SERIOUS: Intel Gathering Squad, Chapter 1: Pit stop at Water 7 and the mysterious man (CLOSED)

"Don't bring up funny stories from the past to compare my skills with yours, I'm far stronger than I was back then!" the spiked hair man yells, and then presses down on the ground forcefully, before he grins. "Another trick of yours, leveled up!" He releases the pressure, which results in an incredible, fast leap, that brings him close to her in the air. "Hello! Sadly, I can't stay up here like you can, but it probably won't be needed!" He attempts to hit like that again, only that he focuses on the ground behind Jade, and smirks widely. "Well, you act as if you don't give a damn about anyone anymore but .. why, if you dodge this now, this little girl on the street down and behind us, won't she get killed from the aftermath?" He says, and it's true, in the midst of people running away from the battle they realized they are too close to, a small girl is looking up in the sky, mesmerized by Jade's appearance. Striker then goes on, an unleashes another of those high-powered, dangerous heavy-duty slashes.

Jade never bothers to look back to see if there is even a child behind her. It doesn't matter.
"You are just as pathetic as I remember - only worse. Before you were hiding the flags of the powerful friends you betrayed and now you hide behind children. If you choose to execute an attack, her blood is on your hands. Every man is the master of his own destiny and is the sum of the choices that he makes. You choose to put the child in front of your strike that is on no one's conscious but your own. Your sword. Yours strike. Your responsibility."
Jade collapse her wings before abruptly launching in the air, not bothering to see what happened behind her. His stupidity wasn't her problem. As he descends, wields her electric eel projectile launcher, removing the safety to quickly depress the trigger to release four darts, dipped in neurotoxin and electrically charged, in his general direction. It's difficult to dodge anything when you're falling to the ground.
"I actually believe the blacksmith. She said she made good on her threat of castrating you with her scythe ... and all you've got left is a shriveled black nub. She also reported that there was very little available to remove to begin with - apparently nature per-castrated you and that's why you've always been a coward instead of a man."

With the outcome of this senseless attack, smoke and some broken pieces of wall smacking down, the man is falling from the sky, and notices Jade's attack. Quickly reacting, he separates into small parts, dodging the otherwise deadly attack, just at the nick of time. Weren't it not for his Devil Fruit, he'd be dead now. Landing onto the rumble, and getting back into one piece, he bends down, and an odd sight appears. The man is holding the now unconscious, but alive, little girl, tho he does hold her as if she's a bag or something. Now that was a bizarre outcome. Seems like the one he expected to give a damn, ended up not caring so much, he actually decided to spare the little human being. Placing his sword over his shoulder, he makes a grimace that shows that he's rather disappointed.
"My my, you HAVE gotten all swallow, haven't you? And to think I was going to fake my attack, expecting you to fall for it. Now, I can't just kill a little girl, not that I care, but I won't exactly win anything." He says, still, it's weird. "How mean." He also adds, throwing away the little girl, seemingly as if, for a moment he became noble enough to actually save her from his very own attack, only to then regret said nobility, and cast away his good deed. "She didn't really succeed, that was her overeating. Tho it is true that I also lost it because of that bitch. But if you feel like it, we could give it a test run, assuming you are alive." He says in a taunting matter.

"Again. Don't blame me for your stupidity. You alone decided to use the girl as a pawn - no one forced you. Don't you dare put yourself on a pedestal for saving her from your own cowardice."
She levels her eyes at him quickly getting annoyed with the situation and his annoying gimmicks to avoid direct combat and consequence.
"Yes, I have changed. I blamed myself for my sister's death for years even though I had nothing to do with it ... I should have protected her from the likes of you. I now understand that everyone is responsible for their own life and their own decisions. Really, she should have protected herself. I am now free of the burdens of blaming myself for what others have and have not done. "
She settles to the ground folding her wings, exasperated. She had better things to do that play memory-lane with someone who wanted to pick a fight, only to run and hide. It is never wise to provoke a hungry sphinx.
"What do you want? Why are you playing games? You start a fight that you won't commit to - you use human shields to needlessly prolong this conflict. I should tear you apart with my teeth but you don't deserve a death that merciful. Furthermore, Stubby, the only 'test run' you are eligible for will end with your sweet, hot liquid flowing down the length of my blade - staining it crimson. Shall we play?"

