if you could only save me [jaime]

[Amelia Castiel]

if you could only save me

I'M DROWNIN' IN THE WATERS OF MY SOUL

Most sensible people who weren't a part of the raving madness that transpired in District Four were wise enough to stay out of District Four. For outsiders and the unprepared, it was – to put it mildly – a dangerous place, especially in the night-time hours. Dangerous men and woman prowled the streets like predators, either looking for fights with the unlucky bystander or rival gangs who were arrogant enough to cross the others' path. To be a young woman with nothing but the clothes on her back, a mushroom hat atop her head, and nothing to protect herself in the slightest wandering around those parts could easily be the equivalent of suicide. Fortunately for one particular waitress who matched all these descriptions, Lady Luck was often on her side during her meanderings around the fourth District, and nothing ill had become of her. Yet.

However, as the moon hid behind tall, rotting buildings and a flurry of wispy clouds that summer evening, one could easily say that was about to change.

Amelia rarely had a reason to be wandering around at night. The dark had always been a fear of her's since she was a young girl, and the unease she felt so late in the day was usually enough to keep her away. However, there were some nights when sleep was driven away by something exciting brewing in her mind, or the longing for “exploration” dragged her feet out of bed and into the streets of the city. Nine times out of ten, those feet dragged her out into Hensworth's most dangerous territory, where she'd chance fireflies, whistle the night away, and miraculously dodge any potential threats. Most of the time, she was lucky enough to simply weave between gang territories and miss them all; other times, when approached by strangers, she'd manage to distract them and meander off without even really trying to get away, or even being aware of any sort of threat. She never really understood the full implications of what could happen to her there, as such. As what was about to happen to her on that particular night.

“U-um, can ya' please lemme go? Yer starting ta' hurt my wrist.” the brunette asked, voice still relatively pleasant as she tugged against the grip on her arm. She'd come across a dead end by mistake only five minutes prior, and had been quickly surrounded by a total of three men on her way out of the stereotypical alley way. Tall. Greasy. Lanky. One of them holding a knife. The sharpened object, though, had not really registered in her mind; the woman was more fixated on the pain in her wrist from the tight grip and the awe that, for the first time in a long time, she was the one being approached by unfamiliar people and not the other way around. She also thought, seeing as the hold on her did not slacken whatsoever, that she was much nicer about it when trying to make new friends. All three even began to laugh. It was as if her perfectly mannered request was nothing but a joke to them. “S'not funny! 'm really startin' ta' get hurt, ya' know? If ya' wanna make friends with someone, this ain't how ya' do it.”

The blond – furthest to her right, not holding the knife, but not holding her, either – grunted and shook his head as if tired of the situation already. “The girl's an idiot, don't even bother with her. Just take whatever's in her bag and let's get outta here.” Wait, wait, wait. They were just after what was in her bag? “What, that was all ya' wanted? Ya' could'a' just asked, 'stead o' bein' all weird about-” An order to shut her up was all that she heard before a first collided with the side of her face, easily silencing her and knocking her to the ground. The massive brown purse she always had slung of her shoulder was ripped away swiftly, opened, and it's contents dug through carelessly.

“What the [heck]*?” the man who'd been grabbing at her earlier shouted incredulously. “There's nothin' but toys in here! Who the [heck] doesn't keep money in their purse?” The third, the one with the knife, threw the object at her, scattering everything she'd taken care to put in it all over the ground. Tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes, she started to sit up and accused, “Hey! I'm gonna tell someone how much of bullies ya'll are if ya' don't cut it out...!”

That did it.

Something dark and menacing flooded all three's eyes, and – almost as if practiced – they started stalking closer in near synchronization. Even though she was still a bit too dull to recognize what about her sentence had gotten them frustrated, she still recognized that she'd triggered something she'd probably regret later. “Aha... I'm guessin' a “sorry” ain't gonna do much fer me now, is it?”

Their angry silence was all Emmie needed to deduce that as a “yes”.

