The ultimate hunt. Target #1 confirmed

It was first the light of the teleportation, and then the sick sensation that came shortly after that, Michael feeling his stomach performing a few flips before settling down. Looking down upon the snow crusted streets with him was one of his wives artificial humans, one that was simply meant to back him up if things got difficult but not a moment before. She was a young looking woman with long chocolate brown hair that flowed past her neck and rested upon the shoulders, seemingly untouched by the intense cold of the city. It was one of the marvels of the beings made by the crimson witch, though it was just a standard trait among the homunculi, and that did not extend to him it seemed, as Michael pulled the high collar of his large black coat closer to his neck.

Lucky for him however the thickly padded jacket that was part of his Arsenal persona proved warm, made just for this situation, also hiding the various throwing knives and two pistols hidden beneath. In his left hand was the mask itself, a simple looking mask that would both protect his face from the cold and his identity from anyone that would care to look it up. ”Are you sure she will be around here?” Angelica asked, breath hissing through her lips; punctuated by a light cloud of breath. Her wings were away for the moment, and overall she looked human, but he knew well enough that she was far from that. A few vehicles drove below them, but traffic as a whole was unremarkable, nothing like the larger cities.

Michael leaned over looking over the edge as he took in a deep breath before slowly exhaling, eyes glowing a light blue for the briefest of seconds. ”She’s here…..or somewhere close at any rate.” he said tongue running nervously over dry lips. He could feel it, the strange energy that was close and yet so far away, something that he could not quite place and something that resonated within him. ”Just can’t place where exactly.” Fingertips played over each other, Asian male standing to his feet as he placed the mask firmly against his face, features now covered. The katana strapped to his back jostled lightly as Arsenal rolled his shoulder, joints popping loudly as he turned to his associate and back to the brief glint of energy that he sensed.

”Well don’t go making any stupid mistakes; you are dealing with a….conduit.” The female said with a light jab before stepping back from Arsenal. This was supposed to be his mission, and the female was only a minor support role, and that was something that she planned to play down to the letter. ”Good luck General.” With that leathery wings sprouted from her back and within an instant the female was soaring through the air nimbly, out of his sight as the male was forced to simply stand there. No, it was time that he got to work on tracking down that source of energy, and with along the rooftops was how he would do so.

Until he caught sight of her, the target.

This city was Phoenix, Arizona. It was not....quite....home, but it did present her with a reminder of it in its own way. Maybe it was the desert atmosphere and weather. Though, it was briskly cold today. A cold front had come in and this day was so cloudy that the sun had not warmed up the air at all. It was like they were in the northwest instead of the southwest. Sarah Milosi was wrapped up tightly in her coat and by this point would vastly prefer the cold chill of earthbound spirits passing by over this. Not what she was here for though. This was just a random stop to avoid her original destination. She had been on her way back to her hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, but she decided against it at the last minute. Come to think of it. Going back would just be bad memories for her by this point. Pointless reminders of shame and past failures. It was just a sad experience she was now avoiding like the freaking plague.

Due to the weather most of the local residents of this city were trying to stay indoors as much as possible. Most of the ones you did see were driving by in their vehicles or rushing to get somewhere. This kind of made Sarah stand out among this crowd. She was just walking down the street in no hurry. Each breath she took formed a cloud that she just walked right through. She had nowhere to go and no one to see. Such a lonely existence this was for her. It was just so unfortunate. This incoherently paced trekking of the city led her down one street after another, all the while she tried to block out some of her past memories, that is until she stumbled upon a graveyard. At this place where the bodies of those that were buried here layed, she could see the ghosts that still harbored near their remains. Each and every single last one of them was as visible to her as a living person was to another one. There was no reason for her to be here though. None of these wandering spirits held any significance for her. So she kept going.

Down the road she travelled. Sarah overheard a young couple talking nearby about some large bird or something they had just seen and they seemed fascinated by it. Sarah paid this no mind and kept going forward. She then passed by a large building where unbeknowst to her, a man was standing atop it. She also did not know that this man was looking for her. She was hoping to avoid any trouble, but it was looking to be unavoidable.

The source of the energy was a young looking woman, not very different than the others, but then again people could not feel the energy like he could. Like so many she was dressed for the uncharacteristically cold weather, yet what she was doing here he could not tell. It was time that he acted, or at least that was what he would have thought, if he knew anything about the young woman’s capabilities. The problem with that was he knew nothing about her, and that meant Arsenal would have to move carefully, plan ahead and make sure everything was to his advantage. One false move and everything would fall down on top of him. Running fingers through a fine layer of snow coating the roof he was perched upon, Michael would begin to make his move.

