The annoying emergency bulleting jingle cuts through the sound of the program, and after a few seconds a ditzy blond anchorwoman appears on the television, papers in hand.

"This is Tracy Lane with channel seven news, and we interrupt your regularly scheduled program for an important news bulliten. We have recieved shocking footage of a daring police raid that occured at the 31st block of East 7th. We go to Dan Johansen at the scene for details. Dan?" There is a slight delay, as if the tech producer was new at the job or something, but then the picture cut over to a small, bald asian man in a cheap business suit, standing in front of a grimy apartment building.

"Thanks, Tracy." He turned slightly, giving a view of groaning police officers being carted out of the building on stretchers, though it was mostly blocked by the line of cops holding back the gathering crowd. "About an hour ago, the police entered the home of a certain Mutant known to have engaged in many illegal activities. In fact, we have been told that this mutant was responsible , at least in part, for the assasination of a well known SWAT officer a few weeks back, as well as a bank robbery and a mass murder in Times Square that collapsed a part of the subway. These are but a few of the suspected crimes that this mutant has commited. There is no word on the fate of the mutant, but we have unconfirmed reports of police casualties."

He paused, and allowed the cameraman to pan across the scene. "Now, we are not being allowed into the building, but as we understand it the mutant was living in the top floor." He started to continue, but was interrupted as a girl, who looked to be about seventeen, rushed up to him. "Hey, dude! Dude! HEY NEWSREPORTER! I got it on tape! I recorded the whole thing!"

For just a second, the reporter looked surprised, but then he had to hide a smile. This was the scoop that would make his career. "Well folks, you heard it from us first. You are about to be shown actual footage of the police raid. John drive this down to the studio double-quick. In the meantime, Miss??"

"Harper, Jane Harper."

"Yes, Miss Harper, tell us exactly what you saw." The reporter held the microphone out to the girl, who promptly grabbed it out of his hand.

"Yeah, so I was like, getting ready to take a shower, and stuff, right? And then I hear this knock on my door, all quiet like, and so a look through the peephole, and what do I see? It's a frickin' SWAT officer. So I open the door, an' he says I got 'ta go. Well, I tell him I'm not goin' nowhere, 'cause I paid rent for the month. It took a while, but he finally took 'da hint, and just told me to stay away, right? So I look out in the hall, and I see 'bout a gadrillion SWAT and Police, right. So I run in and get my camcorder, and I go in right afta' the officers, and I start shootin' da film, right, and I see-"

The reporter cut the girl off. "Wait, we have the footage ready to go, folks. This is actual footage from the raid, brought to you first from channel seven news. We will get back to you, Miss Harper." The reporter made a serruptuous hand motion, and the clip started.

It showed a grimy image, and the view passed through a door that had very obviously been recently kicked down. It then went through a small living room in disarray, furniture turned over, lots of blood and a few bodies. It was obvious that in such cramped spaces the guns were not an advantage. The sound was of poor quality, but you could hear the sounds of battle from a room over. Gunshots, the sounds of rending flesh, and screams of both rage and pain echoed from the bedroom. The view moved so that it could see into the bedroom. The bedroom was larger than the living room, about 20 x 30 feet square, and had a small bed in one corner, and a door to what could be assumed was a bathroom in another.

In the center of the room was a whirling machine of carnage and death. Blood was spurting from severed arteries and coating everything, and a few empty bullet cartridges littered the ground, along with some weapons. The camera then shifted to focus on the cause of all the distruction, and a very tall Asian man came into view, his orange robes stained almost red with blood, and his face the very embodiment of hate and rage. His eyes fixed on the camera, and he lept towards it with a roar. However, he was intercepted mid flight by a bullet to the chest, and went down, out cold. The view turned, to see a short, dainty woman in a SWAT uniform, with a standard issue pistol in her hand.

She looked at the camera for a couple of seconds. Then said "Get out of here. You are lucky to be alive." She then looked around at the carnage, and continued "One of the few." It was obvious from the small amount of footage from Miss Harper leaving the scene and running into her apartment that, though there were many deaths, more of the bodies were from survivable injuries. The clip then cut out.

The picture on the TV went back to the reporter, who looked more than a little green. "We apologize for the graphic content of that clip. It is obvious now that the team suffered heavy casualties, but we have heard word that the chief of police believs it to be worth it. We have a written statement from him here. 'We believe this mutant, often going by the codename Predator, to be a member of an all-mutant terrorist group that we have had troubles with in the past. He has also commited several slaughters of innocent civillians, and police officers alike. Property damage at his hands easily runs into the billions. We send our condolences to the families of the fallen, but must say that their sacrifices were worth it to catch this dangerous mutant alive, to find out more about his group. We have transported him to our recently-outfitted cell in Alcatraz, which has been specially modified to nullify his special mutant ability.'"

