Description: Objective: Pinning her crimes on someone else. Obstacle: A new guy's clever thinking. Alias: Jade. Summary: He was supposed to just be a diversion to get some thugs off her tail, but Tyler turns the tables on the tricky girl and before long the two are in cahoots. It's an alliance that can't last for long though as Ayame's greed takes control in the end.
Ah, south Southtown, the home of the famous Gedo High, a school populated by kids determined to prove that just because they didn't win the lottery of life when it comes to being born into affluence, they /won't/ be dismissed as simply a rabble of hopeless thugs. The area is poorer than most of the city, with some of the buildings more run down than others. The vigilante students keep a lot of the areas cleaned up as possible, but somehow crime just has a way of elbowing its way into the area in spite their best efforts...
Perhaps it's a crime in progress or one about to be committed that is the source of the commotion currently heard on a quiet backstreet. The sounds of some shouting a little ways off can be heard - the first sign of impending trouble... Followed by Ayame rounding a corner out of one of the allies, right hand snapping out to grab a light pole in order to swing herself into a sharp ninety degree turn at full speed before she continues zipping along down the sidewalk. Over her left shoulder is a simple brown handbag. Now and then she glances over her back as if to check if the owners of those shouting voices are catching up, but otherwise she's bolting full speed along the sidewalk; a veritable red and black blur.
The newest of the Southtown residents, Tyler, is just strolling down the street and minding his own business. The young man hears the shouts and such, but he doesn't pay them any mind -- he's not one to get involved when it isn't necessary.
Instead, he's got his nose in a book, occassionally glancing up but as he rounds a corner that's when he's run into by some girl. Tyler stumbles back from the impact and instinctly wrapping his arms around the girl as he tries to hold onto her to keep them both from falling over.
Oof. "Erm. Excuse you."
Glancing over her shoulder at the wrong moment, Ayame ends up colliding with Tyler at full speed. It's fortunate that she's a bit of a featherweight, as the youth manages to stay upright as he grabs hold of her, keeping the two of them from going tumbling into a nasty spill across the pavement. "Oof," the girl squeaks, brown eyes lifting up to glance at Tyler's face, both hands coming up to rest against his chest as if clearly ready to pry herself free, perhaps suspecting one of the people she's running from somehow cut off her route.
But the kid doesn't look like he belongs to the group of bad news chasing after her right now so rather than pry herself free, she relaxes for a moment, exhaling. "Hey, should watch where you're going," she remarks with a ready grin, finally shoving herself backward apart from him. He looks healthy enough, she ponders. "But bad luck for you either way, I guess!"
Her right hand slips into the bag over her shoulder, pulling out a huge stack of bills which she shoves messily into a pouch affixed to her belt before slipping off the handbag and... reaching out to over Tyler's neck. With a broad grin and a quick wink, she points to the side, "You better get running." The sounds of shouting get louder as three very large, menacing thugs zip around the corner Ayame had appeared from. "If they catch you with that bag they're going to tear you to pieces."
The young man tilts his head to the side, towering over the girl somewhat. He wasn't really holding onto her all that tightly so she easily breaks away from his grasp as he just stands there looking down at her for a moment, he smirks a bit at her at that point responding with saying,"Me? You're the one running like a bat outta hell."
Tyler reaches up to resist the bag being put over his head, pulling right back off as she points out the thugs coming at them. He sighs, shaking his head,"You're nothing but trouble aren't you." Tyler throws the bag down, then reaches over and snatches the money out of the girl's hands, or at least tries to -- well, if he's going to get in trouble for something he didn't do he might as well do something to earn it and taking his share of the profits would be worth it!
After that he turns and bolts down the street calling out over his shoulder,"Dang you!" Tyler's in excellent shape to say the least, ahtleticism is obvious as he cuts down into an alley and leaps onto a dumpster and up and over the deadend wall with a couple quick, fluent moves.
