RoT: Part 2 (Cilian - Sheryll)

It had been more than an hour since the two had been excused from the Italian restaurant and rushed off to start their little mission, their initial comfort with each other began to slowly return as the sky took on a darker hue. To any passing civilian they would have appeared like normal people just casually walking down the streets of New York City chatting away like the world presented no problems at all. However both of them knew far better than to think everything was fair and square, Cilian in particular, after witnessing Sheryl easily take down a whole group of men. This momentary lapse of thought was broken with his partner directly asking him where to find any women in distress.

"Well I actually have no idea..I'm the new guy here" he said half smirking, a bit annoyed at his current 'foreigner' status as it didn't really help with his sense of direction,"I do think its a bit sad that the mission included rescuing a woman..are such things that frequent over here?" he remarked, slightly disturbed by the very words he just spoke. In all honesty Cilian did not want to come across a woman in distress, he would have much rather preferred it that all the woman in this city were safe enough to not have the label of 'damsel in distress' placed on them as if it were expected of them to get into some sort of mess.

Sheryl glanced at him and gave him a tender smile, a complete change from how she appeared not so long ago, she must've been thinking the same thing...either that or she pitied the poor Frenchman and his naivety.

The cool silent breeze embraced them as they trudged down a street, it was a comfortable silence and Sheryl was probably too stuffed to even speak, but she was grinning like she had when he first met her which was a good sign she wouldn't emit wires and cut him up to pieces. Turning a corner a few pigeons beat their wings as they escaped the well dressed intruders, all was well and calm when a shadow flickered across his peripheral vision. It only lasted a split second and he was certain it was the shape of a body and as he swiftly turned his head he was faced with an empty alleyway. Rubbish bins lined its walls and an eerie atmosphere breathed its way out of the graffiti laden passageway. Cilian strained his eyes looking for anything that could present itself as a threat, something disturbed him about this little alley but he could not pinpoint what it was.

"Follow me.." he whispered into Sheryl's ear gesturing towards the backstreet. Somebody had just been here and it was either his gut telling him that something was not right or his tattoos, which seemingly had a mind of their own alerting to a possible danger...

Sheryll was enjoying her walk with Cilian, the evening sun slowly dipping in the west. She gazed at the New York skyline while they walked and she only turned away when Cilian began explaining that he didn't know where to find a distressed damsel, which made sense, not many people would know something like that off the top of their head and if they did, Sheryll might have to find out exactly why and how they knew that.

She glanced at him and smiled, softer then usual, it was a smile tinged with sadness that spoke of her loneliness. She understood how it felt to be out of your element. She was like that now. Sheryll was so used to working alone that she was struggling with this. It wasn't like talking to her friends or her targets. It was more like she was trying to break the ice on a date... a date.

She hadn't been on more then a few dates in her life and most of those ended rather mundanely as her father disapproved of most of the men she liked. Sheryll highly doubted he would like Cilian and briefly imagined a meeting of the two. Sheryll burst out laughing when she thought about that. She barely contained herself as they turned into a dark alley at Cilian's prompting.

Sheryll looked around, scanning the area at an increased FPS rate and managed to catch the shape of a man in her vision. He was tall and was wearing thick clothing. Standard hobo or mugger fare is what it seemed like. It was then that inspiration struck her and a devious smile rippled across her face. She looked over at Cilian and hugged him tight. Her arms worked their way to his waist and she nuzzled her head into his chest.

"Oh honey, hold me! This alley is so dark and I'm scared." She whimpered, her face down so that neither Cilian or the hidden man could see her huge grin.

"Promise you'll protect me dear, I don't like here" she said, pulling Cilian forward but making it appear the other way around. As they reached the center of the alleyway a man burst forth from the shadows, knocking Cilian out of the way and pinning her against the wall.
"Help me! Help me!" She screamed, attempting to sound sincere but failing miserably. "Please don't let this big scary man hurt me Cilian!" She hoped that this would fill the quota, but even if it didn't, she was sure the thought would count. "Oh what will I do, I'm helpless against this horrid beast" Sheryll yelled, barely able to contain the laughter in her voice. The man 'forced' her down to the ground and pulled out a knife.

