Rushing through Traffic[Open]

[Yuki]

As Yuki's fist lunged forward at the girl, she suddenly felt a force stop her movement and redirect it. Yuki did not stumble or fall, as a normal opponent would have, but she was slightly caught off guard, and this threw her slightly off balance. That was new. Since when had the child learned to block a punch and send it elsewhere? More improtantly, since when was she able to block her punch? She blinked a few times in confusion, then snaped around to chase after her once again. Yuki would admit, she was fast for her age. But not faster. Among Yuki's vast collection of recognitions and accomplishments, she ranked quite high in Japan's national track and field competitions, tying with some of the very best in the counrty. Teagan wouldn't stand a chance.

Midst her running, however, it hit her that she ahd lost sight of Miles. Teagan had run leftwards...Miles would surely run in the opposite direction if they were trying to make it difficult for her. Even though he had also participated in the attack (and subsequently lost any hope of possible respect in the future), her anger was for some reason directed mostly towards Teagan. It was instincitive now, she supposed. Almost like breathing.

She raced through the snow, ready to pound the girl to the ground. Clearly, now was not the time for a fight. Yuki knew this somewhere in the back of her mind. However, midst her anger, in the back of her mind was where this reasoning remained. As for right now, Yuki needed a scapegoat, and what better target than the child that had provoked her? Besides, it could count as training, could it not? Both physical and emotional. The child needed to learn that every action had a consequence.

Charging forward, and using a reserved burst of energy, she caught up to Teagan and let out a punch to the shoulder that knocked her to the ground. Already feeling mildly relieved of her frustration, she crossed her arms and looked at the girl from a bit of a distance. "You would think you would have learned by now what happens when you mess with me," she scoffed.

[Miles]

Miles could have sworn that the snow was melting on contact with Yuki, she was that angry. It took just a few moments for the gravity of what they had just done to sink in on Miles, and he barely knew her reactions, just from what Teagan told him really. But now Yuki was literally bringing spring to Keystone as the duo ducked down behind their cover, Miles secretly counting in his head. Crap. What the heck did I just do?! He was dead, surely, and if not his only good friend in the world would be.

And then Yuki was gone. What the... he thought, and then felt Teagan shove him and say something about wanting training. His training was to outrun Yuki? That wasn't training, this was natural, authentic fight-or-flight instinct kicking in to protect his life, and there was no hesitation in choosing the latter. Miles dashed in the opposite direction of Teagan, trying to gain traction on the snow beneath him, and very nearly failing.

He ran over to the door, and stopped when he saw Yuki closing in on Teagan. In front of him, his hot breath materialized in the air, and he panted while he tried to think of a way to save his friend. If he could just get them out of sight...as Teagan tumbled to the ground, a text message was sent to her, reading Go around the corner, and to the cellar. Then, in less than a second, Miles had scooped up a handful of snow, and a second later with careful aim, pegged Yuki in the head. Powder exploded on contact.

"Hey! Souless! Over here!" He was closer to the cellar, which lead back inside. So once Yuki left Teagan, he could get inside and wait...he hoped.

[Teagan]

Teagan's face slammed into the snow, the freezing solid rougher than the bunch she had harmlessly tossed moments earlier. She blinked her eyes in an attempt to melt away loose flakes that had lodged themselves in the most inconvenient place possible. When that failed, she reluctantly pushed herself up and used a free arm to see if rubbing her wet jacket across her eyes helped any.

"Yeah, well, I'm a slow learner," Teagan smirked back, momentarily distracted by a vibration in her pocket. Who on earth would message her now? Taking advantage of Mile's distraction, she quickly reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. Few people had this number, so any time there was a call, it was usually important. A text?

She frowned. It had better not be Casey.

...Miles?

Her eyes scanned the information quickly and she mentally reviewed the layout of the Wesson in her head. Teagan spent hours a few months back studying it, looking for the most strategic place to hide cameras. His plan made sense. In a much practiced motion, she swiftly shoved the phone back into her pocket and darted to her feet, shoes crunching in the snow loudly as she flew to the back of the Wesson.

A moment later, the clatter of the doors opening then closing resounded through the forest, and without a second thought the girl had vanished within.

[adrian]

Adrian walked over to the bar and sat down just as the door opened and Fluffy wiggled past Simplicity's legs to get into the door. The medium sized doberman trotted over to him, her head turning this way and that to take in all the smells of the new place and the new people. When she reached him she stuck her cold, wet nose into his palm and sat down at his feet. He rubbed her head and brushed off some of the snow still clinging to her muzzle. She was wet and a little cold and he'd worried about how the short haired dog would handle the cold but she seemed to be dealing with it better than him.

He sat down at the bar and nodded at the young man who'd walked in. He hadn't quite caught his name yet but he figured he'd learn it before the weekend was over. He turned and watched Simplicity make her way across the room, silently confirming his belief that she could take on the ice queen who'd walked outside without much of a problem. "What trouble have you all been getting into?" he asked with a smile for Simplicity as she joined him at the bar.