It cut back to Tracy Lane. "Thank you Dan. Well folks, you heard it from Channel Seven news first. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Predator awoke with a shock, his last memory of a blinding pain in his chest. There was still pain, but it was now the low throbbing of a treated injury, not the paralyzing agony of a fresh wound. He screamed, and tried to lash out at something, anything, the walls, the floor the air, something, but the bonds holding him to the chair were strong, and his arms didn't move an inch. He continued screaming and struggling for almost ten minutes, and when he paused to take a breath, a man stepped into the light provided by a single bulb. Given an object to focus his anger upon, Predator narrowed his eyes to little slits of hate.

"Hello," The little man said, "My name is Lt. Granger. I am a part of the special interrogations part of the SWAT, and I am here to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?" The man had a nice voice, a pretty smile, and an easy, relaxed stance.

And Predator hated him for it.

"How about this, asshat? How about you take your f***ing questions and shove them up your ass! Maybe then we'll talk. And while your at it, get these f***ing straps off me! Get them off! OFF!!" As soon as he said it, the crushing, mind-blowing fear that Predator had just barely been able to hold at bay through anger came rushing in, dominating his every thought. He was imprisoned again! Just like the camps! He knew what would happen next, he knew, and the fear lent him strength. He began screaming "OFF!!!" over and over, straining against the bonds. The thick hardwood that made the chair began to creak with the strain, and Predator's nails dug furrows into the wood.

The small man looked very terrified, and pulled a needle from his bag. "This is just something to help you calm down a bit, okay?" He said, and began advancing against Predator with the needle. The single guard near the door watched impassively, his hand in his pocket.

At the sight of the needle, Predator became even more terrified, so blind with fear that his vision faded away to nothing but that needle, and a roaring filled his ears. He strained even harder at the bonds, if it was possible and began gnashing his teeth and pounding his back into the chair. Then, when the man was but about three feet away from Predator, the sound of splintering wood filled the wood as Predator leapt towards the man with a scream of triumph. As Predator's hands closed around the mans throat, squeezing the life out of him, the guard pulled a remote control out of his pocket and pressed a button. A collar around Predator's neck that he hadn't noticed before shocked Predator with immense force, so great that Predator blacked out after only five seconds.

Predator came to a few minutes later, but this time, the chair was steel, and his claws were covered with leather. The little man had lost his cheerful demeanor, and was scowling openly and with great hatred. "You know," He said darkly, "There are certain things that you can't do while interrogating prisoners. Human rights laws, you know?" He paused, and withdrew a wickidly sharp scalpel from his bag. "Good thing for me you're not human.

Predator's screams filled the room.

Meld wasn't exactly watching much of anything when the news bullitan came on the air, mostly just flipping from channel to channel trying to kill a little boredom. She rarely watched televion usually and had just gotten a television in her quarters recently. Sometimes, however, in those moments of boredom when there wasn't exactly anything useful left to be done, it could be a reasonably entertaining hobby to cause the time to past a little faster. Unfortunatly, on this particular night, there wasn't anything on that was succeeding in asauging her perpetual boredom. That is, until the news bulliten came on the air.

Initially, Meld wasn't entirely sure what the newscast was all about, although it appeared to be some sort of raid. It didn't take long, however, for her to realize that it involved a mutant, something which made her angry. Any mutant involved in such injustice tended to anger her and then to eventually discover that it was a friend of her's, Predator, it made her even more angry. At least, anger was the first emotion that she felt upon seeing the story. In her mind Predator was an excellent example of what it meant to be a mutant that stood for something and someone that wasn't afraid to fight for their ideals, a trait that few seemed to share. As the story progressed, however, and more details began to clarify herself she became increasingly worried, not just for Predator but for herself as well.

Meld had been involved in the assassination of the SWAT officier that had been mentioned in the newscast and, although she had been wearing a mask at the time, she knew that she wasn't exactly difficult to spot. Although she didn't regret the action and she had been successfull in getting her point out to the public, it hadn't exactly been one of her more thought out activities. It was more an instance of taking advantage of a situation. If that was one of the things that had caused Predator to get caught then there was a decent chance that the cops were looking for her as well. And if they connected her back to that event it was possible that they could connect her back to thers as well. Since entering the city her record wasn't exactly clean, having been involved in at least 2 deaths besides that of the SWAT officer and a successful bank robbery.