Small flakes of white fluttered from fingertips exposed by fingerless gloves, as he reached into the recesses and felt over one of the small throwing knives. A small insurance in case he could not take her in with words alone. In a matter of seconds Michael had managed to move from rooftop to the snow blanketed street below, the only sign of his movement being the sound of snow crunching underfoot. Surprisingly no one else was around, making all of this much easier for him, though it all had to be done within a matter of seconds, too fast for any real retaliation to take place. Simply looking upon the woman, he could feel the energy within him grow restless drawing a rather annoyed expression upon his lips, hidden by the dark mask.

Everything taken into account, Michael sped up slightly, closing the distance until he was sure that the woman was fully aware of his presence and either walked faster, or turned to face him. How she took the man in what looked like black a black coat and a strange mask did not matter, though if she instantly saw him as a hostile, then things would instantly turn ugly. They were standing in the midst of a back alley now, the air so strangely quiet that is was almost unnatural, giving rise to goose bumps all across his skin. ”Looks like I finally found you.” Michael said, his voice filtered by the mask, reverberating in a way.

Sarah Milosi continued walking down the path that this street presented, all alone and undeterred until she was suddenly overcome with a strong feeling of being creeped out. It really got cold around here and she thought she heard something. Then she heard a loud noise nearby. The sound of the light patches of snow falling, and rapid movement behind her. It sounded like somebody was running down the street in her direction from behind her. Somebody must be in a hurry to get somewhere. Sarah stepped to the side so that she was practically leaning up against the building and glanced behind her a bit to see who was approaching. She did not want to get bowled over by somebody running far too rambunctiously. She saw a man coming towards her hurriedly, yet cautiously. He was also looking right at her and looked like he was glaring at her. This was really suspicious behavior. "Don't tell me he's after me." she thought as she turned away to avert suspicion and continued to walk on down the road.

She kept moving until it became far too obvious that this guy was indeed following her. Just who was he? What did he want? Probably some would be crook or something like that. He picked a poor day to try and pull off some mugging attempt. She was not interested in having to deal with some random mugger. Though at this rate it was looking like she would have no other choice on the matter. She had unknowingly wandered right into a back alley and saw that he was there too. "Oh dammit." she thought. Why didn't she pay more attention to where she was actually walking? This was so idiotic, it was painful. By this point there was no other option. She turned back around and looked at this man. "Can I help you?" she asked of him. Now what? Sarah began to try and leave this alleyway as soon as possible. As she started moving again she heard him speak. What she heard him say made it clear that this guy had been looking for her. Sarah stopped dead in her tracks and prepared herself for things to go awry. "Why have you been looking for me? What do you want?" she demanded to know.

The woman was nervous; an understandable reaction considering that a stranger was following her into an alleyway, especially considering that this stranger was….suspicious. ”Why have I been looking for you.” It wasn’t really phrased in questioning manner, just a statement really. He knew that the woman was important to some kind of plan that Elena had brewing within her head, but that was about it, the male knew nothing more than that. Fingers tightened into a fist, before relaxing and falling slack at his side. She had nowhere to run, well not without going through him, and as far as Michael knew that was a difficult feat. ”You’re special so to speak and my mutual partner wants you brought to them. However, if you come willingly or if I must force you to come is entirely up to you.” He didn’t make a move for his weapon, simply looking upon the woman and waiting for her reaction, which would likely not be what he wanted. No one ever really allowed themselves to be kidnapped willingly.

This was not looking like it was going to end well. Sarah was walking forward before she came to a stop and glared at the man who had been following her. Her expression was a steely gaze as she looked upon this individual who had just informed her that he had been looking for her. She knew this wasn't right. How she could have known was beyond her though. Why? Why had this man been looking for her? What did he want? she had to know. She had to know so, so she could know what to do next. "Why though." she asked of him in hopes of getting an answer. "What do you want from me?"

She would not have to wait long for an answer. It came pretty quickly in the form of a really suspicious statement. She was deemed 'special' by an associate of his. This associate, whomever it could be, wanted something from her, and Sarah knew what it likely involved. "Sorry, but you're going back alone." she stated as her power drew forth and was fired right at him.

Michael knew things would not be easy, and the strange energy that was fired at him proved that much; if not the fact that she stated she was not going back with him. With a quick reaction, Michael drew the katana strapped to his back, his own energy flowing through and strengthening the blade and with a swift motion he sliced through the attack thrown at him. It split in two and collided loudly with the ground, as he took a casual stance, glaring at the woman that proved that she was more than capable of protecting herself. If one were slightly magically aware, they could see the small amount of magical energy coursing through the blade, and he had a feeling that this woman could see it clearly.