"You know, you speak too much. That one didn't change on you." The blonde says, grinning, and sticking his tongue out, looking all creepy, and, probably failing to do so, intimidating. However, their little skirmish was about to be stopped, as a tall man in a red-and-white tuxedo appears from the skies, with open arms and legs, as he falls right towards the middle of where the two fighters are standing. The man lands like that, smacking onto the ground.
"What the hell?! .. Did a person just fell off the skies? .. Eh, he's dead." Striker comments, raising his eyebrow and looking curiously at the bizarre man, wondering what could possibly explain that "entrance".
And then, the person raises his head, really fast, really unexpectedly, so much that it actually makes Striker flinch, and looks towards Jade. "Ooooh, we lovely meet again~! I have news to tell you, because someone is after us, lovely MA-HA~!!" Ginji blurts out. And yes, the man he was referring to, was standing right next to them anyway.

"Although" ... slow motions propel her forward as a slight smirk plays upon her lips. She leans, until her lips almost touch his -- until her hands gently capture his cheeks. She whispers, faintly, her warm breath dancing, intoxicatingly against his lips as she threatens to lean, still further. The playful breath from her lips slithers against his, enticing ... beckoning him closer... and closer. "Don't make me... hurt you... " she backs away, slightly - slowly licking his cheek before leveling a gaze - her eyes pleading for him to come, still closer.

She tilts her head as Ginji lands nearby- right on schedule. She grins, taking a moment to kiss Ginji's cheek. "There you are.... who is after us? ... and now -- where is my darling - delicious - magician?! I shall kill you if anything has happened to him..." she smiles, kissing his cheek, again...

Ginji's eyes slowly roll upwards, until he can perfectly see Jade next to him, looking down at him. "Uh .. h-how lovely creepy your approach about this lovely was .. M-mahaa~" he starts, his face taking a scared, and creeped out, but in a really goofy and stupid way, as on the back of his head, a large sweat droplet hangs there.
Meanwhile, "Striker"-Perry, also has a similar expression, while he's basically frozen from that completely unexpected and completely different way Jade just behaved. "T-that was weird .." He mumbles, also sporting that funny, sweat droplet hanging at the back of his head. *I'm no longer sure if I should, or can, kill them .. s-she is so weird after all!* He thinks, only his back visible to the spectators (assuming that this, was actually some sort of manga/cartoon, that people were currently reading).
Suddenly leaping up, only now Striker getting to notice how enormous that man was, Ginji points at him, and yells "HE'S AFTER US! Maaaha~!". Well, that was already obvious, but whatever. "Ah .. I don't lovely know where lovely Hawks is~ I thought you were lovely.." His cheeks blush, and he knees, almost sitting down, and covering his face. "On a lovely date~ Maaaha~!!" he continues.
*N-nevermind, he's more weird..* Striker thinks, awkwardly, and with that droplet becoming larger.

Jade raises a brow at Ginji. Her ploy to distract her enemy with bizarre behavior was more effective than she expected - even upon people who already knew she was odd. She turns to Ginji, tilting her head.
"Really? YOU ... are calling someone creepy?!... and ... a ... DATE?! You cannot be serious - we bloody have WORK to do ... and furthermore can't you see the man hates me?! I'm wiling to bet that the single worst day of his life was the day I joined your crew. Any time I try to help him, he only yells at me. I have no idea where he is but even if his life were in danger, he would be a thousand times happier dying slowly than spending five seconds anywhere near me."
She narrows her eyes, her gaze flickering to Striker's movements.
"I'm surrounded by idiots."

