. She walked towards the alleyway and looked down below. There he was, being looked after by 6 bodyguards. They were going in the said bar through that back entrance.

Vymera didnt have a signal to show Quin this, but there was a door the stairs from the rooftop. She hummed a melody, a hand brought towards the air and she pretended there were buttons before her and pressed them. The air responded with white ripples. In response to her music, 4 energy orbs, white and black, appeared and collided into the door.

Vymera ran through the smoke, found the set of stairs under the dim light and hurried down.

Quin lost sight of Armondo just as the smoke opens up, "Lets keep this quiet if at all possible..." he said, getting to his feet, getting ready to re-position himself to another rooftop that was much lower than the one he was currently on.

"Re-positioning myself to another roof to get a clear line of sight." he said into the mic before switching it off. Picking up his rifle, he slung it over his shoulder before locking it down to keep it from wobbling. The building adjacent to him was about 10 feet away, with about a 30 foot drop.

"Eh... this is going to hurt if I don't do this right...." he mumbled stepping back a little bit. "Here goes nothing!" he said taking a running start before heading into a sprint, he hit a button that was wired to his hand, causing the active camouflage to activate, so the passing citizen or curious thug with a high powered rifle wouldn't notice him as easily.

Soaring through the air for a few seconds he hit the top of the building's roof, sending him into a roll to absorb some of the impact. "What's the point in living, if you can't have a bit of adrenaline." he breathed out, de-activating the camouflage and trying to calm himself down as he went over to the edge of the building.

He had a full on look of the front of the bar. Going over to the air conditioner unit, he set his rifle up. "Let me know when you have eyes on the target, along with the corresponding floor he's on." he told her, panting slightly as he was trying to catch his breath.

The climb down wasn't very long. There were only 4 floors, including the roof she landed on. The stairs here were filthy and reeked with alcohol. She breathed through her mouth and could still taste the stench. Flies had formed a small swarm and stuck themselves to the walls long overdue for cleaning. She almost screamed when she brushed past one of them and the entire school pattered all over her face.

Holding her wings close, Vymera descended down to the ground floor, noted by a large 'G' above the emergency exit. Before she could open it, the door creaked alive and slammed against her nose. A grunt escaped her and she fell behind the door, holding her nose, feeling sonething swelling inside it.

"Huh?" A male voice said. His black polished shoes stepped out and spun towards her. Vymera, whimpering, looked up the black suit and stared into the eyes of one of Armondo's bodyguard. Her heart froze when he gave a sick smile. "Boss said there would be sneaks like you!" He said before grabbing a handful of her hair.

Vymera bit the bottom of her lip. She must not scream. She must not scream. A gloved hand reached for her ear, pulled the earpiece out and crushed it under his foot. Vymera felt her eyes stinging, and tears trickled down her cheeks as she quivered.

"But look at you. Oh don't be scared. I'm sure the boss would keep you alive. A pretty one like you would have some uses. But first," he peeked over the door before shitting it close, "keep this between you and me." After he hissed the last word he tossed her onto the metal stairs and her head clanged against it. She squealed a little before wrapping her hands over the pain. In the background, there was the unbuckling of a belt and frantic pull of buttons, but when she brought her hand down...

Blood.

Her heart thumped loudly in her ears. She stiffened, feeling her sights go blurry. Blood. It was blood! Why was she bleeding? No. Why was she the one bleeding? Why did she have to bleed. But that would mean...it was okay...was it not? Yes. It was okay. To shed blood. An eye for an eye, Liana had taught her. Yes. Blood. She needed blood!

A hysterical chuckle escaped her. It died into a snigger, as if someone told her a joke. She collected herself, ignoring how the bodyguard froze, and began to hum a song to herself. A slow, eerie and gentle melody, like everything would be okay.

"Hu-?" A tearing sound of something filled with fluids, like a paper bag, echoed across the stairs. Warmth splashed and soaked all over her face, her wings and her clothes. She looked down. Blood. More blood. It felt...good.

After pausing within silence, she slowly got up, staggering from the pain in her head. The bodyguard. He was gone. Instead, a wall of blood was left behind where he was, his uniform all in shreds. That man... was a monster.

