♚|| 1x1 with Phire Fenix ||♚

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________
Dark nodded his own greeting, taking in the bright faces carefully. They seemed a nice enough bunch, and if they were all as good as Anika, they would do alright. However, they would need to be on their toes. Any complacency could have a fatal ending. "Stay behind me. Don't talk unless Jason talks to you first, and even if he does, answer politely and vaguely. Give him no details of anything personal." With that, Dark placed his hand on the glass door of the Emporium and pushed, leading the way inside.

As soon as the last person's foot crossed the threshold, the lights in the previously dingy shop burst into life, stuttering slightly before revealing a room that was larger than it looked from the outside and contained a wide array of seemingly random items. Miniature carousels and popcorn machines, Victorian styled coats, Georgian wigs and plates and spoons of every sort. Tearing his eyes away from the queer spectacles, Kanra eyes the small gathering behind him. "Don't touch anything. Jason," He called out, tapping the counter with his fingers impatiently, "we need to talk."
"Talk then. I'll listen." The voice echoed around the store, coming from everywhere at once. Near the back, something fell over with a loud crash as the lights fluttered before returning to their stable state. Although he exuded nonchalance, Dark's hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly. He'd never liked dealing with Jason. He was creepy as hell and seemed to get a kick out of scaring his clients. Like a Halloween obsessed version of Kirai.
"The Jishin. We need supplies, a base and information. Are you willing to make a deal with me?"
"Probably. Depends though, doesn't it? I like this one, are you going to keep her?" This time, the voice came directly behind Anika, and Kanra spun on his heel, alarm on his face. "What an expression, you think I'm going to steal her from under your nose?" Jason laughed, and Dark took his strange appearance in again for the first time in a few years. There was nothing physically wrong with him, but something about him put people on edge, pointed him out as different, and it wasn't just his clothes. Jason wore a gaudy purple top hat, with a matching suit and tail coat, with black boots with toes that curled upwards like a jester's. On his hands were pitch gloves, with yellow claws to match the trim on his hat and dress pants, going well with his messy, blonde hair. However, the most sinister thing about Jason was the deep indigo blindfold that covered his eyes. As far as Dark knew, no one had ever seen underneath, but it seemed Jason could see perfectly.
"Hasn't been the first time, Jason."
Jason chuckled, sliding out of the middle of the group and moving back behind the counter. "Of course not. You always pick up such pretty subordinates, Kanra. I wonder what it is about you? Maybe some people like the murderer vibe you hav-" Dark cut him off by slamming a hand down on the surface between them.
"Will you help or not?"
"What's your name?" Jason tilted his head as he looked directly at Anika. He ignored Dark completely. "Just so I can design the headstone right.."


♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________
-Ahaha more stuff-


♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________
Zenin twitched, instinctively trying to move away from Aephon's foot on his shoulder, but the table prevented his escape. "Liar.." Aephon murmured quietly in response to Alex's exclamation. He raised his arm, and in his gloved hand was a handgun. He cocked it in the Black Coat's direction, aiming.
"Jason's! Jason's Emporium!" Zenin blurted out, eyes moving quickly from the weapon to Alex and back, frustration written all over his face. Zenin hated information leakage, and betraying Dark's trust. He couldn't help it though. Otherwise Alex's life would be at forfeit. Everything rested on Aephon getting the answers he wanted, unless Zenin and Alex wanted to be wiping each other off the walls.
"Good. You're learning. Next question. Who has he got with him? I've seen a girl, not a Black Coat. Tell me about her. I know you've done your research, Kirai." Zenin felt like screaming out loud. How could he protect both Kanra and Alex? To save one he had to betray the other. It was an impossible situation. If things continued, he would end up selling out not only Dark, but the entire Black Coat gang; he would single-handedly carry out its extinction.


♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________
Aephon looked down at Zenin's agonized expression indifferently, before slowly and deliberately pointing the muzzle of the handgun at the broker's other shoulder. "You're taking too long to answer. At this range, you might even lose that arm if I pull the trigger. Permanent nerve damage. Wouldn't that be a shame?" Zenin said nothing, seeming to consider his next words. Obviously, he would need more encouragement. The girl must've been more important than Aephon gave her credit for. "Stella. On the count of three, shoot Alex somewhere non-vital. Hear that, Zenin? You have till three. On three, you'll lose an arm and Alex will get shot. One..two..."