Although Meld was reasonably certain that the police were not likely to raid Sanctuary in order to capture her that didn't make the concept of them being after her any more appealing. She was not the type to sit back and hide within its walls like a coward and there were certainly plenty of other opportunities to capture her if they were determined. And then there was the further problem of them suspecting Predator of being a part of an all mutant terrorist organization. If they did, indeed, know about her as well then they would likely think the same thing of her and that could potentially complicate her status within The Order.

Meld stood up and began pacing, trying to consider what to do about the whole situation. On the one hand Predator was her friend and she felt obligated to help free him, knowing that he would do the same to her. On the other hand, however, she knew that the cops likely all ready had some image of her or at least her visible mutations and she would be putting herself in more than a little personal risk in helping her friend. Nevertheless, there didn't seem to be much of a choice. She was loyal to those who had proven themselves to be worthy of her loyalty and Preditor certainly had done so. Therefore she would do her best to try and help him. The only question was how, exactly, and who would be able to assist her.

The first person that came to mind to assist Meld in the freeing of Predator was, of course, Aura. Not only had the two of them become close over her relatively short time in the city, but they had also worked together several times and Meld knew that she could be trusted and that she could more than hold her own in a fight. Perhaps with the two of them speaking they might be able to come up with some sort of plan to free him and perhaps she might even know of another who would be willing to assist them. That decided, Meld began making her way to Aura's quarters.

Aura held her head tight, the images in her mind flowed freely. She staggerd moving her foot away from a branch she knew was not thare. She had no idea what she really stepped on, but she cared littile about it. She could smell the trees and the plants around her as if they were really thare. They were always the same, the deaths of her friends, those whom she had been forced to kill herself, their refusal to leave her alone was making aura very angry, so much so her aura flared into view just as Aura punched the carefully made bone headboard she had constructed, it broke in two, the thin sauderd bone unable to hold up to real force.

Aura saw somthing move from the courner of her eye, and immediatly turned to block the strike, one look at the face of her attacker, was all it took, for the last of Aura's strength to lose it's grip. The built white haired boy was smiling. Growling Aura leapt for the boy, comming down on her moniter, with an Aura axe as the boy moved aside as if it were nothing. Picking the remains of her moniter up aura chucked it at the boy who again easily moved aside, allowing the broken item, to shatter fully against the door. Grabbing a Femur from the floor aura threw this at the boy, she watched as he shatterd it in two, with ease. Aura took a deep breath, the woods they felt wonderful tonight.

The traiter had to die, his words, had killed them all, only her misforune had kept her alive. Chargeing she swung blow after crazed blow after the boy, who never struck only moved out of the way with a chuckle and smile. Aura looked up at the boy sat from like on a tree branch. Syre was very fast, and aura knew she would have to predict whare his next move would be and then he pointed at her, looking like he was barely holding in his laughter, finnaly he spoke. "You killed them you know, one by one, one by one" he chanted as Aura blade cut through her dresser. "You traiter, you gave our location!" she screamed, swiping at him, the thousends of quarters that fell on the floor, rolling all over was lost in the sounds of the river. Forming a secound blade Aura again charged Syre, her series of slashes and cuts reduced the rock to a carved wreck that would hold no one. Then Syre spoke again "the runt lived on" he toaunted her again. Picking up her hand gun, aura fired the entire clip into what she perceived to be a tree. Breathing hard, Aura knew somthing was wrong, Syre had been good but never this good, and the river, should not have been so close. Grabbing the wall tight, her Hand moved her blade to her palm, and aura quickly tore fistfull sized chucks of wall, as she realized it was in relaity a wall. Grabbing the sword which had somhow fallen next to her, she made one last cut, this one but deep nto one of her lamps wnough that when she let go, it stayed in the lamp.

Her eyes clearing Aura looked around her room, it was throughly trashed, two of her lamps had lost their lowr jaws and one now had a very worn blade embedded into it's head. Her bed would never hold a baby much less herself, the mostly bone bed now resting partially on the floor itself. Quarters coverd the entire room however and Aura kicked at a pile in anoyence. SHe went to her dresser and opened a drawr only to have the top of the dresser fall loudly onto the shelf next to it, Aura tossed the Drawr aside, not bothering to see whare the glass items had shatterd. One thing cought her eye however, a blakc box, Aura knew well, opening it, Aura clung her fingers to the angellic white hooded robe, she loved the feeling of the silk on her skin.