Her vision blurred again as she reached for the door. Opening it slowly she peeked into the bar. The music insude was booming loud, and the bar area filled with all kinds of people. From the lower thugs to the self-righteous aristocrats. But Armondo. He was at the set of gold and flashing stairs, walking up, accompanied by 5 remaining guards. Outside, two had stepped beside the front entrance.

Vymera reached for her device and clicked three times. Paused. Then clicked twice. Target spotted. Heading to 2nd floor. She staggered and fell onto the stairs. Resting a bit, she got up and climbed.

It was unlikely she would hear Quin again. That device was the only thing left connecting her...to her only friend out here.

Quindaro watched the building tentatively, watching all who enter and exit. "Tch... we need a bigger squad before doing operations like this..." he mumbled under his breath as he moved behind the sniper and started calculating the wind and the drop to the building. He reached to his back pouch and pulled a suppressor out and screwed it onto the end of the barrel. Not wanting the square block to be in a lockdown after he fires a shot.

He then heard her message get tapped in to him. "Ah, good job. I'll see what I can do..." he uselessly said into the microphone. He shouldered the rifle and started looking through the windows of the second floor, waiting patiently to identify his target. "I hope she's alright..." he thought, hoping he'd see here also.

There was nothing she could do about her clothes and such. It was picked for her for this occasion, now bloodied with bits of entrails stuck to it. She was meant to lure Armondo to an exposed window, without having to use her voice. It was alright though. No one was screaming yet, or jumping into the emergency stairs.

Vymera left quite a blood trail behind her, her shoeprints left on the stairs with drops of blood pattering like she had been under heavy rain. She nearly tripped when she reached the second floor emergency exit, and she opened the door slightly.

The second floor of the bar was more luxurious compared to the lower floor. Tables were large and round, before booths that were on the otherside of the room, across the windows. A stage was to her right, with what looked like a singer accompanied by choreographers. She looked down and noticed how the floor was covered in red carpet, saved for the middle of the room where a large bar area was.

Armondo wasn't within her sights. But she saw bodyguards standing around the stairs and this room. She needed a better look. A restroom was to her left and she hurried inside before the bodyguards approached to guard the exit. Inside, she quickly washed her face, her arms and hands. She did her best to wet a paper towel and wipe her dress in vain. The stain was a lot worse than she thought. And she left a bloody mess on the floor.

Vymera slammed open one of the toilets, pulling the lid down and sat on it in a crouching position. She didn't know what to do next. She reached a dead end. Beyond this she would cause a scene and the mission would become an utter failure. She failed the mission. She failed Liana.

Vymera buried her head in the blood soaked knees, crying quietly and whimpering. She needed help. She felt so alone, like she was within enemy territory all by herself. Quin was with her, but how could she know? The earpiece was destroyed. There was no way Quin could speak with her.

"Hello?" A woman's voice echoed across the room. "Anybody here?"

Vymera froze. The blood puddle near the sink. She saw the bartender, a brunette in black and white uniform investigating the puddle. No. She had to do something.

Vymera sung and harmonised a single note. It was calm and serene, soothing to the ears. She quickly got into the vibe as she lifted her head up to the roof and brought an arm up, like checking for rain. The bartender approached her, also just as calmly. Her eyes half opened and seemingly in a daze.

Vymera continued to sing, beckoning the bartender to close and lock the door behind her. Perfect. With a large grin, she stopped her song midnote again, drew her blade and lunged at the woman.

She slammed her against the door, hand over her mouth as the bartender snapped awake and, eyes wide, tried to scream. Vymera brought her blade to the exposed neck, moving as if struggling to breathe, and carefully she pulled the blade across and slit her neck...

She needed that uniform.

Quindaro sighed, "Aw shit..." he lowered his rifle almost dropping it. "They're pulling curtains closed... I'm not going to be able to shoot for shit now..." he said into the mic in vain. They were obviously in front of a stage, or the man was profusely parinoid. He had the right to be...

"Moving to second plan..." he said pulling his backpack off and quickly opening it. "I've gotta get in there and make sure Vymera isn't without cover..." he said pulling out a long line of steel cable.

He dropped it off the side of the building, he tied it to one of the building's many steel loops. "Comms have gone silent... She hasn't said anything past his location...." For all he knew she could've been caught, therefore the mission's in jeopardy.

