Thunder in the Night (Private)

[Max]

It was a dark and stormy night. A bit cliche, perhaps, but sometimes that was the way things worked. At the top of a rather nondescript hotel in Egypt, they waited. Numbering seven, they waited there for the one they had contacted. He was here, that they knew. He would meet them tonight. They had heard of him in their searches for one of his kind. He was one of the best, they heard, a true professional. Just what they needed. But this was like no other assignment he had ever undertaken. What he would hunt was no wealthy dignitary, no political head, but a girl. A normal looking teenage girl, fair of hair and willowy. 746. She was theirs, and they wanted her back. At all costs. She had eluded them too long; had interacted with others. That was bad for them. And so they waited for the one who would bring her to them.

Theirs was a secret life, one lived out in a laboratory, hidden from the eyes of ones who did not see the future for what it could be. Theirs was a noble goal, a betterment upon the human race. But there were many who did not see it as such. Therefore they kept it secret. At least for now. One day the world would praise them. One day. But today they needed their experiment back. The operation hinged on her; she would make it or break it. They knew here like no others, like she did not know even herself. They had created her, after all. After many failures she had come into being. She was their success, their one crowning achievement. But there were dangers to creating a superior being. She had outsmarted them, at least in her escape. They had tried to track her down, but she was too fast, too smart. Now they needed an expert. So they waited for the one called Bloodthunder. In the dark they waited. He was coming.

[Silas Bloodthunder]

It was amusing somehow, that seven men had never noticed him. Seven ears to his two feet. They were either really distracted, or exceptionally stupid. Any one of them could have been silenced with an easy swing and never have alerted the next standing only inches away. Nervous then. he took a deep sniff of the air, and ignoring the heady smell of snad, heat and humans he picked out the thread of spice that lingered nearer to the human scent. Worry. Confidence in some, the third and sixth in the row from the left. But he smeeled need as well, a small prickling white smell he knew would give him what he wanted. They were scoundrels, the whole lot of them. Intellegent, surly, but he already detested them. He had a reputation, which had obviously earned him notice with these men, but it was the kind of client he wished most to avoid. Still, a contract was worth investigating, and if they gave even half of what the promised...well, living would be easier.
He didn't say anything, preffering to let them notice him instead. He leaned against the roofs edge, trenchcoat in place and wafting slightly on the heated breeze the land offered. He enjoyed Egypt immensely. BUt he enjoyed work too. Which was why he was there. When the one back and to his left finally saw him standing almost bored, eyes flashing from under his top hat, it was exceptionally funny. He didn't wait for them to regain thier cool, faux composture of power before letting his pressence be undooubtably known.
"You want me to find your lost little girl. I'm both impressed and annoyed at that proposition..." He said airily, smiling and letting his fangs glisten in the poor light of the blue night stars. "She already knows we're having this meeting, and she already knows who you plan to send after her. These formalities are letting her escape, and should I even think of accepting your offer and letting you all leave alive, you had better give me a very good reason for hunting someone you forced away from yourselves. maybe had you treated her like a actual lady you won;dn't need to spend such large amoungs of money..."
He twirled his cane, bored almost with the affair already. This girl had better give him a good chase. It had been ages since his last fun hunt.

[Max]

The one in the middle, the leader for now, smiled. It was a smile tinged with slight cruelty and ample arrogance. "Of this meeting she is not aware. At least not the specifics. Yes, she knows that we will send someone after her. After she eluded us, what else was there to expect? For now she is not aware of you. But that will soon change if you are as good as you say," he stated confidently. This Silas was confident; he oozed it from every pore. An asset or a hindrance? Only time would tell. The scientist who had first noticed him could not wait any longer. He had lost enough face by being startled by the man.

