Kingdom of Rain

Taking the gun out of my pocket I hand it back to her, "I forgot who you were...but don't tell me to move aside."

Coughing I turned from her, "I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing, but I was told my services were needed..."

Taking out a cloth I held it to my mouth, continueing to cough. Pulling it away I looked at it, my eyes wide. I felt myself begin to shake at the sight...there was blood.

"Damn..." I bluntly stated.

Charles Austin

– – –

Charles edged in through the only exit Andrew could possibly take, careful not to make a mistake. Andrew was the only person he knew who had a chance against him. He had left Cassandra outside keeping watch. He knew people like her, and refused to pay her anything until the job was over. She had protested, of course, but his decision was final. Charles was a perfectionist, and that was why he worked alone.

The classroom was in almost complete darkness, only the feeble glow of streetlamps cast patches of light through the tall windows. Children’s artwork and colourful displays clung to the walls, but without light they were grey and lifeless. Something about that struck Charles as important, but the sound of movement from inside the cupboard reminded him of his aim.

“Get out of the cupboard, Andrew,” said Charles, his voice free of emotion and fear. It was an order, and he knew it would be obeyed.

The man that burst from the cupboard was slightly shorter than Charles but wearing similar clothing. He leapt forwards and vaulted over a desk, moving swiftly towards Charles. Just before he reached him, Charles stepped to the side and vanished into a shadow near the door. Once again, he had blocked Andrew’s escape.

The criminal spat on the floor. “You’ve got nothing on me! You can’t arrest me,” he said, scanning the shadows for his pursuer. Without warning his body shook and snorted laughter erupted from his chest. “You’ve got nothing on me! Geddit?”

Charles did not reply.

After a moment, unease crept into Andrew and ran down his back. His shoulders tightened and he glanced around, looking and listening for the private investigator that was his nemesis. “C’mon, Charles. Show yourself and fight like the woman you are!”

Andrew twisted round to look over his shoulder, but he was too late. Charles was already behind him and swiftly jerked Andrew’s hands into handcuffs. The metal bit at Andrew’s wrists and he cried out unintelligibly. He’d been caught. Again.

– – –

“Finished yet?” Charles asked. Andrew fixed his eyes on the floor and said nothing. Charles nodded and started to question him. “What were you doing in the Rainmakers Museum two weeks ago?”

Andrew’s uncooperative silence ruptured into laughter and he looked at Charles with disbelief. “You’ve only just caught up with me after that?!”

Charles waited until Andrew had finished. “What were you—”

“I like looking at outdated, boring, old models of the Rainmakers of yesteryear!” Andrew cut in. “Ok?”

Charles remained calm. “You’re either going to answer my question here, or I’ll take you with me. What will it be?”

“Are you crazy?” Andrew shook and giggled at Charles from his chair. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard since you said you’d found an apprentice!”

Charles blinked and thought of Nathaniel. Uninvited, the slim form of Cassandra flitted before his inward sight as well. Andrew noticed.

“Oh,” he said, grinning, “oh, I do believe you’ve found someone else!”

“I assure you, I haven’t.”

“You have! And…” he watched Charles’ impassive face, “And it’s a girl!”

Charles shook his head, “You’re mistaken.”

“I’m never mistaken,” Andrew giggled, “that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“What if I said that the rain was going to stop falling?”

There was silence, thick and choking. It spread outwards from the pair and bled its ghostly form into the room. Andrew gulped. “That’s not stupid. That’s not even funny.”

Charles knew he was telling the truth. “Now why would you be so worried about that, Andrew?”

The criminal bit his lip, shook his head and said nothing.

– – –

Alyssa

I don't like the look of the blood on that cloth. There's quite a lot and it could be one of several life-threatening diseases. Quite equally it could be just a blood clot in the lung but it looks nasty. I steady Cassandra with a hand on her shoulder and glance briefly at the closed door. I look at my watch. Fifteen minutes.

"Come on," I say reluctantly. "Let's get you to the hospital."