"Bitch, you've got a pretty big mouth, how about you use it for something more useful then yappin?" the man said, his breath heavily saturated with the smell of alcohol. "Come on, be quick about it now, before your pansy boyfriend gets up and I have to beat him down again."

Cilian caught on quite quickly with Sheryl's little plan, utterly surprised with her quick thinking. He embraced her as they slowly made their way to the center of the alleyway, taking on the role of the protective boyfriend with a growing smirk on his face. He tried to stay as composed as possible, this proved to be a challenge considering she was overplaying the 'vulnerable little girlfriend' role to the point that he had to bite his bottom lip to stop himself from giggling at her silly performance. But sure enough it attracted the attention of the man they were trying to find.

The attacker was sloppy with his punch, he barely grazed the size of Cilian's face; it was expected from someone who was half drunk with little to no training in fighting. However Cilian fell back theatrically making a 'pained' grunt, as if he had the living daylights knocked out of him.. even bothering to hit a bin on his way down to make his acting a bit more realistic than Sheryl's. The man immediately set his gaze on the oscar winning actress not paying attention to Cilian who had now gotten back on both feet standing with an amused look on his face behind the would be thug. He would have halted the man's aggressive advances on Sheryl, but she looked like she was having so much fun playing the helpless woman to the point that Cilian had to cover his mouth from bursting out in laughter.

After a while the greasy man with the little knife forced her to the ground obviously thinking he had the upper hand. Just as the would be rapist was about to unzip his pants a dazzling black blade slid it's way across his neck, the man let out a strange yelp as he felt the cold metal against his flesh. "Now now, don't get ahead of yourself just yet." Cilian said theatrically sighing, he noticed sheryl stifling some laughter, "Get off the girl and stand up..even if this was consensual I can assure you that anything an ape like you would have done would have definitely been less than pleasurable" Cilian cringed ending his sentence with a little chuckle. The man immediately dropped the knife and staggered trying to get himself of Sheryl, he gulped as Balizarde graced its way against his soft dirty skin.

"Good job Sheryl, I do suggest you take an acting class but good try nonetheless" Cilian grinned helping her up with his free hand, "Also do you mind telling me what a pansy is? I haven't heard that word before" He said sheepishly glancing at both the man and his partner. Sheryl just giggled and brushed some dirt of herself staring the man down in an unimpressed manner.

All was good fun, they had caught a man who could've possibly hurt women without the skills to defend themselves and they managed to stay relatively clean even after their little scuffle with him, which was great. However the mood instantly darkened when Sheryl's attacker began to mutter under his breath, "Doesn't matter..I got meself a nice young girl this afternoon..so soft...so sweet" he slurred, a hoarse laugh escaped his lips as the stench of alcohol spread throughout the air, staining everything that was good and pure. Cilian and Sheryl absorbed the words the man just muttered, staring at each other with alarmed looks as they realised they might have been too late...

Sheryll had to restrain her laughter as the man looked at Cilian, terrified of the cold steel that now brushed his thick, hairy neck. She had had great fun, pretending to be helpless. Admittedly even the most simplistic of humans could have seen through her ruse, but men became rather idiotic when you added alcohol and hormones to the mix. She stood up and brushed herself off, the dirt doing to little to dampen her ecstatic mood. "I thought my performance was brilliant" she said, chuckling through the whole sentence. She knew she had hammed it up, but that wasn't important, it had worked and that was all that mattered. She was sure this was going to make a funny story someday.

She had to hold back another laugh as Cilian asked what a 'pansy' was. "It means weakling 'honey' and this man couldn't be more mistaken" she quipped. Sheryll looked around the alley, uninterested in what Cilian did with the man, that is, up until she heard him muttering about some girl he'd had earlier. All of a sudden, what had been a funny dinner anecdote became a possible case of horror and trauma.

In mere moments Sheryll shot one of her non-cutting wires through the man's shoulder and pulled him to her. She slammed the drunken rapist onto the ground and picked up his knife. Flipping the knife into her a reverse grip she placed it right under the man's jawline and glared at him. "Did you say you'd already raped someone today?" Sheryll asked, already knowing the answer. "Answer quickly, because it's all that's keeping you alive right now" she stated. The man was silent, so she put out her middle finger and shot another wire into his shoulder. "While I'm sure the alcohol is dulling the pain, I'm also sure you'll feel this if I keep adding wires. Now tell me! Did you. Already. Rape someone!?" She yelled, barely able to keep her voice level and contained. This man was asking for it.