Stripping she redresssed in the rather fitted robe, her hair still looked a mess, but Aura had few concearns of that realizeing her door, was now in the hallway. Aura shook her head and pulled the worn blade from the skull, she needed to repair the blade one day, but how many people forged swords these days. Sheathing it Aura attached the holter to the black belt the robe had for just such things, the rest of it could be set afalme, she had what was importent. Looking back at her TV, one of the few undamaged items, she watched the story on pred and Aura smiled. "I needed to relax" she said moving out into the hallway whare she saw Meld obviously in a hurry. Aura barely reigistirred a shattering light bulb from back in her room. "Pred-Head's in trouble?" she asked asumming it was why Meld wa sin such a rush. "We should contact Isabel, i fear this maybe to high profile to just go without word. Becides i think she might get mad if we did not ask our leader to tag along for the fun" she said ignoreing the ruins that wa sonce her bedroom, a faint cracking noise could be heard behind her.

Predator awoke on an operating table, with several masked figures around him. He opened his eyes just barely enough to see, and schooled his breathing, keeping himself perfectly still and his breathing slow and steady, giving no sign that he was awake. He remembered this part, the part where they stitched you up and made sure you lived long enough for the next torture session. The table was made of metal, but the straps holding him down were just leather. He groaned a bit, experimentally shifting his arms to test the strength of the bonds. Damn! Metal under that leather...

"I'm surprised he held out so long. He never opened his mouth the entire time, just sat there and took it. Three hours, I've never seen anyone last five minutes."

"Just shut up and sow him back up. I don't need to know, I just need him conscious for later."

Then he felt the needle entering his skin, and he screamed, his eyes flying open and his body bucking against the bonds that held him to the table, though they wouldn't budge. The doctor remained impassive, sewing closed the final gash across Predator's chest as he heaved and pulled at the straps. The doctor finished, and stepped back. Predator calmed down a bit, and took stock of himself. There were careful slices across his his chest, arms and legs, gashes that weren't just cuts, but that flensed skin from his muscle and left patches of pain across his body. There were many bruises as well, but his face had been left strangely untouched. Predator wondered why that was, until he was titled upright and a number was placed just below his head. The mugshot. They didn't want anyone to know what they were doing to Predator, so they had left his face alone for the mugshot.

"Well hello there," Lt. Granger said. "I see you are awake. You are quite a tough nut to crack, but, to be honest, I would have been dissapointed had you opened up on the first session. Would you care to give us a name for the mugshot, hmmm?"

Predator cocked his head, as if in thought, then shrugged. "Yeah. First middle last? Go fuck yourself." He then spat in Granger's face.

Granger wiped the spittle off of his face with a hankercheif, then stuck the hankercheif into Predator's mouth, effectively gagging him. He snapped off a picture from a tripod mounted camera Predator hadn't noticed, then motioned for the doctors and guards to leave. Once they had, he reached over to the back of Predator's neck and fiddled with something, turning a dial on the collar that was still there. Then Granger pulled out the remote that Predator recognized, and held down the button.

Electricity ran through Predator's body, surging through his nerves and making his recently stitched muscles twitch and strain, and forcing him to hold back a scream. The pain was almost unbearable, and came not from the collar itself, but from every nerve on Predator's body, causing a sheen of sweat to erupt on his skin. It continued for an undeterminable length of time, probably no more than a minute, then Granger released the button. He walked slowly to Predator, rubbing his neck where the bruises were forming and holding the remote at his side.

"You know, we used to outsource this kind of stuff. Korea, Vietnam, third world countries and the like. But we've found the power there to be unreliable, it could cut out suddenly. Here, however, you can flip a switch and the power will run for as long as you like." He removed the gag from Predator's mouth, then asked him, "Tell me all you know."

"Fine! Fine! Just stop it, stop it please! All I know, all I know is a dead drop, a safe in the dumpster at the corner of Market and 31st. It has all the info I have there. Combination 31, 24, 37. Please! Stop it now!"

Granger smiled triumphantly. "Oh, it will stop. When I am assured of your truthfullness. Until then..." Granger depressed the button, and flipped a switch, dropping the romote to the ground over by the door.

Predator screamed in pain, his body tensing once again, as the pain went on and on. Granger walked out of the door, but he didn't see Predator smile evilly even through the immense pain.