He clipped the cable to his belt, before descending the face of the building, he slid the rifle into his bag holster. Activating his camouflage he rappelled down the side of the building.

Landing onto the ground with a nice thud, he dropped his bag along with his sniper behind a dumpster and sprinted towards the bar alleyway. "Let's hope I'm not too late..." he mumbled, screwing a suppressor on for his 1911.

Opening the door he cleared the first floor landing. He hurried up the first flight of stairs, only to be met with a massive literal blood bath. "Looks like she was caught for a few seconds before exploding somebody..." he said noticing the black shreds of what looked to be a suit.

Hopping over the railing he finished his ascent to the second floor. He cracked the door open, before looking down. "Bloody footprints?" he thought, noticing the footprints were barely noticeable due to the red carpet. moving into the room. Seeing the stage to his right, he noticed a few guards posted next to a set of stairs that led to the balcony seats.

He moved to his left, noticing the footprints led to the bathroom. Pointing his pistol to the door he prepared to open it, hoping he wouldn't see his partner being held captive or any other manner of things...

Not the best fit but it would do.

She tucked her wings in as much as possible before pulling the coat over herself as she looked at the mirror. She did her best to replicate the image of the bartender that she tried to remember over and over again in her mind. Her bowtie could do with some help but aside from that, she should be fine.

Vymera even had to swap shoes and avoided stepping onto the blood pool as she cleaned it with her own dress. It took quite a while but she was thankful no one walked in at such a time. When done, she dragged the naked dead body into the toilet unit with her, locked the door behind her and sat the corpse up on the toilet. She then tossed her blood drenched dress on the lap, along with her shoes, before she climbed over the unit and landed.

She attached the device on her waist before walking out of the bathroom. Around the corner, she bumped into another man. It wasn't a bodyguard. He had a familiar face.

It was Quin.

Vymera looked down. She was rather glad and reassured to see him, but she wasn't allowed to speak. The earpiece belonged to Quin and she allowed someone to break it. So many things went wrong on her end that she waited for any criticism from her own team member. She wasn't even allowed to hug anyone, the rise in emotions would trigger her bloodlust. She knew that all too well. If Quin was here, he would have passed by the dead and unrecogniseable corpse, a result of those emotions.

"Hey! You!" A bodyguard yelled, snapping a finger to Vymera. "Yeah you! Get back behind the bar! Boss wants his Beyond Death (type of beer I made up). Now!"

Vymera paused a little but then she left Quin and head for the bar. This was an assassination mission after all. She looked around a bit, frantically opening fridge doors, looking through those fancy labels for the Beyond Death.

"And you!" The same guard yelled at Quin, walking up to him. He didn't notice the gun yet. "What do you think you're doing here? This entire floor is booked for Boss and his company only. ID?"

Quindaro sighed when he saw her face, being able to see through her disguise, he felt a bit of relief. "I've come to-" he was suddenly cut off by the guard's voice. Watching her go ahead of him to get closer to the target, he decided to take care of this guy, for good...

Quindaro froze, lowering his arm so his gun was hidden to his side. "Just give me a moment..." he said digging in his pocket for his wallet. Watching out of the corner of his eye as the guard drew near to him. "Here you go sir" he said holding a card out.

The guard came closer, until he came within grabbing range, he took the card and averted his attention to it for only a second before he realized it was a card for a Chinese restaurant, Quin had a hold of him, firing 4 almost silent shots into the guards gut.

"Glad to do business sir..." he whispered, moving him into the bathroom and into one of the stalls. Exiting the bathroom he remained in the shadows as he looked for his target. "Good thing it's darker in here than it was out there..." he said moving to the wall, searching for where Armondo was, so he could clear a path for Vymera to kill him.

Bar duty was a pain. It was rather ironic, in a sense that it should be Quin being where she was and doing all of these drinks. To Vymera, it was very embarrassing. When she found the bottle, she pulled it out clumsily that it knocked over the other bottles in an awkward angle in the fridge. She didn't really think about opening the cap with an opener when she put it on a round tray, and the waiter was about to grab it until she noticed and turned to Vymera, pointing at it.