"She is no little girl, of that I can assure you," he blurted out, "Specifically she is sixteen, though tall for her age, measuring at five foot eleven. 746 is willowy, slender, and very strong. Catching her will be challenge enough, much less finding her." 746 was a tricky one; that was evidenced by the fact that she had escaped in the first place. "And she is no lady. She is an experiment; a breakthrough in human evolution," the first scientist enthused. A glitter became evident in his eyes as he warmed to the subject. "She was the first success in a long line of failures; we alone raised her, conditioned her, figured her out her years there. But in her own foolishness she escaped. 746 is a number, an experiment, nothing more, nothing less. Capable of thought, yes, but not to be pitied. During her later years she became rebellious, dangerous to us. Then the improbable happened; she escaped. After a major surgery, too. Let that testify to her strength. Money is no object; we have more than enough. For now we must remain secret - we will pay you to hold your tongue as well. Few understand what we do and why it is necessary." Sitting back down, for he had half-risen during his speech, he let a satisfied smile rest on his face.

The scientist third from the left silently placed a normal leather briefcase on the table. Unlocking the intricate combination, he popped it open, releasing a papery smell into the thick air. "Let this serve as initial payment for any expenses you may need. Should you accept, that is," he explained quietly. Picking up a stack of the money inside, he flipped through the hundreds with the air of someone used to dealing in bigger sums than this paltry fee. Placing it back, he continued in a slightly bored tone, "Inside is fifty thousand dollars. Should you deliver, you will be paid a total of one million dollars." That was sure to pique his interest.

[Silas Bloodthunder]

Silas veiwed the oney with diinterest. Sure, it was useful to him at points, but it wasn't what got his attention most. These men wanted this girl, this 746, back badly. BUt through all thier effort, they didn't speak badly of the escaped experiment. Strong, clearly more intellegnt then they wanted to admit, and resourceful; a regular survivor if not a genius. That was what interested him. A chance at something new to hunt and destroy. That was his payment; that was his passion.
"I'll find your lost girl." He said at length, wishing that for all the world he didn't have to accept such a job from such detestable men. "&46 will be delivered back to you. But therin lies a problem. 746 is nothing valuable to me; i need a name. Undoubtably she'll have moved as far away from here as she could get, and that doesn't happen without something as simple to go by as a name. And i need more information on her habits; her life, in essence. I need to know everything you have to tell me of this girl, and then maybe I'll bring her back to you intact."
Silas reached into one pocket, pulling out a pad of paper and a golden-inlaid pen. He fixed the middle man with an intesne stare, saying without words that if he said the wrong things, he wouldn't live to regret his mistake. Silas hated people who wasted his time. He also hated those who were so found of proving thier superiority over others; these men were both of those things and he was already in a bad mood. The itch of the hunt and of the discovery to be had about this 746 was starting to call to his inner beast; a thing that only ever seemed to feed on what Silas wanted most.

[Max]

"Very well," said the leader again. He could tell this hunter was getting impatient with them. "She calls herself Max. Just Max, no longer name that we are aware of. We believe her to still be in Europe, though she could have gotten back to the Americas. As I stated, she eluded us." The fifth man from the right, remaining silent, slid a picture across to the dark stranger. In it was a headshot of a girl, young and with blue-gray eyes, her dark blonde hair in a braid. Her face, though youthful at sixteen, had a certain air about it that indicated she had been through more than most adults. There was something of a fierceness about her, an untamed element hidden in the shadows. It would suffice for recognition.

"She needs to eat often; her metabolism is four times faster than any normal human's. Mostly she has been traveling at night to avoid being spotted. 746 is a tricky one; once alerted of your presence she will be nearly impossible to catch. All her senses are at least double of a human's: hearing, scent, and vision are all increased. She has fair night vision, though not amazingly so. You will find that she can endure harsh conditions; she survived through a Russian blizzard a week or two after her escape. Her strength is immense, so don't let the fact that she is a very slender girl fool you." Yes, had they not seen it tested the scientists themselves would not believe what she could do. Their experiment was living, breathing proof of the impossible. "746 is trained in almost every martial art known to men; she has surpassed the experts we hired. The thing is that she combined all of them to make her own fighting technique. It is deadly, fast, and she can execute it to perfection."