Wait. What? Ayame thought she had a real chump on her hands. Sure, Tyler is a big guy, but the fast talking, speedy girl isn't used to someone catching onto her antics so fast. The bag doesn't get hooked around his neck like she intended and instead lands on the ground at her feet and then he's yanking the stack of money right out of her hands!
"H-hey," Ayame stammers, sounding completely thrown off by this reveresal, brown eyes blinking as she stumbles back a step, her hand now berift of the money she rightfully stole! A glance over her shoulder shows her the trio of trouble approaching fast and Tyler is now bolting off in the other direction, showing a certain adeptness at getting away as he navigates himself over the wall via the dumpster. "Che," Ayame grunts, clenching her hand into a fist. She's not going to get taken like that!
"He went over the wall!" "Looks like she has help!" the gang members shout.
But Ayame is zipping along after Tyler down the same alley, hops up the dumpster, then vaults over the wall. As she lands on the other side she resumes at full speed after the young man, her right hand slipping down to her side as she unhooks a small reel of wire thin cable. "You're not getting away that easy!" she shouts after him.
Oh no, Tyler certainly isn't a stranger to trouble -- he's been in a bit of it himself for sure. He's already cutting the next corner by the time the girl is over the wall, shouting over his shoulder,"You better hurry up if you don't want to get caught!"
With some boxing training the young man has alot of endurance and can easily keep up a full run for some time as he looks around after cutting the corner, he starts to check the doors and such to see if any of them are unlocked.
After a couple of locked doors one finally opens up as he pushes on it and then he docks into the building, looking back over his shoulder -- he then waves the girl on as she rounds the corner and then he ducks into the building and waits for her to catch up so he can shut the door.
Landing after her vault over the wall, Ayame's back foot pushes off from the bricks to get her moving back into full speed as quickly as possible. She's just in time to see Tyler disappear around the corner, which encourages her to pick up the pace a little, rounding the corner only to not see him anywhere. "...!"
But then comes the wave of his hand as he LETS her see where he's going and Ayame blinks, forced to decide if she's going to be running right into a trap or what the deal is. One of the more agile gang members comes over the wall behind her though, while the other two have to take the long way around. Grunting, Ayame decides she doesn't have much of a choice, darting forward to slip into the open door only to have Tyler close it behind her.
The sound of footsteps stomping by outside indicate that for the moment, at least, the little detour has escaped notice. Exhaling, Ayame whirls around to look at Tyler, studying the young man with a skeptical analysis. "So help me, I should..." she growls, raising her right hand, clenched in a fist. But the rest of the implied threat goes unspoken as she seems a bit too winded to say much else. She's been running for a good while...
The young man reached over and grabbed the girl, pulling her in quickly and shutting the door quietly as not to alert the trio of their presence but this girl is about to start a fight with him -- he can't allow that. He reaches over and places a hand across her face to try and cover her mouth up as he shushes her, holding a finger up to his mouth.
After she stops talking, it gets a bit quiet besides some heavy breathing and the sound of some footsteps and the sounds of the trio communicating with one another 'I losted them! OKAY you go that way, you go that way and I'll check this way!' And then they spread out and search for the two of them.
Tyler moves over and sits down on the base of the steps, trying to catch his breath,"Just keep quiet til they're gone for good."
Tyler looks around a little and then glances back to the girl,"We'll just hide out here for a while, so you might as well get comfortable."
"I'm going to-" Ayame starts chiming in right before Tyler's hand goes over her mouth and the girl is muffled for a moment. She's about to just sock him for touching her when the sound of more footsteps tromping by are heard and she ends up just holding still, her clenched fist lowered. He HAS a point, she has to admit in spite her temper.
Tyler moves away to sit on the step and Ayame goes back to panting, leaning forward to rest her hands against her knees as she tries to catch her breath as well, long hair falling down over her shoulder. "Y-yeah," she agrees after a moment. Trying to take out her annoyance with him would just draw attention now and so Ayame just falls quiet, frowning to herself.
