ROLEPLAY HQ - guns-n-roses

Our characters are both highly skilled and respected contract killers who have executed many high profile contracts under our aliases, however no one knows who we really are and what we really look like. Muse A is a new arrival to the city, staying in a high rise apartment room directly adjacent to Muse B’s apartment. Being a long time resident of the city, Muse B invites Muse A for a small trip around town, wishing to show him whatever there is to see and do. Muse A and B develop a friendly bond, which slowly begins to evolve into something more romantic. The two end up going on several dates, until eventually, one of those dates ends up in a night of passion. The two are woken up the next day in Muse B’s apartment to Muse A’s phone giving off an alert. Muse A gets out of bed, grabs his phone and walks into the bathroom, still undressed. He briefly hears Muse B’s phone vibrate as well, but pays no mind to it. Muse A enters the bathroom, door still open and unlocks his phone. A new contract. And a big one He opens the notification, to reveal the face of his next target: Muse B. The text next to her face details how she’s been discovered to be a famous contract killer and needs to be eliminated. He looks up at the mirror above the sink that is directly in front of him to see the reflection of Muse B who is also looking at her phone. She then turns her head up to meet his eyes in the mirror, with a look of momentary shock on her face, which quickly gives way to one of focused attention and decisiveness. The look of a killer who had her next target. (Hi there. I’d like to play Muse A in this roleplay, which I’m hoping can be a fun and punchy ride. Feel free to DM me regarding this idea. My DMs are always open)

The sunlight began to shine into Rachel’s eyes as she began to wake up. She’d sigh as the slight hangover forced her eyes quickly back shut before rolling towards the man she shared her bed with for the evening. She felt the motion of the springs within her bed decompress as Jason got up and walked towards her bathroom. She lifted her head raised a brow along with a satisfied grin after an evening of extra curricular activities glaring at the man as he disappeared around the corner. Brrt brrt Her phone just received a notification, possibly a contract worth her interest for once. She began dodging a significant amount of work ever since she met her new neighbor, due to interests shifting in favor of her own personal life and contracts beginning to stale out within the country. She kicked off her blanket and stretched her arms and legs out long and wide as she rolled towards her nightstand. She reached down towards the ground and managed to grab the man’s shirt, throwing it on as she spun her legs off the bed and planted her feet onto the ground. She gently picked up her phone to review the hit information and began to slowly walk around the bed towards the bathroom, rubbing her eyes still trying in her best efforts to wake up she still stumbled around for a bit as her vision was still a bit too hazy to read the screen properly. The moment everything became clear and visible she stopped in her tracks in the middle of the doorway.

10:57

The sleeve tattoo, the chin, his hair. She almost couldn’t believe what she saw on the screen of her phone. The notification was a hit for the man she spent the past weeks with getting to know and being close with, the man standing 5 feet in front of her in her bathroom at that. Rachel was completely stunned by the fact of how well she knew the mark, not to mention the value of the contract, one million dollars. Her mind rushed at a thousand miles per hour as her stomach sank, her phone slid between her fingers, she knew what she had to do as she looked into his eyes in the mirror. The look into his eyes, the way he looked back at her it was almost as if he knew something was up…she had to make the first strike. His back was to her and the moment of opportunity was now. She swallowed the saliva building in her mouth as she braced for the rush of adrenaline that was about to rush through her body. She sharply inhaled a pocket of air through her nose before she took a step forward and leapt towards Jason. Her right hand connected with the rear of his head, her fingers clenched into his silver locks of hair as she utilized her entire body weight forward pushing his face into the mirror. Attempting to take advantage of the momentum, she wrapped her left arm around his neck after landing atop his back. Her legs quickly wrapped around his torso as she clenched her teeth bracing for the fight to be had. @LeoxLeo

Shit it wasn’t a mistake! It was her! Rachel Hollings. Better known as Karma, a famous name in these parts among hitman circles. Noone knew her real identity until now, and what luck Jason had that it turned out to be his Rachel. Her reputation was not unearned, it seemed. She had apparently somehow figured out that Jason was onto her and leapt into action before he could make a move. Being younger than him, she also had the upper hand in terms of speed and agility. Luckily for Jason, she seemed to lack the experience age brings in this business and she’d made the mistake of trying to fight him hand to hand. Even so, he was in a compromising position. With Rachel still on his back, choking him, he spun anticlockwise and slammed her side into bathroom mirror and the sink underneath it in an attempt to knock her off. The mirror shattered into a hundred pieces causing shards of it to fall and bounce off the sink, covering the floor around them. @Deleted User

This wouldn’t be the first mark that she had to fight someone stronger than she was in hand to hand. Her mind quickly began to slow down to processable thoughts and she could start thinking clearly on what her next moves should and would be. She felt overly confident as she attempted to choke Jason over the sink, surprised that her first strike didn’t do more than crack the mirror and piss him off. Her eyes widened as she found herself spinning straight into the same mirror that she utilized for her first strike and shrieked as it shattered. Observing all the shards on the ground Rachel quickly began to buck her hips forward as if she was riding a horse while pulling Jason’s head back. She sucked air through her teeth as her left arm and elbow began to sting with small shards sticking out. She tried her best to force her weight to have the man lose balance forcing him to take steps around the bathroom stepping on as many shards as possible. Meanwhile, she tried with all her might jamming her right elbow into the side of Jason’s neck. She continued to tighten her grip with her left arm as she attempted to use it to steer her new steed. @LeoxLeo

Jason could feel the larger shards further shattering under his feet as he stumbled around the bathroom, being rodeoed. He was starting to feel the circulation to his brain being cut off; Rachel knew exactly where to squeeze to do that. No matter how much bigger he was, if he fainted now, it would be game over. Jason turned around and made a running motion towards the direction of the bedroom, tilting his body so that he slammed Rachel against the door frame on the way out, himself stumbling out of the room and ending up on all fours on the bedroom floor.

@Deleted User

Rachel wailed as she impacted the doorframe, her body spun quickly as she fell to the ground hard. She tried to rotate herself mid fall to mitigate how much of the mirror shards would be caught but her plan backfired as she landed onto her back causing some of the larger shards to piece through Jason’s shirt into her back. Rachel’s neck tensed as she landed preventing her head from getting recoiled into the bathroom tiles upon impact and instead a lighter bump was incurred. She groaned as she attempted to sit-up, as she pushed herself to a seated position she glanced at the rear of the man and shook her head. How could she be so stupid? With an alias like Orion, she could only imagine this was just another hunt for him. Well she’d do her best to make it his last. She looked around the room and winced in pain before pushing herself forward stumbling a bit before sprinting towards her dresser to grab one of her knives. It was clear to her that she wasn’t going to close this deal without the help of a weapon. Amidst her panic she tripped on her pants thrown onto the floor from the night before and struggled to crawl towards the dresser groaning and sucking in air between her teeth with each movement. @LeoxLeo

@Deleted User

It took a moment for Jason to catch his breath. He had been moving past what he considered his prime for a while now and wasn’t as spry as he used to be. By the time he’d recovered and turned around to look at Rachel, she had already reached her dresser and was about to open it. If that’s a gun, I’m dead if I stay here. Jason rolled to his left and got on his feet, one of which hurt but not so badly that he couldn’t move. He ran out of the bedroom. The door out of the apartment was a straight shot from the bedroom door across the living room. It was too straight a shot. If Rachel did indeed have a gun in that drawer, she would definitely shoot him before he could cross this living room, which, at the moment looked like the longest living room he’d ever been in. He definitely couldn’t count on Karma to miss a shot. Therefore, he turned right instead, in the direction of the kitchen which was built into the corner of the living room. This kitchen was dominated by a large kitchen island. He ran straight at it and leapt over the the island, sliding on the marble countertop before landing on the other side. He then peeked out and grabbed a medium sized knife off the counter before quickly ducking back down and pushing himself against the counter. Perhaps she wouldn’t even realise he was behind this kitchen island and he could get the drop on her. This hope was immediately crushed when he glanced at his right foot which was leaving a stamp of blood everywhere he placed it. It had been cut by the glass from before and it had probably left a trail straight to his hiding spot. Well, shit

The moment that Rachel reached the dresser, she yanked the handle pulling the entire drawer out, threw all of her socks and undergarments to the side and revealed a case of knives. She immediately ripped two out of the three within the case and equipped herself with them. By the time she turned around with the knives in hand she saw Jason had begun to move. She attempted to make a rapid throw, however between the inconsistent movement and the pain in her left arm the knife flew off target and destroyed one of her lamps next to the door. She cursed under her breath as she grabbed the last knife remaining in the case and slowly began the chase. She slowly approached the living room doorway before rotating the knife in her right hand and as she entered the room made a stab attempt into the thin air hoping to have surprised the imaginary ambushed. She quickly scanned the room while breathing heavily as she was still recovering from the initial fight in the bathroom. She slowly slid her feet around the wooden floors of her apartment to minimize the sound she’d make while moving towards the door outwards to the balcony. She quickly opened the door and stepped out while not losing sight within the room as she continued to observe through the glass windows. This was her place, if anything she’d had the ultimate advantage here to fight another assassin as she knew every location that had a weapon. She quickly moved over to the other external balcony door and reentered into the living room eyes darting around looking for a trace. Still breathing heavily she decided to break the silence. “Hey, Jason……so out of curiosity what kind of text did you get earlier in the bathroom? Because mine was really really weird and specific.” She continued to slide her feet through the living room until she reached the table next to her sofas, kneeling down to grab her pistol from it’s holster underneath. @LeoxLeo

Nice try. Get me to talk so you’ll know my exact position. This isn’t amateur hour. Jason decided to risk peeking his hand up to swiftly and silently grab the frying pan in which he’d cooked Rachel dinner last night, off the counter. It was still greasy as they had not exactly had time after dinner to do much cleaning up. He waited. Nothing happened and he concluded she must not have seen his hand peek out. He heard the faintest sound of a click, indicating the safety being taken off a pistol. It was directly behind this kitchen island, around where the dining room table was. If she didn’t have a gun before, she definitely had one now. Jason would have one shot at this and he had to execute his next action precisely and quickly if he wanted to make it out of this. He positioned himself on the left-most edge behind the counter and held his frying pan at the ready. He then flung the knife to his right at a low angle so it traveled to its target without peeking up over the long counter behind which he was hiding. His target was the edge of the glass window behind which was the balcony. It cracked as well from the impact of the knife. He had to hope this was enough to momentarily turn Rachel’s attention in that direction while Jason, buck naked and armed with a greasy frying pan, dove out from behind the kitchen counter and slid behind the sofa. His plan was to kick the sofa into Rachel’s legs and trip her up.