“Very well, I tried to do this the easy way, but I guess you want it the hard way.” Michael sighed, voice sounding slightly aggressive through mask filter.  Twirling the katana within his hand, Michael looked over the stance of the woman, one that belied a measure of skill and one that he would not underestimate. Fingers tightened around the blade, slightly exposed knuckles growing paler. Reaching into his jacket, Michael quickly grabbed hold of one of the two pistols and within the seconds that it took to fill them with his spirit energy, he whipped the weapon out and fired off three rounds at the woman, each shot powerful enough to tear through a superhuman with ease. It was time to see how well she was when it came to defending herself.

It was completely obvious. Sarah had no intention of going anywhere with this man. Especially not to meet this associate of his. This was clearly not something she was interested in. Realizing this was easy for anyone. Her way of answering was also simple. Take this guy out before he could try taking her by force. Her energy, the same energy that was apparently the reason this associate of his was interested in her for, was fired out at him. Aimed directly at him and stopped short by his counterattack. He had drawn forth a katana imbued with some form of energy of its own and with it, stopped her attack.

She listened to him speak after that initial first round to say. "No, I'm not making you do things the hard way. I'm making it so you fail." she said aggressively in response as she prepared herself for what was about to happen next. She saw him pull out a pistol with his free hand while the other one twirled around the blade in it. The gun was fired, and fired, and fired again. Three shots rang from it in quick succession of each other. Sarah attempted to sidestep out of the way as she created a barrier around herself. The first bullet missed, the second one was stopped by her energy barrier, and the third grazed her left arm as the barrier had failed to withstand its momentum. Her coat was torn and between the damaged threads one could just barely see a wound that was bleeding a bit. Sarah had the ability to heal pretty quickly though. The would was already healing enough to stop the bloodloss, but the would was still present, and so was the pain it was producing. That arm might just be unusable for a moment. She was not done as of yet however. She instantly fired back at him. Both the gun and his torso were targets. She also knocked over a trash can and kicked it at him.

Out of the three shots, only one of his managed to hit and it drew a small amount of blood from a wound on her arm. It bled some, but a lot less than he would have initially expected of a wound like that, however he was informed that this woman would have powers that he would have to be aware of; regeneration may be one of them. The woman quickly reacted with her own attack however, one aimed for his chest and the other aimed for the very weapon that had damaged her, and he had little time to react to them. Without really giving a thought to it, Michael tossed the gun into the air with a flick of the wrist, as he quickly  changed hands with the katana, and slashed out at the bolt aimed for his chest, and narrowly stopped it. The edge of his blade however suffered a small crack, barely noticeable.

Then with reflexes supernaturally enhanced he once again grabbed the gun that was thrown into the air, the other bolt grazing the edge of his coats sleeve, creating a small cut on his arm that began to bleed, soaking the material. Michael let his fingers run over the small wound, a small amount of the blood staining his finger tips, though he had little time to react to the trashcan that was kicked at him, one foot slamming hard against the side of it as the metal dented slightly. With his pistol being holstered, Michael brought up the lid of the trashcan into his other hand, and brandished it like a shield. Running full force, he took the fight to her, using the empowered lid as a shield as he would attempt to slash at her limbs and make the woman unable to run away.

Sarah may have been wounded, but she was nowhere near done. The fight continued on. She launched forth a two pronged counterattack after having been wounded. Another blast of her unusual energy, and a trash can kicked at the man who was trying to capture her. That really is a weird combination. If it worked though, she would not complain. Things would probably be easier if she managed to destroy that pistol. The sword may be a sword, but it was not quite as present a threat as what the pistol brought to the table. Sarah bit her lip as she watched her strange combination of attacks barrel towards the man whom was hunting her.

Once again her attacks were countered, but she was not surprised to see it happen this time. This was pretty much what she expected. Sarah looked up real quickly to see what was above her. She saw it. Something that would be of a lot of help. The fire escape was right above them. She then started to step back and create some more space between them. He was now charging at her with both his blade and the trash can lid. A shield and sword combination attack. As he approached, Sarah blasted the fire escape above them and pieces of it started to fall right on top of him. Sarah grabbed one of the poles in midair and used it as a weapon of her own. She charged her energy through it and struck at him with it.

He was damaged, but that by no means meant that he was out of the fight, considering that Michael was already thinking over many ways to make this go his way. The woman seemed like she could hold her own, but he was obviously her physical superior, and his ability made most attempts on him moot. Now with a proper shield, and with his blade in tow, Michael was more than sure that he could end this within the next few minutes, and hopefully without dangerously injuring the poor young woman that he was ser upon. In the midst of his charge, the female blasted the fire escape above her, and grabbed a hold of one of the pieces that were falling down upon her. Charging it with her own energy, the woman would strike out at him, Michael deftly blocked with the trashcan lid. A hollow clanging sound resounding loudly, as the male would quickly move and swiftly aimed to slam his katana’s hilt into her nose.

