[Ishu]

November 23rd, Chicago Sewers.

She didn't thank Aiolia for her order but she did listen to it. With the figure attached to her beginning to tense up, Eve adjusted her grip and continued on to their little house. She'd been hoping no one would see Evan but maybe it would be ok. The last time they had been accepted into a settlement... she hugged the creature tighter, though it was mostly unnoticeable, and moved into the little house to be alone until she was ready to eat.

[Sadrain]

November 23rd, Chicago; Sewer #17.

"Thank you," he said simply and Amante felt the slight pressure retreat from his mind, signaling that Elek had left. Rest of the journey went on in silence, tension never fully disappearing. Elek felt much more at peace now, though, when he knew Amante would be watching Leila. He trusted the man with his life by now and he would be ready to go far out of his way to help Amante. There were few people whom he had befriended, but if he did, it was for life. In a way, he indeed was like a canine - loyal to the bone and ready to relentlessly chase his goal.

In both outposts, Elek gave few orders and introduced the newcomer. Most of people gave her frilly dress and styled hair strange looks, smirks even, clearly thinking that this uptown girl won't last here long. Leila repressed a smirk in return, knowing she would give them not just a few surprises. She was made from tougher material than many of them put together. Her fist clenched a few times, but the girl quickly eased it open, and kept on stiffly nodding.

"Oh, by the way, I will give you a friendly advice: learn to treat your comrades and superiors, like Amante, with respect, if you want to survive," Elek told her quietly, a little before he departed.
Leila's eyes narrowed. "It is because he is your friend, isn't it? It's all about friends here, too." Her voice was low and sweet, but a menacing smile played in the corners of her mouth.
"No, I simply have a thousand more reasons to trust him than you and your attitude only takes favors from you. Be careful to not run too far into negatives." With that, he left, leaving Leila inwardly surprised.
So, this blind puppy had a backbone and some observation skills after all. He and his kind could not be underestimated, a mistake she had nearly, nearly done. What Elek had said, sounded awfully like a war announcement. If he wanted war, then war he would get. The girl gritted her teeth and spun around, going to build her tent quickly. She desperately needed some alone time and talking with her Shadous.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Knoxville.

Ryan was slowly losing track of time. He had fallen asleep few times, in a restless, nightmare and pain plagued sleep, but as each time the light seeping trough the windows was just as gray and cold as before, it simply felt the time had come to a halt. However, one event made the man realize events outside this house had not stopped.

His employer contacted him, trough the phone that was in the bag. She (if it was the real voice) asked him how the girl was doing and when Ryan said she was asleep, instructed him to give her medicine and after she wakes, bring her to another location. Then she dropped the call and he didn't even manage to say he had already given her the medicine. Ryan shrugged to him self and continued taking care of the 'science fiction sleeping beauty', as he once deemed her.

[Ishu]

November 24th, Chicago; Base

Eve had been keeping to herself as she helped Evan adjust to their new surroundings. A lot had been discussed, as much as a discussion could with the... creature. Morning came and slowly turned into the afternoon. Finally feeling fidgety, Eve got up and left the house.

She looked for Elek's main tent, or house, or whatever the fuck he lived in. Once she found it, and saw it was a larger building, she went inside. It took her a few minutes to find his main room and she knocked on the door, waiting to hear from him. He was tired the night before and from some intel she'd gathered, this was where he slept.

[Ishu]

November 24th, Knoxville.

The girls sweating spell had started to subside and with Ryans help with keeping her clean, she looked almost good as new. The fact that he had washed her hair was definitely helpful, the long white strands laying over over her head and the pillow.

White fingertips twitched and she began to stir. Her stirring consisted of a difference in breathing and her eyes shifting under pale lids. Finally, they opened and she could see clearly. The dingy ceiling visibly confused her and her eyes shifted about to take in the scenery. Finally, they fell on him and she simply stared, taking him in. She was actually seeing him now.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

Elek had went to sleep only few hours ago, so it took a bit for the knock to reach him full, but when it did, the man woke up with a start. By now, his sleeping pattern was so messed up he was always so tired and could be found sleeping whenever there was free time, which was far too rare. He hurried out of bed, quickly ran fingers trough his messy hair and attempted to smooth down his clothes, but then gave up on it and went to door. Even before he touched the door handler, Elek was sure he knew who was on the other side. Her presence was rather unmistakable.