JAIME PETERSON

[JAIME PETERSON]

╰ℝ╮Clad in his ever so iconic red velvet, paired with the usual black cape and pants he ventured deep into the night. Now that his curse is inactive, Jaime sleeps and The Red awakens. An alter-ego he keeps secret to everyone for the sake of both living in his dream and help out those who are in need. With only the moon and various of lights from the streets and building to guide him, he crawled out from his bedroom's window and climb up the roof. Bars of metal supported by multiple hinges assisted him to fling himself upwards, and with his acrobatic capability he landed clean on the apartment's roof after a few. Jaime leaned forward on the edge, scouting the area before continuing to move. With familiar manuevers that of a free runner, he jumped to another roof. It was time to do his patrol as a superhero whom lacked both resources and flying capability. After a couple more rooftops he finally stopped to catch his breath since his stamina was only that of an athlete, not a superhuman. There is always trouble found in District Four, despite his effort on leaving a message for the more hostile community. It can't be helped, it's a shady area owned by shady people after all. Ensuring that his stealth wasn't completely compromised, he sat on the ledge right underneath a shadow cast by the moon. With a hand, he took a small binocular off his belt and started to search the area with his eyes. Now, for normal people it seems very odd, but Jaime is always excited to use his sight for something, to that point that he appreciates the pretty color of the vulgar night lights of District Four. Unfortunately his ears were the ones that yet again managed to pick up a commotion not far. Admittedly, despite having 20/20 vision, Jaime's sharpest sense were his ears. It is after all, true that when you isolate one of a human being's senses, the others improve. Without thinking twice, he snapped the binocular back in-between the plastic on his belt before picking up his pace from earlier on again and head for where the voices came from. Judging from afar, there was a girl and a few men. "Two.. Three?" he whispered to himself while he ran. He came to a halt, making sure his feet didn't make too much noise before taking a peek from above. Jaime's mind began to work as he analyzed the situation. She was cornered, how? Either that she's not from this area or she led her. These three seemed familiar enough that it shocked him to only catch them doing something now, and it seemed mugging the poor lass was their choice. What made the situation even worse was that she had no money, and now they have scavenge for something else. The Red needs to act. Turning to the closest source of light was a streetlight on his right, a rather generic one. Powered by electric and works with the usual light-sensing photo resistor known as cadmium sulfide, The Red has an idea. He didn't want to go head to head with three bigger men than him, and the current state of his advantage which is the element of surprise didn't convince him. To amplify it, he needed the thing to shut off on his cue. Picking up a few stray brick and gravels, he placed them on the ledge to support the laser pointer he had. He used it to level the object so it can aim the resistor steadily even if it's unattended. Now it would have been easier if he just started using the bricks as attacks from above, but The Red didn't want to kill them. That was against the rules. "We're gonna have some fun first lady!" One of the thugs exclaimed, the others laughing in sickening symphony. The Red, from above; turned on the his laser pointer, in which was calibrated towards the streetlight. The light's emitter started picking up the concentrated light, and hence the collector finally telling the light itself to shut off. Once the lights were down, he moved. From the top of a three storey building he rapelled himself to the second, before releasing the anchor from above. The young superhero pulled out a metal rod from his back which then expanded twice it's length, he came from above and landed the object on the man's nape. Inertia finally came into place which balanced him upright to land on a foot and a knee. The alley wasn't completely alienated from light, the presence was still there but it was dim enough for the thugs to have a much more delayed reaction time of what just happened. When the closer one turned around, The Red's leg already sweeped him off his balance which made him fall on his back. The farthest one, the man who spitted out the recent threat, finally realized what was happening. A young kid was beating them. His initial reaction was to run because he thought The Red was a big man from all the rumors, but he's just a kid. Now he wanted to fight. "Huh!? YOU'RE JUST A KID!" Foolishly he stepped forward to try and land a punch, but masked hero had the advantage of range thanks to his metal staff. "Well aren't you--" The Red started to speak before manuevering the staff to his back, taking stepbackward he bought a few short interval for the object to gain momentum, and finally when it did get enough he guided the force to his the man right in the temple. "Ahead of the game." With a strike, and a pun. He finished it.

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Amelia Castiel]

if you could only save me

I'M DROWNIN' IN THE WATERS OF MY SOUL

There was nowhere to go. Attempts to get further away by backing up had only pushed her against a wall – quite literally – and the only place left for her to move was straight up. Not that climbing had ever been one of her strong points. Even if it was, any logical person would have realized that they wouldn't have even been able to climb up the multistory building behind her. Amelia, of course, was the exact opposite of the definition of logical; if the thought to climb had even crossed her mind, she'd be trying to scramble up the exposed brick siding as fast as humanly possible. It hadn't. The only thing really crossing her mind was that she had just angered a group of “really, really mean bullies” and that they'd probably kick her and punch her a little before leaving her alone. Far from the truth, yet terrifying to her all the same. A miraculous rescue was really what she needed right about there.

