Death of a flower(Faith)

[pauldouglass]

The rain was pouring down mercilessly on the denizens of New York City, but none appeared to be affected by the aquatic lashing, preferring to go about their business in total apathy towards the climate. They were busy with their thoughts, their modes of life, their own paths. Paul didn't blame them; in fact, he was absorbed in his quest within the confines of Manhattan island. He had caught wind of someone who could help him find Lotus. After obtaining her file(it was very hard to get, but with a little help from the shadows, he had retrieved it), he was convinced that this girl could be the key to finding Lotus. She had a troubled past unlike most mutants, her story tying back to Alkali lake and the mess that Stryker had created(Paul had been sent on an operation nearby and made a slight detour to try and see if the facility was still active. He couldn't get in.). She was only a girl(not even out of here teens yet!), but he wasn't concerned about her age, only her abilities. Paul walked another half block or so before noting his location: the intersection of 34th and Walker. This area had had rumored sightings of what looked like a girl with claws coming out of her hands(it had been a feature in the New York Post. Most thought it was just another folk legend to add to the annals of New York City rumor) patrolling the area at the early hours of the morning, as if she were looking for something. There were even petty thugs that claimed they had been "assaulted" by this person. He knew that X-23 wouldn't call this locale her base of operations(he didn't know where she was), so he surmised that this could have been Faith. But he could be wrong. There was only one way to truly know. Paul spotted an alleyway, which he ducked into and shifted into the fabric of shadow, climbing up to the roof of the building, where he would wait to see if he could catch a glimpse of his possible tracker.

He had been waiting for several hours now, his cell phone telling him that it was now one twenty seven in the morning. So far, he hadn't seen anything...

Wait. A flash. Was that...

[lycan]

Faith was still a little shook up from her outing to the park, and knew that she had to get her file. She wanted to tell her father about it, but she had a feeling that he wouldn’t want her to go back to the city. She knew she was running the risk of getting captured yet again, but she was willing to take that risk. She approached the intersection of where she had last set up camp in the building, and stopped. She sniffed the air, and listened to her surroundings. Someone was watching her, and she stuck her hands in her jeans pockets. The training her father had done with her so far had helped with her urge to release her claws and go after the muggers that seem to frequent this area, not like she had first done before finding him.

She felt her animal want out as someone had tried to mug her, and held a mean looking knife to her throat. She calmed herself down, and brought up her foot before kicking him into the building behind him. Her new lessons taking root in her mind now, this time she will not attempt to kill them unless they tried to do it to her first. She smirked at him, the adrenaline rushing through her veins, and she felt her body wanting to fight. She breathed deeply, and knew that she had to keep a low profile. Instead she turned and ran into the building where he camp was set up. If the mugger followed her, then she can let more of herself go in a fight.

Faith wasn’t disappointed as the guy followed her inside, and she stopped on an empty floor. ”If I were you, I would run.” She told him as she held her hands out to her sides, in fists. All the guy had to do was to charge her, and she would be ready. She wasn’t disappointed as the guy charged her. Snikt. She extended her blades from her knuckles, and waited on him to reach her. He never got close as when he had seen her extend her claws, he screamed in fear and ran. She fought the urge to give chase, and pulled her claws back in. She was here for one thing and one thing only, her file. She wound her way through the building until she was in the elevator shaft under the nonworking car. It was a small space, but she was barely able to enter it. She pulled the loose brick from the back wall, and paused in her tracks. Her file was gone, and her heart pounded in her chest. Who could have it? Weapon X? The man from the park? None of them were good. Instead, she sniffed the air and picked up a scent that was made just recently.

She smirked, and pulled herself out of the area. It was the same scent she had smelled before that thug attempted to mug her. She raced to the roof, and spotted a figure on a building nearby. She sniffed the air again, and smirked once more. It was the same scent. She backed away from the edge, and started to run toward it. Anyone watching her would think she was about to commit suicide, but that is far from it. When she reached the ledge, she jumped launching herself into the air. She sailed through it, over the people on the ground below her, and landed on the other roof near the figure. She landed gracefully, and turned toward the guy with the same smirk she had on her face since she knew he was the one who had taken her file. ”I’ll be taking my file back now.” She told him as she held out her hand for it.

