District 23

[0Ava0]

[Just to clarify. Italic text within quotation marks will be the characters thoughts. Normal text between quotation marks will be what the character is saying.]


The sound of rain drops hitting the concrete pavement taking over the silence as darkness engulfs District 23. In the distance the sound of a police car speeding closer. Footsteps disturbing the puddles the rain had created. "Breathe, breathe!" Lisbeth spotted an alley and turned her sprint to the cover of darkness, trying to escape the police car that had been chasing her. Continuing her sprint through the alley, jumping on a garbage container and climbing on the roof of an apartment building. "207, 207, building 207." Running to the door on the roof she had kept open with a small stone, she opened it and quickly closed it behind her, jumped down the stairs and went into an apartment.


Lisbeth gave a deep sigh and took her shoes and coat off. She takes a small device out of her jacket pocket and plugs it into her computer. "I'm home darling" Lisbeth called out in an empty room. "Welcome home miss." The computer responded. "Vocal and biometric scan complete, security disengaged.". Lisbeth took off her knife she had strapped to her thigh and tossed it into the bedroom. She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of apple juice from the fridge and walked back to her computer. "Now... Let's see what we have here.".


The room became filled with holographic projections of the files that were contained on the small device. "Blueprints, transactions of millions, illegal weapons and drug trades hm? Interesting.". Lisbeth took particular interest in the weapon trades and the names of dealers. She had been looking for a better weapon to defend herself with since the police has been militarized and upgraded with the best tech and armour. "A knife is just not gonna cut it anymore.". Hours rolled by and she found a location and a dealer who has what she's been looking for.


Closing her hands together, the holographic images in the room closed and the computer turned off. The door and windows closed and locked as the room powered down. Lisbeth got up and made her way to the bedroom whilst taking off her clothes. She opened the door in the bedroom leading to the bathroom.


Lisbeth turned the shower off and looked at the tattoo on her right shoulder blade, a dragon. "The mightiest creature...was it?" Dismissing the thought she went back to the bedroom and got in bed. "Another end to a good day." She whispered quietly to herself before falling asleep.

 

[Noss]

A single set of footsteps echo down the hallway, causing a distinct noise apart from the other various noises of the apartment. The movement sounds regimented, as if the person was military personnel. The sounds stop as the steps reach the door and a faint thud comes from the door followed by a clicking noise.


A split second later, the door explodes inward with a thunderous boom and a man holding a revolver style hand gun walks calmly in through the smoke. He is wearing some sort of sunglasses and has a black protective suit on.

 

[0Ava0]

Waking up from the explosion next door. Lisbeth jumps out of bed, gets dressed and grabs her computer's hard drive and the little device she obtained the previous night. She grabs her knife and pulls a little switch on the wall near the computer set up. "Goodbye darling.." Lisbeth said before opening the window and jumping out on the balcony. A second later the window from which Lisbeth jumped, burst as the computer set up exploded. She jumped from balcony to balcony until she reached street level. Looking back up she saw a person standing in the apartment. "Strange. Were they after me?" Without a second thought she put on a sprint away from the apartment building and ran into yet another alley. "Damnit!" She kicked a large dumpster in anger and looked around. "Well at least they fell for my diversion. Or was it just one person? What police force would send out only one guy.. I'm stronger than that you know!" Pouting at the thought of being underestimated, Lisbeth gathered some old planks and cardboard and made a small shelter between two large dumpsters. "No more sleep tonight." Gripping her knife and holding it close she spent the remaining hours of darkness.

 

[Noss]

Hans enters the apartment quickly, ready to shoot anything that moved. Upon realizing the bed was still tucked in, he quickly checks the other rooms with no success. [What the hell?], he thinks to himself when suddenly he hears footsteps outside. As he walks to the window, he sees a girl jumping from balcony to balcony until she reached the street level at which point she runs off.


"Intel couldn't have been off..", Hans thinks out loud to himself. He turns and exits the building, in no rush to pursue the target. As he leaves, guests stare at him and move aside as he walks out the front door.

 

[0Ava0]

The light of the morning sun shone on Lisbeth's face, waking her up ever so gently. She pushed aside the cardboard that formed a little door and went on her way to the weapons dealer she located last night. As the new day started, the city started to come alive. More and more people crowded the streets and the sounds of the city came back once more.