"Don't be stupid," Cassandra says. "It's just a cough." She shakes as she speaks and shoves the cloth into her pocket, as if to dispose of the incriminating evidence of that blood. "And besides, don't you want to talk to that man?"

"I'll call Murdock in a little early," I reply, removing the two way radio from my belt. I bring it to my lips, about to speak when she cuts in again: "And what about my money? I'm getting paid to keep people out of there."

For a moment, neither of us moves, each considering the situation, letting the minutes tick by as the rain hammers on the pavement and she scowls triumphantly. I like money. I consider myself going out of my way as it is, offering to take her to the hospital but I can understand how she feels about the money.

"Fine," I shrug. I don't think either of us really knows what I'm fine about but I push the door open and she's stunned enough that I step inside before she can stop me.

There's two men standing in the centre of a children's classroom that feels eerie by night, filled with the shadows of absence and silence. I have to look real close to see either man who are both looking my way and one has his hands behind his back. I know that position well: only handcuffs or rope pull a man's shoulders so tight.

Behind me, Cassandra enters, washing the scene with just enough light to pick out each man's face before the door swings shut again. It's my role as the guard and intruder to take control of the situation but suddenly I feel awkward, as if I haven't done this a hundred times before. I hold the stun gun steadily but by way of dramatic speech all I can manage is:

"You planning on killing that man? I don't agree with murder but if you're not, finish what you're doing here quickly because your guard's officially off duty. And she wants paying." And as confident as my voice sounds, the words are pathetic, especially when accompanied by the dripping of Cassandra's wet clothes and the hand-cuffed man's laughter.

((I'm sorry but I just don't quite understand the storybook. I try to keep everyone in order but I keep slipping and I confuse myself. I'm going to have to drop out. Echo wasn't very involved anyways so she died =P))

Twisting my coats cloth in my hands, little droplets of water slowly hit the floor, "Well...that looks a little uncomfortable..." I bluntly state, looking at the man whose hands were trapped.

A grumble fills the room, taking my hands to my stomach I glance at the man who was to pay me, "I'd like my money...I haven't eaten all day and would love to now...so pay me and I shall be on my way."

"We aren't done yet..." Alyssa stated looking at me as if I was an idiot.

"And I care why? Just hurry the hell up..." I said, twisting my hand into my hair.

Name:
Briar Mallory Lenox

Age:
17

Description of appearance:
Skin- Briar's skin is coloured like ivory
Eyes- Briar was blinded at a young age from illness, she now depends on her owl, Aningan, for her sight. Her eyes are dark green around the edges and get sappire blue towards the middle.
Hair- Briar's hair is about lengthed to her chin, it is very thin. Her natural hair color is jet-black, and she dyes the edges bright purple.
Ears- Briar has two earings in each ear, with one of them pierced once more at the top.
Clothes- Briar uasly wears dark blue gloves with holes cut out on the finger tips, she piants her finger nails dark pink. She has a dark blue beanie, rarely seen without it, and wears elbow lengthed shirts and dark tighter jeans with black boots.

Pets:
Aningan(*means God of Moon*)- Aningan is a jet-black, female owl, with amber moon eyes. She is Briar's best friend, and Briar uses her for sight. Aningan has a small sense to see the future.

Atka(*means Guardian Spirit*)- Atka is a toy poodle sized fox with misty blue eyes, her fur is like a full flame and her underbelly is snow-white. She can bend the water element, and when agrivated enough, she turns into a full grown fire coloured wolf with black ears. Briar gave Atka a black color with her name embroded into it.

Magical status(whether if he/she can invoke magic or not):
Briar, despite her age, has almost completley mastered her magic. She mostly deals with control over the elements, healing spells, and defense charms.


Character Background:
Only that she was found in the forest as a young girl, she was sick and soon became blind, she remembers nothing of what happend before she became sick. And that Aningan and Atka would not leave her side no matter what anyone tried to do.



Personality:
Brair is a sweet, caring person, who will always jump to conclusions. She is easily annoyed, and when angered will form a force filled around herself, that keeps out niose. She can sense it when people stare at her with Aningan on her shoulder, it makes her feel uncomfortable. She believes that magic is more powerful than machines and weapons, so she will not pick up a gun or a sword.

