unexpected friends

Faith was very aware of the fact that they were being followed. The men were sloppy. But she wasn't sure if it was intended or not. Some people wanted it to be known, to strike fear into the hearts of those they were pursuing. But it was stupid beyond belief. She felt her muscles tense in preparation for immediate action, as they entered the ally. She was well aware of her natural advantages. They would help, though she'd have to be careful not to leave her charge behind if they had to run. She wondered if Anne knew how brave she was being. She doubted it. Very few people knew when they were truly being brave.

Faith further eased out her blades unobtrusively. Not quite out of their scabbards, they'd be a lot less easy to hide out of the scabbards, but she would not slow herself down any more than she absolutely had to. Nor was she going to put any real distance between her and Anne. She was ready for anything.
 
Nervously Anne looked at Faith at her side. She seemed focussed, Anne continued walking silently not wanting to make unpredictable sounds that would distract the woman. Something in the way the woman moved made her believe that she knew what she was doing or at the very most she was very good at pretending she knew what she was doing.

Behind her, the two men walked up closer and closer to the woman. When Anne reached the end of the alley, she glanced one more time at Faith to gather strength before she turned around to face the two men. The slightly taller man with the moustache smiled and shook his head, “Stupid little girl, you really made it easy for us, Annemarie,” he said, speaking in Dutch witch a heavy polish accent. The fact that the man knew her name made her scared but, she wasn’t just afraid she was also furious. How dare the man talk to her like that, she wasn’t stupid nor was she completely helpless she would show him. The girl looked the man as brave as she possibly could, “What do you want from me?” she said in a tone that scared even her.
 
Holt kept his distance and hid behind a dumpster. They were too close, but nobody was getting hurt just yet. He found this to be the perfect chance to figure out what all of this was about.

Holt unholstered his gun and was ready to use it. But it was his ears that were getting used more than anything, at least for the time being.
 
Faith's eyes narrowed. She simply could not believe these people were admitting they were following the girls. She had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes. They could be competent, but for some reason were being obvious. Or they could be highly incompetent. She allowed her gaze to roam over the two men, reading body language and facial expressions trying to determine just how competent they were.

Faith kept herself from narrowing her eyes in speculation. She kept her body relaxed, but ready. She wasn't sure if she should show fear. After all, they technically weren't after her. But that didn't mean she shouldn't "be afraid" of them. After all, for all they knew, she wasn't going to be a threat to them.

Faith decided not to bother adopting an air of fear, though the wariness was very real, and she did allow that to show. Someone who didn't know what they were doing could mistake it for fear, in a pinch. Though if they were professionals that had decided to be obvious to try to instill more fear, then they likely wouldn't be fooled.
 
“So, so, brave little girl, I am impressed,” the man with the moustache said smiling, “I only need you to ask a question, someone seemed to find you important enough to pay us for stalking you around and I want to know why,” he continued as pulled a gun, he didn’t aimed for her just hold it. It was enough to scare Anne into being a bit more careful with what she was saying. Not that she wasn’t angry anymore at them, her fear just grew that big that she didn’t dare to show it anymore. “I have no idea where you talking about, you must have the wrong one,” she said whilst she did a couple steps backwards. She spoke in English so Faith could also understand her.

“I don’t believe you,” the other man, closer to Faith said in English as he put his hands on his gun, clearly visible. Scared Anne looked over at Faith, “I really don’t know,” she repeated, not knowing what to do or say to make the man believe her.
 
Holt held his position, for this was getting very interesting. He couldn't tell who was more clueless. Anne or these two fools.

If he was going to find out, he was going to need to stay silent and listen.

He only wished he had something to drink while doing it.
 
Faith could have laughed in their faces. These two didn't know what they were doing. Or maybe they didn't care. They were close enough that she could take the man's gun before he could get a shot off. A gun's effective range actually went down the closer you were to someone. When it came down to a game of reaction times, the faster person won. And this close, with how long it took to register someone had moved and react, not to mention aim and fire, and most normal people could do what Faith was considering. For Faith, with her faster reaction times, taking the gun would be a piece of cake.