"Oh, hello, come in," he opened doors wide to let the young woman in. "Sorry 'bout the mess," Elek added with awkward expression, it making him look younger than he was, despite the tiredness that had left its mark in his face. The room indeed was rather messy, various maps, pages with thick text all over it, covering most of surfaces and a lone mug standing among the paper piles.

Elek gathered some of the papers from chair and placed them on table. "Take a seat, please."

November 24th, Knoxville.

Ryan shifted slightly uncomfortably, when the girl stared at him like that. After this time spent directly caring for her, it felt much more awkward for some reason. He coughed softly to clear his throat and adjusted her blanket a little and then looked back at her face, putting hands in lap.
"Hello there, what's your name? I am Ryan."

"What a awkward first line for a kidnapper," the man thought and wondered when she would try to throw something at him, even if that would be just harsh words. Then again, it didn't seem she was really, truly taken care of back at that facility. So, maybe she wouldn't hate him for getting her out of there. But what would happen when he handed her over to his employer? Ryan put that thought aside.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

The evening and night had passed quickly and quite nervously. Leila was quickly instructed of all her new duties, and they weren't few. Before she retired, she did a quick round around the camp, taking everything in, and only then, she hid in the safety and darkness of her tent, shadows greeting her like the old friends they were. After few hours of inaudible discussion with Shadous, the girl finally could curl up and fall asleep.

Her dreams were consumed with memories, colored blood red and filled with horrid sounds. Few times she woke up, and considering getting up, for such sleep was not restful, but in the end, she was lulled into dreams again. Around 6am, she was woken by a yell and sleepily gathered that it was the 'wake up bell'. Quickly, she got up and took her daily 'medicine'. When she was half trough dressing, someone stopped at the entrance - she saw the shadow trough the fabrics.

"Get up, princess, we're all done eating alr'dy," the man said in a mocking tone and Leila rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm coming," she replied, finishing dressing and pulled brush trough her hair for few times. Tomorrow, though, she would be all adjusted to the new daily routine and no one would mock her. Not that she needed anything else than a cup of coffee to kickstart her system.

Grabbing paper cup of hot - and foul tasting - coffee, Leila ignored all the smirking grimaces around her. She didn't linger at the base and headed to the first spot she had to patrol to and from until midday. This was going to be a long day...

[Ishu]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

"I'll stand." She crossed her arms against her chest and looked at him, glancing over the look of the room. "Give me something to do. I don't like sitting around all day." She was hired, for a reason, after all and she wasn't about to sit on her ass all day while work needed to be done. Surely he had something that was above the capabilities of the others in his group.

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

Amante was sitting to the side of everyone else though not completely secluding himself. He ate the slop off of his tray and wiped his mouth with a napkin every few bites. Finally, he watched the newcomer come out of her tent and pick up a cup of joe- something he would never get because it smelled almost as bad as he tasted and the guy who made it was actually named Joe.

With most of the food on his tray gone, he swiped up the rest with a spoon, stuffed it into his mouth and washed it down with a splash of thick juice. He popped up from his seat, swished the juice around to clean his mouth and wandered closer to her direction and soon greeted her. "Sleep well?"

[Ishu]

November 24th, Knoxville.

Her eyes shut and she inhaled a soft breath as he spoke. Her mind felt tense and her body still felt rather weak. She tried to lift herself up but failed, then tried just her arm. Her hand had arched but as for getting up, her fingertips still touched the mattress. Her head shifted from side to side, slowly, as she began to test the capabilities of her body. She wouldn't be able to move on her own, not a sufficient amount.

She looked at him when he said his name. Her lips parted but nothing came out. It looked like she tried to speak but still, nothing. After the failure, she eased into the mattress as she relaxed or, quite likely, felt more drained than before. She could not speak, or did not have the energy to, though both were likely.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

Elek shrugged at her choice, but did not sit down either. His posture was casual, as opposite to Eve's somewhat defensive and closed one. After her requested he brightened up a little. At least she was not absolutely passive about this thing, despite her actual attitude (and he was also waking up).

"Ah, I wanted to talk about it with you later today. So, what exactly are your powers and skills? I recall, you were skilled with hand to hand combat. Maybe you could teach basics to people here, first of all?"