Ginji's eyebrowns slowly raise as he hears out Jade, reaching unusual high as she finished speaking, making him more cartoonish that he already is, a noteworthy achievement one could say. Clapping his hands is what follows next, Striker still just blankly watching those two, unable to tell if he should just resume his fight with Jade, and quite possibly, that guy too, or just leave so he can escape this overwelming power of weirdness.
"Bravo, lovely Jade, bravo .. I almost fell for that~! Why, the passion of the lovely couple can only be lovely achieved throught fighting~! What a bizarre, yet wonderful thing it is, loooove!! Maaaha~!" He blurts out, giving a really creepy, wide smile as he finished giving his little "explanation" about Hawks and Jade's relationship with each other.
Then, suddenly, a blade is heading towards both Jade and Ginji. "GYAH, SOMEONE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!" Ginji yells, and raises his hands, looking as if completely helpless. Striker apparently decided to just try and kill them while they were busy being .. very weird and loud.

"You are impossible beyond words. I will empty my veins before being victimized by something as pathetic as love. Not even a magician will ever change that. We have more important matters to worry --"
Her feline eyes detect sudden peripheral movement. She barely has enough time to leap in front of Ginji, her katana raised in front of her face to intercept the blade. Absorbing the shock of the blades clashing tilts the angle of impact just enough to leave a cut along her cheek. She forcefully shoves him away, her blade still against his.
She raises a hand to her face, catching the blood drops before licking them from her finger tips.
"Mm ... is that jealousy I taste?"
A sadistic grin passes over her lips as a slow, swaying movements, with the hypnotic slither of a snake, propel her toward Striker. She runs a finger under his chin with taunting slowness.
"You were never able to tolerate not having all of the attention upon yourself. Now ..."
She levels a gaze carefully at him, her eyes beginning to blaze a bright green as her pupils nearly disappear.
"Your conflict, for whatever reason, is with me ... leave him out of this ... You don't want to see my fury worsen and you DAMN sure don't want that crew after your pathetic head as well. I promise you will have my head before I let you near this creature, bizarre as he may be."
She steps back into a stable stance, staying between Striker and Ginji, her katana positioned in front of her. She would not allow ghosts from her past to harm her crew or get in the way of their objectives. She would die before allow it.
"Ginji, perhaps you should find that insufferable magician. He had a task to complete - hopefully he's good for that. If I don't come back to the rendezvous point - leave without me. You can have my ship ... that you broke. Oh ... and tell Hawks ... tell him to um ... take good care of that cat he found at Water 7 ... even if it did lead me to him so long ago."

Ginji, as if he wasn't even going to listen to Jade's speech at all, is already running the other way, but stops, turns, and does the victory sigh with his fingers, using his right hand. "Aye, surely I will .. you lovely couple, MAHA~!" He then screams, actually hugging himself, which only adds up to the horrible awkwardness that was already suffocating Striker, if not Jade herself too. And then, Ginji simply vanishes, as if he just moved that fast that he wasn't visible .. or he just vanished, he was weird enough for Striker to consider that maybe he can also vanish at will.
"Boy.." He goes, and sighs. "What a wuss .. can't believe this person has a bounty of 90,000,000 beli .. are they giving them for free?" he asks Jade, and steps away a foot or two. "Anyway, let's continue." saying that, he moves forward once again, and attempts to strike Jade from above, a really wide and strong, but otherwise leaving him somewhat open, full strike.

