as written by Script and Lisanna
Vex grinned, lifting up the mask enough to show his face. His features were boyishly pretty - a little narrow, but finely formed - but what stood out the most were his eyes. As fox-like as the mask he wore over them, they were coloured a dark but vibrant red and were very clearly unnatural, much like Alena's own.
"It's complicated," he started to answer. "It's not to hide my identi-"
He was cut off before he could finish, as the gunshot rang out. His smiled faded into a frown and he let his mask drop back into place. "Is there another way back you can go? Sounds like trouble ahead."
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She was no longer listening to the cute boy watching her, her eye's fixed in the general direction of her home and before she knew it she'd stepped into a frantic sprint, her breath coming short and deliberate, fueling her to move faster, as fast as she could. But like any abnormal person, she ran towards the gun shot instead of away, looping around the building, over the bridge and towards the back of her house.
Her mind was racing quicker than her legs, tears streaking down her cheeks as she thought of the worst, It wasn't them, it was somewhere else... They'll be there, preparing the fire. She tried to persuade herself to believe, though she couldn't smell smoke, couldn't hear the hamming of nails in wood boards, couldn't hear anything, not yet, now just meters from her house, and potentially her doom.
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"Ehhh..? Don't run towards the danger!" Vex groaned to himself as Alena ran off. He sighed, running a hand through his hair and resigning himself to what was to come. "Girl's lucky I owe her for the lizards," he muttered. Loosening his sword in its sheathe, he darted after her. His form shimmered as he ran, and once more, slipped from visibility.
Thus hidden, it was a simple matter to overtake Alena - with only an unusual brush of air to mark his passing - following the sound of the gunshot and the screaming. He took a perch on the edge of a half-demolished wall, looking out at the looters and their victims to try and get a feel for their numbers and how heavily they were armed.
There were two lookouts immediately visible, one on either side of a large military-style truck, armed with what looked like military grade assault rifles. Neither of the two looked military, though - going by the lack of uniforms, at least. As he watched, another two emerged from one of the buildings with bags full of looted supplies. One of them was carrying a shotgun, the other a pistol. All four had radios. There was another truck parked opposite the first. Both of them had been fitted with what looked like makeshift spears around their beds, presumably to discourage attempted boardings.
If there were two trucks, that meant there would be plenty more of them inside. It was way too dangerous to even consider confronting them. They were all armed - probably from some sort of military cache - and spirits only knew what kind of less visible dangers they posed in the way of magic or metahuman abilities.
Besides, the small cluster of bodies at the side of the road suggested that the damage had already been done.
Vex sighed, and was about to hop down from the wall to intercept Alena before she arrived, when he heard frantic footsteps approaching from the direction of the bridge.
Oh, fuck. Too slow.
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The sound of her footsteps slowed and then disappeared almost all together, she walked the last few meters to her house as her chest rose and fell heavily, leaning over and resting her hands on her thighs as she caught her breath she listened to the crashing and smashing of the houses in front of her. Looters, she immediately assumed, though she could be wrong, but it was unlikely.
Keeping to the shadows of her wall next to her, letting the over grown vines and shrubbery hide her body from immediate view, she watched through the back door of her house a small window at the top showed what was going on inside, she couldn't see straight through but to one side, near the counter top of her kitchen, the cupboards all opened, food, water, essential supplies all being shoved into bags, boxes, whatever they could fit in. Alena placed down her own bags in the bushes out of sight for now.
She was about to move out of her cover as two men with bags walked across the alley way between the two houses, once gone she slowly made her way down that alleyway, crouching down low as she peered out into the street, her heart skipping several beats as she saw the pile of bloodied bodies on the ground, one man vomiting in a garden.
"I... I'm alone... What do I do?-"
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"Preferably not commit suicide by gang," Vex said, slipping out of the shadows at Alena's side, having silently descended from his perch. He crouched next to her, his mask pulled up to the top of his head to show his face. His expression was grim with sympathy. "It's not what you wanna hear right now, but you can't stay here. They'll spot you eventually, and you really don't want that."
His eyes stayed locked on the street, wary of any of the men that so much as glanced in their direction. "I know you don't know me, lady, but I don't wanna see you die here. We should get some distance, then you can worry about what next."
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She held her breath when she heard his voice, it was closer than she thought, but hushed, still she felt her heart faltering again, and at this rate suspected a heart attack was lurking around the corner, though she decided to deal with that later. "No, I don't want death by gang... But I don't want to leave them piled up like that either-" She was quite compassionate, and even though there were dead, well, she hoped they were, she wanted them to experience a real burial. "But..." The more she thought about the task the less appealing it seemed, "Perhaps getting myself killed in the process is not an exceptionally good idea."