The man just started laughing and Sheryll had to restrain herself from killing him then and there. She recalled how Cilian had reacted to her behavior down at the docks and instead slammed him against the wall using her wires still embedded in his shoulder. "You think this is funny? You sick fuck!" She yelled and prepared to plunge the knife deep into his neck...

Sheryl had gotten to the man before Cilian had time to properly absorb what the crook said..a girl, the man mentioned a young girl. As the disgusting reality of what was spoken finally penetrated his mind Cilian's very core shook with a violent anger that had laid dormant since the murder and rape of his family. Time and space seemed to have slowed down, the air surrounding him pressed an uncomfortable weight against his being as his pulse got faster and faster. The tattoos covering his body violently shifted and mutated against his skin, they were reacting to the current state of his soul, and all there was at that time was unquestionable rage.

Images flashed before him as the ghosts of his two sisters screamed out for mercy, their blood drenched bodies begging for a quick death at the hands of their attackers. The devilish grin of the gangs leader made its way across Cilian's mind as the pained shrieks of those he once loved echoed through his brain. He clenched Balizarde, if it not for its titanium infusion he would have snapped whatever it was that he was holding. He could not think properly all that ran through his mind was this young girl that the man spoke of...and that's when he snapped.

Reality rushed to him as Sheryl slammed the rapist against a wall, a deafening crack was heard as the brutes skull smashed against the brick masonry. He was now snickering, a gurgling noise coming out of the base of his throat as he began to speak "i left her...." his sentence was cut short and ended with a surprised yelp. The stench of blood and alcohol escaped his lips as he gazed down, an elegant dark blade had cut through his rib cage and into the brick wall behind him, piercing his most vital organ. Sheryl who had stopped halfway from maiming the man with his own knife let out a silent gasp, turning her head to see Cilian who was still driving Balizarde through the rapist's chest. His eyes were black with rage as he slowly came face to face with the man, the hilt of Balizarde the only thing separating them, "Brûle en enfer (Burn in hell).." he whispered as he ripped the blade upwards from the man's chest, bones snapped and blood sprayed from the mans body as he slumped forward, dead.

A second of silence chilled the moment as Sheryl turned to face her partner "We're going to find her" Cilian said, the icy tone making it more of an order than anything else. His voice was quiet and controlled but his eyes flared with pure rage as he turned away from the rapists body flicking the blood of his blade...

As Cilian turned away a smile moved across Sheryll's face, it was a ghost of her earlier insane grin, but it was there. Her normal bubbly smile returned and she followed after him, lolling her head back and forth. He was obviously on a personal mission of sorts, and while she hated rapists, he had killed their information source. While she was sure that he would realize this on his own in time, she was going to have to speed up the process. "Cilian, do you have any idea where we're going? New York is big place" she said, mentally tallying the general area that the rapist could have been in. "Hmm, he said that he'd done it this afternoon and we're fairly far from any subways. I doubt a taxi would take someone like him anywhere if they could avoid it. So, we're left with one of two conclusions. Either she's in this area OR he took a bus, in which case this is gonna be a lot more complicated." She mused aloud, attempting to convince both Cilian and herself that this was hopeless for two people to accomplish in a few hours, but as they a walked, several ideas skitted through her head. They could ask if anyone had seen that man... except Cilian had left him in two pieces and it might be a bit hard to recognize them with all the blood and bone shards protruding from the corpse.

Sheryll thought about it and while she could theoretically ask her father to help, she doubted he was going to divert resources to a manhunt of this nature. That, and he'd already done enough for her for one day. Sheryll sighed and sat down on a bench. "Cilian, let's stop for a second. I may have an idea." Cilian looked at her, the cold fury in his eyes still present, but seemingly tempered by logic. "You can make crows out of ink right? Why not just send a whole bunch of them out around this general area, and if they don't find anything then we'll just move on to another section of the city and repeat. So, what do you think, because I honestly can't think of a way we could cover that much ground in such a short time otherwise." She stared at Cilian, hoping he would see she was right. If they had the time, she would have been glad to spend all night and day searching for the poor girl, but as things stood, they didn't. She wasn't sure if the queen, known as "Chelle" had put an actual time limit on the mission, but it was unwise to test such things if you didn't have to. Sheryll looked up expectantly as Cilian, hoping he was at the very least CONSIDERING it.