[pauldouglass]

The rumors nor the descriptions within the file could do justice to how fast this girl could move. Her movements were lightning quick, graceful, and yet there was an anger in her posture that was easily conveyed. She was still trying to discover herself, her sense of being. Paul would be more than happy to give her one.
"Absolutely. Here." He held the file out in a gesture of trust, saying:
"See the ease at which I relinquish something of yours? The trust that I am displaying towards you? I ask the same of you. I've been looking for someone of your abilities for quite some time, and I would like you to listen to my proposal. It involves tracking someone...someone dear to me. Your powers should come in handy to that effect. I can give you enough money and resources to make this worth your while. But, you must allow there to be trust between us. If you refuse, the file is yours. I will hold no grudge, only hope that you will consider hearing my proposal out in detail." Paul knew that if he tried to hold the file hostage, he would have been in the most intense chase of his life. She could smell him even from the shadows, which meant he had no chance of outrunning or out gunning her.

[lycan]

Faith felt him place her file in her hand, and she automatically wrapped her fingers around the edge. She automatically sniffed the air to see if she could gather what he wanted from her. Not a single person steals a file and then hands it over when asked, they usually had something that they needed from someone else. For example this guy needed something from her, and she knew it just by sniffing his scent. That and his calm heartbeat gave him up as well. Which meant that he wanted her to find him, and thus he knew about her. She clenched her jaw, as she was becoming such common knowledge lately that she found it a bit uncomfortable.

"See the ease at which I relinquish something of yours? The trust that I am displaying towards you? I ask the same of you. I've been looking for someone of your abilities for quite some time, and I would like you to listen to my proposal. It involves tracking someone...someone dear to me. Your powers should come in handy to that effect. I can give you enough money and resources to make this worth your while. But, you must allow there to be trust between us. If you refuse, the file is yours. I will hold no grudge, only hope that you will consider hearing my proposal out in detail."

When he spoke, she knew her instincts were right. He did want something from her, and when he start to talk about trust she felt herself wanting to growl at him. Trust was something that she didn’t give to easily, and he was asking her to trust him… She clenched her jaw some more as her instincts were telling her to just run, go back to the mansion, go find her father. She was breathing deeply, in a meditative sort of way as her animal tried to take control of her. Something was telling her that she could get screwed here, but he has yet to try anything other than talk to her.

Faith turned to look out at the city, as she thought of what he had just told her. She closed her eyes, and listened to her instincts and heart. He was looking for someone, perhaps a family member. She was looking for her father, but she had found him with help. Now she was trying to find her mother, and she knew that she couldn’t just tell him no. She opened her eyes and turned to face him again with her animal back to the pit where it lived. She was calm and collected as she spoke to him. ”I don’t need money or resources. But you must know that I don’t trust others easily, they usually have to earn my trust. However, I will listen to what you have to say. Only because I know what it is like to look for a loved one.” She said as she looked him over, and read him. She gathered he was military trained, and had an dark, dangerous air about him. She didn’t tell him that she was going to have to consult her father on this, but she doubt that he knew anything about her dad.

[pauldouglass]

Paul was mildly surprised to hear that she wasn't in need of SOME kind of resource, whether that be a pulled string here or there to bring the scientists that had made her a monster to justice or give her access to a database with data that could possibly unite the girl with any lost relatives. His leverage was on thin ice.

Wonderful.

"My sister, Lotus, disappeared a few months ago. She had taken a job from a private client that refused to reveal their identity, only supplying coordinates for her to get to the location the client wanted her at and a considerable amount of money transferred into a private account no one could get into except her. She played along with the request and now...now I cannot find her. I've done everything I can, but apparently that isn't enough." Paul couldn't believe how much he had spoken; typically, he was the strong, silent type, allowing his actions to communicate more(Lotus had even called him the Great Mute of China). But this scenario was different, one that Paul couldn't handle with just movement.
"I can get you whatever you need in order to find her. The only stipulation is that I accompany you on your journey. I want to see this play out with my own eyes." Paul could hear a police car closing in on their location, no doubt due to the noise that Faith had stirred up with her would-be attacker(quite an amusing display).
"Find me when you're ready." With that, Paul once again stepped into the shadows, disappearing and floating down towards street level. All in all, he felt the meeting went well enough(not as smooth, seeing as Faith was able to get to him all too quickly. He would make sure that he would not be so detectable by any kind of enemy with a set of powers like that). For now, he would retreat to his apartment, make preparations.