“We're gonna have some fun, first, lady!” To anyone else, this would have been another indication that things had gone from bad to terrible. To the brunette in pigtails, her mind was conflicted over whether or not to be excited for whatever “fun” they were talking about, or to be afraid of them beating her up. She was usually all for fun and games, but something in the back of her mind was yelling at her that their definition of fun probably quite different than the one that she was used to. There wasn't a whole lot of fun games that people could play with a knife and being backed up into a dark, deserted alley way, after all. “Aha, I ain't really up fer any games right now. M-maybe you can let me go and we can play some other-”

And that was when everything went dark.

Somewhere, not far from where she was currently standing, a lamp post had been illuminating the area with a dim, golden glow. For whatever reason, be it a malfunction or something or other, that very lamp post stopped shining it's near constant nightly light. Emmie struggled to hold back a scream of terror at the sudden darkness – fear of the dark, why did it have to be a fear of the dark – but the sound of footsteps getting closer came to an abrupt halt, and whatever sort of “fun” the three were hoping to have came to an abrupt halt. The sound of a scuffle broke out before her, the knocking over of one man, the unbalancing and toppling over of another... She rubbed her eyes and begged them to adjust to the illumination the moon could offer, only to hear one of the three from before shout, “Huh? You're just a kid!” Wait, wait, wait. A kid? Where? She figured that people were tripping over their own feet due to not being able to see very well. Evidently not; another stranger had come to join them, but this one more silent than the rest. Silent, that was, until he spoke up with a terribly cheesy pun.

“Well, aren't you ahead of the game?”

The sound of metal flying through the air with a whoosh, followed by that of one of the attackers landing with a thud against the cold, hard ground echoed throughout the alley. If it hadn't been for the terror gripping at her – of the dark, of the new person who had proven to be even stronger than the three before him – she probably would have laughed out loud at that. Brown eyes had adjusted well enough to see some sort of pole collide with the bully's head, and were just growing adjusted enough to see the outline and color of her maybe-savior. He didn't say anything. Didn't do much of anything, either. Was he going to attack her, too?

“Yer not gonna... hit me, too, are ya'? I-I don't got any money on me, if that's what yer lookin' for, but – Uh, um... Thanks! Fer, uh... knockin' out the bullies. I dunno what they would'a' done ta' me if it 'adn't been fer you.”

JAIME PETERSON

[JAIME PETERSON]

╰ℝ╮Ah, how he worked the pole. It was like magic. Normally one would describe or even say such line to some inappropriate place, but it was indeed mesmerizing to watch. It was the result of mixing both style of Bo and Jo, both arts from the east. The range of the weapon was definitely its strongest point, but another beautiful part about it is that the force it relies on is its own momentum building up in time, which requires the user to have anticipate an opponent's movement. Finally when the end of the metallic staff collided with the man's temple, it recoils back to the opposite direction which the young man was able to easily catch with the same hand he used to guide it earlier. Thunk! He placed one of the end of the staff on the ground, letting it stand horizontally with the support of his grip. The Red eyed the female whom looked a little younger than him, which is a big mistake. Anywho, he didn't come here to play the guessing game, but rather to keep her safe after well.. saving her. Getting out of one hole and into another would really be inconvenient. Perhaps got a little cocky about the idea even, about the whole securing her and keeping it that way, because after he went "No problem, it's kind of my job. Doesn't pay well, in fact it doe--" he found himself on the ground. Normally his reflex would be much quicker and catch himself, but the way one the thug on the floor pulled him disrupted the center of his gravity, hence his balance in general. His cheek connected right on the floor, shaking his head but not enough to knock him out. The Red was groggy for a few, fortunately he managed to firmly hold his conciousness. To retaliate he quickly too his rod and then jabbed the man right on the face. That should keep him knocked out. "AS I WAS SAYING!" He exclaimed, right after he got back up on his feet. "It doesn't pay at all. Worth it? Debatable. Exciting? Also debatable." He continued, dusting off his costume. "You don't look like you're from around here, you don't sound like it either." He had to make the comment, the way she dressed and behaved was a bit tamed for someone from the District Four, especially during the night. But what really made her unique was her accent, it was a bit foreign for him.

MADE BY VEL OF GS