Everything Sheryl had said was true,she was being entirely sincere as she put the most logical plan of action forth, so honest in fact that Cilian regretted ending the man's life so quickly without knowing the actual whereabouts of his victim. Slowly torturing the rapist would have been much more effective, dense ink shaped like darts does hurt when lodged into your limbs.. however emotions took hold and said criminal was now split in half.

Cilian swore under his breath as he furrowed his brow, black eyebrows creasing over his caramel eyes when he realized the foolishness of his actions, the poor girl was still somewhere out there; hopefully they were not too late and she was still conscious. Sheryl's gentle gaze lingered on him as she awaited an answer, "No..you are right. I think some assistance would be helpful" he exhaled staring down at his suede shoes which were stained with the blood of the rapist. After removing both of his immaculate gloves and handing them to Sheryl, he lifted both hands with palms facing the evening sky. The Ink on his body immediately swept down from his arms and sprung out of the centre of his hands, scattering forward in the form of sleek black birds. Inhaling a deep breath as he clenched his jaw, "Find her..please" Cilian whispered in an almost inaudible voice staring into space as the multitude of dark birds fled throughout the area searching for the young girl.

Small pieces of his soul resided in each creation giving him an almost omnipotent presence in the surrounding area, he had visuals on every alleyway, rooftop and park that was in an almost 3 km radius of the area. "The man couldn't have gone far, stumbling around drunk like that would have surely been noticed if he committed the act further away" Cilian explained looking around the sky as if he too was a one of the birds flying around. While he kept tabs on any sightings of the girl..or anything resembling a girl for that matter he tried to push back the anger that still burned in the pit of his being, he was happy the man was dead but a lingering hopeless weight in the depths of his conscious told him they might be too late. He wasn't sure what Sheryl would have thought of his little outburst back in the alley, he had let his guard down too early and struck down someone with the only fragment of info on the location of the girl.

As they hastily walked past empty bins and derelict buildings it was as if New York had shut itself off from any chance of them finding the girl..as if they were walking in an ever-shifting maze. Twenty minutes soon turned to forty and both partners looked considerably more and more agitated as the orange tendrils of the suns light disappeared into the dark embrace of the night sky. Sheryl gave Cilian a worried look as he rubbed his temples, the crows had now covered the south-east area and nothing had been discovered and the creeping strain on his brain began to seep into his mind; too many creations covering such a large area was a stretch in itself and constantly checking what they saw was a troublesome task. Dark alleys littered with garbage and street art were constantly scanned, roads illuminated by street lights were fervently searched and the same could be said for any nook and cranny the ink creations could get into.

A passing visual made Cilian gasp out loud causing Sheryl to flinch, it was a large park, trees covered most of the ground and any open grass area was completely devoid of any activity.. however a bare leg poked itself out of a bush, the pale skin barely standing out under the haze of the darkening night sky.

"The park...i think she's at the park" he gasped half talking to himself half telling Sheryl while staring into space. Her eyes widened in a mixture of shock and worry as she turned her head to the west where the large park lay...

The search had taken several hours and Sheryll was growing more and more worried as Cilian strained himself maintaining his creations. Though she didn't know what was causing his apparent stress, she could guess. Sheryll had encountered her fair share of superhumans and more then one of them had suffered from the classic 'psychic nosebleed' while fighting her. She put her hand on Cilian's shoulder and gave him a concerned look. "Don't worry, if you need to rest for a few moments we can stop, I'm sure that the girl is okay" she said, however he insisted they go on.

She made a mental note that rape was a major berserk button for him and continued onward. Why in hell had that man had to run his mouth. He turned what could of been a pleasant afternoon into a psychic man hunt. Oh well, his mistake. If he had learned to keep his mouth closed then he wouldn't be laying dead in an alleyway in a pool of his own blood she thought surprisingly cheerfully. She was developing a sadistic streak and would need to reel it in if she wanted to keep the level of autonomy with which she had grown accustomed. Sheryll was just about to suggest that they give it up when Cilian gasped out something about the nearby park.