Then Faith made herself stop going down that line. She wasn't sure if the other man had a gun, and while she was distracted he could very easily draw any weapons he did have and try to use it. She wasn't going to do her charge much good if she got Anne killed trying to save her. She was just going to have to wait for her chance, and hope Carl would be quick enough himself to help her out.

Finally, Faith registered what the man had said. They were getting paid? By who? Then she saw the other man's gun. This was getting dangerous, and she saw the scared look Anne gave her. Faith moved gracefully, almost casually, guiding Anne behind her, into as safe a spot as she could, interposing herself between Anne and the men. "Why do you think she knows why you're getting paid to stalk her? Wouldn't that be a better question to ask your employer? Maybe you should tell us who hired you, and we'll see if we can get an answer for you." Her voice, once kind and friendly, was cold and hard. It had lost all emotion, and her eyes blazed with determination. This could be a mistake, but if she got hurt, she'd survive better than Anne.
 
“What do you think I am, stupid? Of course, I am not telling you,” the man with moustache said smiling. Then turned around and said something to his partner Anne couldn’t understand1, but it must be funny because, his partner smiled back showing a crooked row of teeth and answered something back in the same language2, what Anne assumed must be Polish.

“Alright then, Let's go to business,” the man with the moustache said as he aimed his gun on the woman. “So young lady, maybe you know something, she doesn’t know. I don’t really care who tells, but, it better be good, I didn’t go to all this trouble to find out you are just her long lost daughter or something stupid,” he said.

Anne looked at what happened from behind Faith. Shortly she looked behind her, she was just a couple of meters(around 6 feet) away from the wall that indicated the end of the alley. There was one port they could flee through but, they would end up in other peoples garden. That is if they didn’t lock the thing. Nervously Anne looked behind the man if Carl would want to do something he had to do it fast.

……….
Just in case Holt speaks Polish for some reason, here is what they said:
1“You hear that? The girl thinks we are stupid”
2“Let’s show them they can’t mess around with us, shall we?”
 
"I guess this is where I come in..." Holt thought as he made his way to the middle of the alley. It was unfortunate that he learned nothing. A gentle breeze brushed over his covered face as he got into his stance. His firearm still holstered, and his knife at the ready. "They aren't the ones you should be trying to scare, my friends." he stated in a rough tone. "Because the only way I see this ending is with the two of you laying in a pool of your own blood.".

He said as he looked at the two girls he was trying to protect. No doubt it must have seemed irresponsible the way he just sat around as they were getting threatened. But the truth is, this is the most fun he had in years. He couldn't remember the last time he came across someone this inept at their job. It would seem that they were so inept that Faith had to pretend to be scared. That was interesting to say the least.

Holt stood firm as the rainwater from the day before coursed underneath him. The filthy air of the streets making it's presence known to all. The sun was beginning to settle and the clouds were beginning to show. It would seem it was going to rain this night as well.

"The only way I see you coming out of this alive is if you put your guns on the ground and leave. But not before telling us who sent you." he demanded. "So? What will it be, gentlemen?"
 
Faith watched with interest. They were smart, that much was clear. She kept deliberately between Anne and the men, even when Carl came over to intervene, she didn't move. Her eyes were dark and cold, waiting for their response. She kept her muscles loose, but she was still ready.

Faith wished she had a translator with her. It wouldn't help Anne with any languages she didn't know, but it would help Faith out a ton. At least then she could feign ignorance while still being able to hear anything someone said. She knew people often said things in a language if they thought you couldn't understand, that they wouldn't say if one could understand the other language.
 
The two men turned around rapidly as Carl came out of the place he hid. Anne breath out in relieve but, didn’t allow herself to relax completely, they weren’t out of danger yet. The man with the moustache started to laugh, “I don’t know if you can count but, it is two of us against one of you. Do you really think you can beat us both,” he said.

Then he looked over at his partner, to say something in their native language. The man nodded and pointed his gun at the two girls whilst the man with the moustache kept Carl undershot. Anne glanced back over her shoulder at the gate and tried to estimate if the two of us could run through it before getting shot. She normally isn’t the kind of person that would run but, she didn’t want to get trap here if they started firing guns.