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Zenin, Aephon, Stella

Alex flinched away when Aephon raised the gun towards him. When Zenin answered, Alex was surprised, but probably shouldn't have been. Of course Zenin knew more than he did. He gnawed on his lip, frustrated and angry at himself and everybody around him. Why? If he wasn't so weak, then they wouldn't be in this position. So much pressure was put on Zenin, and... He hated seeing the person he loved suffer, but he also hated the fact that they were revealing information about his gang, and he basically was a traitor now. It was all too much to think about, and the dam broke. He started sobbing, unable to hold back his emotions. He was too ashamed to look at Zenin, and hung his head low, not wanting Kirai to see him cry so pathetically. When he caught Aephon's next words, he shuddered, horrified at the thought of Zenin being shot again.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Dark

Anika looked around in awe at the wide assortment of objects scattered around the room. She watched her subordinates, making sure they were all following Dark's instructions. After giving them a once-over, she turned back to Dark. She was happy with this group; the could follow orders and were capable. When Jason first spoke, she whipped around, trying to find where he was. His voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. When her search was fruitless, she turned back to Dark. The next time he spoke, she whirled around, flinching away from how close he was to her. He certainly did look weird, especially with the blindfold.

When Jason asked about her, Anika was about to answer. "I..." However, she trailed off, looking at Dark to see if it was okay to tell him her name. After all, he had said no personal information.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Aephon, Zenin, Alex

Hm. This was new. Zenin was caught between a lover and one of his clients. Well, actually, giving information on the Black Coats would be endangering many people in Jigoku itself. Well, it just made Zenin more vulnerable anyway. Stella cocked her gun, aiming at Alex's thigh, so that even if the two of them did get out of this alive, Alexander would just be dead weight. As she saw the man cry, she almost scoffed. She hated weak people. Especially emotionally weak people. But she guessed that in a situation like this with Aephon... No, she believed that Aephon was strong enough to handle himself. This would never happen to him. Plus she couldn't have wavering feelings at a time like this. She kept her aim steady, ready to fire at any moment.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark shook his head gently, before clearing his throat to try and bring Jason's attention away from Anika. However, the Emporium owner was not dissuaded so easily. He lent on the counter top, resting his chin on a black gloved hand with his head tilted slightly. "How about I guess? Or, even better," his blank gaze switched to Dark, finally, but not the way he wanted. "I haven't had visitors for a while, let's play a game. For every piece of info I give, or request I grant, you also have to give me something in return. Yes?" Dark swallowed hard, frustration evident in the clench of his jaw. If only Zenin hadn't gotten himself injured... injured? A perfect target for Aephon, and with Alex there as well.. That must have been where they were going! Ignoring Jason, Dark turned to Anika and mouthed 'Aephon has Zenin'.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-Ahaha more stuff-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

"Wait!" Zenin snapped, grimacing as Alex's sobs sounded in the tense silence. "Stop trying to shoot everyone. The girl. Why do you want to know about her? She doesn't pose much of a threat, trust me I know."
"I'm asking the questions. You're answering."
Zenin sighed in defeat, throwing his head back on the carpet as he struggled to think of a way out of the situation they were in. He came up empty. "Her name is Anika. Anika Williams." I'm so sorry, Kanra. All of your careful planning down the drain because of my carelessness. So lost in his thoughts, it took him a moment to realise Aephon had frozen up, staring pointedly at the gun in his hand. Kirai frowned. Did Aephon know her? His reaction was not one of triumph at gaining the information he sought, but of slight panic, bubbling below the surface of his blank mask. Kirai smiled. "Yes, Anika Williams. Very nice girl, comes from a darker part of town, so her upbringing wasn't great, but-" The gun in Aephon's fist clicked against Zenin's forehead. "Stop talking. I don't want to know about her. Tell me about her gang."

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Unbeknownst to everyone else in the room, Aephon's hand shook slightly as he pressed the muzzle against the broker's skull. He couldn't imagine what might happen of Stella found out the truth. Even if he picked her up as a substitute all those years ago, she was as close to him as a real sister by the same blood now. If Zenin found out, his one weakness would be exploited, but if he attempted to move Zenin and himself into another room, he would lose the advantage of having Alex as his hostage. Although his face showed nothing but a cold indifference, inside, the first dregs of panic were beginning to stir.