The small reel of cable she had planned on using for taking Tyler down gets slipped back onto the hook of one of her belts before the girl slumps down onto the floor in a seated position, hands pressed against the tiles. "Those guys sure are persistant. Wouldn't think they'd get so worked up," she states with a roll of her eyes as she leans her head back against the wall. "I mean, it wasn't their money either. They smashed it out of an ATM several blocks north of here."
"I see." Tyler responds, he then begins to look around a bit and then pushes off the floor and to his feet again as he begins to head up the steep stairwell. Might as well check the place out while he's here, see what sort of place they stumbled into. "Hmm. What sort of place is this?" -- It looks abandoned, that much is obvious, cause they haven't seen anyone in here. He heads up the stairs slowly, finding a door, he tests the handle, the door is locked however so he turns and heads up the stairs some more to find the next door.
Hey, wait, where's he going? He still has her money! Ayame grunts as Tyler turns to head up the stairs, not really wanting to get back on her feet after her sprinting around all over the place. But he's not getting away that easily! Even if it doesn't really seem like he's trying to get away exactly...
Reaching up to grab hold of molding in the wall, Ayame pulls herself to her feet, stretches her arms out to her sides, then heads on up the stairs after the young man with a roll of her eyes and a sigh. "Probably one of just any number of run down apartment buildings," the girl remarks as he tries a door only to find it won't open.
And then he starts heading up further and she picks up the pace to not get left behind. "You new around here or something? The only things you're likely to find around a dive like this are a few cranky people too broke to move elsewhere and too apathetic to do more than sock you in the face for disturbing their solitude." She glances at the doors boredly, running her fingernail along the wall as she ascends another few steps, "Nuth'n worth robbing here either. Odds are each of these flats have been broken into a dozon times each anyway."
"I think you've gotten us into enough trouble as it is, so I wouldn't be thinking about getting us into more trouble just yet." Tyler shoves the wad of bills down into his pocket the best he can,"So... why you stooping so low as to stealing from an already obviously poor town?"
The young man moves to the next door and tests it, the door opens up and it's an apartment alright -- an empty one at that except for a crooked chair and a shabby mattress on the floor. Miles moves in and looks around a bit more before turning his attention back to the girl,"I'm TJ, by the way." He waits for the girl to move in and then he moves over to the door and shuts it, locking it behind her. "Perhaps this'll be a good place to hideout for a while."
"'Enough trouble?' Never heard of it," Ayame replies with a grin accompanied by a shrug. For someone who's just had her big scheme of the day derailed, she seems fairly easy going about it. She watches him shove the money into his pocket, and though the grin remains, there's a twitch of one of her eyebrows and her jaw tightens just a little...
As he tests a couple more doors, she points out, "You can just kick most of these in without too much tro-" *click* Oh. That one's unlocked. Well, all right then. No vandalism for now. She follows Tyler into the room, "I'm Jade," she states readily enough, dropping yet another alias like it's nothing. The door is closed and locked behind her and Ayame turns around, resting her left hand at her hip as he comments on the place being good to hide out.
"Yeah, and it will also keep anyone from noticing what'll happen if you don't hand that money over right now," the girl states calmly. Her right hand rests at the side of her belt, though at the moment she does nothing else, just giving the larger student a very even, neutral stare, the grin from before completely gone now.
"You want it? Then take it! Go ahead. Let's make a ruckus so those thugs can find us .. or better yet, maybe the police will. How does that sound huh?" Tyler states, turning back to face the girl as he narrows his eyes on her intently,"Well come on then, what're you waiting for?" Miles then reaches into his pocket and pulls out the money and holds it out infront of him tauntingly,"Here it is."
His expressions are rather flat and neutral, he doesn't smile or smirk or anything at this point, he has a rather serious look on his face as he watches the girl. She's a little troublemaker, but she is kind of a cute little vixen he thinks. He looks her over for a moment, studying her calmly,"What's your deal? Why you so uptight for? Your daddy beat you or something? Live such a hard life that you've got no choice?" Ah well -- this could probably apply to him as well, he's always trying to act like Mister Tough, but for some reason he isn't acting that way with this girl, not entirely anyways.
