dIsA-stAr (Invite only.)

[max]

"Max!" - That voice again... - "Wait!"

Tears ran down Max's face when she heard the familiar voice call out to her and ask her to stop, she almost thought about doing so too for a moment, until she heard... that thing's voice after it, and she knew because of that, because of him, that she couldn't stop herself. She wanted to go home, to Texas, she wanted to see her mother, she wanted things to be all right again! She wanted the crazy lunatic she hoped she had left behind just now put somewhere where he could never hurt another living soul again.

Unfortunately, all those wishes weren't just about to come through for Maxy though; she had been crying quite a bit and now her vision was off... cloudy, if you will. And after running for what seemed like an eternity ( but was really no more then thirty seconds ) Max's foot caught onto something in the alley, who knows what, and she lung forward. Her entire body dropped down onto the hard, wet, concrete path and her bones began to ache.

She had fallen tummy-first, and then her right cheekbone made impact with the ground, and then the rest of herself. Too scared to even try and tend to her hurting areas, she laid there and waited for the outcome. Tears kept running down her face, and she wrapped her arms around herself, somewhere in her subconscious, imaging footsteps approaching her and that dreaded man coming over to finish off this pathetic piece of nothing that she must have been in his point of view that might have threatened to turn him into the police otherwise... Max grunted and tried to move her leg but it was numb, her arms were sore and painful sensations spread through out the rest of her body, so she closed her eyes and just cried. Well... at least she got to see her mother for a time earlier, now at least she could die knowing someone might remember to give her a funeral.

Oh goodness...

[Aureus]

Valekin wasn't going to chase her down, so that made things much easier. Pulling himself out from among the trash, Aureus gave his old beach friend one look before breaking out into a run. Max was pretty far ahead, considering she hadn't had to jump off a roof first, but even so he was slowly gaining. You're too fucking slow! And just like that Aureus was gone, replaced by Levi who was running even faster.

After running at least a block or so, the redhead saw Max fall. Why isn't she getting up? He wondered, slowing down and walking the rest of the way to her. "Hey, Maxy, you alright?" he asked, kneeling down next to her. The usual tinge of confidence and self absorption was replaced with genuine concern.

[valekin]

Moments later. Valekin came out onto the roof that Aureus had previously been occupying. He could hear the sirens, they were growing closer quickly. He was going to show the cops that they weren't to fuck with him. The police were going to have to be put back into their place. Minding their own business. When a man out for revenge gets it into his head that it's only his business, and no one else's; it never ends pretty.

That is what a downward spiral is.

He had a different weapon with him this time. The sniper rifle model of an Alma-Ata Kalashnikov. He shouldered the weapon, and dropped to a knee. Then opened fire on the first squad car to round the corner. Spraying the windshield with bullets, causing it to crash into the side of the building. Holding off the cops. They formed a perimeter right there, and were going to move in cautiously.

They were probably trying to radio in for a swat team. Reporting that a gunman with an automatic weapon was firing at them.

Well.. this gunman was smart enough not to stick around. He waited for a few cops to get into sight, and fire on them. Injuring one before he slung the weapon on his back, and exited the roof. Once he hit the alleys, he pried open a sewer grate with a.. crobar, got in, then closed it behind him with the crobar he liberated from a trashcan. Which was really a piece of piping. But it worked.

"До свидания, полиции."

Goodbye, police.

[max]

The brunette waited long, fearful moments for the creature ( this would be how she would describe the guy for the rest of her natural life ) to walk over to her. The pains in her body were slowly beginning to fade away but she decided she wouldn't bother trying to get up because it would never no actual use in the end, after she was scattered about. But after Max had waited long seconds... actually, minutes, contemplating what the future moments might have in store for her, she finally realized something....

He's not coming...

Why?

Maybe h-

When Max heard loud thomps on the ground she assumed that the killer/thing/man was coming after all, just catching up, so she wrapped her arms about her two cold knees and bit so hard down on her lip that it began to crack. Okay, this was where it--


"No! Please spare me for the love of al--!!"

"Hey, Maxy, you alright?"

What....?

Max almost didn't believe it. Did this thing really know her name? But... why would he/it ask if she was alright? Why did his voice sound so different... so familiar?

Mmphff...

She grunted to herself, finally daring to open an eye to take a glance at the person leaning over her. She saw in a blur.... red hair... green eyes... all of a sudden things started to become a little less foggy, Max inspected the face; short strands of red dangling above her, those friendly green eyes that Max had become hesitant to judge, not knowing how they would end up surprising her, she felt slightly comfortable for a moment when she realized that the face that she was looking into was that which belonged the Levi Ranson, and for a moment she merely forced herself to forget everything that had happened in the last ten minutes. But then:

BAM!