So that was most of it. The scientists exchanged glances. They would have to tell Silas the most shocking part, the part he probably would not completely believe until he saw her for himself. "There is a catch to all this," he finally continued after a pause, "you see, 746 is a hybrid. Specifically, she is 98% human and 2% avian. She has wings, Silas, big black wings, spanning over eleven feet. She can fly, and she will if you alert her to your presence. The wings will be what you are looking for; find a girl with wings. She is the only one; we need her back to continue our advance of the human race."

[Silas Bloodthunder]

Silas listened, and with every listed fact, his sense of curocity grew. She would be fun, he decided, when he had scratched the last bit of his notes down. Wings, an improvised fighting style, and clever to boot. Yes, he thought to himself, licking his fangs. I'll be having fun with this one...He looked up to his contractors, who must have been waiting for him, and took another sniff of the air. Fear again, but not for him; for her. They didn't want her to get away. And excitement; they had a way to get her back, now, if he agreed.\
"Your girl will be found, I'll see to that. And keep the money until delivery; think of it as insurance. With Max as talanted as she is, I may have too much fun and accedentally kill her!" He laughed, doubting he would do that; this Max was cute looking in a wild sort of way.
Without a word he hopped over the roofs ledge and was gone into the thicker shadows of the night, lifting his nose to the air as he went swifting and quietly through the streets of Cairo. Egypt had been his stomping grounds for the past few weeks; and now what he knew to look for, find Max's smell would be simple. His twirled his cane, already thinking of the thrill of this girl. Max suited her better then any heartless number.

[Max]

Well, now that was taken care off. An inaudible sigh of relief passed around the room. It would be a lie to say that the scientists were not relieved he was gone. Such was the trouble with hiring assassins and hunters; they were dangerous. Fortunately, the scientists had taken....precautions. A miniature recorder, previously under the desk, was now in the hands of the leader. He leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smirk upon his face. 746 would be in their hands soon. Maybe she would live, maybe she wouldn't. They would keep her alive until they made an improved version, at least. How long that would be, they couldn't tell. One thing was for sure, she would be under high security. No more escapes. The scientist who had, until now, remained silent asked, "How will he know how to find us if he gets her?" The lead scientist pondered this, then stood up. "Gentlemen, we have spent too long here. Back to the lab. He will find us, one way or another."

[Silas Bloodthunder]

One week was all it took Silas to track his quarry down. Much longer then anyone he had had to track before. It gave him a satifsfied tingle to know his newest prey was already worth his time. Never had he so longed to catch someone as much as he did this Max. He had decided he would only ever call her that; or when he found her, whatever name she wanted to go by. Contrary to popular opinion, Silas more then valued life; after taking so many, he was loath to do so without good enough reason.
Those scientists he had dealt with irratated him. He had known for a while now that the next human war would be a genetic one; each side looking to genetically advance their race into more powerful beings. Through science, he suspected it might be possible, but it was hardly a pursuit he cared about. Maybe it was that he himself was no longer human. It bothered him that such men would hire someone like himself merely to track down this girl. The next step in evolution? She sounded more like a scared girl who had been molded into something unnatural simply for the twisted ideals that the human race found so much pride in. It disgusted him.
He sat on one of the dunes in the easter Giza plains, overlooking the endless bounderies of the sea of sand as the moon rose higher. Far off, the blue streak of the Nile ran swiftly northward, the lights of its many boats shining in the night. Max was out there, somewhere. He could only guess as to her reasons for coming back to Cairo; although he suspected that she was doubling back to better hide her trail. She had knowledge of the surrounding country, and was moving lightly and quickly. He smiled. This would be exceptionally fun.

[Max]

A week of freedom. That was what Max reveled in. For one week she lived day to day free from the ever-vigilant scientists. For one week she had traveled by night, slept by day. All the time she stayed inconspicuous. At the heights she flew, anyone looking up at nght would only see the silhouette of a large bird. Max wondered whether it was because she was so high up or just that no one was expecting otherwise. Strange, what people would discern about the unexpected. For example, she had lived relatively well the past week. Egypt, with the hundreds of tourist milling around every day, was an easy place to blend in. And it was easy to get away with stuff. Now she munched on some fruit she had filched under the proverbial nose of a distracted vendor. It was good, too. Max was an exceptional theif; she had little morals to speak of regarding petty crimes. One didn't exactly learn exceptional codes of morality from illegal geneticists. She had certainly never heard of the Ten Commandments, that was for sure.