It was going to be a long day.

The warehouse that Paul(and Lotus) had chosen for a hideout was located down on the harbor, away from all the hustle of city life, where the two could focus on training. It had been vacant for some time, and it hadn't taken very long for the duo to ensure that it would maintain that appearance on the surface(locks on every entrance, bars on the windows of the second floor, the works). The mutant stood in the center of the warehouse, his body bare except for a pair of black sweatpants, legs crossed in a seated position, eyes closed in a meditative state. It wouldn't be long before she came...he could feel it.

[lycan]

Faith listened to the guy talk. He talked about someone named Lotus, and how she had taken a contract from a client. It seemed that she had the money in her hand first before going to the meeting place, and then she just vanished. She couldn’t believe that this girl was suppose to be a professional, and yet she allowed herself be caught into a trap. Her training was telling her to be careful, but the way this guy talked about this girl told her that he cared for her. She was going to have to think on this carefully, perhaps consult with her father or Chris. She nodded her head when he told her to find him when she was ready, and watched as he left.

She stood on the rooftop by herself for a while, watching the city move below her. The cops had come and asked questions, but left when they didn’t find her. It was four in the morning, and she needed to get back to the mansion. So she took off, with her file in her hand. She had thumbed through it while she stood on the roof alone, and saw that it was indeed intact. So this guy was semi trustworthy, but if he wanted her to trust him he had a whole lot of work left to do in that department. Especially if he had read her file, as well as the part about her ’upbringing’ and how she was treated. Her hand griped the file as she ran back toward the mansion that she is currently calling home.

Faith knew it was going to be a long day the second she returned back to the mansion. She had just gotten back just before dawn, and spent a few hours sitting in her borrowed room staring at her closed file in her hands. There was a good section in there that told of her father and what he can do, and she knew that he would be interested in that section at least. Then from there it mentioned her and how she was suppose to be like him but more obedient and feral. She curled her fists up at the thought, but remembered that she needed to control herself, and pushed the animal back with the techniques that her father has been teaching her. Her head snapped up, and knew she needed to give her file to someone she trusted. There was only two people in the world that she trusted, and one of them she hadn’t seen in a few days.

She grabbed the file into her hand and walked out of her room a few hours after the sun rose. She had permission to see her dad in his room, so she went there first. She knocked loudly to let him know that she wanted in, but when he didn’t answer she wondered where he could be. She didn’t want to track him down, so instead she went back into her room and wrote him a note. It basically said that she had met someone who wanted her to track someone down, and that it sounded like this person who she was suppose to find went into a trap. She then went on to say that she had decided to take the offer, and she might have to leave in order to track this person more effectively. She ended the note saying that she was leaving her file with him as there was a huge section about him in there as well. She stuck the note to the file, and slid it under his door. Now it was time to find this guy. She only hoped that her dad thought what she did about this situation, and hoped that she wasn’t walking blindingly into a trap.

Faith took off to the city, her mind thinking of the guy from the night. She adjusted her path as he moved as well. She didn’t really need a name to track someone, only need to think of them. However, she found the guy at a warehouse and paused just outside looking at it. She didn’t fully trust this guy, and stood there sniffing and listening to the area around her. As far as she knew, this guy could be with Weapon X and this could be one big trap to capture her. She didn’t smell government in the air, but that doesn’t mean anything. She took a deep breath and entered the warehouse, completely aware of her surroundings. She spied the guy in the middle with only a pair of sweat pants on, mediating and she carefully approached him.

”Nice place. Very business like.” She announced as she twirled around as she was approaching him. It was very curious like, but instead she was what a thief would call casing the place. Instead of wanting to rob the place, she was looking for escape routes and any weapons that may come as a surprise to her. By the time she was in front of him, she had the entire place mapped out in her mind and numerous escape routes planned out. She only hoped that she wasn’t screwing up, by accepting his offer.

”Okay, I’ll help you find Lotus. However if I find that this is some trap, I’m backing out and you are on your own. Plus if you insist on coming along, then I reserve the right to have someone else I trust completely accompany us as well. Do we have a deal?” Faith said as she got down to business. She would feel a lot better if her father or Chris were here, but they were not and she was alone. She crossed her arms and leaned against the nearest column much the same way her father would have done as she waited on the guy in front of her to accept her terms of this agreement.