"Idiot." She watched Ginji disappear, almost surprised until she remembered where she was. She would have never even considered leaving a crewmate behind for any reason but her own disbanded crew was old and from a different age and code of honor - these were Wally's cut-throats. Though, they were here still surviving and that counted for something, though she wasn't sure what. Vultures also stood the test of time. Maybe the bastards were only after her ship after all. It made no matter - she could be a soulless cut throat too. She had nothing left to protect. Those days were gone long ago. There was nothing left but blood and emptiness.
She turns her attention back to Striker and now that those two Blackcross idiots were safe, her blood-lust diminished considerably. "He's painfully oblivious. He seems to just ... weird... his enemies into submission. You should see him with boobs. Terrifying. Don't ask." Jade half smiles, glancing up at his strike attempt with a certain nostalgia and she steps out of the way. He'd slipped back into his old tricks, complete with the same weaknesses. She brings her blade up at a cruel arc toward his neck before rotating the blade 90 degrees so the flat of it harmlessly rests against his skin. She leans close, whispering against his ear - so close that her lips vaguely touch the skin of his ear. "Just like old times, yeah?..."
She gives him a slight shove, something like one would give an annoying sibling. "...and much as you've learned, you still have the same weakness. You invest so much attention in your strike that you never plan for it missing. How many times must I tell you? Guard. Your. Flank."
She twirls her blade absently as if it were a toy. "Before you continue to bore me ... what the devil do you want? Who in nine hells would send you after me? I no longer have a crew and my debts are all paid. Why does everyone want me dead? Even my crew. Apparently."
She runs her own blade dangerously across the bare skin of her own abdomen, the shallow cut sheeting the blade with a thin cascade of warm blood. "Perhaps I should give the world what its asking for ..."
She looks up, suddenly - her eyes softly glowing, framed by wind blown strands of her pale turquoise hair- a haunting creature, like an ethereal, bleeding goddess of death. She slowly retracts the blade from her skin, bringing it back out in front of her. "... but you know I'm much to stubborn to go down without a fight ..."

Watching Jade's behavior, which was obviously far from the ordinary woman's behavior, Striker backs away a few steps again, and glares at her. That goes on for a while, probably more than one would expect from a pair of people currently in a death match. And then, he relaxes, and stabs his large blade onto the ground, letting go of the handle. He crosses his arms, and sighs.
"Aye aye .. what in the world has happened to you?" He speaks, with a tone that actually implies .. could it be, compassion? Even some level of sympathy, it feels as if he's worried about her. However, apparently even himself found that this was too unexpected and unfitting in their current situation, so he takes a hold of the handle again. And then says what would probably fire up Jade.
"I will be honest. I was sent here to stall you. The real target it .. Nemuri Hawks." He speaks out.

Meanwhile, the magician has just left from a large, mansion-like building. Looking up, he lets out a sigh. "So, to Shabaony, huh?" He speaks to himself, and begins to walk away. Unaware that he's being watched.

She looks at him in disbelief to the point she almost laughs.
"Oh come now. I know you're an insufferable idiot but you're no fool. Tangling with me is one thing. You can blind me with my own rage by taunting me with the opportunity to spill your blood ... but you can't really be stupid enough to go after Wally's boys. What could possibly worth that kind of risk? No one goes after a Shichibukai's crew - not even a former one - without damn good reason. If it's Wally your after, he isn't here and the magician can't help you."
She tilts her head. This had to be a trap. She was certain he was trying to taunt her into battle by luring her into another blind rage so her guard would be down. The worst thing she could do was allow him to believe the magician was worth a thing in the world to her.
She almost felt bad for him if he truly wanted a fight with the magician. To fight with her was one thing -like intentionally opening a bottle of unbridled rage, complete with claws and teeth ... but to fight with Hawks was far worse - so hauntingly silent, like the stillness in the air before a devastating storm. You would lose your head before you knew the battle began because he could not be taunted, provoked, or ...stopped. The only time she ever saw him react to anything was when she was intentionally torturing him.
"Do as you like, Perry." She pauses for a moment, imagining the scorpion dagger, that Hawks first threatened her with, burying it's stinger deep in the man's throat. A sadistic smile crosses over her lips at the thought.
"...good luck with that."
She walks over to him and ruffles his hair the same was she did when he was a boy.
"Goodbye, Perry. I hope I never see you again. "
She backs away from him. She had to find Hawks - if this idiot was being truthful about targeting him, there would be more than one person after him. No one member of the Blackcross crew was to be taken lightly - and only sending one person, particularly that person, after any one of them would be beyond stupid.
She had a suffocating realization that 'Striker' was quite possibly sent to harass and distract her as a ghost from her past while stronger men went after Hawks - if he was truly the target. She swallowed her anger and panic by apathetically toying with the hilt of her katana. If anything happened to Hawks or even obnoxious Ginji, no one would survive her wrath.