Many people were skilled with their powers, and with some weapon, but their defenses were lacking, and there could come a time, they lacked weapons and powers. After he had witnessed her battle, that thought had settled in the back of his mind.

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

Over the years, Leila had gotten used to consuming things that tasted horrible, or didn't taste like anything. This coffee came close to the unusable point, though. But the brown liquid did its magic quickly enough and although it together with chemicals was one of the worst combinations for health, it cleared her head and pain killers soothed her pains.

Leila felt that someone was approaching, and tensed up, even though she realized he was coming from outpost. No one was assigned here besides her, though... The mystery was solved when he spoke, though, because the girl recognized the 'lover boy's' voice. Her nostrils flared slightly, but then her face became just as expressionless as before, her voice monotone: "yes."

It wasn't the truth, of course. But if she didn't say anything else, maybe he would leave faster. In fact, Leila wanted to ignore him as a whole, but, Elek was right - if she wanted to melt into the mass of others rebels and not jump out, a quiet and relatively polite attitude would have to do. No one could fault her about being a bit of loner, though.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Knoxville.

Ryan sat there for a bit, just looking at the girl. Various thoughts and scenarios played out in his mind, but finally he came to what seemed to be the best solution at the time. He helped the girl drink a bit of tea and then prepared to go out. Ryan's left arm was still painful and as he changed the bandage, he took note that it looked worse, not better. Something was definitely wrong there.

"I need to go, but I will be back soon, I promise. Don't worry about anything and try to sleep," Ryan told the girl, leaning over her 'bed', and then left. She probably had only vague feeling of how long he was gone, but when the man returned, he had various bags and packages. He set them down carefully and sat down next to her mattress to rest. Ryan talked with her, or maybe just mused to him self aloud, about various unimportant things, such as weather or music they heard on the old radio.

After a bit, Ryan felt better again and unpacked one of the bags which contained woman clothes. He had most likely stolen them somewhere, but they were clean and fresh. "Sorry, I don't really know your size," his tone was apologetic as he carefully dressed her in a simple, but warm turtle neck jumper, jeans and warm, woolly socks. They were surprisingly close to her size, though, and were quite comfortable. When he put her in the bed again, Ryan's breath was shallow and quick, pain radiating trough his arm, and vision a little blurry.

After a while, he unpacked another bag, which contained various softer foods and Ryan fed her some yoghurt ("I hope you like strawberries, but hey, everyone likes strawberries, right?"). He ate, too, although it was more forcing him self to eat. All Ryan wanted to do was curl up and sleep.

[Ishu]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

Eve frowned. Great, he was asking about her powers. The topic wasn't something she was normally open to and she stated, simply, "It's difficult to explain. You would have to see it and then I could fill in the blanks." She didn't want to have to put it into words, not completely. Plus, she needed to relieve herself and sitting around wasn't going to help in that.

"I have plenty of skills. Combat is my specialty and hand to hand is by greatest strength." She gave a shrug, "I'm not totally opposed to training some of your people in how to defend themselves- but I won't go easy on them." This meant broken bones were guaranteed.

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

He smiled at her as he was pleased with her answer, "Good. The cots suck sometimes and it's horrible for your back. The base has actual beds... I miss them sometimes." His features drooped toward the end of his words. He looked at her again and kept up along beside her but did not keep to close to her. "How's your back doing?" She was pretty small and quite lithe compared to the others, even the women. He wouldn't be surprised if she was already having problems.

[Ishu]

November 24th, Knoxville.

She was a bit concerned when he voiced that he would be leaving her, but she could not say anything about it. He left her there, alone, defenseless and totally alone. Instead of dwelling on it she tried her best to adjust to the world again. Not knowing how long she'd been gone, she looked down at her body... and saw no difference.

Soon, he came back to her and helped her get dressed. She was impressed and delighted, this obvious by a subtle smile on her lips, with his selection of clothing. The feel of his arms supporting her was welcoming and her head turned into his chest and shoulder against her will as she could not even hold it up. Attempting to adjust it, she managed to get her head to tilt back a bit so he could feed her better. Her mouth could open and close without issue which was nice, she was sure, for him.

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

Elek was quite sure he senses uneasiness from Eve. So, her powers were something she didn't want to discuss. For a moment, he thought she would just ignore his question, which Elek wouldn't be quite fine with, but at her reply he nodded. "Fine, what do you need for demonstration? We can make it private, if you want."