Vymera wasn't sure what she wanted for a moment. Then it occured to her that she needed to remove the cap. She tried it by hand. It was too tight and earned her nothing but a frown from the waiter.

"Use...that," she said, pointing to the small device on the bench.

As Vymera was struggling with just a simple bottle, she looked up to Quin. He silently shot the bodyguard down and dragged him into the restrooms before coming out. He was keeping close to the walls, near the dark corner where light couldn't penetrate with his gun ready, heading for the booths.

There were 5 booths and Vymera glanced through all of it. They all looked the same to her, but what else could she expect? She only saw Armondo's picture twice, having been told Quin would literally serve the man on her platter.

Eventually Vymera got the cap off and handed the beer to the waiter. It was going to the 'boss'. She watched carefully as the waiter strolled to the booths. And she stopped at the fourth booth from where Quin was and handed the beer to a man, surrounded by hookers and a few associates. He had a narrow face, long black hair reaching to his shoulders and wearing shades, even indoors in a candlelit booth.

Vymera clicked her device three times. Paused. Then four times. She hoped it still works. While she waited behind the bar, she turned towards the singers. The song was far too simple and bland for her taste, but she figured if things went bad she would have to use that stage. But Quin would be affected by her voice as well. Vymera reached for her waist but her swords weren't there. She left them in the same stall as the dead woman.

What could she do now? Quin would become collateral if she sings. She could ask him to cover his ears and avoid the Crescendo, but she didn't know how to input that command in the device.

Vymera looked down to the small fruit knife, and she hid it in the pocket of this uniform. She would have to wait for Quin.

Quindaro watched the patterns of the waiters and waitresses trying to see if they had a strict path or a loose path. "If I go out there. Even with my stealth camouflage, I'll be noticed immediately cause I still cast a shadow..." he thought as he saw the lights that covered the walkway.

He then heard her code code call him. Spotted, four rows over. Taking a gander about the room, he noticed a power breaker across the ceiling of the room. .45 Acp can go through scrap like that... he thought, raising his pistol up he looked over to Vymera and winked at her, before dropping his goggles onto his eyes. He fired 4 closely grouped shots into the breaker, all the lights in the room went out.

He had 30 seconds now to eliminate the target before the backup power would activate, and the building would go into lockdown. His nightvision on the goggles then activated as he made a dash for the fouth booth. Reloading as he ran, the shock of the attendees and performers allowed his footfalls to be nearly unheard as he ran up to Armondo's booth. As soon as he Identified the man, he took a deep breath in and fired 7 shots, grouping them near his head and chest, not bothering to confirm if alive or dead he fired one last time before realizing his gun was empty. with five seconds left he reloaded his gun and holstered it, just as the red backup lights came on, he hugged the walls for what little length of shadow he could find.

"Now to see if the job is done or if I just screwed us..." he thought, knowing that he couldn't just leave his teammate here also.

The bar seemed to have gone silent the moment she saw Quin pulled his pistol towards the ceiling. In that same second, a shot was fired, followed by an explosion above. Vymera ducked her head.

Then the world turned black.

People screamed all around her. Streams of light started to flash around as the bodyguards ooened their torches. Vymera made a run herself, but towards the stage. She tripped over someone's leg and shouldered into another, but the small amounts of light allowed her to get onto the empty platform. Everyone was running for the emergency exit. Nearly everyone. The bodyguards that were around started pulling back the curtains, just 2 seconds before the red lights were on.

Vymera looked at the now quiet 2nd floor of the bar. Bottles had fallen and spilled onto the carpet, while tables had been flipped as the civilians behind the booths had either disappeared or were cowering on walls. There were still innocent lives here but it shouldn't matter.

Liana wanted them to leave their mark, does she not?

And now for Armondo. His head and chest were full of bullet wounds. It seemed like a success at first, but he started to spasm. Black ooze seeped from the holes and burned his own suit. His entire skin...melted, and he was nothing more than a pile of acid sludge. It touched and burned away the table. Vymera jumped when that thing bellowed and gargled, eating the last of the furniture before rising back up.

It was still alive. But in pain. The alien took shape into some half humanoid being Vymera never seen before. He was tall, almost up to the roof, and faceless...save for a mouth full of dripping fangs.

