Wing City Business District

Bray took his own look at the warrant, reading over it three times before deeming that it was legit. It made him snarl. He was glad when Alyssa told the officer that he was only getting stuff pertaining to the hit and run, even if she hadn't Bray would have hidden the part about Caleb from him. He'd simply give the list of names he'd found pertaining to the case instead. Yes, it was withholding information valuable to the case, but what they didn't know, didn't hurt.

"Sure thing."

Caleb moved to the desk and browsed through the papers there until he'd gathered what he'd needed and tidied the other mess away at the same time. He then took the manila folder with all the information in and went and got copies, making sure to add his information in too.

Five minutes later he came back with all information copied pertaining the to the hit and run, but left out anything to do with Caleb's name. Though the man's name was on his list of ten others, he expected that the cop would work his way down, Caleb's name near the bottom. That would give them time to get Caleb arrested for their other investigation.

"There you go sir, it's all in there. I hope what he have managed to find will help your investigation. And I hope you catch the idiot that did this to that poor girl. Saw her in hospital yesterday. Glad she's getting on the mend."

McKenna scowled at the woman and then promptly shook his head. "I don't care about your other investigations, all I care about is the incident concerning an Aschen Citizen, anything else is your business." He said, tucking the warrant back in his pocket when she was done looking at it.

"I need to know the Investigating agency, and when a suspect has been named, the Ministry of Law can begin extradition proceedings." He explained.

"I'm not here to take your investigation, only request evidence for the Ministry of Law to present to the Terran Government for extradition, nothing else. Provide me with what's requested and I'll leave the way i came." McKenna explained. Then he checked his list one last time, he was to pay an old friend in the WCPD a visit.

"Oh and here's my card." He said, holding out his card. "Notify me as soon as an arrest is made."

Once McKenna had left, Bray moved into Alyssa's office again.

"I only gave him information that we'd found on the hit and run. I didn't give Caleb's name and information or the tip. I gave the list my men drew up. Caleb's name is there, but at the bottom." He moved over to the drawers and pulled out Caleb's file. "So, we have time before they get to his name and figure out what's going on."

He was even smirking a bit, until his phone went off and he opened the message, frowning as he read it. And it wasn't his work phone either, it was just a cheap one, nothing like the phone he'd been given by Alyssa.

"Is there anything else I need to do before we arrest Caleb?"

"Yes," Alyssa said looking Brayden directly in the eye. She was smiling. The man was damn smooth and Alyssa was proud of what he had done.

"I appreciate what you did with that CPF agent. Remind me to give you a fruit basket. Now, what I want you to do is go undercover," Alyssa said. She knew that this was the man's forte.

"I want you to keep track of Caleb and make sure he doesn't even take a shit without you knowing about it. I want reports every two hours until the authorities show up to arrest him."

"I have to go by the police station to take care of some business," Alyssa said as she stood up from her seat.

"A fruit basket?" Brayden didn't look too impressed, not until she mentioned undercover work. That Brayden could do, and he knew exactly what to do so that he could watch Caleb like a hawk.

"Undercover is what I do best." He smirked, nodding and moving out of the room. He glanced at the paper with the man's current address on and remembered it in his head. With that he disappeared off to start the undercover work.

They were finally back at the offices and he sighed. "I have no idea what I did wrong." Bray said once they got back at to the offices and drying himself off a second time in the process.

"I did everything you asked. I sat with him, talked to him while he drank the beer I paid for and then you came in. So what if I got taken hostage. I'm not going to fight anyone with a gun to my head." He rolled his eyes. As if she'd believe that story. He was an undercover agent with a whole different skill set. He had a whole new level of training.

"What do you expect me to do, get myself shot?" He frowned, "I did everything as planned until Caleb heard you and went fucking crazy on me. I was caught off-guard and before I knew it he had me."

"I am not an idiot!" Alyssa yelled. She came up toe-to-toe with Brayden and looked him square in the eye. The woman was more than pissed off at him. Her rage was growing with each lie that spilled out of Brayden's mouth.

"I want to know the truth," said Alyssa with a finger pointed in his face. "Tell me the truth right now or else you're fucking fired. I don't have time to play games. I am trying to save the lives of hundreds of people and you're shit is getting in the way. I don't like it."