[Casey]

Art shrugged at the collection of people. He was getting used to the chaos Portland brought with them. As for Teagan he wasn’t sure how to handle that situation, maybe it was paranoia but he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, or more likely the camera to appear out of nowhere and his humiliation to be documented on the internet. Yeah they had talked but she was always tricky.

He pulled a bottle out from under the bar for the new person. Art used the edge of the bar to pop the cap off and handed it to him. Last time Jefferson was here he was alone and they didn’t really talk much. As he wondered what the new faction would be like another person walked in and asked (demanded?) beer as well. She looked completely out of place and a bit hyper. With that he officially had no clue what to think of Austin, and instead just set another bottle on the bar for her.

“Deacon should be back in a bit,” he told no one in particular. He raised an eyebrow at the conversation between Aiden and Jefferson, “Lilith? What about her?”

[Aiden]

Getting comfortable on the bar stool, Aiden frowned to himself. What was taking Yuki and Teagan so long? He'd prefer them to be here during the meeting, just to back him if a certain something were to come out. You should tell Jeff, at least, a voice chided in his head, glancing sideways at the man. If Malcolm could trust Jefferson with his life and with Aiden's life to back them up on a mission, then Jeff could now how the life he protected was turning out. It was just...not exactly an easy subject.

"Thanks Art," Aiden answered just as absently, gazing into the wood of the bar top. He felt the pulse in his body, the blood tainted with demon blood flowing through him. No, no emo thoughts, he told himself mentally.

Lilith. He repeated the name over and over again in his head. "Wait a second...I know that name from somewhere..." he paused for another moment, and before anyone could answer for him, his eyes lit up. "The first woman made after Eve, tempted Adam, eats babies or something, right? What about her? She isn't actually...you know, out there, is she? That story is beyond old."

[Jefferson]

How to describe Jefferson at this very moment? One word comes to mind: bored. Yeah, definitely bored. There was no hunting, there was no fun, there was nothing going on right now. The only thing keeping Jefferson occupied was the strumming of his fingers on the side of his legs. Boredom: The number one cause in making minuscule things seem like Disneyland.

What was taking everyone so long? thought Jefferson. It was a simple processes of walking in through a door into a building. Sim seemed to understand this process, seeing as she was the only one to actually walk in. What was up with Aiden's faction? Were they so caught up in hunting that entering a building was booted out of their internal system? Jefferson was about to make a comment to Aiden about this, but his old comrade beat him with a question.

So he did know about Lilith! Jefferson's habit of jumping to conclusions finally paid off, but it wouldn't be surprising if Aiden had never heard of Lilith; Jefferson had only heard rumors about her and it wasn't until Ruby (that was her name!) mentioned her that it confirmed Jefferson's theory.

"Is Lilith out there? Well, that's the issue at hand. Lilith is old and a demon, a powerful one. As far as I know, anyone who crossed her path had either died or quit being a hunter, and you and I both know that quitting is impossible to do. These are just rumors I heard; and as they were rumors I didn't believe them. The thing I need to tell everyone though, and I'm telling you first, is that Lilith disappeared, just like the Winchester brothers."

[Miles]

After Miles sent Teagan her text message telling her how to escape, he had stowed himself away behind a snowback, crouching down so he would be out of sight. He quieted his breathing and steadied it, readying himself for his next bit of action. He was near the cellar, so he waited until he heard it open, then close before moving. Once it had, he stood and moved into Yuki's view from behind a tree, holding two handfuls of snow. He stood a distance away from her, ready to run when it came time.

"I knew you were cold, but I mean, man, you literally live up to your namesake. Soulless, cold...do you at least have a heart?" Ouch, that had been admittedly rough. But necessary, right? How else was he going to escape her wrath? When she reacted, he bolted, taking the same escape route that Teagan had. He threw himself into the cellar, flew across the cold room and through the other door, and up into the warm bar.

He found himself a table by the others and shoved himself into a chair, reaching over to pet the dog that had been outside. Now it was just a matter of time before Yuki entered and tried to kill them, but hopefully everyone else would help them, right? At least Teagan had gotten in, and not lost in the cellar. But which way would Yuki come, though? Had she figured out the cellar trick, or would she storm through the front? Only time would tell.

[Teagan]

Holding her breath to refrain from making any unnecessary noise that might give away her location, Teagan waited for half a second on the other side of the hidden cellar door before slipping down the hall. Her pulse raced fast, a sign that she had enjoyed the stunt way too much. At some point, Yuki would make her pay for all the prank, but Teagan had just proved moments earlier that she might have a shot at holding her own.

Calming herself, she nonchalantly entered the bar area where the rest of the hunters had converged. "Holding up Art?" she briefly asked as she passed by him, moving straight to the fireplace to take off her soaking wet shoes and let them -attempt- to dry. After abandoning them in that location, she took a seat behind Aiden.

"For the record?" she whispered in a voice low enough that only he would hear it, "It wasn't my idea."

She leaned back, dangling her feet as the conversation continued, noting without directly making eye contact that Miles had entered the room through the same path she had. Aha, she chuckled to herself. Take that, Yuki.