"You cannot protect him." Striker says, while Jade is walking away, the other way. "The one he's after him is not any of Wally's enemies. No sane man would want to mess with that monster anyway. However, it is true that as of now, that monster is far away, focusing in becoming a sort of aqua mob boss or whatever, you think he would be able to find out who killed just one of his subordinates? Assuming that, he would even care if one is gone?" He adds, and turns to face Jade. "The one that is after him is a personal enemy of that magician, or whatever he is. And he's careful and skilled enough to ensure that, upon he kills him, not even your captain will be able to connect the clues and figure out who was behind it. And another thing ... you're not going anywhere." After he finishes saying that as well, the blonde, spiked hair man dashes towards Jade. But this time, no silly antics or stupidly overpowered and filled with gaps assaults. He moves like a dart, and swings his blade in a similar fashion, attempting to cleave throught the woman.

"Protect him? You cannot be serious. I am not his keeper and I am not his bodyguard. Every man is responsible for his own fate and every man dies. Only cowards survive the ages ... but surviving isn't living. Only the strong and fearless truly live - even when they die young. That's all you've ever done, Perry, - survive. I only save my pity for the weak ... and you, I pity - because you have never felt alive. Those who fear death never will..."

The wind catches her hair as she turns her head, tugging pieces here and there to frame her eyes. Her eyes retained their vibrant and ancient glow - sadness mixed with excitement, reflecting all of the horrible things she has seen in her short years. She felt like she was 10,000 years old and only her eyes revealed the haunting beauty of the scars of endless tragedy upon her soul.

"Whatever the magician has gotten himself into is his own responsibility - just as I asked no one to help me take your head. I won't let my affairs harm my colleagues but their affairs are their own business."

In truth she would interfere if he asked her to. Every man has the right to choose his own battles and his own death. ... but if he asked for her help, she would not stop until either the blood of his enemy or her own blood littered the streets. She wasn't even sure she had the restrain to not interfere if he asked her to stay out of it. Her soul could not suffer another scar, even though she was nothing to him.

"You are distracted, you idiot!" Striker says, he switched his assault the last second possible. He dived his dominant foot just a step before reaching Jade, and, rather than a piercing, dart-like blow, he lowered his sword, and now attempts to slash Jade with a strike coming from below, a vicious slash from an angle that makes it hard to just outright counter by staying in the move's radius and trying to parry the blow.

Meanwhile, Hawks is walking around the city, thinking. Thinking about his position. He was loyal to his captain, but at the same time, he was feeling like he was abandoned by him. It's not like he was intentionally leaving him with no other help, aside his two subordinates, he was really far away, and had to overcome some of his own troubles, but still, a bit more help than just random bits of information here and there would be useful. "I wonder where is that weirdo and Jade." he speaks to himself, and happens to pass by some of the kids that saw his and Jade's "play" earlier on. One of them gave him a kick right on the crotch, yelling "You mean person!" and running away, leaving Hawks to sulk over that painful encounter.

Jades eyes flicker to the blade that meant to destroy her. Her green eyes disregard the blade, never fearing death. Yet, then it suddenly changes it's trajectory. She was curious if he would go through with it and his last second change in attack, when the first one would have been perfectly deadly, did not escape her notice. He may have only spared her the blow because she wasn't engaged in the fight or because he ... couldn't go through with it. Either option was more than she ever expected from him. The second path of the blade was significantly more obnoxious. Parrying at that angle with only cause the blades to slip against each other and gravity was not in her favor. Instead she executed a clean back flip out of the swords trajectory.
She was now growing uneasy about Hawks being in potential peril. She'd never admit it, but she worried about him. She often treated him like a cat that plays with a mouse it has caught - but she wouldn't annoy him if she wasn't somewhat fond of him. As she lands somewhat behind where she was, she uses the backward momentum to launch her into a series of back handsprings - her body twisting into it's full sphinx form with every moment. At last she uses the remaining momentum to launch herself into the air where her broad wings spread to keep her aloft in the air.
"Apologies. We really must continue this soon ... but I have more important things to worry about."
She bites her lower lip nervously as she tries to spot any suspicious movement in the city below.