It was no doubt a gunshot, even though Max had never heard one before she was quick to recognize it as just that, and as if the bullet had been directed at her she jumped up in reaction and began to back away from the red-haired boy. She heard sirens just barely in the distance, actually, she even saw some not too far away. For a moment she sat there and glanced upon the rooftops as if the sniper, which was doubtlessly that horrible monster, were still there, but he wasn't. But still the adrenaline rushed through Max's veins and her face tightened, she was still scared half to death and so almost less then a second after hearing the shot and reacting to it as she did, she came up again and began to run, taking a sharp left turn right out of the alley and past approaching police vehicles a couple dozen yards away.

Not forgetting the monster's face, with teeth that resembled that of a vampire's and eyes that almost didn't seem to have any color at all, or the other boy of whom she had encountered, which looked exactly like an old "friend" you could say, although she wasn't quite sure why it would be him since the reasons for him being in an alley were only so realistic, she ran down the street like a crazy person. The cops in the vehicles didn't seem to see her, in the corner of her eye she probably saw some officers had drawn their weapons already and were moving out toward the alley but couldn't be sure. Max couldn't be sure of anything right now: why that man had killed all those people, who he was, why he thought she wouldn't tell the police about him, why she had seen Levi Ranson, but most importantly: why she wasn't dead.

But she didn't really have the time or patience to think right now, her feet were trampling the ground as she knew it and she hadn't a care in the world at the moment. Her only objective right now was to be somewhere warm, somewhere safe, somewhere... anywhere! Anywhere besides an alley.

[Aureus]

Things had been going just fine, and Max even seemed to be calming down, but that all went to hell when a gun shot rang out. Did he hafta shoot at them?! Damnit. Now they might think we're his accomplices or something. We need to get out of here, fast, and by some nonobvious exit if possible. But what about Max? Goddamnit...

It wouldn't be too hard for him to catch up with the girl this time, as she only had a small lead. In addition, he was faster. It was by some odd twist of fate that he happened to be jumped by a police officer whilst in pursuit of the brunette. Slammed hard onto the ground, the cop stared barking orders, he even had his gun drawn. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about before... Levi thought, before realizing he might still get away if Max helped him. He wasn't sure what exactly she could do, but hopefully she wouldn't blab about the whole incident. She might be believed, but he wouldn't. "Hey Maxy! Help!"

[max]

Yes...yes...YES!

The word was the only thing that was going through Max's head. Her feet hurt badly but she continued to run. She was long past that dark alleyway and she had no intent on going back, she was free for the most part, the cops hadn't seen her - or if they had, most likely they dismissed her as an innocent girl taking a jog in the dark.

After she had gotten so far away from the alley that the only times she could actually see the entry was when police sirens flickered off and on toward it, Max stopped and grasped her knees. Her chest moved up and down in wild thumps, her heart beating so fast that it took long moments to calm herself down, there was sweat running down her chin. Max could hardly remember the last time she had done so much running in her life... well, there was that one day when school evaluations were taking place at 259. But that wasn't a life-or-death matter, she hadn't be so anxious.

Calm down, Maxy...calm down...

She told herself. And that's when she heard someone shout "Hey Maxy! Help!" It was the same voice from the alley, the invisible man... no... it was Levi. She could see the red-haired boy even from yards away, the sirens lit him up every now and then, she could see that an officer was in the process of handcuffing him. Did they suspect him?

Goodness... She thought to herself, Are they taking him in? Do they think he killed all those people? He wouldn't... and I saw the man who did, I should go tell them... tell them that he's left already, that he was on the roof, t-that...

Max stopped. The man's thick voice repeated his words in her head, about how he had said his business was not that of the state of California. Sure he was gone now, but she would never forget his words, or him, he was frightening... and what if he came back and killed her or something for telling the police about him?

Come on, Max, you're scaring yourself! -- You have to help Levi. He did try to help you back there after all... The brunette bit down hard on her lip and it bled a little for she had been doing a lot of biting on that lip lately, she remembered the boy hovering above her back in the alley, asking if she was alright, she couldn't just leave him be.

So Max began to march back to the sight, but when she found herself wanting to go faster, she decided to run back. When she finally made it back to the sight where the officer was holding Levi, she tried to straighten herself up before approaching him so she wouldn't look like the mess that she was at the moment, and then said in a strangely calm voice:

"Johnny! What the hell did you get yourself into this time? Is there a problem officer?"

When the policeman looked over at her, Max held her breath. She didn't know what would happen now, but hopefully she wouldn't just make this entire thing worse then it actually was.

"Excuse me, miss, but this is a crime scene and I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Oh..." Max said, pretending to be surprised, "Is he involved?" she asked, pointing to the redhead.

The officer glared at her, then said, "Potential suspect, miss. Now I'm going to have to ask you to-"

"Really? What happened?"

"I'm afraid I can't disclose anymore information, miss, now if you could just g-"

"Well if Johnny here's involved, you'd better tell me more then that!"

"I'm sorry... are you two acquainted in any way?"

"..." Shite, I hadn't thought of that... isn't knowing his name is JOHNNY enough? "Uh... yeah - I mean, yeah! He's my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Yes. We were on our way home but I lost him in the alley Does this have something to do with him, officer? I'd really like to know. Will he be spending the night in jail?"