As Meld made her way to Aura's room, her resolve to go and rescue Predator solidified in her own mind. Not only had they become friends but he was a mutant and those were two very good reasons to go after and rescue him. Add to the fact that she had many reasons to dislike the police, not the least of which was the fact that the enjoyed using mutants as scapegoats for just about any crime imaginable, and she really didn't need any more motivation than that. If things went smoothly it might even prove to be a good day's fun, or certainly a good day's challenge if nothing else. She refused to imagine what it would be like if things went badly.

"Predator is in trouble," Meld confirmed. "The police have him in connection to some all-mutant terrorist organization. I feel obligated to help him and, if I know you as well as I think I do, then I believe you would like to come along for the fun." She grinned a little sadistically, although her tone of voice was very serious. "I don't know where he's been taken but I believe there may be some nice officers out there that do and I'm sure they would be more than happy to talk with us."

Meld began walking to the Sanctuary exit. She knew the areas in which many officers tended to frequent, not only because she also frequented many of those places but also because she had learned that it was often in her best interests to be aware of such things. Hopefully that knowledge would work to their benefit and they would be able to find a certain someone who knew something and cared more about his own personal well being than the well being of this comrades in arms. Because she was certain that this was unlikely to be a casualty free expadition.

"Pred-Head is one of us" she said simply. "Yes i think this is just the thing to help me relax as well" she said considering her previous actions to kill a ghost she logicly knew could not be thare, not to mention the forest which had been her room suddenly, the images were growing more potent then before, but she win defeat them, all she needed was power and her will. "The cops do love us, so im quite sure they would be willing to help. Either way they could not hold predator in a normal cage, so any local jail is out" she said trying to narrow the places he could be. "Trouble is, that means any place he might be will have a lot of guns, and we have to kill whatever cop we get" she said reasoning out the plan aloud so Meld would know her thoughts.

Aura followed meld not having any particuler place in mind of whare to find the cop. They then had to kill him, by first islolating him from anyone else and leave few witnesses, or at least thats what Aura thought as they headed to the exit. Humans taking mutants prisoner was somthing she could not stand for, more so becuse it was predator of course, one of the team. Aura would talk to Meld but with somone who could fight being like water elamentals they would be complete able to deal with anything. "So got an idea, of whare to go?" she asked curiously unsure if Meld had a plan.

Aura checked her Guns, she still ahd littile acuracy with them but they were better then nothing, and practice would help. "I don't think the Humans will be much happier with us after this" she said with a laugh figuring neather of them really cared

After what seemed like an eternity later, Granger walked back into the room. He reached down, picked up the remote, and turned off the shocking collar. His every movement shook with fury, and he could barely stand from the force of his rage. It was obvious that something had gone wrong with the retrieval, and probably that several people had gotten hurt. Predator knew exactly what had made the little man so angry, but for a while the Lt. couldn't speak, he could only glare at Predator with rage.

"So," Predator said with a smile, "Did you find the safe?"

That smile pushed the little man over the edge, and he exploded, screaming at Predator. "FOUND THE SAFE!?!?! WE FOUND THE SAFE, ALRIGHT! THE BOMB KILLED HALF OF THE SWAT TEAM! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, I SWEAR YOU WILL!!" The man ran to Predator and grabbed him by the hair, and then attempted to slam Predator's head into the metal table. However, Predator simply flexed his neck muscles and pulled his head from the man's grip. Then, quick as a striking snake, Predator shot his head forward and clamped his teeth down on one of the man's fingers. The man screamed as blood welled up, and pressed the button for the collar. Predator just growled through the increasing pain, and used it as an incentive to clamp down even harder. Soon he felt bone beneath his teeth, and he began to grind his teeth back and forth, attempting to saw through it. The man continued to scream, and guards came rushing into the room.

They beat on Predator's head and arms with their little batons, but they had come a couple of seconds two late. The man plopped onto the floor with a groan and a scream, and Predator spat his finger out onto the floor next to him. "Free of charge." He growled through the continuing pain of the collar and beatings. He laughed, even as the pain increased to blackout levels, and it all went away.

Meld was glad not to be the only one to be going after Predator. She was a capable fighter and killer, she knew that for a fact, and was decent at getting in and out of places more or less unseen as well, but this was something that she had never before done and she was certain that any place that had enough security to hold Predator would not be easy to get into nor out of again, at least not alive and free. She wished that she knew of other mutants that might have more firepower than she and Aura had and it wasn't often that she felt herself inadequate for a task. Oh well, they would make due with what they had and hope for the best. With a little luck all they would have to worry about would be getting in and to Predator and he wouldn't be so beaten up that he wouldn't be able to help them get out again.