Sheryll's smile disappeared and she grabbed him.

He appeared to be on the verge of collapsing so she carried him. "Where are we going?" she asked coldly, her usual mission persona slowly returning to her now that Cilian was no longer charming her. He gasped something out about a leg and bush. Sheryll stopped and set him down. "Stay right there." she ordered before leaping straight up and slowly rotating on her way back down, using her eye's increased FPS rate to capture every detail about the park. As she set down, she said in a low voice "Command, this is Agent 0173, Codename: Gossamer. I need you to do a quick check on those files I just sent you. You're looking for a leg protruding from a bush, human, female, I'm assuming mid to late twenties." She stood there waiting for just over a minute before text appeared across her vision once more

"Your objective is 20 meters north by 22 meters northeast. Command out."

"Understood command, A0173 out." She said as she moved towards the specified location. Sheryll stepped over to where she saw the leg and unceremoniously yanked, tearing a young girl out from the bushes. She appeared to be unconscious and barely breathing. She had several bruises and lacerations on her body. Sheryll was incredibly happy that Cilian had killed the man. Pulling out her cell phone, Sheryll called for an ambulance to be at the park. They said they would arrive in 15 minutes. Plenty of time Sheryll thought as she set the girl down on a bench at the park entrance.

Sheryll wandered back to Cilian, her hard eyes growing softer and her smile returning. "Cilian, good news! She's alive and the hospital guys are on their way. We did it! We saved a damsel in distress! Now what do you say we go to that warehouse? Then we can go home and have a nice drink." She said incredibly cheerfully. She was happy that this mission was nearly over. She was looking forward to celebrating with Cilian. She bent over and reached her hand out to him. "Ready to go sleepyhead?"

She's alive. The girl was alive. After hearing the news Cilian exhaled and let his head go limp against the brick wall behind him, a relieved but exhausted look on his face. "Good..that's good" he sighed closing his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to focus his attention now on getting his creations back to him. As his mind latched onto each individual bird the stress of finding the girl dissipated almost immediately, he no longer had to exert his conscious over such a large area of space. This was by no means the most he has ever exerted his power, in a normal situation he would have only suffered a mild headache, however the pressure of finding the rape victim almost certainly affected his mental well-being when separating that much of his soul.

As he stood up with Sheryl's help, her cold hands embracing his own gloved one, the sound of fluttering wings filled the air. The woman looked up and smiled as she marveled at the simple beauty of what had appeared in the evening sky around them. The ink creations had returned and it was as if their black forms were escaped pieces of the night, the pale light of dusk reflecting off their elegant bodies. They circled the two for a bit before simultaneously swooping into Cilian's awaiting palms. The ink was instantly absorbed into his skin as the vigorous wing-beats brushed the faces of both partners during the birds plummet back to their creator.

Taking the map out of its jacket pocket Cilian squinted as he looked over the route to the warehouse, the minimal lighting not helping him with finding the directions right away. The walk was not far at all, their quest to find the girl had taken them on quite a journey eventually leading them near the final destination. The thoughts of going back to a nice warm bed settled into his mind and he sighed as they slowly walked to the warehouse, their light footsteps providing a gentle rhythm against the distant hum of traffic. Gazing at Sheryl he gave her a half smile, she returned the gesture..she appeared exhausted but content. Both of them had succeeded in completing the requirements, they managed to permanently shut down an arms dealership down by the docks and rescued a girl from possible death. Even though they killed much more than they should've, in Cilian's mind taking out the rapist was justified and the only person who could possibly question such an act was this mysterious 'Queen' herself. Sheryl on the other hand might have a bit more explaining to do..

The walk only lasted a few minutes, the mental strain of earlier had now completely vanished and the two partners walked in a comfortable silence, reflecting on the events of the day. I wonder how the other throne members went the Frenchman thought to himself as they passed bustling restaurants and the occasional pedestrian. As they turned the corner to the assigned destination the cool evening breeze caressed itself against their faces, almost as if it were a greeting of sorts"I think that wine will be well worth the wait" He spoke, a slow grin forming its way at the corner of his lips, Sheryl in turn let out a soft chuckle as they approached the door to the warehouse..


[End of Part 2 for Cilian and Sheryl]