"I've only been here for a week. How the fuck can I cause so much trouble? I didn't do anything, Alyssa. If you don't fucking believe me then that's your problem. Go ahead and fire me. But you know what you're losing. I've been in this undercover game for way too long and you don't get expertise like that straight away. He fucking caught me off-guard. Or are you saying that I'm a complete and utter saint that doesn't make mistakes? As much as I'd like to preach that I'm fucking perfect all the time, I'm not. I'm not fucking perfect at all." He shouted back at her.

"And I never called you an idiot. I know you're not an idiot. I don't work for idiots." He growled. "I was doing my job in there. He's completely pissed, what did you expect, for it to all go without a hitch?"

“I saw your damn resume. I read the entire thing with my own two eyes, and you know what else I did? I also ran through some other contacts to get information on you too. I know exactly what you are capable of Brayden,” Alyssa said to the man with a poke to his chest. She turned away from him and slammed her office door closed.

“I had to shoot him! I had to shoot him because I believed that he would crumble on the floor like a big baby for being shot and forget to shoot you. I could have been wrong and you could be dead right now! All of that would have been avoided if you had done your job right, Brayden!”

So maybe it wasn’t about protocol and stupid mistakes after all. Maybe the entire argument was about Alyssa feeling guilty for almost putting Brayden’s life on the line for her own gain. She had been so eager to get Caleb into custody she had put her own employee’s life in danger. Alyssa let out a long and heavy sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

"You got people to check me out? A part from my classified stuff, which they wouldn't have been able to touch, what exactly do you expect to find? What do you want, Alyssa? Are you expecting me to buckle and tell you all about my undercover stuff? Because News flash I can't and I won't. If that's what this is about then maybe I should leave. I'm not going to stand here and let you prod and poke me like some damn experiment because you don't know shit." He snapped at her.

"So tell me, exactly what you know about me and what I'm capable of then? If your contacts found out so much, enlighten me." He was pissed, but he also wanted to know what she actually did know about him.

The last thing he did expect though was an apology. What the hell was she apologising for? Poking into his personal life and classified professional background? He decided to be civil though, that should hopefully throw away her suspicions that seemed to be quite close to reality. Too close for his comfort.

"An apology isn't needed." He sighed himself. "It's fine. I was stupid enough to mess up, I guess. I won't do it again."

“It wasn’t fine. It isn’t fine. I almost got you killed. I gambled your life just to put the bad guy behind bars. Goddamnit I told myself that I would never be that kind of cop,” Alyssa said as she leaned her hands on her desk. Her head hung between her arms for a moment.

“My guy didn’t give me much info because he said that I was out of the proper circles which basically meant that he wouldn’t because I wasn’t a cop. A good cop in Wing City is a rare breed and we can pull some heavy government strings to get our job done. “

“But he said it looked bad and that I shouldn’t trust you,” Alyssa stood up straight and looked at Brayden square in the eye.

“Should I trust you, Brayden, or have I just made one big mistake in hiring you?”

"I didn't die. I'm not going to die and I didn't get injured. Honestly I could have gotten out of it, I didn't because I didn't know what he was going to do. I figured it was best to stay and let the situation play forward. I was undercover in some nasty situations for ten years, Alyssa. I'm not going to let one drunken idiot put a bullet in my brain." He told her. "It wasn't your fault. It was mine, Alyssa. Don't blame yourself. I was ready to walk out of there when he got me." It was an easy lie.

"So is he allowed to give you the right information now that you're a cop again? Does that mean you're about to pry into my business just because you can't accept what I say?" He needed to find out who this guy was. Those files were supposed to be classified to everyone apart from his boss and a couple of other people.

"It looks bad because of what I was forced to do. I can't say more than that but I did what I had to do in that situation. Right or wrong." Bray told her.

"Have I given you a reason not to trust me yet, that is the question you should ask yourself." Bray told her. "Okay, so my questioning skills need work, and my attitude sometimes, and maybe to you my clothes need work, but what else have I done that warrants this suspicion apart from the fact that I have something you don't know about?"

It was really curious that Brayden didn’t want Alyssa going back to her sources to find more out about him. She knew he was hiding something that much was obvious, but she wondered if she would try to find more about him now.

Alyssa took a long look at Brayden to try and decide. A few thoughts in and she somehow got off that track and onto a new one. She should not have allowed herself to hire someone that was that good looking. What on Terra was she thinking, Alyssa thought to herself. He was so fine it was almost painful to look at him.

God, she shouldn’t be thinking like this right now. There were already enough complications with Randin. Alyssa didn’t need another heartbreaking relationship in her life, or a scandalous one. She was starting to get her life back together again and doing anything with Brayden would send her backward, not forward.