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Zenin, Aephon, Stella

When Aephon pressed the gun to Kirai's head again, Alex's eyes widened, and the tears came back full force. "Please..." He whimpered quietly, looking up pleadingly at the girl who had bound him. She was the only person he could reach, and he knew it wouldn't do him any good, but... He flinched back when she yelled at him, confused at what he had done. But the moment quickly ended, an his confusion was overpowered by fear and dread again. He lifted his head, trying to wipe his face on his shoulders, and locked his eyes on Zenin. He had to have hope that they could somehow escape. That somehow, somebody would help. That Kirai would stop being hurt and that they could just be happy.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Dark

Anika watched Jason carefully. He seemed to not care about angering Dark. That meant he was either really strong, really crazy, or really valuable. Probably all three. However, she held eye contact with Jason, not wanting to show any sort of weakness by breaking it. He was definitely intimidating though. At his suggestion of a trade, Anika glanced at Dark worriedly. She doubted that Jason would ask for anything trivial if Dark agreed, but she didn't know Jason at all, so she looked to Dark to see if he would accept the offer. But when she looked to Dark, she was only met with horror. Aephon had Zenin? And if Dark and Aephon were evenly matched, Zenin was likely in trouble, so Aephon could get information from Zenin. Information about the Black Coats. She sent a questioning look back at Dark, asking what they should do. She put her hand on one of her guns just in case they would need to make a quick escape.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Aephon, Zenin, Alex

When Zenin interrupted the count, Stella lowered her gun, feeling a twinge of relief. She usually didn't feel guilty when hurting others, as long as she was helping Aephon and his cause, but... She had thought too much about it. She tried to shake the thought from her head, sitting back down and toying with her knives and tossing them in the air seemingly carelessly as she watched Aephon and Zenin. She couldn't look at Alex. It would make her feel guilty again. But he spoke, and her head snapped to him as she caught her knife. His eyes conveyed so much pain and desperation, and they begged her to help him. "Stop!" She burst out at him, slamming the blade of her knife into the wooden table. "D-Don't look at me like that. It's disgusting." She spat out, almost shaking a bit. She sat back down, but thoughts of guilt began to plague her, so she worked on cleaning her wide array of weapons and watching Aephon out of the corner of her eyes, using anything to distract her from Alex.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

"Jason, if you wouldn't mind, I need a word with my subordinate." Kanra said shortly, grabbing Anika's arm and gently leading her out of earshot. He let go quickly, face worried. "Sorry about that, of course you're more important than a subordinate, but if he knows you are he'll take advantage. One of us needs to go. This entire plan rests on the fact Aephon is clueless. If he gets anything useful out of Zenin, we could all go up in flames." Biting his lip, he glanced back at Jason who smiled and waved cheekily at them from where he was slouched over the counter, before going back to smiling mockingly at the rest of the Scarlet Rose members. "The difference between Jason and Zen is one, Zenin knows more, and two, Jason is a true neutral who would sell out anyone, whereas Zen does have his favourites. So he'll be holding out as long as he can, but he can't last forever. So, if one of us goes, the other will have to deal with Jason and his games. It's up to you. I'll let you decide if you want to stay or go." He smiled encouragingly, knuckles white as he gripped the hilt of his blade.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Akuma strolled through the streets, spinning a gun around his finger. He hadn't heard from Aephon, but that wouldn't stop him completing his own plan.

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Kirai licked his lips. The gang was small, barely out of the gutters compared to the likes of the Black Coats and Jishin. If he told Aephon their name, he could easily send an army the size of a small city to wipe them out like an infestation. However, he knew, even if the Jishin pair didn't, that Dark was smarter than people gave him credit for and would have figured out where Aephon and Stella were by now. So he only had to bide his time for a few more minutes. Zen cleared his throat a few times, before smiling cockily up at the Jishin leader. "Hey, my throat's a little dry, could I get a glass of water?"

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Aephon pursed his lips, thinking it over. He only had a certain amount of time before he needed to be somewhere else. It was almost as if Zenin was delaying. However, he wasn't an animal. "Stella-"
"You're gonna have to let me up you know. I can't drink lying on my back with some idiot sitting on me." Aephon inhaled slowly, keeping a remarkable grasp on his temper.
"Stella, if you wouldn't mind grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen. I'm going to tie Mr Hellsin here to a chair." Aephon stood up, but kept a foot on Zenin's shoulder, before pointing the gun at Alex. "Try anything and he's the first to die." Zenin raised his hands, before moving across the room and plopping down in the chair next to Alex.
"What fun~ Someone tried to kidnap me once, they put a bag over my head and poured gasoline on me. I expected a more serious form of torture, but people nowadays really do disappoint. So, got some rope on you I don't know about?" Aephon ignored him, reaching into his coat an pulling out a long box. "Oh. Zip ties." Zenin's bravado faded somewhat as Aephon approached, and the Jishin leader felt a secret pang of relief. As a friend, Zenin was annoying, as a hostage, he was unbearable.