But this week's peace worried her, as much as Max hated to admit it. Rarely did such a time go by without the presence of at least one whitecoat. The tracker in her back assured that. But Max had gotten increasingly crafty in this game of chess. Crossing oceans, hiding in the midst of crowds, trekking through inaccessible areas. Or at least inaccessable on foot. Flying, as she was now, was an incredibly easy way to get into areas few had seen. But she knew that soon they would up the ante. They would, no doubt, hire an expert. Their two tracking and fighting experts had been personally dealt with in Russia. They were permafrozen under feet of snow in an unmarked forest. It was nice, Max reflected, to fly and not worry about staying on the road. The sky was limitless; all she watched for were airplanes. And with her acute hearing, hiding before they came was all too easy. Steadily her large wings pumped up and down, carrying her swifly across the sky. Occasionally, chancing upon a slipstream, Max glided. Her braided hair, out of the way for now, streamed across her back. In the distance she espied the Nile. That would be a good place to go. After fleeing here a week and a half ago, she came back, figuring they were not patient enough to wait. The Nile was now her destination; veering north, Max began to silently fly towards the famed river.

[Silas Bloodthunder]

Silas looked up into the night sky, calmly feeling the sand under his fingers as he sat on a dune ow nearby the great river, waiting. He could smell her, barely, her scent carried by the empty desert breeze, mixed with the tint of salt and smoke from the city far off. His eyes picked her out fairly easily, high above the river waters. High enough up to never garner a second glance from a human, but not nearly far enough away from him not to see. He had been right. This Max was cute.
Reaching into his coat, he began pulling lengths of his chain from it, measuring with his eyes the distance she was from him. he hoped he had enough. But that thought only breifly entered his mind. His chains could stretch any distance he willed them to. He smiled, hooking a curved blade to its end. Blunt, compared to everything else he had, but perfect for knocking birds from the sky.
He chuckled, swinging the chain around in a circle, pumping it faster with the strength given to him by the raging beast inside his mind. Whirring like a saw beside him, almost breaking apart from the speed he was exerting on the rope of steel, he launched the blade up and into the air, the chain stretching like a metallic thread from the golden dune. Silas watched as its curved end shot forward and up, more of the chain slipping from his sleeve. He smiled wider, wndering if this Max would put up more of a fight then all the ther creatures he had pulled from the sky before tonight.

[Max]

Flying silently, Max was on a headwind when that eerie feeling of being watched tingled her senses. People often spoke of a 'sixth sense'. Well, this was Max's eighth sense, or so she reckoned. Subconsciously her wings beat a bit faster, hoping to lose that feeling. But unlike normally, when people would give her a passing glance and then look away, this feeling lingered. Then her sensitive ears picked up a whirring hum, almost like a distant chainsaw. Before she had too much time to think about it, a silver flash from below caught her eye. A chain came at blurring speed towards her, and she had no time to react. Max held back a startled yell as it wrapped around her lower leg, the dull weight causing her to momentarily plummet in altitude. The blunt blade bit into her skin, sending an ache of pain up her calf as a few drops of blood fell to the sand below. But surprise was soon replaced with anger and adrenaline. Whoever it was knew of her, and the unusual use of chains could only mean that he did this for a living. The scientists haunted her still. Hovering, Max's eagle eyes caught the man in her gaze. He was dressed darkly, another indication to his work, and his dark hair ruffled a bit in the wind. His face was triumphant, for he thought he had caught his prize. But Max wouldn't come that easily. As of now, she flew at an average altitude for her. She had never really tested how high up she could fly, but they would find out now. Flapping hard, Max shot upwards, dragging the cumbersome chain with her. Eventually, it had to end. And when it did, the man would have to let go or find himself hovering in the air. It was only a matter of time.