Meld walked purposefully down to the garage and chose herself a motorcycle, the same one she had used once before, and beckoned Aura to join her upon it. "The only plan I have is to find a cop that knows where Predator is being kept, torture him until he gives us the information that we need and, as you suggest, kill him so that he doesn't give away anything regrettable. After that I guess we play it by ear."

Once Aura was on the back of the bike she began driving, weaving through traffic and going far to fast, as she made her way towards one of her favorite areas of town, where she knew they would be able to find plenty of officers. "We may need some sort of firepower to break in," Meld thought out loud. "I know both of us can get into most places but I have a feeling this place will be more difficult than we're used to. Explosives, maybe would help with that." She didn't have much experience with explosives but it couldn't be too difficult to figure out and she had seen it done before.

Once they arrived at their location Meld got off the bike and began looking around. She parked in an alley, where few people frequented and those that didn't weren't likely to say anything anyway. "Now all that's left is to find us a target," she said with a grin.

"getting the cop will be the easy part, any place thats holding predator will likely have high wall and guard towers. Sneaking ina nd out is our option, and i might have an idea on that" she said with a smile before continueing. "But first we need to find the bacon" she said as she got the back of the bike. She recalled this from last time, it was fun ride and to Aura since they got from point A to point b before, Meld was a good enough driver for her, not that she knew a bad bike driver from a good one anyway.

"Breaking in, won't work, with explsoives we would have to get close, by the time we set the charges we would be good only to the morgue. You know i spend my entire life trying to keep out of cages, and Pred-Head needs me to break into one for him" SHe continued as they stopped and Aura looked around. FInding a cop should not be hard the quesyion is would he know anything. They might capture ten cops who knew nothing about the case, or might get it on their first try.

"Once we get the officer, i'll work on getting us in. " Aura said smiling at her freind, she was sure she could get them in though she would have to call somone from the order. Aura looked around the somewhat quite alley. She was confident they could do this, the key intrestingly would be stealth in and out ona timed schedual. Things needed to happon fast for this to work. The plan formed in her head laying itself out in her mind. Nodding to herself she looked back at Meld. "Well, let's find us a lucky mutt" she said looking around and letting her Aura become visable, this would be the more enjoyable part of the mission. She rubbe dher head softly, as more images flashed across he rmind, why were these images so vivid today of all days, she wonderd.

Meld trusted Aura when she said that she had a way to get them into wherever they were holding Predator without any loud explosions. The less attention they had to draw to themselves the better, as far as she was concerned. In truth, it was going to be difficult enough without drawing forth the attention of every single officer in the prison, whatever or wherever that prison may be. So much the better if there was some way to get in quickly and quietly and hopefully get back out again just as quickly and quietly. She had lived with the fear of going to prison for years, ever since she began a life of crime, and she certainly didn't want this to be her last day of freedom.

After parking her bike Meld found a place for herself and Aura to hide. "We wait," she instructed. Stealth wasn't her strongest suit but she did have some moderate skill in it and it wasn't too difficult to find a dark corner and await the perfect target. Within about 20 minutes that target came wandering into range, flashlight in hand. She nodded towards Aura. This was there man, a lone cop and completely unsuspecting at that. Either he would tell them where to find their captured friend or he would tell them who knew. Either way she had no prospects of this part of the mission being particularly difficult.

Meld waited patiently for the officer to walk past their hiding place before jumping him from behind, wrapping a metal hand around his mouth, barbed fingers digging into his exposed cheek and drawing five small trickles of blood. With her other arm she grabbed his right arm and wrenched it painfully behind his back. "Now you will tell us where our friend is being kept. I believe you remember him; a giant dog creature who mauled a bunch of your compatriots not long ago before you pigs captured him and locked him away?" Her voice was deceptively sugary sweet but there could be no doubting her intent.

Aura nodded and kept hidden behind Meld. Stealth wa snot her strong point either. She knew better how to hide in the woods then in a place like this. Meld took the cop by surprise and had him held tight. Calmly Aura walked to the officers front and smiled, it seemed he knew who they were as well. That could make this easier, she made a show of running through various weapons she could make in front him, simply to prove the position the man was in.

"Or you could try and resist and i could try to peel your skin from your body layer by layer, untill you give us the information. Im quite good ou know, it could easily last days" she said trying to show him the error of his ways. Aura was unsure she could actually cut that finely but this man did not need to know that. She slipped her blade under his belt and cut through it easily, cathcing it in her Aura before it hit the ground, she began to look through the stuff he had. "Some of this could be helpful" she said as she examined his pistal pointing it at him several times.