He's ready for her if she tries to make a move for the money -- he doesn't intend to let her have it too easily.
"So, -Jade-, if that's even your real name... you gonna kill me? I did help you get away from those guys, didn't I after you tried to set me up to get a beat down."
She didn't expect that. He turns, dares her to go for it, and holds the money out in front of the greedy girl, and Ayame's eyes glance back and forth between his face and the fat wad of money in his hand before focusing back on the boy's face. "W-what?" she sputters at his questions. No one really asks why she does what she does too often. Then again, usually she's too busy beating them down in some dark alley, so...
"Not really," comes the open admission after a moment, her right hand sliding a thin metal object out of a sheath hidden horizontally in one of her belts. A flick of her wrist and the object unfolds to reveal itself a sharp butterfly knife, easily visible even in the room illuminated only by the light coming in from the dirty window. "A, I get annoyed when people get in my way. That's you. B, no, my parents were a hopeless pair that had no idea what I wanted in life, but outside of training, they never laid a hand on me." Though she might have benefited from a little corporal punishment, considering how she's turned out thus far! "C, life is what you make of it, hard or not, and certainly doesn't force me to make one choice or another. I simply do what I do because I'm free to."
She holds up the knife in front of her, her left hand clenching into a fist at her side, "So, TJ, you seem like a nice enough guy all things considered. And you're not bad looking. You some kind of track star? You ran pretty good out there." She pauses, shaking her head, getting back on track. "And yeah, you did help me, but I didn't really ask for it, so I don't feel particularly indebted to you. Finally, if you think I won't carve you up to get what I want, you're sadly mistaken. So let's just cut the crap."
She twirls the knife in her hand, rolling it over her fingers before gripping it again. "Hand the money over."
Clutching his fist tightly around the wad the best he can, he begins to approach her at that point. "You can do what you want, sure, that works for a while, til you end up dead somewhere."
Tyler comes to a hault right infront of her, infact she could easily thrust that blade into his gut if she wanted to or something. "You really want that sort of life? Always either on the run or spending your life behind bars and in the end you really end up no better than you were before, if your lucky you might live long enough to get some grey hair or maybe a wrinkle here or there."
Tyler pauses for a moment as she compliments him on his looks -- sure, he's not butt ugly and out of shape. "I'm not as nice as you think I might be." Tyler tilts his head o the side slightly, smirking a bit at her now, a little cheesily at that. "Your not too bad lookin yourself."
He doesn't seem to worried at the moment that she's pretty much sticking a blade in his kidney at the moment as he gets right into her face now unflinchingly. "You seem like a pretty bright girl, I don't mean to sound like I'm lecturing you or anything, believe me that's the last thing I want to do. I just know what sort of place you're in now...", he says that last bit somewhat sincerely, he doesn't seem to want to fight her but he's not afraid to stand up to her, that's for sure. "Forgive me, my mistake.. you're just a petty thief, wrong of me to make assumptions about somebody I don't know. So here... take it, if that's all you really care about." Tyler lifts his hand with the money in it, holding it infront of her face now.
Tyler steps in close to Ayame but the girl doesn't plunge the knife into him just yet, keeping the weapon steady, but backing it up a little as he moves into the space that would have been occupied by it a moment ago. Brown eyes blink as she's forced to look up at the significantly taller foreigner. "It's just a temporary arrangement," she replies, sounding a little caught off guard again. She's not used to this kind of response from those she threatens.
He steps in even closer and Ayame holds her ground, pressing the point of the blade against his side, though not with the kind of force it would take to puncture cloth and skin. "If you think we have anything in common," the girl mutters, "You're mistaken. I don't know how you got where you are, but our paths are very different..."
