Draven slowly walked the streets of Chicago as the wind whipped a few leaves across the ground. The sun had just set and the street light flickered softly against the glow of the purple and pink hue of dusk. Looking forward, only darkness met the streets as she picked up her pace hoping to reach the head quarters before the night completely took over the skies above her.

Hearing her heels click against the pavement she pulled her light sweater tighter around her as the wind picked up. For some reason the darker it got the more her heart seemed to pound in her chest. She shook thoughts of murders and serial killers from her head as she again felt her feet seemingly move faster then before, and she found herself wishing she hadn't enjoyed horror stories so much and the true crime stories that she had heard about famous serial killers like jack the ripper.

"Damn darkness." She mumbled under her breath as she looked around in front of her letting her eyes dart from dark corner to dark corner as the purple hue in the sky melted further away leaving darkness to surround everything. The flicker of the street lamps didn't help her imagination as shadows seemingly moved from their hiding places and danced closer and closer towards her. "How much freaking father is the address?"

Her voice seemed to bounce off the streets and echo back into her ears. Yet something about it made her a bit more comfortable. She rolled her eyes as she remembered Sao talking to her. "You know you should just wait till tomorrow.. Your way to jumpy to be walking around at night by yourself, or at least let me walk you there so you don't get lost. You haven't even visited the head quarters before and you are horrible with directions." She huffed a bit as she mocked him now making faces as she mumbled the words.

Seeing her turn, she caught a smile as she realized she had to be close, she felt herself relax a bit as she rounded the left turn then stopped.

"Damn it.." She kicked a pebble in front of her realizing that she had somewhere taken a wrong turn and she was left staring into the darkness of an alley. The pebble bounced down the alleyway and landed against a tin can causing a metallic noise to lightly ring in her ear as it disturbed a sleeping cat that darted from behind the shadows meowing loudly as it ran further in the darkness.


She turned abruptly around and sighed to herself as she stood there for a moment trying to figure out where her turn was.

"Went down 3 blocks turn right, go down 2 more blocks take a left.." She pulled a smoke out and tried to retrace her steps from the memory of the directions that 21 had given her, yet found herself getting even more confused and she took a longer drag of the smoke and tried to relax. "You have to relax Draven... If you don't.." She stopped as she heard something.

"Draven....." The voice came from behind her in the alley and she nearly froze at it's cold nonhuman ton. "You shouldn't have come.."

She spun around peering into the darkness hard squinting. Something seemed like deja vu, as she stood there and her heart nearly exploded in her chest. She thought to herself was she losing it? Did she really hear something? As stupid as it was she found herself taking a step forward searching for the voice as it suddenly was in her ear. "Stupid women."

Her scream erupted through the dark alley way as it stopped with a choke and an icy hand silencing her.

Sao had been waiting at the HQ for some time. He had just known that Draven would be late, lost, or get distracted by something. She should have been there half an hour ago. He was beginning to worry, and he wished she would have let him walk with her. She could be so stubborn sometimes. He had decided he would try and find her. Wander the streets of Chicago for a while. It'd be good to get some fresh air.



As he got closer, he heard Draven's name being yelled as well.

"Oh shit..."

Sao took off at a run towards the screaming. He was desperately hoping to get to her before anything serious happened. As soon as he rounded the corner, he caught glimpses of Draven being held against a wall in a dark alley. Sao sped around and came up the opposite side of the alley. He pulled his gun from his jeans, and checked to make sure it was loaded. He walked up behind the man and pressed the barrel into the back of his head.

"There a problem here...?"

Once the words came from his lips, he heard a rustling behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt something crash into the back of his head. He was seeing stars, and the edges of his vision were whitening. He tried to stand back up, but couldn't muster the energy. Before he knew it, he was out...

Just ariving to the HQ, waiting for the meeting that was supposed to go down, 21 finds a note placed on the table that read..

"Draven is taking forever, I'm slightly worried. I'm going to go get her, Love Sao"

21 figured that Sao could handle himself on the streets, he had been there before.. So 21 took a seat at the table and got started on the donuts. 25 minutes passed and 21 was starting to worry also. He got up and decided to go find her. He had given Draven the directions so he knew the path she was supposed to take. He started there. As he was walking down one of the streets Draven was told to follow, he heard some mumbling, and the breaking of glass. As if someone was stepping on it. He decided to check it out. Only to see Sao laying on the ground and Draven missing. With only her gun laying behind. 

"Sao, wake the fuck up! Draven is gone! SAO!!!!!!" 

Draven slowly woke up and squinted against a bright light that shown onto her face. Trying to get acclimated to the light she felt how hot she had become from the beaming light and tried to move from it. All she was able to see was the bright bulb that was right in her eyes. Trying to shake it off the dots that the light caused her to see she turned her head and tried to move.

"What the.." She realized she couldn't move. She desperately tried to move her hands but only was met with a harsh grip on her wrists as a voice whispered in her ear.