[Yuki]

Hovering over the girl's body after knocking her over, she frowned at her 'being a slow learner' response. But before she had a chance to rebuttle, Miles' voice came from across the field. Souless?! She swirled around and narrowed her eyes at the child from afar, though it was likely he could not see it. Dead, deceased, extinct, drained of life, defunct, wasted, expired--how many more synonyms could she come up with to describe what Miles' condition would be within the next five minutes?

None, because her mind was no longer in thesaurus mode, but set to 'KILL MILES.' He was going to die. That was all there was to it. The Keystone faction was going to lose one of its members. If he didn't die, he would at the very least be paralyzed, the damnable child! Her feet trudge to the snow, heavy and light at the same time, set to leap at her prey. But before she could go in for the kill, he ran in another direction. Where did he think he was going?! ...The cellar?!

Oh no he didn't. She charged in there after him. He wasn't going to get away with this. When she finally reached the bar, she was met by the two foolish children, one sitting in a chair, and the other--Teagan--cowering behind Aiden. That's not gonna get you out of this one, child. Her countenance was wild, and ice fragments lingered in her hair and face. Indeed, her name now befitted her both in personality and looks.

But her outward coldness was nothing compared to what would be the temperature of the bodies of Miles and Teagan after she was through with them. "YOU TWO ARE SO DEAD!" she hissed, charging after Teagan and ready to beat her to the ground. This was her fault, after all. But Miles was next.

[Aiden]

Jeff's analogy basically beat it into the ground, Aiden got that Lilith was no ordinary demon and that it would be tough. So what? They were hunters, the whole group of them, and surely Lilith couldn't fend off ten or so of them, right? Come on, she couldn't be that much of a problem if they had a solid plan. Right? Aiden was confident in his own naive way at the moment, but in the back of his mind, he could hear Malcolm chiding him and telling him off for not doing his research.

It was decided. Tonight, Portland would be doing homework. Dig up any information on Lilith that they could. "Homework parties" could be entertaining if they were in a good mood, or incredibly frustrating if the monster they were looking for took forever to find, or if the method of killing it took forever to find, or the pages were missing, or the writing was illegible, or...okay, so Aiden had a few bad experiences with research. But Lilith seemed to be mainstream, so it appeared it might go fast.

"Alright, alright, let's save this all for Deacon, yeah?" Aiden said, settling into his sense of familial calmness around Jeff. "Besides, there is more to talk about than Lilith anyway. Still running that dumpy motel?" Aiden asked, reaching over the bar, and grabbing a bottle of beer as Art pulled them out. Smirking, he popped the cap off and began drinking before Art could grab it back. "Just deal with it and let the guy kill me," he finally said to Art.

"Speaking of killing, who are the people you're leading to slaughter?" Aiden asked Jeff, in a teasing manner. "I hope you guys are fine with mood swings and bluntness," he warned to the two people that had joined them inside. And somehow...he had missed Teagan and Miles coming back in. He was about to dismiss it when Yuki slammed the door open and stormed in, covered in a white powder. Snow ball fight victim? Check. It only took a second before Aiden realized that he was the only thing between Yuki and Miles, and seeing as Yuki probably got what she deserved, Aiden took this time to amuse himself.

When she was close enough, he grabbed her wrist and spun her around, though it came out of nowhere and it was fast. "Calm down, its just snow. Or would you rather me encourage her?" he said quietly into Yuki's ear. He let go, and gave her a warning glance, before he sat back down and took another drink. He kept the fact that Malcolm had completed a scene very similar to that one with him to himself, suddenly realizing just how much Malcolm had rubbed off on him.

[Jefferson]

Dumpy motel? He wouldn't call it dumpy-sure the painting was peeling off in some rooms, the third stair going up creaked, the microwave in the lobby hardly worked, the computers were slow, and all the maids that used to work there quit. Thinking about it, the dumpy motel fit perfectly. One would think that Jefferson would go and get the place fix, but he never did. Why should he? Most of the people that stayed in the hotel weren't exactly high class, plus paying people was easy-mostly because it was just Adrian and Sim.

"Yeah, I'm still running it, and who cares if it's dumpy? It's all those little minor defects that give the hotel character, and it has a lot of character. Anyways, Adrian and Sim are the two that I'm taking along for the ride, not that I have much of a choice. They get kind of annoying at some points." He added the last bit more for Adrian and Sim, then for Aiden. He smirked at both of them, waving kindly.

What happened next was terrifying for Jefferson.. A dark chill had entered the room, Jefferson's calm demeanor was demolished. A flash of anger had risen across his face, and his hands balled into a fist. Ready to vent everything out, Jefferson stopped. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his own emotions, trying to differentiate them from the alien anger. It was working; the anger could still be felt, but at least he now had control of it.

When his eyes opened, Jefferson noticed Aiden with Yuki. He assumed that Yuki was the reason for that sudden outburst inside of him, but that wasn't all that caught Jefferson's attention. Aiden was probably lecturing Yuki, and Jefferson smiled at that. He would have never imagined that the Aiden, who respected Malcolm but probably didn't always listen to him, was giving someone else a warning look.

When Aiden sat back and took his drink, Jefferson stole the beer and drank some too. He lifted the bottle as if making a toast, and handed it back to the young faction leader.