With one low breath, Armondo flicked his arm towards where he last saw Quin, hurling a wave full of acid in his direction.

"Boss!" The remaining four bodyguards.

Armondo spoke. But the language was foreign. It had a lot of slurs and filled with hollow grunts and snarls. When he finished, the bodyguards pulled their pistols and began executing the civilians.

Vymera ran and hid within the backstage, behind the curtains. Three bullets whizzed by her and she placed her back on the walls, gasping. She clicked the device rapidly and countless of times. She needed to sing...

Quindaro waited for a few seconds, the flashlights had been going around as the power was still majorly offline. He then heard something that he didn't want to believe. Looking past the booth wall, he saw the form of the alien that used to be Armondo their target, and now the alien that needed to be killed at any cost.

He then heard a frantic beeping in his headphones, "Ah shit, I think I know what's gonna happen..." he grumbled suddenly hearing the sounds of Civilians being executed left and right. It was now a slaughter that he'd caused. "What was it I said? Ah yes..." he smiled, he dug into his coat and grabbed a smoke grenade as a sort of sign to Vymera that he was clear.

He pulled the pin but held the primer until he knew he was out of the room. "Gotta take some risks in your life..." he said making a dash for it. Little did he see the wave of acid that had been chucked his way.

The acid hit him dead on, splattering his clothing and parts of his skin, almost searing it on contact. Yelling out in agony, he burst through the emergency exit just after chucking the grenade with all of his might towards the alien exploding with a cloud of silvery grey smoke.

The Acid felt like it was just eating away at his skin tissue progressively, taking his jacket off he threw it away before taking a dive head long down the stairs, rolling as he reached the landing, hoping the closed door would be enough to block the sound as he plugged his ears.

Her heart drummed heavily against her chest as she continued to press the button. Her breathing was rapid and raspy, almost an audible gasp with every breath. A chip suddenly appeared on the support beam close to her head, followed by a zing as the bullet ricocheted off.

"Go!" One of the guards yelled.

Vymera was still missing her swords, but she had the fruit knife. She pressed herself harder against the wall, trying to conceal much of herself as she readied the knife, close to her chest, looking out for any movement.

Quin dashed across her sights, screaming and with large fumes coming out of him. Her eyes widened at the sight, just as he disappeared and crashed through the energency exit. Her heart climbed up to her throat. The assassination was a failure. Innocent lives were killed, and now Quin could be dead or dying.

At least she could now sing, right? That was all that mattered. To sing. To survive.

To kill.

A man jumped out from the bend and Vymera sent the knife straight into his neck. The bodyguard gargled for a second before Vymera threw him off to the side. With complete calm, she then walked down onto the front of the stage, taking in deep breaths. They were the audience, and she was the performer. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Just as she heard guns cocked towards her, Vymera raised her hands in the air slightly, and dropped the bloodied fruit knife. Elegant and with grace, she adjusted her arms and her fingers began to tap in the air, sending ripples of light across space. She played a small, gentle melody, slightly fast for her opening. Repeat the melody, but with the other hand to play in the air to support it. Just as she neared the end, she flashed open her eyes, serious and deadly...but with a small smirk on her.

Lets play...

She reached her chorus and the tempo increases slightly. Pretended there was a microphone in front of her, she sung with a powerful voice in her own language. The verses and sound going well and flowing smoothly as she swayed a little, draw her arms slowly and moving them to the beat, as if she was a conductor of many instruments.

The bodyguards began to fire, but the snaps and clicks were no match, and the bullets missing her completely. Vymera continued her song, and soon the shooting stopped, although they haven't exhaust their magazines yet.

Vymera then took a deep breath and, swinging her arms out, reached the Crescendo for the chorus as she vocalised a large hanging note. Her ears caught the shredding and snapping of the bodyguards, with one attempting to scream but only a wheeze came out.

Vymera opened her eyes halfway, going to the next softer verse, which was just mostly her singing with one finger tapping for the beat. The bodyguards were all dead, left as a huge stretching star of red all over the floor.

Armondo shook his head, throwing himself left and right before trying to spew acid towards her. Vymera knew she needed to force Armondo towards the windows. Her song would take too long to complete and the law enforcers would be here. She just prayed that Quin was alive and well, as she tried to guide Armondo with her arms...