Striker moves forward, as if he's about to leap into the air and attack her, or at the very least try to chase her, but then, he stops, and relaxes, letting his blade down, and taking out a foiled object from a pocket, well, that was quite the large jacket, seemed like something that could hold inside a lot of things. He takes a sip, obviously a bottle wrapped in foil, and looks at Jade, as she flies away. "Eh, see ya later woman." he says. Unclear if he just found it impossible to chase after a flying target, or he simply decided to let her go, for his own personal reasons or beliefs. He did showed he wasn't as reckless and ruthless as he wanted to let out anyway, when he saved a little girl from the attack that he himself executed.
As he looks around, he notices the scared people's expressions, as they still don't come any closer, and, with a bored sigh, grabs the blade, letting it rest on his shoulder, and walks off, still drinking as he walks away.

Her wings snagged an air current that carried her toward the other side of the island. This was the direction she last saw the magician go. Perhaps she's spot Ginji along the way. He was unfailingly hard to miss - though, in typical Ginji fashion he would probably be impossible to locate the moment he needed to be found.
She perched upon a rooftop - the same rooftop that she first stalked Hawks before she met him. It was fortunate that she no longer viewed him as - food. Her now centered on a flicker of sparks - a cluster of children gathered around a pyromancer who was perfecting some of the components of his trade by testing their efficacy on old baskets on the roof. πῦρ θαλάσσιον, it looked to be.
A distant glint of light suddenly caught her eye from a nearby roof top. A figure with a scoped airgun was steadying his shot and the sunlight flickering off his watch had caught her eye. She narrowed her eyes and snatched the basket of orbs from the nearby pyromancer before she took to the air.
She flew directly into the man as the shot was depressed throwing its trajectory off course. Whatever it's target, it was thrown slightly off. She pinned him to the ground as a massive, clawed paw coiled around his throat. She took two orbs and poured them over the mans face - the caustic fumes dancing in the air.
"You know that this is, don't you ... I need but a tiny spark and your flesh will be consumed by flames for so long as there is flesh to burn. You can not put it out, you can not get it off, and you cannot escape. Who is your target and who do you work for."
She pulled a flint from from the basket, a claw of her free hand carelessly flicking sparks here and there dangerously close to the man's face. "I can promise that you don't want to give me the wrong answer."

"W-who are you? W-why are you doing this, no, stop wait, I'll say it all!" The scared man yells. He doesn't seem to be much of a professional, well, at least his reaction, horrified, completely caught off guard, and having lost his words and already stating he will spill everything out, suggests that. Then again, not a lot of people would be able to just calmly brush off her threat of basically turning their head to ashes and molten bones, if bones could even melt.
"I-I'm working for Mr. Bishop! He wanted me to kill a person he owned him a large debt, but was not paying it up! I-I didn't knew that he'd have such superhuman people as his guards! Please, let me go, I won't ever c-come across you or your client again!" He says, while wipping and shaking. His explanation seemed a bit weird to say the least, why kill someone that owns you money, or anything else of value? Wouldn't that take away your chance to get back what belongs to you? Then again, looking at this pathetic, low-class "executioner" almost crying and being visibly surprised and scared, perphaps it really just happened to be a coincidence that Jade came across someone else that meant evil business in this city.
But, from a distance, and on top of a tower-like chimney, there seems to be a head popping out. Well, it's more of a blackened, from all that ash in the chimney, bald top, but if someone was really close and paid enough attention, he or she could tell it was a head. Not that anyone would really be interested in scanning down chimney roofs. "Interesting." the man simply mutters.