He calls her a petty theif and holds the money out, and Ayame's left hand unclenches at her side though she hesitates for just a moment, eyes glancing back and forth between the bills and Tyler. Second thoughts? Maybe she thinks its a trick? In the end, she reaches for the money all the same, her left hand coming up to grab at it, "Good choice," she states, pulling the knife poking against his side back a little.
While she's distracted by the money he reaches for her knife hand, grabbing for the wrist -- though mostly just to keep her from incidently stabbing him as he clutches the money in his hand as she reaches for it, bring her to a stand still. He wasn't going to let her take it that easily, instead he wanted to test her a little more. For some reason, Tyler seemed to think that maybe she wasn't as bad as she wanted to pretend to be.
"You're right, we aren't alike. You and I. I'm trying to improve my life while you're still spiralling out of control", he states rather flatly. "I could tell you my whole life story but I doubt it'd get through to that thick head of your's." Tyler scoffs,"It's a pity, such a pretty girl like yourself turning to such a lifestyle."
As he looks straight into her eyes, he says,"One of these days you won't be so lucky. Just think about that." The young man then let's go of her and the money, then just stands there watching her, waiting for her to make her next move.
Her wrist caught, Ayame is frozen for a moment as her other hand wraps around the money, finding herself at a bit of an impasse. For all his efforts, the sad truth is she is that bad. If she wasn't more than just mildly curious about his unexpected behavior, she'd have struck first and talked later. That he hasn't been stabbed is rather atypical of Ayame's interactions with others.
But now he's holding her wrist and the girl is about to release the money just so she can get at a second knife with her left hand. Only Tyler speaking up again keeps her from doing so as she hears him out. His distaste for her lifestyle makes the girl smirk as she studies him for a quiet moment. "Guess it's just true what they say - beauty is only skin deep, eh?" He reminds her of another individual who has invested a lot of time into trying to help her change. Suckers!!
He lets go and Ayame takes a couple steps back, flipping the knife closed, "Well, I guess you don't get stabbed this time," she remarks cooly as she slips the butterfly knife back into the sheath in her belt. "You were banking on a lot of luck here yourself, you know." Her right hand comes up to flip through the bills as if to quickly inventory just how much she made for all her trouble today. "I've knifed people for less."
She looks up from the money to glance back toward the Gedo student. "You live around here, I take it. Means you could probably use the money yourself. It's not hard to come by, you know, if you're just willing to loosen up a little - toss aside certain conventions and inhibitions and you can be doing a lot better for yourself. Trust me, it's how the world works. No one ever made a buck by being decent." Attempting to anti-redeem the boy?
The young man watches the girl intently for the moment, he shrugs his shoulders,"I've never really been all that lucky to tell the truth." Tyler doesn't move from his spot, he's rather set in his standing point now, he's not going to budge.
"Well go ahead then, stab me. You're so bad, I'm a witness to your crimes, I could rat you out, turn you in. You gonna let me just walk away?" Tyler scoffs, shaking his head,"You don't think too much about your actions do you." The young man sighs, lowering his head a bit,"I guess you're right about that. If you don't want to change your ways then maybe you could at least be a little more cautious. You know I'm right, one of these days you aren't going to get away with something like that so easily."
"Tempting." Tyler responds to her offer, he then smirks a bit,"But, and believe me I rarely get an opportunity to turn down a pretty girl like yourself, but I'm afraid that's what I'm going to have to do. Like I said before, I'm trying to improve my life and not end up behind bars /or worse/."
"I have reason to believe that the nice people don't always finish last, maybe you'll see that some day."
"Heh," Ayame replies as he invites her to stab him. "I could, I suppose. But it's not worth getting my knife dirty. What're you going to do? Tell the cops some girl named Jade made off with some money but you have no idea where she's from, where she went, or if that's even her name?" Ayame shakes her head, her right hand lifting up to brush some of her long hair back over her shoulder and behind her ear. "It's all right. I'm going to let you walk away. You're no threat to me."