Charles Austin

– – –

Charles blinked. The girl had failed sooner than expected.

The guard with Cassandra was called Alyssa Hadley and was clearly not above supplementing her income with a little extortion. Charles detested that.

“I had hoped corruption in guards was not as widespread as I’d heard. You disappoint me Alyssa Hadley,” he said, turning first to the guard and then to Cassandra. “And it seems you can’t even do a simple job of guarding a doorway for half an hour.”

Cassandra blushed and looked away. She suddenly seemed very young and stood, looking at the floor, as if the last of her hope had been extinguished in the rain. If Charles had any compassion he might have cared, but he didn’t and so turned back to Alyssa to confront her again.

“I’m currently dealing with the most dangerous and successful criminal this city has ever seen. If it is the end of your shift then why are you still here?” Charles heard a clink and a snort of laughter from Andrew, but dismissed this as the reaction to his unorthodox compliment.

Alyssa stared at Charles, hard. She opened her mouth to reply but the words caught in her throat. With a sudden intake of breath her eyes widened and Charles realised she was staring over his shoulder. Over his shoulder. At Andrew.

He giggled. “I don’t want to be rude, but I’ve really got better things to do than listen to this lecture on morals.”

Charles swung round and just caught a glimpse of Andrew dropping his slipped cuffs and reaching into his coat pocket. The metal handcuffs fell, and, as Charles lunged forwards to catch them, Andrew stepped backwards and pulled a glass orb from his pocket triumphantly.

“Consider it a memento from the Rainmakers’ lab, Charles.” He grinned. “I hope you guys can swim,” he added to the others, and raised the orb.

It smelt of magic. Inside, Charles could see a rain-cloud that bulged with lightning and power. As Andrew held it, bolts struck the inside of the glass and threatened to break it open and release the trapped storm.

“Don’t you dare,” Charles hissed, glancing quickly at the door and memorising the route for when he would have to take it. Andrew was doing the same.

Alyssa raised the stun gun and spoke to Andrew calmly and carefully. She had been trained well, Charles noted, but she really had no idea of what Andrew was capable of. Charles, however, knew only too well.

“Andrew, if that is your name, I’m asking you to put down the orb. I’m sure this situation can be resolved rationally,” Alyssa stepped forwards and Andrew stepped sideways so he was shielded by Charles. That was not a good sign.

Andrew smirked. “You should’ve told me to ‘drop it’! I wanna know if this is gonna be as good as I think it is!”

The criminal raised his arm above his head, winked at Charles and brought the glass orb crashing to the floor. The effect was instant. The Storm Orb, cloud and rain and lightning mixed together and squashed into the glass bubble, cracked and heaved its contents out into the classroom. Thick cumulus folds enveloped the room and the air was filled with lashing rain and explosive thunder.

Charles dropped to the floor as quickly as he could, but he wasn’t fast enough. Alyssa fired her stun gun as soon as the orb left Andrew’s hand, but the sudden appearance of a storm cloud had altered the path of the projectile. The packet of energy, concentrated into a tiny spark, curved to the side and buried itself in Charles’ neck. He hit the floor with a thud and couldn’t move.

“I do believe the room is filling with water!” shouted Andrew from near the doorway. “Good luck to you all!”

Charles tried to gulp, but couldn’t. Andrew was right. The room was filling with water, and he was stuck lying on the floor. Everything suddenly seemed very real.

He had finally lost. He was going to drown.

Alyssa

For a moment, I consider doing the right thing. I consider doing what in the mysterious man's opinion would be the right thing but I have different principles and I don't even watch the criminal leave as the room fills with water.

"Get that door open!" I shout at Cassandra. She's a sensible girl and she runs for the door, even as I slot my stun gun back into my belt. I wade through the water and lift his head clear, taking a good look into his eyes before hoisting him over my shoulder.

"Sorry about that," I mumble. "It's set to low stun if that's any..."