@Deleted User

Rachel paused for a moment waiting for a response to her question as she stood up scanning around the room. While searching for a clue to Jason’s location she finally spotted the blood trail, right as she began to trace it towards the end of the island she spotted his hand reaching up and grabbing the frying pan. “I suppose we can’t just talk this out then can we?” She calmly commented as she flipped the thumb safety to fire on her pistol. She now had the island corner in her sights. The moment she saw movement her head and arms tracked and followed it immediately. She traced the path of the knife thinking Jason moved quick and fired into the window where the knife had hit shattering it at this point. Rachel cursed under her breath as she turned her attention back towards the kitchen island only to see the burly man charging towards her with a greased up frying pan. She quickly attempted to twist her torso back towards the proper direction but at that time the sofa got shoved into her slamming her shins forcing her to bend downwards as a result. She fired off another round into the cushion and cursed as Jason was back out of her vision behind the sofa now. She quickly fired off two more shots into the back of the sofa in an attempt to keep him low and in cover. While trying to create distance to maintain her advantage with a firearm she tried to take a step back, however the sofa also shifted the position of the table ever so slightly causing a misstep and resulted in Rachel falling over onto the table. Realizing that she just made a lot of noise with her accident she attempted to point the pistol at the direction before realizing that she lost her grip during the fall and it flew across the room towards the front door. Hoping Jason didn’t realize the opening she threw the remaining two knives she had, turned around and began to crawl off the table in a race for the gun. @LeoxLeo

Having found cover behind a sofa again, Jason hear a shot and saw a bullet tear a hole through the sofa away from him. He then saw yet another hole forming and this one was closer to him. His instinct told him the next one was going to be even closer and he held up the frying pan (which was all he had) just in time that the bullet which came through the part of the sofa adjacent to him hit the frying pan at an angle and ricocheted off somewhere into the ceiling with a loud clang. The impact knocked the pan out of his hand, but he considered himself lucky for not having had a hole blown though him as well. As he tried to readjust more snugly behind the sofa, he heard a thump from the other side and watched the gun fly out and land near the entrance to the apartment. He was very tempted to make a dash for the the gun, but just then, a knife’s edge came hurtling through the sofa as well and got lodged in it, sticking out just a few inches from his face. Another one flew over him and landed in the wooden floor nearby. The angle at which the knives came told him that Rachel was still in a semi-standing position while he was almost prone. Even though he was technically closer to the gun, she could’ve made it to it faster simply due to a move favourable position. Instead of going for the gun, he waited for Rachel to pop out into his field of view and jumped at her to tackle her to the ground. Both of them landed in a mass of bodies, struggling for control. She was trying to get to the gun, while he was trying to get on top of her to try and subdue her. “Rachel!” Jason got punched in the face “oomph. Rachel, stop it! Will you just stop trying to kill me for two seconds, please?” @Deleted User

She almost had it, the handgun was almost within her reach before she tumbled and was tackled by Jason. As he attempted to roll her towards him, Rachel saw the opening and swung her right arm right into Jason’s face. She attempted to roll back over and reach for the gun again before getting yanked back into the man’s reach. At this point it was getting extremely painful to lay onto her back as some of the shards of the mirror were pushing deeper every time she was slammed into the floor. There were a few times where she was just inches away from the pistol before her arm would be pulled away or a hand restrained by the stronger man. Eventually he had her pinned completely, unable to move and breathing deeply she could finally hear the words being yelled at her. “Oh, now you want to pause? Now you want to talk?!?! What was that about 10 seconds ago? We could’ve talked then!” She continued to struggle and attempted to throw her knees outward but couldn’t close the distance. She knew her advantage was rapidly decreasing by the second, at this point she knew they were at a stalemate as none of them could make a move without the other seizing the opening. She slowly calmed down as she stared at the man towering atop of her, eyes darting around every little detail of both him and their surroundings trying to strategize on the next step. “What the hell is going on Jason?” She slowly stopped struggling for control as she recognized it would be best to conserve her energy. She knew she was first to strike, but had a strange feeling that he knew something was off as well. @LeoxLeo

“You had a gun pointed at me. Of course I wasn’t gonna start chatting then” he was holding both her arms by the wrists, spread out in a T pose and pinned to the ground. “I don’t want to fight you, Karma”. He paused when she suddenly stopped struggling at that last word. She simply stared at him wide eyed, like he had surprised her. So she didn’t know I was onto her. Why did she attack then? He felt like he was at the cusp of guessing the answer, but it was best to call a truce right now and figure things out. “Look, we can talk about this away from sharp objects and firearms” he looked down and then back up into her eyes “and preferably talk with some pants on.” Seeing her having calmed down a bit, he very gently started to loosen his grip on her wrists. It was probably best to show a sign of good faith here rather than have her make an opening for herself and try to go for the gun again. Jason was aware that was still a possibility and was ready to block another punch and perhaps a kick to the balls. @Deleted User

Karma now that’s a name that she knows for a fact that was never disclosed to him since they’ve met. This confirmed her suspicion that he knew something she just didn’t know what. The only way that he could know that name was if he was also apart of the agency. She raised a brow when he began to loosen his grip and thoughts immediately raced through her mind as she looked at each of her hands, cupping her wrists. It seemed that he was just as unsure of the situation as much as she was, however he knew her identity just as much as she now knows his. The pause in the fight certainly helped put some of the pieces together. She winced as she pusher herself up to a seated position slowly to not make herself a threat and began to brush off some of the remaining shards off her left arm and slowly picked some of the larger mirror pieces from her back that she could reach. “So, you don’t want to fight me…then answer me this, what was the text that you got earlier in the bathroom? Since at least now we’re on speaking terms.” She sighed in relief every few moments as she picked out another shard pinned into her back. @LeoxLeo

Jason held his hand out to Rachel like he was approaching a skittish horse. She gave him an intense look when she saw him doing this, and he paused “I’m just trying to help” he pushed on and repositioned himself so that he was now sitting behind her. He moved slowly and made sure to not make an movement that would make it look like he was going for the gun. Once he was behind her, he started extracting the remaining pieces of glass clinging to her back. This was still a person he deeply cared for, even if she had just tried to kill him. Having repositioned, he had left an arching trail of blood from his own foot, but it wasn’t so bad. He could deal with that later. “Rachel Hollings aka Karma. Bounty: 700,000. Warning: known trained assassin affiliated with the Spotless group.” He read out part of her own hit ad for her, holing it would clear things up a bit.

@Deleted User

Rachel kicked her legs out when she heard the price on her head. “Wow, only 700? Can’t even match your price that’s ridiculous…” she winced in pain as he helped extract the last few pieces that she couldn’t reach. She glared at Jason’s bleeding foot and pulled it into her lap picking out the shards he would’ve sustained throughout the fight as well, returning the friendly gesture. “Funny enough, I got the same for you…one mil, you pissed someone off apparently.” She calmly commented as she would try to tend for his foot. “So, you know who I am, and I now know who you are. So what should we do from here? It’ll be a little awkward to continue where we left off if we’re helping each other now.” She looked around at their surroundings and shrugged with a laugh, “At least we didn’t break too many things. Just a window, mirror and a messed up sofa.” She pulled her hair behind her ears as she turned around towards Jason. @LeoxLeo

Jason looked back at the living room table, next to which was a shattered vase and some wet flowers scattered about. “And that vase I got you” he chuckled “I’ll get you another one”. He was surprised at himself for having gone back to a casual attitude so quickly. He was getting soft. But he didn’t dislike that. His suspicions about his own bounty had been confirmed atleast. “A cool mil, huh? Not bad” he knew this day would come eventually. Especially considering how he’d been taking on higher profile targets lately to set aside a good amount of retirement money. What was odd was that a hit on him had come at the same time as the hit on her. It was too much of a coincidence. Someone, somewhere was pulling some serious strings. Just then, there was a rapid knock on the door. A muffled voice came through. “Ms Hollings! Miss Hollings, are you alright?” Loud knocking cane through again. “Please open the door if you’re OK or we’ll have to call the police” @Deleted User

Rachel looked past Jason as she heard the voice and the knocking on the door. Was it a concerned neighbor? Or someone else that had picked up the same contract that Jason had received? Everything was unclear. “H-Hold on! Why do I need to open the door? Everything is just fine here, just accidentally had the sound on too loud while watching a movie.” She motioned Jason to move away as she stood up, walking towards the front door. As she approached the door, she knelt down and picked up her pistol as she looked through the peephole. @LeoxLeo