Quindaro kept to the floor, minutes had passed until he realized something. Something warm. He looked down and saw a puddle of his own blood had formed on the floor. He hurriedly looked to his stomach and saw on his right side a bullet had grazed him just enough to make him bleed.

He retrieved his headphones from the floor and put them back on. "What had happened in the last three minutes?" he wondered, as he reached into his back pouch and began to patch himself up.

The Acid had worn off, it didn't actually do much damage to his body, it burned parts of his arms and a part of his neck pretty well, but not nearly enough to kill him, or disintegrate any part of his body.

He let his shirt drop back down as he finished cleaning himself up, he was lucky to not have broken any bones especially for how hard he took the fall down the stairs. he sat there on the second landing, just before the first where the vaporized guard was. ''Good thing nobody has come up yet to check all of the commotion... yet" he said, his throat was dry as he looked up at the light in the ceiling, he needed to keep from falling unconscious or asleep until his partner finished the job.

Armondo continued to thrash around his spot like he was glued there, acid spewing everywhere as he tried to fight against the music. Its body started convulsing and shaking, the acid within its body trying to escape as Vymera tried to rip him apart. Some drops landed on the stage, inches from her foot, and she took a cautious step back. The alien reared and regurgitated more of the black ooze, sending it in the air and towards her.

Her next verse, Vymera used both hands and drew her fingers over the air like water, and the acid splashed over an invisible shield. Something tapped on her shoulder, poking through her, stabbing her. Then it was burning. She tensed her arm, her voice fluctuating a bit. The acid. It hurts. Like someone putting a hot iron on it. She wanted to hiss, to bite her lips. Scream even. But she pushed those thoughts, along with her pain back, as tears formed in her eyes. The song must continue. She manifested multiple orbs, appearing everywhere around her every second and sending them, just as they appear, towards her adversary. The alien took one of the blasts directly and it doubled over. A hole appeared in its stomach and more of acid leaked out, eating away the carpet and the corpse of a civilian unfortunate enough to be too close. As if unaffected, Armondo began to dodge the orbs. Almost moving to the tempo and beat to Vymera’s verse, it swayed and jumped, from one end of the room to another, and then back. It surprised her.

He was growing immune.

Suddenly he jumped onto the stage. Vymera lifted her hands up slowly in front of her, drawing a much larger shield as her song increased in strength, a bridge to her chorus as she took a deep breath and sung with all her might. Nothing seemed to happen as she closed her eyes, saved for the impact of the alien against an unseen shield as it toppled over the stage and onto the floor. The screaming and gargling was heard again, but dying into calmness as she inflicted that emotion into him through the slow and gentle portion of the chorus.

And then a sudden leap to the climax and she vocalised right up to the heavens, almost standing on her toes. Holding that note, and then finishing that last line, she threw her arms down and lowered her head. The room rocked, with an applause of an ear-piercing screech, then a sickening groan as liquid pattered everywhere around the bar. Then it softened into gentle sizzling, like a grill was cooking something nearby.

Finally, silence.

Vymera slowly opened her eyes. Armondo was gone. And in his place, what looked like a huge black stain across the carpet and over the bar bench and hanging glasses. The smell of wood filled the entire floor, and the emergency lights flickered a little. Vymera bowed formally before her ‘audience’ and jumped down the stage. As the glasses began to fall and remaining tables tipped from being off-balance, she headed back to the restroom for her swords.

Quindaro struggled to his feet. "Damn that acid hurt like hell..." he breaths out in frustration, rubbing his shoulders and neck, feeling the first layer of skin had burnt off. Walking up the stairs, taking his headphones he couldn't hear anything else behind the door. His pistol was over beside where his jacket used to be, but the acid burned the canvas of the jacket away.

"Seems like that's where the main blast of acid hit..." he mumbled as he walked over and picked up the pockets that were left behind along with his pistol. Shoving the pockets into his inner vest pocket. "Let's see what the damage is..."

He moved over to the door, his hand on the handle, he cracked the door open to see the acid had been spread throughout the room. He couldn't see Vymera anywhere inside the room. "Aw shit... Where is she??" he asked walking into the room. Upon entering he started searching for any sign of her, frantically trying to find evidence of a body as he heard sirens of emergency first respondents have shown up outside the bar.