The man without the moustache, however, did notice “Don’t you run,” he said in English but with a very heavy polish accent as he pulled the trigger. As in a instinct Anne let her self fall and covered her head. When she realized nothing had happened she looked up. The men that needed to keep her in check was occupied with making the gun work under while cursing in Polish. Anne saw her chance, jumped on her feet and ran through to the gate. In her relive it wasn’t locked and the thing flew open as he turned around to call Faith, she looked right into the eyes of the man with the moustache.

He started cussing on his partner and fired in their direction, on the same time Anne jumped into the garden and yelled at Faith to follow but, her voice was lost in the noise of the gunshot.
 
Anne and Faith ran and the two idiots holding the guns forgot to turn the safety off. Unbeleivable, and to think that someone out there thought it would be a good idea to hire them was even more baffling.

Holt took a deep breath and quick drew his gun. They barely had any time to turn around before he shot the one with a mustache in the heart and his companion in the head. It was short work, that was certain. He holstered his gun and exhaled. "Stop running! I took care of them." Holt shouted "Looks like I kept my promise...". Holt waited for a response, and after a few seconds he went to see if everything was alright.

As he did, a voice at the back of his head was telling him that all of this could have been avoided.
 
Faith took off behind Anne, keeping her own body between Anne and the weapons. She moved faster than Anne could have, but Anne, with a head start made it out first. As Faith made her way toward the gate, she heard the gun shot and felt a pain in her side. She knew she'd been hit, but she kept moving. It wasn't serious, she was pretty sure. As she got to the gate, she saw Anne just standing there looking back.

Faith pulled Anne down, low to the ground and threw her own body on top of Anne protectively. She kept them in that position until Holt called to state that they could stop running. She pushed herself up off Anne and offered her hand to the other woman. "Well, that was exciting." She said blandly. In fact, it was almost sarcastic it was so bland and she wondered if Anne would find it funny.
 
More gunshots were heard behind her as she felt Faith jumping on top of her on the ground. As the girl rolled away from her, she got onto her knees. “I prefer boring stuff, over this,” Anne answered the girl as she looked at her. “Oh you are hit,” she brought out as she noticed the bloodstains and instead of taking her hand she leaned forward to see how bad the woman was hurt. “I am sorry, ”she said, technically she didn’t shot the woman but, it was because of her that she came in this position.

The man with the moustache didn’t even had time to scream when the bullet rushes through his hart, causing him to bleed to death in a couple of minutes. His partner who finally got the safety of his gun did manage to shoot in the direction of Carl before collapsing on the floor. The bullet didn’t even came close to the man and buried itself in a wall.
 
"Shit..."Holt said as his eyes met with the bulletwound on Faith's side. "Well, we're going to need to get that fixed." Holt said as he offered a hand out for them to stand up. He didn't expect for them to actually hit anithing when they shot. "I recommend you keep your eyes off of the corpses.".
 
“I didn’t get hit anywhere that can’t wait until we get somewhere safe.” Faith said. She pushed herself up onto her knees, then, took Carl’s hand to help her get to her feet. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she realized just how much the wound hurt. Though she’d been through worse. It wasn’t life threatening, and it shouldn’t slow her. “To be fair, Anne, I did get in the way. If I hadn’t, he might have hit you, so it’s entirely my fault that I got hurt. Well, my fault and the guy who fired on us. It’s not your fault at all.”
 
Clark hadn't made it very far on his own. So far he'd managed to change his looks. He had grey eyes now, brown hair that stuck in almost every direction and lightly tanned complexion. For once this strange human, Holt had not chased him and he was curious what Holt found interesting about the females. The only thing he couldn't have was the jacket. Clark finished the last of his pancakes before he discarded the jacket and decided to go stand on a street corner.