"you can live through this" she said to the pfficer, her smile looking sweet though the onncence was lost to the cop. Then she found an item that made her smile, a Taser, examining the gun she played with the settings. "We could try this as well" she said a hint of hope rang in her voice. The idea of testing it was a good thing both to know how powerful it was but also becuse she was sure the cop would like to avoid being beaten with his own weapons.

Even in present, less than casual, circumstances Meld couldn't help but admire Aura's gift for the dramatic. She, herself, was usually more straightforward with her threats of violence, preferring to go at things directly and simply, merely hinting at the pain she could produce and then, if that didn't work, giving them a demonstration. But with Aura it was more like some sort of twisted poetry and that was something to be admired. She smirked over the officer's head, where he couldn't see.

The officer himself didn't appear to be doing so well, shivering in pain and fear but, to his credit, he also wasn't screaming or talking. Well, that would certainly change. "Not going to talk?" Meld asked sweetly. She pulled his arm behind his back, stretching the tendons in his shoulder and the officer let out a grunt of pain but still said nothing and still uttered no scream. She smiled sadistically, trying not to enjoy herself. She tortured because she had to not because she wanted to. With her other arm she ran her claws down the officer's cheek, leaving 5 little red lines of blood and tried to ignore the thrill of adrenaline that ran through her at seeing those little lines of blood. Still the officer said nothing although his breathing was becoming labored. Meld struck him in the side of the head, her metal fist hitting his temple, an area she knew was a pressure point and thus extremely painful. The officer tried to double over in pain, prevented only because Meld still held him firmly with her other arm.

"Talk and I promise the pain will end," Meld assured him. She tried not to notice the hint of dark pleasure underlying her tone of voice, tried not to be aware of the fact that she didn't want him to talk yet. She grabbed a hold of his leg, wrapping her talons around it to secure him and grabbed a hand with her hands, breaking a finger. Finally he screamed, sending a thrill of joy through Meld. That was what she had been waiting for. "Where is Predator," she asked. The officer swore obscenities at her and she broke a second finger. "Where is Predator," she demanded again. More swearing followed by a backhand across the face by Meld.

2 fingers later and Meld transfered her tender affections from breaking fingers to drawing blood, starting with his wrist and moving up his arm to his underarm, an area she knew to be particularly sensitive. She couldn't understand why he was being so stubborn about maintaining his silence and more than that she couldn't understand the joy she was getting out of these horrific acts that she was committing. His silence could be explained. Maybe Predator had killed someone close to him or maybe he had some other personal stake, but what about her own personal joy? How had she come to take pleasure in the suffering of others? How had she come to look forward to each new trickle of blood and each new scream, louder and more agonized than the last? She feared for her new sadistic joy at such activities, feared that she had finally lost her soul to the cause she had dedicated her entire existence to. Did this mean that she was no longer even slightly human? Was she finally the monster she had always feared that she was becoming? Was she no more than a soulless creature dedicated to the mutant cause? Was her only joy in life now to be the acts she committed to further that cause?

Or was it even worse than that? Could this newfound joy mean that she had fallen so far that the cause itself took a secondary seat to the joy she gained from the violence and the death? She felt nothing of what a normal person felt, not pain or pleasure so perhaps it was inevitable that she would become addicted to the feelings of power and control she gained in the violence against others and was torture not the strongest most direct form of control that there was? Here she was with this human in her claws and the knowledge that he would do anything she demanded of him. He was hers to do as she wished, hers to hurt as she wished, hers to spare his life or snuff it out in an instant. She knew this was something wrong, something she should run from as fast as she could. It was evil, pure and simple, a sort of evil that she had never before been and rarely before even encountered. And yet...and yet what else was there for her? She knew that there would never be any other pleasure for her, she could never feel close to another because she could never feel and how fair was it to be with someone when she couldn't truly be with them? And was it so horrible to want some sort of pleasure, twisted and dark though this was? Her mind screamed to her "no!" and that is was wrong and yet...

Abruptly Meld dropped the officer and stepped away, horrified and barely noticing as he crumpled to the ground in an agonized heap. What was she becoming? What had she become? And could she ever go back to what she once was?