She battled with her feelings, her eyes closed for a moment. "I just need a favor." Her eyes now on Vex, her lips twitching when she saw his expression, it was deathly serious, but he couldn't help but look boyish whilst doing it, some could say it was an advantage as well as a disadvantage.
She gestured to her house, "There's a photo, of my family... I need it."
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Vex sighed, setting his jaw with frustration in a manner that could easily have been mistaken for a pout. Sentimentality. It would get him killed, one day. And this time it wasn't even his sentimentality that was the problem.
"Where is it?" he asked, rubbing at his forehead. "Which room? If I can get it safely, I will. But I'm not dying for a photo. A stranger's photo. You're seriously lucky I owe you for the lizard thing. And that I used to do this for a living. Sort of."
When he'd snuck into houses to steal things before, the occupants had generally either not been there, or had been asleep. Not heavily armed and actively looking for interlopers. At least he had the mask.
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She hesitated "If you do not wish to help me further you don't have to... Telling me about the zombies was more than enough repayment.." She frowned and began to get up, the photos were in the living room, right next to the window. "They're right near the window, so you might be seen. I don't want you risking your life.. for a stranger.."
She walked back to the bushes and picked up her bag, looking back at Vex and the houses.
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Vex waved a dismissive hand. "Nah, I'll just feel bad later. Wait here. I'll see what I can do. Just be ready to run if it comes to it. Not many people can see through my shrouding, but it's happened before."
With that he lowered the mask, and before her eyes, vanished in a ripple of shadow. "I'll be back before you know it," his disembodied voice reassured her. No footsteps announced his departure, but after a few seconds of silence, it was clear he was gone.
Vex stepped out into the street beneath the mask's shroud, hesitating just a moment to make sure that neither of the lookouts had any abilities that would let them spot him despite it. When they didn't react, he breathed a soft sigh of relief, and headed for the door to the house. He slipped silently past another pair of men emerging from it - one carrying a composite bow, and the other a rifle - and into the hallway.
There was a woman in the living room with a modern crossbow on her back, but she was to preoccupied with rifling through the house's 'man drawer' in search of batteries and other useful bits and bobs to pay attention to the photo by the window vanishing from sight. Vex slipped the picture, frame and all, into his satchel. Easy, he thought to himself. I bet I could probably take all of these losers out if I was so inclined.
Okay, he probably couldn't do that, but it was nice to think about. They deserved it, certainly, going by the corpses out front.
With the photo acquired, he slunk once again towards the door. Or he was about to, when he spotted something glimmering at the belt of the woman in the room. His eyes were inexorably drawn towards it, lighting up with glee. Strapped to her thigh was an ornate-looking dagger, its golden pommel inlaid with a shimmering ruby. He could almost smell the magic on it from here.
I need this.
Drawing close to the woman, he drew on the mask's power and laid a haze over her senses, leaving them dulled. She stopped what she was doing, swaying on the spot as her mind faded into a daze. With precision born from years of pickpocketing practice, Vex unstrapped the scabbard from her thigh and stuffed it into his bag. Whoever said that good deeds didn't go rewarded?
"Thank you, karma," he murmured under his breath as he hastily made his exit. He'd almost reached the alley again when he heard a voice coming from the door.
"Hey, what happened to my dagger? Has anyone seen it?"
Suppressing his giggling, Vex ducked into the alley and let his shroud drop again, the photo held extended in his hand towards Alena.
"Tadah!" he quietly proclaimed, grinning. "Now, let's get outta here."
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Alena watched in amazement as Vex disappeared with the shadows, and couldn't stop her mind from becoming confused when she heard his voice but could't place where it was coming from, with a nod she lent against the wall and hid behind the leaves, there were no footsteps, but she dared not call out to him.
After a few minutes of silence she saw two looters walk from the building, practically holding her breath she'd hoped she hadn't sent him to his death, but she heard no commotion, no guns or cries so she made the decision he'd gotten in alright and out-
"Tadah!" Vex exclaimed, his hand held out to her with the photo, complete in its case.
A smirk grew on her lips taking it from him gently and placing it in the bag, "Thank you, I knew you'd get in and out without a problem." She straightened up and began walking from the houses, though she wasn't sure where she'd go, they had to get away from the area before they were spotted.