At her comment about not going easy to her 'pupils', Elek quirked an eyebrow. "Sounds like our medics will get an extra work. But, if we add that as warning, I'm sure it will be fine. Battlefield isn't child's game either." He paused for a moment. "There are few who are also skilled with hand to hand, they can help you as side tutors or assistants. Or maybe also learn from you," he grinned suddenly, thinking Aiolia would blow steam, if she had to take lessons from Eve. "I can spread the word around today at dinner, we can start tomorrow's morning, if that's fine with you."

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

The girl glanced sideways and upwards, to see Amante's face, while taking the last sip of her coffee. Under normal circumstances, she found observing people, their expressions rather fascinating. Most never realized how much information they were giving away with a simply nose bridge pinching, head tilt, smile or forehead rub. But these were strained circumstances, to say the very least. And so, Leila lowered her eyes again, staring ahead in the darkness, as the man chattered.

She wondered, why he wasn't at base then. Leila even thought about asking that, but decided to remain silent. Although his presence made time pass a little faster, it still felt like he was too close (out of sight would be so much better). However, at his casual question, Leila nearly halted in her step and stared at him for a moment. "What? He was asking about her back, as if it was most casual thing in the world, on the level of weather talk. Why the hell would he care about her health? Was he generally one of those "oh, I take care of everyone" types? Then he had picked up the wrong 'care victim' to mess with.

Leila stopped and turned towards him. "Look, I am not good at small talk, so, if you have something important to say to me, get to the point already," her tone was cold and annoyance slightly reflected in her face. There had to be something he wanted from her. Some message from Elek or some personal agenda, threatening, whatever... No one picked her to 'just chat it up.'

[Sadrain]

November 24th, Knoxville.

Ryan fed and helped her drink few more times over the course of next hours, until it began to get dark. He then pulled another mattress next to hers, lit small mobile lamp he had stolen that day and put it near the top of the mattresses. It was more reassuring than actual light giving. It just felt to him that she wouldn't like to sleep in total darkness, after being in for so long.

Ryan changed his bandage again, trying to keep his groans and curses as quiet as possible. In all honesty, he didn't know why he was trying so hard to make her comfortable. No, he did. Ryan just didn't want to admit it. He felt awfully guilty for rescuing her from one group of monsters to likely give her to others. At least, what else could they be? The one giving him all that fancy information, had to be within. That person wanted Alice, for whatever she had been kept at the facility.

As he had taken care of her, Ryan's mind had often turned back to his family. Since all his siblings had different fathers, they weren't extremely close, but they still had depended on him, until street life claimed them all, and their little family broke to pieces. This girl strongly remained him of a sister, only weaker than his ever was. She was absolutely unable to defend her self, or even survive on her own.

His heart was heavy as he curled on the mattress, and Ryan talked about meaningless things for a bit more, until heavy sleep claimed him in nearly middle of a word. For a change, he slept good six hours without waking up, and felt a bit better. He fed her, helped her drink, even brushed her hair gently, although with her hair so long, it wasn't really easy and he cursed a little each time he pulled on a knot too hard. After that, he took care of him self, always trying to speak when he was out of her sight range, to assure Alice of his presence.

Finally, he quickly threw few things in the 'borrowed' car and came back for the last and heaviest package. Picking up Alice bridal style, Ryan carried down to vehicle and put her in the backseat, making sure she was as safe and comfortable as possible. "Don't worry about a thing," he told her again as he got in driver's seat and started up the car.

[Ishu]

November 24th, Chicago; Base.

She gave a low nod and continued, "Get me a tank and something to throw. It needs to be heavy and thick like a wall of concrete or a block." Eve crossed her arms against her chest but motioned with a hand, "You'll want to get someone with super strength. All they need to be able to do is aim and throw." Not knowing if he had a person with such strength, she asked, "Can that be done?"

November 24th, Chicago; Sewer #17.

He stopped with her and watched her as he spoke, his eyebrow slowly raising as she seemed to get defensive or just downright defensive. Amante answered, "I was just trying to make small talk." He ran a hand through his now short hair and continued, "It gets boring down here pretty quick. Small talk usually doesn't hurt but if you don't like it, I can leave you alone." He waited for her to answer him and give him a sign as to whether or not he should stick around or just wander off. Either way, he would still keep an eye on her.