After a twenty minute walk Lisbeth reached a seemingly quiet and peaceful neighborhood in the suburbs of the main city. "Only a little further. It was in a storage unit if i read it right." After walking around for a while she finally found the storage center. Though not to her expectation. The building in which all the storage units are housed was run down and it looked like no one had been there for at least 15 years. But after giving it some thought, she did understand why such an old building. All the new buildings are equipped with highly advanced metal detectors that can sense the shape of an object and determine if it is a weapon or not. If it is a weapon that is detected, the building sets off a silent alarm to the police force. This was one of many new technologies developed in the interest of public safety. "Yeah right. Public safety. All the government wants any more is total control.".


Lisbeth carefully opened the door, with one hand on her knife, ready to take out anyone who came in her way. She walked down the hallway that went to the storage units where she noticed a few guards standing around. Her footsteps echoed loudly through the building before coming to a halt in front of one particular storage unit. She knocked on the door and a few seconds later a small slot in the door opened. A deep voice came from behind the heavy, metal door. "Business?" The voice asked. "Buying" Lisbeth replied. The slot in the door closed and the door swung open, revealing all four walls and parts of the floor covered in various firearms. In the middle of it all was the dealer. Lisbeth stepped in and got searched the instant she set foot in the storage unit. The man to whom the deep voice belonged pulled the knife from its sheathe on lisbeth's thigh and handed it to the dealer. "You call this a knife? This piece of plastic?" He said in a mocking way. "That 'piece of plastic' is lighter than a slice of bread and can cut through anyone and anything without as much as setting off any silent alarms." Lisbeth walked closer in the most threatening way she could muster. "I could cut off your fingers and be long gone before you even realize what happened." Close enough to the dealer and done with her intimidation, Lisbeth skillfully took her knife back and put it to the dealer's throat before the guard could react. "Sharp. Isn't it?" Lisbeth said to the dealer in a calm voice.


Lisbeth took the knife from the dealer's throat and sheathed it. "What do you want?" The dealer asked. "Lightweight, compact and a massive amount of fire power." Lisbeth replied. The dealers eyes grew as if he had never heard such a specific order before. "Well only one thing comes to mind." He gets up and searches around the room for a little while before coming back to Lisbeth with a gun that suits her description. " Meet the Kriss Vector. Specially modified with new materials that make it extremely lightweight, smaller than the original and invisible to the latest and greatest weapon detection systems." He said proudly, handing the weapon to Lisbeth to test. "I'll have this. With a built in suppressor and a holster that wont make this thing stand out. Oh and a couple extra magazine's." Lisbeth said in a demanding way. Without a word, the dealer started working on the order while Lisbeth layed out 7 mechanical pills on the table as payment. "These weren't easy to get. They're the latest prototype in human mind alteration. You'll shapes and colors you've never seen before.". Satisfied with the payment the dealer handed over the modified weapon and ammunition to Lisbeth. She put the holster on which fit in the small of her back without standing out or interfering with her movement. "Pleasure doing business with you." she said before holstering the weapon and walking off into the suburbs.

 

[Noss]

From somewhere behind her as she walks, a pipe falls to the ground making a loud clanging noise. At this point, it's noticeable that there are no civilians around, or anybody for that matter. In fact, besides the pipe, there hasn't been any distinguishable noises in the past 20 minutes. As soon as the pipe hits the ground, a pair of footsteps march in a rapid pace, getting louder and louder as well as quicker.

 

[0Ava0]

Hearing the footsteps get louder and louder behind her. Lisbeth pulled up a mask over her nose and put her hood on before turning around and drawing her newly acquired weapon from the holster on her back and pointing it at the figure that was following her. "Don't get any closer or i will not hesitate to put 47 Armor piercing rounds into your body." She said in a menacing way. "Who are you and what do you want from me? Why did you try to invade my home last night?" Not letting her guard down she kept an eye on everyone and everything. Keeping the gun pointed straight at the target and not moving the slightest.

 

[Noss]

A man in a hoodie stops just in front of her and stares. "Damn" he mutters under his breath and takes off in the opposite direction. His left foot kicks a trash can lid, making a loud metallic clang.

 

[0Ava0]

Lisbeth shot a couple warning shots past the man in the hoodie before holstering the gun and moving on.

 

[Noss]

As she turns, she bumps into a man much taller than her wearing a similar suit to the man from the apartment but has a slightly different body build than him. The man looks down at her and grins, his eyes covered up by a mask. "Oh, you thought he was running from you?..."


Almost in slow motion, he reaches for a modified targeting .44 magnum on his belt and unhooks it from the holster in one fluid movement. He then proceeds to aim it at Lisbeth and pulls back the hammer with a laugh.