Rachel recognised the woman on the other side. It was their neighbour from across the hall, Mrs Robinson along with two of their upstairs neighbours. Jason got a gesture from Rachel that it wasn’t anyone dangerous so he quickly grabbed the damaged sofa, turned it over to hide bullet holes and shifted it to where the floor was covered in blood. He then hurried over to Rachel and they opened the door together. Their neighbours saw the door open and Rachel peek out from behind, dressed in a man’s shirt. In the background, the upturned sofa and broken vase caught Mrs Robinson’s eye and she was very confused. Then, Jason popped out from behind Rachel, still naked, making sure his crotch was hidden behind her hip. “Mrs Robinson” said Jason quite casually “lovely to see you. I absolutely loved that pie you sent over yesterday. You must tell me the recipe some time” Mrs Robinson was startled and starting to blush. @Deleted User

“I really do appreciate you all checking up on us but there is an amount of cleaning up that we need to do at this point. Thanks again Mrs. Robinson, Nick and Ryan we’ll have to catch up again sometime later.” Rachel gave out a fake laugh as she closed the door and flipped the mood switch back to the disaster in the room. She flipped the thumb safety back on the pistol as she walked and placed it onto the table as she sat onto the sofa, hands clenched into her hair. “Alright! So we each received a hit from our respective agencies to take each other out. What are we going to do Jason? Because obviously by the end of the week, someone is going to need to disappear! This is also assuming that the contract isn’t open for others to pick up as well.” She was obviously frustrated and throwing her anger out at the situation, although this wasn’t the first time she had to fight for survival this is the first she knew of that she had been targeted. Rachel immediately jumped back up and raced towards her bookshelf tossing books and journals to the side ripping some hollowed out ones open searching for passports and foreign currency bundles. In her mind, she was burned and needed to escape the situation as she never imagined to be in a spot like this. In a panicking fashion she continued to make frantic movements while making a larger mess in her home. @LeoxLeo

Jason started to say something to try and calm her down, but he decided this was a task better accomplished with pants. He walked over into the bedroom again, keeping an eye on Rachel to make sure she didn’t try anything stupid again. He grabbed his underwear that was dangling off the edge of the TV and slipped into it after which he picked his pants up off the floor and put them on as well. When he walked back into the living room, Rachel was still busy ransacking her own home. He went and leaned on the wall next to her. It was pretty normal to be worried if you felt your life was in danger. He’d be more concerned if she wasn’t a bit flustered. As for himself, the life being in imminent danger thing had started to become less impactful since about the fourth time it had happened to him. This was another October for him. Jason watched Rachel gathering up her important documents and money for a few minutes before speaking “so where are you planning on running to?” A smile was almost curling across his face. @Deleted User

Amidst the flurry of books, notes, documents and money flying around Rachel was focused on getting everything she could ready for a bug out. Everything that could be used to disappear was thrown onto the table, everything else was just in the way and needed to not be there. Forged documents, passports and cash bundles were flung across the room landing onto the table. Hidden weapons were cast aside to the ground as they weren’t deemed necessary at the time. By the time she was done, 8 different identities worth of documentation along with hundreds of thousands worth of various currencies for 20 countries laid onto the table. Rachel knelt down at the table exasperated with her hair all frazzled. Her eyes darted left and right nonstop just scanning and searching as she continued to think before answering Jason’s question. “Netherlands…no, Canada…fuck Berlin? god dammit!” She couldn’t really think straight as she slammed both her hands down onto the table top. She looked back at Jason stunned at how calm he was acting. She began muttering to herself before reacting back to him, “wh-wha-what the hell are you smiling at? We’ve just been burned! You’re just standing there all peaceful and cocky like there’s nothing wrong!” She threw her arms out to the side up in the air as she shook her head confused as hell. @LeoxLeo

Jason went and sat down next to Rachel. “Well let’s see here.” He picked up Rachel’s German passport. “Doesn’t Skadi operate in those parts?” He picked up the Indian passport. “I believe that’s Rudra’s domain.” He then picked up her South African passport “And that should be Oshosi’s territory”. He put all three passports down. “You know panicking is not the solution here. We’ll figure this out...Whatever this is” he said in almost a whisper. He then put a comforting arm around Rachel. It was true that both of their agencies had members all over the world. And even if they didn’t, the price of a ticket was quite low when you stacked it up against a million dollars. “Look, you know the rules. They don’t give out the same contract to multiple agents at a time. We have wiggle room here since we’re the only people who know we’re on the same side. We’ll figure it out” he was trying to comfort himself with these words as well. Staying calm was crucial in a time of crisis like this. Losing focus was what would make them end up with a bullet in their heads. @Deleted User

Rachel sighed as she knew he was right, she just became flustered because this was the first time she’s ever seen her face and bio on a contract. She never imagined that this would happen to her to say the least. She lifted a leg onto the table and kicked most of the paperwork off the table as she leaned into Jason. She lazily looked around trying to think of something before picking up one of her throwing knives found under the sofa thrown during the frenzy. “So, what is this exactly? What’s our plan going to be? Because from what it looks like, we’re not killing each other…and you still haven’t given me an answer in terms of what we should be doing.” She looked up to Jason’s face as she gave a snarky smile while twirling the small knife around her fingers. She got comfortable within his chest as she leaned more into him. “Do we just act like we never saw the contract? Tell our respective agencies that we’re passing on it? I’m really not sure what the plan is….you though look like you’re cooking something up. You always have something planned some way somehow.” @LeoxLeo

After a minute of silent contemplation, Jason had decided “we could use access to a safehouse. Luckily, I have a friend who keeps one in the city.” He retrieved his phone and sat back down with Rachel, leaning on the overturned sofa. He opened up an app and navigated through a few menus. He then dialled a phone number from memory and put it on speaker. After two rings, a woman with a southern accent picked up. “Huntington Meats! Ready to meat your cravings” said the voice in a cheerful manner. “Iris, please connect me to Artemis. Authorisation ORI7352” “Oh....I’m sorry, Orion....The line to Artemis was withdrawn 2 days ago....she’s no longer with us” Rachel and Jason looked at each other. “I’m sorry to hear it. Alright connect me to Pan.” “...The line to Pan is on hold. He is in the care of a medical facility currently and the line will be restored once he is able to contact us independently again.” “Medical facility? What’s going on, Iris? What happened to those two?” “...I’m afraid I don’t have authorisation to give you that information on other agents” Jason finally looked worried now. These were both old school, top shelf assassins. How the hell were they out of commission at the same time? And in the same week that there been a hit put out on him and one of Spotless’ best agents. “Iris, what’s going on?” There was a long pause and then a clicking sound came from the phone like a switch had been hit. “Something big is happening, Orion. Six of our agents are dead and a dozen more missing worldwide.” “Who did this?” “From what I know, it seems to have been individual agents of rival agencies” “Which ones?” “All of them” Jason was suddenly starting to feel very lucky that he had found Rachel when he had. Otherwise, he might’ve been one of these missing agents. He knew Artemis hadn’t been taking any new assignments for a while now. She had effectively retired. He went on with his questioning “Pan. What sort of an assignment was he working on?”

“I’m sorry, Orion, I don’t really even have access to that sort of information.” “Olivia...” said Jason, quietly. There was another long pause. “He was going after an agent of Twisted Vine” “Who put out the hit?” “Anonymous” Jason sighed. “Thank you, Olivia. I owe you one, as always” Rachel and Jason heard a click from the phone again and the woman went on in a cheerful manner “Thank you for calling. Be sure to leave a rating for our customer service after the beep” Jason turned off his phone. This was a lot to take in. Iris was right. Something big was going on. @Deleted User

test

12:20

@LeoxLeo

Rachel sat up properly and became intrigued when she heard that an anonymous individual ordered a hit for another agency. It was certainly unorthodox but it has happened before, something definitely seemed strange when she heard that several within Jason's agency were confirmed dead or had gone missing. Rachel stood up and snatched her phone and began to pace as she reviewed the initial hit message received earlier in the morning. "Strange, there was no name for my initiator either. I have no way to—" Rachel paused as the phone rang. It was an unknown number with the decline button not present. She quickly vaulted back over to the sofa and sat next to Jason as she answered the phone and placed it on speaker. "K, this is Accounts Payable. We're calling to verify confirmation that you've received notification of an incoming bill from this morning. We're calling to verify that the account is being worked on as this has been marked as a priority by the director. Rachel was a little surprised by the operator's tone and message as typically this is only something that she'd receive if she didn't respond after 24 hours. She quickly replied as to not raise suspicion, "I've reviewed the account and I'm still working on gathering more information prior to taking action. I don't even know where this account holder is or have any information aside from a name and picture. Normally I'm given a week for a package like this one.