Meld dropped the man, and Aura assume dit was to let him breath, Aura rolled the man over, and slapped him a few times to make sure he was still awake. Still in his condition he tried to put up a defence against Aura likely feeling she was weaker then Meld. Aura cought the fist with her hand, and with a smile, Aura forced a spike of her aura to emerge from her palm quickly dhooting forward, blood came out of his hand, but aura had been tacticle, she was only cut into him. He Yanked his hand back, but in Aura right hand was a police service revolver and the cop knew she could not miss at this range.

"See, my friend you really should have told, Meld what you knew, she might have let you live, im not as gentile" she said, she fired low, but close, Aura's shot embedded itself deep in the officers knee, and he fell unable to walk on it. While he was distracted Aura, cut his belt from him and kicked away his radio. She found what she wnated and sprayed the can of mace, directly into the officers eyes, while he nursed his knee. "Sing to me what you know, Hero, sing it and die quickly, don't and well, i can keep you alive for days, in a place whare no one will even care your screaming. You rmember what happoned when you tried to oppose us before, you were massacerred at the gates of the sanctuary. "Your death is asured my freind" she whisperd into hsi ear moving around him like a predator. "Still.....if that's not enough, im pretty sure your wife or gf, your kids or your dog will be happy to blame you for their funerals" she said, their was no hint of joy or remorse in her voice, it was practiced and cold.

The cop was very stupid or very brave, both would get him the same responce. Aura formed a drill around her hand, and made it spin rapidly and held it to the man's neck. "So would you like me to use your large insteince to hang those you love or the small one? becuse the next one is for your freinds in the police" she said, the man seemed panicked. He tried to say somthing but stopped when Aura gave him a stare but dropped her drill, and handed the man his ticket book to write the adress on it. He scribbeled somthing down and then slid it torward Meld.

Aura pointed her service pistal at the man and fired five more shots into him all at almost point blank ranger to his wounded leg and the last into his midsection. He Screamed, and for that Aura swung her hammer, into the side of his head, his jaw shatterd, peices of bone struck the brick wall behind him, as a massive amount of blood began to pour from his moulth, he girgled for just a minutes before finnaly passing out in deaths grip.

"He really should have told you, oh well onto the fortress of doom or wharever this place is" she said as if nothng happoned. "Well that should be the first of many on this trip, though most will be quicker thankfully. "Your my best friend, Meld, and considering the danger of rescueing Pred-head, their is no one i would rather have at my back. The first person after my old friends died, whom i could say as much about" She said seriously. Not becuse she knew what Meld was going through, but becuse she knew it might be the last time any of them were alive.

Meld retained only a distant awareness of the fact that Aura was continuing with the officer where she had left off. She barely registered his screams and when he handed her the paper with the scribbled address she barely glanced at it. She simply stood there, shock and horror running through her mind in equal measures. She had always known that she was good at what she did, always known that she was willing to do whatever was necessary for the task at hand. Except for kill, she had never done that in the past. And then she had gained a higher calling, a higher cause, and suddenly killing seemed perfectly acceptable. And she was good at that too. But this...this joy at the pain of this man, this human...it was too much, too much for her to wrap her head around. What had she become?

The sound of gunshots brought Meld back to some place at least a little closer to reality. She glanced at Aura and then she glanced at the dead officer, the officer that she had helped to torture and to kill. And she felt nothing at seeing his bloody corpse lying crumpled on the ground and that lac of feeling almost scared her more than the pleasure she had felt while she had been torturing him. At least pleasure was a feeling, it was something to remind her that she still had a soul, that despite all actions she had taken she was still, in some way, human. Or at least mutant. But this lack of feeling...What did it mean? Shouldn't she feel something at his death? Horror or regret or something? But she felt nothing, nothing at all. Or, perhaps, a slight regret that she wouldn't be able to continue that which had given her joy only a few minutes before.

Meld suddenly came to the awareness that Aura was speaking to her and she pulled her consciousness back to the moment at hand. She nodded distantly, acknowledging the other's words. She felt the same way but wasn't that part of the problem? Shouldn't she feel something beyond loyalty and friendship to this girl who was plainly such a cold hearted killer? Shouldn't she feel disgust or horror or something, knowing that her respect for human life was so little? Instead she felt kinship and respect and even a little admiration. And that surely couldn't be right, could it?

"What have I become," Meld whispered to herself, unaware that she had even spoken her thoughts out loud. "How did I become this monster? When did I lose my humanity?" Finally she looked at Aura, her soul bared in her eyes. She felt like crying but knew it wouldn't do any good. She felt like screaming but what was the point? So instead she did nothing, just stood there staring. And that didn't do any good either. She was what she was and nothing she could do could change that. Could it?