Alyssa looked down at her feet.

“I trust you about as far as I can throw you, Brayden, but I won’t go poking around in your past. No one likes it when other people put their nose into your business.”

Bray shrugged. "Least I know where I stand. Guess I won't be doing much when you don't trust the people you work with. Don't worry then. I'll stick to filling in paperwork or something at a desk. That's better than being questioned on every little thing I do." He told her.

He'd seen the look in her eyes. She'd checked him out a few times and he'd not failed to notice. She liked him and she wasn't bad looking herself. Maybe that would play in his favor. Lena wasn't here right now either. She was probably still at it with Kenny now that Bray was gone... Despite having a son together, she hadn't demanded exclusivity from him. Not until they were together.

"Thank you for not poking around in my business... It's not that I'm not saying anything because I don't want you to know, it's because I'm not allowed to know. You should know how it goes, Aly..." He deliberately shortened her name and took a step closer to her, his hand on her arm.

"And back with Caleb, that wasn't your fault so don't kick yourself too hard." In a few moments, Bray had softened up a lot to try and make her believe him.

The room was suddenly far too small even though Alyssa’s office was quite large. It was so large in fact that Alyssa had a couch put in it so she could sleep in her office when it was necessary. That couch could also be used to—


“I’m still sorry,” Alyssa said before she moved away from Brayden. She needed a drink. Alyssa needed a drink so damn much right then and there. She went around to her bookshelves behind the desk and took down a thick book on Criminal Law. It thumped heavily as Alyssa set it down and she opened it.

A hole had been cut into the book and inside was hidden a bottle of whiskey. Alyssa opened her desk drawer and took out a glass. She was not going to take out the other. Whiskey was a huge factor in her last failed relationship.

The detective poured herself a drink.

“No one but my father calls me Aly and he’s dead so…” Alyssa drank down the shot of whiskey and poured another. It was too early in the day to be drinking but she was a drunk. It was never too early. Six months sober down the drain as soon as Randin had set foot back in Wing City. Despicable.

“And I’m not worried about what you did in the past. I just worry about you being able to do your job. That’s all. I’ve got to protect me and mine and that’s this city and those who live in it. I shouldn’t have done what I did and that’s the truth of it. You know it and I know it. So stop trying to bail me out of my bad decision.”

Bray came over and touched her arm to stop her drinking the second drink. "Stop." He told her. "You're about to go in and interview Caleb Jefferson, right? If you go in there having drank - or drunk and he picks up on that, he can use that to his defence and get off scott free? Do you want him getting away with what he's done because you drank before the interview?" Bray asked calmly, softly to show that he cared.

He didn't want her drinking. While his motives were unclear and he changed things on the spot to suit himself, the last thing he wanted was her feeling guilty about him. She shouldn't.

One minute he was standing there, the next his lips brushed against hers in a brief kiss. Distraction was the key. And he had to get her off of his case. "Now, let's go put this Son of a Bitch away for the rest of his miserable life." He didn't say anything about what he'd just done, instead moving to the door and holding it open for Alyssa.

A torrent of conflict ravaged through Alyssa’s head after Brayden kissed her. It had come right out of the blue and she hadn’t stopped him. Alyssa had let him kiss her. And it felt good to have someone kiss her that wasn’t Randin.

A pang of guilt shot through her bones. Randin had said there was nothing going on between them and that she should see other people. But Alyssa was in love with the man and wanted to be with Randin in a committed relationship.

However, Brayden’s unexpected kiss was enjoyable. Sure she was just thinking about taking the man on her couch but Brayden wasn’t acting like that. He was being a gentleman about his attraction. She should tell him about Randin and their trysts in the bedroom. That would be the right thing to do. If Brayden was still interested then maybe she would allow him to pursue her.

The phone rang and Alyssa jumped. She answered it.

“Yes. Oh God …” Her face paled. “How long? I will be there sho—No? Lock down?” There was a stretch of silence before Alyssa said, “I understand. Call me when the situation has cooled down.” The detective hung up the phone. Her eyes glanced over to Brayden and Alyssa walked to him.

She slipped past him and closed her office door with him still in it.

“The interrogation was postponed. The station is on lock down,” Alyssa said to Brayden. She glanced at his mouth and flicked her eyes away. Suddenly the woman had become vulnerable and it was visible.

“Looks like we’re stuck here for a while piecing the case together.” But Alyssa didn’t want to work. There were other things on her mind. She wanted to kiss Brayden again. She had felt something when he stole that quick embrace. Did it mean that she didn’t love Randin?