12:35

"Agent, it shouldn’t take you that long to get information considering the target is living right across the hall from you Agent. You have less than 23 hours remaining to close this account before it's open for others to take action on and it becomes a joint account with your name included." The line quickly disconnected afterwards, Rachel's eyes widened as she looked out her windows and sprinted to close all of her curtains. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I think it's clear that someone is after you and your agency…” She quickly strides to the table and turned on the TV and changed the channel to 03, in a flash the display transitioned to all the CCTVs within the building showing all of the cameras and what they were monitoring; hallways, entry points, common areas, everything was under observation. Rachel bit her lower lip and began to rapidly tap her foot as she began to process everything that’s happened this morning in it’s entirety. If I can see everything in the building, so can they…which means, that they’ve known that we’re close… She threw the remote in another fit of anger. “Dammit, why you! Why me? Why youuuuu?” She walked up to Jason in her frustration poking at his chest before gently hitting him with a balled fist. She sat back down next to him with her arms crossed. @LeoxLeo

Jason saw Rachel pull up the CCTV footage ofcourse she has an eye on the building. He made pretty regular and thorough checks of his apartment for bugs and cameras so he was quite confident that she alteast didn’t have eyes in his house, but he made a mental note that he’d recheck again soon as he got the chance, just in case. “Hey hey stop pointing fingers. If you haven’t noticed, I contract for you as well. And remember what Iris said? Pan was going after someone in Twisted Vine. Rachel, it’s very unusual that anyone get a contract for someone in a different agency. They guard our identities very strictly. Can you imagine what would happen if anyone could go after anyone from another agency at any time? It would be chaos. The whole system would fall apart in days” Now that he thought about it, a lot had fallen apart in days. “Is there a way for you to covertly contact people you are close to in Spotless? They could’ve met the same fate as my people. Same for twisted vine” He was a bit surprised that Spotless kept such a close eye on its agents that her superiors knew what she was up to at all times. He was a bit grateful that his own organisation “The Wild Hunt” was far more hands off. He was quite confident that noone would’ve been able to find him through them. He wondered then how his identity had been leaked to Spotless. He also found it strange that Rachel was being pushed to do a contract faster. He didn’t know how things worked on her side, but he was sure that was not protocol. Someone was doing all of this.

@Deleted User

Rachel stared at Jason for a moment as she thought, trying to figure out which contact she’d be able to reach out to without creating suspicion. She picked up her phone once more and dialed a string of numbers. She placed the phone back onto the table and placed the call on speaker once more as she leaned back waiting for someone to answer. The call was answered after five rings precisely by a man with an ironic Jamaican accent. “Santa’s workshop, how can we help ye ‘mon?” Rachel smiled as the accent was always funny hearing it with that line. “Hey Santa, got a new account and I was wonder—“ “Take me off speaker, right now. You know da drill, it’s not safe. Take me off da speaka if you want help or I’m hanging up you white witch.” Rachel gave a grumpy face as she mimicked the man on the phone as she leaned forward reaching for the phone, turning it off speaker and placing it onto her ear. “Now how is that the way to talk to your favorite customer Santa? You know I only call you when I have an assignment…uh huh, well I’m sorry you’re super busy but how often do I pick up an account and call you?” Rachel leaned forward further at the table to grab a sheet of paper and a pen and began writing. The agency has been very busy. Accounts opening left and right, Procurement is double staffed right now to meet demand! She underlined very busy and tapped onto it for Jason to see. “Uh huh, well do you know what type of account everyone is pulling right now? Seems strange that all of a sudden everyone is getting something, I mean you know me I only pick up maybe 1-2 a year…..right…” She tried her best to smooth talk her way through the conversation before pulling the phone away wincing from the yelling Jamaican. “Look! Stop a wastin’ mah time! I have too many shipments right now! Spoootless is too busy, should be called messy right now, because you people makin’ a beeg mess! You need da orda or not?” Rachel sighed as she pulled the phone back towards her ear.

14:06

“Yeah, just give me the usual package Santa, maybe a little dirty this time, I feel like everyone else my account might be messy as well…alright, thank you again!” She held the phone in her lap as she stared straight trying to process all the information. She shook her head as it seemed odd that her agency would be so busy, she thought about reaching out to a friend or two but was afraid it’d cause suspicion. She turned towards Jason with a confused look. “I’m not sure what to do in this situation, according to the guy that handles equipment and supplies for all the agents they’re very busy out of nowhere since we got a new director. Apparently the old one died a few weeks ago and this new one has been making drastic changes getting Santa frustrated and angry with everyone.” @LeoxLeo

“If there are people that know we’re here, we clearly can’t stay. I think you had the right idea to begin with: we need to run. But not to another country” Rachel gave him an inquiring look. Jason went on “I think we need to find Pan first. He’s clearly involved somehow. If he’s hurt, he won’t be moving around and this may be our one chance at finding him. He normally operates in Atlanta. I say we start there”

Rachel nodded as she leapt off the sofa and dashed to her room. She quickly got dressed into a stylish activewear outfit, walked back out into the living room toting two large luggage cases. She tilted her head down and smiled at Jason. “Unless you’re fine with just that outfit for the next foreseeable future I think you’ll want to pack some bags as well. Got a long trip ahead of us I believe.” She continued about her own business as she rolled one of the luggage cases to the front door and threw the other one onto the sofa. She cracked open the one on the sofa and began tossing the cash funds collected earlier on the living room table. After organizing all the currency into the case she began walking around the room scooping up various weapons that she carelessly flung around earlier. Knives, pistols and magazines all carelessly scattered around the floor. After that mess was cleaned up slightly, she walked over to her coat closet and took out two more cases. She briefly opened them revealing a sniper rifle in one and a sub machine gun in the other along with their respective ammunition. She took a set of high strength magnets from her fridge and fastened the new she had just pulled out onto her luggage cases. Once all of her packing was done she rolled the luggage she had been working with on the sofa and rolled it to the other one next to the door already filled with clothes and equipment. She turned around and sighed as she looked around the room. “Four years in this place…all gone because of a guy I meet weeks ago. Younger me would definitely murder me now if she knew what I was doing.” Rachel laughed to herself as she flipped open the security panel and punched in a code. Sirens began to shout out as thermite grenades planted around the room began to trigger causing fires sporadically to spark all over her apartment. She quickly flipped her phone open and called 911 before walking out.

15:57

“Help please there’s a fire in my apartment building! I don’t know what caused it but everything is burning in one of the rooms at the top floor!” She quickly hung up afterwards and threw her phone onto one of the sparking flames. She calmly put on a trench coat as she pulled her luggage along with her into the hallway before closing the door behind her. She quickly made her way over towards the garage and made sure that she pulled the fire alarm after she left the elevator. She casually waited at Jason’s car waiting for him to arrive so they could depart together. @LeoxLeo

Jason decided to clean up before he left. He grabbed a rag from the kitchen and tied it around his bloody foot to make a makeshift sock. He then grabbed a mop and quickly went around the house, cleaning up all the blood he’d left everywhere. He turned the soft upright and used a kitchen knife to pull the stray bullets out of their points of impacts in the floor and walls. He had to leave the one that had shot into the ceiling, thinking it unlikely that anyone would be looking up there. Jason saw that Rachel had brought out two big suitcases and was starting to fill them up with things. She was almost excited like she was going on a trip. It was kind of cute, even with the hidden sniper rifle in the closet (how had he not searched her house even once? He was getting soft) He was not used to such sights in his life. This was the woman he was risking his life for and in that moment, he didn’t regret the decision at all. Jason went to his own apartment to get ready for their departure. He cleaned up his foot with water and an antiseptic, after which he quickly showered and put on some new clothes. It was a simple pair of jeans and a collarless T shirt, a shoulder harness and a leather jacket on top. He went to his closet which was pretty barebones compared to what he had seen at Rachel’s house. Inside the closet was a crowbar stood to the side. He grabbed it and bent down near the back wall of the closet. He jammed the crowbar into the wall between two boards and bent the crowbar, ripping out a section of the closet. From inside, he grabbed a backpack that was already packed with all the essentials. Jason then walked over to his bed and grabbed a single gun from the side table. He checked that it was loaded and stuck it in the holster he was wearing.

Finally, Jason went to his loving room window which spanned the whole height of the wall and opened into a small balcony, much like Rachel’s. There, he had a camera with a high powered lens standing on a tripod, facing out of the window. He looked through the lens like he had done many times in the last few weeks. It was focused on a first floor apartment window several hundred feet away. Through the window of this apartment, he could see a woman cleaning up around her home, coming in and out of view as she moved around the apartment. I’ll just have to come back for you later he told himself. He powered off the camera and put it away in the closet. He then grabbed a handful of pictures of this same woman taken from his window off a side table, which he placed in his backpack. He was ready to leave. He closed the lights and walked out. Rachel was still packing, so he went downstairs to get a ride ready. He looked at his car parked outside the building, but thought it best to leave it there. Instead, he walked around the block and looked for a car that seemed neglected by its owner. He found what he was looking for in a bumped up Toyota Camry. He gave a quick look around to make sure noone was watching too closely before pulling out a car lockpick from his bag and casually opening the car, like he owned it and his key was stuck. After a few seconds, it popped open. He pushed some half eaten chips out of the driver’s seat and got inside. He hot-wired the car and drove it to the front of the building.

01:17

As he approached his destination, he noticed a small crowd gathering near the front of the building, looking up and pointing. He peeked up and saw that thick black smoke was pouring out of Rachel’s apartment. Rachel herself was casually standing near his car with two huge suitcases, a pair of sunglasses and a hat like they were going on a family trip. He chuckled to himself. He had always found her wild nature quite amusing but now he understood what was lying underneath it. He pulled up next to her and got hopped out. They loaded both suitcases in the trunk and they were off as the firetruck sirens were approaching the building from the other side.