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Zenin, Aephon, Stella

Alex was relieved when Aephon was no longer threatening to shoot Zenin, and the situation turned a bit less tense. He felt somewhat comforted that at least now he was closer to Zenin. Kirai did seem a bit more relaxed, but why? Did he believe that Dark would come to save them? He certainly hoped something would get them out of this situation, because it was terrifying and extremely stressful. He watched as Aephon and Kirai exchanged words, and the hunch that they had a history together came back. Alex was curious, but the thought was pushed to the back of his head when he focused on Zenin again. His shoulder wound may have opened up again... He wished that Kirai would look at him, just for a smile of assurance, or something to give him hope and strength.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Dark

More important than a subordinate? Her? Perhaps she was something like an ambassador between Scarlet Rose and the Black Coats. Anika didn't linger on Dark's words too long, and instead toyed with the hem of her jacket nervously. "I... I know this is important, but I don't know if I can deal with either. I can't possibly take out both Aephon and that girl, but I also definitely can't deal with Jason, but..." She was just so uncertain about everything, and after what had happened with Aephon, she didn't know if she could deal with something like that without turning into a mess. But she wasn't clever enough and didn't know enough about Jason to make a deal with him. "I'll go to Aephon, but can I take some of my people with me?" She asked him. She needed somebody to keep her from breaking down again, and she would have preferred Dark, because he was the strongest person there, but he would have to deal with Jason.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Aephon, Zenin, Alex

Stella got up obediently, leaving her knives on the table, but out of reach of Alex and Zenin. She got a glass from the kitchen and filled it up with tap water, then returned to Aephon, handing him the glass. She then sat back down to watch, amused when Zenin's confident rambling suddenly stopped as he saw the zip ties. Ropes seemed more normal, but zip ties were more sturdy. She had heard about Zenin before, but this was her first time meeting him. It was amazing how he could still joke around in a situation like this. It just showed how either idiotic or skilled he was.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

"Yes, of course, please take them all if you need to. I'll be fine to deal with Jason." Dark smiled reassuringly at her, before turning back to Jason. "Alright, Jason. I'll be your game opponent."
Jason frowned over from where he was trying to engage one of the Scarlet Rose in a conversation. "I don't want to play with you. You're no fun Kanra."
Dark smiled sunnily, but it was in no way friendly or warm. Turning quickly, he strode rapidly over to the counter before vaulting over it, backing the Emporium owner into the wall, smiling all the while. Jason seemed to blanch a little, back pressed against the corner with no escape from that suddenly terrifying grin. "You said you wanted to play, right? So let's play a game." He gave Jason no time to respond, a knife slamming into the wall next to his ear as Dark leered over him. Jason, for once in his life, seemed speechless, and Dark jerked his head to one side, telling Anika to leave now while the Emporium owner was distracted.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Kirai winced as Aephon tightened the zip ties, but otherwise gave no reaction. He watched with closed off eyes as Aephon sat down on the sofa again, before his eyes flickered over to Stella. He seemed to see something in her face that he'd been looking for and a grin spread across his mouth. "Hey, Stella, wasn't it? Tell me something. What're you to Aephon? Where's your sist-"
Aephon moved suddenly, and in a few steps had crossed the room and spun on the ball of his foot, the heel of his boot smashing into Zenin's face. The recoil rocked the chair backwards, and it fell backwards as if in slow motion. Zenin grunted as his head smacked into the floor, but broke into a laugh anyway, red leaking from his split lip. "Aw man, did I hit a nerve?"

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

"Don't say anything that isn't an answer to one of my questions." Aephon growled, the first semblances of emotion turning his eyes a pitch black, dramatic shadows thrown across his face by his fringe. "You slip up again, I'll kill someone."

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Zenin, Aephon, Stella, Anika

Alex was sure that his lip was bleeding in several places, but couldn't stop his bad habit of chewing on his lip when he was nervous. Why did Zenin have to bring so much suffering onto himself?? And just for a jibe like that? He must have had a better reason. He hated how he couldn't get through to Zenin in times like this, and was reminded of the fight that had broken out before, and how even when he let Zenin know that he should stop, the man hadn't listened to him. "Zenin, stop hurting yourself," he told him, barely loud enough to be considered a whisper. He had to hold back tears again, just because he felt so useless in this situation.