There was only one way to find out.

Alyssa grabbed Brayden’s face and crushed her soft lips against his.

What the hell was he playing at? This was a dangerous game, especially as the station was in lockdown and they couldn't interview Caleb for a while it seemed. And now he was stuck here with Alyssa, having just given her a brief kiss. He stood at the door, hovering and waiting to see what happened next. And what happened next didn't really surprise him either. He should have expected it. He did expect it.

She came over and basically made out with his face.

It took a few minutes for Bray to get his senses back and his hands pushed on Alyssa's shoulders, pushing her back a little so that he could take a breath or four. It was good. God, it was good to kiss a woman again. But this was his boss. She was pissed before, and then she'd been drinking. And he had no idea if she'd been drinking before he'd been summoned.

"Let's get some space a minute." He told her. "This is crossing a big line in our work system. Not that I care, but you need to have a clear head. And after today, I don't think you do have a clear head."

“Fine,” Alyssa said to Brayden. “You don’t want me. I get it. I do, really, so it’s no big deal. No one ever wants me.” Alyssa was blowing up the entire situation. It was confusing for Brayden to come onto her and then after she returned the advance he shut her down. It was like chasing after a dollar bill tied to fishing line.

“Do me a favor and stop fucking around with my head, Brayden.”

Alyssa ripped open the door and walked out.

They had finally come to the business district. The walk had Minke on high guard, and it had been terrifying, but they had made it. Merrick was only just managing to carry Ralph, and Minke took him when she could to produce less strain. It did mean they were more at risk for an attack, but it had to be done.

"We're finally here. I thought something awful was going to happen but we managed it," said Minke, letting out a sigh of relief. She lead them toward a particularly towering building, which was shaped like a cylinder that had four points all the way at the top. It was dizzying.

She lead them to the doors, then inside, where a thin, spindly, red-skinned man sat alone behind a desk. He adjusted his glasses as he swiped his eyes over them.

"Ah, Miss Minke. Brought some friends, I see. Do you have an appointment with someone?" he asked. Minke frowned.

"No, they need medical assistance and we need a room. We were attacked at our apartment by some thing!"

The man nodded. "Ah, yes. Common. Can you show them to the infirmary, then? Or must I summon someone to take time out of their schedule to run down here, put them on a gurney, an-"

"For godsake just get someone down here and allow us access!" Minke growled. The man held up a hand and waved it flippantly toward the door.

"Fine, as you wish," he groaned, annoyed, and tapped a few buttons on his computer. The doorway that lead them into the next room lit up, revealing several lasers that would surely have diced them into pieces had they simply tried to run inside. They flickered, then died. "Be quick."

Minke looked over her shoulder at Merrick, who carried Ralph. "Come on. Before he decides to turn them on out of spite."



Ralph had been carried to the infirmary by several grouchy nurses. Once up there, they took care of him. A hemomancer determined his blood type, and they hooked him up to both a blood bag and an IV, and a heart rate monitor. They did not know how much blood he had actually lost.

When Minke told them about the fight that happened both that day and the previous, they checked him over in full, replacing his street clothes with the standard hospital gown. He was cleaned up while Minke sat outside. His wounds were dressed properly. One of the nurses came out and groaned.

"When's the last time this man cleaned up? Disgustin', really." He earned a right good glare from the tattoo mage. His eyes rolled. "Fine, fine. But y'ain't the one who had t'go and clean the man up!" He pushed off the wall. "Y'can go see him if y'want, but he's gonna be out for a bit, it looks."

Minke pushed past him without a word. Merrick shuffled into the room, as well. He had been given treatment by another biomage to make sure that all the organs that were regenerating were n the right place, but he was still hurt. In human form, he found the healing process was much, much slower. Agonizingly so.

"Damn, he looks like shit," said Merrick, frowning.

"You're one to talk!" exclaimed Minke softly. "Look at you! I'm surprised you could carry him at all."

"Heh. Well, I've got my ways."

They were silent for a while after that, looking at Ralph. Merrick piped up after a while. "I'm not gonna stay here for long, Minke. I need to find Agni with so much things out there. I know the attack didn't seem so general, but...what if it was after one of us in there? Agni got involved with us. We..."

Minke nodded. "Just go, Merrick. Go find her." She smiled. "Your little girlfriend."

Merrick snorted. "Yeah, well, she's as much my girlfriend as he's your boyfriend!" He pointed to Ralph. Minke paled, then reddened. "I saw that kiss!"