@Deleted User

Rachel eased back into the passenger seat as she watched Jason drive. She pulled the seat back and kicked her feet atop the dashboard as she checked her nails. “Atlanta, been a while since I’ve been down south. Nasty heat this time of the year isn’t it?” She rested her head back onto the headrest. “So your friend Pat—Pan whatever down here….” She continued before letting him respond, “he was working on an assignment to hit another agent. Seems while at the same time it seems like everyone’s agencies are going after each other. Something just doesn’t feel right, because there’s usually a mutual respect sorta thing that goes on within our field….or at least that’s what I assumed at least.” She lifted her head and bounced it onto the headrest a few times. “This is going to be a loooooooooong road trip down.” She laughed as she lean forward to fidget with the radio. @LeoxLeo

Jason was sitting with his seatbelt on and gave a side eye to Rachel when she put her feet up, but didn’t say anything. “Pan’s quite resourceful. If he’s still alive, he’s sure to know something about this whole mess.” He reached over and pulled open the dashboard, which swung open under Rachel’s legs. He found a bunch of unlabelled CDs in there. He grabbed one at random and stuck it into the CD player. The Gambler started playing playing on the speaker. “Yeah!” Jason turned up the volume as Rachel groaned a bit. This would be a long trip indeed.

@Deleted User

“So, you guys don’t have a way to reach out to each other in situations like this? Not even like a signal or anything that could help notify if something went wrong? At least with Spotless if you’ve gone dark within a week of starting the contract the agency still reaches out and sends a team to investigate.” She continued to lay back into her seat watching out through the window as they drove by. The moment the song ended Rachel immediately leaned forward and resumed her channel hopping. Was just something for her to do in order to keep her attention occupied. After unsuccessfully not finding anything to keep her attention she changed the radio back to media and resumed the CD as she leant back. The thought of being trapped in the car with nothing to do was torture for her. “I’m about to go crazy in here!” She unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled herself into the backseat of the car and began searching through the area to see what the previous owner had lying around. @LeoxLeo

“Hey...sigh”. Jason wasn’t too down with her hopping around in the car while it was moving. He figured trying to stop her was pointless. She was going to do what she felt like doing. Gotta pick your battles. As Rachel rummaged through the back, Jason watched her through his rear view mirror. “Officially, we’re pretty independent. That comes with the risk of not having backup, but you learn to watch your own back most of the time. That being said, we do sometimes form alliances at our own risk. Some jobs are just too big to realistically take on yourself in a small time frame. One thing Pan and I decided during one of our jobs was that if either of us was hurt and wanted the other to find him, he’s go by the Alias of Redivivus Pembury. Stupid name, I know. But unique enough, right? Pam knew I was in Chicago, making me the closest geographical ally he probably has. If he was conscious at all when they took him to the hospital, he might’ve given that name. As for the hospital in question: I don’t know. He was going after someone in Twisted Vine. Those guys specialise in making death look like they were from suicide or natural causes. I have a feeling that he’ll have ended up in some sort of a trauma centre. That’s something to go on, right?” The backseat of this car was a bit of a mess. There were open soda cans and used fast food wrappers littering the floor. Under one pile, a magazine caught Rachel’s eye. It appeared to be some sort of pornography. @Deleted User

Rachel leaned into the backseat as she flipped through the magazine listening to Jason speak of his companion. “Well, assuming that your friend Pam was conscious when turned to a hospital you would’ve been called by now as an emergency contact. Unless he was put in as a John Doe. We could try to call all of the nearby trauma centers to see if there were any John Doe’s brought in recently if you want. Worth a shot anyways since we’ve got a long ways to go.” Rachel slowly crept her way back towards the front with a stack of letters, mail and magazines and placed them onto her lap as she decided to peruse through them to occupy her time. “Mr. Rayford Ellis however, late on his bills…enjoys football, pays for his TV service on time at least compared to other things. Hey Jason, what you think about this outfit? Think she looks cute?” Rachel smiled and laughed as she held up a page in the pornographic magazine of a pin up woman in black laced lingerie. @LeoxLeo

“I doubt he’d call me as his emergency contact. Mostly because we don’t have each other’s numbers. I imagine he tried to contact HQ, but it seems they just put his account on hold, probably because he’s in a public setting like a hospital. I bet they’re waiting to see if he makes it and can get to a more secure location. This is what makes this so weird. We take all these steps to keep ourselves hidden and yet, so many of us have been exposed in such little time.” As Rachel held the pinup for her, he got flustered momentarily but quickly regained his composure. Even so, he was sure Rachel would’ve caught it. She had a sharp eye. He chuckled “I think it would look cuter on you” he said, trying to manoeuvre around the situation. @Deleted User

Rachel rolled her eyes to the response, “You’re no fun.” She laughed as she threw a light punch to Jason’s shoulder as he continued to drive. She thought for a moment for something to do and quickly shoved all the junk off her lap and reached over and began to search into Jason’s pant pockets. Once she found his cell phone she took it out and pointed the camera to his face to unlock the facial recognition lock. She reached back down in the floorboard and grabbed a few envelopes and a couple of pens. She folded her legs into the seat as she she leant back starting to write down information for trauma centers. Throughout the remainder of the trip Rachel called multitudes of locations where Pam could’ve shown up at inquiring about both his alias and reaching out for John Doe’s. After quizzing Jason for a decent description to narrow down the John Doe’s she was able to help cut the search down for Pam into seven different hospitals within the Atlanta area, all within different parts of the city. Throughout their travel between various pit stops the two continued to evade authorities with reported stolen vehicles by changing cars or changing license plates as they refilled on gas. By the time they’d cross the state line to Georgia they moved up from the Toyota Camry to a Kia Sorento with plates that belonged to a scrapped car on its way to the junkyard. “Chattanooga was fun…just say on 75 and we’ll be at Atlanta within an hour and a half. You know which hospital you want to check first yet? There’s a few on the north side we can hit first.” @LeoxLeo

Jason drove the entire 12 hours. He barely even felt tired because Rachel always kept things interesting. She’d change positions on her seat every ten minutes, fall asleep sporadically, buy junk food for them to share at gas stations etc. The two stopped in Chattanooga for a quick dinner at a diner where they ended up celebrating a young boys’s birthday with the rest of the strangers who had come together in this diner at that late hour. They were, however, both professionals. Neither of them needed to address that they couldn’t stop to go to bed for the night. It was simply understood. They had maybe another 8 hours left according to the message Rachel had received before Jason’s contract opened up to someone else. And if Jason died, someone else from his own agency would come after Rachel right away. They had to keep going. When they finally reached Atlanta, it was already 2 am. On the road, Rachel had planned out a route for them to take in the city which would’ve taken them to all seven hospitals. Jason would park near a hospital and Rachel would go in to ask about Pan using descriptors and possible Aliases. The first three hospitals revealed no leads. The fourth Hospital on the list was St Tristan’s Trauma Centre. Jason was parked a few dozen yards away from the entrance near an alley going around the side of the building. When Rachel asked the receptionist, a large african american woman, her usual questions, she responded “Let’s see, there is a Mr Redivivus Pembury. He came in yesterday after having fallen from a high set of stairs. He arrived in a cab and checked himself in. Honestly it must’ve been a serious tumble. He broke his hand and had lost a lot of blood through a gash in his forehead. Are you related to Mr Pembury?” @Deleted User

Rachel snapped her fingers and stomped in victory when she heard the name. “I am not, but my boyfriend is his relative and he’s just outside in the car. I’ll go get him real quick!” She quickly dashed out the reception area and sprinted towards where Jason was parked. “Jason! Jason!” She shouted as she ran over and pounded on the windshield waking up Jason as he dozed off into a nap. When he rolled down the window she continued. “He’s inside right now! Go swap with me, I’ll park the car while you go talk to him. I said you were a relative so you can visit!” She stepped out of the way as the door swung open and hopped into the driver’s seat as he left. After Jason cleared the way she sped off to park the car into the garage. After parking the car, she went to the back to pop the trunk and accessed her luggage. She pulled out a belt and clipped it around her waist before concealing a few knives within it. She calmly closed the trunk and locked the car before walking to the lobby and sitting in the reception area, waiting for Jason to come back out while watching the door for suspicious people. @LeoxLeo

Jason, following the receptionist’s instruction, went through a set of swinging double doors with a glass panel in between them. He found the correct room and before inside, turned to see Rachel who had just now shown up and was sitting in the lobby on a seat which gave her a view of Pan’s room’s door through the glass panels. Jason knocked and entered the room to find his old friend lying on a bed. Pan was around Jason’s age. His hair had started greying and he looked beat up, but otherwise he was completely awake and alert. “Orion” he said upon seeing Jason. “You actually showed up” “Pan. Looking pretty vulnerable. Very unlike you.” Pan pulled the sheet off his uninjured hand and in it he was holding a scalpel. Both men started laughing. “It’s good to see you’re still kicking. What happened?” Asked Jason as he circled around to sit on the chair next to Pan’s bed. “Fell down some stairs” “Did you really?” “No.” Pan paused, but decided he should tell Jason everything. “I got a job offer. A big one. Too big to pass up” “Twisted vine” Pan stared at Jason. “How do you do that? Yeah. It was a rival agency agent. I’m getting too old for the game, Orion. This was gonna be my retirement money. I staked out the mark for a few days, but I slipped up and he realised. Burly-ass guy. Snuck up on me. I got him in the end, but he left me a few presents” he held up his broken arm and chuckled. I should get my money after I’m out of here and can reopen my account. Then I’m disappearing. I covered my tracks so there shouldn’t be anyone after me, but I figured I’d use our alias anyways.” A nurse walked into the room just then. She had not expected Jason to be there and was taken aback, but quickly smiled at the two men who smiled back. She then went about her business, making notes and administering medications. “I’m afraid you’ve wasted a trip, old friend. I’m gonna be just fine.” “Well there’s other trouble brewing as well” “Oh?”