However, suddenly there was something flying through the air, and he saw Anika rush into the room. Had Dark sent her here? How did he know? He tried to slip out of the rope, but it was too tight, and all he could do was watch as a fight broke out. He was overjoyed that they were here, but... He was just so pathetic.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Aephon, Stella, Zenin, Alex

Anika steeled herself for what was to come, and grabbed 4 of her subordinates. "The rest of you are to stay with him and follow his every order, got it?" She told them, then dragged the others outside. She started jogging, and as the other 4 picked up their pace as well, she explained to them what they were going to do. "So, two of Dark's allies are currently caught in a bad situation right now, and we have to save them. But I have to warn you, our opponents are very dangerous. So, one of you will work on freeing the people we have to save, one will help me with Aephon, the leader of Jishin, and two of you guys can take on the redhead who's always with him. Got it?" She issued her orders with authority, but wasn't feeling very sure of herself at all.

She racked her mind for what Zenin's office looked like, thanking her good memory when it popped up in her head. She had done research on him, so naturally had to know the location of his office. Plus, he was a bit infamous around the area. When they arrived, she signaled her crew to quiet down, and she peered inside, wincing as she saw the scene laid out before them. Alex and Zenin were both tied to chairs, and Aephon was standing over them with his sidekick sitting on the couch, watching as well. She gave her crew a countdown, and on zero, Anika turned the corner and jumped in, throwing one of her knives at Aephon, trying to take him by surprise.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Aephon, Zenin, Alex, Anika

When Zenin spoke, she turned her cold eyes onto him, regarding him with disdain. She had begun to understand just how annoying he was. But when he asked about her, she was a bit surprised. He was probably just trying to make her mad or something. But... Her sister? Why would he care about that? Stella could only remember her sister as somebody who was always bright and that she looked up to. She didn't have many memories of her original family, but it didn't really matter. Aephon was her family now. She was a bit surprised at how drastically Aephon had reacted to it. She could understand a bit of his anger though; Zenin was certainly a handful. "I'm not telling anything about myself to you. Find it yourself," she told him dryly, waving off his words.

An uneasy feeling welled up inside her, and she tensed up. It was her gut instinct. Something was off. However, she didn't have time to wonder when a crowd of people burst in, and she had to spring up to attack. It was that annoying girl again, the one who was with Dark. Zenin said her name was Anika. It seemed familiar in a way... But she couldn't pinpoint how in that moment. Her mind was ripped away from the thought as she sprang into battle, meeting two of the attackers with her blades. Two against one just wasn't fair. But she could manage people with this sort of skill level. With a smirk, she began to attack them between defending, relying on her reflexes and speed to keep her alive. It was risky, but she loved it.

[Darkanra]

♦ 𝒟𝒶𝓇𝓀
Kanra Ayazi | Male | Leader | Black Coats | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Dark stared Jason down, before the Emporium owner seemed to recover, and pouted as he ducked under the Black Coat leader's intimidating stance. "Alright, keep your hair on, jeez." He moved around the shop and out of sight, before returning with a revolver. "Russian Roulette. A bit of fun for the Russian soldiers of 1917. They played with one empty chamber, rather than five." Jason grinned. "However, we are going to be playing Russian Poker."
Dark frowned. "Under one condition."
"What might that be?" Jason purred, spinning the cylinder with a sly grin.
"All of them, will not be involved." Dark waved at Anika's subordinates, and Jason debated for a second, before nodding his reluctant approval.
"So be it."
Dark flicked his fingers at the small group huddled behind him. "All of you wait at the back of the shop, until one of us loses." As they all moved away, Dark turned back to Jason. "Russian Poker. An inverted version of Russian Roulette in which each player points it at another rather than themselves."
"Indeed. This however, does not contain a bullet, but a kind of truth serum, since neither of us will gain anything out of the other's death. We both want information though.. Such fun~!" Jason smiled, raised the gun, and fired.