"Draven.. Poor little Draven." Then laughter rang out around her. The room seemed to be completely metallic as the words and laughter bounced around causing Draven to flinch. She tried to even kick her feet but that was met to tightening of a rope at her ankles the fiercely tore at her skin. The footsteps from the person roamed around the floor as Draven tried to see something aside from the bright light that seemed to be frozen in her vision.

Draven didn't move at this point she knew it was pointless and she wasn't even sure what had happened. She swallowed hard not knowing what was going to happen and fearing the worst as suddenly a harsh hand went across her face. She winced in pain as she felt a trickle of blood from the corner of her lip and run drown her chin from where it had split her lip.

"Don't you worry Draven. I'll make sure that you are awake for all the pain. After all I simply can't allow you to not feel the pain you have caused me."

The voice was so close to her ear she felt the warm breath on her skin and the horrid stink from the breath as the words spilled out their mouth. Draven found her self searching for what and who this possibly could be but couldn't think of anything she had done. She was new to this world and had only had a few run ins with people that had become her friends or so she thought were her friends. Then something struck her. That homeless person that she had killed she found trying to steal from her boss. She said nothing as she felt a hand push her backwards as her chair crashed down to the floor. Her head bounced off the floor as the breath was knocked out of her and she saw everything go black again.

Sao was finally coming to. It felt as if he had been out for hours. For all he knew, he was. He heard someone shouting for him to wake up, but he couldn't quite see clearly enough to make out a face. He felt like he had a 1/5 of tequila and an ass kicking. From the throbs in his head, the ass kicking didn't seem too far off. He shook his head a few times, trying to clear his shakey vision.

When his sight came to him, he saw 21's face. He got angry, though he wasn't sure why. He stood up, and grabbed 21 by the shirt, pushing him up against the wall.

"What the fuck man...why'd you hit me...!?"

As soon as the words left his lips, he realized how foolish he was. Why would 21 hit him? He was in his family, and wouldn't do him any harm. He released 21 and backed off, shaking his hands violently. He looked 21 in the eyes.

"Gods, I need a drink...how long was I out...? Wait...where is Draven!? Have you seen her!?"

Sao looked around frantically, looking for his missing firearm. He finally found it, by luck, in the shadows of the alley. He went and picked it up. Who ever assaulted him had taken his ammunition. Luckily, his apartment wasn't far off and he could always run and grab some more. He looked back at 21.

"Well...have you...?"

"I didn't get to see her, I saw your note, waited for 25 minutes, then came to find you.. Passed out in a alley.. So I woke your ass up. Draven's gun is here. Someone must have kidnapped her."

21 Throws Sao a 2 clips for his pistol. 

"We need to find her, but where to start? There's a long list of people who would want to hurt Draven..."

21 looks around the alley for anything that would give him a clue as to where the kidnapper might have gone, or who he was. 

This was a outrage, and had to be stopped. 

"Sao, do you remember anything from the person who hit you? Tattoos, facial hair, scars, ANYTHING?"

Draven winced in pain as she slowly came to. She felt splinters of wood piercing her skin as she withered on the floor. She wasn't really sure as to what had happened as she felt the sting flow through her head and body of hitting the floor. Trying to move she realized she was still bound to the remains of the chair and suddenly a cloth was forced over her face.

"Why did you do it?" The cloth kept her from answering as she stared into a pair of deep blue eyes that glared at her. The rest the face she couldn't get into picture as she saw felt a gush of water being poured over her face. Minutes seemed to pass as she tried to breath but simply inhaled water till finally it stopped and the cloth was pull from her face and she felt herself be jerked up by her hair.

She sputtered and coughed as she tried to breath. Nearly vomiting from the water she tried to speak but simply couldn't and she felt herself get pushed back down.

"No.. No.. wait.. who.." She tried to speak but all that came out were sputters as again she was doused with water. She didn't even have a chance to catch her breath as she felt the coolness of the water again slick her face. She shut her eyes tight just hoping this would end.

Sao tries to think back to the altercation, but his head is a little fuzzy. He reaches into his jeans pocket and pulls out a cigarette, lighting it. Nicotine always helped to clear his head, help him think. He paced back and forth trying to think of anything that could link him to Draven.

"No, I can't really think of anything. He sounded cranky, but of course he had to have been to abduct Draven..."

Sao stood there for a moment, thoughts racing.

"I think I know where she is...follow me..."

Sao remembered what the man smelled like. Strange, considering he never had that good of a sense of smell. This was a smell that stuck with him, somewhere he's been. Draven had to be there. If she wasn't, he was all out of ideas. He bent down and picked up Draven's gun where it still layed on the cold cement. He started out of the alley, and wasn't even looking to see if 21 was following.

"Hold on Draven...I'm coming..."

21, while putting a cigar in his mouth, and his hat back on his head. Followed Sao. His mind racing with questions.

"Where is he going? Will there be guards? What if it's another family?!"

21 wasn't scared, just nervous. He had been put in situations like this before. He was a experienced in hand-to-hand combat and was ready to fight if he had to.

21 and Sao ended up in a old shop. It looked like a barber shop, but it had no sign or anything on the front. 21, curious as to what the smell was that Sao recognized, pulled out his knife and walked into the building, taking a big sniff of the joint.