Jason’s waited for the nurse to leave. The moment she was out of the room, he began talking again. “Artemis is dead.” Pan didn’t look surprised. Instead, he looked tired. “That’s a shame. She was a good one” “So are a lot of others all over the world” Pan said “hmmmh” and gently closed his eyes. “Hey this is important, old man” he shook Pan, but he did not open his eyes. Something was wrong. Jason’s internal alarm was going off. Something was really wrong. He began to shout “Nurse...” but stopped. He realised he hadn’t caught her name. He made it a point to keep track of names but the woman had been wearing her ID card backwards. He had figured it was an accident. Then he remembered. Twisted Vine. Specialists in making hits look like accidents or suicides @Deleted User

Rachel stayed in the waiting room just observing individuals walking in and out of the hospital while glancing at the double doors towards the patient area as she bounced her head to the music playing. She raised an eyebrow intrigued when she watched a nurse with a familiar face walking out of the patient area straight out of the hospital. Rachel cocked her head to the side in a bit of confusion as the scrubs didn’t seem to match color scheme as the others with the tint being slightly off. She did a double take and checked between the two sets of doors before standing up and walking out of the hospital. Once she stepped out, she followed the nurse at a distance as they’re walked over to the parking lot. As they walked through the parking lot Rachel watched the nurse take off a wig and immediately begin to enter a SUV. Rachel sprinted forward and threw a knife towards the driver side window shattering it while holding up the other two knifes ready to fight. Upon reaching the driver side door the nurse slammed kicked it out knocking Rachel to the side dropping the knives. The two began to brawl it out within the parking lot until ultimately Rachel would be able to grasp a knife and stab the nurse in the neck. Rachel just knelt over the body panting as she picked up the nurse’s phone looking at the phone seeing a message being sent stating that the job was done. @LeoxLeo

Jason ran straight out of the room and found the nearest nurse he could. “Room 6. The patient’s dying!” He shouted at her. The nurse sprang into action and ran into the room, hitting an alarm. Jason was about to go back in, when he looked at the seat on which Rachel had been sitting and saw that she wasn’t there anymore. Oh no. He burst through the double doors and ran to the front entrance, looking around the lounge, but did not see her or the nurse. He ran out of the building, but didn’t find her on the street. Maybe she’d gone to the car to get something. He ran to where he assumed the garage would be. He was worried. He had felt bad when he heard about Artemis and he was very concerned for Pan. But Rachel. He was terrified of something happening to her. The woman who he’d met a few weeks ago and had considered leaving the life behind for. The woman who had turned out to be a part of his world. That woman was in danger and Jason would do anything to make it so that she wasn’t. Upon running to the garage, he saw Rachel kneeling over what looked like the nurse. “Rachel!” He shouted as he ran towards her. But as he approached, he saw that she didn’t seem hurt. Maybe a little bruised. He slowed down and sighed in relief. He then jogged over to her at a more normal pace, inquiring what had happened. @Deleted User

As she searched through the phone, Rachel heard Jason’s familiar voice calling for her within the parking lot. She stood up and turned towards him a bit bloodied but it wasn’t hers, she held the nurse’s phone in one hand and a phial in the other. As he jogged over the reality of her suspicion became true, his friend was killed by an agent from Twisted Vine disguised as a nurse. “A phial of pancuronium, and a text from her stating that the job was completed, pretty sure you’re spot on about the Twisted Vine theory.” She held out both items to show Jason and handed them to him. She turned around and cleaned up the knives on the floor and opened up the rear passenger doors. She slowly began to load the corpse into the back seat to conceal the body in the event any pedestrians were to walk by. “The phone also shows that she offed a few others as well, all from other agencies it seems…Skadi….Rudra, this bitch has been busy.” She dusted her hands off as she threw the woman’s legs into the back seat and kicked the door closed. “Need another plan of action soon before both of us join their fate.” She pulled her hair up and out after straightening out her jacket from the conflict. @LeoxLeo

Jason took the phone that Rachel was holding out. The message log did indeed show a bunch of dead agents from all over. “What is going on? Why is everyone getting offers to take out everyone else? Pan said he didn’t leave any trace that would tie him to the Twisted Vine member he was sent to hunt. And if Pan doesn’t want you to find him, you won’t find him. Not in less than a day atleast. The only reason we found him was that we had solid intel and he wanted us to find him. The only conclusion I can draw is that she must’ve been stalking Pan for a while. Maybe even using her own agency member to distract him. He mentioned his mark attacked him before he could make his move. It’s not like Pan to make a mistake like letting his mark know he’s being hunted, much less get the drop on him. But if this woman was after Pan already, that makes a lot more sense now. It also proves one other thing: someone has found a way to get information on the identities of agents in the network. And not just members of the Wild Hunt. It looks like everyone’s exposed.” Jason didn’t help Rachel load the body into the car. She had that air of determination that she sometimes got where it was best to just leave her to do her own thing. @Deleted User

Shoving her hands into her jacket pockets, Rachel sucked some air between her teeth as Jason began breaking down the situation. Swaying from side to side she was not entirely sure how to react to the predicament they were in now. “So, does that mean we roll the dice? Or…do we just go back to fighting each other?” She began to cackle after asking her question before walking up to Jason and wrapping her arms around his torso for a hug. “Because I’m completely ready for round two right now, and it wouldn’t be that much different than earlier since I still got a couple of knives on me.” She said as she looked up to his face with a big smile flashing her teeth. “All joking aside,” she continued while swaying inside Jason’s arms. “There’s probably an answer somewhere, just not sure what it could be right now. People killing other people, when before it was sort of an unspoken agreement to not do so unless breaking rules…perhaps someone going against the system? Maybe a vigilante like a crazy Batman or something? Or ooh joker just seeing all the craziness ensue that sounds about right!” @LeoxLeo

“yeah maybe I’ll through you against some more glass”, he said as he lifted her up gently in the middle of the hug and swing her legs around slightly before putting her back down. He looked at his watch. “Whatever this is, we have about 6 hours before there’s a bunch of people after us”. Jason leaned in close to Rachel till their lips were a few inches apart. “I have some ideas for how we can spend the time” he said, in a low, rumbling voice. He could see the sparkle in her eye, anticipating his next move. He suddenly picked her up and put him on his shoulder, firefighter style “We should go get some sleep, he declared, laughing” and he careied her off to their own car parked nearby, both of them giggling as they casually walked away from the the dead nurse they had shoved into the backseat of a car about 2 minutes ago. Jason and Rachel drove around a bit till they found a different garage as far from the scene of their most recent crime as they could get and passed out in the car for a few hours to be fresh for when the shit truly hit the fan the next day. @Deleted User

Rachel woke up as she heard the sirens of ambulances and police vehicles blaring near the hospital. They were still a distance away from the fight she had earlier with the Twisted Vine agent, however it seemed that her body was recently discovered. She checked her wrist thinking she had a watch but only observed bare skin, she leaned over to Jason who was still resting and checked the watch he was wearing. They had overslept, it was well into the morning now and their time was up. Brrt…brrt…brrt…brrt The cellphone that they had picked up from the deceased agent was going crazy with notification. Rachel squinted at the screen as she picked it up only to widen her eyes when she saw the flurry of notifications, but it was strange. Naturally she saw the opened contract of herself and Jason, but what was interesting is all of the other contracts. The one that she had encountered the previous night had one placed, Rachel laughed at that one as she got a little ahead of that game. But there were more opening up by the second. Brrt…brrt More contracts came into the phone, it seemed like it was a mass notification blast put out…even friends within Spotless she knew were now being targeted. Completely confused now Rachel decided now was the time to break rules and reach out to a person she knew she could trust within the agency that might be able to tell her something. She sent a text to a number she knew by memory. Destiny is inevitable and Karma is a bitch. She shook her head with a smirk on her face hoping that she’d get a response. Within two seconds after sending message the phone rang.

15:23

“Girl, you know you messed up now! I shouldn’t even be callin’ yo dead ass!” The voice on the other line was practically screaming with sass. “So what’s going on exactly Destiny? Why’s there so many hits all of a sudden? Not just me, but for all sorts of agents for different agencies across the globe?” Rachel reclined fully into her seat as she placed her feet atop the dashboard once more. She attempted to keep a low volume trying not to interrupt Jason’s rest knowing he has had less than her over the past day. “So, you don’t know ‘cuz you just treat us like a booty call when you need money. But lot has changed over the past few months, remember Queen? Well she dead, don’t know how but she croaked and the new bitch that’s in charge said we gon’ a whole ‘notha level and making Spotless the one and only global agency in the bidness. After a few hits here and there working on higher level, we shakin’ up the place.” “Alright, I see…well where does that leave us? I can only imagine you’ve already tracked this location. Should I be expecting some cleaners soon?” Rachel tensed up as she asked the question, she looked at Jason again about to wake him. “You know what? I still owe you for that one time in Vegas…don’t say I ain’t neva’ do anything for your dumb bitch ass. Your boy toy though? He better be worth it…I’ll talk to you later, big bitch coming. Thanks for closing our accounts Agent Serendipity, we knew you were quick and efficient.” The call quickly disconnected afterwards and two more notifications came up. Account Closed: Rachel Hollings / Status: Deceased Account Closed: Jason Wagner / Status: Deceased Rachel put the phone down into the cup holder and tightly gripped her seat as she calmly exhaled. What did she get herself into and how was she going to explain this to Jason? @LeoxLeo

Jason had woken up the same time as Rachel, but had kept his eyes shut. He had heard he talking to her contact. He had heard the details of what was going on in the upper echelons of one of the biggest hitman organisations around. He had heard that they had been pronounced dead by a computer somewhere. He felt Rachel next to him, thinking about waking him up, so, eyes still closed, he said “atleast noone’s going to be coming after us now.” Jason turned in his reclined seat so he was facing Rachel before he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was her face staring back at him, wearing a day old makeup which had smeared a bit after her tussle with the nurse. Her hair a mess. Her breath not the freshest as she’d not had the chance to brush last night or this morning yet. She was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever witnessed. “Good morning” said Jason, sheepishly smiling at her. “Did you sleep well?”