She lowers her hand back to rest at her hip, leaning her head to the side as he proves to be resistant to the alure of getting money the 'easy' way. Well, that's not a surprise. He seems tough, but not rotton on the inside in any case. Ayame should know. "Yeah, you're right." she states, turning her back to him to walk over to the grime covered window. A glance through it reveals it opening up out over an alley between this building and the one next to it. Lifting her hand to undo the latch, Ayame hefts it open then pushes the hole ridden screen out, causing it to drop down the ground below.
"I can't get away with everything forever. And then I guess that'll be the end of it. Or maybe I'll just keep pulling this way of life off and make my future whatever I want it to be. Perhaps your way of life will work for you. As long as you make your own decisions and don't let others control you, maybe it will."
She sits down on the ledge of the window before turning to slip both of her legs out of it. "Well, if you're lucky, I won't see you again. Guess we'll see how your luck holds up, ne TJ?"
"No threat huh?" Tyler scoffs at that. The foriegn student shrugs his shoulders helplessly,"I'd consider myself lucky if I /did/ get to see you again." He smiles a bit, hanging his head feeling a little ashamed of himself but just something about this girl that is alluring, maybe it's that wild side that he's drawn toward, maybe he likes bad girls or something. He isn't sure what it is about her but he'd like to find out if it were more than just a momentary infatuation or attraction.
"I live a few blocks from here...", Tyler goes as far as to tell her the address of the place he's staying at and even gives her his phone number,"I doubt you're interested but... You can visit or call, if you want. I'd like to see just how bad you are." His words rather corny, but he tries to play it cool, watching as he goes to escape out the window.
"Becareful out there."
The sun was starting to set, it was getting dark outside, she could make a clean break away at least, or so it would seem that way.
The girl sits on the window's ledge for a moment, hand on the upper part, left hand slipping the money into the pouch at her belt. She pauses, brown eyes focusing back on Tyler, her head leaning to the side a bit as he says he'd feel lucky to see her again. She quirks a strange little smile at that - a mixture of smugness but also a certain coyness. Maybe she's not sure what to think of it?
He fires off his address and phone number and Ayame doesn't even blink. She doesn't have to write anything down, easily memorizing the information in her steel trap of a mind. "I'm not sure if you're flirting with me or challenging me," the girl replies with a quiet laugh and a shake of her head. "Maybe we'll have to find out sometime." She gives him a wink. Silly boy.
And then in one smooth motion, she whirls around completely and slips right out the window with a certain feline grace.
Just moments after the girl makes her escape, a couple of the thugs bust into the room to find Tyler still standing there and now he's all by himself. It doesn't take long and the third one has caught up with them, entering into the room.
It's three against one.
"Where's the girl?! Where's our money?!" One of the thugs calls out.
Tyler scoffs,"HA! She's long gone, with the money too. I guess you're out of luck fellas."
One of the thugs calls out an order,"Go find her now!" And the other two were about to do that but instead, Tyler rushes them and tackles the middle, pushing him back all the way to the stairs and they both go through the safety railing and tumble down them. Tyler tries to fight them, is he trying to help her get away? Who knows at this point.
The young man starts wailing on the one with solid fists but eventually the other two catch up and they start to gang up on him. Even with his experience he can't take all of them at one time. A gunshot is fired moments later and then one of the thugs yell,"That's what you get fool for gettin in our way and taking our money!" And then another one says,"Let's get out of here, now!"
The thugs leave -- Tyler is left behind, laying on the floor bleeding. The young man crawls out of the building into the open -- one of the nearby residents find him and immediately have somebody else call for the police and an ambulance.
It seems as though Tyler was right about not being so lucky -- though maybe the ambulance will get there in time to save him.....
The End. Will TJ make it? It seems as though Ayame got her way after all, the kid taking the consequences of her actions in the end...
Log created on 20:25:15 01/13/2008 by Ayame, and last modified on 01:07:18 01/14/2008.