"I couldn't say. So... he's your brother?"

"I'd wish it weren't true, but yep."

"Well then, if you two were both in the alley... I'm going to have to bring the both of you in for questioning. It might take a couple of hours, but this is quite big. If you'd like to call your parents-"

"Hell no!"

"...Okay. Well, just let me get someone to take you down to the station. Stay here, you'd better brace yourselves... it's going to be a long night."

It already is. Max thought to herself, when the officer walked over to another squad car she finally had the time to look over at Levi. She hoped she hadn't put him in more jeopardy, she only meant to help, but it wasn't as if she was experienced in the Lie-To-Cops field. Her green eyes beamed into his, then she looked down at her feet and took in a breath, noticing something...

"So, um... why do you smell like garbage?"

[valekin]

From the underground, he went up the street a little, and came up behind the two squad cars. The sewer lid moved, came up, then slid off to the side. Out rolled the Serb, right onto his feet. Making a bee-line for the officer that just attempted to arrest "Johnny". What were Valekin's motives?

"Whoa..! Back up there, where the hell did you come from?"

The cop put his hand on his gun. Valekin put his hands up.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Officer, you don't plan on shooting me do you? For just being here?"

"Of course not, put your hands on your head and step back."

Valekin continued walking foreward. The cop drew his gun to reinforce the command. Valekin didn't take well to being ordered around by people who weren't his commanding officers. The dash was quick, and merciless. The clawed monster had mauled the officer right in the face, before a shot could go off.

"Agh!"

The monster laughed, and grabbed the gun hand, ejected the bullet in the chamber, and socked the officer in the face. Relieving the gun from him. The only other cop, out of the four cops from the two squad cars, that was not injured, came out from cover. Valekin turned the weapon on him, and blew his knee into pieces.

Shcrack!

The knee was blown into pieces. The officer dropped, but held onto his weapon. He aimed for Valekin's head. Shoot to kill, no questions asked.

"We can see who is the better marksman."

Oh, I see. To let the kids escape.

[Aureus]

Eventually Max showed up, and not a second too late. Levi decided to keep quiet, for once, as Max wove her pretty reasonable tale. However, the whole time he stared up at her. She was semi-insulting him while saving him, how fucked up was that? It didn't matter though, his pride could be chipped as long as he stayed outta jail.

After the cop walked off and Max asked why he smelled, Levi got a tad annoyed. "Because!" he shouted at first, before remembering to lower his voice. "I had to jump offa building into a dumpster to come help you!" the red head finished, trying his best to still sound annoyed while restraining his voice. "But thanks for coming back for me... he tacked on to the end. He didn't want to come off as ungrateful. But even so, how were they going to get away from the cops? Just run for it?

About the same time, the Serb had reappeared and was causing all sorts of trouble with Levi's main opposition. Wasn't that fortunate? 'S long as he makes it so that guy doesn't remember what I look like, or live to tell anyone...

"Alright, Maxy, lets get outta here." And with that the red head would push himself up and look to see that all the police were distracted. Yup, they were, and so once the brunette was ready, he would take off.

[max]

OOC: Sorry for the late reply. >>

"Because! I had to jump offa building into a dumpster to come help you!"

Max drooped her head, had he really done that for her? Or... rephrasing that... had they really done that for her? ( remembering that the redhead also shared a body with only her old school's Varsity Captain, Aureus Hayes ) She bit onto her lip, wanting to say: Well, I hadn't asked you to do that! It wasn't like you had to! But not wanting to sound like an ungrateful witch, she didn't. She was sorta glad he had come, although in the long run, he really hadn't done much besides scare her shitless, more then she already was that is.

"But thanks for coming back for me... "

"Sure," Max said, lifting her shoulders and dropping them in a shrug, not really caring if that appeared rude. Her body was aching and her mind was still polluted with frantic screams coming from her subconscious; she didn't really give a tiny rat's ass if she sounded rude anymore, bad as that might seem.

All of a sudden Max heard someone yelp, it was an officer. In the corner of her eye she saw that same bloodied man from the alley rip a man's face off with a gun, she started to become anxious again, her heart rate speeding up, and when the redhead said over the gunfire: "Alright, Maxy, lets get outta here." she had no objections.

So she ran, Levi must not have been too far behind... or was he ahead of her? Max couldn't tell anymore because she started crying again, her vision was blurry so all she could see was the strip of road ahead of her that she was ultimately conquering with her feet. Max ran as fast as she found possible, but all the while she kept replaying the image of that poor officer's face being blown into pieces in the back of her mind like a silent movie.

How many more, Max wondered to herself wearily, how many more people have to die tonight? And that's when she started to slow down. How far had they run? No less then a couple of blocks, although she could still hear sirens not too far away. To her left was a semi-long strip of buildings facing the other way, and without warning Max walked over to one of them and just collapsed against a wall, drooping down onto the wet road beneath her.

She shook her head and said between sobs, "I can't run anymore."