@Deleted User

Rachel smiled and waved in response to Jason showing to have woken up. “There’s sleeping beauty…I slept just about as well as anyone could in a car.” She laughed as she pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Listen, so going off the phone that I pulled from the agent last night there’s a mass amount of contracts that were just opened a bit ago. I reached out to one of my friends back in the agency to see what was going on. She said, Spotless is trying to shake up the industry and try to be the last agency standing. This only came up recently when apparently we got a new director. No idea who it is, but the one that used to be leading Spotless since it’s inception is no more. As expected both of our contracts changed to an open status, putting us in the air…but a friend owed me a favor so we’re technically “dead”.” She laughed as she held up both her hands and curled her fingers mocking the word dead. She yawned as she stretched out as much as she could in the confining seat. “So anyways, with us no longer being hunted, we’ll need to figure out new identities and either just get on with our lives…or go off whatever hunch you had and get to the bottom of this whole situation. I don’t believe the whole us being dead thing would last long anyways if we were to get spotted once agents from all over the world start reading their messages and go on a murder spree.” @LeoxLeo

“That’s some good news atleast. But I think you’re right. We’ve only delayed the inevitable. Whoever’s behind this knows has way too much information at their disposal. They’d catch on eventually. It does seem more and more like your leader is the one who’s at the root of this. Do you have any way of getting in touch with this Queen? Or atleast, the new Queen. Maybe if we can find her, we can put a stop to this. We probably shouldn’t contact her ourself, though. It would be a bit of a give away if we’re pretending to be dead.” @Deleted User

Rachel shook her head and just looked lost. “We’ll need to go back to Chicago then. We can go straight to the Spotless office.” She looked back to Jason a bit more determined, “I’m sorry but I’m not sure of any other way, even Destiny the way how she sounded when she cancelled the call…she’d be there with them at the central office back in Chicago.” Rachel rolled over in the seat and yelled into the seat cushion. “Ugh this is so dumb! We came all this way to see Pam to his death, only to go back to Chicago for the root of the presumed issue.” She looked back at Jason with a cynical laugh. “Please tell me I’m not going crazy am I?” @LeoxLeo

“We did atleast learn about the fact that everyone’s gone insane. We need some way of going at this mastermind without getting caught out in the open ourselves. What we need is someone who also has a reason to go after her” Jason remembered something. “Wait I need to show you something.” He grabbed his backpack from the back seat and pulled out some pictures. I never told you why I was in Chicago did I? It wasn’t for my photography cover job. It was to track someone down. He showed Rachel the pictures of the woman he had taken from his apartment. This woman lives a few blocks away from you. It took some time to find her, but she happens to be the only known contact of The Phantom. Rachel knew that name. It was a contract that had recently opened up for anyone who could pull it off. The Phantom was a freelance assassin. He was basically a legend. Noone had ever seen his face. Noone had ever talked to him. He was a true ghost. Rachel remembered that he had been rumoured to have killed some other assassins a month ago before this whole craziness started. His contract had opened up for 10 million, as a joint offer from all the major agencies. They clearly wanted him gone but he was considered impossible to find. “As far as I can tell, what the Phantom did seems to have kicked off this whole mess. Maybe the new director of Spotless sent some people after him and he took them down. If we can find him, he might be able to help us get to this new leader. If my theory is correct, he’ll have a bone to pick with them as well. It’s dangerous, but I don’t see any other way that won’t also put us back on everyone else’s radar”

@Deleted User

“I can’t say I’ve seen her before, maybe a few times at the farmer’s market? I’m curious though how she’s tied into the Phantom, sort of like the name I always figured it was just a myth because I never thought the stories were real. Perhaps we could try to monitor this woman and try to track her patterns to see if your theory links up to the Phantom?” Rachel took the photos from Jason’s hands and began to flip through them trying to see if she could connect any of the dots. “God damn….you really are a creeper! Taking pictures from a distance like a Tom! I hope there’s nothing like these of me!” She smiled as she looked back to Jason shoving the photos back at him. She tapped a finger onto her chin as she thought for a moment, “So essentially, our options are to go off your trail with the lady…which you’ve never mentioned to me like ever by the way. Or, we go and chase the new head bitch at Spotless. Decisions, decision….at this point it feels that you’ve already been going down this road long before we started trying to kill each other so I guess we follow on your lead, I got nothing!” @LeoxLeo

“It’s something to do, isn’t it?” said Jason and he gave a quick peck on Rachel’s lips before getting upright in his seat. “Next stop: Chicago” The two set out on the long journey back. They stopped by a drive thru for a quick breakfast and hit the highway. Jason was wearing his seatbelt as usual, while Rachel bad her feet on the dashboard as usual. They were about two hours into their journey, when Jason caught a police car hiding behind a bush in the road from the corner of his eye. He didn’t think much of it till he heard sirens behind him and saw that the police car was signalling him to stop. Rachel and Jason looked at each other before they pulled to a stop on the side of the road. A lone policeman exited the car and walked up to them. He was almost bald, with a large moustache, tapering off into a goatee. He was wearing sunglasses and chewing gun as he approached the car. He seemed relaxed enough that Jason didn’t think he suspected they were trained killers, but this was still trouble none the less. @Deleted User

Rachel sat up the moment she heard the sirens squeal. She pulled the lever cranking the seat up to a seated position and looked back to see the commotion before cursing under her breath at the sight of the law. She pulled the glove compartment down and began searching for documents as Jason started to pull off towards the side of the road. “Don’t think you have a drivers license to show that you’re Mr. Ellis do you? Maybe we can say you forgot your wallet or something…” She checked her side mirror and saw the officer walking up towards their vehicle, in a rush she quickly looked at the back seat for anything that could indict them before spotting a pair of knives. Rachel quickly leaned over and snatched the knives carelessly tossed into the floorboards and threw them into the glove compartment and slammed it shut before calmly pretending to clean up her image as she lowered the sunscreen and flipped open the mirror while the officer walked to the driver’s side window. @LeoxLeo

The officer tapped on the window on Jason’s side and he rolled it down with a smile. “Good mornin folks” said the officer, still chewing his gum. He placed his forearms over the rolled down window and leaned into the car a bit. “Good morning, I wasn’t speeding, was I?” “No, but maam, you’re not wearin a seatbelt. And puttin your feet up like that while doin 60 on a highway? That’s dangerous stuff. You’re just askin for trouble” he kept chewing his gum. He peeled into the back seat and saw nothing of interest. “How’s about you hand me your licence and registration and I’ll make this a quick stop” he said. “Oh ok, sure.” Jason gave a very pleasant smile to the man, before suddenly reaching out and grabbing him with one hand on the collar and one on the side of his shirt and pulling the man into the car, his feet dangling outside and his face ending up in Rachel’s lap @Deleted User

Rachel was shocked by the quick motion that Jason made and her face turned red when the officers face landed into her lap. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and began shushing in him as she quietly whispered for him to sleep. After a few moments of struggle the officer’s body became limp once he was unconscious. Rachel opened the door slightly and gave the officer a shove off of her as she walked out of the vehicle to dust herself off. After checking their surroundings she got a spark of an idea and quickly ran to the police car to steal the laptop attached to the cruiser. Once she acquired her new device she quickly walked back to the car and closed the door before another vehicle spotted them. After sitting down and taking a deep breath she looked straight into Jason’s eyes and started hitting him. “You jerk why didn’t you say something! I would’ve prepared better y’know! Then his face was all in my lap I almost wanted to kill him!” She paused for a moment as she laughed after getting the anger out of her system and held her fingers into a zen state before tapping onto the keyboard. “Alright let’s see if I can find any information about this mysterious lady you’ve been stalking on any police database….” @LeoxLeo

As Rachel walked over to the police car, Jason opened op the door on his side. He dragged the unconscious officer to the edge of the road and let him down the short hill into the bushes below. Rachel returned and she was not happy with what had happened, but in a cute way. He chuckled as he held his arm up to block her hits. He knew that if she trying to seriously hit him, she would’ve done just that. “I’m sorry, I don’t have papers showing I own this car. It had to be done and had to be done fast.” Once they were firmly seated again, Jason reached over and grabbed Rachel’s seatbelt, swinging it across her and kicking it in place. He was just happy to have an excuse to do that. They then drove off before someone came to check on the police car. “Her name is Emilia Foster” he said. Rachel searched her name in the database and it didn’t show any hits. They tried her address which also showed no hits. Then they uploaded the clearest picture of her they could find. No hits. “Interesting. The police don’t have anything on her either. That along with her routine which i’ve observed tells me she’s just some average woman. How is she connected to the Phantom, then? Is that intel even accurate?” He was lost in thought for a few minutes, before he said to Rachel “You should probably get rid of that laptop. They can track those things” The two drove on, making their way to Chicago, this time taking the time to stop for a few more breaks along the way as they didn’t have any immediate deadline approaching. @Deleted User