"Smells like... I don't even know.. But it doesn't matter. It's a very unique smell.." 

21 looked around, there were no guards to be seen, but he kept his knife out for safety. 

He signaled Sao to enter the mysterious building..

Draven was forced up again left gasping for air choking. She felt herself coughing up all the water that was forced into her airways as she gasped in for air. She knew she was going to die that this person was going to kill her. Draven wasn't sure how much more she could take as she was suddenly picked up. Her legs were trembling trying to hold her up as those eyes penetrated hers again.

"TELL ME DRAVEN!" The voice boomed around her as she felt herself being shaken. The light scorched her eyes again and she felt one of the persons hand left go of her arm as she nearly fell to her knees it grasped her again and pushed her backwards. Draven stumbled trying to catch herself yet still being tied it was to no use as again she hit the floor. This time luckily the landing wasn't nearly as bad as she looked up and then gasped at what she saw.

"YOU!" Draven screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sao looked at the old place. He remembered seeing this place often as he made his rounds around Chicago. He still has no idea why he remembered it so clearly, but it may have saved Draven's life, so he wasn't worried about it. He walked in the door and saw that there was no one in the front half, which was no surprise given the hour. He checked around, made sure that no one was there. He pulled his gun out, cursing himself an idiot...he forgot to reload his gun. What if there were guards, or someone else who was willing to kill him as he entered...

He face palmed, and reloaded his gun quickly, snapping a round into the chamber. Suddenly he heard Draven's voice coming from the back room. He was relieved that she was still alive. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he let her die when he could protect her.

"You ready...?"

He asked 21, as he crept up to the door. 21 nodded, and Sao prepared. He kicked in the door, gun raised, and aimed it at the head of the man standing in front of Draven. The man turned, and Sao knew exactly who it was...

"What the fuck...?"

Monet had been surprised when he was asked to do this. He was shocked actually when his old friend had told him what to do. Monet had just nodded his head and had started to watch Draven's daily habits in Chicago. He knew what he was going to do and how exactly how to do it. 

He had picked this night because he figured it'd spook the woman the most.  The Windy City seemed extra windy and spooky all at once. Perfect, he thought. He had felt some remorse when he had first grabbed Draven and tied her up. This thing wasn't something he typically did, but if he was told to do it, he sure as hell was going to do it. 

She had put up a good fight, he'd give her that. But, unfortunately for her, his old bones and muscles were still in fairly decent condition. He had felt really bad about knocking her out but whatever. Hopefully she'd get over it. 

He had decided to take her back to his painting studio, which just happened to be in the back of his house. Her yelling made him realized she had seen him before she was allowed and it had taken a lot out of him to force himself to hurt her. CRASH. She was knocked out again. 

Monet putzed around in his kitchen getting some water before going back in the studio. He hummed a bit before coming and yelling at her. 

"YOU!" She had yelled. 

The old, grizzled man smiled down at her, his blue eyes twinkling. 

"Yes, me, ma chere. Had you started to recognize me when you saw my eyes? Smelt my studio? I might kill you, I don't know. I don't think Kimble and SpuffWaffle would appreciate that though. But it depends on my mood. You know, I'm getting old and cranky in my senility. It gets the best of me." 

He stopped because he had heard clicking and shuffling noise in the front of this house. 

"The fuck is this?" He looked down at her. "Do you have a few friends following you, I wonder?" 

He took his gun off of the table he had set it on and walked towards the door when it suddenly burst open and there stood Sao and 21, their guns aimed right at his head. 

"HELP" "WHAT THE FUCK" "YOU?!" as the yelling end, Monet and the two men stood facing eachother their guns drawn. 

"Hello boys, how kind of you to join us. Would you like to help me pick poor Draven up off the floor?" he said as he put his gun down, still smiling like nothing had happened. 

Draven, Sao and 21 all stared at him, wondering what was going on. They were stunned like Monet was joking. It almost seemed as if the old man was laughing at them. What the hell was going on? Had he just not kidnapped her, tied her to a chair, and hurt her? 

Sao momentarily let his gun drop before shoving it in Monet's face again and yelling.

"The hell is going on Monet! Why are you doing this to Draven! Aren't we family?!" 

Monet continued to smiled and walked over to where Draven was lying on the floor, he delicately helped her up and untied her. He handed her a packet of ice he had prepared and put some salve on her wrists and ankles. The three of them were all still staring at him like he was a nutter. 

He looked at the three of them. 

"Would anyone like a drink?" He smiled. 

Draven looked at him, completely appalled and confused. 

"What the fuck, Monet?" she almost barks at him. 

"Yes, ma cheri, you all have passed our test and hazing ritual. Welcome to Chicago you silly gangsters." 

Very interesting story! 

I must admit, the end really surprised me.  Quite the bizarre ritual.

Hurrying home, Klint makes sure to add a few extra locks to the door at his apartment, just in case he comes up for review.

What a way to be inducted into the family.  Best of luck on all your journeys, Draven. 

Draven, welcome to this city. I know you'll do your best... and then some.