"It won't open!" I look up to see that Cassandra is still in the room, shoving her shoulder against the door. "He's jammed it. What the hell do we do?" The water is flooding the room quickly, it's already reached my hips and Cassandra looks so small and thin, ready to be swept under by the growing current. It's like a storm in the room: the desks have been uprooted from the floor and are floating around along with a filing cabinet, paper, pens, children's drawing torn from the wall as the water rushes past, all swirling faster and faster. I'm having trouble creating little bubbles of calm around Cassandra and myself but once I've reached her, it's easier to hold the water at bay and I begin to think strategy.

"Can't you just push it all out the window?" Cassandra demands.

"It doesn't work like that. If I don't find that orb, the water will not stop coming!" I shift the man's weight so that I can pull my walkie talkie out of my belt.

"What about us?" Cassandra demands. "How do we get out!" Calmly and briskly I radio in my position and recount the situation to Murdock who promises to get the Rainmakers down to us. "What about us?" Cassandra repeats. The water has passed my waist.

"How's the door jammed?" I ask.

"It's stuck," she says. "It's just... there's something stopping the handle moving."

"But it's wooden so it will break when we need it to," I say.

"When we need it to? We need it to now!"

"I've got to find that orb." There's no sense in trying to explain to her just how hard it could be to find if the water explodes out of the room, just how long it might take for the rainmakers to arrive and to search a drowning city for it. I drag a floating desk over.

"Climb up," I say. She does so reluctantly. I place the investigator beside her. The desk dips in the water, barely floating and is swept away immediately to crash into another. The inspector's body slips but Cassandra takes hold of him and clings to the desk.

"I still want paying," Cassandra says, as if by way of explanation. The inspector's eyes seem to look directly at me. His lips part. It's wearing off. I dive then and begin probing the floor for the orb. The visibility is poor and each time I kick back to the surface, it's further away and the door is cracking; breaking. That worries me. If it breaks...

I dive again. My air is growing thin and I'm feeling the panic settling in. I can't find it. It's not there! I surface and splutter, paddling my way over.

"Well?" Cassandra demands. I grab the desk and shake my head. The inspector is sitting up now and flexing his muscles, opening and closing one hand.

"Leave it," Cassandra says. "We're almost out of space!" I hear the panic in her voice and her eyes flicker to the door.

The water rises and I'm surprised at how close the ceiling is. Cassandra is right: we're running out of space. The ceiling's getting closer. Cassandra's head is brushing against the ceiling. There's no more time. I feed the current. I lose grip of the desk and slip below the water as I push the current around faster and faster and faster. My vision is blurred, my lungs are burning.

It's cold. It's so cold underwater and yet my lungs burn; my chest is on fire. The door breaks and the water rushes out into the street. I throw my shield up as the current drags me out the door and directly into the building across the road. The water seems harmless now: spread across the city streets in a thin layer and I feel stupid. Cassandra makes me feel worse as she glares across at me and picks up a small object that is simple to find: the water's only deep where the orb lays. She throws it to me. I snatch it from the air and gaze at it. It's beautiful and the water gushes out. Beautiful and dangerous; the perfect weapon. The inspector grunts. He is slumped against the same building I nearly crashed into but his hand is flexing, he's trying to move. The electric pulse is wearing off.

"You let him get away." I nod, numbly.

"I want my money," Cassandra says.

The silence that followed after her remark about getting payed was annoying. It had been about five minutes since anyone had spoken. Turning to look over at Charles, she walks over, "Sorry..." she simply states. Walking away she turned back for a second, "You don't have to pay me if you don't want to...but I'm only letting you off easy this time."

Shivering she walked down the road, expecting no one to come after her, because she herself, was of course alone.

[[I'm sorry, but I can't keep up with this. The most I did was stand on a roof top, so I suppose it doesn't matter anyway.]]

Not too late to join, is it?

Name: Tim Lee Jones

Age: 21

Description of appearance: One blue eye, one brown one, but is so red it looks like fire. Hair is salt and pepper coloured, but it's not because of aging; it's natural. About 190 cms tall and is lanky, no muscles, but very VERY fast. Wears anything he can find, but emits an aura that makes everyone stay away.