The street corner provided a good view of the little place he had been eating at and he watched the females walk out with Holt. Perhaps they were more important targets. He wanted to take them and turn them in. However, Clark couldn't figure out why. The these females were not like him at all. They appeared to be the same kind as Holt. Whenever they walked or moved along he followed at a distance. Holt disappeared from the immediate view and Clark felt his heart start to race. Did he know that he had come back to watch? Were the females a trap?

While he was shifting uneasily on his feet and turning slightly as if to walk away he suddenly caught sight of the men that started to close in on the females. This was a different sort of trap. Holt was a hunter of sorts and he had made a deal to hunt someone that was clearly hunting the females. Standing in place he watched as the men started to close in on the females. Perhaps they were friends of Holt. There were other people that had started to watch too, though they held out little devices to capture the moment. It was as if this entire world was blind. The humans saw, but they did nothing to prevent, or change the future. This made a very good place to be. In a flash of a moment it seemed that the men had closed in and there were multiple pops of weapons. This was something he'd seen in their bad holograms here on earth and Clark knew the men were dead. Holt looked comfortable with what he'd done and now Clark knew this was a good place to be. All he had to do was get back to his ship and make the signal. They were going to blend here just fine and no one would do much if they needed a city to themselves.

The only remaining ingredient to this little quest was to be sure that there was enough metal and the planet was simply too large for him to work on it on his own. He needed to make contact and then more could come and they would spread out. As soon as the action was over people continued their day. A few looked concerned and they held their little devices to the sides of their faces. A few had done that since the beginning and then the ringing of sirens sounded. Clark knew what that meant. If there was one person he needed it was Holt. He had to get back to his ship and he had to figure out how to say that in this strange human language.

Marching right into the small group of people Clark nudged Holt. The man had to know that they all needed to be leaving soon and Clark knew where he wanted Holt to take him. "Holt." Saying the man's name he took a step away and beckoned to him.
 
Holt turned and saw the strange man. It took him a few seconds to register, but then it fell on him like bag of bricks. It was that damn alien.

"Well where have you been. Actually nevermind, forget I asked." he said with zero enthusiasm.

He turned to the two girls and spoke "This is my friend Clark. Don't mind him, he's a strange fellow." he pointed out. "I suggest you come with us, unless you want to spend some time at the police station as a witness to a murder.".

"We just need to get to my car and get out of here before the cops show up." he offered in a lighter tone. "I'll take you someplace where we can look at that wound. You can both come."

He still couldn't believe that Clark found him. In truth, he was enjoying his absence.
 
Anne gave Faith a worried look. She didn’t know much of bullet wounds but, as far as she knew they mostly needed care as soon as possible. The girl shook her head, “but, you wouldn’t be there if not for me,” she said as she followed Carl, doing her best not to look in direction of the two men that lay lifeless on the ground. But, she couldn’t resist peeking, as she saw them laying there in a pool of blood she felt the content of her stomach come up. She managed to keep it inside as she walked further trying not to step on them.

Anne tensed up and studied the new man that walked up. Hold an interesting greet, she thought, “Hey, I am Anne,” she introduced herself, wondering how many weird friends the man had, that barely spoke a word English. She didn’t like it one bit to, step into the car with the two strange men. The presence of the woman did help a bit. She literally just a catched a bullet for her. So she could be pretty sure she could trust her. Still, she felt not comfortable, as sirens came closer she realized she had no other choice to come with the man. So ignoring all advise her father had always given her she followed the man to his car whilst she asked, “Where are you bringing us?”
 
"I'm taking you somewhere where we could lay low and I could take a look her wound." Holt explained. "It was pretty brave of her to jump in like that. That kind of kindness is har to come by... Consider yourself lucky." he state d as he gave Faith a strange look.

He was going to take them to the Hotel he was staying. Or rather he and Clark were staying. It has also come to his attention that Clark mentioned Holt's real name. Witch would become a problem if they were paying any attention.

They all sat in the car shortly after. Holt was driving, Clark sat next to him, and the two girls were in the back. "Now remember, keep presure on the wound, it won't take long for us to get there." he stated in a serious tone. He looked at the cars front mirror "Speeking of wounds, how are you doing back there?" he asked, his voice showing genuine concern.
 
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