3 Chapter 3: A Following Game

Bolting towards the location given to her, she processed and ordered her thoughts trying to think of what kind of trouble her friend might have got herself into. Weaving in and out through the streets and taking the occasional shortcut she had moved on from the suburban area where her gang was housed to a more built-up area. She bunny-hopped over a set of parked bikes and landed on the other side and ran right onto 23rd street. She could instantly make out her enemies, the people that had apparently caused trouble for her friends. As she approached she frowned because Kriti was nowhere to be seen. The others appeared to have their backs turned to her talking amongst themselves. She went up to one of them and tapped them on their shoulder.

"Excuse me," she whispered in a deadly light tone.

The tapped man turned around, annoyance layering his voice and face.

"Huh?" as he looked at who had tapped him his face further scrunched up in annoyance. "What'd you want pipsqueak."

She felt the chains on her rage breaking away one by one…'pipsqueak', no one had come even remotely close to insulting her for the past few years and to top it of, she couldn't find her friend either.

"Do you know where Dr. Kriti Ramachandran is?" she asked.

Another gang member, a bald man, behind the man she tapped pushed forward and he eyed her with barely concealed ill intent.

"How're you related to the shrink doc?"

"I'm a friend," she said. "Kriti, told me to come here."

"Huh…guess she must've called for backup," said the man. "Frog was right."

"Do you know where she is?" asked Katya clenching her fist as she tried to ignore the murmurs.

"Sure I do," said the bald man. "I'll take you to her."

He reached forward to grab her but she pushed out of range exceptionally quickly surprising him.

"That's fine," she said concealing a snarl. "You can just tell me where she is, I don't want to trouble you."

"Oh that's it," said the bald man spitting on the ground. "Get her, I don't feel like playing nice anymore."

The man she had tapped acted as if he was waiting for these words. He rushed forward only to have high kick planted right in his face. It pushed Katya back but also dropped him like a sack of spuds. The rest of the gang stood there surprised along with the bald man who had a moment of shock pass over his face.

He then turned to the rest of his gang, "What're you all waiting for, get her."

They acted quickly enough as they surrounded her and she grimaced as she stepped to the right flipped and threw a kick to a man's midriff sending him tumbling before she dodged a punch coming at her head. It wasn't the most neat fight and she was in no mood to calculate but she did manage to finish up in a neat and orderly fashion with the final man being put into guillotine choke until he went still. She jumped back onto her feet and stared at the bald man who had his mouth open and eyes wide.

"Dammit…!" he exclaimed as he finally made a sound after several seconds of just opening and closing his mouth. "You're Xander aren't you?"

"You recognize me?" she asked witha feral grin as she walked up to him and pulled her hood which had fallen off in the fight back over her head.

He let out a nervous laugh as he could feel the animosity radiating off the person in front.

"How about we talk," he said with hopeful smile. "I can really take you to her."

Katya considered it for a moment before landing a surprise jab onto the man's face making him stagger back and also apparently busting his nose as she saw blood.

"Oub…you brok mah, nobe!" he yelled incoherently.

"That was for making me work," she said. "Now walk and I'll follow, you so much as mess with me again and I'll break your spine next."

He tried to bow but as soon as he saw Katya's glare he stood straight up and whilst covering his nose started to lead her.

***

"How is it, Quedell?" asked Touya turning to the large hulking man to his side as they followed Katya from a distance.

"It's none of the traditional fighting styles, nor is it a regimented combat," said Quedell. "It's just pure street fighting as far as I can tell but those instincts, they're killer."

"How is it that you sound like scientist when you're talking about bashing people up but when you talk normally you sound like a barbarian?" said Ly shaking his head as he glanced at Quedell who let out a hearty laughter which resounded out like a roar.

Ly then turned to Touya with a glare. "What were you doing back there anyway?"

"What?" Touya asked cluelessly.

"Small hands you have there…?" said Ly referring to Touya comment from several minutes ago.

"Oh…did that sound weird?" he asked.

"Oh no…" said Ly with a sarcastic shake of his head. "You sounded like a pervert."

Touya winced, "I embarrassed myself?"

"Thoroughly," said Kyler from behind breaking his silence all of a sudden and making Touya, Ly and Quedell jump.

"Dammit, don't just suddenly speak like that Kyler," said Quedell turning around to glare at the short man.

"I gave my opinion," he said as a matter of factly.

As Quedell went to reply Ly pinched his arm and shook his head.

"Just stop, you'll win an argument against him."

Quedell gnashed his teeth and then proceeded to stare back at Kyler and for a moment he could've sworn he saw smirk on that emotionless face.

"Where is he going?" asked Touya and then turned to his gang. "Is he honestly just following that bald bastard."

"Well that appears to be the case," said Ly.

"That's stupid," he replied. "It could be a trap…it should be a trap."

As they followed from a distance they watched Katya turn a corner along with the bald man into an empty side street.

"Oh my god," Touya said slapping his forehead. "This is like the cliches of all traps, being lead into a side street."

They stopped a fair few feet away next to closed store and waited for whatever was to happen. Touya turned to look at his gang who all appeared to have varying looks on their face like Ly who appeared to be annoyed and Quedell who looked amused. Finally there was Kyler who looked…well like he usually did, like a statue, without so much a twitch on his facial muscles.

"You told me he was like a gang leader here, right?" asked Quedell to which Touya nodded.

"Well then where the hell's his gang and what's he doing here alone?"

"Well from what we could see he just ran out as soon as heard a message," said Ly and then he threw Touya a look. "And this idiot decided to follow."

"Well we need to get La Fleur back don't we," said Touya shrugging innocently.

"We could threaten him," said Kyler. "Kill, maim, torture…all of these are possible options."

Quedell whistled. "You have a seriously dark heart my dude."

"Disturbing more like," said Ly.

"We're doing nothing like that," said Touya pointedly. "I'm focusing my life on peaceful resolutions so we're doing it peacefully all the way."

"Except when it peace doesn't work," said Quedell. "Then I get to bash some heads."

As the word bash came out of Quedell's mouth there was loud scream, the clanging of metal and quite suddenly a body flew out of the alleyway and landed on the road.

"What the hell?" Touya asked turning around and saw the bald man with the broken on the ground a fair few feet away, counting stars.