Magical status (whether if he/she can invoke magic or not): When the magic feels like working; he can't invoke it on will.

Character background: He grew up in the streets of rural areas, has never known family and is cold as steel. Shows no emotion, but if you can worm you're way into his heart, he WILL never let you get hurt, undoubtably trust-worthy, but EXMTREMELY hard tp approach. Is judgemental and deep down, he is lonely.


--------------------------------


Tim stared into the streets, nothing was goign right today, but for him nothing ever did. He smirked, smiling was unknown to him and he trudged into a pub.

"One Pina calata (sp?)."

Tim slapped $20 onto the table. The bartender looked at him and recoiled slowly to make him his drink.

Tim snickered and turned around to face people looking at him. They cast the gazes away when he met with eye contact. He clucked his tongue and began, "Anyone willing to sell their pants for $50? A t-shirt- or robe?"

Some of the people looked at him like he was crazy, others looked as if they were trying to figure out if he was joking; and others still were unbuttoning various parts of their clothing.

Tim got up and walked to one person, the t-shirt hte guy was wearing was interesting, "$40 for your t-shirt?"

The man looked at him affronted, "I'm insulted!"

Tim waved his hand and continued, "$50?"

The man growled and drew his sword. Tim smelt whiskey on his breath, "Never mind."

A pair of pants cuahgt his attention, leather- interesting. Tim approached him, "$60 for those pants?"

The leather-pants-wearing-man smiled and his crooked teeth shone through his cracked lips, "Sure, sonny!"

Tim pulled $70 in coins out of all of his pockets from his worn down jacket.

He gave the coins to the man and stood there, with arms crossed.

The man laughed crazily and took off his pants in public. The man handed over the pants and Tim out them on.

"Just right." he stated. He changed his gaze to thr bartender, "YOu might want to water down everyone's drink, you're alcohol is too concentrated."

Tim picked up the drink he had ordered and downed it in one gulp, the bartender completely blank with shock offered the change, Tim waved it away, "keep it."

He walked out the bar thinking This day ain't so bad safter all.

Welcome, it's good to have another participant. In fact, I'm very grateful you joined because I really like this storybook and it would be a shame to see it die.

"One Pina calata (sp?)."

It's Pina Colada.

Alyssa

The inspector begins to curse as he splutters water and struggles to his weak, wobbly legs. He looks a little the deer on that old film... Bambi.

"My money-" Cassandra begins to demand but he cuts her off as he hurls a handful of notes about and she strains to catch them before they flutter away or fall into the water. She looks almost as bad as the inspector and her eyes are red-rimmed and she's sniffling.

In my hand, the orb is still spewing out water and it washes over my hand in a cold wave, causing my wet skin to look paler and wrinkly. I try to catch the inspector's eye.

"We can still get him," I say. The inspector scowls and anger flares in his face. He turns abruptly and stomps off. I try to shrug it off: just another criminal, right? Except that this one, this one has the means to kill an awful lot of people.

****

The Rainmakers arrive pretty sharpish and I hand over the orb, grateful to be relieved of it. And surprisingly, Cassandra is still hovering around.

"Time to get you checked out," I mumble. She doesn't argue and I lead her steadily towards the hospital, not bothering to draw the water out of our clothing or to divert the path of the rain that's falling around us. Let it fall. I'm too tired to care.

Tim


It was raining, still raining, Tim sighed and closed his eyes for a second, and in that one second he managed to run into someone.

Tim looked at her, a 15 year old girl, black eyes and red hair with black streaks, the look of the lonely in her eyes. They somehwat echoed his own. She stared at him and lightning cackled to reveal her eyes were not black as he had previously thought, but dark brown.

He looked at her for a second and temptation to great to dismiss made him deflect the rain from hitting her, Tim was inwardly surprised that his magic had worked this time.

She frowned and thy stood there, locked in a silence. After a while he glancred at his watch, it read 12:03 am. During this whole time both faces were emotionless, blank and solemn.

He sniffed, "You wanna go get some breakfast?"

(BloodSunset, that's you! ^^)