Not done. Not yet. She would use every inch of this city if need be if it mean't emerging from this unfortunate encounter. The collapsing fire escape was just a sample of things to come if they needed to happen. The poles that were falling were a danger to both Sarah and the man she was having to fight. Sarah grabbed the first one that had broken off and used it as an improvised weapon. The pole was swung at the incoming attacker with energy amplified force. The empowered pole slammed right into the supercharged trashcan lid and the impact could be felt by both of them. Sarah saw that despite all of this, the man was still attacking. She saw the sword's hilt coming right towards her face. Her head titled back quickly to get out of the reach of this strike and she ducked away from him and took a few quick steps back as the fire escape came down upon him. Sarah then fired a few blasts in an attempt to blast both the katana and the trashcan lid out of his hands in order to potentially leave him with no weapon to defend himself against the structure now falling down atop of him.

The blow aimed for her face did not reach for the target, woman leaning only a few inches back as the hilt was retracted before he overextended himself. With that done, he took a few steps back, hoping to create distance before she could unleash some of that strange energy of hers. This attack did come, in the form of blasts that were intended maybe to disarm him, and Michael could not afford such a disaster. Most of them were shot too closely shot together to really duck around, so Michael did the next best thing, striking out at one of them as the force along knocked the katana from his grip and sent it skittering. The trashcan lid remained in somewhat better luck, as he was able to keep it in his hands, protecting himself with only a few major dents within the lid itself. However, even with that immediate danger halted, Michael found himself dealing with something else entirely, which was a structure falling down atop of him. He didn’t have anything that could protect him like Elena’s other goons,  but Michael had ways of his own. Without even breaking stride, the male quickly hurled the still supercharged trashcan at Sarah, and then took off in a full run. Only a few inches from him came the falling fire escape. One that could have done horrific damage if allowed to fall atop him. With little time for her to react hopefully, he reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out his second handgun, and let off a single shot aimed for her gut.

Sarah watched as her attacks struck down upon him and the fire escape collapsed, hoping it would fall right on top of this vile attacker and deal with him for her. She cursed under her breath when she saw him prevent this from happening. That should have worked. At least have some effect of some kind. Well, it did have an effect. It had pretty much drained the trashcan of all the energy he had placed into it, but he had still dodged it all safely. He had been disarmed of the katana, though as she had seen earlier, that was not his only weapon.

She saw the trashcan lid sent flying at him. Sarah managed to catch it in midair with her right hand and pirouetted to send it right back at him. Just as the lid left her hand to go back to its source she saw the pistol in his hand and heard the sound of a bullet being fired at it. Sarah was no dancer and therefore could not properly regain her balance after the pirouette. The bullet came flying right at her and struck her in the side of her abdomen. The pain tore through her as the bullet did. Sarah was knocked backwards and fell to the ground in agony. It didn't seem like a fatal blow, but it hurt. Might still kill her though. Her healing ability may not be enough right now. Sure it had managed to close up the other bullet wound, but it still wasn't all that great. She placed her energy in to trying to heal the wound faster, but it was not having any effect. There goes that option. Now what? Well, if she died, that would mean this guy failed in his mission since it was obvious he wanted to take her back to his associate alive. That would be one saving grace even if she was not interested in dying.

Sarah could see where the man was standing and had an idea of sorts. She grabbed the pipe which still contained her energy and threw it aimlessly at him. It wouldn't even hit, but it did get behind him and fire said energy at him from a position he was not looking from. Sarah was now trying to get up and deal with the pain in order to continue.

The lid that he threw at the woman was caught, and with a pirouette was thrown back at him. Michael had little time to react within the midst of his firing off the shot and dealing with the thing thrown at him. With little time to really react, Michael brought up his right arm as the trash can lid slammed jarringly against it, eliciting light curse from the masked man. With the enchantment still running through it, he could tell that there would be some bruising from where he was struck, and perhaps simply to add an extra layer of protection between him and anything else, the male let a little of his energy run through the black coat covering his combat gear. It served as an impromptu body armor now, not that anything of serious energy would be stopped much by it.

The woman was down by the bullet that he fired, blood seeming to have oozed from the wound that was formed along her mid-section. Something within him took note that she was not bleeding as much as he anticipated, which meant that she was healing somehow. Drowsily the woman would throw a pipe at him, missing his head by only a few inches, though what he did not expect was the burst of energy that struck him on the back. It tore through the jacket well enough, and sent Michael onto his knees with a pained curse as he felt the warm sensation running along his back, He was bleeding, and probably a nice first degree burn was there, if not a second or third.

Still, it was the jacket that prevented any major damage, for example the blast tearing through his body. “Ouch.” Michael grumbled annoyed, still feeling the damage from the attack. He removed the coat, revealing the full extent of his protection, all of which seemed worthless against the woman’s power, even with his ability backing it up. ”I think we’re done now.” Without even a warning of what he planned, his hand was in motion and releasing two empowered rounds towards each of her knee caps.