"Oh, just go! I'll stay here!" she spat, chasing him out of the room. He went off with a chuckle. Minke sat in one of the couches in Ralph's hospital room, curled up on one side. She gazed at Ralph as her eyes fought to close. It had been a difficult night. Even so, she fought against the weight of her lids. That had scared her, when Ralph collapsed.

Jesus, she'd known him two days. Two days...

"Couldn't wait to get my shirt off, huh? Could've just asked."

Ralph's voice was somewhat weak. He had woken up, though he was still dizzy and was tugging at the neck of his hospital gown. He grinned feebly at Minke.

"I told you, I don't like hospitals." grumbled Ralph. He looked at Minke. Despite the fact that she was the only one out of the three of them not to be impaled in some way, Ralph couldn't help but feel she looked terrible. He felt a pang of sympathy. He was tired, too, among other things.

"You look like shit," said Ralph directly, though still cracking a smile. "Sexy, but still shit. You should get some sleep. Where's Merrick?"

Minke blinked, half surprised to hear his voice. She pushed herself up from the couch and made it to his bedside. "Well, good to know you're well enough to be oh, so charming." Her smile was strained. "Merrick went out to find a friend of his. I'd of stopped him, but when he's got his mind on something..." Minke shook her head. "How are you feeling? They've got you on a drip. I suspect you're drowsy. Didn't expect you to wake up so soon."

She ignored his orders to sleep. She could sleep whenever.

"Yeah," mumbled Ralph. "I noticed the drip." He held up the needle and tube, letting it dangles limply like a dead snake, still dripping fluid. He had slid it out of his arm.

"Used to be a junkie," he explained flatly. "Thanks, but no thanks."

Ralph sat upright with a grunt, and untied his gown from the back, letting it fall off his front, though still preserving his modesty with the blankets of his bed. His wounds remained, though they were shockingly reduced in the mere hours since he had them. He ran his finger across his abdomen to the place where The Rake had run him through with one of it's claws.

"That one's gonna scar," observed Ralph aloud. "But, I should be out of here this time tomorrow." He discarded the gown entirely, balling it up and throwing it at the plastic trash bin near the wall, which it knocked over. "Where are they keeping my clothes? I'd like my drawers, please. If that's not asking too much." His stomach growled, loudly.

"And something to eat. Is there a vending machine around? I could empty it. I must've wrecked my metabolism, overusing my powers. There should be about forty bucks in my jacket pocket. You should eat something, too."

Minke turned her head away as he removed the hospital gown, but upon glancing just to make sure, she turned back around. She scrolled her eyes up and down his skin. At first, she was surprised to see that he had taken out the IV, but she digressed before she even started the lecture. However, about those marks...

"Christ, Ralph. What are you, some kind of vamp? You're healing faster than Merrick!" She noticed the signs. "No wonder you weren't complaining about your rib earlier! How are you doing that? Magic?"

Several years in Wing City and accelerated healing still amazed her. It was always big to a person who healed as slowly as any other human.

"I'm not going to a vending machine. We have a cafe here. We're at Hatyara, Ralph. As much gloom and doom as this place is, it can be accommodating."

Hatyara wasn't just a place for slayers. It was a place of research and safe haven. At least...that was what they told everyone it was.

"You stay here, I'm going to get you food and I'll get the nurses to get your clothes. They're used to patients taking out their IVs so don't even bother trying to hide it!"

"I'm not a vampire. Vampires are dumb," retorted Ralph, childishly. "Yeah, I'm using magic. I'm an avatar of the Masterless Man. I channel an archetype of justice, defiance, freedom and self-reliance, and in return, the universe gifts me with specific magical properties. You should see other, better Masterless Men. There are some who channel the archetype so strongly, they physically can't die until the fight they're in is over. I'm not that strong," added Ralph. "I can die just fine. I'm also speeding up the healing process a bit by focusing the ambient magic around into my system. A monk taught me that." He grinned at this, as though for all the things he could do, having met a monk was the most impressive.

He winced slightly, and his stomach growled again. "Still... gonna be sore in the mornin'. And starved to death, too, if I don't get some food in me. Pushing the healing along like this still uses my general magical power, which again, fucks my metabolism to all Hell." He slid to the side of his bed so he could face Minke, holding his blankets over his crotch to at least try and preserve some decency. Otherwise, he seemed rather unconcerned with his state of undress.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, concerned.