[Silas Bloodthunder]

Silas felt the chains end wrap around snugly around his quarry, and from his pervh saw he had won himself her leg. That would make things easy then. He wondered how hard it would be to rip off the limb from here...hopfully not too hard. His eyes caught the distant red of blood, and he licked his lips. Blood wasn't his favorite beverage, but some things came naturally when you existed with the wilder, primal side of the wolf's essence. He shook his head a bit to clear his focus. He hoped now that his little sycth hadn't harmed her too much; it wasn't hard to notice flawless skin like hers.
A sudden pull on his chains told him she was more then still ready for a fight. First one tug, and then another, a quick succession of stronger pulls. She was flying higher, harder. Trying to pull him along. He dug his feet into the sand as he fought to keep his balance. He frowned. she was strong.
"Alright, tug-of-war it is..." He whispered to himself. He stood up, letting some slack of hs chain out from his coat, and when her next pull pulled it taunt, he wrapped both hands around the steel links and gave the chain a vicious pull of his own, reeling her in with speed born of practice. He had no worry of the chain snapping; not from something so paltry as this little game. He'd have her soon.

[Max]

Flying higher, Max felt the slack in the line. She knew how he would more than likely operate; it was a classic move whenever this situation came into play. Let the prey have slack, then jerk them off balance. Bracing herself, she was somewhat prepared for the shock that traveled up the line, jerking her backwards. She felt the tendons and bones in her foot pop and stretch painfully, the blood flowing a bit harder as the edge bit into her skin. Momentarily dipping, she scooped up some of the chain slack in both hands, relieving her foot of the pressure. Then she doubled her efforts, beating her wings hard, flying up to the moon, trying to break free. From a viewer's standpoint, it looked like a bizzare upside-down version of a fisherman reeling in his fish. Except this fish had wings, and intelligence that arguably exceeded most humans on the earth. This made it an interesting game indeed, and Max did not intend to lose. She would not go back to the lab! There would be no more needles, no more experiments for her! Max would die before going back there. But she fully intended to live, and live free.

[Silas Bloodthunder]

Silas smiled at her continuing attempts to break free of him. He begin to wonder if he really wanted to bring this girl back, as he had promised. Breaking a contract left a sour taste in his mouth, but humans didn't concern him very much; he wasn't human himself after all. BUt max intrigued him, even though they had never spoken before. while the thrill of the hunt was something he treasured, knowledge was his true passion. Max could tell him numerous things; maybe even how to stab back at her criminal creators. Silas didn't care about humans, but he cared about undo pain and suffering. Max had been human once, and Silas knew enough about what losing your humanity could do to a person.
Letting loose his left hand, he pulled two more ends of chain from the volumes of his coat, and within moments had them flying up at her, one capped with a heavy ball and the other a flanged spike. With the same throw, he gave another pull on his attatched line, digging his feet deeper into the entrenching sand. He'd get her down her, and then he'd find out everything he could until either his urocity was sated, or he found another reason to avoid bringing this girl in other then just general dislike of his employers.

[Max]

Flying hard, Max began to breathe a bit faster as the altitude thinned. Her energy reserves were slowly being depleted, and she strained to pull up. Her mind was focused on only one thing: Free. This captivity rankled her, made her madder and more vicious than anything else would. Then that now-familiar sawing whir rushed up to her ears. Held as she was by the heavy chain, Max could only watch as two more chains came whipping towards her. The ball wrapped solidly around her slender waist, hitting her stomach with a sickening thud and knocking what little breath she had from her. The spiked one tore at her wings, fortunately missing any bone or flesh, but ripping out half the pinions in her left wings. No longer able to fight at this altitude and hold the chains, Max began to crazily spiral towards the ground, her vision a bit fuzzy as she gasped for breath. Her wings flapped weakly, trying to catch any lift they could as she spun downwards. About halfway down, she began to recover, catching her elusive breaths. The adrenaline of a free fall rushed to her head, and her mind raced through the options. Since escape was not an option at this point, she would attack. And so, snapping her wings hard to avoid collision with the sand, Max dropped like a denizen of dark heaven upon Silas, her blonde braid whipping about and her jagged wingtips beating at his face as the combined weight of her and the chains fell.