♦ 𝘼𝙠𝙪𝙢𝙖
Aslak Halseth | Male | Second | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

-In the streets-

♦ zєиιи
Kirai Hellsin | Male | Info broker| Form: xXx
__________________________________________

Zenin's mocking grin faded slightly at the sound of Alex's words, and he looked shamefaced for a split second before his expression hardened into a smug smile again. Avoiding the other man's eyes, his gaze fell to the ties around his wrists and arms. Obviously Aephon had taken no chances. He strained against them, but made no headway. He looked around for something to use to free himself, but stopped as soon as he heard someone enter the building. One, two...five newcomers. Friendly, as they had made an effort to enter without drawing the Jishin pair's attentions. Well, enemies to Aephon and Stella anyway, so they might as well have been allies. As Zenin predicted, Aephon also heard their entrance, and leapt over the nearest couch as the knife spun past him to lodge in the underside of Zenin's chair, the blade going through the soft wood and sticking out between his legs. "Jesus!" Zenin exclaimed, staring in horrified fascination at the weapon that could have injured him quite badly, "watch it would you?"

♦ ᏗᏋᎮᏂᎧᏁ
Aephon Telantes | Male | Leader | Jishin | Form: xXx
__________________________________________

From his position behind the sofa, he took in the scene, mind whirling as he considered his next move. There were five of them, two for him, two for Stella. One... for the captives. If they managed to free Zenin and Alex, they would have seven opponents rather than five, and three of those seven were well trained and had the capabilities to be quite a pain. However, if Zenin and Alex stayed captive, there would only be one significant opponent. Dark's girl.

Aephon moved quickly, ignoring Anika in favour of intercepting the single person focused on Zenin and Alex, drawing his blades quickly and smoothly. He swiped his knives in an 'x' shape outwards, and his adversary stumbled backwards, only just avoiding harm as his shirt was sliced open. Satisfied that the aggressor was far enough away from his hostages, Aephon jumped backwards, landing between Zenin and Alex. Lifting his hands, he held one blade under Alexander's chin, the edge touching the skin of his throat as a bead of blood welled. The other, he held suspended over Zenin's chest, inches from the material of his shirt. "Everyone stop, or these two will die."

[nnightmare]

♠ ᴀʟᴇxᴀɴᴅᴇʀ ʟᴇᴇ ♠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Male | Black Coat | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Zenin, Aephon, Stella, Anika

Alex watched the knife whiz through the air, wincing when it just barely missed Zenin. He watched the fight with hope, but not for long. He felt a cold blade against his throat, and he froze with panic. He was sure he felt blood flowing, and that Aephon had cut the skin, but he didn't think he could gulp nervously without hurting himself. He glanced at Anika, who was frozen in place and bit down harshly on his lip again. If only he wasn't so weak and useless... But at least now he knew that Dark knew where they were. Whether he would be able to come in time was the question.

✿ᴀɴɪᴋᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✿
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Outsider | Location: Streets | Tags: Aephon, Stella, Zenin, Alex

Anika cursed under her breath, wishing she could think something up. Usually she was good in high pressure situations, but she was just so out of it today. She had two options. Continue the attack or pause. Continuing would insure that Alex and Zenin would both get hurt and possibly die, but pausing would mean that she put everybody in danger. She eyed Aephon, calculating the way his knives were placed. If Aephon cut Alex's throat, then Alex would die, but if Zenin could survive a chest wound long enough... They had the resources to keep him alive. Alex was dispensable, Zenin wasn't. But to just let Alex die... There had to be a better way. She wished that Dark were here. He was so much more experienced than her.

She dove forward with all the weight and strength she could muster up, hoping to collide with Aephon or at least distract him for a second or two. "Get them out of here!" She yelled to her subordinates, hoping again that they could move fast enough.

✦sᴛᴇʟʟᴀ ᴡɪʟʟɪᴀᴍs✦
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Female | Jishin | Location: Zenin's Office | Tags: Aephon, Zenin, Alex, Anika

Stella defended against her opponents until they froze at the sound of Aephon's threat. As long as they had the hostages, Anika wouldn't dare move. Stella shot the girl a smug smirk and was met with a glare from the lavender-haired girl, but Stella's usual arrogance slowly slid away, revealing confusing familiarity underneath. That weird feeling she had around Anika was back, but stronger this time. Why?

She couldn't lose focus. But she did relax a bit as she took her spot next to Aephon, glancing at the frozen people. They didn't seem to be Black Coats; the didn't have the signature monotone, mostly black clothing. Or maybe they were just Black Coats in normal clothing, to be less conspicuous. But still, she didn't think they were Black Coats. They attacked differently. And where was Dark? Stella felt like Dark shouldn't have trusted Anika to get hostages by herself. Well, he was busy with Jason, so all the better for her and Aephon. She felt so powerful. She held so many lives in her hand. Everybody was still, and just because of two little blades. She glanced at Anika again, and when she saw the girl move, Stella was surprised, and she jumped back, trying to avoid getting hit by Anika.