"You are in no position to ask questions. Bishop? Who is this? What does he look like? What is his affiliation ... and more importantly WHO ARE YOU AFTER?"
... A claw presses more insistently against the mans neck. She pulls a tuft of hair from his scalp and flicks a spark at it, gently blowing until it flares into a small flame, slowly consuming the hair. She places this beside his head while leaning in close so he could have a nice view of the 6 inch lion's incisors in her mouth.
"You will help my find this Bishop and reveal your target ... or I will set you aflame and begin to eat you while you are still alive ... I will then put out the fire before it kills you ... so you may learn the meaning of suffering and then use this ever-burning substance to start a new fire in another place on your body until you feel like talking. I have spent many years studying what parts I can eat to inflict the maximum amount of pain while keeping my victim alive."

"Aaaaah!!" The man screams in utter fear, and cries out. "Okay okay, I'll tell you everything, just don't kill me! I have 3 kids to feed, I don't have a job, this is the only way I have to provide for them!" he says, in between random words that made no sense, and wipping. Whoever this Bishop person was, whether he was afficiated with the man "Striker" Perry talked about earlier on, or not, he probably made a poor choice to select such a pathetic excuse of a sniper to do his work. However, Jade wouldn't probably mind that she came across someone willing to spill everything out, and obviously not strong nor smart enough to attempt to do anything, not that many could possibly overpower a mythical zoan user, that is about to eat them, while at the same time being a spark away from being burned to a crisp.
"Okay okay, listen, Mr. Bishop is a legendary joggler and magician! He has long retired however .. he asked me to find and kill a magician with blonde hair and pale skin .. I thought he was that person on the street, but I'm sorry, I didn't know that this person was your friend! I'll never do anything again, just let me walk away and you will never see me again!"
Bingo. So this person was probably the one Jade was looking for. And thankfully, he was bad enough to hire this low-life, who was too stupid to do any research and just tried to kill someone else, who happened to be also blond and pale. They both give the impression that they are really foolish.

"Mmm ..."
The man never knew that his pathetic pleading whining fed the zoan inside her - the feral slave of nature longing to be free - an instinct that fed upon the weak and bloodletting ... "A pale magician? How unfamiliar" .... the gloved claw imbedded in the man's neck as a pair of rigidly unyielding incisors imbedded deeply on the other side. The blood the filled her mouth, instantly fed the raging beast inside her - yearning and calling for more. A savage bite indulged that instinct and she felt a pleasurable tremble from her victim as the last ounce of life exited his body, flowing past her teeth as the blood filled her mouth. The only good underling with a mouth was a dead one, she mused, ... she looked up from her prize as a dangling piece of esophagus, dripping with blood, hung from her mouth. At last, she could feed her hunger - but she abruptly abandoned her meal ... her rage would serve in savaging this creature who wished her magician harm. Pity was appropriate for those foolish enough to encroach upon the territory of a mythical zoan sphinx. She looked up up from the corpse as an eerie luminescence pulsed from her feral green eyes .... she tore another mouthful of flesh from her prey - there would be no mercy from the one fool enough to harm her magician.

(OOC: Oh oh x.x ..))

Meanwhile, Hawks is walking around, and actually trying to figure out where the heck did those other two went to. He already got the info he needed, which was actually not much really, but now, he had to find those two, so they can access the situation and decide on what to do. And then, he stopped walking, and looked around. This place ... it was the place where he heard a man screaming from a long distance away, probably he had a megaphone with him, as a human being shouldn't be possible to scream that loud, about making a pirate crew and wanting new recruits. Even today, he really had no idea why he decided that this person would be the one he'd follow. Especially considering how isolated the man would feel now. "Where have I put myself into?" He mutters, looking into the distance, and still thinking, distracted into some sort of melancholy. No one else was walking around that area, probably due to the dusk setting in, or that this area was not a busy street. It was lonely.
But, this would end soon. Hawks hears some footsteps, and his gut tells him, that, this will be the start of troubles. "May I help you?" He asks however, but with a cold, yet polite, tone. A blackened man, unknown if he was truly black or just painted black, as that coal on him was just so thick, is standing a few meters away, with his arms folded, behind his back. His smile, wide and really so white, probably cause of all this darkness around it, seems serene and polite. "Are you Mr. Hawks? I'm sorry but I'll have to kill you now...!" he says, with such a calm, and friendly tone. Who was he?