"Any last words?"


Before he even finishes the sentence and before Lisbeth can react a sniper shot tears through the air, hitting the man in the left shoulder causing him to drop the gun.


"Gahhh!"


He falls over, clutching his shoulder where an exploding round has pierced his armor.

 

[0Ava0]

Lisbeth jumped after the revolver and grabbed it. She checked to make sure it was loaded and pointed it at the man that was about to shoot her. "Now. Before we do anything stupid. I'm sure you heard the questions i asked the other guy, so why don't you be so nice to answer them for me." Lisbeth felt like she had a slight upper hand and not wanting to lose it she stayed well out of the reach of the guy that was shot and behind cover from the sniper. "Look sunshine, either me or the one that just put a hole in your shoulder is gonna finish you off so i suggest you make it quick." She pulled the hammer back and held her finger tightly on the trigger to be as threatening as possible.

 

[Noss]

The man stares dumbfoundly at Lisbeth before grinning. "I can't tell what's more funny. The fact that you think that your skinny ass intimidates me, or that you think my boss would let me live if you did!" He bursts out laughing before another shot rings out. This time, it just misses the man's head and pings off the pavement a few invhes to the left of his temple. The man flinches and rolls over to his stomach and starts moving as if he is going to stand. His uninjured arm is tucked into his cloak and the sniper fires again. This time, it hits the man in the spine just below the shoulder blades. Crashing to the ground, the man does not stir and a blackish blood pours out of his mouth. Everything is silent, except for the patter of rain that echoes down the alleyways. The tempurature begins to drop significantly as the sudden rainfall enters into the alley, almost as if it was artificial.

 

[0Ava0]

"Interesting..". Lisbeth held the weapon she picked up in her hand and inspected it. It didn't have any markings on it that would identify the weapon from any place. Not bothered by the sniper fire that just occurred Lisbeth walked over to the body of the man that tried to kill her. "No blood, he wasn't screaming either, didn't even so much as show a sign.". After inspecting the body she found out that the man she talked to was no man to begin with. Not entirely anyway. The arm and parts of the torso were bionic. The rain picked up and Lisbeth decided to spend the night in an abandoned apartment room. She took everything that wasn't attached to the body with her for further inspection. The 'man' wasn't carrying a lot with him. Only some data on his target, "me". without further ado and while thinking about the events of today Lisbeth put together a crude makeshift bed and went to sleep.

 

[Noss]

Hans stares through the peephole in the window he had carved out in order to place his high-powered repeater rifle. Focusing in on two figures in the alleyway, he zooms his scope in to get a better view. He sees a girl in her teens spin around looking to Han's right, and a man with a hood covering his head step out from the shadows behind her, aiming a gun her head. Hans had been eagerly anticipating this moment for while, after all one can only tolerate so much of the toxic aroma that surrounded to abandoned building he resided in. His robotic right arm twitches slightly but he is careful not to fully pull the trigger. After careful consideration he decides to take the man first. Even from the distance between them, Hans can still hear the man laugh. He chuckles to himself and pulls the trigger. Unfortunately, Hans's robotic arm twitches again and his aim is thrown off by a millimeter. At this distance it didn't make too much of a difference but it did make the shot nonlethal, only hitting the man in the arm.


"Damn"


Hans quickly chambers the next shot and takes aim. This time with the man being immobile the kill shot is easy. He breaths deeply and fires. The shot hits the man square in the face and his head jerks back. The gun falls from his hand and he lies still. Hans focuses on the girl next, but when he pulls the trigger is only rewarded with a clicking noise.


"Damn... Out of ammo"


Hans removes his bipod and pulls his sniper out of the nest.


"You lucked out this time..."


He turns and heads down the stairs behind him. After grabbing some extra ammo from his stache in the basement, he sets up again only to see that the girl had set up camp in the building next to his. As night fell, rain begins to fall heavily and thunder echoes over the city. A small light illuminates a room on the third floor of the abandoned apartment. Hans takes aim at the light and fires.

 

[0Ava0]

The sound of the shot echoed through the building Lisbeth set up camp in. She stood up and drew her gun before immediately falling back down on the ground again and letting out a yell of pain. "ouww damn!" The bullet had hit her thigh but didn't come out. With her hand on her thigh and motioning in pain she prayed her final words. She was sure she was gonna die, if not from a follow up shot then from bleeding out. She knew where the shot came from and did something even she never thought she'd do. Lisbeth cried and begged for her life. It wasn't like her at all to do this. To show this kind of weakness. She knew he could see her and she hoped that maybe her begging and pleading would work. But knowing better than that she put out the fire, "This should make me harder to see at least, if he's not using nightvision..." The pain in her leg worsened and she couldn't move a lot anymore, only crawl...slowly. At this point she could only hope the shooter would have mercy on her.