After yielding no results on their search for Ms. Foster Rachel signed as she lowered the window and tossed the laptop out the window. As she rose the window back up, Rachel stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes as she reclined the seat back down and kicked her legs back atop the dashboard. She laughed as she laid in the seat, “You think the seatbelt is going to prevent me from relaxing on a road trip, that’s cute.” While Jason was occupied driving, Rachel pushed herself off for a moment as she leaned over to snag his sunglasses off his face and placed them over her eyes as she leant back into the seat. Throughout the drive back to Chicago, Rachel continued to monitor the notifications regarding recent contract statuses. Every now and then she’d see someone she recognized from Spotless either closing an account or expire and bring them up in casual conversation. There was a point to where she started a game and just said a name for Jason to guess whether that agent was killed or the contract closer. That was fun until they left the Tennessee area. They stopped and rested for the evening in a nice hotel as they were no longer on a crazy timeline to rest and relax before they’d continue their journey. As they left Nashville heading towards Kentucky, Rachel was insistent on driving for once to give Jason a break for once. Although, the break only lasted so long before as they entered the Louisville area and Rachel’s aggressive driving began to take over. After a few close calls with side swipes and vehicle collisions, Jason would take back the wheel to keep the couple out of danger and attention after a few death threats were exchanged and Rachel began to reach for her knives. The remainder of the trip wouldn’t prove to be as exciting while Jason continued to keep a low profile on their way back home to Chicago. @LeoxLeo

Being who he was, Jason had lived a wild life. And yet, every day spent with Rachel was wilder still. In the moments of silence during the ride back, which were few and far between thanks to her, he wondered why he liked her. Initially she had represented a respite from the craziness of his world. He wondered now if he felt this way about her because of how she actually embodied the chaos of his world in a positive manner. Positive for me atleast he mused as she swerved to avoid hitting a bike and gave the rider a finger. The journey back to Chicago didn’t feel like it took all that long. They arrived in the city in the afternoon. They swung by their neighbourhood as it was well known territory for them and they could plan their next move their a bit easier. As their car turned a corner and their own building came into view, Jason went wide eyed when he looked up. Rachel’s apartment, along with several apartments above and below hers had their outer walls covered in soot. She was positive for him...right? Jason didn’t say anything and instead, pulled into a garage nearby. He and Rachel left the car there and Jason lead the way into another diner. After they were seated, and had sent the waitress away to get food, he pointed out a window on the second floor of apartment building visible from the window next to which they were seated. “There. That’s where Foster lives. To be honest with you, I’ve never come this close. Felt like a better idea before to stake it out from a distance”

@Deleted User

Rachel sighed as she swirled a finger around the coffee mug before cupping it with both hands to take a sip. She began to stare at the apartment floor that Jason had mentioned, “So how are we going to stake this place out? We can’t go back to your place because Spotless might still have surveillance throughout our old complex. There has to be another way.” She placed the mug down before looking back at Jason. “We’re pretty much living out of luggage at this point, even though our names are crossed out our faces are still a bit recognizable so we should still be on the lookout. I am curious though, if this Foster lady of yours…if there’s a chance that she’s not even part of an agency though. There’s a potential that she may not even be aware of who we could be nor our supposed status. You’ve been tracking her for a while, yeah? If that’s the case then it could work in our favor if you’ve annotated parts of her scheduling. If she ever leaves her place we could tail her and track movement to see what she’s up to. Considering that we’re this close it shouldn’t be difficult to follow along once she leaves the building, just gotta make sure it’s not obvious. But then again, you’ve been observing her for a while now so however you’d like to do this I’ll support.” @LeoxLeo

“That’s a good idea. We should trail her. I know she leaves her apartment at around 8pm on Sundays, but I don’t know where she goes.” Jason looked at his watch. It was still only 5pm even after they’d finished their meal. “That gives us about 3 hours. I don’t think it’s wise to stay here the entire time, however. Let’s move somewhere else.” His eyes scanned the line of shops opposite Emilia Foster’s apartment till they fell on a flower shop built with an open front for display. “There. That should be a good spot to keep an eye for a few minutes atleast”. They paid their bill and walked over to the flower shop which was run by a middle aged man who raised an eyebrow as they approached, but greeted them with a warm smile. “Welcome, welcome. Looking to buy something for the lovely lady, sir?” he asked Jason. Jason glanced at Rachel. “Actually I’d love to take a look around”. Jason started examining a few flowers, while shooting glances at the apartment building when he could. This really was a good spot for keeping an eye on that apartment. Not only did it have eyes on the balcony, the front door of the lobby was directly across the street as well. Jason had often seen Emilia wave to someone on the street from her balcony. He figured it was this guy.

06:13

Only about three minutes had passed and Jason was getting worried they’d have to move away from this place soon, when coincidentally, Emilia walked out of the apartment building. This was unusual. Emilia was a young woman in her 20s. She had a plain, but pretty look and shoulder length, black hair. She was dressed nicely, had more than the usual amount of makeup for her and was wearing a stylish jacket as well. A date? Jason quickly bought a rose for Rachel and thanked the shop owner before leaving the flower shop. They trailed Rachel until she ducked into a general store. The two assassins went after her. Rachel purposefully walked to a specific aisle and picked up a breath mint before taking it to the cashier. Jason and Rachel pretended to be looking at toothbrushes and shampoos in the mean time. Jason briefly noticed a man buying a razor. He recognised him as the man that was sitting on the table next to theirs in the diner and the two men have each other a polite acknowledging nod when they locked eyes. Emilia was soon out of the shop and Jason and Rachel followed. After a few minutes, she entered a bar and they went in after her, making sure she doesn’t notice them. Inside, Emilia took a seat at the counter. Jason and Rachel made their way to a small table nearby instead where they could overhear her without being right next to her. It was a fairly quiet place with a burly bartender and two other patrons playing pool in a corner. “Emilia, how are you? Starting early tonight?” asked the bartender “Actually I have a date tonight. It’s been a while and I figured I’d get some liquid courage before I go meet him” she replied. The bartender chuckled. “The usual then?” “Maybe just half a glass” The bartender poured her a small amount of some unmarked drink and she downed it.

06:13

As this this was happening, another patron walked into the bar. The same guy from the diner and the store. He locked eyes with Jason once more. This time, there was no friendly smile between them. Both men sensed danger. The man slowly made his way to a table on the other end of the bar. He kept his eyes trained on Jason the entire time. Both men stared each other down as he took his place. “Well, I’ll be going then. Wish me luck” said Emilia cheerfully before getting up and walking out of the bar. As she was leaving, the man from the diner exchanged a look with the bartender whose eyes also fell on Jason and his expression changed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He called out to Emilia as she left. Jason now noticed the sound of pool balls knocking together had also stopped behind him. His internal alarm was going off. What had they walked into? @Deleted User

Rachel felt something was off after seeing the same person within the bar for the third time that day. She did a double take around their surroundings as something didn’t feel right. It was apparent that Emilia wasn’t aware that she was being followed, however it wasn’t the case for both Jason and herself. Although she knew that both her and Jason’s contracts had already been cleared off, there was a chance that someone either still recognized them, or alternatively these men within the bar are protecting the young woman from outside threats. After hearing the exchanging words between the mark and bartender it was clear that they’re in a situation of the latter. After Emilia had left the bar the mood of the bar had drastically shifted; the two playing billiards turned towards their table with the pool cues in hand, the man tailing them at the opposite side of the bar stood up and began to walk towards them brandishing a knife, finally the bartender walked over towards the front door and placed a wood plank across the door preventing anyone from entering from the outside. “Looks like we really can’t just stay out of trouble now can we?” Rachel calmly stated as she gently placed her hands onto the table. She made an eye notion to Jason pointing towards the two at the pool table before turning around and looking towards the front door being barricaded.

14:06

As the man who had been following them began to approach their table, Rachel began to unscrew the top of the salt and pepper shakers as she stood up. When the man walked closer with the knife he grabbed Rachel’s shoulder and thrusted in for a stab, as he did she quickly wrapped her arm around his and attempted to disarm the assailant but not before suffering a slice onto her arm. In retaliation she threw both shakers into his face in an attempt to blind him to gain an upper hand. As she winced in pain she lunged forward and kicked him into the booth. Afterwards when she regained her balance she began to work towards the bartender to subdue him as well, unfortunately during the fight she didn’t see him pick up a shotgun from behind the bar and was smacked upon the head with the buttstock falling straight to the ground. @LeoxLeo

Jason had turned to face the two men at the pool table and was taking stock of them when Rachel went all in on the fight behind him. They were both holding pool cues that looked like they would seriously hurt. Not a problem. Jason quickly unzipped his jacket, making his handgun within visible to the two guys were still several feet away from him. Gun beats wood. The two men stopped in their tracks the moment they saw a gun, quickly reevaluating the situation. This was good. Jason didn’t want to make too much noise here and wanted to avoid actually using his gun. The last thing he wanted was someone to call the police into this matter as well. Before Jason could pull out the gun, the two men looked behind Jason and suddenly moved to their left. Jason turned just in time to see Rachel being hit with the butt of the shotgun and the bartender instantly pumped the single shell shotgun and pointed it at Jason. From this far away, the spread on the shotgun would definitely hit him. He grabbed the chair next to him and with much more raw power than he had displayed during his scuffle with Rachel, tossed it straight at the bartender who fired into it. Unfortunately, gun did beat wood and the chair exploded into a million pieces, showering Jason and most of the area around and behind him with splinters. Jason put his arm in front of his face to protect it, but several pieces dug their way into his torso. When Jason had finally put his hand down, he was immediately tackled from behind by one of the pool players who had recovered first. @Deleted User