Vymera jumped up the stall, collected her swords and jumped out. It felt weird to go into one with a dead woman she realised, but such collateral was necessary. Liana would be okay with this, right? She would always be alright with what Vymera did, even if she slaughtered the entire bar. She couldn't imagine anyone surviving her voice in the lower floors, unless their joke of a music was played loudly.

She walked out of the stall and saw someone outside the restroom. Drawing the swords halfway, she stopped when she stared into Quin. Quin. He was alive? But a bit tattered and missing his coat.

Her shoulder flared and Vymera cupped her mouth, trying not to even hiss as she gritted her teeth over whers the acid had burned her. It was tender to her touch, almost collapsing on the touch. She feared having to get change if it would awaken the pain.

Then the blaring sirens went off outside, and Vymera knew it was the enforcers. Her song really did take forever to kill Armondo. Next time she better avoid assassinations unless she could play the minor part.

Vymera was relieved at the sight of Quin, as it meant she was not alone here. She clicked on her device three times, looking slightly down at his acid burns.

(*Flails* Just remember where to post the link of this topic when you're done with it, so I can give you your rewards )

Quindaro looked at Vymera, a look of relief with relief. "Thank the lord you're okay..." he said with a smile, he was eternally grateful that he wouldn't have to bury his comrade in a grave on his first mission with Draconia.

"We should get out of here, I don't think the back door would be any good..." he said running over to the window, only to find the police had evacuated the first floor entirely and a spec ops team was getting ready to breach the inside. "Yeah... we need to leave now..." he said walking away from the windows before a searchlight could see him.

He moved over to another window where it was facing away from the authorities, Tearing the curtain away he looked out the window. There was a dumpster that could break their fall. "Lets get out of here... We're going to be facing some serious charges if we get caught here..." he said knowing it was only a good 40 feet drop, "My knees are going to be shot by the time I'm forty..." he thought as he climbed out of the window, hanging only for a few seconds before letting go.

He fell only for a few seconds before landing into the trash, the sound of bottle breaking and cans scattering, "Oh.... geez..." he whisper yelled in exasperation looking up at her.

She could say the same she was relieved, but of course she knew better not to speak. The target was dead. It wasn't exactly as they had planned but at least they got the job done. Now that they had triggered some alarms, it would be a pain to get out of here.

Vymera would have no problem with that. She could jump out the window and escape on flight, but Quin couldn't do the same. Vymera had never really done this sort of thing before, to leave before anyone could find her. Naturally she would just sing and kill them as she make her way out. Again, she couldn't even do that, not with Quin beside her. She did her job in killing. Now it was up to Quin to formulate an escape.

She watched and listened to him, how he pulled the curtains away and looked down on the streets. Footsteps could be heard one floor below, cutting off any stairs they could take. It made her heart race, her breathing much more rapid as she snuck quick glances at the main stairs. Quin stepped away from the window just as a searchlight loomed by. He then turned to an opposite window, tore down those curtains and leapt down. Vymera stole another look to the stairs before running to the window. A loud thud came just as she came, and there he was, lying over white and black bags of rubbish.

She gritted her teeth, mostly in disgust as her legs hopped onto the window and she steadied herself. It was filthy, with half-eaten pies and thrown-out takeaway noodles piling on his clothes. He disturbed the garbage as well, the smell creeping up the wall and choking her.

No. She decided to fly to the roof of the building in front of her. Leaning forward, she spread her wings and… dropped onto the garbage bags next to Quin, landing in her face. Something cold and wet stuck to her cheek and she immediately threw herself off the bins, and on the ground, wiping the filth off her. Rotten pizza, its cheese sticking to her face. After wiping her face frantically, she spread her wings. They were tucked inside the bartender uniform, forming two large bulges on her back like a camel.

The sirens were louder, somewhere behind the building. Above, the enforcers shouted ‘clear’. It wouldn’t be long before one of them decided to peak outside the window and find the two in the alleyway. Actually, the two could pretend to be survivors of the bar ‘massacre’, but only Vymera was in her uniform. Not like she could ever tell Quin anyways. She just remained there, waiting for the leader of this mission to speak.