 

[Noss]

Watchingthe spectacle through the scope, Hans feels a sense of guilt. He knew it was unjustified, but it was still there. How was he supposed to know that she was going to stand up before the shot hit? The situation had quickly turned from an assassination to what the Kubura called "maiming". There was no honor in crippling someone and then finishing them off. Hans stands up and sets his sniper on a latch on his backpack. As he turns he hears Lisbeth's cries and stops. He knew he couldn't leave her like that. If the other Kubura found out he would be exiled for breaking the code. Sighing, he jogs over to the building and enters the room. Seeing Lisbeth on the ground, he hesitates. "What if she's already dead?", he wonders aloud and begins wrapping her leg with a gause. After that, he sprays the wound with a blood clotting medical gel in a bottle labelled "Anirex". Sitting back, he starts the fire back up and warms his hands.

 

[0Ava0]

Lisbeth woke up with her leg bandaged and the fire she put out started again. She was even more startled to find someone sitting next to the fire warming his hands. Her mind was flooded with thoughts, what if this was the shooter? What did he want? She frantically pulled her gun and pointed it at the man. "W-who are you!?" She scooted back but as she did a shooting pain went through her. "Ouw.." She held her leg and her face was clearly read with pain. "Did you shoot me? What do you want from me? Why have you been hunting me all this time?...Why did you spare me?.." Those were just some of the questions that came to surface. Lisbeth crawled back a bit more and kept the gun pointed in the general direction of the man but not trained on him. After all, she wasn't sure who he really was and she didn't want any blood on her hands.

 

[Noss]

Hans hardly blinks. "Who am I? My name is Hans Kinsler and the only reason I didn't kill you is because if I did the autopsy reports would show I did it in a sloppy manner. So, how about you put down the pistol and we'll talk about this in a civilized manner, eh?"


He turns his head slightly to look at Lisbeth, who can now see his dark brown eyes reflected in the fire.


"Well?", He asks as he lowers his hands to his sides and stands. "You can shoot me and then bleed out, or you can put the gun down and I'll get you medical treatment."

 

[0Ava0]

Stubbornly she puts the gun down and looks at the now patched up wound. "So he did shoot me..". She lifts part of the bandage to look at the wound itself. "Why did you shoot me? Are you a cop?" "I never heard of any Hans Kinsler before, who the hell is he?" She looked at Hans and spotted his rifle standing up against the wall, towering over the sitting man. "How did i survive that..." Lisbeth let the thought of the possibility of surviving such a bullet slide and sat back against the wall.

 

[Noss]

Hans looks back at the fire. "You're lucky to have survived that shot. Most others would have bled out by now." He sighs, then begins rummaging through his bag. "Do you have any medical equipment? You should be stable for now but if something happens between here and my safehouse you're going to wish you said something now. I already used all my supplies bandaging your leg." He turns to look at Lisbeth but still has his hands in his bag.

 

[0Ava0]

Lisbeth glanced at her wound and shook her head. "No..no i have nothing. Not anymore after you blew my apartment up." That last part she whispered to herself. She stood up and limped over to Hans and his bag and peeked in. Inside she saw an arrangement of medical supplies, some of which she had never seen before. She limped back to her weapons, unloaded them and holstered them before looking back at Hans. "If i was going to kill you, i could have done so already so don't worry." She leaned over and grabbed her back and slung it on her back. "So..where is this safehouse of yours."

 

[Noss]

"The apartment business wasn't my work. If it was, you wouldn't have known who did it."


He picks up his pack.


"The location for my safehouse isn't to be


spoken, there are ears everywhere. Follow me and I'll get you there safely... And uh..."


He seems a little flustered.


"Sorry about shooting you. I mistook you for a ERA member. Just a tip if you don't want to get shot by me, don't wear the ERA's patch on your shoulder."


Walking out the door, he heads down the stairs.


"You coming or what?"

 

[0Ava0]

Lisbeth stands up on her feet and limps towards the exit with Hans. "I'll make sure we're even again one day." She says before limping down the stairs and taking off her vest with the ERA patch, revealing her tank top and all the various holsters for her weapons. At the sight of all this equipment, you would hardly believe that it is a girl to which it is all strapped.